Late Arrival

For 30 years I had a fine set of teeth. Alright, they aren't the best in the world but they got the job done just fine which is what matters. I was perfectly happy with them. But then all of a sudden my mouth (or brain or genes or whatever it is that's responsible for your teeth-management) decided that they're not enough, so the bugger threw in another one to the mix just a day or two ago. Yes folks, at the ripe old age of 30 I have a tooth coming in! WTF! It's like you had fifteen or twenty kids who turned out to be just fine but at the age of seventy you think you need to have another one just for the sake of it.

I don't really if it decided to come in just silently. But the goddamn thing fucking hurts like a bitch! I mean, it really REALLY hurts.

AAAAAAAAAAAAARRRGGGHHH!!!

Okay, rant over. I'm outta here.

A Month of Plant Eating

Ever since I can remember I was a meat-eater. A lot of people I know are the same. Though some of them tend to discriminate against cows and pigs, most of them don't. But as we all know there is yet another strange breed of people live among us who don't actually eat meat at all! You might not believe this but there are some reported cases of them not eating meat for as long as a year or two even. I swear I'm telling the truth. This always puzzled, baffled and intrigued me. Not me telling the truth, there never was any question about that, but people not eating meat. So I wanted to get to the bottom of this mystery. How on earth can someone go on for so long without tasting meat? I mean, let's face it. There's nothing like a well prepared steak, a lamb chop or a roasted chicken right? How can you even begin to think that any plant can substitute that? I like a good fried potato or a parippu curry, but comparing that to meat is like comparing a scooter to a Mercedes.

However, like I said, I wanted to get to the bottom of it. Which in other words I wanted to see what the world looks like to these plant-eaters. It must be grey scale, boring and tasteless, I was sure. I mean, did I tell you how good the steak is? So I just threw all caution to the wind and decided to become a plant-eater for a month.

Adjusting, at first, wasn't easy. Adjusting in the sense adjusting my lifestyle. As you probably know I live in Japan, and I live alone. And despite me being quite good at cooking - take my word for it even though I myself say it - I'm too lazy for it most of the time. So the combination of not cooking and living in Japan naturally mean eating a lot of meat. Usually I eat my breakfast at a coffee shop which contains at least sausages or bacon. I don't usually have lunch, and the dinner is either eaten outside, bought from a shop or in rare cases made at home. Unless it is the rare case, this means dinner has a lot of meat too. So this left me with no option but to cook most of my meals. This, at first, was a bitch. How on earth am I going to cook so frequently? But yours truly isn't one to give up so easily. I started having breakfast at home. For dinner, instead of cooking same old Sri Lankan food every time I opted for more variety. Italian, French, Moroccan, Russian and Maldivian food were among many varieties I tried. Okay that's stretching it a bit far (Only two paras ago I said that my telling the truth was never in question. Jeez) but I really did prepare different food, particularly Italian style. Then after a few days it was all part of my daily routine. Cooking wasn't a pain in the arse anymore. In fact, I started loving it so much I started improvising even. And I made through that month without even realizing it!

At first I thought I would not stand a chance, that I wouldn't last a week. Even if I did last a month by some miracle, I thought I'd run to a MacDonald's just when the clock hits midnight and gobble down dozen Big Macs. Well, it's been two days since the end of the month and I'm still to eat meat! Never did I think there would come a day I say this, but I actually enjoyed being vegetarian! When prepared well veggies taste as good, you feel guilt free since no more fatty stuff and unless you eat at fancy restaurants home cooked meals are always fresh and better. So much so that I started eating way too much I think I'm putting on again. Simply, you don't really need to eat dead animals it seems.

Side Effects of Recession

Initially I thought of naming this post "Dumping Dilemmas". However that's not because I was going to reveal you the secrets of how to dump dilemmas. Rather because this post is about the dilemmas a man face when he is about to take a dump. But on second thoughts I named it as it is now for bloody recession is what caused all the dilemmas to begin with.

Let me give you a little background first. Before the recession the company I work for was spread across four buildings. One near Tokyo, three somewhere else. The one near Tokyo was the head office or the HQ as more educated, intelligent and important people would call it. I am well educated, intelligent and important, thus I would call it such. However the other three buildings play a more important part in this story so it would be easier I gave them names too. Well they already have names but for obvious reasons I am not at my liberty to reveal those names to you. Instead, taking your convenience into consideration as well, I will name them as follows. The first one, the one I work in right now, I'll refer to it as The Building I Work In Right Now. Then there is a second building next to The Building I Work In Right Now, but across the street. I will name it The Building Across The Street To The Building I Work In Right Now. The last building is located across the street to The Building Across The Street To The Building I Work In Right Now, hence I will give it the most logical name; The Building Across The Street To The Building Across The Street To The Building I Work In Right Now. However The Building Across The Street To The Building Across The Street To The Building I Work In Right Now and The Building I Work In Right Now aren't the same. So I assume that by now you must have realized there is a junction in the equation as well. Anyway, I hope I've made things crystal clear to you by now.

Moving on.

After we were hit by the recession as a means of cost-cutting the management decided to do away with the HQ. No, they didn't decide to destroy it, just move our company from there to The Building Across The Street To The Building I Work In Right Now. But they didn't stop there. They also decided to move everyone who were originally in The Building Across The Street to The Building I Work In Right Now as well as The Building Across The Street To The Building Across The Street To The Building I Work In Right Now to The Building I Work In Right Now. So to recap;

1. People who were originally in the HQ are now in The Building Across The Street To The Building I Work In Right Now. 
2. People who were originally in The Building Across The Street To The Building I Work In Right Now are now in The Building I Work In Right Now.
3. People who were originally in The Building Across The Street To The Building Across The Street To The Building I Work In Right Now are now in The Building I Work In Right Now.

Now my story focus on only The Building I Work In Right Now. I hear you breathe a sigh of relief. Anyway because of all this mess now The Building I Work In Right Now has a population that roughly equal to the population of a small island. However it has only one men's room and only one ladies' room per floor each of which has 3 toilets. And that's where the fun begins. Imagine a perfectly normal scenario such as you want to take a dump and you proceed to the men's room. These floors are so crowded that it is very likely that at any given minute all three toilets are occupied. I am in the 8th floor which also happens to be the top floor. If the 8th floor is occupied the next best option is to hold it in or go to the 7th floor. But there's only so much holding a man can do. So I - or any random unfortunate guy in The Building I Work In Right Now - will have not option but to proceed to the 7th floor. However often the case is that all of it's toilets are occupied as well. In which case, 6th floor. Then the fifth. So on and so forth. You get the drift right? This is all nice and easy to say like this, but doing it is not so. Especially when holding is not an option anymore. Imagine going to the men's room in the 8th floor, finding it occupied, leaving it as quick as you can, going to the elevator and press the button to the 7th floor, waiting for it to arrive and getting in, getting out of the elevator on the 7th floor, go to the men's room in the 7th floor, finding it is occupied as well, leaving it even quicker, pressing the elevator button to the 6th floor, getting in, getting out on the 6th floor, entering the men's room, finding that occupied too, exiting that like a tracer bullet, pressing the elevator button to the 5th floor, getting in, getting out again, dash in to the 5th floor men's room, finding that occupied too, disappear from there, pressing elevator button to the 4th floor, getting in the elevator, getting out, entering the men's room in 4th floor only to find that it is occupied as well, run to the elevator, pressing the button to the 3rd floor, waiting...

Damn I got tired of writing that. I think, nay, know you got tired or reading it. Imagine actually doing it! Recession is such a bitch I tell you.

The Universe Returns to Normal

Pointless Post

I've never really liked Zombies. It is hard to imagine anybody would, but that's not what I meant. I never really liked stories about Zombies. Or Vampires for that matter. Crappy Hollywood movies had a lot to do with it apart from the fact that they both are ridiculous ideas to begin with. But that was till I watched The Walking Dead last year; now that changed everything. It is by the creators of Shawshank Redemption which is the only thing that prompted me to watch it after a friend recommending it and ain't I glad that I watched it. Those guys picked the tried, tested and failed theme of Zombies, gave it a whole new dimension, turned it on it's head two and a half times, gave it a face lift and the result is The Walking Dead. Simply the best TV series to come out after LOST. I don't want to go into much details, just take it from me, a huge Zombie skeptic till then, that it's brilliant stuff. They have returned for a second season last week and I am loving it.

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On other news cricket this year - that is cricket I play, not the cricket I watch - have been so disappointing. It is almost winter and we managed only two matches so far. The Tokyo earthquake and so many other things have unsettled the life here in Japan and a lot of people have other things than cricket in their minds. Pity.

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However after ridiculously poor four days of cricket, us, that is Sri Lanka, finally managed to save the Test. Don't I just love Test cricket; even a non-result can bring excitement like no other. And even after like gazillion let offs it was still a great double by Sanga, probably the greatest Test batsman to come out of Sri Lanka.

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And so tomorrow is the big final. The final of the world cup that is. Finally it looks like the Blacks will be able to set the record straight by bringing the cup home. Technically it is already home as the world cup is being played in New Zealand but you know what I mean. It'll take the brave man to bet against them but if the said brave man did bet something like a hundred bucks against them, and the Blacks choked again, then the said brave man would be a millionaire. That is how huge the odds against the French. But for the sake of game I do hope they put on their giant-killing shoes and give us a game to remember.

Clash of the Titans

It's a pity that both Dan Carter and Kurtley Beale - one already a legend of the game and the other certainly has it in him to become one - aren't going to be there for the tomorrow's clash. This was going to be Dan's World Cup, and Beale would certainly have wanted to spoil his party.

Yet, all is not lost for the stakes are sky high for both teams. Blacks would want to set things straight after losing to Wallabies in both previous occasions they met in a World Cup semi final, and the Wallabies would love nothing but to stick it in the Blacks' - and their supporters' - faces for they always cope a lot of shit whenever they tour New Zealand. It is romantic in a way that they should meet in a semi final instead of the final for now the stakes are even bigger; whoever loses has a lot to lose while the winner will - mark my words - go on to win the World Cup.

This is going to be the game of the year.

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.