Straight to the last piece of the new piano book!

What do we expect from a first grader? In my 31 years of music teaching I have seen a lot of things. 

Stephanie, a six-year-old Hungarian student of mine, supposed to start her Level 1 new piano book today but she flicked the page to the Certificate, similar to what we filled in for her when she completed her Prep book last lesson. Then she flicked the page to the last piece of her new book. She was not too worried of the look of the hardest piece at the end of her new piano book so I thought, let's just see what happens if we try it instead of going back to the beginning of the book and start with the usual revision.

It was amazing to see how Stephanie applied all the things that she learnt. She recognised the Alberti bass patterns, figured out the rhythms and said the names of the letter names. We identified the two chords that were broken up in the left hand bass then she identified the names of the long, held notes in the right hand. In no time she was putting the hands together in quite a reasonable tempo and with great fluency. In no time, she learnt it! What an amazing achievement!

Watch Stephanie's third attempt to play Sonatina with two hands! Pay attention to the fact how she is reading the notes from her book! What an amazing girl!

How is this music reading from a beginner piano player? This video is a great example of raising the bar when we work with children!

Having a cleaning lady is not a luxury

I grew up in a modern family where housework and upbringing of children was shared between my parents. They were both working. My mum in the hospitality working two different shifts, 7am-2pm or 2pm-10pm and she was working on weekends, too. She loved it and she was well loved  and known in her profession. My dad worked as an engineer designing portable units for chemical companies and experiments and worked 7am-3.30pm on weekdays. I liked that my father was willing to cook, clean, look after us, do anything that was needed to help mum. However, when she was free, she did all the work she was able and let my dad relax and enjoy his hobbies, writing poems, novels, build a radio and later, grow fresh produce in our hobby garden. Our family was doing very well for a working family in Hungary.

I don't think there and that time it would have been conceivable to have a cleaning lady. Probably, we did not even need one. I think my family coped very well with all the daily challenges thanks to mum's changing shifts. I really think, it helped her to be on top of things to be at home in the mornings when dad was working and I was at school, to do the housework and cook fresh food for us, daily.

I remember coming home from school and the freshly cooked, delicious food being left for us on the stove. Always at least two courses, a soup and a main and sometimes salad. Lots of variety but always simple and good food.

Keeping a cleaning lady, in my memories was associated with the aristocrats and a very well to do families. I can't think back that I knew anyone, who had a cleaning lady to help with housework, in my circle of friends in my childhood.

I remember this theory of earning well and making money when I was part of Herbalife and we had personal development sessions as part of our training. I remember the concept taught to us that when you start earning well, give away money and turn back money so it can multiply. Employ, help others earn well too.

Then as I traveled and worked in other countries, I saw that many families had help with housework and that it was a normal thing to do.

As I got more busy lecturing, traveling to other universities, giving workshops and conduct concerts and rehearsals, my schedule started to be really hectic. I always managed things pretty well on the home front but many of my creative works suffered because I could not start my writing or songwriting until my home was not in perfect order. It was simply part of my preparation rituals and procrastination.

I was living in Townsville when I got my first cleaning lady. A friend, who lived on the opposite side of road from me recommended this lady to try. She charged so little that it would have been really ridiculous not to use her services. A few times I was there and we did things together then she has got a key because I was away on the day when she came to do the cleaning. I remember, what an incredible nice feeling it was to get off the plane after a very busy concert period away, arrive with the taxi to my home, enter my house and see a sparklingly clean, tidy home. There was food in the fridge, ironed clothes and sheets in the wardrobe and fresh flowers on the table. It was worth every penny to me! All I needed to do is unpack my suitcase, put my things in the washing machine, eat something, have a shower and go to bed. I had the weekend to recover from my trip instead of cleaning, shopping, ironing, cooking etc.

Then life changed and I had a less stressful lifestyle and I managed things again pretty well.
However, recently things got too hectic again and I found things hard to manage at home when it came to cleaning and being on top of things. I did not even realise, just recently, that this caused me stress! I like to be on top of things and when I am not, I get stressed. You know, all those jobs that you delay or don't do because it is too hard, not that important right now or even too nasty....
It was time to look for a company I could trust and find a good cleaning lady to help with all the houseworks again!

I checked things on the Internet and found Absolute Domestics. I made the phone call and two days later, my lovely Russian helper knocked on my door. Life changed with that moment again for the better. The best $90 spent fortnightly! A few sessions and she felt at home, she knew what and how I like and like a whirlwind she worked in my home. I made the list what had to be done and she did it! Friday afternoons, I have a spotless, tidy, lovely home to enjoy! Crisp sheets, shiny tiles, nice smelling curtains and all in order!

In some ways, I still feel "guilty" for allowing myself to pay someone else to do my housework. This is what I grew up with. But my rational mind reasons that why would I spend my precious tine with cleaning when that time can be better used for my creative activities or even to rest and recharge.

I also help someone else to get a job, earn some income. It is interesting what happens when you put aside the conventional thinking and form your life the way it suits you.

My cleaning lady herself is an artist, too. She is a painter. She does that in her free time, around family. However, while her son is in school and her husband is working, she does house cleaning a few days a week to earn extra income. It suits her well because she decides her own hours. She finishes work for the time her son comes home from school. Strangely, she is a neighbour of one of my lovely students. How small the world is!

Many times we have a little chat with the parents who bring their children for piano lesson. It is great to exchange ideas and to learn from them about things. I love chatting with the kids and their parents. What amazed me lately, how many of the parents are struggling with work, family and housework and that many of them have a home helper to cope with the housework! Once you ask around, having a cleaning lady is actually quite common!

I just recommended to my very good friend to get a cleaning lady because she travels for work all the time and she struggles to cope with everything when on the weekends finally she is back in Melbourne and would be happy to relax before sitting on the next flight.

How did we get to make our lives so busy that we are not coping very well with running a household, raising a family and holding a full-time job? You must be a Superwoman to do this nowadays!

Two weeks ago I committed myself to a 10 week Paleo Program that involves a lot of food preparation and cooking, which I am not used to. The time that is now free from doing housework, can be used to prepare healthy and delicious meals, resting and doing the things that I enjoy doing. Everything has a value. For most of us, time is the most precious after our health. So saving our time for the things we need it the most, is priceless. So I decided that having a cleaning lady is absolutely not a luxury.

Hungarian Easter

Easter (Húsvét) holds great significance to the people of Hungary. This is a special time where celebrations are marked by folk traditions and religious observance.

Elaborately decorated eggs, dousing rituals, church ceremonies, prayers, and special foods are common practices leading up to and during Easter in Hungary.

Here are a few of the most popular customs.

Lent
Hungarians regard “Lent” as the Great Fast for Easter. Since meat is forbidden during Lent, the day before Ash Wednesday is called “Húshagyó Kedd“, which means “meat abandoning Tuesday”. On Holy Saturday, what is known as “Nagyszombat” in Hungary, people take food baskets filled with kalács, red eggs and salt to the church, to be blessed by the clergyman. This blessed food is eaten in the Easter dinner after the resurrection ceremonies are over.

Easter Eggs
The art of decorating Easter eggs in Hungary was originally a Pagan ritual but was carried over with the acceptance of Christianity. Eggs are decorated with simple geometric shapes or ornamented with swirls of plants and flowers. The color red is often used as it symbolizes the blood of Christ. Many eggs also carry the embroidery of Hungarian designs that are a part of the traditional dress. Painted wooden eggs are also displayed in many Hungarian homes.

Flower Sunday
Centuries ago on Palm Sunday it was customary to bless not only branches but also the various flowers of the season. Today, the flowers are still mentioned in the antiphons after the prayer of blessing. Thus, the name Flower Sunday or “Virágvasárnap” is used in Hungary.

Sprinkling
Sprinkling is a very popular Easter custom in Hungary, observed on Easter Monday, which is also known as “Ducking Monday“. On this day, boys playfully sprinkle perfume or perfumed water on girls. Until some time back, young men used to pour buckets of water over young women’s heads. Now it is more common for men to spray perfume, cologne or just plain water, and then ask for a kiss and a red egg. This ritual is associated with fertility, healing, and cleansing rites.

Happy Easter!

Hungarian recipe made healthier

I used to love Hungarian food that my mum and dad made. Then, when I came to Australia, I did not cook any Hungarian food because all the ingredients tasted so different that whatever I cooked, nothing seemed to work or taste the same. I spent a year eating at the Canberrra Shopping Centre Food Court and at the staff canteen at uni in lunch time and I discovered that Chinese, Indian and Thai food are the closest to Hungarian so I was happy.

Now, twenty years later, I just started to cook Hungarian food again, taking the liberty of changing the recipes to suit my taste, diet and needs.

Tonight I cooked something that is very easy, quick and I used to love it! In Hungarian we call is "fasirozott". It is a meatball. Normally we would use pork meat but I must say, can't stomach pork meat here in Australia except made by Asians. This meat ball does not work well with beef,  in my opinion it is too strong meat so this time, I made it with chicken meat mince. However, don't be shy to try this meat ball recipe with beef or even lamb mince! I am sure it is delicious!

I chopped a brown onion, peeled a few cloves of garlic, pulsed them in the food processor, then added 500g chicken mince, added Himalayan Pink Salt, pepper and paprika and an egg. Mixed them well in the food processor and transferred the mix into a glass container with a tight lid and left it stand in the fridge for the night.

Next day, before to prepare my dinner, I peeled three zucchinis. I grated them and sprinkled them with salt and let it stand for 20 mins. I washed the rockets and drained them, put the salad in a bowl, added a few small Roma tomatoes cut into small pieces. Then, squeezed the zucchinis out of the juice and 2/3 of it I mixed with the meat to make it lighter. 1/3 of the zucchini I added to the salad. It has a lovely juicy texture and tastes lovely with the rockets and tomatoes.

Now, that I had the zucchini mixed with the meat, I put some almond meal in a small bowl, shaped a small ball out of the meat mix, rolled and rounded it with my palms and covered the meat ball with the almond meal. Because the meat mix with the zucchini is quite moist, the almond meal sticks to it nicely!

Just that you would not feel disappointed when you see the original recipe of "fasirozott", it supposed to be coated with freshly made breadcrumbs! But because I could not find breadcrumbs as I have not used any for years although I know, it is hiding somewhere there on the top shelf, a genious sudden idea came in my mind to use almond meal instead!

I made 4-5 small balls for dinner and had plenty of mix left for tomorrow! You even could freeze it and use it later! I started my Airfryer which means that without using any oil I can fry the meat balls! However, I am sure they are absolutely delicious fried in oil or baked in the oven! While the meat balls were getting cooked in the Airfryer, I sprinkled the remaining almond meals from the coating ball on the salad, added the juice of half of a lemon and sprinkled some Flax seed oil as a salad dressing. Feel free to use olive oil, avocado or any good quality cold pressed oil you like!

I hope you will like "fasirozott"!

Here I included the original recipe of "fasirozott" for your information! Enjoy!

Hungarian cabbage salad - using food processor

I am not a big cook. Definitely not a big baker. However, this summer, the weather was not hot and we had quite a few overcast and rainy days. This encouraged me to stay home, get on with my book writing and new business set up. Between works, it was really nice to get in the kitchen, cook a great vegetable curry, make a big pot of chicken soup or lately, experiment with some healthier desserts like using coconut flour and making raw vegan delicious slices. 

This tendency is rather funny, because my brother back in Hungary is a chef and makes incredible things. His older sister, cooks very, I mean VERY rarely! But this might be changing...especially, since second time I invested into a food processor. First time when I had one, I was working full time, no, rather in one and a half positions. My new food processor did not even get to that stage that I would have experimented with it and learnt how to use it. But now, my eating habits and my lifestyle was much more suitable to have a food processor and create great recipes with it. I am eating much more fresh produce, so slicing, chopping and mixing with it is helping me eating even better. 

When my food processor has arrived, I checked YouTube for videos to see how others use the processor and what it can be done with it. I was very impressed! It was so versatile that I knew, I will be using my food processor a lot!  

I did not make cabbage salad for ages because I could not bother slicing a whole or half cabbage with knife. But the food processor did this in a second! Wow! So next day, I went shopping for cabbage!

One of my first recipe that I made was a simple, raw Hungarian cabbage salad. It is extremely quick, easy to store in the fridge in a container and goes well with any meat dish, rice and potato dish. I remember, on hot summer days I even used to eat it just itself, it was so refreshing!


This cabbage salad is something my family very frequently made and kept in the fridge. 

Ingredients:

1 medium cabbage, shredded

1 teaspoon good quality sea or rock salt

1 cup water

1 tablespoon sugar

2 tablespoon oil (optional, I don't use oil)

2 tablespoon white vinegar

pinch of caraway seeds, celery or cumin seeds (optional, for me without seeds it just does not work!)

Pink Himalayan Rock Salt and black pepper to taste if you like
Directions:

Slice the white or red cabbage finely with a knife or with your magic food processor, using the slicer. Put shredded cabbage in a large bowl, sprinkle with salt and vinegar and let it stand for a few hours or at least for 20 minutes.. When the cabbage softens, squeeze out the juice by hand and place the cabbage into a large bowl. 
In a mug or bowl add the water, vinegar, sugar and a pinch of salt (be careful adding more salt, cabbage can be already salty enough for many after the 20 mins). Mix until sugar is dissolved and pour it on the cabbage in the salad bowl. Sprinkle with caraway seeds and mix the salad well. 
Taste for seasoning, add pepper and oil if you like and cover the bowl or put the salad in a container to let it mature in the fridge for a few hours before tossing again and serving. 

Note:
You can add more or less vinegar, or more sugar, make your dressing tangy or sweet, add garlic to it, go crazy. Perfect salad to go with meat and mashed potatoes.

Cabbage is a cheap, refreshing, nutritious food, very versatile and can be stored well in the fridge so use it and enjoy it!

Give presence

Christmas is approaching.
As we grow up and get older, things become less and less important and we realise that the most important things are not available in shops.

I teach music and I am lucky because many times the parents are sitting here with us at lessons. Most of them keenly follow every minute of the lesson. Proudly watching their child reading music, decoding the beautiful mystery of a new melody as the black notes are scattered on the staves. Making sense of these dots is like a snake charmer, inviting the melody to come to live note by note. It is one of the most wonderful skills one can have. It opens up a magical world both for the player and the listener. What a wonderful way to spend time and create something out of nothing!

In this technology focused and fast paced world even parents forget to connect with their children. Sitting behind us many times they spend the whole lesson playing on their phone, answering texts and disconnect from what is happening in the room.  Missing an opportunity to catch the magic, the moment when learning takes place, when a piece is played first time with both hands, when a composition finally performed first time without a mistake and when the dots come to live and the piece is not just played correctly but comes to live from feelings and expression, when real music is born.

No Facebook posting or text message can compete with these moments. These moments will never return. Just like the first words and the first steps of a child.

As a teacher, I am very much aware of the change in the energy in the room when we all focus on the player. We are all one, our energy united. There is harmony in the room and the player is supported. But when someone in the room watches his/her phone and is disengaged from the work that takes place, the circle of energy is broken. It is extremely destructive to both of us. It is very hard not to ask the parents to put down the device and focus on the work. To make them realise that they are missing an incredible opportunity to connect with their child on a very different level.

It is an every day problem. We are more connected than ever and at the same time more disconnected from each other, from our friends and families and from society than ever. People are more lonely than ever. The depth of our relationships and connection to other human beings have tragically  changed. Connecting to another person and listening, truly listening to another has always been an Art. The knowledge of the few. Now more than ever. A person, who truly listens and pays attention is very powerful.

What we teach to kids is very important here. How we relate to our loved ones and to our friends carries a very powerful massage about our values. The approaching school holiday and Festive Season is a wonderful opportunity to connect again. To connect and to spend quality time the right way. Having some "no technology" time is scary at first. But if certain days or hours can be limited to quality time without devices, the rewards will be huge and Christmas more wonderful than ever!

When we look into someone's eyes, listen to them and connect on a deeper level, we send a very powerful message. That they are important to us and we want to connect and put them first. Nothing is so precious than your presence. Your true presence. So this Christmas, give presence!

Benefit of Sole - Pink Himalayan Rock Salt Sole

Sole (pronounced so-lay) is an ancient Ayurvedic liquid solution for flushing toxins from the body. It’s one of the most basic and accessible remedies available to humans, is simple and cheap to create and allows for a quick detox flush of the entire digestive tract, not just the colon (like colonic irrigation and enemas). It’s also a natural method of detoxification.

Traditionally made using Himalayan salt crystals, sole, when taken daily can:
* Balance pH levels in the body, bringing you to a more alkaline state
* Flush heavy metal toxins such as mercury and lead
* Increase energy and restful sleep
* Clear skin conditions such as acne, eczema and psoriasis
* Improve circulation and reduce fluid retention
* Improve mood and reduce anxiety
* Increase hydration.

Sole is made by dissolving unrefined salt in water, creating a charged molecule (or electrolyte). Electrolytes are important for maintaining hydration and assisting the kidneys to maintain fluid balance. Professional athletes and even marketing campaigns will often use the electrolyte angle to promote certain drinks (think Gatorade, Powerade and even coconut water).

The electrolyte bit is completely relevant. The additive/preservative commercial bit is crap. Just think of how much money you can save by making your own version of an ultra hydrating, completely natural and healthy drink!

To make sole

Making sole is really easy, all you’ll need is:
* A large clear glass jar with a lid
* Murray river salt flakes or Himalayan salt crystals (definitely NO table salt)

* Purified water

Fill the jar with the water and start by adding 1 tablespoon of salt. Stir until dissolved. Repeat this once or twice per day until no more salt will dissolve in the water. You’ll know when the water is completely saturated because the salt will no longer dissolve and undissolved pink salt crystals will be visible at the bottom of the jar (this is why you need to use a clear jar).

To top up sole so you have a continuous supply, keep adding water and salt so that there is always undissolved salt crystals at the bottom. This is how you will know that the liquid is completely saturated.

Using sole

Sole is added to water to make a sole solution, which can be used for various purposes. I personally add one teaspoon of sole to a glass of water each morning. I drink this on an empty stomach and it acts as a detox flush. Sole can also be added to bathing water to relax muscles and can be applied as a skin cleanser for conditions such as acne and psoriasis.