Longshoremen

Two ways of seeing the shore:
A source of income, a place of work-- my conference was for longshoremen--

or this way, from the hotel in Barra outside Rio:

ORION

I drafted two blog entries while in Rio, on my balcony overlooking surf crashing, cormorants speeding past over the palm trees, frigate birds sailing high--

and suddenly now, all I can remember is the sun going east to north and setting, never touching the south-- and Orion stretched out right above my head.
It is odd for a Norwegian, being south of the Equator.

More later.

Hecate -- the clean and the true version

Sure, sure -- that is the hype-- but I googled her:

"Hecate is the Greek goddess of the crossroads. She is most often depicted as having three heads; one of a dog, one of a snake and one of a horse. She is usually seen with two ghost hounds that were said to serve her. Hecate is most often mispercepted as the goddess of witchcraft or evil, but she did some very good things in her time. One such deed was when she rescued Persephone, (Demeter's daughter, the queen of the Underworld and the maiden of spring), from the Underworld. Hecate is said to haunt a three-way crossroad, each of her heads facing in a certain direction. She is said to appear when the ebony moon shines."

Radish King made me do it -- try, you might get to be Aphrodite!

Quiz

Other people's words

Many days behind me, many days ahead of other people's words.
Through my headset in one language, back through my mike in another.

During the breaks, while my partner in the small, over-heated booth works, eyes glued to speaker's face or searching a text long abandoned, I take a well-earned break, read some poetry, look out at the assembled politicians, trade unionists, business people, NGO members ...
How many times today did I translate 'important', 'agenda', elections'?
Around 60 three-minute interventions yesterday -- nervous, angry, eloquent, stuttering, smiling delegates -- we handle three each, then a ten minute break, sound turned down against ear ache.



I have a feeling Nicole Kidman has a more exciting time than us... Gonna go check it out when the movie is out here.