So there’s this wonderful family photo of me at around two years old playing in Hyde Park. My mother made a copy for me, which I have somewhere very safe, I’m sure. But my sister also has a copy, and while we were down there last weekend I scanned it in. So here I am:

Me as a toddler 'dowsing' in Hyde Park, London, summer 1968. My parents spent three years in England for my father’s graduate work. This picture of me was taken by a family friend while we were in Hyde Park in London sometime in summer of 1968. My parents always called this my dowsing picture, although I sort of think it looks more like I’m ploughing. I was a cutie, wasn’t I?

Well, I had a lovely day at the water park, although I quite finished the job of getting sunburnt. (I have a phobia of getting anything oily on me, especially when I'm wearing contact lenses as I was yesterday, so I'd planned on wearing my nice new wide-brimmed hat, but we decided that wouldn't make sense since I couldn't take it on the rides. So I knew going in that I was going to get sunburnt. And my hair is short enough at the moment that I got sunburnt on the top of my head, too. :-)

We hung out with a woman Tom and Tigris know from Pali Paths (the Honolulu poly group) and her 6-year-old daughter who is quite a charmer. My favourite ride was one where you climb up to one edge of a tall parabolic trough and are released down the edge (very steep at the top), and you swing back up almost to the edge on the other side, and oscillate back and forth a few times before coming to rest at the bottom. I'm not describing it very well, but think of it as a giant U. You start at the top on one side of the U, and fall down to the bottom and continue back up almost to the other end, and then down again and so on, losing a little momentum on each pass. Lots of fun, although the second or third time I went on it I banged my lower back up a bit. (Also scraped my knee in the wave pool. The wave pool is not normally one of the more dangerous attractions, but I seem to have been using this trip as an opportunity to display my utter uncoordination.)

It was nice to get a little child-time, especially with such a pleasant-tempered, friendly child as this one.

For dinner, Tigris had originally wanted to go to an Indian restaurant. But we selected one and drove there and discovered that it was one she and Tom were familiar with and didn't like much, so we set out to find something else. Our next attempt was closed, but we ended up at a WONDERFUL Mediterranean place called Marbella (808/943-4353, 1680 Kapiolani Blvd.). The food and the atmosphere and the service were all spectacular. It was more expensive than we would have expected to pay for mediocre Indian food (entrees from $16-$20), but for the outstanding quality of the food it was quite inexpensive. For appetisers, we had falafel stuffed with buffalo mozzarella with spiced creme fraiche (which also formed part of the presentation of our entrees), served with balsamic vinaigrette and a touch of olive oil in a presentation that looked like the fanciest of desserts. And that was typical of the evening. The food was exceedingly good -- I had grilled filet of beef with potatoes au gratin and green beans with creme fraiche and lemon butter and some other sauces I couldn't quite identify. And we had a coupon for free desserts, which was actually what had led us to think of this restaurant in the first place, so we got to try some heavenly desserts. Tigris got a "chocolate ganache stuffed beignet"; I have no idea what ganache and beignet are, but it was very very yummy; it was a fried triangular pastry filled with chocolate sauce, served with ice cream and espresso. You pour the espresso over the ice cream to melt it, and then dip pieces of the chocolate-filled pastry into the espresso/ice cream mixture. I think the Pope issued an encyclical against this dessert once. Tom got an amazing chocolate-hazelnut gelato which he aptly described as "frozen Nutella", and I (who was pretty full by this time of the evening) got a rose sorbet, which would have been better about half as sweet but which had a lovely delicate flavour. Another amazing meal in Paradise.

This afternoon we're going to go sailing with a friend of Tigris' and Tom's who has his own catamaran. That should be wonderful! I've only been sailing once, and that was just on the Charles River in Boston. If I end up moving here (not going to happen soon, but still under consideration), I'd love to learn to sail.

Off now for a dip in the pool. Maybe Hamlet will come race me around the edge.