• Daily Life

    Fat-Arsed Friend!

    Fortune blessed me with lots of wonderful reminders of how lucky I am yesterday, including through a fat-arsed addition to Kangaeroo Corner. We held a garden party for close friends and family, hoping to show off Kangaeroo Corner. A harsh summer, untimely rains and, I think, excessive intervention on my part, have destroyed the lawn, but much of the rest of the garden is thriving. And now, courtesy of a dear mate and former work colleague, there’s a new addition to Kangaeroo Corner in the former of Fatso, the fat-arsed wombat. I don’t know the incredible lengths she went to…

  • Daily Life

    Be Careful What You Wish For…

    One of the highlights of Kangaeroo Corner is the Fountain of Strewth, which I placed with the hope of attracting birds to the garden, but the role has been served so well, I’m now drawn to the idiom used in the headline (which stems from a passage of Aesop’s fables that says “We would often be sorry if our wishes were gratified,” according to Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations Sixteenth Edition and as I learned today). Sweltering heat and fierce sunshine has made the Fountain of Strewth a popular part of the neighborhood’s avian residents. And I’ve been delighted by this, sitting in…

  • Daily Life - 豪cabulary

    The Strewth, the Whole Strewth and Nothing But the Strewth…

    Strewth, work and life are bloody busy at the moment, but I can’t let that stop me from looking after things, which resulted this week in a renovation to the Fountain of Strewth. It was nothing major, but I found wooden letters on sale in the local 100 yen shop and decided they could decorate the fountain in Kanageroo Corner. Somewhat harsh weather conditions have got me worried about the garden, with a week of fairly constant rain a few weeks ago followed by largely gloomy conditions where regular rain hasn’t arrived, topped off by blistering heat and stifling humidity.…

  • Daily Life

    Sweltering!

    It’s boiling hot and the heat and humidity are energy sapping, but I still love summer in Tokyo. The heat means I can eat to my heart’s content and won’t gain too much weight, especially if I can continue cycling. I’m still able to ride at least twice a day on weekdays even though we’re in our busy period, though that seems almost certain to end when we lose yet another member of staff next week and no replacement in sight. We are paying the price for having a toxic boss, and trying to deal with it has me encapsulated…

  • Daily Life

    Rejoining the Fold

    I’m really blessed to be able to ride a Brompton folding bike. I think…. ….Anyway, my Brommie is the reason I got hooked on cycling. I fist learned about Brompton bikes through a work mate who had one. I was already riding extensively at the time on a Dahon folding bike, riding it to a station midway through my commute, packing it away and taking it on the packed public transport for another section and then getting off for the final leg of the journey. The Dahon Route was an awesome ride, but not made for the heavy duty use…

  • Daily Life

    No Time to Paws

    Work is dominating my life at the moment and I have little time for anything else, yet we are fortunate that our kangaroo paws are leading the way in a thriving summer garden. I’ve detailed my attempts at growing Australian plants from seed. While most failed, the kangaroo paw, the ones I really wanted most to survive, are flourishing now. I’ve even managed to give away a few to neighbors, which was really awesome! I hope to be able to spread the joy even further. All this is even better as I thought that I had killed my original kangaroo…