Berrimilla Down Under Mars Status Report 2 May 2008
FRIDAY, 2 MAY 2008
0237.59 16400.04 Sillyoloquy
Polaris Lives! or rather, lurks. He’s still in the murk layer but I can just see him. He’s such a seemingly insignificant little pinprick for such an important place in our universe. A bit like the good Taoist leader – he’s out there, leading, but not noticed by the punters – and therefore, presumably, neither loved nor hated, like lesser leaders. I grew up conscious of him from as early as I can remember – my dad, no doubt, had something to do with that. It’s still a bit odd looking for him way below the pointers instead of above.
Ploddin’ along. Still 5 days at least to half way at this rate. For those of you living normal lives, you really just live the days, go to bed and the night takes care of itself without any help from you. Here, we live the nights – really live them, often minute by minute, watch by watch – as well as the days and it all seems to take so much longer. So who’s complaining? More living for one’s dollar perhaps. This gig is different yet the same as the last one. Things distant yet near – near yet distant. Sei Shonagon’s perceptions are wonderfully acute and they remain relevant after a thousand years and across cultures.
Time passing – I wrote in the last logs about boats having their own language, grammar and syntax. I live and feel and hear this boat and I’m part of the pulse of the living entity. So, it’s really difficult to lose myself in Ipoddery or books or xwords because it cuts me off from the message, the data stream, the story as it unfolds. And time passes more slowly.
POSTED BY BERRIMILLA DOWNUNDERMARS AT 12:59
Noon 0212.28 16401.42
dtd 3475 dmg 106.
What she said! I thought I was dreaming, but I seem to have this lightbulb sticking out of my head…
POSTED BY BERRIMILLA DOWNUNDERMARS AT 09:31
McQ: The Equator
Well, it was just as I remembered: First the gigantic pink neon sign comes in to view, ‘Welcome to the equator!!!’, it flashes. Then you get closer- it is just like any other border crossing, a magnet for the fringes of ocean society, a hub of vice… To the left, pineapples being shaken, coffee being ground and the fish market, unscrupulous fish trading in other fish (one squid for 3 flying fish, as we passed) The sea snail magician dude was still there doing his same trick on unsuspecting punters, to do with water going clockwise or anti-clockwise down hte plug hole and crossing the line as often as he could get away with!! Down a back eddy, round an undercurrent and you come face to face with a snarling big fanged, translucent and etiolated sea creature with his own lightbulb above his head, just like Nemo or Blue Planet, and trying to sell lumps of coral for extortionate prices; ‘why so expensive?’ ‘Have you any idea of the depths I have gone to to get this?’ The Northern Pacific Hotel and the Southern Pacific Hotel, joined by the aquasino, open all season (that is all the time!!) The only drinking establishment to venture into is ‘The Old Grog Barrel’ where the regulars go for watered down rum and local scuttlebutt: The Landlord, goes by the name of Admiral Vernon, will pass on messages to Neptune- Have some rum and thank you for a safe passage so far, Neptune. Not, in general, is the equator a place to stop, so soon enough we are well through, a quick glance back to a gigantic yellow neon sign in the sky, ‘Thank you for visiting the equator’ and with a flicker and the accompanying buzzing film-sound-effect its gone. So fast that we might have been dreaming…
POSTED BY BERRIMILLA DOWNUNDERMARS AT 09:30
