Japan ....... again!!

I’ve been back! The than ten days after arriving home from a quick blast to India I found myself back in Japan. This time for a company conference, onto which I’d tagged some business meetings beforehand and accepted an invite to an excursion on the Saturday directly afterwards.

About 15 of us from work went to this so I had to break with my normal tradition and getting on the plane and turning left into business class and head right into premium economy …….. and boy, what a difference. Hard to sleep in one of those seats when you are 6ft 2.

The meetings went well. The Japanese were kinder this time than they sometimes are and on top of all that we ate, drank and made merry in the evenings, with or without them. The conference was good. I presented a poster on our work and the lectures were interesting. The jet-lag was as bad as ever. My “silver-lining” that not being able to sleep as much in premium economy might lead to less jet-lag proved to be complete rubbish :-(

On the Saturday we went to the ancient town of Kamakura (see pictures) an interesting old place with some great shines and temples. At our lunch stop we got a great view of Mt Fuji (still need to climb it one day!) enjoyed Suba noodles, a narrow-gauge railway and some shopping.

I seem to come home with Saki, Sho-chu (very strong barley spirit), a saki drinking set and some very Japanese cups for green tea …….. oh, and of course a rather bruised credit card ;-)

Live Wire by Harlan Coben

Again, mostly read on a plane! I like Harlan. He is fast turning into one of my favorite authors. Such easy reading with good storylines and interesting characters. This was the first of the Myron Bolitar novels that I have read and I have to say I found the characters, along with the sidekicks Wyn, Esparanza and Big Cindy all quite intriguing. The story starts with a shocking post on Facebook (welcome to the 21st century) and ends up with a deep understanding of how a reclusive rockstar with a penchant for young girls ended up killing one of them accidentally, the resulting cover-up, blackmail and eventual deaths that follow. What I loved about the end of this is that although it is written from the point of view of Myron, the whole endgame is dominated by Wyn and he takes no prisoners. Myron does n’t know what is about to happen next.

Although this book gets very mixed review on Amazon I really enjoyed it.

The Shelter by James Etherington

A short story about four boys who discharge the boredom of a long hot summer holiday by investigating a local shelter, except it is not anything like any air raid shelter that they, or I for that matter, have ever come across (actually, from the descriptions it is also nothing like the picture!!).

A decent story this that held it's impact as much on the promise of horror than the actual deed itself. the boys characters were well developed in quicktime which helped. I managed to get through it two sessions as well one Saturday evening and then a little more on the Sunday.

Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelly

Part of my desire to read classic horror but unlike Dracula this one did not work for me. A great idea of course but a poor execution. It took some dogged determination to finish it!

OMG!!!!!!!

So, the second bid on the house, to my astonishment, was accepted!!!!!

So, after some celebrating (!!) it seems there might be quite a lot to organise in order to get out of my current home by the 25th of April and get everything sorted to take the new place by then. By unfortunate timing though, I'll be off to Japan for 7 days tomorrow ;-) Still, I like a challenge!!!

looking forward to having my own real fire. Since we had one as a very small child I've always wanted another. Can't wait to get it cracking on a Saturday afternoon and settle down with my Kindle and a nice bottle of single malt :-)

Big Numbers!!!

On Monday I put a bid in on "the" house. It was a full 32 grand under the asking price so it was rejected pretty quickly. Since then the imaginary lady in St Albans that seems to keep coming up in conversation had her third viewing and then an made an offer so she came in at 25 grand under and got rejected. I've got no chain so today (Friday) I went back at 22 grand under and by the end of the day it had not been rejected so fingers crossed ;-)

Snow!!! (and the rest of the weekend's fun!!)

Interesting weekend it's turning out to be! Last night saw quite a heavy snowfall. I was up in Warboys for the night but had to be back for the kids at 9 am. Once it started getting heavy I went and moved the car form the untreated downhill estate road onto the flatter main road in the village, a good idea I think (especially given the two bottle of wonderful Jacob's Creek that Kate and I shared last night!). This morning I decided that an extra early start was required in order for a safe journey home. Inspite of it looking a little unsafe, especially on the snowy downhill section into Huntingdon, I made it back to Bar Hill pretty much ok. The hilly ringroad was still quite snowy and I was concerned that I might not make it up the hill withuot getting stuck, but I gave it some extra juice and things were fine. Once I got off that bus route and onto my estate road the real fun began and after I'd got stuck a couple of times and dug myself out only to get again stuck again rather quickly, I dumped the car (only about 100 m from home!) and walked the rest of the way.

This morning Chloe and I were out building a snow man and having a snowball fight. this afternoon she was back out with her brother.

On Friday night, after a relaxing day following my 7 am touchdown from Heathrow, we had a second viewing of a house. Robin and chloe came and Kate and her kids were there to give a second opinion. The house is quite wonderful. It's very large and spacious with 5 big bedrooms (the main bedroom is very generous and even the fifth bedroom is 9" x 6.9") and there is an ensuite to the main bedroom too. The kitchen is large and modern with a utility room and dining room and there is a garage and decent sized back garden. I think the further away form Cambridge and Huntingdon you go there more you get for your money. The owner has already moved back to Wales and is keen to do a deal and as I have no chain I think it could be game on. What are the catches? Well there is a main road not too far away from the back garden and after a first viewing on a quiet saturaday morning we purposely decided the second viewing must be in rush hour, it was noisier but no too bad. I probably won't be home too much during rush hour anyway and as the noise reduction from the double glazing is excellent it would only be an issue if the windows were open. It also has oil fired heating but there is gas available in the village so I'll need to factor that in when I make an offer, tomorrow!! ;-) :-)

I also got more tropical fish this weekend, four beautiful blue Guppies, which seem very happy in the tank.

Black Tie, White Noise by Daniel Martin

Interesting read this one. Cheap Kindle book purchase by Kate but I was thinking about it myself. Not the strongest plot or the best characters but it keep me wnating to know it ended and the lead male character was such a complete tosser that he did make me LOL quite a few times!!!

Ahmedabad

My second visit to India. About four years ago I went there with my then boss and we stayed for 3 or 4 days and toured round a few companies as were were planning to hire some of their chemists on a contract basis. We now have 12 of said chemists working in the lab of one of these particular companies and so it was about time we visited again, this time with my new boss.

India is a truly amazing place. The number of people is simply mind-boggling. the trafiic and the discorganisation is frightening and yet any bumps seem to be minor. everyone uses their horn all the time and yet there seems to be very little of the road-rage we see in our "developed" country. It's not often you see carts pulled not by horses, but by camels!

There is quite a lot of deprivation. It's odd staying in a luxury hotel and opening the curtains to look down on shacks and tents where poeple live. One morning I enjoyed a few minutes watching a stray dog chasing a goat and her kid about, until the kid ran on the road and nearly perished.

I had to have a typhoid booster before I went and of course I'm on malaria tablets. on the one eveing out we had there were mosquitos around and I have a couple of bites so fingers crossed.

On the plus side ....... it was 28 degrees c when we left. After overnight travel we arrived back at Heathrow at 7 am to -4 degrees centigrade!!!

Late additions: photos show us having dinner in the open-air restaurant, complete with biting mosquitos, in the lab with our welcome flower necklaces and red spots on our foreheads, me doing the dreaded bhangra (??) dancing and another of me preaching to the masses!!!!!!!

The Waiting Roon by F G Cottam

This was one of my choices based on the theme of ghosts and because it has good reviews on Amazon. Most of it was read on planes to, from and and within India. It tells the story of a retired rock star, Martin Stride, who finds that the old railway station on his extensive estate seems to be huanted. Locomotive sounds and smells are experienced, the sound of wartime music and the sight of a "soul-less" figure. He approaches Julian Steed the world-renowned TV ghost hunter, who he does not realise is a complete fraud and only thinking of his next episode, well at the outset anyway. The first half of this story seems to meander much more than required to the point of becoming a little tiresome but the story improves considerably in the second half leading up an exciting and quite unexpected ending. Add to that a bit of a love story (!!!) and overall it was well worth a read. Enjoyed it muchly!