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Hey there all,
Well, first off, thanks to all concerned for the birthday messages last week. I was certainly looking forward to this one, it fell on a Friday after all, and as it happened, that Friday was payday (oooooh payday) so by the mighty power of those two facts coinciding upon my birthday, I was relishing the thought.

Until about two weeks ago.

Then my supervisor strolled on up to me, bold as brass and stated it was work as usual on the
Saturday, followed by work as not so usual on the Sunday. Any other weekend would have been fine, dash it all. So, plans were hastily rearranged and I faced the working weekend. Nic managed to be pretty sneaky and underhanded however, dragging me out to nearby Gifu to a mystery dinner spot. As it turned out it was a swell Mexican place we had been to once before and lo!! who should that be grinning like iijits in the corner, wiping nachos from their greasy chops (we were a shade late) but Tom and Kerryn- all pre-arranged like.
A super surprise and we sat down to some good natters, some cool beer and some ridiculously good food. Big steak fajitas, mmmm fajitas, dirty ole' spare ribs, mmmm ribs, and....the lights went down, the crowd looked, the waiter winked, Kerryn winked back, and there it was...cake. Mmmmmmmm cake. Adorned with sparklers and such, and a damn fine cake it was too, having survived the bike/train/walk from tom and Kerryns place.
The table we had was actually booked so at the appointed time we made our excuses and left to the station, all of us training home as we were. With an hour or two until our last respective train we ducked into the Station Izakaya , essentially a restaurant at which you drink. Round these parts there isn't really a 'bar' type culture. Drinking is something you do with food. I do miss a good bar. Aaaaah well.
Still, we sat and mulled over this and that over some more sweet beer, and them the trains came and we said our farewells and disappeared off into the night.

Cut to the following morning when Berin has to get up and go to work at 7:00...

Cut away as its just too harsh to relive...

Still a dashedly good night and the Saturday went by in a veritable flash of instant coffee and cold tea.

Sunday the weather around here decided that in fact we had had enough of summer and so dampered down the furnace. The temperature dropped about 10 degrees overnight and has stayed there. The trees are already beginning to turn. Autumn in Japan is quite, quite pretty, albeit a little short. Those days of summer are gone...next stop snowboarding - woopwoop.