Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

1. Hope you will have as much fun as I will!

December

1. December already! Time goes so quickly — this time last year I was celebrating getting this job, as well as planning an elaborate NYE party. Which was kick-ass, might I add. Wish I was back in Sydney for this year’s NYE, but then I think it might’ve been too expensive to top last year’s effort anyway.

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Alcohol and Amnesia

1. I swear to God I’ve been busy and this month just flew by, but I’ll be damned if I could remember what I’ve been spending my time on. I should keep a diary not to tell me what’s coming up, but what I’ve done in the last week. Maybe I fell and hit my head and now I have amnesia but don’t know it. Ironic.

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Seriously Silly String

1. From MSNBC:

STRATFORD, N.J. - In an age of multimillion-dollar high-tech weapons systems, sometimes it’s the simplest ideas that can save lives. Which is why a New Jersey mother is organizing a drive to send cans of Silly String to Iraq.

American troops use the stuff to detect trip wires around bombs, as Marcelle Shriver learned from her son, a soldier in Iraq.

2. That’s awesome!

Quiet times (or not…)

1. Time has flown; it’s almost Christmas, I’ve been in Japan for over 8 months, and lots and lots of other things have happened. I’ve been a bit quiet on this site, but I’ve been pretty busy elsewhere. Things are not likely to change for the rest of the year, so don’t expect to see too much more here for the rest of the year. Life is a little rocky at the moment, but all is well and I’ll try to update this as much as I can, soon. Oh, that’s gonna make a liar out of me….

I’ve been published!

1. Woooo! They like put my name on it and everything! This is an article I wrote about climbing Mt Fuji, based on what I wrote here on this blog. But different. Check it out!

Remembering one’s name, and future calamities

1. The strangest thing happened to me last week — I inexplicably remembered how to write my Chinese name. Out of the blue, all 50 something strokes of it came back to me. I can’t remember the last time I managed to write my full name in Chinese, must’ve been years. Now I’m practising like crazy, determined not to let it get away from me again.

2. I also have a secondary motivation to relearn my native language — I have recently met a very impressive Japanese woman who is not only bilingual, but she has a smattering of Cantonese as well. By comparison I would say I can speak a “sprinkling” of Cantonese. I just can’t stand people who are good with languages; especially when they are also fun to hang around with. *sigh*

3. The weather has really started to turn cold now, regularly dropping to low single digits at night. It has been raining a bit lately, and with the wind it’s getting very miserable out. I’ve had plenty of Brits and Canadians make fun of my inability to deal with cold weather (The bastards, I never made fun of them when it was hot…), but even they now concede that it is cold. I’ve had conflicting reports of how much snow to expect during January and February, but that doesn’t bother me so much as the fact that it snows at all. I’m kinda excited about living in a city that snows — since it’s been about 15 years since I’d seen snow — but even the thought wears off after a few minutes. Coming back from Indonesia into a white Hiroshima is going to be hell.

4. Speaking of which, I have finally paid for and received my tickets — rock! I’m am looking forward to this trip, dicing with death and all that. Really, it’s not that crazy to go climbing erupting volcanoes and all that, right? I mean, what’s the worst that could happen?

5. Uh-oh. Jinxed myself good now.