More Bugs

I stand up from my desk to head off to Bedfordshire. There is the most incredible screeching noise and a huge bug flies up from the floor and crashes into my face. It then takes off to the kitchen wall and stays there.

It is a huge cicada, about 5 cms long.

It is a huge cicada, about 5 cms long.

Later

Later

Anyway she seems to have gone this morning. What a great bug! Her alarm shriek is heart-stopping.

A common outboard motor bug is fuel starvation as I have explained in a previous post. I get up early on this beautiful Saturday. I bring the boat around from Deadman’s Cove, mount the Black Knight and row out into the er blue lagoon. I worked most of last Sunday cleaning gunge and detritus out the fuel system and now is my chance to see if it has made any difference. I pull the cord , nothing. I fiddle with different choke, throttle combinations but there is no sign of life from the Black Knight. Oh dear, but with outboard motors t’was ever thus. I row back in and take out the plug which looks just fine. It is then I spy the gas on /off switch, which is in the off position.

Who cares that I wasted all that time by being stupid? Not me really, I just like being outside with some kind of purpose.

It is a beautiful sub tropical Saturday. Note typhoon damage from last year, poor trees.

It is a beautiful sub tropical Saturday. Note typhoon damage from last year, poor trees.

 

 

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Billy, the Big, Badass, Black, Bike-Bug

As I set off for work this morning I notice several things: Big Red has a puncture, there is a big, badass, black, bug sitting on the saddle and that I have forgotten my access badge to the university.

I rush out of a lunch with the conductor of the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra to the local mega hardware store. There I find a tyre, an inner tube and some tyre levers. The tyre and inner tube are a size larger than Big Red’s shoe size. You can’t always get what you want but you might find that you get what you need.

Cycle Parts is a very cool expression in Japan.

Cycle Parts is a very cool expression in Japan.

When I get home there is Billy, for so shall he be named, sitting on the bike. I shoo him away zennishly and remove the front wheel for repair.  I prop the new tyre and the old against the wall whereupon Billy scuttles across and take ownership. He sits on top of the wheel daring me to move him.

He is telling me something.

He is telling me something.

I feel the time is not propitious for tyre repair. Billy will decide.

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Johnnie Scobie

What a remarkable day.

The first indication that things were diverting from normality came when I greeted a distinguished guest; composer and director of principal concert venue on Okinawa.

On learning that I hail from Scotland he starts to hum “Loch Lomond.” I join with the lyrics and we sit in my office singing. I explain the meaning of the song and we weep on each other’s shoulders. I only met him 5 minutes earlier. Aaah the power of song to induce states of emotion.

Next a colleague who hails from the US comes in and says that he overheard us singing and that his childhood was spent listening to Kenneth McKellar. So did I.

Bonnie Kenneth

Bonnie Kenneth

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_McKellar_(singer)

He takes out his iPhone with a flourish and plays me ” The Mingulay Boat Song” sung by bonnie Kenneth.

https://thequietripple.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/02-mingulay-boat-song.m4a

There is a background of Japanese and the hoot of the Pacific Reef Egret.

We cry on each other’s shoulders.

It is only 2:00pm and I am emotionally severely compromised.

Actually Kenneth’s versions of these great songs are horribly camp and over orchestrated but you cannot change your childhood.

The phone rings. It is my tax lawyer. My US tax declaration is ready and if I do not sign it today, I will incur grotesque penalties. I stop everything, jump in car and hightail it down to the Tax hacienda. I sign!

You have no idea what a relief it is to file my US taxes. I have fought the IRS before and the IRS won.

Gleeful, I return home to watch the best sunset so far.

The Mist Covered Mountains of Home

The Mist Covered Mountains of Home

Kenneth McKellar will not go away and as I prepare an omelet I listen to his oeuvre.

I am slicing bacon whilst listening to Johnnie Scobie. I am in a dreamlike state and slice off the top of my finger with Japanese razor knife.

en direct

en direct

It bleeds like a motherfu****.

Flow gently sweet Afton

Flow gently sweet Afton

Here is the song that caused all the trouble.

https://thequietripple.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/19-were-no-awa-tae-bide-awa.m4a

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Science

Visitors, difficulties at work, all these occasions do inform against me. I am unable to do that which I really want to do, which is to put the motor on the boat and see if it will run.

I finally manage to get the time on Sunday. I bring the boat around from its little hidey -hole on the beach and attach the motor, previously fueled up from my brand new metal fuel tank.

I fuel

Ifuel

Is the Black Knight mounted?

Is the Black Knight mounted?

Anyway, I row out into the lagoon and after a few negligent pulls on the starting rope surprisingly the motor starts!  My scientific aim is to test whether or not the motor is trustworthy to embark on major trips on the wild and wistful ocean.

All is not well, there is no real power and something is rotten in the state of Denmark. I make it out beyond the reef but the Black Knight cuts out, restarts and cuts out a couple of minutes later. This is a repeating cycle and the data suggests fuel strangulation.

A tiger has been trying to get into this tank.

A tiger has been trying to get into this tank.

So I disassemble the fuel system and sure enough it is full of sh1t.

The fuel pump is clagged

The fuel pump is clagged

Regrettably, I do not think there is much I can do. On keeking into the fuel tank I  remark that the whole damn thing is rusted like inside. All the rust gunge will continue to flow through the fuel process so that when out on the wild and wistful ocean, jets will be blocked  and the motor will definitively stop. I will be washed out onto the East China Sea and never be seen again.

I love messing around with engines

I love messing around with engines

By the time I put it all back together the evening draws late. I have no time to test whether the rigorous scrubbing out has made the slightest difference. Nevertheless I enjoy trying to work out what is going on and taking steps in a logical sort of way to better an imperfect process. Science I guess.

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Put a Tiger in Your Tank

My cousins ran a petrol station in Scotland. It was an Esso station. I around 1962 I think Esso started an advertizing campaign based around the slogan “Put a Tiger in Your Tank.” This struck my imagination very hard or like a freight train, if you prefer. I collected stickers of the slogan in many languages.

Italian

Italian

Spanish

Spanish

Latvian

Latvian

Chinese

Chinese

Greek

Greek

Ouagadougou

Ouagadougou

Gaelic

Gaelic

Which leads to what happened today. I have been loaned an outboard for my boat. My excitement is intense and I rush from work early to get a tank, some 2 stroke oil, a funnel, a plug spanner and stuff to get the engine going.

Strangely they do not seem to sell plastic petrol tanks, just very elaborate and expensive metal ones. Not to worry as I remember that I have a plastic tank at home. It is too big really for the boat but I can fill it up with 2 stroke mix and it can act as a reservoir from which I can fill plastic bottles to take on the boat.

I rush home and walk over to my much beloved gasorinstandu brandishing my plastic tank. The attendant, who is a good friend, squirms with embarrassment as he mimes that he cannot put gas into a plastic tank. Ah so desu. Only metal tanks in Japan.

Aiee! I cannot start my engine. I will have to wait another day.

Still life of useless tank

Still life of useless tank

I am very impatient. I hate to wait.

Sunset calms me some.

Sunset calms me some.

Sun sets around 7:20 in these parts

Sun sets around 7:20 in these parts

 

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Time Spent in Reconnoitering is Seldom Wasted

Thus spoke the noble H.W.Tilman. I spend the weekend reconnoitering my recently acquired boat.

Luckily it was a weekend of wonderful weather and messing around on boats in the warm East China Sea is recommended.  Several issues have to be dealt with.

1. Fix the hole in the stern seat.

Yay, no problem as I have struck up a very intimate mime relationship with the man in the local hardware store. I mime repairing fiber glass and he leads me to the perfect kit.

The first layer

The first layer

2. Can I drag the boat up the beach given my most weak hams?

The same guy in the hardware store responds ideally to my theatre of pulling a boat up the beach using rollers. He cuts me 4 x 1 meter length of sewage pipe. I experiment with boat and it works perfectly. Even I, a sexagenarian, can haul the boat out of harms way.

Rollers remind me of youth in Scotland.

Rollers remind me of youth in Scotland.

3. Will the anchor hold the boat?

I row out to the reef  to  set and retrieve  the anchor in different locations and depths.

I learn that coral can very soon chafe through anchor rope. Must buy more chain.

The anchor

The anchor

4. This is the big one. Can I get out of the boat and back into the boat without capsizing it?

I do many drills in the wonderful sun and warm, warm water. Splosh over the side departing from different parts of the boat. Clamber seal-like back on over the stern without ripping off genitalia nor allowing the East China Sea to occupy the boat.  I perfect a rope stirrup that goes around the outboard mounting. By placing one foot into this sling and launching myself low  into the boat I can achieve both goals.

Stirrup

Stirrup

There’s nothing . . . absolutely nothing . . . half so much worth doing as simply messing around in boats.

 

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Andy Warhol

We hold a party to bid Krista adieu.

Mark supplies the biggest leg of lamb I have ever seen.

It takes 2 people to carry it

It takes 2 people to carry it

I stuff it full of garlic and smear it with stuff and then chuck it on a Weber BBQ. It weighs 15 lbs.

Before

Before

After

After

A damsel with a leg of lamb In a vision once I saw: It was a Canadian maid And on her leg of lamb she played, Singing of Mount Abora.

A damsel with a leg of lamb
In a vision once I saw:
It was a Canadian maid
And on her leg of lamb she played,
Singing of Mount Abora.

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A Boat of My Own

Real pleasure comes from pain. There is no joy without misery. Drink Chateau Lafitte everyday and it becomes mundane, er, so they say. It is the ebb and flow of life that generates satisfaction.

After Aughrim’s great disaster when your foe in sooth was master
It was you who first plunged in and swam the Shannon’s boiling flood
And through Sliabh Bloom’s dark passes you led our Gallowglasses
Although the hungry Saxon wolves were howling for your blood

And as we crossed Tipperary we rived the clan O’Laoghaire
And drove a creach before us as our horsemen onwards came
With our swords and spears we’d gore them through flood and light we bored them
Ah but Seán Ó duibhir a’Ghleanna we were worsted in the game

Long long we kept the hillside our couch hard by the rillside
The sturdy knotted oaken boughs our curtain overhead
The summer’s blaze we laughed at the winter’s snows we scoffed at
And trusted in our sharpened swords to win us daily bread

But the Dutchmen’s troops came round us through fire and ball they bound us
And blazed the woods and valleys ’til the very sky was flame
Still our long sharp swords cut through them in their very hearts we hewed them
Ah but Seán Ó Duibhir a’Ghleanna we were worsted in the game

Here’s a health to yours and my king the sovereign to our liking
And to Sarsfield underneath whose flag once more we’ll take a chance
That the morning’s tide may find us across the seas and win us
A place to stand and wield the brand among the sons of France

And as we part in sorrow a Seán Ó Duibhir a Chara
Our hope is God Save Ireland pour blessings on her name
May her sons be true when needed may they never fail as we did
Ah but Seán Ó duibhir a’Ghleanna we were worsted in the game

Although I was worsted in the game when last I attempted to buy a boat.

https://quietripple.wordpress.com/2013/05/30/many-a-sliptwixt-cup-and-lip/

Although all seemed lost, I persevered, like Robert the Bruce. My reward? A boat even better than she who broke my heart.

Ikeda san and Chinen san and my boat.

Ikeda san and Chinen san and my boat.

I need a boat of 3.33 metres. Longer than that you enter the realm of inspection, licences and other Tolkeinian foes. I want a boat I can row, a boat that I can haul up on the beach in front my house.

Chinen san runs a truly chaotic boat place. Old boats lie scattered around. Outboard motors, whose souls have already left, hang on racks. However once Ikeda san, a distinguished colleague, explains my broken heart, Chinen san is on the case and finds me a boat in a couple of days.

I pick her up in a truck I have been able to borrow.

Chinen san checks the lashings.

Chinen san checks the lashings.

I drive her to her new home. She seems to take it well although it must be traumatizing for her.

Devant chez moi.

Devant chez moi.

Hisashi helps me unload.

“Rosencrantz: We might as well be dead. Do you think death could possibly be a boat? Guildenstern: No, no, no... Death is...not. Death isn't. You take my meaning. Death is the ultimate negative. Not-being. You can't not-be on a boat. Rosencrantz: I've frequently not been on boats. Guildenstern: No, no, no--what you've been is not on boats.”

“Rosencrantz: We might as well be dead. Do you think death could possibly be a boat?
Guildenstern: No, no, no… Death is…not. Death isn’t. You take my meaning. Death is the ultimate negative. Not-being. You can’t not-be on a boat.
Rosencrantz: I’ve frequently not been on boats.
Guildenstern: No, no, no–what you’ve been is not on boats.”

I think I will paint her with deep blue hull, dark red interior and white seats.

There are now 3 kayaks and one boat in front of my house.

There are now 3 kayaks and one boat in front of my house.

Ma joie demeure.

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The Usual Fortune of Complaint Is to Excite Contempt More than Pity.

I think pity is the emotion that the totally admirable Tsuha-san feels for me.

She is older than me, which means she grew up in immediate post war Okinawa. It is difficult to imagine what her childhood was like.

The civilian population in Okinawa was 300,000 pre war. 143,000 civilians were killed in 82 days of the Battle of Okinawa in 1945, another 107,000 Japanese military died and  12,000 US troops. All this took place in an area smaller than  London. After the battle 90% of buildings had been destroyed. All that was left was, “a vast field of mud, lead, decay and maggots”

Anyway, she is happy, never has a negative word and considers what is said to her carefully before forming a response. She and her husband come to my house every second Monday to clean it.

She cooks me food and brings it to my house as she believes that my pitiful attempts to feed myself will lead to premature death.

This morning she brought me an Okinawan salad of okra, tomato and shavings of dried tuna. The main course is goya champuru, a dish of goya, tofu, eggs and Spam. Of course there is rice.

Thank you

Thank you

Remember Tsuha-san and her family in your prayers, please.

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Lard

I am very fat and lardy. I am also vain and narcissistic. How can I reconcile these two?

Have you got it?

Have you got it?

Hooray for Okinawa Yardsales.

Framing symmetry

Framing symmetry

I lose weight just by looking at it

I lose weight just by looking at it

I have the ideal gym on my roof top. I hammer away at the heavy bag whilst gazing out over the blue, blue East China Sea as the warm morning sun, er warms.

Very difficult

Very difficult

I will also only eat salad, chicken, fish and muesli for the rest of my life.

Second crop of Brugmansia

Second crop of Brugmansia

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