15cm high Garlic Bread

I went to dinner the other night with two Aussie friends also living in Japan - Aunty M and Aunty I. Aunty M complained that I was not writing enough posts on my blog to give her an excuse to procrastinate, and Aunty I indicated that she hadn't had time recently to check it... somehow she seems thinks that being pregnant and working full time is a reasonable excuse. How wrong she is.

Anyway, the waiter gave us English menus, and I was scanning through it when I came across "15 cm high Garlic Bread". "Ho ho", scoffed I, "I'd like to see that! What's the bet that this is just bad English for '15cm long garlic bread'?".

Aunty M and Aunty I agreed with me, and so we ordered it. This is was we got served...

Well... that put me in my place... So much for my smart-arsery. Sure enough - 15cm high Garlic Bread. It was really good, too.

Breaking news!!!

Apparently there is a typhoon heading this way. I've just been warned by the dorm manager that I should close my windows properly and not go outside... Toto is getting a bit restless and won't stop barking.

I'm going to put on my ruby red slippers just in case...

Breaking news!!!

Just had an earthquake. I was getting my haircut at the time and the lady cutting my hair went psychotic - dropped her scissors - spun my chair around - grabbed my hand and pulled me out of the shop... and so there we stood... her frantically looking for escape routes, and me in my little cape looking back into the shop at the people looking out at us. I walked back in and am now having my hair cut by some guy because the other lady is having some tea to settle down. Apparently the earthquake was a 5. A little bit of excitement to add to my day.

My Interview

Brooke has asked me five questions for an interview. Here are the instructions:

1. If you want to participate, leave a comment below saying "Interview me." "Blow me" or "Eat me" are not acceptable substitutes.
2. I will respond by asking you five questions - each person's will be different. I'll post the questions in the comments section of this post.
3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview others in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

1. Why do Australian barristers wear those funny wigs?
Because they look cool?? It's an English tradition. They only ever wear it when they appear in court. I'm not entirely sure if its compulsory or not. If not, then I think I'll opt not to wear one when (if) I become a barrister. I would wear thegown (?) though...

2. You have moved 20 times. Is there any one place you would move back to if you could?
Absolutely not. I always like to go someplace new - and ideally somewhere where the population doesn't speak English... makes things more interesting. Having said that, I've moved back and forth between Sydney and Japan a couple of times, so maybe I'm being a hypocrite. I wouldn't mind living in either North America (notwithstanding the whole English bit) or South America next.

3. Koalas or kangaroos?
Depends entirely on the context - if you're asking which one I like best, I'd say Koalas. But, if you're asking me, for example, which would be the better animal to ride, I'd have to go with the Kangaroo. Alternatively, if you're asking which one would make a better coat - then, undoubtedly, the koala... just see the image to the right - taken from Nam's blog. As I said, it all depends on the context...

4. I noticed the 43 things list on your blog. Name 5 things you want to do with your life.
- Kayak around Antarctica
- Learn another lanaguage (that's my tentative plan for this coming January/February)
- Travel into outer space
- Road trip across the southern states of America
- Improve in Aikido

5. How are Japanese women different than Australian women?
In so, so many ways. I think that if I were to generalise on one point, Japanese women seem to be more conscious of how they dress than Australian women. Walking down the streets in Japan seems almost like a fashion show. But on the same point, so are the guys.

May the force be with you

All is well with the cosmos, now... I've seen Star Wars III.

It only took two months for the film to make it to Japan - yep, when Lucasfilms set an "international release date", strangely that didn't seem to include us over here... but I took it like a man. That much I can live with, but what truly pissed me off, is that during the previews they showed the "Don't download/buy pirated movies because it robs the artists..."

What?? EXCUSE ME??? I can't believe, for the love of all that is good and holy, that they could have the audacity, the effrontery, the TEMERITY to tell people not to download it off the internet when they kept everyone in Japan WAITING TWO BLOODY MONTHS TO SEE IT!!! Not placated with coming up with intelligent-sounding polysyllabic 'angry' words in my head, I proceeded to take off my left shoe and throw it at the screen, but it fell somewhat short of its target.#1 It would have made it, had it not been for the aerodynamic 'drag' created by the laces. So I took off my right shoe and pelted it at the ushers head...#2 I then sat down and waited for the movie to begin, eating my popcorn shoeless...

I really enjoyed it - but then I've got low standards for most movies, so I'm probably not the most reliable critic. I gotta say, though, that I still think that Yoda is a better actor than than the guy who plays Annakin/Darth Vadar - computer animation or not...

Also, as an interesting aside, I've been watching the previous Star War movies that they've been showing on TV during the very long leadup to the release of Episode 3, and the night before I saw Revenge of the Sith, they showed the final movie "Return of the Jedi". At the end of the movie, for those who remember, during the mardi gras they have with the Ewoks - otherwise known by me as 'leather bound Koalas' - there is the scene where Obi Wan, Yoda and Annakin Skywalker are all in their ghostly forms overlooking the festivities... BUT THEY'VE CHANGED IT! They've replaced the old Annakin (Darth Vadar) with the new, less-facially - expressive actor.

I can't decide whether I approve or not...



#1 It is possible that this was a figment of my imagination.
#2 It is entirely possible that this also did not actually happen.

King Solomon and I

I'm enrolled in a class on Conflict Resolution, and each week, we're given a scenario where we have to represent one of the parties in a conflict. We then have to negotiate a resolution, if we can, based on shared facts, and then private facts provided by the "client". Usually this takes about an hour of haggling back and forth, and I usually have to do it in Japanese, which always makes me giddy with excitement.

I had a negotiation scenario the other day which involved a car manufacturer and a person who was injured as a result of a defect in the cruise control of a car made by the aforementioned manufacturer. Of course, with my luck being what it is, I got to represent the evil car manufacturer. But my opponent was another exchange student who speaks fluent English, and both of us are fed up with having to do negotiations week-in week-out. My instruction was to negotiation a settlement to within 100 million yen, and get the opposition to sign a confidentiality agreement. And so our negotiation went like this...

[Me] How much do you want?
[Him] 100 million yen and a new car.
[Me] How about 100 million yen, no new car, and you don't tell anyone about this.
[Him] Ok.
[Me] Ok.

Score! And in under 10 seconds. I am a world-class negotiator, boys and girls! King Solomon ain't got nuthin on me when it comes to conflict resolution skills....

Where in the world is...

I've had no time to do nuthin, and so this is going to be a short post... So I just wanted to introduce Google Earth. I'm a fan of all the Google products, and this one is just plain fun. Here are some maps of places I've lived in Australia and Japan.

I've made some additions. One is where I used to live in Sydney, and the other is where Wonderland used to be before it was bulldozed down to become a business park.

-------------Click on maps for a closer picture--------------

-------------Click on maps for a closer picture--------------

Oops

I had to rewrite the above post, and all the comments were
lost with it, so I'm keeping them here attached to this post.