My hope of meeting Emma this evening diminished with more rest, and finding her three missed calls on my charging phone made me feel guilt. I really want to be better, but I evidently lack the ability to fight off this illness, and it seems the stomach pain is getting less frequent, but worse.
Anyway, I have a joyous announcement. I have started a new blog, on this very server!
It's the top link in my ever expanding link sidebar, and it's the creation for everyone who's ever seen my blog and wet their trousers at the sheer enormousness of its wordiness. It's quasiblog - just the facts, and its a cut down back to basics form of my blog, with pasted extracts and the best parts which you might not have time for. Some may say, "Why bother? I don't read your blog anyway.". But then they'd have to be psychic to know about it this, and I'd rather encourage them to solve crimes than read weblogs.
But seriously? Why bother? Because it's a fun idea and took less then ten minutes to implement. No new news, and no improvement on the condition since this morning. I'll let you know tomorrow if something's happened.
If you like or dislike a post, comment on it with the comment links. If you feel that the post doesn't deserve to be in the blog at all, click its comment link next to it; while the post will not be removed from the blog immediately, it will be resubmitted for review, and it is possible that it will be removed.
Monday, 15 August 2005
Resolution
Well, for any of you who have been following the saga between Jenny and myself, you'll be pleased (or unhappy) to know it came crashing to a conclusion a few minutes ago. If you aren't familiar with it, the story started at this entry and continued in this post, and then made an appearance in a post in Erin's Blog, before coming to a screeching hiatus here.
Anyway, it concluded via MSN, and short of pasting the long transcript here, I'll leave you with the conlucsion of the issue, edited extremely slightly for context reasons.
Quasi says:
But my admission of oversight error, does it somehow enable you to warn people about my absolute 'incapablity' and 'rudeness' of arriving unannounced at their houses?
EuGéniA says:
but probably i shouldn't have done that......
EuGéniA says:
I know....
EuGéniA says:
yeah ripton
EuGéniA says:
hehehehe i always got your point.
Quasi says:
I'm glad that's in the open.
EuGéniA says:
but i never wanted to admit it...
EuGéniA says:
but yeah
EuGéniA says:
i am sorry.....
EuGéniA says:
stupid i am sorry ok?
Quasi says:
So why did you then go and make eleven entries insulting me on my blog?
EuGéniA says:
HEHEHEHEHE
EuGéniA says:
i just wanted to piss u off
EuGéniA says:
at that time, i just wanted to piss u off
Anyway, now that's over, I'm probably going to go and take some more medication. My headache is returning. I hope I'm well enough to see Emma this evening.
Anyway, it concluded via MSN, and short of pasting the long transcript here, I'll leave you with the conlucsion of the issue, edited extremely slightly for context reasons.
Quasi says:
But my admission of oversight error, does it somehow enable you to warn people about my absolute 'incapablity' and 'rudeness' of arriving unannounced at their houses?
EuGéniA says:
but probably i shouldn't have done that......
EuGéniA says:
I know....
EuGéniA says:
yeah ripton
EuGéniA says:
hehehehe i always got your point.
Quasi says:
I'm glad that's in the open.
EuGéniA says:
but i never wanted to admit it...
EuGéniA says:
but yeah
EuGéniA says:
i am sorry.....
EuGéniA says:
stupid i am sorry ok?
Quasi says:
So why did you then go and make eleven entries insulting me on my blog?
EuGéniA says:
HEHEHEHEHE
EuGéniA says:
i just wanted to piss u off
EuGéniA says:
at that time, i just wanted to piss u off
Anyway, now that's over, I'm probably going to go and take some more medication. My headache is returning. I hope I'm well enough to see Emma this evening.
Day Off
Yesterday was the first time I didn't post in ages, and I realise that isn't like me unless I can't get to a computer. Well, yesterday, and for today so far, I have been horribly ill, so I couldn't get to a computer.
I won't go into details or I'll have to start putting up disclaimers, but it hasn't been pretty, and yesterday I was mostly confined to the house, apart from a short time at Tesco's getting some food, seeing as food is necessary for life and all. Today I'm feeling a bit better, but it comes and goes and I don't like it. It reminds me of when I had a Cryptosporadic Infection, which is a notifyable disease (the other notifyable diseases include Bubonic Plague and Anthrax). So apart from the films I watched and the colours we mused over for the bathroom, I haven't done much. I spoke to my sister about her new phone, which she's taking back, and I sorted some work with my mother, and I changed my template back (I did like the Japan one, but I'm not in Japan anymore).
But yeah, I've done nothing since. This is quite a short entry, just made because it's been too long. This entry also allows me to clear up some things that I didn't want to deal with in Japan because I was enjoying it all too much, so some loose ends can be properly tied up, or at least less frayed.
I haven't seen people about yet, and Kaori and Katou and Hosei aren't back from Iceland for a few days, so I will be looking for people around if I'm not sick tomorrow. I hope everyone is well, I have missed you all much, but it won't be long now. Keep rocking, and keep commenting, I'm back in this dull country, and I have to deal with it and its horrible inhabitants (I heard about the racism suffered by some of my friends' families due to the bombings, which includes being badly beaten, because they are Indian). So I guess for the next few years I have to suffer the awful people this country is breeding, but then again, enjoy some of the joys it offers (usually from abroad). I'm rambling, I'll speak to you all soon.
Jenny:
Cram it.
I won't go into details or I'll have to start putting up disclaimers, but it hasn't been pretty, and yesterday I was mostly confined to the house, apart from a short time at Tesco's getting some food, seeing as food is necessary for life and all. Today I'm feeling a bit better, but it comes and goes and I don't like it. It reminds me of when I had a Cryptosporadic Infection, which is a notifyable disease (the other notifyable diseases include Bubonic Plague and Anthrax). So apart from the films I watched and the colours we mused over for the bathroom, I haven't done much. I spoke to my sister about her new phone, which she's taking back, and I sorted some work with my mother, and I changed my template back (I did like the Japan one, but I'm not in Japan anymore).
But yeah, I've done nothing since. This is quite a short entry, just made because it's been too long. This entry also allows me to clear up some things that I didn't want to deal with in Japan because I was enjoying it all too much, so some loose ends can be properly tied up, or at least less frayed.
I haven't seen people about yet, and Kaori and Katou and Hosei aren't back from Iceland for a few days, so I will be looking for people around if I'm not sick tomorrow. I hope everyone is well, I have missed you all much, but it won't be long now. Keep rocking, and keep commenting, I'm back in this dull country, and I have to deal with it and its horrible inhabitants (I heard about the racism suffered by some of my friends' families due to the bombings, which includes being badly beaten, because they are Indian). So I guess for the next few years I have to suffer the awful people this country is breeding, but then again, enjoy some of the joys it offers (usually from abroad). I'm rambling, I'll speak to you all soon.
Jenny:
Cram it.
Saturday, 13 August 2005
Getting Used to London
I got to sleep at around midnight last night, which left me eight hours sleep, but that wasn't really enough to combat the jet lag, but I wasn't late in getting up or getting to Victoria to meet Mi Jeung. In fact, I was early, but confusion over which McDonald's we were meeting at and where to find each other meant I had to wait for her to call me, and then from there it was ok. We made our way to Waterloo from Victoria by tube, and from there, walked to the Tate Modern. It's an amazing building, and we wandered the experimental architecture area and the Real Life floor for hours. The beauty of it was that she actually knows about art, and as it turns out we both studied Julian Opie, and we could talk about art with much less of an explaining tone, and I appreciated that. She studies furniture design, so she took notes and made sketches of form and design, and we had a great time wandering the huge gallery, despite the fact that I was feeling very ill for some of the time. We walked across the Millennium Bridge and bought some food at Marks and Spencer, before realising that at that time, we were both exhausted. Jet lag hit hard.
So I took her as far as I could towards her station, and we arranged loosely plans for the next few days, but nothing solid. I waved goodbye to her as my train left Clapham Junction, and went to the station, where, as I was phoning Dan to ask to meet him, I spotted an old friend who I hadn't seen for about a year. It was Andy, who I worked with at the Entertainer for 6 months, and it was really weird, because aside from a little facial hair growth, he hasn't changed much. Apparently he's designing shoes now, so it's going well for him. I thought he'd changed his number, but it turns out he'd just lost his phone for a while when I tried to contact him. We chatted for a bit, and he kept saying how much weight I'd lost. I realised that he wasn't a friend I wanted to lose contact with, so I'll give him a call sometime and we'll meet up. He hasn't seen my TV yet, so I can show him sometime.
I met with Dan, and we grabbed some food from Tesco's and we chatted for ages about Japan. I don't have many stories about it, but I always have something to say about it. When Dan and Andrew started playing Brian Lara Cricket on the XBox, I just fell asleep for an hour and a half. I'd taken some of Andrew's painkillers because my head had really been thumping, and I feel better now, but I have to sleep. I think another night of rest will get me working better, or at least I hope so.
Not much news, just plenty of desire to sleep and rest and be back to normal from Japanese time.
So I took her as far as I could towards her station, and we arranged loosely plans for the next few days, but nothing solid. I waved goodbye to her as my train left Clapham Junction, and went to the station, where, as I was phoning Dan to ask to meet him, I spotted an old friend who I hadn't seen for about a year. It was Andy, who I worked with at the Entertainer for 6 months, and it was really weird, because aside from a little facial hair growth, he hasn't changed much. Apparently he's designing shoes now, so it's going well for him. I thought he'd changed his number, but it turns out he'd just lost his phone for a while when I tried to contact him. We chatted for a bit, and he kept saying how much weight I'd lost. I realised that he wasn't a friend I wanted to lose contact with, so I'll give him a call sometime and we'll meet up. He hasn't seen my TV yet, so I can show him sometime.
I met with Dan, and we grabbed some food from Tesco's and we chatted for ages about Japan. I don't have many stories about it, but I always have something to say about it. When Dan and Andrew started playing Brian Lara Cricket on the XBox, I just fell asleep for an hour and a half. I'd taken some of Andrew's painkillers because my head had really been thumping, and I feel better now, but I have to sleep. I think another night of rest will get me working better, or at least I hope so.
Not much news, just plenty of desire to sleep and rest and be back to normal from Japanese time.
Friday, 12 August 2005
Igirisu, Igirisu Desu
Final Destination: London.
Status: Arrived.
Mood: Happy.
Yeah, I'm back in England, and I already made the mistake of trying to push Shift + 7 in order to get an apostrophe. That'll be a habit that will take a while to shake. Prepare for many "I&ll"s and "he&d"s. But I came back today. But before I get to all of this, I'm going to talk about what happened after the last entry at the Mac store, which feels like last night, but was actually about 40 hours ago.
As I left the store, Emma had made friends with new people, though they'd gone by the time I came out. She thought the air conditioning was too high, so she uttered the immortal words "I'll go wait outside in the hot". It put her in a friend making mood, so as we wandered looking for dancing places, a group of gaijin asked us places to drink. We gave them a direction, and they went it, but we soon bumped into them again as somehow we both made a circle. We chatted with them for a while. The main dude was Canadian, and the main girl was from Nottingham, and it was strange to hear a different English accent at long last. We led them in the direction of Pure, as it seemed alcohol was taking their fancy that night.
Emma and I decided to spend the last minutes before returning to sleep/England just waving to people on the bridge, seeing who we can get to respond. We should have played it long ago, it was great! We got some smiles, some waves, and eventually one guy came up to me and told me he loved me. Bizarre. But after he'd moved on, more people came. Some shook our hands, it was amazing. The Love dude came back, shook hands, and with his friend, clearly drunk, we chatted. His friend, dressed in a striking green top, spoke to me. He didn't have enough consciousness to speak in English, so he spoke very fast in Japanese, in an accent I later found out to be from Gifu, where they use strange, different words for complicated sentence parts, like... pronouns. But I managed to see past the fact that he called himself a house and we talked about the American dream and how it applied to Japan. He then found it fun to take me arm in arm with him to find girls. He'd break out a new cigarette each time he came to a group, and asked for a light. The second group he came to, as it turned out, were tourists from Shikoku, and the one girl was so excited to be near a gaijin that she started chanting it and jumping around. I told her I was German, and didn't speak English, but as it turned out, she didn't speak English anyway, so I told her I was actually English. We went to a quiet and atmospheric little bar. Our group (consisting of me, Emma, the two drunk male friends and the three accosted females), was the only patronage there. It could pretty much only fit us anyway. The reason I was happy about it was that I held a conversation with her (the excited-over-the-gaijin girl), entirely in Japanese, for hours. Occasionally we needed translating help, but we spoke fine. She is a Kimono teacher, and said that when I return, she'll teach me how to wear one. She also insisted on giving me a gift of a tiny fan and facial grease removing wipes, which I tried to refuse, but ended up being charmed by the eccentricity of it all.
After the bar closed, we found we were too poor for karaoke, so we had to part ways, but not without phone numbers and emails. I ended up completely satisfied with my trip, as it was another perfect end to an evening, with fun, with confidence building language training, with weirdness, and with another example of how Japan is just nice without good reason to be.
I slept well. Albeit for about four hours. We approached bed at about three and woke at seven. Well, I woke at seven, Emma was showering at six thirty and getting ready to leave. Due to myself not being energetically motivated, I slumbered out of the door packed at eight, the time we were meant to be at the airport. The train left at 8:18 for the airport, and took about 50 minutes, meaning we were over an hour late for check in. Not that it mattered, as KLM had overbooked our flight by 150 seats. It seems KLM are eager to take bookings and money but not actually have the flights to back it up. But unlike in Amsterdam, they were very apologetic, and pretty much upgraded us to a direct flight that left two hours later and arrived over an hour earlier. We were put on a Japan Airlines flight, and we had time for a final teriyaki burger, and time to cart around the extra hand-luggage that I had to carry due to Stuart's extra clothes. But at 11:50, we boarded the plane, and I had huge problems, as someone was sitting in my seat, so I made my way to the back and put my luggage in an overhead at the back, and the seat they found for me was booked and oh it was a mess. After a short wait, they went and moved the person in my seat one along, and the person in their new seat to the back. I ended up sitting next to the person who was in my seat, who, as soon as I saw her writing, I knew was Korean. She seemed shy, and we didn't speak much for most of the flight, apart from occasionally sharing sweets and gum. I decided that I might as well be friendly to someone coming to London, so I asked her about her trip. I wasn't quite expecting that she would be quite so friendly. It seemed she was shy of her language skills, as she didn't speak much English, and everyone spoke to her in Japanese. We spoke for pretty much the rest of the flight. Emma joined us briefly and chatted, and we discussed what to do in London, and pretty much there and then decided we'd spend it together.
She came back to my house with my family, which with the unexpected appearance of my mother, made it quite a squeeze in the car back home. After I hugged Becky hello and did the usual brief and rushed formalities, I drove Emma and Mi Juang to our actual house, and she seemed to love just looking at England and the weird things all around. I drove her to the station to get to Victoria, gave her directions for Clapham Junction and changing, and arranged to go around art galleries tomorrow.
I'm really enjoying friendliness and new found friends at almost every corner. I'm scared of the soon to be overflowing Inbox, seeing as how many times I have given out my address, and how many photos need to be sent to me.
I'm feeling good, I'm happy about this holiday, it was perfect. And taking one look at England, I want to go back to Osaka. I missed everyone, but I seriously feel like Osaka is more suited to me, it's just a nicer city. The vending machines are cheaper, and the ticket machines work, and it's cleaner, and there are so many fewer thugs in Japan. I'm worried about Mi Juang's safety, as she's just come from the world's safest country to London on her own for a tour. I felt so safe in Japan, it felt right. Well, only a couple of years. For now, I have a comfy chair and internet, and I'm really happy with the last month. All is well.
Status: Arrived.
Mood: Happy.
Yeah, I'm back in England, and I already made the mistake of trying to push Shift + 7 in order to get an apostrophe. That'll be a habit that will take a while to shake. Prepare for many "I&ll"s and "he&d"s. But I came back today. But before I get to all of this, I'm going to talk about what happened after the last entry at the Mac store, which feels like last night, but was actually about 40 hours ago.
As I left the store, Emma had made friends with new people, though they'd gone by the time I came out. She thought the air conditioning was too high, so she uttered the immortal words "I'll go wait outside in the hot". It put her in a friend making mood, so as we wandered looking for dancing places, a group of gaijin asked us places to drink. We gave them a direction, and they went it, but we soon bumped into them again as somehow we both made a circle. We chatted with them for a while. The main dude was Canadian, and the main girl was from Nottingham, and it was strange to hear a different English accent at long last. We led them in the direction of Pure, as it seemed alcohol was taking their fancy that night.
Emma and I decided to spend the last minutes before returning to sleep/England just waving to people on the bridge, seeing who we can get to respond. We should have played it long ago, it was great! We got some smiles, some waves, and eventually one guy came up to me and told me he loved me. Bizarre. But after he'd moved on, more people came. Some shook our hands, it was amazing. The Love dude came back, shook hands, and with his friend, clearly drunk, we chatted. His friend, dressed in a striking green top, spoke to me. He didn't have enough consciousness to speak in English, so he spoke very fast in Japanese, in an accent I later found out to be from Gifu, where they use strange, different words for complicated sentence parts, like... pronouns. But I managed to see past the fact that he called himself a house and we talked about the American dream and how it applied to Japan. He then found it fun to take me arm in arm with him to find girls. He'd break out a new cigarette each time he came to a group, and asked for a light. The second group he came to, as it turned out, were tourists from Shikoku, and the one girl was so excited to be near a gaijin that she started chanting it and jumping around. I told her I was German, and didn't speak English, but as it turned out, she didn't speak English anyway, so I told her I was actually English. We went to a quiet and atmospheric little bar. Our group (consisting of me, Emma, the two drunk male friends and the three accosted females), was the only patronage there. It could pretty much only fit us anyway. The reason I was happy about it was that I held a conversation with her (the excited-over-the-gaijin girl), entirely in Japanese, for hours. Occasionally we needed translating help, but we spoke fine. She is a Kimono teacher, and said that when I return, she'll teach me how to wear one. She also insisted on giving me a gift of a tiny fan and facial grease removing wipes, which I tried to refuse, but ended up being charmed by the eccentricity of it all.
After the bar closed, we found we were too poor for karaoke, so we had to part ways, but not without phone numbers and emails. I ended up completely satisfied with my trip, as it was another perfect end to an evening, with fun, with confidence building language training, with weirdness, and with another example of how Japan is just nice without good reason to be.
I slept well. Albeit for about four hours. We approached bed at about three and woke at seven. Well, I woke at seven, Emma was showering at six thirty and getting ready to leave. Due to myself not being energetically motivated, I slumbered out of the door packed at eight, the time we were meant to be at the airport. The train left at 8:18 for the airport, and took about 50 minutes, meaning we were over an hour late for check in. Not that it mattered, as KLM had overbooked our flight by 150 seats. It seems KLM are eager to take bookings and money but not actually have the flights to back it up. But unlike in Amsterdam, they were very apologetic, and pretty much upgraded us to a direct flight that left two hours later and arrived over an hour earlier. We were put on a Japan Airlines flight, and we had time for a final teriyaki burger, and time to cart around the extra hand-luggage that I had to carry due to Stuart's extra clothes. But at 11:50, we boarded the plane, and I had huge problems, as someone was sitting in my seat, so I made my way to the back and put my luggage in an overhead at the back, and the seat they found for me was booked and oh it was a mess. After a short wait, they went and moved the person in my seat one along, and the person in their new seat to the back. I ended up sitting next to the person who was in my seat, who, as soon as I saw her writing, I knew was Korean. She seemed shy, and we didn't speak much for most of the flight, apart from occasionally sharing sweets and gum. I decided that I might as well be friendly to someone coming to London, so I asked her about her trip. I wasn't quite expecting that she would be quite so friendly. It seemed she was shy of her language skills, as she didn't speak much English, and everyone spoke to her in Japanese. We spoke for pretty much the rest of the flight. Emma joined us briefly and chatted, and we discussed what to do in London, and pretty much there and then decided we'd spend it together.
She came back to my house with my family, which with the unexpected appearance of my mother, made it quite a squeeze in the car back home. After I hugged Becky hello and did the usual brief and rushed formalities, I drove Emma and Mi Juang to our actual house, and she seemed to love just looking at England and the weird things all around. I drove her to the station to get to Victoria, gave her directions for Clapham Junction and changing, and arranged to go around art galleries tomorrow.
I'm really enjoying friendliness and new found friends at almost every corner. I'm scared of the soon to be overflowing Inbox, seeing as how many times I have given out my address, and how many photos need to be sent to me.
I'm feeling good, I'm happy about this holiday, it was perfect. And taking one look at England, I want to go back to Osaka. I missed everyone, but I seriously feel like Osaka is more suited to me, it's just a nicer city. The vending machines are cheaper, and the ticket machines work, and it's cleaner, and there are so many fewer thugs in Japan. I'm worried about Mi Juang's safety, as she's just come from the world's safest country to London on her own for a tour. I felt so safe in Japan, it felt right. Well, only a couple of years. For now, I have a comfy chair and internet, and I'm really happy with the last month. All is well.
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