(2024)
The Sunrise on New Years Day, from the Land of the Rising Sun – courtesy of our correspondant in Japan.
This was several hours before the earthquake, which was off of the other side of the country, so no harm befell Ben - and Thank-you for the numerous enquiries of concern.
” Like being swung about in a hamock, except I was in bed! ” ,is our first hand report. And I note, that’s from an epi-centre about 200 miles away.
It is perhaps a fitting begining to the year, to take a moment to reflect on how fortunate we are to be here.
A natural “disaster” in the UK is (generally) heavy rain on a bank holiday, or perhaps 2 inches of snow (I also have pictures of the 4 feet or so of snow that fell in Hokkaido – where Christmas was celebrated, which was barely worthy of notice by locals). Any movement of the ground is inevitably due to council workmen, rather than tectonic activity.
Equally, while midge bites are irritating, they are generally not fatal, and our one (exceptionally rare) venemous snake is really only likey to bite you if you poke it with a stick . Indeed the most commmon scenario is probably, inadvertantly picking up a snake to poke a suspicious looking stick with.
All things considered, with our temperate climate, stable geography, and accomodating fauna, we get off very lightly on the world stage.
So, as we advance into ’24, I shall try to appreciate a bit more, that the traffic is merely busy, and not battling with an approaching tsunami. The rain is just water, not hot volcanic ash, and the seagulls, who have cheekilly stolen a burger from the BBQ, are only a threat to my lunch, and not my actual person.
Happy – disaster free- 2024 to all of you.
Nezt week on IaDL – time for a cunnning plan!
Dalmallyfest the Asylum 