Can you read your own language?

My friend, Yuki, bought a new sound mixer for mixing our songs and his friend, Musan, is the only one who knows how to use it.

I asked Yuki "didn't it come with instructions?" and he said "Yeah yeah, but I can't read Japanese."

Horrible Hair, Osaka

I've gotta try and sneak a photo of this, but I'm not sure how to justify aiming a camera in a stranger's face.

There's a horrible fashion in Japan of young (very often ugly) japanese women dying their hair the colour of urine and then poofing it up at the back with a bucket of hairspray.

The overall effect is that they must be going bald or something to need their hair puffed up so much. Obviously they do their hair facing a mirror and don't realise how awful it is.

Just this morning I sat across from 3 such horrid visions, each primping and preening themselves in their hello kitty mirrors. I wonder why they don't tell each other that they messed their hair up so royaly at the back. My only explanation is that they want it to look so bad. Maybe they think it detracts from their very bad teeth and acne-ridden skin.

Why go to work when you are sick?

I think that we have created a monster of the society that we live in. I went to work today despite having a big juicy cold, battled through it wondering the whole time why I was there.

I went because Jeremy discovered I've taken 6 more sick days than he has, which struck me as being quite a lot of sick days. However, I do teach kids and he teaches adults, so I get coughed on a whole lot more often that he does. It's not my fault I'm sick so often if kids won't cover their mouths when they're hacking up their lungs.

You are the twitch in my eye!

Let me see, I guess it's been about 3 months since it started. This incessant twitching in my right eye. It won't go away.

I know that tics are caused by fatigue or stress, but I often sleep enough and I don't think I'm stressed. I don't love my job but it's not exactly stressful to work only 29.5 hours a week for a pretty good salary.

I didn't get much sleep last night due to cold medication keeping me awake all night and my eye has been twitching like mad today, so that explains today ... but what about all those previous days and weeks and months?

What is that funky smell?

I spent the greater part of today (after getting out of bed) trying to defeat the bad smell that has become my existence. I think I will have to re-wash all the sheets and towels because they're musty, but I've already got three loads of washing on the line and I've run out space.

I took all our shoes out of the shoe closet and put them outside to air. Then I battled a war with the shelves and, after loosing some skin, managed to get the shelf holders out and then I could remove the shelves and put them outside to air with the shoes.

Grabbed my spray of kabi kira and wiped down all the shelves and the shoes. Then I left them to air some more and headed for the 100 Yen shop to buy silicon-filled air dehumidifiers. They have a limited life and I may well be better off getting an electric one, but I've spent enough on electronics recently, what with the recent purchase of a vaccuum and heater.

I've pulled out the set of drawers from the cupboard in the spare room and I'm letting it air out using the money-chewing reverse cycle AC. All the sheets and towels that were in the drawers are now hanging out on Jeremy's futon, which will probably need airing again soon.

I washed the toilet room, it was a bad smell on its own. I bought a new toilet brush to replace the disgusting one that has been infesting our toilet room until now. The toilet now smells fabulous, if only I could say the same thing for the rest of the house.

I tried to look under the floor with a torch, but I couldn't see very far. Anyway, I'm still convinced the smell is moldy and not a dead animal, but at this stage and after so much agony I can't rule anything out.