Not really signing off after all...

Ok that was a little break there. I was just going to leave the blog at that. But now, having been back in Ireland almost two months, I want to keep at it. Partly because I have nothing better to do (especially at work), and partly because it helps me keep a connection with and reminds of my time in Japan. So on we go... So far since coming back I've largely avoided TV. Mainly because its all crap. Differently crap to Japanese tv, but still crap. On the first or second night back home, I was over at a friends house and they were glued to the final of "Playing it Straight" - a reality show were one women and a load of guys were staying together at some big ranch and she had to figure out which ones were gay. I just sat there thinking how I could have come back for this. Anyway, I happened to be watching Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares the other night when I was on the internet and saw that Gordon Ramsey's face was on the cover of Metropolis. This is where celebrity chef Gordon Ramsey goes to failing restaurants in the UK and freaks at them for doing a shitty job and tries to get them back in shape. Its actually great to see him rip into chefs and restaurant managers. Its one of the only programs I've actually started to watch here. Not that I particularly miss warate ii tomo. Living here again has proved a bit of a pain in the arse. I'm back living at home for the time being, and just this week started my new, boring office job. So not only am I back to getting up early in the morning...ugghh...its actually pretty impossible to get in on time thanks to the shitty trains here. I could just go on and on about stuff here - the shittiness of the trains being only one thing (and the renovated station they're building here). I mean, I have to shout at a guy who couldn't care less behined bullet proof glass to buy a ticket, wait for a train that's almost always late at a station where the new roof has been designed so it doesn't provide any shelter from the rain if there's even a slight breeze. I then have to hand my ticket to another guy who couldn't care less at the other end because the union's won't allow them to use machines to put your ticket through. And where they do allow ticket machines at the biggest stations, the touch screens are worn away from people pressing the same spot that they don't work! And of couse they're not feckin fixed. So I'm missing stuff from Japan, even though it at this stage, it feels like I never left. I've tried sushi from supermarkets here (total crap) but what did I expect. I still have my handy three year visa for Japan though, so if I get totally sick of this place I can always try my hand at the teaching game again. But anyway, working again will allow me to move out again and hopefully I can get my full license (yes I can't even drive at my ripe old age). Thats what I'm really looking forward to (that and Keiko coming in September). Cos when I move out theres really no chance that any apartment will not be waaay better than the hole I where I was living in Kobe. I'll continue putting up a few photos of Dublin as this place is under heavy construction, mostly new apartment blocks though.