Where Did I Put My Beachball?

Great Lines From Great Books #3

Reading Brighton Rock by Graham Greene on the beach seems more than a little appropriate. Many of Greene's novels had moral, political and religious themes to them; and Brighton Rock was one of what the literary critics call his Catholic novels.

This is Ida on religion, or maybe on beer. The interpretation is open: "At one with the One, it didn't mean a thing beside a glass of Guinness on a sunny day."

Amen.

Sea Lion Baiting

I now have so many photos of people being stupid around seals and seal lions that I've created a separate folder on my computer for them. Living in Dunedin, we're surrounded by wild land and coastline. Just a couple of miles from here, the Otago Peninsula sticks out into the Pacific Ocean like a long green finger of land. And this is where the wild things are.

The first time we saw a sea lion, we were completely shocked. "Look," we said to each other, "a sea lion!" The naivete: we thought it was a mistake. Or an escapee from the zoo. It's sad really but seals, sea lions, penguins and dolphins are something that city folk like us see in a zoo, not on a nice Sunday morning drive to the beach.

But seals and sea lions are not cuddly and cute. Some of them are the size of a car: huge-shouldered, solidly encased in blubber, and covered in scars, like ugly red raised welts. These beasts look like they could easily swallow a child. They are, simply, disgusting. Despite this, Emeline and I have seen, on numerous occasions, people trying to get as close as possible to these aggressive car-sized beasts with flippers that sit, alert and ready to attack, on the beach. Here are some photos of some recent idiots. Just click on them for a closer look. And so now I photograph these people, safe in the knowledge that one day, maybe in a year, or a month, or maybe even this weekend, I'll see an old person get just a little too close, push the envelope just a little too far, and get within lunging distance of a huge bull sea lion that weighs more than a thousand pounds and feels very strongly about its personal space.

I know that time will come. It really will happen.

And I'm waiting.

Playing With my New Camera

This guy was learning Esperanto in the cafe where we had lunch. So I took a photo of him,. I thought it looked cool. Is he alone because he's learning Esperanto, or is he learning Esperanto because he's alone? Existentialism.

A pregnant woman yesterday.

Exploding Ginger Beer

Here's some video of me opening one of my bottles of ginger beer a couple of days ago. For anyone who has ever accused me of lacking foresight, please note that I chose to open it standing next to the sink, leaning over the draining board.

And I carried the bottle up from the basement very carefully. At arm's length. Because it felt charged. Or armed. Like a bomb. The metal lid was buckled outward with the force of the gases that had built up inside. I'm guessing we were a day or two from a messy, gingery explosion down in the basement.

Even more surprising than the fizziness was the taste. It's actually drinkable! In fact, it's a delicious, sharp gingery brew, full of citrus from the lemon zest, with a yeasty, beery flavor to it. Very good! My next task is to make myself a dark and stormy: Dark rum, homemade ginger beer, twist of lemon, and plenty of ice.

It sounds like a good pirate drink to me. Arrrrrrr, shipmates.

Anyway: To the video!

Showered With Love

Chris and I have found that moving thousands of miles away from friends and family is difficult. I guess it's one of the things that stops people from making big leaps in life - like moving to the other side of the world.

Although the sky may be cloudy at times, the sun still manages to shine upon us and continues to show us how wonderful this world and the people in it can be.

We've been living in Dunedin for 9 months now and in such a short time, we've built up a rather nice support system of trusted friends and people. Both of our bosses have been amazing, supporting us at work as well as in our personal lives. Our co-workers have become good friends that make us laugh, think about science and the world, and wish us all the best in the world.

On Thursday, those friends threw us a baby shower to celebrate the impending arrival of our first child. Even more surprising to us was that people whom we hardly knew, other than a nod and smile in the halls or the occasional interaction, attended the shower and gave us gifts. Other friends have invited us over to share meals with their families and have gifted us generously with hand-me-downs.

And as usual, our family and friends from afar have continued to support us, especially throughout this pregnancy. Our parents and siblings have sent us the essentials - a cot for our baby to rest his head; a pram for our baby to explore the world with us; books and clothing for our baby to have an enriched and warm life. Our friends have sent us diaper bags, books, and blankets ... all to welcome our baby and make our lives easier.

Our hearts are full of thanks. We have been showered with love. (ETK)

My Meibomian Cyst

I'd like to introduce you all to my meibomian cyst. Click on the picture at the bottom for a nice close up. It's harmless and benign, but unpleasant. There's a chance it will grow, become swollen, red and painful (and grotesque looking). Or it might even pop! So I went to the doctor. She took a look and said, "I've seen one of those before!" She got a very old book from her shelf and showed it to me. She never actually said the words: meibomian cyst. I don't think she knew how to pronounce it and she didn't want to take a chance. And then we logged onto the computer in her cluttered office and Googled meibomian cyst. Seriously. On Google.

Doctor: Google's really good for that.

Me (In my head): That's funny. I thought doctors were good for that.

She told me that I should try home remedies (hot compress) because I'll never receive treatment in New Zealand for something that is asymptomatic and relatively painless. But it can take 4-months to resolve. Or it can get worse. Prevention versus treatment, etc. The doctor said she could lie and say that it's painful and send me to an eye registrar, but that the eye registrars aren't stupid, they know what a meibomian cyst is, and they will send me home. I could pay privately for treatment, but there's probably a long queue for treatment anyway.

The doctor sat and waited for me to leave -- after printing off the remedies we found on Google! She gave me approximately the same information that my grandmother might have given me, if she was still alive. A hot compress fixes almost anything, after all -- or at least does no harm. In fact, my grandmother would have given me a cup of milky tea with too much sugar in it and a plate of cookies with her diagnosis too. And I'd have been happy.

Yesterday, a bill arrived for $30. This is the co-pay. I'm paying $30 to Google meibomian cyst with a doctor who doesn't want to pronounce it and can't treat it. I could have bought a lot of tea and cookies with that.

I've thought about it for a week or so.

And it's still dumb.