If You Love Food And Snacks From Japan,

but do not live there,

this could just be the thing for you, we have featured snack boxes from Japan before here, in the same or at least similar vein here is a goodies box from TokyoTreat,

this box was “sakura picnic,” 

stuffed to the brim with so many tit bits from sweet to salty,

so if you crave the taste of Japan at home, head on over to the subscription page and place your order, as it happens we might even try one for ourselves!

As Soon As I Post This,

I will be off, to visit Duncan,

so I am only making one post today, back to Tuesday and part two of the fire alarm being fitting to all of our flats, a early start at 08.00AM there were boxes everywhere,

with all manner of items inside,

some of the sensors for the flats and basement I am guessing,

work started in the entrance hall,

inside the main panel,

now wired up,

to its transmitting/receiving module,

underneath the main control panel the mains electric on/off box,

all complete,

with relay boxes in the main hall at the front of the building and the rear entrance,

as well as in the stairwells and basement, 

then the fun started, fitting the sensors in the front and back halls ceilings, plus the entrance hall of every flat, and the basement, giddy work in the main hall as far as I was concerned!

this took until early afternoon, then any flat owners that wished to attend were given a talk through, about how the alarm worked and how to test it every so often to make sure all circuits were working, after which came the sensors test, each of the several monitors spread around the flats, halls, stairwells and basement were tested,

even the ones fitted in the high ceiling, all was well, job finished and everything tidied up by 6.00 in the evening, just right for my evening meal, which I followed with a Outback Opal Hunters as Diana arrived home from work, so a Midsomer Murder it was before the continuation of last nights A Touch of Frost, before we were off to bed.

First Thing,

I took a few photographs of some of the succulent flowers,

some like this one in the window facing the garden had flowered before,

a long stem, but the flowers small,

the same this one at the side window,

these looking nice,

the one next to it had flowers just slightly smaller,

but this one again in the window over looking the garden had never flowered before, so it will be a new one on us, in the afternoon stage one of the fitting of the houses fire alarm,

today it was putting in place all of the mains electrical works,

a spur had to be taken from a existing line,

for the control box,

the one in the first communal hall fitted,

all set and ready to go,

ditto the second hall, work finished rather conveniently at 6.00 in the evening, tomorrow the low voltage work will begin, putting a relay box in each of the halls of individual flats, 

after my evening meal it was feet up for Uncharted, totally implausible and improbable, once you get over that it was a all action film with great special effects thrown in, just suspend belief!

I then watched Red 2, I had watched it before some time ago, but it was nice to see it again,

especially seeing John Malkovich as Carmen Miranda! just as the film ended Diana arrived home from work, so it was feet up for a coffee and a chat, we rounded off the evening with A Touch of Frost, it was the second part of one episode that we had started to watch last night, which was excellent, after one more episode we were off to bed.

As Far As Locations Go,

Hotel EastLink could have done a tad better,

 photograph Rory Hyde/Flickr, it is placed on a motorway outside of Melbourne, in Australia’s Victoria state, the hotel is situated by the roadside, nothing much to see or do nearby, which is just as well as there is not a road leading to it for guests to use from the motorway, the lonely hotel with rooms lit at night upon reflection looks sort of strange, and at 20 meters tall, 12m wide, and 5m thick it is strange, so what is it all about?

it is a art installation designed by local artist Callum Morton, the Hotel EastLink was unveiled in 2007, the whole thing is a sculpture designed purely for ornamental purposes, “Motorists will view it from the car as an actual hotel and perhaps over time as a strangely de-scaled prop that has escaped a theme park or film set,” artist Callum Morton described the concept of this project in the early 2000s. Now, almost two decades later it is still there fooling motorists, “I think it’s kind of interesting how putting something in a space that is slightly beguiling or is a little bit strange, how that maybe changes the way people think about art or practice,” Callum Morton said about his unique artwork, for more about the artwork it has its own website, have a look here.

I Will Be The First To Amit,

I do like many of the Japanese woodblock prints that have been made over the centuries,

and it has become even easier for all of us, above Torii Kotondo, “Hair Combing” (1932), to view so many of them, all you have to do is click on to Ukiyo-e Search, the online database was started back in 2012, the archive now boasts more than 223,000 individual artworks from the early 18th century to today, the database is organized by artist and time period, and the system works to make it easy to see copies held at museums and institutions around the world, all of this brought to us by programmer John Resig, 

Katsushika Hokusai, “Kirifuri Waterfall at Kurokami Mountain in Shimotsuke” (ca. 1832)

Yoshida Hiroshi, “Sailboats: Forenoon (Hansen, gozen)” from the series ‘Inland Sea (Seto Naikai shû)’ (1926)

Asano Takeji, “Twilight In The Village, Nara” (1953)

Shoson Ohara, “White Herons and Willow” (1926)

Bakufu Ohno, “Cherry Blossoms” (1950)

Utagawa Kuniyoshi, “Mount Fuji on a Clear Day from the Sea off Tsukuda” (1843)

Tsuchiya Koitsu, “Sengaku Temple” (1933) for almost countless more just click on the link to the archive to explore history via Ukiyo-e images, article via This Isn’t Happiness, what a treasure trove of wonders.

Great News For Myself,

I was over what ever it was on Saturday,

back to my usual self, the ache from the tooth extraction almost over as well, and we had a visitor that we have not seen for such a long time,

one of the ducks had landed on the ridge tiles of the roof opposite,

I know it is me, but I find it so strange to see a duck on the roof of a building,

on to our Sunday lunch, a read and a sherry,

Diana had made some duck pancakes for our starter,

which were a surprise and delicious, 

for our main course, smoked gammon a ham, with gravy for Diana,

sans gravy for myself,

'Cheers!',

a triple layer mousse for dessert,

leaning heavily on chocolate it has to be said! we listen to some music in the Afternoon, I had put a few more CDs on my telephone play list, one a favourite from the 1960s, the Alan Price Set, who was briefly with the Animals, I am not sure how well known he is in the US, 

but over here he is remembered for many songs including Simon Smith and his Amazing Dancing Bear,

and one of my favourite numbers of his,

I Put a Spell On You, his keyboard work legendary, after which in the evening it was feet up for a film that Steve and Kai had given us,

The Railway Man, it is basically a true story of Eric Lomax, a signals engineer who was forced to work on the infamous Thai-Burmese "Death Railway" after being taken prisoner by the Japanese during the second world war, who witnesses and receives brutal beatings in the time of his incarceration at the hands of the Japanese, and the true life reconciliation of one of his captors 30 years later, after which it was a Columbo before A Touch of Frost, well two of them as it happens, before we were off to bed.