Sauntering Vaguely Downward

I spent my birthday on my own in Maui after the conference I attended there, and I had a brilliant time.*

My birthday treat to myself was a boat trip to Molokini crater to snorkel with the fishes, and to Turtle Town off Wailea Point to swim with the sea turtles. I got really lucky with the weather, and Cap'n Doug sailed us around the far side of Molokini so we could see the sea bird nesting sites. Then we pulled into the harbour and we were allowed to jump in the water. I don't have a waterproof camera and I also don't feel too secure snorkeling without a boogie board in hand, so I've no photos of that. But the visibility was incredible, like I remember from Hanauma Bay as a kid. I saw a tube fish and a giant parrot fish. I followed her around for a bit, listening to her chomp the coral and seeing her make sand. I saw wrasse and tangs, sea urchins and crabs, and of course the legendary Humuhumunukunukuapua'a, from whom Eldest gets her moniker. It's colourful, pugnacious, and territorial. Mmhmm.


[Approach to Molokini crater.]


[Seabird nesting sites round the back of Molokini.]

Turtle Town offered excellent fish viewing in the water as well, although to be honest it was much better watching the turtles from the boat as the view was clearer and they got quite close to the bow, where you're not allowed to snorkel.


[Sea turtle next to the tour boat.]

There were lots of older retired couples on the boat - because who else can afford $200+ plus tips for a five hour boat trip - and I could see them looking sidelong at me until finally when we were eating lunch someone sidled up to me and after some desultory introductions, asked if I was scared to travel alone. Hahaha. Nope! Very happy by myself, tyvm.

I pootled back to the hotel in the convertible Mustang** I’d hired with the top down, although “pootled” doesn’t feel like quite the right word for travelling in an absurdly ostentatious car. I had a shower to get all the sand off, liberally slathered on the after-sun, and got dressed again. I had a couple of chats with family and friends. I got myself a cold drink at the 808 market and wandered down to watch my last Maui sunset on this trip.

I got changed into a nice dress and spoke to the family before hopping in the car again to take myself to dinner: Isana in Kihei. I ingested a heroic quantity of nigiri (choice bits pictured below) and part of a silly cocktail (because driving, and that thing was strong).

( Sushi under the cut because raw fish isn't everyone's cup of tea )

I plucked up the courage to ask my waiter a very odd question. I explained to him that I’d grown up in Hawai’i, and I had happy memories of eating something we called “stinky pickle sushi” which you obviously cannot put on a menu in a nice restaurant. After he’d finished guffawing, I explained that it was pickled daikon radish in a maki roll. He said he would go ask the chef if he knew about this.

Two minutes later, he returned, placed a small black dish in front of me, and said, “Yes, chef is from Japan, he knows this ingredient. Is this it?” I popped the bright yellow rectangle into my mouth and clapped my hands with joy. The waiter returned to place my stinky pickle nori roll order. And that, my friends, was my final brave birthday treat to myself: procuring a sushi roll I have not tasted for over twenty years.


[Behold: stinky pickle maki]

* Sorry, family! We would have had a brilliant time together, too. But this conference happens during the school year, and so I was on my own. I love you guys. I also love time to myself.
** I actually wanted to hire the Mazda Miata but they didn’t have any, and also the hire car person said my giant battered old Briggs & Riley suitcase would not have fit in the boot anyway.

THE END.

I got bored with the 365 question meme after the end of February and have no plans to restart it. I can, however, thank it for one thing: reigniting my interest in cross-stitch. I was taught to cross-stitch by an eccentric great-aunt when I was around eight years old, on the plastic frames with thick yarn. As I grew older, I graduated to the Aida cloth patterns, and eventually to linen before I lost interest in my teens.

The offhand answer to one of the meme questions prompted an Etsy search and I purchased a couple of beginner-level kits from KnitKnotKrafts (UK). Behold, my first cross-stitch in over twenty years:

  Map of Africa


The back is a hot mess because I had forgotten that you don't tie knots in the thread, you just leave a tail and stitch over it:



I just completed a second, which is a gift for my Cthulhu-loving sister-out-law.

Octopus (sans eyes)


Much tidier back:



I feel this is an excellent step to be taking toward my bonkers blue-rinse little-old-lady aspirations.

I'm spending my Easter break on a more difficult pattern with flowers and hummingbirds. Once I've finished that, I'll get some more from Fandom Cross Stitchery. No prizes for guessing which is my favourite.

Today I was in London where, amongst other things, I hung out with my old labmates and watched the sunset. This was taken from the first desk I worked at in the lab when I started there in 2006. Sitting in front of those monitors brought back so many memories, all of them rose-tinted because I was so happy for such a very long time.

On Monday, I discovered a couple of tiny paintings of Norfolk that I did years ago - each of these canvases is 3” x 3”. The children demanded that they be put up in their room.

( +6 )

I received a message from LJ a couple of days ago, as it seems they’ve jumped on the #10yearschallenge bandwagon. It linked me to an entry I wrote back when the bloke and I were living in Cambridge in the years BC (before children).

“The Tragic Case of the nanila who wasn’t French”: DW / LJ

This is one of those entries which made me so glad I keep a journal, as I have no memory of the event otherwise, and it was quite sweet even though it involved me being heavily patronised, particularly by Mama.