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.