Author Archives: spikekalashnikov

I go to Hiroshima on Monday afternoon and come back on Tuesday afternoon. This is a boarding confirmation. If you can see the small print you will see, “Please be at the gate 10 mins before departure.”  I am still … Continue reading →

Those of you who are bored with rudder stuff, please switch channels. Mixing the epoxy is highly technical. It is a 100:1 mix, which means 100 parts epoxy to 1 part hardener. Great precision is needed to get the mix … Continue reading →

I can sometimes do very irrational things. My learned brother Ian pointed out that just varnishing my new rudder will not cut it. Sea water will inevitably sneak in and the rudder will delaminate. He advises covering the the whole … Continue reading →

Some of you will remember the great wreck tragedy of last September. In this debacle, I lost my rudder. https://quietripple.wordpress.com/2016/09/29/rogue-and-peasant-slave/ I have been rudderless ever since and this has brought down misery and pain in my professional and private lives. … Continue reading →

These have been very good days. I have been at a meeting where people come and talk about science stuff.  I have met many old friends and it is reassuring that some of them still recognize me. Tomomi and I … Continue reading →

So I go to a far off land with great dread. My last long distance excursions have resulted in illness and I am very twitchy that the same thing is going to happen again. I make it through the first … Continue reading →

Not having felt well for some time I go for a major health check at the Adventist Medical Center. It starts off bizarrely. On the drive down I am listening to a ‘This American Life’ podcast. I put my IPhone … Continue reading →

For most of my professional life, my main tool has been the telephone. It rang all the time and I could get to know people all over the place, make jokes. You could not see them so you could imagine. … Continue reading →

So Jonathan and Renee left Okinawa today. Yesterday we held a  surprise Bye Bye event at the university. Hundreds of staff lined the 100 metre long entrance gallery. They clapped, shouted, held up signs and played music as Jonathan and … Continue reading →

I have written about my beach several times but who cares as she is endlessly fascinating. I have not been posting stuff recently as I really have not done much, having been weakened by Beri Beri, Black Monkey Fever, Crimea-Congo … Continue reading →