hmph!

its late, nearly midnight again, and am tired after another day of house hunting - how quickly things change from hell to perfect back to hell again....

so the first place we went to was great position, only 3-4 mins walk from station, but on a quiet street. position, position, position, so we say, lets bite the bullet and take it. ring up real estate agent to put in request, and get told that we are actually 2nd in line. hmph. so while waiting to hear back if the people 1st in line are going to take it or not, we look at another RE agent. and they have a terrace house 20mins walk from the station.....but we look anyway, and it is GREAT! IT HAS A (granted, small) GARDEN!!!!!! It is just like having our own home! We love it, we want it, we apply for it, and TURN DOWN the other place that is 3-4 mins walk from station - think about the family and living environment yadi-yadi-yah.

About to pull into sushi train for a celebratory dinner when we get the phone call. our application has been rejected. why? It's all because of me! Apparently an Aussie girl who is fluent in Japanese and has lived in Japan for nearly 10years and who's visa is all above board and who has worked for both Japanese and Aust government organizations is not a suitable tennant. well, excuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuse me. it is alright to play a piano in the place, but not to have a dirty foreigner in there! (rolls eyes till they nearly fall out of my head). so here is my "all the things I wouldn't do as a tennant, so I think they should let us stay in the terrace house" list:

I wouldn't:
* walk inside with my shoes on. I cant even do this at home in Aus anymore
* bring over my whole family and remotely related relatives into Japan to live with us
* have a bon-fire/hungi(sp?) in the middle of the living room
* cook smelly food (I hardly cook at all, lol!)
* throw the rubbish out on the wrong day, or not separate it
* and any other stupid reason that they can come up with, I reckon I wouldn't do it!

So the house-hunting saga continues.
BIG *SIGH*

thirsty

I used to drink a lot, both "grog" (aussie slang for alcohol) and non-alcoholic drinks. Lately I have been drinking a lot of "fizzy drinks" as mum says. J and I never usually drink soft drink, but have been sucked into buying pepsi nex coz it is so cheap at "donkey" (a.k.a. "don quiote" ) I just finnished off a hot lemon drink now as J came back from the conbini across the road with an American Dog (a.k.a. Dagwood Dog in Bris) for me, yes, at nearly midnight, and oden and a beer for himself. I had a sip of his beer - not bad. But my alltime list of favourite drinks would have to go like this:

• champagne. we had a bottle of Lanson for our wedding champas - it cost near $100 a bottle at home. here you can buy it for $30-40? we felt special though!


• chocolate milkshake. especially a maccas chocolate shake. yum


• milk. love my milk. must have it with chocolate or biscuits. and usually have it with dinner, if I do an Aussie dinner, like with mash potatoes


• oj. my other favourite dinner drink. I am such a kid!


• fruit mix juice that they sell here in Japan

all this talk about drinks is making me thirsty!! gonna go check out the fridge for something else to drink as a nightcap.

what's wrong

am buggered, house-hunting is tiring. and of course things never go as planned (or hoped). just when you think a place is gonna work out, you have a good look and realise that:

1)the 日当たり is all wrong, so it is cold/dark during the day (or a bloody furnace during the day in summer)
2)it is right on the main road
3)there is a cement factory right beside it
4) there was an "incident" where someone fell/jumped off the balcony there..... bad vibes?
5) you are in the middle of nowhere and have to walk then catch a bus for 15 mins just to get to the local train station (from where you have to catch a local train (god-forbid))
6) they say "pets ok" but the actually mean just hamsters (mini-me would have been ok) or cats...
7) a 9DK that is located right next to the front door, with the bathroom, toilet and 2 other rooms coming off it really only works out to about a 3DK in actual usable space
or the big one -
8) the place is already taken, even though you just rang up about it 5 mins ago (apparently apartments that you can have pets in are snapped up VERY quick! and there are not that many choices to start with.

*sigh*

put in a request for one place anyway, 8min walk to station, big DK that is useable. wait to see if we get it. also gonna ring about some more places tomorrow. the search continues.

house-hunting

seems like we are on the move. not sure of details yet, but we are going house-hunting (well, at least 3DK-apartment hunting) tomorrow. I haven't ever really had to look for an apartment by myself before because:

• I lived at home until I graduated uni. my parents are still in the same house IW as born in, they moved around a bit before I was born, though.
  


• when I started on JET (my first job out of uni), the apartment was all ready for me, thanks to my office and predecessor.
  


• when I started my job after JET, my lovely friend, "gaijin wife" managed to get me into the apartment a floor above hers! then another friend ended up 2 floors above me. 2 others were in the apartments beside gaijin wife. it was very 90210!
  


• when I moved to Tokyo, I just moved in with J.
  

so this is all sort of a first for me!we have an appointment with a real estate agent tomorrow at 10am, to see our first choice. fingers crossed it works out well!

friends are like flowers...

beautiful flowers
friends are like flowers
in the garden of life..

are you a daisy?
are you a rose?
are you a dandelion?

you can be what you are
I'll be what I am
we can be friends
in the garden of life.

(a song I remember singing in primary school!!)

tomorrow I am going to catch up with a J, a friend from when I was in Japan on exchange as a wee 17 year old! I was just thinking about how we have friends from different periods of our life. some of those friends we stay in contact with, others go out of our life. others we stay in contact with, but sometimes think for what reason are we still friends? sorry, getting philosophical here. anyway, am excited about seeing J tomorrow, haven't seen her since our wedding party in 2005, after which she moved to the big apple. J is one of those friends that no matter how log you haven't seen each other, you can still find something to talk about and have a good time. I thought I might list up the types/groups of friends I have:

1) friends from pre-school, who live close-by my parent's house
2) friends from primary school
3) friends from high school
4) friends from exchange year
5) friends from uni
6) friends from JET
7) friends from work after JET, oita
8) friends from work, tokyo
9) friends from tea-ceremony
10) friends made through K (hospital and play group)

I always think that some friends (the ones you meet along the way) are supposed to be around for certain time only, that if you tried to be best friends with everyone on your friends list, you would wear yourself out, well I know I would.

In Japan, the friends you went to pre-school/primary school with are called your 幼馴染 osananajimi. I am lucky that I am still in contact with 2 good おさななじみ friends. And thanks to facebook, have been in contact with a few more lately too. one of my おさななじみ that I am not in contact with, M. we used to be best buddies all through primary and high school. even after school, I was dating the brother of her sister-in-law (bris is a small place, hehe) so we would still see each other at family gatherings etc. But I havent seen her for years now, athough mum sometimes runs into her family or (gossipy) neighbours down the street,so I get a bit of an update. I ran into her once in a shopping centre at home, just before she was getting married. we exchanged numbers, and I rang her to catch up. she said we should meet up, but of course when push came to shove, the dates didn't suit etc etc, so we never caught up. shame. I wonder when I will see her next, if ever? am getting all nostalgic, (and rambling!)think I should quit and go to bed. now have got that stupid "friends are like flowers" tune in my head - hope I can sleep tonight!

going potty

ok, I realise that K is still not even 1 year old yet, so this may be a bit of a pre-emptive strike type situation, but I am looking for a potty chair for her, in the hopes that we can start toilet training (in some very loose sense of the word training) once it gets a bit warmer. Actually, I am looking for a particular potty chair - one like I used, and my nieces and nephew all used. It is just like a low-chair, with a tray on the front so you can strap the kids in there and they can't escape until they have done their business (haha). They can sit in the chair and eat snacks etc to try take their mind off the business at hand. But do you think I can FIND a potty chair like this...anywhere???????

I can find a potty chair that:
1) looks like a throne
2) plays music when you piddle "Tinkle toonz"
3) is so ergonomically designed its not funny
4) even has a book rack!!
5) is a travel potty chair
6) is a wooden potty chair
7) looks like a miniture real life toilet
8) is designed with every cartoon character under the sun.....

but I can't find a simple chair like potty with a tray. That is all I want. Perhaps they don't exist any more?? (*sigh*)
well, I guess for now the search for the elusive potty continues.

happy easter

it always surprises me how Japan has never taken to Easter.
They mustn't realise the chances for consumerism related to Easter. I mean, this is the country that has split Valentine's day into 2 separate events - one for the women to give chocolate, and one day a month later in March for the men to give back chocolates. And not only to boyfriend/girlfiends, but to people you work with!?! Always gave mea bit of the jeebies when I had to , (yes obligatory giri-chocolates) give chocolates on Valentines day to my 課長. But yeah, I wonder why you cannot find any easter eggs around? I *think* it might have something to do with the fact that the date of Easter changes each year, perhaps it is too めんどくさい for the Japanese. I sorta understand. I always forget when Easter is!! The only reason I know this year before the event (I usually find out when mum and dad ring to wish us a happy easter on sunday morning!), is because:

1)a friend got married on Easter Thursday, back in Aus - she looked gorgeous too! I saw photos.
2) someone asked me what I was giving up for Lent a few weeks ago. I said I was "giving lent up" for lent.....
3) K got an Easter card from Aunty E and it has been displayed in prime position on the top of the TV for the last week. It is the only Easter card we got....


our plans for the day? well, since it is Easter, perhaps I had better go and buy me some chocolate, you know, to keep up with traditions and all.

shopping

after a slow morning inside, decided that it was too nice a day to waste all day, so took K in the pram for long walk. we ended up at the shops. but I was very very good-here is a list of all the things I DIDN'T buy!

* chocolate shake from Maccas
* apple pie to go with chocolare shake from Maccas
* very cheap 3/4 length top. nice, but it is very 秋らしい, probably not so good for coming into spring/summer
* socks for K
* some new underwear for me (on sale)
* pjs for me
* anything at all from the 100yen shop, FROM BOTH SHOPS I WENT INTO!!

I am very proud of myself for showing such self-control. (She says as she finishes off the Mr. Donuts J brought home last night, hehe)

junkie

My friend Junko Ono went to Australia for a one-year working holiday a few years ago. She had a great time, and even improved on her English She was a bit miffed though, about how everyone couldn't really pronounce her name right...they all called her junkie! lol.

One day when she was walking around the houses in the suburbs, she saw what she thought was her name on the letterbox! It said "no junk mail"....she thought that they were just missing 2 o's! haha, get it, (O)no Junk(o).

She is the same person who couldn't believe how many "Onos" there are in Australia selling things -she was looking at the bulletin boards with things for sale, and the prices listed as $100 o.n.o. (Or Nearest Offer)!!

Love ya work Junkie, ah, I mean Junko!

So of course, today's list is of the junk mail in our letterbox today.



* 2 flyers for removalists. You can also pay for them to take away any unwanted furniture etc. April is the start of the new school year, work year etc, so lots of people are moving around this time.
* a notice about some construction on the town gas pipes in our street.
* a flyer to try to get us to sign up to an internet provider
* 2 flyers for delivery pizza (look tasty!)
* and a flyer for the local gym - the one with a woman grabbing her buldging belly fat. The caption says "is your body alright?" I think the captions should have said "did you just order a delivery pizaa?" hehhe.

I kinda think it is funny that the gym puts in a free trial the same day that 2 pizza places have their specials in!! Does that mean it is ok to order the pizza, as long as you go to the free gym lesson? Sounds like a plan.

ROFLMAO (or at least giggling)

Here are the Japanese comedians that still get me going:

* Fujisaki fleamarket "ra-ra-ra-rai"
* O-pa-pi. Yeh, I do like Kojima Yoshio!
* Hiking Walking. The guy with the long hair in red underpants who does his "super illusion", which is him downing a bottle of coke in one go, then reciting all the train stations on the yamanote line without burping. He always burps after about 3 stations. It gets me everytime.
* Tokyo-03. There are 3 of them.
* Taka and Toshi. Best real life experience with this was when I was coming out of the city hall, and a group of young-ish guys (I think they were fire fighters) were going in. After I walked past one of them, I heard him turn to his mates and say "欧米か？" I had to giggle.
* Nishioka Sumiko (da yo~!)
* Zen. These are a bit of a favourite at the moment. J doesn't seem to like them that much, but I think they are v. funny.

how K spends her day

ha-ha-ha

Japanese お笑い comedy. I admit, I LIKE it, I LIKE it a lot.
And you would never be at a loss for something to watch on tv, as it is such a お笑いブーム (comedy boom) now, or so they have been saying for the last few years....
Just in the last 2 hours (from 7pm tonight) there have been about 20 comedians on all sorts of shows. They are EVERYWHERE. And, of course, in true japanese style, they come (and go) in intense waves. It seems the newest favourite of the crowds is "Edo", Edo Harumi, the 40-ish year old lady who dances around giving the thumbs-up saying "Guuuuuuuuuuu".
Tonight is a special list - the list of all the Japanese comedians that I don't like, or just don't get:

1) 桜塚やっくん. He dresses up as a toughie J high school girl.Ok, I thought he was interesting at first, but he is still around, (though probably only on エンタの神様　" The God of Entertainment, Sat 10pm). And the same act is wearing VERY thin in my mind.....
2)フランチェ He dresses up like Frankenstein and when the voice over asks him if he can do something, he says "いいよ"
3） umm, aaah, hmmmm. Ok I just realised something. Even though there are a lot of 笑い芸人 that I don't like, it is probably BECAUSE I don't like them that I haven't even paid enough attention to remember their names! Therefore, this list is pretty useless. I think tomorrow I might do a list of the comedians I actually like!

ついやちゃったね。

I feel like I lost a bet or something. My blog everyday for a month has gone out the window, as you can see by they lack of blog entry yesterday. I reckon I have a good reason though?!> We weren't home! And I dont know how to upload a blog from my keitai....oops.

Anyway, we went to stay at the family house, with the lovely bathroom and big bath for the night. I can't really even remember the last time I had a nice relaxing bath. It was definately B.K. (before K!) Last nights' bath was great.
When I first came to Japan, I couldn't even get into the baths, coz they are so hot!! I used to sit on the side of the bath (after I had my shower), splashing water around for 20mins or so that my host family would be satisfied that I had a long enough bath. My first public bath, I was *so* embarrased, but luckily I was with my friend L, who was very blazei (sp??) about it and made me give up any prohibitions. Now I enjoy a bath and onsen!So tonight my list is of my alltime favourite baths/onsen/rotenburo.

* 幻夢の里 （Genmu no sato） in Beppu, Oita, Kyushu. Hidden in the hills, at only 600yen each, you can go in either the female or male bath OR go in 家族風呂 private baths for the same price. This is definately my favourite.
* Yufuin, Oita, Kyushu. J and I went to the tiniest bath here, (can't remember the name), we were nearly sitting on top of each other. possibly smaller than a household bath, but wooden and window looking over the little river/stream. Love Yufuin, great to walk around.
* Out of Sapporo, about an hour out of Sapporo by bus. When I went skiing with L and L we really needed a nice relax in a bath, but we wanted a rotenburo that had snow around it that we could sink our beers into! we ended up on the 7th floor of some hotel building. there was about 2cm of snow around, haha. The hassle to find it was memorable, though.
* the almost $100 bath at 天成　in Hakone. When friends L & A came over, we shouted them to a private bath experience at a nice hotel in Hakone. The baths are very nice, but at nearly 100dollars for the 2 of them, it was a bit of a shock (especially after being to so many great ofuro in Kyushu for less than 10dollars!!)
*　乳頭温泉 (nyuto onsen) Akita. several small onsen huts that you go around to try out all the different baths.
* 酸ヶ湯温泉 (sukayu onsen) Aomori. A mixed bath, really old, all made of wood. They have a "women's only" bath time once a day.that's when I went in!
* 泥の湯,(mud bath) Beppu, Oita, Kyushu.Went in this bath with friends L & L too. There is an inside separate male/female baths, then if you are game enough (or stupid enough!?) you walk down a little pathway, through a little outdoor curtain ito the mixed mud bath, which is just like a swamp, complete with crocs (well that is what I reckoned the balding middle-aged guys with just their googly (i.e.wearing glasses) eyes sticking out above the muddy water looked like.)

lovely day for it

What a gorgeous day it was today! The whole family went for a lovely walk to Shimokitazawa, bought lunch and tried to find a park to eat it in: why is there never a park around when you need it? We ended up eating it while sitting on the bench at the bus stop! We have been taking really long walks lately with R, since the weather has gotten so much nicer. Today's list is of the place we walk to with R:

* Shimokitazawa. About 20 mins, although I have made it there in 14min once, running at full-bore when I needed to catch a particular train.
* Hanegi park. About 30mins. Went there 2 weeks ago to see the ume (plum blossoms) festival, but they weren't even blooming yet.
* 1-2-3 parks. A quick one, about 5 mins away. There are 3 parks in a row along the side of the road. Of course, all of them are "no-dogs allowed" but we still go there, keepng R on lead. I don't get the point of parks in Tokyo. No dogs allowed, no playing ball, no making loud noises - all that they allow in the parks is the smelly old homeless people to set up camp there (that really p*sses me off!)
* shops - either at the train station or up the road. If we go with R, then one ofus will wait outside with her while the other goes in. Sometimes, if I go alone I will leave R outside tied up, but I am always a bit nervous that someone will dog-nap her. (I know, I know, I'm paranoid.....)

So the question is - where will we walk to tomorrow? Guess it depends on how J feels,as he is now out drinking with mates. May be a sleep-in tomorrow. Wonder if K will oblige? hehe, doubt it!

obsessive compulsive and addicted

I think I have a bit of an obsessive personality....for example, I just ate an entire pack of oreos. not because I am a junk food addict, but because I just cannot stand to see any oreos left in the pack. Inthe same light, whenever I open a bottle of soft drink, I can't relax until I have drunk it all. I feel like rainman or something (lol).

I have been told that I am a bit of a 三日坊主 (mikka bozu) - I don't know if there is an equivalent of this in English (??), but it means that I start a lot of things, but only ever continue them for a few days, then give up. It's pretty true. Take this blog, I was all keen to write one blog a day for a month, and I have so far, but gee it is getting a bit of hard work(hehe) I hope I can get through the month posting every day. But me starting this blog came high on the heels of "falling out" of my latest addiction, facebook. I have recently signed up for mixi too - I can see a new addiction comin' on (sung to the xxxx beer ad theme song tune).

Soooooo, here is a list of my 三日坊主-type addictions that have all come, and passed:
* yahoo blog (lasted about 1 year? actually only started to show off photos of our honeymoon to South America)
* K's blog. haven't uploaded photos for people at home to look at for a few months. sigh.
* a photo of K a day. I try to make up for it though by taking 20 photos a time when I do take them - overkill, I know. just call me バカ親 (actually, I mean 親ばか, oops!!)
* facebook. My poor fluff-friend would starve to death if it werent for friends such as N that are still obsessed with facebook, and feed and pat her every other day. Thanks N!
* mixi.
* cleaning the house. actually, this was never really an addiction, but I go through stages when I am pretty good at keeping the cleaning up. Then it lapses......for a LONG time. like now.
* baking cakes. (see yesterday's post) I think I might be on another addicion here. I feel like baking a carrot cake next. And anzac biscuits
* exercise. The most exercise I do at the moment is picking up the remote to change channels as I lie on the couch all day (bit of an exaggeration). I can't believe that I used to take part in (mini)triathlons, go cycling up and over mountains etc etc. would like to get back into it sometime.
* oreos - yum!

cooking spree

so I may not have completed all the things on my list from Tues (I know it wasnt even a long list), but that is possibly because I have been on a cooking spree, of sorts.
I probably shouldn't boast, coz 1) it wont last and 2) I havent even cooked anything that exciting, but for ME, I think I have done well.

Here are my recent successes:
* banana muffins. these are really scrumdidiliocious. I only had 2 bananas, so I added some grated apple (I thought of that myself!!) and coconut. I reckon they will be just perfect to take over to friend from playgroup's house tomorrow.

* stewed apples. an oldie but a goodie.

* kinpira. Japanese burdock root and carrot julienned, and cooked up in a bit of oil with chili, then flavoured with soy, sake and sugar. I only used on chili, but I could have added another, for some reason I like the kinpira hot. this is a standard Japanese dish, so easy!

* tofu-chicken balls. I make these for K: just mix chicken mince with some tofu, a bit of cornstarch and boil them up. They taste so good, I made some extra for moi.

ummmm, that's the end of my list. Hmm. I have only been in this cooking spree since yesterday though, if that adds any brownie points? As I say, I know it is not much, but (touch wood) K has been sleeping for marathon 2hours in a row at night time now (this is BLISS compared to the 45mins that became 20-30mins she USED to sleep for, I kid you not.)So I have been trying to do some cooking at night after she goes to sleep.

Hey, I just realized that it's been 2and a half hours tonight that she has been asleep!!!!!whoo-hooo. Better not celebrate too much, coz she has this 6th sense, and as soon as I think that she is sleeping well, she picks up the vibe and wakes up. I am not game to look at her in case she picks up my vibe now.

Tonight's dessert

so many things to do

I keep on putting stick-it notes on my computer to remind me of all the things I need to do (including basic to-do's like "make dinner!!!") but nothing ever seems to get done.　I wonder if my to-do-list will be more effective uploaded here? Here are the "musts" for tomorrow (cryptic clues?! lol):

* print off and send mum and s's bday presents (better late than never)
* send wedding congatulations to L and J (both getting married in Bris in the next month)
* cook up chicken still in fridge - decide what to make with it!?!
* finish of "the books" for work
* send e-mail to E
* contact K-san re: witnessing docs

Wonder if by the time I check this blog tomorrow, I will have completed them all?

Welcome back R

R (our dog) spent the last week at the grandparent's. They ADORE her. I think they might be obsessed. She is only a little dog, but as a Jack Russel Terrier, she needs a lot of exercise or else she gets p*ssed off and starts to rip apart her bed, toys etc. The Grandparents are very good at taking her out for walks - they have a schedule for it (rolls eyes):

6am - walk to do No1
10am - walk to do No1&No2
1pm - walk to do No1
4pm - walk to do No1
7pm - walk after dinner to do No1&No2
10pm - last walk of the day, No1

We are not so rigid - actually, sometimes she is lucky if she gets out once a day for a walk around the corner and back!! J always says "welcome back to hell" whenever we pick her up to come home after staying at the grandparents.

Before K was born, I used to take R out on 2 or 3 walks a day. Of course, now it being winter, I have to drag myself out, but still try to get out for at least one long walk (30mins-1hour) a day, depending on how K is, if she goes to sleep, we stay out longer!! But I admit that I do give her a lot less attention now.

Anyway, R is back, and asleep at the moment. She is nearly 2years old, and getting much better behaved the last few months. Today I thought I would share a list of her tricks. I have even included the way the grandparent's say some of them (hehe):

* sit down (shit dan)
* lie-down (rye dan)
* roll-over (leg over)
* shake hands (o-te)

* finish
* let go
* chu-goshi, said with very stern voice, like 桜塚やっくん（the comedian who dresses up as a hig school girl） when he says ”注目!”; R sits up on her hind legs
* hoshi-hito...hai! "who want's it?"; R puts her paws up and begs

You may notice one important command missing? "Come" is not in her reportoir, try as we might, she just doesn't seem to want to play that game. We'll keep trying though!

BTW, the photo is of R last year, when we went to see the Kawazu-sakura cherry blossoms down in Kawazu, Izu Penninsula, about 3-4hours south of Tokyo. They bloom early, usually about Feb each year.

In 5th gear

K is running on overdrive this morning - she is definately in 5th gear, doing 160, overtaking cars down the highway.

I made up a lovely bowl of farex(baby cereal) and banana for her breakky, but have only managed to shove 2 spoonfuls in her mouth, although I did get another 2 or 3 in her eyes/in her ears/up her nose/etc....(sigh)

I better 'fess up now, I am not a morning person- never have been, and most likely never will be. I thought K was following in my footsteps, waking up at 8:30am or later for a good while there, but the last couple of months she seems to have read the baby book and realised that she is actually supposed to wake up EARLY. Fair enough, we are still only talking about 7am wakings at this stage (touch wood)...but still(!!) So what do I do to cope with her morning wake-ups - I employ my very best friend, "Mr Terebi". Yes, I am using the square monitor to corrupt K already, and it is working!! Today I am sharing the list of shows she LOVES watching in the morning on NHK:

*　Okasan to issho(=lets play with mummy) お母さんと一緒. We love the "power up" song, and the last song, and of course the main singers voices - where do they find these people? But I must admit they are catchy, as I find myself singing Gu~chocorantan most of the day.
*　Inai nai ba (=peek-a-boo)いないなばあ～. That kid, koto-chan is SO cute; and we LOVE singing ”ぐるぐるぐるぐるどっかん”
*　ピタゴラススイッチ (=pythagoras' switch). Dad loved this show when he was here,coz they have these great domino-type set ups.
*　ぜんまいさむらい (Samurai wind-up toys??). Maybe this one is only on at night time? I (oops, I mean K) loves the theme song. "Zen-zen-zen-mai, mawaru-kagiri..."

Add to this her DVD collection, of Baby Einstein (Animals) and Playschool (taped from the TV in Aus) and we have a TV-baby in the making. Yay!

I wish I could remember.......

Ok, so I have been doing the "mummy" thing now for 11 months. You would think I had a little bit of a hold on what I need to take with me when we leave the house. But alas, I have been caught out 3 times this week. So here is my list of items that I really should have packed in my bag at all times:

* baby sling/carrier. I was caught out yesterday at a friend's house without my sling. We arrived at about 12:30, K had *just* fallen asleep like 5 mins earlier, so of course she woke up when I tried to get her out of the pram. There were 4 babies there all around 1 yr old, so K was in her element, pulling everone's hair, playing with all their toys etc. Even when she started to rub her eyes at 4pm there was no way I could get her off to sleep, until I put her in her pram at 5pm to come home (yes, she held out until then) . My friends tots fell like flies in their ergo baby carriers - gotta get me one of them. Anyway, the moral of the story is that I wish I had my baby carrier yesterday to at least try to get K off to sleep like the others.

* extra nappies - more than I think I will need. I was caught out at the PIL's house on Wed. We changed K before we left our house, but of course she did a BIG one in the car, so changed her again. Then she went and piddled on the nappy that I changed her into. I thought we would be ok until we got home anyway, but she did another BIG one - and I was out of nappies!! MIL gave J money to run down to the shop to buy nappies (sigh)

*change of clothes (when K piddled on her nappy, she also got her onesie. Lucky her singlet, jumper and pants were out of piddle range otherwise we would have been in real trouble)

* dinner set of jar of baby food, biccies/senbei (rice crackers), water, and spoon. This afternoon we went out for a walk, and ended up walking all the way to Shinjuku (it only took 35 mins from our apartment). K slept all the way there, then woke up as we went in to the NS Building looking for a restaurant that J saw on TV that had tuna rice bowls (まぐろ丼)for 400yen!! They weren't open until after 5pm anyway, and it was only 4, so we had cheeseburgers, apple pies and choc thickshakes from Maccas and then walked home. I found a half of a senbei for K which somehow managed to tide her over, thank goodness, but I wish I had have taken more for her.

Actually, I think I might pack a small bag for K now!

my tingly hand

I woke up last night at about 1am (I actually got to bed at 11pm!yay!) with a really tingly right hand, sort of near the wrist, and an almost dead arm. It was throbbing so much that I couldn't get back to sleep, there was no where that I could rest my arm that it felt ok. Then, of course, K wakes up, and does the "ebi" , or the "prawn" where she arches her back and sort of rolls around the bed on her head, like she is being exorsiced(sp) or something. Couldn't get her to calm down for a good 20mins I reckon. Even when she finally went back to sleep, I couldnt find a good position for me to lie that my arm wasnt aching,so I tossed and turned most of the night, keeping J and K awake and me too. Felt very drawn this morning. AND my hand is still tingly. I think I might have to go to the docs. I looked it up on the net, and it might be a case of sunday morning palsy,....seems a lot of men get it from having had a few the night before, then going to bed and sleeping on their leg wrong, apparently.

Here is my list of things I did today that only seem to exasberate the tinlgy wrist:
1. pushed the stoller around and around shopping area at train station to try to get K to go to sleep - she fell asleep 2 mins before I was arriving at my final destination (sigh)
2. carried the stroller up, and down 3 flights of stairs at the train station, as of course, there are no lifts. And as IF anyone would actually think to HELP me.
3. probably typing this blog

I think the tinglyness has gone to my head, as now have a headache. Or it might have been the sugar rush from cheap "sakura-dango" (pounded rice balls with a super sweet cherry blossom flavoured bean paste spread over them) I just devoured. Very cheap at only 50yen a pop!

タラコ、タラコ、 たっぷりタラコ

I have always been pretty open about food - trying new things, never really had any serious likes/dislikes, even learnt how to eat and enjoy spicy foods while I was at uni. And I have always liked Japanese food, especially sashimi . But there were a few things that I could never get my head around, that is, until I was pregnant with K.

Seems that my pregnancy cravings have carried over into the post-partum stage, as I was absolutely craving tarako spaghetti for lunch today. I even ate 2 bowls of it! I worry about myself sometimes. (lol)

Here are a list of foods that I not only learnt to like while pregnant, but am now almost addicted to:

* tarako spaghetti (creamy cod roe) - today's lunch. I would have uploaded a photo of it, but I scoffed it down (both bowls) so fast, there was no time to say "cheese", so here is a photo of the bottle the sauce came out of. FWIW, the cheapy stuff that comes in packets is much nicer, lol.

* natto (fermented soy beans) - mixed with raw egg and served over rice for dinner 2 nights ago!(eech!)

* wasabi - J always teased me for having to order all my sushi "wasabi-nuki" at the sushi-train. Well not any more (as long as there is only a little wasabi in there, I am ok)

* oysters (ok, I actually became addicted to them before I was preggers. We had them at our wedding in Oz, and they were the little rock oysters, really creamy and just delish. All our guests from Japan raved about them too. )

* chocolate - no that was definately an addiction from WAY before, hehe (see yesterday's post for evidence).

Wordless Wednesday

Play group

Tuesdays we go to playgroup. It is about a 20min train ride from home, and it starts about the time the K usually has a nap (*sigh*), so I am always secretly hoping that she will fall asleep on the way there and get in a good 30min nap at least (K is NOT a good sleeper, so I am always hoping that train rides/car rides/pram rides will lull her to sleep. It doesn't hapen that often though)

K loves playgroup. Now that she is more mobile, she seems to be enjoying it even more, getting in with the boys to play with the cars (steal their cars) etc.

Anyway, here are a list of (what I think are) her favourite songs:
5: Old MacDonald
4: 5 little ducks
3: Walking, walking
2: 5 little monkeys
1: Peel Banana (mummy loves this song too!)

Love Tuesday -even if she doesn't get a good sleep.

Hina matsuri

Today is the Japanese girl's day festival, called "Hinamatsuri". People display dolls in their house for the festival. We have a small house, so the PIL have graciously put up a display at their house for K. I bought a mini display (like about 2cm high) at the 100 yen shop to display in our genkan (near the front door). To celebrate, you eat a type of chirashi. We did this when my parent's were here, so there will probably be no celebrations today. Which is just as good, coz DD K decided to skip her morning nap (aarrrrgggghhhhh). Tonight is gonna be fun.

Today is also my mum's birthday - happy birthday mum. For some reason, particularily on my mother's side of the family, we have a lot of birthday's in March.....so, here is a list of all the March birthday's (I checked with mum - the holder of the birthday book!)

March 2 : Cousin R
March 3 : Mum
March 5: Uncle M *well, there is a story behind this. seems everyone thought that his birthday was the 5th of March, until he went to get his passport a few years ago, and it turned out that on his birth certificate, it actually says the 8th of March!! hehe.
March 6: Cousin B
March 8: Brother S
March 9: (was) Pop
March 16: Cousin L, Cousin C
March 25: Niece K, Friend J
March 26: (was) Granny ; Cousin's kid H (does that make him my 2nd cousin?)
March 30: (was) Grandma

What a busy month.

Let the blogging begin

7 Reasons why I have decided to start blogging:

1. I have been inspired by lurking on other people's blogs lately.
2. It's not like as though I have anything else to do with my time, what with 11month old K, 暴れん坊(slightly hyperactive) dog R and hubby J to look after, of course I have enough time to sit in front of the computer blogging!
3. I wanted to attempt to blog everyday for a month, just like they do on NaBloPoMo. This month's theme is lists, so here is my first one! Coz I am already a day late, I will be an unofficial NaBloPoMo-er this month, I think.
4. "Wordless Wednesday" looks interesting too, so I wanted to start that. Look out for upcoming Wednesdays. (I'm not gonna link to them, though, coz everytime I try to open their page, my omputer freezes up...might be just me?)
5. I figured I needed a place to show off my lack of culinary skills. Perhaps by posting what we have for dinner, it will shame me into becoming more proficient in the kitchen?
6. I reckon I have enough bull*hit in me to rave on every day about something.
7. Why not! So, here goes........