Back home again.

I'm having a crack at learning cricket again. Reading the rules earlier did not help, so I thought that if I watch a game from the very beginning, I could figure it out by looking at the scores. Well, the scores displayed on TV seemed to be for the players only. They are playing for the most precious cup of all, "The Ashes". England currently has got the cup and Australia is at war. These things are so important here that summer is called "Cricket Season" as winter is called "Football Season". Well, cricket takes five days so I switched over to Dr Phil instead. "...abused housewhife Gretel has a crush on the debt collectors german shepherd, - should she loose weight to save her marriage...blah...blah...! I learn so much from Dr Phil mainly that I don't want to live in the USA. Really, almost every talk show, police show and reality show are about people who are stupid or who can't handle life, and the mistakes they make. Not that I'm any better. My restlessness has been the main cause of any negative experiences through my life. And, if that is correct, the good things are partly related to my personality too. Now, let's see how the cricket is going. Great, someone made a hat trick, that must be good! http://www.3news.co.nz/Peter-Siddle-nabs-Ashes-birthday-hat-trick/tabid/317/articleID/188004/Default.aspx I recently returned from a second working trip to Tasmania where I had more time to enjoy the scenery.

We had ordered a bungalow each with cooking facilities in a Swiss inspired resort.

When we got there it turned out there was only one cabin and the cooking facility was apparently the public barbeque outside.

This is why I constantly work on my communication skills.

It felt good seeing the beaches of North Melbourne again after another three weeks in Tasmania. I'm lucky to have lived in the few cities with beaches and clean water in the very centre. Sailing on the "Spirit of Tasmania" was good, with calm water and good weather but inside the ship,

it was as boring as always. Everybody looked as if they were going to the dentist or even worse, to the bank. With several bars and restaurants they still can't get a party going. If I showed the shipowners a video of the ferries from Stockholm to Helsinki, they would soon manage without their government funds completely. Perhaps I should just send a video to the press and let them ask why taxpayers have to pay for the "Off Spirit, Tasmania". At least I am happy I did not have to paddle across Bass Strait like a brave client did recently...
Well I'm home again and decided to stay there for quite some time. After all, it is a nice old cottage where everything is the way things should be...

I immediately drove to the shopping centre to buy some food. When the local hoon greeted me with the finger as he performed the compulsory doughnuts...

I studied history for several years as research for a TV documentary and became very interested in archive films. I think that the fascinating thing with history is when you learn enough to see a bigger picture and if you then also begin to draw your own conclusions about the events. And I believe that those conclusions can be applied on our modern life in general. Still, I have friends of whom some are even teachers, who question why we should learn history. It is good to have different opinions than your friends sometimes. But it worries me that they are so self confident that they think what happened earlier in history doesn't affect every minute of their lives in some way. To not realise how history also helps us predict some of our future is very contradicting considering that people, critical of learning history, spend half a lifetime trying to prevent their kids from earlier generations mistakes. I came across one of the most dramatic and exiting archive reels that I have ever seen. It is a film of whaling, which was very common outside Tasmania in the old days. It probably dates to the 1920´s but this film quality was available as early as 1898.
How is that old film important today? Well, first of all, if we do the maths, we can figure out why so many whales are endangered species, since they have been hunting them systematically for over a century. Second; The hardship these men endured confirm that employers tried to push their staff to the limits for profit, which still applies today. So we should not put our hopes up for a better world until we can redirect greed towards areas of less importance. I have no idea what environmental or humanitarian enterprises could be made profitable but I'm working on it.