Crazy Sentences & Culture

I spent the morning continuing my programming project. Aren't Design Patterns cool? I think they are, but should only be used where necessary. That is the general rule you must remember. I managed to reduce a whole class to just a few stub functions calling three main methods, as the functionality was so similar. Great stuff... At least I think so.

Anyway, I made Batchelor's Super Noodles for lunch, though I left the pan unattended, and thus unstirred, for slightly too long and now have added decoration inside. After scoffing down these hot strands of joy, I caught a train into Tenjin with James and Flick. On the way, we discussed sentences containing impossibly many repetitions of the same word. I came up with a sentence containing eight "had"s in a row. It kind of makes sense, but in an odd way. It is about a sentence that used to contain the phrase "had had" but no longer does:
"The sentence that had had 'had had', had had 'had had' removed."
Pretty funky, eh? James had one about their being a space between words on a fish and chip shop sign:
"There are spaces between 'fish' and 'and', and 'and' and 'chips'."
Five "and"s in a row. Who would have thought it possible?

We first visited the Apple store together, to collect Flick's computer, which had spontaneously combusted a few days previously. They said that it was still rather ill inside, with fungus growing on the electric boards, presumably living off the beer that she spilt on it last year! We left her computer copying music back into iTunes and Flick went with James to locate a restaurant for James' birthday lunch tomorrow. I headed in the opposite direction to pick up my ticket for the flight home. On my way, I saw some kind of marching demonstration/protest, with a long line of adults and children holding signs walking down the road. I have no idea what it was about, though. Also, this month, there is some kind of festival being held at the IMS building. Today, this manifested itself in a large climbing wall on the street outside, with lots of noise and girls in impossibly short, unattractive, blue shorts handing out bottles of some odd liquid drink to people. I forced my way through the clouds and eventually found the correct building only to discover that the JAL office is closed at the weekend. How annoying.

Instead, I went to Best Denki, where I bought a Nintendo DS Lite. Exactly the same functionality as the current Nintendo DS that I already own, but infinitely better looking, smaller, brighter, and with a better battery life. Now I can play multiplayer games with people, as well. I had a bit of trouble using my card, as the machine would not swipe it, but after a little convincing, they called up the VISA office and did it manually. It took a little extra time, but I got my prize. I also took a Sengoku Musou 2 (Samurai Warriors 2) branded notepad for free.

I withdrew some money from the post office and went back the Apple store to meet up with the other two who were returning from having found the desired place, which supposedly looks very cosy. They also located a Scottish pub, which made James far too happy.

We wandered around, looking for a place to have a drink, but everywhere was packed. We eventually went to a long and thin place in Daimyo, facing onto the arcade. I had a coke, Flick a Hoegaarden, and James had an iced hot chocolate. Along the street, was a miniature stage, where a variety of girls got up to perform a couple of their songs, complete with prerecorded backing track. We could not work out who would do such a thing, as surely popstars would only play big venues, not small streets, and those who wanted to be famous would not yet have the prerecorded backing tracks at their disposal.

James went off to his choir rehearsal, whilst Flick and I caught a Limited Express train to Kurume to go and watch Ciarán play the cello in his concert. Lauma and Binks also came, and we sat together near the front. Their was a cute child next to us who started conducting through the quiet bits, and jumping up and down in time during the loud parts. She mostly slept on her grandmother, though.

They played Beethoven's Fidelio, Rachmaninov's 2nd piano concerto, and Tchaikovsky's 4th symphony. It was very, very good, especially the Rachmaninov, my favourite composer. The pianist was amazing, making it look like easy work as he caressed the Steinway grand piano into emitting crisp and sharp sounds. The conductor was also very flamboyant, with grey hair, speaking to the audience before each piece about something. The most entertaining of them all though, was without a doubt the cymbalist, who playes during the Tchaikosky. He appeared short and fat, with a bit of a belly which he stuck out everytime he sat back down and lent back, his face releasing a sigh from the just exerted effort. But, brilliantly, just before he crashed his cymbols together, he would pull an amazing face of concentration, turn slightly to the side, before bringing them thunderously together and holding them either side above his head. It was a marvel to behold such enthusiasm.

We spoke briefly to Ciarán's host family after the concert, before they left, and we also left Ciarán at the after show reception. We were going to head to a bar for a drink, but instead, by the time we had walked back to the station, everybody bar Flick was keen to go home. So that's what we did.

A good and active day, with a bit of culture to boot.