The salt mine & an illusionist

We spent the morning in the salt mine at Wieliczka. The visit exceeded my expectations although it is now solely a tourist attraction rather than a working facility.  I suspect the tour did not capture the misery of actually working down there but it was undoubtedly impressive in its scale and grandeur. This hall is 300 feet underground.

On the way back, we saw an illusionist with a neat little trick.  I did figure it out after a few minutes but it was very clever.

In the evening we met another Polish friend, courtesy of Gil. She was a young university student, Ewa Nagy, and it was interesting hearing her take on the new Poland in contrast to Janusz Sepiol’s of a couple of days ago. She is studying law and the history of art and exhibits all the optimism that many of Poland’s young must have, tempered by the concerns of a 13% unemployment rate. 

Our new Polish friend

Miss Sharon in the best spot to watch the world go by. Click on either photo to go to the complete album.

This afternoon was spent wandering around the Old Town with Professor Janusz Sepiol who teaches at the 14^th century Jagiellonian University. He was a true delight with an extensive knowledge of Polish history. However, what made our time together more engaging was that he had lived though the immediate post-war period, the domination of Poland and then the fall of communism. Even though he fully embraced the new Poland, he still exhibited little mannerisms and habits that must have been adopted the survive the dark ages of Stalin’s communism.  We only recognized these signs because we had seen similar quirks in colleagues in China who had experienced the harsh life of Maoist China. Professor Sepiol did not miss an opportunity to gently chide the British for being tardy in coming to the aid of Poland at the start of World War II.

And this is glassware in a liquor store:

Auschwitz

Today we went to Auschwitz.  I am not sure what there is to say.  Everybody presumably experiences different emotions; interest, incredulity, despair, guilt, need for a catharsis. The camps were inundated with hundreds upon hundreds of tourists during our visit (which, of course, is exactly what we were) but, ironically, that seemed to dilute the solemnity of the place. Shuffling through the various buildings in a never-ending snake of people and gazing at the sad displays as we shuffled, somehow did not have the effect it should have. I was, perhaps, more in awe of the tragedy as presented by the Holocaust museum. 

Krakow - orientation

I have decided that I love Krakow.  I realize that I had no idea what a jewel it is in Europe’s medieval crown. Which other cities can compete I wonder? Bruges maybe? And, as an added benefit, the tourist/restaurant business is managed and run by pretty young women who all speak perfect English.  I consider that I am now old enough to get away with that comment; I probably remind most of them of their granddad.

While we usually try and “have a go” linguistically (with apologies to Wilfred Pickles), I suspect that both Polish & Hungarian might be beyond us. Today was a veg-out and orientation day. Bought our train ticket to Budapest, found a beautiful Art Deco hotel for our return to Krakow and stocked up on delicious yogurt, blackcurrants and raspberries at the open-air market. Fortunately, both of us love markets. As part of the errand-running activities, we did get to cover most of the Old City, in an initial, cursory fashion.  And yes, these are sunflowers at the market.

Poland - arrival

Arrived safely in Krakow despite astonishingly surly Continental Airlines cabin staff and a seven-hour layover in Frankfurt. However, Polish airlines (LOT) won our hearts by offering free wine & beer in economy class. Upon arrival, I was approached by an elderly Berkeley professor who asked me if I was attending the conference on classical Iranian history, thereby confirming my claim that I am of scholarly appearance. Our apartment block is in a perfect location on the 13^th-century market square though the eight flights of stairs with two heavy suitcases did test my patience as a porter. A delightful snack & beer on the square complete with bread and pork lard offering a low cholesterol end to the day.  You can go to the photo album by clicking on any of the photos.

Sharon's New Truck

Sharon in her new truck (or cart at least) with our friend Dave.

Maybe this will be useful when we get really old. But who will pull us?

Halcyon Days In Egypt

In some ways I think of  Egypt as my third home.  Now we must hope for a peaceful and positive outcome to the recent harrowing days of protest.

Many visitors to Cairo are at first overwhelmed with the noise, the dust, the traffic.  But behind this powerful veneer lies a splendid, functioning, medieval city. This photo captures some key elements of Cairo ..... a mosque in the foreground, felukkas on the Nile and the Pyramids of Giza faintly seen though the red, dusty air.

The River and the Delta form such a tiny percentage of the total area of Egypt; most is arid desert. In the distance, you can see the sharp delineation between sand and the fertile agricultural land.

It is a grand people-watching location, mainly folks just going about their business. The knife grinder, the yam seller, the potter with his kilns and the fellahin.

The children ........

A man having a quite smoke ....... and inevitably the less fortunate .....

Of course friends were essential components of my life.  Both Egyptian (Salah Zafaan and me)

and those special expatriate friends who were almost in loco parentis to me as a single young man.

And I suppose we should not forget that, after all, our business reason for being there was to find oil, in partnership with our Egyptian colleagues.

Egypt:  I think about you nearly every day in these troubling times.

Foreign Model Worker & Zhu Rongii

A brief moment of "fame" (?) was in 1996 when I was declared ..........

The ceremony and State Banquet at the Great Hall of the People was hosted by (then) vice-premier Zhu Rongji, later the Premier, of The Peoples' Republic.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhu_Rongji 

This is how the China Daily saw it.

Note that I was thanked for my contribution to the Victory of the Chinese Revolution..... wow !!!

I guess we have now both moved on ......

Michigan says "What's the Big Deal"

OK, OK, so it was only an inch or so. But is is REAL SNOW and here in Central Texas.

But I get ahead of myself. First I have to dress appropriately:

Now we are ready to go. The back yard:

Shoal Creek:

And the Boulevard in the middle of rush hour (8 pm on a Friday).

So take that, Michigan !!!!

Bernard's act of kindness

This delightful tale is courtesy of Bernard Mollberg who was the savior of the little bushy-tailed hero.

I was walking by one of our rain downspouts and I heard a noise. Kind of a scuttering, and scratching kind of sound. Then I heard splashing ...... and more scratching ..... more splashing (our downspouts connect to PVC pipe which carries water to our cistern and always have some water at the bottom).

I removed the metal downspout that connects to the pipe .... and …… got a dog leash, and lowered it down the pipe. But no sound and the leash wasn't long enough to reach the water.

So I got a second dog leash, clipped it to the first one and lowered again. I slowly lowered it down. Felt some movement & slowly pulled up the leash.

Felt some weight .... then: nothing. Lowered it again. Felt the weight on the leash again. Slowly pulled up the leash.

Slowly, slowly, higher and higher and at last from the top of the pipe I see:

A SQUIRREL IN THE DOWNSPOUT !!!!!!!

He was pretty weak. Been soaking in 40˚ water, maybe a pretty long time. He seemed unsure of my intentions.

Finally got him over the edge.... he almost fell back down once.

Dry land at last. Finally I give him a nudge with a broom handle, and off he goes.

I've now got a great name for a new fiddle tune.

All I have to do now is write one.

The Rhino House

Whether by day …..

Or by night …….

You can understand why some children in the neighborhood think of our’s as the Rhino House.

A Healthy Obsession

I admit to being mildly obsessed with bicycles. I have a friend who is (or at least was) mildly obsessed with toucans. He once owned them, studied them, read about them and collected books about them. However it was now time for him to downsize and I willingly accepted his invitation to help sell a treatise of his, entitled Monograph of the Ramphastidae by John Gould. It quickly became apparent that this was not your usual eBay item and before long, I embarked on a sleuth’s trail to establish the book’s true value and to determine how best to sell it.

The value of this particular volume was hopefully enhanced by its provenance: it had been purchased by, or for, Philippe, Count of Flanders (1837 – 1905), 2^nd son of Leopold I of Belgium. The Count's Royal monogram was on the cover.

I talked to both Sotheby’s and Christies in New York, several dealers on the East Coast and Henry Sotheran in London. The latter dealer had purchased most of Gould’s residual inventory and lithographic plates etc. following his death in 1881 and is unquestionably the world’s leading authority on him. Although very valuable, the book was not of a rarity that would justify shipping it to London and, taking Sotheran’s advice, I then contacted Donald Heald in New York.

Heald is a specialist in 19^th century natural history lithographs. Based on what little pricing data I could find, I made the assumption that the “retail” value of the book was about $60,000. Given that an informed bidder would discount the book by the 25% buyer’s premium at auction and then taking the 11.5% seller’s premium/handling into account, that would result in net proceeds of about $39,800, assuming it sold as expected. It seemed to make sense to give Heald first “kick at the can”. Once I had convinced a reluctant UPS to accept the book for overnight delivery to New York, Donald Heald was able to make a cash offer of $40, 000 which I thought was fair. My friend duly accepted the offer and the cash was wire-transferred to his account within 24 hours. Mission accomplished.