Notes to Myself

Three Hoodies

It was about 10 o'clock this evening when I came out of my local Tube station and started to walk home. Not far from the station is quite a dark alleyway that I'm always wary of. I started down this alley and immediately noticed the three young males who were at the other end walking towards me. As soon as they saw me, they all stopped, turned on the spot and pulled their hoods over their heads. They stood motionless for at least a second; long enough for me to decide to play it safe and head back to the station to find a different route home. Dodgy, don't you think?

Next Door

Since I can remember the guy next door has been a keen musician, often playing his piano. In recent months his 'music' has escalated to an all day every day occurence. He appears to be using his electric keyboard and worst of all, to be singing at the top of his voice. It seems like he is trying to compose songs; for days I hear the same tune or same chorus repeated over and over. I know some of the words to his favourite tunes. I think I might go crazy! It's now 10 am and I am surprised the noise hasn't started. Time to head out before it does.

Applications

Job applications have been keeping me on my toes. Though arduous, those long online applications, nerve-wracking interviews and tests have got to be worth it in the end.

At the moment I've got a couple of applications with interviews and assessment days in the pipeline, so fingers crossed. Even if they don't work out, it's all good experience to take with me to the next application.

Stay positive, everyone. Remember what you have achieved and what you have to offer others.

MIA

Something has often crossed my mind when thinking about blogging. That is, if you were to go AWOL it would quickly become obvious due to your lack of blog updates. I guess there's no running away for me, then. Just a thought.

Cappuccino

Mmmm, the lovely smell of coffee. The beautiful foam sitting on your cappuccino, topped with a sprinkling of sweet chocolate. The fabulous taste. If I don't have a lovely fresh coffee each day, my day has not been completed. When did this become such a habit?

What I have come to enjoy is going to a nice little coffee shop, sitting down to read a book, or studying a little Japanese while sipping a cappuccino. Once, I didn't have any books with me and I just couldn't relax with only my coffee to entertain me. I think I know what I like about cafes - unlike at home, I'm not distracted and can concentrate on whatever it is I want to read.

I cannot give up my coffee!

Happy Birthday!

Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me... Happy 26th birthday to me!! How sad.

Thanks to all the family and friends who have sent me lovely cards or given gifts. To those who have forgotten, don't worry, I'll probably forget yours as well! (・・)ノ

This year I think I'll skip major celebrations. I can't really be bothered.

Wake Up Call

Earlier up at the shops I noticed two police near a phone box. When I got closer I could see why they were there: a tramp was lying down inside the phone box, apparently asleep. I wonder whether he was OK.

Later on I saw another policeman, but this time on a bicycle. There seem to be more and more police on normal bicycles in London these days. Has anyone else noticed that?

Google Mars

Google Mars anyone? Whatever next?

Paper Voice

Why do loads of those paper stand blokes shout - 'read-all-about-it' etc - in such gruff voices and slur so that you can't even understand what they are saying? Have you ever noticed that?

Bus Banging

At a local bus terminal I was standing outside with a number of other people. A number of buses went passed and the number of people waiting grew steadily. In front of me, a man was asking someone else about which bus to take. He turned around just as a bus pulled into the stop. Unfortunately, he was standing top close to the curb and the bus wing mirror clattered into the side of his head. The thud made everyone whince, but the man appeared unhurt. As it happened, he was waiting for the same bus I was. It arrived right behind the first bus and as I queued up, I saw the same bloke, but he looked a little spaced out, rubbing his head with his hand. Poor guy.

MRI Scan

It was quite a waiting list, but the three months until today's Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scan flew by. This week I was quite excited about it, but this morning I started getting a little nervous.

Before going into the scanning room you have to remove any metal objects you are carrying and put them in a locker. Magnetic cards can be wiped by the scan so be careful with things like your Oyster Card. I wondered what I'd do with the metal locker key, but I was told to leave it on a ledge in the actual scanning room.

There was a thin bed, if you could call it that, in front of the MRI machine. After receiving some snazzy yellow ear plugs, I lay down and was secured in place by a couple of velcro straps. In my left hand I held an emergency squeezy bulb (not the technical term) just in case I had any problems during the scan.

'I'm not going to lie to you, it's loud,' said the machine operator as he slid me into a tunnel like opening. He wasn't kidding. What a strange experience. The machine seems to power up slowly, emitting odd clicks before it really gets going. There are loud pulsating sounds which last for a few minutes before stopping and then starting all over again. Each time, however, the sound was slightly different. I started to lose my awareness of how long I was in there for, but it seemed to go on forever. In actual fact, though, it was just 20 minutes.

Aparently it takes approximately one week for the results to reach the specialist dealing with my shoulder problem. In any case, my appointment with him is not for a good few weeks. I'm looking forward to seeing the images produced by the MRI scan and hope it was worth it.

JLPT Results

A large envelope arrived this morning from SOAS - the 2005 Japanese Language Proficiency Test results. What an agonising three month wait. Before I opened the envelope, I had to remind myself of my initial target when deciding to take the test and not to be disappointed with the seeing the inevitable 'Not Passed' printed inside.

Unfortunately, this text was there, but the score I got, 57%, is very satisfying. To me, this is an incredible achievement given the difficulty of the test and the amount of prepartion time I had. This year I may even make it to 70%, but that depends on the time I put in. Time shall tell.

String Tension

I've come across a freeware piece of software called Freqmess. Using a microphone and this software, you can apparenlty measure the actual tension of your tennis strings. By entering the type and thickness of string you are using and then hitting your strings to produce vibration, this software attempts to calculate string tension. I've had erratic results so far, but may play around with it some more.

> Freqmess - Tension Measuring Tool.

Lonely Crowd

At 10:30 pm, I hadn't expected to find the Piccadilly Line platform at Piccadilly Circus so crowded. Despite nothing being written on the signs at the ticket gates, delays were causing a huge pile up of people and it was getting to the stage where it was impossible to move along the platform. What if there was a need to get to the exit quickly? This kind of crowd in a confined space started to make me worry, so I chose to stay near the stairs.

Then it struck me that I could take an altenative route, starting with the station's Bakerloo Line. 'How clever,' I congratulated myself a couple of train changes on. Then I started to realise that at each station there were fewer and fewer people on my carriage. Looking through the windows, I could see the same was true on the carriages either side of mine, and presumably train as a whole. Suddenly I had the exact opposite from the situation I had first encountered - no people.

The train was passing through some of London's rougher areas. 'What if some nutter got on?' I started to think. 'It would just be me and the nutter!' Perhaps I worry to much, but I prayed that no-one would get on for the remaining few stops. No-one did. When I got off the train, I counted the total number of people on the train: just two others.

Then walking along the road five minutes from the station, a woman crossed the road towards me and stopped me to ask something. Great. I was almost sure that she wasn't going to ask for directions, but I couldn't just coldly ignore her and walk on by, could I? She had black bags under eyes and her voice was shaky and unsteady. For some reason she asked for £4.50. Why not £5? 'Um, no, sorry,' I said. After speaking with my family I was told that the same woman goes around all the time with the same sob story.

Savant

Did those of you in England see the documentary 'The Real Rain Man: Extraordinary People'? It aired on Channel 5 the other night, but I think it was a repeat. The following is taken from the Radio Times programme description:

Kim Peek, 54, is the world's most famous savant and was the inspiration behind the Oscar-winning film 'Rain Man'. He was diagnosed as mentally retarded at birth and the neurosurgeon who first saw him advised his parents to place him in an institution. But Kim's parents refused to give up on him and, with the support of his father Fran, he's developed a memory without equal and has become a household name in the USA.

What an amazing story! Though Kim possesses an unbelievable memory, the way in which he thinks seems utterly different from 'normal people'. The thought that kept crossing my mind was, 'Amazing as he is, I wouldn't consider swapping Kim's abilities for my own.'

> More info about Kim Peek

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