November 21, 2006 Leaving Seattle for Australia via
LAX on Mon Nov 6, I landed in Sydney on Wed Nov 8, where I dined Farida
Irani, her husband Sheriyar, son Nekzad, special guest from Spain Leon
Fernando del Canto, and various local personalities (Dr. Shaun Mathews,
Dr. Rama Prasad, Dr. Shankardev Saraswati) who had participated in the
April 2006 Ayurvedic conference held in that lovely city. We worked
on charting a course for the next Ayurvedic conference (scheduled for
April 2006), and listened incredulous as Shankardev & Jayne Stevenson,
partners in Big Shakti
(www.bigshakti.com),
described their unfathomable mistreatment at Sydney's US Consulate.
On Thu Nov 9 I flew north, landing in the rain but missing
providentially the big storm the night before. [Nov 16 would see snow
in the Blue Mountains, and in & around Melbourne; very unusual for this
late in the Aussie spring.] Two weeks sped by on Rose Baudin's land,
punctuated by the first leech of this visit (on the night of Nov 11),
which I discovered when I inspected a curious itch that I noted just
after entering bed (I grabbed it & tossed it out before it could latch on),
and by several other leeches that I picked off as the days passed, with
but one bite, on the side of my left foot, on Tue (the day of Mars) Nov
14. That day I successfully intercepted five, but the sixth that got me.
As usual, the puncture just kept bleeding ...
On the night of Mon Nov 13: a marsupial "mouse" (from a species not
known to love fire) ran brazenly, repeatedly & inexplicably onto &
over the metal plate next to which a fire was blazing.
The other curious rodent story of the fortnight: 5 or 6 weeks
previously Rose's then tenant had a 15-foot python disgorge a
half-eaten rat (complete with small red worms) onto his shirt, after
which she vomited directly onto his face. Had this happened to me, I
think I might have been forced to loudly exclaim, a la the late Steve
Irwin, "Crikey!"
November 4, 2006 And now, "Happy New Year" - for
one of India's two most important new year's days (out of a dozen or so).
Let's begin our new year with a tour of Manhattan establishments that
one might consider patronizing, beginning with Ashtanga Yoga New York
at 430 Broome Street #2, home of both the Sri Ganesha Temple and the
Sri Ganesha Tea Stall. Head east across Lafayette, and on Broome's
north side between Mulberry & Mott you will find the excellent vegan
Asian restaurant known as Wild Ginger (380 Broome St., 212-966-1883),
where Dr. Scott & I dined often during this trip. It is not far from
there to Rice to Riches, at 37 Spring St. (212-274-0008), a shop
devoted exclusively to rice pudding (I tried and can recommend the
tiramisu flavor), or to Two Boots to Go-Go, at 74 Bleeker St.
(212-777-1033). The "two boots" of name refer to the "boots" of
Italy & of Louisiana; the pizza slices are named after quasi-famous
celebrities of yester-decades, like the Tony Clifton (wild mushrooms,
Vidalia onions, sweet red pepper pesto & mozzarella).
Eaten your fill? Then head for the Sunshine Cinema on Houston near
2nd; I saw The Last King of Scotland there, and marveled at Forest
Whitaker's portrayal of Idi Amin. Further west on Houston, at Broadway,
is the Angelika Cinema; go up Broadway to 13th and you reach the
cinema where Eddie Stern & his wife Jocelyn & I went to view the
must-see Flags of our Fathers (after which I appreciated Clint
Eastwood all the more).
Hungry again? Trader Joe's has just opened a location near Union
Square, and on the south edge of the square, on 14th, is the 3-story
edition of Whole Foods, one of many that dot Manhattan. A new one will
in fact soon appear near the Sunshine, obviating the need for the
health-conscious SoHo connoisseur ever to go north of Houston again -
unless it might be for good, dependable Italian food at Buona Sera
(94 University Place, 212-627-9200), which stays open late.
Back in Texas, the snouts have returned; butterflies everywhere, again.
The two local weekly newspapers (the Floresville Chronicle-Journal,
which my mother's father used to call the "Floresville Headache";
and the Wilson County News) reported the mauling of a Chihuahua by
a mountain lion a mere eleven miles from my mother's house. The vet
who attended to the wounded canine report that two or three of the
big cats inhabit the county, each staking out a range for itself of
roughly 1500 sq mi (nearly 4000 sq km). If only the cougars preferred
insects to pets ...
Off to Seattle on Nov 1, for evening events at Samadhi Yoga Center
on Capitol Hill (1205 E. Pike St., 206-329-4070,
www.samadhi-yoga.com)
and at the Life in Balance
Ayurvedic Rejuvenation Center in Fremont (418 N. 35th. St., 206-547-1330).
Then came the full moon ...
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