ChanomiTalk

It is important to stay fit for good health. Today, we all recognize the difficulty of controlling an expanding waistline. My father warned me that he started gaining weight between 20 and 30 years old once he started working. The reason was because he became busy and stopped being active. Consequently, I have tried to avoid making the same mistake by working out regularly and enjoying activities like swimming.

Soon my parents are planning on moving. They’re going to sell the house I grew up in and which they lived in for 18 years, quit their jobs and take off for West Virginia.

I admire them for being able to make such a radical change in their lives. I say this even though I’ve made perhaps even greater changes in my life. One could say I have a track record of bumping around the world, getting into different careers and marrying girls I find along the way. It would be a slight exaggeration of course, but it serves to frame my unexpected admiration of my parents. They are going to do something I’m not sure I could – become mountain hermits. They’ll be living away from cities, shopping malls, theaters, people, and all the noise and bustle that those things generally entail. Sounds nice at first thought, but I think someone like me might go crazy.

What it says is that my parents are content with nothing but each other and the house they’ve built together, and that’s something to be proud of.

In Hawaii we usually have 2 seasons of mango.  One in the summer and one in the winter.  Each has it’s own taste.  Summer season is hot and drier so the mango is sweeter and more flavorful but winter is usually more rainy and less sunshine so the fruit is more tart and watery.

My favorite past time is to go mango hunting during the season.  Mango hunting is looking for the ripened fruit  that has just fallen on the ground.  While driving to and from where  ever you’re going, it’s always good to keep a sharp eye out for those mango trees, especially for the  ones near the roadside.  It’s good to go walking around the neighborhood too,  looking for mangos. But be sure to bring a plastic bag so you can pick up the fruit.  Picking up more than 3 mangos can make the bag awfully heavy if you have a long walk, so I prefer to drive.

The mangos in the stores just don’t have that delicious tree ripened flavor. Also the many different varieties and flavors are the best when doing mango hunting.  Many people like white puree or hayden mangos.  Other types are called,  common,  chinese, cigar, Shibata, chestnut, Makalepa, and etc. Some are smooth meat, some stringy and some are honey tasting in the middle and some taste like apricots. This is what makes mango hunting enjoyable, cause there are so many different flavors.  Sometimes even the same variety will taste different from one person’s yard to another’s.

There are great competitions for mango hunting.  If you’re too late, you might see a person on a bike with a bag full of mangos passing by or a lady already picking up the mangos off the grass at your favorite spot ahead of you.  But your biggest preditor are the birds, ants, and other animals.  The birds will peck holes into the mangos, and just seem to know where the sweetest part is.  This is a sure way to tell if the mangos are  very sweet and delicious.

This morning I spotted 2 mangos lying on the side of the curb.  And a bird was already sizing it up, trying to decide which side of the mango was the sweetest to peck into. I quickly pulled my car onto the grassy sidewalk and ran across the street, right to the mango and quickly picked it up before the bird had a chance to eat it.  He looked at me with his 2 big eyes, as I walked away with his meal. He tilted his head,as if  saying, ” Hey! that’s mine, bring it back!”

Then I continued to the next trees looking for more on the ground but I was just 5 minutes too late for a big fat lady had already gathered up about 8 mangos in her plastic bag and was searching for more in the grass. It’s a common courtesy, to practice first come first serve, so I just passed by without stopping. It’s kind of like an Easter egg hunt cause you’ll never know where they might roll to when they fall, under a bush or a car, on the side of a fence or a wall.  Once I found one at a street corner and when I looked around for a tree, it was 2 houses away for it had rolled down the hill.  Sometimes owners will gather up the fallen mangos and just lay it in front of their house for passer-byers to help themselves, rather than just dump them into the trash. Cutting  off the bad side makes the rest of the mango edible. It takes me about an hour to cut up just 10-15 mangos. Now that the Mangos season is in full swing and the fruits are getting real ripe and they seem to be constantly dropping to the ground.  This is when it’s good to freeze the already cut up fruit, cause it’s much too much to eat all by yourself.  When the season is over, boy you can really enjoy the frozen fruit much like a sorbet or frozen drink.  If you don’t mind the work, the rewards are delicious!

There are five things that I really like about Hawaii. The first is of course the great weather. The second is the good food. Third, related to the good weather and nice location, are the many activities that are available. Fourth, is the magnificent ocean. Last but not least, are my good friends at NACOS!

我が家の晩ごはん。高知の日曜市に先日初めて行ってきました。
そこで買った新鮮野菜で作った空豆カレー(・∀・)ノ
空豆って臭いけど食べたらめちゃおいしい♪

ずっと前に友人がお店に連れていってくれたときから、中国茶に憧れています。高知で探したらヒット♪ いってきました。やさしい香りに落ち着くし、おいしい(⌒‐⌒) たくさん種類があって分からないけど、今日はおすすめの蜜蘭香というお茶。ふぅー。花のいい香り。抗炎症作用、代謝促進の効果もあるらしい。ますます好きになっちゃった。

あるご高齢の利用者さんから、定期的に自作の問題用紙をもらいます。ボケ防止にということで作るらしいです。問題は、縦横等で1～9の数字を被らないように空いたマスに当てはめていくやつです。それを看護師があずかって、解いて、答えあわせ、また新たな問題をあずかって…と私が来る前から続いているようです。私も何回か解かせてもらってます。看護師もボケ防止(笑) 意外に難しい。真剣に考えて30分かかりました。私より若いスタッフはものの10分くらいで解いてました。スゴすぎる!!

今日もお家でやってみました。あれ…。かなり手強いっっ！ えー！できひんぞ！うーんうーん…。スヤスヤ(-.-) いつの間にか寝る始末。それでもなんとか解けました！ 悩んだ跡のある解答用紙に、ニヤニヤしながら答え合わせをしてる利用者さんが浮かびます。

Last weekend I got to babysit my friend’s dog while she was on Maui. Instead of leaving him home I decided to take him to Waikiki for some fun in the sun. After playing on the beach we decided to go surfing. To my surprise he walked right on to the surfboard and sat down. After a short wait in the water, and SEVERAL “oh how cute” from the girls =), we saw our first wave coming and went for it. Once up, he quickly started riding the nose. Four waves later we went in and celebrated. Not bad for his first time in the water.

スナップえんどう、お目見え！

３月の陽気に誘われて植えたものの、翌４月は冷え込み、
種まきが早すぎたかなと危ぶんだのですが、けなげにも成長。

花が咲いたと喜んだら、すぐに実が出てびっくり。花のガクも花弁もつけたままです。