Wow! This place continues to amaze me. Last Saturday I met two amazing and interesting people. One is a racing sailboat captain. He works for a very rich man who has a deep and abiding interest in racing sailboats. His employer owns 5 boats, 40', 50', 75', 90', and a 115'. Al's job is to coordinate the 9 permanent crew members and keep them trained to a fine point for winning races. They are based in Hong Kong but he doesn't like living in Hong Kong so he lives in Guam and does most of his work by remote link. He is currently rebuilding a damaged catamaran and building a power trimaran to use to explore the Pacific islands and to carry mail and cargo between them.

The other person is a Japanese woman who is attending language classes (English) at UOG. She is a carpenter in Japan with a shop and all her own tools. Those of you familiar with the chauvinist society in Japan should realize how unusual this is. She was extremely interested in the carving on the canoe parts working her way in close to help as best she could. Unfortunately she had to leave before she could get her hands on an adze and do some cutting.

One funny thing happened. When I saw my middle sister two weeks ago she gave me a T-shirt she had decorated with Japanese characters. She told me it meant "wisdom". At the canoe Wakana saw the characters and asked me if it was the name of my girlfriend. While one reading of the kanji is "wisdom", or "smart head" as Wakana put it, the other interpretation is "pretty girl" and is used as a girl's name in Japan. My sister got quite a laugh out of that.

You know, adventures come in all shapes and sizes. Since I left Maine I have been determined to enjoy whatever adventure comes my way. Now I doubt if I will ever get involved in the grand adventures like climbing Mount Everest of canoeing down a class 5 rapid but the little adventures are much more fun. One jumped out at me (literally) last night.

I had just eaten dinner at the only Indian restaurant on Guam. It was very good. I had Tandoori Chicken and Paratha bread. I was getting into my car when a lovely young woman engaged me in conversation. She is Egyptian and very talkative. She kept the talk flowing while standing inside my private space and making a point to touch my arm whenever she could. I was immediately suspicious. My first impulse was to cut and run but then I decided to ride the train. She was VERY friendly and it has been a long time since I had any female contact after all. And she was quite sexy.

Now, I would like to remind everyone that one of the common themes in sea songs in the harlot who invites Jack Tar to drink with her after which he wakes alone and naked. This came to mind repeatedly as she talked and pranced and then finally asked me to come into the bar where she worked to by her a drink.

What the hell, I thought, and I took the plunge. What followed was an hour of shameless teenage cuddling while we drank overpriced drinks. At one point while she was away from our corner I stole a sip of her rum & coke. I couldn't taste any booze in that drink. Finally I begged poverty and left. It was true. I had spent my last forty eight dollars on the four drinks we shared. She gave me her phone number and told me I had to call her but I will not. I can't afford her tastes. Still it was a very amusing incident and has given me more of an idea of what the world is like.

The bar, by the way, is a karaoke bar. I had never been into one before. There were TV monitors in every corner showing insipid scenery and scrolling the words to the songs. Some were in English but later an Asian man started singing and the words scrolling up the screens looked to be in Vietnamese or Thai. It was really very lonely. He sat at the bar, alone, with the microphone, while he sang the song. He looked very sad.