I'm now back home for the week and I've already noticed one thing. Namely that that my parents haven't moved anything in my room since I left it like that on the 4th of January... o_O

Also, we are in for some nasty weather it seems as some Siberian snow blasts are on their way, and given the fact I live on the North East of England and have moved from the relative snugness of centralish England we will get the brunt of it. Sadly, I've left my camera at Sheffield so I can't take some photos of all this snow we'll be getting. I remember the last time we had really bad weather from that area of the world and it ended up laying 3 inches in an hour. The snow we get from Canada is so much civilised don't you think?

What a day, what a week... Finally the exams are done and I can breathe huge sigh of relief. I am now at the other end of that tunnel and can take a well deserved week break back home. I was in severe danger of running out of steam in the end, but I made it! In the words of the Japanese... YATA!

On Tuesday at Hillsborough, Lexicology was a bit easier than I expected. He even rehashed two of last year's questions. I only think i potentially messed up one and had a good hour and a 15 minutes to write my essay which included the now semi-legendary word "shitbags" - wonderful stuff (it was on taboo English before you question my academic integrity.) To top off how slightly silly the exam was, I noticed a mistake - the final section (section B) was supposed to have 7 questions but only had 6. I feel sorry for some people who maybe worked hard preparing for the eventuality of that mysterious question 5. I wonder in all honesty what magic words it contained and what it might tell us about our future, our destiny, our civilisation as it stands today. With any luck, we might be graded up because of that - even though it didn't throw me one bit and I only noticed the cock-up 30 minutes before the end of the exam.

Still it was nice going to Hillsborough. I love doing my exams there, because the only Chinese and non-white people you see are those taking exams there! Its basically a highly residential area and reflects more of the cities makeup as a town oop norf, well more so than living in the secluded international makeup of the city centre. I can't stress enough how many Chinese people I see everyday here. I'm sure this place should be called mini-Beijing.

Where was I? Oh yes exams. I did the final one today - Japan's Minorities - in the University Food Court and ended up questioning my sanity at times. The entire experience was like having sex for three hours with a girl you don't fancy. You have to do it, because quite frankly you should do it, but the experience itself is quite unsightly and unpleasant due to what is laid up in front of you. The problem was maybe that the answers were quite focused rather than generalised so I might lose points for waffling and maybe not answering clearly enough. Only the second one I did about the state facing problems with regards to continued migration was the one I felt most confident on. The saving grace was that the conclusions had that edgy punch that final coup-de-grace to make sure that even if 90% of what I wrote was utter bullshit, I can at least get across this point and make it seem like I know my stuff (which I genuinely do.)

Looking back over the exam period, I feel slightly annoyed by two things now.

Firstly, revising for stuff that didn't come up at all. I could have got by, simply by having a general knowledge of the subject. And secondly, I still feel my work is off a poor standard, I still feel like a 2.2 student. I don't feel strong enough in myself and in my work to think I am at the capacity whereby my work is good enough to get me those desired grades. Ultimately, although I know I have passed in some capacity, I know the standards will be nowhere near what I expect. But I can't cheat that, I can't cheat at the cards God gives me. I'm not bigger than that, nor do I possess such an overbearing ego.

Oh and two major things have happened today. One, I was woken up at 9am with the fire alarms sounding. Thought, nah fuck it, just lie in bed - its no big deal. Until I realised that it kept going and going and that perhaps it wasn't a test. Hmmm, I ended up going outside and down the stairs in a pillar of smoke. But luckily after the fire brigade came and checked for any sources of the fire, they let us back in after 10 minutes. I can only assume it was a minor electrical fire as a result of the workmen doing stuff next door. Well anyways, we survived the horror of the Rockingham House Towering Inferno and we now have this on our door to remind us of the dangers.


Check out them exclamation points to really ram home how serious this thing is. LiKe OmFG, don't stY in iTS fIRE!!!1111 lolz...

Secondly, girlwhohappenstobemyfriend hasn't texted me back after I invited her out. I'm giving up hope. I just can't be arsed chasing that up. I'm fairly sure she likes me as a friend rather than anything else and I'll leave the incessant chasing of Japanese girls to some of the rancid amoeba blobs on our course. How the hell they will manage in Japan, when there are fucking tons of beautiful women there I'll never know. *sigh*

Shame I have two beautiful women in Kansai to visit (well three actually, but she is spoken for.)

*shrug

Well hopefully if I pass, I can continue putting myself through this hell for another 6 months at least.

Jaa ne.

Oral exam. Done.

The less said about it the better. Tbf, our two Japanese teachers were really supportive, but it was just so damn hard to memorise stuff and think of a story in 5 mins. It was like having a job interview for a job you don't want. I came out giggling like a Japanese schoolgirl in the end, trying to mask the pain of how bad it was. The two Chris's (probably my closest allies on this course) both came out with the reaction of being KO'ed by Ricky Hatton.

Tomorrow, will see my penultimate exam at Sheffield Wednesday Football Club. About 20 minutes on the tram and a nice walk down to the football stadium. I think I'll stop off near the pub at the top of the ground and gain some Dutch courage before I go in. I am now approaching this Lexicology exam with caution. I could just about pass it, with the cramming of info I have done, but it all depends on what comes up - as I think my bare notes might just not make it. I guarentee some esoteric thing he mentioned during one of my memory lapses in the lectures will come back to haunt me. And to think I had a 100% attendance on that module (sames goes for Minorities as well - but I have been reading tons of crap for that module.)

Thankfully it should be the last Linguistics module I ever take in my life. Its social sciences all the way now. I have to make two appointments to make the change to switch to full time Japanese Studies. To complocate matters, I've decided to go home for next week, meaning that the change can't possibly happen until next semester - by which time the English department will be still sending me crap about fucking Drama studio whilst telling me to sign up to seminars for some module I have no interest in taking. I also might have to try and work out my timetable for semester II as the times aren't listed yet.

Wonderful, just wonderful

See you on the other side folks...

I've finally finished my Japanese exam this morning. It was both harder and easier than I expected. The topics covered have been pretty much the topics we've covered in class, which has led some to believe that this semester was nothing more than something you guess at, based on what we've done in class. The exam itself was split up into three parts with another listening exam, two hours later;

Translation - This was the one which was just fiendish. To make matters truly worse, our teacher even used an idiomatic phrase we learnt in week one. In fact the entire piece was just an extension of everything we did in week one - in which we were told not to worry about too much. There was a ton of vocab and kanji I didn't know and just guessed at. Stuff like　定年 and 不動産業者 will haunt me for the rest of my life. At the end, was a monster sentence which I managed to somehow write in broken English. Terrible stuff. If he marks like a translation pedant, I am screwed.

Reading - People said this was hard, however if you bothered to take on board what Angela was teaching us in class (don't translate - interpret) you would find this quite easy. I managed to answer all the questions and understand them, but I still felt as if I screwed up one or two. Still, it went a lot better than the practice one I did in class. I did this last, and had about 30 minutes to do it. I then spent the remaining 20 odd minutes of the exam, furiously checking all my answers - especially the translation.

Writing - My sakubun was utter drivel. The only saving grace was that it had a beginning and an end. The less said about the stuff in the middle the better. Perhaps the fact I managed to sneak in some useful constructions will save me. Not a 2.1 material but easily a 2.2 depending on what mood my teacher is in when she marks it. Its definitely the same standard as most of my other pieces, although this one will be full of silly mistakes - but maybe more so than usual.

Listening - This was difficult, I understood about half of it, guessed a quarter of it and the other quarter I wrote some utter bollocks and hope it worked out for the best. That's about a 40% er right there.

Conclusion - I think I've passed but the result will not be pretty. My coursework throughout the year has been about 55% ish and I reckon I'll get a 2.2 for this module. if I've failed, I know several people who will be in the same boat as me. However, I'm just glad to have done it. I know in my heart that I am still improving, still taking aboard new grammar and kanji and working towards some tangible goal of understanding this language. Obviously its nice to have a 2.1 and be considered for a scholarship for next year. But that's never gonna happen and I'm just glad to see the back of half of this year. I hope I've passed and I hope all the people who worked so hard this semester have passed as well.

Still got my oral exam on Monday plus my Lexicology and Minorities crap. So a wonderful weekend of study for me. *sigh* See you on the other side folks.

jaa ne...

I need a brain transplant. Ideally from a native Japanese speaker. But they have to understand English well, or they could misread the English questions and then I'm fucked. Okay, I just want a brain-transplant for exactly one hour for the sakubun. I'll do the other two-thirds. That's more than fair...

じゃああああああああ、がんばりましょう！！！！！！ Exam in 16 hours!!!!! o_O

In a way I'm actually looking forward to this, in the same way that I look forward to watching two dogs rip each others heads off or watching someone perform kidney surgery on me whilst I am awake.

No looking back now... See you at the other end!

Want to press it...


2 days to go...

Oh how I hate kanji. And lexicology. So far, I'm struggling to absorb some of this Linguistics stuff, but at the minute I need some sensei love to ease my mind. I also haven't decided to pick up my essay yet, because I'm avoiding it and also because I'm in a highly strung state of mind, and getting back my 54 or something will just kill me. I'm going to pick it up after my minorities exam next Wednesday. Then, I can just take on board everything and assess how all the exams went.

Revision, at least for me is like the currents of the sea. One day its calm the next day its a raging torrent of waves that is battering the shore. The latter is what I feel like now. Its not that I know nothing about this subject. Its not that I don't know the kanji or the grammar. Its the vocab and to a major extent my essay writing technique - especially under exam conditions. I am now getting to the point where I am worrying about how to start, continue and ultimately end the essay.

To all extents and purposes, a fair chunk of the sakubun is guided - in that we are given information related to the topic which we therefore use to describe the situation or event. I don't think it will be a case of the question being "What do *you* think about Japan?" and have me sat there for a good 20 minutes struggling to come up with ideas. Obviously we are being tested under exam conditions, so the use of dictionaries and grammar notes are not allowed and we don't have the relaxed attitude of being able to form complex sentences and structures. But at the same time, a large chunk of the assessment is the overall narrative of the piece (how well does it work and fit together.) This is something I've struggled with and have only received top grades when I've had some logical sequence of events that has allowed me to build up a conclusive argument. I don't think my japanese is good enough where I can just sit there and sat constructing narrative in the same way that I would do in English. I am also struggling from the issue of overcomplicated matters for the sake of grammar. Curse my love of writing technical Japanese.

And as for my second fear, I'm going into my translation with no idea about the material. At the moment I am reading in preparation for that, some highly advanced texts (albeit for a gaijin studying japanese) and I can understand about 70% of it, if it wasn't for all those bizarre kanji. Apparently we won't be tested on anything we haven't learned, but I'm not buying that anymore. There has to be a point at which one can seperate those who have studied all the material and those who have studied that little bit extra just to be complete and utter smart arse-holes. (Like me, who learnt how to use してみれば the other day.)

Anyways, needless to say without sounding like an arrogant arsehole, which I am going to anyway. If I am panicing, I know for a fact A LOT of people on our course will be. Exam is in 5 days now and they should all be finished in about 10.

Hopefully once I get this hell out of the way, I can just relax for about 10 days.

Jaa ne.

I believe I can satisfy this demand.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7832440.stm

時々、イギリスは日本人にとって、おかしそうな国だと思う。日本人はイギリスに旅行したら、たくさんの相違点に気がつくはずだ。例えば、イギリスの気候や食べ物は日本と違う。しかし、日本は冬にイギリスほど寒くないが、１２月に来たら、類似点に気がつくかもしれない。クリスマスのおかげで、日本でもイギリスでも、１２月は重要な一ヶ月になった。

１２月中、特別なプレゼントを買うためにショッピングしに行きたり、カナダに住んでいる家族までカードを送ったりする人がいる。それは楽しそうだけど、クリスマスが浪費だと言う人が多い。

たしかに、クリスマスはもう宗教的な祭りではないが、何人かにとって、まだ大変なことだ。それにかかわらず、世界で色々な起こっていることので、イギリスのクリスマスは商業化のことになったと思う。イギリスのクリスマスは変化しつつある。

ところが、イギリスだけではなく、日本でもクリスマスは商業化がされた。日本は国際化しているが、クリスマス西洋と日本のクリスマスを比較すると、どちらも商業化のことと言う点で似ている。

日本では人々が友達や相手にプレゼントをあげたり、イギリス人のようにショッピングしたりする。そのうえ、クリスマスのご飯のために、ＫＦＣの食品まで食べる。しかし、それは同じ商業化にもかかわらず、クリスマスの日に日本人がフライドチキンを食べるからといって、日本のクリスマスのご飯は全くおかしいというわけではないと思う。

最近、世界中、不景気のおかげで、将来にクリスマスの日にファスト・フードのレストランで食べるしかない人が多いかもしれない。クリスマスが商業化のことにならないほうがいいと言う人もいるが、それに対して、前に述べたように、社会は変化しつつある。従って、私たちの習慣も変化しつつあるといってもいいほどである。だから、クリスマスの日に日本人がＫＦＣの食品を食べるのは珍しそうなのに、そのうち、クリスマスのためにイギリスの皆さんがマクドナルドで食るのかもしれない。

My computer is now literally dying. It is slowing down and yesterday I woke up to find that Skype wasn't working properly. For some reason it shows my friends are online but they are actually offline. As a result I was trying to contact my *ahem* friend who happens to be a girl and no response. Odd. Even the little test call thing was showing itself to be offline. New account later, and she still hasn't added me. Oh bollocks. That's all I need. Still, she only uses it on an evening and is probably busy studying - so its okay I guess.

To make matters worse, Firefox has also gone for a burden - running incredibly slow and screwing around with the BBC football site making all the fonts tiny. Its the only site I regularly read and possibly because I read it directly from the xml feed at the top of the browser it has decided to start screwing around.

As for studying. I'm starting to panic now. I have some coping strategies to deal with the exam and have planned how I will approach it - but its the actual content, the Japanese itself I'm having trouble with. If I'm not forgetting grammar, I'm forgetting kanji or basic words. *ugh* I also haven't done any listening, which is why I'm now running some Japanese radio whilst adding stuff to the one useful thing I've found this week, anki.

Oh anki is great. Its basically a flash-card programme and you can put anything, literally anything on it. I've already put on this years kanji compounds and am now going to add some facts about minorities in Japan. Brilliant!

Well I would do a 'this week' thing at the bottom of my weekly update, but you all know what I'm doing this week. Panicing like mad!

Jaa ne.

最近、Tescoという店を好むようになる。Tescoは地球を障害させると言う 人が多いのに、大変便利だ思う。どこに行っても、Tescoを発見するだろうね。よく、食品や家庭品を買いたかったら、引き値品を買うものだ。「引き値 品」というのは値段を下がられた品ことだ。それで、１ポンドのサンドや５０ペンスのクッキーなどが買えるよ。貧乏な大学生として、すごくすばらしいと思 う！特に、今、夏の旅行ためにお金をためなくちゃね。工夫はTescoに行くのは遅ければ遅いほど、値段が安くなることだ。でも、僕が住んでいる地方は学 生がたくさんいるから、安い食品買ってみにくい。:-(


次に、台所の汚い状態ので、いつも下痢に引き受けるらしい。だから、台所を掃除したほうがいいようけど、めっちゃめんどうくさいよｗ。いつも下痢に引き受けるのに！＾ぉ＾

最 後に、大学Ｅメールによると、SEASの事務所でJapan’s Minoritiesエッセーが受けに行けるそうだ。本当に、こわいいよ。たいてい、エッセイーの結果を教えたら、がっかりする。なぜなら、結果はたいて い悪いからだ。毎日毎日勉強したり、たくさんの本を読んだりしても、悪い結果を受けて、勉強しないほかの人にとって、よく６０点役を受けると思う。その制 度は不当だと思うが、変な想像なことだろう。実は明日事務所に行くと、６０点以上がほしいなぁ。。。が、気にしないほうがいいだろう。本当に、エッセーの 結果はかなり大切だと思う。。なぜなら、６０以上点を受けたら、来週試験が落ちられるだろうからだ。でも、もし１００点を受けれた、試験に頑張るね！いい 学生だよ！

もし結果は大変悪ければ、Tescoに行って、嬉しくなるように安いクッキーを買ってみる。＾＾

じゃぁね。

リチャード

I hate dieting. I hate revising. I hate the cold. But of course I know that dedication is the key and if I can maintain these (well except the cold - but you never know in the UK) I shall be rewarded with a nice grade and a nice body. The ultimate goal is fitness and Japan. But I'm ever more increased to just pass the exam and overall do my degree. Yes, if I manage to go to Japan its going to be a great experience for me - one that many will not have in their lives. But... its still a novelty, the fear factor hasn't kicked in yet and it really hasn't sunk in - aside from the forms I have to fill in and the jabs I have to receive.

Fitness wise - I've taken the drastic step to quit drinking, both from a health pov and a mental one. I'm thinking that the more I drink, even in short spells, the more I'm likely to regret it when I look at my wallet and my regime of fitness. in the long-run I need to save money in these following six months and also need to build up my fitness for travelling. Backpacking takes a lot out of you! I need to get back in shape, so that lugging a large rucksack across the continent and exploring cities across the globe won't physically kill me. *ugh* But how its such a pain. 6 months or bust. I'm really just knuckling down now. I couldn't care less about anyone else on my course. The main goal is passing. But at the same time, the very people who support me, the people who drive me on when things get low are my mates, are the people around me on this course, are the people whom I want to see next year in Japan.

Therein lies the paradox of things. I want to focus on myself and neglect certain social aspects of doing this degree but at the same time want the compassion and socialisation of people around me. Things would get incredibly dull if I studied all the time. I need a break from studying, even though studying is important. Its a matter of short-bursts rather than burning out after two days - which is what I have experienced so far in my 4 months as a ninensei...

My finances are running terrible now. I've anticipated that I'll need to spend around £50 a week (which pays for everything - laundry, food, toiletries, travel etc.) That will save me about £800 I reckon, depending on whether I stay at home or not during the holidays. I'm now deciding to stay at home for longer periods merely to save some money. This means I'll be back home for a week after all my exams have finished. 7 weeks back in Sheff. 3 weeks back home. 8 weeks back in Sheff. Home. Christ, that's only 18 weeks in Sheffield (counting these three weeks.) Considering how quickly 14 weeks passed, I should fucking savour these times not lament how I'll fail and get fat!

I've also seemingly neglected the variant in this issue - namely this girl I've discovered. I like her, I really do - and the jury is still out as to whether she likes me back in equal measures. At the moment she's a friend and at the minute I think I'm tirelessly going to play it as such. I've never had to fit in trying to juggle gym, study, women in all one go. But now I'm going to have to. It'll certainly make sure I'm not vegetating. The only problem is that women are expensive - studying and working out oth isn't. *sigh* Besides, what started as a desire to get a g/f this year has dwindled somewhat. I just can't be bothered anymore. I'll make friends and if things happen they happen. I know for certain, that the end result, will be significantly more happy than if I try and force things to happen, be that a relationship, my weight or Japanese proficiency. These things take time. And time is what I have a lot of right now - despite the dark clouds of my exam dates circling above me.

Ice-station zebra, sorry Rockingham house is fully operational and my revision is going okay. Its just the sheer amount of stuff I have to revise. Most of my Japan's Minorities is typed up and I'm in the process of just looking over extra material to see if I can shoe-in some interesting tid-bids for my exam. Lexicology - which can personally take a dive into an ocean, has to be done but I'm now in the process of merely cramming for that exam. Doing the bare minimum by learning information that I can cram and dump and not bother about again. Minorities geninuely interests me, but Linguistics can die for all I care. And it will, once I sign the paperwork next semester. None of this dual-degree nonsense. Both departments function brilliantly as two wholes but as one collective agreement, they don't function at all.

Kinda like me and my social and academic life. *sigh* Oh well..

じゃぁ、ヘルモンじゃないよ！踊れ、踊れ、踊れ、勉強しろよ！

またね。。。

This week Richard is... physically knackered after only two days back in Sheffield. Sleeping, revising, eating and typing out long-winded sluices that almost break laptop keyboards. Also is wondering how quiet and pleasant a freezing cold Sheffield is when most of the students aren't here. How it won't last.

It was supposed to be a pleasant New Year’s Eve. It was supposed to be fun. It was supposed to be a time when we all forget the hardships of the past year, sweep them under the rug and obliterate the memory of them through copious amounts of alcohol.

I can’t remember what I was doing when the chord struck midnight to signal in the New Year, but I remember with a vivid illusion the time, the place, the exact moment when I heard the news that Israel had began bombing Gaza. It was 10pm, it was the kitchen, it was making a sandwich, it was digital radio. Not again. Just not again.

Yes. It seems as if this time of the year has come around and reminded us of the painfully poignancy of our fragile situation as human beings. The intense emotion I felt made me feel uncontrollable, practically unmovable from my hatred. I couldn’t sleep… just thinking… ruminating… concerned… truly worried about the amount of Anti-Israel ‘protests’ and ‘campaigns’ that will face me once I venture back to university next week. It was a great shame that the copious amounts of alcohol couldn’t consume from this inevitable fear.

I’ve never once understood people’s reactions and hostile emotions when it comes to the Palestine-Israeli conflict – especially over a conflict such as this, one that seems the most logical yet is fostering such illogical public hate and anger towards the Israeli government. There seems to be a lighting quick reaction that seems to presuppose Israel’s wrongdoings and supports Palestine unequivocally - regardless of the forces that surround it.

People have seemingly caught onto the conflict, without ever realising what started it, who is behind it and the necessary lead-up to the event which has helped shape the public consciousness. Israel have immediately assumed the bad-guy role in the film, purely because they are misunderstood or portrayed in such a shallow light of hate because we don’t know enough about them. This dark, brooding mysticism of hatred is partially because we never hear of Israeli actions in any positive light and partially because we are bombarded with the positive image of the lesser downtrodden man overcoming adversity. Its hard to construct a plausible Hollywood film, when the perceived bad guys are perceived to be good. I don’t blame them to be fair. Israel hasn’t always done the right thing, yet in the past decade or so, they have taken progressive steps to formulate a peace process – which have only be undermined by the extremist groups they must seemingly negotiate peace with.

Israel’s reaction once you strip away the flesh underneath the media masquerade is perfectly rational. Its citizens face fear in the form of rocket attacks from militants and Israel has the right to protect its citizens. It was the same right the British government exercised in Northern Ireland to protect its people and the same basic right should be provided to all Israelis. No-one should live in constant fear.

In the 21st century, Israel always strike me as clean, crisp and controlled. Okay, if get rid of that fancy desk and office building and remove the rational females like Livni from the situation, you’d still get the heavy handed approach of any mad-capped Middle-Eastern state waging war. But, Israel generally seems to care for its people. One life lost is one life too much seems to be the rallying call. And if you study the rhetoric of Israel over the past decade or so, it has seemingly always been this throughout the peace negotiations. Israeli would rather sacrifice its principles and politics than that of its people. Politics change – but you should always represent the people of your nation.

The elected government of Hamas on the other hand, are more than happy to sacrifice their own people, before, during and after death in a bid to propagandise its bloody conflict. You don’t defend your people by blindingly leading them into a conflict that is unwinnable on all fronts. You may win the Hollywood love story – but from all avenues of conflict – it’s a nil gain for Palestine. I don’t buy the argument of a disproportionate response, when you are waging war between matchstick men and fighter jets. Causalities such as those are not shocking, they should be expected. Israel cannot start engaging in actions that will kill one Palestinian terrorist when one Israeli citizen is killed. Warfare doesn’t work in such measures and never has done. Its certainly not a book that has been written, read and understood by such groups as Hamas anyway.

But I can understand the reason why people derive such hatred for the state of Israel. As with everything, it is a microcosm of society. It is the richer, bigger state supposedly bullying the little one into submission through persecution and occupation. However, like all societies there are harsh lessons to be learnt. You don’t bully your bigger larger more powerful brother into response and expect the outcome to be a bunch of slaps and hot air. Occupation or no occupation.

So as the people mount upon Israel, perhaps one should ask, what you would do when faced with such a crisis? You withdraw from Gaza, see the people elect a terrorist group to represent the people there, and then see them fire rockets at your citizens as a political parlay. In fact, if you get happen to see any of these celebrity campaigners on the streets of London or even Sheffield – ask them sternly in their two-car, large house and swimming pool in the country houses what they would do under this situation? Then ask them to live a day in Sderot or Ashkelon under the daily fear of some terrorist militant deciding to fire a rocket at you.

We should not rally behind Palestinians in the Gaza Strip under these conditions. They are the masters of their downfall unless they are willing to oust Hamas and take a more sensible stance for peace. I would love nothing more for the Israelis and Palestinians to find peace. But at present, when groups like Hamas are in the political fold, then there can be no time for peace.

Israel has proved its restraint both politically and militarily on many occasions. Perhaps the international community and the band of self-appointed overlords (that would be Galloway and Livingstone apparently) should show as much restraint towards the Israelis, as the Israelis themselves did in the lead-up to this conflict.

We should of course be against the loss of life. Perhaps that’s what people are against…But now If you’ll excuse me I’ll be finishing my sandwich now, downing the last of this New Year’s Eve booze and be off to the first train to London in the morning to throw shoes at the Ugandan embassy.

Laters.