The Quiet Ripple Defines The Pond

Yesterday, I finally had cataract surgery on my right eye. I chose the Shinto option with priest and musicians. It involved a lot of chanting, incantations with the accompaniment of strident sanshin and shakahachi music. This option is a little more expensive and is not covered by the health service. However traditional medicine is always the best, especially in Japan. Kind Tomomi san took me to the clinic and generally held my hand; explaining what was going on and scolding me for being a wimp.

In fact the operating theatre is super modern. The surgery itself is not much fun but thankfully pain free. There is a a microscope and ultra sound device pointed directly at your eye. The eyelids are held back, as in Clockwork Orange, to stop you blinking against the very bright light. The surgeon does stuff but I am not sure what. Then it is over.

I pass a restless night and go back to the clinic this morning. The dressings are removed and I am a little disappointed that my eyesight seems much the same, I was expecting a revelation. Maybe it will improve. I am given lots of drops and told to come back tomorrow.

Same again next week for the left eye. I might dispense with the Shinto option.

Not much in Japan I believe. However over the last couple of years things have been changing. There are frequently young Nepalis working in the fantastic Lawson konbini just next to my apartment building. They are smiling, efficient and speak excellent Japanese. They also speak English. I believe they have to study Japanese at special courses, which gives them the right to a visa. There was a chap from Sri Lanka serving there yesterday. I know of at least one British immigrant – me.

Anyway a direct result of this wave of immigrants is the opening of a Nepali restaurant just a stone’s throw from my apartment.

We go there to eat and drink Nepali stuff.

On another tack, I try to start the motor in the boat. It does not turn over but only emits a sad little click. This has happened several times before and is usually because of a jammed up starter motor. I am downhearted as it is a reasonably big job to fix. However I charge the battery and hooray she starts straight away! I am very pleased with myself – such mechanical skill.

I am asked to give my opinion on the welfare of the OIST sabani boat. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabani_boat

There is a club at the university and the members worry that the boat is leaking excessively.

I get a new Mac. This is a very long and miserable story from which I will spare you.

I get a Mac mini. Connecting a new monitor and transferring all my files from my laptop was hellish. No one’s fault really, just that nearly all instructions are in Japanese.

I also get a new trackpad.

I finally get everything working and now I can watch lots of 1960s British films on huge high definition screen.

I get a blood test to check that my red cell level has not plummeted anew.

Ichiro san kindly drives me to the ornithologist to try to fix dates for cataract surgery. My eyesight is very poor which really hampers activity.

So finally the dates are fixed – 2 September for right eye and 9 September for the left. Hooray!

I will only have to pay 8,000yen for the two operations. Hooray!

Time to change from West to East. James and I go for a farewell lunch down on the bay.

Bye bye San Francisco – thanks James for looking after me so well.

My apartment in Ginowan is immaculate with new tatami mats.

So many people have been nice to me whilst I was away. I mean they are nice to me when I am here as well but it is er nice to walk into an immaculate flat with a bunch of flowers and er nice message.

There are so many things to do. An incomplete list: everything made more difficult as my Japanese credit card has stopped working. Get computer fixed, pay pensioner’s health insurance, pay medical bills, pay for house cleaning, fix credit card problem, get a car, get eyes fixed, get my legs fixed, get iPhone reset to Japanese number and many more. I hate this stuff but it was made so much easier by the milk of human kindness of everyone I dealt with. The Okinawans will all go to heaven.

Whilst I was away the main power breaker flipped = no electricity. No electricity means the freezer does not work and huge leg of lamb rots. Luckily Arisa san was able to switch the power back on after a couple of weeks but the leg of lamb was truly rotten.

The weather is unbearable. 90 degrees heat with 90 % humidity most days. Impossible to do much.

I love AC.

I finish my infusion treatment.

I will miss my trips to hospital for blood tests and infusions.

We go for an explore in the Golden Gate Park.

I sell the terrifying Transylvanian armoire to the same guy who bought the dresser.

I get a new smaller, wardrobe from Amazon.

I feel slightly less peely-wally after the infusions. I am however fairly blind; unable to drive nor read. I will leave soon to Okinawa where they now have vending machines that will do cataract surgery.

“Wow, is that your coat sir? Fantastic fabric!” says one of the nurses as I lie on the hospital bed getting another infusion.

“You know what it is?

“Yes sir that is high quality Scottish tweed. I was an international fabric buyer before I got into nursing.”

I explained that I had bought the tweed on Islay at the The Islay Woollen Mill ; https://islaywoollenmill.co.uk over 20 years ago. They measured me up and sent the fabric away to be tailored into a jacket. It still looks brand new!

She looked at the label. ” Islay Woollen Mill, I have heard of that place!”

We had a few rounds of ‘Westering Home’ and then she got back to sticking needles into me. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fleT3hxE4Xo

I take a Waymo home after hours in the hospital but stop off at Gus’s on Haight.

I have a very late lunch in the sun outside Gus’s.

Fun day.

Hooray, my new Green Card arrives!

The Green Card is a residence permit, as several immigration officers have informed me during my 20 years of having one.

“Mr Calder, you are spending too much time outside the United States. You cannot live outside the U.S. and have a Green Card.”

I spend a lot of time in Japan and before that in France, accordingly I am paranoid that my application for a new card will be refused.

The new card is valid until June 2035. Where will I be in 2035? Probably not healthy to think too much about it. For the time being everything is hunky dory.

I change the furniture in my room.

I lash out on a very expensive leather sofa or love seat as they say around here.

I throw the old love seat out on the sidewalk. I phone 311. It is a city funded pick up old stuff service. “No problem my friend, I will send round a truck.” An hour later a truck arrives but there is a difficulty – a homeless guy is dozing on the sofa. “He has every right to chill on that love seat, man. He ain’t breaking no law.” says the truck guy. “We will come back and hope he has gone.”

My anemia treatment has entered a new phase. Steroids have been sent off for foul play. I now have infusions of stuff called Rituximab. I go for the first session yesterday. It takes 6 hours for the stuff to infuse! I have blood pressure. temperature, heart rate tested every 30 minutes.

The haematologist visits me during the infusion to give me a detailed explanation of what is happening. Good bloke.

Finally leave with a detailed dossier covering my treatment and all things infusion. I also get a free thermometer.

Amazing treatment! Thank you.

I camp for 3 days at Gold Lake. The lake is way up in the Sierras at 6,500 ft, just under the Sierra Butte mountains.

The scenery, both on the drive up there and at the lake itself, is so beautiful.

I sit by the lake, breathe mountain air and doze. I am very feeble and hikes and stuff like that are beyond my capabilities. However, I love to cook and eat outdoors. so that is what I do.

I drink a lot of tea.

I sit in the sun watching birds and listening to another book on Captain Cook. That’s about it.

A grotesque dresser thing has followed me around for the last 20 years or so. I never liked it.

I finally get around to selling it.

I have been taken off steroids, much reducing my chances in the next Olympics,

After weeks of glorious sunny weather, Summer has come to San Francisco. It is cold, windy, foggy.

I like it. It is mysterious, I hear foghorns in bed at night.

It is Tuesday, I have to pick up an octopus.

I then cross the road for breakfast at the Pork Store.

The Legion of Honor art gallery was donated by France for some reason. I go there. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legion_of_Honor_(museum)

It is a fabulous place. I am always astounded and grateful that you can just wander in and spend hours with outstanding art worth millions and millions. A privilege.

I am about to post this blog entry when my phone rings. It is the specialist haematologist whom I saw last Friday. He tells me that my red blood cell count is much improved but on the other hand my white blood cell count is now crazy high. He wants me to go for ‘blood work.’ This means a blood test in U.S. talk.

I jump in a Waymo to Mark Zuckerberg hospital and 20 mins later I am having a blood test. No waiting.

I’m astonished that the consultant haematologist phones me personally and indeed says he will phone me again once he gets the results. What treatment! This is all free State healthcare.

Thank you State of California.