Gary's Boring Blog

Looking to the Future, With One Eye Trained On the Past

I turned 31 yesterday. Not a huge event, but for me an interesting one, none the less. Bizarrely enough, this year seems more of an important milestone in my life than last year, when I hit the big 30.

I find myself increasingly thinking about the future, and what it holds. In the short-term, we have the anxiety of Rosie's surgery to deal with. After that, at some point will come the huge change of moving to the UK. The all-important topic of the second child will rear it's (ugly for the first few days, then hopefully becoming cuter and cuter) head at some point. In the longer term, now I have both a wife and a child to provide for, I am becoming increasingly interested in pension details, life insurance, and lots of other mundane financial nonsense. No longer can I just go out and buy an iPod mini without thinking about it - I now have to save my pennies for a few months! And career concerns linger on. I am confident that I can find a job in the UK. But can I find a job which is fulfilling and where I can learn new skills, but still spend lots of time with my family and get paid enough to pay off a mortgage for a house in Britain?

With this dreaming/worrying/thinking about the future, comes a bit of nostalgia for the past. I have recently been thinking a lot about my friends (current and lapsed!) in the UK, university life, and special times spent with my family. If I have the choice of listening to a new song from 2004 or a 'classic' Pulp track from 1992 or a Style Council song from the mid-eighties, I increasingly find myself going for the 'classic' songs of my youth.

Do I just spend too much time on the train daydreaming, or am I becoming a character in a Nick Hornby novel?

British Press Hound Referee

On a similar "what he hell?" note, the ref who presided over England's loss to Portugal is now being harrassed by the British media. Those wonderful folks working for the tabloids believe that Mr Meier's possible mistake robbed England of a rightful victory, and he should therefore be punished.

Some English newspapers published Meier's telephone number and email address after he disallowed Campbell's header in the dying minutes of England's quarter-final defeat to Portugal. (BBC)

Leaves me once again wondering what on earth some people are thinking of. Anyone who emailed or called the ref (and there will have been some who did, though probably not my regular readers), should be ashamed of themselves.

Kent Men Attack Portugese Restaurant

I had a hunch that this would happen. England loses to Portugal. English morons attack vandalize a Portugese restaurant. And in my home county, the lovely Garden of England, as well. There are some clever folks in the world...
Story is here

Heart Surgery

Some good news to share. Until today, we were not sure whether Rosie would need 2 operations, or just one. If the doctors decided to fix Rosie's heart in 2 stages, the second stage would be 1 year after the first, so we were not really looking forward to that gap.

Anyway, we went to the hospital today and we were told that the work can all be done in 1 operation, which makes us both worry a little less. Just the whole process of going into hospital and being operated on is obviously a bit stressful for Rosie, so to go through that process once rather than twice is a big relief.
The schedule is not decided yet, but the surgery will be fairly soon.
Watch this space, especially if you have been with us for a while...

(I still get a big lump in my throat when imagining her being taken away to be operated on, but I have to be just as big and brave as Rosie is!)

Crying Italians

The Italians got knocked out of Euro 2004. They are now complaining of some kind of conspiracy against them.

"The way the game developed shows that the two teams were aiming for a draw" , stated Italian soccer federation president Franco Carraro, talking of the Sweden-Denmark game.

All sounds rather familiar. Remember this from World Cup 2002, when the Italians lost...?

'It was a scandal. The truth is he (the referee) had his mind set against us - this was a desired elimination,' said striker Francesco Totti, sent off in extra time in Korea's 2-1 win.

Or this?

'The referee was a disgrace, absolutely scandalous. I've never seen a game like it. It seemed as if they just sat around a table and decided to throw us out,' Franco Frattini, Italy's minister for public offices, said.

Last time the Italians were 'cheated' out of a major tournament, the Korean striker who scored the vital goal was fired by his Italian club. I wonder if the same will happen to Dane Tomasson?

Message to any Italians whining about the result - grow up and play the game like men. You got knocked out because you weren't good enough. End of story.

(world cup stories from espn)

How's Rosie?

We are very lucky to have lots of people around who care about us, and about the welfare of Rosie. I frequently get asked "How's Rosie?" This is not a rant, but just an explanation of how hard it is to answer that question.

She looks fine. She laughs and smiles, she cries and burps, just like any other baby. Her legs are very strong, and she takes great delight in kicking her mummy and daddy whenever they get near her flailing legs. She chatters happily to herself, when she is not busy shoving toys of all sizes and any cord or wire she sees into her mouth. She loves being held, and loves being put into her buggy and driven around. She delights in seeing and touching new things, and is quite happy to meet new people as long as they smile and play with her.

Yet the doctors tell us she is getting worse. Her heart is not pumping the blood around her body as well as it needs to. The incidents of cyanosis (lack of blood to the extremities) are increasing. We have been told they need to operate as soon as possible. It was heart-breaking to see them wheel her away to just do the catheter test last time. I don't even want to think about how it will feel when they actually perform the surgery.

Anyway, if you see me in the next few weeks or months, please don't ask "how's Rosie?", because the answer is not an easy one to give or receive.

Rosie's Virginity Sold Online...

...of course not our baby Rosie!

One of my colleagues pointed out this story about a male university student auctioning his virginity, then I read that it has already been done in England with a girl called Rosie!
Story (LINK)

For the guy, I can totally understand his motives - most 18 or 19-year old guys would walk on hot coals to have sex with an experienced, older woman, but this guy is actually getting paid. Amazing! To be honest, Rosie Reid's story seems a little more political - she's trying to make a point about university fees, and she is also a lesbian, so apparently finds the act 'abhorrent'. (perhaps I am just a male hypocrite...)

What is the world coming to, though, eh...?

Rosie Skywalker

Rosie had her catheter test at the hospital today. Whe I arrived she was all kitted out in a white Luke Skywalker-style outfit, ready to do battle with the dark side! She was also heavily sedated, so was fairly sleepy, and none too impressed with the various cords and wires that were attached to and poking out from her body.

She was then wheeled away, and the sight of her tiny little body in the big bed disappearing into the unknown made both me and Megumi shed a tear or two.

Now, in case some readers have no idea what a 'catheter test' is, I will explain. In order to measure the movement of blood around the vessels of the heart, a long tube was inserted (by injection) into one of Rosie's veins in her leg. It was then manipulated along the vein and into the heart. The doctors put dye on the catheter, so that when they tookan x-ray, they could see more clearly. In an adult, a local anaesthetic would be fine, but since she is small, a general anaesthetic was necessary.

Explanation A (LINK)
Explanation B (LINK)

As it mentions on one of the pages above, for kids, this test is a bit tricky, because after the test, the patient had to remain still for a few hours. Now Rosie doesn't know how to stay still. She generally kicks her legs quite fiercely. Since the doctors had just made a small hole in her leg, they didn't want her moving too much or the wound would not heal. So, when she came back from the test, while she was still heavily drugged, they tied her to the bed so she couldn't move. The Luke Skywalker outfit swiftly turned into a straightjacket, to prevent our baby from escaping the madhouse of the university hospital! I'm sure she is crying, and pleading with Megumi to pick her up, but for the rest of the day she just has to lay on her back, trussed up like a chicken.

England Fans Riot

So, England lost to France at football. As most people know, England 'fans' cause trouble regularly, and losing is an excellent excuse to fight with foreigners and trash small European towns. However, someone will have to explain to me why people rioted across England the other night. Fighting with French people, I can understand (but not condone). Attacking French restaurants, if I really stretch my imagination, I can just about see a sliver of logic too...but attacking the English police???

Obviously, trying to find logic in hooligan behaviour is not wise, but you have to wonder what good people think will come of ruining the areas where they live.

Some 400 people were involved in disturbances in Croydon, south London, where police were pelted with missiles and 13 people were arrested.

There were 17 arrests in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, and 31 across Hertfordshire.

And a further 11 were held after two police cars were set alight in Boston, Lincs, and a group of up to 60 people threw bricks and bottles at police.

From the BBC (LINK)

Low Birth Rate...

The Asahi helps to explain the low birth-rate with this article (LINK) "For some young Japanese, sex isn't much fun at all".

A short excerpt:

Abe cites two reasons why these outwardly healthy young men avoid sex requiring a partner. One, he says, is the rise of the Internet, the other is the proliferation of huge video stores stocked with shelves of porn either on video or DVD.

``We live in an age where one can readily experience virtual sex, a simulated experience without an actual partner, through the Internet or the DVD,'' he says.

Hmmm...internet porn replaces sex...what is the world coming to???

Japan's Birthrate

Japan's birthrate is now at 1.29%, much lower than predicted. This will add to the pressures on the pension system we have discussed before...
Tokyo has the lowest birth rate in Japan - no surprises there.

For comparison purposes, this is from the BBC:

The birth rate in England and Wales has fallen to an all-time low, official figures show. The average number of children per woman is just 1.64 - the lowest since records began in 1924.

Megumi and I discussed this the other day, and came up with the very simple conclusion that the government here needs to offer incentives to Japanese couples to have babies! Money would be one major way to persuade people to procreate. Another would be to bring Japanese childcare into the 21st century, and either sponsor creches/childcare centers directly, or offer huge financial incentives for companies to offer chilcare services. Simplistic, perhaps, but after hearing Tanaka talking about starting a revolution and reforming Japan completely, it made me think that simple solutions to many problems may sometimes be best...

Daily Yomiuri

Governor Tanaka

I met Governor Tanaka of Nagano prefecture on Saturday. When I say met, I mean I shook his hand and he gave me a meishi. Quite an interesting fellow, but his English pronunciation needs a little work.

He used to be a famous author, now he is a politician, fighting to stop construction companies wasting money on pointless projects like damming all the rivers in Nagano. He talked about changing Japan, starting with Nagano and extending this revolution to all over the country. No real surprise that he got backing from the communist party at the election last year, then!

Story about Tanaka's re-election is here.

Another article

Customer Service, 3 Stories

I'm still not exactly sure where I stand on customer service in Japan. I have had a lot of great experiences, some not so great ones. As Gen has suggested, the general level of service is very high, but asking for something a little 'out of the ordinary' or unusual often causes problems for Japanese customer service staff (the same can be said of other countries as well). Some recent experiences:

1)When Dad was in Japan, he wanted some Kawasaki motorcycle goods. We looked around and couldn't find anything, but eventually he found a couple of t-shirts in an ad for a mail-order firm. We ordered these 'free size' shirts, but they arrivced after Dad and Marlene had already left. The problem was that they were not free size at all. The label said M, indicating medium. We checked the size, and since the shirts were a tight fit on me, there was no way they were going to fit my Dad. So, we looked through the catalog for other goods, but there was nothing else which looked appropriate, so we called and asked for a refund. The mail order company refused, insisting that the shirts were free size. When Megumi pointed out that the labels said M, they replied that in Japan, Medium size is free size. Megumi was insistent, however, and eventually the supervisor got angry and said "OK we'll give you your money back but don't think you can order from us again. We won't accept orders from you ever again"", and slammed the phone down.
Let me just say that once more, he refused any further business from us, and slammed the phone down on a customer. I have a copy of Customer Service for Dummies, which I was tempted to send the idiot. Unfortunately, it's in English...

2)Soundhouse is a musical instruments store. They sell amps, guitars, and all other manner of accesories. I bought some Shure earphones from them a few months back. As often happens with earphones/headphones, one of the wires seems to have broken or shorted, leaving me with sporadic crackling etc in the right ear. When I sent them a mail asking what to do, they offered to pay the costs of sending the earphones back to them. A day or two after sending the earphones, I received an email telling me that they were sending the fixed earphones back (fixed/new, it did not specify). Fast, efficient service, a very happy customer.

3)Finally, Sony Finance. I applied for a Sony Finance/ANA credit card in order to build up some air miles. When I started using it, I realised the limit was only 200,000yen, or about 1,000 GBP. Now, I have been a credit card holder for about 12 years. Besides the new ANA card, I hold 3 other cards, two of which are gold cards with limits of 2,000,000yen and 3,000,000yen, enough to buy a new car. When I started using the ANA card, I was refused service a couple of times becasue I was over my limit, for the first time in 12 years of holding a credit card. This was obviously somewhat annoying, so I asked Sony Finance to increase my limit. After much fighting and arguing, they eventually agreed to up my limit to a massive 300,000.

One of my other cards is now up for renewal, and I have to pay the yearly fee. Since I would like to shift my card usage over to the ANA card, I am considering cancelling the other card (it's Citibank), but with such a low limit, I can't do that (for reference, if we wanted to buy 2 ANA tickets to London with our ANA card it would cost almost 300,000yen). I decided to call Sony Finance again, and request a higher limit again. Once more, I had to argue with them for about 20 minutes. I got so frustrated, I actually asked them if they understood the credit card business. I was a little condescending:

You get commission each time I use your card - you understand that, right?
It is in your interests for me to use your card, right?
(after being told that their policies and Citibank's are not the same- what Citibank does is irrelevant)
...I understand that, but you are competing against Citibank, aren't you? They are in the same business as you - are you aware of this???

Eventually, I got them to up my limit to 500,000yen, the very minimum I consider acceptable. Obviously, they have riske management procedures inplace, and don't want to give too much money away to 'risky' customers. However, I never thought I would have to reason with a credit card company to give me more credit. If anyone reading this from overseas has problems managing their credit, moving to Japan should help you manage your finances better!!!

Apple Airport Express

Just to complete a heavy blogging day, here is a simple, easy-to-use device from Apple that I WANT. I don't need it, I can live perfectly happily without it, I JUST WANT IT!

Rosie's Tests

Just a quick update. Rosie turned 6 months old a couple of days ago. She is now big and heavy enough (almost 7KG) for the doctors to poke her around some more...

Rosie wearing bandana

Next Wednesday (the 16th) she will be admitted to the University Hospital for internal tests. They will put a catheter inside her chest to have a good look at her heart and decide exactly how large the problem is.

She and Megumi will both be staying for around a week. This means a worried daddy will be going to the hospital after work every day. It also means I will be back to taking care of myself, so it will be a diet of pizza and other such rubbish. I think I need to get myself a 2L bottle of that magic vinegar to make sure I don't out on weight!

Casual Dress Policy, Japanese Style

Here are a few excerpts from the new 'casual dress' policy at the company I work for:

Prohibited Clothes
Gaiety of dress: scanty clothing, clothes with excessive ornamentation, fluorescence or spangle, etc.

Wearing sandals: You should not wear them at the common place such as guest room, meeting room, passages, etc.

- You should be always ready for a neat dress such as suits: especially in the departments you may see guests on urgent business. (italics added by me to denote confusion at the meaning of this phrase)

- You should put a shirt inside your trousers (excluding a fashionable shirt made for it outside trousers).

-You should ... dress yourself properly for fear of destroying office atmosphere. (Syncopation)

(thanks for the last one Dirk - how did I forget it!!!)

Funny Little Cars

I was in Nihonbashi yesterday, and stumbled across a car showroom. Nothing unusual about that, really, except that the cars were kind of toy cars. When I was a kid, I always wanted one of those kids electrical-powered cars they used to sell in Argos and Freemans for about 300 pounds. Never had one, and have grown up unscathed by this fact.

Yesterday, I found the adult version. These 'cars' require full licenses to drive. They are driven on regular roads (including motorways I presume). The cost is around 1.5million yen, or $15,000 to those who know dollars better. New small cars in Japan can be bought for around the same price. Which leads to the obvious question - who is the target market?

Mostly, I guess, people with more money than sense, more interested in fashion than safety etc. Perhaps they launched in the right country then...

CQ Motors (link)

Just a quick update - is this thing such an improvement on the sinclair C5, made in 1985, and which sold for about $600-700?

Genius of the Week

A Japanese baseball pitcher called Sugiuchi was pulled out of the game because he was getting hit all over the place. Obviously frustrated, he decided that he would show his coach how he felt.

Did he:
a)verbally abuse him?
b)apologize profusely for being crap and promise to practise extra hard in training?
c)commit harakiri?
d)punch the hell out of the dugout bench, breaking bones in both hands, therefore putting himself out of action for at least 3 months and incurring a fine of 6,000,000yen (or around $60,000)

For the full story see the Japan Times (link)

Miracle Diets

Lots of people in the Western world are overweight. We all know this.
Many of us need to eat less and do more exercise. Many people also understand this. Understanding and doing are different, however, so there is a huge business in 'miracle diets'.

Going back to when I was younger, there were various kinds of diet pills, all of which have been proven to have no effect on weight loss, and some of the people advertising them were prosecuted (remember Sam Fox's boyfriend, Peter FosterLINK)

Now, in the early 20th century, we have Atkins, a diet which causes you to lose weight by eating lots of fat and starving your body of carbohydrates. It certainly seems to work, but is it healthy? Is it good for your heart? I'm not a doctor, so don't know, but most doctors seem to suggest that this is NOT a healthy way to eat.

Finally, a recent craze in Japan. 黒酢, or dark vinegar. Drink a bit every day, and you'll shed pounds, they say. Utter rubbish, I thought, but being a lazy bugger I thought I'd give it a try.

This drink is 20% apple juice, around 5% vinegar, and tastes like crap. I highly recommend it!

Rosie and Amy

Rosie seems to attract friends of mixed-race. Here is Amy, who's Dad is from Nigeria. Few more new pictures on the Rosie gallery, and also on Megumi's blog.

Rosie and Amy

Genius

I like reality TV shows.
There, I've said it.
I've been keeping it secret for a while, but now the cat is out of the bag.
Please forgive me.

There's a new one on TV here, The Simple Life. 2 rich kids named Paris Hilton and her sister Pig-face Hilton are taken from their luxury-filled life and made to live a somewhat poorer existence with a family for a few weeks. Obviously the goal of the show is to entertain us with this 'fish out of water' story.

What amazed me was just the sheer STUPIDITY of these girls. Examples:

-they are sent grocery shopping with a list. On the list it said 'generic water, 2 litres'. Paris turns to Pig-face and says "what does generic mean?"
Answer "I don't know...."

-their shopping bill comes to $65. Their limit was $50. They tell the guy at the cash register they do not have enough money. He suggests that they put a few items back.
Paris asks "Can't you just let us have it?"
Supermarket guy "No...This ain't the soup kitchen you know." The girls put some stuff back, and sulk away from the shop, complaining about how out of order he was not to just GIVE them the groceries.

-Finally, my favourite.
Pig-face asks the kids at the house they are staying at if they hang out at WalMart. The son seems a bit baffled, and says no. Pig-face is a little disconcerted that her stereotype of 'southerners' may have been wrong.
Paris then says "What is Wallmart?"
The reaction of the whole family is just stunned silence. Not realizing she is showing an almost criminal lack of awareness of American culture, she gamely carries on..."Is it where you get stuff for your walls - some kind of household store?"
Again, silence from the Southern family.

I could only watch this show for a few minutes. It was just too much, even for me. It reminded me slightly of a Shakespeare play, where the wise man or king is an idiot, and the 'simple' fool or jester is actually clever and witty.