I'll give you some funny.
Right now I'm listening to William Shatner in a song from his recently released 2nd album. He's doing a cover of Pulps' "Common People", that following a track from his first album, a cover of "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds".
I am serious people.
He is a genius! And the passion? Golly. The passion. He should be an actor. Or open a shop. Get your hands on a track or two. Bloody Good.
Hi. It's been a while. Rainy today. Boo.
We had quite the morning yesterday, being the annual clothing drive we organise through work. We collected 300 boxes of clothes for aid agencies in Africa, it was cool fun. There are going to be some snappily dressed folk in the sub-Sahara next season I tell you what.
In other news I had a haircut last week (at last), nixed the mullet and moved on. They do a good line in "other stuff" when you get a haircut over here. I got me a cut-throat razor shave at the same time. Fun. Sharp. It got a little odd however when the chap shaved my forehead too. Yep. Shaved forehead. Pretty fun, but the stubble/regrowth is going to be a concern, then he massaged my nose through a hot towel for a minute or so.... Friendly folk around here. Yep. Friendly. Maybe too friendly. Who massages a nose?
I got some new pants the other day too, thanks to Nics new sewing machine, it's a Brother, every day, shes gotta hook a brother up and get sewing (hahahaha). It's pretty snazzy. And I got me some new pants so cool.
Right-o thats all folks. Shane arrives next Sunday - Woohoo!!
seeya
Sunday, October 31, 2004
Saturday, October 23, 2004
oh yeah...
...and we're OK after the earthquakes too.....i'm expecting locusts soon. nics out the back building a boat...
why thank you...
...for your concern. We are all well and good after the typhoon of last week, it managed to skirt by us and simply be windy as hell and rainy, as it got a little further north it decided to go completely bananas. So everything is swell. Nothing to report. Although all donations still gratefully accepted.
tata.
berin.
tata.
berin.
Monday, October 18, 2004
sake...
Gidday all,
I just got back from giving a speech on New Zealand and in particular the situation regarding governmental support for visually impaired people in New Zealand to a bunch of lovely visually impaired folk at one of the local community centres. It went well.
Until I was about to leave....
Then one of the more talkative chaps in the group was shaking my hand and he conspiratorially leant in and informed me that he was 80 years old; to which I replied "You don't look it at all", which incidentally is very, very similar (exactly the same) to "You can't see. At all". While I stood there stunned and trying to remember how a Hail Mary goes he nodded and said "I know, thats why I carry this big white stick". For future reference the local community centers floors are remarkably well built and there is little or no chance of them opening and swallowing you whole. Ever. At all. Crap.
Anywhoo, enough about me alienating the public and on to Nic doing it.
We had the Sake festival the weekend before last. It was sooper fun. It was up in the hills, about an hour away by train, and Nic and I set off nice and early to have a look around before the sampling was done. The city is called Saijo and they've been making sake since Jesus played for Jerusalem City Rovers and they've got it down pat. There are a bunch of breweries in town all making the good stuff from the lov-er-ly local rice and the lov-er-ly local water. On this particular day you can stroll around and enter the respective breweries where they give away their cheapest sake in little glasses and sell the good stuff for about 70 cents a glass. Needless to say Nic and I kept our 70 cents' deep in our pockets and drank the hooch. And it was yum. It's interesting how varied the flavours of Sake can be (almost like it was a wine!!) and how good even hooch can taste after a few...
So we wandered around and this'd and that'd until we were sure that we'd seen enough and could enter the Sake Festival proper. This entails a large fenced off park, with the ominous sign outside firmly stating in English (?) "Once it is exited, it must not be re-comeback in" telling us that once in, we were in for the long haul. So we paid our 1500 yen (NZ$20) and received our wee sake glasses and strode into the fun times. The area had 5 enormous tents set up, each with sake from different regions of Japan. There were 800 breweries represented with a few from each brewery. You wander up to the tent with your glass, look at the bottles behind the friendly pourer folk (this became more difficult during the day) and ask for the corresponding number, they pour it out, you wander back to your possie on the grass and have a natter, sup your sake, wander back, and repeat to fade.
We went into the Sake Festival site at 12:00, it had been up and running since 11:00 and in that 1 hour there were some folk that were determined to get every penny of their 1500 yen out of the place in one hour or less. These were the folk lying on the grass asleep with red, red, red, red faces, snoring softly, as they would throughout the afternoon. We had a grand time. There was music, Sake, deep fried chicken and some more Sake, and it was good. We wandered out at about 8pm whereupon Nic decided that she hadn't liked her dinner very much so decided to leave most of it at the station.....on the platform.....y'know?.....on the platform.....? Yeah.
So that was the sake festival. Twas good. Not long til Shane gets here (hoorah) and congratulations to Al on taking a big old step recently.
I just got back from giving a speech on New Zealand and in particular the situation regarding governmental support for visually impaired people in New Zealand to a bunch of lovely visually impaired folk at one of the local community centres. It went well.
Until I was about to leave....
Then one of the more talkative chaps in the group was shaking my hand and he conspiratorially leant in and informed me that he was 80 years old; to which I replied "You don't look it at all", which incidentally is very, very similar (exactly the same) to "You can't see. At all". While I stood there stunned and trying to remember how a Hail Mary goes he nodded and said "I know, thats why I carry this big white stick". For future reference the local community centers floors are remarkably well built and there is little or no chance of them opening and swallowing you whole. Ever. At all. Crap.
Anywhoo, enough about me alienating the public and on to Nic doing it.
We had the Sake festival the weekend before last. It was sooper fun. It was up in the hills, about an hour away by train, and Nic and I set off nice and early to have a look around before the sampling was done. The city is called Saijo and they've been making sake since Jesus played for Jerusalem City Rovers and they've got it down pat. There are a bunch of breweries in town all making the good stuff from the lov-er-ly local rice and the lov-er-ly local water. On this particular day you can stroll around and enter the respective breweries where they give away their cheapest sake in little glasses and sell the good stuff for about 70 cents a glass. Needless to say Nic and I kept our 70 cents' deep in our pockets and drank the hooch. And it was yum. It's interesting how varied the flavours of Sake can be (almost like it was a wine!!) and how good even hooch can taste after a few...
So we wandered around and this'd and that'd until we were sure that we'd seen enough and could enter the Sake Festival proper. This entails a large fenced off park, with the ominous sign outside firmly stating in English (?) "Once it is exited, it must not be re-comeback in" telling us that once in, we were in for the long haul. So we paid our 1500 yen (NZ$20) and received our wee sake glasses and strode into the fun times. The area had 5 enormous tents set up, each with sake from different regions of Japan. There were 800 breweries represented with a few from each brewery. You wander up to the tent with your glass, look at the bottles behind the friendly pourer folk (this became more difficult during the day) and ask for the corresponding number, they pour it out, you wander back to your possie on the grass and have a natter, sup your sake, wander back, and repeat to fade.
We went into the Sake Festival site at 12:00, it had been up and running since 11:00 and in that 1 hour there were some folk that were determined to get every penny of their 1500 yen out of the place in one hour or less. These were the folk lying on the grass asleep with red, red, red, red faces, snoring softly, as they would throughout the afternoon. We had a grand time. There was music, Sake, deep fried chicken and some more Sake, and it was good. We wandered out at about 8pm whereupon Nic decided that she hadn't liked her dinner very much so decided to leave most of it at the station.....on the platform.....y'know?.....on the platform.....? Yeah.
So that was the sake festival. Twas good. Not long til Shane gets here (hoorah) and congratulations to Al on taking a big old step recently.
(runawayyoupoorfoolrunaway)
Right-o.
See ya.
Friday, October 08, 2004
i'm better...now.
Morning all.
I went drinking with the folk from the office on Wednesday night. It was actually my welcome party but has been postponed twice since I actually arrived by typhoon(s). Incidentallly there's another one on the way, should arrive tomorrow. Anywhoo, out we strolled to a wonderful Italian restaurant (It's name is Waku!! Waku!! - my Italian is a little rusty, but as far as I can recall from my days as a Ferrari Test Driver this means "Waku!! Waku!!). So off we strolled. We sat down and made small talk until the guy-who-was-late rushed on in (there's always one) and then they unleashed the floodgates of beer.
The do was whats known as a "nomi-houdai", nomi meaning "to drink" and houdai (actual dictionary definition) meaning "to run riot". Which means that you just don't stop. Particularly when the "running drink riot" is coupled with the wonderful Japanese tradition of pouring drinks for others. You wander around the table and have a chat with people and fill their drinks up. A simple tradition that gets a little more cheeky when it is revealed that if someone offers to fill your drink, you must drink a little of whats left in your glass beforehand AND if there is the slightest possibility that a nanolitre of boozy goodness can fit in your glass at any stage in the evening, it will be filled thus.
Now I can hear my mother SCREAMING all the way from here "Leave your glass full!!!", (Incidentally I can also hear her screaming "...best years of my life....and for what??..." but I ignore that one too) but this goes against the very grain of my existence. I really do TRY to leave the glass alone but all of a sudden I'm making a point and slamming down an empty vessel, only to have it filled again. Or my parched throat, mid-sentence, threatens to seize if not greased with a cooling, cooling, cooling brew. Its tough.
They also had Chilean wine produced by brother-in-law Rulo's new company so I insisted we all have a little bit of that too, just to support the family and all (looking forward to a proceed of the profits just quietly) and the same fill-y fill-y pattern followed. It was bloody good fun.
Then all of a sudden, dinner was over and it was time to wander down the road to a "snack" bar. Now don't go thinking that this is a nice place for a kebab or a pie before stumbling off into the darkness, no. These places are dodgy little bars tucked away 30 to a floor in old office buildings or purpose built warrens/fire traps. They generally seat about 8 people, invariably are run by old, old women and involve an awful lot of "thaaaaaaats riiiighhht..........oh god........ why....oh....why.... did we go to the snack bar......" the next day as you clutch your head and wait for salvation (or deliverance). So this place, we waited outside of for about half an hour until the "Mama-san" turned up - I don't know where she was- and then we went inside.
"Anything to drink?" she asked, when in fact what she should have asked was "Do you like Brandy?" because thats all she had. Brandy. Mmmmmmmmm delicious brandy. (Shudder). And what goes well with Brandy? More Brandy. And Karaoke. And some Brandy. And small dried fish. With Brandy.
I wandered out at god knows what time and strolled home. My boss, bless her cotton socks, stayed until 3am and sang Karaoke and drank Brandy. Then some cows came home and she had to leave.
Then it was yesterday morning and I think we've all been in that position so I won't describe it here.
That was my Wednesday night.
I had fun.
Thursday sucked.
We're going to a Sake festival tomorrow, but the typhoon may deal to that.
Stay fun folks.
ka kite.
berin.
PS - Happy Boithday to my wee nephew Zac. Get on in there.
I went drinking with the folk from the office on Wednesday night. It was actually my welcome party but has been postponed twice since I actually arrived by typhoon(s). Incidentallly there's another one on the way, should arrive tomorrow. Anywhoo, out we strolled to a wonderful Italian restaurant (It's name is Waku!! Waku!! - my Italian is a little rusty, but as far as I can recall from my days as a Ferrari Test Driver this means "Waku!! Waku!!). So off we strolled. We sat down and made small talk until the guy-who-was-late rushed on in (there's always one) and then they unleashed the floodgates of beer.
The do was whats known as a "nomi-houdai", nomi meaning "to drink" and houdai (actual dictionary definition) meaning "to run riot". Which means that you just don't stop. Particularly when the "running drink riot" is coupled with the wonderful Japanese tradition of pouring drinks for others. You wander around the table and have a chat with people and fill their drinks up. A simple tradition that gets a little more cheeky when it is revealed that if someone offers to fill your drink, you must drink a little of whats left in your glass beforehand AND if there is the slightest possibility that a nanolitre of boozy goodness can fit in your glass at any stage in the evening, it will be filled thus.
Now I can hear my mother SCREAMING all the way from here "Leave your glass full!!!", (Incidentally I can also hear her screaming "...best years of my life....and for what??..." but I ignore that one too) but this goes against the very grain of my existence. I really do TRY to leave the glass alone but all of a sudden I'm making a point and slamming down an empty vessel, only to have it filled again. Or my parched throat, mid-sentence, threatens to seize if not greased with a cooling, cooling, cooling brew. Its tough.
They also had Chilean wine produced by brother-in-law Rulo's new company so I insisted we all have a little bit of that too, just to support the family and all (looking forward to a proceed of the profits just quietly) and the same fill-y fill-y pattern followed. It was bloody good fun.
Then all of a sudden, dinner was over and it was time to wander down the road to a "snack" bar. Now don't go thinking that this is a nice place for a kebab or a pie before stumbling off into the darkness, no. These places are dodgy little bars tucked away 30 to a floor in old office buildings or purpose built warrens/fire traps. They generally seat about 8 people, invariably are run by old, old women and involve an awful lot of "thaaaaaaats riiiighhht..........oh god........ why....oh....why.... did we go to the snack bar......" the next day as you clutch your head and wait for salvation (or deliverance). So this place, we waited outside of for about half an hour until the "Mama-san" turned up - I don't know where she was- and then we went inside.
"Anything to drink?" she asked, when in fact what she should have asked was "Do you like Brandy?" because thats all she had. Brandy. Mmmmmmmmm delicious brandy. (Shudder). And what goes well with Brandy? More Brandy. And Karaoke. And some Brandy. And small dried fish. With Brandy.
I wandered out at god knows what time and strolled home. My boss, bless her cotton socks, stayed until 3am and sang Karaoke and drank Brandy. Then some cows came home and she had to leave.
Then it was yesterday morning and I think we've all been in that position so I won't describe it here.
That was my Wednesday night.
I had fun.
Thursday sucked.
We're going to a Sake festival tomorrow, but the typhoon may deal to that.
Stay fun folks.
ka kite.
berin.
PS - Happy Boithday to my wee nephew Zac. Get on in there.
Tuesday, October 05, 2004
Monday, October 04, 2004
enjoy yer long summer days, aaarrrgghh. (pirate voice like, not falling off a cliff like)
So. Daylight savings starts today in the New Zealand eh? Well, well done indeed. Another winter lasted out. I am writing a piece for the City Journal at the moment on Guy Fawkes. Thats a pretty funny celebration to try and put into Japanese, although as Arch pointed out when he still lived here (sob) the story of Easter is going to be a doozy...
"See there's this enormous bunny right? And he hops around the place and gives kids sweeties right? And they are allowed to take it this time and this time only right? (apart from Halloween, however I am coming from an Antipodean-centric viewpoint and frankly if you aren't from and in the US at Halloween then you have no right to dress up and beg for candy and threaten violence if none is forthcoming. My views on this are well documented. Buy me a drink sometime and we'll talk.) And anyway, this bunny? the one with the candy, and the basket, and the ears...he represents Jesus....get it?"
Yep. Then I'm going to hit them with cricket dismissals.
On the downside at the moment our 'puter at home has been laid low by a virus. If you happen to meet a virus writer do the right thing and kick them in the nuts. Hard. Any tips on removing a backdoor.usirf that don't involve me bludgeoning the computer with a rolling pin will be gratefully accepted.
On the upside we drove into the mountains on the weekend and saw lots a perty this and that. Trees starting to turn for the Autumn, more crazy mossed over temples and statues, some lov-er-ly mist, and a 10 degree temperature drop from sea level. It was nifty. Skinny old roads though.
Work is still fun times and next weekend we have the Sake festival a couple of towns over with 800 breweries from all over Japan sampling their wares for the entry price of 1000 yen for an empty glass....for gods sake if your phone rings at an ungodly hour next weekend, for both our sakes - don't answer it!!
I'll let you know what happens.
out.
Berin and Nic.
"See there's this enormous bunny right? And he hops around the place and gives kids sweeties right? And they are allowed to take it this time and this time only right? (apart from Halloween, however I am coming from an Antipodean-centric viewpoint and frankly if you aren't from and in the US at Halloween then you have no right to dress up and beg for candy and threaten violence if none is forthcoming. My views on this are well documented. Buy me a drink sometime and we'll talk.) And anyway, this bunny? the one with the candy, and the basket, and the ears...he represents Jesus....get it?"
Yep. Then I'm going to hit them with cricket dismissals.
On the downside at the moment our 'puter at home has been laid low by a virus. If you happen to meet a virus writer do the right thing and kick them in the nuts. Hard. Any tips on removing a backdoor.usirf that don't involve me bludgeoning the computer with a rolling pin will be gratefully accepted.
On the upside we drove into the mountains on the weekend and saw lots a perty this and that. Trees starting to turn for the Autumn, more crazy mossed over temples and statues, some lov-er-ly mist, and a 10 degree temperature drop from sea level. It was nifty. Skinny old roads though.
Work is still fun times and next weekend we have the Sake festival a couple of towns over with 800 breweries from all over Japan sampling their wares for the entry price of 1000 yen for an empty glass....for gods sake if your phone rings at an ungodly hour next weekend, for both our sakes - don't answer it!!
I'll let you know what happens.
out.
Berin and Nic.
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