T O T K a t

You might wonder about the focus on food at the moment. Well, I kind of got into a cooking rut recently. It seems to happen every now and then. There are a set few things that get cooked because they require very little thinking and I start to forget how to cook much else. So last night it was lamb stew and tonight it was sausage casserole. Things I've not cooked in a while. They're easy, they're not all that imaginative, but they're nice. And both are particularly well suited for this time of year.

Apple did send a new battery for my MacBook (or maybe it's refurbished, who can tell) and it works fine now. It was annoying that the battery just completely died over a two week period with the laptop suspended. But then, as I was discussing only yesterday, Apple does seem to have suffered the same fate as the other successful hardware manufacturers; inconsistent quality in components after the first iteration or two of a great product and then ongoing similar problems with other products thereafter. That said, batteries have been the bane of many a portable device over the last few years.

I made a lamb stew this evening. Pretty nice it was too, if I do say so myself. It almost made up for the mini-crisis with the fruit and veg I bought on Sunday and left behind (which was all sorted in the end).

New job is fine. Lots and lots to do, but I'm making progress already and some of the larger projects are going to be _fantastic_ experience to have had.

Japan is a great place to take photos, but you have to be not reticent when taking photos of human subjects. The deal seems to be that you just ask and they're more than happy. But you must ask. And I was too unforthcoming in that respect, so I didn't get many pictures of the very interesting people. Candid shots seems to be something that aren't culturally what you do. People like to pose and be ready for the photo. So I have none of Geisha (we didn't see any anyway), no front-on of ladies in kimono; and there are plenty of ladies who do wear them, especially in the evening to go out for dinner or something.

Not back to normal, sleep-wise, but it's OK that I'm waking up at around 6am. It's the needing to go to sleep at around 9.30pm that's annoying. Still, given the 9 hour time difference, that's pretty good going I think.

Tired.