September is here, meaning I’ve now been here 9 months. September also means summer is ending, but nobody has told the cicadas yet, or thought to turn down the temperature-dial outside.
Self-introductions this week in my new class. Did you know that the word for clown is ピエロ or pierō? Derived from a French cartoon and since enshrined in katakana. Useful word to know for my future self-introductions.
Levelled up my home coffee game: This week I made my first furusato nōzei contribution (to Aichi, obviously, since it’s the closest thing to West Midlands), and received a mahoosive bag of coffee for my troubles. Procured an Aeropress to make it with, and I’m pretty chuffed with the results.
I’m running again: It’s going OK, and I’ve nearly caught up on all the progress I lost this past month. I’ve worked out why I keep injuring myself — my right heel strike is off — and so now am looking for a coach & physio to correct it.
Finished a big migration: It happened piece-by-piece and went smoothly. Lots of architectural improvements which are mostly invisible but solidify a shaky foundation and will prevent an entire class of incident/SEV.
Only possible because this approach to prioritisation is kind-of paying off? But now that I’ve left my first “conclave”, the tasks which couldn’t be delegated have piled up. So I’ve got to think about that one a bit more.
At work we’re opening a new floor, and in company tradition a few of us sauntered to there to paint the walls (with brushes, and later, our hands). Now my handprint is forever enshrined in yellow paint. And, now that I’ve been paid to do it once, I can add “Painter-Decorator” to my CV, right?
Introduced to both slush makgeolli (dangerously easy to drink) and chicken feet (dangerously difficult to eat) this week by ST. Nice to catch-up on some gossip from class.
Saturday was an adventure which taught me a few things: It’s more fun to arrive at parties early, that if you keep looking there is good techno in Tokyo, and, that Shinjuku is heaps more fun than Shibuya.
Closed the week catching-up with ET at Afuri — which BTW was a killer recommendation CL — and then at the Pepper Parlor with more Peppers than people. The glowing eyes reminded me of a few moments from Alien Isolation. They progressively danced their entire music library: My favourite was Gangnam Style, with APT a close second.
