100 Days of AMPM

Wednesday 13th October 2009

AM

Least: As early as 7:50am, I was sure that my version of the influenza was going to dominate my day. The searing forehead, the dream-like focus and the various other symptoms, meant a day inside and questions about whether or not to go to work. Strangely, despite some minor nausea, my appetite remained and I was able to eat the well-worn breakfast of poached eggs on toast. Given that I'd felt ill since Saturday, I thought that my flu might be coming to an end, but clearly I'd thought wrong.

Most: By 11:00am, I began to realise that today's blog entry, would be the one-hundredth AMPM. I think that the blog has been a good reflection of my time in Japan - occasional highlights with quite a bit of everyday life in-between. My only regret is that I didn't start the blog earlier in my stay - some classic Japanese moments slid by without notice like the time I was mauled by numerous deer in Nara (right), or the February day when I nearly fainted in a swirl of colour on Dontomburi. I can't really think of a single highlight, but the trip to Yamanashi comes pretty close - as for the unblogged lowlight - being lost in Kyoto while snow flurries chilled our every angry misstep. Hopefully the next one-hundred days will be as full of delightful highs and crushing lows as that last  - and if I start blogging on Janglish, readers be warned that the end is nigh.


PM

Least: By 3:45pm, I was really beginning to regret my decision to go to work. During my lessons, I felt as if I was having an out of body experience and that I was watching someone else respond to the incredibly predictible grammar errors like a robot. I knew I was in a poor state after the school director told me that my face '...looked bad' - she really has a way with words.  Although I had taken some cold 'n flu capsules, they did absolutely nothing to salve my discomfort. Another blow for my already shaky belief in Japanese medicine.

Most: At about 10:10pm, I arrived to a not so lonely home. Rosie had returned from her German excursion and made my otherwise awful a great one. Her stories of the Heavy Metal and Gender conference in Cologne were interesting and funny. As it turned out, many of the academics and students were real metal fans and dressed as such during the conference. Rosie also managed to get herself into some controversy by openly criticising the outdated views of the queen-bee of 'metal studies' - for her trouble though, she got a lot of pats on the back and congratulations. Rosie's paper will be published in a book of the conference.