Very happy to report that the bowling alleys here have not gone the way of the ones I visited in Scotland last year.

No strings on the pins, a plentiful stock of balls of all sizes and rental shoes available!

The best part is that my eldest daughter loved the visit just as much as I did so we now have what we hope will be a regular Papa and daughter date venue!

Since reluctantly giving up my 7 year long vegan adventures last November my interest in cooking has all but evaporated.

Whereas I used to post semi-frequently about food and cooking I don’t at all any more. I still cook but it is more perfunctory than for pleasure.

Anyhow, despite that today I cooked a dish from memory which turned out to be delicious. It was a “fancy mince and tatties” or a variation on a cottage pie.

In Scotland, it would have been a wet easy dish to make vegan and not lose any satisfaction but here it is sadly not possible.

Anyway, I felt that my brief return to being interested in cooking was worth celebrating. I hope it returns again some day soon.

We had a dinner party this evening at a friend’s house. We were apparently their first ever guests.

Anyway, I previously wrote about this family and my desire to become friends with them. (The paternal unit of the family quit his job after reading about my story and is chasing his dreams)

This evening reinforced that desire and it is very much a two way street. Apparently, we are on the verge of becoming family and I am welcome to just turn up unannounced and will have a bed for the night.

Of course, I don’t foresee ever taking them up on that offer, I am happy to walk a few km home at night, but what a gracious offer.

Anytime I can though, I would love to spend more time with them.

(Unrelated and only relevant to the fediverse element of the post, I apparently can no longer post using Tusky)

As an occasional gout sufferer and someone who twisted his knee a few years ago and it took about 10 months to recover fully, this may not be my best idea..

.. but I am thinking of registering a team for the village’s relay marathon event in late November..

.. it is too hot still for me to attempt to start training so will have to have faith that I can do my bit.. and channel my tough mudder 2015 self.

We saw the first draft of our upcoming brewery intro video this morning.

There may have been tears..

It is very well made and I think it really captures our essence very well.

I am in awe of the skills of the young team who filmed and are producing it.

For the first time in years our village has it’s own Yosakoi team (it’s a dance thing, easier to look up than for me to explain, videos are best).

It is sponsored by a local sweet potato snack company who apparently has an interest in collaborating with us in the future.

Anyway, my wife and eldest daughter are in the team so for the next 2 days they will be dancing in the festival in Kochi City.

I would have loved to participate too but unfortunately Summer is too much for me and dancing outside for hours would be borderline dangerous. Also, my youngest daughter is too young to participate so I will be with her cheering on from the living room (they will likely be on TV).

We will go watch them tomorrow.

Had a wee catch up with a good friend back in Scotland yesterday.

This morning I am feeling particularly homesick.

I’ll never not miss Scotland but generally I am fine, but sometimes it hits harder than others.

We recently had a nomikai (food and drink gathering) with some ex-colleagues of my sister-in-law. They work and/or worked in quality control for our prefecture’s biggest saké brewery Suigei.

My sister-in-law worked there part-time for a while and said that her colleagues were keen to meet us. So we met with the former head of quality control and his wife (who we had met before) and the current head of quality control. Another friend joined us and quite unusually, out of the 7 of us gathered, 6 had some sort of academic qualification in biochemistry and/or microbiology.. it was a fascinating evening.

The ex-head of quality control retired and wants to start a new brewery creating a new category of alcoholic beverage (which I will not go into) and I love his idea. I think his plan is very exciting indeed.

He and his wife visited us this morning to ask advice on setting up a company and the various administrative paths we have traversed to get to this point.

I can see a very fun and collaborative relationship developing between us.

My wife finished up her contract with the village hall yesterday so today we popped in with some biscuits (or something, I have no idea what she bought) to thank the team for their support over the past three years.

My first time in the village hall since we heard about our subsidy result and so many people came over to congratulate us, even the mayor came over to do so.

It was a nice visit

Oh August, you used to be a month filled with creativity and excitement. A month which I looked forward to almost to the exclusion of all others.

.. and now you are just a month that brings ridiculous heat and humidity, one which I can barely step outside without exploding into sweat.. and one which I dislike above all others.. what happened to you? Where did it all go wrong?