
What a time we had in Borneo, a trip ranging from near disastrous admin screw-ups to wonderful days of rafting, exotic beaches, night time turtle watching, and a host of new acquaintances. First off though, the nightmare airport story to beat all nightmare airport stories. We were to fly out from Osaka airport at 0900 on the Thursday morning and as the
Shinkansen or bullet train costs about €200, we deicded to take the night bus from Hiroshima to Osaka which cost considerably less and left at 2315 on Wednesday. Not as bad as we were expecting it to be, the coach was designed to be a nightbus so the seats almost fully recline and each person has enough leg room, as well as all the lights being off and the curtains being drawn, although the old man behind us did cause me to utter a few choice words with his incessant snoring and growling in his sleep. Got to Osaka at about 0515 and then another coach got us to the airport in plenty of time to have breakfast before checking in. Well, what we thought would be a formality turned into one of the most stressful 30 minutes of my life. Tiffany hands in her passport, gets the bag weighed and tagged and all that, no bother, then mine. She takes a look at my passport, types some stuff in and then says to me "where is your visa or letter of invitation". "Ehmm.........what?" I replied incredulously as Tiffany made double sure when booking that neither of us needed visas for Malaysia. She said again "you (me) need a visa or letter from Malaysian government for to enter Malaysia". We told her that Irish people didnt need a visa according to our travel agent and that there must be some mistake. However, Japanese-ness overtook her thought process and she lifted all our stuff to once side and called over her supervisor, a woman who almost made me lose my temper. She came over, had a long and extremely fast conversation with the check-in girl which I could only catch a couple of words of before picking up our tickets and passports and walking further down the desk without a word. We followed and already the panic began to sit into my stomach as I thought we were on the brink of a disaster. She flatly said to me, just as the check-in girl, "where is your visa or letter for to enter Malaysia". Again, both Tiff and I, probably in unison, said we were told we didnt need one and that both the US and Ireland we not the countries that required one. Wordlessly she turns away and is on the phone with both of us sure there must be something wrong as its too big a blunder for a travel agent to make and Tiff was so sure to check that as SE Asia is a maze of complicated visa countries and non-visa countries and all that. Im getting nervous standing there as our flight was boarding at the time all this was taking place and she seemed in no rush to get anything done. She comes back to us and says, "Malaysian Embassy is closed and there is a national holiday in Malaysia today so we cannot contact them". Seriously getting stressed now as the "last call for flight XXXX" announcements weren't far away and we were getting nowhere. In Japan, they have a really bad habit of doing nothing of their own accord without direction so you have to constantly prompt them on what to do in situations like these. We then said why not ring the travel agent and ask, which she did but not without giving us a look that said we were pretty much annoying her at this stage. On the phone about a minute before telling us that they don't open for another hour. "So what should we do?" we asked her but she said, as patronisingly as possible, that we would not be on our original flight and that we could take another flight to Hong Kong (our stop over point) and try and see would they let us into Malaysia. The infuriating part was that we knew with 100% certainty that someone had screwed up somewhere as it was just too big an issue for nobody to have noticed it during booking. I said, loudly with my temper starting to go, "Im from Ireland, Republic of Ireland, not Northern Ireland, not Iceland (they sound kinda similar in Japanese), Ireland". Again the patronising grin and kept saying "I cant do anything, its the policy" and then handed us a sheet which said "Countries requiring visas or letters of invitation to Malaysia" which had the war torn countries of Africa and the Middle East with no mention of Ireland. At this point she ran the risk of me injuring her as she said, "Ok, Ive spent enough time, here are your tickets and passports, its up to you what you do now, you can try and get a refund from your travel agent but I dont think it will work, Ive done everything I can" at which point she thrust the stuff back at us with the telephone number of the Malaysian Embassy and turned to deal with someone else. Against our heated protests and appeals to go higher and check our documents again she grinned and blanked us saying "you can do what you want now, I cant do anymore, go away" and turned her back on us. We were stranded, the last call announcements were in full flow, queues bustling past us, and the mental image of getting the bus back to Hiroshima with our unused suitcases to go and try and get a refund for our holiday from the travel agent who would have just said sorry and pointed to there policy of "Its up to the individual to organise visas and HIS Travel cannot be held accountable for any loss based on that" were starting to become a horrible reality. We would have had a good case but as it was their screw-up they probably would have given us flight vouchers or something. Tiff remembered though that HIS have a stand at the airport and decided as a last ditch effort to go over while I stayed and made sure the manager didnt try and leg it on us. She came back with an angry looking HIS rep with the list of countries letter in hand and went straight to the manager and this time I could understand most of it. She said, I think, "This man is from Ireland and there is no visa needed, what is the problem?" (paraphrase, thats the gist, not sure of the exact), to which the manager replied "
Eirurando" which is obviously Japanese for Ireland and slowly with a look of horror took my passport again and looked at it as if she was reading her own death sentence when she read the cover. She went so white and her head sank for a second, then the HIS rep and her had a fast and furious coversation that I could only catch bits of but I heard enough to know that the manager had screwed up good and proper and was getting ripped badly by the rep as she had her head bowed and nodding in agreement as Japanese people do when they are getting scolded for a mistake. I said to the manager, angrily buy I couldnt help myself, "what was the problem, did you think it was Iceland? What? What was it? What was all this for?". She did another Japanese trait of trying to giggle the attention away and smile and faun over us to appease us but we werent letting it go at all, and then to my questions she said "I make a big mistake, big mitake, I prefer not to say". Her English got noticably worse when pressed about what had caused me nearly to have a rage attack, but then after us pressing and pressing as our bags were getting put through, she finally and begrudgingly said, "I thought your passport was Israel". Israel!!!!! I was so taken aback that all I could do was laugh at the ridiculousness, obviously the original check in girl (who was suddenly nowhere to be seen) had made a mistake and got
Eirurando and
Isureiru confused and thought I was an Israeli by misreading my passport (for anyone that hasnt seen the connection, Israel is a Jewish State and Malaysia is a Muslim country, hence Israelis arent too welcome there!!) and then, due to our stressed out condition and the realisation of the potential repercussions of the whole fiasco, the manager whispers to us "is business class ok?". The relief was tinged with annoyance at what was literally a misread passport and what made it worse was the 6 or so times I explicitly said "Ireland" and "Eirurando" in Japanese to her which went to show she wasnt really paying any attention to what we were saying and all our protests were effectively ignored. From there she rushed us through all the queues and checkpoints but not before they had the gall to try and stop Tiff taking some of her toiletries on board in the carry-on, but a proper good outburst from our southerner consisting of "Im serious, you've already mistaken my boyfriend for being an Israeli and and caused us serious stress, you've already caused us to almost miss our holiday, you need to find a way to get my stuff on board and get this sorted out........
now!!" sorted that one out so much so that no more questions were asked, and finally, soaking with sweat from nerves, stress and almost running to get on board, there were are in first class having champaigne and OJ handed around as well as "Mr. Ruddle and Ms. Caroffino, welcome to first class, we will be taking off shortly". When we had settled down we actually laughed about it, but that was one seriously rough episode the likes of which I never want to go through again, and as cool as first class was, it wasnt worth that drama. However, first class is the way to travel. Id never got a chance to travel up there before so it was a new experience. We had the prawn salad with garlic bread and lobster pasta as well as a fine assortment of cheeses and crackers for the appetiser before the maincourse of a fillet steak with nicely cooked roasted spuds and veg, and then Hagen-Dazs ice cream for desert. I was totally going for it as I thought it right to do so for all the trouble it took to get there, so on the drinks menu there was a few mocktails (cocktails with no alcohol) which were delicious and as such I was ordering one every 4 or 5

minuites. Im guessing they are tough to make as they are made there and then, and at one stage they gave me a massive glass to hopefully keep me from ordering any more, but that one got downed in one go and I ordered another immediately!! Come desert time I ordered so many different types of coffee and icecream that I could tell they knew I was a total chancer and had no real place being there, what did I care though, it was that airlines fault we were there so why not? The chair you get is enormous with massive leg space and it almost fully reclines, the tv works for once and has a massive choice of films and tv shows from all over the world, the service is almost instant and each of the stewards seem genuinely happy to get you more stuff. Tiff was getting embarrassed at how much stuff I was getting but it didnt stop me. The only drawback was that it was only a 3 and a half hour flight so it flew by (no pun intended) and was over before we knew it. Its not worth the extra money as it t

ends to be 3 times the price of economy class, but was a nice treat to see it. The rest of the trip to get to Malaysia was pretty uneventful, flew to Hong Kong, waited around there with the usual wandering around duty free and finally flew to Kota Kinabalu in Malaysian Borneo exhausted but glad we were finally there. We got to Kota Kinabalu and straight off the bat stayed at the same hostel our friends Nikki and Patrick (also JETs from Hiroshima) were to stay at as they were to be picked up from the airport by the hostel owner Malcolm. Thankfully that hostel had extra room for us so thankfully we didnt have to venture out into the town that late at night to find another place, and to get better acquainted Malcolm took us out to his bar for the evening which was closeby. Good night all round, but so exhausted by the time I lay down that I was out almost instantly. (also, Tiffany thinks I look too stupid in this final photo to include it but I disagree, think it suited the mood perfectly!! I thought she looked lovely as ever in the plane photos, but due to the stress she didnt think she looked her best so I cant include her's!!)
After searching for the hostel district and finding a decent place to stay (after some truly dodgy attempts to find

one in the very centre of Kota Kinabalu, email for details!!) we started to organise things we wanted to do while we were there. High on the list was a day trip to go to Sepilok to see the famous Orang-Utangs, a trip to the famous Turtle Island (which lies off the other side of the island near Sandakan) to watch the turtles lay their eggs at night, white water rafting and also some island hopping to get some sun and see some nice beaches. The first activity apart from wandering around the city and sightseeing was to do some island hopping. However, as it turned out, we didnt actually do any hopping but instead got a boat out to just the nicest of the islands off Kota Kinabalu to spent the day. Here, for about the zillionth ti

me in my life, I learned the painful lesson that Im not as resilient to the sun as I thought I was. I do go a very dark brown colour eventually, but eventually is the key word here, not one day in the sun, but I wasnt to be told this so despite Tiff's better advise I headed off onto the beach thinking that Ive been in much hotter sun before and not burned, this should be no problem. It honestly didnt feel that hot, there was a good stiff breeze and at no point did I feel any tell-tale signs of burning or anything like that. We had a great few hours lazing a

round the beach and going swimming and snorkling and all that, lovely deserted island feeling from the place and we were just ready to go back when the guy came to pick us up at around 6pm. Boat back had some incredible sights, Im not too good on boats usually but once they go quickly and dont rock around all over the place with the waves Im fine, and this one got us back to the shore in no time. That night we had dinner again in a wonderful restaurant we found in which you pick out

your food from the raw fare on offer and then they season and barbeque it to perfection, the result of which is one of the nicest meals Ive ever had. Freshly caught stingray (the main feature on the plate, delicious!!) swordfish, tiger prawns, red snapper, as well as other favourites like scewered satay, barbequed corn and barbequed chicken wings. Delicious. However, during a bathroom visit I glance

d in the mirror, and Graham Ruddle was not staring back at me, a giant red-spray painted walking lobster was staring back. So red was my skin that I dared not touch it, but when I did there was a big surprise, nothing!! No pain. We took loads of photos as it actually looked really funny, but then, as expected, the pain came a couple of days later and for about the 15th time in my life I was sunburnt and in pain. Aftersun every two hours and walking life frankenstein followed, not fun, but self in

flicted so I wont give out too much.
Next was the trip to Sepilok to see the famous Malaysian orang-utans and have a bit of a jungle hike. We had

to go to Sandakan to do this which turned out to be a less than fortunate result as Sandakan is the worst of the cities in Borneo that we stayed at. Run down, hardly any foreigners (not that that in itself is a bad thing but in such a tourist driven country no foreigners isnt a good sign), locals who look at you like you're their worst enemy, basically a place we had little or no desire to stay in other than to use it as a midpoint for days out. Looking at the pictures, you can s

ee what we mean!! We got a taxi out to Sandakan (never ceases to amaze me how cheap taxis are

in some countries, barely €6 for a 45 minutes trek!!) and then took the tour around the park and finally to the feeding zone where the monkeys climb in and feed for all the spectators. Great craic, felt like a little kid at the zoo again watching them climb the ropes and mess around with each other. Loads of photos and all worthwhile. My sunburn was on the decline as Id blasted my skin

with so much aftersun that I was starting to look like an albino, and even the bugs

in the jungle stayed away so we could have a good time. As we said, Sandakan was not nice but it did help us meet a couple who were on a world ticket and has stories that made our previous trips seem like a channel crossing. Kate and Dave, both from England but a long way from home having travelled so many obscure regions of South America and Africa. Some of their stories were amazing and their great humanitarian efforts were wonderful to hear about. We met them by chance one night as we were at a restaurant and decided to go for a drink and a chat. About the only upside of Sandakan, dont mean to go on and on about the place but if you ever swing by there you'll be the first to agree.
Sandakan

also acted as a midpoint to go to the famous Turtle Island and watch the turtles lay their eggs at night. This was another great trip, m

ost notably for the actual trip to get out there and back. We were picked up by a small minivan at the meeting point at 0800 and in our van was myself and Tiff, some random Finnish guy named Hans, the driver, and then the tour guide, the single most verbose woman in the history of humanity. Seriously!! She never stopped talking. Its not nice to say anythin

g bad about her as she was a lovely woman and loved her job, but she just went on and on and on and over explained/repeated every sin

gle thing to be the point of ridiculousness. Anyway, after about 70 mins in the van with her we get out in what I imagine the Florida everglades look like, and cram onto this small boat. Lifejackets on, and we're off through the winding, narrow river which is banked on both sides by high and lush vegetation and made for an incredibly fun and scenic ride. Great photos he

re, and a beautiful sight as the narrow section ended and we sped out onto the open sea. I think our tour guide had been talking the whole ti

me but the sound of the engine and the swash of the water covered her out. This was a great great boat ride, one of the few I ever enjoyed. The views on all sides were incredible, and before long we pulled into a tiny island set up for us to have lunch, watch a video about turtles laying egss (zzzzzzzzzzzzzz!!) and wander around to meet the indigenous folks. Truly th

e back of beyond, we were told not be feel weird about walking around these people's houses and gardens and that they were really

friendly to the visitors, but it still felt weird at first. Beautiful little island, like a miniature Aruba with way less development, no industry whatsover bar visitors to Turtle Beach stopping by for the lunch/video combo. After wandering around (covering up in the sun this time!!) we got back on board the boat and headed off for Turtle Island itself. Same sort of scenery as before, and before long we pulled in to a bigge

r island with visible houses and a main centre. Fair number of people there, and some beautiful scenery. With an afternoon lazing around the beach and swimming (and Tiffany getting harrassed by the drunk New Zealanders who then seemingly congratulated me on being Irish!!) we then got ready for dinner but not before noticing one of the most perfect sunsets Ive ever seen. Our favourite photo comes from there, look at this just to the right, one for the scrapbook. This was early in the evening after bein

g given free reign of the island in the meantime. We sat out for hours in that exact spot chilling out until it got dark, and then at last it was "Turtle Time". After much specualting and sitting around, in front of all of us in the dark of night at about 11pm a turtle, a humongous one at that, walks up in front of everyone and starts digging oblivious to our collective presence. This continues for about 35 minutes until she stops, and casually goes back the way she came, leaving us wondering what just happened and the tour guides angry at us for making too much noise and scaring her off. About an hour later when everyone is passing out asleep waiting, our lovely tour guide comes flying out of nowhere shouting "turtle

time, group A" and off we trecked across the cold white sand with the moon acting as the light source (which was almost surreal it looked so perfect!!) to watch a turtle dig a massive hole in the sand and lay about 40 eggs. After that, they were brought back and they showed us how they incubate them to assure survival. Sadly no photos made it as the light was too bad to see anything properly, but it was a nice sight to watch them first with the turtle laying eggs and then later

watching then release the ones who are ready into the water to have a go at it. Only a small number survive but it was nice to see them all released. We went to bed exhausted but happy with the experience.
Finally it was back to Kota Kinabalu and one thing which the thoughts of made me nervous. As Ive said in other posts, Im not into rollercoas

ters, rocking boats, anything that messes with the inner balance as my inner ear is destroyed from childhood ear infections, so the thoughts of "White Water Rafting" didnt fully fill me with enthusiasm. After a truly crazy train ride out to the place where we literally had to do an Indiana Jones impression to get onto the carriage (accompanied by a great couple from Peninsular Malaysia), we were dropped off in the middle of nowhere. We then had to collect a helmet and life jacket, listen to a safety lecture which made the

experience sound suicidal, and finally walk down to the river and prepare to begin. These pictures are golden, really like em, they take them from the sides and then you can buy them from the later. It was actually really fun, but the first rapid (which they tell you after is the most extreme!!) put to rest any notions that they were having us on when they said lots and lots of people fall out and have to be rescued by the solo canoists. The calm part of the river is nice, fast flow and you feel secure enough in the raft even though there is NOTHING phy

sically attaching you to the boat. Then the pace picks up a little and you round the corner to a scary sight, huge and erratic waves going in every direction and the boat goes right into the middle of them. You get launched up about 10 feet off the water level, the water opens up beneath you and you drop and good 20 feet down while a gigantic wave develops overhead and it then crashes into the boat when you rise ou

t of the dip. I was actually launched out of the boat before Tiff pulled me back in by the life jacket. Repeat this pattern about 4 times and thats the first rapid over. We all let a huge roar of relief go when we looked around and realised we got through and everyone was still aboard. Then you paddle over to the side and watch all the other teams negotiate it. Its hilarious to watch, it looks equally as scary from the safe side. One Japanese team going flying up to it, all roaring in unison and going 150% with the paddle

s as you'd expect from them, then they disappear under the first wave, and as they come out there are only 4 of 10 left in the boat with the rest swimming to the side or waiting to get picked up. 8 rapids in total if I remember right, the rest a bit of an anticlimax after the first one but great fun. If you're wondering why myself and the Malaysian guy (the guy from the couple we travelled with!!) are the only ones padding like mad in the photos while the rest calmly watch on (even mockingly in one of the photos where the guy behind me is looking at me going nuts with the paddle like Im a moron!!), the front corner guys are the guys who basically steer the boat, the others are just for support and the ones in the middle are for holding the rowers in when they are about to get pitched out, so we (myself and Ernie the Malaysian) look like posers in all these photos but trust me, we were absolutely not posing, more concentrating on not getting flung out and keeping the boat going straight.
Our remaining days were spent in Kota Kinabalu taking it easy eating at our favourit

e restaurant and finishing the holiday on a quiet note. Nice days of wandering around in the sun and then listening to the holiday band at night. Perfect way to finish. We did discover later in the holiday when it was too late that the bargain "hotel" we had stayed at a few nights was a hotel but had a sinister side to it if you know what I mean?? Lets just saying the strange sounds that kept waking us up during the night was not a film in another apartment like we though. The City Inn, beware if you ever venture towards Kota Kinabalu.

That brings us back to Japan. Since getting back nothing too much has happened. W

e went to see a baseball game with Hiroshima's local team the "Hiroshima Carps" which was a nice day out although i) baseball is seriously boring to watch and ii) the Hiroshima Carps are awful exponents of it. Nice to see all the folks though and have a day together.
Sunday June 10th, the whole island had a community sports day in which

all school pupils, teachers, workers and parents of students get together for a day of sport. Not much of it is competition but mostly demonstrations with crazy music going on the whole

time. Took these photos the week beforehand as classes were cancelled for the entire week just have practice for this stuff. Weird!! Feats of balance and endurance, funny races with props, weird alright but good fun to watch them as they are so enthusiastic it looks brilliant. I didnt attend however. Ive been promising some ju

do photos for a while and finally I have some. After having my blackbelt grading cancelled twice as the university professor could not come with me to sign me in, I was beginning to lose hope if they were having me on a

bout letting me compete. They said again, "Joonuh Tensuh, Sssahnday, juuuudo coh-peh-tih-shoh". I said Id do it months ago thinking they would probably cancel, but then friday came and no cancellation as of yet so I packed my bag and set off for the city, planning to go to Kure on Sunday morning and compete to get points

towards my black belt or "
shodan". However, all day Friday I feel desperately bad, so much so that they sent me home early cos they were only practicing for the sports day and I looked so rough. Sore throat, headache, dodgy stomach. Saturday at Tiff's and it getting worse, I know I have a high fever as Im sweating like mad one minute and then shivering 15 minutes later. All day feel so rough. Missed Irish JET compatriot Trish's birthday bash on saturday night to try and sleep it off, but sunday morning I still felt desperate, even worse than when I went to bed. I hadnt eaten in over a day, had aching joints, almost no energy and sore eyes. I knew I had a throat infection, Ive had about 50 of them in my lifetime with all the trouble I had with tonsils, and here it w

as again with the worst possible timing. Decided I had to go though. They cancelled twice and may have thought I was being a prat if I cancelled the morning of. So we set off at 0640 on sunday morning to go to Kure. Cant eat, cant drink, dizzy when I stand up and weak and sore joints when I move. Find the place at last and every eye is on us as we enter. The
judogi or judo uniform looks weird on a foreigner to them, and they stared in shock at me. Another dude from the club, Junpei, shows up (really really good player, did not want to get paired off against him as its usually a stalemate as size can frustrate his brilliant technique a lot of the time but it takes a lot of energy to fight him) and we stand (barely!!) through the usual Japanese, drawn out opening ceremony. 3 hours of waiting watching the kids chuck each other around and Im feeling no better, at th

is stage just banking on an adrenaline burst getting me through. Finally its our turn and I get ready to go on by doing some warm ups which nearly make me pass out.

For any judo guys reading this, look how perfect Junpei's entry to the
uchi-mata is during our warm up here on the left, great to watch. The first guy is small and looks scared to death. Instinctly do my equivalent of a boxers jab (
de-ashi-harai) which is my set up for all my best throws and he is flat out with a huge bang for an ippon after about 5 seconds. With his right foot off the mat I pull down hard on my right hand and sweep his left foot out from under him. Huge applause and Im in kind of a shock. Walk of thinking at least I won one, about 15 seconds later Im on again against another scared to death lookin

g guy who pulls a weak effort of a
sasae-tsurikomi ashi, and I get on top and hold him down. The 25 seconds of the hold-down took forever, but I knew his arm was folded across himself which is so uncomfortable and he was about to pass out at the buzzer so escaping was not an option for him. 2 wins and Im thinking something is w

rong here!! 3rd guy races across and goes for a
morote-seoinage which he never had the grip for and I get a deep choke in which makes him submit, 3 wins. Im laughing at this stage, I still dont feel right but they are just so nervous that they try and get it over with too quickly and as a result they make huge mistakes. All the other

white belts crowd around me at the side of the mat asking me my height and weight and how old I am and start putting their foot beside mine, and at every revelation there is a huge shrieking "whhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaa" of amazement from them. The one who had been asking the most (the one Im looking at in the photo just left) suddenly turns, runs around the competition square and stands ready to begin. The Professor says to me "this is match

final for tournament today, one win more and you winner.
GAMBATTE KUDASAI (Japanese for "do your best please!!)". I hadnt even realised it was a tournament, thought you just had 4 random matches, and then he shoves me out onto the mat and the guy Ive just been talking to is my opponent!! Big guy, and hes won his matches easily too

so hes fresh. Im winded though, and all my symptoms come back as we're waiting to start, really didnt feel good cos he was raring to go. He rushes and we grip hard, shove each other around for about 8 or 9 seconds trying to get the dominant grip and he goes in for a big
ko-soto-gari. He hooks on for a second but he hasnt made me lose balance at all and so he is way out of position, and then I

counter with my favourite left handed uchi-mata (shown here, my old coach in Ireland would be so proud!!) and slam him for the win to a massive applause. 4-0, 9 more wins and Im a black belt once I do a
kata or technique demonstration, but such a great feeling and thank the Lord my symptoms pretty much held off once I got on and was in the spotlight. They are such good sports though, they all came over and shook hands with me and offered me all sorts of compliments in Japanese, most of which I understood, and then they were almost queueing up to take photos of myself and Tiff. Tiff took all these photos and deserves enormous credit for keeping me from quitting once we were there and keeping my motivation up throughout all the waiting cos there were several times I was thinking of pulling out, such was the miserable condition I was in.
However, getting back to the city was a tough experience as my symptoms came back in a bad bad way once I came down off the high of the event, and the rest of sunday was spent taking medicine for my crazy high fever and ringing Ireland to get advise on what antibiotics to take. I should be an expert by now as Ive had this exact condition so many times, but Mam back home always knows best!! Came home yesterday and have been a wreck ever since, called in sick and will most likely be sick for a few days, just enough time to do this between bouts of fever!!
Now, if you've read this far, you're probably wondering what the opening picture is. I found it in the back stores in one of the schools, and its a post war board game trying to show kids that the Americans were Japan's allies now and that they should work together. I cant read any of the Japanese to understand what it says, but its all about promoting Japanese/US relations. Thought it was an interesting thing to find.

Thats it for now. Ill update this next week when I get a chance to get to the Kodak Centre and get my photos put on a cd.
Working solidly now until my trip home in August for Lana's wedding, so will be in Ireland from August 18th-31st to attend the wedding and also to introduce everyone to Tiffany at last.
Hope everyone is well and please, as always, feel free to leave a comment or email me at grahamruddle@gmail.com.
God bless,
Graham