Rat Monday!

Required a bit of snorkelling to avoid the welcoming party, but the Unheard of and McDonald Islands look like a good spot for a bit of meditating to me. Everyone on the beach is dressed for the office and some of the penguins are going around with swastika flipperbands, but I've found a cave half way up the volcano and have settled in nicely nicely.

The sensei and reverend has been blogging about Jaan Kaplinski. I haven't a clue who Jaan Kaplinski is, but he's probably got a killer agent and is filthy rich by this time. Know the sensei and get rich. It's my only hope. An abiding memory of that time (early 90s) is of waiting to speak to the sensei after he's done a reading in Riddles Court in Edinburgh's High Street during the Festival. I had my kid with me and she was only four, so I couldn't take her into the reading. The sensei was doing a reading with Irvine Welsh and the language was just going to be atrocious for your usual four year old. The sensei and Irvine Welsh were quite pally at the time and Irvine came out of the venue first. He was waiting for his girlfriend, standing by the wall. I knew they'd got the usual crowd of two old men and a dog and I thought I'd go over and say hullo. The sensei had offered to introduce me to Irvine Welsh a couple of times before, but I thought from what the boy was reading about that he might just be into junk. Anyway, I felt quite sorry for him standing there on his ownio and I was just going to go across and say hullo when his girlfriend arrived stage right and I didn't bother. Two years later and the boy's a millionaire. Selling out the Assembly Rooms. You just never can tell.

Back on the wagon this evening. If I point my telescope down to the beach, I can see the penguins goose stepping around and squaffing down the Pelican Peculiar. If it wasn't for ra bliss....