Nigel

Oct 127 min read

🐭 Micky Mouse ミッキーマウス

Updated: Oct 14

October 2024年10月

Many years ago we were on a family holiday in Yorkshire, that beautifully hilly county in the UK. We had decided to go on a guided tour down an old tin mine. And by old I mean early 19th century. We donned helmets and rubber boots and entered the hill via a small adit . I could hardly stand up in the tunnel. Shlosh, shlosh, shlosh went our footsteps in the cold water. Soon we had left the daylight behind us. At some point we turned right at a fork and entered a large space with a higher ceiling. Pure Harry Potter. The guide started talking about the history, the accidents...this and that....⚒️

鉱山での閉所恐怖症の発作

Suddenly I HAD to get out. I was not enjoying this at all. "Just go back the way we came, " said the guide to me. Back I walked, alone. In the distance I could see the tunnel entrance. Daylight. But dividing me from this dripping cavern and the daylight was.....an iron gate. Nightmare 😯 Like a horror film. Was it open? Of course it was. But the minute or so before I discovered this was pure hell.

So.....years later, now in Germany....

Am I allowed a pat on the back? I recently emerged from an MRI machine without getting claustrophobia. At least 3 people I know have had panic attacks lying in one of these machines. However, recalling unpleasant experiences in the past (including that mine episode), I had done my research beforehand. 初めてのMRI体験.

I wore eye masks 😎 so I would not see anything (ear protectors were provided); I used a meditative breathing exercise to calm myself down, and thought about nice things (fresh Sushi, happy days in Iwate). However, being bombarded with loud frequencies in a tunnel is not everybody's idea of a fun Monday morning. It felt like I was in a rocket 🧑‍🚀 being sent to the moon. Nothing malevolent was found in my head thank goodness - just a 'cello theme from a Bruckner symphony and a recipe for curry. And I must thank a good friend for driving me to the clinic.

Well hello little one, you look a bit underage. Have you your parents' permission to be up there?

この小さな子供はここにいる許可を得ていますか?

I went to a concert of big band /gospel music in Langen recently 🎷. Not my usual fare, but a friend of mine was conducting. What amazed me was that the church was very nearly full. Everybody seemed to be enjoying themselves hugely, which was nice.

素敵な地元のコンサート.

The performers were local groups from Langen and Göttingen, bonded more by the fun of singing/playing together rather than any aspirations to high quality. I had stepped out of my box for the evening and was none the worse for wear afterwards. Where would we be without big bands, gospel, or any sort of music for that matter?

Coffee with my landlady to discuss a blocked gutter.

詰まった排水溝について話し合うために家主とコーヒーを飲む。

The topic moved to Ukraine. "Why should we support that Zelensky fellow? I always thought Ukraine was part of Russia." Shocked, I started on a patient explanation of Ukraine's sovereignty....but soon realised that it would take an almighty effort to get Frau x out of her thinking box. What media does she follow📺?

Sick men

"...........There are still men – and it’s mostly men – who truly believe they have been fashioned in a heroic mould, that they have a special mission, a calling, or sacred duty to lead and act as saviours of peoples and nations. Putin, Netanyahu, Trump. They think they know best, enjoy unique insight. They are ruthless 🤜 and arrogant enough to impose their views on all.

These successors to Stalin, Hitler and Mao are the ones making history in an unhappy, warring world. They are sick parodies of great men......"

プーチン、ネタニヤフ、トランプ。

病んだ人々だ。スターリン、ヒトラー、毛沢東の後継者たちこそが、不幸で争いの絶えない世界で歴史を作っている人々だ。彼らは偉人たちの病的なパロディだ……」

(Simon Tisdall - The Guardian)

What a pain (?)

In August, on entering German airspace, our pilot announced that we had been refused landing at Frankfurt airport. Why? Climate activists had glued themselves to the runway there. So I was now experiencing the effects of a protest first-hand. As we waited for hours on the runway in Munich (where we had had to land) I mused - Yes, this is a real pain. It's been a very long journey (22hrs from Tokyo with a change in Abu Dhabi)

......and I would just like to get home please. But I reflected. Yes.....protests are meant to be annoying. And in this case they had raised the ire (and of course awareness) of 250 odd passengers. A little success you could say.

8月に東京から帰る途中、私の飛行機はフランクフルトに着陸できませんでした。気候活動家たちが滑走路に張り付いていたのです。最初はイライラしましたが、抗議活動の目的はそういうことですよね？

However, I have no adjectives to express the horror and disgust at this: In the UK, two young people (Phoebe Plummer, 23, Anna Holland, 22,) have been given prison sentences of up to 2 years for throwing a can of soup 🥫at a painting in the National Gallery in London. The painting was undamaged; nobody was hurt. An open letter from 100 Art historians and curators had later pleaded for no prison sentences. Some hope. Even after Phoebe Plummer had given a 20-minute address to the judge in mitigation. In effect, they were being punished for being concerned about the future. Punished by a judge who put the value of a painting above the lives of two brave articulate young women. Van Gogh would have turned in his grave.

If I think about it, These are the kinds of sentences that western governments routinely denounce when they are imposed on peaceful protesters in places such as Cambodia and Russia.

What if I went into the Ashmoleum Museum in Oxford and poured soup over the Messiah Stradivarius? 🎻. Just like the Van Gogh, it is behind glass, and when all is said and done it is only a violin. He made loads of them, just like Van Gogh painted loads of pictures 🎨. And like Van Gogh, he would have been dismayed that art dealers and "connoisseurs" had upped the value of his work to ridiculous levels.

Why were these young people not asked to join a some sort of forum/advisory committee on the environment? ........They are not criminals. Climate change is with us now. Everything seems upside down🤦‍♂️. Sections of the professional classes seem to be out of step with reality - or are they being politically influenced? . What on earth is the point of locking them up? It's out of Putins' textbook. It's disturbing, and it gives me a deep sense of unease. You feel so helpless. I had to do something. So I signed the petition to free these young people. After all, it is not too far fetched to call them political prisoners.

2人の若い抗議者が2年間投獄されたと聞いてとても悲しくなりました。彼らはゴッホの絵にスープをかけました。絵はガラスの向こうにありました。けが人はいませんでした。

Meanwhile, at the other end of the country, very similar sentences have been handed down. But this time to the thugs who rioted in the town of Southport, smashing the windows of a mosque and gatecrashing a memorial event. If you want to listen to a sober, reasoned court summing-up, take a few minutes to watch this..... ............https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cze5g4djeplo

I often go for walks just to be in nature. "Forest bathing" Shinriku-yoku 森林浴 as the Japanese would say. I open my eyes and see things around me. A robin gazes at me from a hedge, a Red Admiral butterfly suns itself; there is a sunflower....

.......some other wild plants reveal beetles about the same size as ladybirds, but they are black with lots of little yellow spots. What are they? How long will these wonders of nature be available for us?

View from the Towers

There is a green field far away......

.......33 kilometers north east of Frankfurt. In a region called the Wetterau. Calm undulating fields and small villages. Rural Germany.

The iron age hillfort of Glauburg had been known for years.......

フランクフルト近郊をハイキング中に、グラウブルクの考古学遺跡を訪れました。彫像と金の装飾品は 2500 年前のものです。

But it was only in 1994 that archeologists stumbled across its rich treasures. A golden necklace to accompany a warrior after death.....

a heavy sword.......

a ritual decanter decorated with strange figures.....

And to crown it all, a larger-than-life statue in skilfully carved sandstone. Estimated to be 2.400 years old........The "Celtenfürst vom Glauburg" (or more irreverently "Micky Mouse" 😂).

This is all now in a fantastic on-site modern museum. And although being near the end of a long hike, I forsook the cafe terrace to at least have a brief look.....and was rewarded. I really must return and spend more time there.

Photo: Yorgos

20th c. Art.......

Yayoi Kusama......

Good isn't it? except that these potatoes, carrots and leek are soon to become my lunch.

Time to to eat that yummy curry. Sorry Yayoi Kusama 😂

実はこれが私のランチなんです。カレー。

I didn't know that in 1915, at the height of WW1, the British and the Germans met in Switzerland to make a deal. Germany desperately needed rubber ( for tyres, engine belts etc.). Britain urgently needed optical lenses (for binoculars and gun sights). They exchanged goods, so they could carry on killing each other.

I didn't know that in the 1960s, a Taiwanese electrical engineer, Charles Kao, working in a nondescript building near Harlow in Essex, made a dramatic breakthrough which enabled the development of optical fibres. Although the Standard Telecommunication Laboratories do not exist now, the whole internet runs on these fibres today.

I learnt these facts and many others from a book a friend has given me: Material World, by Ed Conway. Astonishing......

私たちの日常生活のあらゆる素材に関する興味深い新刊