David Johnson

Monday 22nd July, 2024

Dear Friends,

I don’t think that I am in the business of looking after dogs anymore, at least not puppies. Please don’t get me wrong, I love dogs. However, my step-daughter who has a young French Bulldog has gone away with her family for a week, and my wife and I are looking after the puppy. He is sweet, but a lot of work and messy. Give him a few more years when he is happy with just a walk, doesn’t eat or drink sending everything everywhere, and doesn’t bring the outside in. That was the last Frenchy that we looked after. Much easier.

That is our current situation and will be for the rest of the week. I know, first world problems. As my grandmother use to say, “A trial sent to test me." And test me the little guy does. He shows me where the work is still needing to be done. Thank you, Mochi.

During this last week I have delved further into the Apple Shortcuts that I spoke about last week, looking deeper into how I can automate the processes on my laptop and phone. There are apps that already carry out processes that I have been working on, in fact do them very well and I make use of them. However, with my earlier successes in automation, I got a taste for what I enjoyed about coding when I first taught myself. Coding for me was always about solving a puzzle, and I enjoyed that challenge. If I could automate the processes that I use regularly, enjoy the process of creating the automation and then have the final product be something that I could use, it all felt like a win win for me. On top of that I am finding that not only am I learning a new programming language (though programming purists might question whether Apple Shortcuts is a language?), but also getting a better understanding of how aspects of my computer and the web work together. The nerd in me is enjoying this.

I have been rereading Pema Chödrön’s book, When Things Fall Apart. This simple passage jumped out at me,

We could say that the word mindfulness is pointing to being one with our experience, not dissociating, being right there when our hand touches the doorknob or the telephone rings or feelings of all kinds arise. The word mindfulness describes being right where we are. (p.38)

For me it spoke to my experience with what I mentioned last week in relation to my returning to the US from Europe with a sense of culture shock. I have been trying to stay with the experience, the felt experience to me of culture shock, not reacting to it. Just feeling it, tasting it. Those sensed feelings arise in a given moment and then leave. None of this means that I deny that which I gained from my time in Europe. None of this means denying preferences. It is about recognizing the current situation, where I am and not allowing other feelings to drag me down into dialogues of “not enough” or “wanting” or “if, only if”. It gives space for the current situation and preferences to live side by side, one informing the other, but not one overcoming the other….and then seeing what emerges from that. Patience also plays a part.

There’s a real mixture in the posts this week. Nature, tech, photos, inner musings and trivia. I hope that you enjoy it all.

Thank you, as always, for reading.

David.

Monday 15th July, 2024

Dear Friends,

I’ll start this newsletter with a subject that the British are well known for talking about - the weather. Our return to Maui has greeted us with a lot of wet weather. Normally here summer is the dry season and winter is the wet season. However in our little corner of the island the weather has been very wet. That is very welcome if unseasonal. Outside all is green and tropically lush. There is still time for the weather to dry up, though. August and September can be a hot months. We’ll see.

We have been back from Portugal now for two weeks. Both my wife and I are still missing the country, our time there, the new connections that we made, the culture, the people. I spoke last week about the culture shock that I have felt since returning. I still think that I will write about it, but for now I am pleased that I have just allowed the feeling to sit within me and not just react to it and allowed it to take me over. With time, that sense of scratchiness within me as I transition to being back home has diminished. I now feel in a better space to hold both. Allowance, acceptance and gratitude.

This last week has seen another fire on the island. This one was Upcountry and not far from the scene of one of the fires from last year. Over 500 acres have been burnt. People who had to evacuate or lost homes last year were left with uncertainty for a few days. Thankfully there were no evacuations and the fire is slowly being contained.

A few of the short posts this week are tech related. I wanted to try and automate some of the processes on my Mac and iPhone, in part as a fun exercise for myself. The Apple operating systems allow that to a degree. My background is in computer programming. I taught myself to program back in the day when desk top computers were first emerging. I was your teenage geek, sitting at my parents' dining room table tapping away on a Commodore Pet that my Uncle had lent me from his office. While I am way out of practice with modern day computing languages and web design, my interest in the subject has never left me. Apple’s Shortcut tools offer a programming like environment and I enjoy the challenge of trying to manifest what I would like my devices to do. I used my blog to test how I was getting on as I worked on the automations, and never deleted the posts. So now you can follow along…

Thank you, as always, for reading.

David.

Monday 8th July, 2024

Dear Friends,

Greetings from Maui. I pressed pause on this newsletter last week. I had returned to Maui a handful of days beforehand, and a combination of the travel and jet lag meant that I was exhausted, my body clock was all over the place and I had not shared much on my blog. So for those reasons I decided to give myself a break for a week.

The return to Maui after three months away I have found interesting to watch. The only expression that I can think to use is culture shock. I have tried to just let that feeling sit inside me, recognize its presence and try as best I can not to react to it. By that I mean that immediately upon landing and experiencing this uncomfortableness to being back here, I could have kicked back against my return. To call out, whether to myself or others, that which I was missing or favored from my time in Europe. I’ve tried to sit in my gratitude for what I have in my life, both here and in Europe…none of that escapes me…and see how these feelings develop over time with being back on island.

I’m not going anywhere anytime soon. Visa issues see to that. So Maui is where I am based right now. I also always think that constantly speaking to one’s perceived preferences of one thing or place over another gets a little tiring to listen to after a while and doesn’t win me any friends. That and I deplete myself with my own infighting.

So for now I am just noticing this feeling in me, noticing it as a new companion and seeing where it takes me. It has lessened a little with time being back here, and I think as time goes on I’ll explore this more in a post to my blog.

At the end of this letter I have included one short post from my week off. The feelings shared in it have sat with me and so it felt appropriate to include it here.

Thank you, as always, for reading.

David.

19th June, 2024

Manuel Moreale’s recent post on Celebrating Failure resonated with me. I’ve read it a few times now.

You can ingest only so many success stories before starting to feel bad for not being one of them. It’s partly why social media mostly sucks. It’s performative. Everyone is showing the best parts of their lives while the shitty moments are kept private, away from public eyes.

At times I feel as though the online world shows so much of the celebratory fun and fireworks - holding a hand up to recognize that I get sucked into doing that. But perhaps sadly, life isn’t always about celebration. There is grind, suck and failure.

If I don’t share failure or struggle, some comes from wanting to keep things private, other comes from shame.

Monday 24 June, 2024

Dear Friends,

Welcome to my newsletter coming to you from Barcelona. Last night was noise, noise, noise as Barcelona celebrated the Summer Solstice. I am writing this at eight o’clock on Monday morning and the fireworks only stopped going off a couple of hours ago.

After almost three months in Europe, I’ll be starting my journey back to Maui on Wednesday. I’ll be sad to leave.

The last week has seen a lot of traveling, being on the move, and also falling unwell for 24 hours (I think from exhaustion). The upshot is that I have not posted much. I have a draft partially composed and some ideas in my head, but time has not allowed me to complete them. I hope that I can get to these on my return.

For now, I send you this small handful…

Thank you, as always, for reading.

David.

Monday 17th June, 2024

Dear Friends,

This one will be brief. My wife and I left Portugal yesterday and are making our way across Spain to Barcelona where we fly back to Hawaii. I hope to pull over during our journey tomorrow to add this to the newsletter - it’s just how the newsletter system works that I use. I have a window to add this initial letter.

I’m sitting here in Madrid with a bunch of mixed emotions, reflecting on the last two and a half months which all started in Bristol, England with my mother’s 90th birthday party. If I don’t get time to write these reflections down before I leave Europe, there should be ample time on arriving back in Maui.

For now, it is getting late on Sunday - these long summer days as the northern hemisphere approaches the summer solstice I don’t find conducive to an early night - and we are getting on the road early tomorrow morning.

More to come…

Thank you, as always, for reading.

David.

Monday June 10, 2024

Dear Friends,

I write this on Portugal Day, a national holiday, celebrated every 10th June. I did not know what Portugal Day actually celebrated and so I headed over to Wikipedia. According to the Free Encyclopedia’s entry for Portugal Day,

It commemorates the death on 10 June 1580 of Luís de Camões, a poet and national literary icon.

Wikipedia’s page for Luís de Camões states that,

Luís Vaz de Camões … is considered Portugal’s and the Portuguese language’s greatest poet. His mastery of verse has been compared to that of Shakespeare, Milton, Vondel, Homer, Virgil and Dante.

So this was my morning’s learning. Outside all is quiet as the town awakes slowly on this holiday.

This last week has been a mixed bag. Returning from the Algarve, a meeting, a couple of appointments, all bringing in a lot of driving. By the weekend I was exhausted. I felt like a deflated balloon. Sleep just was not cutting it. I needed to rest. Deep rest. And sometimes I find that hard to get, even in a family situation. A couple of decades ago I suffered from chronic fatigue. A long treatment of acupuncture and Chinese herbs saw me through it. Still I can succumb at times to a deep need for rest. Sadly if I am around family and there is a lot going on, it is difficult to find time out to take that rest. This weekend I stole time where I could to lie down, be quiet and close my eyes. Today, Portugal Day, I feel much more rested…though a quiet day would not go amiss. Time will tell what the day brings.

Our current stay in Portugal is nearing an end. A little under a week to go. Though it will be a little longer before we are home (I feel a little unsure where home is right now?!). More next week…

This week’s posts are a mixture of photos, a video of scuttling crabs, and some written reflections.

Thank you, as always, for reading.

David.

Monday June 3, 2024

Dear Friends,

Welcome to the first newsletter of June 2024. Today’s letter will probably be brief (I say probably because I am still writing it!) as we are on the road for a couple of days. This time exploring the eastern Algarve - quieter (in terms of the tourism impact) and more nature. We arrived here yesterday and have been greeted with vast expanses of beach, mud flats, small boats (mainly fishing, a few pleasure), oyster farms, and grasslands. I hope to include some photographs of these in next week’s newsletter.

The weather is warming up. The rice fields around Alcácer do Sal are being flooded and some are starting to turn a bright shade of green as the young rice shoots come through. I am told that with the rice season also comes the mosquito season, with everyone ducking indoors for an hour around sunset as the mosquitos come out to feed. We have yet to experience this, but will see what the next couple of weeks bring. I’ll be sure to report if the swarms arrive.

Thank you, as always, for reading.

David.

Monday May 20, 2024

Dear Friends,

Well I am getting this letter written by the hair of my chinny, chin, chin! We have family staying with us right now and have been busy entertaining, driving them around, showing them the Portugal that we know so far. I am aware of life, business that is passing me by at the moment and will need to be taken care of on their departure tomorrow, and at the same time I am trying to track what needs to be done while they are here.

I am ashamed to say that this newsletter almost got forgotten. I am writing the letter not long before it goes out. I was saved, ironically, by a bout of hayfever which was brought on by a drive out into the countryside yesterday. The symptoms tend to linger when I have a bad attack, and so I am resting at home while everyone else goes out for a morning walk.

This week’s posts are mainly a collection of writing and photographs from where we have visited on our family excursions. However, I am pleased that I have also managed to get another post written in the OnTheRoad 🗺️ series.

Thank you, as always, for reading.

David.

Monday May 13, 2024

Dear Friends,

Greetings from an overcast Alcácer do Sal. The weather has been beautiful this last week. Very hot in fact. It is cooling down this week as the overcast weather might suggest.

The fields around Alcácer have been ploughed and in preparation for this year’s rice crop. Some of the fields have already been flooded. We are expecting to see the fresh green shoots soon. We have also been warned that during the rice season the mosquitoes come out in swarms around dusk. Everyone ducks inside for an hour or so around sunset. We have yet to experience that, but could well do during this visit.

Hayfever has been plaguing me which has been a trial. We spent yesterday by the ocean which was a blessing, the sea air giving me a break from the pollen and dust.

Thank you, as always, for reading.

David.

Monday May 6, 2024

Dear Friends,

I realized this morning that I have been on the road now for five weeks. The time has flown by and so far it has not felt as disruptive as I thought that it might. Maybe because the time has been spent at home in Bristol, with my mother, and now another home here in Portugal. I don’t have all my accruements with me, and I miss not being able to reach for some books at times, but I also find myself quite content here.

I’m settling into the rhythm of life here in Portugal, particularly the small town in which we live. In this last week we have explored a little more locally, seeing what has changed since we were last here.

We have also explored further afield, found a local’ish walking path in a nature reserve and headed down the coast, south of here - checkin next week to find out about that trip. An overnight visit to Lisbon also happened. I enjoy my time in that city. Get the car parked and then walk or Uber from there. I find no better way to get to know a place than walk it, especially the narrow, up and down streets of Lisbon. What will you find around the next corner?

The posts this week document some of these explorations.

Thank you, as always, for reading.

David.

Monday April 29, 2024

Dear Friends,

I have an early start tomorrow (today), driving to just west of Lisbon, and so I’m writing this letter late at night.

This first week in Portugal has seen the temperatures drop from the high 20°C when I arrived, to topping out now in the high teens. Though the wind has been cold, the sun has been shining for which I am grateful. There is a quality to the light here that we do not get in Hawaii.

This week has also seen the 50th anniversary of the Carnation Revolution which has seen a long weekend of celebrations here in Alcácer do Sal. Each evening since Wednesday and through the weekend music was played on a stage that was specially erected for the celebrations. With an excellent sound system, and the town situated on a hillside coming down to the river, music has been reverberating through the town into the early hours. Some has been local Portuguese music, some very modern provided by a band or DJ.

Oh, and I can’t forget the wonderful fireworks at midnight last Wednesday night - I share thirty seconds of them below.

While photos from the Micro.blog April Photoblogging Challenge are certainly in last week’s posts, I have managed to get more writing into the blog including an addition to the On The Road series, which I’m pleased about. I hope that you enjoy the words.

Thank you, as always, for reading.

David.

Monday April 22, 2024

Olá Friends,

This letter is coming to you from Portugal. I arrived here from England two days ago. I had a good time back home but as always found it hard to leave. Hard to leave the UK, hard to leave my mother, hard to leave familiar surroundings and places that hold memories…but life moves on and I had to get down to Portugal ahead of my wife’s arrival this coming week.

I’ve arrived to beautiful weather. As I walked into our house, I found myself feeling happy to be back. In the couple of days that I have been here I have mainly pottered around the house, checking on things, moving back in. Yesterday afternoon, with the sun coming out and blue skies above, I took a circuitous route to the supermarket, stopping off at the beach. It was perfect there, a good temperature, slight breeze and not too busy.

This week’s posts are again mainly made up of photos from the Micro.blog April Photoblogging Challenge. Like last week, unpredictable days and lack of routine interrupted my writing. However, in the quietness of being back here in Portugal, by myself at the moment, last night I stayed up very late writing a piece that appears at the end of the posts. I felt refreshed and a relief to get the creative juices flowing again. I think that that was a causational factor in me staying up so late. I just got into a flow.

Thank you, as always, for reading.

David.

Monday April 15, 2024

Dear Friends,

Being home, being back in Britain, always fills my time. Whether that is sitting talking with my mum, catching up with friends (on the phone and in person), or going for walks. Routine is not so present in my life and I find that with that my writing diminishes. I want to write, but find myself either too tired to concentrate or in need to wind down from the last social activity.

I know that there are subjects that I would like to write, or finish writing about, but they stay there nagging me in my head and have not made it onto paper, or my computer, yet. (Hey, I have just caught myself, I am writing this now. It is first thing in the morning, so perhaps that can be a time?)

Anyway, the upshot of this reason or excuse is that this week my posts are mostly photographs. Specifically photographs from the Micro.blog April Photoblogging Challenge. A couple of the prompts have been a challenge to find photos for, but it is also a joy as I look back through past photographs for one that fits the prompt, or to go looking for subject matter to take a photo of.

I hope that you enjoy my attempts at the Challenge.

David.

Monday April 8th, 2024

Dear Friends,

Well the weeks feel as though they are creeping up on me quicker. Though this one could well be because I have had a lot going on.

I am writing to you from the opposite side of the world. I have returned solo to England for my mother’s 90th birthday celebrations and am spending a couple of weeks here to catch up with friends and also some work as well. The celebrations were a great success, and I’m grateful to my sister for seeding the idea of a party last year.

Travel has always been a part of my life, as my On The Road series shows, ebbing and flowing in time at home and time away. As I have got older, I’ve noticed that it is harder to get me out of the front door, even for a short trip. I’m fine once I am on the road, but I can sense in me resistance to departure as I get ready to leave, and almost have to be kicked out of the door on that final day. This trip was no different.

A photo challenge is now taking place through April on Micro.blog, the platform that hosts my blog. In the past I have made it to the end with some photo challenges. Others I have run out of steam on a few days or weeks into the challenge, getting stuck on one of the photo prompts and before I know it I’m not posting any more. As of writing this letter I have managed to complete every day so far, and I hope to cross the finishing line. So you will see that a number of the posts for this last week are photographs from the April challenge.

Thank you, as always, for reading.

David.

Monday April 1st, 2024

Dear Readers,

I had to laugh this morning. It’s related to the post that I put out yesterday around busyness (see it below). I had been trying to slow myself down, to be focused and get done what needed to be done, but obviously it was not working. I forgot that this newsletter was going out today.

That’s humbling and at the same time an opportunity to try that little bit harder and see where I can improve.

I think back to a story that an old Buddhist friend told me. He was talking to our teacher, a Tibetan monk who had grown up and been trained in a time and place that no longer exists - old Tibet. The Tibetans have done a great job of preserving their culture in exile since the Chinese invasion, especially in India, but the conditions will never be quite the same as the Tibet of old.

Anyway, back to the story. My friend was talking to our teacher (Geshe Damcho Yonten - Geshe-la for short) about a project that he was involved with. My friend said something which I guess we have all said at sometime in our lives, “I’m doing my best," to which Geshe-la replied, “No your not."

It was typical Tibetan humour to make a point. Geshe-la never disrespected the efforts of others. However, if he sensed that someone could hear what he had to offer, he would share some words for them to reflect on. In this case, yes you are doing well, but you have the potential to do better….and better again. Don’t forget that.

So as we enter the fourth month of the year, I sit and remind myself - I am doing well, and I can do better.

Thank you, as always, for reading.

David.

Monday March 25, 2024

Hello and welcome to another weekly roundup of posts to my blog.

This has been a wet winter and as such some outside jobs that needed to be done in the garden have been sitting, waiting for the weather to clear up. Seasons here in Hawaii don’t have as clear a delineation as more northerly latitudes, but there is a definite change in weather patterns. In the part of Maui where I live the weather becomes wetter, and although the day time temperatures can reach the high 70F(21C), mornings and evenings are cold and the trade winds that blow through the islands can be chilly.

This last week, the weather has started to clear…at least there have been windows, and I used it as an opportunity to get outside and tackle invasive plants taking over, power washing concrete on which mold can grow in our hot and humid climate. The upshot of this has seen me posting less this week, especially as the week progressed.

Another victim on the outdoor work has been my runs on the Watch To 5K program that I’ve been following. I’ve worked as much as the day has allowed and exhausted myself in the process…so no running. The exhaustion piece has also been a lesson to me in my running. Each week the program has me running more and walking less. On top of that the running intervals are longer. By the end of the last run I was truly wondering how I was going to keep this up and just took an extra day off both through tiredness and feeling a bit dispirited. However, a chance conversation on Mastodon with a coach has given me some perspective, reminded me that I am not to expect the same results as forty years ago (now there’s a surprise!), and suggested some helpful pacing and running schedules for me going forward. I hope to get back into it this week.

Until next week…

Thank you for reading.
David.

Monday March 18, 2024

Hello there. It is David Johnson here with a weekly roundup of posts to my blog.

It has been a wet week here on Maui, especially in the area of the north shore where I live. This region is one of the wetter parts of the island, but even so this week saw more low cloud and persistent drizzle than we normally have. I love the moody weather, probably because of growing up in England, and anyway sun is not in short supply here on Maui - the change is welcome. However, the rain could have curtailed itself a little earlier than it did.

Warm, tropical, wet weather lends itself to mold and as soon as the rain backs off I’ll be out with a pressure washer to clean off the green and black that are slowly appearing on the concrete.

My running practice with the Watch To 5K program got back into swing this week, which I am pleased about. I am seeing progress and feeling stronger in my body for having a regular exercise routine.

This week I got out another in the “Story Behind the Photograph” series. I’m enjoying putting this together, and allowing myself to look back and reflect on what was a rich time for me in my life, defining the direction for a great part of what came next. Aside from just making the time to write, the major roadblock to a new chapter being published is the process that I am using to get slides to a digital format ready to publish online. Still it is working.

Please do get in touch if you have any comments or questions. I can be reached at ctt @ omg.lol.

Thank you for reading.
David.

Monday March 11, 2024

This week has felt like a real mixed bag - work being done on the house, a visit to the doctor - both of which have follows this coming week….And then for my wife’s birthday we spent a night on the island of Oahu, in Honolulu. The Hawaii equivalent of a visit to the big city. Maybe by some world cities standards Honolulu is a baby, but for me coming from rural Maui the island metropolis is a visual and aural stimulant. We walked a lot. Visited the Honolulu Museum of Art - a beautiful old building, worth a visit whether for a current exhibition or for their permanent showings - to see an exhibition by the British artist David Hockney.

In old China Town we had a sushi dinner in a sake brewery. I love visiting China Town, feeling the historical bones of that part of the city and the part that it played in the harbor which is just a stones throw away. At the same time lamenting the way it feels like it is just about to take off, but always feeling a bit run down. Hidden in those buildings are some wonderful places to eat, art shops that come and go, old bars and markets.

Thank you for reading.

David.

Monday March 4, 2024

Well it has been a long while since I sent out a newsletter to subscribers. The pause was initially caused by an illness last summer when I got pneumonia while visiting Portugal. Then that pause turned into a larger gap.

I am now remedying this omission but with a slightly different frequency.

Previously I sent out the newsletter on the first of each month with a hand curated selection of posts that I had made to my blog that month. I am now experimenting with sending out the newsletter every Monday with all posts from the last week. I will continue to include a accompanying letter.

There are two projects that I have started since the last newsletter, both of which can be followed via my website’s menu - all updates to these projects will also appear in subsequent newsletters, as part of my weekly feed of posts. They are:

• WatchTo5K - accessible via the 🏃🏻‍♂️ menu item or this link - documents my progress in building up to being able to run a 5K through use of the Watch to 5K Apple Watch app;
• OnTheRoad - accessible via the 🗺️ menu item or this link - where I am telling the stories behind slides that I took during travels back in the late 1980’s.

I hope that you are happy with the changes and continue to subscribe. This last week we have had family visiting and so it has been a quiet week post wise.

If you have any comments, please do get in touch at ctt @ omg.lol. My email address is at the bottom of the newsletter.

Thank you for reading,
David.