kinuta

I agree, if fact I am also rewatching series two, next up episode five. If anything it's even better than series one.

I used to run about 4-5 kilometres several times a week but have mainly switched to walking. I usually go for 90 minute to two hour walks, sometimes longer. The reason I cut back drastically on running was knee pain and badly aching toes. Almost every morning I do 60 sit ups and chin up plus 25 push ups. I don't eat any fast food, don't smoke or drink ( now ) and avoid all animal fat. I do eat chicken and quite a lot of fish. I also love beans and Indian food. My main weakness is chocolate which I refuse to give up although I strictly limit my intake. I hate milk but drink soya bean milk ( tonyu). Here in tofu land we can get some great tasting varieties of bean milk.

A useful rule of thumb for stress free interaction with newly purchased gadgets is to immediately chuck the instructions in the rubbish and learn by trial and error.

0C, windy, very cold, icy pavements.

I wonder what this thing about Africa being a nation is ? Many high schoolers here think that. Coupled with their inability to find neighbouring Indonesia and The Philippines on a map, the unshakeable belief that blood type determines ones personality, unquestioning wholesale belief in horoscopes and heeby jeeby-isms of many colours simply reinforces my belief that the education system in Japan might need a bit of retuning.

How do you keep it together ? I'm not sure I understand the question. Maybe by having absolutely no expectations of life other than problems and being reconciled to living in a constant state of low grade depression interspersed with the occasion burst of happiness.

About 2C. Covered in snow and ice.

Bad news. I saw him on his early 60's tour of UK and had all his singles. 'In The Midnight Hour' was one of the seminal songs of my youth.

The cheapest ones I can find.

Series Five got off to a great start . What suitable comeuppance is being plotted for the horrible tricky dicky clone prez I wonder ? Shocked that Michelle and Palmer bit the dust and I wish they'd present the terrorists without the shaved heads, stubble and black vans that have become very cliched.

Mine was the flight from Bangkok to Tokyo that took three days to complete. I was due to fly out of Bangkok on the now, thankfully, defunct Air Siam. After a couple of hours delay we took off but about two hours into the flight we suddenly returned to Bangkok with engine trouble. We disembarked and sat around for a few hours before the ' staff ' bundled us onto a bus and put us in a hotel for the night. The next morning we took off again but after only fifteen minutes further engine trouble caused us to return to Bangok for a second time. After another lenghthy wait we got underway again and headed for our first stop- Hong Kong. About an hour before reaching HK the pilot informed us that a typhoon had closed HK airport and we were rerouted to Taipei. We got off and spent several hours in the transit lounge . The all clear came towards evening and we finally landed in a very blustery HK. Narita airport (Toyko) was now closed for the night so we stayed in a HK hotel. The next morning we finally took off and managed to reach Narita in the afternoon without any further problems. Total time, three days.

Bitterly cold.

I don't listen to much rock but ' Get Behind Me Satan' by White Stripes is a great album and the best non jazz effort I heard in 2005.

DIVX compatible dvd player. 'The Murder Room ' PD James.

Only one with Naomi Watts... I still think Watts' performance in Mulholland Drive is one of the tops in the past 25 years. I agree, she was superb in Mulholland Drive.

Another fine actor leaves us. Right from the first time I saw him in ' Presumed Innocent' I've always thought him a real class act and one of my main reasons for following 'The West Wing '. A shame indeed.

I had cartons full of old cassettes. The best ones I burned to audio cdr-rw on a cd recorder then burned them on my pc, reusing the audio cdr-rw. Rather time consuming but managed to salvage some good stuff.

George will never be forgotten by British football fans, he was very special.

Me neither. The individual cds can be found though.

Are you sure it's a rat, and not a mouse ? Mousetraps should work for the latter, professional help for the former. Before we moved to our new place a couple of years ago we lived in a broken down old timber frame apartment and had an unwelcome visitor one day in the shape of a mouse ( not a rat ). It managed to get into the living room and we eventually cornered and killed it but not before several exhausting hours trying to trap it. It was one of the hottest days of midsummer , my wife and I were stripped down to our knickers devising a system of tunnels and funnels to get the varmint into a garbage bag. Our efforts finally paid off and I had the unpleasant job of finishing off the mouse with a baseball bat.

Congratulations to Harold Pinter. I've been an admirer of his for a long time.

Not in Tokyo Lon (thank goodness)

Big Heat is a great noir tour de force and a must have in any classic film collection.

Were you effected by the recent flooding ? I'm next door in Setagaya ku.

That's very true. I seldom if ever go to places like Roppongi and Azabu and know noone who lives there. The uptown islands of wealth and style are very different from where I live.