The Quiet Ripple Defines The Pond

“Old men have grey beards; their faces are wrinkled; their eyes purging thick amber and plum tree gum; and that they have a plentiful lack of wit, together with most weak hams.”

So says Hamlet. How do I, given my advancing years, measure up to his criteria?

Grey beards: I don’t sport a beard at the moment but it is grey, indeed white, when I do. Check.

Wrinkled faces: Well not really. No check.

Eyes purging thick amber and plum tree. Not much purging at the moment but I am pretty blind due to severe Uveitis in both eyes. Sort of check.

Plentiful lack of wit: Well yes – I cannot remember anything. Check.

Most weak hams: You bet! Check.

So Hamlet got it pretty much right. Well done Bard!

Despite febrility and blindness, James and I launch out on an adventure.

Always start adventures on a full stomach.

We go over to Irvine to buy a new steamer from Chinese hardware store. The west end of Irvine is very Chinese.

James, of course, knows all the places where prickly pear or figues de barbarie, grow wild. The goal of the adventure is to plunder lots without pain.

Great adventure, somewhat hampered by poor eyesight

Medi-Cal is state funded healthcare coverage for the poor and old. It has been wonderful to me. However the criteria for qualification have changed. If you have more than $130,000 in the bank you no longer qualify.

As I have a lot more than $130,000 in the bank, I am no longer one of the chosen.

I am not bitter about this development. It always seemed wrong that someone as fabulously wealthy as myself should benefit from a program designed to help the poor and needy.

Just a huge thank you to Medi-Cal folks and the State of California for the outstanding free treatment that I have had over the last couple of years. “An’ forward tho’ I canna see, I guess an’ fear!”

Bebo and I celebrate with an excellent lunch at The Old Clam House https://theoldclamhouse.com Go here.

The weather is beautiful!

Happy New Year Chinese buddies!

I devote myself wholeheartedly to recovery from pneumonia. This is very pleasant as it gives me the opportunity to do very little without the usual guilt.

I go for a CT scan. It reveals that my lungs are drying out nicely but also that I have 2 fractured ribs. I fell when I was at the Teddy Bears’ Picnic in November. https://thequietripple.com/2025/10/23/bear-minimum/

I thought my ribs were bruised and just waited for the pain to go away, which it eventually did. Not bruised but broken.

Hayes St is just behind the house. Lovely old Edwardian houses, excellent coffee shops and restaurants.

I visit James in the Botanical Garden. Spring is here and Camelias and Magnolias are happy.

On Sunday mornings, I stroll down the Panhandle to the Farmers’ Market. https://www.pcfma.org/market/divisadero-farmers-market

I think I will have a little nap.

I get a call from Zuckerberg General Hospital, where I used to spend my time, they want me to be in a movie about the hospital. Big Money!

Thanks for inviting me, I had a great time. The cheque will be in the post, I imagine.

I burst out of the confines of my recovery bed and drive, all by myself, to:

The rest of this is just birds. You have been warned.

My lungs seem to have coped with the excitement, so more adventures in store!

Happy New Year everybody!

2025, what a terrible year! 2026 has to be better – fingers crossed.

Because I have been a good patient, Nurse James takes me on a New Year’s Day excursion to Point Reyes. Always a winner. I am able to stagger around reasonably well and the fresh Pacific Ocean air is invigorating.

Back to bed!

Amid the storm and drang of hospital stuff, here is a still, small voice of calm.

I need to renew my passport. I expect misery, pain and delay. Not so!

His Majesty’s Passport Office has a very good web site. I follow very simple procedures and subsequently send my old passport back to Hemel Hempstead.

On 10 December I get a brand new passport – all the way from exotic Hemel Hempstead.

Great job folks at the Passport Office in sultry Hemel Hempstead! Thank you.

Rule Britannia!

I return from hospital and do as I am told. I lie on my greasy, foetid, sleeping mat, take antibiotics and take it easy. I fully expect to be fighting fit in a couple of days. It does not work out like that at all!

I get more severe pains in my chest and after a day of ‘I’m not a poofter’, I ask Nurse James to take me back to the glorious Zuckerberg SF General Hospital.

I am immediately put back into Emergency and the next day have an operation to suck fluids out of my lungs.

I am transferred to an amazing room with a great view over The Mission.

After the operation, I experience quite a lot of pain. I demand morphine but they are strangely reluctant to give me any. However, a nice nurse comes around with a bong.

So, I stay in hospital day after day waiting for my lungs to drain. It is a wonderful way pass the time.

A stream of wonderfully amusing, friendly nurses and doctors come visit. The diversity of nationalities is huge. Eritrean, Nigerian, Irish, Palestinian Phillipino, Chinese, Lebanese, Japanese, Lancashire, German, Vietnamese, Indian, Puerto Rican and many more. Very happiness making. My favourite is a young nurse from Ghana. His hobby is to watch football matches in the great stadiums of the world.

“What is the best match you have seen?”

“Rangers/Celtic at Ibrox Park by a million miles! Everyone was hopelessly drunk and fighting. It was not like being on Earth!” Yay Scotland! Radge!

Anyway, after 10 days, I am released on Xmas Eve.

I hope all Jewish buddies had a wonderful Hanukkah, likewise Christian brothers and sisters for Xmas. Everyone, please accept my very best wishes for a happy and prosperous 2026.

I cannot thank the staff at Zuckerberg SF General enough. They are all stars!

I think I forgot to mention in the write ups of my European excursion that throughout I had an explosive chest cough. The cough was activated if someone stood in front of me and tried to engage me in conversation. I coughed explosively into their faces. Very European.

Once in San Francisco, I swallowed handfuls of Ibuprofen and Amazon cough syrup and the cough abated somewhat.

However this progress was counterbalanced by extreme, deep chest pain. Fearing heart attack, I contact my Provider, which means doctor in Californian, and set up an appointment for the next day.

I have loads of doctor-like checks after which the Provider says, ” You must go to hospital.”

“When?”

“Now!

“How?”

“The ambulance is already here.”

A huge San Francisco Fire Department (SFFD) truck and beautiful ambulance are disgorging paramedics into the parking lot.

I am strapped to a gurney and loaded into the ambulance. I express surprise at the rapidity and vigour of the response. “73 year old guy with chest pains; we don’t fuck about.”

Is there anything cooler than blasting through the sunny streets of San Francisco in a siren-howling, bright-red, SFFD ambulance? Well, maybe the same without being sick I suppose.

I spend 3 days in San Francisco General Hospital.

All kinds of checks and scans.

Anyway, it turns out I have advanced pneumonia, but no immediate risk of heart attack. Hooray!

I prefer Japanese hospital food.

Thanks to SFFD guys and all the staff at Mark Zuckerberg General Hospital, the facilities and treatment are outstanding. Everything is free – thanks MediCal; apparently 71 million folks have Medicare in the U.S.

I bump into one of my SFFD buddies as I leave. “What should I do when I get home?”

“Go to bed and fucking stay there!”

That is the sort of muscular medical treatment I like.

Zandra and Guy pick me up at the end of the Symposium and we go to listen to John Intrator play blue grass in a bar in Carouge. On the way there, we wander through the nighttime streets of the vielle ville de Geneva. So medieval, so far from Okinawa or San Francisco.

I wake up in the Chateau de Sothonod.

The weather is very bad. We are forced to snuggle by wood burning stoves, eating and drinking.

Stay at the Chateau de Sothonod! https://chateaudesothonod.com

We go to buy masses of wine and stumble over this.

We have an amazing lunch.

Magnificent lunch! We take our time.

One of the compensations of old age is old friends. I have met loads on this short euro adventure.

I love them all.

Thank you, Zandra and Guy for great kindness at the chateau.

I am asked to talk at the 4th International Symposium on the History of Particle Physics at CERN. What fun! Anyone who is anyone in global particle physics in the 1980s and 1990s, the period covered by the Symposium, is there. 4 days of nostalgia.

Chris, who is chairing the symposium, and I arrange to have dinner on the night before the kick off. The restaurant is pretty much closed by the time we get there and we dine on tiny sandwiches, a plum and yoghourt!

What a fantastic event – many thanks to the organizers. How lucky am I to be part of such things?!