My dear friend and old roommate, Aureole, arrived in Tokyo today enroute from Europe to Australia. She brought her significant other, Q, with her - she hooked up with him after I left Australia, so today was our first meeting. I like him a lot and they are really happy together. Nice. They've been living and working in Europe for the past year - mostly Southern Italy, twas good to hear their tales. I took them to Iseya, Kichijoji's famous old Izakaya and yakitori restaurant. My friend Kat joined us. And there we were - 4 Brizzy kids, drinkin' beer and telling home-town stories and sharing tales of adventures in foreign lands...

Overheard in a Skype phone conversation on Sunday:

daughter: hey guess what, dad, do you remember aureole? i used to live with her in kent street? the tattooist, you were really fond of her...

father: oh, yeah, aureole, yeah, i remember her, of course i do! how is she?

daughter: she's great - she's been living in europe for the past year, and is on her way back to brisbane and she and her boyfriend are going to come and stay for 5 days...

father: that's great - say hi to her for me.

daughter: i will. hey, dad...

father: yes fred

daughter: you know how i'm like, almost 40 now, and have lived out of home pretty much since i was at boarding school at the age of 13, and am all grown up now...

father: yes, honey

daughter: well, (gulp) aureole is going to be giving me a tattoo on the weekend.

father: *!
*!
*jesus bloody christ, whaddya wanta go and do that for? goddamn it, you're still my baby daugher and you'll be getting a tattoo over my dead body. jesus bloody christ. stone the crows....(etc etc etc insert any number of random colourful australianisms used for expressive outbursts)

daughter: (smiling down the phone), oh dad, i love the way you talk sometimes, you are so damn australian. but i've made up my mind. and I'm still getting a tattoo on the weekend. japan has changed me so utterly fundamentally, i want to mark my skin in an external representation of my time here.

father: well... (sputtering speechlessly in exaggerated paternal outrage).... you're still my daughter and ..... etc etc etc

daughter: I just wanted to tell you because I will be writing about it on my website and I wanted you to know first. next, I have to tell (aunt) ann. she's gonna react the same as you, I'm sure....