..fabulous weekend..

burst - shellyan orphan

Last weekend was the surprise birthday weekend for Martine (who's real birthday is today - HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!)
The weather was fine, the people fantastic, the beer cold, the sand warm and the smiles beaming.
Couldn't have asked for a better weekend.

Well, it might have been a bit better if i had remembered to take my camera, but hey - can't have everything, can you?
Instead, you have some random shots from my keitai. Sure Martine or Sandi will have better photos anyway...

Weird....

You Are 80% Weird

You're more than quirky, you're downright strange. But you're also strangely compelling, like a cult leader.

How Weird Are You?

'people are strange' - the doors

OK, so i'm weird. But that's not a bad thing, is it?

But it's not as weird of some of the other things i've seen/heard this week...

England haven't qualified for Euro 2008.

Admittedly, that isn't even that weird. And i have to confess that i am not even that suprised.

But it is disgraceful. To not even qualify? All i can do is just shake my head & wait for the 2010 word cup...

Guess I'll have to support Germany instead...

Brad Pitt + Softbank + Iggy Pop

Tries to find it on the web, but couldn't...so let me explain for those of you who haven't seen it.

For the past few months Brad has joined the ranks of 'I'm a really rich famous person, but i ant to make even MORE hard cash by making hceesy adverts in Japan'.

In all fairness, Brad actually joined this group 5+ years ago when he was advertising canned coffee (Roots, i think it was)

This year, he's upped the stakes & become (along with Cameron Diaz) the foreign face for mobile phone company Softbank (formally known as Vodafone). Now, i really don't mind watching Brad on TV. IN fact, the more Brad the better.

The part i am not so sure about is using Iggy Pop's 'The Passenger' as the music in the commercial. I love that song.

But does it match Brad wandering through foreign streets crowded with lots of pretty foreign children dressed in white while he talks on his mobile phone?

I think not.

But hey, maybe that's why i am not in marketing...

101 Posts

This is my 101st post! I've been blogging for just over 2 years. Wow. Where did the time go?

Meeting Bloggers

Met Sarah of Sigsy in Tokyo last week at Martine's photo exhibition at Araku.

Beautiful photos btw - much better seen in large print than on Flickr or slides. Wonderful colours & emotions. Think they're going to be up for the nest few months, so please make your way over there & have a look...

ANYWAY - finally met Sarah. I have to confess that i had been stalking her blog for a while, but didn't feel it appropriate to comment, seeing as i didn't know her. But now it's all cool. Funny thing though - always thought she was southern. And she is *so *not. But she thought i wasn't even british, so i don't feel too bad about it ;)

And that's enough random-ness for one day.

Off to Shimoda tonight for Martine's suprise b'day bash. She's on the train down as i write...she has NO idea what's in store. It's going to be a great weekend....

I'm dreaming of (f-ing cold) white christmas...

'stop the cavalry' - jona lewie

To avoid the depressing thought of staying at home over xmas again, i decided a few months back to head up to sapporo & visit Courtney & her hubby (Aki) over the holidays.
Thought a white, snowy drunken xmas with friends was WAY preferable & less depressing than waking up on my own alone.

Since then, k & me have launched ourselves into cheesedom; but he'd already planned to go to vietnam for the hols.
(am i jealous? oh no, not me...who needs hot sunny beaches when you have beautiful snow & beer & ....erm....yeah....well....)

But anyway...

Yesterday i was trying to sort out tickets, when i discovered that i actually had enough mileage to fly to sapporo for free!!! Yeah!
So i don't even have to pay for the privilege of freezing my arse off.
I am looking forward to it though - Sapporo is a beautiful city, Courtney's lovely fun friend. And we're planning to do lots of christmassy things - eat turkey, open pressies, drink sparkly, watch the snow, have huge family arguments (or is that just my family?!) and so on...
AND as an added bonus, Mooney's playing in Sapporo while i am there!

Yeah, it's going to be a good trip.

But in the meantime, i am going to piss everyone off around me by playing/humming christmas tunes everyday....so let the bells ring out for CHRISTmas...

The X Dilemma

sebastian tellier - 'la ritournelle'

I want to write about a dilemma that i was having, which resolved itself in an unexpected way...

Since x-boy and i broke up, just over 2 years ago, we've managed to maintain a kind of friendship. despite our relationship, at the time, being severely flawed & definitely unhealthy, we did (and still do) care for each other.
So, since the break up, we have kept in touch by email & met up for lunch once or twice a year.

But i digress...

As I've kind of mentioned in previous posts, k & i got together just over a month ago & have been blissfully floating around in cheeseland. And, yeah, it is real.

So, this led to my dilemma. What is the ex-etiquette?
If you are on friendly terms with your ex, should you tell them about your new love? Or do you just ignore it & hope that something works out naturally?
I really wasn't sure which was the best approach, so i did nothing (which is i guess is the 2nd approach...but hey...)

And then technology stepped in.
I'm a facebooker. I've been updating my status. Friends have been adding photos of K & me.
I conveniently forgot that X-Boy is one of my FB friends...

So, yeah, he got all the updates & saw all the photos...

Then emailed me.

But it was all cool. He wished me well & said that K looked like a good guy (he is) & that we made a good cute couple...which for some reason made me feel safe & happy.

So, by avoiding the issue, i inadvertently confronted it head-on.

But now i am curious, how have other people dealt with friendly exes? And how have friendly exes reacted? Would love to hear your experiences...

where did it all go?!

'riders on the storm' - the doors

Where on earth did the year go? It's already November! Next month will bring an end to 2007. What happened? How did things slip by so quickly?

Guess i've just been having too much of a fun time this year...



Talking of fun times, let me twell you about the last week...

Last Friday, I met up with J-Dad & the usual crowd at BC (where else??) Introduced J-Dad to K & I think they bonded (well, a lot of Jaegermeister was drunk...)

Have to be honest & confess that i don't remember much after 11pm. Think I went to sleep & K decided it was time to take me home....see, he's a good boy.



Then Saturday was Sandi & Jeff's Halloween Party.

K & I were going to dress up, but the evil typhoon scuppered any plans of actually leaving home to go shopping. It was an evil windy day & definitely a day to avoid going shopping. I know i should have had more foresight & bought my outfit earlier, but i am crap (Sorry, Sandi...)Anyway, despite us not being dressed up, the party was great.

It's all a bit of a blur, but i remember pumpkins, devils, a mad panda and a wandering horses's head.

Also remember an 80s disco and dancing demons - must have been a good night.



For photographic evidence, go have a look at Martine's and Sandi's blogs. Not sure how they managed to make us look beautiful when we were all unable to speak coherently - or stand up in some cases...


And for the curious among you, the boy to am attached to in most of the photos is my lovely K.


Also had a surpise Halloween evening on 31st too.
I am teaching a course down in Shizuoka this week at one of our customer's training centres (big car compnay beginning with 'T'...)
Lovely centre, with views of lake Hamanaka (if it's not overcast & cloudy like today...)
Anyway, at dinner, one of the staff came out of the kitchen with a big halloween hat on and a basket of sweets then came round and gave us all some. Bear mind that all the students are adults (engineers, accountants, designers...) and so are the staff & instructors. It was just a really lovely thing to do and once the guy had gone round everyone (about 40 or so of us) everyone burst out into a round of applause.

It was just a lovely moment and brought a big smile to the end of my day.