End of Vacation : The Good, the Bad and the Worst

The Good

• You actually get to do some productive work instead of sitting on your bum all day. Doesn't probably apply if you live in the good ol' Paradise, but other than that, yes it's applicable. And it's a good thing.

• Get back in the Internet. I suppose this is more of a personal habit. When on vacation I don't do much social networking, forums or even other Internet activities. So it's time to get back in touch with the world out there.

• Less stuffing yourself up with food. You stay at home, you eat like a pig. A lot of junk food too. No chance of that now.

• Get back into blogging.

The Bad 

• While you actually get to do some work, not doing it. At least for a few days. Rendering the first point of 'good', null.

• Get back in the Internet. The world out there is stupid anyway, why would you want to get back in?

• Less stuffing yourself up with food. Ah, all those tasty hamburgers, steak, donuts and ice cream. Not to mention beer.

• Get back into blogging. Because you should be working instead.

The Worst 

• Feeling, at the first alarm, like snoozing it and go back to precious sleep.

• Actually doing it.

• Feeling, at the second alarm, like smashing the godforsaken alarm into pieces and then killing yourself. It's a good thing I live alone, or else the sequence would be smashing the alarm into pieces, killing the other person in the room and then killing yourself.

• Having to get up and go to work instead of doing either of the above.

• Once at work, feeling like killing everybody around you before killing yourself. Seriously, who invented work?

Bitching Time

Yo peeps how have you been? I know you missed me terribly, sorry about that. But worry not, yours truly is here with a lot this time. A lot of bitching that is so get ready to listen. Let me bitch about things in an orderly manner, in point form, then.

1. Olympic Games are awesome. Their coverage sucks. Living 9 hours in front of London means that I miss most of the top action unless I'm willing to doze off at work and risk my job. So the next best option is catching up with highlights, but guess what, the goddamn official YouTube Olympic channel thinks that they should only be available to UK and US. Not just YouTube, pretty much every source is the same. What the fuck? Isn't Olympic is a global event, probably the most famous and loved of them all? Shouldn't everybody get to see it without ridiculous country restrictions? I can understand if they want to put country restrictions to TV shows and such, but for Olympics? For Olympic highlights? You gotta be fucking kidding me. I could of course use a proxy, but that's too much trouble so I turned to the ever so faithful torrents and voila, there's just about everything. I downloaded a 1.4GB clip of Usain Bolt's 100m dash just for the fun of it. Take that, London. But then again you can't have very high expectations of organizers who chose a sketch of a man-on-man blow job as the Olympic logo.
   
2. This isn't bitching, rather the opposite of it, but Bolt is awesome isn't he? This is probably the post #12,849,234 about him on the Internet, but hey, when I retell the stories of the great man to my grandchildren I better have some proof.
   
3. American (and British) media can be such douchebags at times. The way they went on and on about that awesome little girl Ye Shewen (not exactly little though) of China is sick. Yes I get it you used to be the kings in the pool, you probably still are, but when she kicked ass the way she did, give her some respect. If she was proven to be doping, good, knock yourselves out, but she was cleared twice ffs! I read some disturbing stories about how she was trained, the ruling party even confiscated her cellphone allowing her to use it only in weekends, which sucks, but that's a different story. That's no excuse for accusing her of doping when she was simply brilliant. Of course there is the possibility that she (just like any other athlete) could be found guilty in future, but reserve your scathing remarks for then. Until then, STFU. It's not as if America has a clean record in this regard anyway.
   
4. Talking about America, it really sucks. The bastards once refused me a tourist VISA - for which I really hate them - and I was like really? You really think that I'm going to leave such a good job and a life here in Japan, one of the most convenient places to live in whole world, and jump ship there in America? Seriously? Such vanity.
   
5. I have been thinking of a move to Australia for some time now but unfortunately that's what it's all been about too; thinking. Sometimes I can be so lazy. I really need to get a move on things, and with 9 days of summer vacation coming up I think I will finally be able to do that. Hope I won't get all lazy and leave it till too late.
   
6. Living abroad means you can end up with lot of free time on your hands and nothing to do with it. I don't make friends easily and even if I did there aren't many whom I can be true friends with anyway. So I tend to spend my time at home a lot, of which a whole lot dedicated to watching and reading. I love learning new stuff, the latest fascination being biology. Living in the country with the second fastest Internet in the world has its advantageous, one of which is being able to download gigabytes of stuff within hours. So I do download a lot indeed (not what you think though, perverts), mostly documentaries. Biology is my new passion, but I've been a huge astronomy enthusiast for a long time, and then I have general interest in science as well, and I can and have dedicated a lot of time to learn such things. So much so that, I took a general science quiz sort of thing the other day and ended up with a pretty high score which is a high percentile. Which got me thinking that it's kind of sad in a way; I don't have a life.
   
7. The week before a long vacation really sucks. In sucky-ness, it is only second to the week after a long vacation I guess. Argh, enough already.

Business in Paradise

There's an inherent trust issue with business in Sri Lanka. To be more precise with the relationship between seller and buyer. This in turn leads to huge frustration and the want to kill each other in whenever the opportunity presents itself.

Perhaps it is the result of colonialism; back then the Brits were the businessmen and Sri Lankans were the customers and they more often than not fucked the customers. Sometimes literally but mostly figuratively. Or maybe it was the presence of the the lefties who continually influenced most of the governments after Independence. Or else it's just the way we Sri Lankans are. I'm not really sure why. But whichever the reason is, the general public has an unfavorable attitude towards business. Often business is considered as unethical or immoral. If not at least not as good as the government. Business is perceived as some sort of evil entity who's out there to get you. That it's only purpose of existence is to trick you and get every cent out of your pocket. Hardly is a business seen as something that's out there to provide you some good or service and get money for it. General conscience is they will only give you some cheap stuff and get a shitload of money out of you. It always is evil. 

On the other hand, not many businessmen, ranging from street vendors to multinational companies, are doing things to improve this either. Customer is often treated as a piece of shit. They are seen as cheap people who always rant about high prices, irresponsible and are looking to use every small opportunity available to make it so that the companies will lose something. You need to scream to get the attention of the Kadey Mudalali. Sri Lankan Airlines think that customers are at their mercy and that they can do whatever they please whenever they please. Dialog seems to think So what if we lose one customer? There are so many more! Only the other day I found out that they allocate phone numbers which were not in use for a few years to new customers even without letting the previous owners know about it. Taking your customers for granted much?

Simply neither party trusts the other. That is exactly what you don't want to happen in a healthy relationship. Compare this to that of a country like Japan. Well probably it is a little unfair comparing it to Japan, for Japan is one of the oddest countries in the world anyway. Nowhere else in the world is this relationship stronger than in Japan. But the truth of the matter is that is why they are so good at business. Companies genuinely try to offer customers something worth their every penny, and in turn the customers are ready to trust the companies to do their job well. Services are even better than goods if that's possible. I was at the dentist a few days back and it was close to 8 p.m. when we were finished. She prescribed me some meds and took the trouble to call the nearby pharmacy to ask them to not close it until I go there. That's even without me asking her to do so. Wonderful things is that it's not a surprise but the norm. Trains arrive in time, and in rare cases they don't people are ready to accept it for it is truly rare. If you go to Starbucks to buy a coffee but is sold out, cutie at the counter will apologize to you with a face similar to what she would use if she accidentally spilled the only remaining bottle of medicine in the world that would cure my terminal wife who's lying in her deathbed.

Really, if you want to be a customer, you want to be a customer in Japan. If not for anything else, just to see that face.

It wasn't Nadal's day

It's not often you see Rafael Nadal get thrashed. But yesterday, at Japan Open Tennis Championships 2011, it was a real thrashing that he got. Murray came from behind to win the last two sets with 10 out of last 11 games going for him. It summed up Nadal's day when he hit a scooped up ball which he could have put anywhere he wanted right into the net. Sad, for I was rooting for him to win. Still it was a great privilege seeing two wold class players, one a legend of the game, live. Here's some pics.

Blind Dude and Me

Today, there I was inside a train station, on my way to work. There's nothing unusual about it you might say and of course there isn't. There was an escalator, an ascending one at that but still there's nothing unusual about it of course. However when I was about to step onto it came a dude out of nowhere, and seeing his white walking stick I realized he's a blind person so waited a moment to let him pass wondering at the same time how the hell is he going to step onto the escalator without stumbling.

Then the dude stepped on to it as effortlessly as Justin Bieber would pass for a woman. It was perfection personified; the blind dude's movement, not Bieber's feminine qualities though one can argue that they also are near perfect. I was so surprised that I almost stumbled stepping onto the thing following him.

Thank god he didn't offer me any help; probably he realized the irony of it all.

Status Update

Today is the end of two insanely busy weeks and what a friggin' relief it is. I literally had to work day in and day out for the last two weeks, including Saturday and Sunday, which is far from my idea of how weekend should be spent. Add 3 hours of daily travel to it which in fact is the worst part of it. I can work till late no problem, but I can't friggin' wake up so early everyday. But that's what I had to do, so the last two weeks was pretty much wake up at 7 in the morning, be at work at 9.30, work till about 10 or 11 - P.M. that is, not A.M. - and then be back home at midnight. And then the same routine again. And again. And then again. You get the drift right. Anyway I'm not complaining for a) I knew what I was in for when I came here and b) late night and weekend work means a fat pay check. As someone somewhere said, whoever said money can't buy you happiness simply didn't know where to shop. So yeah, I went ahead and ordered online a CASIO G-Shock watch; a present to myself for no particular reason. A note to everyone who doesn't know where to buy happiness; go to Amazon.com - you don't even have to spend a lot as things are quite cheap over there.

On other things, Sunday will be our third (I think so, I've lost count (losing count when you count up to 3 is sad, I know, but still)) attempt at starting the much awaited cricket season this year and I pray to the non-existent gods please don't spoil the party. I don't remember why but the first time we couldn't play as scheduled for some reason, then last week we couldn't play because of weather. Of course I wouldn't have played anyway since I was at work, so I didn't really miss much there, but I'm not going to miss it a third time too. Bashing a hapless Indian team is always fun so there's extra motivation as well. Wish me luck, as I have a feeling that I might need it since I'm planning on scoring a run-a-ball 100 and following it up with a five-fer, but of course that would be possible only if we bat first, and since I have not planned to take five wickets and follow it up with a hundred, run-a-ball or otherwise, it all depends on our newly appointed enthusiastic captain, let's call him A, winning the toss.

P.S.
Keep this quiet; I'm hoping against hope the bugger will lose the toss.

P.P.S.
There will be a company gathering sort of thing this evening, which means getting drunk to your heart's content, and god (no-existent again) I can do with a good ol' shot of whiskey right now. Off to getting drunk then. Later peeps!

After Effects of Earthquakes

Fires, broken down transport systems, blackouts, shortage of food and water and even nuclear meltdowns must have come to your mind seeing the title. Indeed those are among the most tragic of after effects, but much have been said about them I've got pretty much nothing more to add. However I can reveal you some slightly different after effects of earthquakes, which you had no idea existed even I'm sure.

First, it can get rid of writer's (blogger's?) block, which is merely a fancy name for being too lazy to write or blog. Don't know how? Look at me. Okay you can't exactly look at me from over there, but you know what I mean. Good ol' yours truly has been not writing for so long that pretty much all my readers, who by the way account for an astounding 12 people, had forgotten me. But this earthquake was such a shock - figuratively as well as literally - it has somehow awaken the writer within, so to speak, and I hope that I'll be able to churn out posts at a rate faster than the rate Pakistan lose wickets when they are in a collapse hereafter for the sake of this elite bunch of readers which include you, my dear reader. Okay that sentence is stretching things way too far and is wrong on so many accounts, for a) there is not so much a 'writer' within me, b) you aren't really in any kind of elite bunch just because you read this blog and c) I'm pretty sure I won't be churning out posts at that rate anytime soon. I just hope I'd be able to blog regularly.

That's the "good" part and now let's move on to the bad, which I might even call ugly as in the expression "The good, the bad and the ugly". But I digress. Getting back on topic, this goddamn earthquake has also given me the mother of all blocked noses which I'm sure you all will agree that indeed is a tragedy. Let me explain. For a couple or so weeks before the earthquake I had a runny nose and teary reddened eyes mainly because of pollen allergies. Which is a bitch, but it was manageable. But then on the day of the tragic quake the transportation was a mess and I had no option but to walk back home, a walk of about 12 kilometers. A walk that long in itself is bad enough, but having to do so at night with very strong winds in a temperature of about 4 degrees is just, well, worse. Naturally the next day I woke up with a bad cold but luckily it was Saturday and then the following Monday we got an off day from work because transportation was not back to normal even then, so I managed to manage my cold by staying warm. But then afterwards I had to go to work, and after a week or so yesterday it was SO bad that I had to stay home breathing through my mouth. Imagine if somebody filled your nose to the brim with soil and then pressed it hard too for good measure. That's how I felt for the last two days, no kidding.

True Heroes

Being here in Tokyo, a safe distance - at least for now - away from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant which now has achieved eternal fame minus the glory, but still a distance enough to be in alert at least, watching things unfold around me is kind of serene.

First of all it must be said that this whole chain of events has a lot to do with a big fat chunk of plain old bad luck. You can prepare all you want, but when you're hit by the 4th biggest earthquake ever recorded in human history followed by a big ass tsunami some half an hour later there's only so much you can do. To add to that, the Fukushima plant was only two or so weeks away from it's scheduled decommission after 40 years of operation. How close is that? And even then, they had recently upgraded its safety measures and had erected walls which could prevent a 7 meter tsunami which in itself is a once in a blue moon thing, but then you get hit by a 10 meter tsunami. Oh well.

Then over here, in Tokyo, some 250 kilometers away from Fukushima, things are still running as normal as you can expect, but not always. Some of the Japs have gone crazy and stocking supplies like mad. Almost all the supermarkets, grocery stores and convenient stores are running out of bottled water, batteries, emergency lamps, candles and whatnot. Instead of the usually teeming-with-goods shelves you see rows and rows of empty shelves. In order to save electricity many production plants are operating under capacity, fewer trains operate than usual and you have power cuts in Japan - who would have thought!

But amidst all this chaos, there is a bunch of true heroes out there going on about their business for all of us' sake. The few remaining courageous workers at the Fukushima plant who work around the clock to get the situation under control, putting their own lives at risk so bravely to save the lives of millions out there. I'm not so sure if I would have done the same thing if I were there. Those guys are the true heroes who often goes unnoticed. As one of my friends said in his FB status, at a time when people are wasting their money on texting to choose their idol heroes, how many would spend their free words of appreciation on true heroes like these people? So true, and unfortunately, I wonder how many people will remember these guys once the crisis is over. To alter the words of Winston Churchill a little, "Never in recent times of crisis has so much been owed by so many to so few."

Thank you friends, we owe you big time.

Linkin' Post

My life is heading towards ultra boredom. So much so that - I never thought there may come a day I'd say this - I'm dreading the coming 10 or so days of summer holidays. Having 10 days at your disposal, with nothing in particular to do, in scorching heat no less, isn't really my idea of a vacation. Strolling on the ruins of a great empire, or the 'water streets' of Venice, like this time around last year, is. Damn I should have planned something a little earlier. I could climb Mt. Fuji, but I did it once already, and not really feeling like it this time. It would account for a few breathtaking photos of course, but still. Or else there's always the option of randomly picking a train, preferably a long distance one, and go wherever it takes me. There is also the thing that a lot of weird, funny or potentially life threatening things happening whenever I'm on or nearby a train, so at least I'll have something to blog about afterwards. We'll see.

On other things, after months of procrastination finally I started my own Project 365. What held me back the most is, as good as my life may be here in Japan, daily photo opportunities aren't that good - at least not when your camera is an SLR. You see, usually my weekdays comprise of going to work at 9 in the morning, and leave it 6pm-ish. I'm SO not a morning persona to wander around with a camera in hand at 7 in the morning, and after a hard (let's say so for the sake of my happiness) day's work, you don't want to go out again just to take one photo. It is not practical to bring the damn camera to work so all I'll be left to shoot will be inside my apartment which is like 10 x 10 feet. OK not that small, but you get what I mean. However, finally, I drew inspiration from our good old Darwin, though she's not as much old, and made up my mind to do it challenging myself to come up with something interesting each day. Not gonna be easy, but let's see. Here are the first week's stuff, take a peek guys. And girls.

And then, on the same historical day, I got the bicycle I ordered online, delivered to me. It is, however, is a historical day not because I started my Project 365, nor is it because I got the bike. It is because our good ol' chap Murali took a wicket with the last ball he ever bowled in Test cricket, but I added to the speciality of the day with my project. And my bike. Don't you think so? But I digress. The thing is, this time I'm determined to not let any poor Jap steal my bike, like the last time. I shall take extra care with it, which merely mean check upon it once a month as opposed to two, which was the fatal error I made last time. The bike is quite good, sexy even, though it is not the same sexiness you'd associate with a particularly hot chick. I digress again. As I was saying, the bike is excellent but for the seat. Why someone designed a seat such as that is something that beats me. After 10 minutes of cycling my ass started to hurt so much I briefly contemplated letting someone steal it this time around as well. It is such a pain in the ass, the seat is. And I mean it literally.

How God Messed Things Up

You see, I love chocolate and I love coffee. My love for chocolate is a very old one, so much so that if this my-love-for-chocolate was a person he would have been only two or three years younger than me. Ever since I knew food, I knew chocolate and then I also loved them. But my love for coffee is a recently developed one. Since I came to Japan a little over two years ago to be precise. Many things in that Paradise Island are absolutely brilliant, but coffee is just isn't one of them. Coffee there is just, let's say, average. However, coffee you find in Japan, now that's a different story. It really has the aroma, the taste of real coffee, and for two years it was part of my breakfast.

But I had to give them up recently. Fuck.

I've been suffering from migraine for some time, but I never really did anything about it. However, if you are one of the unlucky fellows out there you'd know how much pain it is when the bastard decides it is time to show up. Recently I found out that both chocolate and coffee are strong triggers of migraine attacks. So very, and I mean VERY reluctantly I gave them both up. Why oh why, dear God? Why did it have to be chocolate and coffee? Why couldn't it be something like broccoli or pumpkin or something else like that? I would have happily given it up then. Well technically you can't really give up something you don't eat already, but then again that's the whole point. Why is it that always the good stuff come with bad side effects and healthy food taste like old boots? Why couldn't broccoli contain all the cholesterol in the world and why couldn't pork have been the healthiest food out there? I have a feeling that pigs might not find this thought entertaining, but you can't satisfy everyone can you? Imagine a wold where chocolate and ice cream is good for your teeth. Now that's a world where I'd die to live in.

Seriously, God, you suck.


P.S.
I've never eaten old boots.

Football and Jap Chicks

The other day, Japan played their first world cup game. Not only they played, they scored a goal and won the game as well. Of course you need to score at least one goal to win, but sometimes stating the obvious helps you increase the number of words in a blog post. But I digress, the point is it saddened me immensely. Not that I hate Japs or anything, but if you live in Japan, and if you're a sports fan but not a fan of the Japanese team, then the norm is to wish them fail. If not anything else purely for the peace of your mind. Let me explain; in the last Olympics held in China, the relay team of Japan won a short distance race. Though I said they won, it was only the second or third place, which I don't remember exactly. Apparently it was their first ever track event medal in Olympics and this is what followed; immediately after the race they showed a replay but the camera focused on the Japan team. Then another replay from another angle, still only the Japan team. Then the baton exchanges, again, only the Japan team. Then their finish. Again footage of their runners. Meantime, the team started a victory lap and the camera guy followed them all around the ground for another five minutes. Then personal interviews of each of them. Then they showed another couple of replays of their team for good measure before finally showing just one replay of the race with all the teams in it and only then I could find out who won - a good 30 or 40 minutes after the race. All this while other races were going on and we didn't get to watch any of them. And now the same fears have returned to haunt me; what if they win another game? Will they show that game every time there's another match being played? Will they somehow make it so that footage of the goal they score will appear on every web site you go to? Will they make it compulsory for everyone to have a CD of the game, bought for 10,000 Yen, at all times? These are fair thoughts you know.

Moving on, I was on a train station yesterday evening, as is the case with every day that I go to work. So then all of a sudden this Jap chick appeared in front of me, and no she didn't just appear there like Harry Potter, just that she came into my field of vision. Now there's nothing unusual about a Jap chick in a train station in Japan, you might say. Of course there isn't except for the fact that she had a perfect arse, one that any straight guy or a gay chick wouldn't mind sparing a second look. This in itself is a rarity, a Jap chick with a perfect arse that is, but that's not exactly what caught my attention. On the back pockets of her pants which were pure white, in big red block letters were the words;

FEEL ME

It takes a guy a lot of courage, determination and will power not to oblige, but yours truly has them all. Unfortunately.

England Wins, But So Do We!

1979, 1987, 1992 and 2004. The four previous times the English team made it into the final of a global cricket tournament and got hammered. So if you had your doubts this time, you should be excused. The chances were they would fuck it up and hand the Aussies another trophy to add to their trophy cabinet which already is brimming with a gazillion trophies. But it wasn't to be - England played brilliant cricket and totally outplayed the Aussies and were the worthy winners. I bet our own lovely Kalu Suddha, Pseudo Random is partying all over the place probably wearing an England jersey and a Sri Lankan hat. Spare a thought for the Aussies too. They played brilliant cricket and just strolled their way into the final with ease only to repeat the last year's T20 WC finalists' fate; Sri Lanka won all the matches up to the final and lost the one that mattered the most. Maybe losing a couple of games on the way isn't bad after all.

However, I'm not a big T20 fan. For me the best analogy to describe T20 is porn. You don't need to be an actor of the quality of Tom Hanks or Denzel Washington to act in porn and similarly you don't need the skill and genius of Brian Lara or Sachin Tendulkar to play T20. You don't really need a plot for a porn movie - it's just wham bam and so is T20. Porn is for only one thing and by next day you've already forgotten what you've watch last night. So is T20 cricket - while you will talk about Lara's legendary match winnings innings against Aussies even hundred years later you've already forgotten who won the last year's T20 WC. Finally, you don't criticize porn, and so you shouldn't T20. It just is, but that's it. It doesn't have the grace of Test cricket.

So, while this unimportant T20 match was being played in West Indies, there was another very important match - two actually - was going on in Japan this weekend. Yes, you guessed it correct, those were the two games which yours truly played in. If you remember we had a fine start to the tournament last week, and it continued to be so when we thrashed a hapless Indian team on Saturday. Too bad I couldn't make much of a contribution with the bat this time but we put on a formidable 204 in 40 overs before routing the Indians for a paltry 87. It was good, but the evening party was better. We headed to one of the team members' apartment that night, cooked some Sri Lankan food and the night was fun. However, next day, it was our turn to get routed by a Pakistani team for 119 runs. They won in the end but we gave a good fight and took 6 wicket. To be honest after being all out for 119 we were always going to lose it but losing like we did was, in my book, alright. Going down without a fight is what I can't take. It's not just about cricket though; being out there doing something you really like, hanging out with a bunch of really awesome guys, having fun being in the middle of Sri Lankans after a stressful week at work with the Japs, that's what's it is all about. It's good workout for you body, but it's even better for you mind.

In a nutshell, cricket is my punching bag.

I'm back, and so is Cricket!

Hello people!

How have you guys (and girls) been? Doing good I suppose. Damn I have been neglecting this blog of late a lot, for which I feel SO guilty. I mean, hell, this was - and is - an important part of my life and I shouldn't be so lazy to chuck in a post or two every week. But then again, you see, in my defense it was spring holidays and we all know that Blogging is to be done on working days. So you could say that I was just abiding the rules.

Anyway, the spring break which is called the 'Golden Week' here in Japan was a welcome break. I have no idea why it is called such but have a sneaky suspicion that Google might know. Wise fella, he is. Wonder if the feminists out there would threaten me with a lawsuit if I didn't correct myself and call Google a she. Beats me why people want think of all the majestic inanimate things as female; be it a country, ship or a even a car. Oh well.

Getting back on topic. The Golden Week was fun and relaxing. First I had some good long hours of sleep which is a must I'm sure you all will agree. We also had a barbecue and ate so much dead animals that I didn't touch anymore for almost a week. It wasn't just the barbecue; we also played some softball cricket which I regretted the next day so much. After so many months of winter which means doing nothing, it was the first day we really went out and played any sport so the whole body was aching the next day. Oh and the Poker that night too was fun. Wonder how long will it take for me to win my first WSOP bracelet.

And then, yesterday, it was time for some real hard ball cricket. The cricket season here in Japan got underway which was something I was so looking forward to. We traveled to Shizuoka some 200km or so away, and I managed to take a cool shot of Mt. Fuji from the car. She (ahem!) was looking majestic as ever, and see the picture if you're not sure. Anyway, we got there in time - to the ground that is, not to Mt. Fuji - and got to bat first. I was to bat at 3, and was in the middle in the second over. Perhaps we were a bit rusty, lack of match practice or whatever it is but we were soon 40 something for 4 and 76/6 a while later. I managed to hang in and score a satisfactory 91 while we manged to put up a challenging 195 in 40 overs. It was in fact a real good score considering our very good bowling attack and we ended up winning comfortably by sixty odd runs. It is always great to start the season with a win and we have two more games next weekend. However, I need to work on my fitness. After like 75 or 80 runs I could hardly stand, let alone bat. Now I know why Arjuna 'walked' half his runs and why somebody else ran for him half the innings he batted. Wise fella he was.

Cricket Starts And We Decipher Songs

The much awaited cricket season in Japan started last Sunday. Much awaited by us, not the Japs. They don't know Jack about cricket and couldn't possibly have been waiting for it more than I do for Ranjan Ramanayake's next film. Anyway, as I was saying the cricket season started which I must say is a wonderful thing: if nothing else, it makes you feel at home a bit. We were to play a friendly game with another team which was based on a location some 200 kilometers away from where we are, so off we went in the wee hours of morning which is to say at about 8 a.m. The wheels were trusted with the experienced hands of Solomon, which we thought was a smart move. Within 10 minutes we realized it wasn't the case, as during those 10 minutes he violated more traffic rules than all the other people here did during the past two years put together. So after we entered the highway D took the driver's seat and we prepared an argument in case a traffic cop stopped us: the whole point of allowing people to drive only if they hold a driver's license is to make the roads safe. So which is better - a bad driver with a license or a good driver without one? And if the cop still disagrees, the last option would be to get him in the car and let Solomon drive further 100 meters which will surely make him agree.

So then, after so many heart stopping moments we arrived at Shizuoka, the place where we were to play the match. Everything was set to play, the Sun was out and we thought it was gonna be a good, if not great start to the season. Alas, it wasn't to be so. Shortly afterwards the clouds started gathering which was followed by a drizzle and the temperature started dropping at a rate faster than [insert something here which has a very high rate]. When we bowled the last few overs the temperature couldn't have been more than 4 or 5 degrees Celsius. Wearing only the cricket trousers and stuff, it was cold as hell when it freezes over. Then, just when we finished bowling it promptly rained thus ending the match. It seemed sort of stupid traveling some 200 kilometers to bowl 35 overs and come back, but such is cricket.

On our way back we got caught in a mad traffic and the car wasn't moving at all. As a means of passing time, being the intelligent lot we are, we got engaged in a few 'intellectual discussions' such as the latest movies, Shakira's bottom and IPL. When even that bored us, we started to actually listen to lyrics of the songs that we had playing and found out how rich the Sinhala language was. We were listening to Kasun Kalhara's songs, among others, and that song Sanda Sanda Wage came up. Cool song, I must say, and you can listen to it here if you want. We listened carefully and found out that it is a song about nothing but the plain and obvious facts, yet it's a nice song. It says moon looks like moon, flowers look like flowers, you look like you and I look like I. What else can they look like? If we still dumb it down and convert into a mathematical formula, it'll look like this:

A = A, B = B, C = C and D = D
As long as A != B and B != A
Then A = A and B = B

Lucky Newton wasn't in Sri Lanka or else we would have been learning Physics by songs.

Skiing, Nose and Work

So it's been some time since I last wrote something. It is not due to blogger's block though, which is the same as writer's block but only happens to bloggers, but the sharper minds out there must have figured it out already. It is a term coined by that drummer, RD, or at least I heard it first from him in an email exchange. He likes it, doesn't he - not having blogger's block, but coining terms I mean. By the way, why is it called 'coin a term'? I mean it's not like you toss a coin and it showers you with terms appropriate for describing what's in your mind or something. And who coined the term 'coin a term', really? But I digress. The point is, I couldn't blog of late because first I was away, then I got the worst cold a man has ever endured in the history of mankind, and then I was busy. Not 'boru busy' but for real.

Let me tell you more.

As I once told you here, we were planning on going a ski trip again and the plans were set in motion the last Saturday. Five of us paradise islanders who live here rented a car, hopped in at 4.30 in the morning and were set off for the skiing place some four hours and 300 kilometers away. We trusted the wheel with the most reliable hands that were there, let's call him J, and put K, the guy who's been there, done that in the front seat because we thought wisdom comes with age. It wasn't the case, we found pretty soon. K was supposed to be doing the 'navigating duties', because then it's easy for J instead of him having to look at the screen and drive too. But K who was in the front seat constantly forgot his duties due to a combination of the iPhone in his hand and the inability to concentrate that comes with age. He was quickly demoted to the back seat, driver was changed and J was given the 'navi duties'. Mistake again; we forgot J was a leftie - not in a political sense - and he constantly messed up left and right, just like the JVP who claims to be lefties but totally act the other way around. Anyway, with all these hassles we managed to be there in time, put on our gear and were on the top of the mountain in no time.

Now, I said in that post mentioned above that I thought I had got the hang of this whole skiing business. Alas, it wasn't the case, I realized pretty soon. Yes the weather was bad, there was some drizzle but even if it wasn't so, it would have made a little difference. I'm sure I must have looked like a comedy show or something. I even suspect that the Japs behind me might have had bets on how long I would stay on my feet. Anybody who had bet any more than 10 would have lost badly. And by ten I mean ten seconds. However, in a combination of sliding - on feet a little and on my back a lot, and rolling, somehow I managed to end up at the bottom of the mountain, some three hours later. That was the end of skiing for me - for this year at least. I mean, why can't they ski on a... flat land or something? The next day I let the other more able people to do their skiing and went here and there sightseeing in our comfy car with one another guy who thought it'd be cool to break his leg the first time he tried skiing. Check out some pics here on my photo blog.

Upon returning, I did the stupidest thing. After two days in cold weather and getting wet, I was on the brink of a bad cold but without thinking I took a shower at midnight. Crap. The next day I woke up with the above said worst ever cold, with a totally blocked nose. So blocked it was, I seriously considered sticking the vacuum cleaner to my nose and do a complete nose cleansing, like once Maks mentioned somewhere, but I can't find that post. But unlike these crazy women, us men have our limits so I stuck to more conventional methods of tissues and medicine. Two boxes of tissues, one complete nasal sprayer, shitload of Kottamalli - that is Coriander for you non Sinhala speaking people - and five days later, I'm still recovering.

So I had to take the Tuesday off because of the said cold and since nobody needs a vacation more than the person who just had one. But then to compensate for that I had to work my ass off up until today. Oh yeah, now today, Saturday, I'm at work. By which I mean I'm sitting at a desk in my office, blogging. That's hard work you know.

Longing for Paradise

My relationship with the paradise is a love-hate relationship of sorts. OK make it lovelove-hate because my love for it far outweighs the hatred. If there is any. But the point is, as much as I love it sometime I get fed up with the things there, how things work - or how they don't work, to be more precise - and countless elements that are so ready to piss you off. It's dirty, life is not easy and things never work the way you think they will over there. But one thing you can't accuse it of is life being uneventful.

Take Japan instead.

Things are so nice and orderly. Everything works the way they are supposed to work. Trains come and go on time. There are no sudden breakdowns of electricity. The place is clean - no dust, no mud. People are nice to you, it rains when the weather forecast tells you it will rain and you can order everything online. In short, life's so easy over here. But it sucks in adventure element. I can pretty much tell you how my year is going to turn out in 2010; it'll be the same monotonous crap until the end of March. Then the spring will come, and with it flowers and nice weather. I'll happily trot around with my camera in hand, and the FB profile will have a couple of new albums afterwards. Will follow that with about a week long holiday in May, we'll arrange a BBQ with friends and a lot more sleep. Then nothing of interest until August where I'll get Summer holidays. Off to somewhere, hopefully, for a week or two and then back at work in no time. Cricket would have begun, but that's about the only thing I'd have left with for the whole summer. Come the Autumn, there will be Autumn leaves (obvious, isn't it?) and another photo album. Then back to goddamn winter and hopefully a trip back home in December. That's about it, and it will work out exactly the way I have said here.

But this would have been a whole lot different if I were in Paradise. There are no seasons of course, but say, the rainy season could very well start with a three month draught and a power cut. There will be no power most of the time and candle lit dinner table (not for romantic reasons, obviously) conversations will be full of dissing the government. Meanwhile there will be a couple of strikes and a protest ending few people getting killed. By the police. Leaving us with ample things to talk about. And the planned trip to Galle will have to be cancelled because the hired van guy had some other last minute arrangements, but it will happen two months later on a Saturday after discussing it over booze on Friday night. Probably by bus or better yet, train, which will be delayed and cause the two day trip to be a three day one. Meanwhile, my laptop will break down but there will be no place to get it repaired. However, few calls to friends will end up with me and one of the said friends taking it apart and fixing it without a cent being spent as opposed to 10K you'd have to spend in Japan. I will go to university grounds every other weekend and play touch rugby with some known but mostly unknown people, and will make new friends. Booze with friend will be lot more fun, and sometimes will have to walk 10 miles because you missed the last bus and there is no cash in hand for a tuk-tuk. Parties will actually be fun, and there will be Baila tunes to dance to. And the food; OK, I stop there.

Yes, I'm seriously homesick all of a sudden.

Blog Post on a Leaflet

Yesterday as well as the day before I was out at an exhibition with my team at work. Of course it was work-related, hence boring, useless, driving you up walls etc. So instead I wrote a blog post sitting at a cafe there. I typed it for you, and here it is along with a picture of the original one.

I'm at an exhibition for two days running now. No I didn't eat, poop and then sleep on a table there for two days as someone would wrongly have imagined. It's just I had to visit it, on business capacity no less, which merely means my whole team went there and because they couldn't leave me at office alone they took me along as well. Come to think of it they could very well have left me to do my usual work - which of course include blogging, reading blogs and such time wasting stuff - but must have felt envious of me so took me along. Bastards.

I mean, THIS SUCKS! Being at office battling with codes is so much better than this shit. It's heaven! I know I'll be cursing work from tomorrow on again, but right now it seems thousand times better. All you have here is a bunch of Japs telling another bunch of Japs about the supposedly cool stuff (OK, they are cool, but really, meh) they've made, and the ones listening go WOW (in Japanese of course) ones every two sentences. It's fun to watch for a while, they you grow tired of it. Sure there are pretty chicks with layers of make-up as thick as a centimeter or two, all smiley, asking you to take a leaflet or two and offering you gifts if you do a survey. I evaded many, but eventually agreed to do one just for the sake of it. After finishing it I was given a small gift which consisted of a promotional CD, a little notepad and a bloody mirror that comes along with make-up sets! That was the end of me doing surveys.

So eventually I had nothing to do, so bored, not to mention hungry so headed to a cafe inside the exhibition hall. Which is where I am right now, with the steaming Cocoa I ordered. Writing this of course, which I guess is about to be finished because there isn't anything else to write. I will probably type this and hit the 'Publish' button tomorrow, from the heaven that is my workplace!


Have a rocking weekend all!

Vote I did. Not!

For the first time since I was eligible to vote, I did not. But it's OK. I still voted. Solomon, who claims even MR is UNPish - only he doesn't know it - organized a vote for us here in Japan. It didn't matter that he had never voted before in his long and eventful life, because the bus fair to the polling center was too high. Without further ado I'll reproduce the mail we got.

Dear All,
As all of you are aware, the 6th Presidential Election of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka will be held tomorrow the 26th of February 2010. Due to the fact that we are residing abroad, we will not be able to carry out our civic duty and constitutional right of participating in choosing a leader for the next 6 years. Therefore, a representative election has been organized in the XXX building for you all to cast your vote. This is an invitation to all duty conscious Sri Lankans to cast your all important vote at the venue below within the time frame also given below. All logistics has been taken care of. Please bring your passport or alien card without fail to prevent election violations.

-----
Election Centre : XXX
Time : 12.00 ～ 12.45
-----

The count of the ballot, and presentation of results will be carried out from 12.45～13.00.

Regards
Solomon
(Election Commissioner)

We duly obliged, being the educated and responsible lot we are and all. Out of 14, one was invalid but with an overwhelming majority SF won. 9 to 4 that is. Maybe because MR did not get to display his king pose everywhere around here. Accusations were also made as to rural votes were not cast and that being MR's stronghold the election wasn't fair. Rural votes in the sense the other two buildings of our company where some of us islanders work. But that didn't matter as SF was elected, and there were rumors that the work PCs of the four voters who cast their vote for MR would be destroyed.

It's all really tense here.

Penultimates

Today is the penultimate working day of the year. I always wanted to use the word 'penultimate' in a blog post. How cool is it that I managed it on the penaltimate working day of the year in probably the penultimate post of the year. Yaaaaaaaaahooooooooooooooo! That cheer is for this being the penultimate working day of the year, not for this post being such. Now guess I overused the word in just a single para, let alone a post.

Anyway, as I was saying there is one more working day to go and that too is mainly allowed for cleaning and stuff. We basically clean up each of us' working space, get rid of old and unwanted documents and stuff; basically make the working place a bit cleaner and fresh for next year's work. Is there any such thing going on in Sri Lanka? I'm not sure, but chances are there isn't. I think this is a good thing though - starting a new year afresh is always a good idea, besides you get to spend the last day of the year without working which could only be a plus. Except perhaps for the workaholics.

But before that I'll have to get through this day first, which is a bitch. The problem with working in Japanese is, it takes about, say, six hours to think of what should be done about a program and then even finish the coding but additional two days to prepare the fucking useless absolutely necessary documents. Add to that the fact that I'm at work on a Saturday, after being at work on Christmas day as well. Oh well, I shall get through this torture somehow.

Have a nice weekend you luckier fellows!

Inside a box, rolling down a slope

I'm on leave today, but I promise it has nothing to do with the aches all over my body that I have as a result of skiing trying to skiing. Yesterday was the first time I tried my hands, or arms and legs to be more accurate on that bastard of a sport skiing. After more than a three hours of torture, now I feel like I was put inside a box and rolled down a slope - a steep one at that.

Here's how it started. I was to leave my apartment at about 5 in the morning and meet my friends at 5.45, but me being me I woke up only a couple of minutes before 5.45, that too thanks to a wake-up call from a friend. Anyway, after a quick shower and stuff I just made it in time for the bus that leaves for the skiing place, and I thought how lucky I was to make it in time. But a few hours later I was cursing myself for dragging my ass in time - why oh why didn't I get late was a prominent thought in my head. Before skiing session, our friends who were more apt at the sport had advised that after a while you'll feel like that you will never be able to ski in your life, but I wasn't giving much attention to that. I should have though, because that's exactly how I felt after a hour or so.

When you fall down (note "when", not "if"), getting up by yourself is an art of it's own. Well it's a bitch actually. Then after several pathetic attempts just when you manage to get up, inevitably you fall down. At least I did. Again and again and again. The most embarrassing part is when probably eight year old kids ski past you like dolphins in the water while you're trying to get up so pathetically. Anyway, after a couple of hours of this, and cursing myself, I just managed to ski one round without falling, only for a Jap chick to collide with me in the next one and fall down again. But knowing that there are at least some Japs who suck at this just as you is a relief.

Finally, probably in the last half an hour or so, I think I got the hang of it - not much but it was definitely an improvement. I was still in the beginner's track, but hell, that's enough for one day I guess. Despite every joint and muscle aching like hell, I think I will go again.

Happy Monday all!