Travolta's constructions

Travolta's erections have been coming up all over Japan in a new wave of cultural heritage restoration. Yesterday's excursion to Miyajima island once again proved disappointment for those wanting a clear view of the famed 5 storey pagoda. Standing tall with his finger pointing skyward, the sign was clear that the scaffolding remained, despite Saturday night's push to complete the restoration work.

On his recent visit to the 5 storey pagoda on Miyajima island, the king of the disco floor commented on the scaffolding We just can't get it down!

Apparently a lot more work than expected remains yet to be completed. With the rainy season soon to be upon us, there is no assurance of early completion. Hiroshima and Miyajima's tourism is impacted nonetheless.

shefu シェフ

shefu シェフ,
originally uploaded by vfowler.

At long last, I finally enjoyed the local specialty. It's called okonomiyaki and is a superb meal cooked right in front of your wrists. You know it's fresh! This particular eatery, in a building with 3 floors of okonomiyaki serving venues, includes a menu in English and a cool chef.

Standard okonomiyaki comes with egg, pork and either soba or udon noodles. Add your extras like garlic, onion, shrimp, squid, cheese, or perhaps cows' achilles for a custom version. After a hearty feast with a pair of fellow teachers, I can definitely agree now (finally), that it is a scrumptious and filling dining delight. I'll be back for more some day soon!

Coming to Hiroshima? Seek out one of these places serving okonomiyaki for your dinnner! ... or lunch, a snack, something to munch on, an alternative to whatever else you've been feeding yourself. Choose any excuse.

keeping fit?

Aussies versus Hiroshima's only bouldering facility

Note the sophisticated technology indicating the route to be climbed.
Green Arena's the only place in town!

All one needs to do to utilise this brilliant climbing facility is:

1. buy tickets from a vending machine before each visit (pretend you're going to a cinema)
2. take your shoes off before you enter the soft floor area
3. swipe your member card and press some magic buttons on a touch screen
4. hand over your ticket and member card to the smiley staff
5. find the route maps that you think you might try and plug the numbers into the sophisticated electronic route mapping system (a 486 that tells which LED's to light up, just like landing a jumbo jet at night time with the Christmas trees along side the runway)
6. shoe up and chalk up (neither are optional if you plan to last more than 15 minutes)
7. and don't take photos unless you have a photography pass - available free at the swipe-in counter!

And that's assuming you have survived running the gauntlet past the kyudo (Japanese archery) club.

toukasan festival

Toukasan festival, unfortunately I am largely missing out on... I'll blame the new work situation for putting me on a long shift Saturday night. Though I did catch a few friends at a house-warming party still wearing their yukata (summer kimono).

I'll be donning a rather expensive new pair of rock shoes instead. Expensive by my standards, though they are cheapest pair in the shop! Of course even my little foot is too big for a Japanese shop to stock, they came after I ordered them in my guessed size. Tonight at the unsung saviour of climber's sanity (aka the Green Arena) we'll be hangin' tough in the bouldering cave.

Other than that, new outfits I often slip into now-a-days are my business suits that are quickly becoming saturated in sweat. Not quite the emporer's new clothes that I had in mind. I asked my students at work yesterday if they mind if I turn the climate control down to 21 degrees (celcius).

"25," was the reply.
"How about 22?" I asked, noticing students clutching at cardigans and warm clothes.
"25."
"Is 23 okay?" I'm dying of dehydration here.
"25."
"24?" Please!
"25."
"Okay then..." If I melt into a puddle of simmering organs, it'll be your fault!

serious drugs

Yo baby! Slip me some skin brother!
What are the sign-writers in this country on?

mysterious mando mitami

tori gateway to the Gokoku temple,
originally uploaded by vfowler.

A work colleague mentioned the mando mitami festival for this weekend. Great, I am definitely interested. I mentioned it to everyone during the week leading up to the event and no-one had ever heard of this festival. I was beginning to worry this was someone's idea of a practical joke.

After a champion's dinner at an Indian restaurant, the 3 of us dodged and weaved through waves of pedestrians and zebra crossings, over the moat bridge and parked it near the Gokoku temple.

This is a video clip.
You can watch it on Vimeo.

It was definitely on. Stupid me left my tripod at home, but check out some of these photos anyway. The festival write-up called it a nuptual tie dance. If my Japanese was better, maybe I could confirm that... In the mean time, the pictures will have to speak for themselves. The drummers we're very loud and excellent, the sword dancers a little zany, so imagine a psychotic performance when you look at this photo and these short movie clips.

pick up the hotness

Pick up the hotness of your choice!

POW concentration camp #55

I'd have to say I was quite pissed off after finishing a hard days work, catching the train back to Hiroshima, only to find my bike wasn't where I'd parked it. A good hard look in the area was fruitless. Other bikes were standing there, staring at me like an idiot. It was no use:

• stolen... maybe;
• or perhaps the rumoured bike Nazis had cleared off with it.

In the unlikley case of a true theft, you'll never get your bike back. If the parking police have cruised the area and picked up your bike, it may take a journey, a few thousand yen, and a few curse words, but you can get your bike back.

After half a week of asking around for any intelligence on the location of the bike prisoner camp, a liberation mission came to light. I paid the ransom to the crusty gate-keeper and filed the paper work with the crusty key-master. "Gimme me bike back, you bastards!"

Free again, I rode off down the city streets, with the wind in my ¥1,000 cut hair. Even without a helmet, I ride safe in the knowledge that no vehicle driver would ever nail a cyclist.

The Geneva Convention was an agreement among the nations of the world directing countries in the proper treatment of Prisoners of War.

Japan never signed this agreement.

alien species

Working in Japan requires that one must register as an alien. Anytime you change address you must update your details at the local ward office. At first I thought it was a way for the cops to round up a few gaijin anytime they needed to raise revenue or have a laugh.

I just moved in to a different apartment last weekend and needed to update the details on my alien registration card. My Japanese language is still terrible, but luckily for me, many of the staff at the ward offices seem to know enough English to do the job. I swear he first asked me in Japanese though, "Which UFO did you arrive from?" At least that's what it sounded like...

After a few minutes he scribbled something on the back of my card and it was all over. Back to cycling by the riverside...

unhealthy ancient cinema habits

For all you folks back home that haven't taken advantage of the fact that movies come out to the cinema on time, please feel free to wait the extra months or years before I rave to you about some movie that you will have already forgotten about.

For some reason cinema and beer are really expensive in this country. Yet you can have the two together. Anyone know why they cost so much though? In fact food and eating healthy are far more expensive than smoking cigarettes. The bonus of smoking is that you lose your appetite and eat yet even less - I'm sure the Jenny Craig of Japan and the budget and financial planners are on to this!

the big Yamato

Yamato scale model,
originally uploaded by vfowler.

My friend Yukio, from Kobe, drove with his wife, Keiko, to Hiroshima for the weekend to visit their son and myself. What an honour!

After my Japanese language lessons finished for the week, I met up with Yukio and was introduced to the family before we headed for a very impressive Japanese restaurant.

The feast was exquisite and much more than just another chop-stick practice session for me. Real sashimi, 刺身, is exactly what was served up, so fresh that the head of this fish was still jittering with nerves - now that is what I call FRESH fish! Calamari and other delights all heartily stuffed their way into our tummies. おいしい Yum!

Indeed it was a grand dinner on Saturday night, followed by a Sunday drive to Kure, and a ferry ride to Etajima. Leaving the docks of Kure I saw the biggest cranes I've ever seen in my life, like mechanical arms of the BFG reaching out over the harbour waters.

A comic guided tour of the Etajima's Imperial Japanese Navy Candidate School followed our peaceful lunch on the beach.

In the afternoon we stopped in at the Yamato museum, detailing the history and artifacts of the incredible shipping and naval activities. The huge 1/10 scale model of the Yamato battleship is amazing and to think that it was 10 times bigger means it was absolutely gigantic. Big enough to make more than one Yamato movie.

Arigato gozaimas to Yukio, Keiko and Hideaki. You really made it an excellent weekend for me.

fripper

With work starting at 5pm each weekday, you've got to wonder how I spend my days. Most of them have vanished with seemingly simple tasks, like working out whether you really are buying the smallest packet of rice or something that is just not rice at all.

With a little prompting and a lot of help from my Japanese language classmate, I went and checked out apartment options around town. It is true: You can rent an expensive shoe box - and Japanese feet are generally smaller than others!

The stable and subtle sandwich grabbed my eye in the convenience store, while my friend grabbed a sushi pack. We munched inside the entrance of the Shukkeien garden, while garden staff were trimming the lawn and massaging the soil around the roots of a small bush.

Cruising around the garden, it is very pretty and very peaceful. A tiny tea plantation and a small bamboo forest stand by the river in the back corner. In fact everything here is a miniature version of many scenic views, the name literally means shrink-scenery garden. There's a big pond in the centre modelled on Xihu (West Lake) in Hangzhou, China, with plenty of carp fish and a type of jumping fish. Little islands around the pond are covered in turtles all praying to the sun god. All the animals here appear to be well trained and will approach tourists crossing the rainbow bridge, like Flipper, they put on a real show (probably more than 88 episodes worth).

Words can only begin to describe the beauty. I'm going back again soon to fork out another ¥250 and take some photos! A picture tells a thousand words, so get Flippr! - flickr wallpapers.

Yahua garden

Yahua garden,
originally uploaded by vfowler.

Yuhua Garden was built by the city of Hiroshima in commemoration of the fifth anniversary (1991) of its friendship city relationship with Chongqing in China's Sichuan province. Based on designs sent by Chongqing, the garden incorporates characteristics particular to Sichuan gardens and, with its classical design, reveals traditional Chinese garden-building theory and techniques.

"Yu" of Yuhua is the old name for Chongqing, and "hua" means splendor and beauty.

The garden covers approximately 1,700m² and is surrounded by a wall with lattice-style windows. Inside, a variety of traditional structures - a walkway, gazebos, and gates - and settings with a pond, trees, and rock formations all lend a unique ambiance, allowing visitors to meander through and enjoy the scenery in any of the four seasons.

The eastern half of the gardens forms the entrance and exit and is an arrangement of inner gardens and three gates, two small and one large. The western half, which evokes images of natural beauty, consists of a central pond (Xiqiu Pond), two gazebos (Liuxiang Gazebo and Yanxiu Gazebo), and one walkway (Danbi Walkway). These elements compose the heart of the garden.

The City of Hiroshima
March 1992

chizu keki & 14 cuppas

EAT IN TAKE OUT
CAFE & RELAXIN'

is the slogan for blue flat cafe, where Greg and Kate, my Japanese language classmates, and I stopped for a munch after class.

Mike and I had tried to grab a coffee here ages ago but the café doesn't open too early in the morning.

Greg and Kate ordered some substantial meals as their lunch. I'd already eaten my disastrous left-overs hours ago. I ordered a cafe latte and a チズ　ケキ　chizu keki (cheesecake) - just a little something to tie me over during the hour break before the Japanese tea ceremony.

Sounds a bit of a girly thing, but I'm thinking it can't be all girls at this tea ceremony otherwise it'd be called the Japanese Nuns' tea ceremony. If you're the sort of person that learns by making mistakes then this is the sure way to learn a lot in a short space of time, verging on total embarrassment. I'm certainly not getting any climbing done around here, but if you need to work on dexterity, then this is the ticket. It is comforting when my Japanese colleague tells me that theceremony is difficult even for Japanese people to perfect.

See how your bladder goes after about 14 cups of tea!

Hiroshima Flower Festival

Hiroshima Flower Festival,
originally uploaded by vfowler.

May 3^rd, 4^th & 5^th is the Hiroshima Flower Festival. I found no particular reason for calling it a flower festival, but the street parade was alive and kicking. Music, song and dance blaring down the street was fantastic!

Many locals seem to have tired of this annual event, which grew out of the celebations following the Hiroshima Carp's first championship in 1975, and are weary of the in your face commercialism that seems to override the "festival" spirit. The event does pull in thousands of people from near and far, and it's well worth a wander around, if only to observe the mad scramble for the flowers that adorn Peace Boulevard on the final day.

... http://www.gethiroshima.com/en/Events/details?eventid=413

bigger balls

Desperate for some fresh air and a quiet space, I took up the offer of some weekend time at Ian's place. Two hours by local train and ¥1,620 (AUD$20) later, I arrive in Kudamatsu. If you say it with an Australian accent, no ticketing staff will ever know where you want to go. So it's "Kudamatsu" ...? Yeah, that's what I said. What's the difference?

Well after dark, it is still important to practice your swing. Just south of the train station dozens of golfers were playing not your usual game of whack-fuck. Multiple storeys of swingers all practising their drive into the night air. With so many golf balls being slammed almost simultaneously, it makes a great drumming noise.

Without hesitation, Ian showed me around to the friendly Canadian neighbours' place. I noticed that people tend to live in houses a lot more here than Hiroshima. Many houses have absolutely brilliant gardens, all maintained to the n^th degree. Sharlene's place is still a typical Nova apartment, but about 10 times cleaner and nicer than what we're sharing in at the moment. Sharlene loaned her bike for me to use, a familiar mamachira style bike.

Kudamatsu is a little too small to really go out on the town. Even just for dinner, Ian and I headed to the adjacent Tokoyama? After a great tasting dinner and a beer to wash it down, we wandered around to explore the Saturday night offerings. The Russian doll venue with its proud poster displaying the wares, looked like it wasn't even open tonight. Several other bars we investigated for opportunity were strictly no gaijin venues, especially if you can't even ask for a drink in Japanese!

Sunday rained most the day. Ian located the nearby entertainment warehouse with karaoke, billiards, ten pin bowling and various poker machines. Ian proceeded to kick my arse in several games of 9-ball at the pool tables. He tried to teach me a few tricks along the way, but all I could walk away with was 2 things:

1. The balls are bigger, and thus the cue is heavier.
2. The tables are lower, and thus the cleavage is more apparent.
   

Great! Just need to work on my form a little more...

¥1000 face suck

Present giving is quite popular in Japan. This can be rewarding, and hence, is not undue.

My first attempt at getting a hair cut failed in a giant babble of Japanese speech. I thought it was going to work:

1. I'd located the nearby barber shop (with his blue, red and white striped candy pole spiraling in front a bit of a giveaway).
2. I'd met the barber inside during his open hours and perfectly cracked my phrase hair katto o onegai shimas.
3. Then the barber did some pointing to the clippers and the sides and back, followed by the scissors and the top of my head - I'm thinking great, let's get started.
4. Then I think he said something about running for prime minister, well he certainly gave a great speech and wasn't exactly directing me to his customer chair.
   

I got the low down from a work colleague, the convenient and cheap place to get the job done was right on the train station platform on your way to work. I located this salon with its English labeling on the sides, but there was not enough time last week before work to get the job done.

Finally yesterday I went early to ensure enough time. It was important as my first week observation was on at work that evening. Now you can just rock up, no appointment is really necessary at the 10 minute hair cut shop. However I only had a ¥10,000 note left and the first thing the staff did was point out the ticket machine on the wall that only accepts ¥1,000 notes. I went back through the station ticket gates, found a chemist and bought probably the most expensive toothpaste I'll ever buy in my life. Returning through the station ticket gates and back in the salon I crank a ¥1,000 note through the machine, it spits out a little receipt and the hairdresser takes it...

I still have no idea why they have this ticket system. In a mixture of ultra basic Japanese and English conversation, half-an-hour and the job is done and I look fine for work. The hairdresser has a vacuum that hangs from the ceiling and she informs me it will clean my head and face. Cool! For all my effort and patience (or maybe it's my lucky day), the hairdresser presents me with a gift of a comb that is made from recycled paper. Great! - and it's waterproof. Another big "Arigato".

I thought I'd try this hairdresser next time...

gateway to Hiroshima castle

gateway to Hiroshima castle,
originally uploaded by vfowler.

A couple of photos from Saturday afternoon. Check 'em out.

scooter girl reality

Maybe you have, maybe you haven't seen the typically Japanese style cartoon characters of a person riding a scooter wearing a helmet and those old school flying goggles propped up on the helmet. I've seen a few of these characters in true life down town Hiroshima and at first I nearly burst out laughing. Now I just want to photograph it to show all you guys.

where's my bike?

parking - what a hassle

kinda bonsai

Oxygen can be hard to come by at times. I bought this chap at the Sunday market to add some life and fresh air to the apartment. Central Park was loaded with dozens of stalls selling tiny seedlings to ancient bonsai with a super twisted trunk costing around　¥100,000!
Hopefully my little tree stays small for the next month. We have to change apartments by the end of May.

welcome dinner

The first half of last night's entertainment was a dinner party for our branch office at Via Monte Tina. A welcome to the new branch teachers that somehow turned into just that for the new teachers except me.
For the first time since working in the branch, I could actually talk to the front line staff and ask their names! It's crazy to be working with people for over a week and not even know who they are!

hard road

After a fantastic start to learning Japanese language the weekend before, I was looking forward to this weekend's lessons. At the Hiroshima International Centre the lessons are at 10am and 1pm on Saturdays - 1 of my days off, unlike most other teachers. Besides the fact that they are free, the girl that ran last week's afternoon session is quite cute.

This week I thought I'd really get into it by attending both the morning and the afternoon class. Not only did the morning class start before the 10am start time, it also had some crusty old man who really couldn't teach to beginners very well. I was studying the way he was teaching and making mental notes of what not to do with my own beginner students. After the crusty old man expected me to know the answers to his questions which I couldn't even understand, and respond in a language I know stuff all about, I bumped the student along side me,

"Are we in an advanced class? I feel like I'm a little behind what the hell is going on here."

I was almost about to leave when they rotated the crusty teacher out, split the class into smaller groups and introduced more useful teachers.

All was good again in the afternoon with the cute teacher and the fun games we play when we don't know shit about another language. Moral of this story is simple: if you don't like to sleep in on Saturday morning and you want the mental begeesus kicked out of you, try the morningclass; otherwise stick to cute instructors and fun games.

cohabitants

Sharing a house with a drunkard bum is quite funny a lot of the time. When the resident turtles became the new scapegoat for waking our hung-over house-mate, I had to laugh and silently commend the underwater achievers.

domestic wilderness

Entering our apartment: after evading the avalanche of shoes and running the gauntlet of the 13 umbrellas, hiking past the volcanic mountains of recycle and rubbish, I am confronted by the native washing machine!

Strategic assistance from the house-mate's girlfriend and my laundry mission is accomplished.

the numbers game

Back home in sunny Melbourne, my job security was left to reputation and word-of-mouth. Relying on existing clients to recommend you to further clients is risky if you intend to grow your business. I had enough work to keep me going. As often is the case though, the demand is either in flood or drought. Regardless of demand, it remains important to maintain a high standard of product to ensure your reputation continues.

My best mate and I have been contracting our services to our clients for long enough. When the time came for a holiday late last year and the opportunity for a large group of friends to visit India, we both signed up for that! The clients naturally needed to know, who will be running the projects in our absence? My usual first option is to recommend my best friend and... that really wasn't going to work this time. Who do you recommend when you don't know anyone else that could possibly do your job?

Now here in the sweaty metropolis of Hiroshima, in my new job, I am experiencing some complete contrasts:

• I don't work by myself at all. There are several other teachers and support staff in the branch office.
• I have been under observation throughout training and I have additional observations coming up soon.
• The pay goes into the account every month - that's a welcome first that I'm really looking forward to.
• We cannot prepare for any classes at home!

More than anything else, if I can't do the job, somewhere another teacher is sitting in waiting. Throughout Japan, we are a-dime-a-dozen. Just as in my old job, it will be important to maintain a high standard. However that feeling of being irreplaceable cannot exist for me now.

jelly the building

Whoah! The whole apartment building just wobbled like a jelly slapped with a spoon. I guess that was the first tremor I really felt... Eight floors off the deck... can't possibly jump that far... I should look into buying a new climbing rope...

Mr Whippy everyday?

Here, ｔhe sounds on the street, in restaurants, on train platforms, etcetera, are all quite strange or unexpected. If you close your eyes at a pedestrian crossing, you might think you are inside a pinball parlour. In Gusto, the 24-hour local chain restaurant, birds chirp when you open the front door, and when you are ready to order pressing your table-side button drives a big ding-dong out of the PA system. I'm always expecting an oversized flat-headed man to appear at my table, "You rang?"

Back at the apartment, the interesting sounds include those directly through our paper-thin walls.

What's that, you wanted to sleep in? Oh sorry, I usually only snore when I'm drunk.

But my absolute favourite is the ritual melodies cranked out of the nearby school's giant PA system. Every morning I hear the tune and I'm hoping mum has some spare change so I can drop down the 8 floors and walk out to Mr Whippy's van...

bike police

I could have walked to work if I was more organised. Please bear in mind that for me, getting to work used to mean getting out of bed and walking down stairs. I'm out of time for that walk today. In true Japanese style, without a helmet and riding down the footpaths with my silver bike, basket on the front and mud guards all 'round, I rode (...actually I probably hooned a bit quicker than the Japanese ever would). I parked with about 30 others.

After a long day of work, I find the pink paper slip stapled around the handle bars. My housemate explained that the pink slip means I parked in the wrong place for too long and that if the cops would come past, they can tow it away!!

first class sleeper

Our on the job training began today and to kick us off with a flying start, we taught the first half of a 40 minute class. I was a little surprised that we would be doing so much on our very first day. We'd had a few hours of training before it though... So there are several hundred things we are all trying to jam into our heads before this first class, quite daunting really.

No, I cannot have my cuffs unbuttoned, despite the fact that the building's heating is set to over 30 degrees.

I'm trying to get used to wearing a suit to work, find my way around town, find out what tastes like good eating, absorb the techniques of teaching, learn some Japanese language myself, work out how I am going to get internet access, iron my shirt on a micro-ironing-board only 10cm off the floor...

Then it's on! The bell rings and in we all go to our booths, 2 students waiting in mine. We do brief introductions then one of my students appears to be falling asleep! Shit! No! I wanted to wake him and say
Hey, not now, I'm being observed by my superiors.
Here have a Red Bull!

banking in the high tech world

In my most comfortable but least touristy non-work clothes I dropped in to Hiroshima Bank. After the first staff realised my lack of Japanese language, she quickly walked me to a counter and shrugged off another staff to round up the most proficient English speaker. Now comes the paperwork and the catch is, although this staff could translate for me the information required for each box, the writing had to be mine.

A signature would never suffice to open my new account. Instead we had to use a personal hanko stamp issued to us at orientation yesterday. The forgery possibilities are limitless. My friendly staff assisting me next verified my name; it seems I am destined to be called "Burnin'"! After a moment she produced the Japanese katakana character translation and asked me to practice first then write it myself in the form box... For all I know I could've been writing Elbis Presley's name!

After sitting in the waiting area for a few minutes, she calls me back, "Burnin' Fowler." She presents me with my new account passbook and explained in her best visual demo that I need to actually insert the passbook in the ATM for transactions!

A big "Arigato" to my helpful bank staff.

the Miyajima experience

For those outdoor minded folk, Miyajima island is a gorgeous haven, only a short train and ferry ride from my apartment in Hiroshima. The hike to the summit of Mount Misen sounds easy at only 530metres. Let's see how your legs feel for the next few days though! Check out some of my photos from Miyajima...

signs of life

Interesting signs...
Just something I spotted while walking and trying to locate Craig's work branch.

the apartment

Sapporo beer girl welcomes everyone!

Tim has been stuck in the apartment alone for a little too long..?

land of the rising sun & underwear from vending machines

Hope you had a good fright. The plane seemed fine and the airport is quite safe. The scariest part so far is my personal stench - I am in dire need of a shower.

Like a giant platypus bill, the nose of our bullet train pushes through the thick, grey Osaka air with a Japanese efficiency...

Amanda and I are escorted from the platform by Sharon Travers. Sharon's Celtic accent has been pounding the ears in Japan for the last 10 years!

Like Melbourne, we have a few trams here in downtown Hiroshima, but without the lane-sharing madness that causes so many Melbournian driver blunders. My expectation of streets thick with human traffic goes unmet. A 1 minute walk to Amanda's chilly abode and then a 2 minute walk to my Nikko building. There's no doubt this is a blokes' flat.

Sharon guided us through the alien registration after lunch at Gusto. After my misunderstanding a month ago, I was happy to order tonkatso from the picture menu. Amanda also shares a strong passion for food - instant way to put yourself in the good books of most men! Our serves of Tonkatsu arrive each with a chilled poached egg in a side dish...

The fascinating aspect of our apartment toilet is the hand wash basin above the flush water tank. Flush the loo and the pump drives the wash basin tap and drains into the fill tank - amazingly economical use of water for a country that will never have a drought.

With beer in hand it doesn't take long to be entertained by wrestling blairing out of the pay TV. Tim is my Australian flat mate and Craig is the Scottsman. The word for groceries is messages according to Craig which turns into our running joke for the night.

memories from down under

This photo was taken a long time ago in a land not so far away, on one of numerous trips with some of the A-list of hiking friends! Saying farewell to Paul and Karen over dinner last night was sad, but I know we'll meet again, and more than likely on another grand adventure!

My favourite neighbourhood Thai restaurant had customers spilling out on the street. It's a few other people's favourite too! We hoed in to a grand feast at Singh's Indian Restaurant and followed up with no other than a 2-scoop from the Gelobar. And remember, you can only have desserts before main course when mum isn't around!

Japanese Jenny Craig

Chunky Soup: The Sumotori Diet
These guys have a scary appetite!

I'm always interested to try a new restaurant though. Last night my friend Melanie, organised a farewell gig at the Italian Waiter's Restaurant. Great food... I will miss Italian cuisine somewhat over the next 12 months.

We knocked back a couple of pots first in the bar downstairs. The rather uncreative name 20 Meyers Place is quite a trendy little bar, as you might expect for this end of town. With Stella Artois and good ol' Carlton Draught both on tap, who can really complain. Did you know that Carlton Draught is Australia's biggest selling tap beer? Loop across the laneway is a bit more flashy and loungy.

It was fantastic to catch up with some of the greatest friends I'll ever have and work-family and my aunty and uncle too. Thank you all for a great night and for making the time to farewell me on my way.