The post-apocalyptic Fun Fair and the curious incident of the peace corps in the night time

za za za, I am trying to collate my brain cells to write a 15 minute lesson on Cardiac Surgery Nursing, which is hard, as that is realy just 7minutes of me talking, taking interpretation into account, and what on earth can one say in 7 minutes? 

So, I am defering this task, to upload the photos I took in the fun fair in UB.  It is so funny, it is set in the "childrens park" which was closed until the 1st of september.  It has a collection of rides of dubious safety, and is part building site.  Being there felt like being in some strange dream, but a couple of the rides were really fun.

The big wheel is not working, and I dont think I would have gone on it even if it was.  Health and Safety is not a concern for mongolians..... It is generally not a huge concern for me, but being in a metal contrption that is help together by elastic bands and scotch tape was a step too far even for me.

Oh, I went to  party the other day, and it was ok, but strange to see so many new faces, and missing my old pals, and realsing suddenly that I am one of the veterans now!  I was just leaving when a scrummage occurred, one of the hosts had discovered a pair of amorous peace corps in her bedroom, and was throwing them out of the party, I had to restrain myself from chanting "jerry jerry jerry" as the americaness of it all was utterly hilarious.

Today the office is quiet, which is so nice, and my colleagues seem to have remembered who I am and what I am doing here.  Yesterday I gave a breif (30mins) talk on the Nursing Process and Holistic, evidence based Nursing Practice, to the entire nursing staff, about 250 people.  It actually went really well, and I was especially impressed with Zolo.  I only saw a handful of people asleep in the audience, and they clapped at the end, and today my colleagues were very nice about it, and want me to do one every two weeks! Yaanaa.

So I will probably stop doing my Chingeltei lectures, and focus on the hospital for now, I think I may be bailing out of Mongolia soon, earlier than planned.....so I want to make sure I leave with a whole lot of information collated efficiently for the hospital, so the nurses can access it after I have gone home.

sigh.

the night train, the hypnoscreen and three dramatic characters

Hi - so, wow, I didnt realise it had been a whole month since the last post.  Since then, I have had my friend C staying - visiting from Paris for 2 weeks.  her first couple of days I had to work, and let her sleep off ehr jet lag, and in the evenings we ate beef stew and drank red wine and created the perfect itinerary for her stay.

We decided to take advantage of how long she was here for to do a kind of minibreak.  We decided to spend three days in Erdenet, which is proudly touted as Mongolia's Third Largest City.  Mongolia only has three cities.  I have a Mongolian friend here in UB who's family live in Erdenet, and she was going ot be visiting that weekend too, so we were very excited, and were not disappointed.

We travelled up on the night train, as this was the cheapest form of transport, and meant we didnt waste a whole day travelling.  It was cool, the same soviet train as I went to Selenge in.  I didnt sleep much, as I was engrossed in my book, and also kept awake by the snoring and farting of my fellow passengers, but I was very restful, on the top bunk, being rocked by the train.  There was a seatbelt that I tried to strap myself in with, but in true Mongolian style, it of course didnt work, so I was mildly concerned that I could be thrown out of my little nest, especially since stopping suddnly is quite a strong mongolian trait....

However, we arrived in Erdenet unscathed, but pretty sleepy, we got poked and prodded out of bed about half an hour before we stopped, but the surly train attentant.  One thing I will NOT miss form Mongolia is the constant prodding.  Please do not touch me, I am British. 

We stood looking bewildered for a while, as the train statoin is outside the city, but deflected the "taxi!" calls, and opted intead to get on a bus we saw.  I asked people on it if it went to erdenet, and they said yes, but seemed very bemused.  I thought it was just because they didnt see so many foreigners, but soon relaised that all the passengers of the bus were young women who were dressed very similarly....and then the bus stopped at a school nd everyone got off - a haa.

Uya rang and told us to get a taxi to her family home, where her sisters would look after us.  This we did and soon found ourselves drinking sudete (salty milk tea) and talking about Justin Beiber (the girls were 17, very cute, very sweet, but with questionable music taste).

After a hearty lunch of boiled mutton spine, me and C passed out the sofa's, both having mad dreams.  We were so done in that that evening we just found a hotel, and hung out eating bread and cheese and chatting til we fell asleep.

next day we met up with Uya, and went with her to visit her parents bed factory.  It was so cute.  A higgldy piggldy collection of ramshackle buildings, with a security guard living on site, in a ger, which we went into too.  Unfortunately, I had neglected to charge my camera battery, so after taking the one picture above, which is C and N at the apartment, my camera went byebye, and I am waiting for C to put hers up online so I ca steal them for le blogge.

So we watched the menfolk building wooden bed frames, very nice workmanship, and the then to another building, to see women putting the mattresses together, first compiling a plethora of springs, then upholstering them.

It was interesting to see how they worked, quiet, serious, the place seemed an unorganised mess, but there was also a strong sense of process about it.

After the factory we headed to the black market, which was nicer than the one in UB by a huge long shot.  the stuff was much better quality, there were much less people, who were much less pushy, and the atmosphere was super chilled, rather than frenetically tense.  I bought a bag and a pair of plimsolls,

after more wandering and a visit to the 'funfair' where we took a ride ont he big wheel, which was very big, and had no security features, so quite terrifying, C and I went to get a pizza while Uya went to have family time.  then we met up again at a bar later that night, and went on to a night club.  the club was seemingly quite fancy, the light show was the usual seizure inducing dazzlefest, and the music was the usual cringy R&B, and the clientelle were actually a lot less pretentious than the UB lot.  Nice place, I thought, til I went to the toilet.... two squat holes, with swinging doors were the unisex loos.  one of the doors had a big panel missing, the other didnt shut properly, or lock.  nice.  People were barging in and out constantly, smoking heavily, and chatting loudly, and the space was tiny, but my bladder was protesting, so I squeezed my way through the puffing gibbering crowd, and went for the squat.  I could hold the door shut while I peed, but as soon as I let go to pull up me bricks, the door was flung open, by a girl who had seen me go in there, seen my hand holding the door shut, yet who still thought it would be ok to walk in and trample over me.

This is another thing I will never understand, the mongolian delusion that two solid objects can occupy the same space at the same time.

Anyway, the club was fun, we danced, and were 'chatted up' by a group of giggly young men (never understand giggly men, it is all wrong in my opinion, and freaks me out - are you a 9 year old girl or are you a MAN?)

The next day me and C were up early ish to go for a wee hike in the hills, which was ace, the fresh air, the views, and then we were invited into a ger by a very sweet lady called muugii, who offered us aruul, and spoke to us in the broken english she had taught herself from a book, she had a hilarious little booklet called "american idioms" which contained some funny little colloquialisms.

back to the flat for salty tea and watchig "dance your ass off" which even dubbed in mongolian is probbly the BEST reality show I ever saw, fatties dancing to lose weight, performing, getting judged, getting weighed and crying.  aaah, bliss.

We had a slap up korean meal before finding a car to drive us back to UB.  The drive back was long and a bit scary at times.  Mongolians drive as if they really truly do want to kill themselves, their passengers, and everyone else on the road. We have been told never to be driven at night, and I was a bit nervous as after it got dark at around 8pm it got pretty hairy.  We passed a big accident as well, which added ot the fretfulness.  But we made it back in one peice, and spent the rest of the week exploring UB, museus, markets, monuments, the fun fair in UB, aving a dinner party, doing the pub quiz (and losing, and the pub has closed down, so what am i going ot do now?!?!), going to the cinema, and the theatre to see a mongolain opera called "three dramatic characters" which was ace, such a spectacle.  Didnt think much of most of the singing, but the costumes were amazing, and the last scenes was a wedding party, which had dancing and wrestling, a wonderful show.

We went out on C's last night to kareoke, well, we werent going to go, but we got convinced, and were so glad we went.  Loads of people were there, a big ex-pat crowd for the leaving do of an AYAD, and we were all singing awy happily.  then there was a power cut, and the music stopped, but we were undeterred, and all kept singing, in the dark, all together, which was so funny and happy.

Not so funny and happy when we had to get up at 4.30am after getting to bed at 3am, to put C on her plane!

So, now life is back to kind of normal, back at work, back to living alone again.  We had the interpreters training, that I helped design, and we got very god feedback from that, and our training materials are going to be duplicated and used in other areas, so that is nice.

I had to cancel my Chingeltei lecture today as a doctor at the hospital wants to hang out with me this afternoon, so i am a little nervous about that, as they alwasy seem to misunderstand my role, and start asking me diagnostic questions, which I cant answer, so then they lok disappointed and I die a little inside.

Photos to follow in next post.

Oh yeah, the hypnoscreen - did I ever mention it before?  Its a huge screen in the centre of town that shows adverts and stuff, and showed the world cup matches when it was on.  it freaks me out a bit, especially the other day I walked past it at dusk, and the light it emitted was so eerie and hypnotic.

it is getting colder here, down to -12 at night, but still around 8 or 9 during the day, and super hot inside as the government has turned the heating on.

so back to hypo/hyperthermia seesaw.  What FUN!

dancing geese, daylight robbery, and falling off a horse

Soooo, whats been happening.......

Well, UB has been the usual crazy noisy dust bucket it always is, thought the weather has been nice still, slowly dropping, during the day it was still sunny in the 20's, but every evening got that bit colder. Its coats and proper shoes time now.  But what a scorching summer, I am almost looking forward to the chill, though I must remember to set aside an extra ten minutes for getting dressed in the morning.

So last weekend I went to the CIRCUS!  It was a much anticipated event, there was a buzz about it in the city.  Mongolians LOVE spectacle, pomp and ceremony, and it was hard no tot get caught up in the excitement as we took our places in line, clutching our tickets, which were not cheap at 8000₮ but came gaudily decorated with photos of the many wonders that were in store for us, acrobats, clowns (eurgh), bears and - er - geese.....

Our glee was soon quashed though; the main doors of the circus opened, and we braced ourselves for a forward surge as people pushed to get in and get seats, but none came, some mongolian was being spoken at the front, and the crowd visibly sagged and began to disperse.  what??

Luckily one of our mongolian colleagues was in the queue, and had spotted us, she came over to tll us that since the animals for the circus had been detained at the border, the show was being postponed.... yeah, so, thats several hours by car away, yet you let us all stand around until 5 minutes before the show was due to start, for what? hoping for a miracle?

Anyway, our tickets were good for the next day, so 24 hours later there we were agian and this time it was the real deal.  And what a show.  First there was a gang of acrobats in the most bizarre costumes doing crazy tricks with a jump rope, then hula girls, contortionists, dancing geese - yes, DANCING GEESE! They were amazing, my new crush (shh, dont tell camels).  Then trapeze artists, and then some truly terrifying stunts done by young men, seesaws and sticks, cant explain it, but it gave me conniptions.  Then a strong man, who my word, was STRONG.  All this was interspersed with clowns who I wont talk about as I dont agree with clowns.

Then, the finale....the moment I later felt deeply ashamed of looking forward to so much....the bears.  It was awful.  the poor poor bears.  I had got so excited at teh thought of seeing a real one in real life, that I spared no thought for the reality of the situation.  It was just painful to watch.  There were three bears, and their fear, distaste, discomfort and sheer despair were palpable.  the mongolians whooped and cheered, waving their glow sticks with wild abandon, us westerners sat aghast, hands over mouths, horrified at what we were witnessing.

Anyway, I wont go on about it, suffice it to say that I am now a campaigner for getting performing bears banned.

So, the next day was a scorcher, and I was strolling through town in my floaty dress, one last time to wear it.  Now, I am usually hyper alert about my belonings, I cant afford ot lose anything, and I am deeply attached to my things, however, while crossing a busy road, my attention was more on not getting run over than it was about guarding my bag, and having just been to a shop, stupidly, my wallet was at the top of the bag, well, not for long it wasnt, as a little artful dodger went and nicked it.  I felt him do it, but as I turned around and grabbed him he made a hulabaloo, in hindsigh I realise this was to distract me form the fact that he was swiftly passing my wallet to his colleague, twisty, so no matter how much I shouted at him and shook him and pinched him that was it, my wallet, and all the money I had - gone.

So that fair took the wind out of my sails I tell you.  I was heading for an energy crash anyway, and have spent the last week being ill, flopping around incapable of doing anyhting but feel sorry for myself.  In the midst of the misery was a ray of light in the form of a skype with home, meeting my newest nephew for the first time, a gorgeous scrumptious, beautiful baby boy, who made me want to stick my face into the internet to eat him all up.

I even missed the quiz, THAT is how ill i was.

So, today is sunday, and I was convinced by friends to come along on a horseriding trip, country air to blow away the bug.  It was good, bu u u u t ... i was given the most psychotic horse, and the most annoying saddle and stirrups.

the stirrups were tied together under the horse, so i had no ease of movement, and right form the get go I could feel that this horse was mental.  He bolted almost as soon as we set off.  Now, I am cool with galloping, since my first foray with riding here I have done a lot more and got very confident on a horse, so I wasnt worried, until I realsied that the horse was not runnin gfor pleasure or exercise, it was properly bolting.  I also realised that my feet had become stuck in the stirrups, so if he tried ot throw me I was in deep trouble....and I ALSO realised that he didnt care how hard I pulle don the reins, he was not stopping, and he didnt seem to be looking where he was going, so one trip on a marmot hole or loose stone, of which there are multitudes, and I was going to be cut into a rather easy two peice jigsaw....

Through divine intervention or runnign out of puff, he finally came to a halt, and cursing I began to try to free my feet.  I managed ot get one out, but it had been stuck so tight, and I had such little leeway, that as i pulle dit out, the final release resulted in a kick back into the horses side, which sent him off again - oh f*ck.

That time was ok too, as he got distracted by a water hole, and I was able ot gently free my other foot.  The rest of the gang caught up, and I complained to the horse man, who undid the rope that had been tying my stirrups together, and, as it turned out, pre-emptively saving my life.

So, after that it was much more comfortable, and my horse seemed content to walk with the herd, which was really cool, being on the steppe, in the sunshine, with a cool breeze in my hair, atop a horse, amid many horses, this is how I love to ride.

Closer to home, with the camp in sight, horsie stopped to graze, and I saw this as my chance to put my jacket back on, having taken it off earlier while we were in the midday sun.  I was moving as gently as possible, and seriously, I have made far more jerky or sudden movements on a horse before, but this one must have sensed I wasnt hodling on properly, and took his chance to bolt again.  And this time he threw me.  It is a funny feeling, realising you are about ot fall off a horse that is galloping - for a split second I considered making the effort to stay on, but to be honest by now I was sick of this recalcitrant beast, and was glad of the excuse to jump ship. 

So jump/fall I did, like, according to eyewitnesses, a stunt woman (curtsy).  horse streaking of into the distance, I was glad I wasnt still on it.  Up I bounced, lit a rollie, and reassured my fellow riders of my physical integrity.

The horse man brought the horse back, and back I got on it, and this time kept him on a tight rein and led him back to the tether.  But that was me, knackered, and pissed off.  So after a hearty lunch in the chill wind, I wasnt reeeeally up for another ride, but I got a different horse, which was nuts in a different way, and had a wee trot for a bit, but my heart wasnt in it, so when th horse decided it had had enough, I didnt argue.

So, here I sit, bruised, thinking of having a beer this evening and then going home for an early night with one of the movies I downloaded.  Bayarte.

four meetings and a party

I am meeting'ed out man.  New VSO vols have arrived, and in addition to the ICT working group meeting, the VolCom meeting, and the Health Programme meeting (5 hours long, starting at 9am on a saturday - WTF!!) I also had an Interpreters Wrking Group meeting. 

We also had a big party to welcome the new volunteers, to what I assure them wil be the most random year of their life, if they make it out alive, and to network with other people in UB.

I cant be bothered to go into it, and bore you with the details, but the Health Programme meeting was really good, and very positive, I was very vocal and attentive, despite the meeting being help the morning after the party, and at parties I tend to dance til 4am, and this one was no exception....

Anyway, the interpreters meeting was also very good, I had a hard time with Zolo at teh beginning, as neither of us knew how to manage the dyamic of volunteer and interpreter, so we learned things the hard way, and I was determined to make sure other people didnt have to.  So I am designing a couple of trianing tools, and have roped Zolo into helping me.

I am starting my proper lectures again tomorrow, after a summer of paperwork, audits and holidays.  I am actually looking forward ot getting bakc into it - especially since getting the translations of my evaluation forms from my las tlot, which included such heartwarming statements as

"After the lessons I organised group training twice.  The nurses were very interested.  It is good if Catherine continues her lessons."

"I have got new information"

"The lessons were interesting, I learned many things that I did not know.  Thank you Catherine.  Thank you Zolo"

woo hoo - I dont need to crawl home a snivelling failure after all.  Something is getting through, and now I am more experienced and imprvingin my teaching, and Zolo is pretty much an expert now on all things nursey, and I have got some kudos in the hospital, things can only get better - right?!?!!

anyway, more importantly than development work - I have a big spot on my cheek, and very dry skin.  This is not acceptable, face masks are making some difference, but with all the dust and crap in the air, I am fighting a losing battle, and now I actually look my real age, its pretty tragic.  Face creams here are stupidly expensive, so I am giving myself inner monologue therapy about getting wrinkles, and how not to have a nervous breakdown about it.....

Most of my pub quiz team has now gone, or quit (you know who you are.....I dont care if you found my competetive approach unnerving.....no one likes a quitter!) so I am gradually rebuilding it, and I think we may emerge a stronger crew.....we have representatives of mongolia, canada, america, and europe.  We have a range of ages and experiences, and I think tonight we are in with a chance of winning, although while it used to be JAG American, and Patio who were our main rivals, the new vso's have formed a formidable team aswell, so it will be a tense battle tonight.

Wish me luck!

a candlelit quiz, galloping through the steppe, and the best breakfast ever.

Over the last couple of weeks I have had a right old time of it.  The days after the music festival I took very easy, as I was so tired after the excitement of having Kate to visit, and staying up late so much.  I went with my good friend (now sadly departed, back tot he USA, sad face) to see "Salt" - I think my discernment about films is eroding out here, I just love going to the cinema so much that even this utter drivel I was entertained by, it was a fun watch, but ultimately frivolous, convoluted, and ridiculous.  Sorry Angelina, but I dont rate you one bit as an actress.

Anyway, so for the following week I was just staying in, eating healthy, going to bed early and generally being very quiet.  Went to the pub quiz on thursday and lost at the TIE BREAKER! Such a disappointment.

I even had a quiet weekend!  Although on the sunday I went to play scrabble and have dinner with my elderly friend George, and then I went off to the airport to meet the new VSO vols.

Then from Monday things got fun again..... My friend Naomi came over from JApan where she lives, and we had a really fun week together, all the phots that illustrate this fun time were taken by her.  I have given up on my camera.

So, she arrived on the monday evening, and as part of her travel package, she had a free night in the Byangol hotel, so we decided to sneak me in too.  She arived on Monday evening, and we went for a slap up meal and cocktails before trundling home to chat until we fell asleep.  The next morning I was so super excited to go and have a BUFFET BREAKFAST.  Surely one of the most amazing things imaginable.  OK, so breakfast is my favourite meal, taking time over breakfast, and eating a lot for breakfast is totally my bag.  I also like a varied breakfast. I was in seventh heaven.  Omlette, sausage, rice, fruit, rolls, jam, chilli sauce, mushrooms, coffee, juice, stir fried vegetables, ham, cheese, I had it all. 

the week was spent wandering round the city, looking at museums, markets, finding authentic mongolian cuisine and me making my debut as co-presenter on "strolling through the decades", a radio show that was sadly cancelled last week, helping film for voice box tv, the english language tv show shown on mongolian national television (which i have been on 3 times now, ahem).  We then spent the weekend at a riding camp in the countryside, galloping through the rolling steppe, stopping for a bowl of yoghurt in an old lady's ger, chasing the cows when they tried ot eat her washing, eating hearty grub and watching marmots bounce around.  All of this activity is now documented below in picture form.....

in the museum, we later saw one of these birds on the steppe!

owls in the museum, they make me think of me and my sister when we were young.

a display ger in a shopping centre....

me standing atmospherically by window in shopping centre

Some modern/traditional mongolians

Zolo and I running to lunch through thte rainGerUs riding through the steppe!Me "filming" (nb, this consisted of pressing a button.sleeping in the ger, i am not a "morning person"..my living room...me the radio star, video killed me....

inside old lady's gernewly wedsfilming from a different angle..ger campmy kitchenyou can see a couple of my students this time!laundry munching cooscanteen we often go for lunch intuftel, one of my favourite mongolian meals

the old lady in the ger

Sorry the photos are all out of order, it was an absolute nightmare trying to upload them, for some reason.

Anyway, Naomi left at 4am on the mondya morning, and i had ot go back to work - then my other friends came back from their travels in Urhangei, for some hastily put together supper, as I had to dash out for a leaving do.

We managed to have a quiet night in watching "Rachel getting married" which we took great pleasure in making fun of pretty much all the over inflated characters.  But all agreed that even thought the characters and actors were pretty wack, the film itself was well made and told an interesting story.

Weds another leaving do.  Thursday the PUB QUIZ, the last one for my dear friend Michelle (she who has recently returned to the USA).  It was a special one, as there was a power cut, so we did the quiz in candle light.  very atmospheric.  And then we WON!  Such a glorious victory.

This weekend, I went with two friends to Terelj, just to hang out in the countryside.  I got sunburned, and climbed some rocks.  I also got an early night, but was not impressed to be woken early early but kids playing football, kicking the ball against the side of our ger.

It is getting cold at nights now, and despite the warmish weather, we all know that Winter is on its way.  I have got so much new stuff for my flat, what with all these people leaving and donating stuf they cant/dont want to take with them, but because of the incessant leaving do's and welcome parties i am barely in my flat!

So - as August ends, I look forward to a quieter September, although I have a friend coming for 2 weeks at the end of september, so who knows when I shall manage to catch up on my beauty sleep.....

Thats not James, its James!

Wowee, what a week.  I had some days off as I had  friend come to visit me from the UK for a week.  I had to work some of it and as she is also a nurse she came to see me "in action".  Here are a couple of photos, from my lecture at Chingeltei FGP, and me in my training room at the hospital, looking very much like a GEEK!

When I wasnt having to work, I managed to take my friend out to the countryside, where she took some great photos, which I have shamelessly stolen.

This is an Airag stall, Airag s the fermented mare's milk.  A big bowl of it cost 2000₮ and we shared it, passing the bowl around, sipping and grimacing.  Airag is hard to describe, it is like tangy liquid yoghurt, it tastes kind of furry, a bit like desicated coconut, only sharp and also like sour milk....it is an aquired taste to say the least.  To me it tastes a bit "wrong" but I still wanted to drink it....

More camels, because, let face it, you cant have too many pictures of camels, they are the most wondrous beasts imaginable.

LOOK at it!  Its like a donkey only better!  I love them!

dude with a bird, he said it was just four months old....not sure how accurate that is, but it is definately a young;un.

me climbing up a rock

katie and I atop rock

mongoliaaaaaaa

birdie flying

Gollum? No - me squeezing through a crevice!

So, that was the trip to the country, it was really nice, although I did have to chuck a hissy fit that morning, seems to be happening more and more, I think it is jsut the hormones..?! Or maybe I really am just a bit of a highly strung madam.

Katie also took some good shots of the area where I live,

sleeping tramp

Ger district

me by my apartment block

So - that was Katies visit in a nutshell, walking, talking, eating, drinking, riding various animals, etc.

The day she left, I went to a music festival in the countryside, with my friends.  It was ace, at firt the weather was so nice, and the setting was stunning,

There was just one stage, a few food vans and a beer van, and about 400 people we guessed.  It was a very relaxed atmosphere, and the music was on the whole pretty good.

(spot the crusty)

It is quite funny, the mongolians, when watching a band, do not dance.  They stand solemnly still watching intently.  It was just us foreigners that were bopping away.

So, we drank beer and ate kebabs and danced and wandered and sat and talked and laughed, and watched the "Mongolian Choppers", the neo nazi's, on big motorbikes, dressed in full nazi regalia.  It would have been scary if it wasnt so ridiculous.  Plus they were jut not threatening, when it started raining we were all crammed in a tent together, and the nazi's were fine, they mostly just pretended not to see us,  but then there was one drunk and a skunk one who came and shook our hands!

I heard people talking about the fact that there was going to be a British act playing, and then I heard someone saying that James was playing.  Now, there is a band called 'James' and I got well excited thinking it was them, but when I looked up to the stage I saw this guy James up there.  I exclaimed, "thats not James, its JAMES!" to the hilarity of my companions.

So, that was the festie, by about 9pm we had kind of had enough, and then it started POURING with rain, as it has been doing quite often lately.

We commandeered a bus to take us back to UB, a bedraggled but cheerful crew

oh, yeah, so I have been complaining about the intense heat, but I take it all back now it is getting chilly....and keeps raining..........

Ok, enough for now, this week I will be working on more lectures, and proposals for measures to improve patient safety, and stuff.  New VSO's arrive over the weekend, then my other friend is coming from Japan to visit, so there will be another long absence and then another photo-filled post, so watch this space.