Bleach

The anime I have been watching recently after finishing Monster is Bleach. There are about 140 episodes. 2 days of solid anime entertainment. I am 45 episodes in and it is pretty good so far, although a little Dragonball Z esque in its ever increasing power of the combatants.

Work

I have had to actually work this last week. It has been annoying. The guy who sits behind me, and, most importantly, can see my computer screen, normally works from home and only comes in once a week, if that. He broke his computer though, so has had to work from the office, so i can not while away my day idly surfing the internet, occasionally pretending to work. Although I have been considerably more productive at work, I want things to go back to the way they were...

This week I have been entertained by our French IT guy coming in for a day. He has been living in Scotland for the last 3 years and still has a strong French accent when he speaks. He has picked up Scottish terminology though and will say things like "that was pretty funny like." It is a good way of talking.

I also was very much looking forward to interviewing a Swedish librarian this week. I am sure you can imagine what i was expecting, but i was disappointed by the reality. I was confronted by a big fat dark haired thing when i walked out. It really was quite the let down.

And I am off to Japan on Sunday. Woooo. How very exciting.

Lost Phone

I lost my phone on Saturday night. I think I probably lost it when I was jumping up and down while watching a good ska band on Saturday night. Because I am cool and young and watch good ska bands on Saturday nights. The band was called Imperial Leisure. They were good to watch. Quite the showmen. I went along to this trendy young person's evening for a friend's birthday and was sceptical before my arrival but ended up having a very good time. Apart from losing my phone. I am slightly annoyed about the photos i will have lost, but it was kind of inevitable as i was never going to be organised enough to get them on to a computer and i was bound to break or lose the phone sooner or later. I don't have a very good record with electronics. This is the first phone i have lost though. I normally break them. I have been through about 6 phones, 2 ipods and broken my computer a couple of times in the last couple of years.

Good Work Barry

Barry Bonds breaking Hank Aaron's home run record is an amazing achievement. 756 home runs in 21 and a half seasons of baseball is unbelievably impressive.

Yes, he may have taken steroids, which would certainly help you hit the ball further but you still need the skill to hit the ball.

My main complaint about the whole situation is the way he is being treated by the media and fans. He has never been found guilty. Mark McGwire, also suspiciously big, suspected of steroid abuse and never found guilty, was hugely celebrated by media and fans alike in 1998 when he broke the single season home run record. In a different sport, Lance Armstrong has been accused of drug abuses after dominating the sport and has never been found guilty, yet he is still an American hero. All 3 acheived amazing things. All 3 have been suspected of cheating. Only 2 are considered sporting heroes? Hmmm.

Comic book shop

I went to see Rear Window at Somerset house outdoor cinema last night. It is a good setting to watch movies, particularly that one. Rear Window really is very good. It is how movies should be. Nothing fancy, just relying on a very good script and good actors to entertain.

I met a friend before hand. He has also been watching anime recently and so we were both intrigued to see what manga was for sale so rather than meeting in a pub or at a train station we arranged to meet in a comic book shop. How cool are we? I ended up buying the 2nd episode of Death Note. It seems good, although it took me a few pages of confused reading before I realised you read it starting from the back.

lobster

It is cheap lobster month at Belgos so i went out for some delicious, relatively cheap lobster last night. mmmmm. I like lobster. Not only is it tasty, but it is also fun to eat. It wasn't as fun as the first time i ate lobster though, as we only had crackers and a long pointy thing and i wasn't given a plastic bib with a picture of a lobster on it. The first time i ate it i was fully bibbed up and was only provided an ineffective set of plastic crackers, so the big stone in the middle of the table was the tool to break open your lobster, which is clearly the best and most fun way to eat lobster.

I also got the splashback from a worryingly large pigeon shit hitting a sign on my trousers as i stood outside texting. It was good i was not standing directly under the torrent. It would have been truly unpleasant.

No Heating

We spent the last Winter without heating in our flat. There seemed to be a problem with the boiler. Rather than call the landlord to get it fixed we took the easy option and did nothing. Yes, we could see our breath in the living room on occasion, but a bit of cold never did anyone any harm. The gasman had to finally come in today and do some sort of check required by law on our gas system. He quickly pointed out how to use the heating. All it required was a little competence... Oh well. Think of all the money we saved and the good we did for the environment not using heating. We don't look so stupid now do we?... Oh

Monster

And I have been watching lots of Monster. 72 episodes of exciting serial killer investigating action. I am 25 in so far. It is good. Not FMA or Death Note good but not far off...

curry

The curry I ate last night was delicious. Prawn Puri followed by lamb tikka korai... Mmmmm. It is treating me considerably less well today though. I have been doing some very unpleasant things this morning. I pity my colleague.

On the walk down from Highgate tube to the curry house, there is a shop that sells furnishings for the home. Although whose homes they are filling I worry about. They sell nothing but ostentatious and tacky pieces of crap. Mirrors in the shape of golfers, poorly rendered wall hangings of Michelangelo's creation of Adam, horribly jewelled vases. It really is chock full of chintzy junk. Yet the items in the front window do change and they haven't gone out of business yet. So some people must be looking at these gaudy trinkets, approvingly examining the expensive price tags and filling their homes with tat. Who???