The Quiet Ripple Defines The Pond

Traditionally I arrive in San Francisco to find the Range Rover needs fixing. This time it is overheating and I know from previous experience where the problem lies. There is a remote gasket in a water circuit that apparently keeps the fuel injection set-up heated to the right temperature, which discreetly blows. Water gently leaks out until there is not enough whereupon the big V8 overheats very quickly, blowing the head gaskets and warping the head and your truck is Fubar. As Ben, James and I are driving to Mexico, it is probably a good idea to get it fixed.

It is Boxing Day, who is going to fix obscure Range Rover problem? I phone Oscar who runs a small shop in Redwood City.

“That you Neil? Long time man, Happy Xmas, dude – sure no problem bring her in.”

Later, having examined the car.

“How long? Sorry it’ll take me at least 2 hours. Here take my Costco card you can stock up on everything while I am fixing the truck.”

” Yep all fixed – how much? Just give me $50.”

Viva Oscar!

Thanks Oscar. Now we go to Mexico.

I saw 3 ships come sailing in

I wake up and it is Xmas day in Okinawa.  It is blue, blue and warm. I take coffee on the roof and then stroll along the beaches. I pick up the night’s deposit of plastic bottles and muse on why the Son of God did not send Seagulls to Okinawa. There are none; a few rare Terns but no Gulls nor Kittiwakes, Guillemots, Fulmars, Gannets, Murres, Loons, Shearwaters. There is tons of food.

This leads me to wonder who scavenges the beaches. Normally there are gulls gobbling down dead stuff but not here.  In fact there is not much dead stuff on the beaches, although there was a puffer fish this morning. Maybe it never makes it to the beaches, having been devoured by all the fish and crabs. Ah crabs – maybe that is the answer. There are a lot of crabs of both normal-ish and hermit kinds.

Anyway I go to the university to do last minutes chores. Xmas day is a normal working day here.  A friend then drives me to the airport. En route she asks if I have got my Green Card. Hmm I have left it in my desk drawer. This means detour to the house and general delay resulting in my usual heart churning “Am I going to miss the flight?” scenario. I don’t but nearly do.

Xmas at Naha airport

Xmas Fuji

Welcome to Narita. You have to love the Japanese!

So now I am in Narita waiting for the flight to San Francisco. It is 5:00 pm on Xmas day and I have not had a drink! I think I must have been about 10 the last time this happened. I will try not to repeat this during my second birth of sweet baby Jesus day tomorrow.

Hand drawn, handwritten, Happy Blue Christmas card!

They stop me as I go through the gate. UPGRADE!  I used to have reasonable status on United but lost it when I moved to France. I then moved up the ladder with Air France but hit the snake when I moved to Japan. In the last two years I have been in the doldrums, I suppose gently building status with ANA but I do not have an ANA mileage status card nor do I receive info about miles and stuff.  UPGRADE! Total surprise, I must be on a list. Thank you Son of God – best Xmas present for some time.  I am writing this on the plane, which is a brand new Boeing 777. I am going to spend the next 9 hours, why so short? being indulged by hostess Uchabe-san who is clearly determined that I have a memorable trip. Yay- fly ANA!

Tidings of great joy

San Francisco!

So tomorrow is Xmas day and if all goes according to plan I will get a double shot of Xmas. I get up in Okinawa, take a plane at lunchtime-ish and arrive in SF at 9:30 am  on Xmas day – before I left. Date line devotion.

Today is a public holiday on account of it being the Emperor’s birthday. I go for a ramble.

It’s pineapple time on Okinawa

How many of these vegetables do you recognize?

j

In Scotland, Seagulls follow the plough. Here it is Egrets

Marsh Sandpiper

Little Ringed Plover

Cattle Egret

Whoa, Shelduck!

A Pale Faced Buzzard and a Grey Heron chilling. How cool is that?!!

A Pale Thrush – Winter visitor

This is a Pacific Reef Egret – grey morph.
Okinawa is irresistible.

I look up and there is an Osprey

I do not know if this is a vegetable or whether it is grown for aesthetics

Happy Christmas everyone – tomorrow to San Francisco!

So here is Farewell To Erin played by the Bothy Band in, I think, 1978.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aWl_qdUK1o

08 Farewell To Erin

The music never really got better than this.

So today is election day here in Japan. The election campaign has been going on for some weeks but I know little about it. In my youth I took it as an imperative to know what was going on politically in the country in which I was living. Now I do not care. A certain seen- it- all- before has crept into my political attitude. I think I have become jaded by constant minute by minute updates on everything. Comments on these updates  are followed by comments on the comments.  It is all too much. I understand that the LDP will probably win relegating the DPJ to opposition. I can’t get anyone to tell me what the issues are other than improving the economy.

Shorter hours and better pay!

The campaign has been very quiet. I say this but of course I never watch TV nor read Japanese newspapers nor listen to the radio. Maybe there has been a stream of insult and invective of which I am happily unaware. There are posters of candidates and occasionally a loudspeaker-rigged car cruises by, in which someone is saying something.

Deep ideological differences between Big-Enders and Little-Enders even led the countries into war against each other.

I can’t vote anyway. In fact, because of my nomadic life, I have only voted once  – in France for some kind of regional election thing.

Today is another extraordinary day and rather than vote, I live out a fantasy. I paddle – I have bought a new one – the kayak, loaded with scuba stuff, out to the reef. I moor the boat, get into the gear and go remote diving. I then heave the BCD with tank, then myself, back on the kayak and paddle home for a nice cup of tea.

Light out for the Territory

A family of Clown fish living in what I think is the decay of a sea snake.

I must try to get into the Christmas spirit.

Good adventure.

I have become much attached to the beaches in front of my house. They are childlike and unable to look after themselves. They get dirty and need their knees wiping and they never wash behind their ears. I get special bags from the Onna village office and from now on I am on a crusade. No clutter will crowd my beaches.

Vade retro satana

I wander along the series of beaches that make up my back yard picking up detritus. They are much blasted by the typhoons and I feel a need to make them happy by removing trash.

14. I believe in the official documents of the United States of America-the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution with its Bill of Rights and Amendments-that they were Divinely inspired and that they take their places with the Old and New Testaments of the Holy Bible as instruments of the synonymous teachings of Democracy, Brotherhood, Americanism, Christianity and True Judaism.

The majority of stuff is expanded polystyrene fish boxes as what have been broken up by the waves. There are also a lot of plastic bottles.  Get off my lawn!

This morning’s crop

I meet an old guy, he must be in his 70s, who goes out fishing every Saturday morning. He just swims out and comes back 4 hours later with his catch. He is my hero.

My role model

The weather is astonishing. Beautifully sunny and warm and Tigh na Mara is the only place to be. I head out early on the kayak. I go way beyond the reef and tie up to a buoy, which I could not understand why it was there. I put on my snorkel stuff, slosh into the sea  and off I go exploring.

What is wrong with this photo?

The water is very clear and full of interest. I find out why there is a buoy, cos there is some kind of coral experiment going on down there.

Science stuff

Nice fish

I finally clamber back onto the kayak and after a while realize that there is something not quite right – the paddle has gone.

I look at my fins for a while

I must have knocked it off when I first sploshed in. Oh dear.

Nothing for it but to swim back in dragging the kayak behind me. This turns out to be a good adventure as I see all kinds of good snorkeling spots as I wend my way home. I get home and it is only 10:15 – so many more adventures to be had.

I buy a Nikon D90 on Ebay for $350 and then go diving to test out the BCD and regulator that I bought a couple of weeks ago. They work.

Never seen one of these before

I look at my fins for a while

Tears of a Clown Fish

Thousands of long spiky sort of fish

This is the middle of December.

I get up early as it is a very lovely morning. I take my coffee on the roof.

The Way to New Energy
Thanks Sabina

I look down into my walled garden.

Look how everything has grown. This is December

I then go for a stroll along the beaches in front of the house. It is the best morning; crystal clear, warm, calm sea.

One of my beaches

Two pairs of Osprey are screeching overhead and fishing in the lagoon in front of me. The sea is very blue.

These birds are very rare in Scotland

I go to work feeling pretty good.

View from deck at 8:00

I hated maths at school. I think this was because of truly awful teachers, the lack of romance and the accepted premise that it was difficult. I regret this now as some of my best friends are good at maths and clearly gain spiritual strength thereby.

Strong juju

Of sines, cosines and house signs, I understand only the latter.

From the extraordinary Okinawa Boot Sales I find Jennette who make signs from bits of wood and shells. I commission her to make a sign for my house that says Tigh na Mara.

http://okinawa.bookoo.com/item31148743.html?itemId=31148743&src=SEARCH&ref=wood%20burning

Today after several false starts I pick up the sign. Jennette is a military wife or maybe she is a Marine and she exudes goodness. She charges me $5.  I tell her she is nuts, but she is too good.

Jennette with baby girl

I take it home and hang it on my door. Now people will know the name of my house.

Not the First House in Connaught

13 Humours of Ennistymon_The First House in Connaught

Thanks Jennette.

My little car, a Nissan March, has served me extremely well for nigh on 2 years. It is incredibly reliable, surprisingly capacious and has a pleasing hue of pig’s liver.

Fried pig’s liver with sage.
Notice typhoon damage to usually lush vegetation

Dismay upon raising my eyes when opening the hatchback to find that rust is corrupting.

Damn moths

It is a cold, blustery Sunday and perfect for little jobs such as slowing down car decay. OK the temperature is 18 degrees but believe me it feels cold. It must be the wind chill.

Parky

I go to the hardware store and mime sanding and applying primer to vaguely bemused shop guy. The Japanese for primer is primer. You never actually know if what you walk out with is actually what you want.

The emory paper looks good but who knows what is in the can.

Marceau would have been proud of me

Won’t work

The rust will abide – like the dude. But decay is cool and  ecological. Happens to us all.

HAMLET

To what base uses we may return, Horatio. Why may not imagination trace the noble dust of Alexander till he find it stopping a bunghole?

HORATIO

An intro;

I grew a mustache in November in order not to go down with testicular nor prostate cancer. It seems to have worked but I did not enjoy the process. It itched, tickled and made me look like a bad-tempered, retired Major. Phew, December is here and I shaved it off instantly.

Clean the toilet

I also became unable to walk. Any pressure on my left heel caused pain. No external signs of putrefaction. I go to a clinic whereupon very smart doctor cries “Spicula!” It is perhaps his only word in English.

It appears that I have a rose-thorn-like thing-spiculum- growing out of my heel bone. This is messing with the tendons causing the pain.

The Achilles Heel of the Americas was the lack of cultural confidence typical of new settlers.

No treatment apparently; just walk on tippy toes and it will calm down