Y’know I pay a goodly sum of money (or rather my Mum ends up paying it for me) every year for this site then I rarely use it! *_Idiot_*!
Here are a couple of updates:
* My plans all worked out and I am indeed going to make it back to Edinburgh for Christmas and New Year! I’m home for about two weeks. I am already so excited! I leave Japan on the 19th December and get back into Edinburgh the same day! That’s two weeks today!!!! WOO-HOO!!!!
* I have been playing around with Skype and have decided to go all in with it. So as of later this year I will have an Edinburgh telephone number that relays to my PC (even here in Onoda!). I also bought a USB phone so in essence I will have a working Edinburgh telephone! Which makes me rather happy. Anyone calling the number would incur the same charges as a “normal” phone. If you’d like my number feel free to ask – I sure as hell am not going to be putting it up here!
* In the last week I have been working on my “Gallery (Click here to visit my Gallery)”:http://www.andy-thomson.co.uk/gallery. I have updated the software and I am really happy with how it now looks and works. I have added several new photos (mostly the Kiyomizu and Sumo albums) and I have opened a new album for my trip home which I hope to update during my holiday.
Things here have been fairly good. Things have settled down from a rather turbulent September and October. It’s been a strange few months.
Two weeks ago Jim and I went to the Sumo Basho in Fukuoka. It was awesome. Asashoryu won the overall tournament 14-1. The day was great fun. We sat watched Sumo, drank sake and beer and got very merry by the end of it all!! There are a few pictures in the “gallery (Click here to visit my Gallery)”:http://www.andy-thomson.co.uk/gallery of the great day.
I ordered a ton of new clothes that I had delivered for when I get home. I’m pretty excited about that too! As Abby wisely (sic) said it’ll be just like Christmas when I get home on the 19th December.
I got a quote to fix my laptop from Sony, about £300 to fit a new hard drive!!!!!!!! I could do it for a third of that and it would take 5 mins to fit with only a little more to reinstall windows! Ridiculous! Seriously Sony suck ass! I read on the net that they have patented a system for tying games to specific machines with the threat of it being used for the PS3. Where do they get off? I mean you wouldn’t be able to take a game to a friend’s house to play it! Shocking. Added to that Sony customer services complete non-help when I bought my HD audio player, their totally repressive DRM on aforementioned player, the whole root kit fiasco and I have a mind never to buy another Sony product again – this coming from someone a year ago was a total Sony fan boy!
So things here are going reasonably well, it’s getting round to that time of year where I have to decide what I am going to do in the summer. I am beginning to feel that my time here is coming to a close. In a way I wish I could stay, it’s a pretty easy life, I have more money than I have ever had before in my life, I have some great friends and I have been having fun. However, I feel more negatives these days. -My job- The company I work for is getting more and more tiresome but most of all I am realising that I have responsibilities in Scotland and that is the ultimate deal breaker.
I also have to think about my future, while it’s all great fun here (outside of work) I am going absolutely nowhere in life, I mean I am a far better -teacher- instructor than I was two years ago but I feel absolutely no reward or appreciation of that. I think that at the end of the day is one of Nova’s biggest problems. They don’t value experience AT ALL, they seem just as happy with a staff of new instructors who are really quite clueless as opposed to having a blend of valued experience and new enthusiasm. The only way it will ever change is if the students make noises about it.
I haven’t seen the Harry Potter movie yet but I am due to go and see it on Wednesday! And boy am I looking forward to that! ;o)
Gee I think I have blogged myself out! Be sure and check the “gallery (Click here to visit my Gallery)”:http://www.andy-thomson.co.uk/gallery for new pictures, I should continue to add new content as I find it on my PC! :o) If I don’t write again beforehand, I hope everyone has a great Christmas and a Very Happy New Year!