Just back from a very cold weekend at Shimoda.  They were actually talking about having snow down there!  The beach house is not exactly designed for cold weather so it was warm clothes and bedding.  I found a use for the bedding that I ordered from the States and was the wrong size.  It worked perfectly down there as it created a huge warm envelope and was very snug.  Well once in and warmed up.

We spent Saturday at the building store picking up all sorts of supplies. Sunday was spent putting them to good use!  We have cleared all the rubbish from the back of the house and the rear mini garden has been liberated and replanted with ferns from various pots.  Its all looking rather nice there!  After much measuring the spray paint came out and there is now a riot of fluresant colours making out new walls, water, sewage, gas and electrical.  Might not sound like much but it given some foundation as to what the house will become and makes it easier for the builders to now see the idea’s in progress!

The ‘Style Statement’ is underway, or at least started.  The annex is going to be rebuilt in clean modern lines and will ‘float’ alongside the original old house which now that its been totally cleared out and has ‘breathed’ is actually really lovely, and doesn’t need any major work.  The tatami for the two old rooms is ready, but won’t go back in until its all finished.  The bathroom plans are in place, and now the kitchen layout has been pinned down as well.  It also sounds like something that could have been done ages ago, but its just taken time to get it right and in place.  A system kitchen will now be hunted down so its going to have a very modern feel, thats now dictated that the whole annex should have this feel as well. 

Now to make it all happen!  Well Di has to make it all happen, me is just the side kick!

I’ve been watching something interesting over the last 7 years of working at BlocRoad (I think this is the first I’ve mentioned where I work and yes it is coded, won’t take a geniues to break it). When I started at BlocRoad it was unknown to me that the IT Manager would be blackballed and all who reported to him tarred with the same brush.

Its been an interesting lesson as after this manager left the new manager didn’t just blackball us but sunk us well low as we came from the ‘outrider’ division. One particular manager was very bad, he had attached himself to an up an coming manager who endorsed this blackball approach even thou my team were experts in outrider.

The love is felt when this up and coming manager went up and cAme down, much to his surprise, and little to our own. I mean folks how long can you really bullshit and be a bad manager. Okay far enough I will say Bullshit, be technically good, but still a crap manager. What our little tail coater didn’t know is that he had back the wrong horse and we all know it! Worse during his little rise to way over occuplise power is he single handely managed to piss everyone who worked for him or new him.

Now I admin skill misplaced where ever. And this piece of skill I really must admine Dick Woodman seemed to be able to single handely piss just about everyone who work fo rhime off, a skill that really must be admired only for its completeness.

Now it seems the tide is turning and Dick has no friends to support him, well come on, when you totally overwhelmed with you responsiblities, and umm no who work for you actually to help, oh come on , it is amusing. Okay amusing is hear Dick in conference calls and hearing him spout the same old tired verbage from 4 years ago! you know the stuff that means you haven’t done anything. Apparently his teacher didn’t impart the lesson of how to update you vocabularly to still talk crap in the modern age.

And who say Karma doesn’t exist. latesr

I’ve been so bad and not posted any entires.  Well quick recap spent most of January in Boston freezing my arse off it was that cold.  Was a fantastic trip and have a great time there.  Loads and Load of work, but found enough time to enjoy myself.

After spending a great weekend with a friend in North Carolina I came up with a great idea for my 40th birthday.  Lets so somewhere cool!

Well after a few conversations it appear that Antigua Jan 2009 is the goal! 

Back now in Japan and its snowing here as well, go figure that.

Hey, its this time last year I was discussion chemo drugs that I was going to get.  What a year, great to be almost back to normal.  Just spent three weeks working in Boston and it was great.  Okay, frecking cold, but still great!

Came across an interesting situation of how some people get there kicks in
snow storms.

Was waiting at the Downtown crossing T station today and this guy was
telling all these people that to goto the South Station they needed to
cross to the other platform. Was rather amusing as after I had told the
first couple that this was the correct line they started telling everyone
else.

Doesn’t really need any links to other websites for this piece of news, just look up the headlines and its all there. Today 11 Jan New Zealand is in mourning, one of our last great hero’s has passed away.

So damn proud of being a kiwi!

While it was a pain having to leave NZ so quickly after Christmas, it did mean that I was back in Japan for New Years. Normally everyone will leave to go home to family for this, so Tokyo was relatively empty and just left us orphans to celebrate how we could.

I decided that another dinner party was in order.I came across Cornish Rock Hens in the supermarket a few weeks back, and brought one to try it out and see what was what. Well the initial test of just thrawing it, season and baste with butter in hot oven was a huge sucess. Oddly thou I could not find that many recipes on the net for them, or rather all the recipes seemed to be the same. Stuff with wild rice something something! Time for some creativity.

The theme was Spanish (so why the hell I served a Som Tam salad as a starter is anyones just. I think I was just so excited to see a green papaya in the market that I had to do something with it. There was a recipe in my new 1080 Spanish book for Cornish rock hen, but it was for frying and that was really something I wanted to do. Recipe for the rock Hens can be found here.

After a nice long dinner it was time to wrap up and head out to a temple to see the new year in. Unknown to me there is the temple of the 47 Ronin (long story) just up the road from me. A quick cab ride (cos it was so cold, and my directions are not that good a night with no map) and we reached this wonderful little temple. There was a small fire of cedar going to keep warm and a moderate line of people to ring the big bell.

Tradition is that the bell is rung 108 times at new year to represent the 108 sins of man! It was way to cool an opportunity not to get in line and do it. You are also give a small prayer that you hand back a year later. It was all rather solomn, with huge dignity. All four of us had a go, and later over hot chocolate and marshmellows I found out that the other 3 (even having lived in Japan for so long) had never rung the gong on New Years. Apparently at the major temples its just a nightmare of queuing. Finally got to bed at 4am, but it was a fantastic and very memorable way to see the new year in.

I’m back from the Christmas holiday with family.  I should have written more about it but was just so happy being home and away from it all that writing blog stuff didn’t seem to be on my mind.  Christmas day was spent with my brother and his young family in Auckland.  I was abrutly woken on Christmas day by my nephew demanding I get up to open presents.  Follow 5 minutes later by his mother who was all prepared to let my airbed down so she could open hers as well!