Street Shark Radiation.

We lived together in North Berwick and it was good for a while. I'd do the washing up and from the kitchen window see the sun glinting off the fibreglass whale jawbone on top of The Law. There had been a whale jawbone up on the hill since 1709. Sailors used to navigate with the help of fires lit on top of The Law. It would serve them as a makeshift lighthouse.

After the relationship ended I found myself on the streets of Edinburgh in the middle of a harsh winter. It wasn't so bad. I checked into the night mission with a hundred others. We would be given a hot meal cooked by the staff. Then it was time for bed. We'd grab a foam yoga mat and each go to our regular spots. Often it would be snowing outside so people behaved well. Not wanting to take their chances outside. In sleeping bags on cardboard. One night after dinner I got talking to one of the volunteers there. Mike. He told me that he was a Christian and worked for BAE systems. I was intrigued. I had once lived in Barrow In Furness and remembered BAE systems as one of the only employers left in the post industrial town. Every now and again a huge black rubber tiled leviathan would be hauled through the town. A nuclear submarine on dry land. The local people would stand and stare. As it radiated an alien menace like a black sun. Mike denied any knowledge of weapons systems or submarines. He said that he was working on a radar system for Norwegian fishing boats. He looked uneasy. I asked him how a Christian could work for a company like BAE and he just shrugged. I thanked him for the tuna pasta he had helped cook for us that night. And went to find my bed.

The Greenland shark lives for an average of 400 years. It can sometimes live for over 500 years. It even outlives its own eyes. Their eyes get attacked by parasites known as copepods. Small crustaceans called Ommatokoita Elongata. These creatures bury into the sharks eyes causing a luminescence that aids hunting but eventually causes complete blindness in the shark. They are normally sightless around the 300 year mark. As they swim so deep in the ocean they can still hunt and feed. They swim slowly at around 2km per hour. Often relying on their prey to be asleep at the time of capture. The flesh of The Greenland Shark is poisonous to humans. It contains Trimethylamine oxide and can induce a drunken paralysis if eaten incorrectly. The people of Iceland have been eating this shark for centuries in a dish called Kaestur Hakari. The meat is wrapped in cloth and buried in the sand near the beach for around 6 weeks. Having tried it one time I can vouch for its pungent taste of putrefecation much like the ammonia aroma of a runny vintage cheese. The texture of the meat resembles tofu. 

Once we had woken up after a restless night listening to snoring in the shelter. We had our breakfast, which usually consisted of toast and cereal. It was time.to plough through the previous nights snow on the way to the day centre. For a shower and maybe the use of the washing machine. Every morning we would pass a homeless diehard sleeping in the park with all his worldly goods in carrier bags piled up around him. I asked someone I was with once and he told me the park sleeper refused help and wanted to remain outside. He was white with one huge dredlock running down his back. He would sometimes just sit amongst his bags staring into space. Once I saw that he had a layer of snow covering him. There was a steaming coffee by his side that some passerby must have bought him. My feet were wet and cold and I was eager to start the day with a hot shower. I left the park and the man on the bench. He was travelling through reality at a different speed. I just hoped that he could hunt down some.breakfast.