Stuff about London

So london wins the right to host the 2012 Olympic games and then the very next day some deranged people blow up tube trains and buses - strange old world, eh? Sort of makes you hark back to the IRA, at least they were civilised about trying to kill the British, coded warnings and often military and/or politcal targets (I realise that a number of their targets did not fall into these categories, the Harrods bomb, for example) whereas the perpertrators of Thursday's explosions went for regular commuters and workers who could not defend themselves and who, to some extent, may well have been sympathetic to their plight (if the bombers were indeed Islamic fundamentalists then the anti-war demonstrations of last year should have been a hint). Had we still been living in London then I think I would have been ok as I would have been at work, however the Guru would have been going through King's Cross on her way to Old Street at about the time of the bombings, so she might, just might, have been caught up in it all. Of course that is a lot of ifs and buts. There is not much I feel I need to add to all of this as there is, I am sure, reams and reams being written already. So well done London on the stiff upper lip approach to it all.

As for the Olympics, will we be back in Blighty for them? Possibly, possibly not, who knows? Of one thing I am quite certain, however, and that is if we are back in Blighty in 2012, we won't be living anywhere near London, hole of a place that it is (yeah yeah yeah, Doctor bleedin' Johnson). I've read a few blogs, especially since the bombings, and not a few have mentioned that suddenly, with all the focus on the old place, they are feeling a tad nostalgic for a bit of litter, crap transport, pollution, overpricing, surly "service" and agression. Can't see it myself. Anyway, we lived in Japan and moved away when the footy world cup came so I can't really see us moving to the UK just because the Olympics are on there.

Stuff about Japan

We have been buying stuff as it is the only way to prove you are a patriotic person in Japan (it seems to me). Anyway, we've got the excuse of a new member of the family so that means we get to buy stuff that we 'really' need. Most fun was the futon storing bag things. As we now have a extra bed for the little 'un, and extra futons, summer duvets, winter duvets and blankets for any unexpected guest that might show up, storage space is becomming a luxury we don't have much of. Futons and duvets take up a lot of space, especially the hollow fibre jobs, so we bought the storage bags. These are fab - bloody great plastic bags with a zip lock side; when eveything is in you stick your hoover into the corner valve thing and, hey presto, air sucked out and thin, rock hard duvets that are *so* much easier to store. I could have watched the air being sucked out all day...maybe I need to get out more.

Also was have purchased a multi-region dvd player which is great and, much to the Guru's surprise as it was from a dodgy looking ad in an English magazine, it actually arrived and it works. I'm still not truly convinced of its foreign dvd playing qualities, but it does play a vcd that (not-much)-golf-playing-(anymore)-brother sent us of Charlie's naming ceremony. We've only watched the speeches so far, about an hour of them, and all seems to be jolly, so thanks for that.

And, of course, we've been buying baby stuff. But that, I fear will never stop - or at least will evolve into buying toddler stuff, then kid stuff etc etc

Japan itself, it seems to me, is pretty quiet at the moment. Koizumi has been off to the G-8 summit and didn't appear to say a lot. The postal sell off/privatisation thing seems to be going ahead, but that is, I think, just a tax dodge and a pretty dull one too boot. Krazy Kim over in NK has gone all coy, perhaps he has taken up semi-professional snail racing, who knows. And of the politicos here no one seems to making gaffes to any extent and keeping their noses clean as the scandal-o-meter is alarmingly low right now. Must be due to rainy season, which looks like it is approaching its last throes. Actually rainy season has been quite pleasant this year in that it has been quite cool, in fact distinctly chilly at times, so much so that the summer hasn't really had a chance to heat up yet. Yes we've had a few hot days, but nothing like last year, thank goodness, where we were topping 30 degrees/90% humidity in early June and it didn't stop until October. How English, talking about the weather - you can take the boy out of Blighty, but...

The little 'un is doing much better now and seems to have got over his eating problem. Although he still can't take in as much food as his contemporaires, he's doing a lot better than when he came out of hospital. Also his weight now seems to be going up at someting like a normal rate and, after spending ages hovering just below the 4kg mark he is now up to 4600grams - so fight on there, little one.