Crtd 12-01-16  Lastedit 14-08-20

After putting the new mast I got frantically involved in making a web system to organize my study notes of Ethica, a hard-to-read philosophy classic that I broke my teeth on several times in my life. It is written by Baruch de Espinoza, a 17^th century Amsterdam Jew who got fed up with his family business, started studying Latin and philosophy to a level high enough to get banned from "the people of Israel" and, due to that blessed people's good connection with town government, kicked out of Amsterdam. A bit surprising when you read Ethics, far too difficult to understand for such arseholes as those Jewish elders of Amsterdam showed themselves [read their ban in wiki]. But may be he had expressed his ideas simpler in private conversations when younger, after all it happened when he was 23 or so. By Christmas the web was roughly standing, so I could start filling the notes pages you can click to from the book-text page ^{[to EthicaWeb]}.

Charles: ...sorry boss...

Charles sent me a text message. Just about the time, I thought, he would have finished my money ^{[what happened]}. "Sorry boss", his house got totally inundated in a big rainstorm (he did not explain his refusal to come to the phone, probably inundated as well...), but if I still wanted him, he was ready to come. I texted back asking whether he still had all the money and could come, as agreed with the sail cotton. That was too much for him to answer. That he may soon die slowly and painfully.

Time for an end-of-year trip to Nairobi. Lydia and me, after all, had planned our break-through as a jazz duo on the end-of-year party, then go viral on the internet mid January. And some golf, of course.

...Back at Royal Nairobi Golf Club. My caddie's arm got broken when he refused to hand over his mobile during a robbery...

Lydia claimed she had a persistent throat virus, and since mornings I used to wake up with sounds from another part of the house more likely to be heard at a crowded seals' beach this may not entirely have been a pretext. At the end-of-year party I found Willemijn pregnant again. Magnanimously, she accepted my sincere apologies. At around nine that evening I would have broken my record interrupted regular heartbeat 2011 (in a self designed test: no medicines at all), but 4 hours earlier I went irregular. Still a promising performance, especially since it lasted only 4 days (also no med), which is far below the recent recovery periods. Anyway, I'll surely die of something else.

Then the lot went for a safari lodge and I was happy to join. We entered a lawn under big trees with a view on an large open space for zebra, giraffe, buck to graze, for Cessnas to land and, at night, for hyena's to howl. Especially the zebras behaved like cattle.

No Photoshop, just taken backwards over my shoulder

...Olerai Lodge...we all had to sign a paper accepting that the management denied any responsiblity for loss&damage to us&our property due to thieves&other wild animals, which I did after duly adding in my impeccable handwriting that neither I would be responsible for, as I put it: "anything whatsoever". So the party could start!

...Typing my Spinoza notes the rest took a lap or six on drinks in the shade...

...The profound peace and ebriety simply begged for an incident...(Children l.t.r. Jes, Cline, Dan (far), Nathan, Ella )...

The profound peace and ebriety simply begged for an incident. One came, among the children, not serious enough for its welcome task, but by a stroke of luck the parents' reaction raised it to the appropriate level. Little Dan came in crying. He had been pushed by the others on a swing chair and had gone to earth head down. Auauau, he insistently repeated. Under firm leadership of the parents, the pissed company went straight for the worst scenario: cerebral concussion. All drunken adults (only his mam was sober) surrounded the boy, who now knew himself the star of the show, understood of course what was expected of him in this reponsibility and went fourth gear noise wise, so I went out to see the remaining children's scene. I encountered a close-together, lonely, decisively down-spirited, silently whispering and guilty lot. Dan's sister (9 or so) was the only one now and then going inside to check, and then returned to duly transmit the parent's hysteria: "I put three fingers" she whispered, panicking, "and asked him how many, he did not knooooowww!". The father came out to interrogate the children about the details. He tried to pose as cool-spirited technical detective identifying all parameters of the incident, and everybodies exact role in it, but failed due to unsteady articulation. Then he shortly said: "Well, thank you" and went back in. Nathan (9) turned to his sister Jes (10) and whispered: "He meant it sarcastic". I was surprised he knew the word and properly applied it. But Jes understood even more and went for a soother: "No, he just wanted to thank us for the information". 
Jes and Nathan's Mam was off. I was appointed acting mother, driving them home the next day. They appreciated my proposal to sleep with them instead of in my own room, we called mammie to duely shed some tears on the mobile. Then we could even read our books a little, only interrupted by the zebras adding, from the outside dark, to the consolation by chafing their back sides almost against our windows and hitting them with their tails. So, we could sleep.
Dan, of course in the morning did not even remember what happened. Obviously, some thought even that worrying, but I suspected it reassuringly due to the Google-genre anti concussion-trauma treatment the parents had applied to him at night, waking him up several times.

An adult should stay with you for the first 12 - 24 hours after the concussion. Going to sleep is okay. However, someone should wake you up every 2 or 3 hours for the at least the first 12 hours. They can ask a simple question, such as your name, and then look for any changes in the way you look or act

Back home!

...Some dhow jobs remain but no time: Spinoza first...

The picture above is carefully taken for its dramatic effect (but let me stress the vegetation had rooted there unmanipulated and entirely on its own initiative) but there is really no worry or danger. Neither is there time, Spinoza first. Earlier I forgot to report another important event: the mounting of the ship bell, kindly donated by my sister [video of inauguration].

...Pumping clean bottom water for a swim between the algae...

The neighbours' algae barrier indeed had broken down quickly ^{[what happened]}. The threshold of discomfort has not risen high enough to provoke action on the adjacent compounds. But I found the algae are very light and float on top of the water, so I can swim in totally clean water when I pump it up from the bottom. According to Spinoza Ethica my solution is a act of virtue.