The dumpling king, a tale in 2 parts (Part 1)

I'm not sure how busy and tiring I thought being a tour guide was going to be, but I don't think I came within a bull's roar of it. Correct answer: bloody busy, stupidly tiring. It's been fun, but in a too-much-all-at-once movie marathon kind of way; by this stage of proceedings I don't care whether the good guys win, I just want to go home to bed. Like all movie marathons, this one has some good stories to go with it. Let's go get the inevitable McDonald's breakfast and I'll share the highlights.

I'm going to pretend I've been virtuous and not skipped out on my blogging duties - this is "last week's" post. Part 2 will be posted once I'm back in the swing and can no longer stand "Blog notes.doc" watching me from my desktop (very soon).

And then I ate a whole sheep

Having just finished a long weekend and my last official day of work, I find myself reflecting. It's a time of old ends and new beginnings; as the sun sets on my working life and rises over the holidays, I find myself turning my measured gaze to what the future holds. Should I put some pants on? Should I have another almond chocolate thing?

No. Yes.

Shopping, damned shopping and outlet parks

Our shopping tour of the greater Kobe area continued this week with a junket out to "Sanda Premium Outlet Park", a surprisingly far away shopping centre that felt like the equivalent of getting public transport from Morley to Mandurah. It's also the first time I've seen the word "premium" properly used in Japan, given that everything there was mind bogglingly posh. The word typically means "10 yen more and with a gold wrapper".

60% off and still $2000? Now we're talkin' premium.

Celebrating 27 years of not dying

Exams have officially started now, which means a whole lot of not much for a couple of weeks until we break up for summer holidays. This can only be a blessing because I seem to have become a crotchety old loafer since my birthday on Sunday. I'm sitting in the staffroom nodding off in the cool of the air conditioner, grumbling at the thought of having to do anything and frowning at everyone that walks past.

My pants? Up to my sternum.