Springing Into Life With Flower Power

It was an extraordinarily hectic day of being flat out from go to whoa, but also extremely productive and fulfilling as I was propelled by the thrill of the garden’s explosion of color through flowers.

I started the day with a ride, dealt with some of the village’s board responsibilities (albeit lamely), wrote a blog post and attended an online meeting. Then work started.

I was incredibly busy all day, punctuating time behind the keyboard by loading up my Brompton in a backpack and taking it for repairs to Y’s Road Fuchu Tamagawa; a roundtrip journey of about 13 km that needed to be made in about 40 minutes and include a dropoff explaining repair requirements so I could return in time for a meeting. I did it!

Once work was over, I had to drop in to the dermatologist to have my infected finger checked, then pay for our bread deliveries, which I did while being reunited with the friendly woman who had always served me when I made weekly payments for about a decade up until covid, but barely met since then. We had a great gasbag at a time I really couldn’t afford to do it. I left my card at the dermatologist, got on my Big Red and hurtled down the road to Y’s to collect the foldup bike, put it into a backpack and then cycle back to the skin doctor’s again. I arrived and was ushered in to disinfect my hand while carrying the backpack-bound bike, much to the amusement of the nurses.

It was then back home to eat dinner and finish chores. I had to update my work diary as I have a lot of ongoing projects and if I don’t jot them down, I will forget them. I finally finished that, and now I am writing a post I intended to do in the morning after I processed flower photos, but never got them loaded. It was a pretty busy day, and I am glad I got through it. The mechanic’s prognosis of the Brommie’s future wasn’t great. He said it had clearly served me well, but keeping it going was going to be so costly it would probably be more economical to buy a new one. I kinda know what it feels like…

Cop A Gander At These Rippers Too...

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    豪キャブラリー： Sooky

    オーストラリア人の多くがぐずることが大好きで、よく文句をいう。こういう方々は「sooky」と呼ばれる。 　厳密に言えばsookyは「よく泣く」という意味であり、sook「泣く」（動詞）の副詞であるが、別に泣かなくても文句や愚痴をたくさん言えばsookyと言われる可能性が高い。子どもに対してよく使う言葉なので大人に対して言われるとちょっと見下している感じもある。 　ちなみに、sookを名詞として使う場合は実際にsookをする人を示せるというとても便利な役割を果たせる言葉でもある。

  • Biking Beauty

    I’ve been alternating between busy and broken over the past few days, resulting in fewer posts and less cycling, but still lucky enough to catch some tremendous snapshots of the bike like the ones here. Work has been proceeding at a furious pace as we have not replaced people who have left and remain terribly understaffed. It’s hard to get motivated, too, as my employer tried to cut my wage just days after inking my current contract and doing nothing to reassure me that they will not try the same thing again this year: if, in fact, they even offer me a contract at all. A quick update. Friday night…

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    豪キャブラリー：Fair suck of the sav(eloy)

    Fair suck of the savは典型的なオージー英語表現だ。実は、独特なオージー英語の中では最も有名な表現の一つかもしれない。 　この表現は「均等機会を与えよう」と不当扱いされていると思っている人々が加害者と思っている人に対して言う表現だ。 　平等・均等的な社会と思っているオーストラリアでは非常に重要な表現となっている、、、にも関わらず直訳すると「私にもウィーナーを均等に吸わせてくれよ」となる。Savはsaveloyの省略であり、saveloyはウィーナー見たいなソーセージの一種だ。

  • Doggone

    After a blissful stay with us of two weeks or so, Uyu the border collie is gone, having returned home to her mum and dad. It was sad to see her go as she had been our little angel and being with her was blissful. She brought enormous joy and we had great fun. But, as I had noted the last time she stayed her, the biggest lesson Uyu provided was to convey how clearly impossible it would be for us to own a dog, much as I would love to have one. I simply can’t care well enough for a dog. A pooch needs daily walks, feeds, care of…

  • コアラが「飲み屋」に侵入し、寝入る

    Koala invades bar, sleeps it off オーストラリア北部にあるマグネチック島のバーにコアラが入り込んで寝ちゃったことが先週末あったとメルボルンのエイジ紙が報道した。 バーテンダーのケビン・マーティン氏が雄コアラの行動に驚かされたという。 「コアラが「バー」にやってきたので身分証明書があるかと聞いたら、ご機嫌斜めになって天井まで登って寝た」とマーティン氏がいう。コアラは集客力があり、いつでも大歓迎との事だ。 コアラはレンジャーに保護され森に戻された。 詳しくはこちらへ（英語） A koala invaded a bar on Queensland’s Magnetic Island before promptly sleeping it off, according to the Melbourne Age on Thursday. Read the story here.

  • Saturday Night Shibuya

    After many years of not blogging, a website fix inspired me to get back into it. For several years, I had been keen on photography but let that fall by the wayside, too, mainly because carrying a camera around everywhere is bloody cumbersome and I now cycle a lot, which makes me focus on reducing the volume of stuff I carry. Yesterday, though, I took my camera with me and shot a few pictures for the first time in a long while. I’m really rusty, but liked some of the results.