And I'm Spent...

Just finished booking the last of the hire cars, hotel rooms, and flights for our trip. When you take five people, the numbers add up to a scary amount.

Gulp.

Oh well, I guess this is the last time we're going to be able to do this for a while, so it's worth it. Going to fit a lot in, too!

And most importantly, I'm going to get to eat Christmas dinner. Hopefully more than once :)

It's a holiday... so let's celebrate...

Apparently today is "be thankful to workers day" so we all have the day off ;)

For a country that is so serious about work, Japan has a surprising amount of public holidays (one or two a month, for a total of about twenty a year). Of course, to balance this, everyone gets ten days paid leave a year if they are lucky、and if they are REALLY lucky they actually get to use some of them...

It's a nice day today though, so I'll stop with the bitching ;)

Cold... So Damn Cold

Okay, it's been a while (again!). Apologies.

It is now getting towards real winter, and real cold. Every year I forget just how cold it gets here (with the lack of central heating and insulation) and every year I am unpleasantly surprised...

In other news the trip back to the UK is looming, and things are afoot in terms of promoting Cambridge English and enjoying the success we so richly deserve!

I'll keep you posted.

Eventually.

Halloween

Halloween is over. At last...

Sore

Is it normal to have your 11 year old stepdaughter whaling on your leg? And for your wife to get all competitive with her, trying to be the one kicking you hardest?

'Cause that's what happened about ten minutes ago. I'm not sure I'm going to be able to walk tomorrow ;)

On a seasonal note we had a Halloween party at one of our classrooms yesterday. The best costume was a kid called Nobu who came in a Nixon full face mask and spent the whole time shouting: "my name Bush".

It was great.

Lilliput

I walked into a doorframe today hard enough to draw blood.

In my own house!

Gadgets

Been shopping for office gadgets. This motivated me to clean the office up. Sections of desk and floor that haven't seen daylight for fifteen months are blinking in the sunshine, and the cat is striding around on top of the desk looking puzzled.

Of course things aren't spotless, but it's a pretty good start (and we now have a fax machine).