BRAINTAX Feat Dubble edge - ANTI GREY

qualla UKHipHop

An ode to tea...

PG Tips (warning: website includes slightly disturbing talking/staring monkey) tea to be precise.

An American colleague asked me if I ate lots of nice food while I was back in England at xmas. After I'd stopped laughing I did concede that I always enjoyed the bread and cheese back home, and do try and go for a curry just cos I can have it with rice other than Japanese rice, which I don't really find goes with curry. Oh, and bacon. Then there's tea. Now the tea in Japan is fine. It's not quite as nice as PG Tips, but then again neither is Tetley, but it is tea. It's pretty cheap aswell and very drinkable. So, no problem there, and what with Marmite being available in Jupiter and the high quality of food here (Asian or European) there really is nothing I miss foodwise about the UK (apart from your cooking Dad naturally....and you're not even English). I dread to think of a life without Ramen, Sushi, Okonomiyaki, Onigiri, Yakiniku, Soba, Kirin Lemon tea and Dars 100 yen chocolate. Oh and yakitori. I could go on.

Anyway, back to tea. This year's Omiyage involved a lot of PG Tips for expats and locals alike. I never really realised how NICE tea from England (not strictly from England obviously, you know what I mean) is until I lived in Madrid. Good GOD tea in Spain is undrinkable. Hideous tasteless dishwater. Emergency flares were sent up and luckily a steady stream of visitors kept us well in supply of our drug of choice. I think we even discovered you could buy PG Tips at an Asian food store. I suppose it is from Asia. Anyway, 2 tea stories that should leave you in no doubt as to the strength (brew) of a good cuppa...

1. In tea hell, Spain, I used to work for a British English language school. As you can imagine a lot of tea 'went down' in the staff room as most of us kept up the supplies with regular shipments from back home. Isabela, our secretary, eventually succumbed to the pressure of her peers and started taking the odd drop of cha. I remember her coming in one day to be offered a hot drink. Tea please she said only to break into a classic Madrilena sneer when she saw me reach for the only tea we had left (Spanish), 'Errrr not those ones, I want the ones you all usually drink' said the former dedicated coffee drinker. Don't think she'll be swapping her morcilla for black pudding though.

2. Concerning the omiyage I brought back this year. I presented my chum with a box of PG's finest at Opium the other day. Sometime 3K DJs Kazu and Daisuke where there with their lady friends. I don't think I have ever seen Kazu get so excited as when he spotted the box of PG. Jumping over to our table....EHHHH! Nani Kore? PG Tips!! Nande!!? Kazu used to live in England you see. His excitement drew the others over and for the first time in my life I think, I saw a Japanese person praise part of English cuisine......BARI UMAI! You should have heard him wax lyrical on how good it is. After that review we dolled out a bag each. Later on I noticed Kazu had 2 bags infront of him....one for his girlfriend he claimed.

Maybe I could become a PG pusher?

A listening loose end

Blimey it's cold outside. I'm not straying far from my heater at the moment, hoping it doesn't make too many of those funny sounds it's prone to and enjoying the fumes when it does.....mmmmmmm fumes.

Since I was back in the UK I have been listening a fair bit to Dubstep FM . The UK part isn't relevant, other than the music's roots, as it's based in America. My brother just had it on often. It's very good, streams at 192kbps geek fans, and showcases a lot of very good dubstep. Not everyone's cup of tea, it's been slowly growing on me. It's definitely good sound system type music. Dropped a couple of tracks late on on Saturday when I had drank enough not to worry if anyone left. Sounded amazing loud. Give it a spin, you, you might like it.....you might need some half decent speakers though.

Hello!

You really could only be in Japan when there's a Hello Kitty airplane taxiing (how do you spell that?) on the runway.

(Although on reflection it is an airplane so it's probably going to be going abroad at some point)

Rats!

2008, the year of the rat. My year. I'm a rat. The Stranglers album on the left is one of my favourite ever albums, Rattus Norvegicus. Nice link (not the hyperlink). 2007 won't be going down as WC's best so hopefully 2008 will be better and I'm being PROACTIVE! Starting with this blog, so, Hisashiburi.

I'm sat in my parent's home much as I was this time last year. Some things have changed though, we've been playing PES 7 this year. Also I seem to have a mild version of my old friend the Noro Virus. It's all the rage in the UK right now.




I did get to go via Bangkok this year though which was a lot of fun. Very hot, very crowded, lovely food, and all sorts of stuff to look at and be entertained by. 5 days seemed too short in the end and I soon forgot any plans to go on a trip somewhere although it now would be nice to see a calmer side of Thailand.

I have at least now, spent some time in another Asian country other than Japan and a couple of days in Korea.




And I traveled north, to see chums in Newcastle. That was nice as we toured Britains majestic countryside in a VW Polo. I'm not even being that sarcastic. The countryside is amazing. We went to the Lakes, Hadrian's Wall, Scotland, Holy Island and er, Bigg Market.

If you've ever read Viz and not been to Newcastle, you'll be pleased to hear the stereotypes are far from made up. Biffa Bacon, The Fat slags, I saw them all on a brief walk through town on a Friday night. That said, away from your herds of binge drinking pleasure seekers the people were very friendly, a far cry from the miserable bastards round here.

And so, tomorrow night I fly back to Japan to start 2008. Will the rat bring me luck?

Musically I should be off to a good start with one of my tracks featuring in a documentary about street life and hip hop culture in New York (word) and GHB and myself will be at Seacake Style on the 12th of Jan. We had a couple of great parties at Lotus towards the end of the year....look out for a few more of them.

Happy New Year