Dolphin Address 2008
Hello Visitors,
It may seem nothing much has happened on ‘Dolphin Address’, but it’s just like early spring: you don’t notice anything yet, but you know that under the ground there is a lot of milling around.
This goes for Dolphin Address as well. The German version will disappear altogether and the tourist stories will be postponed for lack of tourists. Instead there will be longer stories every three weeks. The videos will keep changing every fortnight and via ‘Dolphin Address’ you’ll go straight to the last edition. For the latest news you can scroll down the right hand column.
Dusty remains the core of the site, but all the same there will be room for other pleasantry.
Stay tuned, enjoy, Jan
My workshop
Dolphin Address 47
December 22th 2008
Lately I have the wind in my sail, but also my sail in the wind. And that is truly a battle! When the pipes are up I take the stone off the sail. The package of a square metre folds out to three by eight metres. Often the winds helps but you've got to watch it. When the sailcloth lies double across the pipes I tie the upper side to the strap that runs over the pipes on the roof.
Smart
Dolphin Address 46
December 19th 2008
In the old days it was very not done to speak in praise of yourself. We were taught that self-glorification has a foul smell. If you know not better, it feels so as well. Then you even feel embarrassed if somebody else is blowing his own trumpet. For an artist this is a professional hazard. It is not easy to present the most elated emotions in modest words.
Start me up
Dolphin Address 45
December 12th 2008
Finally I found it! I had everything sorted for my workshop when I came back from Holland, including my vision. But the rubber strips that were to keep the long upper pipes in the gutterettes refused to stick to the roof. Whatever glue I tested. Of course I considered drilling holes in the roof and screwing the strips on. The rubber would probably seal them off. But my roof is my top vital shelter against the Irish weather and I dare not mess with it.
No Lullaby
Dolphin Address 44
December 5th 2008
I don't quite know how to break this to you out there, but it's going to happen sooner or later anyway. I'll cut to the chase right here. I have a severe kidney disorder, caused by taking lithium carbonate for 30 years. Now this is no party drug.
Warm & broke
Dolphin Address 43
November 24nd 2008
Actually my continental intermezzo should have been at least as exciting as my voyage out. But except for my favorite stick going down the drain, I have worked like a boulder at springtide and acquired with razor-sharp wit. Fortunately most of the time I found myself among girlfriends who knew it all much better than me, which took away the waste of worry for a while.
And after
Dolphin Address 42
November 2nd 2008
Tuesday afternoon at last the bus was ready to drive. This was not free from nerve-racking prospects either. As the man wasn’t sure about the size of the belt, he had ordered two different sizes, just to be sure. Neither fitted.
Greystoned
Dolphin Address 41
November 2nd 2008
Sometimes luck smiles on me in exuberance. Like when I receive yet another email cheering that I have inherited, won or can easily earn millions of dollars. I stopped falling for this a long time ago, but still. I mean, that they are thinking of me.
To shut your mouth
Dolphin Address 40
October 25th 2008
As, on my way to Holland, I pass through Dublin anyway, I was able to book an appointment at the Dental Academy before my voyage as well as on the return journey. My teeth, over time, are going to be perfectly repaired, fully for free. In exchange I make them available for education and therefore have to be on time. This is as easy as falling off a log for a Dutchman.
The wheel
Dolphin Address 39
October 22th 2008
Without any doubt the invention of the wheel is one of the most important in the history of mankind. Some even claim it to be the utmost important. Others invent it anew every other day, as a figure of speech. Few know the wheel played an important, if not decisive role in the building of the Egyptian pyramids.
Total loss
Dolphin Address 38
October 21th 2008
When for instance I have not seen Dusty for a few days the ocean begins to look empty and deserted, like an indifferent lover, a tyreless car, a mathematical problem that time after time gives a different result. But once I had moored my boat in White Strand Bay, it felt like a go-between, a phone that could ring any moment, an infrastructure in which everything knew its place.
Bull’s I
Dolphin Address 37
October 19th 2008
Of course it’s great that Dusty is regularly near the boat, but on closer analysis it is, just like all other toys, something that stands in the way of a direct encounter. She is fascinated by my fabrication, which, by the way, also to the human eye is of odd make-up, in view of the number of binoculars I saw focused on it. Also it has inspired nomenclature.
Red-handed
Dolphin Address 36
October 11th 2008
There is a stiff breeze, which together with the swell and the backwash produces slosh waves. These are easily mistaken for the dorsal fin of a dolphin. Paste this picture in the mind of eager swimmers and it will satisfy all the criteria for wishful watching. In other words, after an hour of watching you see dolphins everywhere. But still, if you see the true fin, suddenly all is beyond doubt. Immediately I send the pre-fabricated text ‘She’s here’ to some soul mates.
The other boat
Dolphin Address 35
October 9th 2008
It has been a week since I last swam with Dusty. After that I have mostly been at White Strand, but I have not even seen her from a distance. Other swimmers, who were looking out for her at Green Island and Spanish Point, came to the same disappointment. Like Jane remarked, each year around this time she is away a lot, probably hunting. In view of the coming winter this figures. She is topping up her winter fat.
Energy
Dolphin Address 34
October 3rd 2008
One of the first things I do in the morning, after coffee, is starting the bus. Then, for the time being, I can run my fingers over the keyboard, because this is how I charge the extra battery that feeds my computer. Moreover, if necessary, I can switch on the heating. While the weather is good in the daytime, it can get pretty cold at night. So mostly I can leave it off.
Autonomous
Dolphin Address 33
October 3rd 2008
Because Dusty more and more swims with boats, it’s getting also harder to draw her attention. The easiest way for this is to take along toys, although actually this is ‘verboten’ by Ute. One of Dusty’s most favourite toys are two bottles, each half-filled with water and strung together. After this ‘Two bottle island’ in the ‘Boat house bay’ was named.
Riding the waves
Dolphin Address 32
October 2nd 2008
Yester and today gale force ten came in from the west. That is from the Atlantic Ocean. Odd though, when you reason about the waves that arise from it. First the wind begins to blow, from which waves originate. These catch more wind, so they get higher. Therefore they catch more wind, get even higher, etc.
Ruses and tricks
Dolphin Address 31
September 29th 2008
Because Dusty more and more swims with boats, it’s getting also harder to draw her attention. The easiest way for this is to take along toys, although actually this is ‘verboten’ by Ute. One of Dusty’s most favourite toys are two bottles, each half-filled with water and strung together. After this ‘Two bottle island’ in the ‘Boat house bay’ was named.
I am a glider plane
Dolphin Address 30
September 29th 2008
Still my Rip Curl wetsuit was good for four years. But four millimetres on the arms and legs and six on my chest could not keep the water from leaking through the tears in the shoulders. After expert advice from Kate and George and some searching on the apneu department of www.scubastore.com I have bought a 5 mil Beuchat long john and jacket.
In the deep
Dolphin Address 29
September 21th 2008
As Dusty has not shown up these last few days at long last I can enjoy the seabed without being distracted. Therefore today I cut around the corner again, much farther than where I usually turn.
Holy Water
Dolphin Address 28
September 21th 2008
Years ago, when I still lived on the farm, my kitchen sink was my altar. Often I would turn the tap fully open in order to, from my skilfully cupped hands, plaster myself endlessly with cold water. In my sink was a hemispherical cup with a flat pebble in it. From my cheek catch I would blow a spurt of water into it to try and wash the pebble out.
Das Boot
Dolphin Address 27
September 19th 2008
When, as usual, we leave the water far too frozen, Jacky motherly pops her head over the half-door of her camper: ‘Would you guys like a hot drink?’ We nod in shivers, grateful and hastily strip off our wetsuits in the rain and a biting Northern wind. A fat towel later we warm our hands and faces to a scalding mug and swiglets of hot coffee warm their way to our insides.
Skinny Flippin’
Dolphin Address 26
Juli 29th 2008
The wind whistles through the three wrought-iron dolphins that adorn the head barrier on the inside parking lot at White Strand. There is a steady drizzle and I got my squeegee from the front to every now and then wipe the rear window with an arm from the inside to observe Dusty. In edition 24 I said I did not even contemplate going into the sea without a wetsuit and swam around the ‘Veenmeer’. Today, for the first time in four years I swam in my togs again with my mono and wing.
Into the brine
Dolphin Address 25
Juli 27th 2008
When I arrive at White Strand I reverse the van into the parking space. This way I don’t have to stand barefoot or on my diving socks on the chippings when I change into my wetsuit as there is a concrete pavement alongside the grass. Moreover I can sit comfortably on my bed and possibly read or write while keeping an eye on the bay in case Dusty appears.
The ‘Veenmeer sandstone quarry’
Dolphin Address 24
Juli 20th 2008
This afternoon I went for a swim in the ‘Veenmeer’, or, like I used to call it for many a year, ‘My Private Waterhole’. But now it had been at least five years since I took a dip there.
Unspiration
Dolphin Address 23
Juli 5th 2008
They said I should calm down now that I’m 60. Well, there was no need for that. It went as a matter of course: just a little creative dip.
You see, they said, your body does not lie. Possibly, but this has little to do with my physical body. I have been through this more often.
Decaday
Dolphin Address 22
June 24th 2008
Those who regularly travel on my train of thought know that I am modesty personified. That is a fine quality on which I only draw credit by exception. Such an event now occurs. On the 27th of June it is not only my birthday, it is also my decaday;
I am going to be 60.
Dolphin Dynamics
Dolphin Address 21
June 22th 2008
Until last Thursday, I used to swim with Dusty like a senior dolphin swimmer. Easy did it, by affectionate strokes and uneventful fly-bys. I’d had no prior meditation or hysteria typical of spring cleaning, but a sudden impulse to go dynamite with Dusty again ‘like in the old days at Fanore’
Flower Power (for Eriko)
Dolphin Address 20
June 19th 2008
Though rough winds did shake the darling buds of May, June is now in full fledge, kissing the soils for the second wave of plant life. The thrift is shaking ever more weary heads and the trumpet flowers have ceased to sound. Vines are winding their shoots in astoundingly complex dimensions and the camomile is gaining inch by inch. Clover and buttercups are still pouring over and ox-eyed daisies inhabit the slopes of White Strand in incredible numbers.
The Eye
Dolphin Address 19
June 18th 2008
That’s what I’m saying. The sun is in a sheer blue sky. The water is clearer than it has been for a long time. I’m ready to jump into my suit. The video camera is in the underwater housing and this is screwed tight upon the waterwing. Suit outside out, socks on. Even the text Rod asked me to send him if she would pop up while he was taking a walk, I have already keyed in: Lo and behold, Her Majesty has arrived. This way I only have to confirm and send it when she surfaces.
Dorsal fin
Dolphin Address 18
June 11th 2008
I feel sluggish and tired, though very fine. This afternoon I swam in very murky water, therefore I mainly went far out and way around the right hand corner. There the water was still reasonably clear and it was great fun to play in the waves. There you can see all the weeds streaming together from side to side and with dazzling speed, because sometimes it looks like the weeds are almost standing still and the seabed shoots to and fro.
Diving
Dolphin Address 17
June 11th 2008
So this afternoon I made another attempt to take my diving bottle into the water. Although it was quite a struggle to get into my ‘new’ monofin, at last I succeeded. Puffing and panting, I made for the seabed. The bottle rather slid over my head and rolled from one side of my back to the other.
Lost and Found
Dolphin Address 16
June 9th 2008
As the water reflects the sky and the weather is good today, the White Strand water looks like a seaside resort on the Mediterranean. But when you go in, a disappointment awaits: the underwater visibility is not over 30 cm.
A Bridal Veil
Dolphin Address 15
June 4th 2008
Encouraged by yesterday’s exquisite swimming feast this morning I was in the White Strand water at half past six.
Upon rattling the buoy chain she stayed where she was. So I used a well-tried ruse. I found back yesteryear’s chain in my weight-belt space and shared half of it with Rod.
Sunday morning
Dolphin Address 14
June 1st 2008
The best water is in the early morning. It was as smooth as glass and had a pristinity that was fluently articulated by the bended edge of breakerettes that met their rest upon the sandy strand. My eye was caught by a dark stroke.
For Real
Dolphin Address 13
May 30th 2008
Suddenly she’s there, coming from behind, as usual, and making a short turn around me. I reach out to her and she swims by, just within range and my fingers glide along her body. She nearly disappears in the underwater fog.
The dolphin tribunal
Dolphin Address 12
May 17th 2008
Someone said: ‘If all of us go to Sladeen, Fungi surely will come over because of us being together are like an ultimate dolphin magnet.’ But as usual Fungi happened to have his own agenda and surprised everyone by having three dolphins as visitors. So then we dreamed of the dolphins having their own conference to provide us clumsy aficionados with the follow-up that was curiously absent.
Memory lane
Dolphin Address 11
May 3rd 2008
The wind whistles around the house I am minding. The hens, indignantly cackling, are blown against the inside of the wire mesh of their run. A plastic bag flies by, 22 eurocent for the environment. The sea is wearing angry white whiskers and this in an offshore wind. From the other side she must look like a huge monster gritting her teeth.
You’re not alone
Dolphin Address 10
April 18th 2008
When Ryanair safely landed me down from the sky at Shannon airport I by then had done my good deed of the day. Hardly I sat down upon my luxurious wingchair or my neighbour, Mathilde, confessed to me her fear of flying. I explained to her that by far most airplane accidents happen on the ground, so in the air she was past worrying.
Meadow
Dolphin Address 9
April 1st 2008
Right now the wind is blowing from the southeast and my flag rag flutters tight on the pole. Five-foot waves swell towards the rocks, are building up, trip over themselves and end their ocean voyage in sun-drenched, blinding white against a black-blue background of clouds like warships, about to run aground.
'Like'
Dolphin Address 8
March 30th 2008
I don’t recall when it started, but all of a sudden the word ‘like’ conquered the world, albeit adapted to each separate language. Usually such a craze is not a phenomenon in its own right. It fills a need that is globally perceived but soon it serves as a stopgap and is used detached from its origin.
Faith
Dolphin Address 7
March 20th 2008
In my Dingle years, someone remarked that no matter how many people were swimming with Fungi, each and every one of them believed to get his own very special attention.
Dissertation
Dolphin Address 6
March 7th 2008
Recently rumours have been circulating that Dusty is following a three-day course to pass herself off as an academic staff member. Our free lance correspondent visited her and recorded the following:
Sonogram from our correspondent in Lackanishka.
Dolphin Address 5
March 3rd 2008
Currently Dolphin HQ, the global umbrella authority for dolphins and whales, has admitted considering the withdrawal of their Ambassador Dolphins. Reports keep pouring in about abuse, negligence, ignorance and other disrespectful conduct from humans against dolphins.
Mind in the water
Dolphin Address 4
Februari 28th 2008
Lots of people regard the dolphin as an imaginary cuddly animal. From a distance they admire her elegance and the effortless ease with which she glides through the water. All kinds of human virtues are ascribed to her, of which her intelligence seems the most impressive.
To Dolphin or not to dolphin
Dolphin Address 3
Februari 21th 2008
Today the sea looks like a crumpled ball of paper that has been hastily flattened. It could be the paper on which dolphin ‘protectors’ exchange their hate-mail and appeal to their governments to once and for all make swimming with a dolphin illegal. I put this matter to Dusty:
Comfy
Dolphin Address 2
Februari 8th 2008
Half an hour ago the sea was virtually calm, but now she rolls out white runners again. The wind has changed from north-west to south and by now the chill will have been blown back by heavy winds. Not a clue why, but waves nearly always come towards the shore.
Johnny Roundabout
Dolphin Address 1
Januari 25th 2008
There you are. I’m back from Holland nice and tidy, after a week at my mother’s and one at my daughter and her friend’s. And the unavoidable MOT-thing.