So unfair

So what am I whinging about now? Well, there's a whole list of things, but I did that in the last post, so I'll stick to one thing.
It's the Japanese ladies' football (or soccer, if you insist) team and their travel arrangements.
The ladies of Nadeshiko Japan, as they are known, are the World Cup holders. Their male counterparts, the under 23 team, well, you'd be hard pushed to pick them out of a line up, frankly. So, out of the two teams, who flew to London in cattle class, and who went Business? Yup, the men went business because that's how the world works.
In my case, I have never experienced first hand the feeling of missing out just because you're a girl. I've been very lucky, it seems. To be a World Cup winner, especially when said win boosted a country at a time when it really needed boosting, and then be told that, basically, you're not as good as your male counterparts, who are younger and less accomplished. In Japan, usually age dictates seniority, the "sempai" gets the best of things, while the "kohai" accepts their lower rank in the knowledge that they will be a sempai one day and get to be utterly unpleasant to their "kohai". The whole "sempai/kohai" thing is kind of a big deal. Unless, apparently, your sempai is female.
And don't tell me it's because the men are professional players and the women are ameteurs, they are all players. And non-professional players are less likely to have the money to pay the upgrade, anyway.
It'd be too easy to say this is a Japan thing. As my Dad pointed out on Facebook, the women's world cup was barely mentioned on British TV, while you can't move for coverage of the male players and their overpaid shenanigans. Women's sport just isn't as respected as men's, anywhere. And, frankly, it's just not good enough.
As the Japan Women's captain, Homare Sawa, pointed out, when the women won the World Cup, they were upgraded to Business class, so, hopefully, if they win the Gold at the Olympics, they'll get the same again. Only this time, I hope two things will happen: the men get downgraded to economy (they could use the women's team's seats) and that, from now on, femal athletes will get what their male counterparts get. Business class seats, professional contracts and huge endorsement deals. Because that's only fair.

Grumpy

Rainy season makes me grumpy. Rainy season makes everyone grumpy. It's usually better not to take said grumpiness out on the people around you, because multiple grumpy people taking their grumpiness out on each other will not end well. So, here is my list of things likely to set me off, feel free to add your own in the comment section.

• The endless rain. We're lucky here, it's just a whole lot of rain, no landslides or flooding, just endlessly, irritating rain. I literally have to cycle to work in shorts and T-shirt and get dressed there. It's the only way.  I have a raincoat, but high humidity and rainwear are not a great combination, I find. The sweat literally pools inside it, no matter how "breathable" it says it is. And don't even get me started on trying to get the laundry dry,
• This sweaty, sweaty weather. Certain colours are out of the question in this season. Only the foolhardy will risk a grey shirt, for example, because it shows the sweat really badly, even if you're not even sweating that much. Shiny faces, gross hair, it's all par for the course for most foreigners here. Somehow Japanese ladies seem to glide through most of rainy season looking perfumed and cool, but, at this point, even the most fragrant of ladies is starting to get a bit shiny round the edges.
• "Busy" people. I mentioned this in my last post. I'm busy, but then, so are you, probably. Who isn't busy? It's not the busy that bothers me, I like busy, it's the complaining about it, and the competing about it. The whole "I'm too busy to observe normal social graces such as "Hello", and I will belittle any of your activities if you try to tell me your schedule is a little hectic" mentality. It's not a competition, people, just be nice.
• Waking up early on a Saturday to go for a nice long run, and then realising the rain is way to hard and tomorrow would be better, when it's supposed to be cloudy rather than rainy. Hence the fact I'm typing this at 7.20am having replied to lots of emails, cooked and eaten breakfast and washed up. What happened to lie ins, huh, body clock that won't let me go back to sleep?
• Pseudo healthy food. I picked up a cereal bar in the import store the other day, it was a Natural Valley or something bar. It was all oats and stuff that sounded pretty good. I flipped it over to check the calorie count (I always find it interesting) and found it had about 1000 calories in it. And that's not me exaggerating for dramatic effect, that's the actual umber that was printed. Bearing in mind that most women should eat between 1500 and 2000 calories per day, that's outrageous! 1/3 to 1/2 of your intake for the day on one bar?!?! And one bar that a lot of people would buy thinking they were doing a good thing, thanks to the packaging. There's a whole post there, but, seriously, they wonder why there's an obesity epidemic.

Ahh, a good rant does the soul good, doesn't it? Now I can go get on with my assignment and stop whingeing.

Long time no blog!

Hmm, well, that 2 months rather flew by. Nothing really big happened, but when you try to juggle a full time job, a part time masters, a vague semblance of a social life and a bit of marathon training, blogs kind of slip down the priority scale. That and there are surely only so many "Oh, I am SOOOOO busy" type posts people will put up with. Bottom line is I'm busy, but no more so than almost anyone else I know, so moaning about it won't make me friends.

Studying part time has taken some adjustment. Working out how much I needed to be doing, the best way to get things done efficiently, and, most importantly, how not to feel guilty when I'm not studying. It helps that I'm interested in what I'm studying, and that I get to connect it to my job all the time. I can't imagine what it must be like to study accounting part time, unless, of course, you love accounting. I'm afraid I don't, all those numbers. I have to take off my socks to count past 20. I'm now at the point of polishing up an essay that is due in a few weeks, and I'm waiting to hear back from my tutor with his thoughts. Hence the extra time to post.

And yes, I did say I'm training for another marathon. It might seem an odd move when my plate is already on the verge of full, but it's actually a great way to recharge. I've realised I have to eat better and train smarter if I'm going to finish a marathon, which is a fancy pants way of saying I need to take care of myself. That is always a good thing. And the long runs (I've run more than40kms so far this month) are a good way to process thoughts. Running gets my brain ticking over, as well as getting my butt out of bed in the morning, because you can't run much past 9am this time of year here, it's just too hot.

I can't promise to keep up with the blog more, but I'll do my best. I'll try to find entertaining things to entertain you with. There was the drama at the gym when Mr Y did his back in and Mr H filled in for him. There was quite the kerfuffle in the ladies' locker room, as all the ladies who love Mr Y declared they would not be going to the classes until his back was better. I had to laugh when I went along anyway, thinking I'd be the only one, only to find them all there, smiling away at Mr H and saying how much they enjoyed his class. Ah, the two-faces of middle aged women. Mind you, I'm not far off now, I'll start practising being utterly insincere and see if anyone notices.

By the way, did I tell you that colour looks gorgeous on you?