An Ancient Egyptian IQ Test
Long before the great civilisations of Greece and Rome,
the Egyptians produced many architectural wonders.
We all know about Pyramids and massive temple complexes,
and we've all seen countless documentaries
detailing their construction.
One enigmatic site deserves more attention
than it has been given in our time.
It is the site of a failure in Egyptian monumental architecture.
This site forces us to consider the enormity of their enterprise
and the breath-taking optimism of their endeavour.
Gifts of Music
Many people have shaped my life with gifts of music,
from the earliest days.
These pieces are in the form of emails to some of those friends,
thanking each of them for the gifts they have bestowed on me.
In a sense they describe my world, how my musical life and taste
have been formed by these unexpected casual gifts.
Acland Street
One evening in 1948 me and my
family went to Essendon Airport to welcome
my Dad’s brothers Edmond and
Joseph to Australia.
At the time I was only five
years old. The airport experience, the bright
lights, the huge noise of the
planes, and the expectation of meeting
my new uncles made this an
extremely special event.
After the shedding of many
tears, many hugs and many kisses, me and my sister
and baby brother being
totally squashed by my huge uncles, we returned to my
Aunty Adele's house in Acland
Street, St. Kilda, where I often stayed in summer.
That night there was a huge
party in that tiny house!
Alfredo
Venice St. Box Hill, about
1950, a new house and new friends for the whole family.
Our house was extremely
cosmopolitan, our guests coming from many countries.
Mum and Dad met two couples
from Egypt, although they were of mixed
origins:
the two husbands
were of Italian extraction, one wife was French and the other German.
These two Italian-Egyptian men
profoundly affected my life because
of the totally different
streams of music they brought into our home.
Reverie
My Dad had huge expectations
of me as I was the first son in a family of five children.
I certainly did not live up
to my father’s expectations.
One evening remains of
considerable interest to me as we shared a quiet night
in the lounge room listening
to a classical record I had bought with the first
week’s wages I’d earned from
doing from a holiday job.
Maureen's Gift
My sister Maureen died after
a long and terrible struggle with cancer.
It was a very heavy time for
all of our family, especially as Mum had
passed away just a few months
earlier.
Maureen’s funeral was held in
a Catholic Church. The church was packed.
Very few people were allowed
to speak on behalf of Maureen.
I had to fight for the right
to speak for my sister, to celebrate her life.
I was under instructions from
the priest in charge of that service to
keep it short! I was granted just a few minutes in a
ceremony which
lasted the best part of an
hour.
I sent this story to my friend John describing
that event and the tremendous
gift which Maureen had
brought into my life when we were teenagers.
