The reign of silence continues in the lab- although it was broken yesterday by the lunchtime watching of the short programme of womens ice skating, we all crowded round our mini tv/DVD combo (brought by some previous PhD students when they graduated- cheers guys), and silently watched or hissed through teeth when there was a stumble from any competitors.
Anyway, today I'm listening to some most excellent music- Scottish Ceilidh music, pure joy and energy... my second amazon parcel (the royal mail/Japan post route) finally put in an appearance yesterday, bringing this super CD. Its quite old fashioned ceilidh music, but all the famous dances are on it. I don't care if I look like some insane person in the lab- bobbing along to this, it makes me smile and is so got me in the mood for Saturdays extravanganza party in Tokyo of Scottishness.
This link here will give you an impression of the general chaos and fun that is a scottish ceilidh. The men in kilts are added bonus

Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.....

I'll type this as quietly as possible- its so quiet here today, there are people here, but one is sleeping and the rest are quieter than librarians with gags on. Not that this is particularly unusual, I have my own personal ipod induced sound bubble around me to get over the quietness. In the labs back in the UK we had a radio on- playing at low level unless a good song came on and people TALKED to each other, here there is chatting, but only briefly and for short periods ( a minute or so). Rest of the time its quieter than the grave (excluding the phone and its hold tune of Jesu, joy of mans desiring of course and boy that song really gets in your head).
I like peace and quiet don't get me wrong, but the hours of non talking and silently working or setting up experiments gets to you after a while. I'm a music person- I even revised my final exams at university to the star wars soundtracks to cover the sound of stressed scribbling and muttering in the university library. Its not that everyone hates each other here- we're certainly a friendly open bunch compared to other labs.
Is it some form of antidote to the sound assult when you step outside? Perhaps thats it. Outside the streets are a bit of an aural assult course- tweeting and chirping crossing sounds and mornful bing- booong of the subway entrance noises, trucks with their "we're a truck making important deliveries sounds so we'll tell you to be careful cause there's a truck sound every 5 secs " sound, and don't get me started on the loudspeakers planted all over the place with their inane babble- either babbling on about something that no one is listening to or playing musak that adds un neccesarily to the noise. Or the giant tv screens at major crossings that play clips and adverts very loudly competing with the men and their portable speakers SHOUTING that their products are simply super and you should come see- once they've said all the super polite phrases 50,000 times.
Perhaps this why people here are so quiet? Savouring those moments of peace and quiet?

Bits n' Bobs post

I'm enjoying my 2nd week free from crippling migraine headaches that I was getting from my tennis lessons. For the past year I've been going to tennis lessons on a saturday, an hour and half of running around. I love playing, but I often found myself unable to do anything afterwards due to the headache/nausea/photophobia that followed a few hours later. The last one was on my birthday party and though I went out with friends I was hardly the soul of the party and came home early without eating much. Since then I've been implementing a careful pre- tennis and post-tennis routine which, touch wood, seems to be working. I think partially it was dehydration and that, currently I'm not being as active as I usually would be so that saturdays burst of energy really buggers up my physiology.Hopefully some more exercise in the week will help, though the recent chilly weather doesn't encourage this. The dehydration is being solved by water, pocari sweat or aquarius sports drinks and recovery konyaku jelly drinks.

So I'm sitting on my couch loafing on the internet listening to Rin

I'm tracking my parcel from amazon uk which is bringing me lots of new books to read...

My parcel has so far visited 3 countries and 6 locations, including Cologne in Germany and Shenzhen in China. Strangely my second parcel from Amazon (from the same order weirdly) is being sent by Royal mail, its like some odd experiment in delivery systems by amazon here.

Even more weirdly is that one of the books in the parcel that went via Shenzhen is a graphic novel about the very same place written by a Canadian animator who had to work there. Maybe they wanted to see what he'd drawn about them?

Oh and I went to the Sapporo snow festival, this was my favourite sculpture.

I shall go to the ball...

Yesterday in a fit of post slump spontaneity my friend and I booked an overnight ANA package to stay in a swanky hotel in Tokyo at the end of February so that we can attend the St. Andrews society Burns night supper.
Apparently the Ambassador will be there and with the ticket prices being pretty hefty my friend and I indulged in flights of fancy of rich, single investment bankers with their lovely Scottish burr leading us onto the dance floor for a gay Gordon's or a dashing white sergeant. I hoping that we won't be the youngest ones there and that our frocks are going to sufficient for hob-nobbing with the bigwigs.
Anyway at the end of the month I shall go to the ball- well burns night supper. The things I do to get a wee taste of haggis