Thanksgiving in Californialand

I am now recovered from Thanksgiving. Last Thursday, fifteen of us gathered around two tables and carried out the ritual of eating much too much food. I had my tofurkey to keep me company. I misread the instructions and when I discovered my mistake it was too late to cook it in the oven. So, I had tofurkey on the Barbie (as in BBQ).

When we had all achieved blimp status, the young adults took the children off to the movies. The remaining adults gathered round for a game of 'Catch Phrase'. It involved getting your team mates to guess your word without saying the word. You then pass to an opposite team member. There is a timer that goes off unexpectedly and if you are holding the ball,the other team gains a point. It was a fast paced, raucous, rollicking good time. Much laughter. The teams were men vs women for simplicities sake. It was rough going for the men. The women pulled out all the stops. At one point, one of my team mates was totally discombobulated when the woman beside him demonstrated 'cleavage'. "When I push my boobs together..." However, we managed to gather our wits time and again and at the end of the night there were male voices raised in a chorus of "We are the champions!".

So, that was the first day. We ended up with three days of food and entertainment... and watching gridiron football. John and Steph made a mighty effort and all went well. A hearty congratulations and thanks to them.

When I grew up, we were taught that the original thanksgiving occurred to celebrate the survival of the Pilgrims ( refugees from religious and political persecution) through their first winter. This was done with the help of the local Native Americans. Some people now claim this as a "christian holiday". I have done some research:

"The Pilgrims, with a puritanical rejection of public religious display, held a non-religious Thanksgiving feast, aside from saying grace. In fact, they seem to have used the three days for feasting, playing games, and even drinking liquor." ( http://www.si.edu/encyclopedia_si/nmah/thanks.htm )

"This ‘festival’, which lasted three days, included the participation of nearly one hundred Native Americans. Governor William Bradford had invited the natives to show them appreciation, for helping his colony survive through the harsh weather conditions." ( http://www.essortment.com/all/thanksgivinghis_redw.htm )

So, thanksgiving was actually a harvest festival. It included people of different cultures, languages, spiritual beliefs, and skin colours. In this spirit, I wish all my diverse friends around the world many thanks for your friendship and love.

Kundan

Free To Be Me in Chiang Mai

The day after arriving in Chiang Mai, I go looking to rent a bicycle. The two places around the corner have none available, so, I ask the owners of my guest house. A brief conversation and the husband says, "My wife wants a bicycle for herself, so, we'll buy a new bicycle and you can rent it." A new bike, sounds good. "Just make sure it's big enough for me," I remind them. They agree and I go off to lunch. When I return the bike is waiting. It is big enough for me but it's painted bright PINK. Well, a gift horse and all that, so, I accept. I think I detect a bit of a smile being hidden by the husband.

So, I'm riding around Chiang Mai broadcasting on my psychic loudspeakers, "My Landlady bought it! My landlady bought it!" figuring that everyone will understand.

Well, today, I tell a new acquaintance about my pink bike and she informs me that the local press recently did a big spread about the gay community and guess how you can tell a gay man? You got it.

Yes, some of the men around here have been a bit more friendly than usual. How do you say, " a case of mistaken identity" in Thai?

Ah, yes, an interesting three weeks in Chiang Mai.

Cheers, Kundan

Mr Lucky Meets Auspicious

I enter the small comfortable room and sit expectantly on the deshi no isu, the student’s chair. Kaoru reaches down to the rack beside him as he says, “Here it is.” The colour of the bamboo is so light. Now that I see it, I realise how long a two point four really is. He sets it in my hands and says again how I am “Mr Lucky.” I ask if he knows the word, “Auspicious.”

Why is it that I am once again so thankful to receive a shakuhachi made by Miura-san? His clients are willing to pay him large sums of money to wait for lengths of time that most people in this world today would consider unrealistic. An average wait is one to one and a half years. Kaoru told me of one man who has been waiting three years now. What is going on? Have I entered an alternative reality. Yes, there is a great deal of time and skill involved in the making of one of Miura-san’s shakuhachis. The bamboo must be of a specific type and quality. It must taper at a specific rate for each different length of flute. The urushi (http://www.stylophilesonline.com/04-05/04urush.htm) must be built up carefully to create the dual taper chamber inside the instrument. Shakuhachi’s made without urushi , ji-nashi shakuhachi, are near impossible to tune correctly. If you get one note correct, then, another one is out. The urushi inside the bamboo helps to bring the notes into pitch but also to create a different tone. It is a complex procedure. The thickness of the bamboo makes for deeper holes. The root end of a bamboo has a curve that is unique and must be taken into account.

However, there is more to it than these practical concerns. Miura-san is a perfectionist. He will say that a shakuhachi is ready on a particular date and then decide that “it needs a few more days” and it will weeks later and you are still waiting. When someone receives his shakuhachi after three years, he will know that it is the finest that can be made by a man who is constantly improving his skill.

Another difference: When Miura-san finally sent off my 2.4, he was not selling it, he was letting it go. It was not a “finished product”, instead it had reached that point where it was ready to be transferred to me to continue it’s life. This bamboo and urushi now contains a great deal of Miura in it. It was passed into my hands and we have already begun the mutual melding; Kundan into the shakuhachi and shakuhachi into Kundan.

Kaoru asked if I could smell the urushi, the lacquer that is used to form the dual tapered inner chamber of the shakuhachi. I inhaled near the top opening. The smell of the still curing urushi was soft and brown. I now have some of that lacquer in my system. I hold the bamboo and the oil from my hands soaks slowly through the natural coating to aid in the darkening, spreading out from the holes that I cover and uncover. The blond will turn an ever deeper golden as I play. In the photo, you can see the two and a half year old one point eight beside the newly arrived two point four.

When I pick up the new instrument, my hands and arms search for comfortable positioning that allows free movement while giving proper covering of the holes. The size and weight make me even more aware of the need for the integrating of the instrument with my body. My whole body engaging in the blowing. I am playing for short periods and, then, setting it aside to shake out and relax, so that, I can again approach feeling the way. And, with each breath that brings a sound, the vibration is altering the structure of the bamboo.

When I told a fellow player that I was going to get a two point four, he said, “Yes, all students want to move up to a larger instrument when they first start playing.” I have been careful to cultivate in myself an appreciation for my one point eight. I now value it for it’s own unique beauty and abilities and, also, for how it has enabled me to move forward in my playing. Just the night before the arrival of it’s new companion, suddenly, unexpectedly, I was playing in a way that created a new tone and longer notes. When I blew for the first time into the two point four, I was able to make a full sound because of my playing with the one point eight. After blowing the two point four, my blowing is better on the two point eight.

About “Mr Lucky” and “Auspicious”

When I was leaving here six months ago, I told Kaoru that I wanted to buy a two-point-four length shakuhachi. Being the kind of teacher that he is, he said that there is only one maker that he totally trusts to make a consistently high enough quality shakuhachi like I should be playing. That maker is Miura-san. He made the one-point-eight shakuhachi that I bought on my first visit here. However, my budget did not allow such a thought. I told Kaoru that I could only spend 2/3rds of what Miura-san’s beginning price for a two-point-four.

A couple months later, I spoke with Kaoru about this again. Somehow, I had negotiated with myself so that I could spend 4/5ths what Miura-san starts at.

Shortly thereafter, Kaoru wrote in an email that he had spoken with Miura-san about my wish. Miura-san said what his normal beginning price is. However, he had recently been commissioned to make a professional level two point four. He had selected the finest materials. He was part way through when a crack appeared. He repaired the crack and put bindings on the affected area. Well, the customer didn't want the shakuhachi in that condition. So... Miura-san agreed to sell it to me for the price that I wished to pay. In the phot below, you can see the inlaid bindings that I so like.

The circumstances of my two point four experience are on top of the good fortune surrounding my first shakuhachi purchase and the happening of the World Shakuhachi Festival in Sydney soon after I began playing is why Kaoru calls me “Mr Lucky”.

As for why I asked if Koaru knew the word, “Auspicious”. It was a close call whether Miura-san would feel that it was time to release the flute from his workshop before I left Japan. He is a perfectionist. And, his timing was perfect... Perfectly Auspicious in that where I was born, the shakuhachi was passed on on my birthday!

Cheers, Kundan

PS- I asked Kaoru if Japanese musicians name their instruments. He said that, yes, he had heard of a few occasions. He told me of a man he know who calls his Shakuhachi “Prelude”. The man had ordered a very fine instrument and when it was finally ready, he didn’t have enough money to pay for it. So, he sold his car, a Honda Prelude.

Healing Report- Byron Shire and Surrounds

Hello All:
I'm happy to report that things are moving along on schedule. I have been dutifully following my health practitioners' advice and and am now at the point where I've begun to put some weight on the aforementioned foot. I used a combination of western herbal tablets , Japanese acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medical herbs. The last week, I have additionally been waving a moxa stick around my foot first thing in the morning before the application of Zen linament and the required elastic bandage.

About the moxa: I have had to move outside for the burning as the drift out of my room was disconcerting for my housemates. Even so, my clothes still are permeated by the herbal smoke. This causes me some anxiety. I can just picture it. I have ventured out and meet a beautiful woman who is throwing me friendly glances until she gets close and smells what she thinks is the indication of a dope fiend and thus I miss out on my chance for eternal bliss.

It's good to see the reduction in swelling of my foot. The two feet when viewed side by side was a shocking experience. Especially when it is my feet. I am happy to say that the skin around my feet has maintained a smooth finish as they returned to normal size. However, my toes, which are the last to deflate, have become all wrinkly! I will have to see if my private health insurance will cover a bit of nip and tuck.

I have to thank my many friends who have offered me a foot during my recuperation. My especial thanks to Sabina and Manjari who graciously taken on the extra work of having a partially mobile housemate.

This past weekend was quite an event. Being a New Age sensitive Bloke, I emerged into the public sphere at a Grigoryan Brothers classical guitar concert followed the next three days by the Byron Bay Writer's Festival. Both events were incredibly stimulating. I had some interesting conversations with other likewise mobility- challenged individuals and an all around good time. It has been a strange experience to have perfect strangers suddenly break off from a conversation to open a door for me or the like. At the Writer's Festival, I was offered a chair near the stage at an overflowing session. It was a bit disconcerting at first. I did eventually adjust to my status though it was hard to think of myself as 'disabled'. Being a Bloke, I was prepared to soldier on (though the closest I ever came to being a soldier was my year in military academy at age sixteen. Oh, yeh, there was that acid trip I had with my militant White Panther friend in 1970 San Francisco.)


The Grigoryan Brothers- Contemporary classical guitar duets. These guys have been playing since they were not much bigger than the instruments. And, they have been playing together almost as long. If you ever have the chance, you will be justly rewarded. They are on a 40+ stop tour of Australia and then are off for two weeks touring the USA and Europe.

www.grigoryanbrothers.com

The Writer's Festival- I have to admit that this was my first writer's festival ever. I didn't know what to expect. Was I going to be bored or what? Well, I have to say that I had a great time. Four out of five sessions that I attended every day were very relaxed and fun. A lot of humour. Many great stories from the authors' books or their lives. Some readings and more humour. In order that they happen to be stacked next to me, the books I bought were:

James Griffin, Songs for a Season at Ghost Town Bridge (With a cd talking and singing the contents of the book);

Gretel Killeen, The Night My Bum Dropped (This woman is funny!!! She did excerpts from the book like a stand up routine at the festival. It is a long time since I laughed so hard.);

Oren Siedler, Bruce and Me (Growing up half the year with a Buddhist mother in Oz and the other half with a con artist father in the USof A);

Don Walker, Shots (Songwriter/member of Cold Chisel and others. His prose is like poetry. I have to read it outloud to feel the cadences),

Imran Ahmed, Unimagined (A humourous and insightful account of growing up as a "Paki" in England) and finally,

Denise Scott, All That Happened at Number 26 (another Comedian's memiors).

I was tempted by others but managed to restrain myself. I have to say that if I had not attended this festival, I would have had little chance of knowing of these books and would have missed the chance to hear the authors speak of the their books and their lives as well as hear the readings. I will be attending next year's festival for sure.

http://www.byronbaywritersfestival.com.au/v1/index.php



I hope that you are all doing well.

Love, Kundan

Blessed With A New Experience of Life

Hello Friends:
If you haven't heard already, I have entered a new phase in my life. It is called the spiral, midshaft fracture of the 4th metatarsal dance. It is performed with the aid of two crutches. I am told that I will be able to let go of the crutches after two weeks and test my right foot. This has been going on for 24 hours or so. I was initiated into this through the ritual slipping on wooden stairs whilst wearing socks and banging on edge of next step down and slapping floor with foot to finish.

Two weeks is a good length of time to be using crutches in that it is about the length of time that people consider the situation to be new and of interest. Any longer would be a social waste.

I am pretty much pain free though I am moving a bit slower than before and having to make arrangements that I usually can avoid.

Love to you all,

Kundan the Sprightly

Arriving, Departing, Arriving

Transiting Changi

My flight arrived in Singapore's Changi Airport at just after 5 in the morning. My flight to Chennai (Madras) left at 9 that evening. I had almost booked the minimum 6 hour stay in the transit hotel but decided that the few hours sleep I had caught on the plane would hold me over. It was a successful plan. I was thinking of picking up my bag and exiting for my transit lounge at the budget terminal. The women at the information desk told me to just leave my bag and stay in the Terminal One transit lounge. I could collect my bag later from lost and found. Boy, was that a good idea!

For those of you who have not been in Changi Airport, it is the best airport that I have passed through. The transit area in Terminal One is two levels. The lower level is the 'transit mall'. However, in addition to the large duty free shops, the obligatory bar and a couple light eating places. there are other things for the comfort of the traveller.

If you want to watch TV, there are six large screens in one area each tuned to a different channel with comfortable easy chairs containing speakers in the arms.


A massage? There is a parlour with a large variety of choices.



There are two clusters of a dozen computers on stands that are free to use for broadband access to the internet. You have to stand to use them and they have fifteen minute sessions. There is also free wireless broadband access if you have your own laptop with you as I did.






However, my favourite place on that level is a corridor with plants and fountains and a row of ten chaise lounges for anyone to use. Notice my cart saving my space while I took this photo.

I do not understand why the airport was so quiet that day. There were very few people in transit and I managed three sessions on the chaise lounges. My first one, I settled into a very deep relaxation. Just on the border of sleep. Very refreshing.

The second level of the transit area contained a row of restaurants, the transit hotel, a pay by the hour transit lounge and a free cinema showing movies that I have never heard of. I did watch one. It was a grade B comedy called Balls of Fire. A kind of ping pong as kung-fu plot. It had Christopher Walken as a drag queen gang boss. I later walked in during a Bruce Willis film and turned around after two minutes. Besides a very predictable plot and gratuitous violence the acting was sooo bad.

The pay by the hour transit lounge offered $8.00 showers which were a welcome event in the middle of the day.

One special area for me was a section that will I suspect one day be covered with stalls but is now open space. I played several times with my tai chi forms and also the bagua unicorn form during the day. Here is a photo of the space. The pattern of the carpet. is much more disconcerting in the photo.


Notice my trolley in the edge of the photo. She was a cute little trolley. We went everywhere together.






I called her 'Olive'. She seemed OK with that. What she really liked was when she got to wear my hat.

Here she is watching the carp in the pond in the lounge.







Eventually, the time came for me to make my way to the budget terminal to catch my flight. I had to leave Olive at the top of the escalator. When I reached the lower floor, I wistfully looked back. She was gone... I turned and moved on.

Picking up my checked bag from lost and found only took about ten minutes though I had been warned to leave up to 45 minutes for that. I then had to walk to the other end of terminal one where I caught the "Sky Train" monorail to terminal two. I took the elevator to the basement where I caught a bus to the "Budget Terminal".

The Budget Terminal really lived up to its name. It looked like a converted maintenance hanger from the nineteen fifties. I think they bought the paint from a discount outlet. You know, those cans that they mixed incorrectly. The eating area looked like a cheap cafeteria. I had to wait an hour for my check in to start. I played backgammon on my macbook. When I got to the check in, I discovered that my duffel was two and a half kilos over weight. Tiger airways only has a fifteen kilo weight allowance. When you buy online, you can pay for extra weight. They tell you that if you pay at the airport it will be more expensive. This was a flight going to India. The clerk didn't even blink an eye at two and a half kilos.

Next step was to enter the waiting lounge. The guard directed me, without my trolley, towards a strange booth. As I turned the corner into the booth, I saw one of those devices to check the size of your carry on. Beside that a scale! Then I glanced up to see this woman on a stool being very bored. She was waving me through. I obliged as quickly as possible.

Financial Advice
When buying booze for your "Indian friend" remember that to them Johnny Walker is Johnny Walker. I bought the more expensive Black Label thinking that I would uhm come out ahead. When I went to er... transfer it, I discovered that my "Indian Friend" did not think of is as precious as I knew it was. I don't usually drink whiskey but I may have to start on this trip.

I also bought a bottle of Bombay Saphire to have as a G&T in the hot weather that I was headed towards.

I was happily waiting in the Budget boarding lounge of the Budget Terminal for budget flight when the call came through and we all filed along a winding line (pretending that our carry-ons weighed nothing) to another holding pattern. I noticed that I was only one of three caucasians on the plane. Then it was an orderly walk across the tarmac to the stairs up to the plane. We all got seated and were in the air on our way. It was an easy flight. We landed in Chennai airport and we were in India!

Read this first.
I Love India.

As usual, when the plane began to slow most of the people on the plane were standing and retrieving luggage. I waited, knowing that we would have to wait once we came to a full stop. It's always the same. I then stood in my aisle seat and retrieved my carry on and computer.

The doors finally opened and people moved forward. Now, usually, when this happens, there is an understanding that if you are ready to go, then, the people behind you will hesitate slightly and you can slip in the flow. Not this time. People move full steam ahead. I had to pry my way into the line. We were back in India!

Down the stairs, into a bus that drove us twenty metres and then up a long ramp that suddenly changed to carpet beginning with an edge that looked like an elephant had been chewing on it. When we hit hard floor again, the missing floor tiles had been replaced with rough cement. The walls had a pattern of large rectangular tiles floating in a pattern. You could see from quite a distance that the painters of the wall behind the tiles had splashed onto the tiles and wiped off the wrongly place paint with rags.. almost. We were walking down a corridor that was totally empty. As we approached a woman in airport authority uniform, she indicated that we should pass on her left side. We dutyfully obliged. Why have authority if you don't use it. It would be a total waste.

Yes, I was in India!

My driver was waiting for me with a sign that read "Mr Ebnam". I recognised the name of the hotel. It was nice to tell the rickshaw drivers that I had a driver with me. They lost interest very quickly. Crossing to the parking lot, I was lead along the zebra crossing when we could. I mean, they are open game as parking spaces, aren't they? Once packed into the car, my driver manuevered with some skill through the cars that were making up their own rules in the parking lot. Out on the street and under an incomplete elevated freeway and we were on a main road.

I had a very good driver. He kept the line in the middle of the car all of the time. I was glad that it was mid-night and not so crowded. I discovered an interesting way that the Indians have of calming traffic. You place a metal barricade across one lane of traffic and then a couple car lengths later you put one across the other lane of traffic. In Chennai, this was done on the main roads where you had two or three lanes going each way. Another thing that I noticed on the ride from the airport is the thriftiness of Indian drivers. Why only have two lanes of traffic just because there are lines on the road indicating such? If you can fit four vehicles (a bus, a car, a rickshaw and a motorcycle) across the road than it is much more economical. You are getting full use of the road that way!

My driver was very proud of his horn. He played it all the time. I was to learn further mysteries of the Indian highways in the next few days.

We arrived at my hotel by some untraceable route. I chequed in and was taken to my room. You probably know about the ways that interior designers make a space look larger than it really is; mirrors and such. Whoever had done my hotel room had discovered how to make a space look smaller and less pleasing to the eye than it really is. I guess it's an art. I tipped the bellboy, took a bucket shower and went to bed.

WTBA Tai Chi Camp Byron '08

Organised by Kerry and Steve and led by Eli Montegue. Five and a half days of training.

Most people camped or rented cabins at Belongil Fields on the edge of Byron. People came from South Australia, Western Australia, Far North Queensland, Brisbane, Byron Area and New Zealand.

Here we are doing a Morning Gathering Chi Gung.



Brother Ben and his girlfriend Eleanor came with Eli from Wales.










We started the morning at Belongil Fields with training in Silk Reeling form of the Yang Lu Chan Tai Chi followed enthusiastically by breckie put on by Kerry, Steve and assistants.











It was then off to Temple Byron where we learned the Unicorn Bagua Form. There are eight animal forms in Bagua. The Unicorn form is said to be uplifting of your spirits. It is a short enough form to learn during the one camp. I also bought Erle's DVD to help me remember the finer points.

A few Unicorn shots.









Only a brother would be a model for this one!










And, then,...









Ben and Eleanor practicing.



"Once more with feeling!"















Wally Says, "Hello"















He will teach you this one for $10,000.00 (Supermarket coupons are accepted for no more than half payment.)






There were twenty people lined up pressing against that finger just moments before the photo was taken. They landed thirty metres away. (POA)









Eleanor and Ben practicing some more.







Then, it was lunch! Lucious Restaurant catered vegetarian lunches for us and they were great. Everyone was raving about how delicious the food was.










Lunch was followed by the learning of the Large San Sau, "A" side. Large San-sau is a form that is practiced with a partner to help to experience the applications of movements. I managed to learn only part of it but I practice that bit daily so that I can build on it when I next am in the proper learning situation. This session took place in the Aikido Dojo. There were mats on the floor and it was a bit strange having a slippery surface that you sank into. "Ahhh Grasshopper! You must be prepared for all situations."




Steve in action.









Ben demonstrates an application.





Five to six o'clock found some of us in the yurt learning some Chi Gung from Wally. A nice way to end the day.















There was much that I couldn't show. There was all the cameraderie and new faces and old faces. The joy of learning and the energy that the forms bring with them. I finished with a high and the pleasure of knowing that it will happen again next year. It's on my schedule all ready. (PS- Thanks to the ever ebullient Kerry and Kiesha for the use of some of their photos.)