picture me

Thats me on the extreme left with my colleagues at a pub / restaurant in Sakai, a small town in Japan. we tried the japanese drink sake that night. a little trivia i picked on the net.
Made from rice, "Sake" is an alcoholic beverage peculiar to Japan. The Japanese Liquor Law defines Sake as, "made from rice, rice koji and water using fermentation and filtration processes". This is a definition in principle and refers to the traditional type of Sake peculiar to Japan. In 1944 during World War II, Japanese Sake manufacturers started adding alcohol in the process of Sake brewing in order to add volume to their Sake production. This addition of alcohol was to make up for the shortage of Sake, caused by the decrease in the amount of rice grown during the war. In short, all Sake can be divided into two groups: that with added alcohol, and that made with rice only.
We had the one with alcohol in it ( tee hee hee ) .
cheers.

mind of the beholder

... it was early evening, stars were beginning to peek out. and what was i doing on the deck ? cursing ! I was a gas engineer then and was technically 'on-call' 24 hrs. we had to do some internal cargo transfer and i was summoned to be stationed at the tank dome to monitor the cargo transfer. lines were being set up, while i waited. the constant drone over the walkie talkies ...
" ... charlie 601 open, golf 503 shut ... "
" ... confirm aft liquid header isolated "
" ... affirmative."
poor chap, that cadet, he was out on the deck like me, he was moving around setting valves at the chief officer's command.
i was not really in the best of moods. nobody likes to work after hrs. it was toward the end of my contract and my efficiency graph was dipping pretty seriously.
" B ... u ready out there, starting the pump."
" roger that, standing by"
well, there really wasnt much for me to do, except check pump parameters or lookout for leakages. we stopped for a while. lazy bum, that i was, started looking for a place to sit. we had wooden planks on the tank dome and there was enough place for me to lie down, staring at the sky. my mind was clouded with thoughts of my sign off
the starry sky, the cool breeze ...
will i be relieved on time ...
the moon, the object of desire for many ...
what is taking the company so long to reply ...
why would so many people think the moon was so beautiful
i wonder if my mail reached the office
" B ... one more time, stand by"
yeah right, back to work. was desperate to get it over with.
a few days later, when the captain informed me that my reliever was on his way, it was not a moment too soon. and yes, i was back on the planks staring at the sky. my, it looked awesome. so many stars and the moon, yes the moon, it was so beautiful ...
beauty and the mind of the beholder