Devenish

I realized yesterday that almost exactly a month has passed since my last post on this blog, and wondered how and why the time had gone in...and where? Always under time pressure, I have nevertheless been able to make the time to write at least once a week. 'It's therapy, like, you know...' So this post is long overdue, but it's also time-limited: I've given myself 30 minutes between chores, paid work (teaching prep), and real work (academic writing) to try to catch up before Christmas—as low-key as this festival is in Japan, for families at least. First, because most recent—Last In, First Out— the zarigani (crayfish) on the left. This is the close-to-'last man standing'—there's one other in a different tank, but I think that he'll go first—of the collection of 14 or 15 crayfish that Julian was given by a teacher at Seán's school, and which muggins here has had the job of feeding and cleaning for several weeks now (since the end of September,