michael lambe's scrapbook

It’s July already, and England are out of the World Cup in true English style: partly by being the victim of crap refereeing and partly by being crap at penalties. “Please!” I prayed, “Don’t let it go to penalties!” but, agonisingly, it did.

Last week was mostly taken up with test preparation, and re-preparation after being informed that one of my tests was no good. Hopefully this week, being test week will be relatively easy, as I don’t have to teach so many lessons (though I have four hours in a row tomorrow morning).

And I just watched the latest Doctor Who episode. I’m very excited to see the Daleks back (Daleks AND Cybermen – that does show promise!). It looks like the Rose Tyler character is finally going to bite it as well, which is probably a good thing. Her character isn’t bad it’s just the rather cloying relationship she has with the Doctor that I can no longer bear. This constant weighty emphasis on how special their relationship is, reached it’s zenith with the Impossible Planet/Satan Pit two-parter that started so promisingly but then ended with the Doctor’s vomit inducing “If there’s one thing in the universe I believe in, it’s Rose Tyler!”. There’s just no need for it really. Overall, the second series has been a bit disappointing. The werewolf story, “School Reunion” and “Fear Her” pleased me but other than that, the writing has been a bit slack and “The Idiot’s Lantern” was written by one. Hopefully, the Daleks and Cybermen will go on a big purge and clean things up a bit. Anyway, Doctor Who is finally coming to Japan this autumn, so my friends here can finally see what I’ve been jabbering on about all this time. Here are the katakana titles http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/images/japan_logo.jpg Mind you, you have to have cable as it’s only on BS-2 (as owned by that loathsome government mouthpiece NHK) so I recommend other sources. Heh heh heh heh heh…

Anyone see Japan play Australia last night? I tuned in for the last (and most important) 15 minutes and what a funny game eh? I especially liked the scenes after the match of the delighted dancing Aussie fans and the speechless Japanese. Today, at school, I kept accidentally dropping the name “Australia” into different contexts. Tee-hee.

Last week, (Monday June 5th) Hyon Joo, Yu Gyong and I went up to Hiezan and had a lovely day. Here’s a picture of me looking gay among the poppies at the Hiezan Garden Museum.

I’ve been meaning to get up to Hiezan for the last two years but have somehow never managed it – until now. Anyway, last week the weather was perfect. You can see more pictures of flowers and temples and other recent stuff (sakura and so forth) if you click to my Flickr site here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/46253270@N00/sets/72157594164482825/

As it turns out that’ll be the last Monday I have off for a while as there’s been a major upheaval at my main place of work. Leilani has had to quit her full-time job so she can go home to New Zealand and look after her sick mum. As a result, my hours have increased from 12 to 19 a week… and though I’m a lot busier, it does mean a big increase in my monthly wage. And I still finish no later than 2 o’clock (and sometimes 12). It’s a shame to see Leilani go but good news for my bank balance.

Here are some pictures you won’t see on my Flickr site of Paul Spark’s 10th Beer tasting party held last Saturday at his Tokyo pad. Once again Mr. Sparks excelled himself, getting all the beers, keeping us all fed and well imbibed and funtertaining us with his impossible quizzes. Sadly he was so busy running in and out of the kitchen I didn’t get any pictures of HIM. Still, thanks for another good night Paul!

Below, left to right: Graham Chave, My Clam, and Chris Cotter.
We’s tasting the beers, innit.
Graham looking coy…

True Chave comes out and finds new uses for chocolate “Pocky” sticks.