📸 Ready for my 14hrs of lovely pampering with Japan Airlines. Next stop: Tokyo.

📸 Enjoying a meal in the BA First lounge before our flight to Tokyo. The holiday starts here! ✈️

Waking up to these US election numbers is deeply, deeply depressing.

Barely able to keep my eyes open. So it’s time for a shower and an early night. And hopefully a full night’s sleep. There’s no way I’m staying up to watch all this breathless - and pointless - US election coverage. Far too early…

✈️ All packed for tomorrow’s flight to Tokyo and then on to Osaka. So, so excited to be heading back to Japan. And looking forward to the luxury of Japan Airlines…

Awake since 4:30am and my last client appointment doesn’t finish until 5pm. Today is going to feel like a very long day indeed.

I’ve no idea why I have been wide awake since 4:30am, but no doubt it’s something to do with the Orange Clown and his fascist supports attempting to turn the US into Gilead.

Like most people I know, I just want the whole thing to be over, so we can deal with the outcome.

It has felt like the longest and nastiest campaign ever. Trump is descending into publically shitting his pants at every opportunity. Threats of violence, outright misogyny. A convicted sex offender with a track record of stupidity, support for dictators, and trashing of democratic norms. Versus an accomplished public servant.

How is this contest in any way close? It’s so, so depressing.

😬 I got home from work with a headache that would floor a bull. So it’s time for a quick, early dinner, a shower, some painkillers and an early night with some new comics. I want to be feeling tip top by the time we depart for Japan, no ifs no buts.

📸 Someone got new shoes!

Managed to get these Oliver Sweeney boots 50% off in the sale. So comfortable and with all the added inches a short fellow like me needs!

📸 Canary Wharf reflections earlier this morning.

📸 Just where I want to be on a Sunday morning…

📸 Travel memories: 3rd November, 2022 - ✈️ en route to Tokyo Haneda with Japan Airlines.

🔗 I’m considering buying the new Apple Watch… once I get to Japan

📸 Travel memories: 2nd of November, 2016. I was enjoying myself in Odaiba, Tokyo.

🍑 Baring it all in Japan:

This could be a tiny decades-old bath in Kyoto, or a ‘super onsen’ in Tokyo. The experience is similar: long periods of time spent soaking in communal baths and letting my cares disappear and the aches on my muscles vanish.

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I used to love Halloween 🎃

🎃 I used to love Halloween We’d also go trick or treating, ringing on neighbours’ doorbells and looking for sweets. Not the kind of armed robbery you see now. We’d be supervised by an adult, always thank the neighbours (even the ones we absolutely hated) and walk from door to door like a very short tour group. Later, we’d viciously rate the ‘takings’ and evaluate our neighbours’ income based on a combination of estimated generosity and perceived value of the sweets on offer.

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Analogue Tokyo memories...

✈️ It’s eight years since my first visit to the Traveler’s Factory shop in Meguro, Tokyo. I geeked out on lovely notebooks and assorted stationery. Tucked away in a side street in Meguro, it was slightly tricky to track down at first. But the effort was well worth it. What I found was a real treasure trove of notebooks, accessories and things for lovers of all things analogue.  I can’t wait to get back there when I’m in Japan next month.

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No thanks, Apple. Not yet, anyway,

While I’m enjoying Apple’s product announcements this week, I’m in no way tempted to part with my cash. I’m typing this on a nearly new MacBook Pro with an M3 chip, and in the bag to my right is an iPad Pro bought just a couple of months ago. So, I have absolutely no need for more hardware from the good fellows at Apple. (Except for a new Apple Watch, but I’ll share my tortured reasoning to justify that purchase in another post).

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📸 The groceries just got delivered and I’m all kinds of excited to try this!

Gym is habit, repeat

A productive day, all in all. With my eyes firmly on the prize (our departure for Tokyo next week) I got the head down and tore through my task list in work this morning. I actually got so much done that I managed to leave the office early and get to the gym. I know, I was shocked too. It has been far too long since this body has seen the inside of a gym.

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