Desolation

Desolation has made itself a theme in my life these days. I have been reading a lot of writings on the sub-antarctic islands (such as the Kerguelen Islands or other such places in the middle of nowhere. The extreme remoteness of these places is almost unimaginable, and I'm very intrigued. I actually would love to study the societies of the small amounts of people who managed to survive on a couple of these islands, isolated from the rest of the world, and visited only a handful of times in a year...

In my extreme loneliness, I sort of feel exactly like these Islands.

I've also been listening to Portishead's "Dummy" for a while. I go through periods of music and no music, I think it has a lot to do with my mood. But Portishead seems to complement this "desolation" thing.

I wonder if a diety is trying to make itself known to me? It is about time I've encountered a new one. I can only think of Saturn at the moment due to my contemplation of time as well... but we'll see what comes out of this...

I've also embarked, once again, on a journey tapering down from Mount Tramadol. I am currently at the 400mg/day point, and have been trying to step down to 350. Withdrawals have so far been mostly psychological, but *very* severe. A burst of Libido seems to have exploded out of some dormant UXO on the side of said mount. It is likely that I am also still sick (I had a strong cold/ weak flu last weekend). Now I have a worrying pain in my windpipe when I breathe, so I started taking a course Amoxicillin just in case.

I'm already starting to dream more (both literally and figuratively).

But yesterday I woke up and found my nice bath before bead had been ruined by a flood of sweat that soaked both my skin and the bedsheets.

The day was spent evading Thai harassment as usual... Teacher Pimpaporn (that's her real name) was grumpy this morning (although she generally has no idea how to express happiness). Why? Because she tried to find me yesterday and I had left early. I will not stay till 3pm if I'm done with my classes, not until I get payed as much as all other foreign teachers (for you see, I am the least paid, with no explanation whatsoever).

I plan on making a deal with Pim tomorrow. If the school agrees to pay me like all other teachers, I'll stay till 3 every day. If not, then I'm sorry. I mean, they've already pre-fired me, they can't do much more especially that they need me most this time of the year.

Anyway... there were three other incidents of Thai shit that I will not bother write down.

Last week I bought a strand of Lapis Lazuli beads for only 80 Baht (usually, even the lowest quality Lapis costs more than 100 baht per strand). As soon as I saw these beads, I felt that something was a bit off.

As I inspected them on the way home, I determined that they were most definitely dyed. Yesterday, it occurred to me to wet a piece of cotton with Isopropanol and wipe it on one of the beads. (Acetone would have been too risky, as it could dissolve the actual stone!). And so I did, and guess what? the cotton was immediately filled with blue dye. As with the fake rubies last time, I am once again so happy to have been ripped off, only because I found out that I have .

I have a strand of turquoise that I suspect might be iffy. It is too "perfect" in form and colour. The isopropanol test yeilded nothing from this one, so if it is dyed, it must have been with a more durable dye.

I am trying to find some Azurite for a certain someone . It is actually quite tricky to find. I've only been able to find it as beads of Azurmalachite, like these:

And they're quite expensive, sold by the gram...

Today has been a better day on the whole. Certainly a day of discovery, having barely digested all this new info on forlorn Islands, bludgeoned by sealers a century ago, and left at the mercy of the sweeping winds since then.... a Kritek (clove ciggy) goes fine after a quick wank... err, don't ask.

 

Aww, sorry to hear that you're feeling lonely. <hug>

I know next to nothing about semi-precious stones (other than the fact that it's apparently not tough to make artificial rubies), but I found this for you. Doesn't help much, but maybe it'll point you in the right direction.

I hope that you feel better soon. Oh, and stay away from Saturn. That bugger thinks he's all that, but if you don't pour libations to him every time you do something important then he gets bitchy.

Or is that Zeus? I'm no good at Greek --> Roman pantheon nomenclature.

 

*Hugs you back*

Thanks for the link :D. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to go into the technicalities of Turquoise identification... I have the specifics somewhere but they involve destructive tests, such as testing for HCL solubility or scratching with hardness knives (used by mineralogists more so than by gemmologists, because the latter's materials are generally too precious to scratch ).

Saturn has no real equivalent in Greek myth, but Cronus would be the closest approximation. Saturn evolved quite a bit and remained a deity through medieval times (generally associated with the planet Saturn). I am generally referring to that one when I talk of Saturn .