Falconews

Terry Fox Run Tokyo 2006

2006-09-27T17:47:00.000+09:00

While not perfect, still a very good sunday we had last week.

We had an absolutely awesome weekend, with some fresh wind and gorgeous sunshine. Early autumn at its best! First thing in the morning I went to join the Tokyo Terry Fox Run (I just did the 5K - like the previous FIT - Finance in Tokyo charity run around the imperial palace in late spring) with Keiichi. Unfortuantely I lost one of my contacts before the start, so I had to go blind most of the way and after 2-3 kilometers I was feeling so dizzy (thanks to two vastly differing eye-sight strengths) that I had to walk the rest. At least that's my excuse and I am sticking to it. Lateron, I biked to my office to get something and finish some work-mails, when I learned that my 2nd hand just-purchased-and-already-repaired-three-times-costing-me-nearly-the-purchase-price bike I got a few weeks back has yet another problem, meaning that I would need to replace the bearings which itself costs a fourth of buying the whole bike anew in the shop next door and half of what I paid the guy I bought it from. :-( Apart from that, a beautiful day running, biking and enjoying a good read in the park. (Well needed too, for my rapidly expanding abdomen, since I have yet to visited the Gym I joined this month for the first time.)

Cheers,

Falco

background model for Japanese fashion magazine shoot

2006-08-24T19:23:00.000+09:00

Today was yet another boring day at the office stretching from early in the morning to quite late at night, except that in between I was invited to a fashion model photo shoot in central Tokyo! The partner of my boss is the photographer for this shoot for "JJ" a rather famous Japanese girls fashion magazine. He needed a foreign face to stand next to the real model. In the end it was n't world-changing, but I met some nice models, including the half-German presenter of the daily German lessons show on NHK national television, the lovely Liza (who also happens to be from Hamburg), got away from my computer and the office for two hours and got a nice picture in the end.

Cheers,

F

Good news all around!

2006-08-23T15:06:00.000+09:00

Hello everyone!

Do not worry, I will not bore you about my personal life this time. In other good news, this blog is officially re-opened for all kinds of ranting-purposes.

In more good news, the ozone layer is healing! Probably in my dying days, the ozone layer in the stratosphere will be back to the levels it was when I was born. Yay for Generation X! See BBC: Ozone Hole Stable

Further good news: Reuters: Lebanon UN Force Given Strong Mandate UN Peace-keeping operations need to regain respect. In that sense unfortunately we are not living in the days of Dag Hammerskjold anymore. Maybe they can test the new Leopard II PSO (wonderfully named so for "peace support operations"... lest one forget it is a main battle tank!).

Actually, on August 15th, the day the Showa Emperor surrendered to the Allies, I made the trip to the controversial Yasukuni Shrine (as did Prime Minister Koizumi). While I did not much care for the styled-up Yakuza's and their hanger-on girls that were in attendance, nor the loud and annoying right-wingers disturbing the peace of this beautiful shrine (seriously, it is a wonderful shrine and I think those so-called "Yasukuni-protecting" right-wing extremists are those that damage it the most.), I did go on to pray to those 2.5 million whose lives were lost in wars and apparently my wishes were heard. When I got into work, the truce in Lebanon was all over the news.

I admit, that the truce happened before I went, but I only got to know about it afterwards. ;-) I have attached a picture from the Shrine. Imagine it surrounded by thousands of people in the searing Tokyo-summer-heat.

Finally, that committee that is meeting in Prague to define planets seems to have dropped that idiocy of naming every large rock a planet, just in order to keep Pluto and seems to be leaning towards going with a more practical solution that will drop Pluto, but keep the classical planets. Even better, while that slightly dodgy Japanese businessman Dice-K Enomoto of Lifedoor-fame has failed his physicals to be the next space tourist, instead, a much more deserving person is going to go: Anousheh Ansari, the female American CEO of Iranian origin who is behind the Ansari Space X-Prize.

Happy good-news-day!

Cheers,

F

Guys and Dolls

2005-08-10T03:42:00.000+09:00

That is the musical I went to see together with Maki yesterday and boy was it good! Maki had braved getting up on her first Monday off work at 5AM in order to cue for the tickets and she got the very best seats in the theater. Front row, centre seats. It does not get any better than this. To demonstrate, the tip of my shoes, were about 10cm from the Maestros' arse (he did not give any occasion to ab-use this privilege) and the Hungarian fangirl next to me gave a letter to Ewan MacGregor on the final curtain. I also managed to catch the white flower bouquet from Jane Krakowski (of Ally MacBeal fame) from the final wedding scene and gave it to Maki to finalise a perfect evening.

These days we are keeping ourselves rather busy. Before the musical yesterday, we went to Madame Tussauds on Sunday and the Night Show at Tate Modern the day before and saw Weddings Crashers on Friday (her idea, some good laughs though...). I am planning to go take her to Alton Towers on Saturday and the design museum on Sunday. Recently we have been on a fantastic river cruise dinner she took me for my birthday to, Dublin, where I took her for hers, seen Lion King (balcony seats) and like a zillion movies.

Cheers

London Under Attack!

2005-07-07T19:10:00.000+09:00

I have just finally gotten into work. In short, all subways and busses are stopped. There have been a number of explosions and fatalities on busses and subways. The power on the whole London Underground System is out. All stations are sealed off. Busses are not allowed to move into central London. I saw a lot of police speeding into the city while trying to get to work myself (finally by sharing a taxi). Some streets are closed off by the police and all major department stores are closed with security posted outside. A hell of a way to celebrate the winning of the Olympic bid! With 10,000 Welsh and English special police at the Gleneagles summit, whoever thought this up must have calculated that there is not enough to deal with disruptions over here. They might be right... more later

WOOKIES!!!

2005-05-31T21:28:00.000+09:00

I just ha a fantastic long weekend! Not only was it long and I finally was able to move into my new place, but also I got around to see Star Wars Episode III! It was not quite the right place I had hoped it was, a large theare (check), great seats (check), perfect digital projection (fail), perfect sound (fail). At least I got two out of four, plus the right company. ^_^ Anyways, the movie was fantastic. What we have all been hoping for in Episode I an II finally comes true in III - a real STARWARS movie in all its glory and no fucking Jarjar-crap to ruin the show. You have massive space-battles, Jedi fights, intrigue and WOOKIES!!! It was also remarkably short. I felt that more than half of its content had been edited out, so for me, just scrap 1&2 completely and make III into the proper movies. I had already given up all hope for Master Lucas as I was sure he had been turney to the Disney-side, but finally he must have seen the light.

For the rest of the weekend I got to try out the leisure facilities in my new place. :D

Cheers,
F

I had a chat in a hot-tub with Bobby Fisher!!!

2005-04-19T23:13:00.000+09:00

(I hate this when other people do it, but...:) OMG!
I just realised it, although I had the suspicion immediately when I left the pool of the Hotel where I stayed in while I was on my fantastic 3 1/2-day vacation on Iceland. But while bathing and chatting with Bobby and his friend, I didn't realise it at all!

Okay, from the start: last week I took a 4-day holiday to go to Iceland and I had a fantastic time there. Great food, Perlan, Northern Lights, Geysir, Gullfoss waterfall, the rift between the plates and of course the famous Blue Lagoon hotspring among much much else!

The two strangers from the tub...

On the last night, after a fantastic day of touring the country and more of the delicious Icelandic food, I went down to the pool with a girl in the Hotel to swim a bit and relax in the hot tub, where I saw Saemi and Bobby in the jacuzzi together with the girl. Saemi gave her a massage and chatted about Japan, of which he did not have a particularly good impression, while I was talking with Bobby about loads of things, but it quickly turned into how much better everything in other countries rather than the US was. I was surprised at how knowledgable the old bearded American was about the world, although a bit unsettled about the fact that he knew Tenko (morning roll-call) and later that he apparently had spent time in prision in Japan (though I thought he might just have been there as a soldier... little did I know...). The pool soon was closed but we continued our discussion into the showers and locker rooms where he increasingly insisted on how wrong the US was and how great North Korea and Iran for withstanding US pressure. Agreeing to disagree, I bade my farewell, as I wanted to have some more good Icelandic food before leaving the next morning at 5AM.

I still can't believe that I could only come to the obvious conclusion after I left and now I have the proof.

Cheers,

Obituary

2005-03-18T08:46:00.000+09:00

Today, a great man has passed away. George Kennan, February 16 1904 – March 17 2005. Rest in Peace.

tv? check! pc? check! aerial? check! reception? crap! xbox?!?

2005-02-26T03:00:00.000+09:00

Okay, I got myself this spanking widescreen TV (a real heavy beast, over 40kgs!) and upon discovering that I didn't even have an aerial cable, I also got that from a local store (only to discover that it had the wrong heads). Also I got a fancy PC connectivity set just before finding out that a simple S-VHS to S-VHS cable would have sufficied. Well hindsight, right? Anyhow, being able to play games, shows and movies on the bigger screen, rather than on my lappy is already nice and the sound is great, too. No more problems during animations. This is sorely needed, too, since now that I got myself this super-deluxe gold-plated steel-reinforced and unbelievably techie-looking cable I was finally able to find out that our house antenna is crap. I mean I get all five channels, only that the reception on EVERY SINGLE one of them is bad. I found this out after having ordered a new freeview digital tv receiver over the internet. It has arrived today at the office and I will find out later if I can actually get a single channel with that bad a reception. Otherwise I will have to buy my own antenna, too. Also, I am now pretty sure that I got ripped off on eBay for the rather expensive Xbox that I won in the auction. Since the auction was over and I paid immediately, I havent gotten any kind of contact from the guy, not a reply to my emails and noone answers the phonenumber, which I extraced from ebay. Seems that I have to kiss goodbye to one trip home+expenses. Still, I am still very psyched about finally giving in to the darkside. PVP had a good comic on it. Enjoy:

Finally an update!

2005-02-22T22:01:00.000+09:00

Yes, I am still alive and well. It has been more than a month now since my last update and I apologies... to myself, because I think there are not that many people reading this apart from the people I am in regular contact with anyhow, so it does not really matter that much. At the moment I am really hyped that about the fact that I will finally get a TV tomorrow ... and an X-Box ... and loads of games ... and cows! No, well from the start now:

The first weekend of February I went back to Hamburg and had a grand time being back there. I did not do terribly much, but I got myself a new-old suit (new-old because it is my favourite suit of which I had lost the pants /that is "pair of trousers" for you AE/BE enthusiasts/ while I was in working in Singapore... don't ask... - anyhow, I got myself new pants for that suit, only to mess them up as soon as I got back to London). Moreover, I stayed with my Mum and Juergen, had gorgeous home-cooked food, met some of my friends, my dad and my half-brother and went for my customary steak-dinner at the Block House restaurant at Hoheluft. With Nicolai I had a grand old gaming session like we both didn't have in ages. He got himself an Xbox and that got me hooked again. With Pizza, chocolate, winegums, beer and more Cola than we could possibly consume, we played until 6AM in the morning.

Because my friend Tobi, whom I hadn't seen in ages, even before he disappeared into the Ghanese jungle called me up that he would be in London for a number of hours on Saturday morning, I decided that I would start my trip to Brussels on the second February weekend a little later in the afternoon. However, due to the usual London train-troubles we only got to speak on the phone. Still, it was good to hear from him and if I get the chance, I will make sure to visit him as a bushpilot in Africa next time. :-)

Anyhow, as I have said: the next weekend, I went over to Belgium and had a great time there with Pat, Liz and Maki. Bruges was just beautiful and the amount of food I consumed while in Brussels will stay with me for quite a long time, I fear. Waffles, Chocolates (Pralines), Mussels and - I hate to admit, but - Belgian beer! It was fantastic. Moreover, we stayed at the Bristol Stephanie Hotel, which was very nice. Definitely recommended!

Upon arriving back in London Waterloo on Monday after lunch, I went immediately back to work. So the third weekend came and went, but since I didn't travel nor otherwise spent time and money pleasurably, I remembered how hooked I had gotten on the video games, while at Nicolai's place in Hamburg, so I decided to get myself the first video-game console in my life from Ebay (kinda ironic since I used to work for Square...). I finally found my way, after nearly 20 years from the fiddly PC-installations, to the world of video games.

So that's why I will hopefully take delivery of a spanking 28" widescreen TV and an XBox with some goodies tomorrow (which I will have to get upgraded this weekend or next). It should be noted hereby that I have not owned a TV since working in Japan in 2002 and never in the UK (for good reasons, too - I should probably get myself a digital settop box as well).

Okay enough lunch-break ranting from me.

Cheers,

New Year Vacation

2005-01-11T02:32:00.000+09:00

First of all I would like to wish everyone a happy new year and hope that you all got a good start into it. I certainly did. Next, I have to apologise to these poor brave souls, who actually checked my blog for updates, only to find that nothing at all was going on. Please excuse my laziness.

Let me being my narrative in late November. Thanks to the combined Presidential state-visit to the United Kingdom in early December and the UK-Korea Forum among other events, I was kept busy with drumming up UK companies to commit their pounds (Sterling please) to Investment MOU's in time for the state-visit for the big-shots to claim when they get back home. It went actually quite well and I had a seat at all the tables, but it also meant that I had to work late and even on weekends.

When this was all over, the rest of the pile had to be worked down until I was able to take my vacation at the end of the year. Actually, even though I sacrificed two of my vacation days on the 23rd and 24th, I still had to take some unfinished reports with me to Japan to complete there in a Internet Cafe in Shibuya, Tokyo - very nice btw., why didn't I start that business!

So anyhow, after one last long day in the office on the 24th, I had a great Christmas Eve and on Christmas day 25th, I left London happily and totally relaxed... well ... not quite. Actually, since in this city where BOTH inefficiency AND ineffectiveness reign the public transport system, all bus and underground services are suspended for the Christmas holidays, leaving potential travellers stranded with over-priced (double for xmas) taxi-services. Therefore, I had asked a good friend of mine to bring me to the airport, because I am a much happier man to see my friend and give the money to him then to those rip-off mini-cab drivers. However, he called me on the 24th saying that due to the damage sustained in an accident, his car was not usable and I would have to find alternative means of transport.

So I went to the devil and paid my dues (some 100 pounds worth of it). Still worse was to come...: Being the sensible fellow that I am, I had created a Yen-savings account on my normal Citibank account here in the UK before going and had loaded quite a good amount of money on it at a good rate when the pound breached the 200 yen barrier again. So on the 24th I had my card switched to that account, so that I would be able to withdraw directly from my Yen-account at ATMs in Japan (there is a citi atm basically in all the spots I usually visit in Tokyo). However, although I had used the online e-pin all the time and new it by heart, I had completely forgotten the normal pin number and even despite going back to my house (which again cost me a fortune, while the cabbie waited outside laughing), I was not able to find it while I destroyed my beautifully cleaned-up room, leaving a mess of papers and drawers all over the place. In fact, as I found out when I got back, I had deposited the slip with my pin number in the top desk-drawer where I have all my important stuff, but I must have overlooked it in the panic... -.-;;

Despite pleading over the phone with Citibank employees for the next couple of days before and after departure to Japan, the UK Citibank would not let me know my pin, accept identification at a foreign branch and not even the Emergency Cash service that usually all other Citibank’s allow their clients if they have lost their cards. Fortunately, I had just gotten my Citi Platinum Credit card. Although I also did not know the pin number for that, I at least was able to make plastic-purchases, though still being stranded cash-wise. For the time being, I used the cash I had left and borrowed a little from my friends until the situation was resolved two days before I left Japan again for London (the only option open to me - sending the pin automatically to my UK address, I had requested to be expedited on the 25th, but it only arrived on the 4th/5th January).

Anyhow, I had a great time meeting my friends in Tokyo and going out around town from the 26th until 31st. I even met my colleagues from the Japanese Korean Trade Centres and it was actually very enjoyable with them. From the 31st until the 2nd I had planned to enjoy some relaxing time up north. However, although I had the ticket to go up north over the New Year, I still had no proper accommodation. Still, I found a nice cheap place in Hakodate on Hokkaido for Sylvester night and, by sheer luck, the famous "Tsuru no Yu" onsen hot-spring just had a cancellation when I called up and I got a room (CHEAP!!! if you ever want to go to the perfect yukimi rotemburo that’s the place!) for the new years day until the 2nd. Have a look at www.tsurunoyu.com. It was fantastic: a remote centuries old natural hot spring in the winter wonderland surrounding Lake Tazawa in Akita prefecture with an untouched 40cm+ thick snow-cover everywhere. The Onsen Hotel was traditional in style and food and I could not stop gasping and thanking my luck, taking a bath in the same-sex open-air natural spring at 2am at night looking at the stars while some snow fell down on the quietness that surrounded me. I seriously have a hard time thinking of other times when I was this happy, relaxed and at peace with the world and myself.

Hakodate on Hokkaido was also great for the new year itself and in the deep show it showed its beautiful half-European half-Japanese architecture in all its glory, although for the beholder it was plainly bitter-cold. Many of the houses have a traditional Japanese style entrance, or even the complete first floor, but the second floor and often verandas will be unmistakeably of European origin.

The rest of my time, I spent back in Tokyo, doing some shopping and meeting more friends, but as always, there is never enough time and there is so much I would have liked to have done more. Well, always keep some good reasons to go back, as they say.

Now back in the office this Monday morning, a happy surprise came from Keiichi, whom I had just visited in Tokyo. He brought me the good news that Standard Chartered Bank, far from being out of the race as FT had reported before I left for Japan, had actually beaten Citi and HSBC to it and bought Korea First Bank from Newbridge Capital, catapulting it from a 2 branch operation to a major player in Korea. This US$ 3.3billion deal, not one year after Citi pulled the same trick with KorAm, leaving SCB and us here in London out in the cold, is great news as my work gets so much more interesting. ^-^ Okay that’s all for now folks.

Cheers,

Falco

Wrong about Japan...

2004-11-28T08:08:00.000+09:00

If you got a minute. Have a look at this article in the Guardian taken from the new book "Wrong about Japan". Well written, well done. A good couple of minutes for escaping. Have fun!

Wrong about Japan

For Final Fantasy Fan Falcos <O.O>

2004-11-25T03:52:00.000+09:00

Oh my fucking god! Or rather godess! I have seen lame Rikku's (mostly US/EU) already, but this is perfect!

writing reports

2004-11-25T03:10:00.000+09:00

This is an empty page. It is really really empty. Very empty indeed. It is not that empty anymore, but now it is filled with content that is really empty. So in a way it is still empty. I should get back to work…

So true... and an Economist theme for four issues running!

2004-11-23T23:06:00.000+09:00

I did enjoy the following reader comment to last weeks article of Germanophobia in the Economist, which followed two earlier ones. Here the whole scoop.

Don't mention the war

SIR Your article on Germanophobia in Britain reminds me of when I first moved to Britain from Munich (War bores, October 30th). I was perturbed to be authoritatively informed that my highly cultured home is, in fact, full of Nazis. The British insistence on clinging to outdated stereotypes of the Germans as Nazis (and to outdated notions of themselves as a great power) is a constant source of both amusement and frustration. And it does a great disservice to the civilised, tolerant and enviable state of life in modern Germany. Rather than telling the Germans not to forget their historysomething that they have never sought to dothe Daily Mail and its readers might do better not to lose sight of the present.
Nathaniel Kent
Oxford

Cheers,

Great Vacation

2004-11-22T23:20:00.000+09:00

... well actually I just hopped over to my hometown of Hamburg for two nights last weekend, but it was great (although bitterly cold, I should add)!

I left straight from work to go to Stansted and unusually so, there were no problems, waiting-lines and other such niceties that I have come to expect from the likes of Ryanair, to deter me. Once in Hamburg we had my favourite meal as a child close to mid-night ("Heaven and Earth"... something with liver... don't ask, just eat). On saturday we explored a bit of the town, had some good food, met my old friends and in the evening went to the Dom (amusement park/carnival) until half past twelve. On Sunday we had a good (and icy freezing cold) day relaxing in Hamburg and seeing a bit of Luebeck (and eating the rest, incl. a delicious Currywurst!), before going back to London.

Cheers,

The axis of evil keeps spinning and - cool! - a page about me...

2004-11-22T19:47:00.000+09:00

After already moonlighting my views on Bush's new appointments for State and Attorney General, having posted comments on Pat's Blog articles "Farewell Mr. Powell" and " Mr. Ashcroft, you should be a member of another government", now that POTUS's new playfriends have been appointed, I shall add my two-pence. BTW. Patrick, please do fix your blog - your archives don't seem to be working properly.

Not only will the US and the world have to come to terms with "that bitch" in charge of State, another Vulcan as the head of the NSC, an attorney-general who does not appear to believe in due process of the law, but also the last vestiges of "compassionate conservatism" in Agriculture, Energy and Education leaving the cabinet to make way for more yes-men.

True to form, the CIA also follows the trend from hell to worse that I have observed in other arms of government so far, as toothless-Tenet was replaced by the worst of both worlds, a tree-hugging neo-con.

You might remember this colourful ex-CIA operative from having breakfast on the morning of September 11 2001 with General Ahmed of the ISI (Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence, which was then heavily involved with the Taliban and even bin Laden's group directly) in a top-secret conference room on the fourth floor of the U.S. Capitol. This came after having met the Afghan ambassador in a meeting in Islamabad a month earlier.

All in all, don't hold your breath for the emperor to discover his new clothes...

"And now to something completely different"(tm), browsing the web, I accidentally found a short and incomplete overview of my time jobbing for Squaresoft
Square Auto-CV

They forgot about a number of games, but I think it is pretty cool to find info about myself on the web. ^.^

The weirdest thing...

2004-11-18T19:13:00.000+09:00

Just as I published my last post a few seconds ago. Gmail has introduced POP access! Hurray for Gmail and those mysterious forces in the universe...

Cheers,

Foreseeing-Falco

P.S.: The configuration is so easy - even Patrick could do it! ^.~

A 3G phone finally - a why it took me one and a half years to get it!

2004-11-17T19:52:00.000+09:00

As a follow-up on my earlier rant on my frustration with UK mobile businesses and how they keep ripping me off - Bastards! - I can now happily report that I am the proud owner of a 3G mobile phone on a contract. The only snag is that this took me over a year of pain, high costs and wasted time and effort to acheive. Moreover, this is not even the best deal that is out there, but for finally being able to get anything at all, I decided not to waste any more time and just take it.

In other news: Bastards! (II - the return, or sth.)

Microsoft has decided to finally scrap its best (and practically free, due to the ubiquitous nature of Windows) piece of software: Outlook Express. In a badly-executed move of revenue-grabbing (admirable that MS gave some of its stash back to shareholders..., but!) they have, without warning!!!, suddenly stopped supporting free Hotmail accounts to be accessed from Outlook Express. Since gmail.com (Google mail) offers a well working, clutter-free 1GB mail-service and soon will introduce free POP-access with probably IMAP-access coming later, Hotmails grip over eMail should hopefully be broken and not allow MS to milk customers further by exploiting yet another monopoly.

Take this:
Efficient and effective browsing
(Don't forget to get the plug-ins!)
Gmail - also get the Google desktop search - It is fantastic!

Cheers,

Anti-Monopoly-Falco

Ethnic-based parties in multi-ethnic nations...

2004-11-13T10:57:00.000+09:00

... does it work?

Although I certainly do not share Adam Yoshida's views at all, I do enjoy reading his blog occasionally and he has stumbled (and misinterpreted) a very important piece of news that I was not aware of. Death of Europe

Reported more comprehensively by the BBC here at Court rules Vlaams Blok is racist, apparently the party, which is built around the concerns of the Dutch-speaking Flemish majority in Belgium that feels dominated by the French-speaking Walloon elite, has been banned for its xenophobic ideas and separatist ideology. The banning of which Patrick might approve of, considering its similarity to the PQ in Canada - safe from the fact that Dutch-speakers are actually the majority of the population and occupy nearly half of the country. (Belgium is legally a bilingual Dutch/French-speaking country with a 10% German speaking minority, which has its own media and officials in the east - the numbers for French and Dutch natives are Dutch 58% and French 32% respectively)

The VB point of view can be found here at Vlaams Blok.

While I believe that they should be forced tone down their xenophobic populism (you should be able to nail prominent members for inciting public disturbances), a democratically organised party that expresses the concerns of its voters and does not espouse violence, nor other illegal acts, should not be forbidden. What do you think?

Cheers,

Falco-at-the-office-at-nearly-2am-on-Friday-night-and-going-home-now.

finally a full manager

2004-11-12T01:08:00.000+09:00

Hey everyone!

I have just - on the by - been informed that I was promoted to full investment manager (sic - it should be investment promotion manager, but who am I to argue...)officially now and will get my new cards when we move our office to the Kiwis, but more about that when it happens. It will not change much on the ground, although I am hoping for some goodies, as i have been using that title already towards clients, as no CEO of a billion dollar-turnover corporation wants to talk to an "assistant" about potential investment projects. This coupled with the perfect weather (sunny and crisp), some good meetings and a chance encounter with an old friend makes this an excellent day. Keep up the good work, Life!

Cheers,

Happy-Falco

some more proof

2004-11-11T08:35:00.000+09:00

Everyone knows that there is a lot of shit on the internet, but apparently there are also a lot of people want to know about shit over the internet. Or to be more exact, how to shit. The now famous and often excellent wikipedia free online encylopedia project has finally publised an article that we have all been waiting for. An in-depth study of the Japanese toilet! From its humble beginings during the Yoyoi cultures period of Japanese pre-history to the funky modern apparatuses that freak out first-timers to Japan, you can find out you ever wanted to knwo about the Japanese way of crapping. Enjoy: Japanese toilets!

Cheers,

Geri-Falco

That's it.

2004-11-09T08:00:00.000+09:00

This day I have finally decided, that I will not continue in "hell". I will not bore you with a rant about the many serious misgivings I have for taking this decision, but suffice to say that my idea of doing business differs vastly from certain government officials.

This means that I can look forward to the time after my exams in early December (JPLT and hopefully GMAT) for all the hope and hard work that goes into applying, which will be sweetened by the fact that I will go to Japan over New Year.

Originally, I had also planned to go to Korea, but now I do not feel that there is any reason for me to go, nor do I feel the slightest wish to do so anymore. Instead, I will fulfill my childhood dream of going to a snow-covered natural Onsen hot-spring in the open isolated Japanese North-East on the Sea Of Japan (definition ... if you don't understand it, you don't need to ...) in Winter. I will stay there for three days over the new year and now that I will not go to Korea, I might just as well have a little more colour in my vacation plans by adding the pacific island paradise that is Okinawa, although if the dollar keeps falling, as I anticipate it will, I might change that to Guam.

Cheers,

Falco

Bastards!

2004-11-07T22:00:00.000+09:00

Another item on the "Rip-Off Britain" list: Mobiles

Having been a good high-usage monthly paying customer at Orange for over 4 years now, one would expect that the telecoms over here would do everything to keep me. But no, this is Britain. Instead of having to fear loosing my custom to other providers, they apparently know that I cannot get any new mobile contract in this country. Despite having no debt, never having had any debt and nothing that could be negative for my application, and trying about a hundred times at every possible outlet, my applications are ALWAYS declined. So in the end, I decided to upgrade on my existing and very expensive Orange contract (as I later found out, an upgrade is exactly like a new contact, but if I would just make a new contract I could get double minutes and a better phone for free... darn), handed in my old mobile for buy-back and that was that. Not quite, the new phone was faulty, they overcharged me and now, even four month after the upgrade, I still haven't seen any of that buy-back money on my phone bill (when calling repeatedly, I got the answer after three days that they had "forgotten" to put it towards my bill, even though it is on the contract!). No wonder people are leaving Britain in droves. I shall soon join them.

No cheers,

Falco

Great night out!

2004-11-07T09:30:00.000+09:00

Today was a good day. I haven't been out for so long that I can't even remember when I have last been anywhere new. But today, although in the usual unplanned manner of mine, I had a grand time. Yesterday on Friday, I was informed that instead of sitting at home doing some reading or playing, I would be taking part in my friends' birthday party in Soho. Shortly afterwards, I was told that I was furthermore expected to come to a great Guy Fawkes Day fireworks display at Alexandra Palace. As the birthday party was supposed to move there anyhow, we went directly (after the usual Falco-delay) to Alexandra Palace and it was great!!! I had never been there before and this was my first Guy Fawkes Day actually out and about in London. The birthday party aparently got so drunk in Soho, that they did not make it there and when I got back into the city I was not able to get in touch with them. Or to be more exact, when calling the birthday-girl (at 9pm...) she was so inebriated that she could barely utter the words "car...home...drunk" before passing out on the phone. So in the end we spent some more time at the Virgin store and looking at the crowds, before slowly returning home.

In other news, fighting frogs have been sighted in Western Africa. Stand by. More seriously, this is really quite unbelievable! I thought that Ivory Coast was finally turning for the better and now the gov't plays this rought? In this international climate? Against the French? Are they MAD? Anyhow, read for yourself at: http://www.newsisfree.com/iclick/i,59877735,1469,f/ . Good night!

Cheers,

Falco

Let's get back to business, shall we?

2004-11-06T01:50:00.000+09:00

"It was a vote about freedom, about morality, about US business interests overseas, but - above all - about the security of every family in the land. No, not Tuesday's US Presidential election. As every Investors Chronicle reader knows, this should make no difference to their livelihoods (see IC 15 Oct 2004, page 50). I refer, instead, to Monday's vote on the UK Gambling Bill." - This is the welcome change in reporting that I have been looking for in a while and came unexpectedly from one of the magazines that I fortunately have to keep track of at work. The article continues to blast the conservative Daily Mail for its populist and misleading campaign against punting. This introductory piece is delightfully entitled "Die-regulation".

On a completely different subject, I am going to Germany today in two weeks and am looking very much looking forward to it! Not only will I get my nicer suits and maybe a new one there, but I will also enjoy the delights of a real mid-night Doener Kebab (not the crap that they sell here in the UK), or rather a proper Berlin-style Currysausage and, most importantly, my traditional visit to the Blockhouse restaurant near Hoheluft for the perfect Steak-dinner on Saturday evening.