Save this Tree!!!

I purchased this tree yesterday, literally bought off the back of a truck, for less than I would pay for a hot chocolate… with the only problem being that now I have no idea what type of Bonsai it is! One of those problems with not continuing with my Cantonese studies is that the only English that the man whom I bought it off spoke was "Lots of water, every day water".

I am faced with the knowledge gained this morning after reading numerous websites on bonsai maintenance that should it be an inside tree and I keep it outside it will suffer, and if it is an outdoor tree and I keep it indoors it shall die. Its variety also affects the fertilizer, amount of water, sunlight and care it receives!

Seriously... bonsai's are scary things with baby sitting services and even hospitals all dedicated to their care.

Isn’t it beautiful though?? Stay tuned for updates on its progress... or lack there of!

Any and all help would be appreciated :)

P.S. We think it might be a "Baby Jade Bonsai Tree (Portulacaria Afra)" Check out the link and let me know what you think!

Let me make it clear: it is OK

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,21059109-421,00.html

I’ve had this news article open in my Firefox browser since Monday, looking at it now and then, encouraged that some semblance of sanity is in our court system today.

I guess it’s been encouraging for another reason too...

Since coming to Hong Kong I’ve found myself unable to keep abreast of issues that I would back home just through the natural course of life. I didn’t watch one Super 14 match last year. I almost missed the Queensland State elections and would have if not for my mother reminding me to go and vote. The weather is horrible to conceive, either blessedly cold during the humid summer months which I’m jealous to consider, or stinking hot when we’re all lovely and cosy which I’d rather not think of!

The list goes on.

In a feeble attempt to have some idea of what is going on in the world I log on regularly to the BBC and news.com.au websites, and listen to a Brisbane radio station 96.5. While often I find this a helpful exercise, lately I’ve been astounded by the amount of junk we let invade our senses. Perhaps it’s a continuation from what I experienced in the States after watching TV for the first time in 8 months.

We are bombarded with companies jockeying for our attention. We are tempted by tales of sexual dalliances of the rich and/or famous. We are saddened by the filth that pervades the actions of abusers and users and perverts… and at times our governments. We are told to rely on one source for information, with that information then being proved inconsistent later in time. We humiliate and demoralise those in power instead of encouraging them. We idolise indiscriminately.

I sit at my computer tonight feeling sick with information overload – but it’s not information – it’s just data. Data that keeps me feeling like I’m informed.

So with this background, I was heartened by the words in the article above:

Justice Benjamin said he took the unusual step of calling the children to court after they expressed a wish not to see their father. "You may have received mixed messages from others close to you about whether it is OK to see your father and spend good times with him. Let me make it clear: it is OK," he said.

There was goodness in those words expressed by that Judge, and for right or wrong they have given me some hope this week, far away from home, that amidst the plethora of scandal that I come across each day we have not gone down the tube… just yet.

Transcendental Idealism

In a burst of insanity I asked a very good friend what to blog on this evening. He skyped back to say I should blog on Transcendental Idealism.

So, instead of writing a fascinating blog on why I’m half princess half missionary (which I can give if you really want another time!), I’m directing you all to Wikipedia for a much better explanation on Transcendental Idealisim than I could ever give… and then writing a bit of a blurb down the bottom should you care to read my ponderings on this topic.

Reading from that Wiki page on to another about George Berkeley I was intrigued by these words:

"In reference to Berkeley's philosophy, Dr. Samuel Johnson kicked a heavy stone and exclaimed, "I refute it thus." A philosophical empiricist might reply that the only thing that Dr. Johnson knew about the stone was what he saw with his eyes, felt with his foot, and heard with his ears. That is, the existence of the stone consisted exclusively of Dr. Johnson's perceptions. It might be possible that Dr. Johnson had actually kicked an unusually grey tree stump, or perhaps that a sudden attack of arthritis had flared up just when he was about to kick a random patch of grass with a painting of a rock. Whatever the stone really was, apart from the sensations that he felt and the ideas or mental pictures that he perceived, was completely unknown to him. The kicked stone existed, ultimately, as an idea in his mind, nothing more and nothing less.

"Theologically, one consequence of Berkeley's views is that they require God to be present as an immediate cause of all our experiences. God is not the distant engineer of Newtonian machinery that in the fullness of time led to the growth of a tree in the university's quadrangle. Rather, my perception of the tree is an idea that God's mind has produced in mine, and the tree continues to exist in the Quad when "nobody" is there simply because God is an infinite mind that perceives all."

I appreciate in these two paragraphs the thought that God MUST be present in all, thoughts and perceptions, rational and belief… and furthermore, that even to believe in something it was God himself who has enabled us to. Theologically I think that this is a very sound view, but in honesty I find it difficult to translate to the physical world I live in. (I’m sure that philosophers though would find something wrong with those words physical world though!)

I’m much more comfortable thinking that the couch I’m sitting on is not just my perception, but an actual object that is … and that it is perceived the same way to all people, because regardless of how we perceive it, it IS. However, that being said, just because I’m comfortable with something doesn’t make it so, it just makes it easier for me to believe that it is so.

I guess this raises a lot of questions that my “after work brain” just can’t quite take in, but I shall continue pondering though and you might benefit (or not!) from the thoughts that make it through the fuse box of my mind into the “real” world.

What I do find fascinating though is that I always thought I was into philosophy… until of course I started to read a bit more philosophy and find I’m not THAT into it! Give me a good old theological text and I’m happy… philosophy for some reason scares me. A) Because I don’t understand it B) Because I think that if I did understand it I wouldn’t trust it because how would I know what I understood was what I understood and how can I trust something I’m not even sure exists?

… You’re Sick? Here’s some pills!

One of those things about living in a different country is getting used to the health care system.

For instance, I went to the doctor yesterday for a nagging cough which developed and a general cold/flu… anyway I walked out with the following:
Expected:
Cough Syrup
Antibiotics
Unexpected:
Anti-inflammatory Tablets
Tablets for my “sputum”
Heavy pain killers
Tablets to stop my stomach bleeding from the other tablets

Anyway, I found it a fascinating exercise :) Thank God that I have a doctor to go to, and can afford to go!

Food Eaten Yesterday... and where in the world it came from

Cherry Tomatoes from Thailand

Apple Juice from America

Vegetable Pasty from Australia

Mandarin from China

Salmon Steak from Norway

Frozen Vegetables from Australia

Tea from England

Ahh… the wonders of living in a country highly dependant upon importing goods.

For example:

"In 2003, local production[in Hong Kong] accounted for 5% of fresh vegetables, 31% of live poultry, and 23% of live pigs. Everything else was imported."

http://www.batgung.com/food-supply-in-hong-kong

(note: this isn’t a blog about my eating habits, but it is hopefully the start of some regular, and backdated blogging!)