I haven’t updated my blog in a week eh? Time certainly does fly over here in hot and humid Kochi. I thought about updating once of twice this week but I’ve been in and out of bad moods so I thought I’d put it off until I wasn’t grumpy. The main thing that has been annoying me is the monetary woes back home. My bank account had to be closed so all that money is frozen just now. Signing up to transfer money home takes ages and I still need a valid bank account. I’ve got rent and stuff to pay back home that I can’t do and it makes me feel like a dodgy bloke running away from debts. Also, the same day last week I found out my mum had broke her foot which kind of sucked but it turns out my parents can still go on holiday which is good. They’ve been taking care of the bank crap back home too and dad and I have had great fun trying to work out how fax machines work again. Coupled with the fact it’s so bloody warm and I’m sleeping badly means I’ve been slightly moody all week.

Random picture to add colour

However, last weekend was pretty awesome fun and took my mind of everything until Monday morning. On the Friday I went into Kochi City to buy some stuff that I needed and ended up buying a pretty sweet but reasonably priced guitar. Since I can’t really do anything with my money I decided I might as well spend it like the free loading scumbag did with mine back home. I bought some ‘Isle of Jura’ single malt in a liquor store too and it was half the price than it is in Scotland. I’m quite proud that I managed to smash neither whilst running for the train and then returning from Aki City drunk the following night clutching both.

On the way back from Kochi me, Noah, Matt and Andrew met up in their neck of the woods for some dinner. This slowly evolved into a drink or two which then ended up with us all getting really drunk and playing Tekken 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 – I just call it Street Fighter like the old Sega Mega Drive days. The following morning was baseball day woo yeah “We want a pitcher not a belly itcher”, The Simpsons has taught me everything. Andrew had organized for all the local JETs to swing by (boom boom) Aki stadium to watch the Hanshin Tigers play Hiroshima – although it was the wee diddy versions. I was quite excited at first and impressed with the speed and distance of the pitch but that soon wore off under the heat of the sun. I think the players got bored and EVENTUALLY after about 3 and a half hours later the Tigers were beaten by 4-3. The best part was me got to blow up massive balloons and release them into the air during the 7^th inning WOO YEAH BALLOONS. There were no hot dogs.

That evening once again evolved and turned into dinner + karaoke + bar = drunk. It turns out that karaoke is awesome fun (especially with lots of beer) and even if you can’t sing it doesn’t matter. Andrew and I were awesome at the Arctic Monkeys/The Killers, Joey (new ALT from Muroto) and I had some outstanding duets going on and Yasuda David and I gave a beautiful rendition of ‘Wonderwall’. ‘Pretty Vacant’ by the Sex Pistols didn’t go down as well as I’d hoped though. Oh yeah, the girl’s name I couldn’t remember was Marika/Mareka and she was fun and pretty good at karaoke. The last few hours were spent piling into a quiet bar and bringing the place to life with our loud gaijin (foreign person) ways. I remember we had everyone singing Bohemian Rhapsody and… Heeeeh Macarena.

Also, I have a bike now. I went for a cycle along the coast to Yasuda and watched the sunset the other night. It was really relaxing and I posed for some pictures that I will load up eventually. I remember thinking “Hey this is so great; I’ll just cycle everywhere now”. I burst the back tire on the way home.

Although I’m meant to be buying a car tomorrow afternoon nicknamed ‘Eileen’. I said I’d keep the name despite the fact it reminds me of Dexy’s Midnight Runners and their dungarees. Actually, I have the same kind of shirt they used to wear.

Work finishes pretty soon so I’m going to wrap up my stream of consciousness. We’re playing indoor football tonight which I’m looking forward but I just found out I can’t attend the BIG football festival in 2 weeks time. It turns out it is the Junior High sports day that weekend so I need to turn up and wave. “Yeah, great running kids. I could be playing on a pitch England trained on for the World Cup yaaay”. Ah well, that’s why I get paid.