The Quiet Ripple Defines The Pond

Today is St Patrick’s Day. He killed an entire country’s snake population. They take him very seriously in the U.S.

It is an amazing Californian morning.

I go down Palo Alto to see Melinda. Her baby is due today so I go to the Florist on Fell and ask for a Babyshock Bouquet. The flower lady tries to steal my phone and then puts together the weirdest collection of succulents, cactii and thorns that I have ever seen.

“This bouquet is guaranteed to precipitate labor” she affirms.

Melinda!

Melinda is a total star but the bouquet does not do the trick as we sit in the warm sunshine drinking coffee and reminiscing.

O’Flaherty’s, San Jose. Scene of many, memorable, musical, moments.

I join The Crooked Road Céilí Band , friends from old, for 4 hours of non-stop music.

More drink, more reels!

The place is packed with people wearing outlandish costume getting sh*t-faced on a Thursday afternoon. Banjo, Fiddle, Hammer Dulcimer, Flute, Guitar.

San Jose!

Another outstanding day!

James and I rent a truck for a day from Getaround www.getaround.com

You just go to the app and search for cool  truck and it shows you where the nearest one is. It kept coming up with 1701 Fell. We took this to be an error as we live at that address. Finally we went outside and there was a big shiny F 150.

Truck dwarfs house

So we fill her up with all kinds of boating stuff and let that easy old V8 haul us South to Moss Landing.

Is there anything more pleasing than an outboard in the bed of a big truck?

Moss Landing is a sort of old peoples home for sailing boats. The boats very rarely get out and few people come to visit them. The whole place is over-run with Sea Lions and Sea Otters and exotic birds. If you have a boat you can get insanely close to them. We have a boat and a truck to put it in.

Pumped

So, as usual I have left my U.S. bird field guide in Okinawa so my identification is going to be shamefully vague.

Gull, I think Californian, eats dead fish.

Old lady surrounded by layabouts

The engine starts!

Sean Connery’s first job was a sailor

Lonesome Sea Lion

We potter around hoping the engine will not conk out. There is strong breeze and inflatables are impossible to row against any kind of wind.

Brown Pelicans

Are you looking at me or chewing a brick?

Brent Goose

Can’t remember but probably Curlew

Pterodactyl

Common Merganser ? – actually probably Red Breasted Merganser

Horned grebe

Amazing day!

Jet lag has its advantages. On Saturday I am wide awake at 4:00 am thus in plenty of time to get to the famous Kezar Sports Bar in time for the kick off at 7:00am. Scotland play France. I like it that this bar is humming so early in the morning.

The Sots, I mean Scots, are in white.

What joy to watch Scotland beat the French while eating a Full Irish Breakfast. Scotland have now won two matches in a row.

Two matches in a row,two eggs over-easy, two rashers of bacon, two sausages, two black pudding, two white pudding, tomato, toast, hash browns, and  as much coffee as you can drink. No miso soup.

It is a very good start to the day. It is pouring with rain so we go for a walk. We exult in the compost heap in the Golden Gate Park.

Mountains of wood chippings

Bison bombed

Billy the Bison

We go to Land’s End because the ocean is wild.

Bonnie carries James through a lake.

This Little Egret followed me all the way from Okinawa.

Handsome James

We go home and tune up the outboard for tomorrow’s adventure.

The motor runs

We then went out for burgers and beer. Great day.

As I get off the plane at Kansai, there is a charming Japanese lady waiting for me. She guides me through the airport, facilitates the border control procedures, leads into a special security control corridor and thence to the super-duper lounge. She of course sees through me as a pretend VIP instantly.

I’m looking through you

I have had a lot of this kind of thing recently.

Very clean

Gran Sasso is a famous physics lab in Italy that generates external funding with booze

Diligent readers will remember that I was in Tokyo on Thursday. I travelled with my er supervisor. He has all kinds of VIP status, why he knows not. Anyway, I parasite off this and sit in VVIP lounges at airports. These are a bit like luxury jail cells: no windows and they don’t like you to move away from the exercise yard. He also gets very swish limos.

Beyond er supervisor influence, the reason that I am so well treated at airports is due to a falling out with United. After years of super incredible status, they demoted me to zero status without warning. This caused  a deeply embarrassing incident at Haneda. I try to check in through the business line and am turned away. I go red faced and bluster that my Platinum status affords me that privilege. They gaze at me with the ” you sad f*ck” look in their eyes and say, “Economy check in is that way, er, sir.” The whole airport is laughing at me as I trail over to the 500 person line.

Anyway, through my usual incredible luck, I run into an United high priest a few months ago to whom I express my displeasure. He fixes everything and adds VIP reception when I fly United.

Why am I telling you this? Because for the next few days I will be  in San Francisco, sleeping in a sleeping bag on an inflatable mattress on the floor of one of my sons’ bedrooms.

The contrast pleases me.

Burgers!

I go to Tokyo for a thing, which is actually a reasonably big deal. The trip is stamped with terror.

Early morning Tokyo. Little do I know.

The day starts well.

We are driven in great state to the place wherein the action will take place. My biggest responsibility is to buy Jonathan a sandwich for lunch. I venture out into the wild streets of Ginza to find a sandwich shop. At first it is euphoric, whoa Tokyo, whoa!

Japan loves Eddie Jones.

Yay!  I find a sandwich shop.

There are a couple of sandwiches and a chunk of chocky cake in the bag. Each sandwich is beautifully wrapped, the cake is boxed and beribboned.

Smug in that I have carried out my heavy task, I head back to the place. This is where the terror starts. I cannot remember exactly how I got to where I am. I set off into the high building maze of Ginza. I have no idea where I am going, every huge street looks the same. Am I heading towards the place or diametrically away from it? I am illiterate and can read none of the many maps that are posted. Well actually, I can read “You are here.” but, you know, what is the use of knowing where you are if you don’t know where you are going, er, dude?

I feel true terror. Months of work and preparation, thousands or millions of whatever currency, guests from all over, and I am stumbling, with Jonathan’s sandwich, along identical streets with millions of other lost people.

Anyway, I make it.

So, the thing is in a huge auditorium on the 12th floor of an 459 floor or something building.

I listen attentively until I feel the floor shake.  I immediately envisage 100,000,000 tons of concrete dropping down on my head as I in turn drop down at the same velocity, waiting for the inevitable squish as we hit the deck. What will it feel like? Will it hurt?

The little quakes go on.

I sweat.

The thing goes on from 1:30 to 6:00. Throughout I am in a state of primal dread.

Tokyo, you are too hard-core for me.

Anyway, I survive and fly back to find that the Spring “Marine Quarterly” has arrived.

Hooray! I can relax reading about shipwreck.

Soothing

How do I love Okinawa? Let me count the ways.

Today is very soft. It is gently warm and wet. There is a post party drowsiness. I look at the orchids on the deck.

This is an orchid

About 2 weeks ago when I was pimping the mighty HiJet, I backed her up without paying sufficient attention, whereby the half open door caught on a tree and was nearly twisted off its hinges. The result of this stupidity is that the driver’s-side door no longer closes.

I take the truckette to the gas station across the road and mime, ” Is there anything you can do about this? I fully understand if it turns out to be a futile exercise.” Yasushi san  says, “I will totally give it my best shot.”

I go back about an hour later and there is a gang of guys with rods, poles and perches levering the door back into position. Remember this is Sunday lunchtime.

I go back half an hour later and the truckette is fixed. The door swishes to closed with elegant clunk of a Rolls Royce. They charge 540 yen.

Notice how smart the HiJet looks post pimp. Notice the straightness of the door.

Okinawan induced bliss.

My friend Mark, who is from Texas has the most remarkable cooking thing. It is huge, power is by butane and thorium and can cook a leg of lamb in  two shakes of a lamb’s tail.

He lends it to me for the Ciao Ciao Letizia party

Designed for roasting Armadillos

The thorium gives it that extra jolt.

Letizia is leaving, a great pity. Letizia apparently means religiously induced bliss, which is pretty much the effect she has had on us all. Her family name is Diamante, again most apt.

Joy Diamond

She loves Scottish country dancing. We have live music, two fiddles and flute, many nationalities, stripping the willow on a dark night in Okinawa.

Letizia organizes the set. Italy, Mexico,China, Bulgaria,Iran. Scottish dancing in Okinawa. OIST throws up the strangest combinations.

Matsuda sensei, the world’s greatest ceramicist at the party, loves Highland dancing.

So does Letizia

Mixed menu

No caption needed

Geckos love to strip the willow

I have a wooden chest. Not a wooden heart.

Elvis Presley has a wooden heart. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hlbu6SsjlSE

The bread oven

Inside the bread oven. Very old.

I found my chest deep in the cellars of the house as what I had in France. The house had previously been the town bread shop. The box had a specific purpose. They chucked the dough into it and let it rise. There is a name for this kind of chest in French but I have forgotten it.

Anyway, with great difficulty I extracted it from the cave

La cave. The tiled bit at the end used to be a reservoir for wine.

and spent weeks removing the many coats of paint as what had been applied thereupon.

The house in France. Very old.

Chest in Provence

Chest in San Francisco

Chest in Okinawa

I have neglected my chest. Today I applied teak oil and wax to make her happy.

It is oak and hundreds of years old

I like cleaning things.

Yep, that’s it; after weeks of dreary weather the Spring has arrived. Okinawa throbs.

I go to buy some petunias.

Cherry blossom

I buy lots of bedding plants to make my house look pretty. Each one is 45 yen.

Petunias, marigolds,nasturtiums, busy lizzies. Yay!

There is a big ceramics market going on.

A bucket of Shisas

Ceramic buttons

I wander into the Farmer’s Market to get some vegetables. Vegetables are still very seasonal on Okinawa. You eat what is like, er, you know, ready.

Lots of really good vegetables

Leek type things are totally in season. I love leeks. Butter, cream.

Get the boat out!

On the deck.

I plant out all my annuals. Fingers crossed. “In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt.”

The Scaffie moans

Plumeria, probably take 10 years to flower.

I am trying to grow coriander or cilantro for US folks

For the unlearned amongst you, the Juushichigen is a 17 string Koto.

One of the most enjoyable things I get to do is to guide the cultural program at the university. We do a lot of exhibitions and concerts and stuff.

Today there was a concert of Koto and Shakuhachi music. This is solidly Japanese and one wonders if it will be kinda reflective and strix, strigis F – the screech owl-ish.

Far from it, it is rock and roll-ish. Driving rhythm, amazing energy.

Dust my broom

All the musicians are under 25 and incredible. I have rarely enjoyed myself so much.

Smoke on the Water

Just let me hear some of that Juushicigen music
Any old way you choose it
It’s got a back beat, you can’t lose it
Any old time you use it
It’s gotta be Juushicigen music
If you wanna dance with me
If you wanna dance with me

I’ve got no kick against modern jazz
Unless they try to play it too darn fast
And lose the beauty of the melody
Until they sound just like a symphony

That’s why I go for that that Juushicigen music
Any old way you choose it
It’s got a back beat, you can’t lose it
Any old time you use it
It’s gotta be Juushicigen music
If you wanna dance with me
If you wanna dance with me

Brown Sugar

Back in the USSR

You Can’t Always Get What You Want

Groupie