Biographical Log of Michael Furstner - Page 60
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Tuessday - Saturday December 16 - 20, 2008
(diary)
I have not felt well these last few day, staying in bed with a light temperature. I will start writing again when I feel a bit better.
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Sunday - Tuesday December 21 - 23, 2008
(diary)
Yes, I am still alive, but hardly "kicking" as the saying goes. If I tell
you that flossing my teeth this morning felt like climbing Mount Everest,
you will get a fair idea of my present condition. One does not want
to rush off to a doctor every time, but after sweating it out in bed for
four days and not getting any better, Doug took me to the Doctor yesterday
morning. The latter only needed to glance at my urine sample to
diagnose infection. So I am on antibiotics, and if I trust the signs from
my body, covered in sweat most of the time I would say the battle between
the goodies and the badies is really heating up. I think I will
improve rapidly from here. My first main concern is to get my taste for
food back, as Christmas Eve we are planning to have Sashimi for
dinner and I don't want to miss out of that, that's for sure.
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Wednesday & Thursday December 24 & 25, 2008
(diary)
Although nowhere near fully fit, I am capable today to drive around for a
few chores, like getting a hair cut, a repeat prescription from the
chemist, buying some sake and various food items. I arrive back home
exhausted and rest for the afternoon, while Babette and Doug are having a walk along the beach as part of their diet exercises. We have no
Christmas tree this year, instead Babette has placed candles all over the
place which looks nice. After a quiet drink we have a delicious sashimi
dinner, then watch a movie. I am early in bed after that.
We have some rain overnight, but the morning is sunny, with the
occasional clouds. Babette and Doug are off on their beach walk routine
again.
Let me leave you with a statement of Brian Greene in his 'Fabric of
the Cosmos' (p.5) :
Modern physics have persuaded me that assessing life
through the lens of everyday experience is like gazing at a van Gogh
through an empty Coke bottle.....
By deepening our understanding of
the true nature of physical reality, we profoundly reconfigure our
sense of ourselves and our experience of the
universe. |
Ever since I was a young boy I have felt that the secrets of life and my
existence in it were written in nature rather than by "wise old
men" thousands of years ago, who's "learned" religious texts have long
shown to be naive and incompatible with what we know and understand of
life, the world and universe today. I have never wavered from my path
and now, with Greene and many many others, I feel at peace, and in a
state of tranquility and infinite wonder.
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Friday & Saturday December 26 & 27, 2008
(diary)
Christmas Day, with all Clubs and Pubs closed in Australia I always find a
most boring day. But on Boxing Day (tweede Kerstdag) everything springs
into action. The traditional Boxing Day cricket test, this year Australia
against South Africa, starts at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) and
Sydney, not to be outdone, have their start for the Sydney to Hobart
yacht race. For the first time in over a week I head towards
Mooloolaba. The place is busy, but nowhere near as full as usual this time
each year and I easily find a convenient parking spot. After some noodles
for lunch at Brisbane Junction, I go onto the Surf Club to watch a
spot of the cricket.
Last night we watched a DVD of the film Love in the Time of
Cholera. It is a most beautiful film, adapted from the book by the
Columbian Nobel prize winner (1982) Gabriel Garcia Márquez. I
am so enchanted with the story that after the cricket I drive on to the Maroochydore
'Sunshine Plaza' shopping centre to find a copy of the book. I am in luck,
they do have one. As I return home and open the book I am enthralled from
the very first page. No way I can stop reading.
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Sunday & Monday December 28 & 29, 2008
(diary)
Sunday is overcast all day. Babette, Doug and I decide for an
early morning walk on the beach and then have the Surf Club's all you can
eat buffet breakfast. The breakfast is, as always, quite magnificent, but
I am pleased I restrain myself with no too much food. The buffet has all
hot foods you can think of plus fruit salads, corn flakes, juices as well
as some lovely croissants and pastries.
Monday is a lovely sunny day and pleasantly warm. Babette has
picked up a bit of a cold though and stays in bed. I go to the beach
and watch cricket at the Surf Club. The Australians are being slaughtered
by the South Africans. Several of the Australian bowlers are injured and
not at their best. It looks like a changing of the guard. Australia has
dominated world cricket for man years now, but the South Africans, World's
number 2, are clearly taking over that role. A time of renewal has started
for the Aussie team, which is in many ways good.
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Tuesday December 30, 2008
(diary)
After a heavy rain and thunderstorm last night, the morning starts fresh,
sunny and with a clear blue sky that lasts all day. After shooting the
breeze with my daughter Babette on the front deck for a while I climb into
my swimmers and head off to the beach for my first swim in 10 days.
There is a stiff sea breeze, but the water is crystal clear, emerald green
and bright blue with white crests on small choppy waves. The water
temperature is glorious, well into the 23° C and feels even warmer
than that. I splash around in the white foamy waves and feel quite 100%
again. After, I walk back to the Surf Club where I have a late lunch
(bruchetta) and read 'The Fabric of the Cosmos'. Going through it for the
second time, so I get a still better grasp of it all.
Driving on the Mooloolaba motorway this week I read on an overhead digital
display : "Please drive
carefully"
"Please ????", "Please ??!!. A word not seen on any
Queensland (or NSW, orVic., or SA) road sign. Is
the police suddenly getting the right message ? That no matter how
aggravated they may be about the road carnage each year it is totally
counter productive to direct this sentiment to the general public. You
need the Public with you to improve road safety, not against
you. When you address them like convicts ("Buckle up or wear the Fine!" "Rest or R.I.P !"
etc.) they will behave like convicts, become
resentful and ignore the rules.
As I have mentioned on several occasions before,
only the Northern Territory in Australia is doing the right thing
in this regard, matching the sophisticated politeness characteristic on
all the French autobahns. To be fair to the Queensland police they
always approach you with great courtesy and politeness, but this positive
image is totally obliterated by the crude road signs. Perhaps there is a
change in the air ?
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Wednesday December 31, 2008
(diary)
New Years Eve. Babette has been warning me for months that she has
organised something for this night. We have to go somewhere. I usually
hate going out like that, so am not looking forward to it, but of course I
will have to comply. The day starts good, warm, sunny, clear blue sky.
I have my swim at the beach, lunch at the Surf Club, then early home to
prepare myself for the evening's activity with a brief siesta. Babette has
bought 3 dozen oysters, so I grill some Kilpatricks and we have an early
dinner with French bubbly.
At 5.30 PM we are off in the car to Brisbane. We arrive outside of town
near the airport, along the Brisbane river and what do I see ? Tents,
Circus tents ! The Cirque du Soleil !! Unbelievable, I have seen
several of their shows on TV, but never live. We have arrived early and
find a great parking spot right in front of the Circus. We enter one of
the tents with beverages and merchandise and help ourselves to both. I buy
a T-shirt and a great hat, and change into them straight away. Babette also
buys two lovely T-shirts, and because she likes my hat I buy her one too
for when she is doing her walks on the beach.
The atmosphere in the main tent is magic. Cirque du Soleil is a truly
unique concept, briefly it is a circus without animals, but because of
that it is more not less. It is a hugely creative multi media event
of high quality art. A wonderful celebration of humanity through movement
: dance acrobatics, tableaux, augmented by music, singing, lights,
effects. I personally experience it as the highest form of art,
compatible with opera, ballet, musical, concert, play. In fact in a way
it is even better than that as two restrictive constraints of the other
art forms are done away with.
- Firstly the presentation in a Circus tent with
the audience all around the performance makes for a much more intimate
informal integration of the audience and the artists. No sharp division
with the performers at on side of the line (on stage), and the public on
the other.
- Secondly although there is a general visual theme,
there is no fixed script, no story line which the artists have to adhere
too. This too adds to the liberated feeling you get when experiencing
Cirque du Soleil.
Cirque du Soleil is a multi-media collage
combining Eastern and Western cultures, the past and the future in both
space and time.
Almost one hundred years ago Albert Einstein, through his theory of
general relativity, defined mathematically and geometrically the
intricate interconnectedness of space, time and gravity, which provided
"the choreography for an entwined cosmic dance of space, time,
matter and energy."
Cirque du Soleil (I believe) is expressing this very "cosmic dance" in the
language of art, and by doing so provides a clear lead for new
contemporary art forms in this 21st Century. It is also a
hopeful sign for the future. Will this artistic contemporary reflection
and awareness of the world now too spread more widely, to a modern
awareness of the universe as the past 100 years of discoveries are showing us, so that we
will finally leave those ancient outdated incompatible ideas of the world forever behind us ?
Exhilarated we drive home after the show, arriving home at ThreePonds at
the stroke of midnight, just in time for a glass of champagne : Happy
New Year to you all !
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Copyright © 2008 Michael Furstner
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