After a torturous journey up to Durham yesterday I received my exam results and was happy to achieve a 2:1 BSc degree in Software Engineering! No desmonds around here thank you! All I have left to now is to actually graduate on the 29th of this month then it’s all over. I’ll be sure to make good use of my student card in the next few weeks while it’s still valid (does this thing even have an expiry date…)! Now time to relax a bit for the next few months 
Also… now avaliable in communist flavour!
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The last time I mentioned anything connected with Aya Ueto the hits to the site rocketed and set off a chain reaction which completely knocked out the server the site was running on back then. You would have thought I’d learnt my lesson but in the interests of bringing you the latest up-to-date news here I am doing it again!
Yes, almost exactly one year later, the pint-sized sword-wielding assassin is back in Azumi 2 which picks up shortly after the events of the first film. In true sequel tradition she is of course after closure to keep the nation from falling into civil war. She has one war lord left to kill but he is, of course, ridiculously guarded by all sorts of nasty characters.
An interesting addition to the cast is Chiaki Kuriyama (pictured above, right) who was of course in Battle Royale and Kill Bill. Again she plays an innocent looking girl who gets a kick out of killing people and eventually meets a sticky end - will she every do anything else??! Aside from this notable addition and a bunch of anonymous ninjas, the rest of the cast is pretty minimal and no-one really stands out.
Azumi 2 promises much and whilst it starts of quite well it falls long short of the original. Gone is the tension and the drama - you know she’s going to kill him no matter how many ridiculously dressed assailants get in her way. Gone also are the prolonged battle scenes which were great in the first film, all that is left are sporadic tussles which have no real feeling of danger to them. Added to this the question of how a character she killed in the last film is magically alive in this one is never really explained (perhaps I missed something here!). Unfortunately it’s a pretty weak sequel and probably not worth seeing unless your an Aya fan. As ever it’s a shame because it could have been so much better in different hands (6/10).
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The Airbus A380 super-jumbo at the Paris air show yesterday
It’s good to know that there are still some industries in which Europe is the leader in terms of innovation, a fine example being the new Airbus A380 which follows in the footsteps of aircraft like Concorde in being pioneers of new technology.
With a seating capacity of up to 840 and a wingspan of 80m the A380 is one enormous aircraft the likes of which have never been seen before. Whether of not it will be a high-flyer is still a matter of speculation however impressive it is.
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This weekend my aunt & uncle from London came to visit. On Saturday we went up to the small fishing village of Craster which is on the coast north of Newcastle (a bit below Holy Island). The day started of damp but steadily improved until it was warm and sunny enough for us to eat our lunch on the beach! We had a good walk along the coast and on the way up to Dunstanburgh Castle we even spotted a lonely looking seal on the rocks (not something you see every day!).
Sometime will get round to uploading larger versions of some of the *better* photos I’ve taken recently - I’ve got the time now, it’s just a matter of finding the energy and determination to do it!
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Last night we made sushi! Personally I had never even eaten sushi, let alone made it so it was a double first for me! Out able teacher/supervisor Kanako showed us how to do it. The actual preparation turned out to be more fiddly that the actual production of the sushi which in itself is quite simple. A blow-by-blow description here would be a bit pointless considering the number of sites on the net which do a much better job!
As for the sushi itself - I found it pretty tasty. We used raw salmon for the fish element which I guess is fairly harmless and tame compared with the weird and exotic that you might expect. As with all things it comes in a wide range of varieties and even has its own vocabulary. We made sushi rolls known as Norimaki (correct me if I’ve got this wrong). If I can do it, anyone can so go try it now!
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