Flat in Edinburgh booked for our final week in Scotland!

This makes life easier as we can get the tram with the weans to the airport whilst my folks bring the luggage and dig in their car. Also means we can say goodbye to friends and get our pre-flight tests done with much less hassle.

I am very much not an expert but it seems that approximately one fifth of an insulation roll is actually destined for inhalation.. and yet funnily enough after laying three rolls I’m feeling somewhat cold.. insulation is confusing.. glad I’ve a 2 day wait for the next 4 rolls.

Also, waiting for a home report is super tedious.

Today is the first day that I’ve actually felt like I am no longer working, which is nice. Walked to the supermarket testing my noise cancelling headphones, listening to INXS and taking my time.. it felt good to not be frantically rushing around finding something to fecking clean.

After going to the cinema to see Sing 2 for the first time with her mama last week, my daughter is going to see it again tomorrow with her granny and cousin..the difference is she now knows the songs and has been practising.. This thought is going to keep me happy and motivated all throughout tomorrow’s mammoth house cleaning session!

Three minutes to check documents and I can pick up my visa next week.. a further 5 minutes or so comprehensively answering our questions about covid testing, quarantine and our impending family addition (with regards to updating family record and getting passport) and we’re done..

Fuck the home office getting a visa doesn’t need to be a visit to the pits of hell.

In Edinburgh today for lunch and to apply for my Japanese visa. A nice break from cleaning! Tomorrow is going to be back to the grind though as the surveyor and building photographer are coming on Thursday. Hopefully stress levels will recede after that as I’m cooking for my new (to me) sister for the first time on Friday.

First day of “Freedom” and I’m a bit achey after a very busy, very physical weekend of joinery and cleaning, but there is much more to do so muscle pain be damned!

Morning coffee thought: It’s amazing just how much more relaxed we are about the impending baby than first time round (amazing might be a bit of a stretch).. my wife is 36 weeks pregnant and we’re starting to pack the labour bag but last time round I was attending dad to be classes, reading so many books and we had everything planned out (not that anything went to plan)..this time even filling out the birth plan, most sections are “no particular preference or concern”.. we are excited but even that seems low key compared to last the highly strung quasi-fear excitement from first time.

Anyway, can’t wait to meet her despite my somewhat relaxed exterior.

Now that things are starting to wind down at work and I’ve brewed my last brew before the big move, I’m able to think on the progress that I’ve made over the past 18 months or so on my quest to become a small batch craft beer brewer in rural Japan..

What a wild ride it has been trying to fast-track the usually slow-paces and natural learning curve that homebrewers go through as hobbyists.. During the 29 brew days I squeezed in, I have made mistakes a-plenty and there will certainly be more going forward, but I have also made tremendous progress..

On tap I have two original recipe beers and a third is fermenting.. as an enthusiastic amateur cook that astonishes me (way more than it should). I still cook largely from recipes albeit I may throw my own spin on a dish or play about with ingredients.. and sure, beer is, on paper, relatively straightforward.. but yeast and bacteria are wee divils who like spanner throwing .. the two beers that I have on tap, I could easily envisage pouring in my future breweries tap room with only minor adjustments as well as versions incorporating tea.. the quality astounds me, but that feeds back into the simplicity of beer-making, whilst I’ve put thought and love into my brews, I can only initiate the alchemy..

I am beyond excited to hopefully turn this into a modest, wee, local, sustainable, rural lifestyle and that the hard work of the past few years finds its feet in Japan.

I’m creating a monster! I did very little planning for today’s brew other than hastily buying ingredients.. not a practice that I recommend but it has probably led me to going a bit crazy with it.. it’s my last brew day after all.. so I’m making a flavour bomb, hopefully.. using 300g of hops for a 20L brew (Punk IPA uses 320g for an equivalent batch)..

I’m not generally as excited about IPAs as other beer styles but I’m kinda lookin forward to how this is going to work out 🤔