Birds on the Beach

So the greatest thing about going to foreign parts is that you see new birds. One of the tedious factors of advancing age is that you have been there seen that before. New experience becomes rarer. A colonoscopy is fun because you have never done it before. This is why birdwatching is glorious. You go to a different country,  you walk out of the hotel door to a bombardment of new experience. I get up at dawn this morning and see 6 new species before breakfast.

I am here to make you happy

I am here to make you happy

Context

Context

Grey finch thing

Grey finch thing

This is a Tropical Mockingbird

This is a Tropical Mockingbird

Way down among Brazilians  Coffee beans grow by the billions  So they've got to find those extra cups to fill  They've got an awful lot of coffee in Brazil

Way down among Brazilians
Coffee beans grow by the billions
So they’ve got to find those extra cups to fill
They’ve got an awful lot of coffee in Brazil

I wish I had bought a Brazilian Bird Book before boarding.

I wish I had bought a Brazilian Bird Book before boarding.

Frigate Bird, of which there are lots

Frigate Bird, of which there are lots

More context - it is now about 7:30. The birds live in the trees.

More context – it is now about 7:30. The birds live in the trees.

I am in Brazil by the way.

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How the Brownies Cried!

Last night, after a long week of Governors meetings, I was at a piano recital by Etsuko Hirose. She is right, dead, good, her. Buy her stuff.

Spot 4 Nobel Prize winners. I am not one nor is the lady in the blue frock

Spot 4 Nobel Prize winners. I am not one nor is the lady in the blue frock

This morning I got up at 5:30 to fly down to Rio.

Reno? Why Reno?
Not Reno, dummy.
Rio, Rio de Janeiro.

I am now in a bistro beside the Place de l’Etoile in Paris. It is 6:30 Paris time.

I have been Naha – Kansai-2 hours, Kansai- Paris-12 hours, next is Paris-Reno er Rio-12 hours.

Anyway I have a 5 hour wait at Charles de Gaulle and I remember the excellent cars Air France that whip you into the center of town in next to no time.

I eat symbolically. I am in Paris. When will I be here again?
Kind friends and companions, together combine
And raise up your voices in chorus with mine
We will drink and be merry, all grief to refrain
For we may and might never all meet here again

We watch Olympique Marseille play Bordeaux. 2-1 at the moment. A couple come in who have been to a wedding and so are all dressed up. They have a beautiful little girl who runs around charming all the red-nosed footballer watchers.

David's Triumph was heard throughout the land

David’s Triumph was heard throughout the land

Faux Filet Frites

Faux Filet Frites

Cantal,Camembert,Chevre. This is an alliterative meal.

Cantal,Camembert,Chevre. This is an alliterative meal.

Paris, Printemps

Paris, Printemps

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The Sun Goes Around the Earth

I have always thought that Galileo or was it Copernicus must have been very clever to work out that the Earth goes around the Sun because it clearly does not. I mean it rises in the morning goes around the sky and the sets again only to reappear again in more or less the same place the next morning. What is more, the Sun sort of moves around as it goes around us. For example the Sun in the winter months sets behind my house and I saw not the sunset. This has all changed and now the Sun sets gloriously into Cape Zampa and I can watch it from my deck. I suppose this has something to do with tilting of the Earth`s axis as it hurtles through space but frankly I find this difficult to come to terms with. Anyway whatever causes it, it is great to watch the sunset from the deck. Very good one tonight.

Coo

Coo

Little boat

Little boat

Boulevard

Boulevard

This what a nuked squid looks like

This what a nuked squid looks like

 

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The Anchor of My Purest Thoughts

So last night I go fishing. I paddle out beyond the reef and drop anchor. I er fish. Meantime the weather changes for the worse and there are quite large swells generally hissing by as once again I fail to catch anything. Time to go and I pull on the anchor rope but the hook would not move.

Not going anywhere

Not going anywhere

It is tricky even dangerous trying to dislodge an anchor in highish seas. If you have the anchor rope tight as the boat rises on a swell the you risk capsizing, or burning your hands as you let the rope run through,  or losing your fingers as the rope winds itself around them and snaps taught on the rise. A passing health and safety inspector advises me to untie the anchor and come back to retrieve it. This is what I do.

I worry quite a lot about the long length of rope floating around at propeller depth and first thing this morning I am up and off. The plan is to take scuba stuff and dive down to free the anchor.

Ready to rescue.

Ready to rescue.

My first concern is finding it again and I spend quite some time paddling around where I thought I like had been. However suddenly I spy the yellow rope floating on the surface rather than wrapped around some poor fisherman`s propeller. Phew.

Anyway I give it a tug and the anchor frees immediately.

Damn thing

Damn thing

I was rather pissed by this as I had built myself up for a much more adventurous slinging of the hook.

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Language

A very charming Japanese colleague goes to Hokkaido and brings me back a present. It is a squid. She says – Neil-san i have put the cooking instructions on the packet_.

I look and this is what I see.

Nuke those squid.

Nuke those squid.

My sniggerish reaction was how cute, she got the English wrong in a cuddly Japanese  way. I mentioned this to a friend who said _ My kids always say nuke when they microwave something_.

So her, my gift giving colleague, English was way ahead of mine.

Be humble in this journey through the valley of the shadow of death.

By the way, someone poured a bottle of Awamori into my keyboard at the last party. I am now using a borrowed Japanese key board on which I find not inverted commas.

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Her Skin is Tender as Dimaggio’s Glove.

This is Golden Week in Japan. This is a string of disconnected days-off which resembles the Ryukyu archipelago. Anyway it is Monday and I don’t have to go to work. I meander. I first meander along the beach to pick up flotsam and jetsam. To my joy there are butterflies flopping around, which indicates the start of an Okinawan season that defies our normal season nomenclature. It is the when there are butterflies season.

As I roved out

As I roved out

Rear view

Rear view

Side view

Side view

Random Beach

Random Beach

She's so swishy in her satin and tat In her frock coat and bipperty-bopperty hat

She’s so swishy in her satin and tat
In her frock coat
and bipperty-bopperty hat

Later I go for a very long swim, snorkel, explore thing. There are still a lot of people around ripping food from the sea.

Old lady butchers something in  front of the house

Old lady butchers something in front of the house

I follow a Great Egret.

Long necked bottle

Long necked bottle

Bye bye

Bye bye

 

Take your protein pills  and put your helmet on

Take your protein pills
and put your helmet on

Thank you Golden Week.

 

 

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Far Out

There is an unreal quality today. I am in a state of stunnedness subsequent to last night’s fun. It is also the lowest tide in the history of the universe.

The tide is like far out

The tide is like far out

The coast line is populated by people gathering food from the sea. You may not see many in the photos but believe me that there are lots. They know.

Not Polish

Not Polish

Folks ’round here know that today is the day to browse through the pools.

Sea thing waiting for the water to come back.

Sea thing waiting for the water to come back.

Coral normally underwater

Coral normally underwater

Old lady hunts octopus

Old lady hunts octopus

Big bag of shells

Big bag of shells

Why have Barcelona lost their magnificence?

Why have Barcelona lost their magnificence?

 

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In Which Our Hero Misses the Garbage

The garbage cycle means a lot to me. Burnable garbage, which has to be in bags that have red runes on them, are picked up on Saturdays and Wednesdays. However the really important thing is that cans, glass bottles,plastic bottles and the like, are only picked up on the 2nd and 4th Saturdays of each month. If you get out of synch with this collection you are in big trouble. You have hampers of cans and empty bottles lying around your bedroom for weeks and when you finally put mountains of alcohol detritus out on the street, everyone takes you for a dipsomaniac. ” I have a lot of parties,” you mouth to disapproving Okinawan matrons in passage by the house.

Garbage in the secret garden

Garbage in the secret garden. Reminds me of pre Thatcherite Britain.

This morning was a big garbage day. It was perfectly timed as there was a party last night and I drifted through the halls of revellers safe in the knowledge that all the crap would disappear first thing in the morning. Woe I went to bed too late and by the time I awoke the garbage trucks had been and gone. Was there ever a  stronger admonition on the evils of drink?

Well, on the other hand, it was a great party.

Ireland, France, Germany, Palestine, somewhere East Europe, Okinawa

Ireland, France, Germany, Palestine, somewhere East Europe, Okinawa

The party was for Amy. She is a darling.

The party was for Amy. She is a darling.

She had the genial idea of adding dry ice to Okinawan colon cleansers. One hell of a cocktail.

She had the genial idea of adding dry ice to Okinawan colon cleansers. One hell of a cocktail.

Gigot - too big for the Cobb

Gigot – too big for the Cobb

Maybe chust a small one

Maybe chust a small one

J'aime les femmes

J’aime les femmes

Krista with Miyagi- sensei

Krista with Miyagi- sensei

Happy, happy, joy, joy

Happy, happy, joy, joy

Doggie

Doggie

Shoe fun

Shoe fun

And after April, when May follows,  And the whitethroat builds, and all the swallows!  10 Hark, where my blossom'd pear-tree in the hedge	  Leans to the field and scatters on the clover	  Blossoms and dewdrops—at the bent spray's edge—	  That 's the wise thrush; he sings each song twice over,	  Lest you should think he never could recapture	  15 The first fine careless rapture!	  And though the fields look rough with hoary dew,	  All will be gay when noontide wakes anew	  The buttercups, the little children's dower	  —Far brighter than this gaudy melon-flower!

And after April, when May follows,
And the whitethroat builds, and all the swallows! 10
Hark, where my blossom’d pear-tree in the hedge
Leans to the field and scatters on the clover
Blossoms and dewdrops—at the bent spray’s edge—
That ‘s the wise thrush; he sings each song twice over,
Lest you should think he never could recapture 15
The first fine careless rapture!
And though the fields look rough with hoary dew,
All will be gay when noontide wakes anew
The buttercups, the little children’s dower
—Far brighter than this gaudy melon-flower!

J'aime les femmes part 2

J’aime les femmes part 2

So pretty!

So pretty!

In the bath. Can't remember why.

In the bath. Can’t remember why.

Yet never did I breathe its pure serene Till I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold: Then felt I like some watcher of the skies     When a new planet swims into his ken; Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes     He stared at the Pacific—and all his men Looked at each other with a wild surmise—     Silent, upon a peak in Darien.

Yet never did I breathe its pure serene
Till I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold:
Then felt I like some watcher of the skies
When a new planet swims into his ken;
Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes
He stared at the Pacific—and all his men
Looked at each other with a wild surmise—
Silent, upon a peak in Darien.

Brugmansia fun

Brugmansia fun

J'aime les femmes 3

J’aime les femmes 3

Am I squeezing Hisashi's shoulder too hard?

Am I squeezing Hisashi’s shoulder too hard?

They ate the lamb

They ate the lamb

The first electron positron collisions took place in that steel bowl. I am not joking.

The first electron positron collisions took place in that steel bowl. I am not joking.

I missed the garbage.


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Success is not Final, Failure is not Fatal

I try very hard to get away from work early-ish these days because I want to fish for squid. The tide is high at around 6:30, the sea is calm, it is warm and sultry,

The orange circle is the sun.

The orange circle is the sun.

so what better after a day in an office and meeting rooms than to hunt the elusive squid?

Tonight there was great excitement as I actually got a bite, or maybe there is a specialist term for when a squid attacks the jig. Up to now I have wandered out from the house and cast and reeled in as in a theatre.  I am an actor strutting my time out on the stage. I have no real belief that there are actually squid out there and indeed I do not care. As I have previously stated,  the world of the imagination is usually more satisfactory than reality.  I imagine the squid are out there and I imagine that I will catch one. The fact that I never have makes no difference at all as I have imagined the moment of catchingness many times. It is very exciting.

My rod

My rod

This evening everything changed. I was reeling in, with a mind so blank that I was almost comatose when I realized that the line was resisting. Damn, caught the rocks, so I give a big jerk whereupon a squid comes catapulting out of the water, arcs into the much-have-I-travelled-in-the -realms-of-gold-sky, escapes from the barbs to plop down into the sea once more.

I am at a loss what to think.

The Brugmansia is doing very well.

The Brugmansia is doing very well. However no perfume.

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Big Data Sets

Beijing is a smoggy place. This is an excepted truth. However I have been to Beijing I think 6 times and each time it has displayed clear blue skies and sparkling prospects.

What does this mean? My experimental data on Beijing gives the result that it is a city of pure air. This underlines the importance of large data sets. I mean if the LHC had only run for a short time the lads may have been tricked into believing that the Higgs had a mass of half a pound of tupenny rice. It is very easy to get things wrong – especially about other countries when travelling.

A little learning is a dangerous thing;
drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring:
there shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,
and drinking largely sobers us again.

Hai!!

Anyway a trip to China is always a blast. I do not actually like it there much. In comparison with Japan, the folks are loud, uncouth and lack courtesy.  But, and this is a big BUT, they are full of energy, conviction, drive and common identity. I have seen the future and it works.

One day in a life.

Get up real early and catch subway across Beijing. It is rush hour and it is impossible to get on the first 3 trains as they are totally packed. The people standing around get on the train but I do not. Subway travel is a competitive sport in Beijing.

The tube

The tube

Although I am not up to the battle, the trains are clean silent and come every minute.

I am the first at the Forbidden City.

Good Morning

Good Morning

Bad smog

Bad smog

Imperial Pussy Cat

Imperial Pussy Cat

Imperial Cherry Blossom

Imperial Cherry Blossom

Thing with hole in the middle.

Thing with hole in the middle.

Get to airport, fly to Okinawa and sleep in my own bed.

 

 

 

 

 

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