Japan in the snow

Karuizawa with a spattering of snow. Experts say the hills aren't steep enough. Seemed steep enough to me!

If we weren't somewhat settled in Hong Kong, we would be packing our bags and moving to Tokyo yesterday. We loved it.

The trip started on the slopes of Karuizawa, where T vowed to make me a snowboard champion..in two days. Now, you know I'm not the sportiest of types, and you also know how I feel about climbing mountains. Well all of the above applies to snowboarding.

Anyway, we were with Babes too, who kindly arranged for her and I to have the only-native-english-speaking-instructor on the resort.

Two hours of terrible english later, an enlightening conversation on the ski lift which went something along the lines of;

G: "So, you must snowboard very well."

Instructor: "Ahh no." Grin.

G: "Do you snowboard every weekend in the winter?"

Instructor: "Ahhh no, first time." Scissorhand gesture, " Cut hair.... and make-up." Enthusiastic nod.

And after much time spent learning how to hold the board while walking ... we agreed T was actually quite splendidly suited to be an instructor.

Needless to say, my bum hurt like there was no tomorrow at the end of each day. But, relief was found at the hotel's hot springs (think sitting-alone-in-hot-water-with-snow-falling-and-the-silence-of-the-forest-around-you). After that, a large bowl of ramen, japanese bbq or an endless feast of sushi also all helped me feel slightly less sorry for myself. Not to mention the magic slow release muscle pain relieving patches!

Our cottage. Probably one of the sweetest (and warmest) little homes ever.

New year's resolutions

The Financial Times had an article today on "Why can't I stick to my resolutions?" Their "sage" and "shrink" both suggest that often it's because the resolutions aren't important enough to you, and therefore, you don't stick to them. The article helpfully quotes Plato, as if to add weight to their argument: no one who was actually convinced that a course of action was right would ever choose to do anything else.

I completely disagree with all of the above, as the only resolutions I've ever stuck to were those that were utterly vacuous, whereas the important ones were always tossed aside:

2009:

Success: Wear matching underwear everyday

Failure: Stop smoking

2010:

Success: Get out of the office earlier

Failure: Exercise regularly

Here goes 2011:

Get French up to scratch - this will be achieved with a weekly French movie night organized by the resident Frenchman. So far, we've seen La Coeur en Hiver, and started Le Gouts de Autres but the latter was deemed too subtle for me at this early stage of my linguistic and intellectual development

Read more - I read some good books before 2011 hit, but now it's too cold for me to keep my arms out from under the duvet.. some sort of book suspension mechanism is in order I think

Lose 3kg - 1 kg already lost through cutting out Special K (which-we-all-know-makes-you-fatty-bombas) and limiting Michelin star restaurant meals to once a week

Wish me bonne chance!

Bali in pictures

T and I spent a delightful Christmas and New Year in Bali. Here's a recap of the holiday in piccies, with the exception of Ubud, where all our pics were taken with T's Blackberry, which got swiped by someone not very Christmasy.

Sanur and Tulamben where we became certified PADI Open Water Divers. Took 15 years for me to get round to this.

After Sanur, we were supposed to climb Rinjani mountain, but I stubbed my toe and-was-sure-it-was-broken (still is), so we went to Gili Islands instead. Tough change in plan. To keep up the "activity" component of the holiday, we became "Advanced" PADI divers. Saw a shark, and became attached to squids. I am now a squidatarian.

Christmas day was spent on Gili Air, recovering...

...and making friends with fish.

Next stop, Ubud. PIC STOLEN BY UNCHRISTMASY PERSON. The pic that would have gone here would have showed the rice fields, temples, trendy bars, getting massages, riding around on a Vespa and the Maya Ubud hotel.

Puri Jimbaran. Days spent swimming, bodyboarding and drinking mango mojitos.

Uluwatu. Where real surfers go, and wannabes watch.

Travel tips for anyone who might want a second opinion after TripAdvisor.

Sanur: Stay at Hyatt Bali which has pretty standard rooms but delicious brekkie. Learn to dive at Crystal Divers.

Gili Tranwangan Island: Dream Village is the place. Run by an eccentric Italian with a pet monkey. Learn to dive at Trawangan Dive.

Ubud: Stay at Maya Ubud, which is cheaper than the Four Seasons but with the same comfort and joy. Eat at Ibu Oka for the best suckling pig on earth ever.

Jimbaran: Splash out at Puri Jimbaran. It's not cheap, but it has deals on its website. Drink their mojitos and chomp up their pain au chocolate in the morning. Dine off the fresh lobster and snapper at any of the Warung on the beach.

Inspiration

I attended TEDx Pearl River Women the other day, and found it to be incredibly inspiring. 6 speakers presented. Each with their own story of a dream they had to dramatically change something in the world and how they were in the process of accomplishing it.

Alexandra Harney (Author of the China Price) spoke of her mission to train factory workers in Southern China so they can actually have transferable skills to build their own autonomy. Vivian Lee discussed her path from Olympic disappointment to Asia Olympic swimmer success. And Mara McCaffery led us through her heart wrenching story on saving the orangutan in Bhutan.

What to me was most remarkable (and most attainable) was that all these women had actually started quite late in their endeavors, and had re-starts and detours in their journeys. Mara had started working with Orangutans at the age of fifty, Vivian had started young but then reinvented herself years later to become a business woman, and Alexandra had started as a journalist and now moved into philanthropy only in the last couple of years.

So there's hope for all of us who work in a bank, ad firm, consulting box, office job, being a wife.. it's never too late to pick up and start working towards something we are truly passionate about.

Up in the air

As I sit in Tokyo airport waiting for my connecting flight back to Hong Kong from Washington. I realise that the one and only real upside of traveling once a fortnight for the last two months, is the free Financial Times... And the udon and sake in the ANA lounge...but that only applies to Tokyo, which is civilized...in the US, you're lucky if the muffins don't poison you.

No tech

After my iPhone let me down again by most inconveniently drowning in my bedside water last week, I had to go out and search for a suitable replacement.

I waited for my turn in the phone shop, playing some "burn ants" app with the demo iPhone. Once I'd burnt a few million ants, I went on to kill "sneezes" and then to gamble all my imaginary budget on pin ball. It was probably around the point when I moved on to bbq recipes, that I realised my life with high tech communication equipment needed to end. Seriously, who needs all this stuff?!

The row of familiar Nokia phones looked up at me like old friends, their clanky buttons and black and white screens like forgotten photographs. You know these guys last a lifetime, and if they decide to drown in a tea cup, you just have to open them up and use the blow dryer on them and they'll be as good as new. None of this superior, "you can't open me up because Apple is above tinkering." That love affair, my friends, is over.

Needless to say, I bought one of these trusty little Euros.

I've set the screen onto "reef" which has little fishies that swim across the screen. Ahh, it's in the little things.

Chicken soup

I was feeling rather the worse for wear when I arrived in Singapore last week. And, after spending two days walking around with tissues stuffed up my nose and rolled up in my pockets, I decided that maybe alcohol was the best remedy.

So, I joined in on a "team building" event. Read "team piss-up". A bottle of wine later, and I was feeling much better, and rather pleased that I'd been able to fight off the evil cold so effectively. I have always said that colds-should-be-ignored-and-bombed-out-with-Nurofen-cold&flu.

I regretted all my bravado the next morning. I felt terrible. My throat was a tight knot, my stomach had spasms of pain echoing through it and my head felt like it had been pulled off and then sewn back on the wrong way round. I lay in bed, curled up with my nose against my knees, hoping that this would all go away, and also trying to think up a plan as I had a meeting at 10am which I needed to be alive for.

So I called down to housekeeping and managed to whisper "panadol" and hang up. Just moving my head made me wince. Here's where the hotel recommendation comes in. The Intercontinental was jaw-droppingly amazing. Within minutes someone was knocking on my door, let themselves in when I must have mumbled something like "come in"(but probably sounded like "kill me"), propped me up in bed, gave me two panadols, had her sidekick boil me some water, asked me whether she should call a doctor (to which I shook my head and dove back under the duvet) and then told me she would call me in two hours to see if I was ok and to make sure I would be on time for my meeting.

Impressive.

Needless to say, I recovered and felt quite human by the time I had to leave. Nothing like a bit of TLC.

Did I mention that they enquired after my health with every wake up call for the rest of my stay? Along with whether I would like tea or coffee to help me ease into the day? I almost cried when I had to check out.