ZiZou flipped and I blame the heat...

Last weekend I went birding near Nara, along a small river which had a nice pond half down, about a 45 mintue walk. Although it was 6am on Saturday morning, there were many locals out walking, bringing their dogs for a run or just going for a run themselves. Now while this is not a strange activity for Japanese people at that godawful hour of a Saturday morning, what got me most was that the heat and humidity was unbearble. As they were laughing, chatting, walking at speed, there was I, a ball of sweat and general fatigue, feeling as if I was walking across a desert without water and not oasis in sight. It was crippling. Despite the glorious song of the Oriental Reed Warblers (see left), a family of Kingfishers, and the tac-tac of fan-tailed warblers, I just couldn`t take it anymore and headed back to the train station at about 9.30am. It felt as if I had been walking through a sauna. Welcome to summer in Osaka.

It was with this in mind that I looked on　in shock-and-awe (how often we use that phrase these days) at one of my football heroes planting a rather fine head-butt to the chest of Mattarazzi(?) and being duly shown the red card. Some rumours were abound that they called in the infamous Carmoniator out of retirement to add a bit of guile, skill and hard-man tackling to take care of Gattuso in the middle of the park. Looking at that head-butt, one could say that that rumour was true. Alas, although I too would have knocked seven shades of sh*te out of him if he called me a terrorist, to see ZiZou go like that in his last pro game was devastating to me. I just hope that he will be remembered as the man who brought grace back to the playing pitch, in the style of Platini and Cryuff, but much much better. I think if Mattarazzi was educated in the histroy of Algeria, calling ZiZou a terrorist was not the smart thing to do. It would have made the Pope react like that. Furthermore, as can be seen on the photo above, how could I, a changed man who now thinks that it`s all about taking part that counts, who visits pretty castles with my fellow work colleagues such as Maeda-san, head-butt a guy like that....yeah right!

Look, there is another picture of a placid man, enjoying the cultural platitudes of Japanese history....

Anyway, I also had the pleaseure of watching the All Blacks beat Australia. Although it was a scrappy game, the All Blacks look good, even when they don`t play well. A few beers later and I was game for anything, but being up since 4am had taken it`s toll so I toddled off home and to a good night`s rest. This weekend is a long one for us, so it`s Monday off and festivals galore. I plan to go hiking on Saturday morning near Kobe with the hope of seeing and photographing some Japanese specialities. I am sure you are all shaking with the anticipation of seeing those photos!! Just to keep the excitement brimming, here is a photo of a Little Egret, a bird one can see regularly in Cork City centre, Cobh, and all along the south and east coast of Ireland. AAHhhhh....


Until next time...

Carmo`s Diet: this week I have mostly been eating power smoothies

Carmo`s Birds: just the usual summer breeders...

Carmo`s Birds for Byrdy: Monica Bellucci as she appears in Matrix:Revolutions...just perfect (I watched it the other night)