Tumor-forming wires

Well, Golden Week is at an end. What comes after GW in the calendar you ask...poo-brown week? In fact, no. Things will go pretty much back to normal for me: Busy as usual.
I'm naturally slothful, so even when I have a week off with nothing to do, I still end up feeling exhausted. I wrote in an email today about how I slept for 12 hours last night. And I considered taking a nap this arvo. I didn't. I was afaid I'd get bed sores.
I can't even use the excuse anymore that I'm growing. That got me through my teenage idleness. Any other medical reason I can find for my early-thirties' laziness? Maybe narcolepsy...
I had my first balcony day today. Being a beautiful, warm and sunny afternoon, I took it upon myself to sit out, drink a glass of wine, listen to a CD (Marcus Miller, 'Silver Rain' in case you're reading this P & S) and just look at the mountains.
Today it really looked like I live in Asia - rich green and bamboo near me, fading off to misty greens, blues, greys and even blacks in the distance. It had that real Vietnamese postcard feel to it, if you just ignored the cancer wires to the left of your line of sight.
For those few of you (but growing in number) who've been to my apartment, you'll know that I have this massive balcony closed in on all sides by power cables, telephone lines, and all manner of tumor-forming wires. The balcony is still kick-ass, though, considering how cheap my rent is.
I totally don't make enough use of this space. Like I said, today was my first day of the year to sit out. It was so wonderful, but in another way just reminded me how much cleaning I still have to do.
Here in Japan we occasionally get storms that bring this dirty, yellow sand from China (this is an accurate description of the sand, not a racial slur).
Anyway, today I realized that this stuff is caked onto the floor of my balcony. I'll either have to get the mop out, or hope that the coming rainy season will take care of it.
On the topic of cleaning, I was forced to try out a new dry-cleaners today. Man, am I glad I did! My usual one was closed for the holidays, so I walked a few doors up the road to the new one. What a difference in service! Drop it in before 11am and it's ready by 6pm. My old one used to tell me, 'Oh, a white cotton shirt! That'll take a while... should be ready by 2008, but not before lunchtime!'
Not that the new place is without fault: The sales clerk had to have been the single-most unfriendly shop assistant I've met in Japan, and seriously the sales service is usually beyond reproach over here.
The thing is, the experience was refreshing in a way. She was totally unimpressed by my speaking and writing Japanese. Sometimes you get a round of applause for picking up a pair of chopsticks. It can be a little condescending, especially when you've lived here quite a while (4 years and counting). But they do mean well, I know.
Last item about cleaning, I swear. I feel so happy now GW is over as my laundry basket is completely empty! Having the OCD issues I do (see previous entries), this became an unhealthy focus for me during the week.
A combination of good drying out and too much time on my hands meant that anything that didn't move was washed, sometimes repeatedly.
Now GW is over I'm sure I'll return to my clothes-errupting-from-the-basket ways, but until then I'll enjoy the dirt-free loveliness.
P.S. The pic above is from winter... note the snow. I just couldn't be arsed taking a new pic - see above slothfulness.