Unintended gifts

I was reading a book on arthritis (Mom is starting to suffer from it in her hands), written by a nurse in 1985. There's a paragraph lamenting the lack of nutritional education among young mothers and therefore the impossibility of their children being well fed or knowing how to feed themselves. The whole things ends up with the blithe assertion that women are responsible for the working power of the nation. I'm never going to be able to read this kind of thing again after that essay...

Mom and Dad were happy with their gifts, but Dad would have been a lot happier if I hadn't given him my cold. Sorry about that.

And himself sent me this adorable picture of the changeover of Chinese zodiac years.

Ooooh yes...

Himself managed to find his present. So, I thought I'd get him another one, and kind of took a chance on something that I hope he'll like but not quite sure.

He's got me the latest edition of Rough Guide Japan, which I really wanted. While we were sitting around in Waterstones talking about what to get for his brother, himself suddenly said that what he should have asked for was... what I've got for him! I don't think it will arrive in time - we're both gone as of tomorrow morning for Christmas - but if I'm lucky I'll have a 'we tried to deliver' card that I can pick up from the sorting office before we go to Wales for New Year.

Result.

Twinkle twinkle little tree

If anyone reading this might be talking to Mom - I suspect that limits it to Dad and possibly otouto - don't tell her, because this is one of her Chrisse pressies!


This is a kit for a Christmas tree made from star-shaped cushions (with a pompom on top!) that I got in Hobbyra Hobbyre in Nagoya, not this year but last year. I failed to make it in time for last Christmas, so that was one of the impetuses behind me going out and getting a sewing machine. I'm quite happy with how it turned out, especially seen it was my first time using a sewing machine and by far the most ambitious thing I've ever tried to sew.

That was actually quite fun. Now for the fabric bowls.

We know you got

I did a favour for a friend a little while ago. It meant a lot to her, it didn't particularly inconvenience me although it did require a fair amount of trust.

We met up for dinner last night, and she brought me a thank-you present, this little psuedo-kokeshi!



She said the little blurb on the box made her think of me - I was unreasonably chuffed by the whole thing. My cheeks still ache from smiling. It's going to live on my desk, and I shall affix the included sticker and badge to something, probably my electronic dictionary and only-me bag.

Mind you, the other side of the box says 'I love Dexy's Midnight Runners' - their "Come on Eileen" was mercilessly redone as "Come on Arline" by boys at my school in France and resulted in an unfortunate incident with one of said boys, a locker door and my temper finally fraying. It takes a lot, but it can happen...

Loving it...

...as my former manager at a certain large company used to say when things were going down the drain. As usual, my source of work isn't disappearing anywhere soon. This spontaneously appeared while I was writing an email to submit my hours for a translation project.

Mine and only mine

Sorry for the lack of posts - been working away on lots of things, just nothing interesting. Plus I think I've been treating this very much as a travel blog, so not much to report after coming back!

Last essay is safely handed in, now I have to find a thesis topic or annotated translation piece. I have filed my tax return after doing far more research than I felt comfortable with on liability for tax in Germany. Someone at one of the accountancy firms I spoke to asked someone in the expatriate tax department at Deloitte & Touche in Reading to call me and they seem to agree. Phew.

In other news, my favourite bag - a black waist pack that I used as a shoulder bag, bought in Japan back in 2003 or so and just big enough for a Lonely Planet Japan and a camera and a map - went to its eternal rest in the summer after I managed to put a rip in the bottom of it. Probably Lonely Planet Germany on top my keys. I was figuring out it was on its last legs at the craft fair I did with himself's mom in July, and one of the other stands there was a lady selling handmade bags. We got talking. I remembered I had some lovely aizome fabric I bought in Ise last year. And this is the result!




The main body of the bag is blue denim, with a wide stripe fabric for the outer pockets and flap, plus a thin stripe fabric for the lining, and a little of the wide stripe for an inside pocket. It's perfect!

I had a discussion about brand goods with a friend in Japan while I was there. She saw a designer bag as a status symbol - I'm successful, at my age I can afford one of these. Maybe, but I keep getting stuck on buying my lovely Dakine bag in Frankfurt - let me get you another identical one from out the back, Made In China. I'd much rather a handmade one of a kind item than a mass produced one. It's the same as the burst of happiness I felt when someone commented that one of bracelets could never be taken for anything but handmade. I like that.

Pass!

Just got my results from the September exams - I've passed! I thought I did, but it's nice to know for sure.

Happy with my Japanese-English translation mark, and with the one from the presentation in Japanese, seen as it went a little pear-shaped. Wish I could have done more for the Writing in Japanese, but it's a fair mark for what I did do.

Final essay (have an extension from last month) due in on Friday, then I have to make a decision on doing a thesis or an annotated translation. I may be back in Germany in January, which makes the translation much more attractive... but I have to come up with some kind of topic first!

Anyway - one big hurdle passed!

Haiku time!

I noticed while posting the last post that I have a tag 'haiku' - we did haiku and also senryuu at the Japan Foundation course last night. Where haiku celebrate the beauty of nature, senryuu are ironic or sarcastic social commentaries in the haiku 5-7-5 syllable format.

隣には
知り合いの人
世界、狭！

Sitting beside me
Someone I already know
This world is so small!

Turns out I'd already sent emails about the MA to the guy sitting beside me, but neither of us realised until the people beside us started talking about JET and we joined in.

Although my favourite one of the evening has to be one where he came up with the idea and I managed to fit it into 5-7-5 syllables - you had to do four seasonal ones, with this one for spring and the last line already there:

二日酔い
誰のせいだろ
桜かな

I'm so hung over...
Who is to blame for this pain?
The cherry blossoms!

The かな doesn't actually mean 'could it be?' but just emphasises the cherry blossoms, but we used it like that anyway. And the apparently official practice of allowing a line to be one syllable over also worked in our favour, as the middle line if spelled correctly is 8 syllables... Lots of fun had by all.

Discomfort, horror and thievery

Did two things I haven't done in ages on Monday: cycle and bead. The cycling wasn't too bad, I hadn't forgotten nearly as much as I had feared, but having lent the bike to someone considerably taller than me while in Germany, I neglected to check the seat height and nearly killed myself as soon as I stopped and realised my feet weren't anywhere near the ground. Action Bikes in the town centre kindly lowered the seat for me.

I haven't beaded in about 9 months now, so it was good to get something simple yet very nice indeed - this curved bar and crystal bracelet kit. I'm a big fan of kits, they give you a nice finished product and also teach you a new stitch or technique. I'm never particularly original anyway.

Things have been happening, just not particularly noteworthy ones - the bathroom tiling is now finished, which is a big thing... and I'm now working on my last essay for the MA, which is about the Japanese 'comfort women' in WWII. It really is horror after horror, right down to Imperial accountants working out "how long the women would last". It's due in next Friday and although I will be very glad to see the back of it I do want to do a good job.

Another one on the list of dubious firsts, I saw someone attempting to pickpocket yesterday. He wasn't very subtle, but it made me realise just how vulnerable people are - he took a bag right off the back of a chair while the woman's boyfriend was looking in his direction and rummaged through it, it was hidden behind his coat over his arm, but I was sitting behind him. I just stared while it was happening, I couldn't believe it. After he dropped the bag and went on to another table, I walked up to the woman and asked her if she was missing anything - she wasn't and as the man realised he was being watched he quickly left. Very unpleasant.

Off into London today to work on the essay again in the confines of the SOAS library, and hopefully meet my brother and his girlfriend for dinner. I realise I haven't written much about Japan, partly due to the phone keyboards and partly just from being with people all the time I was there - no time alone to fill with writing. I will put some highlights here, such as The Confusion of the Three Firemen in Kanazawa and other noteworthy incidents.

Back to war crimes...

What you need to put all your minimalist things in

Muji now make houses.

Photos!

I haven't quite finished - no captions yet on the second Hakone trip and the Nikko trip - but mostly done. Photos from Japan 2008!

The one that got away

Someone else got a picture of the sign at Hakone we didn't - perfect Engrish.

Must fly

Need to put the rental phone in the post - later!

But...

On the train to Kanayama to change to the Meitetsu line out to the airport, if I can do it in seven minutes. Overcast and drizzling, so the UK won't be too much of a shock.

That was never three weeks.;_;

手ぬぐい

Hand towels by an artist I like. Visited some clients who had an interesting proposition. Met a friend in Ueno Park but driven indoors by rain. Two unamused small children.

Rain again today. Dad has gone to see a Vermeer exhibit while I figure out what to do with the rest of my shopping list, case space and money.

Electric City

In Akihabara, getting maps for visiting my new clients tomorrow. Got some of my comics second hand, but not many. Also got an RPG for the DS and some Asian Kung Fu Generation CDs! Must get back, wake Dad up and get us some food.

We're at Meiji Jingu!

Quiet day in Tokyo today, all walked out...

We're on the Old Tokkaido Road!

Atmospheric, beautiful, historic. Mossy, treacherous, going the wrong way.

Turned back, now having lunch before sailing across Lake Ashi. Third time I've done Hakone, first time I've done it clockwise!

No prizes for guessing...

We're in Asakusa! Wandering around the city today.

We're on the way to Nikko!

Tobu Limited Express Specia Hello Kitty. Couldn't resist. Just passing Tochigi!

This will hurt later

Safely on board the unreserved part of the Hikari Superexpress 400 departing Nagoya at 6:20 after being told last night there were no reserved seats left - smoking or non-smoking - until 8:30. I need to be in Narita as early as possible, which from Nagoya on the first shinkansen of the day is 10:00, to meet Dad. At least I now have plenty of time to change at Shinagawa.

We're in Nagoya!

And it's tea time.

ほうじ茶ソフト！

We're in Maruyama Park! Another boiling day in Kyoto.

We're in Nara!

Deer, deer everywhere.

We're in Kyoto Station

It's raining...

Worst of all worlds

Japanese-style septic tank portaloo. At least they're easy to find.

We're in Uji!

Getting there...

We're trying to get to Hakone...

It's a tad crowded. Everyone else seems to have had the same idea!

We're in Akasaka!

Centre of bicycle culture, apparently.

We're in Yoyogi Park!

Beware of the crows.

Language!

Dinner in Tokyo

We're in Akihabara!

Miracle!

Edit: the miracle was not only vegetarian but macrobiotic vegan food in Shibuya...

Attack!

We're in Tokyo!

They still need translators

Persimmons in Obuse

Heaven if you love fruit! Catastrophic for arachnophobes.

Dinner in Obuse

Lodgings in Obuse

いくらとイクラ

昨日とてもおいしいレストランを偶然に見つけて楽しい夕食ができました。

はいてすぐウエータがちいさなおさらをテーブルにおき、「イクラ食べれますか」と聞きました。

私はえっ？と思って、いくら食べられるってどういう意味ですかと聞きました。もしもうすぐラストオーダーですか？

ウエータはしばらく困ったまま立ち止まりました。「あのう、魚のタマゴ。。。」

小さなおさらにイクラがありました。

日本語はまだまだですね。

On the rails again

We've ended our three days in Kanazawa - it's a lovely, compact town with loads to offer and really nice people. Now on the Hakutaka Limited Express to Naoetsu where we change for Nagano, then on to Obuse where we're staying tonight. It's a beautiful day, and I'm going to stare out the window...

Kenroku-en Garden

Dinner!

Kitty car

The Ninja Temple!

Best laid plans

I don`t know what went wrong between me talking to the Finnair customer service rep and checking in at Heathrow, but clearly something did.

We decided to be a little paranoid and leave early, up at 6:00 and out at 6:50, leaving Takeshi at the station to continue on and take photos of Mapledurham before continuing on his tour of places associated with English writers. We got into Terminal 3 in good time. Only to find there was no flight to Helsinki listed. Or any Finnair flight, for that matter. Check the e-ticket again. Definitely says T3. Very apologetic man at the information desk says the flight is in fact from T1 and we`re the 40th people this morning to ask. Off to T1 we go.

We come out of the connecting tunnel at check-in area A, Finnair are in area R. Which turns out to be out of the other side of the main hall and halfway to T2. When we finally check in with BA, they have no record of us sitting together on the flight to Helsinki. The best they can do is sitting behind each other. And as for the Helsinki-Nagoya flight... 28J and 51G. We got through security with no problems and had a nice cooked breakfast, followed by himself setting his out-of-office at the internet cafe. The flight to Helsinki was fine, with a rather canteen-style pasta shells bolognaise for me, and couscous for himself - thankfully his meals had been registered. Wandered around a small section of Helsinki Airport for 2 hours and got a most amusing box of Moomin-themed sweets for Bill.

We boarded to find a mother with a young child had taken my seat and that of a young French guy, he had let her child stay in his seat so she was still in mine. He was in the same situation as us - trying to sit beside his girlfriend. I swapped with her, which meant I lost my aisle seat and neither myself nor himself could get anyone to swop. Watched Kung-Fu Panda and Iron Man and several episodes of Bones - prefer CSI, I know the main character for bones is meant to be a bit reserved, but I couldn`t get to like her at all.

Arrived in Nagoya and picked up the phone with no problems, got on a train and programmed in numbers as we went into the city center. I tried to call Narita to get a announcement put out to tell Bill which post office in Narita to go to, but it went like some horrible comedy routine. She kept offering to give them my number, I kept explaining I needed to tell them where to get their phone first. She continued to offer to give them my number. We had something to eat and found the last large locker in the station for our cases, then headed out to Nagoya Castle. It was incredibly hot, and we even got a bit burnt.

Bill and Austa arrived with no problems, and although they had never heard the announcement they had got the phone. We grabbed a quick bowl of noodles and got the Shirasagi express train out to Kanazawa, arriving in the beautiful station with its traditional gate theme at close to 10:00 and staggering across the road to the hotel, Dormy Inn. Himself made use of the sauna and onsen, which I have yet to do.

Anyway - day 2 in Kanazawa is starting, so I will report on Day 1 later!

Kanazawa Castle

We're in Kanazawa!

Enjoy the silence?

Well, here I am - I feel like I've successfully jumped off one ledge only to find myself preparing to jump off another. Germany was successfully left - minus not closing my bank account and leaving half my books there, but I have a trip freshly booked to go back in November and close and collect as appropriate. Exams are done with - I didn't have the energy to study during the last few weeks, preferring to spend any spare time decompressing and attempting to sleep, but the exams themselves went okay with no blanking or freezing. I'm sure I could have done better if I'd studied more, but that would be an alternate universe.

Monday and Tuesday were spent frantically tidying up as I had a guest arrive on Tuesday evening, the other half of a friend I always stay with in Tokyo. The front room looks great and the bathroom like some minimalist artwork - until you open either of the cabinets, anyway. The cluttered truth is sitting in our bedroom and the computer room until such time as we get around to doing something with it. Probably involving throwing half of it out.

Next on the list was getting some new trousers, since I managed to destroy two pairs in Frankfurt, and I had to face the unhappy fact that I am my usual size only if I get the more expensive M&S trousers whose definition of 'stretch' is a bit more flexible than the cheap ones. I was also ready for a sit down after just walking into town, walking around and coming back, which does not bode well for Japan, where I usually spend all day every day walking. All my own fault, of course (nothing made me choose a packet of pain au chocolat and a coffee over a tray of fresh pineapple and water in the supermarket in the mornings) but still bodes painfully.

Still feeling very unprepared for Japan, but we have the essentials - passport, tickets, money, hotel reservations. Will pick up the phones at the airport and can then do my mobile blogging with pics as I did last year. Looking forward to seeing Kanazawa, which I haven't been to before. Cleared off the camera's memory stick in anticipation. Time to make a dent in that hosting I've paid for...

One final night out tonight, taking my guest and meeting some friends in Sweeney's pie shop, and then it's into bed and up early tomorrow to get to the airport. Have been reading some pretty mixed reviews of Finnair so hope they're all right. Their customer services certainly weren't as bad as I'd heard - ended up calling them yesterday to book himself's vegetarian meal after realising he hadn't done so, and try to get us seated together.

(This was after calling my calling card people, finding out the reason I couldn't make a call was they'd switched me to a new account but then suspended it as I hadn't used it for 6 months... I was trying to use it in Germany, but as they hadn't given me the new account number, I wasn't able to. Usual fun going around and around with this with their customer services.)

Item falling off the to-do list this time is doing my tax return but if I do it online, as I usually do, I can still do it after I come back. There isn't much left to assemble it all, it just takes time and I'd rather not start it now. That will slot into November, along with writing my last essay (on the status of women in interwar Japan and Korea and how it led to their vulnerability to the 'comfort women' system) and trying to come up with a thesis or annotated translation topic. And trying for the nth time to find a tiler for the flat. And catching up with a lot of friends.

Denied

The paternoster in the Arts Tower is being serviced - so I won't be able to try going around the top this time. Damn. Maybe when I graduate...

I can't connect to the Uni wireless network for some reason, so am on a terminal with a broken keyboard - backspace doesn't work and neither do half the number keys on both the main and numeric sides. Explains why it took me so long to log in, since I couldn't see what was going wrong...

Friday was chaos. The Japan-UK Live message boards, which have been virtually silent since I started, suddenly had a burst of activity which ate into my post-in bed at 3am trying to pack time. I am eternally indebted to Z for not only taking some stuff of mine to store, but then taking even more stuff from work when I realised I didn't have the stomach for going to the post office at lunchtime and trying to send it from there. I will have to go back some time in November. For karaoke too, of course.

The project looks like it will be okay, although apparently the product has now been delayed - news to us. Many kind words were said to me as I left, which I was very happy about - we all worked hard and we got it done when it looked like it couldn't be.

Have done the Writing in Japanese exam and the presentation - both went okay, but would have been better with a modicum of preparation. Only myself to blame for that one, so I have to hope that the marking isn't too strict and my basic level is enough. I didn't want to have to say that but there it is.

I'm going to head off to dinner now with some of the staff, and also stop using this keyboard before I put it through the window.

Over the red line

We're still on 10-hour days. But somehow, we've done it. I was in late tonight trying to figure out if we'd missed anything when things went strange with the bug logging system, and had to move my own leaving drinks to tomorrow, but I think - I think - we've got everything. Unbelievable.

Some people had still gone to the pub, so we met up there and went to karaoke. I'm enjoying it more every time although I really have problems singing. I can now switch between my 'high' and 'low' voice within one song, even one sentence if all goes well, but it still sounds terrible. But lots of fun. Sang some Abba and REM, the obligatory Duran Duran (how is it I still remember the lyrics after all this time?) and completely messed up Gorillaz, which is turning into a weekly event.

And we may go again tomorrow, after the rearranged leaving drinks. Why not? I'm too tired to study anyway... although I do need to sort the packing out. I may need to arrange a second piece of hold luggage.

I am now officially dangerously tired, after messing up and accidentally sending one translation to the school mailing list in response to the wrong original email, thereby convincing myself I'd sent both and not sending one until someone realised a few days later. Dammit.

The only other news is that after Z sent me a link, I've been listening to a load of Gackt songs. I like.

Living for the weekend

It's Saturday. I'm having breakfast before going into work. I think that sums up the week nicely. If it wasn't a flagrant contravention of German labour law, they'd have us in tomorrow as well. Three of us from the UK team will be in to process, enter and fix a truly unreasonable number of bugs.

In other news, Iwase was fantastic as usual and it was a wonderful night out. I would come back here just so I could go there again, and I regret not going there more. Frankfurt has tube mice. And I saw a steam train last Saturday.

Working 10 hours a day - particularly when you know the next day holds more of the same - is pretty tiring and study hasn't had much of a look-in. Today will also be spent at work, working, if we're to have any chance of getting what needs to be done done by when it's needed. I had a brief fantasy of being there in body and studying at my desk but it is not to be.

So, feeling very underprepared for my exams... the plan was that I would spend 6 months translating and ace them, but instead I've spent 7 months reading and proofreading US English and occasionally modifying it. I'm sure it's a skill, it's just not the one I wanted.

Anyway... once more into the office and then I really need to pack. Everything.

Well, hello there

Sorry it's gone all quiet - I managed to respond to a busy week by feeling I had to do something when I got home and ended up staying up far too late and spending the week in a vicious cycle of tiredness. Still trying to recover, but feeling much better.

So... less than 2 weeks to go in Frankfurt. Less than 2 weeks to exams. Work will reach giddy new heights of busyness as of tomorrow, and I'm coming around to the fact that there is far more stuff in the flat than I have room in my case for.

I've drawn up a list of things I'm not going to take and will pass it around the UK team at work in case anyone wants anything. Anything else can stay for the next resident. Will have to a trial pack at the weekend. And organise some kind of going-away gathering for work.

Another development was finally getting a place on the Japan-UK Live! school exchange translation team, which is pretty quiet at the moment but could change, and also my first piece of work from a new client. They asked me for the first page as a trial and then asked me to do the rest, which I was delighted with - only to find an email in my inbox after getting home tonight to say I'd left a line out. Not fatal I suppose, but not what I wanted as a first impression.

It's birthday season, so we were out tonight with another birthday person from the UK team. I ended up getting the presents and was delighted that they were well received - amusing tshirts can be hard to get right. We have another birthday coming up in two weeks as well, and my farewell do, and I'm going back to the wonderful Iwase with Z for one last time on Wednesday.

Must pack some study in there somewhere.

The bar we ended up going to tonight is the same one we went to for G's birthday, and we always seem to have the most insane conversations there. Our new mottos for the place are "What happens in Klosterhof stays in Klosterhof" and "You shouldn't have had the first one". Definitely making our own fun.

Here's to not being killed by this week. One down, four crazy days to go...

Softly, softly...

I do have official permission to use my PC at work for doing non-work stuff, but still feels very strange...

I've put up some photos of my new place - I'll only be there for another 3 weeks. Strange thought.

Work is busy and likely to get busier. So, just to really interfere, I've taken on a part-time translation assignment working for Japan-UK Live, a UK/Japan message board site between twinned schools, and started playing Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass. Between that and attempting to study, I think I'll have to give up sleep...

Himself will be arriving later on, but there's only so much time I can spend at work before it gets strange. I think I will head out to the airport and have a few expensive coffees there and play Zelda... I really do get hopelessly addicted to these things, but (thankfully?) I'm not very good at the puzzle-solving and so tend to give up. But then come back later.

Denied!

The new flat is quite nice - but has no internet access. So, it will be quiet for a while. The other minor frustration was taking two days to figure out how to convert the sofa into a bed (not two days of continuous effort, I'd like to point out...)

Like most of the months of this year, September has kind of snuck up on me. I'll be in Japan next month!

... and it's now the same month as my exams. Really must concentrate.

Wonders of chemistry

Just got out of a bath with the Lush Mmm Melting Marshmallow Moment. Smells divine, my skin feels great - the promise of pink bathwater was scuppered by my water being slightly brown, so the end result was a kind of rosy dishwater.

This medical tar that I got at the Apotheke this morning is amazing. I only put a bandaid on to keep my hand dry in the bath, the scrape is almost healed. I was so impressed I even looked up the active ingredients. Povidone-Iodine is wonderful stuff. And all the other applications of Povidone... must rival the uses of water.

^______^

Well, I can honestly say this was one of the most fun birthdays I've had in a while!

A fairly standard day at work - apart from my managing to email people in the US and Australia to invite them out by not paying attention to the autocomplete on our email system - and we also got our keys, addresses and a checklist of what our apartments did and did not have. I should have internet by the weekend and curtains in two weeks. I'm on the far side of the estate that most of the UK team is already in, and it's a short walk to get a tram, then either go through the a station where I can connect to the U-bahn lines I need or else change earlier, get the S-bahn for one stop and then the U-bahn a little further along the line. Although the latter option has more changes, it can be faster as the trams get stuck in traffic so the underground S and U-bahns win out.

A few people had dropped out so I invited a German translator on my team who I've become quite friendly with - she didn't show, which I thought was odd... but I managed to get my mobile phone number wrong (yet again) so she wasn't able to contact me. We had dinner at a ramen restaurant no-one had been to and it was fantastic. Glad to have put a new place on the list. The staff figured out - probably when I was handed an enormous Lush bag containing the overwhelming Think Pink hat box - that I was the birthday girl, and when the bill came around my meal was free!

Then someone broached the idea of karaoke and we headed out just past the new flats to Star Room, where we had a fantastic time until they had to kick us out at midnight. Highlight for me was singing Hungry like the Wolf with my esteemed Welsh colleague, and listening to others singing tunes from Rocky Horror Picture show and I'm a Barbie Girl. I still have Duran Duran on the brain, and also Two-Mix's Just Wild Beat Communication after we speculated on anime songs old enough to be in the catalogue.

The tram was still running so those of us who didn't live in the area headed back to the main train station where we split up. I walked back and had a Life conversation with one of the recently returned translators, which was slightly spoiled when I managed in my tiredness to not step up enough onto a curb and fall. Skinned part of my right hand and whacked my knee. Got home while he very kindly carried my bag and hat box of Lush products. I estimate a bruise the size of Luxembourg.

After getting to bed at 1:30am, I decided to set my alarm for 8:00 and get in a little later than usual. I used the Ring of Roses shower stuff and it's very nice, although it doesn't feel as immediately moisturising as what I was using. Headed into work, swang past the Apotheke to get some arnica for the bruise and antiseptic cream for my hand (got the tar-like stuff I've only seen in hospital) and struggled to stay awake. Then there was another slice of the proverbial Chinese 'interesting life' - I had given my mobile number and a list of times when I could move, basically mornings or evenings after Tuesday, not during work hours as I have things to do. So, of course, I was given 40 minutes notice to move at 2:00pm.

Much swearing later, and with both project managers out, I asked the testers to tell my colleague where I'd gone and rushed back to the flat to stuff and close the one box I had, followed by throwing the contents of my wardrobes and all my books into a suitcase. Of course, this was the day the stairs get washed, so I had wet floors and circular staircase to contend with, as well as putting a cardboard box down on a wet surface!

I was all ready and standing by the door and just gone quarter past. But there was no-one else there... called the guy with the van. On the phone. Texted my colleague. Mr. Van and my neighbour were nowhere to be found. They finally showed at quarter to three, and were surprised to see me - as they'd been waiting for me in the lobby at 2:00. Well, if anyone had mentioned a lobby I would have been there too. Anyway.

The very silver lining in all this was that as I was standing by the door watching my neighbour's things being loaded in the people-carrier, a courier van pulled up and a man got out and came to our door. And rang my bell. He had a signed-for delivery for me, at a time when I would normally be chained to my desk. My birthday card from my parents! It was pass-the-parcel with the courier's rubber envelope, followed by An Post's and finally the real envelope. Thanks Mom and Dad!

We picked up a third person's things, headed out to his flat and then ours - my neighbour is not far from me in the new area. I will take some shots over the weekend, but it looks quite nice. The gardens were being maintained when we were there, and I'm on the third floor. I just dumped my stuff and turned around, so haven't had a good look around, but it's all white and newly painted and far larger than what I have at the moment. My bed is a sofabed which isn't so great, but I can live with it for a month! I will go back tomorrow and poke around.

I got back to work and went up through the supermarket to grab a sandwich for lunch. And realised I didn't have my swipe card. I had definitely had it when I left, as I swiped out. Somewhere between leaving the office, taking the U-bahn, packing at my place, getting out at the other guy's old flat, then at his new flat, then my neighbour's new flat and then mine... it had gone. I had to be very, very nice to HR and one of the senior translators to not get sent home to find it. In another minor miracle, I found it outside my front door at the old place when I got back. Phew.

So... going to have a quick bath with one of my pressies, and then finishing throwing the last few things into bags and hopefully will be able to take it all to the new place tomorrow. Via another birthday celebration!

Er, no...

I checked my mailbox with a little anticipation today, as several people have been kind enough to threaten to send me birthday cards.

What there was waiting for me is what I suspect is a German tax number. I was hoping to quietly leave the country, but there it is, listing my passport details and everything. Needless to say, it's all in German so I have no idea what it says, but I can guess at Finanzamt.

In other news, I don't have the new address I was meant to get on Friday, or the keys I was meant to have today, or any info whatsoever about what's going on. We were meant to be able to move this evening if we wanted to. All looks like it's going to go a bit pear-shaped.

Need to get more sleep - I have been sleeping, but not very soundly judging by how awake I feel (not very). Have spent most of the day refraining from being cranky at people for reasons that are not quite good enough.

Night of the unexpected

Today started off rainy and cool, but I decided to walk to work nonetheless as it's the only exercise I get. It started to rain in earnest as I got there, and I was just thinking myself lucky when I slid on the grating in front of the sliding doors - thankfully they didn't close until I got up again. Nobody going in in front of me (including one of my colleagues) noticed, but I had to stop and assess the condition of my left knee for a few minutes. Ow.

P, our resident lover of facts and knower of all internal quirks, issued a new arbitrary decision about how to treat certain kinds of text, complete with a Newspeak reference, so I spent far too long (not very long, but I had other things to do) reading up on 1984. Toyed with the idea of trying to teach myself Newspeak (I think it would be wonderful if the entire UK English team walked around speaking it) but forced myself to go back to work.

My fun and delightful foray into translation has now stopped and gone to be validated, so it's back to logging bugs for now. At least I escaped at 5:30 as I had far better things to do - namely meeting my brother, who finally came over on a business trip!

I met him at the Frankfurter Hof hotel - which looks amazing - near Goetheplatz. After gawking at his room, we headed out to walk down to Hauptwache, then to the main square and the bridge, back again and down Zeil and ending up at Iwase, which has got to be my favourite restaurant in Frankfurt, even though this is only the second time I've been there. Must go more often. We had a delicious meal - mixed sushi, deep-fried aubergine, and a tempura set for him and sashimi set for me. Chatted a bit with the waitress. I was very happy that I had got a reservation - I called 20 minutes after they opened for lunch and got seats at the counter - and ecstatic that they remembered me and one of the guys behind the counter called me Arline-chan!

After much talking about work and Japan and friends and so on, we headed out again and walked up to Eschenheimer Tor and back down towards the Deutsche Bank towers, which are not floodlit and so a bit difficult to find in Frankfurt's night skyline. It was when we got there that things got odd.

There seems to be no way in. There is a hoarding all the way around the building, with something that looks like a works entrance at the front. Brother will have to call and find out how to get in tomorrow.

As we went back to walk around the side of the building (by the Ivory Club 'Contemporary Colonial Cuisine' restaurant, with massive tusks in front of the door), we saw flashing police lights and bikes rode in to block the junction, followed by a police car. Followed by a few rollerbladers. Followed by lots of rollerbladers. Brother estimated about 250. After all that was over, we crossed the road to walk back to the hotel.

And then - rabbits. We were crossing the old city wall, which has grass and trees planted in it, and brother noticed something moving. There were about ten rabbits, just grazing away in the grass, really not that bothered by the people walking past, getting as close as they could or even taking photos.

And Frankfurt normally seems so boring.

Just slightly wrong

Thursday was odd - alarm clock had somehow gone an hour late during the night, leaving me thinking I was getting up early only to have to run to work. I was going to Dublin that evening, as Friday was a bank holiday*, and took the U-bahn - eventually, when the ticket machine stopped spitting my coins back at me. Then I realised I had left the power cable for my laptop at home and had to go back for it at lunchtime... if I'd known, I would have bought a day pass, but it was cheaper to buy a ticket to and from the flat and then out to the airport.

[*It wasn't a holiday in Hesse, where I work, but was in neighbouring Bavaria, where our head office is, so we got it anyway. Huzzah.]

Had a wonderful three days with Mom and Dad, generally sleeping, eating lovely food, going for walks and doing computer stuff. And annoying the cat, who is getting a little slower but you wouldn't want to start underestimating her just yet.

Flight back was delayed by over an hour and a half, but the pilot made good time and I got back just over an hour after I was due. Completely forgot to get milk, but managed to almost finish my current book (A Brief History of Misogyny by Jack Holland) and actually did finish the stack of post-it stickies with coloured ends that I had accumulated in Xerox. Went out and bought some more this morning and finished the book. Result.

Last week was a bit of an unmitigated failure. I was supposed to go back to studying, but ended up finding a source of fun eBooks and staying up far, far too late reading utter nonsense. Oh, don't get me wrong, it was (obviously) highly enjoyable. Just completely the wrong thing at the wrong time.

So, tonight a bit more successful in that I was actually reading something to do with the course, although I need to spend less time on the Social Science Readings and more on preparing for the exams, a mere six weeks away. Drilling on letter and report writing and kanji work, plus the second presentation (which I keep forgetting I have to do) are what I need to be doing.

This week won't be all study - my brother has wangled a business trip to Frankfurt, so I'll be going out with him tomorrow, and we're all off to see Batman on Thursday. Should be good.

And the weekends are also steadily being ticked off - this weekend free, next weekend move flat. Weekend after that himself is here, and the following weekend I'm in the Peak District at a hen and stag do, as I'll unfortunately be in Japan for the wedding. Weekend after that free, and the following weekend I wrap up my contract and leave Frankfurt - heading straight to Sheffield for exams.

Friday after that... Japan! Have been spending lots of happy hours online checking out locations and hotels and consulting with family. Can't wait - but lots to be done before then...

Sometimes a cat is just a cat

Apart from the absurdity of dressing a cat up to look like... a cat, this article has some comedy writing and a hilarious bit of machine translation. No, I don't know how 'potato' fits in. Found it while searching for hotels in Obuse (near Matsumoto in Nagano Prefecture) - Google decided I must have meant 'Abuse' instead.

Finally got around to making some hotel bookings for Japan! So happy to start making it all happen. We now have a hotel in Kanazawa, and one chosen for Tokyo. Starting to pencil in the other days as well. If I'm really lucky, I'll get to go to Hakone twice...

Poetry in motion

A bored colleague sent me this:

Fontpark 2.0

Amazing animations of kanji and kana being turned into pictures! Watch out for the martini...

Not that I've had much time to surf around finding interesting websites... I'm just finishing up now after having swiped out already to ensure I don't go over the mandatory 10-hour cap that German law enforces. And next week looks just as busy.

Weekend! Time to plan for Japan in October!

What comes after Pete Tong?

Two and a half days later, I finally finish the massive update that solves the unreliable data problem.

Only for it to break all the things depending on it because neither the project manager nor myself understood how it worked under the bonnet. It's all gone to IT to get yesterday's files restored, leaving people to recreate a day of work. Damn. I wish we had a better system for this. There are some things you just shouldn't use Excel for.

Oh, and the data is still unreliable. I found updates I should have found previously but didn't.

But even more seriously, I got home and was distracted by someone outside repeating and spelling out Z's name and flat number. It was our other co-workers in the building talking to the police - his flat was broken into during the day, new laptop taken.

And it seemed like such a nice area too.

I then realised while tidying up (too distracted to do the study I really should have started on this week, with getting up early and pulling 10-hour days) that I didn't know where my camera was. Desperate, I checked in places that weren't immediately visible and found it - I must have hidden it before going to Sheffield and completely forgotten.

I guess I'll put it back where I found it and take my laptop to work for a few days.

All gone a bit Pete Tong

We came to the conclusion around 5:00 yesterday at work that all the data I have gathered over the past month or so is unreliable. This is going to take a while to put right, and I don't really have a while. At least it was a little cooler today.

In other news, I have become embarrassingly addicted to 'Cinnamoroll's Saucer Snap' on the Sanrio website arcade.

Our resident bodybuilding Hong Kong-Australian HR man took us out for what must be one of the best Chinese meals I have ever had, in Jade near the Hauptbahnhof. We had soup with dumplings, baked fish, cuttlefish and mangetout, black pepper beef, sweet and sour pork and ma po tofu followed by watermelon and a sweet bean soup. For all six of us, with drinks, it was 88 Euro. Most highly recommended.

And I finally got to see the 'dodgy' area around the main station. Mostly well-lit and very business like 'Shop und Kino' places, so I doubt I was in the truly dangerous part, but it was all very neon. Tempted to go back and take pictures, but maybe not by myself...

For your amusement

It's a slow day. These sent to me by my esteemed colleague:

Mark Twain's The Awful German Language

The Onion's Courageous E-mail To Boss In Drafts Folder Since December - which would be funnier if it were less true.

Yes, but no

It is definitely cooler in the mornings, so I think I will carry on with this unholy early rising business. Although the afternoons are just as bad, at least I can go home sooner... There was a massive thunderstorm last night - lightning and thunder rolling on for ages - but it didn't help bring the temperature down very much. This morning is cool, but humid.

I went into the main shopping street yesterday afternoon to get a few things. Cash and a bank statement, some more mugicha (which I have become quite addicted to at the moment) and a bag. My beloved black waist pack - which I use as a shoulder bag - which was just the right size for a Lonely Planet and a small camera, had developed a rip which has now progressed into a hole large enough to put three fingers through. I reluctantly took all the charms and other bits off it and went to find something to use until the custom replacement I'm working on with a lady selling bags at the craft fair I was at a few weeks ago is ready.

So, something to last for two months until I'm back in the UK. Not a backpack, as they're too hot. And since I've started making my own lunch again, something big enough for the lunchbox would be nice. I ended up in a sports shop, where I finally got some camping cutlery - I've been looking for some for months so I don't have to keep getting plastic stuff from the supermarket all the time. Of course, I have to remember to bring it with me... I also saw a nice Sigg bottle - well, I saw the cute child bottle covers first, then looked at the adult bottles and found a 1L one that looked perfect for bringing mugicha into work. Why no cute covers for adults? Discrimination... mutters

Then I found the swanky 'sports' section - more of an exercise in branding and trendsetting. But I fell hard for two things, a Hawai'ian flower print belt (why the print is universally used on menswear I have no idea) and a messenger bag, just the right size, with a beautiful red and white on black crashing wave and chrysanthemum design, obviously Japanese inspired. Adjustable shoulder strap with a padded shoulder section in the same print, black on white chrysanthemum print lining, padded laptop pocket and lots of internal pockets and compartments, which I love. The belt was on sale, but still 20 EUR. The bag... was 70 EUR. I don't think I've ever spent that much on a bag. I'm going to try to sneak in a few hours of overtime...

Success!

Thursday brought feedback on the translation assignment for Social Studies - I got a fantastic mark for it, and I really enjoyed doing it although I spent most of the annotations picking holes in the author's thinking. I managed to mistranslate one word and get a passive the wrong way around in the last section, which threw the whole thing off, but apparently everyone had got the same word wrong. Most of the Social Studies sessions were a concerted attempt by the tutor to get us back on track and keep us on time as we kept talking around and off the topics. But very stimulating nonetheless.

The dissertation and annotated translation sessions were very interesting and helpful in terms of what you need to do. Unfortunately, I still have no idea which I want to do, or what I want to do at all. Either one, now that I've had them explained in detail, is a lot of work. But I can't submit a proposal until I've handed in my last essay, which will be in November as I'm going to ask for an extension.

Feedback on the presentations was good, although the debacle with the laptop put me well over time - the tutor assured me that it was just over five minutes since I got the slides up (we have five to eight minutes in the exam). I also passed the Japanese prose section, although I would have liked to do better. I really need to practice the letter and report sections and keep on reading in Japanese to get my marks up.

Most of the students managed to meet up on Thursday night for dinner, which was a lot of fun even if we were all ready to drop. The first-year students from my course were finished, as was the lone Japanese Language and Society student, although some were staying on to use the library. The librarian had unfortunately gone on holiday, as I wanted to ask her for some things...

Friday was mostly Social Studies, followed by feedback on the Japanese to English translation mock exam and final feedback. I was ready to drop. Coffee and chocolate every two hours, and even that wasn't doing me much good. I passed the Japanese to English mock with a strong mark - really happy with that. We finished up early and headed over to the pub for a quick drink with a few of the tutors and course staff.

I headed back to the library and was there until it closed at 7:00pm. Although there were several of us around, everyone disappeared off - that happened last year too, leaving me feeling quite alone at the end. I picked up a fried rice takeaway and headed back to the halls. Watched Appleseed Ex Machina - gets quite overblown at times, but extremely watchable and well, pre-cyborg Briareos is just fnar.

Between spending most of Wednesday night importing the Sheffield and SOAS library searches into a program called EndNote Web (referencing tool) and then half of Friday in the library building up lists of interesting books, I decided to take it easy on Saturday. First I got a day ticket on the tram and headed in to have a look around and most importantly get my hair cut. Then it was back to the halls to clear out and hand back my keys. I settled in to the outdoors area of the pub up the road with a trashy novel, determined to enjoy the sunny day.

I enjoyed it a little too much as I later found out - the back of my neck burned! I had some lunch and coffees, then moved on to wander around town and picked up some CDs. I had earlier wandered around Waterstones, and bought two brain-off novels (Dead Witch Walking and Magic Bites - both highly entertaining but prefer the latter) and also two 'worthier' volumes, A History of Misogyny and The Descent of Woman. I almost finished one book on the train, as we were delayed by signal problems. Himself had checked for anywhere open late, so we had a lovely Chinese meal before heading home.

On Sunday I was up to pack, then we went into town to meet up with friends for lunch before I headed off again. There was another delay with air traffic control in Frankfurt after a thunderstorm, but we weren't too late. I dawdled in the bookshop in the main station - which has English books - but ended up not getting anything. I really miss the library...

Monday was back to work and turns out we have a desk move. More searching of the content management system for updates, my brain was pretty much shut down by 3:00pm with the heat, and when I went to find my new desk it had no PC on it... so instead of trying to come in early to beat the heat, as I had planned, I now had to come in late so they could put a computer on the desk. Spent half of today waiting for the content management system to do a full checkout. Brain dead by 3:00 again. The German team said in a meeting that the paperwork for the air conditioning had only just been signed so it would be in in November. I can never tell when Germans are joking, but I have a horrible feeling they weren't.

So, I am going to try going in early tomorrow. I'm also making my own salad at the moment, as I'm sick of everything in the supermarket. And my beloved black bag, which I got in Loft in Nagoya back in 2002 or 2003, has finally developed a massive hole, graduated from the tear which I noticed before the craft fair. sigh

Although I decided I would have a week off, I did end up thinking about a topic for the presentation at the exam weekend - I think I'll do it on biofuels, the pros and cons and next stages. Should work in the same pattern as the last one. I'll do up a new study schedule at the weekend. And in the meantime, I bought the eBook of the sequel to Magic Bites, Magic Burns. More brain-off time.

Done and dusted

Today was predictably tough. It didn't help that I started it off taking far too long to reformat and print things in the Information Commons (aka library) and ended up running into the three-hour Japanese to English translation exam five minutes late having had no coffee in between. Three hours can seem like a very short time. I was just about all right until I put all my papers back together and saw the instruction in bold block capitals on the front page about writing on alternate lines... dammit. The tutor was thankfully not bothered.

The English to Japanese paper was harder than it looked - it was short, but long sentences with lots of clauses are hard to rearrange into decent-sounding Japanese, if I even really know what that sounds like. The presentation, apart from the hiccup of the office telling me that most definitely I was not to use my computer because one would be set up and ready to use with a USB stick - and then there being no computer set up. Fancy that. The tutor was completely unsurprised as she lent me her laptop.

We ran late on the presentations - both me and the guy before me kept answering questions for ages until we both took about half an hour each. It was good though. I panicked a bit but nothing substantial and hopefully it will be out of my system by the time the real thing comes around in September. We'll get feedback on that tomorrow and on the Japanese to English on Friday.

After running late on that I had a brief consultation with the Social Science Readings tutor, mainly to ask if it was okay to ask for an extension, as I'm going to be studying for the final exams until I leave Germany, and will be in Japan right up until the essay is due. I may need time in SOAS to get the essay to where it should be, but that will only happen in November.

Not only did June disappear, July is almost gone too, and the rest of the year seems to be pretty much accounted for...

We met up after the lectures and mocks were all over - the girls went to Meadowhall shopping center while the boys went for beer. We shopped until 9:00pm (I got some new shoes, as after destroying the laces on my current ones, I found that the upper has separated from the sole) and then went back to do beer. A few of us bowed out early due to exhaustion or to prepare for the seminars tomorrow. I'm too tired for that now, but will get to it tomorrow morning.

Our father who art in PANIC

I seem to have neglected to mention that the Arts Tower in Sheffield has a paternoster. I had seen it last year, but assumed the doors had been taken off for maintenance.

The woman who walked in in front of me on Monday got straight on it, but I baulked and watched it for a while before trying it. It's very like having an old funfair ride in the building. Other students have been happy to wait for the one other working lift to avoid the paternoster, but I use it every chance I get. It's still vaguely terrifying.

Especially yesterday, when we were on our way to a lecture theatre below ground. Now, I had planned to find out what happened when the paternoster reached the bottom of the building by putting a piece of paper on the floor of a car and watching to see if it came up again... for all I know the cars flip over. But I was so busy talking to one of the other students (who would go on it) that neither of us thought of it until we passed a dimly lit sign on the side of the lower ground floor, stating that the lift would now be going up.

Cue panic.

We were simply shunted to the right, and indeed started to go up. It's very disconcerting when you have concrete all around. But I suppose it had to be safe, or Health and Safety would have ripped it out of the building long ago.

Needless to say, I will continue to use it as often as possible while I'm here. But now, off to try to do some printing, which I was dreaming about last night. The halls have the hardest beds I can remember sleeping in. I have got a cheap rate on a hotel for the exams in September, now just need flights and train...

Fear is the enemy

Monday is over, and it's been really good. We had positive things to say at the feedback session - the modules this year have been really good - and our criticisms were well received. Whether they'll lead to anything is yet to be seen, as they're pretty much the same as last year - rampant disorganisation.

The two tutor-led sessions, on structure of Japanese and English texts and writing letters in Japanese, were excellent - everyone learned something, and the teachers enjoyed them as well. Including the misunderstanding-tutor, who I'm getting on famously with. Phew. It's graduation week, so more on-campus cafes and so on are open this year.

Add to that a nice dinner with lots of fun conversation in both languages (my Japanese is really rusty...) and it's been fantastic. Tomorrow looks good too, with three more language workshops and a library session. Wednesday still looking like the apocalypse. Thursday and Friday are feedback on the mock exams and lots of lectures for the last module, all of which will be useful and informative.

The slight hiccup was on arrival at the halls, when the guy working nights who let me in (by the time he left the room, I knew not only his name but also his course, who he's worked for for the last few years, his country and its political situation...) forgot to give me any of my internet access details and ignored the fact my card didn't work in the outside door. So, when I discovered later that although I had bedding and towels I had no toilet paper, I couldn't go to get any at the 24-hr Tesco around the corner as I would lock myself out. But all sorted out by a slightly irate man at the main office this morning. Turns out it happened to all five of us staying here.

Need to work on my presentation, then review report writing before the session tomorrow. Although I am rather sleepy, and without a source of coffee at the moment. We'll see how long I last.

Omen

I have the schedule for next week.

Wednesday will be the Day from Hell. Three mock exams in a row followed by the presentation.

And the tutor I had a meaningless misunderstanding-turned-email-war with will be there.

And she'll be handling the presentations.

It's time for chocolate...

High and low

The flight over to London was lovely. Got stopped and taken aside by airport security twice to have the Wii Fit board wiped down for explosives, and generally got more interest than if I had a puppy with me. Frankfurt airport staff have perfect English and are generally a very good-humoured lot.

We came over the east coast of England while light was falling and got a beautiful view of fat rivers winding their way into the sea, with a gorgeous sunset overhead. I kept looking from one to the other, amazed at both. Then we went over London with all the lights on, turning over Canary Wharf and getting a great view of Tower Bridge, the river, the Houses of Parliament and the London Eye.

The craft fair went well, not as busy as last year, but sold quite a bit - including some larger pieces than last year, and some that I've had for ages - made some new friends, got some presents for people and also have started planning a new bag with a lady who makes them who was there. We're going to try to use some of the fabric I brought back from Japan, which I still haven't learned enough sewing to do anything with.

Was so tired on Friday night I thought I was going to come down with something. Couldn't stay awake, throat hurt, head hurt, sniffling. But I was okay in the end, and stumbled back to the flat in Frankfurt slightly delayed by an air traffic control problem just before midnight - still early enough to get a decent train and U-bahn connection home.

Then downstairs neighbour decided to play the keyboards. At 1:10am.

I decided that undignified as it was my only option was to shout out the window gently requesting that he stop. I am going to have to a) speak to him (although if he thinks playing the keyboards at 1:10am was a good idea in the first place you wonder if it's going to do any good) and/or b) get someone at work to speak to him and/or c) ask to be moved.

I could do without this with a week to go to the residential. My hard drive is also making an odd noise and says it could do with a software repair that I need the disc that it came with (currently in Reading) for. Next weekend, when I'm there...

Anyway. Apart from the noisy ending a wonderful time, and most indebted to himself's parents for all their help. It's a gorgeous village.

Deferred pleasure

I have to admit that I haven't been reading the feedback for my MA work as soon as it comes in.

I was somewhat alarmed to find how long I haven't been reading it for though - since the beginning of the year. Not something to look on with pride.

But although I have obviously been dreading it - particularly since getting into an ultimately senseless debacle over comments with one of the tutors - it's actually all quite good. The patents tutor invites me to take up translating patents as a profession. The tutor I had the altercation with gave me an excellent mark on round 2, although my basic grammar is still not what it should be. And the Japanese to English translation tutor gave me a very high mark for my last assignment and a cheerful 'keep up the good work'.

Not much going on. I have been alternating between studying for the residential on the week of the 21st and procrastinating about it. Flying to Heathrow on Thursday night to get ready for the craft fair on the weekend - as I haven't been in the country to organise anything I'll just have to hope for some unprepared version of beginner's luck. At least all the display materials from last year are still in a crate in the attic, so I'll just have to get some change from the bank and polish up any tarnished silver and get everything to the right place.

(If you're anywhere near Kings Langley and Abbots Langley - just outside Watford - go to the Festival of the Arts! All this week! Especially to see Kindertransport! And the craft fair is in the hall of the beautiful St. Lawrence church in Abbots Langley.)

And this time - I have to buy the chickens from the quilting group and give them to Mom instead of keeping them for myself as I did 2 years ago.

Ahem. This has all turned into a bit of a confessional...

Better

Today started out just as hot as yesterday, but the rain started after lunch and carried on all day - I'm now sitting beside a large open window, and I'm a bit cold but it's so nice after yesterday that I'm loving it.

Making progress with my translation assignment for the residential week, and hope to switch on to something else soon. The weekend will be reserved for the thing I'm most worried about, the presentation. I need to get a bit of grammar study in too. I also really need to improve my kanji and handwriting skills, but I'm not sure I can do anything with them in two and a bit weeks...

Other than that, some things are much cheaper here than in the UK - I got 50 Loratadine (active ingredient of Clarityn) for 16 Euro, and also got some free glasses wipes and green tea flavoured sugar free gum in the bag with them. I already had some glasses wipes - 1.50 Euro for 20 - to clean the DS with.

I will be moving at the end of the month - Nintendo have decided to move all their contracts to a new agency and so all the contractors are being moved. No concrete news on where, just that we need to move 31 July and we'll have free internet. It also probably means I'll have to go and update my registration, so another trip to the local government offices... At least I'll have a few days to get my German together after the residential!

Not the best day on record...

30 degrees. And that was when I checked at about 7pm, so it could well have been hotter during the day. Was completely zombified at work. Really hoping the air con does arrive soon (it has been promised for next week).

Got home just in time to say hi to someone taking their laundry down to the basement... which is what I was hoping to do. I had even left work bang on time after getting in a little earlier than usual - mainly because the internet connection was down. So, I got ready to go to the laundrette instead.

I decided to have an ice lolly - only to find that the teeny freezer on top of my mini-fridge really doesn't work. They were mush. I should throw out everything else in there as well...

But I got a machine and dryer right away at the laundrette, and another resident has fixed the internet connection, and I have a litre of water and a cold glass of caffeinated soft drink. And I did play my Japanese learning games at the laundrette, and treated myself to an ice cream from the place across the road from there. So, not all bad.

Castles and funiculars and gummi bears, oh my!

Photos are here!

Well, I was going to lie down for a bit after getting home, but Mr. Saxophone downstairs has decided to practice, so...

The day started off with the traditional mad rush for the train - for myself and Z anyway, C was there in good time. We all piled on and then found our seats, changed at Mannheim and from there on to Heidelberg. Most of the journey was spent listening to or talking about each others' music.

We got to the station, went and got our 'Heidelberg Cards' which - if you get the two-day ones instead of the one-day ones - give you free use of the funicular railway, free entrance to the castle and the Pharmacy Museum, and lots of discounts in other places. Out at the front of the tourist office we got a 4-person day pass for public transport to cover the three of us, and off we went!

Unfortunately, we went the wrong way. After about 10 minutes on the bus, we figured out that we were not going towards the city centre. The timetables do that annoying thing of listing all stops instead of just the ones the bus is going to in the relevant direction. We jumped off and raced for the bus across the road - thankfully German cars do stop at crossings. A little later we went past the main transport hub - which is nowhere near the station - and then piled off at the funicular terminal.

We ran up to the gates and popped our two-day tickets in, laughing at the huge queue of primary children barely kept under control by parents. Until we realised that although the two-day passes might entitle us to free use of the funicular, they weren't actually tickets. In the queue we got to get our free tickets.

Although we stood near the front window, there was a huge panel behind the driver which meant we could see next to nothing - it didn't matter that much as we were soon whisked up to the castle (which is only a 10 minute walk up the hill). A short stroll up a cobbled slope later, we were inside the castle grounds - I'll leave that to the photos! The guided tour was interesting, but I found it hard to keep my mind on it. Not sure if it was the guide's French accent or just an attack of tiredness. The World Cup has been rough in terms of getting much sleep, as the Germans (and pretty much everyone else here, such as the Turks) tend to stay at home and roar at the TV, followed by driving around sounding their horns. They were more subdued after their defeat last night.

We dived into the Pharmacy Museum, which was interesting for free and had some fantastic cards in the gift shop, and then stopped for a coffee before heading back to the funicular - stopping again briefly for C to buy a hat. We just need a feather for it now. One stop up and we got out of the lower (new) funicular and transferred to the upper (historical) funicular. Apart from the whole being-a-funicular (you all know about my fascination with them by now, as well as cable cars, and trams, and ferris wheels) it hit a 40% gradient at the end. It was like going up a rocket launch track. We stopped to admire the view, failed to get any food and then headed back down again.

Once back down from 500ft above sea level, we crossed the old town through the old market square to the river bank, across the old bridge and over to my must-see item - the Philosophers' Walk! Yes, anything for a gag - in this case contrasting it with the Path of Philosophy in Kyoto (which Dad has the most amazing postcard-worthy pictures of with cherry trees in full bloom). We started up the winding cobbled path, walled on both sides, as it snaked its way up the steep hill. Now, I had made a bad choice that morning in wearing my MBTs, which are the most comfortable walking shoes I've ever had, but are utterly useless verging on dangerous if the ground is uneven or sloped. And this was a lot of both. After we'd got to the point where we were level with the castle on the other side of the river, and realised we were still directly over the old bridge and therefore possibly not actually on the Walk at all, we took photos and headed back down. I'll try again when I've worked on my cardio. And have different shoes on.

After that we headed back across the bridge and into the cobbled streets around the market square, stopping for dinner at a nice place with outside tables. I had some delicious pork in a cream and mushroom sauce - a little heavy on the white wine. It came with something called spargel (not sure about the spelling) which initially looked like noodles but I think may have been shredded fried cheese. I mostly left it alone.

I dragged the guys back along the road to a shop with a gummi bear logo that we'd passed while we were wandering around. We only just got in before they closed, but it was worth it! There were endless flavours of gummi bears, old favourites like marshmallow strawberries and even playboy/playgirl jellies! I got a mixed pack of sample sizes for the team and a big bag of coffee-flavoured jellies for me. (I later repented and brought them into work for my project team...) Fully stocked on sugar, we went back to the bus stop and back to the station for our train.

We were ticket-checked on every train, by plain-clothes inspectors on the first train on the way back - they also had the police meet them at the terminus to discuss something with a young man in our car. I still can't get used to the police being armed here. We checked out the bookshop with English books in the train station and then went our separate ways. C later found out that the gummi bear shop has a branch in Frankurt, so we're doomed.

The adventure for today was heading down to the Japanese bookshop at lunchtime to see if we could get anything interesting in their pre-closing-for-refurbishment sale - I didn't in the end, as nothing discounted was that interesting (I already have plenty of reading material I haven't read yet) and anything that was interesting was too expensive and could wait until I got to Japan.

I am horribly tired. It was a battle to even keep my eyes open at some points today, despite coffee, diet coke and coffee gummis (aka sugar). I think I will be hitting the mattress early tonight, neighbours willing.

Protection

I have fallen in love with screen protectors. My initial experience with the DS ones was mixed - the top screen one went on perfectly but the floppier touch screen one ended up with air bubbles and then I put a small scratch on it when trying to get them out with a credit card. I put it aside until the following night and managed to get them all out with the stylus... and the result is fantastic. The scratchy area in the center of the touch screen (which can be completely blamed on the Kanji training game) is gone and both screens look great. The thing still looks completely battered, mind you.

Today I took the camera in to the electronics shop and ended up getting the cheapest of the cases I was looking at - it fits the camera perfectly, although the pockets have flaps that don't close them completely (can see loose batteries falling out). All the really expensive ones were too big - the whole reason I was looking for a new case is because I already have a huge one - and/or had velcro inside them which is just going to damage the camera. And then - screen protectors! I'm trying the toothpaste dermabrasion on the camera's LCD screen at the moment, as it's covered in small scratches from being carried out of its case, and then I will apply the screen protector ready for taking it out tomorrow. I actually don't use the screen most of the time, as it kills the batteries, but it will be nice to have it looking better.

I ended up staying up late last night, and then was subjected to someone playing lounge music at 1:30am. So, after having headphones in all day, I then ended up with ear plugs all night. My inner ears were not thanking me this morning.

Better get to bed at a reasonable hour tonight - Heidelberg awaits...

No, nay, never

I will be going to the local Mexican no more, as I was awake until 3:00am with my stomach trying to implode upon itself. Still not back to normal.

Have a trip to Heidelberg set up for Saturday with Z and another friend from work, should be good. Will take my camera in on Friday and see if I can't get a smaller case. I never use the lens adaptor, which is almost as large as the camera itself, so the case for both of them is far larger than I would like. The local electronics shop has a good selection of them, which I will peruse on the way to former team leader's birthday drinks.

In other news, it rained all day but even now as it's trailing off the humidity is right back up again. Oh well.

Fontainebleau photos!

We ended up using David's camera most of the time - it's much, much smaller than mine - and he has put up his pictures of Fontainebleau!

Retail and forward planning

Having spent the entire week sitting on my rear end at work or at home, I decided to go out on Saturday into town to at least get out of the flat. First stop was the Japanese bookshop OCS, where they were discounting various items in preparation for closing for refurbishment next month - I picked up a translation of The Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment and some Nora Roberts book, as I find them easy to read in English. I even got a free newspaper, which will be handy for revision... not so long to go, as I realised when counting up free weekends to go exploring before the mock exams.

I also used my credit note from the headset I couldn't use with my Mac at the electronics shop, getting some AAA rechargeable batteries for my Sennheiser headphones and a screen protector kit for my DS. I got the same cashier who had given me the credit note originally, and she was incredibly animated about the whole thing. I didn't understand a word, of course.

Then it was into C&A where I picked up some Hello Kitty socks (too amusing to pass by) and a mobile phone 'sock' (black with a cute cartoony white rabbit with a lollipop) to put my new music player in, as even sitting in the outside pocket of my bag the protective case is getting quite scratched. It will make it impossible to operate, as it's all done by touch screen, but hey. It's only a 20 minute walk to work.

I got slightly lost on the way back through trying to avoid the main shopping street, but found the supermarket and picked up some supplies for the rest of the weekend. Including gooseberries! Haven't seen them in ages.

Today, I did a study plan (just have to stick to it now) and more thinking about Japan - where to be when, what trains are available and where to stay. Then I gave my DS a microdermabrasion! A highly amusing tip found on a website, basically use a tiny bit of toothpaste (which contains fine abrasive) and spread it over the screen, leave to dry and then scrub off. It has helped, although there are also some crumbs trapped in the casing that I'm going to get out by the Official Nintendo method of a toothbrush before I put the screen protectors on.

After all that I thought I'd read my book of Kenji Miyazawa short stories that I'd bout the last time I was in OCS, only to find that I hadn't been paying attention and had in fact bought a poetry collection. I will wimp out of that and read either Kino's Journey or something else instead...

Quotes and words

From my reading of the BBC website (which really has gone downhill in terms of quality of English):

'"We are carrying out executions by selecting the people whom we can execute with a feeling of confidence and responsibility," Japanese Minister of Justice Hatoyama Kunio told a news conference.' (Full story here)

'But this ... is nothing compared to an e-mail sent by an extremely powerful person at JP Morgan encouraging his investment banking team to be more human. In it he said: "Take the time today to call a client and tell them you love them. They won't forget you made the call." Indeed. I'm sure the client would remember such a call for a very long time.

'If love has no place in the language of business, neither does passion. Passion, says the dictionary, means a strong sexual desire or the suffering of Christ at the crucifixion. In other words it doesn't really have an awful lot to do with a typical day in the office - unless things have gone very wrong indeed.' (Article by Lucy Kellaway, 'Are you going forward? Then stop now)

And this - amazing torn paper art - look out for the parachuting tanuki and Christopher Walken!