16/5/2007 - Hello Again.
Finally, another update! Click here for some photos. No wedding plans yet, but we're looking for somewhere old, pretty and small in Yorkshire for the ceremony. We're hoping for Spring/Summer 2008 but really ought to get something organised.
Meanwhile, Chie is still volunteering in the Day Care centre and baking cakes, while I am thinking of ways to test Halifax ATMs more efficiently and I am enjoying (or about to enjoy) the latest albums to join my collection, in reverse chronological order:
Manic
Street Preachers - Send Away The Tigers -
to arrive v. soon
Björk
- Volta
Arcade
Fire - Neon Bible
The Jarvis
Cocker Record
The
Good, The Bad and the Queen
Joanna
Newsom - Ys (it has taken me since Christmas
to properly get into this, but it's great!)
Needless to say with so many of my favourite artists as well as a couple of 'new' ones bringing albums out, I am a sploding with joy. Meanwhile I am still enjoying being a recluse, but am trying to be a bit more sociable, via facebook and email, so please don't give up on me and my email address is at the bottom of this page in case you want to give me a nudge, poke or any other type of probe or insertion.
11/12/2006
There have been no updates on this site for a long time (sorry) but I thought I'd add a little bit of news in case you don't know already...
Chie and I are officially engaged!
Here are a couple of photos, one before, 3 after:
This happened during a sneaky trip to Strasbourg with Jules. I'd been planning it for some time and designing the ring, so I was pretty nervous when the moment actually came on the Pont-St-Martin... anyway Chie said yes and now it's official. It still feels like a surprise to me even though I was the one who asked, but it kind of makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside. No date is set yet, however we may not hang around tooooooo long...
Click here for Chie's version of events (in Japanese, surprisingly).
Meanwhile... we now have our own flat in Halifax, so yes, I live in Halifax, work for Halifax in Halifax and have just set up my bank account with the Halifax. Please call me Howard.
Our address is Flat 3, 15 Balmoral Place, Halifax, W. Yorkshire HX1 2BG and our landline is 01422 430443. Feel free to come and visit, it's not a huge place but we have an inflatable bed!
On that note, I'll go back into hiding and carry
on lurking for a little while.
15/5/2006
It's been a while, as you can see. Chie and I have had to make lots of decisions about things, I've been settling into my job, and the weekends have been flying by. The decisions Chie and I have been making have been what we kind of planned already, and we have made a necessary plan for the next year or so. Things are going well, we'll be going to Japan in July and coming back at different times. I'll hopefully get round to writing e-mails to people soon. I always say that.
I'm about to put some new photos of the Lake District online. I'd wanted to go there for a good many years and feel so happy that Chie and I were able to discover our first small bit of it together. Anthony, Tom and Julian have also visited recently and I'm still getting to know my relatively-newly-found family who live around here.
For me, things are pretty exciting at the moment; new job, new house hopefully before long, going to Japan soon, and some other stuff that we're thinking through. Although Chie is less certain about what she wants to do in the future, she still wants to come back here in August.
18/4/2006
I decided to take the job offer and therefore sell my soul to HBOS, otherwise known as Halifax, the huge bank, building society, insurer and just about everything else. While it's perhaps not the kind of company I'd have originally liked to join, the job itself looks interesting, overseeing the testing of new computing systems... well, it seems more interesting than sending out letters all day, anyway. And the salary's just about enough for us to get our own place in Halifax, the nearest town of any size. I'll most likely start on the 24th, and tomorrow, Chie and I are off to the Lake District for three nights before the job starts. We've also had friends and family visiting; sometime after we get back I'll sort out the no doubt hundreds of photos I'll have taken and put a few on the web.
4/4/2006
Things are all up in the air at the moment. I've had a lot of phonecalls and invitations to interviews in the last week, more than I've had in the several months beforehand! And one interview has led to a job offer... I'm just waiting to hear how much money they're offering. I still have two other interviews booked, but really think I'll stick with the one I've been offered unless the salary's abysmal. Anyway, I've been busy and have to prepare for another interview this afternoon with a certain well-known cake manufacturer. Hopefully, in a week's time, everything will be a bit more certain.
27/3/2006
I've just finished spending the last week learning a completely new programming language: Java. I have now object-oriented myself to exhaustion. The result of my efforts: A game of Hangman. All this for the hope of getting a nice-looking job with a software development company in Leeds.
I have put the file on the web, for you to unzip all the files and enjoy at your leisure (double click Hangman.jar which should run from Windows if you have Java installed). Download Hangman here; right click and choose "Save Link/Target as..." If you're desperate for a game but have problems with the file, let me know! As far as I know, the limitations of Geocities mean that I can't put the file directly on my webpage without bothering with zip files, but you never know.
16/3/2006
I've just updated the "letters from Japan" section so it works. In case you didn't get my over-long bulk messages from Over There, you can now read the details of my adventures in Japan, should you want to.
15/3/2006
The website is finished! Please enjoy it! Now I might feel a bit less guilty about getting in touch with people so late... Please let me know what you think of my little display of egotism. In case you're as anal as me, I've tried to model the logos on Japanese crests, or "kamon". I have an unhealthy interest in things like logos, design and typefaces, and if anyone out there feels the same way, or sees letters as colours, then please let me know. Meanwhile I am going all funny having spent all day on the computer. So I'll stop now.
13/3/2006
Am still working on my website, funnily enough. Have just had a visit from Tom on his way down south, having passed his PhD viva interview type thing. We went for a long walk around Hebden Bridge, which was good, because there's not too much else to do here apart from look at people wearing crazy hats and see heights which are wuthering.
1/3/2006
Believe it or not, I'm currently working on my website. I've never been overly into blogs, but thought this might be a good place to write down what's going on as I've been so bad at sending out personal e-mails.
The way things are at the moment, I'm (still) applying for permanent jobs so that we can get our own place in Leeds, or nearby. Chie's mum and sister came to visit recently from Japan, so we've been doing the whole touristy thing around both London and Yorkshire, which has been a refreshing break from sending insurance premium chase letters.
Chie and I are still living off my parents, which means we get a culinary rainbow of food and the privilege of living in a fairytale village in West Yorkshire, but we're still hoping a dream job will come along (i.e. anything above the minimum wage!) and we'll be able to look after ourselves again.
This evening, Chie has cooked some fantastic kara-agé (Japanese KFC) with some special Akita udon noodles that her Mum brought over. And I'm typing this while watching the England v. Uruguay friendly. What are you up to today?
Recommended music (as this is fast becoming
a blog), courtesy of Anthony:
Sufjan Stevens - Come
On Feel The Illnoise!
The Go! Team - Thunder,
Lightning, Strike
The Older Olds.
I have spent two years in Japan and sent out the odd newsletter. Here they are in case you missed any.
Chie and I got to the UK in August 2005 and it's taken me over six months to update my website. There are quite a lot of Olds, so I'll try and keep it brief.
Since we got back, we have...
Travelled around the UK. Leeds, Manchester, Todmorden, London, Halifax, Devon, Newcastle, Sidmouth, Durham, Bath, Skegness, Birmingham, Lincoln, York, Liverpool, Cardiff, all those. And more.
Worked. Chie actually got her job first, hence the rumours of her supporting me. She's been working in a Greek restaurant on Friday and Saturday evenings. But I've managed to find something too and have been temping with Halifax Insurance for Big Shiny Howard. As this is not overly stimulating, I've been wanting to find something else, but as I haven't actually applied for many jobs, it's not surprising that I haven't got one yet. The biggest problem is that I still don't know what I want to do and have not done since going to Japan. All ideas still gratefully accepted.
Missed Japan. Japan is great. Yonezawa is great. Karaoke, Kitchen Hidebo, crazy students, crazy adults, crazy gaijin, crazy festivals... Crazy. But great.
Eaten lots of Ainsley Harriot recipes. Eaten fish and chips, roast dinners, curries, Cornish pasties, Marmite (me, anyway) and Seriously Strong Cheddar which we both think is gorgeous. Chie has got into the British habit of eating pudding after dinner, but, infuriatingly, she has lost weight. I have not lost weight. I have got chubbier (according to Chie's Mum. Although she tactfully said I had a "more rounded face".)
Tried to (re)assimilate ourselves into British culture. As this is generally drinking beer and watching football, this transition has been pretty smooth. Also, on the good side, we've had green, concrete-less countryside, dry wine, cheap train rides, not being stared at, cricket (we won the Ashes) and... er, pubs.
On the bad side, we've had people listening to their music far too loud on the bus, having their mobiles turned up too loud and dropping litter everywhere. Also, rubbish weather, expensive restaurants and cricket (so long and drawn-out).
But we still like it here. Please come up to Yorkshire for a nice cup of tea sometime.
