The Quiet Ripple Defines The Pond

Last night I watched  a movie called “The Angels’ Share,” which is the story of a bunch of Glaswegian rapscallions brought to self-awareness through interaction with the world of expensive whisky. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1924394/

During a whisky tasting scene, some ponce drones on about a whisky named Glenfarclas. I remember that the first bottle of malt whisky I ever bought was a Glenfarclas. It was in St Andrews in 1970. http://www.glenfarclas.co.uk/. I muse:

Flow gently, Glenfarclas amang thy green braes,
Flow gently, I’ll sing thee a song in thy praise;
My Mary’s asleep by thy murmuring stream,
Flow gently,Glenfarclas, disturb not her dream.

It’s no frae Islay but it’s whisky just the same.

Anyway, today I had lunch with my good friend Hideo Yamasaki. He is Vice-President of the University of the Ryukyus and a good bloke. He brings with him a gift from the President, the much esteemed Iwamasa sensei. It is a bottle of 1980 Glenfarclas!

An untypically unsmiling Hideo holding the object

Iwamasa sensei is a great connoisseur of malt whisky. He has given me the two best bottles I have ever consumed. https://quietripple.wordpress.com/2011/06/18/the-best-day-of-my-life/

Anyway, isn’t life great!

Thank you Iwamasa sensei

I think it is something about being British that makes me enjoy disdain. We revel in it. Best computer, football team, ski resort, band, brand of jeans, political party,whatever; I know the best and have disdain for those who think differently. One-upmanship is in our genetic make-up.

Thus I revel in reading about hurricanes in other parts of the world. I come home tonight to find that the top news story on the BBC web space is this.

Kid’s stuff

Category two!! Here in Okinawa we don’t even empty our noses on category two typhoons, but it is the top news story on the world’s most visited media site. Why is this? What does it say about the medias’ balanced coverage? Can’t be bothered to work out an answer.

So, that is the perfect transition into my Hibisci.

Second Hibiscus

Third Hibiscus

My sister Rosie, who is very learned in the ways of plants, suggested I get a Brugmansia, which is a flowering tree that smells nice in the evening, for the huerto sellado.

“Sure, sure!” says I, imaging the communication impasse as I try to explain Brugmansia in  Japanese.

“Just show them  a picture on your Iphone.” sagely states the sister.

I show the garden place lady this.

” Hai!! Wakarimashitanokitatanakagusuku.” she asserts and takes me to a table with loads of Brugmansia. I buy three because they are very cheap.

A bit peely-wally at the moment but I will show you more next Spring.

Thanks Rosy.

Today, I set off for the reef behind Tigh na Mara. It is a pretty good swim from the house across the lagoon to the deep water.

You can see the waves breaking on the reef behind these folks.

However the lagoon is only about 4 metres deep and so there is no trepidation. Although not big-fish-whoa-what-is-that snorkeling, there is lots to see. The water is still warm and I am out for 2 hours.

Little blue fish

Big weirdo starfish. It is about 12 inches across

I finally make it to the reef. The drop-off goes down about 60 ft and there is this feeling that nobody ever comes out here. This is difficult to quantify but at the popular dive spots you just know that lots of people have been there. Not at reefo del Tigh na Mara.

There is lots of damage to the coral from the recent mega typhoons. There are big fish and best of all,  a cuddly turtle who comes by with Okinawan courtesy to say “Konicihwa.” There are large Remora attached to its shell. I hope they get on with one another. Anyway I was unable to photograph this glory as my camera knew that it would be a great shot and so went on strike.

On the swim back I pick up some snapped-off coral and some shells.

Loot – the coral smells obnoxious

This really is a great place to live.

Tigh Na Mara comes with a sealed garden. It is actually a fully enclosed courtyard open to the skies. I intend to turn it into a home for fallen Hibisci. I see the poor things hanging around in garden shops willing to sell themselves to the first comer for a measly 480 yen. I will rescue them and give them a good home.

The huerto sellado had  a shrine in it when I looked around the house.

Religious period

It then filled up with all kinds of junk during the move. Anything that we did not know where to put, er, we put in the huerto sellado.

Today I cleaned it out. The biggest challenge was the exercise machine, which you may remember from previous post. https://quietripple.wordpress.com/2011/02/23/industrial-revolution/

Anyway,  you could increase or decrease the resistance with a toggle button connected to complex electronics. These failed such that you could only increase the resistance and so in testing, I incrementally made it more difficult to use. So I decided to chuck it. I should add that I was also too idle to use it.

It is a big, heavy piece of kit. I was very anxious about how I would move it out of the huerto sellado onto the roadside. I dismantled it as much as I could but it still seemed unfeasible. Friends pass by. They offer to help. I tell them the very complex plan I have worked out but one of them says”Why don’t we try this?” Wherupon he lifts up the machine, carries it out of the huerto sellado and dumps it on the roadside.

This was an unpleasant demonstration that I posses a plentiful lack of wit, together with most weak hams.

The guy at the back whose name is Skye did the lifting.

Anyway, I hosed, brushed and re-organized.

Aerial view

I then moved in my fallen women. I love Hibisci. They are very space age. I intend to fill the courtyard with many, many Hibisci plants. I think they will do well as they are protected from the wind, which is the main plant killer in Okinawa.

Big Red and the start of my home for fallen Hibisci

My first Hibiscus

I am very excited by this project as I have not mentioned that you look into the huerto sellado from the kitchen and one of its sides is entirely glass, making the huerto serrado part of the interior.  So, once crammed with Hibisci it will be, er, nice.

I have one of these in Tigh na Mara. It is amazing!

Induction cooking uses induction heating to directly heat a cooking vessel, as opposed to using heat transfer from electrical coils or burning gas as with a traditional cooking stove. For nearly all models of induction cooktop, a cooking vessel must be made of a ferromagnetic metal, or placed on an interface disk which enables non-induction cookware to be used on induction cooking surfaces.

In an induction cooker, a coil of copper wire is placed underneath the cooking pot. An alternating electric current flows through the coil, which produces an oscillating magnetic field. This field induces an electric currentin the pot. Current flowing in the metal pot produces resistive heating which heats the food. While the current is large, it is produced by a low voltage.

An induction cooker is faster and more energy-efficient than a traditional electric cooking surface. It allows instant control of cooking energy similar to gas burners. Other cooking methods use flames or red-hot heating elements; induction heating only heats the pot. Because the surface of the cook top is only heated from contact with the vessel, the possibility of burn injury is significantly less than with other methods. The induction effect does not heat the air around the vessel, resulting in further energy efficiencies. Cooling air is blown through the electronics but emerges only a little warmer than ambient temperature.

Works just fine with old Le Creuset, which is more or less the only thing I cook in. I refer to the pot not the clothing.

Have not worked out the pane on the left but I think it is timer. The kettle is for extremely fast kettle boiling. It switches itself off as soon as the kettle boils. Hai!!

I have always been very suspicious of electric cookers but this thing is wild. Very fast to very high heat, turndownable to the slightest fremissement on soups, not hot to the touch, very clean, er, sweet and kind. Brand new, of course.

No oven, but my brother Ian has a very admirable clay oven. One of which I am thinking of building.

You will remember about this time last year I posted about a film that two French people made for the university. Maybe not – so here is the link.

https://quietripple.wordpress.com/2011/09/01/french-cinema/

Well, they came back to make an update. All filmed on Canon er cameras and edited on a creaky Macbook. The whole project only took a few days, no fuss, no tantrums, just fast, good filming. I like working with these guys so here is an outrageous plug. If you need a movie, hire them, areactionfilms@gmail.com.

Here is the movie:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAlwPcUCqVE&feature=player_detailpage

People I work with, in the back yard

A Grey Heron in Kyoto

My friend Satoru sent this to me.

I am a world famous photographer from Kochi, Japan. : )
This from the A・La・Uno S, which is the make of my toilet see previous post, catalog and translated by Google translation, the center and middle button with some subtle; 

A・La・Uno S has buttocks cleaning function (common to all types)

1. buttocks wash (wash bubble)
Firmly, gently washed in water that is strength.

2. Move cleaning buttocks
Nozzle moves back and forth, I washed a wide range.

3. Soft cleaning
In soft water, it can be used when feeling hemorrhoids and diarrhea.

4. Washing massage
Repeat the dynamics, we encourage defecation.

My new house, which here on in will be called Tigh na Mara, which is Gaelic for House by The Sea so my learned correspondents state, is full of really cool electronic 21st Century schizoid equipment. Let’s have a look at my toilet. Its shape is non-remarkable and its color is white, however it is distinguished by not having a flush handle, a chain, a pedal and anything to make water comes scooting in to evacuate the er waste. It is very smooth, rounded and has no obvious water tank. There is a tiny green light glowing on its  top.

Crapper

I am your obedient servant

The seat is heated, which I find soppy after a youth of freezing toilet seats and a societal structure  constructed around the core concept that once you became a Prefect you could order a younger boy to warm up your toilet seat for you.

There is a control panel on the wall.

I have a 2 day relationship with this thing and now understand it better.  At first I just stabbed the control panel and hoped.

15 buttons

I now have 4 buttons completely under control and 11 to discover. The top two are the flush buttons – one short, one long. The centre and right buttons in the middle row spray water at your fundament with some subtle difference that I have not yet figured out. It is such fun. However I am still a beginner and I know that there is a wide spectrum of finesse of pleasure ahead of me.

So that’s it. I now live in the best house in the visible universe. It is called “The House by the Sea.” I would like to have a Gaelic name but Google translate doesn’t do Gaelic. Must be “Tir na something.” If there are any Gaelic speakers out there – er you know.

Typhoon resistant and it has a palm tree

It is brand new and packed with gizmos as only the Japanese could think up. I will do a series of blogs on the aforementioned. The essential quality is its proximity to the East China Sea, which nearly comes into the front room.

It has huge door window things so that when open you are living outside when you are inside.

I spend the weekend unpacking. This I enjoy, fitting old stuff into new setting.

Unpack

I have been sleeping on the floor with a futon and  a tatami mat between  me and the cold, cold ground for the last 2 years. This I have very much enjoyed. However, due to size of bedrooms, proximity to bathroom, heaving beds upstairs and other pragmatics, I will now try sleeping in a bed.

Could be worse – nice view

I take a break from the set up and stroll along my backyard.

The backyard

I pick up  shells.

Local Hero

I could stumble along beaches picking up shells for the rest of my life. How can I go back to work?

Ladies wear them.

Shucks

Jeepers

Oh flip

Gosh

Golly gee

They asked, not me!

Holy Moley!

 

When I asked if I could take their picture, not one replied, “Beat it, you fat perve.”

They all grinned and said “Sure, life is great and we are beautiful.” er in Japanese.