Back again. The interweb is down at home again. The chaps came around to install the "fibre-optics" (excuse the technical terminology) and then said it would be ANOTHER month until they could hook it up and until then we chould keep using the ADSL we have.....but as soon as they left the drive the interweb stopped working. Grrrrrrrrr. I am formulating some of my choicest vocabulary for the phone call i intend to make this afternoon.
Another typhoon is on its way, ho-hum, not as strong as the last one but still enough to completely cover Japan on the satellite photos. I have been assured it gets better in the Autumn months but there is some concern that the trees around have been so salt-sprayed by the 20 typhoons that have passed through this season that they will point blank refuse to be perty and red and yellow during that time and just go ahead and ruin everyones Autumn holidays.
Not a whole lot going on at present, busy, busy at work and looking forward to Shane gracing us with his presence in a month and a bit (WooHoo!!).
Right.
Love to all,
berin.
Wednesday, September 29, 2004
Tuesday, September 21, 2004
thank you, i'm here all week, don't forget to tip your waitresses...
Gidday folks.
Well. 29 eh? Golly. Knees are seizing a little. Think it might rain next Thursday (got a crick in my neck see, never lets me down).
'Twas a lov-er-ly time. Kind messages from around the globe, including this most humbling example, really set a spring in my shuffling gate and made for a grand day. In addition it was a four day weekend (Hurrah!!) and we finally got the interweb at home - goodtimes! It's a little slow but this weekend we get the BIG 100Mbps Interweb Hoover installed and then all will be well.
So Thursday night saw us sampling the delights of the Izakaya (read: booze barn with deep fried cheese) down the way and true to a prior agreement closing our eyes and pointing at the menu to sample some of the things written in the more obscure Kanji wot I can't read yet. The two aforementioned dishes turned up and we then enquired what they were. The waitress stood there for a minute mulling it over and then started rubbing her stomach and naming every organ known to man. The most common were "heart" and "stomach".....of a fish. Mmmmmmm.
Good eatin'. Especially the second one. 'Cos that wasn`t just the internal organs of a fish, it was the internal organs of a fish FERMENTED in sake and served at room temperature. Mmmmmmmmmmm. Room-temperature-fermented-fish-guts-steeped-in-rice-wine...Mmmmmmm.
Not that good actually.
Still, the rest of the menu is choc-full of old time favorites including beer and more beer so the night came along swimmingly. Birthday day came along with an early morning phone call from Ma and Pa. Hey Guys! Real Early! Still, nice to natter. Then Nic and I put on our glad rags and wandered into Hiroshima for an explore. We got off the train at a random station, pointed ourselves towards downtown and followed our noses. It was bloody good fun. We stumbled across a Sewing Machine shop and foolishly decided that such an establishment couldn't possibly be run by rabid axe murderers and went in.
The axe murderers were just finishing off their lunch.
And we disturbed them. And they REALLY wanted to show us their wares. And their hound sat in the middle of the room coralled 5ft high by sewing machines and growled and barked at us. Loudly. And axe murderer-y. ((shudder)). We made it out by pointing at someone outside who looked slower than us and bolting for the door. 'Twas a close run thing. So there was more strolling and discovering and such and before long it came time for South American Birthday Food. Thats right ladies and gents, we found a restaurant that sells Piscola and Pisco Sours. So we parked up at the bar and toasted this and that and before you knew it it was time to come home and fall over. So we did.
Now I'm at work. We had a belter of an earthquake earlier on today, about 10:30 so I think it woke Nic up. Nothing to report since then however. Right. Work.
Thnaks again for all of your wishes folks.
Love, B+N.
Well. 29 eh? Golly. Knees are seizing a little. Think it might rain next Thursday (got a crick in my neck see, never lets me down).
'Twas a lov-er-ly time. Kind messages from around the globe, including this most humbling example, really set a spring in my shuffling gate and made for a grand day. In addition it was a four day weekend (Hurrah!!) and we finally got the interweb at home - goodtimes! It's a little slow but this weekend we get the BIG 100Mbps Interweb Hoover installed and then all will be well.
So Thursday night saw us sampling the delights of the Izakaya (read: booze barn with deep fried cheese) down the way and true to a prior agreement closing our eyes and pointing at the menu to sample some of the things written in the more obscure Kanji wot I can't read yet. The two aforementioned dishes turned up and we then enquired what they were. The waitress stood there for a minute mulling it over and then started rubbing her stomach and naming every organ known to man. The most common were "heart" and "stomach".....of a fish. Mmmmmmm.
Good eatin'. Especially the second one. 'Cos that wasn`t just the internal organs of a fish, it was the internal organs of a fish FERMENTED in sake and served at room temperature. Mmmmmmmmmmm. Room-temperature-fermented-fish-guts-steeped-in-rice-wine...Mmmmmmm.
Not that good actually.
Still, the rest of the menu is choc-full of old time favorites including beer and more beer so the night came along swimmingly. Birthday day came along with an early morning phone call from Ma and Pa. Hey Guys! Real Early! Still, nice to natter. Then Nic and I put on our glad rags and wandered into Hiroshima for an explore. We got off the train at a random station, pointed ourselves towards downtown and followed our noses. It was bloody good fun. We stumbled across a Sewing Machine shop and foolishly decided that such an establishment couldn't possibly be run by rabid axe murderers and went in.
The axe murderers were just finishing off their lunch.
And we disturbed them. And they REALLY wanted to show us their wares. And their hound sat in the middle of the room coralled 5ft high by sewing machines and growled and barked at us. Loudly. And axe murderer-y. ((shudder)). We made it out by pointing at someone outside who looked slower than us and bolting for the door. 'Twas a close run thing. So there was more strolling and discovering and such and before long it came time for South American Birthday Food. Thats right ladies and gents, we found a restaurant that sells Piscola and Pisco Sours. So we parked up at the bar and toasted this and that and before you knew it it was time to come home and fall over. So we did.
Now I'm at work. We had a belter of an earthquake earlier on today, about 10:30 so I think it woke Nic up. Nothing to report since then however. Right. Work.
Thnaks again for all of your wishes folks.
Love, B+N.
Monday, September 13, 2004
Oooooh winter must be on its way....
Thats right folks, turn your collars up to the wind and bury your hands in your pockets, it looks like winter is on its merry way forth.
Wanna know how I know?
They've turned the heated toilet seats on at work. Granted, a little early, mayhap a little presumptuous, what with the weather being still 30 odd degrees outside but still, they've cranked them right up and that way they'll stay. Don't get me wrong. A heated toilet seat is a joy, a companion to welcome you during the cold winter months when its rainy and sleety outside and you have to leave the warmth of your bed and stagger to the bathroom with your hair in disarray and your breath freezing solid and falling to the ground in front of you. You hover...the water looks so cooooooold...the rain on the window looks so cooooooold....you take the plunge...and it's like sitting on a sunbeam, supported by a ray of happiness.
Oh yes. They're good. They're very good. It's just that it's still pretty warm in these parts and sitting on a warm seat on a warm day can get to be a little hot. And a little uncomfortable.
Eeeeew.
Anyway.
We had a Sausage Sizzle last weekend. It was choice. It was the 220th-day-of-the-year-prayin'-for-a-good-harvest festival and we here at the International Division of City Hall decided to bring NZ to the masses. So we had a sausage sizzle. 150 bangers, 60 onions, 5 litres of tomato sauce, 2 litres of mustard, 48 cans of beer and 150 cans of orange juice. Thank-you very much. We sold out in 5 hours. Not too bad. Most of the beer was consumed by us - it's hot work cooking snags in the Japanese sun - and the locals took to the sausage sizzle like white on rice. I saw one chap who just didn't get the idea at all however and was trying to eat his super heated sausage and onions with his fingers while employing the bread simply as a plate...but apart from this obvious dunce it was a roaring success. A bunch of the JET teachers around the place came and helped out and a grand day was had by all, especially after the free sake rolled on out. Mmmmmmm. Free Sake. We were playing NZ music, selling Dutch beer, sizzling Japanese sausages and having a ball. You guys should come next year. they were bloody good sausies.
Hooroo.
b
Wanna know how I know?
They've turned the heated toilet seats on at work. Granted, a little early, mayhap a little presumptuous, what with the weather being still 30 odd degrees outside but still, they've cranked them right up and that way they'll stay. Don't get me wrong. A heated toilet seat is a joy, a companion to welcome you during the cold winter months when its rainy and sleety outside and you have to leave the warmth of your bed and stagger to the bathroom with your hair in disarray and your breath freezing solid and falling to the ground in front of you. You hover...the water looks so cooooooold...the rain on the window looks so cooooooold....you take the plunge...and it's like sitting on a sunbeam, supported by a ray of happiness.
Oh yes. They're good. They're very good. It's just that it's still pretty warm in these parts and sitting on a warm seat on a warm day can get to be a little hot. And a little uncomfortable.
Eeeeew.
Anyway.
We had a Sausage Sizzle last weekend. It was choice. It was the 220th-day-of-the-year-prayin'-for-a-good-harvest festival and we here at the International Division of City Hall decided to bring NZ to the masses. So we had a sausage sizzle. 150 bangers, 60 onions, 5 litres of tomato sauce, 2 litres of mustard, 48 cans of beer and 150 cans of orange juice. Thank-you very much. We sold out in 5 hours. Not too bad. Most of the beer was consumed by us - it's hot work cooking snags in the Japanese sun - and the locals took to the sausage sizzle like white on rice. I saw one chap who just didn't get the idea at all however and was trying to eat his super heated sausage and onions with his fingers while employing the bread simply as a plate...but apart from this obvious dunce it was a roaring success. A bunch of the JET teachers around the place came and helped out and a grand day was had by all, especially after the free sake rolled on out. Mmmmmmm. Free Sake. We were playing NZ music, selling Dutch beer, sizzling Japanese sausages and having a ball. You guys should come next year. they were bloody good sausies.
Hooroo.
b
Wednesday, September 08, 2004
Right-o who pissed off Mother Nature?
Every now and then, just when we think we have it made and are actually pretty tough, good ole' Mother Nature comes along....quietly...up behind us...tip-toeing aaaaaallllll the way....and she carries a big spade....
And so we stand there looking at our buildings and our bea-uti-ful roads and our petro-chemical haze and we pat each other on the back and cackle and generally agree that yep, we've come a long way and yep, we're doing alright and yep, no worries.
And then WHACK!! A spade to the funny bone. WHACK!! Another as we stumble to the ground. WHACK! WHACK! WHACK!..........WHACK!.......WHACK! WHACK! WHACK! Then she leaves us, battered and bruised on the ground wondering what in the hell just happened, clutching our bleeding shins and apologising profusely. As she wanders away she knows she'll be back soon enough, you'll see her next week sometime down at the Warehouse looking for a bigger spade...maybe a shovel...
This happened yesterday.
In fact it started the day before with a couple of rollicking earthquakes within an hour or two of each other. They registered 5-6 on the Japanese scale and "BIG" on the Berin scale. No damage but some swinging lights and funny sounds coming from the house, or more specifically, its foundations. Still, we slept soundly and that was that.
The walk to work yesterday was normal enough, it started spitting as I arrived and continued to do so throughout the morning. There was another earthquake and everyone got back to work. Then, just about lunchtime, someone decided to go a trampling on Mother Natures vegetable patch...and that got her mad... It was typhoon time.
Crrrrriiiiikey it blew. Shortly after she put the Wind-o-Meter to 11 I was looking out of the 7th floor of the Town Hall here and saw two transformers explode in big, red, sparky explosions. I braced my shins for the spade strike. Across the road from work 7 out of 10 cars had their rear windows implode, the power cut off, people were evacuated from the windward side of the building because windows from the 2nd to the 7th floor were shattering, trees were uprooted, rooftiles flew off houses by the roof load, an oyster bed structure from the harbour broke free and drifted up the inlet beside work, destroying a barge which had about 60 44-gallon drum sized polystyrene floats, these then either choked the inlet or became airborne, flying across the intersection near the harbour and making desperate bids for freedom (this morning there were 12 corralled in an area about 500 meters from the water). And still it ratcheted itself up. the international definition of a typhoon is winds at 30 meters/second, the peak yesterday was 60.1 meters/second. Thats TWICE THE TYPHOON FOR THE SAME LOW LOW PRICE. Do the maths. Mathletes. Powerlines fell down, signs flew off shops, the traffic lights were out, stop signs and the like were torn off or just plain fell over, a boat broke free in the inlet and wandered around, luckily there were a whole bunch of polystyrene floats scattered around or it could have done itself some real damage on the concrete walls.
Nic hunkered down at home taking a blankie and some pillows into the bathroom where there are the least windows, and had herself a nap. Good on her I say. It blew and it blew and it blew and it blew and then at about 4-ish we all sort of looked at each other and realised that it was quiet. At about 4:30 I was looking out the window (again) and saw about 300 seagulls launch themselves from their hiding place and swoop off, that was pretty cool.
Man. Windy. We had no power until about 10:30 last night so we drank Chilean red and played crib by candlelight. Thank you Mother Nature, 'twas a lovely evening. I hope you fellas are all tops.
Special thanks to Arch for his grand posts from the depths of South East Asia, keep it up sunshine. To Kate for her photos recently of her and Andrew cavorting in front of huge cutout slices of the dictionary defined "Scotland" and thanks to Mike for updating his site. I still haven't looked at it as we don't have the internet at home yet and I like my job too much to access your filth from work.
Right. Tata. Good.
And so we stand there looking at our buildings and our bea-uti-ful roads and our petro-chemical haze and we pat each other on the back and cackle and generally agree that yep, we've come a long way and yep, we're doing alright and yep, no worries.
And then WHACK!! A spade to the funny bone. WHACK!! Another as we stumble to the ground. WHACK! WHACK! WHACK!..........WHACK!.......WHACK! WHACK! WHACK! Then she leaves us, battered and bruised on the ground wondering what in the hell just happened, clutching our bleeding shins and apologising profusely. As she wanders away she knows she'll be back soon enough, you'll see her next week sometime down at the Warehouse looking for a bigger spade...maybe a shovel...
This happened yesterday.
In fact it started the day before with a couple of rollicking earthquakes within an hour or two of each other. They registered 5-6 on the Japanese scale and "BIG" on the Berin scale. No damage but some swinging lights and funny sounds coming from the house, or more specifically, its foundations. Still, we slept soundly and that was that.
The walk to work yesterday was normal enough, it started spitting as I arrived and continued to do so throughout the morning. There was another earthquake and everyone got back to work. Then, just about lunchtime, someone decided to go a trampling on Mother Natures vegetable patch...and that got her mad... It was typhoon time.
Crrrrriiiiikey it blew. Shortly after she put the Wind-o-Meter to 11 I was looking out of the 7th floor of the Town Hall here and saw two transformers explode in big, red, sparky explosions. I braced my shins for the spade strike. Across the road from work 7 out of 10 cars had their rear windows implode, the power cut off, people were evacuated from the windward side of the building because windows from the 2nd to the 7th floor were shattering, trees were uprooted, rooftiles flew off houses by the roof load, an oyster bed structure from the harbour broke free and drifted up the inlet beside work, destroying a barge which had about 60 44-gallon drum sized polystyrene floats, these then either choked the inlet or became airborne, flying across the intersection near the harbour and making desperate bids for freedom (this morning there were 12 corralled in an area about 500 meters from the water). And still it ratcheted itself up. the international definition of a typhoon is winds at 30 meters/second, the peak yesterday was 60.1 meters/second. Thats TWICE THE TYPHOON FOR THE SAME LOW LOW PRICE. Do the maths. Mathletes. Powerlines fell down, signs flew off shops, the traffic lights were out, stop signs and the like were torn off or just plain fell over, a boat broke free in the inlet and wandered around, luckily there were a whole bunch of polystyrene floats scattered around or it could have done itself some real damage on the concrete walls.
Nic hunkered down at home taking a blankie and some pillows into the bathroom where there are the least windows, and had herself a nap. Good on her I say. It blew and it blew and it blew and it blew and then at about 4-ish we all sort of looked at each other and realised that it was quiet. At about 4:30 I was looking out the window (again) and saw about 300 seagulls launch themselves from their hiding place and swoop off, that was pretty cool.
Man. Windy. We had no power until about 10:30 last night so we drank Chilean red and played crib by candlelight. Thank you Mother Nature, 'twas a lovely evening. I hope you fellas are all tops.
Special thanks to Arch for his grand posts from the depths of South East Asia, keep it up sunshine. To Kate for her photos recently of her and Andrew cavorting in front of huge cutout slices of the dictionary defined "Scotland" and thanks to Mike for updating his site. I still haven't looked at it as we don't have the internet at home yet and I like my job too much to access your filth from work.
Right. Tata. Good.
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