I know I said I was going to leave off the blogging for a bit...

... but something happened this week that upset me so much I have to get rid of it because I can`t actually sleep at the moment... A little while ago, Mary-of-the-uncommonly-good-sense and Jean-who-Prays-with-a-capital-P, asked me why I didn`t just write a journal if the purpose of blogging was to vent. A journal, they (or one of them) argued was much more private than washing your dirty laundry all over the Internet... I had to agree and couldn`t really think of a good reason why blogging is infinitely more satisfying... well, I think I have finally figured out that for me, at any rate, if I keep a journal, the book is in my room. It`s always there. Whatever was bothering me is still hanging around, but by pressing "publish" I feel like I`m very much sending it away... Might not work for this though, but we can but hope.

I was on my way to the station on Wednesday, annoyed as usual, because I had been determined to catch the earlier train and thus arrive 45 minutes before my shift instead of 20. Obviously, I then started reading and before I knew it, I was destined to catch my usual train. Well, as I got to the elementary school I heard this awful wailing, I thought it might be a child in trouble, don`t know quite what I thought I would be able to do about it but I went in the direction of the noise anyway... As it turned out, it wasn`t a child at all. It was a tiny tiny kitten being attacked by a crow. And when I say "crow" what I mean is a huge devil bird the size of a vulture with beady evil eyes and a beak the size of a carving knife. I was absolutely rooted to the spot but as soon as brain started working again I legged it towards the pair, hoping to frighten the crow off. Well it didn`t go anywhere. Just kept picking the little kitten up by the leg in its beak and trying to fly off with it. The kitten was wailing and the crow was squawking and I started to panic because believe me, you do NOT want to mess with a crow. When it realised I wasn`t going anywhere it left off the kitten but just fluttered a bit to the side... I couldn`t get close enough to do anything at the point but something startled the crow and it hopped up onto the nearest rooftop, still glaring down at me and the kitten just stood there in the middle of the street. I tried to make it run away to safety but it didn`t move at all. I realised that I had a slight problem then - that the kitten was either too frightened or it couldn`t see or something and there was the crow still glaring down at both of us so I couldn`t leave it... luckily at that point a car came round the corner and the crow flew up to a telegraph pole although it was still looking at me and the kitten I felt a little bolder and tried to think of something to do... I had a hand towel in my bag -(benefits of turning Japanese, I really think so!)- so I put it on the ground and tried to make the kitten walk onto it but it wouldn`t so I picked it up and realised that the thing was utterly mangy and seriously small. I wrapped it up and started legging it down the street as the crow was coming closer again and tried to think sensibly about what the hell I was going to do with a kitten when I was supposed to be going to work. Thought about calling in sick although decided against it as I had missed the call-in time by about 3 hours and it would cost me half a day`s pay plus the lessons I wouldn`t be teaching - and I couldn`t imagine that the excuse of having rescued a kitten and needing to take it home would go down awfully well, might even have serious consequences given the current climate at NOVA at present. Then I thought about dropping it off at a vet and promising to come back for it. There aren`t any vets in Shibamata. Then I thought about taking it to work. Decided that was not really on as I didn`t know if anyone had any allergies and I might get myself into serious trouble for that too. I thought about taking it to the local shrine and begging the monks to take it until I got home... the monks weren`t there. So I made the only decision I felt I could make and hid the kitten in the grass where I hoped the crow wouldn`t be able to find it, wrapped in my towel and promised it that I would come back and take it home. All day I looked forward to taking it home and cleaning it up and finding it a nice home... I even chose a name, Marmalade, which I suppose was a bit daft really... The trains were majorly delayed and by the time I got home it was gone 10pm and I ran to the shrine to look for Marmalade hoping that it would still there. And it was. But it was dead. So I killed a kitten this week. All because I was too cowardly to say stuff the rules and take it to work and find a box for it. And I am convinced it is haunting me because every time I close my eyes I see it in my head, settling in my arms as I ran down the street... and I am worried that the crow is coming after me for stealing its lunch... Why was I so stupid? Why?

RIP SONY VAIO

I do not even know where to start. This has been the week from Hell. They say bad luck comes in threes. If that`s true, hopefully I`ll be immune for a little while...

First my council tax bill arrived - it is four figures in GBP.
Second, NOVA lost a court case and has been punished by not being allowed to make any sales for 6 months - frankly the bad publicity on top of all the rest this year will probably kill them so I may not have a job by the end of the Summer.
Third, and worst of all, my computer died last night.
What that means in practical terms is no email. No blogging. No iTunes. No DVD player. No photo editor. It makes my digital camera a complete waste of money and my iPod will never get another update. It means no chatting, it means all the things I actually *enjoy* doing have been taken away and I am going to have to go back to doing embroidery with the radio for company... The internet cafe is all very well but thanks to the murder earlier this year, I no longer feel safe wandering around by myself at night... so I will be able to check in about once a week, maybe less. Gutted does not even start... I know it`s a complete overreaction but I feel like my IV to life has been ripped from my veins; I`m actually going to have to start reading the newspaper... blech. So I guess in short what I am saying is, don`t expect to see the Hurrah updated for a significant while.

I have to say some things before I sign off though. I haven`t had time to finish talking about my exploits in Singapore but all in all I had a fantastic time, I always wanted to go to Raffles when I was a child but I never imagined actually going there - Singapore always seemed like it was *too* exotic, you know, the sort of place your Granddad actually went in The War but normal people under normal circumstances would never get to go. Thanks to Bill (who`s hardly had a mention yet but always makes me laugh) and Sunsook, my dreams came true... the question is, how on earth do you thank someone who quite literally - in the case of Raffles- hands you your dreams on a plate...? I don`t know, but I suspect I`ll spend a long long time trying to think of a way. Thank you both...

Until I sort my computer problems out then, it`s been one Big Old Hurrah, thanks for reading...

Orient Bird.

Trapped in a frothing vortex of rage abandoned in a churning torrent of fury helpless in a thrashing deluge of wrath i'm not waving i'm ******* drowning why is no one listening to my screams?

"It's the Tropics..." V

Now that everyone has had a proper opportunity to have a look at my kids, I'll go back to Singapore and continue what is now turning into an epic. On the Wednesday, I managed to avoid the morning completely again, (hurrah) and found myself being escorted round some art galleries. Obviously in said art galleries, I liked everything Sunsook hated but now wise to the whole "Art" thing (ha!) of course I was not terribly surprised by this and didn't much care about being an ignoramus. I have since decided that there is absolute truth in the saying "One person's meat is another's poison." After all, if we all liked the same "Art", life would be very dull indeed and I came to the conclusion that it doesn't really matter if it's "Good" or not as long as one likes it. I mean honestly, if it mattered whether it was "Good" or not, The Spice Girls would never have had a career, would they?! Anyway, the afternoon had two highlights - one was getting to see a DVD of two of Sunsook's installations. I am not going to even pretend I understood them but I will say this- they were amazing; especially one of them which was a room with a table and like 6 million different bowls, dishes, cut up bottles and that sort of thing and then it had tubes and stuff coming from the ceiling - I am not presenting the best possible description of this, I know - and then there was water dripping through all the different stuff and she had rigged up these little mics so you could hear the sound of the water hitting the bowls and stuff. It was called "Pulse." So this is the thing, right? I have not been able to get that thing out of my head. It keeps coming back to me at really weird times and then I can hear the Pulse in my head. I wonder if in fact it isn't a pulse at all and it's my internal clock I can hear but anyway, I can well imagine how much work that took and even though I didn't really get it, it seems to have had an impact anyway... most interesting. The second highlight was sitting in a darkened cafe (I don't know) with Sunsook, talking, drinking sparkling wine (I'm lucky I didn't come back from Singapore an alcoholic) and listening to "S Pop" which seemed to be "Golden Oldies" rewritten and sung in Chinese with muzak rhythms... we heard "You don't have to say you love me" "Always on my mind" and something by Elton I think, I was quite amused by this especially after the "V Pop" episode in Vietnam which was basically the same thing but in Vietnamese and featured Robbie Williams rather than Dusty but you can't have everything.

In the evening we went to Raffles Dining Club - yeah!- where we ate with some other TUCites, Premoj and Sajeeve who also moved to Singapore, it was nice to catch up with them, I had met Premoj when I bunked off choir for a term after being horribly ill with a respiratory tract infection and couldn't sing for toffee so I went to Premoj's Sunday School class about hymns through the ages. We were in the Chinese Restaurant at the club and I was pathetically excited to find myself in a restaurant that actually had a dress-code for the first time in my life! It brings a whole new meaning to living the high life - I am convinced I only just scraped through the door in my extra-ordinarily scruffy jeans and hoodie, but there you go. We also had the pleasure of Bill and Sunsook's estate agent and her husband who were jolly good sorts and we ate Peking Duck (how I have come to love that stuff!) and mushrooms and some other unidentifiable items that I did not care to try - I also had the option of trying shark fin soup for the first time but I couldn't bring myself to do it... There are just some things I can't get over, horse is another... but anyway, we had a very pleasant time and then went home and Sunsook valiantly tried to explain to me why Damien (the sheep pickler) Hurst is extremely talented. I still don't get it and maintain that I would prefer to see art that depicts life as it should be, not how it is... call me cheesy, I really don't care. I suspect that's why God gave me a singing voice and no artistic talent whatsoever! More from the tropics later...

Or, could it be.....

.... my favourite baby... Simon...?!

Now come on, I ask you, really, who is cuter...?!

Cahbrie.........

....... OR......

.....mary-the-hamster....?

"It's the Tropics..." IV

Well, after a bit of break from proper blog writing, I am back and I am bad - ha! I believe I have already talked at length about myself and the "Art" so I will continue by having a bit of a chat about the shopping. On the Tuesday, I decided that I simply could not live for a single second longer without going on a major shopping bender. What I didn't know is that Sunsook absolutely despises shopping, well shopping in the way I choose to go about it anyway... See, I am a very, very bad shopper; I like to flit around from shelf to shelf, even shop to shop looking at totally random objects, if I like one, I may carry it around for a bit and then put it back down then wandering around for a bit before finally going back to it and picking it up again, at which point, I may or may not buy the object in question. I am like a giant mutant Magpie in the shape of a woman. Particularly drawn to shiny, sparkly hair accessories or jewellery, or any stationery products that have ever been created - (the staple-less stapler, what a triumph!) - I stumble about about between shops looking at different versions and prices of the same object before eventually deciding on the first one. I am the first one to admit that I am the world's biggest nightmare shopper. Sunsook, on the other hand is a machine; she always knows exactly what she wants, from which shop she wishes to buy it and she zooms in on it and is capable of making purchases in 45 seconds flat from entrance to exit. (Just kidding, it's actually about 3 minutes!) The shopping match made in Heaven? I don't think so. However, somehow, I managed to persuade Sunsook that she REALLY really did want to come shopping with me, and off we went. Next stop Orchard Road. Now at this point I have to actually mention the weather; it was absolutely chucking it down. I mean pouring in a major way. It made the Tokyo rainy season look like a Spring shower so unfortunately I wasn't able to get any photographs because I was too afraid that I would get the camera out and ruin it immediately. Anyway, I was a bit surprised to find that the area was quite reminiscent of a British town centre and the very first store I spied was, oh yes, that bastion of Britishness; Marks and Spencer. How fantastic. If there's one shop I really miss, it's Marks. Those of you who are not aware of why, frankly don't need to be...! Anyway, I belted around from shirts to trousers from pyjamas to other things beginning with P and having a marvellous time in general before I worked out that with the exchange rate it was actually still cheaper to order the stuff online and then pay for the postage which was a bit annoying but you can't have everything and it was so refreshing to see clothes in what I consider to be normal sizes... I didn't try anything on because frankly, let's face it, we would have been there until closing if I started on that... Sunsook tried on a really nice blouse but she said it was better on the hanger. Then we went down to the miniature food hall, where I nearly cried at the sight of a packet of crumpets - (I need to go home and soon but more on that another day.) The other thing which was so good to see was that, despite the Lilliputian proportions of the food hall, they had a very large shelf full of M & S's Fair Trade stock. Japan, get with the program, is all I will say and leave it there for now. So after Sunsook had bought her marmalade or possibly jam, I forget which, we went to Borders. Borders was amazing. I had to physically restrain myself from buying about 25 million books and not just because I wouldn't have been able to carry them home...! I had a hard time in Borders because I found it rather difficult to cope with the idea that I could walk and and buy absolutely ANY book I wanted, not have to order it because they only have the Japanese version and wait for 6 weeks while they try to work out how much it will be. Sensory overload, even the pop music in the background was English. It seemed odd that I should find that strange and I think that's what bothered me the most. The magazine selection was outstanding, I stood and read the latest from the BBC about "Opera Now" (or something) - I read the most recent celeb gossip as it had hit the shelves, and then I started browsing a film magazine, all the while soothed by some rather lovely jazz in the background. (Change sections, change soundtracks, see?!) Even stranger to me was the fact that I found myself excusing myself for getting in other people's way in Japanese and I am talking about white people here! It bothered me, it really did... I started thinking about moving to Singapore and staying there forever in that bookshop...
I should point out at this juncture that Sunsook and I had separated so that she could go and look at art publications while I ogled the notebooks. We had agreed to meet up at a designated time and place and not without some regret I bought a bookmark (which I have already lost dammit!) and a gargantuan notebook which I needed like I need more hair accessories and left the books in favour of hot chocolate at the Borders Bistro - yes that is actually its name, and I am keeping my comments to myself! Then off we went to brave the rain and find me some shampoo and stuff. The presence of Clairol Herbal Essences not aimed at damaged hair nearly gave me heart failure and I staggered around the pharmacy cooing over Revlon and Johnson and Johnson, scowling because the only make-up remover in the building was produced by Maybelline and L'Oreal and we all know how I feel about them, and generally feeling faint in the face of Lux shower gel. Singapore has everything and unlike imported products in Japan, most of it is at normal prices, well actually, Singapore is dirt cheap, except M & S apparently! At some point I think we must have decided to go home but to be honest, I've left it so long to do this that it's all starting to seem a bit like a dream...

"It's the Tropics..." III

Have finally got Singapore photos ready for viewing, more when I have time for the commentary but for now, here is something I am feeling rather proud of...