On the things I cherish

On the things I cherish

Some things are indescribable,
Where words make a likely fable,
For every moment I am able,
We like horses do share a stable.

In your eyes I see laughter,
That my steps begin to falter,
It is you and really no other,
That is much closer than a brother.

As seconds count up to days,
We find in our various ways,
How relationship just obeys,
And it is never like a haze.

The words that bring such humour,
Gladdening the heart with succour,
Seeking the fun that does concur,
With all, we choose to honour.

On those beautiful walks on the beach,
The tranquil that sounds like a speech,
Expressing what no one can teach,
We transcend things we once couldn’t reach.

It is a love that rarely speaks its name,
Where passion is never that tame,
It aspires not to any kind of fame,
Only asserts the truth of what we claim.

Little quirks for smirks

Smirking for coffee

I just spooned some demerara sugar into a highball glass which is essentially a typical drinking glass with a thick base, straight-up sides, and probably about 2.5 inches or about 8 centimetres tall. I smirked and sniggered at the quirky things I have done, as the sugar was meant for a coffee mug.

The kettle was just switched on, the routine of making instant coffee rather than tea that used to be my comfort beverage for the morning. As soon as I noticed, I took my big mug out of the sink, poured out the water, and tipped the sugar out of the glass into the mug before adding a teaspoonful of instant coffee. I stick to NESCAFÉ® Original Instant Coffee, whatever the cost.

Sometimes, I make filter coffee and for that, I would set up my milk frothing machine as it is never really right with ordinary milk or evaporated milk which is a holdover from my time in the Netherlands where they use coffee milk, a creamier full-fat milk for coffee.

Interestingly, some consider coffee a drug, I have heard a preacher boast about never tasting alcohol or coffee, maybe it is an abomination to others, but I do like the taste of coffee even as my mother has tried to prevail upon me to ditch both coffee and sugar. It doesn’t work for her; it works for me.

And this is funny

I have put it all down to quirks, nothing to concern myself too much about since I might have done many of these things before, and this is not a result of aging. Forgetting I already have my glasses on, I attempt to put on the spare only to realise I could not. Wearing an undervest back-to-front and that slight constriction at the neck is an alert to it.

The other day, I had a jumper on, then a jacket, but before donning my overcoat for the cold outdoors, I reached for another jacket and my arm went down a sleeve, it felt too tight. Very funny, I surmised inwardly. You do not need another jacket on.

I might say my name, but I do not call myself names for doing silly things. I guess what matters is being aware of things rather than forgetting and being observed by someone else like Brian who still ribs me no end about when I did the glasses skit. Living with your quirks is just one way of being able to make fun of yourself.

Technical: A whole weekend networking

On it since Friday

It is like the dogged determination of a hungry dog that just found a juicy bone, I could not relent until I had found a solution to my unfortunate network problem. I have been with Virgin Media for over 6 years until I was quite persuaded to review the quality of the service and how much I was paying for it, especially that of the package I was offered, I was only using the broadband and not the telephony or television bundle.

After getting a third off my subscription, I was sent a new cable modem, the Virgin Media Super Hub 3 to replace my Virgin Media Super Hub 2AC, it was supposed to be a plug-n-play activity which I left until after work on Friday, it was anything but.

Blog - For the food, I can forget

It should work, I thought

Connecting it up in the basic configuration that I had with the one I was replacing with the wireless configuration switched off, that was the beginning of my problems, my wired connections that came through a switch to just 19 other devices on my network could not reach the Internet. What was baffling was to use a basic analogy, I had arrived at the gate, been seen by security and all I needed was to be waved through, but I was held back.

The Super Hub 3 listed all my devices on its administration page, but it was not letting them onto the Internet, it being the gatekeeper. Could it be a compatibility problem? Quite doubtful as all my kit had only had their firmware updated.

No Internet no help

My NETGEAR Nighthawk X6 R8000 router on its administration page was saying there was no Internet connection, yet, my Amazon Fire Stick 4K was getting on the Internet having obtained by WiFi an IP Address, it was making no sense as my laptops obtaining IP Addresses from the same router could not get online.

There was nothing wrong with my setup, the only variable that had changed was the Super Hub 3. So, I called Virgin Media and they were as helpful as a blacksmith giving a brain surgeon instructions for performing a radical frontal lobotomy. Much as I was convinced that the problem was with the Super Hub 3, I switched it to modem mode with no success.

Reverting to router mode and the wireless service enabled, some devices did connect but it was unstable, my laptops getting nowhere. I then reconnected the old Super Hub 2AC but as the service had been bound to the new hub, I was having no luck.

Firm on the wares

Along the way, I found that the switch TP-Link TL-SG108E was behind on its firmware, so I updated it, though the latest was 3 years old. Still, no progress and Virgin Media from their myopic perspective even after over an hour of communication with a lady considerably more knowledgeable about networks were satisfied if I could connect one device and it went online, the problem was mine. They even wanted me to pay an additional fee for support on a service they changed only 4 days ago. I was exasperated.

Internet searches crept along with snippets and no clear solutions, I needed to piece together these elements with the hope that I might get some headway. Then I realised the stock firmware on my NETGEAR router did not expose all the elements I need to troubleshoot that No Internet screen comprehensively. Now, I was on to a crazy path that could brick my router. I found flashed the router firmware with the latest version of FreshTomato firmware for my model, it first looked dead, but a factory reset gave it a FreshTomato persona and I was ready to play.

It all clicked together

I was given too many levers than I knew to manage, even my knowledge of networks was challenged, but I found enough to manipulate things better. I put the SuperHub 3 back into modem mode disabling the wireless functionality by default attached it to the NETGEAR router where the router now acted like the SuperHub 3.

Things were beginning to make some sense even if things did not seem to work as required. Then a final tweak, the gateway address which used to be the address of the SuperHub in router mode now had to become the address of the FreshTomato configured NETGEAR router and suddenly, all my devices appeared in the list of managed devices by NETGEAR and they were waved through the gate, the SuperHub 3 and onto the Internet. That is the short version of how I deduced the solution.

The WiFi SSIDs had changed, so all my devices were reregistered as well as my wireless printer and I guess we can all go to bed happy. Much as it was a bit inconvenient tethering my work laptop and another to my mobile phone for the day, I guess some things have to be done to get other things fixed.

Keep doing the good things for yourself

There I go

The thought that I would think nothing of walking 3 or even 5 kilometres to a tram stop to take me out to a walk for nature walks no more surprises me. I decide I want to go somewhere, chart a course the tram stop furthest away, yet on a straightforward route and make out for it.

In the 5 of so directions I ply from my home, I have a good sense of where the kilometre markings are up to the fourth in at least one case. I know that if I have gone out 5 kilometres, I probably will do at least 10 kilometres, my 10,000-step count is usually between the 7^th and 8^th kilometre.

The pleasure in doing

I do not know how long the walking will go on for, last night was one of interesting determination, for it was in driving rain, I put on my waterproof poncho to make up the just over 5,000 steps for the day’s target. I am on a mission, there is a badge for walking at least 10,000 steps daily for 21 days and I am just a couple of days short of it.

After that, I wonder if I would get the 100 days in a row before I hit 5,000,000 steps. In the absence of an exercise buddy, you have to set your own goals and targets, using that as motivation and impetus to keep going. I suppose I have applied the same spirit to my blogging, that even in the absence of anything to write about, I write all the same.

Much as I hate the word discipline as it suggests compulsion to varying extents, sometimes, to stick at something, you need it, even if you don’t acknowledge it. Accomplishments, personal or celebrated are good for boosting one’s self-esteem.

Thought Picnic: We are story people

The fool I am

Life is an interesting journey of many experiences that are never fully told. I would be the first to acknowledge my frail humanity, my weaknesses, my stupidity and my foolishness.

Yet, where some might think I am being hard on myself, I realise that maybe I have not been hard on myself enough to make some changes necessary to change some of the situations I have been in.

Things procrastinated, things fancied, things desired, but they have been things, within grasp at times but left to be as if they did not matter, yet, they have mattered more than ever because they are not just the stuff of life, but what is necessary to make life better.

Celebrate blessings

It is part of that bigger deal of the pursuit of happiness that I have allowed to elude me not out of lack of speed or purpose but with a laid back presence of mind that sometimes one cannot be bothered.

Bother, one must, or bothered one would become, as these things become subjects of deep introspection and scolding lessons of life that one is almost ashamed to share because of one’s failings.

Then as if the end of life is close, one ruminates and reminisces, striving still to put regrets at bay and celebrate the blessings that have made this life wonderful. I find myself saying to myself quite regularly that despite some experiences I would never wish on anyone else, I really do love my life.

Story people, we are

Maybe some things can be better, maybe some things can be improved upon, maybe some changes can be implemented, maybe some new experiences can enrich my life more, I am open to all and more because that is the joy of living.

That is what make each and every one of us story people, let us write these stories and celebrate life, for in all the pain and suffering, there is wonder, beauty and fun to be had, the advice I would give to many regardless is, never lose your sense of fun.

Thought Picnic: Many Stolen Moments, Few Owned Moments

A place enlightening the mind

Every once in a while, I find myself in places where memories come into my mind of things of life I have experienced.

Sat on a bus this morning, a whole series of thoughts occupied me from the desires of others I could not fulfil to the desires of mine I never boldly sought to see through.

For there are people we have had pass through our lives that have brought love and heartbreak, ones with whom that moment when it all looked right sometimes becomes a yearning that can never be relived.

Oh! The memories.

The heart’s medicine

However, with this was the fact that the times we spent together were short and yet intense, they felt like a lifetime but we never dared to make it more than fleeting.

The arrangements were rushed, impromptu, expensive but never regretful, no expense should be spare when one can see love because it is medicine to the heart that nothing else can offer and those small doses were like an elixir of life and youth.

They were stolen moments, for we never had enough time, the strong will, or the circumstances to split the infinitive, go daringly where another story of life of love and care might have taken us if we did have the courage.

Own the moments

Yet, we all have these stolen moments that for all sorts of reasons we have not deigned to make owned moments.

Our pursuit of happiness trammelled by our fears that have overwhelmed our hopes because of where we think we should be for others and are probably not there because we cannot be.

Where we should be for ourselves to the exclusion of others should be a decision we should make and hope to make before our time runs out. Have you ever asked, where have you been all my life?

Make that stolen moment and owned moment, live your life, be free.

Words describing an interesting week

Complicated, a simple thing made more complex for reasons you are yet to understand.

Clarity, a state of having an understanding about why.

Confidence, a state of being emboldened to do something right.

Confusion, the absence of clarity exacerbating a lack of confidence.

Chaos, when clarity, confidence and confusion are leaning in the opposite direction of everything you want to do, that is really complicated.

Calm, when you walk away.

Character, when you return to bring calm to the confusion and calm by seeking clarity and acting on that understanding with new confidence by simplifying the complicated.

Concise, writing about a long week in retrospect.

In praise of the art of conversation

A warm feeling

She shook my hand as we parted ways saying, “Don’t lose your sense of humour.” The phlebotomist had just drawn blood into five vials but we were literally chatting through that event.

Nothing comes more gratifying for me as the stimulation of conversation with strangers. In need to have blood tests done before I meet my consultant next week. The morning saw a deluge of rain, it looked like the makings of a miserable day that I considered postponing my visit to the hospital until Thursday, today.

Just as the afternoon moved into the evening, the sun came out radiantly, it offered the chance of a quick dash to and from the hospital, and so I set forth.

Canes for pains

A lady boarded the bus at the next bus stop and the movement of the bus meant slowly grasping down the aisle, almost too unsteady on her feet before she found a seat and sighed, “Eventually.”

A quipped about having something to hold on to before began taking about the differences between our walking canes, hers with a crook handle and mine without, where we bought our canes, she had hers measured for and the sophistication of canes.

In the ten-minute bus ride, I learnt of her husband, meetings she attends, the wonder of English weather and how it changes, whilst she was told of my living in Amsterdam, the freedom of riding bicycles and my visits to the Canary Islands where I got my cane.

The violence of silence

Spontaneity and engagement made for a pleasant meeting of minds that we exchanged pleasantries that are even more effusive when I got to my bus stop and she wished me well for what I was going to do at the hospital.

Hospitals – the cost of parking, too prohibitive and the fact that the renovations at the hospital I was visiting did not consider making more allowances for parking spaces.

The long tube ride was quiet and without event, until I got to the hospital where I was ushered to the waiting room. The first nurse to say hello when I arrived then came out to get me.

Facing the past

The conversation started with my date of birth, a date I wished was moveable to which she suggested whilst youth was good, retirement was even better.

I regaled her with a story of being recognised by a classmate in a bar in The Hague after 27 years of leaving school, I either maintained my looks or my friend does not suffer from any form of prosopagnosia, I just cannot make out the features of a face without my glasses on.

In her case, it was a friend of her daughter when she lived in Madrid who recognised her on Oxford Street after 15 years of their last meeting.

We relapsed into our various tales of the uncanny, laughing and cheering as my veins filled the vials that if were to expire due to exsanguination that would have been a happy conclusion.

Farewells and smiles

Job done, plaster applied and shirtsleeve pulled down, I buttoned up, put on my jacket, got my hat, strapped on my rucksack and with cane in hand, I bid farewell.

Small talk and the art of conversation, interaction with strangers and the spontaneity of it all, none of my interactions on Social Media gets close to the excitement of proximity and real social interaction, it is why I love travel, chatting to people about the mundane that we soon get to the serious.

We must retain the enriching qualities of face-to-face meetings uncluttered by technological interference and that is part of the beauty and joy of living.

Sailing 101 - Prepare to get wet

Getting in

I attend C3 Amsterdam, a well-attended international and multicultural church that places quite a lot of emphasis on interaction, engagement, relationships and leadership development.

Whilst, I was one of the earlier attendees when it is a much smaller congregation, I seemed to be quite involved in a lot of activities but over time, I have withdrawn, disengaged and become more of an attendee rather than a member.

Lately, I have endeavoured to relate more and find some purpose within that community with great difficulty much of which somewhat derives from a sometimes reserved and aloof Englishness that I cannot say serves me well at all.

Perceptions of a different reality

A few weeks ago, an announcement was made inviting the men for a sailing day out, to which after much hesitation I decided to attend with somewhat interesting impressions of what to expect which was far from reality.

Now, having watched the MainSail programme on CNN, I had a good few ideas, a large boat with many sails unfurled to take about 30 men out, maybe a catamaran – in fact, what I was thinking of was probably a motored yacht with everyone having a time of fun, conversation and letting our hair down.

This outing was planned for Saturday, the 23^rd of July and on Friday we were intimated of the possibility that the event might be cancelled if the weather forecast was bad, I had been thinking of pulling out too but felt I had to see it through and it offered me the opportunity to suggest to our pastor that he might have to calm the stormy waters like Jesus did if the weather did take a turn for the worse.

Arrangements dawning on us

We had a rendezvous where the planner checked off the names and all the other essentials before drove in a convoy to Loosdrecht. Now, Loosdrecht Lakes or Loosedrechtse Plassen in the vernacular used to be a peat bog centuries ago, it was mined for peat and then dredged; the sand used for construction and in the process with Dutch ingenuity of land and water management, we have a number of large lakes which are mainly used for water sports much as it is a nature reserve too.

We were to be prepared for the weather, that was cold and rain alike, but it suddenly dawned on many of us that preparing to sail was a bit less leisurely than we had imagined.

Amongst us were sailors who were to skipper boats of 6 crew, we were out sailing alright but crewing our boats, the boats were just about 4 metres long and just about 2 metres at the widest point with a mainsail and a headsail/foresail called a jib. The type of boat we were in will be called a sloop which has its etymology from Dutch sloep and by extension the French chaloupe.

The organisation is quite impressive, snacks and drinks provided beyond the lunch packs we are asked to bring along and we were all provided with life-jackets which eventually helped in keeping us quite warm.

Wet, Wet, Wet

We boarded our boats and motored out of the harbour then hoisted up our sails, our skipper quite confident and able simply instructed us on what to do and then we began to realise that the ropes meant a lot in terms of the sails, where we going and there was much to the steer of the rudder and how we catch the wind.

We were told we should expect to get wet did become especially for those who sat in the front. We had a good few precarious tilts off the wind but we are assured we will not be dumped in the water and it was comforting to know that the water was barely 2 metres deep and in the event of being caught up a creek without a paddle, besides the outboard motor there was a pole to use for punting.

The ropes controlling the jib are called sheets and the sheets can be pulled right or left of the mast of the main sail aiding steer but it was the rudder that seemed to have the greatest effect on how the boat took the water and the white-knuckle ride kind of experiences we had.

In the end, it was great fun, we all had a go at the rudder as each of us successively got more water spray and splashes on ourselves and the boat sometimes filled with water that we were soiled worse than having been bed-wetters.

Thanks for the day

We had a couple of meeting points even some got in the water for a swim and along the way we encountered strong winds, stillness that the ducks seemed to be on turbo-jets, rain and bluster but the whole setting did make for a sense of male bonding which was fun.

I might consider going out sailing again and this time for all the lessons I have learnt including one that appreciated the wonders of being of on terra-firma, rain gear for sailing is a whole lot different from regular rain gear, ropes would probably be best handled with gloves on, taking sailing lessons can be useful, even crocs for all their ugliness might well be recommended footwear but I’ll try anything but those things.

It was great fun and thanks to Timon the skipper and my crewmates, Buddy, Chris, Raymond and Levy, for all that experience, there are still some things best watched on National Geographic though I have been once tempted out of the cosy setting of my armchair, furry slippers, cup of cocoa and remote controller.

Recording the bad history of football - II

No fling with the right-wing

As we prepared for the World Cup in Germany we were warned of the seething and simmering assault on civility as right-wing groups supposedly gathered to rain hail and brimstone on those whose did not have the similitude of the Aryan race.

On one occasion, they were to turn out in support of Iran as a sop to the vituperations about the Holocaust that have emanated from the lips of Dr Ahmadinejad.

We can all thankfully say none of this came to be.

Rather, the Germans, in enthusiasm that would rival a Rio Carnival turned out in support of teams that visited their cities and welcomed their guests with such aplomb, we almost said this is too unGerman to contemplate.

One could almost say, with the departure of the African teams and Trinidad & Tobago, all the fun, dancing, clapping and cheering has died down.

Well, probably only Brazil can really raise a party like no other.

Deep Pains of Spain

So, to now hear again that Spanish fans are up to their disgraceful antics of racist chants, monkey calls and despicable overt unfriendliness to players of another race does sadden one beyond consolation.

This is form for the Spaniards and this has not been knocked out because even the Spanish coach has exhibited such base human instincts masquerading as human superiority.

Both Spain and their coach have been sanctioned for these practices, but the sanctions have failed to yield a civilising effect on the proponents and the fans - only more stringent sanctions like expulsion from international competitions or points deducted from league clubs can drum the basics of 21st Century living into these people.

Countries like England and France have rainbow teams sometimes quite representative the broad range of football talent and ethnic diversity in those countries.

Lauding ethnic team members

The performers always get the accolades and their names or usually synonymous with team excellence - it is just not within the limits good conduct to have to suffer racial abuse on the pitch for any reason whatsoever.

It is however surprising to the value and understanding of history escapes these people as Spain was once subjugated by Africans and during the Spanish Civil War many came from other countries (about 40,000) to fight for the liberation of Spain - they should have a greater sense of fairness, accommodation and tolerance than has been displayed - the sociology of this matter I would leave to the professionals.

Out with this-pain

In the end, you cannot but imagine my glee at the fact the monkey chants and all did nothing to keep them in the World Cup and deservedly so - people who accommodate thoughts that debase humanity deserve no global centre stage not even at the World Cup.

References

Racism fears dog World Cup build-up

Fans praise German welcome

Spanish fans re-ignite racism row

Spain fined for racist chanting