It's the end of the summer as far as I can tell...

Hey kids

Once again almost a month has gone by without me getting round to updating this beast. It is hot again (we had a weird summer that was hot at the beginning, cool in the middle, and is now trying to be hot again for the last few days) and there is not all that much to do right now.

Well, there is lots of stuff that has to be done fairly soon, but this office is a terrible place to try to concentrate, especially on stuff that could be done next week instead.

I'm taking tomorrow off and going for a drive with Chiho to celebrate my birthday. Feels weird having another birthday, I had pretty much forgotten about it until Chiho brought it up. Strange how something that was so important and exciting before can become so commonplace and unimportant!

So, the next time I do this I will be 29 :)

Hot hot hot

Okay, I give up. We have the air-conditioning on in the living room now, and I'm heading for my fourth shower of the day. Ugh.

Why hello there!

Okay, so it's been a while. Allright, it's been more than a while. In my defence, I have been busy recently.

The university classes effectively killed two of my days off (Monday and Sunday -for the classes themselves and preparation respectively) and then to put the icing on the cake I also got a corporate class on Monday evenings.

So the teaching has been taking over my life somewhat.

In other news, it is HOT in Sendai at the moment. Summer started three days ago, but it seems like it is trying to make up for lost time. Strangely it doesn't seem to bother me as much as it has in the past, and I am trying for a no air-conditioning policy at home (you adjust to the weather quicker if you are exposed to it).

Have the weekend off next week so very much looking forward to that. Wooh!

JALT madness and cat sadness

Just got back from the overnight JALT retreat. A good time, and got a couple of ideas for classes.

Tiddles got jumped by the psycho cat about an hour ago, and got her leg messed up. I took her to the emergency vet who gave her a shot and said she'd be okay with rest.

Got to figure out how to catch the psycho cat. I figure she's injured Tiddles and Meekay about a dozen times, three of them serious enough to require a trip to the vet. Damn stray has cost me almost 20,000 yen!

I have this vision of a big box trap, with food inside and a spring-loaded door. I'll see what I can knock up this week... keep you posted.

Hello! Chickens

Long time no see. How are you doing? Keeping well? Good, good.

I have been BUSY. Got a new job, "educating" university students. It's great.

They're just like senior high school students, except that they listen to you, do their homework, and follow instructions. Fantastic.

However, it does take up most of my former free time. Call it an investment ;)

More pain

Going to the gym, the pain never stops! Onto the second round of workouts, and my arms and shoulders are a mass of aching flesh. If I wasn`t so high on endorphins I don`t know if I could keep this up ;)

Played poker with Adam and Matt today. Good times. Yuki was also getting into it, and she came third by a whisker.

University planning meeting tomorrow. A new thing to worry about. The seminar went pretty well on Friday, by the way.

Seizing up

My new weights routine is killing me: one step at a time. I now have three distinct workouts, and starting each one is basically unleashing a fresh round of pain on me. Only one more to debut, then I can work on getting used to them ;)

This seminar on Friday is starting to worry me. I normally have a much better idea of how the thing is going to go by this stage...

It was snowing again today. Snowing.

New site, new music, new life

Hey kids

Found some cool stuff: website called youtube.com, hip hop artist called Immortal Technique, and more happiness about where I work.

We had the leaving party today and it was pretty cool for once: managed to talk to a few people and had a good time. Maybe next year will be a good one...

Lots of work tomorrow, so have to drink my water and process the alchohol ;)

Jedi cat

Jedi cat, originally uploaded by sendaiben.

The felon herself (claws retracted at this point, she`s in stealth mode).

Death Cat

I just got jumped by Tiddles. After suffering numerous claw wounds to the forearm, I am now quietly reacting allergically. Ow.

In other news, it looks like CEC may not be heading for the fifty students we were hoping for... Despite our advertising efforts, we have so far only got one new student (and even she`s not fully signed up yet). This business lark is harder than I suspected!

Ben out.

Sushi and strawberry cream cake

It was Yuki`s birthday today, so we went out for sushi and came back for cake.

The bummer is that it has started raining again :(

Ooops

I just left my Japanese homework at work (I`m at home now). My class starts in just under two hours...

All fine and dandy, except that it is freezing outside and I haven`t actually done the homework yet. So even if I went and got it I wouldn`t be able to finish it in time.

Dammit.

Back

Okay, I`m back. Although from the temperature outside, you`d never know any time had passed. It`s around 2 degrees Celcius today, with a biting
wind.

Today is "cut 10% from the budget" day at work. I overheard my supervisor joking to another member of staff about how they were going to have to cut my salary (he was joking apparently). That kind of joke I can probably do without.

Especially as I don`t have a contract for next year yet.

On a brighter note, this may make it easier for me to get this job
reduced to three days a week. Fingers crossed!

Happy New Year!

Greetings, my non-existent readers! I know it`s a bit late to be doing the HNY stuff, but I figured I would try to get it in before Feb. Hope things are going well for you.

Here everything is much of a muchness, the Mid-year Conference is over and things are settling down a bit. Sendai is still really cold.

We got through 140 litres of kerosene last week. Wow.