Gary's Boring Blog

Keeping on keeping on

Apologies for the lack of updates. I sometimes forget that I have an audience out there, waiting for news from sunny Saitama!
Things are fine. Megumi is doing well, and keeping herself busy and healthy. We miss Rosie very much, but we are forcing ourselves to move on with our lives. As I may have mentioned, Megumi would very much like to get pregnant again, so I am busy reading a book on how to make that happen...

Joking aside, we both love children, and would be very happy if we were fortunate enough to have more babies. Let's hope we get lucky some time in the next few months.

It's starting to get chilly in Japan, and our house is cold in the winter, so that's not really something to look forward to. But Xmas is coming, and then I'll have a few days off over the New Year period as well. We bought our last Xmas present today, so once Megumi wraps it expertly, we will be able to send our box of goodies to the folks back home. My life has got so much more organized since I started living with Megumi. We are still often a bit late with birthday cards, but we usually send them.

I just found out that a friend has just started an MBA by distance learning, so I am hoping we will be able to discuss a few ideas. He is studying at a different place to me, but I think many of the concepts will be similar, and just having someone to discuss issues with will be extremely useful.

Finally, we are having a small football (actually futsal) tournament in Rosie's name on Saturday. I will post pictures etc later, but it should be a fun day.
(If you happen to live in the Saitama area and you would like to come along to the football or the evening drinks, send me an emailand I will give you details.)

Mr and Mrs Garner

For all those who have been worried about us, thanks again. We are both doing well. Megumi is busying herself with Christmas preparations - we can't decide whether to cook turkey at home, or go out somewhere for dinner. Decisions, decisions.

Anyway, as you can see from the picture, we are both keeping healthy and hopeful. We've got Rosie-power to help us get through the problems of daily life!

Brass Band Contest

Noriko and Mitsuko, Megumi's cousin's daughters (does that make them her second-cousins?), play in the school brass band, and are rather good. They won the regional Tokushima contest, and so came to Tokyo (well, Chiba!) for the national finals.

This is me after getting mobbed by a crowd of small Japanese girls

Weddings

'Tis the season for weddings among our friends. First, my roommate from 1996, Chris, married Yoshiko, his lovely lady.

Then, last weekend, our friends Koki and Tomoe got married. This is the few remaining members of the 'Kung Fu' posse, including founders Dave and Amy and their new addition, Alfie Fuji Long.

Megumi-My Rock

People ask now and then how Megumi is doing. Thanks very much for your concern. This is the good lady herself, a couple of weeks ago at an Urawa Reds game. We had a lot of fun, and as you can see, she is doing very well. This was Megumi's second-ever professional football match, and she kindly said that the level was not much different from that of the Saitama Jets!

As an aside, if the Reds win today, they win their first ever league title.
URAWA RE-ZU!!!
WE ARE REDS!
WE ARE REDS!
WE ARE REDS!
WE ARE REDS!

New Shoes

We went shopping for Christmas presents last weekend, and ended up finding a splendid new pair of shoes for me as well!

They are not only bright and colourful ('hade' (gaudy) according to my boss), they are very comfy as well. Thanks Adidas.

Er, any soy sauce with your dinner?

A scary story from Ryann Connell of the Mainichi Daily News (LINK)...

Chinese soy sauce made from human hair is cancer causing and restaurants throughout Japan could be using it, screams Asahi Geino (11/25).

"Chinese restaurants make up the bulk of places in Japan that use Chinese soy sauce," an insider in the traditional Asian condiment industry tells Asahi Geino. "Chinese soy sauce goes better with Chinese food than the Japanese-made product does."

I think I'll ask Megumi to go easy on the soy sauce with dinner tonight.

MBA Prep.

I'm meeting Megumi and a friend for lunch near my office in a bit, and have a few moments to kill, so I thought I'd write a little about my MBA preparations.

Firstly, I have all the paperwork and form-filling to do for Warwick. So far, it hasn't been too taxing. The most important point seems to be if you can show you have the cash to pay them their fees! I have finished most of the forms now, and got confirmation that my registration is all in order, so 'materials' will be sent shortly. Should be interesting to see what arrives, and if I will have room to store it all (all course text books and notes are included in the cost of the course).

Cartton from Cartoon Stock.
Other than that, I am trying to read as much as I can. I'm not sure exactly what will be useful for the course, so I'm picking from a bit of a smorgasbord of various management and business texts. At the moment, my train reading is Brand Management by Aakers, my bedtime reading is Managing in Turbulent Times by some bloke called Drucker, and my weekend reading is an 800-page beast called An Introduction to Financial Accounting (or something equally thrilling).

I have also been watching some online lectures. Special thanks to a wonderful institution called MIT, who kindly make lecture notes available and video many of their guest speakers' lectures. Note this seems to apply to different courses at different levels (undergrad, graduate, doctoral), and to many open lectures. It's a nice, alternative way to learn a little and think about some of the issues I will be studying for the next 4 years (did I really say 4 years....?).

Here are the links to MIT World, and the MIT OpenCourseWare site.
MIT World(LINK)
MIT OpenCourseWare(LINK)

Finally, I'm thinking of setting up another blog to track my progress through the slog of the MBA. I may not have time to do it properly, but it would be nice to have a record of the good and the bad of the whole thing as I go through it. If I do set it up, there will be a link from GBB (the one and only, the original!)

Roundup

Sorry, I haven't posted much recently. We have been keeping fairly busy. We went to the wedding of our friends Chris and Yoshiko a couple of weeks ago, which was very nice, in a rather traditional Japanese way : )

We have also been out doing our Christmas shopping. I participate in a purely advisory role, although a lot of my 'advice' seems to get shot down or ignored by Mrs G. The shopping and wrapping has been keeping Megumi busy, anyway, and we have almost finished.

On Saturday night, we went to a live house to see a gig. One of Megumi's friends is a budding singer, and she invited us along. The gig was good - 10 songs, all decently performed. Wayo(LINK), the stage name of the friend, has a great voice, and it was a fun evening. She changed her set, and sang a song called The Rose first. It was a present for me and Megumi...

The venue itself was a little odd. My early experiences of up-and-coming artists were in rooms above pubs in Sheffield, or in Student Unions. The place we went to last week did not serve alcohol, was non-smoking, and had lots of little bench seats lined up. It made for a rather strange, muted atmosphere for a concert, it has to be said...

Other than that, I am trying to prepare myself for starting the MBA by doing a bit of background reading. Financial Accounting is a particular favourite of mine - I'm really enjoying that textbook! I'm also trying to get in a bit of shape, so I have been trying to go to football practice as well as playing in games. It's a bit tough at the end of a work week, but I'm trying.

Finally, a bit of family news. Matt, my cousin, is doing better. He's in rehab, and is planning to get himself fit in time for his planned wedding in February 2005. My Dad also just had minor surgery, and he too is recovering well. He should be out of the hospital later this week. Take care of yourselves, Matt and Dad!

When It Hits You

I look forward to going home every night. My job is OK, but I much prefer being at home with Megumi.

A few times recently on that short walk from the station to our house it has really hit home that Rosie is no longer with us. I used to go home, and she would often be sleeping already. Usually I would immediately go upstairs and just take a look at her, sleeping peacefully. Now and then I would eat dinner first, and then go and 'check on her' after eating. Sometimes she would be still awake, so I could play with her a little before dinner.

Recently, as I walk back from the station, I have the mixed emotions of looking forward to seeing Megumi, and being upset because Rosie is not there with her, waiting for Daddy to come home. At the weekend, Megumi and I went out shopping. I almost started to get Rosie's buggy ready before remembering that she would not be coming with us.
Megumi quickly realised what was upsetting me, and kindly said "she's coming with us - she's here", pointing to her heart and then mine.

Broken Comments

...er, bugger. I was trying to fix my site and keep the nasty spammers away, but appear to have broken the comments completely. Give me a bit of time to attempt to fix it...

You'll Never Be Forgotten...

...little girl. Mummy and Daddy are trying to move on with their lives, but they haven't forgotten you.

love
Daddy (with tears all over his flowery tie!)

4 More Years, 4 More Years!

...of study, not of being 'bushed'.

I am happy and very excited to report that I have been accepted to study for the Warwick Business School MBA. I will start in January, and will study by distance learning for the next 4 years (3 years if I am really brilliant). I am looking forward to the challenge, but a little nervous about the size of the task I am taking on!

Thanks to those who helped in any way with my application, particularly Chris, Chuck and Dirk. It goes without saying that Megumi's support was much appreciated, and will be needed over the next 4 years.

Rosie's death has made me and Megumi acutely aware of the need to shoot for your goals today, and not put things off. I'll do my best to get the MBA, for myself, and Megumi, and for Rosie and any other hypothetical children we may have in the future!

Mixed Feelings

I have been thinking a lot over the past few days, trying to make sense of my feelings. Sometimes I get so frustrated with people who don't realise how lucky they are. When I hear people quibbling about their dead-end jobs, or being tired, or even their child's grades at school I just want to scream SHUT UP! JUST GET OVER IT! Believe it or not, there are more important things in life than whether little Bobby gets a C or a B in his Maths class. There are things that are a little more fundamental than whether you get that promotion you wanted or not. This inability of most people to cherish what they have drives me mad.

So, to anyone reading this, think before you grumble. Think about how lucky you are, and how many positive things there are in your life. Megumi and I consider ourselves, believe it or not, to be very fortunate. We have our love for each other. We are, in general, healthy. We have great families and friends. And we had the wonderful experience of loving, and being loved by, Rosie.

On the other hand, what we are going through also makes us more understanding of other people's problems. We realize that, when you are going through hard times, it is difficult to think about anything outside of your own small world. We are also more sensitive to the genuine suffering of others. Every time there is a report about more killing in Iraq, I listen more intently than I used to, and say a short prayer for the victims and their families. In Japan, there have been many victims of natural disasters in the past few weeks, and we also feel for their families and friends.

I am sure that we will make more effort to help people in need in any way we can in the future. Rosie wouldn't have wanted it any other way.

P.S. I STILL haven't given blood. I'm a hypocrite. I do have a good excuse, but I can't keep using it forever, so promise to give blood by the end of this year. How about you...?