Author Archives: spikekalashnikov

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 … Continue reading →

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. … Continue reading →

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 … Continue reading →

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 … Continue reading →

I go up to Clement to get an octopus and some dim sum. I leave my iPhone in the Waymo on my Waymo back home – Senile Neil. On the ‘find my Mac’ app I see the phone is on … Continue reading →

I set off, with my new eyes, for the mountains of Canada to take photos of Grizzly Bears. I get in my hire car to take it back to the shop. It will not start! I manage to contact the … Continue reading →

Stuff you can buy in supermarkets here is still very seasonal. Vegetables come and go depending on the time of year. One of the great seasonal treats is a fish called Saury. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_saury These fish only show up at the … Continue reading →

After failed attempts at cataract surgery I finally succeed. This is really a panegyric to the  Hayakawa Eye Clinic. After the the actual surgery, I go back the next day and the day after that for checks and vision acuity … Continue reading →

Saturday was the start of Obon. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obon Everywhere I have lived in Okinawa, the village has its own Eisa dancers and drummers. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eisa_(dance) It is taken very seriously with weeks of practice before Obon. I hear the drums throbbing and … Continue reading →

Yesterday, I finally had cataract surgery on my right eye. I chose the Shinto option with priest and musicians. It involved a lot of chanting, incantations with the accompaniment of strident sanshin and shakahachi music. This option is a little … Continue reading →