"Working" at the weekend

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This weekend was a weekend full of "administration".
I've paid several bills, I've *tried* to move some 'air miles' from one account to another, I've made a b-i-g order of books, CD's and DVD's from Amazon ( - although I wonder where I'll find the time to read/watch/listen to them ...).
And I've been scrambling to catch up with my Japanese studies. (I'm *so* far behind the other students ...).

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On Saturday evening, I went out to a restaurant with a friend.
We went out *very* early to the restaurant (at 17.30), because the restaurant allows customers to smoke after 19.30.
The service was great, the food was great, and I got home early enough to still have a few hours of a lovely, quiet evening.

I'll be going out again with other friends on *Tuesday* evening, and *again* next *Saturday* evening [note: this is *not* normal in my life !] ... and so I hope that I can keep my waist-line under control.

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Next Saturday evening, I'm going to see the annual pantomime from the local English-language theatre-group.
For many years, I've been the drummer in the band in the panto, but this year the Director decided to use other musicians.
And so this time I'll be able to sit in the audience and really see the "magic" in the show.
- Although I'm sure that it will feel really different for me because I wont be on the stage !
(It'll be nice for me to see how the new drummer approaches his task this year - maybe his approach will be *completely* different from my approach).

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I *hate* seeing old "ramshackle" buildings, and so I've decided to renovate the old wooden house in the background.
At this time only the ground-floor of the house is being used by a shopkeeper, and the upper floor is not used at all.

[You can't see the old house very well ( - it is the house *behind* the new house being built in the *foreground*), ... but please use some imagination].

Hopefully the re-building shouldn't cost *too* much, and then afterwards I hope that I can find someone who is crazy enough to *rent* it.

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I bought this DVD this weekend.
The movie is about the problems that a French lady has when she joins a large Japanese Corporation in Tokyo.
The movie shows the *vast* differences in office-culture between Japan and Europe.

I'm becoming more-and-more convinced that I could never really "fit" into the Japanese culture in Japan - I think that it's just too difficult for non-Japanese people, *even if* one speaks Japanese very well.

- I'm just not "hierarchial" enough to put up with the "correct" ( = Japanese) way of dealing with one's Boss and colleagues.

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