Ooh, it has been a while...

Two and a bit months since the last update, has it been that long? I have my reasons, most of them inadequate. A default personality setting of 'incorrigible apathy' is probably the main contributing factor to my self-imposed blog silence. And with an opening paragraph as poorly-written, self-indulgent and stupid as this one, is it any wonder?

In short order then, the main things I did over the last two months were:

1. Went to the V(ery corporate) Festival in just up the road Chelmsford where I was lucky enough to witness a transcendent Go! Team and a particularly awkward Radiohead for whom the closing lines of the set's closing song 'Creep' ("I don't belong here") were poignantly apt.

2. Witnessed an old friend I'd known since the age of three get married, which was lovely to see.

3. Visited brother of aforementioned friend directly after wedding in Cardiff, and spent rather too much time gawking at places and sites I recognised from the revamped series of Doctor Who, hopeless geek that I am.

3. Spent the rest of August 'readjusting' to life in the UK. Lethargically.

4. Realised around the start of September that my meager savings from Japan were liable to take a fair old pounding if I didn't do anything about it sharpish. Subsequently spent the next six weeks or so temping as a telephone interviewer, carrying out interviews with people who'd applied for low level positions with a certain multinational banking corporation, whose name consists of a four letter acronym beginning with the letter 'H' and which enjoys a major presence on the UK high street. Knowing nothing whatsoever of banking, I found interviewing prospective cashiers and mortgage advisors initially somewhat daunting, but eventually found my feet and became remarkably more confident and proficient as the weeks wore on. Unfortunately this happened to coincide with a nasty bout of carpal tunnel syndrome due to the job’s heavy typing demands, another good reason as to why I haven’t done a great deal of tapping away at keyboards in my spare time of late. I was also required to sign a non-disclosure agreement as part of the placement, hence the fuzzy descriptions and the court summons that’s likely to arrive on my doormat within the next few days.

5. Found time to visit Brighton to meet up with old friends. Failed to find a suitable replacement for my battered, torn and generally knackered leather jacket from one of its many fine second-hand clothes emporiums. Also remembered how small the place was.

6. Got myself a new job. All I can say is that it’s in a school, that I’m not teaching, and that the most accurate description I can offer of what I do there is that it’s a combination of administration and student welfare. Knowing how frighteningly proficient Britain’s teenagers are at using the Internet to check up on things, places and people, I dare not right anything further. Those looking for more thorough updates on what I’ve experienced there thus far would do well to email me direct. At an address which is now never going to be posted here publicly.

7. Realising how many things in Japan are actually, well, better than they are in the UK. Recently I’ve found myself considering the words ‘greener’ and ‘grass’ with increasing frequency.

More soon…