And so it goes on...

yes, the never-ending cycle that is work and no play, the ever persistant presence of the tired eyes, the bags that reach my knees (bags from my eyes lads, bags from my eyes!!!). I don't know how much longer I can do this to be honest but I guess I had better wait until my parents come to visit in the next 6 weeks or so. I am looking forward to that, it should be fun seeing their faces and observe them look on in awe and wonder. I will enjoy that.

Well, the last couple of weeks have been pretty heavy on the work-side and quiet on all other fronts. A bit of birding the weekend before was good. I was guiding a visiting British birder from Tokyo around the parks of Osaka in search of JP and life ticks for him. We had a 75% success rate so that was good. He enjoyed himself and the company was thoroughly enjoyable. I of course slept out on the Monday when Neil and I were due to go back to the find the Oystercatchers so I woke up and screamed in frustration at my inability to hear my alarm clock. I guess I needed the sleep. I went out birding locally anyway and came home to watch some movies and generally chill out. I ended up sleeping for most of the day...I think my body is trying to tell me something!!!

I have seen some class movies lately. Namely "Lucky Number Slevin", "Scoop", "The Departed", "The Illusionist", and "The Black Dahlia". I recommend people should go and see them. I can't wait to see the "The Last King of Scotland" with Forrest Whittaker as Idi Amin. The reviews have been awesome. I also watched "The Wind that Shakes the Barley" which got my wind up and as those of you who know me well can only imagine what I was feeling as I was watching that...fecking Black and Tans, murderous pigs. Anyway, enough of all that. Oh by the way, if anyone is interested in seeing a politician in new light, or rather an ex-politician, watch "An Inconvenient Truth" by Al Gore...excellent and frightening all at the same time....

The world appears to be going mad, Baghdad is like Beirut about 20 years ago at the height of the kidnappings and car bombs. The US of Anarchy wants to put even more troops into Iraq to ease the transition...bollix. When are they going to wake up and realize that they are better off putting the money into better things like research into renewable and clean energy!!!! The sooner that gimp gets out of power and somebody decent (hahaha, yeah I know, I laughed aswell) gets in with a bit of commen sense and decency, the better.

Well, I have no more energy to write anything interesting. I was hoping to post up about the Chinese New Year festival that was held in Kobe on Sunday, accompanied by breathtaking photographs but the weather forecast was bad so I didn't go. Of course, the weather turned out to be really nice in the afternoon and the place was supposed to have been mad. Whaddaya goin to do...

Carmo's Diet: This week I have mostly been eating mexican

Carmo's Birds: not to give too much away....Long-billed Dowitcher, Spotted Redshank and Penduline tit the picks...JP 295

Carmo's Birds for Byrdy: Jessica Biel