Boar 'n' beans

Chaos and disorder now officially reign, like that bit in the movie where gravity fails and everything in the spaceship floats up and off in random directions. After a very odd two days at work on Monday and Tuesday which toggled between boredom and blind panic that I wasn't going to get everything done, the week gave out and I started an impromptu 7 day holiday that I'm now through 5 and a bit days of. In that time we managed to get out to Himeji, Sasayama and anywhere else that least reminded us of job applications and looming deadlines. The gravity kicks back in on Wednesday which I'm not at all upset about; at the moment I'm struggling to focus on anything until it crashes down on me in a heap.

Cold comforts

With no small amount of relish, I picked one of the low hanging fruits of working in an office on Thursday, by deciding that I wanted Friday off and a couple of approvals later, it was so. Teachers generally can't do this - they don't get leave outside of school holidays and that annoying classroom bit of the job tends to get in the way of duvet days. So while I'm working longer hours and getting less official holidays, being able to kill a not-so-busy working week with laser-guided application of leave is delicious. As is haggis, incidentally.

Wit beyond measure

The Harry Potter costume reached its cymbal-crashing climax on Friday night, helped along in no small part by the enthusiasm arms race of the previous few days. It went from "sorting out our costumes" to "dinner and sorting out our costumes" and then kind of escalated from there.
"You have an oven?" said Len. "I'll bring cake." I can't think of too many things he didn't bring.

Barely holding together

Lisa's parents arrived on Friday, in remarkably good spirits given that their plane was delayed approximately 22 times. Like all our visitors, their trip so far has been a whirlwind sweeping through Kobe and the greater Kansai area. Hundreds of temple tickets flitter around in the twister, along with the occasional "all you can eat" dinner receipt. If you listen carefully, just for a moment, you may hear some words carried on the howling winds:

God, my feet are sore.

Growing old disgracefully

Beer garden season seems to have officially opened in Japan now, which means the fake palm tree and spring roll industries are booming. Buildings across the metropolitan area are unfurling their spiky green astroturf, Hawaiian shirts are being reluctantly buttoned up and everyone, including us, is rushing toward the beer machines. Saturday night was one such example, where we headed to Himeji for Andy's 27th birthday. The sensible had to end eventually, I suppose.

Himeji hanami hangover hilarity

"We'll need to get the train at about 10 to get to Himeji on time", Lisa's message ominously warned in the wee hours of Saturday morning. This would probably have been a good time to go pay up and go home, but having another whiskey and bellowing out "Pretty Woman" seemed like a much better idea.

It wasn't. Or was it? By this stage, not even my hindsight could see straight.