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Lately, I haven’t had that itch to add an entry into this silly blog; must be a case of “blogger’s block” (does that happen to other bloggers?) - it’s not like I have anything interesting to blog about anyways. And despite all this cacamadhu (by the way, “Cacomadhu” is a word I invented that is a combination of the word “Cacophony” and the name of my previous manager in my ex-job whose name I thought goes well with the prefix of “CACO” - not to be mistaken for “Caca”; then again, go ahead - “Cacamadhu” does sound better) . Here are just a few things that I just thought I’d like to mention for your personal titillation.

1. About my Ofuro (Japanese-style bathtub): All I have to say about this piece of (insert suitable adjective here at your discretion) is that it’s as big as a SMALL washing-machine. I can NEVER adjust the temperature to “just right”, because it’s got a gas-heater, and I have to keep checking on it to make sure it’s “just right” whever I want to get into it (a skill I have yet to master). Everytime I get in, I always ALMOST burn my toes when I test the temperature. Picture this: A silly Bahraini 20-something year old, alone in his appartment, trying to get into a SMALL-washing machine filled with BOILING water. The result of such an endeavor is always the same: A human-subject - and in a lemming-like manner - subjecting himself the same environment that yields hard-boiled eggs (no pun intended). [Incidentally: I have a fascination with hard-boiled eggs lately - As I have become the master of boiling eggs and what to do with them afterwards - hint: I draw faces on the shell before cracking them open, I imagine them acting out scenes from Shakespearean plays (in various THICK accents and dialects from different ethnic/social groups in Bahrain - and with my limited knowledge of Shakespearean plays, I often have to resort to my own creativity - such as the character of the BULL that enters that very critical scene at the end of "Romeo and Juliet" at which the lovers poison themselves  - the Bull ; or EL-TORRO as I prefer to name him; happily smashes everything just because he escaped a bull-fighting bout in Seville, Spain with a lot of frustration to vent, and ran all the way to my kitchen in Tokyo, Japan to express himself). Also, some of the eggs that I hard-boil and subsequently happily gobble down often belt out a few numbers from the 80s - yesterday's hard-boiled egg gave a GREAT rendition of George Michael's "Careless Whispers".] Ah, the possibilities are endless with a hard-boiled egg - and it all begins in a small washing-machine-sized bath-tub with me sitting in it with my knees upto my chin.

2. I turned in an application on Friday of last week that weighed nearly 2-kilos (based on the measure in the post office on Sakura-Dori) in order get special admission into Hitotsubashi University, where I am currently a research student. If I don’t make it in this special application thing - I’ll have to try my luck in the big exam in September. Entrance into the Grad school here is very competitive - WISH ME LUCK!

3. I will begin a part-time job next week; privately tutoring two Japanese women English. The classes will be based on the scripts of Hollywood movies. I’m sure that’ll be quite an experience.

4. Here’s something I learned in class today: We were discussing a book called “The Rise of the Western World” by North & Thomas - the basic premise of the book as clearly mentioned in the Prologue and Epilogue and every chapter in between is that the evolution that Europe’s property laws went through can be argued as one of the biggest reasons for Westen Europe’s (England and Holland in particular) rise and development on a Social, Political and Economical level. Somehow, this point seemed to be lost in translation as one of the students who was presenting the book to the rest of the class today. The student often said that she could not further explain certain points deeper simply because she did not understand what the authors were trying to say. I was actually insulted as being a student in the class, taking the class at the graduate level and not receiving any credit for it (because of my status of Research Student). *sigh* She also didn’t elaborate on how the importance of property rights and their advancement is a main goal mentioned by both Adam Smith and Karl Marx, but each viewed the means of achieving this differently.  Wow - I’m actually learning something over here!

5. On a final note, and as World Cup fever grips the world - and Bahrain is no exception, I often find myself discussing expected results and predictions for which will be this tournament’s champion, here is something I found myself saying when asked by a friend currently in Bahrain.

Friend: Who is do you think is going to win the World Cup?

Me: I have no idea who is going to be winning the world cup, but I do know that there is going to be a lot of effort by two giants in catching Bahrainis’ attention. One of them is going to be Batelco, or as I like to call it Batelco-Stan.

Friend: What?! Batelco-Stan?! Isn’t that a terrorist country! NOOOOOO!

Me: Yeah. This year’s Summer Competition final will definately be between the Ministry of Water and Electricity and Batelco; the two service giants-monsters in Bahrain - one that has a super offensive-method of cutting of electricity when the heat is at its peak and blaming it on the ALBA (the Aluminium Bahrain- Company),  and Batelco - with no competition in high premiums for below-standard telecommunication services - is going to provide a match like no other, that only people in Bahrain could understand and fall victim to. If the final falls on a Monday; will it be “Black Monday” part two?