anomaly
The scars are now healing very well.

I had a 2 hour skin peeling session in Tokyo about 3 weeks ago (as you can see by the main picture). Imagine cutting into the skin about 2mm deep and peeling off the small piece of flesh and the skin on top.

Scalpel skill and painstaking, pain-numbing perseverence were the order of the day, couped in a small hotel room in the south west of the busy metropolis. I'll try and put up a gallery of the photos soon.

I also got 3 small lines cut into my face on my left cheekbone. They have turned into small grooves but I expect them to heal over later and become flat. Eventually they will turn white like a normal scar.


Japan is a great place but I've been here too long doing the same boring, mundane, unstimulating job for far too much time. Seeing the same drones day-in-day-out is killing me from the inside out. I've been here for 2 and a half years now, a wee bit longer than I had originally planned. Finally paid almost all of my debt from the last 4 years just in time to rack it up going to university (again) next year in Australia.

Ho-hum.

Gonnae no dae that
This morning's Herald made me laugh with a twinge of 'why I love Glasgow' and a wee grin to go with it.

"SCOTS slang insults, such as "wido" - a rogue - could be included in a new version of an English dictionary.
There are calls for the words "binraker" - a scavenger - and "bamstick" - a foolish person - to be included in the updated Collins English dictionary. The phrases, including "tube" - another term for a foolish person - could be added to the seventh edition of the dictionary, to be published in 2006.

The publishers are also to consider introducing "tracksuit ambassador", a politically correct term for a ned, and "Paisley briefcase", a jocular slang word for a plastic shopping bag, into the pages.

And here is the most important part for me:

The heavy industries might have gone, but there is a distinctive Glasgow culture. People seem to have more fun in life and that comes across in a sense of playfulness with language.
They have a very black sense of humour that expresses itself in language and allows them to laugh at things much more."

Ahhhh yes, the stuff good memeories are made of. :)

ranting joy
Just in case you needed a wee reminder to get out and do stuff instead of sitting there talking bullshit about it for the rest of your life, you never know when you might just drop down stone dead like this poor footballer in France.

Remember the headline:
Footballer dies during game

You have been warned.