Author Archives: spikekalashnikov

So, James and I set off in the truck to watch birds. We go through California, Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada. On the first day we end up in a small town, Alturas, close to the Oregon border. We check … Continue reading →

So today, the last day of my vacation, I go down to SLAC to lunch with Melinda. It is a wonderful visit. We bump into all kinds of nostalgia. Melinda is a woman who has every attribute, a constant drive … Continue reading →

So I wake up on Wednesday morning and walk down to the sea. I swim out to the Scaffie through  beautifully warm, still water. I rig a third anchor on the boat and then swim slowly back as the sun … Continue reading →

So, today I hand in my application dossier for permanent resident status in Japan. The process is ridiculously easy.  All the documents needed are less than 15. All are easily come by. My U.S. Green Card application took 6 months of work … Continue reading →

After unwellness and a week of Board of Governors I finally get back out to sea on Saturday. I go for a long, long reach straight out in front of the house into the shipping lanes. Big boats thunder by. … Continue reading →

Wandering through a pharmacy looking for goose grease to rub on the boils, I have a very strong madeleine moment. My mother had a beautiful dressing table. It had a large mirror and a glass surface on which were her … Continue reading →

I was always very bad at those ‘spot the difference’ games. You know, two pictures that look the same but have lots of subtle difference, like the cow in one picture is black and in the other it is white. … Continue reading →

Well, today I am 65 years old. This is usually considered an important milestone as I now gets cheap travel, reductions on coco and carpet slippers. Indeed the great Shinto gods, who understand, did not want this day to pass … Continue reading →

We are booked to play the Naha Haari Boat Festival, http://www.naha-navi.or.jp.e.ni.hp.transer.com/magazine/2227/  as part of our 2017 tour. It is incredibly hot. We play and the crowd goes wild. Young women sit on their boyfriends’ shoulders waving cigarette lighters. It is … Continue reading →

By midnight on Sunday my new yard is  ready to go. She has been fashioned by Opinel, rasped and sanded but she maintains a very rustic appearance. I have made her more robust than the original yard as I feel … Continue reading →