A few memories - from the walls and shelves of my parents

Mum in Canada with my brothers.  My favourite photograph of the three of them!

The only thing I ever won in competition (it was a family effort) and we received a lovely bicycle. This telegram was brought from the post office by hand and it was so exciting! Strange to find it after all these years. The winning entry was

"People who pedal past petrol pumps save lives, save health and save money"

Re-reading my Dad's shelves of books and loving Cosmos.  In it Carl Sagan describes Kepler (1571 – 1630), that awesome scientist who discovered so much about the movement of the planets.  At a time when people thought these bodies moved in circles, Kepler came up with the notion of them being elliptical. He used the formula of an ellipse, first codified in the Alexandria library by Apollonius of Perga (262 BC –  190 BC) who had worked out the speed of the moon (one of the craters is named after Apollonius, in honour of his achievements).  You've got to hand it to these guys and strange to think of all that knowledge being lost for so long.  

Kepler worked out so much about the movement of the planets and three fundamental laws of physics remain named after him to this day.  It is impossible to exaggerate his contributions to Astronomy.  In Kepler's hometown of Weil der Stadt three women were tortured and killed as witches every year between 1615 and 1629.  Many scapegoats were elderly women living alone who were blamed for illnesses suffered by others.  It is perverse that Kepler's own cankerous 74 year old mother was carried off in a laundry basket in the middle of the night to face a charge of witchcraft.  Poor Kepler had to leave his contemplation of celestial bodies and return to his home town to argue in his mother's defence.  This, he was eminently capable of and he turned his logical and excellent mind to proving that in no way could his mother be responsible for the minor health complaints of neighbours.  His argument won out and he freed her from the dungeon but she was exiled from the town of Wurttemberg for life and would have been executed had she returned. Kepler lost his benefactors who funded his research due to the Thirty Year War.  During this period he also lost his wife and his son who both died. He was even excommunicated from his Faith due to his uncompromising individualism.   Kepler envisioned 'celestial ships with sails adapted to the winds of heaven' navigating the sky 'who would not fear the vastness of space'.  How sad that this brilliant scientist was reduced to constructing horoscopes for the rich nobility to earn a living.  Today explorers of space use his laws of planetary motion and ride on the shoulders of this unique genius.  

Another book from my Dad's shelves is called Conquistadors by Micheal Wood.

In 1542 Dominican Bartholome de Las Casas wrote a short account of the Destruction of the Indies and dedicated it to the future King Philip II.  Arguments had started about whether the Spanish had a right to make war on the native people of South America to force them to accept Christianity.   As Dominican friar Antonio de Montesinos had so eloquently argued a few decades earlier,
'Are these Indians not men?  Do they not have rational souls?  Are you not obliged to love them as yourselves?'

Given the extent of slaughter of the native people these were important issues.  A Council of Fourteen was convened to properly discuss the matter and in the meantime King Charles V ordered all Spanish conquests in America be stopped.  Las Casas and the philosopher Sepulveda debated for five months.  Sepulveda argued that native societies were devoid of civilisation and hence virtually devoid of humanity.  Taking their gold, demolishing their political structures, acquiring their land and the widespread genocide was all justified. Las Casas who had, unlike Sepulveda, lived for decades in the Americas spoke eloquently and powerfully.  Las Casa's arguments were,

1. the world is indeed one
2. human beings are the same
3. all have the possibility of self fulfillment and achieving goodness
4. no matter how rude, uncivilised and barbarous, savage or brutal a people could be, all can be persuaded into a good way of life - provided that the method used is proper and natural to men - namely love, gentleness and kindness.

Las Casas won the debate!  This historic victory could have prevented much of the suffering that later happened in so many parts of the world to native people.  This could have been a real milestone for humanity.  However, power and greed became the real drivers and quickly trumped morality and conscience.  Was it ever so?  

Genius minds discovering the intricacies of the movement of the planets, great intellects urging respect of others, all so ahead of their day.  With the passing centuries we see more clearly the truths they were urging others to accept.  We also see the suffering that stupidity, greed and a lack of moral conscience brings to this world.  

My grandfather fought in World War I.  He was sixteen and the recruitment officer told him to walk around the table and come back and say he was seventeen.  In order to enlist he needed to be a year older.  He found himself in the Somme, was shot and awarded a commendation for bravery.  He never spoke of his experiences much.  He was the most fearless person I ever encountered.

My grandmother on the other side of the family painted this.  She became a teacher and had five children.  She never had time to touch a paint brush again.  I reckon she had talent.  But what do I know?  Perhaps her five children were her real creative output.

Sliema to Valetta by boat and foot - getting lost and finding good stuff

Went for a walk in Valetta today.  First I walked up the hill in Sliema.

The colours of the flowers are amazing and catch the eye.  The houses are equally unusual and even when dilapidated have a presence.

In Malta there are churches at almost every turn, all covered in statues and with often two clocks.  One is set at the wrong time to fool the devil – they say!

The blooms beside a doorway seem too pretty to miss so I do a close up.

Over the hill and I reach the ferries, this is where I catch a boat to Valetta from Sliema.

And as the ferry gets closer the view gets better and better.  I reckon Valetta should always be approached by sea.  The walls are so impressive from water level.

Arriving at Valetta.

Hugging the walls I make my way along the ramparts.

Looking back at Sliema I can see the ferry and where I have come from.

Nature is found even on the bare dry walls.

Now time to climb some stairs and the height of the houses surprises.

Every square meter seems used and the density of living quarters is apparent.The streets become narrow and yet full of life.  This is no museum, but a living city.

Some grand buildings, like the front of this one.

Haven’t a clue where I am going but have time to admire the greenery.

Who cares if they are lost when everywhere interesting streets entice.

Am tempted down one and find myself in the second oldest theatre in Europe.

Even better is the tea room and I take the opportunity to grab a pot of tea and have a well earned break.  I have never experienced this tea room and it is filled with light and has a lovely atmosphere. 

This has to be the loveliest place to chill.  I heartily recommend it!  Sometimes getting lost leads you to the nicest surprises.  Time to head home.  

Maria and Michael Abateo, forty winks

Here lives Maria and Michael  Abateo.  Maria is a bubbly fifty-year-old Maltese lady.  Full of life and laughter.  You’d pass the house and not notice it, except perhaps the flowers spilling down the front in total abundance.  They suggest someone different lives here.  She loves clothes in bright colours but has good taste so they make her seem younger than her years.  Her husband jokes continually with her, but it is tinged with admiration.   Life with Maria has brought surprises.  Like this week! 

Maria was driving up a steep street in Sliema and spotted a tourist pushing a woman in a wheelchair.  It was midday, the sun was blistering hot and he was obviously finding the slope too much.  Maria drove past but when she got to the end of the road, she circled back round to the couple and stopped next to them.  She asked them where they wanted to go.  The man said, red faced and panting, that they were heading to The Point, a shopping arcade.  Maria told him she would take them there.  Maria has a huge jeep so they all fitted in, wheel chair included.  While they drove, Maria found out that they were a married couple, Doug and Claire from the UK.  Doug had been Claire’s nurse in hospital in the early days of her muscular dystrophy.  Now, Claire was completely wheel chair bound and even required a catheter.  During, their short journey Maria discovered that the couple were trying to find somewhere to eat, so immediately Maria suggested taking them to her home.  “I’ll make you something,” she offered generously.  They readily agreed and Maria was as good as her word with a delicious Maltese meal ready in short time. 

After the meal, the couple were tired and Claire asked if she could have forty winks.  Maria, once she understood what forty winks meant, knew just the place, her large cool corridor with a light blanket thrown over Claire’s wheelchair.  Within minutes, in the cool breezy corridor, she was sound asleep.  Doug and Maria sat in the spacious living room sofas chatting for a while.  But an afternoon siesta is an attractive proposition when you've been out in the sun most of the morning.  So, in no time at all, Doug and Maria were sound asleep each on a large sofa in the shuttered, darkened room. 

When Michael returned early from work shortly after, he was startled to discover a lady in a wheelchair in his entrance hall with his own favourite blanket tucked cozily around her.  Tip toeing into his living room he was nonplussed to discover his wife and a complete stranger also sound asleep in his living room.  Only Maria, Michael laughed, could spring such surprises.  He tells the story well of that day, with animated gestures and eyebrows raised and both of them erupt in gales of laughter.  What a lovely couple, in a welcoming home, with radiant faces and hearts.

Packing, moving, cracking up

Things that go into boxes are not so bad.  There is a kind of ordering of all the chaos of one's life that is strangely productive.  The bit I hate is when you have packed the hundredth box and you walk into an almost empty room and know there is at least another twenty boxfuls there.   Worse still are all the things that don't belong to any box, can't be dumped, sold or given away.  You end up grabbing such oddments and throwing them into a pile muttering, where the hell do you go? I am rapidly resembling a headless chicken racing round in circles with only 5 days to get out of this house.  If you were me you would not be wasting time writing a blog.  On that note I better stop.  This moving country thing is certainly up there with the divorce, bereavement and job change in terms of stress!  I promise myself not to accumulate so much junk in future.  There will be silence from me for a while, for obvious reasons.  The silence of despair!

moving home

Packing one's belongings into boxes is a depressing business.  Firstly, you realise how much crap you have and two you realise no one else wants it.  Been going to car boot sales in  the hope of offloading some of it for cash.  Vain hope indeed, people have much better taste than I thought.  I've discovered the ultimate insult is when you forget to close your garage door all night and all your belongings carefully stored there are not stolen.   Moving house reminds you of what you have not done with the passing years, moving country reminds you it pays to travel light.  Both useful things to be reminded of at any stage of life.