I forgot to set my alarm to wake me up for this morning's Champions League match between Premiership heavyweights Chelsea and Liverpool. Fortunately enough a magnitude 3.8 aftershock woke me at exactly 3.43am, just two minutes before kick-off. Great stuff! The game finished 0-0. Advantage Liverpool?

Today's school lunch was liver. It was minging. When asked by one of the teachers what is was exactly that I didn't like about liver I just replied 'Oishikunai' (It's not delicious). However, this was more a reflection on my Japanese ability, or lack of it, rather than on my dislike of this putrid form of nutrition. What I was really thinking was 'It looks like shit, it smells like piss and it tastes like vomit. What do you think it is that I don't like about it?'

My father arrives in Fukuoka today for a short visit of about a week or so. As a result I'll be taking a brief break from blogger. In the meantime, why not take a look at my latest photos?

See you after Golden Week!

Bits and pieces

Hmm...where shall I start?

Here are some things that have caught my attention over the last few days:

- As many of will already know, Japan had its worst rail disaster in forty years yesterday. So far the death toll is in excess of 70. One 19 year old student managed to call his mum, twice, from inside the twisted train wreckage many hours after the crash had occurred. He told her that he was in a lot of pain and that he wasn't going to make it. He is still missing.

- One of Japan's latest female idols is 11 year old Saaya Irie, ironically a member of the teenage girl-band Sweet Kiss. Apparently she has rapidly gained a cult-following because of her breasts. Size-F would you believe? Grown men all over Japan are falling in love with her at an alarming rate. It seems even an elementary school student posing in a swimsuit is not considered strange in Japan! Slightly disturbing.
**I've removed the links - sorry**

- The British general election campaign is in full swing and Labour are expected to win again.

- Chelsea are almost Premiership champions and a place for them in the final of the Champions League appears a mere formality? Can Liverpool stop them? Another 3.45am kick-off on Thursday morning beckons!

- I spent most of Sunday looking at blogs on blogger.com. Some blogs that tickled my fancy, for no particular reason, include Feminist Mormon Housewives (title says it all), Photolarry (gay bloke who likes taking photos of other gay blokes) and Chase Carter (an outspoken LA girl in Rome).

- And talking of Rome, it has come to my attention that the new pope is a silly old fart!

Thanks to everybody who came out to I-Bar on Saturday night to catch the debut of The James Heneghan Acoustic Roadshow. To be honest we had a bit of a stinker - the sound was dodgy, we made plenty of mistakes and I personally didn't enjoy playing as much as I usually do. But we learnt a lot of things and I know that the experience will leave us much better prepared for our gigs in Arena and Voodoo Lounge later this week. And that was the whole point in choosing I-Bar for the first gig - I didn't care if we were shit - and to get rid of all the demons before the big shows has definitely made it worthwhile!

Ready to Rock

Tonight in I-Bar, the deadly trio

Come to think of it, I-Bar is such a better name than International Bar. I once asked Ashok, the previous owner, why he gave his bar such a moniker. 'Isn't it obvious?' he quipped.

Oh, of course it is. Silly me, I thought. I took a cheeky chugalug of beer as I formulated my repost. 'However...' I reasoned '...it's kinda like calling a supermarket Food Shop, a football club Football Club or a band A Band, isn't it?'

'It's a bar, James...and it's international!' replied a slightly bemused Ashok.

'So...if it wasn't 'international' would you just call it Bar then?' retorted I.

Spain says 'Yes'

Today my alarm clock failed me and I missed my boat to school! Never mind!

More importantly, the Spanish parliament yesterday passed a law legalizing same-sex marriage (plus all the legal rights associated with it) and the adoption of children by homosexual couples. It is only the third country in the EU, after Belgium and the Netherlands, to pass such a law. Let's hope that many other countries follow suit. How can any modern, forward-thinking government deny homosexuals the right to the same legal priveleges as those enjoyed by heterosexuals?

I have at least one good friend in Spain who will be overjoyed at the news. It has been a long struggle for her and her colleagues over the last two decades. I am so happy for her and also for the entire gay community in Spain.

And who opposed the bill? Obviously the conservative opposition and as expected, a huge number of Catholic bishops. I'm glad that, for once, common sense has prevailed against such outdated religious opinion.

So much for my pledge to refrain from controversial topics!

Wake me up before you go-go!

What am I doing up at 6.30am? Well, those of you living in Fukuoka will know!

A rather fun magnitude 5.7 earthquake is always a great way to welcome in the new day! 6.11am, up on the 12th floor again, we couldn't have hoped for more early morning excitement than this! Luckily Jun's plan to not tidy her room properly after the last big one proved to be a shrewd move. Everything would have ended up all over the floor again anyway, as many things in fact did.

The best thing about this is that I am stuck in Chiyo, very close to the epicentre in Fukuoka City, and with certain public transport failure to look forward to, I have almost no chance of making it to school this morning!

Interestingly, if you're sad like me, the first one struck on March 20th. Today is April 20th!

'Get off the road!'

This morning, and not for the first time in Japan, I was almost killed by somebody not paying attention at the wheel.

A woman in an SUV, attempting to edge out onto a busy road, hadn't seen me coming because she had clearly only looked one way. I contemplated hanging back but decided that only a blind person would not have seen me coming and therefore decided to continue, eventually passing in front of the 'stationary' car, which seemed to be waiting patiently. Obviously not patiently enough! Just as I approached the car it jolted forward in a crazy and ultimately doomed attempt to join the busy road thus forcing me to take evasive action. I was understandably frustrated and angry? I had a right to be pissed off. At least I would have had anywhere else!

As I avoided the huge SUV and then regained control of the bike I turned my head round and raised my eyebrows at the woman as if to ask her 'What the f*ck are you playing at?'

I continued on my way and five to ten seconds later, having finally joined the main road, the woman passed me to my left. She gingerly wound the window down and meekly bleeted 'Sumimasendeshita!' (I'm so awfully sorry, please forgive me, I will forever be your humble servant). But this simply didn't wash. I angrily pointed to my eyes and shouted across the road 'Mite kudasai!!' (Please look where you're going!). What I really meant was 'You f*cking twat! You almost killed me! If you are unable to remain observant whilst in control of an automobile then don't drive one! Use a bloody bus - they were made for people like you, you frigging idiot! For Pete's sake I could have been a 6 year old kid! What the f*ck were you doing? You're lucky I've got lightning reflexes! Get off the bloody road!'

Apologies, I don't normally get this angry.

Anyway, I think the woman picked up on these sentiments from the look in my eye. She probably went home thinking that all foreigners are unnecessarily aggressive and rude.

But what would a Japanese have done in my situation? I don't know. Perhaps apologize, even if they were in the right? I'm not sure. In any event, even though I am generally polite and respectful with regard to Japanese custom and behaviour this was one situation where I was fully prepared (and there haven't been many in the last year and a half) to let my foreign-ness come out. Anybody who is driving their vehicle carelessly (especially to the point of almost causing injury to others) regardless of the country in which it happens, deserves a bloody good verbal reprimand and a few hard punts up the arse.

'Sumimasendeshita!'

Campeones!

FGU gloriously retained the Kyushu Cup yesterday! We defeated everyone, dismissing Saga 3-2, Nagasaki 5-1 and Oita 5-0. On a ridiculously short pitch it was very much a midfielder's tournament as stalwarts Kalla and Wallis grabbed seven between them. Other strikes came from Matty Ho, Captain Marvel Canning (two each) and Brucey! I also scored one and had two unfairly disallowed, much to my chagrin. But, we got what we came for!


In all our combined years of playing football (about 250 years) none of us had ever seen a worse pitch! The length was about two-thirds normal pitch length, the six yard box extended no more than three yards from goal, the eighteen yard box was actually ten yards (not to mention that both were lop-sided and completely skeewiffed) and the penalty spot was outside the area. In fact it was clearly not a football pitch at all but a badly-kept athletics field, as evidenced by the muddy brown patch on the left-hand side of the above picture. There were also shit-loads of frogs living on the pitch. Unfortunately many were squashed.


Heneghan (in white, just behind the well-and-truly-flummoxed goalkeeper) wheels off in celebration after pouncing like a puma in the '10 yard' box. A sweet left-foot volley to put FGU 1-0 up against Nagasaki


A rare moment with the trophy - before it was stolen!


And even Jun wanted a piece of the glory!

Forgotten words

Some words, once featuring prominently in my vocabulary, have almost completely disappeared from my speech in Japan. For example:

perhaps - few people understand this wonderful word, preferring instead the universally dull maybe.

toilet, loo, bog - people here only seem to understand the terms bathroom and restroom. It's obvious the loo is intended for neither bathing nor resting, isn't it?

football - foot and ball combining to form a logical compund noun? Don't be silly!

holiday - the Japanese think that Saturday and Sunday are holidays. They all know and use the word vacation although very few have actually experienced it.

rubbish bin - it seems that garbage can and trash can are preferred here although you'll occassionally hear the ludicrous dust-box too.

rubber - of course, how can this be anything other that a condom?

mobile - I cannot stand the word cell. 'Call me on my cell.' Sounds too biological for me. I'm glad that in Japan almost everybody refers to this device as a keitai.

yonks - nobody would understand this.

It was nice to hang out with a load of Brits at the Kyushu Cup yesterday! And it was nice to hear some good, honest, familiar British English, spoken as it should be! Jolly good old chap!

What a joke!

Inter have finally received their punishment.

It's a fine of 300,000 Swiss Francs and their next four European games behind closed doors. Extremely lenient. This is Inter's second offence (they were ordered to play two games away from the San Siro in 2001 after crowd trouble against Spanish side Alaves) and once again they have got off lightly. Now any team in a similar position could argue that they are entitled to two opportunities before they are excluded from European competition. I feel a total ban on Inter for one year would have been fair. The message must be sent to the Italians that hooliganism will not be tolerated and that they should start taking their very serious hooligan problem very seriously indeed. I fear that this has solved nothing.

Milan meanwhile, as expected, were awarded the match 3-0 and advance to the semis to play PSV.

China pissed off!

Many Japanese have cancelled their Golden Week plans to visit China due to increased tensions after the two countries resume their millenia long squabbles. When will these ancient foes just kiss and make up?

Anyway, with all the excitement over the recent anti-Japan demonstrations in China, the aftershocks in Fukuoka, the earthquakes in south east Asia and the Pope's earth-shattering death, one particular item of recent news has pretty much slipped by here without causing so much as even a ripple. The news I am referring to is of course the recent royal wedding in the UK, between Prince Charles and his long-term love, Camilla Parker-Bowles.

I have really begun to admire Prince Charles in recent years, particularly for his sterling and often unsung efforts for charity. He really is a true gentleman and it astonishes me how he continues to receive such unfair treatment from the British press and as a consequence, from the the fantastically mal-informed British public. In comparison to his ex-wife, Diana, Charles really is a character of genuine quality. She, on the other hand, was a little cow.

However, as much as I respect the man, I am certainly no monarchist. It astonishes me that in the twenty-first century the majority of Brits still wish to cling on to this irrelevent vestige of our 'glorious' past. To treat somebody else as superior, just by virtue of birth-right, is ridiculous. The French got it right in 1789 when they abolished the monarchy and formed a republic. For me, the French have always symbolized what Europe should be all about. Liberty, fraternity, equality. That just about sums it up.

Yes, they may be a little arrogant but I have always respected the French. Not only do they play good football but they have a fine society, although not without its problems, of course. And I am so glad the French stood up to the United States and refused to support the war in Iraq. The French have bollocks. Jacques Chirac is not afraid to stand up for what he and for what his people believe in. Tony Blair has not and does not. Indeed, we could do with a lot more of the likes of Chirac and France in this world.

It's just a shame about those nuclear tests in the Pacific in the mid-nineties.

Anyway, I've been taking too many things far too serious lately! I need to calm down. And from now I am going to stop treating this space as an excuse to air my controversial opinions and thoughts - as I know nobody is interested anyway. I will endevour to switch the focus back to what this blog was originally intended for - a commentary on my time in Japan. So, no more religion, politics or other touchy themes.

Moving on swiftly, the weekend is almost here - time to relax and chill out! The menu includes a Spanish dinner with friends, the Kyushu Cup football tournament, a party in Oita, a Sunday drive, Manchester Utd vs Newcastle in the F.A, Cup and hopefully today, news of Inter's punishment!

If you have some spare time, please check out my latest photos.

The Mighty Reds

Well, well, well!

Who would have Adam 'n' Eved it?

Liverpool in the semi-finals of the Champions League after securing a courageous and battling 0-0 draw away to the illustrious Juventus! Great stuff! I didn't give Liverpool a chance so hats off to 'em!

And hats off to PSV too, who battled back from conceding an early goal to level the scores at 2-2 on aggregate and eventually defeat Lyon on penalties! So, the semis read PSV vs Milan (probably) and Chelsea vs Liverpool!

Yes, Chelsea vs Liverpool! The 'Battle of Britain' as such games are often called! There haven't been many in recent years (Rangers-Leeds, Celtic-Blackburn, Celtic-Liverpool and Chelsea-Arsenal are all that I can recall) so I'm looking forward to it! However, whilst the term 'Battle of Britain' is fine for games involving an English club against a Scottish club, for two English clubs I would prefer to coin a different term. How about 'The Entanglement of England'? Okay, no, that's crap!

Anyway, still no word from UEFA on the outcome of the Milan-Inter match. A decision is expected tomorrow. For a good article about politics and violence in Italian football click here. I still think all Italian clubs should be banned from Europe for one year.

Ah...today I'm tired! Getting up at 3.45am to watch football is not easy!

Yesterday I wrote:

'By this time tomorrow we'll know two of this season's (Champions League) semi-finalists, and I predict them to be Chelsea and Milan...'

Well, it's a funny old game, as they say! Chelsea did their best to throw it away against Bayern Munich, but eventually went through 6-5 on aggregate. So, Chelsea are one semi-finalist! As for what happened in the Milan derby, things are not so clear...

With Milan leading 3-0 on aggregate, having scored the away goal I predicted last week, and with only 17 minutes remaining, the Inter fans decided to take matters into their own hands. Sure, their team was going out (rather unfortunately too, having played well over the two legs and in my opinion outplaying Milan for most of the previous 163 minutes) but that was no excuse to throw an arsenal of missiles down onto the pitch in the direction of Milan goalkeeper Dida. When he was struck, and when the Inter fans refused to stop the tirade, the referee had no option to abandon the game.

So, officially we only have one semi-finalist so far. However, in all probability, with the Milan fans being innocent of any wrong-doing, this result will be allowed to stand. I cannot envisage the two teams having to play the remaining 17 minutes another day. In any event with Inter requiring four goals, their task would be impossible.

But what about the punishment? In my opinion Inter should be banned from European competition for at least one season (and so maybe should Roma, whose fans were guilty of a similar incident earlier on in the competition, when the now-retired referee Anders Frisk was struck on the head by a coin). Action must be taken, but who has confidence in UEFA to stamp out the constant menace that Italian fans represent? In the eighties, English clubs were banned for five years because of hooliganism. Now the English have their house in order, but the same cannot be said of the Italians.

It may seem harsh on the other Italian teams, but I would welcome a total ban on all Italian clubs entering European competition next year. Only then will the Italian footballing authorities begin to take this issue seriously.

Fed up

The sakura are disappearing, the rain has temporarily returned, the lizards and insects are making a comeback, the grasshoppers are making noises and the trees are looking green again! And it won't be long until the stickiness of summer hits us!

But despite its natural beauty, I sometimes I get quite fed up with life in this country and today could quite possibly be one of those days! However, I'll follow the example of the Japanese and just shut up and get on with it.

Anyway, it's Champions League tonight (or in the morning, whichever way you look at it), so that's something to look forward to! By this time tomorrow we'll know two of this season's semi-finalists, and I predict them to be Chelsea and Milan, whom I also predict to be the two finalists too! I think I'll now go and check out the latest odds at the online bookmakers...

So, an eventful weekend all round! On Friday I stayed at home before taking a late night train to Fukuoka City wearing my pyjamas and a pair of sandals. That was undertaken after being engrossed all afternoon in the Pope's funeral. I couldn't give a flying monkey's about the service itself but I was however struck by the enormous number of people in Rome who could barely contain their emotions over a man they'd probably never met nor knew much about. It reminded me of the Diana fiasco back in 1997, when the 'nation wept'. Sometimes I am embarrassed to be human.

On Saturday I made my debut in Sancho Panza, playing a couple of songs in Spanish. I didn't play well, but everybody seemed happy so I'm not complaining! Today I woke up with a hangover and subsequently spent the whole day at home playing the guitar and experimenting. Jun and I have this crazy idea to do some kind of heavy-techno-trance-rock song incorporating violin, piano and an ichi-man yen drum machine. It sounded like quite a good idea today, so we'll give it some more thought and see where it pans out. But because of my busyness (is that a word?) I didn't get to go to any hanami parties over the weekend nor take any photos of sakura. I'll have to get on the case this week before it's all over!

And I've been hearing more grasshoppers and crickets, so I definitely wasn't imagining it the other day!

The Japanese have the ability to be extremely dull at times. Take for example the huge number of official ceremonies which are carried out each year at every school in the country. Yesterday was the nyugakkushiki, a special entrance ceremony for the new first year students at my junior high school. It only lasted an hour, but it seemed a lot longer. Poor kids.

After a 15 minute epic of a speech from the kocho (head teacher), we had speeches from the mayor, the head of the PTA and another guy whose title and profession was too difficult to decipher. Fair enough, but then all the V.I.P.s were introduced too. Among them were the 'anybodys and everybodys' of Fukuyoshi Town, which basically meant the PTA committee, various employees of the local council, the head teacher of Fukuyoshi Elementary School, the sixth grade teachers of Fukuyoshi Elementary School, the Fukuyoshi train station staff and the local policman, just to name a few. There were many more whose relevance to the ceremony escaped me!

Anyway, after the ceremony we had a teacher's party primarily aimed at encouraging the first grade teachers to have a good year with their new students. I thought this was a waste of time but my ears pricked up on hearing about the enormous amounts of sashimi (raw fish, of course) that we would have to eat, and of which I am a big fan. However, as we sat down it was clear that one or two of the staff members were worried about something. One was fidgiting and I could tell that he was angling to ask a question to my JTE (Japanese Teacher of English). Basically he, and a few others, were worried that I might not be able to use chopsticks or to eat raw fish - obviously this man knew that I could not possibly understand his question seeing as no foreigners in Japan could ever learn to speak Japanese - so he asked my English speaking colleague instead. Oh dear! Don't these people know I've been in Japan for over a year and a half?

I politely reassured those concerned that in fact it was no problem for me to do any of the things they thought were so difficult for me to do. They seemed to look happier, but I think they were still mightily concerned and initially didn't trust my confident reposte.

After the itadakimasu (let's eat and be thankful for this wonderful feast!) the conversation turned to more mundane matters such as the singing performance given by the second and third grade students to welcome the new first graders. It was generally agreed that they sang well, although the lad conducting was not quite standing up straight and this is something which will need to be addressed before next time! It was at this point that I was asked by my kocho what I thought of the morning's ceremony. I was asked in Japanese, so I responded in Japanese. This startled some and as I began to get right into my review of the morning's events pretty much all conversation around the table had stopped and all ears and eyes were now focussed on me. I was slightly taken aback. Still, without appearing unfazed I managed to battle on and explain that Japan was a very strange place and that, as a Brit, I found all of this 'ceremony malarky' very odd as we have nothing similar in our schools back home. But they could tell I was was side-stepping the real isssue - 'was it fun, interesting, moving?' was what they really wanted to know. I breathed deeply and then, with a few choice words such as chotto and eto ne, I declared that I thought the ceremony was very boring indeed. Everybody laughed. However, I made sure I told them that, in my opinion, the Fukuyoshi school song was the most beautiful of all school songs. On hearing this they were very happy!

On a diet of twigs and leaves...

...Heneganov is perfectly adapted to life in the wild.

And I've just heard my first grasshopper of the year. Surely I must be imagining it?

桜

桜「さくら」がさきました！

スゴイ！

すごくスゴイ！

Solar system surprise

From now on I'm going to start naming my blog after the planets. I thought this was a logical thing to do. Starting, obviously, with Mercury...

No surprises

So, the Champions League quarter-final first-legs went without any major surprises. On Tuesday Lyon and PSV drew 1-1, giving the Dutch a supposed advantage. However, Lyon have been very good on the road this year so they shouldn't be written off. I still predict the French to go through. However, I'm still just a little frustrated that Olympique Lyonnais, as they're correctly known, were not this good when I lived there during the 1998-99 season. I actually lived on the same road as Lyon's fantastic World Cup venue, Le Stade Gerland, and that year I watched Lyonnais beat Blackburn there in the UEFA Cup. Incidently, Gary Flitcroft ruined it for his team that day by getting sent off at a critical point in the game!

The other game on Tuesday, Liverpool at home to Juventus, was more surprising in that Liverpool raced unexpectedly into a two goal lead. However, after a late Juve away goal and with the second leg to come in Turin, I expect La Vecchia Signora, and not the rejuvinated sangria-flavoured scousers, to be lining up in the semis against...da da daaaaa (dodgy drum roll)...

...Chelsea, of course, The blue machine rolled on last night against Champions League ever-presents Bayern Munich. This contest would have been already over were it not for a refereeing decision of absolute sheer horror deep into second-half injury time with the score at 4-1. You didn't even need functioning eyes to have spotted Ballack's theatrical dive in the box after the merest of tickles from Chelsea's Carvalho. That the German midfielder converted the resulting spot-kick means that at 4-2 things won't be so straight-forward for the Blues in Munich. However Chelsea, unless they opt for some kind of footballing kamikaze, will surely still go through.

The other game last night, the Milan derby, finished 2-0 to the red and black half of the city. 'Home' advantage didn't really mean much as both these sides share the same stadium, the San Siro, but Inter, as the 'away' team, had to use an unfamiliar dressing room and play with only a handful of their own fans present, obviously tucked away in a corner behind one of the goals. Despite being, in my opinion, the better side, the fact that they didn't score an 'away' goal means that their qualification looks unlikely. Surely Milan will score one in the return leg, also in the San Siro.

So, I'm still going for a Chelsea Milan final.

In other news, my watching of the J-League has not been too successful of late. However, I do know that after three games, F.C. Tokyo, Kashima Antlers and Omiya Ardija are tied at the top on seven points. 'My' team, Avispa Fukuoka, are currently in 3rd place in J2 (the second division), a mammoth six points adrift of the curiously-named runnaway pace-setters Kyoto Purple Sanga. The funniest name in J2 though has to belong to the team currently second off bottom, the terrifyingly frightening Mito Hollyhock.

It's the Champions League quarter finals this week! My money is on Liverpool to lose to Juventus and Chelsea to defeat Bayern Munich, but the other two games are less than clear-cut. Inter will be hoping to enact revenge in the Milan derby for the semi-final defeat in the same competition two years ago whilst Lyon, the dark horses of the competition, would expect to get past PSV. But you never know...

After backing Chelsea to lose against Barcelona and to subsequently throw away the Premiership, I now have a funny feeling that they're going to win everything in sight! They already have the Premiership in the bag and I can only see one of the Italian teams causing them any problems in the latter stages of this competition. A Chelsea Milan final, anyone?

The Pope is dead. Long live the Pope!

I wrote this post yesterday, then toned it down by a factor of ten and then decided not to publish it because I thought it was too controversial. Only my friends in the office today pursuaded me that I should post it. So, here it is:

'Am I the only one who was a little bored with the constant Pope Jean Paul II coverage on satellite TV networks this weekend?

Well it seems that yesterday was definitely one of those days where other potential news stories were swallowed or simply not even reported. In fact you'd be forgiven for thinking, after having watched a couple of hours of either BBC World or CNN, that nothing else happened at all in any part of the rest of the world over the last 48 hours.

Anyway, some people may disagree with me, but for somebody in such a position of responsibility Pope John Paul II held some pretty sinister and potentially dangerous views. His passionate stance against contraception has done humanity no favours in its fight against AIDS. Thanks to the Vatican I wonder how many people, particularly in Africa, have fallen victim to the HIV/AIDS pandemic? I was reading today that 35% of 15-49 year olds in Botswana, incidently one of southern Africa's most economically stable nations, are infected with the HIV virus. This situation is more than typical in Africa. So in today's world, regardless of traditional or religious beliefs, such opinions against contraception are just plain irresponsible.

And what of abortion? Or homosexuality? For reasons of being too controversial, I'd better stay away from those topics. But to say that the papacy is archaic would be very much understating the obvious.

For centuries the Catholic Church has swept mercilessly forward, destroying all in its path from culture and language to traditional ways of life and belief (much of which took centuries to develop), not to mention the millions of lives lost as a result of its often brutal and indiscriminate actions. From the crusades to the conquest of the Americas, from missions throughout the world to the forced conversion to christianity of untold numbers throughout history, the track record of the Catholic Church makes for grim reading. But this all goes largely un-noticed.

Indeed, over a hundred thousand people filled St.Peter's Square in Rome yesterday. But for me christianity has, and always will be, a formidable obstacle and one of the biggest threats to world peace.'

Spring cold!

I'm currently a little bit sick, I think I've been burning the proverbial candle at both ends for far too long. This weekend shall see some much needed rest coming my way! And maybe a bit of J-League and some music too!