Thursday, 17 March 2011

Made In Japan




Up until now, I haven’t posted anything about the appalling situation in Japan. I’ve felt that anything I wrote would sound clichéd and totally inadequate, given the unprecedented scale of devastation and human suffering.

It is now almost one week on from the powerful earthquake that triggered a massively destructive tsunami, and had even more frightening consequences - damage to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. Turn on the TV news or open your internet news sites and you will immediately be bombarded with horrifying images of the very real dangers and terrible conditions in Japan today.

I am not going to repeat any of that here.

Instead, I would like to pay homage to the people of Japan and to remember just a few of the many wonderful things that they have given the world. Some of these things impact heavily on my daily life....


Aikido
Japan has given us several martial arts... judo, jujutsu, karate to name a few. But it’s Aikido (often translated as “the Way of unifying [with] life energy" or as "the Way of harmonious spirit”) to which I devote 3 hours a week. I’m still a long way off even vaguely knowing the basic moves...put it this way, Steven Segal has got nothing to worry about just yet... but I’m probably fitter (if fatter) and more flexible than I’ve been since my early 20s.

Nat In Action



Digital cameras
I am a complete photo junkie and my compact Canon is possibly one of my most prized possessions... it goes wherever I go and just about every photo that I’ve uploaded to this blog has been taken by it.



Sushi
I’ve been a huge fan of Teppanyaki Barbecue since I first tried it at a fantastic Japanese restaurant in Flagstaff, the evening before I set eyes on the Grand Canyon. But more recently, I’ve become interested in sushi and had a go at making some....well, supervised B's efforts in any event.








Sushi for two


The list goes on and on... androids, the landmine-clearing robot, magnetic steel, the microprocessor, the pocket calculator, Walkman, CD players, DVDs, HDTV, the camcorder, Japanese cars, nuclear medicine, cultured pearls, origami, Zen Gardens, karaoke...OK, maybe best to just keep quiet about that last one!


It’s easy to see that the highly innovative and creative Japanese people have enriched our modern lives in so many ways.

In return, I would like to send some positive thoughts to the people of Japan today. Maybe, just maybe, it will give them the strength to pick up the pieces of their shattered lives.

At the very least, I hope that they will somehow know that the rest of the world has not forgotten them....


You may also wish to light a candle for Japan HERE

Wednesday, 16 March 2011

Every Dog Has His Day

Pricey Pooch photo found here

A red Tibetan Mastiff puppy has become the world's most expensive dog after being sold for the equivalent of almost £1 million... to an obscenely wealthy coal baron from the north of China. The pup's new owner reckons he'll recoup his investment in just a couple of years, as he'll be hiring the mastiff out for stud duties.

"Hong Dong" (Big Splash) will certainly want for nothing.

 
But I do wonder if he'll be as happy as these slightly more ordinary hounds....







Happy hounds snapped on the Isle of Wight, October 2010

Monday, 14 March 2011

Notes From Nat

Dear Traveller Insurance Broker

I have just one thing to say to you:

Hahahahahahahahahaahahahahahahahahaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrr!

I warned you in my letter last year that I would not give up the fight until you handed over the cash you owe me after my trip to Amsterdam got cancelled...thanks to that blasted Icelandic volcano and its clingy little ash cloud. It’s taken almost a year of stroppy letters (and an intervention from the Financial Ombudsman), but now you’re finally going to have to cough up. Sure you’ll choke on every pound...

Volcanic ash cloud pic from here


.....................



Dear Census 2011 Questionnaire Writers

You guys probably know what you're doing by now..... after all, Britain has carried out a Census every decade since 1801 (except for 1941 during WWII).... but isn't the last response on Question 19 a bit redundant? Presumably, if you can read the answer box which says "Not at all", you should not tick it?


 I’m just saying....

.....................



Dear Overly Friendly, Strange Cat

You know I love cats... well, apart from those little f*ckers that keep crapping in my flower beds! And yes, you are ever so cute and friendly, coming over to keep me company whilst I'm trying to restore some semblance of order to that Weed Fest masquerading as my garden. The problem is, it's just a tad difficult to make any progress with the weed clearing with you squirming your way around my legs, rubbing up against my back, lolling and rolling on top of the weeds and trying to catch my hand every time I get a grip on one of the little suckers. And all this whilst purring loudly and appreciatively the whole time. Might I suggest you invest in one of those rope covered scratching posts for your personal entertainment, so that I can get some flippin' work done!



Yours truly
Nat


Thursday, 10 March 2011

It's All About Nat

A few weeks back… when I’d fallen off the blogosphere for a while… the lovely, talented Colette over at Simply Colette gave me not one but two blog awards.

Apologies for the long delay in keeping up my side of the bargain, Colette, but as the old saying goes “Better late than never!” (except perhaps in the case of Charlie Sheen’s comeback, which is better never than….)

So, first up is....



Here are the rules...
1. Link the person who awarded you! Check.
2. Post seven random facts about yourself. OK, I’m pretty random in general, so see below…
3. Pass this award along to 15 other bloggers (only if you wish)! I'm going to copy Colette on this one and award both to the same bloggers....so check out the list below award number 2!


7 Random Facts About Nat

1. I have a ridiculous memory… I can remember minute details like exactly what I was doing, what I wore and what I ate on Day X, and I have very clear memories from my early childhood. When it comes to books and films, though, I can watch or read them ten times over and they seem new each time.
2. I’ve met Lewis Hamilton (2008 Formula One World Champion) – at his book signing in 2007….he was very friendly and chatty, and seemed like a genuinely nice guy.




3. If I could live anywhere in the world, I’d like to live near the ocean, and walk on the beach at sunrise and sunset every day.
4. I was so painfully shy as a child that I refused point blank to talk to anyone for the first few months of school. My teacher warned my parents that I would never get far academically.




5. Somehow, I managed to graduate from university with my PhD in Pharmacology…some people think that means I know a lot about farming. Actually, I know very little about a few drugs (not the recreational ones!).
6. My favourite colour is red…. cherry, burgundy, crimson, amaranth (ha! new one!)...all shades just as long as it's red.
7. I’ve mentioned many times my arachnophobia (plus a great dislike of anything else that crawls, flaps and buzzes) and my morbid fear of flying. But I also have a slightly irrational fear of birds flying in front of the car when I’m driving… I worry they will go splat! across the windshield, and I can’t stop myself ducking behind the steering wheel every time one flies in front of me.



.........................................................

And secondly...



What the Award entails:
"Pass on the award to 8-12 fabulous blogs who take your breath away with how they inspire you! Post on your page who you are giving the award to, so others can visit them as well. Make sure to let them know you are honouring them! If you are a recipient of the award, please take the time to answer these questions, so we can get to know more about you!"

1. What inspires you?
To write? A piece of music, an evocative scent, a newspaper headline, a shaft of sunlight breaking through the trees as I walk through the forest…. anything can trigger a memory or provide inspiration. It can hit when I’m least expecting it.

2. What is your favourite season and why?
It’s definitely spring... this is the sunniest season in the UK and although not yet very warm, it does not have the awful humidity of summer. I love the snowdrops, crocuses and daffodils in bloom, followed by the carpets of bluebells, the cherry blossom and the budding trees. The promise of new life, the lambs on the farms….the expectation of a long hot summer that sadly never seems to materialise.

3. What are you most looking forward to this year?
Getting back to normal life after a couple of years of constant worry, the chance to travel and spend time with family and friends living far away.

4. If you could write a book about anything, what would you write about?
I’d like to write a travel comedy…but I need to travel a lot more before then, and become funny (as in funny ha ha, not funny peculiar!)

5. What is your greatest passion?
Travelling and capturing my travels in photographs… I wish I could spend more of my life doing so, but sadly there are bills to pay.

6. If you could change one thing about your life or yourself what would it be and why?
Greater self-confidence. In so many ways, I am still that painfully shy child inside a grown-up’s body.

7. Lastly, what is your favourite novel?
As I mentioned earlier, I have almost zero capacity for retaining information about most of the books that I read. One novel that has stuck in my mind though is “A Thousand Splendid Suns” by Khaled Hosseini… this book really moved me and will probably haunt me forever.

OK, that's more than enough about me. Now I’d like to pass this award onto the following inspiring bloggers….


I’d also like to pass the award onto some photography and travel bloggers that I admire greatly... they may not want to take part in a personal writing post, but I still want them to get the recognition they deserve...


By the bye, I've been taking part in the Free Photo Competition hosted monthly by Joan at The Retirement Chronicles.... you should really have a look at all the entries for January and February.



Tuesday, 8 March 2011

Pancakes For Supper!

To celebrate Shrove Tuesday, we had savoury pancakes for supper... given my rather shoddy culinary skills and half-arsed excuse of a stove, I worried the evening may end in tears, house fires, divorce and some hungry bellies, but it was a surprisingly successful cookathon!

I made curried mince filling (you can use lamb or beef) but you could try any other savoury filling, like cheese, tuna, cajun chicken, whatever takes your fancy.

I cheated a little, using a batter mix from a well known British supermarket... just have to add one egg and 250 mL water.

















Best served with Mrs Balls' chutney... one of South Africa's greatest exports, luckily easily available in most British supermarkets.

Are you having pancakes today?

Monday, 7 March 2011

Mind Your Head!

This past weekend, I was up in Yorkshire, and had the chance to visit the White Scar Cave, part of a network of caves under Ingleborough hill in the Chapel-le-Dale valley of the Yorkshire Dales National Park.

Discovered in August, 1923 by two amateur geologists, Christopher Long and J.H. Churchill, White Scar Cave is the longest show cave in Britain. Visitors to the caves walk through an artificially enlarged fissure to meet a natural stream passage - containing underground waterfalls, stalactites, stalagmites, flowstones and other natural limestone formations.

Underground waterfall

Copper deposits

Limestone formations





The curious cave formations include the Devil's Tongue....



The Witch's Fingers.....


The Squeeze.... the narrowest part of the cave...


Not to mention this....er... rather phallic symbol....



The tour culminates in the impressive Battlefield Cavern, which is a huge boulder-strewn cavern that was formed by glacial flood waters during the last Ice Age, and is decorated with thousands of straw stalactites. Battlefield Cavern is one of the largest known caverns in Britain with a length of over 330 feet (100 metres) and a roof soaring in places to 100 feet (30 metres).

Unfortunately, photography is no longer permitted in the Battlefield Cavern, so I don’t have any of my own photographs to show, but here is someone else’s...

Photo of Battlefield Cavern from here

We were kitted out in flattering (not!) red hardhats... a very necessary accessory I discovered, as I must have hit my head at least 20 times on the low sections of the cave... places where it became necessary to explore Evolution In Reverse (walking like a gorilla!).
 
The low roof was not such a problem for this little visitor...


 
Hope you all had interesting weekends!

Tuesday, 1 March 2011

My Family And Other Animals

Whilst going through some of my dad's things recently, I came across some vintage photographs of several family members, including my grandparents. I find them fascinating as they are of a generation that has now passed. Yet they remain forever captured in these photographs, these people who are a large part of my ancestry....

My paternal grandmother, Mary Eileen (left) and her sister,
circa 1919. I didn't inherit her blonde, curly hair but apparently I have her thumbs...I'll never really know as she died from cancer aged 56 before I was born.

My maternal grandmother, Anna Dorothy, circa 1922. She looks so sweet and innocent here, but my gran had a wicked side...she once told me that as a little girl she would stick pins through the end of her shoes and kick a little boy she hated (he the adopted son of her favourite aunt).

Anna and her father (my great-grandfather), circa 1929. He passed away when my gran was only 14, and, as the eldest child, she had to leave school and start work to help support a large family.

Two Likely Lads... my maternal grandfather, Cornelius (left) and one of his brothers. Both joined the South African Army at the outbreak of WWII. My grandfather (an engineer) never left the shores of South Africa but my great-uncle was sent to Egypt, where he claimed to have single-handedly defeated Rommel's Afrika Korps.

Another photo of my grandfather, with my mom as a little girl, circa 1942. My grandfather was quite a character... always the joker, and sadly a bit of an alcoholic. He lost his leg in a hunting accident when I was very small, and never really recovered. He died when I was 9 years old, and my gran came to live with us until she passed away in 1999, aged 80.

I don't have any early photos of my paternal grandfather, George (right) - this one is taken with my dad (left) on my brother's Christening Day, 1970. I only saw my grandfather a handful of times, as by the time I was born, he had emigrated to Australia and remarried. He lived there until his death aged 92 in 2003.

Both sets of grandparents on my brother's Christening Day, 1970


Do you know much about your grandparents or even your great grandparents?