Category: uncategorized

Last week felt like a long one, and the weekend wasn't long enough to compensate for it. Katy felt it more than I did because she had to go into relationship counseling mode for Donna and Will and Jules and Sarah. She should start charging for it. There was work drama on top of the relationship drama (thankfully neither involving her directly). Still, she got caught up in the middle of it trying to make things better for other people. In the end, it left her wrung out.

Stephane arrived on thursday. He's crashing at ours until he gets his flat situation sorted out. We think he's going to like living in the UK, even though his waistline is going to take a serious beating. I know, I've had the same thing happen to me for the same reasons: it's so much easier to find safe foods to eat that you kinda sorta go mad at first. Stephane left Tescos with half a dozen little boxes of goodies that are so good but so bad :)

I'm starting to get things ready for my trip to Tokyo on wednesday. I need to pack and make some flight-friendly food. I also need to get some directions sorted out on how to get from Narita airport to my hotel, but that should be fairly easy to do.

I've booked the services of a volunteer guide organization to show me around town on the 8th to the 10th. It's a service that's coordinated by the Tourism Office of Japan. They're called goodwill guides, and are mostly housewives and students that take gaijin tourists around the major cities. They don't charge anything beyond the price of admissions to the places they're taking you and travel fare for the guides (and a meal if you're having one). Cheap at twice the price for the peace of mind of having a native that speaks the language :)

I'm looking forward to being there (though the 12 hour flight is going to be a pain) but at the same time, I'm a bit distraught at leaving the girl for 10 days. Le poo. I'll just have to take her with me next time I go there.

Things are finally settling down on the home front. We've opened the cat flap so that the large grumpy beast we call a cat can go out and do cat-like things (usually involving getting rained on and walking back into the house with muddy paws). The little toxic waste we call a kitten is settling in. She's still farting, but at least they're starting to not smell as bad. She's taken to sleeping on the bed with us at night. She's an attention whore, but a cute one so it's all good.

I went to see the Terracotta Army exhibition at the British Museum last Sunday evening. It was a very interesting outing. I knew that the first Emperor of China had created over 7000 clay soldiers, but I didn't know he'd also included city administrators, acrobats, strong men, horses and carriages. Apparently, there are hypotheses that say that the central burial mound, which remains unopened, contains a recreation of the landscape of China (with a pearl-encrusted sky and mercury rivers). Toxic, but sweet!

We're going to do a bit of home reorganization this weekend. We've sold the large blue Ikea sofabed and we're going to move the office into the guest bedroom. We're also going to go visit some flats for sbourge. He's under the optimistic impression that he can rent a flat in less than a week so we're going to do some of the leg work for him while he's playing in Montreal.

I've started looking into things to do and places to see for when I visit Tokyo in February. It promises to be an interesting trip. I only wish that Katy could come with me :( On the other hand, it gives us a reason to go together at some later date :)

Next weekend sees us in Londondinium. Still need to book the hotel for that…