Hyde Park, Osaka-ben and Where IsThe Smily Cyclist?

Am now pretty well settled in the new job - the office is great, the people are great... almost all the Japanese staff are from Osaka, so it is Osaka-ben vs. Tsugaru-ben in a fairly incomprehensible linguistic tussle... Apparently アンちゃん in Osaka-ben is a friendly name used for members of the Yakuza, not sure if that's better or worse than being a brother in Tsugaru-ben but anyway... As far as the work's concerned I've finished my first translation (all I have to do now is work out what the English means), attempted some bookkeeping, and done lots and lots of very useful random things.

As I'm gradually growing disillusioned with the commute, my walks through Hyde Park are becoming two of the best bits of my day. The best thing at the moment are the squirrels - pretty much every day they are out and about, gathering nuts, getting in the way of the cyclists, and generally being extremely cute. I did almost lose an ear to a low-flying pigeon yesterday, which makes pigeons second-most-dangerous-hyde-park-thing, after cyclists. I am one of a fairly small and pathetic minority of people who walk to work; there are cyclists, who seem very serious and efficient; hardcore bladers; and of course joggers who do silly things with their arms. "Excuse me but do you know your arm is doing that?!" I guess there is no obvious thing to do with arms when jogging but it would be funny to see someone every now and again running around Mexican-wave style or doing a little semaphore... Last week I developed a "Good Morning" level relationship (not time to say much more to a cyclist) with a girl who cycles past in the morning - she is very smiley and happy and makes my day, so have been looking out for her this week, but - nothing! Smiley Cyclist, where are you??

Came across some stuff about long-distance relationships on the web, and some woman who had managed to sell a book based on her "long distance" relationship with a guy all of five hours away whom she could "only" see twice a month... Lady, you have NO idea.