On the beach in Izu

Thor walking on the Katase Hot Springs rocky coast.

Malaysian History Lesson: Melaka

I thought having a weekend in Malaysia would be great. I had been in KL for an ETF conference, and then needed to be there the following Tuesday for the FTSE Bursa Malaysia Committee meeting. Rather than get on the airplane again over the weekend, I looked for a place to chill out.

The problem was that none of the Starwood resorts would let me use my hotel points on the weekend! Ha! So much for no blackout periods....... Rather than pay top dollar, then, I hit on a trip down the coast to the port of Melaka, aka Malacca.

So I bussed there from KL on Saturday afternoon and stayed at the Hotel Puri on Millionaires Street - where all the rich Chinese took up residence after the Dutch moved out. One block to the north was Jonker Street with its antique shops, restaurants and sweet shops.

It was hot and humid, so I didn't venture out more than a couple hours, coming back to the Puri's air conditioning and shower. Whew!

In one of the antique shops on Jonker a Chinese Nyonya shopkeeper took me through her collection of Buddhist, Chinese, Thai, Cambodian, Indian and other culture's icons, paintings, carvings, metal works - explaining the talisman function or symbolism of everything. She was a good saleswoman. As a souvenir, but also an Indian talisman, I settled on a Cambodian sandstone carving of Ganesh. I had been terribly impressed with the Ganesh at the National Stock Exchange in Bombay and a collection of small Ganesh in the office of the CEO of UTI Bank. Having my own Ganesh with the pending launch of the FTSE IDFC India Infrastructure Index Series seemed a good thing. So I paid the RM160 she was asking for and took the Indian god of good fortune back to KL with me. Later in the week Citigroup agreed to licence the indices with a six months exclusivity for US$88,000. Just the week earlier we had been arguing about them paying anything at all for the exclusivity, and now we got nearly a 100% premium on the base fee of US$48,000. Ha! Ganesh was thanking me from liberating him from that Melaka trinket shop and putting him on the front line where he belongs. He won't be some benchwarmer on the Hoff Team!

I left Melaka by car on Monday morning to go back to Kuala Lumpur to continue my meetings; then flew to Hong Kong Tuesday evening to prepare for another series of meetings for that market.

The big word at FTSE these days is multitasking!

Investor Freedom!

Izu Moon

Here's a typical view from the Hoff deck on a Saturday night with the full moon.

A Kyoto Hoji Shot

Naomi wanted to take a photo of her aunt Sayoko praying for the soul of the first wife of her husband who was also Naomi's grandfather at the family temple in the northern parts of Kyoto. Unfortunately the bell cord got in the way, blocking out Sayoko's face. Naomi corrected the problem by taking another shot. I, nonetheless, love this shot for its unique juxtapostion of purple cord and face. I could never have taken this, it is just to contextual.

Ken in fine form with Hank tanked and Joe in his cups

There are lots of pictures of Ken and I drinking beer. Here's another one. I blew into Seoul on a Saturday and called his mobile. He was down in Three Alley Pub with Hank, Joe, Kimchi and a whole bunch of SHHHers. It was a classic evening.

Someplace in Norway in the summer of 1948

My father took thirteen rolls of Kodachrome with him to Norway for a study tour in the summer of 1948. He took a number of interesting shots. This one is my favorite landscape photo. I am going to get it cleaned up and blow it up big and put it on my wall someplace. It hits all my buttons: blue sky, water, rural setting, youth, positive approach to everything!

The Latest Photo of the Hoffster

For a magazine article in Hong Kong they had a photographer come to the office and take my photo. This is what they selected. Does it look like me?

Ontological Nutrient Destruction

Here is what I look like when I have destroyed an Ontological Nureient while driving.

There's no such thing said the policeman.

The Bangkok Golden Buddha

We were told that they only show this Buddha once a month. I must take this claim for truth until I can return and be turned away. It is supposed to be 700 years old and comprised mainly of gold.

Family Shadow

Peter Pan would be very jelous to see the whole Hoff family shadow sticking to them and needing no reattachment.

This version of the Hoff Family Shadow Show was on the beach on the Andaman Sea.

Hope in Nottinghill Gate

Kuki had a birthday and her friend from Puglia was there too. We had the usual Hope evening in Nottinghill Gate, dinner from the Aga, wines galore, kids running in and out, multilingual conversation. Kuki's birthday present is the dog on her chest purchased from a breeder in Sussex.

Vietnam finally.....

I made my second trip to Vietnam last week, spending a couple nights in Saigon nka Ho Chi Minh City for an Asian real estate conference. John Suzuki, an high school friend, was visiting in Izu and helped me find a flag pole for my Vietnam flag I bought in Hanoi in January.

As you can see, the flag now flies proudly over the entrance to our Izu house.

I reminded John of one of the cants from the anti-Vietnam war days. It goes like this,

"Ho, Ho, Ho Chi Minh

Viet Cong are gonna win."

Growing kids

Anton is sprouting still, and Thor has now started putting on height at a faster pace. Where'll it stop?

My beard has reached the "gravitas" length. Someone at an Islamic conference this week in Malaysia asked if I had grown it for the conference. Ha!

We were all together at the Yawatano Shinto Shrine to show my high school friend John Suzuki and his family our Izu local culture. After the stop at the shrine we checked out the wasabi fields behind Ike and had some soba.

My shadow

He found me again, this time on the way to the 606 Club in Chelsea to see Gilad Atzman play saxophone and clarinet really well last night...

Here we are again, old friends.

Sally and I get together for lunch or dinner whenever I'm in London. Today we went to Manicomio in the Duke of York Square for veal chops. Then we went shopping for kitchen stuff for her cottage in Devon.

Meat Muffins

Yep! Here they are. Beef and pork meat muffins baked in one of those new silicon muffin pans. I used a herb meatloaf recipe from Epicurious, but added plenty of bread crumbs and milk to give them some lightness and smoothness.

That's my son Thor next to me. I put the ketchup on the table just in case he behaved like a teenager and need ketchup on his meat muffin. Actually he used the gravy!

The other dish is some green beans sliced lengthwise and cooked with garlic and olive oil. My favorite way to cook them.

Next time I'll use Hilma Charlotte Swanson's Kjottbollar (Swedish Meatballs) recipe.

3 lbs ground beef

1 lb ground pork

1 lb ground veal

3 T minced onion

2 C bread crumbs

2 eggs, beaten

1/2 t allspice

1 T salt

1/2 t pepper

1/2 t nutmeg

Water as needed

Mix and stuff in the muffin pans. Cook for 20-30 minutes at 350F. Use the drippings in the bottom of the muffin holes to make gravy.

Wow!

Tokugawa Ieyasu

Instructions Left by Ieyasu

Life is like a long journey made with a heavy load. Slow and steady be your steps lest you should stumble. No complaints or despair there will be if you take it the way of mortals to bear personal discomforts.

When excessive desires are harbored in your heart look back upon the days of extremity you have passed through. Bear in mind that patience leads to a long life of security, while wrath is your own enemy.

To think much of your conquering and little of your stooping -- that will fare ill for you. Blame yourself and not others. It is better to be deficient than to exceed.

15 January 1603

'Tis all to a man to know himself,

To weigh and consider his ability:

Dew pearls sparkling on the grass,

Will ne'er stay long, alas!

When they are too weighty.

The Major Cause of Slicing - Jack Kuykendall

The major culprit of slicing is the rotation of your lower body at the start of the downswing. If the right shoulder moves with the right hip, it causes the clubhead to go outside the downswing plane. Start the downswing with your arms moving backward and downward. Keep your back to the target until the arms rotate and keep your clubhead behind your back as long as you can. When your hands reach waist-high during the downswing, make a tossing motion. Your slice will be gone.

Clankazoid keeps reminding me to pay homage to Duchamp

Old Marcel used to find things and then make them into art. "Art"? There are even places to go to see these things. Actually those places are now full of things that some people - called 'artists' - have actually made to be looked in those places or sometimes out of doors or even in-doors.

I have attempted to follow in the foot steps of Marcel, or more correctly R. Mutt, and here is what I have come up with. Notice the subtle differences in coloring. I like 'em in pairs!

Ha! Readymade indeed! As the book says, just something to force you to contemplate aesthetic questions. What is the question? Perhaps Riggs has an idea.