From the inbox:

Hello,

I'm writing to let you know that your company has been specially recommended in Rough Guides's new book Clean Breaks: 500 New Ways to See the World - published in August 2009.

Rough Guides is one of the most successful and respected travel brands in the world, with over 300 travel guides in print. We have a reputation for good writing, accuracy and honesty.

In writing this book, the authors have highlighted 500 fantastic places across the globe which will inspire people to see the world in a new light, selecting unusual holidays and alternative ways to travel which make a real difference to the lives of local people and the planet.

Only a few companies qualify for a special recommendation of this kind, which highlights your company as one of our authors? favorites.

I?m attaching a Rough Guides Recommends e-Logo which you can display on your website; this links through to the Rough Guides website. I?ve also attached a copy of the book cover for your reference.

We are happy to offer you and your customers 20% OFF the price of the book, RRP ￡18.99. To obtain this, visit www.roughguides.com and enter ROUGH at the check out.

Further to this, if you are interested in purchasing bulk copies of the guide or discussing promotional opportunities please do get in contact by e-mailing marketing@roughguides.com

Dang! Now I have to update the website and fix the broken blog layout!

Posted by bastish at 12:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)

So the family is gone. We drove them three hours to a bus stop where they could catch a highway bus direct to the airport rather than have them carry all their luggage and two babies through three transfers up and down lots of stairs. I wonder if it was a good choice though, as highway traffic is high and there may have been traffic jams around Tokyo. I hope they caught their flights.

I have hundreds of photos from the ten days they were here, but those that probably best represent the time are my mom's least favorite. Irene would cry and cry every time grandma held her. I really felt bad for my mom, so I tried a little trick I had read online...

It seemed to have worked.

Just wathcing me administer the therapy to Irene made oscar smile as well.

Posted by bastish at 09:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

My family (mom, dad, sister, sister's husband, sister's twin #1, and sister's twin #2) come in two days. The house is far from being two-year-old proof. The only car-seat I have managed to borrow from neighbors is too big for her kids, and the chicken coop is a smelly mess. Oh, and the house is also a fly-infested smelly mess of things in the kitchen that are rotting because there is just to much dang food around here!

Over the weekend I thought I could take care of some of the important things (like the overdue translation and cleaning the house) but remembered that I had to join the other men of the village for weeding of the edge of the road in the mountains. This only took a half-day, but afeterwards, of course, you have to sit and drink from the bottemless glass for another two hours while eating a packet of tofu and canned mackeral. Once you feel sick in the stomach from the food (and a little tipsy and tired) work has a funny way of not getting done.

These are some photos from last week when we had a private bike trip. We stopped by the local school to check out their silkworms (mine all died this year) and the kids were more than happy to show them off. I hope I have not caused the teacher any problems by putting one of the worms in my mouth for a photo, which then prompted some of them to do the same. Their mouths, by the way, are red because of a "how well do you brush" test.

Our lucky customer also got to watch me in the village fire brigade contest. I was blowing the horn, but all members were there to do their things. The photo is of the only womens' fire-hose team. I wonder if she enjoyed that boring event more than the trip to the traditional paper maker's place.

Posted by bastish at 07:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)