yeee-ouch

root canal = not bunches of fun

--end of transmission--

Virgin GALACTIC people...

I **love** the fact that there are some multi-ba-squillia-jilliia-naires out there that still remember what its like to dream like a child...

"I like space...SURELY people want to go there...NASAs too busy being the NSA's donkey boy...bugger it, I`m going to make a Spaceport..."
- Richard Branson (not so long ago)

I vote Richard Branson to be President of the World.

winter-y

More snow this morning, woohoo! The last lot has all melted, but I walked to work in an steadily increasing flurry storm, again with a dopey grin on my face. It's pretty fun.
Just a short post today, mainly to share with you somewhat of a miracle I have just witnessed in the bathrooms here at work...
I strolled in to spend a penny and was stopped dead in my tracks by a guy I will be now referring to solely as "the multi-tasker" or maybe "weirdo"...

There he was, carefree, happy as you please, using the urinal, talking on his cellphone AND.........

.......brushing his teeth.

Thats dedication.
Thats devotion.
Thats turning the night time into the day.

Toodlepip.

wOot!!!

Morning all,
From across the mighty, mighty Pacific I greet you one and all.
I am grinning like a tool.
Two reasons - The Pixies and Snow.
Thats right.

Grinny Reason #1:

The Pixies.
We went and saw them last night at a 10th floor 500 person club in downtown Hiroshima. The place was tiny, the Cosmic Wheels have played bigger clubs for gods sake (especially when I was managing them so expertly).
Nic said not only did she have tears in her eyes when it all kicked off, but that it was even better than the Jimmy Barnes concert at the Palmerston North Rainbow Stadium!!
(I kept trying to get this across to the band by yelling "Jimmy Barnes bad! Pixies good!" but got threatened by the Hiroshima Australian Consulate Representative for "defacing a national icon". Go figure.)
Golly.
But those Pixies eh? It was about the Rock n' Rolly-est show I have ever been to. There was rock and there was roll by the bloody handful. Go on they said, fill yer boots up.
And we did.
Some observations-
- Francis is a very very big man who can growl with the best of them. He also has a lovely smile.
- Kim was smoking heaps of cigarettes and I thought that she was cool...She also smiles ALOT. And she has an odd glazed look in her eye...ALOT.
- Joey (also known as "the other guitar playing guy") looks nervous and dare I say it..."shifty". But it would seem that he can play a guitar like he is ringing a bell.
- Drummer guy, like all drummer guys, just looked sort of manic. He also bashed hell out of the "skins".
It was BONKERS.
It was CRAZY BONKERS.
It was, as they say, "Bitchin'"
Crikey it was good.
As I said, the club was teeny tiny (a third, MAYBE the size of the Kings Arms??) and we were in the second row. We could have reached out and touched Francis' prodigious belly if that wasn't so icky.
Interesting way of getting in too...
All of the tickets are individually numbered depending on when you bought them after they went on sale. Nic and I were the 118th and 119th people to buy tickets. As such we had the 118th and 119th places in line. Thats right. In line. The club is on the 10th floor of a department store (?) (which means that after the show is over and you sweatily, stinkingly, grinningly, deleriously stroll out of the club and down the stairs, you are greeted by a wave of Japanese late night shoppers, the harsh glow of flourescent lighting, and christmas carol "Muzak" as you walk passed stores called "Happy Shine" and "Go-Go Fine Land")

Anyway - the line...

So. 10th floor. Everyone has to line up going down the emergency exit stairs, in ticket number order and that is the order you are allowed in. Sort of weird, but sort of good, but mostly weird.

So yeah. The Pixies. Tick that off the list. You guys have really got to go. They were ace.

Grinny Reason #2:

Snow

So we got home last night and it was cold, but not cold, cold. And we wandered off to beddie-bies. We tried to engage each other in polite conversation, but our ear drums seemed to have been turned into some sort of hideous paste by Mr. Frank Black.

Anywhoo. Wake up this morning, do my same rant about the distinct lack of insulation in Japanese houses, whip open the curtians and....(excuse the crap photo from my crap phone)

Thats right. 10-12 cms of snow overnight. Woohoo!! I freaking LOVE it when it snows. There's that crazy snowy old light, everything is a little muffled (might just be permanent hearing loss - see above post re: bitchin' Pixies concert), the snow squeaks under your feet. Yeah. Snow totally rules.

Thats our car covered with snow.

Mmmm. Snow.

As if that wasn't enough, we had a phone call last night from none other than Jarrod B. Ward Esq. all the way from sunny Kansas city.

He sounds very, very well indeed and that, amongst other things, warms the cockles of my heart.

I wish it would warm my toes though.

Turns out my shoes aren't what would be termed "waterproof" and seeing as I left home extra early this morning to turn my 10 minute walk to work into a 40 minute frolick in the snow, I now have icy cold toes. I may dip them in filter coffee. Hmmm.

So there you go people. I am one happy little camper. Things are super well, and we are looking forward to winging our way to the UK for Xmas in 3 or so short weeks.

Be well all.

Lots of love,

Berin and Nic.

...and he lived to tell the tale...

morning all,
no posts recently. busy don't you know.

BUT!!

last night we went out for work drinks. yum. we went to a restaurant that specializes in fugu - thats right, the deadly, deadly, deadly-puffer-fish. actually its safe as to eat deadly-puffer-fish, anyone who prepares it at a deadly-puffer-fish restaurant has to have a deadly-puffer-fish licence and blah blah blah, but still, to say you've eaten the deadly-puffer-fish fugu ahhhh. now thats a story.

it was yum. chewy. deadly. but yum.

the lowlight of the evening was realizing the bit of deadly-puffer-fish I had been served from the bubbling deadly-puffer-fish stew was in fact the mouth of the deadly-puffer-fish, just plain hacked off the rest of the deadly-puffer-fish. not alot of meat around those deadly-puffer-fish teeth.

the highlight of the evening however was deadly-puffer-fish-fin-sake. yep.

heres a crap picture from the crap camera on my crap phone.

basically you get the fin from the deadly-puffer-fish and you grill it all to hell, and then you drop it in a cup and pour scalding hot sake all over it, put a lid on the cup, wait a couple of minutes, then whip the lid off , light the fumes, and THEN drink it.

then as your vital organs start succumbing to the deadly-puffer-fish poison coursing through your veins (or as in my case you bemoan the bereftness of fine cured meats in Japan to your boss' boss) the cup is filled and refilled time and again by kimono-clad ladies-in-waiting.

as is your beer glass....

and your wine glass....

i feel terrible.

oh please god, make it stop.

my knee says its going rain on thursday...

morning all.
quick note.
my mum and dad came and said a cheery hello over the last 10 days. we threw them on a plane out of Hiroshima airport on sunday after fun-filled days and sake-filled nights celebrating the best 30 years of their lives. i'll post piccies soon.
highlights included; beer, introducing them to my old host family for the first time, antique shopping binges, sake, strolling in the Japanese wilderness, backing into a wall, more sake, the mayor of my city giving them tickets to see kabuki at a 1600 year old stage on a sacred island shrine (!!), whipping them at rulos game, watching mum, dad and nic running across a national highway taking pictures of rice paddies because the light was "just right" and then backing into a wall, birthday goodtimes, hanging with the biggest wooden buddha dude in Japan and bunches of other stuff.
on a slightly odder note:
i was informed yesterday amid much giggling that one of the female workers in the city hall follows me when i walk past her because i "smell the best out of everyone in the building"...
...this scares me.

yours, smelling "stalker-tastic" and looking over his shoulder,

berin.

Hmmmm...

tenuous, reserved, a shade nauseous and a very, very, very curious...

woohoo...

next stop...30.

he dug a hole...

bwilliant...

http://grad.icmc.usp.br/~cipriani/bighole.php?lang=en

interestingly, we discovered a new watering hole last week where you write in chalk on the toilet walls - they are all blackboard-type-stuff - (Paul, whats the technical terminology? No wait!! Tom!! Pop quiz...) and all I could think of to write - in my state at the time - was exactly

"he dug a hole"

i thought it was prophetic.

rock n roll folks.

b

slow

My, that was a slow moving typhoon. I came home from work at midday and hung around all day playing playstation waiting for it to hit, finally on the evening news they said it would start getting hairy at 11pm.
At 10:58 there was such an enormous gust of wind that the house felt like it was being lifted and the roof starting saying "oi".
So it blew and it rained and it rained and it blew. And all through it there was one lonely cricket outside, croaking away, in the typhoon. Bonus points for trying I guess.
So. We're all a-ok.
Off to walk the grounds and inspect the damage.
Tata
Berin.

Hi.

Hi.
Hi.
Slowing down on the blog front lately. Other stuff happening you know. Round and about like.

Anyway.

I voted on Friday. Yep. Voted. From afar. I'm sure there are others in far flung parts of the globe who are going through the same thing at present and I am also sure they will come to the same conclusion.

It was odd.

I have always been somewhat in awe and proud of the secret ballot and found the political process a wonderful thing. However...I am somewhat confused about the notion of a "secret" ballot when I had to fax my voting paper to Wellington, along with my name, address, phone number, cell phone number, previous address in New Zealand, Date of Birth and every other identifying feature apart from "winning smile".

It was somewhat of an uncomfortable feeling.

Still, looking forward to election day. We have one here in Japan a week beforehand so that'll be good for practice like. Things have already started in earnest with small cars stuffed to overloading with smiling old ladies in fluorescent jackets and white gloves, with E-N-O-R-M-O-U-S speakers on top driving 8kms an hour around the place with a loop tape of some old chap with his fingers in lots of pies exhorting you to vote for him, him, him for the future of Japan. They generally start at about 6am. Including the weekends. Grrrr. Damn waving old ladies.

Starting to cool down a shade (like from 38 degrees to 35), although that might be the SUPERTYPHOON coming in from the Pacific. We'll let you know how that pans out. We had a rolly old earthquake at teatime just to kick off the "forces of nature" theme so I await with baited breath the next turn of events.

Mum and Dad get here in a week and a bit. looking forward to that. trying to organise some sort of an itinerary, and it's coming together nicely. Might be having the Margot St. Reeve Duo visiting next year sometime too, so everyone else better get their bookings sorted - we're filling up fast.

See you folks.

b.

David Lange.

Bloody Good Chap.

Remember that time Paul came to Japan?

We went to Kyoto.

We went here. And we went there.

We really did.

We saw some pretty hardcore moss...

It took my wallet in a bar.

It was hot...

So we drank a little bit.

And this one time, I won Le Mans

WooHoo. Number 1.

Take me to the river...

So we did. And it was Japanese-y.

He possesses some degree of a drinking problem...

Mmmmm.

He's a pretty tough guy...

Sometimes he scared me.

Ummmmm.

Hello.
I was just walking home this evening after a lecture on Chinese Tea (very interesting - full of tea though and so needed a pee quite badly so can't be 100% sure that what I am going to describe was actually as it seemed. I am though well over 99.8% sure that it was so.)

I saw a Collie.

A big one, you know, like Lassie.

And it was shaved.

Like a Poodle.

With the shaved back and the pom-pom mane and leg thingees (although being a collie it was less "pom" and more "fall down and be sort of frizzy")

It looked PISSED.

no jacket required...

Aaaah Sir Phil Collins. The nice guy of pop. Never a finer wordsmith graced the top 40 countdown. Imagine, just imagine if he and Tom Hanks were to hook up. There'd be some love in that room alright.
The reason I bring up Sir Phils immortal 1985 third solo album is the fact that Monday this week marked the day in the office where it was A-ok to not don a suit jacket and to leave the tie hanging on the floor. Thats right. Summer is here. (Although not quite here enough to justify the air conditioning. Dammit)
So here I sit. Relaxin' Laxin Jackson. Cool as a cucumber. Can't wait for no pants day.

So whats been going on? Well....

We had Nics folks here for a week, and grand it was to have them here. its always fun to have people new to japan come over, so you can see what we now take for granted and accept as normal. Fun times. We managed a trip back to Kyoto for the first time in a long time and it was pretty nice to be back. Theres some old, old stuff there and if you get a chance, you really should get along. Try the veal.
We let Clare and Barry venture into Hiroshima by their lonesome and they did very well, and I took last Friday off and we trekked up into the hills for a look around. Japan has some pretty nice countryside if you give it half a chance and we did just that.
We strolled up to a place in neighbouring Yamaguchi Prefecture that I had heard about from several people, always ending on the fact that it was a "Mountain Pirates Lair". Woah. I thought. Mountain Pirates? Tough to keel haul some one on a mountain. "Aaaaarrrrgh. Me hearties. Hoist the mainsail. I'll be in the f'oc'scle (sp?) waiting for the rain to come, arrrgh". As it transpired it was a restaurant, admittedly in the mountains and admittedly beside quite a nice waterfall that it seems, at some stage in the distant past had been soemwhere near a purported lair that perhaps had maybe been occasionally used by people who may (or may not) have perhaps been highwaymen. (although its far from certain). But they did have charcoal roasted slabs of chicken on sticks so I forgave them. They also had some of the greatest urinals ever devised by man or machine. I'll try and dig out a photo, as they were quite spectacular.
So we had our chicken and strutted on to an enormous dam in the middle of nowhere.

Nic and I found this a while back during one of our "point the car somewhere and spend the day following the bonnet" adventures and have been back several times. Big Shane Pienaar made a pilgrimage here during his "Hot Asian Nights 2004" Tour last year. Its got some pretty this and that around and a right nice lake, and a bloody enormous dam. So we were looking at the dam and taking a stroll across the top when we were descended on by hordes of Japanese Elementary School kids. Turns out they were there on a feild trip and got to go deep, deep, deep into the bowels of the dam and look around. Someone asked if we wanted to go too.

We said yes.

Then they had to ask some guy if it was OK, he in turn had to ask some other guy, who asked another guy, who turned to the guy next to him and got him to ring the sub manager who rang the division manager who rang the division cheif who rang the second vice dam manager who asked the vice dam manager who queried the dam manager who called his regional supervisor who got himself put through to the prefectural adviser who asked the prefectural cheif who.....you get the idea. I saw on the news that night when they actually patched a call through to the Prime Minister during a conference to ask if three unannounced foreigners could go into the dam.

He said yes.

So we went.

We got into the elevator in the middle of the dam and went down 100 meters where the helpful elevator-chap told us the water pressure was equivalent to 50 elephants PSI all pushing on us. To prove the point there was a picture on the wall of the lift that showed 50 blue, animated, smiling, pushing elephants, sitting on the elevator. So I beleived him.

We got out and there was about a dimly lit 5ft tall tunnel dripping with condensation (it took a while to convince myself it was condensation and not the dam falling to bits around us). So we went up and down and along and around and through and popped out at the bottom of the dam. It was along way up. And the place was covered in elephant crap. So we left.

Fun times.

We also managed to fit in a trip to Miyajima Island just nearby, where I managed to use up an awful lot of my Son-In-Law-Brownie-Points by stating that the stroll to the top was "a little steep" and "not very long". Turns out I am either a hopeless judge of distance and angle, or a compulsive liar. Bugger.

Still. Bunches of fun had by all and it was grand to have them come on over.

In other news, I had a conference in Tokyo earlier on this week and it helped to confirm what I always suspected. Tokyo is a very, very, very, very, very, very, very,very, very, very, very, very, very big place.

Right-o. Work beckons.
Tata.

herbs...growing...

Thats about it really. You know, thats been happening.

Basil poking its head out of the planter box, with my beady eye watching it every day. I bought a watering can (can it still be a watering can if its made of plastic?) in the shape of an elephant with the water coming out of its snout - It`s fun. And blue. With huuuuge eyes.

So yeah. Lifes been pretty moochy lately.

We did have a grand Cricket and Rugby Introductory Day through work last weekend. A couple of hours of cricket and then 40 minutes or so of rugby for people that had hardly heard of either game. It was super fun. ("yeah, so that's why we call it silly mid-on.......no?.....oh....never mind") We had a lot of kids come along so we broke it up with Vegemite and chippie sandwiches (YUM!!) and oodles of fun were had by all. Bloody hot though. Got my first official sunburn of the 2005 summer season. You can still get burnt on a cloudy (petro-chemical-ly hazy) day. Remember that kids. Remember it well.

Nics folks arrive here next Friday (not this one) which will give us a chance to go up to Kyoto and have a look around again. Kyoto is a pretty fun city, its got some grand, grand, grand bits and peices that make you sit back on your keister and grin like an idiot. Looking forward to getting back there. We used to go quite a bit when we were in Gifu and Arch so kindly lived so close to the Kyoto City. They were grand days. but since baldy made the (fairly selfish if you ask me) decision to move on and make something of himself we haven't made an appearance. It should be super.

The rest of the itinerary is fairly fluid at the moment, we'll let you know how it comes out.

On a different note, today is whats called in the clan "Airbag Day" celebrating the explosive little wonders' role in keeping my Mum and Dad and Littlest Big Sister around following a rather nasty "momentum vs. sudden stop" incident in the States a while back. So to one and all - buckle the hell up and Happy Airbag Day.

Thats me. I have some basil to eyeball.
xx b.

mmmm

hello.
I had a smoked egg on the weekend. And it was bloody good. I've never really heard of smoked eggs before, basically a hard boiled egg...smoked. With rosemary. And curiously enough, cabbage. It was exceptionally good.

Yum.

It was from a shop here in the city that has been opened by a village up in the hills that, it seems, has branded itself and is working on an "organic-y-back-to-nature-y" angle to stop its aging farmer folk from falling prey to the big kids. It is actually a very exciting development.

They've got fruit, veges, eggs, meat, milk - the whole shooting match. And its fresh. And they smoke eggs. Yum!

We have good old Golden Week coming up next week - for the uninitiated it is a bunch of public holidays all lumped together just for the hell of it. And its grand. Right there at the start of summer. Fun. Four day week this week, then a one day week next week. Thats right. Just the one day at work for me next week. Still, Nic wins, shes on holiday from Thursday until, seemingly forever. (Actually only a week and a half - but thats still pretty good folks). There are some tentative plans for day trips hither and yon. We'll let you know. If your free you should come along.

In other news, I have been reprimanded on several occasions for not acknowledging Nics birthday on this here blog.

So.

It was Nics (30th) birthday a while back. Her frankly amazing husband bought her a veritable swag bag of goodies and much fun was had. In fact, as it was only 2 days after the wedding anniversary (planning?) it sort of all folded, blended, meshed even, into a week long experiment in overindulgence. Initial reports indicate it was a complete success.

Thats it. Bugger off.

tooroo.
berin.

hello, i'll just sit over here and feel very small shall i?

Just quick like.

I'm currently translating a speech for the Mayor in regards to his having been in Hiroshima when it was bombed. I asked a co-worker about some specifics of what a bunch of school kids were doing working in the city at the time. (They had been mobilised for the war effort and were demolishing buildings to make firebreaks). To which she replied...

"My mothers sister was there and she died. She was at intermediate school. Do you want me to call my mum and find out?"

.....ummm......no thanks.

....thats all right....

....ummm.....i'll just work with what i've got....

....ummmm....yeah....

toons...

Gidday folks.

Hope all is well in your respective hoods. The Hatsukaichi is grand.

First off, thanks again go out to those who came along to drink our booze and eat our food ONE YEAR and a couple of weeks ago for our knees-up nuptual party. Thats right!! One year ago. Crikey. Now traditionalists amongst you will be noting that the first anniversary present is paper but we decided that this was crap and have revised it somewhat. The First Anniversary present is now 60gb and 30gb iPod Photos. Woohoo!!

I love rewriting traditions. For any who are interested Santa will be doing away with reindeer as of June (the NEW Christmas - we voted) and will henceforth be dragged by dwarf clowns.

Anyway. Back to our shiny shiny shinys. They are stupidly large (in capacity, they are sexily sleek in design) and are bloody good fun. We are currently sitting on around 21gb in songs, necessitating the purchase of ANOTHER shiny shiny shiny - that being a 160gb external hard-drive. Mmmmmm 160 gigs. Paupers prison here I come!! The only problem now is the obsessive compartmentalising and organisation of songs that I am having to fight on a daily basis. It's actually pretty tough. There are those out there that can sympathise. This much I know is true.

Nic also managed to get herself a wee handheld printer that instantly makes polaroids out of photos that you send infra-red from your cellphone. Thats right. We live in the future. And we are now poor in it.

So it was a fun time. It's been a grand year, what with the nuptuals, the new jobs, the move down here to Hiroshima, the Shane, the Jon, the Melody, the Dazza and the Ben popping over and a bunch of other good times. We look forward to a bunch more.

We had another Sausage Sizzle the other weekend as part of work - introducing the k1w1 culture and all - and a roaring success it was. 150 sausages sold out in 2 and a bit hours. Grand. We had the stall at the citys Cherry Blossom Festival, unfortunately it seems the Cherry Blossoms were still on holiday in the south of France and so didn't come. Although the thunder, lightning and torrential downpour did!! That made up for it.

Oh no, thats right. The weather made it sort of crap.

Still, the Cherry Blossoms did come out in force this last weekend. It's a bloody good time to be in Japan. The country goes bonkers over them and rightly so. They have parks, lanes, roads, alleys, riversides and the like dedicated to them. Sure we have the odd cherry tree blossoming in NZ but when you have 400 mature trees lines up in a row, all lit up and all laden with flowering goodness, it can be quite a sight. It also means that it is warming up. So thats a plus. Speaking of which, one week ago we had the heater on and it was 8 degrees during the day. Two days ago it was 27 degrees and about 70% humidity. Ooooh. Sweaty.

Right-o.
I'm off.
Have fun.
berin.

wacky, wacky sea creatures...

funny.

my name is berin and i am grinning like an absolute tool...

...hello. Completely grinning ear to ear. Like I'm absolutely bananas.

Let me tell you a nice story.

We just had a chap shuffle in here, just a wisp of a man. 70 years old, balding (but sporting a fine, fine hat.....arch) and mopping the rain off himself after shuffling here from the train station. After taking a few moments to gather his breath he dumped some heavily laden bags on one of the desks and proceeded to explain himself.

He had heard about the woman who I talked about a few posts ago who started a school in Bangladesh. Last week he had attended a talk by her, that we organised. He heard about us collecting musical instruments for the wee cherubs and decided to see what he could do.

As it turns out he was 10 when the bomb went off in Hiroshima. His family was killed and he was shuffled off to an orphanage. Here's what he said...

"I know what it's like to grow up with nothing and to be at the bottom of the heap. It's crap. I want to help these kids have a childhood."

So he bought 15 (pairs? schools? pods?) Castanets, 7 Maraccas, 5 Harmonicas, 3 Gazoos and the most enormous 3 layered tambourine I have ever seen.

"I'm on a pension and have my house already. I don't need it all, I've had a good run" he said.

Then he donned his cap, straightened his tie and shuffled on out of here. I tried to get Kenny Loggins to quickly write the score to his triumphant leaving but he was busy.

Bloody Good Show.

Nice People Totally, Totally Rule.

Yours, grinning,

berin.

PS: anyone who is mean out there and reading this: piss off, you're ruining my vibe.

low `n slow `n roll-y....

....yep. Bloody big earthquake the other day. It was a rollicking 7 on the Japanese Richter(esque) scale down in Kyushu, it was a 4 in Yamaguchi, the prefecture neighbouring us and it registered a "crikey" on the Berin Scale here in town. It was by far the biggest earthquake I have ever felt.

It was looooooooooooooooooooooooooong.

It was slooooooooooooooooooooooooooow.

It was rooooooooooooooooooooooooooll-y.

But everything is fine. The bookcase toyed with the idea of falling over but I fixed it with my steely gaze and it soon bucked its ideas up.

That is all.

berin.

bleeeeergh...

...food poisoning sucks. At least I think I have food poisoning. I have been throwing up every 2 hours on the 2 hours since midnight last night. It's now 9am and I have just returned from my latest bout. Grrr. Added to that is the fact that it is still bloody cold and so there I was gripping a 0 degree toilet crying out for death to False Metal. It's been a fairly average few hours.

So.

On reflection and out of the goodness of my heart, I am willing to swap this bout of food poisoning for a 1973 Porsche 911 T. All applicants please leave contact details under the "comments" section. Support for the continuation of wallowing in self pity accepted also.

Goodbye.

Stay away from the chicken.

berin.

adieu...

..."the closest thing to a computer that I know as a man. Sometimes I think he has silicon running in his veins."

"Also, like Michael Jordan, he achieved all his goals"

more machine now, than man...

ummmm...

.....odd.

Gidday!!

Crikey. Been a while. Hope we are all well.

First off, congratulations to our newly re-contributing to a civil society punter Richard "Mirror Glass" Archbold for securing employment as a building-drawer in sunny London-Towne. Mirror Glass baby, acres of Mirror Glass. What spells "success", "modernity", "zing" and "longevity" better than Mirror Glass - preferably of a lovely blue shade. Zing!!

Secondly, congratulations to our enormous long-haired-2-inverted-triangles-chiselled-out-of stone-new-breed-of-superhero Joshua "who-re-routes-the-routers-dammit-my-cpLog-fails-to build" Elliott who has dropped out of gainful employment and is off to sunny Europe. Fly my pretty, fly!!

All this movement eh? Grand.
Us? Pretty sedentary actually. Weather warming up, work coming along right nice. Yeah. Things are swell.

Met a fascinating woman at work the other day. In her fifties, shes a long time friend of one of my co-workers. Ten years ago she met a Bangladeshi exchange student through the organisation I work for and has kept in touch with him ever since. He was studying at a nearby University and has since graduated and returned home. He was lamenting to her a year or two ago about the state of his village and the plight of the low caste kids that live there.

So.....this woman BUILT AND STARTED AND FUNDS a private school for under priviledged kids in the middle of Bangladesh.

"Hey lady!! You rule!"

It cost her 90,000 yen (NZD1100 at this accursed exchange rate) to buy the land, build the one-room school, employ two qualified teachers full time, buy the kids supplies, outfit the place, and run it for its first year. All together now...

"Hey lady!! You rule!"

We all trooped around to her place for Bangladeshi curry the other night. It was bloody good. She insisted we eat with our hands. It was super fun. We are currently collecting drums, cymbals, triangles (quite simply the dopiest "instrument" e'er there were, apart from the accursed Theremin) and the like so they can have music classes. Fun.

Righto.

Take care.
Mucho love
Berin

boithday..

...and so it is that my neice Maite celebrates her boithday in sunny Chile. Cumpleano Feliz, as they say, Cumpleano Feliz.
Other than that its a plain old Monday morning. The accursed Japanese false spring made an appearance on Saturday, with quite the mild weather, only for it to be snowing on Sunday and O degrees in our lounge this morning. (Thats pretty cold folks).
And thats it.
Done.
Clear.
Fini.
Yaaar.
Berin

it's my party...

...just wandering around the internet a little and quite how I stumbled upon it never you mind BUT...
As it happens, my birthday, heretofore memorable (apart from me of course) only for it being Womas Sufferage Day in NZ (an important milestone to be sure and one of which we should be proud but a little naff to share a birthday with)...

...is also...

...officially....

...International Talk Like A Pirate Day!!...(yaaaaaaar Cap'n, a moity feast will he had, yarr).

Thats cool. Thats really cool.

It is also all I have to say.

Out.

(me hearties)

Berin

Gordon Gecko says "Greed...is Good....Greed...works..."

Never eat anything bigger than your head...unless its roasted or fried...

crikey...

...it snowed well over half a foot last night and it seemed to snow about another half foot just on me while walking to work. It's right perty.
tata.

golly...

...the person who puts the coffee on in the afternoons has decided that perhaps heart palpitations are good for the soul and therefore, in order for us to be saved, has settled on a calculation of one part coffee to one part water. Zangy. Zingity Zangy. Cripes.

So it's been a while. Yep. Tough.

I'm back now with a rivetting (?) if a little jittery, synopsis of our Christmas break. First off you were all, in your own way, missed during the our time in the Xmas zone. In particular Richard "let's-just-bloody-well-fry-it" Archbold, my partner in gluttony for a long, long, long, long* time now was sorely missed... (CAUTION: Links contain images of Deep Fried, Beer Battered Pie - waitingingodo accepts no responsibility for sudden drooling, daydreaming, jealousy, idolisation or weight gain)

...in particular when we pushed not only the envelope, but the entire Deluxe-"Fatty-McPatty"-Stationary-Letter-Writing-Set-with-Bonus-Ivory-Handled Letter-Opener with the one, the only, 2005 edition TURDUCKEN.

Say it with me people..."TUR-DUCK-EN".

For the uninitiated the TUR-DUCK-EN involves:

One (1) x boneless Chicken
One (1) x boneless Duck
One (1) x semi boneless Turkey (just the wings and legs are left on for that authentic "Viking Feast" feel)

So...The Chicken is stuffed with a Pork and Rice stuffing and placed ever so delicately INSIDE the Duck, which is placed, along with more stuffing INSIDE the Turkey...Thats right folks 3 boids in one, 16 pounds (over 7 boneless kilos) of juicy, juicy roasted heart attack. Cooked to perfection in just 5 short hours. YUMMO!!!

It was bloody good. And ordered off Amazon. As it turns out the internet rules.

In addition to out and out gluttony it was a swell time. The temperature got down to about -20 a few times, there were trips to Boston, some snowboarding, plenty of red wine consumed and much, much clutching of the bellies and moaning. Not a lot of snow this time, thankfully the ski-field had employed some idiots to run around at night in -30 degree temperatures and make the damn stuff and grateful we were to them. Catch ups were had with long separated family members and it was just plain bloody good fun.

Coming home was an epic plane-plane-train-train-train-stroll combo that saw us walk in the door 26 hours after leaving New Hampshire but we had the next day off so we lay around and pointed at people walking to work. All in all a grand time had by all.

Since then we have had a couple of snowfalls here in town and I have been on a work fun-weekend-trip-to-Kobe. We pay 5000 yen a month into a shindig fund and that pays for knees-up-hoolie-bashes a few times a year, a trip to a baseball game and a weekend away with everyone. Quite a unique experience I guess. A weekend away with all of your workmates, a chance to let down any social barriers and go nutso.

It was swell.

Off on Saturday morning on the Bullet train, check in to the hotel, off for a boozy lunch, a stroll around some of the sights, a cruise on the harbour (note to self - cruise THEN boozy lunch next time), a walloping great feed in Chinatown, a 3 hour all you can drink fiesta at a swanky hotel bar, an ill advised trip to a sake bar after that, then a stagger back to our not so swanky hotel at god knows what hour in the morning. Grand.

A word in your ear though old chums. When drinking sake in the wee hours you must remember that a trip to a sake brewery the next morning is NOT a good idea. In any way. At all. No matter how wonderful a plan it sounds, its really is full of holes. Just say No. Nancy Reagan did, and so can you.

So we are back at work. Which is fun. And things are looking good for the 2005. I hope they are for all and sundry also.

Tooroo.

berin.


* (You-Must-Be-This-High-To-Ride-The-Deep-Fried-Pie Pics courtesy of Annabel - if I have broken a web taboo by linking to these let me know and I will disappoint EVERYBODY and take them down).

oh look, it's really, it's been too long...

hi.
hows 2005 going? it's coming along right nice from this end. a little cold, we had snow a few times last week, but none of it stuck around (boo) and for the moment it has decided to simply be cold and clear. (yay).

i'll do a proper update soon.

wait yer patience.

berin.