So, here we go then, last taught week of the academic year.

Bloody good thing too, I’m knackered, and enthusiasm is rapidly disappearing out the window. I find these times-of-change difficult to deal with, that is, end of regular weekly timetable, start of unstructured weeks that are hazy in their appearance.

Not knowing whether I’m going to Japan in mid-July or September is causing me a bit of stress. If it’s the former, then I’ll only have 5 weeks to get some cash together and see people I’ve promised to see. If it’s the latter, then that’s kind of cool, because it gives me an additional 6 weeks or so before I head back to Japan – a chance to breath. So, one way or the other, I don’t mind whether I’m told July or September, I just wish they’d tell me!

Fax from my uni in Tokyo today – they’d lost my JASSO scholarship form!! Great… It would be ironic if after all that hard work I didn’t get one. It’s been known to happen before, although not with students who attend universities where two scholarships are available and only two of you are going!

My mate JJ, whose Tokyo apartment I’m hoping to rent come the summer/autumn has been struck down with some complex form of pneumonia. Poor chap, he’s flying back Wednesday to ‘enjoy’ the ‘benefits’ of the NHS. Let’s hope they don’t turn him away at the hospital, “I just flew halfway round the world to be hospitalised here, and you’re telling me that I have to sleep in a corridoor?!” Get well soon JJ.

More bad news from dad as well; last week’s heart examination (with the radioactive fluid, see here), confirmed that he does need something doing to him. In addition to one of his arteries being a bit blocked, a part of his heart muscle may be slightly damaged. He wouldn’t want me to tell you this, so if you have our home phone number, please don’t bombard them with calls. The fact is he’s really pretty well, I mean, he’s crazily active in the garden, singing in local choirs, giving talks and stuff, so he’s not exactly on his deathbed, and he’s used to living with a dodgy ticker ever since his quadruple heart bypass a few years back. Then there’s his siblings, who between them probably know more about heart problems than the best cardiologists in the land.

What does this tell us boys and girls? Whatever you do, don’t get into a profession where you will be under a hell of a lot of stress (such as Headteaching) as it will ultimately lead to angina, probably. Also, if you feel stressed, figure out what the cause of it is, and if possibly, deal with it, as it occurs. It only need take a few moments of analysis if it’s pretty simple. If it relates to something more long-term, consider what your health is worth to you, think hard, and then take some brave decisions. That’s what I try to do anyhow.

I’ll keep TDM updated on his situation for the benefit of family members & friends that I know tune in.

Back to uni though, I tell you what, these last few weeks of lectures have been great. You can tell that our tutors really want us to pass this exam. We pretty much know exactly what to expect – something I can’t say I remember feeling before exams in the past.

Ohhhhh today, in class, one of my classmates, who I hardly know, was sitting in front of me, and displaying his whole arse through the gap in his chair. We’re talking flesh, hair and everything. How the hell he could not be aware of this I don’t know. You know what though, I just couldn’t concentrate. I mean, it’s not that I was deliberately looking at this guy’s bare buttocks, but they were kinda right in my face. My friend beside me caught the expression on my face and burst out laughing.

I knew that if the class was to get underway with him still mooning me I wouldn’t be able to process a single thing the tutor said. Something had to be done.

Thankfully, the table that he was sitting at was in a slightly unusual location – it should have been forming the 3rd side of the horseshoe-shaped arrangement that we normally have, rather than in the middle of the room.

“George”, I said, “your table, I’m afraid I’m going to have to move it. It’s upsetting the psychosymantec ecospirit of the entire room.”

He’s not exactly the argumentative type, and so obligingly stood up, allowing me to move the table to the side of the room, so that the only thing now accorded the privilege of admiring his crack was the wall.

That was the second bum-related incident to have occured in class in the past week. A few days ago, my friend was telling me about a friend of hers who works in a hospital.

“Yeah, and then one day this guy walked in with a whole frozen duck up his bum!”

I didn’t even want to consider, WHY??!!

TTFN

p.s. I’ve finished uploading my photo archives to Flickr. All 8,510 of them, conveniently only searchable by year or country. I’ve decided that Flickr is officially CRAP (it’s not designed to deal with large collections, and why can’t you search by meta-data or filename?), but nonetheless will contnue to put my piccies up there in addition to the usual photo section of TGW.