will'

Things have been going downhill at my current company quite dramatically. This has been both with my role moving into areas I have no interest in and the shockingly bad overall performance of the company. So I've been searching for something new for a while. I've just started a three week holiday and have been sent two offers - such a good feeling. The roles are Senior Director of Platform for an animation company that wants to run a casual games platform and the other is COO for a game developer startup some ex-colleagues have set up. They both come with a 50% pay rise which is great and both roles I'd be happy to do. Now I'm off on holiday, my visa should be approved while I'm away and I'll be able to hand my notice in the first day back - time to celebrate!

Once I've found someone good I just make sure that I can book that particular person every time I go for a haircut. I currently go to a Japanese Barber who doesn't really speak much English - I get a good haircut while also keeping up with my Japanese skills.

Given the current mix of the house it's really not a surprise nothing can get done. We have majority of MPs who ideally want to remain but don't want to be see to go against the will of the people to leave. There's no government majority at the same time as having just enough rebels to destroy any deal that is close. I don't know why we continue to bother with trying to get anything through based on this. The UK has a strong economy and things will be fine no matter what happens. If it was up to me I'd leave without a deal and then start negotiating as needed with Europe, we'll be in a much stronger position if that happens IMO. Short term there might be a few difficulties but I think over time it would work out for the best. It really seems at the moment that any "deal" that we do basically leaves us with too much European control yet no seat at the table to change anything - that would be the worst situation possible following all of this.

Hit my target running distance for March ahead of schedule which I'm pleased with considering I was behind target in February. Yesterday I had to tighten my belt a notch as I've slimmed down so much over the last couple of months - feels like good progress.

Don't get me wrong, it's still much better than you'll find in most other places. It's just been surpassed by a lot of the other stores in that particular area. I wouldn't worry about this at all. There are way more non-seafood places than there is seafood.

I was living in Tokyo for a few years and have probably visited more than the average person over the last few years too. Based on the geeky side and going to Akihabara I would take the electric town exit from the station and turn left once you're through the ticket gates, get to the main road and turn right. From here you want to walk up the street to the next main cross-roads and then come back down on the other side. Things to check out on the way up: AKB Theatre at the top of Don Quijote The weirdly posh Carls Jnr The toy store on the opposite corner of the crossroad and on the way back: Retro, this is a doorway going downstairs, they're usually playing Zelda music outside. Best selection of retro stuff now Trader HQ, there are a few but this is the best one, first floor has a good retro selection GoGo Curry - this is the best curry there, buy the ticket for what you want and they will bring what you order to you Then take a turn away from the main road but walk parallel to it and see: Mandarake - probably the most retro stuff, but tends to not have much unique stuff Super Potato - not a great selection of games and overpriced, has a lot of touristy "things" you can buy to bring back though Other things to check out: Maid Cafes - try a themed one and then Maidreamin AKB Cafe - near the station Yodobashi Camera - on the other side of the station, huge general electronics store Other things really depend on your tastes and budget. Are you big on eating out? I'm sure I have tons more I can share on anything specific you're interested in.

I use Express VPN. I also bought a router to go with it so that everything can make use of it. My main use is for things such as iPlayer and other services from the UK as the TV here is terrible. I had planned to switch between different regions to get other things but I haven't really done it thus far. I think I paid a hundred quid or something for a 3 year subscription. I'd definitely recommend it. The speed has been fine for streaming video and online gaming, we can watch whatever we want, and it overcomes a lot of the internet restrictions here which is an added bonus.

Never been a huge Tetris fan but I've really been enjoying this. The additional gameplay elements to make this work are quite interesting and I spent a bit of time understanding the impact of KO's this morning which finally allowed me to win a game. Feel I need to take a bit of a break for a while.

Managed to run 50km in total in January, already a quarter of the total I managed last year. Hopefully can keep it up for the rest of the year.

Realised when I was back in the UK that TV and Netflix is a million times better than it is here. Bought a new router that can be flashed with VPN software so all my devices think I'm there and I have full access to almost all UK content.

I didn't make any in 2018 either, and looking back it seems to be a year where nothing much happened. There's a few things I actually want to try and achieve this year so putting them down here so I can have something to rate at the end of the year. Job/Work I currently do two roles at work, one looking after strategic planning for the company and one running our office in Manila. To be honest I'm usually either bored or frustrated so I'm looking to make a change this year. I'm going to work towards either taking over a specific aspect of the business at my current company, doing that somewhere else, or starting my own company. Fitness I never really follow any proper fitness program but feel like I need to try and stick to something and make some proper progress. I've been jogging almost every morning so far this year and I'm planning on getting a proper trainer to work on my overall fitness. I'm also going to improve my diet and cut down on my drinking which is probably the thing most holding me back from making progress. Money I'm fairly lucky that I earn a decent amount of money and don't have any worries in this area. However, because of this I tend to not really think about spending and just buy whatever I want, whenever I want it. This year I'm going to try and stick to a budget, not buy things without any thought and try to build up some savings. Just those three, fairly clear and not too much complications - hopefully I can make some progress in each area.

I totally agree on the JLPT front, when I was studying Japanese it was really just to make sure that I had a recognised qualification in it. The GCSE/A-Level is not really to help with any study, I just think it would be funny to add to my current ones so many years later. How did you go about doing the GCSE? Any advice as to how to register and actually make it happen?

I don't think I've touched these games since they originally came out and I'm really enjoying the updates. The sound is ridiculously bad, it can't have been like that in the originals can it? I'm playing the Asian version of the game on a Japanese PS4 and there is a really weird bug whereby the buttons get swapped around during some of the QTEs so you have to press X instead of circle and vice-versa. I guess it's set up based on the PS4 system settings but the game is coded to show a particular button only, very weird. Anyway, I'm really looking forward to playing through both of these. Can't quite believe they finally made these.

I quite want thet keyboard for my Surface but never got round to trying it out. I've been in need of a home computer upgrade for a while, so I just got the 2018 MacBook Pro: I also got a Priority Pass so I can use airport lounges pretty much anywhere as I seem to spend my life in the airport now:

I'd agree with that too. If you want a job related to the language then get the relevant certificate, otherwise only bother if the work to get it actually improves your language level.