The Quiet Ripple Defines The Pond

Which is, of course, Japanese for ‘hot.’

I am back in Okinawa and go through the well trod procedures for establishment.

First comes a car. I do not own a car but rent from the genial Kiyuna san.

Straight down to the boat.

I had intended to mess around with boat a bit but the incredible heat and humility drive me off. It is impossibly hotto.

Next to Ginowan City Hall to get my new Health Insurance card. I am dealt with immediately by the laudable Momo san. She tells me that Ginowan City will give me money! Apparently if I spend more than 8,000 yen a year on medical expenses then the surplus will be reimbursed. They give me 14,000 yen. Not a huge sum but enough for some bottles of Champagne. All for the privilege of using the wonderful Japanese health service.

So straight to my favorite clinic . Nagasaki sensei sees me immediately and there is lots of blood test, urine test, lung X-ray stuff.

Next day I go back to get the results. I am OK.

Not sure why, but one of the first things I do is order a whole lamb from Tokyo. I also order a small freezer in which to store it. I blunder as the lamb arrives immediately but the freezer will take a couple more days to be delivered. Where do you store 18 kilos of lamb?

Anyway all of this is inconsequential compared to the letter I received a couple of weeks ago from the Californian tax authority. It said they were examining my tax history and would I fill in a complex form. This is a damoclesian sword that has been hanging over me for the last decade. I pay no tax as I have very small income income in the States. This seems wrong to me as I have tons of money and surely should pay tax.

As the admirable Amber, https://www.facebook.com/aFavoritePhotography/ told me:

You don’t tug on Superman’s cape
You don’t spit into the wind
You don’t pull the mask off the old Lone Ranger
And you don’t mess around with the IRS

I fill in the form and expect a reckoning whereby I have to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for unpaid tax and penalties.

What a relief!

What a feeling of calm and security to be back in Okinawa after my recent travels. In the U.K. nothing seems to work. In California the health care system sucks big time. In Okinawa, everything works and is accompanied with glorious smiles.

During the photo workshop in Canada, the experts make kind reflections on the suitability of my Nikon 200-500 lens. “Great. lens,” they say ” but so heavy and a bit slow auto focus.” Both Mark, https://msmithphotos.com and Marvin, https://marvinesmithphotography.com/galleries, suggest I get a Nikon 500 PF. Amber and Sue suggest I get a handgun.

Let’s spend some money!

It arrives on Thursday.

So many great adventures to come.

James and I set off in search of new hot springs, of which James is a connoisseur. It is incredibly hot! Not the humid sweaty heat of Okinawa but dry hammer to top of head heat.

We spend the night at Cowboy Camp. https://www.google.com/maps/place/Cowboy+Camp/@38.9987927,-122.3559844,304m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m6!3m5!1s0x80848000ed030277:0xb090e02803fb5b7e!8m2!3d38.9985188!4d-122.3545365!16s%2Fg%2F11c20c6h_l?entry=ttu

No success with hot springs. Those we had targeted were all behind locked gates. Boo!

This is a difficult one to write as so much amazing stuff happened in the last few days that it would take a book to do it all justice. This is just a skirmish of what took place.

I go on a bird photography course in British Columbia led by legendary Mark Smith. Mark is a star. https://msmithphotos.com/index.php/2022/09/17/insane-bald-eagle-feeding-frenzy/. He has 1.7 million followers on You Tube!

We stay at the wonderful Nanook Lodge https://www.nanooklodge.com/?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAAR1dyfyebN5riM0gn5cj9-olwSNz4ZrL0-gWCbvn-WrB0w9gm64pYFNg8m8_aem_ZmFrZWR1bW15MTZieXRlcw Go there!

The other participants are professional or semi professional wildlife photo graphers. Their equipment is amazing. Their knowledge is vast. My equipment is stone-age in comparison. I had thought it was pretty cool! They are very sweet to me and I learn so much.

We fly up to the lodge from Seattle in a float plane.

The water in front of the lodge is very tidal. At this time of year lots of fish called Hake, but not the Hake that I know, arrive. They are bottom feeders but when the tidal race belts through they are catapulted to the surface which kills the poor things. Dozens and dozens of Bald Eagles are waiting.

They swoop down and grab the fish in their ghastly talons. Incredible scenes!

The cameras have very high shutter release speeds. They sound like machine guns. The dialogue in the boat is like the inside of a B-17 being attacked by German fighter planes.

” Coming in high at 9 o clock! Take,taka,taka,taka, taka. Two more low at 11 o clock! Take,taka,taka,taka, taka. Did you get them? I dunno. Watch out! Coming in high. Take,taka,taka,taka, taka.” It is so exciting!

We see tons of wildlife other than eagles.

Anyway, you get the idea. I had the most fantastic time and learnt so much about photography, especially fast moving bird shots.

Some links to some buddies on the course.

https://www.patfordphotos.com

https://marvinesmithphotography.com/galleries

https://www.facebook.com/aFavoritePhotography/

Apologies to Christine, Lilliana, Sue and the other Mark. I have lost their contacts.

Amber, one of the amazing photographers; /aFavoritePhotohttps://www.afavoritephotography.com/about-the-artist says, ” Neil, this asshole criticised me so I said, ” Listen you prick, I will drive down to Fort Myers and I will shoot you in the f*cking foot if you speak to me like that again.” She is from the South, she is the best woman. Why didn’t I meet women like her when I was 25?

Massive thanks to Mark and all the folks at Nanook Lodge. Unforgettable experience!

My favourite song until I was about 20 was “Teddy Bears’ Picnic” in fact it might still be my favourite song. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZANKFxrcKU

I am driving up a high, lonely road in Lassen State Park when I notice movement in the trees. “Antelope at last!” I think. Nope not antelope but bears!

What an experience! Lucky me, alone with bears in high mountains of California. Nunc dimittis etc.

I am still on the look out for hot springs.

Probably too hot.

Anyway I am now back in San Francisco. What a trip! What a country! What a truck!

I sit in Okinawa and dream of spending a week at the Sheldon Antelope Wildlife reserve. The idea is to set up camp under shady trees beside small lake and take photos of the thousands of antelope that will pass by. It does not really work out like that.

I gently make my way North stopping at wonderful campsites and playing with camping toys.

I finally make it to the Antelope reserve in the wildest part of Nevada. To my surprise they have removed Antelope from the name.

It is the most godforsaken place. Hundreds of square miles of very badlands- no trees, no water, no animals, no birds, especially no antelope.

I drive all day across a very broken track and see nothing. I do feel that there is something wrong and check the turnbuckles that attach the camper to the truck. Sure enough the hooks on the two rear turnbuckles have opened up and they have fallen off. Luckily I am able to bash the hooks closed again with a 2 pound lump hammer and after an hour’s labour in 100 degree heat, I am able to get going again.

My aim is to drive across the reserve and end up in a camp site that apparently has a tree and water. After 4 hours the trail ends up at a ruined cabin that is surrounded by water. There is no sign of any trail heading towards the campsite. There is however finally some wildlife around the water.

I despair of finding the trail to the campsite and highly dis-spirited return the way I came across the bad bad lands. Incidentally I see no human throughout. After 8 hours of hammering across terrible terrain I end up at the camp. Well done truck.

It is getting dark as I set up. The camp is a flat, volcanic rock parking lot with views of desolation for miles in every direction.. No trees, various encampments of travelling people on the extreme end of the weird spectrum. Lots of flags, lots of dogs. Not what I had imagined in Okinawa – no antelope.

Next day everything changes for the better of course. I meet up with other residents who are all charming. They call me Sir until I ask them to call me Neil. They then call me Mr Neil. Such interesting people. ” I was in Stuttgart in 1960 with the military. What a mess, the whole city had been bombed to shit. People were still living in the ruins. We don’t really understand war here in the U.S.” He and his wife, both in their eighties, were gently trundling around the country in their RV.

There is a large hot spring at the end of the site in which I soak for most of the day and chew the fat with American nomads.

Someone has built a shack and joined the water from the hot spring to two showers that run 24/7.

Not really what I had planned but so much fun.

Congratulations to James! After a very thorough recruitment process; written exams on plant names, behaviour, etc and two face to face interviews, James has been offered a job at the SF Recreation and Parks https://sfrecpark.org. More than 200 applied for 6 jobs and James is one of the chosen few!

I am not surprised. He is very smart, has great judgement and works hard. I would definitely employ him!

These City Hall jobs are very sought after. They offer fantastic benefits; health coverage, pension, free milk etc together with vast salary.

He will probably start on the toilets. There is an assessment after a year and if he performs well, he gets a brush. My personal prediction is that he will be made a manager rapidly and soon will be Governor of California.

Hooray for James!!

A reminder that this blog is a personal diary and contains little of interest to anyone but me. I love it because it keeps a brief written and visual record of what I did. Without it I would forget. This a much shortened account of trip to Scotland to see Puffins, family and old friends.

I set off for the U.K. on 16 May. The trip starts pretty much as it is to go on. It is defined by my stupidity and incompetence. I leave my phone in San Francisco! This makes the next 3 weeks extremely difficult.

I stay briefly with Brother Ian and Sister in Law Ann who treat me royally.

My face swells up and I have a lot of pain. I know these symptoms well. Ian magically gets me a dentist appointment immediately. She says, ” Horrible rot, immediate extraction of molar.” I can’t face it, I chicken out; I am tired, jet lagged and have a complex journey ahead. My last molar extraction was gruesome, leaving me felling unwell for days. “Please just give me lots of antibiotics and painkillers to stabilise it.” She gives me a look of complete disdain but does as I ask.

I take a sleeper from London to Glasgow. The little cabin was perfect but I feel the entire line from Euston to Glasgow Central needs replacing. We rattled, swayed, juddered and shook all night resulting in no sleep.

I visit old St Andrews friends, Will and Barbara. It is wonderful to see them again.

Off I go to Mull, which is the principal destination of the trip as I yearn to see Puffins. The weather is beautiful and so is Mull in the Spring.

I take a boat out to the Treshnish Island to see Puffins. The weather is outstanding. You can see for miles and miles. Puffins are everywhere! Everyone should do this trip.

Fantastic trip! Shout out for ‘Turus Magna’, the outfit who runs the boat trips. https://www.turusmara.com

I visit learned the Alasdair Satchell https://thequietripple.com/2013/07/27/i-see-mull/ in his beautiful home near Dervaig. Alasdair produces a book that records all the ancient sites of Kintyre. It is a book that was much beloved by my Father and I spent many hours with it in my youth. He sells me a copy.

Things go wrong as I am unable to get a ferry from Mull to Oban. Apparently you should book weeks in advance. They need more boats as the uncertainty of not being able to reach the mainland makes the islanders lives very difficult. I have to shorten my intended stay on Mull so as to find a place on a ferry.

Every cloud has a tweed lining and I head South to Kintyre to weep on my parents’ grave.

I have the worst breakfast ever in Tarbert. I think everything had been cooked well in advance and then warmed up, even the egg. It was horribly dry and tasteless.

However it was a memorable event as I was too weak to unscrew the top of my little jar of marmalade. The slim, 15 year old waitress takes it from me and opens it with a negligent twist of the wrist.

” That’s amazing, you must be so strong!”

“Aye” says she, “I’ve had ma porridge.”

Train from Glasgow across the country to bonnie Montrose to stay with the wonderful, beautiful Zandra and her family. Such fun!

Disgustingly, my body has broken out in a disfiguring, very ichty, rash caused apparently by large doses of antibiotics. I scrape at it with bits of broken flower pot and it eventually goes away.

Train down to Dunbar to stay with Alison. She has organised a trip for me to the Isle of May https://www.nature.scot/enjoying-outdoors/visit-our-nature-reserves/isle-may-national-nature-reserve

Alison has much influence in Dunbar and gets me a place on a boat even though you usually have to book weeks, nay months in advance. Shout out to ,https://www.bluewild.co.uk lovely people.

Alison drives me into Edinburgh, where I stay with George and Jenny. I am so pleased that we all get on so well and take joy in each other’s company even after 50 years.

I fly down to London. Edinburgh Airport is a nightmare at 06:00. So many people, so few staff. I thought I was going to cry during boarding. People trying to force huge cases into overhead lockers, people shouting at each other, atmosphere of belligerence and competition. This is not Japan.

What a relief to arrive at the exquisite oasis of Sister Rosy and Brother in Law Barry’s beautiful house.

Rosy organizes a big family durbar in a Windsor restaurant. People I rarely get to see, all getting older some looking bigger, stronger, more beautiful; others smaller, weaker, less beautiful! Perfect weather, great food, great fun!

Back to Central London where Ian has magically booked another dentist appointment.

HERE IS A TRIGGER WARNING . HORRIBLE IMAGE OF EXTRACTED TOOTH. SCROLL PAST QUICKLY IF YOU DON’T LIKE THIS KIND OF THING.

The dentist eases my rotted tooth from my diseased jaw in shake of a lamb’s tail. I should of gone through with the extraction as soon as I arrived in London but was in the wrong mood.

Ian, Ann and I immediately rush to the National Portrait Gallery to look at photos by Julia Margaret Cameron https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julia_Margaret_Cameron. Fantastic stuff. Here we meet with old Okinawa pal Tim and have lunch at The Portrait restaurant, which is on the top floor of the gallery.

This is a fabulous restaurant https://theportraitrestaurant.com. Go there. We have a wonderful time.

Train to Milton Keynes to stay with eldest Brother Alan. Were he Catholic, Alan would already have been canonised. He is the kindest person.

Very old friend Roger https://thequietripple.com/2017/10/10/from-an-antique-land/ asks us for lunch at Balliol College. We eat in the Senior Common Room where I bump into another old buddy, Brian Foster.

I am now waiting for a plane back to San Francisco. What a trip.

John Anderson my jo, John,
When we were first acquent;
Your locks were like the raven,
Your bony brow was brent;
But now your brow is beld, John,
Your locks are like the snaw;
But blessings on your frosty pow,
John Anderson my Jo.

Robert Burns

Great pleasure from sitting down and chewing the fat with old friends. I have known Bebo for over 30 years and Jonathan for over 20. We have been through a lot of stuff together.

The restaurant we had planned to grace turned out to be closed. We wander aimlessly around the Sunset and end up in a nondescript Chinese restaurant that turns out to be a big success.

Anyway the food is great and we have the best time.

A couple of days later, I am with Jonathan and Renee in Bistro Vida in Menlo Park. https://www.bistrovida.com We have a perfect lunch and much reminiscing.

Unfortunately I back into another car whilst leaving the parking lot.

My birthday looms and delightful housemate Eileen makes me Cock a Leekie soup in celebration.

Burns also wrote about Cock a Leekie:

How mony hearts this day converts 
O' sinners and o' lasses! 
Their hearts o' stane, gin night, are gane 
As saft as ony flesh is: 
There's some are fou o' love divine; 
There's some are fou o' brandy; 
An' mony jobs that day begin, 
May end in Cock a Leekie 
Some ither day.

I get another health insurance card. I am now a fully signed up member of the San Francisco Health Network, which I believe means free health care. Yay! Thank you San Francisco.

At OIST I learnt about the symbiotic relationship between coral and algae. Neither organism can survive without the healthy presence of the other. I feel much more research should be done on the symbiotic relationship between man and his truck.

Arriving in San Francisco, I became sick. In sympathy my truck set up an accident that caused significant damage.

When I finally get the truck into a shop for repair, I start to feel much better.

I make an excursion to Point Reyes.

Emboldened by my trip to Point Reyes, I set off for a two day birdwatching adventure to the Sacramento and Colusa Wildlife Reserves. Wonderful weather, tons of birds but I forget to take my camera!

I am still remarkably feeble and my eye problem is clearly not fully fixed but the truck is in great health so I expect imminent recovery.

How amazing is that! Congratulations James, thank you for being such a good son.

We celebrate: champagne and tiramisu, handmade by new house mate Elaine!

We go to San Francisco’s oldest restaurant, or one of them. https://theoldclamhouse.com Fantastic sea food!

Anyway, great restaurant! It has been at the same location since 1861; inconceivably ancient in these parts.

We travel by Waymo, driverless cab, this is incredible!

I am still recovering from the whooping cough. I no longer whoop nor cough up swampland but do feel remarkably weakened. I have also lost 15 kilos since I got to California. This makes me look less Michelin but I think adds to febrility. However, I am on the mend and will soon resume training for the Paris Olympics.

I spend a lot of time watching birds through my open window. They have become very tame.

Peter Higgs goes to it. Much of my career at CERN was spent with my pen hovering over the,”CERN Discovers Higgs Boson.” press release. Not to be. I never met him, he was a very private chap. The whole world’s science media badgered me incessantly, wanting to speak to him. I finally got to talk to Higgs with collusion from Edinburgh University. He had no phone nor email.

“Professor Higgs, would you like to talk to the press about your work?

Oh, I don’t think that would be a good idea. Thank you for telephoning Mr Calder. Goodbye.”

RIP Peter Higgs