Magnificent Musing – Page 9

Click

Sometimes things just click. Sometimes if you have time to admire the things clicking you start to notice other things clicking. Soon you have a clickcacophony.

I left my previous work a couple of Fridays ago. It was 35 degrees I was in Portofino. Summer had well and truly kicked in. Georgio my driver busied himself weaving and apologizing for his snaking drive to Genova.

Portofino is astounding. It was quite a nice *click* which let me disembark there. My flight to Palma wasn’t till the following morning but I had engineered a train ride and some time to reflect before I started my new job.

Many words have been written about the Riviera. Many of them by me. In 2009 my train rides were often savoured but always had the tinge of unemployment. It was a nice click-clack along the tracks. I even listened to some of the same music I did 6 years ago on those very tracks.

In Nice I found a hotel and settled in for the expectant sleep one has when you need to be awake at 4am to catch a flight to a new job. My flight to Palma went by way of Zurich. It is always nice to visit other countries albeit briefly. My experience of Switzerland is as follows. Air Switzerland gives you very nice chocolate. Swiss of course.

Everyone in Switzerland has nice watches, of course. But thats enough Switzerland (all I can write truth be told)

From Zurich I flew to Palma and a new beginning.

My new Rotation partner David was not at the airport to collect me. He had sent his wingman who was a helicopter pilot. Pilots make the best wingmen as I was to learn. David was getting a medical done. Over the next week things continued to *click*.

Firstly if you hadn’t gathered being an ETO is a sometimes very lonely proposition. You quite literally are a one man gang. There is no one else on board who can do your tasks. No one else can step up to do your job. This presents its own challenges and this is why it is so nice to work closely with another ETO when the opportunity presents itself.

David is from Seattle and unashamedly a geek. His geek force field was very strong. As I shadowed him I admired some of his quirks which mirrored my own. Firstly he had gone at great lengths to have an app for us to use to track our jobs and tasks. This app was maniacally clever. It gave us full visibility on our many projects. It also gave us a grace pass to use our phones when ever we felt like it.

Speaking of our phones when the WWDC dropped David had installed the iOS beta the next morning. Not to be outdone I soon followed and we were soon wallowing in the short battery life, crashes and *features* a beta provides. Bleeding edge geeks there especially when we were now app enabled.

One of the nicest surprises ever was waiting on board me. A brand new Macbook Pro. This was very timely. My current Macbook “Big Mac” has started to develop dementia and sometimes does not take kindly to be woken up from sleeping.

Other nice things. Well just two weeks ago I was bemoaning snack cupboards and how stupid they are. If you didn’t know most Yachts have never ending supplies of sugar/salt/msg and they usually live in cupboards. Unlimited poison. The silly thing is we like to present a united healthy front to guests when we are not hungover and dying from Sugar. My new boat doesn’t have a snack cupboard. We don’t have alcohol on board either.

The Engineers have a workshop that is fitted with a gym, coffee machine, fridge, smoothy facilities and P.A. for music. The boat was very excited I know how to lay down tracks. Another click in my books. We have a Zen Chief Engineer who loves to meditate and probably levitates in his cabin when he is alone.

The boat has an Australian flag and a lot of Australian crew. This is a particularly welcome click. Begrudgingly I admit Australians are quite similar to New Zealanders. This all becomes more real when you start to serve under British nationals. In theory this sounds OK in practice my milage has varied. Power seems to do strange things to brain chemistry.

I did leave the boat to enjoy one of the most welcome changes. Palma. David had befriended a bar so we went to visit it with the Helicopter pilot. When I said befriended a bar he had really befriended a bar lady. His charming lack of Spanish, her lack of English and mutual glad eyes was a nice thing to witness. I gladly informed him on an app to improve his Spanish. Duolingo.

Palma being Palma

The rest of the week went as to plan. It actually improved.

On my last day I was listening to an NRL game. The kiwi carpenter said he missed watching the league. I said I would remedy that very quickly. Matter of factly he said. “Oh the Captain used to play NRL. He used to play for *redacted* he also played super league for *redacted*.

How cool is that!

I left Palma feeling very happy. Ecstatic.

What could make it better? Well it was world Gin day of course!

My relationship with Gin has been an at times a potent one but it was very nice to savour a large glass or two of Gin Spanish style.

My trip home was to be as expected. Long. I arrived in NZ bedraggled but there was still a couple of surprises. I got to meet a very long Kiwi in between terminals. Steven Adams. He is very tall and very polite. He didn’t even ask for an autograph.

Previously I have had problems with the last leg home. This time no issues to report. Another click. I even got to record some buzzy trippy footage in the Plane.

Home! Well there is no place like it. A very happy Wife welcomed me. A very happy dog greeted me. I swear she just sat in front of the fire grinning at me for an hour. The dog. The Wife grins at me for days.

*Click*

June 16, 2015/0 Comments/by El Draco

Magnificent Musing

Crew member Bio Sam

In times gone past I would write crew Bios. Usually these were people I had worked closely with. This one is a little different in that we never actually worked closely together. But working as you will learn is only half the picture. Talking widely, sometimes loudly on a large variety of topics is another great way to learn what is inside someones head.

Sam appeared on board last year about this time. He was a very green deckhand and had been on board for two months when I started. Knowing quite a lot about being a green deckhand we were soon confiding and his night watch hours lined up quite nicely with my ETO standby hours.

Sam is a sun kissed ‘strayan. His relaxed demeanour was sometimes mistook for tardiness. I realised quickly Sam was just a creature of energy. In fact it was not long after Sam started talking about good energy and how to harness it. Knowing quite a lot about harnessing energy especially for talking this was a good match.

Sam was the perceptive crew member who after my return from a very special two month navel gazing exploration of the universe succinctly remarked. “So you have got weirder Dan” this was poetry. I was soon filling Sams head with the wildest and zaniest theories I could find. He never said enough was enough. He always smiled and soaked it all in. A conduit for the incredible.

Over the Christmas period an ill fated Steward ordered a lot of very good crew red wine. The Dan and Sam sessions quickly became the stuff of boat legend. At a predetermined time we would dim the lights to one side of the Crew mess. A mandala visualisation would be beamed onto the television, music synchronised and red wine would be liberally used in a way to enhance the senses. Sometimes the conversations lurched into very theoretical mythological counter history. Many a time crew members wandered in to be repelled by the good energy field busily charging the conversation. The red wine strangely evaporated. The great red wine drought of 2015 is also the stuff of boat legend.

Sam made this quite cool video. If there was ever a way to create a million more wannabe deck hands this is it.

Sam was wise beyond his years in his own way. Before he left us to do a van tour of Europe,
He told me of grand plans to do a charity bicycle ride of New Zealand. I hope some of you get to meet Sam and feel a bit of that “good energy” it’s something the world needs a whole lot more of.

Sam I miss you mate and you know this. Take care and keep that GoPro rolling. Keep a bit of red wine handy. It will probably last twice as long now.

April 16, 2015/0 Comments/by El Draco

Magnificent Musing

The End

And so ends two months of tension. Poorly I am afraid. Some part of my past haunts me. I fear I will have no future in politics unless it is a revolution. Too much colour back there, it blinds those who look for it.

With age one starts to notice the grand procession of time. Cycles upon cycles. Why just a year ago to this very week I went through the same heartbreak with another career fork. Everything sounding so positive until that last twist of the knife.

Still, this very place which has been on hiatus can start again. This very place which may have caused contention.

Foolish? Probably. But it makes a good read.

Footnote

I have reinstated all 500 plus posts of this glorious blog. For interests sake I checked the date last year when a job application went strange. The date??? The 8th of April.

Forgive me if I stay in bed next year on the 8th of April. It is surely the devils day.

April 8, 2015/0 Comments/by El Draco

Magnificent Musing

Going offline

Hello,

Something has happened the last few days which has necessitated taking my blog offline.

Something Very Important.

I am not sure when my blog will be back online it might be reborn as something different.

Maybe paper?

Anyway I hope you have enjoyed this place. If you are subscribed you will get any future updates.

January 26, 2015/0 Comments/by El Draco

Magnificent Musing

Before and After Darkness

There was darkness.

There was a kernel of light.

Ad infinitum.

Hello again. I don’t suppose you have ended up here wanting to read my year in review? You kind of have. During micropauses of clarity free cycles of brain processing power started on this piece about a week ago.

By now I think my interesting career choice is well established in the public metaverse. I have had a particularly challenging year which I initially thought of describing as a rollercoasting drunken dragon omnibus segueing from catastrophe to climax.

This all seemed a bit wordy even for me.

The year of the horse scarred me. Literally. During my birthday festivities I crawled into a door frame splitting my forehead open. This was the beginning of a far grander purpose. I flew around the world three times on fools errands. I visited dark and strange places. I met some interesting people. I revisited some old haunts with a fresh perspective.

Ultimately my bouts of darkness allowed some light to be let in. Light seems a bit mellow. Lasers are light aren’t they?

Perhaps my forehead being split open was my third eye being opened? It is shame that my fools errands had me drooling in jet lag induced torpor for so much of the year.

Magical September was when things got very introverted. Again I don’t think words can explain what was happening. I do like this picture though.

Now imagine feeling the full spectrum of that picture entering your whole being with a particularly wise Witch Dogtor sitting on your lap. This became normal. More things became interesting.

The year of the horse became one of balance. Very important when one tangles with the equine.

The darkness still comes. Just a week ago I felt excessively human about my whole situation.

Stranger still are the jolting laser bolt synchronicities which put me back in the saddle.

I look forward to seeing a lot of you in person next year.

Goat trumps Horse.

Peace.

December 17, 2014/0 Comments/by El Draco

Magnificent Musing

Gibraltar, Crosses and Crossing

You have probably heard of distasteful locations be described as the armpits of Europe/Africa/Gore ect. Gibraltar does not even rank in distasteful armpits. I would describe it as the discarded but fondly remembered toenail of the once powerful British empire.

Still, they are proud of it. Proud that it remains resolutely English in the face of Spain. Proud of its large and dizzying array of English comfort food. Food that ships stopping in Gibraltar must stock up on because Capitalism has not supplied unwholesome convenience food to every corner of the explored universe. It appears someone neglected to tell the English that their food is not in fact food. If you are English and reading this you now know.

We did leave Gibraltar for Bermuda in the end. Gods be damned. It has been a very peaceful crossing. We left Satellite television coverage after about 2 days. I take great pride in telling people I would rather watch a discarded toenail than Sky News. Sky News is Fox News with an English accent.

Recent changes in my neural pathways have left me finding the mainstream media about as palatable as English food. It has become clear that a narrow unhealthy narrative must be maintained how ever stupid it is. This commercially sensitive narrative is at odds with common sense.

Take Terrorism.

Personally I look at the almost monthly school shootings happening in America as acts of Terrorism and a far more real/quantifiable threat to America than ISIS.

A broad definition of Terrorism would say that these are not politically motivated.

I would then ask why are American politicians not politically motivated to sort out gun control?

When I got to spend time in Seattle. I got told about the history of gun control in America, bring your gun to work day and other quaint little oddities. These were all told to me by a perfectly sane American and it is all insane.

Guns are a constitutional right so the people can form Militia and do noble things. Where are these Militia? They were nowhere to be seen last month when this polar bear was put in jail for protesting against climate change.

Crazy.

Back at sea I have settled into the monotony that is an Atlantic crossing quite well. I have kept a healthy routine of meditation, exercise, crew mess and bridge banter. I have also performed many important technical tasks such as live streaming the Kiwis thumping Australia at the Rugby League into key areas where Australians are found.

We arrive in Bermuda on Wednesday. I will travel to New Zealand on the Thursday arriving on Saturday via America. I will not be struck down with Ebola. I will not be affected by Terrorism.

Create your own news.

PS.

I googled how to stop viewing a particular news site that I don’t want to read but I always end up reading. It’s like the KFC of news sites. Google took me to the particular website. Anyway like most things there is an app for doing this just self censorship.

Look up block site.

Please don’t block me, that would be a most strange outcome and feedback loop.

October 25, 2014/0 Comments/by El Draco

Magnificent Musing

Thor, Rage, Hurricanes and Horses

It became obvious last week that at some point I had angered the gods. Not the conventional gods but an ancient and fearsome pantheon of tyrants. In a continuing effort to get closer to my Swedish brethren I have been indulging in Vikings and watching Sweden play in the European football qualifiers.

The main protagonist in Vikings is a deliciously mischievous fellow named Ragnar. In between wanton pillaging, ruling and loving he takes a bit of time out to reflect with the earth tree Yggdrasil. Voyages to England are always fraught with Thor beating his hammer and raining lighting down upon his mast. Being that we have been in a shipyard you would think I would be well out of the way of Thor. It appears not.

I am currently working on a modestly sized Super Yacht. She is still quite large though as these photos attest. That is quite a big bulldozer pushing and hauling her into the water. Last Sunday we had a huge thunder storm roll through. This thunderstorm reminded me I am very much human.

I had an invertor fail on one of our UPS’s.
I had the power supply on a B&O television die
I had a CCTV camera go to Valhalla.
I had a raid hard drive fall in battle.

I took this all in my stride. When we went back into the water I had a very fraught couple of hours as parts of the ships network decided to not network as we went back on power. Given that Thor looks after electricity he surely is the God that good ETO’s should pay attention to.

On Thursday Loki visited and I entered a blood fuelled bezerking rage. One of our tenders has had some serious work done to it. The dash board was removed and I diligently removed all of the instruments so they could be reattached when the dashboard was returned with new leather. I did this in an upright and standing position generally a good place to work from.

When the dashboard was returned the carpenters mounted it and and left the instruments upside down and back to front. This meant I had to work upside down and back to front. This was quite unnecessary and quite aggravating. A lot of blood surged to my head during this orientation. I have not felt such wanton desire for destruction and anger in a long time. I may have cursed so much that one of our deckhands was too scared to offer me help. After much bleeding, bleating and bashing I reassembled the dashboard and left the tender hoping it would spontaneously combust or sink, neither of them realistic but maybe Thor was watching.

It now appears Thor has been watching. Our trip across Atlantic has been stalled with hurricane season cutting a swathe through our intended paths. Every planned route is calculated and a new hurricane sprouts up to cause havoc. I take weather very seriously. The last patch of very bad weather I was in lead to a man over board. Vikings tended to leave men get washed out to sea but modern maritime convention takes a different approach and for that I am glad.

It is here I must wrap up. I have been noticing nice little events over the past little while. I like to call them synchronicities. My fear of horses is well documented. Earlier in the year I was quite aggravated with the year of the horse. It has thrown me off many a time. A month ago our neigbour offered to graze our land with a horse. Without even a blink I said sure. I got thinking a little while back that accepting a horse to coexist with me was the best demonstration of how far things have progressed. In the year of the horse I allowed a horse into my life and it and myself were glad.

October 18, 2014/0 Comments/by El Draco

Magnificent Musing

Thoughts and thinking

I felt it was about time to share some moments from the past week. It has been a week of learning and reintegrating into my double life.

Long plane flights are great opportunities for meditation as are Airports. Add public and not so public places when you have twenty minutes up your sleeve. I will never be early for anything again. Just making good use of time.

It was always going to be a little bit jarring coming into Barcelona and my job again. Luckily the good work I did at home has come with me. As I said before it hard to sum up my time at home in a couple of sentences. I did make an earnest attempt in the crew mess with one of the Deckhands. His reply was unintentionally insightful.

“So you’ve got weirder Dan”

I love this. May we all become weirder. We need more weirdness.

Anna; I regret that my time at home did not include more careful attention to washing pots and pans. I do believe in some way the universe was relaxing and contracting around me causing matter to become attached firmly to curved surfaces. I am glad I installed the horse mower to take care of the abundance of grass that was sprouting around the house.

I once tried to describe Barcelona to a couple of residents. There is so much decay/renewal/change the place seems to be in the flux of over ripeness. It is exactly three years from when I lived here for 6 months. It remains mind blowing. Such a bustle.

I have made two worthwhile excursions out of the walls of the shipyard. The first was to shoot the breeze with a Carpenter named Tudor. One thing I love about my friends is an understated ability to converse on a diverse range of topics. It is funny what pops up sometimes. Recently I have been reading about the Mayans and Tudor showed me some photos of a Mayan temple themed coffee table he had made. What a conversation piece.

My second trip was to visit an Ex Captain. He has a Pug and a new baby. Of course I asked about the Pug first. His Pug believes he is his equal and when he goes out for a walk and stops for a pint the Dog has to get on a bar stool so he can be at the same level. Self leveling Pugs I know much of these things.

There was another Captain with us and the conversation veered towards real estate. Both Captains had experienced varying degrees of unrestrained feminine peculiarities searching for homes. How proud was I to say that my Wife made a ranked spreadsheet of properties and we purchased the one at the top of our list.

It is a little strange being in Barcelona without Sam and Nancy. The are still in season mode and I fear I will not see them this year but we will see.

I have had two notable I am getting old moments in the last year. The first was discovering a large and prominent grey hair sprouting from my arm. The second was on Monday when I got my shipyard security card updated. I kept my photo from three years ago.

I have had challenges this week and I have felt old memories stir, fade and disappear. I think this is healthy.

Be a bit weirder ;-).

October 3, 2014/0 Comments/by El Draco

Magnificent Musing

Under a tree

I have been looking for a way to sum up the last couple of months. It has largely been a series of steps in multiple directions. I fear putting it all out there might cheapen its meaning but I do have a tale from today.

This morning I dropped our continental car off to be serviced. I then walked across town to meet some new friends. It takes a long time to make friends in small towns but I think I met some quality candidates today. They have a drone photography business. He had a drone laboratory where he makes drones and he showed me a 3D printer which he uses to make parts with. I have been wanting a 3D printer for a long time but have not had a good enough reason with WAF (Wife Acceptance Factor)

The car took a long time to be serviced. I drifted through Kerikeri which is painfully small when you are trying to while time away. I ended up in a library and spent a couple of hours with books and myself. I did a walk pass of the car and saw that it was still being worked on. I then went and did something which I can’t remember doing for a very long time.

I sat under a tree. It was not a tree that was sat under very often. The tree looked a bit lost.

Sitting under a tree might not seem that exciting but when you give it all of your attention it becomes very enlivening. It was a nice time to think about the last two months. What has transgressed and enjoy the fortified self I have constructed. Time spent looking within has given me new ways to look at the outside world. I feel more a part of the world again.

An hour or so later I went back to the mechanic. Its was there I had a brainwave. I need that 3D printer to print off the ridiculously expensive car parts our car seems to eat alive.