First impressions of Tokyo

- cleaniness: the street are small and cluttered sometimes, but not dirty. You can't find trash in the floor. There are always recycling bins next to trash ones, but these are not easy to find. In the suburbia you can see mattresses hanging from the balconies to get some air and sun. They are very thin, so they are easy to carry outside.
Inside the houses (hostel included) you can't have your shoes on. They provide slippers for you and you must use different ones to go to the toilet. There's always a pair in the entrance of the toilet for that.

- Pets: There's barely any pets around: I think we've seen 2 dogs so far. The only cats were stray and old in a park. But stray dogs don't exist here. I found out that they are a lot of housing rules that don't allow pets, and let's face it, with such small houses is not easy to keep one. Turtles instead are very popular.

- silence: is overhelming. The only noise is from the cars. People don't talk. I havent seen anyone on the phone. Even if they talk among them is very silent. . I found some people saying is imprinted in their education to avoid unnecessary noise. There's 12 million people here, so a curb of noise is enforced. No one laughs exuberantly, affection displays dont exist. They transmit a lot of coldness, but they are very helpful

- etiquette: it's against etiquette to walk and eat at the same time. Smoking is banned everywhere excepted in designated areas, I mean everywhere in and outdoors.

- cellphones: I've seen basically the same type of phone everywhere. The choice is limited. iPhone is rare to see. That really surprised us

- bicycles: are considered more as pedestrians than vehicles. They are ridden more in sidewalks than the road it self. No one rings the bell (again, no noise policy) so we are all the time almost being run over by one.

from Tokio in love...

We started our journey on Saturday at 1.00 am from Shrewsbury, and we finished first part on Sunday at 11.30 in Tokio. We are destroyed, this flight was exhausting! Food on the plan was acceptable, but just to make you feel little bit full. We had small problem to print out out tickets, but nice lady from Airitalia helped us. Well, if I could say that planes in Airitalia are not very clean, and little bit damaged. I would expect something more from flight on such a long distance.
Now we are in Tokio, already after short walk around and after shower that was one o those things you can miss on such a long distances. Tomorrow? We'll see....

Another continent,,,

I never, in my deepest mind thought that there will be some day in my life that i will plan such a huge trip to another continent. It's nothing special for someone who was travelling around the world so many times and visited places in different countries. But me? I'm sorry, me and Ana! We were planning to go somewhere far to release our primary urge to see more and more!
Long story short, we are going to Australia and Japan for one whole month. It is obvious for us that there will be many problems and many obstacles to get through, but we are prepared for that!
The planning was done by us and we book everything personally so if there is a problem we have to deal with it ourselves.
Just to give you small picture what we are planning to do, our schedule is to go at the end of January to Japan for one week, we know that it is to short time to truly appreciate beauty of that country but for us it is just a start. Then we are going for three weeks to Australia, to see it East Coast. Unfortunately our plan was messed up by the tragic event of the flood in Queensland. We had to re plan our journey and make it more complicated! But to be honest this is what we love! How simple and boring would be just to sleep on the beach and drink margaritas while somewhere on the other side amazing nature is waiting to be explored!
Two weeks travelling around South- east coast, and flight to spend one week in Sydney.
This is just a small piece of our plan but it gives you an overview what we intend to do.
How it's going to be??? At this time please don't ask... We really don't know! The only thing we can promise is that we'll do our best to document this trip in any possible way for you and for us to enjoy!
So please visit our page in the next few weeks for more exciting news about us!

Yes we do!

So you thought it is a dead place? Not on my watch! I know we haven't done here much since last events in Glasgow, but now we will try to update you about our trips to different places on the globe. In not far future I will post a note about our visits to Madrid, Poland and Portugal. And I hope we will have some other places to describe here.
Fingers cross for our biggest adventure!

Ana's leaving

Hi all.

I'm not sure how many people will read this, probably just me and Bart!!!

Well, I'm leaving the company in September to go to practice. But before that I compromised myself to do the OV assessment. (Ain't I stupid?????? Just because I want to help some people to get some more money.) I'm really gullible.

My goal is to do it until the end of July. So probably I'll post here much more often, to exorcise my frustrations.


Now, about Wales: 1 word: SHEEP



Lots and lots of sheep, and green and country side and footpaths that they insist in calling "roads". Well, about the roads I can't really complain, i've been in much much worse. But is too much to ask for a motorway now and then? Driving knowing you might run over some sheep is very stressing

Super duo going to Wales!!!

We are very sorry for leaving You without any news from us. Just to briefly explain You what is going on with us right now. We're doing our NOV training. Is difficult to collect all hours but we're doing what we can, and with other OV's help we are almost done. You can ask : what's that rush?? Well, we will have our OV positions from 2nd of February. Me as OV relief in cluster 24 (Wales) and Ana permanent position in two small plants somewhere in Wales.
How we feel right now?? I can say for myself that I'm feeling nervous. What we'll happen ? We'll see...

How to write NOV essay?

This is my plan for NOV essay:

1. Sit in a straight, comfortable chair in a well lit place in front of your computer.
2. Log onto MSN and Skype (be sure to go on away!). Check your email.
3. Read over the topic carefully, to make certain you understand it.
4. Walk down to the nearest shop and buy some chocolate to help you concentrate.
5. Check your email.
6. Call up a friend and ask if he/she wants to go to grab a coffee. Just to get settled down and ready to work.
7. When you get back to your room, sit in a straight, comfortable chair in a clean, well lit place.
8. Read over the topic again to make absolutely certain you understand it.
9. Check your email.
10. You know, you haven't written to that kid you met at camp since fourth grade. You'd better write that letter now and get it out of the way so you can concentrate.
11. Look at your teeth in the bathroom mirror.
12. Grab some mp3 .
13. Check your email.
14. MSN chat with one of your friends about the future. (ie MHS transformation).
15. Check your email.
16. Listen to your new mp3 and download some more.
17. Phone your friend and ask if she's started writing yet. Exchange derogatory emarks about your company, your friends, the world at large.
18. Walk to the store and buy a pack of gum. You've probably run out.
19. While you've got the gum you may as well buy a magazine and read it.
20. Check your email.
21. Check the newspaper listings to make sure you aren't missing something truly worthwhile on TV.
22. Play some solitare .
23. Check out bored.com.
24. Wash your hands.
25. Call up a friend to see how much they have done, probably haven't started either.
26. Look through your picasa pictures from home.
27. Sit down and do some serious thinking about your plans for the future.
28. Check to see if bored.com has been updated yet.
29. Check your email and listen to your new mp3.
30. You should be rebooting by now, assuming that windows is crashing on schedule.
31. Read over the topic one more time, just for heck of it.
32. Scoot your chair across the room to the window and watch the sunrise.
33. Lie face down on the floor and moan.
34. Punch the wall and break something.
35. Check your email.
36. Mumble obscenities.
37. 5am - start hacking on the paper without stopping. 6am -paper is finished.
38. Complain to everyone that you didn't get any sleep because you had to write that stupid paper.