Japan Photos

Ok, we've uploaded the first set of our photos from Japan. You can see them here. We're limited to 100MB per month, so we'll have to upload the other half in November :)

voiceless communicator?

Hi all,

I know, I know.. I still need to put up the Prague pictures and write a proper entry about that (it seems sooooo long ago now.. oops). I've been pretty busy lately because this week is the first Manchester Science Festival.

The Chemistry/MAGMANet contribution started on Monday (the festival started on Saturday and will run till Sunday, but we're only doing things during the work week). It was pretty hectic - my frames hadn't turned up (actually, they had but I wasn't told about it!), everything had to be transported across to the Manchester Museum, the lecturer for the evening was sick and hadn't come from France so my boss had to re-write the lecture (and learn it) in order to present it and things were generally a bit crazy (lots and lots of kids at the stall!). To top it all off, by the end of the day I was croaky - my voice was going.

Tuesday morning - no voice at all! Yes, I spent yesterday whispering and trying to explain magnets and magnetism without a voice. Not the easiest thing to do, but I made sure I stuck a "I've lost my voice" post-it to my nametag and people seemed to be responsive.

Last night I didn't sleep very well - lots of coughing. I'm afraid that the losing the voice was the start of a cold with very bad timing. I still can't really talk today, but I have regained SOME control of my voice (I can at least make some noise!). I think I'm going to have to whisper today too - and cross my fingers that tomorrow I have some semblance of voice by the end of the week.

Hope everyone else is good. I'll post photos when I've got time to put them up..

*big hugz* to all.

I need more japenese names

Can anyone give me more names to call a boy in my class who is very annoying.

West Side Comp & HAPPY BIRTHDAY Glenn

Yesterday I had a Calistenics comp in West Side Melbourne. We got March:2nd Clubs:1st Freearm:h.m Rods:4th Aestetics:2nd Medley:1st & reserve aggregate.

Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday dear Glenn
Happy Birthday to you

Well, we're off tomorrow

Ok, I thought I should do a quick update. I was going to wait until we got the stuff from the UK but it still hasn't arrived yet, and our mail is held from tomorrow so chances are we'll get it on the Monday after we arrive. Thanks parents and nana and Lisa for the presents (that's an awesome print Lisa, it looks fantastic) and future thanks to the UK too :)

We spent my birthday pretty much how we spent the week before and after - preparing for Japan. However on the free Monday we did have the opportunity to head to a conservation park just outside Adelaide and go on a 4 to 5km walk through the hills.. i'm tempted to call it a hike for all the up hill sections ;) And then we were invited to go bowling with my boss and his family, and were severely beaten by his father in law. I guess Wii bowling doesn't really help prepare for the real thing (although i did get three strikes! That's three more than I got last time I bowled)

As far as Japan, we've managed to get tickets to go to the Ghibli museum on Monday, which is awesome.. so adjust the rest of our plans around that :) We'll be back in a few weeks no doubt with photos, stories and weird little plastic toys from vending machines around Tokyo.

Happy Birthday Dad

Happy birfdey from us too...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAMIEN

Yes, I stayed up until now so I could be the first to post it :P

Your present should be on it's way, expect a parcel.................................

Japan trip

Ok, it's only two weeks until we go to Japan, we're getting ourselved organised (Cheryl got some yen today) and finalising everything, so I thought I might post our itinerary for you guys. The first week we're travelling with 25 other people from the SA and New Zealand dojos. We're flying out on Friday 12th on the 11:55am plane from Adelaide, arriving at Changi at 5:50pm. Then at 1am we leave Changi, arriving at Nagoya at 8:35am on Saturday morning.
After we've dropped out stuff off at the hotel, we're heading into Nagoya to see the Tokugawa museum. There's also a festival on in Nagoya, so we'll wander around that for a while.

On Sunday we're leaving at 8am to bus to Seki City. It's an area famous for it's blades.. it used to be swords, but now it's kitchen knives and the like as well. I'll be buying a sword there (I've pre-ordered one) and we have tameshigiri (bamboo-cutting) lessons. The guy teaching us apparently usually just does demos, so that should be really good. We're having lunch at a place famous for it's grilled eel, which Cheryl is very happy to hear. Then that evening we're training at the head dojo (which is a shrine) and meeting the Grand Master himself for dinner.

On Monday, again at 8am, we're catching the Shinkansen (bullet train) from Nagoya to Kyoto. Kyoto is the original capital of Japan, and so there should be some great old buildings to see. That evening we then train to Himeji city and check into a hotel there.

Tuesday we're touring Himeji castle and doing some sword classes on the lawn outside the castle. We had to get permission from the government to be able to do that, but because Himeji is a sister city to Adelaide and we're taking a letter from the Mayor to give to the officials there I guess we get special treatment. That afternoon we'll be going to a Zen temple to do meditation for an hour or so.

Wednesday we head to Hiroshima, to see Miyajima Island and the atomic bomb museum. Miyajima is a sacred island and used to be worshipped itself as a god. It's apparently an incredibly beautiful place, so it'll be great to see it.

Thursday we head to Kumamoto. We'll see Kumamoto castle, and also the cave where Miyamoto Musashi lived for several of his later years. He was a famous swordsman of the 1500s who was apparently undefeated, retired from fighting in his 30s to live at Kumamoto Castle, and then moved to the cave in his 50s and wrote his famous book, The Book of Five Rings. I'm really looking forward to seeing the cave, although we have to walk up a mountain to get there

Friday we head to Okayama, which is a sister state to South Australia. We have a letter from the Premier to present to the officials there. We'll also see traditional sword smithing, and have dinner with the Okayama Friendship Society.

On Saturday we're going to the Zen Nippon Kendo Renmei, it's basically a big Kendo grading for all of Japan. We're doing a demo there for some insane reason, a group of Westerners showing Japanese swordsmen how good we are. No pressure. The we have a bit of time in an Edo period heritage town called Kurashiki.

On Sunday we seperate with the rest of the travellers, and make our way by Shinkansen to Tokyo. Our plans for this week aren't as definite, but we've got a few things we'd like to do. Sunday we'll drop our stuff off at the Ryukan (a traditional Japanese hotel with a futon, tatami mats on the floor, that kind of thing) and then either head off shopping or maybe just relax.

Monday we might check out the fish markets in the morning for fresh sushi, and then we're planning on heading to Kamakura. There's a famous giant buddha statue there, as well as a shrine to Hachiman, the Japanese god of war. It's apparently a more peaceful place, quite the contrast from Tokyo. I think it will be good to relax a little after the fast pace of the first week.

Tuesday we're heading north to Sendai, about 2 hours from the centre of Tokyo. There we'll be meeting Cheryl's pen pal Yuko and her husband Akira. We're staying at a Ryukan with hot springs there, another very relaxing time I think.

Wednesday we'll head back to Tokyo, and maybe check out one of the shopping districts. It depends on how long we spend in Sendai of course, and we're not completely sure what we'll be doing while we're there.

Thursday hopefully we'll go to the Ghibli museum. You have to book the tickets outside of Japan, and it's very popular, so it will depend on whether we can get tickets.. we'll find that out in the next couple of days. Studio Ghibli are an anime production company similar to Disney maybe? They do a lot of fantastic kids films, you might have seen Spirited Away or Howl's Moving Castle. It looks like the coolest museum.. it's got a cinema with three films unreleased outside the museum, and statues and all that, plus a rooftop garden.

Friday will be our real big shopping day. There's a 7 story shopping centre Cheryl wants to check out, and I suspect we'll easily spend the whole day there. It's probably best to have this day later in the week so we're not hauling around heaps of souvenirs as we go. Friday night we'll check into a hotel at Narita airport.

Saturday we fly out at 11:30am, arriving in Changi at 5:35pm. If we still have any money or energy left by then no doubt we'll do some shopping at Changi too, since we have 6 hours there before flying out at 11:45pm. Changi has cinemas, restaurants, it's a massive airport.

And then we arrive back in Adelaide on Sunday 28th, at 7:45 am.

I say old chap ...

Raawwrrghhhhwhhhwrhghh!

Squirtle

Chortle

I had a chicken satay wrap for lunch today.

Nothing to write home about.

*chuckle*

All I heard was "Tar te tar tar, potatoes"

As Dee mentioned, I took last week off and we headed to Ireland for a wee break before Dee starts. It was great fun, really relaxing and good to get away. I was actually quite surprised that Ireland felt like another country - but it did!

We stayed at Cork, a beautiful little town with rolling hills, green fields, great restaurants and an abundance of live music! We listened to some traditional Irish music the first night, whilst I drank the local stout. Another night we stumbled (not literally!) into a live venue and listened to some (Danish? Strange accents) guys play a kind of rock-jazz-swing fusion mix -- again, so much fun! We also ate so much good food, including traditional Irish stew in Blarney and some tapas in a Spanish restaurant in Cork.

Unfortunately we were locked up in Cork Gaol for unlicensed dancing, and had to escape. Met some great locals there, although I didn't seem to get along with the wardens for some reason (well, except for the one I was dancing with of course).

We took one day out to bus to Blarney and see the (in)famous Blarney Castle. So many American tourists! They love Ireland, apparently. We checked out the castle and I even kissed the Blarney stone:



Shudder to think how many other people have kissed it before me, of course.

Anyway, the photos from Cork and Blarney are in the usual place.

No News is good News

Heya all, bout time I blogged, firstly Damien if that is you after putting on 6 kilos you must have been a stick there for awhile! secondly I have been offered a role with an Investment Bank called Schroders, an old british company, who are very old and very british, a butler came into the interview to offer ¨refreshments¨ I had a choice of tea, coffee, herbal tea, or water, I requested some water for which his response was ¨still or sparkling"! LOL I would so love his name to be Niles. After some thought we decided I would take it.. so I start on the 24th September. After weeks of many interviews Glenn and I are now off the Cork in Ireland to celebrate and do some much earned relaxing... Better get ready Dayna we could be landing on your doorstep one of these weekends! ;) I hope everyone is healthy and happy. L Deexo

Fitness

Dayna mentioned I was looking healthy, but I'm forced to disagree.. I've put on over 6 kilos over the last few months, I blame winter primarily :) I think my old technique for losing weight was pretty effective, so i'm going to start it up again - that's doing a bit of exercise at a set time each day, and recording everything you eat for their points values.

I think if you don't set a time to exercise it's too easy to ignore it, so i'm going to go for a walk each day straight after work. I tried going home, changing my shoes and going jogging, but once i got home there was too much else that needed to be done, so i think walking will work better.. and any jogging is a bonus.

As far as the food goes, i've been getting slack with that too, and I think by recording it all somewhere it'll help me get back to eating sensibly. No more delicious delicious muffins. And I'll record it in a semi-public place - on my blog, but hidden from the front page because it's not really relevant to the rest of the world. You can see it here, and i'm hoping because of the fact that you guys can see what i'm eating I'll be more careful.

So the offer is there to anyone else who is interested in knowing the points values of the food and exercise.. it's very educational, but you have to be honest (no sneaking in little snacks and thinking they don't matter). Anyone who wants to, post in the comments of each day what you've eaten or what exercise you've done and i'll calculate the points for you.