Tuesday

Today's hiragana du jour is the third vowel in the sequence: "u".



In other news, I'm doing up the study e-mail submission template, met the Big Jason for a swim this morning (was in the water at 06:55 and everything!) and have had two espressos so far today. LS is mooting a London visit this weekend (unlikely, due to the purse) and I still haven't replied to Neilo about a micro-seshun with himself and the BGD in London tomorrow night. Feck.

I also got paid today, but am not hopeful that there's much left over.

Need to contact the Inland Revenue about seeing if I can get a rebate on the old QUB emergency-tax money, too.

Busy week ahead (inc. COSPAR...)

Bonjour

And here's today's Hiragana du jour, folks. I'm working through the chart in order. Unhelpfully, the Japanese order their vowels differently than the Romans did, so after "a" comes "i". And "i" looks like this:



Isn't that nice? I'll be practising it this evening.

Getting on nicely with the kanji, too, now. Starting on a few verbs. I can read a sentence to the effect that "The boy likes horses", although plurals are still a bit tricky, as there are none. Just "boy", "like" and "horse" at the moment. You sort-of fill in the rest if you don't know any grammar... :o)

Hiragana du Jour

So, I met my opposite number from the US this week. Was a bit nervous about whether we'd get on, then I found out he was from Glasgow, so I relaxed a lot. Seems like a thoroughly likeable guy.

Interestingly, he's lived in Japan before — for a year in Kyoto — so he was able to give me some pointers. One of which was this: learn the hiragana and katakana alphabets over the kanji.

With that in mind, I'm going to include a character each day to learn.

May as well start at the start, then:



which is "a".

This season, I will be mostly...

...learning kanji!



Bought this on Saturday to cheer myself up and give me something to do in the coffee shop. Which was handy, as there was a pair of lords and another couple sitting behind me having a really interesting conversation.

I, however, looked cosmopolitan and intellectual with my Japanese Script book and my grande mocha.

Hi, I'm middle class.

Or should that be "I'm avoiding work"...? Probably more accurate, that version.

Stop-gap solution

But that's all it is. This is from Sunday night at the local. LS and Neilo in shot.

Fuck it

I entered this building at 7:35 am, and I've had enough.

Fletch is in town tonight, before he hikes back to Canadia (or however you get there). I have enough money for one very cheap drink. But dammit, I'm going to spend it on the Fletch's company.

Last time I saw him, I took a picture of a temporary tattoo on his ass. I need to see him more sober than that.

Much other stuff to write up on, including the funniest music quiz of my life with LS and Neilo. In my actual local. Yesterday painful as a result.

Reslut. Haha!

Go home, Dave.

Back to Bedlam

It's been a real whirlwind few days. Until today, at any rate!

After the Boxing Day visit to Belfast, I laid low for a couple of days. Needed sleep, basically.

Then came the flight home to England. All fine with the flight, then landed at Gatwick and got a lift home from Lord Simon. Which basically turned into a massive bender. I'd promised to go out clubbing with him when I got back, so I ironed a clean shirt and we went down the road to meet his husband. Via Ibiza Street. I was nearly on for staying there all night, but we had three in there, went up the road, via the old reliable star, to the KH where the Aussie was standing with three of the work ones. Including my current crush. Feck. But myself and the evil twin were already in sex-pesting mode, so I couldn't keep my eyes in one place for very long. Plus, we were already significantly drunker than any of the rest of them, as they were all driving. Blunderously.

Still, we stayed on and chatted. Then, about midnight, the Aussie cut the Eenglish loose and told us to execute our plan. Uh-oh...

I have to say that I remember going in alright, and remember various flashes of having a wazz, ordering dhrink, talking about shite — some serious, some not — and generally pesting in tandem. And all the usual consequences, so I felt dreadful the next day. But the craic was good, even if my head felt a little wrecked.

Basically, I'd had a pretty clear head when I left Norn Iron, after having had a week away from everything and everyone — both good and bad — in Ingerland.

and we actually went to one of Guildford's two offerings.