Ni Hao.

Well, it’s that time of year again! Time that I bid you my festive farewells before I bugger off to somewhere untouched by the gentle fingers of Yuletide joy. Sort of, it appears the hostel we are staying in for Xmas is doing a load of stuff, parties and the like, on Christmas day so I still get to enjoy the season.

Just a quick bye bye this time as I have to get packed and head down to Hannah’s in preparation for an early start tomorrow but rest assured that I miss everyone back home and really do wish you the best possible Christmas and the happiest of Happy New Years. Let not the Golden Ball go empty, my friends!

I shall leave you with this; my entry into a recent “Favourite Christmas Memory” survey/competition thing:

Picture the scene, if you will. The year is 1998, the Millennium minus 2. December. The wind is blowing icicle chills through anyone caught outside, as it carries the faint tinkle of Christmas songs through the air. On the horizon the low bulk of a concrete shopping centre stands firm against the chill, the water cascading from its roof in a steady stream of wet ice.

Inside is a different story. Instead of icicles here is tinsel instead; no wind, but smells of mince pies and mulled wine drift sleepily. Shoppers go about their business with the hushed fervour that signifies the Shopping Days to Christmas are almost no more. Lone fathers prowl the toy stores searching manically for this Season’s must have, mothers drag resisting children by the hand and old couples wander peacefully, gazing at the chaos that engulfs them.

Surrounded by this whirling maelstrom of consumerism stand a bold group, a dozen souls or so strong. Their stony silence and grim faced determination soon begins to spread, the crowd slowing its progress as the people turn their faces, reddened by the cold and the free brandy outside Superdrug, towards the small, tastefully shod ensemble.

Suddenly, a flash of light, a glint of metal; the group explodes in a flurry of activity. The crowd stand motionless, mouths agape as all of a sudden…music fills the air. A trumpet soars into the high octaves, the tuba and euphonium ring out a rhythm as regular as a clock, the flutes patter the air with high pitched staccato and the trombone roars combine the sounds into one, harmonic whole.

…

Five minutes later, two of them have fainted from lack of breath and the old couple, rather obviously drunk off their deerstalkers, won’t stop requesting Bing Crosby. The small group are paid in doughnuts from the local Burtons and as they wander back to the High School with rapidly developing colds, escape plans are drawn...

Or something like that. My high school band used to play in the local shopping centre every Christmas and I’ll always remember those days as some of the best I ever had there. Not only would we get a whole half-day off school, we would indeed get free (or at least reduced) doughnuts and pastry from the Burtons we’d set up outside of and the crowds we’d attract would often get intimidatingly large. So, more of an occasion than a memory. However, my favourite time of all was when my brother, at this point on the Alto Sax, did actually pass out from lack of breath. I got to go home early! At high school!

Best. Day. Ever.

The last entry I wrote was a very angry one. Very angry indeed. It had to do with hospitals and bureaucracy. I decided not to post it because hospitals and bureaucracy are no-one’s favourite talking points. Except the Minister for Hospitals and Bureaucracy, and even then only during working hours.

So…it’s almost Christmas. This makes me very happy for as people may or may not know, I love Christmas. Really, I love Christmas. There seems to be an atmosphere in the air roundabout Christmastime, an atmosphere that tells us to forget all the bad stuff, look! Fairy lights! It’s like getting a great big hug for 4 weeks, only less awkward. It’s great.

However, I still have a deep down feeling that putting up Christmas decorations or listening to Christmas songs before December is…wrong. Sacrilegious almost. We tried it, Hannah and me, this weekend. I had once again gotten all excited that Christmas was just around the corner and I had gotten a craving for mince pies (eating Christmassy things outside of December is perfectly natural). So, with a conspicuous lack of any cowless mince, we decided to make our own. We asked Delia, for she always seems to know what to do. Via the magic telephonyjigger of the intraweb, Delia told us how to make the festive pie filling we desired. So, we bought the ingredients and went about making the mince.

My laptop and it’s endless library of hearty songs was but metres away from the newly Christened “Cookorama” section of my lowly apartment, so I thought it’d set the mood nicely if we listened to some festive tunes. I loaded up “The Best Christmas Album in the World…Ever!”, skipping the “traditional” CD and booting up Elton John stepping into Christmas.

It felt wrong. I must admit I felt violated. There we were, November the 18^th, listening to modern Christmas songs. I felt as if I’d raided the stable, lifted the infant Christ from his manger and slapped him about the face with a copy of Gary Glitter’s “Rock and Roll Christmas.” So, we turned it off and settled for some more generic tunes. And lo, it was good.

Unfortunately we didn’t have any brandy for the mince so we used Japanese shochu. It looks a bit runny too. I’m hoping that it’ll look nicer after the one week standing time Delia commanded us to allow. Don’t fail me Delia.

I’m also considering Christmas decorations. Last year I did my best, and turned my living room into a little grotto. This year I am determined to outdo last year’s effort and this will probably involve buying more fairy lights and various other tat. Among the items under consideration are a life-size dancing Santa whose cold, lifeless eyes stare into the void as the swollen body below gyrates mechanically to a terrible rendition of “Jingle Bells” emanating from its groin; an inflatable snowglobe that’s approximately 6 foot high by 4 foot wide and quiet big enough to fit two fully grown adults in it’s glorious plastic tableau, and a statue of Rudolph made entirely of neon. Truly, I am blessed with choice.

Finally there’s the China holiday. I’m perhaps looking forward to this the most. Since the final year of Uni, me and Hannah have been plotting to go away somewhere together but unfortunately nothing has ever materialised. Now however, our deposits are paid, most of our flights are booked and there’s only the accommodation and visas to sort out. Apparently it’s going to be about –7 in Beijing so at least we won’t feel cold when we return.

Bombed

Well, I’m not sure quite what inspired that little rant down there. I still agree with most of it, but I do appear to have been in something of a bad frame of mind there. Anyway, what have I been up to recently I hear you ask? Well, I’ll tell you. Last weekend was a long one so me and Hannah decided to take a little trip down to Kagoshima, the Satsuma state and home of the appropriately named Satsuma rebellion that was the inspiration for The Last Samurai. It was with fervent ambitions of finding some rogue samurai that we set out to the Kumamoto city bus centre. So, we arrive. All’s well, point us in the direction of the nearest coach-like object and we’re off.

Woah there! Not so fast! This is Japan, they don’t just let you go anywhere you know! Indeed, it turns out there are no buses to Kagoshima running from Kumamoto. There are no trains either, the reason we looked to busses in the first place, so it looks like tensions still abound. Someone should tell Kumamoto council that the rebellion happened 400 years ago and that they should probably provide some way of getting in to Kagoshima that doesn’t involve losing a thumb.

Anyway, what they did have plenty of were busses to Nagasaki so we duly hopped aboard (after buying return tickets) the nearest one. We were off. 3 fairly uneventful hours later and we arrive at Nagasaki station. It was over a year since I was here last, and unsurprisingly not much had changed. It’s not like anyone was going to drop a bomb on the place.After searching frantically for a hotel, we dumped our stuff and had a little explore. My favourite part of the city is still the Wharf, appropriately labelled “For International Tourists” on a nearby map. It’s a lovely little wooden decked area with restaurants and pubs overlooking the rather lovely harbour and neighbouring Mt Inasa with it’s garish observatory. More on that later.

We dived into the local sushi shop and devoured our own body weight in sushi and sake, all the while being oggled by the clearly drunken owner of the place. They were amazed when we ordered hot sake, and even more taken aback when we lacked the “Arigaaaahto’ mate!” accent of other foreigners. My Japanese may still be poor but by god can I pronounce the three words I do know.

We then did what every slightly inebriated foreigner does in Japan at night and headed for the nearest Karaoke bar. Now, Karaoke is different over here in the way that it’s not something that gets wheeled out in dodgy pubs when the jukebox breaks down, it’s actually a substitute for the whole pub. Karaoke parlours are numerous and varied, from themed locales to your more common chains, perhaps the biggest of which is Shidax. Now, I’d never been to a Shidax. In Yatsushiro we go to a little local one that appears to be a franchise. It’s fun and it’s cheap. We once spent 5 hours in there and ordered more drinks than I can remember and the bill came to about 1000 yen (£5) each. Naturally, I assumed Shidax would match this.

So, we bluster in and clumsily sign our names on a little sheet and get allocated a room for 2 hours. We wander in, spend 10 minutes figuring out how to work the machine and order our first drinks via the handy telephone on the wall. There’s a small mishap where Hannah basically yells, “Drinks please!” down the thing and hangs up, but eventually we get some fairly potent Kaluha milks delivered. We start singing.3 hours later we emerge from our den, ear ringing and hearts smiling. Lo, there was singing, and it was good. So, we bumble back to the front desk and ask for our bill. I look at the cash register as the amount comes in.

11000 yen.

Cue confused looks. My mouth may have drooped slightly.

11000 yen! In terms of pounds sterling that’s just shy of £60. For Karaoke! There’s nothing to do but pay it but we study the bill furiously once we get the receipt. The people behind the desk begin whispering as we walk away with our mouths still hanging. £60! It turns out that we made a grave error in assuming that we’d signed up for nomihodai, all you can drink, which is the default setting at my local. Instead, we’d been playing for all the drinks individually. They had not been cheap, and we had ordered a lot. It was probably our fault for not checking with them before we went in but it’ll be a long time before I step foot in a Shidax again.

Anyway, the next day we do the sights. The atomic bomb museum was unchanged from my last visit, what with atomic bomb incidents being down this year. The Peace Park and Peace Statue were still unintentionally hilarious (just look at the thing, it’s hideous!). The Spectacles Bridge was still suitably spectacle like, if not particularly spectacular. We went to a few temples I hadn’t been to before, and found a gigantic Buddha statue on the back of a turtle-like building. We finished the day with a trip up Mt Inasa to the aforementioned observatory. I still think it’s a fantastic view but Hannah was less impressed as you can see from the photos below.

On the final, day, we only had a few hours before our bus. We spent most of our time at the Confucian temple, the only example outside of China. The adjoining museum of China artefacts served only to further excite me about our trip there this Christmas. I really can’t wait.

So we got the bus home, and all was well. Actually no, we got caught in the inescapable web of Japanese bureaucracy when the driver of the bus took our tickets and forget all about it. We had to pay again. Still, this was one small (but incredibly, incredibly annoying) smear on an otherwise fantastic weekend.

I’ve stuck some photos down there of our trip. This’s what £600 worth of camera and £0 worth of talent will get you.

The Wharf. Look at all the pretty lights. You don’t pick that shit up with your £400 “cameras” I tell you.

It’s Hannah, and one of many photos I have of her taking photos.


Here’s another one. The girl just loves taking photos.


In a radical change of pace, Hannah decides not to take a photo. She doesn’t look happy about it though does she?

What a lovely picture. The city at dusk. Hannah, so used to not taking photos at this point, missed a lovely shot, don’t you think?

“Fucking Huge She-man Teaches Babies to Rock Out” Apparently it’s an extremely holy notion.

“…and I said to him: “If you think that’s impressive, you should see my cock!””
“……..”
“Walter?”
“Don’t touch me.”

The city at night. It’s a bit blurry because I couldn’t keep the camera still. Insert “tripod” joke here. Tee hee.

Hannah just after I won our 8mile-esque Rap Battle. Shortly after this she drop kicked a baby right off the mountain. Ironically enough, it landed just next to the atomic bomb hypocenter and yet caused only a fraction of the damage.

I could quite happily spend all day trying to write amusing captions for pictures, but this one speaks for itself does it not? Looking good my friend. Looking good.

Embittered

I’ve got into a habit of writing these entries, forgetting about them and posting them up on the blog at almost the precise moment they lose relevancy. A bit like the UK government then. Maybe I should consider going in to politics, I’m lazy enough.

So, this is the entry where I pour great steaming heaps on disappointment on you all; I won’t be returning to Britain any time soon. I’ve decided that, because of my limited time here and the fact that when I return home Tony Blair is not going to let me (or anyone) leave those hallowed shores ever again, I should make the most of my time here. So, I’ll be heading off to China for 2 weeks, more specifically to Beijing, Shanghai and Xi’an (where all those terracotta solders are kept).

I know many will be thunderstruck by this news, and many others will simply not hear about it as this blog must now be reaching less people than Steve Irwin, but I’m afraid the rainy, scum ridden, expensive, US-pandering, freedom hating, racist streets of Britain were just edged out by the home of one of the most ancient civilisations on Earth and the many ridiculously cheap attractions contained therein. Sure it’s Communist, but after looking at today’s UK from a distance I’ve come to realise the Chinese could be a lot worse off.

You may have noticed from that last paragraph that I’ve become somewhat disenchanted with the country of my birth. Well, sort of. I really do recommend that everyone who reads this and who hasn’t done so already takes a few months off and lives in a country outside of Britain. Any country, it doesn’t matter. It changes your perception radically. While living in England, I knew that everything was more expensive here and that the government had long since stopped acting for the people. I knew that the British populace were often considered mean, rude and miserable by the international community (although I couldn’t see that at the time). But I thought of places in far off climes and said to myself…well, it could be worse.

Of course that all changed after about 2 weeks in Japan. Even now, when traditions I first thought were quaint have brought me to the brink of insanity, nothing here has made me pine for the grassy hills of home. I miss the people back in England, I really do, and as it’s coming up to Christmas I’ll miss the atmosphere of the place (but again, that’s mainly down to family and friends) but the country itself…I’m incredibly glad to be shot of the place, even if it is only temporary.

Possibly the aspect that gets my goat the most are the prices we pay. Japan is a country that was not built with humans in mind. 70% of the place is taken up with huge impassable mountains that only the most hardy of sheep would dare ascend. They have zero natural resources over here, none; they import it all. But still, the 120 million people they have here manage to get by. Not only get by, but also in most cases get by comfortably. This is probably because the price of consumables over here is reasonable. Not cheap, but reasonable. Compared to the prices infesting the UK though, they might as well be free. I don’t pretend to know all the politics behind it, why it is the UK government charges us 17.5% VAT while the Japanese government gets by on 5% consumer tax, but I know that I can get all the food I need for a week for £20. In Leeds that would barely last me 2 days. I know that my car insurance is not going to cost me as much as my house does every month, because some statistic from the 70s said that people under 25 can’t drive. I know that flights out of the country will not induce a 3-year saving plan. I know that my wage will not be cut in half by taxes to be spent on red tape and administration.

I could go on and on (and I have) but I’ll stop ranting now. As it is, I’m having a good old time over here at the moment, with a long weekend on the horizon and someone special to spend it with.

Next time: The 7 reasons I hate you and your family.

Scratch

This one's a bit old but I thought I'd post it up anyway! More complaining ahoy!

I use this blog more as a virtual scratching post more than anything. I do apologise about that but, well, it is my blog.

Went to the Shaken place yesterday to see what was going on. They told me that the procedure would cost 90000 yen (about £450) which is oddly enough what I’d hoped for. Got to go back on Monday to actually get it done and find out what needs repairing. Apparently the repairs they might suggest are just that; suggestions. Apart from a few serious problems it’s entirely up to you whether you repair them or not.

Another fun meeting with one of my JTEs a few minutes ago. Yesterday we decided to embark on a new adventure. We decided that, for once, we would let the students think. I usually take my lesson plan topics for Oral Communication lessons from the text book the other teachers use when I am not in a lesson. Now these things are awful, terrible books that not only do not teach English but sometimes get it plain wrong. An example, from the current book:

“I have a dream of becoming a dentist.”

While grammatically correct (sort of) I would never, ever utter that phrase in conversation. “I dream of becoming a dentist” maybe, but that still sounds rather disjointed.

Now, the first few chapters of this book were easy to use as the themes of lesson plans; Holiday, directions, the telephone. But the 4^th chapter is titled “Would you like an extra blanket?” and is about…nothing. Well no, it’s actually about how to ask for an extra blanket and some more nuts on an airplane. So, I went to my teacher yesterday (about 10 minutes after I was supposed to be at my second school as the said teacher had disappeared for 40 minutes) and told her I couldn’t make a plan out of this chapter. So we decided to do more on the previous topic, the telephone. As far as I was concerned we had decided to, for once, let the kids actually use the English they’d “learnt” and spend the lesson constructing their own telephone conversations from the Key Phrases I’d given them the lesson before.

Today, she saunters up to me and asks to see the worksheet I’ve prepared for today’s lesson. “I’m sorry?” I stutter. “For the lesson today, did you make a worksheet?” I remind her that only the day before we had decided to let the kids work in groups this lesson, we had decided to let them use their brains. “But I thought you were going to make a worksheet for that?” I patiently explain that the Key Phrases are on the worksheet I did last week that the kids still have, and that we agreed yesterday that we’d suggest a few topics for the conversations on the board. Of course, this totally confuses her. “Well, their English level is very low…” Ignoring the fact that she’s now completely forgotten about yesterday’s conversation, I tell her that this sort of thing is what I used to do in French lessons, and my level of French was never much higher than “low”. Still she looks nonplussed.

Then she moves on to the two English 1 classes I have today. Why I have two is still beyond me, my original lesson plan made at the start of this term clearly states that on Wednesdays I should only have one. Never mind. She asks me if I have any ideas. No clarification on what topic or subject I should broach, just “Do you have any ideas?” No, no I don’t. I have never planned these lessons, that’s been left up to the JTEs. They haven’t been doing a very good job lately, most lessons end up in me playing cards with the students. I’m not entirely sure why the JTEs can’t organise these lessons considering all the lessons they do without me are taken straight from the terrible textbooks.

Then she asks if I have any activities involving the past tense. Oh yes, just let me find them… Grammar points are almost impossible to make into any activity that isn’t excruciatingly dull and luckily they usually leave the grammar stuff to the lessons not involving me. Not this time. She says we’ll discuss it in the period before the lesson, you know, when I’ve got all of 45 minutes to put something together.

I despair I really do. The Japanese education system, at least regarding English, has possibly the worst attitude towards the students that I’ve ever come across. They’re treated like unthinking drones incapable of retaining even the most basic knowledge. Any creative thought or input is actively discouraged. Learn this. Memorise this. Say this, then. “I’m fine, and you?” But to be honest, that’s exactly what my students are like. Whether this is due to the students themselves or the way they are treated from the very beginnings of their education is a distinction crying out for research.

Well, I just had the “thinking” class and amazingly enough it went very well. The students actually thought about what they were doing in their groups (well, most of them) and the conversations they came up with were actually pretty good. The atmosphere was really good too.

I suppose that answers the nature or nurture question I had before…

Kevin Carter

Well, I paid enough for it so here are some pictures I took with my new fancy camera. They're not much good at the mo as I'm still getting the hang of the settings! Click for a bigger version (the bigger version were scaled down by me as blogger wouldn't accept them. The ones here are 25% of the original size!)
The Hikawa dam and resevoir, as seen on my way to work.


The village of Izumi, again close to one of my schools.

Who is this handsome beast eh?

Juxtaposition

These last 2 weeks have been a mix of the really bad and the really good. Most of my time has been concerned with the really bad, but when has that ever not been the case?

I sent my car to the mechanics the week before last. They told me that they’d need to replace a few suspension bolts and that the price for said maintenance would be about 50000 yen (£250). It could’ve been worse. Cut to the weekend before last. I arrive at the mechanics and they tell me they’ve managed to fix it without replacing the parts. Great. The price is substantially cheaper; reasonable even. So, I drive away. 5 minutes later I’m back. The problem hasn’t been fixed at all, the noise is still there. After 30 minutes of mucking around they tell me the part will need to be replaced after all, but they can let me drive home as the problem isn’t serious. They will try and get rid of the noise temporarily. After 40 minutes, they come back and tell me that, actually, the noise is gone and unless it comes back I should be OK. Fine.

Cut to this weekend just gone. I had a lovely weekend with Hannah doing not much at all, and the stress of the last week was finally dissipating. The typhoon we had on Sunday had seemingly left my car untouched and I drove home on Tuesday morning after the bank holiday Monday. As I turn in to my parking space, a glint of light catches my eye. I am drawn to the windscreen where I find…a fucking huge crack. Seems the typhoon left me a little present…again. That’s two typhoons I’ve been through, and two car windows smashed. I go mental for about ten minutes before phoning in sick for work and driving back to the city I’d just come from to pay the Audi mechanics another visit.

Of course the whole front windscreen needs to be replaced. The good news is that they have a shipment of glass replacements arriving today, the 20^th. The bad news is it’s going to cost me £400. I am fucking livid. With the mandatory MOT type thing coming up next month and the repair costs for the suspension, this means I’ve spent about £50 shy of £1000 on my car in two months.

What pisses me off the most is that the cars I was parked next to during the typhoon were left completely unscratched. Nothing on them. But for some fucking reason my windscreen was cracked for the second time in a row under these conditions. I knew these few months would be expensive with the MOT and stuff but this is ridiculous. The car is turning into a money pit. What’s worse is that I know, just fucking know, that the suspension noise is going to come back, probably sooner rather than later. The MOT will no doubt spring a whole other spate of problems I need to get fixed on me and the cost of those, on top of the needlessly extortionate £450 it’s going to cost to get said MOT, is going to mean money, for the first time in almost a year and a half, is going to be a worry.

For a while after I discovered the cracked windscreen I was seriously considering getting the car repaired, getting the MOT and then selling it. To be honest, I still am. The guy who had it before said he had no problems with it (and I believe him, I still know him and he’s a very honest chap) but me, as soon as I buy the fucker, am overloaded with the things. I know for a fact one of the ALTs in the city is getting a new car so his K car (small car with an engine of 660cc) will be going cheap, if not for free. It’s very very tempting. I think I’ll see how the MOT goes. If the results are bad then I may have to sell up.

Bugger

Oh dear. My car’s gone a bit buggered, like. I drove down to Hannah’s on Sunday and the mysterious creaking I’d heard coming from the front left wheel changed into a sort of grinding, squealing noise. Obviously this made me a bit nervous. Once I’d gotten to the city I decided that I didn’t want to risk further damage (to myself or the car) and left it at Hannah’s apartment, getting the train and tram home and resolving to walk to work for the next week. Hopefully Froilan (a 4^th year who moved to Kumamoto city from Yatsushiro) will help me take it to the Audi dealership in the city sometime this weekend. I’m just praying it’s not going to cost too much L

At the moment there are several money sapping prospects running through my mind. First up is the mandatory; shaken for my car. This is a sort of MOT that must be done every two years and for white plates (aka bigger cars like mine) it can cost anywhere from 90 – 160 000 yen (£400 – 800). Apparently one of the Yats ALTs known a mechanic so hopefully my costs will be on the lower end of that scale.

Then there’s the…ahem…luxury stuff. It’s over a week since I ordered the new camera from the Itos. Now, I don’t regret ordering the camera but it is quite a lot of money (link ) and when I ordered it I didn’t know that I’d have potential car repair costs hanging over my head (no excuse about the shaken though, I knew that was coming).

Well, it’s too late to retract the order (even if I wanted to, and I don’t really) so hopefully the car is not going to cost too much to fix. Hmm.

...

God dammit. It’s my first day back at work, a day on which I have been told several times, once before the holidays and once again this morning, that there would be no lessons. But they’ve found one for me from fucking somewhere. It’s not a lesson that’s on my regular timetable for Mondays so it’s not just a case of the exams today finishing early. It appears that one of the JTEs has had one of her lessons for tomorrow brought forward to today, a lesson which I would not usually participate in, but she’s decided to rope me in to it anyway. I cannot express how annoying this is, I really can’t.

It’s the look they give you when you tell them you were under the impression there would be no lessons today. They look as if you’ve just told them you smear shit on yourself and go by the name Lord Pooface of Stevenson at the weekends; one of complete incomprehension. They can’t grasp, even though I’ve been told today that I have no lesson, that one appearing out of nowhere should be a surprise. And the gap they gave me between telling about the lesson and the lesson itself? 10 minutes. For God’s sake. It’s my first lesson in almost 2 months as well. I’d been building myself up to go to the lesson tomorrow; I was a bit nervous as it’s been so long. Of course, all that’s been thrown to the wind now. 10 fucking minutes notice. God dammit I’m pissed off. I’m not even needed! It’s a plain old boring repeat after the teacher lesson that is simple for both teacher and student. But for some reason in 5 minutes time I’ve got to get up in front of a class and pretend I’m happy to be teaching them. This had better be a one off…

Over

The holiday’s are over it seems. My actual holiday, the last week, have been Ok. I decided to go to a few places on Kyushu, Kagoshima and Fukuoka mainly, and my trips were nice. It was quite odd going on holiday alone, the first time I’ve ever done so, and I must say that I prefer travelling with others. Not that I was lonely, but there’s only so long you can go without having anyone to talk to.

I decided to invest in a new camera too. I figured I’d treat myself as I hadn’t really spent any money on the trips (or at least no serious amounts of money) so I opted for the new Canon Digital SLR (one of the big chunky ones for the uninitiated, as I was last week). Through the local host family, who own a camera shop, I was able to order it for a great deal less than the street price and I’ll get it two days before it’s officially released on the 8^th. Score. I’ll put up any and all photos I take that are any good. Not many then.

Let’s see, what else has happened? Well I’ve met the new guys properly. They’re all great as far as I can see. Lien (or Lynne as she prefers) is very lively and happy and easy to talk to. The married couple are cool too, Nathan being the more talkative of the two. Rachael is possibly the quietest person I’ve ever met but she’s lovely. There’s a few I haven’t met yet, Carlo down in Toyo village and Geoffrey and Aashima who are in Yats. I’ve heard various things about them all, ranging from the good to the not so good. We’ll see.

As lovely as they are, it seems that none of them are really party people. I didn’t expect them all to be Shaun Ryder’s but they don’t really seem the sort of people who will join you for a casual drink on a Saturday night. I could be wrong, and I hope I am, it’s still very much a hectic period for all of them, but as nice as they all are they don’t seem to be that sort of people. And that’s fine, they obviously came to Japan for other, perhaps more admirable reason than to go out drinking with other gaijins but it does make me realise how much I miss the old guys and the fun I was having this time last year.

Shakesy

It’s gotten hot. Oh yes, very much so. And quickly too. Yesterday I had forgotten the power lead to the laptop and as compiling the lovely picture blog below had taken so much out of it, I needed to return home and collect said piece of wire. Unfortunately, my car was running rather low on petrol at that point. So, I decided to walk. It didn’t look too rainy outside, indeed some of the clouds were shifting to reveal actual sunlight. Of course, by the time I’d stepped out all of the clouds were gone and the temperature and humidity had shot through the roof. The 10 minute walk left me covered in sweat and extremely uncomfortable. Urgh.

Another slow day today so far. It’s not been so bad actually as learning Japanese has turned out to be, gasp, interesting. Difficult sure, but interesting. I’m also trying to keep my hand in with the whole writing thing. I’m doing a sort of autobiographical doohicky at the mo, one that I’ve been dabbling in and out of for a while now. It’s OK I suppose, a nice way to cross nostalgia with creativity, or at least what small amount of creativity I now possess, my mind having been dulled by sushi and green tea. It’s a sort of seat of the pants thing (in method rather than subject) as I’m just writing stuff down and sorting out little things like continuity and temporal order later. I’ve got sort of a flashback thing going at the moment and it actually seems to work. Tense has been something of a problem but I solved that by writing everything in the first-person present perfect. I am rather anxious to see what an independent observer would think of it, yet am too embarrassed to share. Damn my vanity.

It's also nice to know that people are still reading this blog, all two of you. Yay!

A Day In The Life

I’ve been wanting to do a photo blog for a while now but have always forgotten to take my camera to work. Well, as everyone is far less busy now, thanks to the summer “holiday” I thought it might be an opportune time to walk everyone through my average day. Strap yourselves in, it’s a wild, wild ride (click on the images for larger versions):


I usually wake up at about 7.30 to be confronted with this. I made sure the camera didn’t catch most of the floor as I don’t want my mother to have a heart attack. Anyway, I usually check my emails in a bleary eyed way before forgetting to get ready and rushing about at the last minute. Interesting fact: there is a huge tapir just out of shot. His name is Marilyn.


This is my personal Life Support System. If I could have it fixed up intravenously I would. It’s also my clock; by the time the jug is full I know I’m probably 5 minutes late for work. Interesting fact; I stole that fridge from a tramp.


And this is how I get to work. A tragic waste of money spent on petrol, as my school is only a 15 minute walk away but I paid good money for Sally here and I may as well get my yen’s worth. Not sure why this picture is so foggy, it’s actually rather sunny today. Interesting fact: the yellow square on the floor is a designated spot for gay flogging.


My school. The first view I get of it as I arrive. It looks pretty rubbish here and again I don’t know why it looks so miserable. My amazing camera skills perhaps. Interesting fact: the bike shed pictured is made out of moles.


My desk. About as tidy as my apartment. That Tropicana bottle has been there for several months and I can’t even remember when I brought that thermo-flask thing in. Notice the stack of books on the left and realise that this is what I do for 85% of my time. Interesting fact: my desk has a border signifying it as British territory.


The staff room, or my view of it anyway. See? I’m not the only one with a messy desk. Interesting fact, there were 6 teachers in shot, but none of them came out in the photo. Spooky.


And this is what I plan to do with my summer. My Japanese is still pretty bad. I can understand a lot of what’s said, but actually constructing my own sentences is another thing. I thought the title was rather ironic so there’s the comedy aspect too. Interesting fact; most Japanese people learn Japanese from this book.


The inside. This is the main section of the staffroom block. I don’t actually do any teaching here as all the classrooms are either science, music or computer based. Interesting fact, a Shinto curse means the ghosts of naughty tapir regularly wander between the seating areas.


That’s better. The view of the second building from one of the connecting bridges. Interesting fact, pixies live in that tree, emerging only to hurl books and expletives at me.


The front of school. The 1st floor is the staff room and the ground floor is the school office. Doesn’t get much more exciting that that! Oh, and there’re palm trees too. Two of them. Interesting fact; there are no monkeys in this picture.


Ah, my labour of love. This is my rather pathetic World Cup English display looking forlorn and welting in the heat. Notice my amazing art skills that make the display difficult to read even for a native speaker. Also notice the large amounts of Japanese written by an English teacher so that the students knew what the hell I was on about. To be fair to myself, most of it has either fallen off or been taken down by this point but part of me just can’t bear to throw the rest of it away. Interesting fact; one student scrawled “Piss off home” across my first attempt.


Ah, teachers. I fooled them into posing for this by telling them I was dying, that’s why they look so happy. The one on the right is Kudo-sensei, my tantousha (supervisor) and the one on the left is, well I’m not entirely sure. I will call him Phillip. Hello Phillip! Interesting fact; Phillip is performing the ancient Japanese hand signal known as Ryoshomon. It indicates that this particular person hates Winston Churcill.


Half an hour into the day the laptop’s out and I’m playing Sonic 2 with the sound off. Interesting fact: Sonic 2 is regarded by many as the best English teaching tool ever created.


Two hours in and I’m watching hardcore porn with the sound on. I’ve pixellated the movie for those with sensitive dispositions. Interesting fact: I was once told to turn the sound up as the geography teacher couldn’t hear it.


Today, I read this book quite a lot. Lord knows how many times I’ve actually finished it, but it’s probably a few too many. It really is one of my favourite books of recent years, and I have no idea why. It reminds me of 6th Form College but by all accounts that should not be a good thing. Interesting fact; during 6th Form College I aged 4 times faster than normal. I am now 28.


This is how bored I am by 3.20pm; I made a calendar collage. As you can see, I have much more penned in for August than July. Most of those are holidays though. Interesting fact; the JET calendar is not given, but must be won in a gladiatorial arena type event.


This is the ceiling above my desk. I get paid quite a lot of money to stare at this spot for hours every day. Interesting fact; strip lighting was invented by the band Men Without Hats.


My desk has got progressively messier over the course of the day. I’m too bored to do anything about it at this point. Interesting fact: mumblemumble zzzzzzzzzzz…


This is the blurred picture of my foot my camera took as it fell from my unconscious fingers. Interesting fact; I was asleep for three hours.

All in all, one of my more eventfull days.

Endings

Bloody rain. I thought the worse of the rainy season was over but it seems I was sorely mistaken. I don’t mind it all that much but our rescheduled paragliding session is coming up this Sunday and, once again, the rain threatens to derail it. Unfortunately the session we cancelled took place on a miraculously sunny day, one day after a torrential downpour. Hopefully some similar miracle will help us out this weekend.

One of the many things I’ve learnt over here; the Japanese love ceremonies. I deduced this fact almost a year ago when I attended three of the things on the same day but the almost fanatical devotion to these seemingly pointless sessions of monologuing continues. This morning was the closing ceremony of this term. It was indeed as dull as the countless others I’ve been made to sit through, but this one was sticky. Very sticky. The rain had combined with the heat radiating from, well certainly not the sun but from somewhere, and had created a sort of invisible treacle that swished around my head in place of oxygen. Urgh. It was horrible and towards the end I was anxiously tapping my foot and rolling my fingers over each other in anticipation for the final “Uwarimasu” and the slow trolling of the students back to their homerooms. This came after almost an hour of speeches and awards, all done in the characteristic monotone of formal ceremonies the world over.

In stark contrast to this was the swimming competition held yesterday. This was one of the few times I actually saw the students break out of their academic shells and enjoys themselves, and amazingly the teachers let them do it. It was great fun, even if I was just watching from the sidelines. It did seem a little pointless, but therein lies, thought I, the real reason behind it. It was pointless; nobody really won anything, the races were short and uneventful, but the students spent the better part of a whole day enjoying themselves. There were no speeches, no screeching teachers telling them to cut it out, no bowing in unison. No ceremony. This is the way the term should have ended, rather than in the overpowering smog of the gym to the drone of the kocho.

Sunny

Went to the beach on Sunday. I haven’t been to the beach in years, I actually have trouble remembering the last time I did so. It was great though, the perfect way to spend such a lovely, albeit incredibly hot, day. There was much throwing of frisbess and losing of beach balls. In fact I think my overriding image of Faith now is her slowly chasing a beach ball as it gently drifts into the distance. The whole day was fun, but extremely tiring fun.

Yesterday morning I tried my hand at baseball in a sort of baseball driving range. Needless to say I was amazing. Well, not really but at least I managed to hit the balls hurtling towards me reasonably often. Buggered up my hands though.
As for yesterday afternoon, I sort of vegged out and watched a few downloaded movies. First up was Hellboy, a film I’d sort of seen before but wasn’t really watching. This time though, it was actually something of a disappointment. The premise was good, the cast seemed perfect, but there was something missing. Maybe it was the lacklustre acting or the terribly obvious wirework action scenes but it was nowhere near as good as it could or indeed should have been.
5 beer bottles out of 9 And 1 That’s Gone A Bit Warm.

Next was Superman. I’ve never really liked the Superman franchise; what’s the point in having the hero of the piece be completely invincible, vulnerable only to one rather contrived plot point (this is of course excluding the mid-90s televisual treat, The New Adventures of Superman which was great)? Needless to say I didn’t like this effort at all. The actors were miscast (especially the wishy-washy 23 year old Kate Bosworth as the supposedly hardened reporter Lois Lane) and, for the most part, were completely unremarkable. Brandon Routh, playing Kent/Superman, was completely charmless and utterly unsympathetic. Towards the end of the film, director Bryan Singer tries to make us feel sorry for this Man of Steel, something that even a helmsman as talented as he fails to pull off. He’s Superman! Who cares if he got beaten up, he can fly for Christssake!

The story too was rather pants and the one hope I held out for the film, Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor, was nowhere near as good as the trailers hinted he would be. In fact, his only passable scene is the “Lemme hear you say it.” dialogue revealed in even the earlier teasers. Perhaps the best word to describe him in this is “flat.” Granted it’s not him insomuch as it’s the scripts he’s given to work with but still, he does little with the few decent lines he has. The supporting cast are barely worth a mention, terrible as they are. They made little impression and served less purpose.
Good points? Well the one serious action scene of this (2 and a half hour) movie was the plane rescue and it was indeed impressive. Some critics have hailed it as the best bit of action since Lord of The Rings however, and I think this is a little off. Perhaps the main reason the scene stands out so much is that the rest of the film is desperately lacking in similar set pieces. There are a few more bits of action, a bank robbery, a scene where Superman gets his required comeuppance, but nothing else is even slightly remarkable.

The biggest flaw though had to be that the film took itself far, far too seriously. As far as I’ve heard and can remember, the original Superman films benefited from Christopher Reeve’s gift for comic timing; they were funny films in places. After all, the comics the films are based off are hardly crusty tomes of moral comment. But this movie was exactly that; it was almost religious in its message of self sacrifice and righteousness. This was offset by a man in his underwear flying around the planet and the two opposing images jarred me completely out of any cinematic experience that might have been there otherwise.

3 noses out of 10

Anyway, enough about that. Until next time.


The beach where we went. Yay.

Plans

Another day another several thousand yen.

I’m in a surprisingly good mood at the moment, mainly because I’ve got quite a lot done in the past 24 hours. Yesterday we (me and Ellison) went to get my International Driver’s license (which expires at the end of June) changed into a Japanese license. I won’t bore you with the details suffice to say it took ages and involved hundreds of pointless questions about the British licensing system.

Today my only lesson has been cancelled which is good. I’ve also finally sorted out my GoLloyds application (so I can finally send money home), faxed the previous owner of my car all the updated documentation and completed several sets of exam questions for various people. And it’s not even 10 o’clock yet.

Having a three day week also helps. Had yesterday off and got Friday off due to the wonder that is choseibi. Bliss.

This weekend I’m supposed to be going paragliding off a volcano. Yay? It’s been a while since I’ve done anything unique to Japan and I think the volcano aspect means this probably belongs in that category. It’s only going to be about £45 as well for three actual descents; two from 45ft and a final one from 150ft down in to a valley. Hopefully I’ll be able to conquer my crippling fear of heights to do this. I’m actually really looking forward to it.

Then again, I may be jumping the gun (no pun). The rain recently has been amazing in its intensity. Yesterday, as we were driving to the city to sort the license out, I could hardly see three feet in front of the bonnet so strong was the downpour. And last night we had an incredible lightning storm. I’d gone to bed as soon as we’d got home (about 6pm) as I had a headache so I was wide awake at about 12 when the sky literally lit up like it was the middle of the day. And the thunder…I’ve never heard it that loud before. It was like being in one of those Hammer horror Dracula films; the thunder really did make a cracking sound like a movie sound effect. It was great. I tried to get the lightning on camera but it didn’t pick it up. Needless to say however, if this continues paragliding is off.

No idea what I’m going to do on Friday…I have the whole day to do as I please. I really should get out and about, take a drive somewhere in Kyushu, take a day trip to Fukuoka and do some shopping, but I’ll probably end up saving the money and staying home. Meh, I’ve got at least another 14 months to do the exciting stuff!

Arresting

Oh, and if any of you (I'm assuming some people do still read this here) get the chance, go and watch/buy/rent Arrested Development. It's the funniest TV show I've seen in years...completely laugh out loud funny in fact.


"Lemme give that oatmeal some brown sugar!"

Rock

I reached a bottom recently, one made from the title of this entry. This last week has possibly been the worst in terms of work since I got here almost a year ago. I haven't been overly busy or boringly underworked, it's just that my schools seemed to have forgotten that I don't speask Japanese.

I was told when I got out here that one of the main problems JETs report is that their schools don't tell them things. I already gave some examples below of what this has meant for me. But after I wrote that entry, it continued. One school (Hikawa again) rang me up at 6pm on Thursday and asked me for a piece of work we'd agreed on Wednesday that I'd present to them the next Tuesday. Seems they had forgotten that, and wanted the next day. Again, when I told them I hadn't done it there was this ominous silence on the other end of the line, like I just told them I'd killed a student. I really had to bite my tongue to stop myself going on a rant.

I also bit the bullet and said I'd try and get it to them tomorrow but I had exams to give all morning in my second school so I'd try and get it to them by lunch. No deal, they needed it by third period. Fine, so I say I'll try and get it in before third. However, it seems over the course of the 2 minute conversation they have changed their minds and need it NOW, not tomorrow but within the next ten minutes. I make several hand gestures that probably would have got me fired had I done it in the staffroom.

Eventualy the teacher on the other end gies me an email and I say I'll get it to them ASAP. Which I do. Or would have done had, you know, the email address they had given me worked. I gave up.

Anyway, other than my schools being arses the weather has been pretty rough recently. It's been raining for the past few days and the humidity has gone through the roof. It's not even that hot, but the air is so thick it's like taking a gulp of milk everytime I breath in. Urgh.

I bought a Nintendo DS Lite while under extreme Peer Pressure. Not that I'm not happy that I did, it's a great little console and very cheap for what it is. There's three of us with them now and I must say Wireless Mario Kart Multiplayer is absolutely fantastic. Reminds me of the Uni when me the rest of 10b Cumberland road would gather for regular bouts on Mario Kart Double Dash.



Fun times.

EDIT: Seems I can't get that video to align properly. Bugger...

Confusing

My base school have been messing me around somewhat of late. Nothing serious as yet but still, they’re not being very helpful.

First there’s the extra lessons. I am, according to my schedule supposed to do 6 lessons a week. This week I’ve done at least 8. What’s most annoying is that they ask if I can go to these lessons about 10 minutes before they start. Normally this would just be an imposition but recently I’ve been genuinely busy and these unplanned lesson excursions are really digging into my work time.

Thing is, they do ask. It’s not like I have to go to them. Saying no though sends a clear message, and it’s not a good one. Then again, if they keep calling on me I’m going to have to tell the truth and tell them I’m busy.

Then there’s the exams. At my second school they informed me exactly when the exams will be and what they want me to do about them. At Hikawa though, I haven’t a clue. One of my teachers keeps hinting that she wants me to write the Interview test but doesn’t seem to want to come out and say it. So far I’ve played the innocent and only done exactly what she’s asked of me. Now however the exam times are drawing closer (I think) so I suppose I’d better ask her outright.

Finally there are what I’ve come to called the Amazing Changing Classes. Some days lessons are switched round. Say I have a class in the 3rd period. That class may get switched to 6th period. It gets worse when I have more than one class a day (ie, everyday); the class I was supposed to have in 4th period is now in the 2nd and the class I was to take in the 6th period (“plenty of time to prepare!”) is now in the 1st (“oh bollocks”). This shuffling appears to be completely random and the only predictable aspect is the fact that it will happen regularly.

What’s even worse is that no-one tells me about them. Today for example, I was supposed to have two lessons, one in the 3rd period and one in the 6th. Now the 6th period lesson was done yesterday thanks to that day’s Amazing Changing Lessons so I naturally assume that I will have only the one class today. That was my first mistake. My second mistake came when I popped to the shops at the end of first period/beginning of second. I needed a prize for the 3rd period class so I went to the local supermarket (5 mins away) and got a bag of sweets. I return to find a cryptic note on my desk “Please come to classroom 103”. So I do, ten minutes into second period. I innocently ask the English teacher within what she wants with me and am greeted by a look of absolute confusion.
“You don’t have a class now?”
“No, I only have one class today, in 3rd period.”
“Oh.” Confused look. “I was told you had this period with me…”

Turns out that because I had a lesson yesterday that I was supposed to have today, they added an extra lesson on to today’s schedule without telling me. Fine, fine, that should mean that I would indeed have the two lessons I was originally supposed to (before I completed one of them yesterday) and this would mean I would have my original schedule of one 3rd period class and one 6th (leaving out the fact that this would mean I would have an extra lesson this week…). But no, it seems that all 6th period classes are being done in 2nd period today for whatever reason, and no-one thought to tell me that a) I actually had two classes today and b) one of my classes had been moved from 6th to 2nd period.

Confused?

Photos

Quite a lot's happened since last time I wrote, too much to describe in words. As the saying goes, a picture speaksa thousand...


Hannah in Kagoshima during our whirlwind tour of Kyushu.


Mum and Dad in Aso. They look a little too happy.


Some rocks. Somewhere is Aso.


Kyoto. Some sort of temple there.


Me in Kyoto. Another temple there.


Genuine 18th century samurai armour. Price? £15k


Me, in Gion. Where the geisha live.


Dad calls this the "duck train." Bless 'im.


Engrish bollocks.

Bye bye!

Commitment

Well, going off Greenham's (http://www.getjealous.com/getjealous.php?go=jonnygreenham) example, though I might try and start this thing up again.

His is much better.

Sally

Stupid autoformatting...

Phases

I tend to go through phases of updating my blog like mad and then phases of not updating it at all. Oh well, enjoy it while it lasts me hearties.

So, what’s going down? Not a whole lot, as per usual. Got some boring document stuff to sort out at the mo and that’s taking up the majority of my time. Managed to find out about car insurance for the Sally replacement I have my eye on; it may actually be cheaper, even though the car is a 2.1 litres sports car. This is because the plan I’m on now is one of the more expensive ones, covering every eventuality with a whole load of money. I fully intend to downgrade the plan, which will more than make up for the increase in price due to engine size. Anyway this means that, assuming neither Sally nor the new version break down before the switch is to be made, I should be buying this new one in July.

(Quick edit: just after I wrote this I got a reply to my email stating the above from the person who owns the car. Looks like it might not be as sorted as I'd thought. Will let everyone know as I'm sure you're all fascinated.)

Other than that the number of lessons I’m taking a week has completely dried up. For the past 2 days I’ve had none and spent the day reading various books. Rather dull.

However, I’m going snowboarding on Friday so am really looking forward to that. Never done anything like this before so it should be an…ahem…experience. I’ll take my camera and try and gets some shots of snowy Hiroshima. That’ll mean I’ll have been to both of the atomic bomb cities. Weird.

After that: March is one of the few months where I get choseibi. I went into these in my Nagasaki entry but basically I’m not allowed to work more than 20 days a month, so if there are more working days than that I get them off. In this case, by taking the 2 choseibi and placing them strategically around a national holiday and a weekend, I get a 5 day holiday in the middle of the month. Nice. Then it’s my birthday, for which plans are amazingly miniscule. 22. Weird.

Then Hannah is coming over in April for a few weeks, then the parents after that. Exciting.

Anime

My friend drew that. In about a minute. In the dark.

She's drawing a picture of me soon. Yay!

Whoops...

Oh Christ, sorry!

I have fallen somewhat behind with this blog. Oh yes, you heard me correctly. Don’t try to defend me please, it’s my own fault. No…no I won’t hear you talk about yourself in that manner. I don’t mind if you didn’t notice, I should have updated more regardless. Anyway, you are forgiven.

So, Cambodia then. Seems like a good place to start. I actually wrote a journal while I was over there, but so far it has failed to have taken the leap from page to screen. This is the small amount I did manage to type up:

Cambodia travel journal:

December the 23rd.

Siem Reap. I am reliably informed that this translates as “Siam Defeated” or somesuch. Of course, the first wildlife I see is a Siamese cat sniffling for food. Today was a quiet day, mainly due to us landing here at gone 10pm. After what could euphemistically be called an uneventful flight we arrived at an airport roughly the size of the average Next menswear department and greeted with all the hospitality of a small button mushroom. After being herded through the Visa queue ($20!) and customs line we emerged into the night to be greeted by several grinning taxi drivers. Taxi drivers aren’t supposed to grin. They’re supposed to complain about Margaret Thatcher or how they’ve had Gaby Roslin’s gynaecologist in their cab. These ones appear neither to bear any Poll Tax grudges nor know what a gynaecologist is. They were happy. Inviting even. Our guesthouse was supposed to pick us up from the airport but are a no-show. The smiling cabbies have their day. We picked the least bedraggled and made our way to his car. A Toyota Camry. Remember this, it will become important later on. “$5!” he chimed. What a nice man.

7 minutes later and we arrive at the guesthouse. The staff wear “OMG WTF!?!” faces and bluster around the padlocked gates. The cabbie is still smiling as he claims he told us $5 each. The guesthouse has no record of our booking. Our bags are heavy. We pay the taxi driver with $7 and a scowl, we press ourselves onto the guesthouse staff and we barge our way into any rooms they have going. One double and a single. That was the plan. One double and a double will have to suffice.

Inside. Not the Ritz. Not the Hilton. Not even the Trave linn. More like the cabin. Any cabin. On an allotment. I check the bathroom; windows with no glass and bug nets riddled with deceased beasties. The taps work. The showers works and, thank god, the flush works. I decided to unpack the essentials; pajamas, iPod, notebook and pen mosquito repellent. Early night so I tuck the bug net in around the surprisingly cushy mattress and settle down to an evening of Queen.

December the 24th: Christmas Eve.

Wake up far too early. Listen to iPod again and go for a shower. Take the iPod off first though. Obviously. Turn the handle, the water still runs. Lovely. Step under. Step out again rather quicker. Cold. No visible way to heat the stream of water so grunt and bear it, it’s hot out anyway. It’s uncomfortably cold, like lying naked on an upturned filing cabinet, but still, it feels better to be clean. Water off, soap out, wash hair. Rather an impressive lather going so I play the stylist. Mohican. Dickensian. Dracula. My imagination wasted I decide to finish. Turn the handle. More cold water. Or rather, not. No water of any temperature. Turn the knob again. Nothing. Turn the tap. A rattling, a grumbling, but no water. Bugger it.

I consider my options;

1: Get dressed, hair still resembling a Mohawk, and request the use of the others’ bathroom
2: Spit in a glass and use that.

Not much choice really until I notice the bottles of drinking water lovingly sprawled across a desk. It’s a shame to waste them but it’s better than looking like a creamy Mr T for the rest of the day.

Finish up shower and go for breakfast.

It was pretty much downhill from there*. I’ve stuck a few photos on anyway.

So, has anything happened since? Not really. I now have 3 fewer lessons a week than I did last semester, 4 if you count the fact that my mountain school haven’t needed me for about a month now. This obviously has left me with quite a bit of spare time. What have you done with it? I hear you ask. Well not update my blog obviously.

Oh, and my car broke down, something to do with the spark plugs. Anyway, the mechanic type bloke told me that there was no point fixing it properly as something else would probably breakdown in tandem and render it all a bit silly. Hmm. Apparently my little car (christened “Sally” in an arcane ritual that I will not delve into here) has about 6 months left to live.

L

Oh well. I’ve already begun the hunt for Sally v2.0 and have a few promising leads. Will elaborate when I know more.

Other than that…well Hannah is coming over in April and the folks (you know who you are) are heading over in May. My plans remain the same; to come home at Christmas. That is, if I can afford it; turns out cars aren’t as cheap over here as I was told.

Anyway, I shall leave for the moment but believe me when I say I shall think of little else but this blog for at least the next 2 minutes.


*Just kidding, it was great.