The Quiet Ripple Defines The Pond

Bonnie

Posted on April 30, 2012 by spikekalashnikov

Bonnie was a very brave and faithful little dog who had a tragic end to her life.

Adventure dog

She is buried in a beautiful place, which I visited on my recent trip to France.

Just behind the Mont St Victoire

View from Bonnie's resting place

God bless you Bonnie.

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The Shortest Night

Posted on April 30, 2012 by spikekalashnikov

I remember a film called The Longest Day about the D Day landings. I recently experienced the The Shortest Night with landings in Paris, Osaka and Naha.

I first fly from Lyon to Paris across the Kodachrome yellow of French rape fields. I do not remember rape being a crop as a boy. I wonder when it became popular?

Aldous Huxley

“What are you in for?”

“Sure, I got 2 weeks for stealing potatoes.” says the hapless Irishman.

“Well, I got life for rape.”

” Holy Mother of God, you must have eaten the whole field.”

Paris to Osaka flying East. I look out of the window.

Somewhere over the Baltic

Northern Russia

Very soon the sun goes down.

I love flying

I watch Easy Rider. which fits perfectly with timeless, spaceless nature of traveling East in a daze.

Get your motor running
Head on down the runway

Then, in about as much time as it takes to cross from LA to New Orleans in the movie, the sun appears to have whipped around the world and is making itself known over the horizon.

In russet mantle clad

Faith is the bird that feels the light when the dawn is still dark.

I suppose the fact that we are whizzing eastward at high speed and the sun is whizzing westward at even higher speed , like beams in a collider, results in the shortness of the night. However, I find it tiring to think about these things.

Nihon!

I go to the toilet in Osaka.

What a nice place

I sleep from Osaka to Okinawa.

How would you know that this is Okinawa?

I cannot understand people who moan about long distance flights. They are awesome.

awe·some

[aw-suhm] Show IPA

adjective

inspiring awe: an awesome sight.

awe

noun

an overwhelming feeling of reverence, admiration, fear,etc., produced by that which is grand, sublime, extremely powerful, or the like:

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Far brighter than this gaudy melon-flower!

Posted on April 26, 2012 by spikekalashnikov

Oh, to be in England
Now that April ‘s there,
And whoever wakes in England
Sees, some morning, unaware,
That the lowest boughs and the brushwood sheaf
Round the elm-tree bole are in tiny leaf,
While the chaffinch sings on the orchard bough
In England—now!

And after April, when May follows,
And the whitethroat builds, and all the swallows!
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
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!

I am in England and it is April-windy, cold, blustery, rainy. I stay with my brother in London and my sister in Sussex and went to see my mummy in an old folks home.

I am very well looked after – thanks family!

Age has its compensations. Thanks Barry

Sticky Toffee Pudding and Margaux

My mummy does not like the gift I brought

Where my sister lives

That 's the wise thrush; he sings each song twice over,
Lest you should think he never could recapture
The first fine careless rapture!

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St Dude Arthaud

Posted on April 26, 2012 by spikekalashnikov

So I spend a perfect Sunday in the home of the McGillivrays. They have a chateau called Sothonod. The mighty St Dude Arthaud was born here in 1101.

Built a long time ago

St Dude Arthaud

He was born in this room, so they say.

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthaud_de_Belley

It is a wonderful house packed with curios.

Killer Whale

The kitchen

We eat like Saints. We are beatified by booze.

The Feast of St Arthaud

Go crazy with the Cheez Whiz

We go for a walk.

A constitutional

Zandra is a potter or er a ceramicist check out her web site: http://zandrascreations.com/ genial

Suddenly it is supper time.

Madame Butterfly

My postilion has been struck by lightning

Thank you McGillivrays

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Such Pain

Posted on April 25, 2012 by spikekalashnikov

During the conference I stayed at a fancy hotel. For some reason I thought that we did not get breakfast with the room and as the breakfast cost 1,00000,000, Euros I did not partake but grabbed a croissant on the way to the meetings. Checking out, I notice that there was room and breakfast on my bill. The clerk assured me that breakfast was included. I had thus missed six days of free breakfast. Such pain.

Groaning table

Full of good stuff

This is not the first time. Traveling by boat from Marseille to Oran a long time ago, I spent my last pennies on a cabin class ticket and had nothing left for food. I did not eat for 2.5 days but watched the people in the dining hall shovel down everything delicious and slurp fine wines.

As we entered port I asked one of the attendants how much the meals cost. He looked confused and said they were included with cabin class tickets. Such pain.

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Porn and Bagpipes

Posted on April 20, 2012 by spikekalashnikov

I am at a big web conference and a colleague mentions that at an upcoming conference in San Francisco the dinner will be held in the San Francisco Armory, which is now famous as a porn movie studio. The entertainment will be provided by the Regimental Pipe Band of the Black Watch.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_Armory

Porn and Bagpipes – what a great night out.

I have developed an intense dislike for email. It clogs up the day, kills creativity, breeds discourtesy and cowardice. You will have to take my word for this as I cannot be bothered to explain.

One manifestation of the evil of email is the modern conference. People fly in from all over the world at great expense go to the sessions, open their laptops and do mail. At this event Tim Berners Lee spoke, everyone did mail. Neelie Kroes spoke, everyone did email.

You doing mail?

I just have to finish this mail.

This morning Bernard Stiegler, French philosopher who was banged up for armed robbery, spoke, everyone did email. In this last case even the session Chair who was up on stage was doing mail.

I have an alibi

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Stiegler

The front row of the conference. "It's so much better doing mail here than in my office."

I have just left a committee meeting at which we heard presentations from candidate cities for the 2015 conference. 80% of the committee members had their laptops open and were doing mail throughout, only meters away from the presenters.

I find this discourteous. “Manners maketh man,” my Father would say as he took another pull on the bottle.

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I Take It Back part 2

Posted on April 17, 2012 by spikekalashnikov

As those of you who know me will testify, it only takes a couple of minutes of conversation before I start ranting about how awful France is. Well, I take it back, again.

https://quietripple.wordpress.com/2011/07/22/i-take-it-back-well-some-of-it/

I am in France and it is great. Fantastic weather, blossom, everything works, little Citroen that I would like to keep, I sell the house, fix bank stuff, fix tax stuff, generally get a lot done, meet old friends, eat eurofood and just look at stuff.

France is a wonderful place to visit.

Uses no gas

I hope I have grand daughters

Sunday Lunch

Aix

en Provence

Rians at 7:00 am

Partridge or Perdrix - never saw one in the 2 years I lived there!

Quelle classe!

Thanks Amelie!

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Pay Back Time

Posted on April 17, 2012 by spikekalashnikov

I am in the train station in Lyon, lots of people milling around awaiting the TGV that will take them to Aix en Provence or Marseille. There is a very good, if a little complex, system whereby your carriage number corresponds with a letter of the alphabet posted on the platform. In this way you know where your carriage will stop and thus you can find your seat with ease.

Not Osaka

I spy an elderly Japanese couple. They must be in the late 60s or early 70s. They are very small and wearing long Japanese rain coats. They are distressed. I approach and say, “Ohio gosaymasu.” They nearly fall over. They return my greeting with big smiles. I cannot speak enough Japanese to say “Can I help you?”

This I must learn.

However a couple of minutes later the old gentleman comes over to me and shows me his travel document which shows that they are in seat 52 and 53 in carriage 3 which corresponds to the letter U on the platform. He cannot make any sense of this.

I can understand numbers and so I say Hai!! Hai!! as he explains and am able to lead them to the place on the platform where they should wait. Lots of “Hai so desu.” I say I live in Okinawa and they are thrilled. They say they live in Osaka and we grin. We then bow and go through many, “Aregato gosaymashitas.”

Mystery Train

I am so pleased to have been able to help this couple so as to pay back, in a small way, the multitude of occasions that I have been on the receiving end of courtesy and kindness in Japan.

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Come Fly With Me

Posted on April 17, 2012 by spikekalashnikov

I really love long flights. Yesterday I went Osaka – Amsterdam. It took 12 hours, too short. I wish these flights would never end. You are in a completely strange environment in which no one knows who you are, what you do, what you think. With a bit of luck no one will speak to you throughout the whole trip other than flight personnel bringing you food and drink. There is no time, as you drift between time zones. There is no place, as where you are now is very different compared to where you were 15 minutes ago. Where are you anyway? You are somewhere in a silver capsule miles high over Siberia travelling at hundreds of miles an hour – how strange is that?

Wish I had thought about my IPhone when we were over Siberia. This is Holland

With any luck you have a window seat and it is a clear day. You can look down on the world and realize how much of it there is. Yesterday we flew over Northern Russia for 9 hours. It was crystal clear throughout and I saw almost no signs of humanity just snowy wastes and forests that went on and on and on and on, then ice flows, then pack ice, then snowy wastes and forests that went on and on and on and on. I love it. Does earth have anything to show more fair?

I was lucky enough to be flying Business, which means lying around in great comfort like an elephant seal, occasionally opening my mouth so extremely caring people can place delicacies and fine wines into it.

I read “Into the Silence” by David Wade, I doze, I look out of the window.

Spot the tulips. Pointilliste IPhone

Come fly with me, let’s fly let’s fly away
If you can use some exotic booze
There’s a bar in far bombay
Come fly with me, let’s fly let’s fly away

Come fly with me, let’s float down to peru
In lama land, there’s a one man band
And he’ll toot his flute for you
Come fly with me, let’s take off in the blue

Once I get you up there,
Where the air is rarefied
We’ll just glide
Starry eyed
Once I get you up there
I’ll be holding you so near
You may heat the angels cheer – just because we’re together

Weatherwise it’s such a lovely day
Just say the words, and we’ll beat the birds
Down to acapulco bay
It’s perfect, for a flying honeymoon – they say
Come fly with me, let’s fly let’s fly away

Once I get you up there,
Where the air is rarefied
We’ll just glide
Starry eyed
Once I get you up there
I’ll be holding you so near
You may hear all the angels cheer – just because we’re together

Weatherwise it’s such a kooky day
You just say the words, and I’ll beat the birds
Down to acapulco bay
It’s perfect, for a flying honeymoon – they say
Come fly with me
Let’s fly let’s fly
Pack up let’s fly away

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Okinawa City looks oh so pretty. Get there straight on Route 58

Posted on April 11, 2012 by spikekalashnikov

Oh God said to Abraham, “Kill me a son”
Abe says, “Man, you must be puttin’ me on”
God say, “No.” Abe say, “What ?”
God say, “You can do what you want Abe, but
The next time you see me comin’ you better run”
Well Abe says, “Where do you want this killin’ made ?”
God says. “Out on Highway 58”.

Route 58 is a north/south axis of Okinawa. I spend a lot of time on it. It is slow going – many lights, 60 kph speed limit. It is bounded on both side by amazing structures, Pachinko palaces, boxing gyms, every kind of store.

Well if you ever plan to motor west
Just take my way that's the highway that's the best
Get there straight on Route 58

I will write several things about Route 58. This one beams in on American colonial relics.

Cruising up Route 58 with your arm around your best girl, who is cuddling up on the bench seat of your pink Cadillac convertible, you can’t help but notice archaeology.