heavy clogs

i went to Izu peninsula to see where my godfather's ashes had been scattered. it was near a shrine, at the foot of which were there large metal clogs. i'd say they were around a size 50 (so, very big), and you can see how much metal is involved, so i'm guessing these are really heavy...

the end of an era

apart from the Harry Potter that came out last year (the first part of the last book), i've seen all the other movies in Japan. the first three when i lived out there and the others, amazingly, always came out roundabout the time i was visiting. and all those times, it was my first evening activity, seen as i was always too tired and fighting with jetlag. and this time again, i was lucky, although it had come out a few weeks earlier so the English version was only available in 3D. oh well, i'd never seen a 3D movie anyway. better late than never.

and so it was that i and about a dozen other people watched the very last installment of what has been a great adventure. whilst i had found part 1 a tad long, part 2 was really great. yes, a few things were changed, as usual, but overall, it was well done. i cried all the way through and even quite enjoyed the 3D.

but now, there is no more Harry Potter to look forward to, and i'll have to find something new to do on my first night in Japan.

iodine

i'm off to Japan in a few days. after much thinking and wondering and talking to people who knew about radiation (well, more than me anyway), i decided to go after all. but then, i was still a tad worried about it, especially the ingesting possibly radioactive food part. air radiation is currently minimum and apparently, of no consequence compared to eating something radioactive - that apparently tends to stay in your body. so i went in search for some iodine.

in Switzerland, the chemist wouldn't give me any. first because they didn't actually have any in stock and second because they said they wouldn't deliver it unless the government issued a warning. then i went to the doctor's. i hadn't been in years and tried a new one (i needed to change anyway, the old one kept giving me antibiotics no matter what was wrong with me). he said it was unnecessary and i should just avoid eating fruit and vegetables. great. the next day, the news broke that cows had 'mistakenly' been given radioactive fodder, had been slaughtered and dispatched across the country. oh, and the fodder in question was rice-stem hay. so, no fruit, no vegetables, no meat, no rice. just great. as a last resort, i went to the local chemist and explained the situation. i'm not sure whether or not she was allowed to give me the iodine, but she was clearly sympathetic to my plight and gave it to me anyway. yes!

i know this is just a very small protection, as it will only prevent radioactive iodine from staying in my body, not the other stuff, but it's still better than nothing.

lost in translation

until recently, you couldn't get anything undubbed on French TV. and looking back, i realise why some things were so weird: it seems translators don't spend much time in the country the language comes from, cos they miss a hell of a lot of blatantly obvious expressions. to use the Buffy example again: Spike goes around calling Buffy 'luv' all the time in the current reruns. a specifically British term of endearment, although actually used by everyone of the older persuasion with everyone else (e.g. the bus driver, your mother, the shop keeper). clearly, the translators had never heard or seen this word, so it got translated literally into 'amour'. all fine and well, but it sounds weird as hell in French without a 'mon' in front (as in 'mon amour', my love). so there you have Spike and Buffy arguing, and Spike goes around saying 'amour', which sounds like he's about to embark on something philosophical, but all that comes out is something like 'where are you going?'.

i must remember to catch a French version of Lie to Me sometime, to figure out what Tim Roth says in French to replace 'luv'...

Spike

i know this is silly, but they're showing re-runs of Buffy on TV - i used to be really into it - and i chanced upon a couple of episodes a few weeks back, and then they got to the last series, which i entirely missed so i started actually watching. and i remembered how much i loved Spike. really. i find him dead sexy (pun intended). well, without all the white make-up he wore in the first few series - presumably they got rid of it to make him more likeable. and more likely for Buffy to fall for him. *sigh*

the flowers

i got back to the school the other day ... and found a pot of orchids on my desk. the delivered kind. a moment of shock. the last time i received delivered flowers was a long, long time ago, an ex who was reconsidering a breakup. but this time... not being in a relationship seriously reduced the amount of contenders. i had my brain working overtime for about a minute. who could they be from?

it turned out they were from my students. their course had just finished and they wanted to thank me. now, it's not the first time i get flowers from students, but i must admit the delivery part was impressive. they hadn't want to burden me in class in case i was going elsewhere afterwards and would have to walk around with them all day. i was really touched.

Freddy Cole

Geneva hosts some really good jazz concerts in the summer, and the first one this year was by the Freddy Cole quartet. when i read the information, i was gobsmacked: Freddy Cole is the younger brother of one Nat King Cole! this sounded good, so i bought some tickets for my friends and i and off we went, all excited at the prospect. and what a show! the guy might be 79 years old and have trouble walking, but he's a great pianist and has a good singing voice. the concert lasted 2 full hours and although he couldn't walk that much, he clearly felt the vibe and got up to dance - as he could, meaning a sway of the hips here, a clicking of the fingers or a clap of the hands there. it was so cute! the rest of the band was good too, the guy on the drums being quite something and all of them generally looking like they couldn't get enough of playing. it was good.