Tuesday, January 23, 2007

A sad farewell to a good friend...

There's been a death in my 'sphere. I felt it coming for a while, as Simon became more and more unresponsive. And now, I sadly must bid farewell to Homies in Hokkaido. *sniff* I can't even link to it one last time - the site is no longer there. Oh, Simon, why hast thou foresaken us? (at least electronically)

Don't worry. The Homies are still, indeed, in Hokkaido, at least for now. You all know where to reach Eriotto-sensei if you should so desire. But Simon is offline, perhaps snowed in beyond any electronic reach (OK, I exaggerate: he does email me from time to time*).

In fact, I had a sobering moment about 10 minutes ago as I logged in to Blogger and, looking at my list of "Friends and Family" links, realized that many of them may follow Homies to the Big Blog in the Sky this summer. A number of them are Japan-based, and I know, have reason to believe, or wildly suspect that the majority of those persons involved in their creation and maintenance shall not be remaining in Japan after July. As for me, well, we'll see. Perhaps pixxiefish and her compatriots will have to find new reasons for being. (Though, really, "Teaching English in small-town Japan" would be a silly name for a blog should Elliott, for example, decide to return to the Great White North and his computer-y job.)

The real question I'm sure you are all asking yourselves, however, is why I am not in bed despite its being 1:00 a.m. Well, the answer is quite simple: I poured a beer to drink with my (pizza) dinner hours and hours ago, and in my Rollercoaster-Tycoon-induced stupor, I forgot to drink it. Now, one cannot let a beer go to waste, right? But never fear: it's almost done and the bed is laid out and I am hitting it momentarily.

* Random question: Can someone explain to me why, whenever I use the phrase "from time to time", some of my friends snigger and mutter things about "lawyers and legalese" under their breaths? Is this not a regularly-utilized expression?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the send off, Julie :) Very sweet of you.

We'll chat more and keep in touch. Talk to you soon.

Anonymous said...

I'm going to miss you, Simon, I checked your blog every day. I hope that you are writing a book instead!

Anonymous said...

Simon's blog is a pretty accurate reflection of his decline in real life, too. Last time I visited him, I walked into the house to find garbage piled almost up to the ceiling and Simon huddled in the corner in the dark with long hair and fingernails and shoeboxes on his feet. He said something about taking my germs and going to hell and threw a beer bottle at me. I haven't been back since.