Cheeky wee rascal jnr has a fever and we’ve had name sleep for a couple of days so had to reluctantly cancel my shift at the brewery today.

On the plus side, we are just finalising the schedule for our next business trip to visit breweries in Ehime prefecture at the start of next week. All 5 of the breweries I contacted are happy for us to visit and have a chat, so pretty excited.

Rustling up some pumpkin and barley stew for dinner using ingredients (including the barley) primarily grown in this village or our family veggie garden.

Smells pretty good!

I have to record a 2m20s or so presentation contribution tomorrow.. wonder how many hours that will take.

My family are away visiting my wife’s grandmother which meant that I had the weekend to research for my assignment. However, due to sleep deprivation, I was way too tired yesterday to focus so got very little done.

Thanks to the village’s early morning public announcement activity any hopes of a long lie to capitalise on the empty bedroom were dashed..

.. this morning I will bathe in espresso and hopefully power through my assignment.. still tired but what else is new..

As well as working very hard over the past couple of days, I have also had the chance to visit my friend’s washi factory in the village and see the world’s thinnest paper being made.. which was cool.. and also been rushed in the pitch dark by a wild boar whilst walking my dog.. which wasn’t cool.. life is a rollercoaster!

Another day, another early warning national alert about missiles being fired in the direction of Japan by North Korea..

Washing kegs today! 36 inside and out.. it doesn’t feel like a chore yet, all part of the glamorous life of a brewer (I’m just a keg washer right now but some day!).

Today at the village festival, which I attended after completing my assignment two weeks early, I was encouraged to take part in an activity called katanuki in which for a small fee, I randomly selected a thin candy square with an animal imprint on it.. the challenge is to remove the animal without breaking the candy frame, using a safety pin.

Seemingly my wife has never seen this completed successfully.. today on my very first attempt, I completed it and won a giant inflatable baseball bat for my daughter.

.. It didn’t seem like something that few people complete but there were a whole lot of people coming over to watch. Life is weird sometimes.

Looking after my baby girl whilst her sister has her sports day and I started singing to her .. Caledonia.. but I couldn’t remember the order of the lyrics on the second verse so I played the Dougie MacLean video.. which led to..

.. SRU - Highland Cathedral .. .. Stanley Odd - Son I voted yes .. Stanley Odd - marriage counseling .. The Proclaimers - cap in hand..

.. wondering if there is some sort of theme developing..

I appear to have mistakenly picked up a non-study-mode-triggering variety of chilled coffee.. certainly well below the RDA of studytocin..

Maybe another mug will help..