Cyclists – follow up

Remember about three weeks ago I got called a ‘twat’ by a cyclist because I was walking on the pavement, and there is a cycle lane on the road which she wasn’t on… and then I of course went onto twitter to mention the issue, and got shit from another cyclist, who just proved my point that cyclist from the second city seemed to be rude, arrogant and has no respect for pedestrians??

Anyways.

This morning I was walking from work, and because there is no cloud in sight (It is a gorgeous day), I had to put my sunglasses on (I have left that for long enough to be honest).
I was happily galloping (Not really – just strolling to be honest) along the road into work, facing the sun and singing along to “Love So Sweet” (Arashi – I feel happy this morning), when a cyclist stopped next to me.
Thinking I have dropped something or he wanted to ask me something, I stopped and turned to look at him.

“You look fucking weird with a pair of sunglasses.” He said.

He didn’t see my eyes, I have sunglasses on.
Again, I didn’t react, I just kept walking.
I would like to also point out that I have a pale pink beanie, a pink puffa jacket and a pair of black boots on.
I did not look weird (I don’t think).
Okay. My hair has a purple tint to it, but most of it has been hidden under my beanie.
He singlehandedly ruined my day.

That’s the second time within a month in the second city that someone was being rude to me for no reason at all.
I haven’t done anything – I was just walking along minding my own business when I get verbally abused by people I don’t even know.

Ten years ago when I came here to do my Masters, I have never encountered anything like this. Admittedly I was hanging out with a Scot and two Americans.
And I am Chinese.
Also we are in a group.
Maybe I was less likely to get picked on.
Either way, I used to love this city.
I had an amazing year doing my masters here, and I met a few of my very good friends and there are plenty of memories that I have made here and I treasure it.
Problem is, the moment I have actually moved into this city as an adult, things are very different.
Have I started to see things differently? Or people are a lot more prejudiced when they get older?
Never had I ever experienced people asking ‘where are you from originally’ until I become an adult.
I never had that in school.
Maybe because I went to a slightly privileged school, where they are able to see the difference between Asian names, I don’t know.
But more and more now, I have had people asking me where I am from originally, and meeting people who don’t know the difference between China and Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Oh well.

Whilst I am talking about anything and anything at the moment anyway…
There is another 3 episodes in the manga for Assassination Classroom and then it’s finished.
That’s another 3 weeks’ worth of manga to read for Assassination Classroom.
I haven’t been so gripped by a manga for years.
The last two episodes actually put a tear in my eyes.
I am also watching the anime too at the same time, but the anime is moving a lot slower, which is great, and they don’t have to put in extra stories like they did for Sailormoon and Saint Seiya because the anime is moving too fast compare to the manga.
Part 2 of Assassination Classroom is also coming out, on twenty-first of March, the week after the manga finishes.
Perfect timing.
You know what I am looking forward to, regarding the release on the new movie?
Movie promotions.
Which should start about now.
Which means there’s going to be lots of Yamada Ryosuke everywhere.
And it means that he might make a fool of himself like Yuto when he was promoting Pink and Grey on Itadaki High Jump.
And because Ninomiya Kazunari is going to physically appear in the movie this time round, he might do what Nagase did!
(Popping round to a JUMP program)
There’s probably going to be VS Arashi (fingers-crossed!) and also possibly Arashi ni shiyagare.
I mean, Yuto and Shige did it right?
I love it when Johnny’s go to a Johnny’s program.

Okay.
I am going to stop here now because I am rambling.

P.S. CONGRATULATION LEONARDO DICAPRIO! YOU HAVE FINALLY GOTTEN YOUR OSCAR (I personally think you deserve one back when you did Blood Diamond) AND WHAT A BEAUTIFUL BEAUTIFUL SPEECH.

What happened last night?

Well it’s a very long story.
Firstly, I got up at a decent hour yesterday morning and did my laundry, clean the flat, sort out all my bills (for my HOUSE and my FLAT – so grown up) and then did about an hour of kick boxing.

I did not mean to go and and get drunk last night.
I was meant to just go out for a drink with a colleague (her bus stops at my bus stop too, so we met on the bus), then head home, have dinner and then have a quiet night in.
Admittedly I actually was in bed and asleep by half past ten last night, which i I think is pretty impressive, counting I kind of went out last night.

We head to a pub first, and we had some snacks with a bottle of Rosé between the two of us.
Not bad.
Not bad at all.
We finished the wine round about the same time we finished our snacks, and we decided to have a cocktail.
We decided to have a share cocktail.
A “Teapot” of Gin Berry Cobbler.
Not kidding.
It was in a teapot, and it even come with teacups.
Two of them of course, with lots of ice in the teacup.
The drink itself has Hendrick’s Gin (one of my favourite) and it’s infused with cucumber and rose (you can definitely taste the rose), raspberry purée, sugar (of course) and Pinot Noir.
It even comes with half a strawberry.
I like it.
It’s very different, especially drinking it from a teacup and it came in a teapot.

After that we left the pub and head to another pub.
We stayed in the first pub for about two and half hours, just chatting and drinking.

The second pub was definitely not planned.
We couldn’t make up our minds when we got to the second pub, because it was busy and we also wanted to be served so we just picked one of the first thing that I like.
Strawberry Woo Woo.
For those who aren’t sure what it is, it’s vodka, peach schnapps, strawberry and cranberry juice.
And it doesn’t taste like alcohol, but it’s quite a lot of alcohol in it.
We drank that, and then ordered a pitcher of Jar o’Gin.
Jar o’Gin is basically gin and tonic, with lots of fruit.
SO MUCH fruit, that is practically your five a day.
I am not joking.
Orange, graphfruit, pineapple, blueberry, strawberry and raspberry.
And I ate them all.
And drank all the alcohol too, of course.

We actually caught the bus back to and I was home by quarter past ten.
I went straight to the bathroom, had a shower, washing my hair and jumped straight to bed.
At half past ten.

I woke up a few times to have some water, and to go pee (that was a lot of alcohol) but other than that I didn’t actually get out of bed until one in the afternoon.
Because I was a wee bit hungry.

And as usual, there is no sign of headache, or feeling sick, because I don’t get hangover.
On the other hand, I did need a cup of coffee (Besides food) and that went down quite well.
When I had a good night out with alcohol, I tend to need a lot of food for the next 24 hours after I drink, so I actually munch through the day today except for about an hour of exercise.

It’s a nice and lazy day today.
I haven’t been able to do that for a while.

Drinks

Went out with a colleague for drinks.

Currently drunk. 

Back tomorrow. 

In a managerial position

Having taken a higher managerial position in my current job, I realised I am facing one serious dilemma.

My direct reports are all lovely people, and the people who are on the same level as them in this office are also, lovely people.
We spent roughly about 30 minute every night straight out of the office together as we all walk part of the way home.
And we all get on well together and it’s great to be able to have them as friends as much as colleagues.
However.
The people that I am not responsible for have a lot to complain about their managers.
One of them has no support from her line manager (given that they are not in this country, a bit like my line manager’s line manager) and though her position title is “co-ordinator”, she is more like a assistant to the point where she is not only doing what she is responsible for, she is also doing things for the other departments that she has no knowledge on the jobs (different background).
I see why she wants to complain though, is understand and I think it’s justified.
Another one is complaining that there is only one of her and there are three people above her and they are all responsible for checking and reviewing her work.
The other one… I have mentioned it previously in my entry.
The one that didn’t the promotion.

The problem I have is that when my two direct reports really don’t understand why they are complaining, because they have the support (me and my line manager) and that we work very closely together.

Admittedly a lot of time they are complaining about HIGHER management, but it is still very weird to hear from them.
I asked my direct reports what they think about the higher management.
They said they don’t have much to say because they don’t really have much to do with the higher management.

With that much negative energy, I am not sure if my direct reports are going to start to feel really negative too.
It’s really depressing.

I am glad that they are happy to discuss all their problem in front of me, because it means that they see me as a different person whilst I am out of the office, but on the other hand, I am not quite sure how I should reaction to their complaining.

And to top it up, we are going out for drinks tomorrow night.
The bunch of us.
I am hoping they won’t be too negative.
It’s the weekend after all.

Migraine

Another one of those days again, it’s not healthy.
I called home the moment I got home, just to let them know I have a migraine and I was going to have a shower and then go to bed.
The call itself was only 10 minutes, but it felt like forever because my head was so achy and I just don’t feel like talking.

Sometimes I wish I have the guts to tell my parents that I don’t feel like talking, and I don’t feel like I want to interact and just be a hermit and stay in bed.

Nope. None of that.

They told me about what they have done (lots of cleaning and a family friend called) and talk about general stuff (which to be fair, is great when you call home, just to catch up on the gossip, but it’s horrific when you have a migraine and the sound hurts your ears and the lights from the video also hurt your eyes). My mother was mentioning something about people commenting on your job etc etc and I told her I don’t care what other people think as long as I am happy in my job. She said that you can’t live in your world, yada yada yada.

I wasn’t in the mood to talk.

Eventually I had to tell her my head really aches and I need to go, and she reluctantly hung up.

I had a quick shower and even the hot water over my head didn’t help (it usually does).

I took two paracetamol, but that didn’t help (usually it takes about 10 minutes for it to kick in) so I decided to go straight to naproxen.

The pain has subsided somewhat, so I am going to bed now, because it comes back.

At least I am going to get a few hours of good sleep tonight.

My Beauty Box

Because JB and I are in a not-not relationship, and we have decided not to do anything too ‘couple-y’ and do anything too much for each other.
So earlier this month, on Valentine’s day, when I had the gang over, I handed him about the confirmation of a bunch of his magazine subscription (I am good at that) and he gave me a tiny little envelope with a gift voucher to “My Beauty Box”.

Basically, every month someone will go online and choose some products for me. It ranges from accessories, cosmetics and skincare. JB told me the first box he had help from his sister on choosing the products.

I still have five months’ worth of it to look forward to.

The first one arrived earlier back home (with my parents), and I only opened it when I got back today.
In my little box, I got a sparkly blue eyeliner, small bottle of tonic water from a French company, a small bottle of moisturiser from an English company and a bottle of blue Gel Effect nail varnish (Nail Inc).

So basically, both he and his sister thinks I am a very ‘blue’ person.
I see their point.

Which also means that I’ll have plenty to write about, discovering new cosmetic things as well, which is perfect.

This week has been a very hectic week. Travelling, working abroad, spending time with friends, spending time with family…
I am looking forward to chill out this weekend.
With a bunch of Japanese TV and lots of wine.

Fate Of KAT-TUN

I hope I haven’t confused anybody.
Kamenashi’s birthday is on twenty third of February.
However, due to time difference and all that, it was already twenty third when I posted my blog last night, so it’s already today.

Domoto Koichi created a dance troop named KAT-TUN for his performance in Pop Jam (one of the predecessors of Shounen Club).
These six people are possibly the messiest dance troop known in Johnny’s entertainment.
They all wants to stand out in the own way, but somehow it worked.
They fought within themselves, but at the same time, stand up for each other when other members from other groups pick on any of them.
These six people sold out tickets to two of them tours BEFORE they debut.
550,000 people wanted to get tickets for their first concert.
These six people have their own songs written for them as well as songs that they wrote themselves before they have their debut CD.
These six people established themselves in some of the I guest viewing Japanese dramas before they debut.
Kazakou. They called themselves.
Pirates.
Because their songs were ripped from shows by the fans and they were all live versions.
And their fandom – Kazakouban.
The pirate ship.

KAT-TUN 2001.03.16.
Kamenashi Kazuya.
Akanishi Jin.
Taguchi Junnosuke.
Tanaka Koki.
Ueda Tatsuya.
Nakamaru Yuichi.

They were a team for nearly five years before they debut.
Their loyal followers have been waiting for nearly five years.
Their single, Tour DVD and album all shot to number one the day they debut.
Everybody was in tears.
They called the album “Best of KAT-TUN”, which features all their popular songs that everyone already knew like “Gold” and “Haruka no Yakusoku”, and new songs.
Like their single, “Real Face” and “Blue Tuesday”, plus their duets, “special happiness”, “Butterfly” and “one on one”.

KAT-TUN 2006.03.22
Kamenashi Kazuya.
Akanishi Jin.
Taguchi Junnosuke.
Tanaka Koki.
Ueda Tatsuya.
Nakamaru Yuichi.

Akanishi made a selfish decision and decided to go and study English abroad.
KAT-TUN kept going as a five piece.
They released more singles “Bokura no Michi de”, and another album “Cartoon KAT-TUN to you”, which featured even more well known songs (as an additional CD).
He was gone for nine months.
He came back briefly, releasing another single “Yorokubi no uta”, joined the rest of the members in their weekly show “Cartoon KAT-TUN”, and also the last part of their tour, before running off, did a movie, released a single “Bandage” and an album “Olympos” as LANDS, the name of the band in his movie…
KAT-TUN released more singles (“Keep the Faith”, “Lips”…) and another album “KAT-TUN III: Queens of Pirates”, their first album that doesn’t feature any old songs.
And Akanishi eventually announced he would leave the group for good.

KAT-TUN 2010.07.16.
KAmenashi Kazuya.
Taguchi Junnosuke.
Tanaka Koki.
Ueda Tatsuya.
Nakamaru Yuichi.

The five of them kept going.
Music.
TV variety shows.
Dramas.
Movies.
Musicals.
Theatres.
They collaborate with News a lot.
Because they lost members too.
And like all depressing stories, their fifth year anniversary was the same year as the massive tsunami that affected the nuclear plants.
2011.
They never celebrated their fifth birthday, one member down or not.
And on top of that, Koki then decided to show the world his manly bits.
He has broken plenty of rules and has been known to break rules in general (tattoos, piercings, running a few pubs and clubs…) but that was the last of the rule breaking, because his contract was terminated.

KAT-TUN 2013.10.09
KAmenashi Kazuya.
Taguchi Junnosuke.
Tatsuya.
Ueda.
Nakamaru Yuichi.

The four of them carried on.
They started to host Shiunen Club Premium, a talk show that mostly invites Johnny’s group and do a performance.
Taguchi announced on Music Day, with the help from the members and his senpai Sakurai Sho, that he will be leaving KAT-TUN after 2016 Spring.
After their tenth year anniversary.
He needs to be responsible for his own future, and being responsible means he have to do what’s right for him.
And that’s leaving KAT-TUN with three members.
It was heartbreaking.

A few weeks ago, KAT-TUN announced that they are doing five shows, in all the domes in Japan.
Tokyo.
Osaka.
Nagoya.
Fukuoka.
Sapporo.
A few days later, KAT-TUN announced that after their tenth anniversary shows KAT-TUN will be resting and members of KAT-TUN (what’s left of them) will be doing solo work.

KAT-TUN 2016 Spring.
Kamenashi Kazuya.
Ueda Tatsuya.
Nakamaru Yuichi.

I know people who has gotten off the Kazakouban, and walk away.
I know people who has decided to just ignore the fact that they once were a KAT-TUN fan.
I would never do that.
I will always be supporting them.
KAT-TUN was there with me through my first degree, second degree, third degree… Plus make ups and break ups.
I can rely on Kinki Kids, or Tackey and Tsubasa, but KAT-TUN speaks to me.
The misfits being thrown together as a grou of misfits.

We’ll survive.
It’s only a matter of time because we just needed to sort ourselves out.
So.
Happy tenth year anniversary which is in a month’s time (I’ll say it again then too).
I wish you all the best.
Kame-Chan, Uepi and Nakamaru.
And I wish the hiatus doesn’t mean the end of KAT-TUN.

Woke up at an ungodly hour…

I haven’t waken up at stupid o’clock (aka 0345) for years.
Even when I flew to Barcelona last October I didn’t get up this early.

My flight to Paris was at 0745, and I have no check-in cases.
For once.
I don’t do travelling light (not this light) ever. I am impressed with myself.
Seriously.

Security is a funny one today.
I beeped massively when I went though metal detector. I thought it’s the bolt and nut in my knee, turned out its actually the wire in my bra (TMI?!) and not my knee (says the x-Ray machine).
And then I head straight for a Starbucks the moment I went through security.

I am so lucky to have no one sitting next to me, and though the sitting is a bit tight, I was comfortable enough for the journey.
And it’s just so typical of my trip that my flight was delayed by 15 minutes landing, and then of course there was a fire on the street of the head office…
So I was about 15 minutes late.
But it seemed like I haven’t missed anything, which is okay.
The taxi driver was so lovely. I first start speaking French to him (Well, what I thought was French), but it turned out that my brain hasn’t been fuel enough by a caffeinated drink, so what I thought was French turned out to be Japanese.
It took me about 3 seconds to realise that and then I spoke French to him again.
And thank god he understood what I was saying, and took me to the office, whilst telling me I have a nice French accent and that he was thankful that someone (who obviously is foreign) tried speaking French.
Little did he know I actually know some French (I was actually quite good at it when I was in school… at least I think I can communicate well enough back in the days) and that I don’t know as much as I used to and I am pretty sure if my French teacher heard me talking she’d put her very manicured fingers round my neck and strangle me to death.
Well, I don’t think she would kill me, at least she didn’t when I saw her last summer.

And the leader of the pack (I have finally met her!) is a lovely Vietnamese-French lady (she’s like me… really little!) who talks too fast and apparently have too much energy.
We ate Vietnamese for lunch.
I love it. I love Vietnamese food.
The afternoon went on quite comfortably, and really well. I volunteered myself to do a presentation next time we meet, which I thought was a good start because it means I am playing as part of a team, right?

One of my colleagues who lives in Montpellier said that I can go to the airport with him on my way back, as his flight was at 1900 and mine is at 1935. So I didn’t even have to book my own taxi back to the airport because he’s already done it.

I am going to log out now, it’s time for me to head back to the hotel and get ready to go out for dinner with the company. I have a perfect idea of what to write tomorrow, as it is Kamenashi Kazuya’s birthday today.
He turned 30 today.
HE. TURNED. THIRTY.
I remember when he turned twenty, and he turned twenty a month before KAT-TUN debut.
Those were the days.

So happy birthday Kame-chan. We’ll get to you tomorrow.

Weekender

Saturday (yesterday) I spent with my best friends.
My best of friends.

Midori’s birthday was a few weeks ago, and yesterday is the only time we managed to finally get together and celebrate her birthday.
We have somehow managed to keep the whole thing as a surprise, and she thought only me and Curly would be there.
Carrot Top came for lunch with us, and accidentally let slip that we are taking her to the theatre to see Guys and Dolls.
That was funny.
We had lunch at a nearby pub called The Coal Hole and it was pretty amazing. It was quite cheap for what it is, and it really surprised us! We thought it’d be more expensive, being so close to the theatre but it wasn’t.
And it tasted SO GOOD. Both Carrot Top and I had a chicken and mushroom pie, and it was MASSIVE.
Seriously.
It’s like the size of my face.

Guys and Dolls was amazing. I know the songs, but I have no idea what the story is because I have learn the must everywhere and I love Broadway music.
It’s a bit like… I know the songs to Tell me on a Sunday and Sunset Boulevard, but I have no idea what the story is.

I stayed over at Midori’s, because it was easier that way. We had dinner with Midori’s family, and she showed everybody her birthday presents. Curly got her a cake stand, a milk jug and sugar bowl to go with her Wedgwood set (both Curly and Midori have Wedgwood, I have Royal Worcester – I’ll discuss our very “middle-class” hobby next time).
I got Midori some pearl jewellery (I do that nearly every year) and also a refurbished iPad mini. About a year (or two…) ago, I gave Curly an iPad. It was the iPad that I got CLEB, hoping to make our communication better in hope that we can keep the relationship. Of course I have my own iPad and I really didn’t need another one. It was practically brand new.
So I gave it to Curly who needs it for work.
Midori wanted one for a while, but she never got one. I didn’t want her to get too excited, and I kept telling her it was only a refurbished one, and it wasn’t brand new.
She was over the moon still over the moon with it, and it made me really happy to see one of my best friends so happy.
Curly was going to stay over too, but Papa Curls is back for a few days, she she’s gone home to see him instead.

We have plans already for two more stage shows already.
Mental.

I’m going to bed now.
I am flying to Paris tomorrow morning first thing in the morning.

(Weekender is actually a favourite song of mine in Japanese – I just feel like it explains my weekend)

A little note about things happening at work…

When new positions come up and you have to apply for a promotion, someone always ended up getting hurt because they have either over-estimate their ability, or they believe they are better than the other candidates.

Take an example I experienced yesterday.
I am writing about it only now because of course I talked about make-up brushes yesterday – I’m going to write about my day today tomorrow when I have some time actually on my hand. I am currently on my way into the city to meet Midori, Curly and Carrot top for Midori’s belated birthday celebration.

Anyways, so yesterday.
One of the departments in my company has an officer role opened and has actively encouraged the currently associates to apply for the officer role.
Three people applied for it.
Male number one has been in the company for a while (not sure how long).
Female number one has been in the company for 10 months.
Female number two has been in the company for 6 months.
This morning they announced that there are actually going to be two officer roles, and male number one and female number one have been promoted.

Female number two is one of the people that I walk home (partially) with after work, as she goes the same direction as I do.
We sometimes go for walks at lunch time and yesterday she was moaning through the whole trip towards the supermarket because she believes she is more experience than the two of them, and she is definitely doing a lot more than the two of them. Every time she has achieved her objectives, she asks for more.

Now.
I am going to sound really racist again, and I am going to be stereotyping people again.
Female number two who moaned for about half an hour is of certain Asia origin (not me) and though I have a few friends of the same origin, the problem I have with this origin is also massive.
I don’t know them all well of course, because I haven’t been in this company for that long, but from what I have gathered and what I can see, Male number one is GREAT at passing onto his work to others, so that he doesn’t have to do any. Female number one seems to always have her head down and getting on with things and female number two tends to let people know she’s very busy but she’s meeting deadlines and doing everything she is to make sure all the work is being completed.
She might be competent, but her attitude is something else. She wants to be acknowledged and I don’t know what her line manager is like, but I think they might have seen through the fact that she is arrogant, and might not be a good fit with a higher position.
The whole power comes too early thing.

BTW, I have gotten a lot of shit from a Twitter member recently too, about me being prejudice (and stereotyping and bias, blah blah blah) against all cyclists, but his attitude is nearly just as bad as the ‘lady’ who called me a twat – only he didn’t swear at me. But then I guess he’s done 96.7K tweets since he joined in August 2010, picking on people who doesn’t appreciate BAD cyclists and people to doesn’t support the Labour Party. I guess he’s a single male who doesn’t have much to do on his hand, besides wandering on Twitter looking at people who is being rude about cyclists. He also thinks he is a good cyclist, but if his attitude says anything, that he’s an arrogant man who thinks he is above everybody.
(If you go to my twitter you’ll probably find this guy I am talking about)

I miss the south a lot.
I miss how people are actually polite and that people are friendly.
The job I’m doing is great and it’s amazing, but it’s not the south.