A SPRING DAY WITH BEETHOVEN

“Spring passes and one remembers one’s innocence. Summer passes and one remembers one’s exuberance. Autumn passes and one remembers one’s reverence. Winter passes and one remembers one’s perseverance.” – Yoko Ono

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoko_Ono

We had a beautiful, fine, warm and sunny Spring day today. The trees are truly starting to look green and leafy now, the flowers are beginning to come into their own now – we cut our first rose from the garden today. It was a lovely day.

Here is the first movement from Beethoven’s Symphony No 6 in F major, Op. 68, the “Pastorale”. It is played by the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Saarbrucken conducted by Myung-Whun Chung. Quite fitting for the season and the day…

QUICHE LORRAINE

“Be a fearless cook! Try out new ideas and new recipes, but always buy the freshest and finest ingredients, whatever they may be. Furnish your kitchen with the most solid and workmanlike equipment you can find. Keep your knives ever sharp and - toujours bon appetit! – Julia Child

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julia_Child

A busy day at work today with much to do, many meetings, lots of staff coming in to see me. My secretary has been away all week on holiday as her daughter-in-law has had a baby, so I have been realising her worth! Not that I don’t appreciate her when she is around, but certainly when we lose something we then are forced to evaluate its true worth. In any case it all got done, but it was a long day of nearly twelve hours in my office, at my desk…

It was nice to come back home and find dinner cooking and the heater on as it has been cold in the morning and in the evenings, even with Spring well and truly sprung. On the menu tonight was Quiche Lorraine, a fresh garden salad with lettuce, wild lettuce, nasturtium tops, spring onions and herbs in a vinaigrette, all washed down with some excellent shiraz. When well made, this classic French dish is a tasty favourite in our household. The recipe for it below:

Quiche Lorraine

Ingredients

For the Pastry

• 220g plain flour
• 120g cold butter, roughly chopped
• 20 mL very cold water
• 1 large egg, separated

For the Filling

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 onion, peeled and finely chopped
• 220g lean bacon, finely chopped
• 5 large eggs
• 150 mL cream
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• Salt and pepper
• 110g grated tasty cheddar cheese

Method

• Place flour and butter in a large bowl and after washing hands in very cold water, rub the butter into the flour quickly until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.
• In a cup stir together water and egg yolk (reserve the egg white).
• Add the yolk mixture to the butter and flour. Mix with a wooden spoon until well mixed.
• Use your hands to press the dough clumps together into a mass.
• Form the pastry into a disc shape and wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
• Unwrap the pastry and place between two large sheets of baking paper.
• Using a rolling pin, roll pastry out to fit a 23cm diameter quiche dish.
• So as to prevent creases forming on the bottom piece of paper, flip over every now and then and roll.
• Line the baking dish with pastry. Using a sharp knife, trim away any pastry that extends above the top rim of the dish
• Cover dish and refrigerate for a further 30 minutes.
• Preheat fan-forced oven to 170˚C.
•  
• Heat the oil in a frying pan and cook onion, stirring occasionally, until softened but not browned, about 2-3 minutes. Add bacon to the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned (about 5-6 minutes). Remove pan from the heat and set aside to cool.
  Line the pastry case with baking paper and half fill with raw rice, dried beans or pie weights.
• Bake pastry case for 15 minutes on the lowest oven rack.
• Remove weights and baking paper and brush pastry with some of the reserved egg white.
• Return pastry to oven and bake for a further 10 minutes on the lowest oven rack.
•  
• While the pastry is baking, make the filling.
• Place eggs, cream, nutmeg, salt and pepper in a medium bowl. Whisk ingredients together until well combined.
• Sprinkle cooled bacon and onion mixture over pastry case. Top with grated cheese.
• Gently pour egg mixture over the grated cheese.
• Move oven rack to the middle of the oven. Bake quiche in the centre of the oven for about 30-35 minutes, or until set and lightly browned.
• Cut into slices and serve hot or warm.

Bon appétit!

NEW GALAXIES

"The Sun, with all the planets revolving around it, and depending on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as though it had nothing else in the Universe to do." - Galileo Galilei

It is another day when I cast my eyes heavenwards in wonder and awe, as news of yet one more discovery of cosmic proportions is publicised by the press. Australian scientists from Swinburne University have discovered a type of galaxy that was long thought to be “extinct”. This discovery has caused a great deal of excitement in astronomical circles as the find has forced cosmologist to re-examine their theories about new star formation.

These new galaxy types look just like our own Milky Way galaxy (a twirling spiral disc-like structure), however each one such galaxy appears to be forming about 100 new stars a year compared to the one new star per year formed by galaxies such as our own. The newly discovered galaxies have been demonstrated to be more turbulent than the Milky Way and they are about a billion light years way from Earth. Such galaxies that are “star nurseries” were very common about three billion years after the Big Bang but this is the first time they have been observed in “today’s” universe. I put “today” in inverted commas as the currently observed galactic events occurred one billion years in the past, as the objects observed are so distant that it has taken light so long to reach us. Nevertheless, they are considered recent for the 14 billion-year-old universe.

The way stars form is when large clouds of gas collapse under their own gravitational attraction and the popular theory suggested that large streams of interstellar gas fell into the primitive star from outside. The question that was immediately asked in regard to these star-forming galaxies that have just been observed was where is the gas coming from to form these new stars? In the “modern” universe we expect large masses of primordial interstellar gas to be available any more. The source of the gas has to be discovered still…

galaxy |ˈgaləksē| noun ( pl. -axies)

A system of millions or billions of stars, together with gas and dust, held together by gravitational attraction.

• (the Galaxy) The galaxy of which the solar system is a part; the Milky Way.

• figurative a large or impressive group of people or things: A galaxy of boundless young talent.

The Galaxy in which the earth is located is a disk-shaped spiral galaxy with approximately 100,000 million stars. The sun is located about two thirds of the way out from the center.

ORIGIN late Middle English (originally referring to the Milky Way): via Old French from medieval Latin galaxia, from Greek galaxias (kuklos) ‘milky (vault),’ from gala, galakt- ‘milk.’

The reference to milk is from the Greek myth whereby Hera/Juno, the queen of the gods and wife of Zeus, was tricked by her husband Zeus/Jupiter into breast feeding his illicit son Heracles/Hercules as a baby while she was asleep in order to give Hercules immortality. When Hera awoke and realised who the baby was; the illicit son of her husband; she immediately tore him from her breast causing a smear of milky droplets across the sky which the Milky Way. As a result Heracles became a semi-immortal hero. In Greek Heracles, is derived from Hera’s name, and means the “glory of Hera”. However, after Hercules completed his twelve labours and after his death he became immortal. Hera was then reconciled with him and allowed him to marry her daughter, Hebe, the goddess of youth.

A LOVE POEM

“All love is vanquished by a succeeding love.” - Ovid

Well they say that in Spring a young man’s thoughts turn to love. Maybe not only a young man’s or just a man’s! Sweet springtime when the greening trees are revivified, when flowers wildly bloom, when dormant sap begins to flow and verdant juices restore the branches their summery foliage, it surely does affect us humans also. For poetry Wednesday today, a love poem by Ovid (43 BC-17 AD) whose oeuvre was rich in this genre:

Love in the Afternoon

It was very hot. The day just past its noon.
I’d stretched out on a couch to take a nap.
One of the window-shutters open, one closed.
The light was like you’d see deep in the woods,
Or like the glow of dusk when Phoebus leaves the sky,
Or when night pales, and day has not yet dawned –
A perfect light for girls with too much modesty,
Where anxious shame can hope to hide away.
When, look! here comes Corinna in a loose ungirdled gown,
Her parted hair framing her gleaming throat,
Like lovely Semiramis entering her boudoir,
Or fabled Lais, loved by many men.
I tore her gown off - not that it mattered, being so sheer,
And yet she fought to keep that sheer gown on;
But since she fought with no great wish for victory,
She lost, betraying herself to the enemy.
And as she stood before me, her garment all thrown off,
I saw a body perfect in every inch:
What shoulders, what fine arms I looked on - and embraced!
What lovely breasts, begging to be caressed!
How smooth and flat a belly under a compact waist!
And the side view - what a long and youthful thigh!
But why go into details? Each point deserved its praise.
I clasped her naked body close to mine.
You can fill in the rest. We both lay there, worn out.
May all my afternoons turn out this well.
                                                                   Ovid (43 BC-17 AD)

Ovid was born in Sulmona east of Rome in 43 BC, to an equestrian family, and was educated in Rome. His father wished him to study rhetoric toward the practice of law. Ovid tended to the emotional, not the argumentative pole of rhetoric. After the death of his brother, Ovid renounced law and began travelling to Athens, Asia Minor, and Sicily. He held minor public posts, but resigned to pursue poetry. He married three times and twice-divorced by the time he was thirty years old, yet only one marriage yielded a daughter.

Originally, his “Amores” were a five-book collection, published around 20 BC; the surviving, extant version, reduced to three books, includes poems written as late as AD 1. Book 1 contains 15 elegiac love poems about aspects of love. Ovid's next poem, the Ars Amatoria, the Art of Love, parodies didactic poetry whilst being a manual about seduction and intrigue. He identifies this work in his exile poetry as the carmen, or song, which was one cause of his banishment. By AD 8, he had completed Metamorphoses, an epic poem derived from Greek mythology. The subject is “forms changed into new bodies”, this long poem tells of transformation. The stories from mythology follow each other in the telling of human beings transformed to new bodies. Famous myths, such as Apollo and Daphne, Orpheus and Eurydice, and Pygmalion are contained.

In AD 8, Emperor Augustus banished Ovid to Tomis, on the Black Sea, for political reasons. Ovid wrote that his crime was “carmen et error” (a poem and a mistake), claiming that his crime was worse than murder, more harmful than poetry. The Julian Marriage Laws of 18 BC were fresh in the Roman mind. These promoted monogamous marriage to increase the population’s birth rate. Ovid’s writing concerned the serious crime of adultery, which was punishable by banishment.

BRISBANE POSTCARD

The days in Brisbane went extremely well despite the problems with the technology. I was able to recover my presentations from the injured disc (something a damaged b-tree structure...) therefore it was no chalk-and-talk, but rather th eexpected powerpoint presentations with the bells and whistles. That did the trick, which impressed everyone, not least the boss, who was more anxious than I was regarding the damaged computer.

I am on a late flight to Melbourne this evening and I am quietly waiting for its departure in the Qantas lounge at the airport. Now is the time to relax a little and wait for the plane departure to be announced while sipping on a drink.

GREETINGS FROM BRISBANE

I am in Brisbane for work for a couple of days and I have been hit by rather unfortunate ill luck. I was working on a presentation on my computer yesterday and then suddenly, my computer died...
This has left me in a spot as I had two other presentations on there and now I shall not be able to access them unless I get my computer fixed. Fortunately it's under warranty, but still, the inconvenience of it is just such a pain!

Technology is wonderful and makes things so much easier, however, when it fails we realize how inordinately our life has become on it. If I can't get to my presentations this morning, I shall have to give a good old fashioned "chalk and talk" presentation, which I don't mind doing, however, everyone nowadays expects a PowerPoint presentation...

ART SUNDAY - DAVID BOYD

“Pictures must not be too picturesque.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

The art of Australian David Boyd for this Art Sunday. He was born the third and youngest son of artists Merric and Doris Boyd in Melbourne in 1924 and studied pottery and painting within the artistic Boyd family, which was an extended and multi-talented one. In 1948, he married Hermia Lloyd-Jones, daughter of graphic artist Herman (Jonah) and Erica Lloyd-Jones. Together they introduced a new wave of Australian pottery, inventing new glazes and novel methods of shaping sculptural figures. Their three daughters also became potters.

Initially acclaimed as a potter, Boyd began his career as a painter in 1957 with a series of paintings on Australian explorers. His paintings ignited controversy as he depicted aborigines as gentle, frightened people not wanting to be deprived of their homeland. Boyd remained unmoved and he continued to provoke with unpopular ideas. As a humanist, his paintings are full of social comment, as befits a moral painter. He said: “I often think of myself as being a spiritual anarchist.” Several major series of paintings demonstrate his highly dramatic style with the juxtaposition of innocence and evil. For example, the “Trial”, the “Tasmanian Aborigines”, the “Wanderer” and the “Exiles”.

He was also an accomplished pianist, having studied at the Melba Memorial Conservatorium of Music. David Boyd worked and travelled in Europe and the UK, winning international recognition, and on his return in the 70s, produced some of his most approachable work, combining angels, aborigines and children dancing through his often depicted and much loved bush. The work above, "Winged Child Dancing" (1974)  is an example of these sorts of paintings.

He became Chairman of the Contemporary Arts Society of Australia and for the next 20 years travelled and exhibited overseas and at home to world acclaim.

WORLD FARM ANIMALS DAY

“Think occasionally of the suffering of which you spare yourself the sight.” - Albert Schweitzer

I had another very busy day today, which started with a presentation I had to give to the annual meeting of one of the societies of Medical Radiation professionals. It all went very well, everyone enjoyed it and I was invited back to present at next year’s meeting. Then back home where I had an appointment with a painter who gave us a quote for a painting and repair job to be done and then I went out and had a bit of a break. The evening was lovely and passed with some wonderful music, nice food and a cuddle.

We had the Australian Rules football final replay today, which Collingwood won easily, shaming the worse side St Kilda. I am not a football fan, however, I did watch some of the game, wincing all the while as St Kilda were so bad…

Today is World Farm Animals Day, so here is a sweet little video to celebrate the day:

GRANDMA'S RECIPE

“It’s sad to grow old, but nice to ripen.” - Brigitte Bardot

October 1st is celebrated as the International Day for Older Persons. The General Assembly of the United Nations the designated this day as the International Day of Older Persons by resolution 45/106 of 14th December 1990, following up on initiatives such as the Vienna International Plan of Action on Ageing, adopted by the 1982 World Assembly on Ageing and endorsed later that year by the General Assembly. In 1991, the General Assembly adopted the United Nations Principles for Older Persons (resolution 46/91). In 2002, the second World Assembly on Ageing adopted the Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing to respond to the opportunities and challenges of population ageing in the 21st century and to promote the development of a society for all ages. The theme for this year is “Older Persons and the Achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.”

The world’s population has continued on a dramatic transition path from a situation of high birth and death rates to one characterised by low birth and death rates. This has resulted in the growth in the number and proportion of older people. This is something we see for the first time in the history of civilisation. One out of every ten persons is now 60 years or above; by 2050, one out of five will be 60 years or older; and by 2150, one out of three persons will be 60 years or older. The majority of older persons (55%) are women. Among the oldest old, 64% are women.

Differences between developed and developing countries are marked: One out of five Europeans, but one out of twenty Africans, is 60 years or older. In some developed countries today, the proportion of older persons is already one in four. During the first half of the 21st century that proportion will be close to one in two in some countries! Based on the latest available information, approximately half of the world’s older population live in urban areas.

The UN Principles for older persons aim to ensure that priority attention will be given to the situation and status of older persons. The UN Principles address the independence, participation, care, self-fulfillment and dignity of older people. This is in appreciation of the contribution that older persons make to their societies and the faith in a society that will assure the older person of their share of fundamental human rights.

It is fitting today therefore for Food Friday to give a recipe that my grandmother used to make. This is a traditional Greek recipe that is also widespread in the Middle East. It uses semolina, butter, and almonds, all bound together with a syrup and spiced up with cinnamon and cloves.

Greek Pot Halva
Ingredients
1    cup butter
1/2    cup chopped blanched, toasted almonds
2    cups semolina
1    stick of cinnamon
3    cloves
For the syrup
3    cups sugar       
4    cups water

Method
Prepare a syrup by boiling the cinnamon, cloves, sugar and water for 10 minutes. In a shallow pot place the butter until it melts and warms through. Add the semolina heating through until golden brown. Stir often and ensure the semolina is toasted well. Pour the prepared syrup into the semolina mixture and continue heating while stirring, until the syrup is well absorbed.
Remove the halva from the heat and cover the pan with a tea towel and the lid over that, until the mixture is barely warm. Mix in the toasted almonds and spoon into a mould packing in the mixture well. Unmould into a serving platter and dust with ground cinnamon.
You may also wish to add a handful of sultanas in this dish.

INTERSTELLAR JOURNEY

“The sun, the moon and the stars would have disappeared long ago... had they happened to be within the reach of predatory human hands.” - Havelock Ellis

Imagine yourself and your family entering a huge interstellar spaceship. You are joining another few hundred families and a few hundred crew members that will start a journey across trillions of kilometers of space and which will last a few generations. Your spaceship is a self-contained small world that will sustain and nourish not only its original passengers, but their children and grandchildren, their grandchildren, and so on. If all goes well, this starship colony will have travelled for nearly 200 trillion kilometers in a journey that has lasted for hundreds of years into deep interstellar space, aiming for a distant small red sun the constellation of Libra…

Your descendants on the spaceship will finally be able to gaze out of their portholes and see the distant sun their ship was aimed at for so long… It is the sun Gliese 581, a red dwarf star, around which there are six planets orbiting. The destination of this interstellar expedition is Gliese 581g, an earth-like planet, orbiting in the habitable zone of this sun. On this world there is liquid water and there are habitable regions in which life may be possible. “May be possible” being the operative words.

The planet is “tidally locked” to Gliese 581, which means it does not rotate; the side facing the sun would be perpetually hot, and the side turned away, perpetually cold. However, the twilight zone between light and shadow would be fit for human life. This is the zone that our starship has been directed at, to begin a new colony of humanity. This is of course assuming that everything else on the planet is right, including the gravity, the atmosphere, lack of indigenous hostile life-forms, etc etc… All of this of course would have been checked before the starship began its journey. And even if everything was deemed to be OK before the trip started a “second option” planet in the neighbourhood would have been selected.

Does all of this sound a bit like a sci-fi fantasy story? Well, I agree maybe yes, but part of it is all true. The planet Gliese 581g does exist and has just been discovered. This planet is not alone in the astronomers’ list of possible planets that can or do harbour life. Various calculations based on data that has been collected over the years and complex formulas, have resulted in the assertion that as many as one in 5 stars in the universe is orbited by a planet that can sustain life. This means that of the 200 billion stars in the universe, maybe 40 billion planets have the potential for life.

If you go out and gaze into the sky right in the midst of the constellation of Libra, you will not be able to see Gliese 581 with the naked eye, you will need a telescope, as Gliese 581 is about one third as bright as our sun. However, the descendants of the starship passengers that establish a colony on Gliese 581g will be able to gaze into the sky and see with the naked eye a bright star in the firmament which they will know is the sun of the world on which their ancestors evolved!

All of this may be in the future, of course, but we are ruining our earth in such a precipitously rapid rate that we may need to go scrounging around the galactic neighbourhood in order to find other planets that we can colonise and start ruining afresh.

ON DYING

“We understand death for the first time when he puts his hand upon one whom we love.” - Madame de Stael

I was chatting with a friend today and the talk turned to the topic of death. We questioned whether we would prefer to die quietly and imperceptibly, as in one’s sleep for example, or whether it would be preferable to die in a way that one was aware of the moment of death. The former was his preference, the latter mine. I guess as far as I was concerned I would want to die and have that experience as the last experience of life.

I wonder if one is aware of one’s death as it approaches? Is it perhaps like that no-man’s-land between wakefulness and sleep or is it a case of an on-off switch – awareness to non-awareness? Surely it would depend on the cause of death and the circumstances of the death. One may die peacefully in one’s bed or die a violent and painful death. One may slip away or fight for each breath, trying to hang on to dear life. It is a fascinating topic and perhaps we cannot not answer that question of “how does it feel to die?” as we do not know what happens after death.

A poem by Christina Rossetti today that touches upon approaching Winter (and death), but also the promise of Spring and rebirth…

Withering

Fade tender lily,
Fade O crimson rose,
Fade every flower,
Sweetest flower that blows.

Go, chilly autumn,
Come, O winter cold;
Let the green stalks die away
Into common mould.

Birth follows hard on death,
Life on withering:
Hasten, we will come the sooner
Back to pleasant spring.
            Christina Rossetti (1830–1894)

OUR POOR QUEEN...

“Whenever monarchs err, the people are punished.” – Horace

Over the past few years there has been a great debate in Australia about whether we should become a republic or remain a federal parliamentary democracy and constitutional monarchy, with Queen Elizabeth II officially the Queen of Australia (which is a title and role separate from her position as monarch of the other Commonwealth realms). Since Queen Elizabeth lives in the United Kingdom, in Australia the executive powers vested in her by the Constitution are normally exercised by her viceroys, who are the Governor-General at the federal level and by the Governors at the state level. These viceroys, by convention, act on the advice of her Ministers – that is, the elected Australian Government. However, this situation can also have dramatic and unforeseen consequences that demonstrate the power of the crown. The proof was the Governor-General’s reserve powers outside a Prime Minister’s request resulting in the dismissal of the Whitlam Government in the constitutional crisis of 1975…

So until we become a republic, our queen is Queen Elizabeth II. This is a state of affairs (pun intended!) that I find amazing in this day and age. Kings and queens are a relic of times past when monarchy was widespread throughout most of the civilised world and a hereditary royal office was de rigueur! That we still have these relics of the past amongst us, and more importantly, that there are still staunch royalists around underlines the fact that so many people still live in childhood dreams and pad out their humdrum lives with fairy tale fantasies of kings and queens, princes and princesses (as a peek in many a popular magazine will show).

Through information released under the Freedom of Information Act, it has recently become apparent that in 2004 “our” Queen through a Senior Aide applied for a “poverty heating grant” from the Government of the UK to cover the rising costs of heating her palaces!. The Aide sent the UK Government a written request to assess the Queen’s eligibility for assistance from a £60 million anti-poverty fund dedicated to saving energy and helping those in need cope with heating bills. The Aide justified the request by saying that the cost of Royal utilities, which doubled in 2004, stood at £1 million per year and had become “untenable”. This was further justified by pointing out that the £15 million government grant to maintain the Queen’s palaces was inadequate…

When I read about this in the newspaper I was stunned! The sheer monstrous audacity of the request was mind-blowing! The Queen of England is one of the richest people in the world with a personal fortune close to half a billion dollars, and this does not count the palaces, crown jewels, and other treasures she and her heirs enjoy, as technically they belong to the British state (unless of course, she says like Louis XIV: “Je suis l’ état. L’ état c’ est moi.”). The enormity of the transgression of asking for money that was put aside for the down-and-outers is incomprehensible!

At least, I am glad that the Government Department administering the poverty heating grant turned down the request in an apologetic email that explained the purpose of the grant: The handouts were to help low income families cope with no money at all for heating. There was also an expressed concern that if Buckingham Palace were to be given money from the fund it would lead to “probable adverse press coverage”. This latter part was probably what closed the matter for Buckingham Palace – there has been so much bad press these last few “anni horribiles”.

Queens and kings are a thing of the past. They have a place in history books and fairy tales, packs of cards and chess boards. Their currency is passé and their days are numbered, I should hope. Behaviour such as that outlined above is proof enough that we as a society should rid ourselves of this antique parasite. God knows we have enough modern parasites in the guise of politicians, pop singers, sports personalities and film stars to maintain in the style we have accustomed them to…

THE GAME - MOVIE MONDAY

“Life is a great big canvas, and you should throw all the paint on it you can.” - Danny Kaye

We watched an interesting film at the weekend, one that has been around for quite a while but which we missed when it was first screened. It was the 1997 David Fincher film “The Game”. This is a psychological thriller of some punch (even if the plot is somewhat contrived and improbable), which is nevertheless quite subtle in the way that it projects its message and its moral. One may watch it, enjoy it and take it in superficially, but I believe it is on reflection that one can really assess it and process it in such a way so that it becomes personally relevant.

David Fincher is of course famous for “Fight Club” and “Se7en” but is also responsible for “Panic Room” and “Alien 3”. Therefore, he is well-seasoned in directing a satisfying thriller. He does very well with “The Game”, keeping the viewers on their toes and ensuring they experience one emotional roller coaster ride after the other. The plot’s twists and turns help of course, with scriptwriters John D. Brancato and Michael Ferris having done a good job in providing some good material. Once one gets over the improbability of some of the scenes, one can concentrate on the essence and enjoy the movie.

Michael Douglas is not one of my favourite actors, although he has played in some excellent films and he generally does well with his roles. In this film he is excellent and gives an acting recital, especially as his role is very demanding and he is needed in almost every scene. Sean Penn does well in supporting Douglas, and Deborah Kara Unger is also very good. The rest of the cast is also very good and overall, production standards are very high. All of these features maintain viewer interest and engagement in what is arguably a long film (130 minutes or so).

Now for the plot: Douglas play Nicholas Van Orton, a billionaire financier, who has everything that money can buy. He is the typical tough, ruthless businessman who has sacrificed everything in order to be successful. He has a younger brother, Conrad (Penn), who is the opposite. Conrad is pleasure-seeking, wayward, free-spirited and “unsuccessful” by Nicholas’ standards. For Nicholas’ birthday Conrad gives him an unusual present (what else could you get someone who has everything?), a gift certificate from a company called the Consumer Recreation Services (CRS). Nicholas is skeptical as Conrad is a problematic sibling that has had to cope with addictions, “interesting” life experiences and all sorts of scrapes. However, both Nicholas and Conrad love each other and have over the years supported each other in coping with their father’s suicide (he fell to his death from the roof of their mansion).

CRS is in the business of providing to clients a real life entertainment experience where a game is played within the participants’ lives and is tailored to their own individual needs, lifestyle, deficiencies and strengths. Nicholas takes up the challenge of participating in the game and after a series of physical and psychological tests, he becomes embroiled in a dangerous game that exposes his repressed emotions, his fears and anxieties, disrupts his life and forces him to re-examine it in order to find out what makes himself tick. As mentioned previously it is the constant twists in the plot that keep one guessing and even to the last scene, one is left wondering if it is true or not.

Overall, we enjoyed this film greatly and then got into an animated discussion about it, which was the best part about it. Discussing a film with someone you have seen it is great fun and analysing it, disassembling it, evaluating it, extracting the essence is a great way of prolonging its enjoyment – or in some cases value-adding on a mediocre film. I’d recommend this particular film highly if you haven’t seen it and you love psychological thrillers!

MATISSE AND FAUVISM

“An artist must possess Nature. He must identify himself with her rhythm, by efforts that will prepare the mastery which will later enable him to express himself in his own language.” - Henri Matisse

For Art Sunday today, Henri Matisse. He was born on December 31, 1869 in Le Cateau Cambresis, France. He first got a degree in law but then decided to become an artist. He studied for three years with Gustave Moreau. He learned a lot by copying paintings by other great artists, such as Raphael.

Matisse was one of the founders of a type of art called Fauvism, a style of painting with vivid expressionistic and non-naturalistic use of colour that flourished in Paris from 1905 and, although short-lived, had an important influence on subsequent artists, especially the German expressionists. The term Fauvism is from the French fauve ‘wild beast.’ The name originated from a remark of the French art critic Louis Vauxcelles at the Salon of 1905; coming across a quattrocento-style statue in the midst of works by Matisse and his associates, he is reputed to have said, “Donatello au milieu des fauves!” (‘Donatello among the wild beasts’).

Matisse liked to compose his paintings with people in them as it made it easy for him to express his feelings about life. He especially liked to paint women, because he said they held the answer to the mystery of life. Matisse also did many pieces of art using cut paper. He was also a sculptor and an etcher.

Towards the end of his life, Matisse developed cancer and he became confined to a wheelchair. From his wheelchair, he completed one of his most famous works, painting the inside of the Chapelle du Rosaire. Matisse died in 1954.

Illustrated here is his “Le bonheur de vivre” (The Joy of Life) 1905-1906; Oil on canvas (175 x 241 cm). The characteristic swathes of bright non-naturalistic colour evoke strong emotional responses in the viewer, while the subject matter makes it clear as to what the artist believes is essential in life for a joyful existence.

SONG SATURDAY - TONY BENNETT

“Wrinkles should merely indicate where smiles have been.” - Mark Twain

What a day today! Spent most of it gardening and weeding and getting things done around the house. It was Grand Final day today and all of the Australian Rules Football aficionados were either glued to their TV set or in the ground cheering on. Turns out the big game ended in a draw, which last happened in 1977. Now they’ll play again next Saturday! Football is not my cup of tea so it was a Saturday just like any other today.

I had a very special Saturday afternoon with nice music, pleasant conversation, then a wonderful dinner and a special person to cuddle up next to! The rain came after and we watched it over the bay while lying in bed…

Here’s a special song that I love. Tony Bennett sings “The Shadow of Your Smile” from the motion picture “The Sandpiper”, it won the 1965 Grammy for Best Original Song and was awarded the 1966 Song of the Year. The music was written by Johnny Mandel, the lyrics by Paul Francis Webster.

GREEK ORANGE CAKE

“An orange on the table, your dress on the rug, and you in my bed, sweet present of the present, cool of night, warmth of my life.” - Jacques Prévert

We had a lovely Spring day today – at least during the middle of the day as it was sandwiched between between a gray drizzly morning and a cool gray afternoon. The temperature went up to about 19˚C and the sun felt quite warm for a while. I went for a walk and enjoyed the sunshine and then back inside… Tonight it’s quite cold and the evening has fallen quite abruptly. Winter is still lingering!

And seeing the last of the Winter oranges are still around, what better way to say goodbye than with a Greek Orange Cake!

Greek Orange Cake
Ingredients
500 g fyllo pastry
4 eggs
1 glassful vegetable oil
250 g Greek style yoghurt
zest of two oranges
1 heaped tsp baking powder
vanillin sugar to taste

For the syrup
3 cupfuls of water
2 cupfuls sugar
1 cinnamon stick
1 glassful freshly squeezed orange juice

Method
•    Beat the eggs, oil and vegetable oil in the mixer bowl and add the orange zest, the baking powder and the vanillin sugar.
•    Brush the fyllo pastry leaves well with vegetable oil and lay them down ruched next to each other in a medium-sized baking dish. Reserve a couple of sheets. Cut them transversely and pour on top the mixture that has been prepared in the mixer bowl. Lay on top the pleated oiled reserved pastry sheets and press down gently to ensure they contact the mixture.
•    Bake at 180˚C for 30 minutes.
•    In a saucepan, place the sugar, water and cinnamon stick. Boil for five minutes, stirring all the while. Add the freshly squeezed, strained orange juice and remove from the flame immediately.
•    Pour the syrup over the cake that you have removed from the oven while still hot.
•    Allow to cool and cut into squares to serve.
•    Delicious with a dollop of double cream.

EQUINOX ETC

“If your life at night is good, you think you have everything.” Euripides

In the northern hemisphere it is the autumnal equinox today and there is a full moon out, it is the day of the Autumn Moon Festival, while in the southern hemisphere it is the vernal equinox. It is also the second day of the Jewish Sukkot Festival. Sukkot is a Hebrew word meaning “booths” or “huts” and refers to the Jewish festival of giving thanks for the autumn harvest, as well as the commemoration of the forty years of Jewish wandering in the desert after Sinai. Sukkot is celebrated five days after Yom Kippur on the 15th of Tishrei and is marked by several distinct traditions. One tradition, which takes the commandment to “dwell in booths” (Leviticus 23:42–43) literally, is to build a sukkah (a booth or hut). A sukkah is often erected by Jews during this festival, and it is a common practice for some to eat and even live in these temporary dwellings during Sukkot.

Tradition calls for one family to enter the sukkah, recite the Motzi prayer over the meal to be eaten, and then add a special blessing: “Baruch atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melech haolam, asher kid’shanu b’mitzvotav v’tzivanu leishev basukah.” - Blessed are You, Adonai our God, Ruler of the universe, who has sanctified us through Your mitzvot and commanded us to dwell in the sukkah. Another custom of Sukkot involves extending hospitality, especially to the needy. Tradition is that there are certain guests of the festival, ushpizin, who are present in spirit in every sukkah: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Aaron, and David. In addition, many Jews will invite guests outside of their families to join them for a holiday meal.

There are two more symbols associated with Sukkot that deserve attention. Lulav is a Hebrew word meaning “palm branch” and refers to a unique ceremonial object associated with the holiday of Sukkot. Lulav is also a generic term, describing a three-sectioned holder with a single palm branch in the center, two willow branches on the left, and three myrtle branches on the right. Etrog is a Hebrew word meaning “citron,” and refers to the special lemon-like fruit used in conjunction with the lulav in the Sukkot ritual.

Euripides, the ancient Greek dramatist was born in 484 BC on this day. He wrote some 90 plays, of which 17 survive complete, while another 17 survive as fragments. He is one of the foremost of the ancient Greek tragedians and his plays are often about women in tragic situations (e.g. Medea) and his plots are very realistic and concentrate on the situations that elicit violent emotional reactions from them. He was criticised fro his often used device of deus ex machina where a god or goddess appears at the play’s end to provide a contrived solution to an intractable problem… Towards the end of his life, he accepted the invitation of King Archelaus I of Macedon and stayed with him in Macedonia, allegedly dying there in 406 B.C. after being accidentally attacked by the king's hunting dogs while walking in the woods.

The plant for the birthdays falling on this day is the common field mushroom, Agaricus campestris. Because some poisonous mushrooms may resemble the edible ones, the mushroom in the language of flowers suggests the meaning “suspicion”.  This confusion is also at the bottom of the warning couplets:
    When the moon is at the full,
    Mushrooms you may freely pull;
    When the moon is on the wane,
    Wait ere you think to pluck again!
The Welsh call poisonous mushrooms bwyd ellyllon = “meat of the goblins”.  Fairy rings, are the term given to the ring of mushrooms that form as the spores are ejected from around the rim of the fruiting body of the parent fungus, in the belief that they arose from the feet of fairies dancing in a circle.  Dreaming of gathering mushrooms is an indication of the lack of attachment on the part of a partner.  Astrologically, the mushroom is under the dominion of Mercury in the sign of Leo.

In Japan the autumnal equinox is termed Higan, meaning the “other shore”, implying heaven. Buddhists will pray in temples and in cemeteries for the souls of the dead in ceremonies reminiscent of All Souls’ Day.

Today is also the national day of Armenia and Saudi Arabia!

Armenia is the smallest of the 15 republics of the former USSR that gained its independence in 1991.  It is about 30,000 square km in area with a population of 4 million people.  It is East of Turkey and North of Georgia. The capital city is Yerevan with other main centres being Karaklis, Kumayri and Kamo.  It is a mountainous, landlocked country with small but fertile regions of arable land.  The main industry is machine-building with chemicals and textiles also contributing to the economy.  Farming and raising of sheep, goats and cattle is also important.

Saudi Arabia is the largest country of the arid Arabian Peninsula. It became independent in 1913 after the occupying Turks were expelled. It has an area of 2.4 million square km and a population of 15 million people. The country is extremely arid with no permanent rivers and very low rainfall, extremely hot in the Summer. In the mountainous West there is sparse vegetation and it is only in the coastal oases that date palms and cereal crops flourish. The economy is dominated by oil, which is Saudi Arabia’s major export and source of wealth. The petrodollars pay for irrigation schemes and land reclamation projects intended to raise food production. The capital city is Riyadh with other major cities being Mecca, Jeddah, Medina, Ta’if, Najran and Abha. Every year, hundreds of thousands of Muslims from all over the world converge on Mecca to complete the “Hajj”, or visit, which every devout Muslim must make at least once in their life.

AUTUMN MOON IN SPRING

“There is something haunting in the light of the moon; it has all the dispassionateness of a disembodied soul, and something of its inconceivable mystery.” - Joseph Conrad

As is the case with every trip, when I return to the office there are a number of things to do and lots to catch up on. Today was no exception and the day flew by with non-stop meetings, people dropping in to see me, correspondence to attend to. I was in at seven in the morning and managed to sneak away at 5:30 p.m. For lunch, I had a couple of fruits at my desk and that was while I was answering emails. A pleasant surprise was a Chinese colleague who came in and brought me a moon cake as tomorrow is the Mid-Autumn Festival.

This is also called the Chinese Moon Festival (中秋節), which is on the 15th of the 8th lunar month. Just like Christmas and Thanksgiving in the West, the Moon Festival is one of the most important traditional holidays for the Chinese. Many legends abound regarding this Festival and the story of Houyi is told at this time:

Houyi was very good at archery. There were once ten suns in the sky, which made plants wither, and fierce beasts to run wild and imperil people. It was too hot to live under the ten suns. To save the people, Houyi started to shoot the suns. He shot down nine of them one by one, and he might have shot the last one if he was not called off by the people. Thus the severe drought was gone and the wild beasts went away. It is said Houyi’s wife was Chang Er, who swallowed the elixir stolen from her husband, and she flew to the moon and became the goddess of the moon. She has lived in the palace on the moon ever since. Houyi was killed by Fengmeng, a disciple of Houyi who learned to shoot from him. You might see Chang Er dancing on the moon during the Moon Festival.

The Moon Festival is also an occasion for family reunions. When the full moon rises, families get together to watch the full moon, eat moon cakes, and sing moon songs. With the full moon, the legends, the family reunions and the poems, this is a special time. That is why the Chinese are so fond of the Moon Festival.

The Moon Festival is also a romantic one. A perfect night for the festival is if it is a quiet night without clouds and with a little mild breeze from the sea. Lovers spend such a romantic night together eating moon cakes with some wine while watching the full moon. Even for couples who can’t be together, they too can enjoy the night by watching the moon at the same time so they can feel that they are together at that moment.

Here is a poem I wrote for this occasion:

The Autumn Full Moon

Gazing at the clear sky on this Spring night
And looking at the full moon of September,
A distant northern Autumn I remember
When you were near, and your eyes were bright.

The stars are sparkling and the garden fragrant
The night is cool and air crisp as a crystal bell.
Spring flowers bright, in moonlight flagrant
But memory’s fallen leaves sad tales will tell.

We shared a moon cake under full moon’s light
And laughed as autumn winds blew candles out;
Now I can find no trace of you about –
I loved, you left, the moon’s the mistress of the night.

The Autumn full moon in Spring is mocking
My thoughts, remembrances, feelings frozen;
My life so empty, and your absence shocking
This lonely path we tread as we have chosen.

Tell me pale Moon, does she too gaze on you tonight?
Could she perhaps be thinking of me, in your silver light?

KING'S PARK IN PERTH

“God writes the gospel not in the Bible alone, but on trees and flowers and clouds and stars.” - Martin Luther

Yesterday evening, after work I managed to visit King’s park in Perth. This is a magnificent site a stone’s throw away from the city centre and consists of extensive parklands (400 hectares!), botanic gardens, function rooms, a café, a restaurant, a gallery and tourist shops. Although the park is good to visit all year round, it is exquisite in September when the native wildflowers are in bloom. I took the free Red Cat bus from the city centre to the Havelock St stop just near the park entrance, and then walked up the magnificent ghost gum lined driveway to the park’s main tourist area. The panoramic views from there, even from a stationary vantage point, extend across the city, to the hills, and down the river. The city views make for an obligatory photograph from the top of the hill and one can see the numerous tourists lining up and pointing the camera at the panorama.

However, King’s Park offers far more than breathtaking views. Of its 400 hectares, approximately two thirds are bushland, which during the wildflower season (September and October), comes alive with colour. The famous wildflowers of the Western Australian outback are well represented here and even if you cannot make it to the wilds off the beaten track, you can enjoy the wildflowers about 1.5 km from the Perth city centre. The remaining third of King’s Park comprises beautifully landscaped gardens, picnic and barbeque areas and playgrounds.

Because of its extensive size, the park is fully serviced by roads to make it accessible to cars, but also more importantly, there are many paths and trails for the visitors on foot. Although one can explore them oneself, one can also take a free guided walking tour. These start every day at 10 am at the Karri Log. Most of the flowers and trees are identified by their scientific and common names with small plaques, making it easy even for the layperson to know what is growing in the Park.

King’s Park is also a site highlighting certain aspects of Western Australia’s history. In addition to the main war memorial, which contains the names of all soldiers lost during the first and second world wars, the Park’s roads are lined with trees, at the base of which there are plaques laid in memory of individual fallen soldiers. This is a touching reminder of the toll Australia had to pay while fighting wars on distant foreign lands. Standing by one of these trees and reading a name on a plaque that reminds one of a soldier long dead, killed in the prime of youth for an idea, for freedom; and gazing up at the tall green tree is a humbling experience.

In Summer, King’s Park is a must to visit at night. The drive up the main road in King’s Park lined with ghost gum trees that are spot-lit and look like an otherworldly marching army of sentinel guards. Recently, during Summer, the people of Perth have been treated to cinematic and thespian delights in Kings Park. The Sunset Cinema, which screens outside in the Lakeside Picnic Area shows classic, art-house and cult movies. Also, local and interstate theatre companies often put on a production, usually Shakespeare, in the idyllic surrounds of the Park, including recent productions of “Taming of the Shrew”, and “Romeo and Juliet”.

One of my favourite areas of the park is the Federation Walkway, which rises high up amongst the treetops and not only affords magnificent views of the surrounds, but also makes for a good platform for observing the birdlife and flora. The Walkway extends 620 metres through the Botanic Garden along a combination of on-ground pathways and a spectacular elevated 52 m glass and steel arched bridge suspended amongst a canopy of tall eucalypts.

Another favourite of mine is the water garden, which wends its way through multiple levels and incorporates waterfalls, rock gardens, cascading rills and tranquil pools where ducks dive and swim, providing the visitor with the venue for a tranquil walk and a wonderful soul-raising experience.

Back home tomorrow, with an excellent trip both work-wise and as a change to the routine!

MOVIE MONDAY - CHILDREN OF MEN

“Children are the living messages we send to a time we will not see.” - Neil Postman

On Saturday night before my trip we got a chance to see a very good movie, which was quite powerful and confronting, but also hopeful in an understated way. It was Alfonso Cuarón’s 2006 film “Children of Men”. It was a stark, violent, harrowing science fiction story of a near-future dystopia, set in a post-apocalyptic England where the future is not so bright nor the world so brave and new.

The movie is set in 2027 AD, where because of an unexplainable, world-wide infertility epidemic, no child has been born for 18 years. Scientists are at loss to explain the reason and the population is gritting its teeth to cope with the mass desperation that this grim reality engenders. African and East European societies collapse and their dwindling populations migrate to England and other wealthy nations around the world in order to survive. In a climate of nationalistic violence and racial hatred, Theo Faron a London peace activist (now turned bureaucrat), joins forces with his revolutionary ex-wife Julian in order to save mankind by protecting a woman who has mysteriously become pregnant.

It is a film that actively questions our present society, its values and morals, its intolerance and lack of understanding. It looks at the problem of refugees, both political and economic, and the violence that can be generated in the wake of renascent nationalism, which is blighting many parts of the world nowadays. These problems are put into context and are given their relative importance by the hypothetical situation: “What if there were no more children born any more?” From this perspective, the other issues covered by the film become almost irrelevant as humanity is confronted with the grim reality of its own extinction – not with a bang but with a whimper…

I found the film especially poignant given the large number of stories that are regularly being aired now of babies killed, abandoned or thrown in the rubbish. The latest example was that of woman who gave birth in the toilet of an aeroplane, disposed of the newborn in the toilet rubbish bin and returned to her seat as though nothing had happened. Fortunately, the baby was saved but this action (whatever its motive) highlights our society’s ills on a fundamental level. The preciousness and sanctity of human life that is immediately obvious when one holds a newborn baby in one’s arms should inspire awe and humility. The film underscores this core idea of humanity that should be inherent in all of us. The disposal of unwanted babies is contrasted with the situation illustrated where no babies are born worldwide and the immense consequences for humanity that this has.

A particularly gripping scene that drove home the message particularly violently was one where the main characters wander into an abandoned primary school, which has become deserted, dirty, unkempt. Vestiges of children’s presence are seen in a few faded and torn drawings, abandoned stuffed toys thrown on heaps of rubbish and rusty playground equipment. “What if there were no more children?” the scene asks and one sees degeneration, decay, extinction.

On the flip side of this is the attendant misfortune of an ageing population and increasing number of elderly people who more than the few young ones see the world without children through eyes that were used to having babies and children around them all the time. People who should have been parents and grandparents see the world change for the worse, consumed by violence and anarchy and there is no hope of a better life, no salvation.

The acting was excellent, with Michael Caine taking great relish in his role as a marijuana-growing senior citizen looking after his invalid wife. Julieanne Moore has a small role, which she plays well, but the honours go to Clive Owen as the reluctant hero Theo Faron. Kee, the young pregnant woman is played ingenuously by Clare-Hope Ashitey and there are some good cameo performances by a variety of character actors. The cinematography is well done and the secondary theme of pollution and environmental despoliation is brought out in all of its awesome dread.

An excellent film, although full of violence and images that may shock some people, I recommend it most highly as a movie that will make the viewer think and ruminate upon many of the current issues that plague our society this day and age. The movie is based on the 1992 novel by P.D. James, and although the film is an adapted version, it is said to have pleased the author.