the machines are against me

we had a great weekend, going to a garden/museam that a friend works at (he is the gardener!). there was a display on the lawn (yes, LAWN!!!!!!!!!!) of an artists artwork, all made with tulips, 16,000 tulips, actually. It was very cool. I took some photos that I was going to upload here, but for some reason my computer froze up when I put the sd card in. I think that my computer is just too old to handle it. because we bought a new camera earlier this year, and we are now using a 2mb memory card, with all the photos about 1mb each in size. my laptop is about 5 years old now.

then I have spent the last few days trying (in vain) to get my wireless connection set up. since we changed internet providers when we moved, I think that my router needs be reset or something, but I have NO IDEA how to do it. (*SIGH*) I really wish I knew more about computers. I am going through the manual (in Japanese) now to see if I can find an answer.... I *think* I might have found something, but the thing is, everytime I have to turn the modem off for 30 mins or more, then start again, and coz my computer is screwed it takes like 10mins or so to start up each time.then another 30mins or more to follow through the procedure, only to find myself back at the same error message.

It also took me several days to get my camera up and working again after the move, because for some reason every time I shut down, the computer "forgets" that there was ever a camera there, and when I start 'er up again, she is like "ooh, guess what, I just found some new hardwear here...." and I am like,. "It's the camera you fool!" so I have to install it AGAIN.

ok, I am whining now. I know. it's not a big deal in the scheme of things, but, I just wish I could work out how to get the wireless connection set up, so I don't have to share the internet connection with DH (hehe). hope my computer and all the necessary parts will be nice to me tomorrow and let me get it set up. fingers crossed.

oh, man

I just clicked on the "next blog" link up at the top of the page, and all of a sudden was blasted with some freak song. I really don't like it when websites start playing music automatically like that. NOT COOL.

kinpira, chinpira and gin-gira-gin

as I continue on my quest to become the next generation Martha stewart, I made kinpira last night - renkon (lotus root) was cheap at the supermarket, so I actually made renkon-kinpira.

Simple stuff, but I like it as a side dish.

Cook thinkly* sliced renkon in a little bit of oil (or goma-abura, sesame oil)until transparent. Add julienned carrots and cook for a bit more.

Then add
2tsp mirin, or sake
1 tbs soy sauce
1 tbs sugar
1 chili, thin(k?)ly sliced

Let it simmer away until nearly all the liquid is gone, and voila!

Last time I made this (with gobo, burdock root, which is the "original" kinpira) I found I wanted it to be a bit "hotter", so this time I added more than one chili ..... and it was HOT. So I tried to compensate by adding more renkon, then more soy, and more mirin and more sugar (in random amounts hehe), and it came out ok. But DH said it was too salty *sigh*. I thought it was ok, though, so I ate most of it.

When I was writing this post,I kept thinking in my head how "kinpira" rhymes with "chinpira" (which are those yakuza looking guys with the "punch-perm"). Then I started singing the song "gin-gira-gin", a karaoke mood-maker. then I thought that I really have lost the plot, so I pulled out a beer, "sparkling hop" actually, and am sitting here with some cheese, roast beef and fresh bread enjoying a drop. After all TGIF, right!?

Ah, yummy cheese and yummy bread with a few drinkies reminds me of all those afternoons/ nights/ mornings(!?) on the balcony of 90210, watching the 怪しい people across the road piling 25 women into the car to go off to the "snack" or "hostess bar" or whatever.

Signing off, singing
"ギンギラギンにさりげなく
さりげなく生きるだけさ
I get you baby, I want you baby,
I need you baby, right on!!"

Oh, yeah!

*thinkly was a typo, but I sort of like it! I did mean thinly, but as I am no maestro with the knife, some of the slices did end up a bit thicker than some. So I think THINKLY actually describes it well. lol!

oops I did it again (part 2)

(or is it actually part 3?)

anyway, I was being VERY martha stewart-y and cooking up a honey-mustard marinated chicken breast to use for DH's lunch tomorrow (plan was tomake him a yummy sandwich with the very nice bread we bought at the bread shop just 2 minutes away from our new apartment, yay!) I had just cooked the skin side, so it was looking very crispy and yummy, then I turned it over to the other side to cook on low heat, and put the lid on the frypan to really seal in the flavours.......then I promptly forgot about the whole "chicken-breast-cooking-in-the-fry-pan" thing for, oh, only like, 2 and a half hours!

the poor little breast had shrivelled up to about my size (hehe) and was as black as the ace of spades. The honey-mustard marinade had formed a 2 inch thinck crust of burn on the fry pan. Man, I thought, I have done it again! BUT, you gotta love teflon pans. I simply ran the pan under some hot water, and a little bit of detergent and the burny gunk literally fell away!!!! So I didn't ruin the pan, just the chicken - I can deal with that. Unfortunately, there is no lunch for DH for tomorrow now. he might have to starve. oh well.

I'm on the drug that killed River Phoenix....

.....and it is called "THE INTERNET".

I am addicted. Because we moved house this month, I have been off line for a few weeks, well, actually really only 11days (I counted). And man, was I having withdrawal symptoms for the first few days!! Then, just like when I stop buying chocolate for a few days, I found that I don't even feel like it (chocolate, that is) anymore (well, not that much anyway). So I was actually almost over the addiction to the internet when, wham, we got re-connected at our new place. Now I can't get off it again. I had to drag myself outside this afternoon to take R and K for a walk (we now live about a 10min walk from a river, so the walk along the riverside is great for dogs, runners, babies, one and all really). As a soon as I get back home, I find myself drawn to the computer screen again. And K is out for a nap, so while I know I should be doing something practical, like getting dinner ready, I am here.

Oh well, at least I am back on line, and that is all that matters for now.

Oh, and about the title - it is actually a song title, from about circa 1996-98 I think.... it was definately when I was at uni (showing my age here, a-hem). And bonus points for anyone who actually knows the name of the band that sings the song (cause I can't remember for the life of me). The song goes like this:

"I'm on the drug
I'm on the drug
I'm on the drug that killed River Phoenix"

I remember the day that River Phoenix died, I was at school (grade 8?) and we were all shocked when we heard - sort of like (but not as dramatic as) when Diana died, I was at uni basketball practise, and someone who arrived late told us. We couldn't believe it. I think I might have cried. September 11, I was home in front of the TV watching it happen live. I was on a phone call to my friend in the UK and we were both watching it in disbelief - we saw the 2nd plane hit the tower live. What a shocking event that was.


FWIW, I think I might also be addicted to brackets (do I use too many??) lol!

sock it!

To all the itty-bitties that felt they needed to make a comment today about the fact that K was out in the stroller with (GASP) NO SOCKS ON!!!!!

Although I was a little concerned about her, what, with it being 22degrees in the shade and all (rolls eyes) it seems that she managed to get through the day without any bad effects, so, tske your unwanted comments and sock it.

***end rant****

oops I did it again!

did I mention the ゛great pumpkin pie debarcle゛? A few months ago J bought a tin of pumpkin mush（!?) that you use to make pumpkin pie、 and asked me to make it up. Having never made it before、 I followed the recipe precisely, except I added GARLIC instead of GINGER （yuck!) Well this time he bought a pack of cornbread mix, all I had to do was add 3 ingredients, an egg、milk& oil, easy, right? hmmmm, so I forgot to add the oil! Realised just as the oven beeps to tell me the cornbread is ready! oops. actually the bread seemed ok in spite of the missing ingredient. Bit sweet though、 more like a cake than bread. I wonder if thats what its supposed to be like or if the oil will make it more savoury?

still in front of the tv!

well、 I actually did get off the couch to take R for a walk when realised rain had stopped. Even dropped by supermarket to get some veges for K`s din-dins (somehow a caramel swiss roll cake also sneaked home with me!、 so I did it justice with a cup of coffee for afternoon tea).
they are doing that thing on tv where they show a 1-&-a-half hour preview of a 2hour tv show that starts in less than 2hours time (rolls eyes). And its repeats of stuff I`ve already seen a few weeks ago.guess I can watch something else tonight now! Can`t see me moving off this couch for the rest of the day/night now.

lazy sunday

It`s raining.K is down for a nap, J is at work, R is playing quietly with a stuffed toy in the shape of a bone, and I am on the sofa with a doona and a cuppa, ignoring the boxes around me for a while!

chained to the kitchen sink

and loving it、 well、 loving the fact that thd benches are made for people over 2foot! I am surprised to find that I can actually stand straight after 3years of washing up@backbreaking benches & sinks.
Yesterday was the last day of moving、 and the old apartment is now sparkling clean、 thanks to wonderful PIL`s who lent us their elbow grease (I wonder if it comes at a high price??).but seriously their help was amazing and much appreciated、 although if I had have known they were doing it、 I woulda got in to clean the balcony、windows、bathroom、kitchen first!
K was down for an amazing 3hour nap today. I had to keep peeping to check she was breathing!(she nomally only has an hour nap).hope she sleeps well tonight (I count the night from when I go to bed、 usually at midnight or after)

sitting on the sofa

another day of moving over、 yay! but there is still heaps of stuff to move. we have too much rubbish & I know it`s my fault as I`m aself-confessed hoarder. But you just never know when you will need that seemingly useless piece of ribbon or paper bag (yes I am also a bag lady!)
anyway、 we are back into it tomorrow、 which will hopefully be the last day of moving. for now、 I am just happy that I have somewhere to sit and relax with my refreshing vanilla icypole after a hot bath.

back for a bit of blogging therapy

I realise it is wordless wednesday, but I have too many words in my head not to write them down, mostly because I have been AWOL for the last week or so, as we ended up moving into our new apartment on Thurs (after a phone call from J on his way home from work on Wed night, 10pm saying "we're moving tomorrow"!!) We still have sh*tloads of stuff at the "old" place so I am back here tonight to do a bit of a clean up (well, actually, the phone line gets cut off tomorrow, so this is my last internet chance for a while, until we get the new one set up. And I have a dentist appointment for tomorrow morning at 10am, and figured it would be easier to stay here (dentist is about a 3 min walk away) than try to get K ready to leave the house before midday!

On another note, *man* talk about confusing trying to cancel our current internet connection. We are on B-flets, through biglobe, (I think). So I thought all I had to do was cancel the Biglobe account....but I can't sign on to biglobe. so I ring them. Seems that I have already been cut off for some reason from the internet, not sure why, (although I now think it may be related to when I cancelled my visa card, from which the Biglobe virus buster payments were coming out of)? Anyway, uummm, so how am I still using the net? because I have a b-flets router that is still usable, apparently - makes no sense to me!! So I cancel Biglobe, but she is raving on the other end of the phone about something, I actually had to say to her, "look, I do not understand what you are saying" Seems that even though I cancel Biglobe, I still have to contact NTT to contact B-flets. It makes NO SENSE to me. I was gonna try to apply for yahoo internet connection for our new apartment, but don't know if the phone we have is analog or ISP or something, and the owner of our phone line is J's dead grandfather, so I don't know his name to write it in the part where they ask for the name of the person who owns the telephone line!! aaaarrrggh.
Maybe this sort of thing makes sense to some people. but I still dont even undestand what the difference between ADSL and Hikari or B-flets is! And I did a science degree at uni - THAT came in handy, now didn't it.

Right, I could rant on about move-related things for hours, but as I still have a lot of stuff to move, I should probably continue packing. And now that K is asleep I should do it.(she dropped off in like 10mins tonight! I feel a bad premonition for the rest of the night though now - she might wake up in 1hour thinking she was just going off for a nap!!)

lost in tokyo

tokyo station、 that is! Yesterday I went in to Tokyo station to meet up with a friend from primary school`s mum & 2 sisters、 who are visiting Japan for a week. I can`t even remember the last time I went to Tokyo station、 its not somewhere I ever need to go to! I`m glad I gave myself plenty of time before I was suppposed to meet them、 coz I reckon I wandered up & back & around for a good 20mins before I ゛saw the light゛ and made it outside! Having k in the stroller means things take longer too- its hard enough trying to find the right exit at a station u don`t know、 but searching for a lift is even more fun (not) especially when u realise there IS NO lift & u have to lug k in pram up & then usually BACK DOWN the stairs! Good exercise、 I guess - you should see my abs!lol!

going off!

damn its going off again!

going off!

I made a trip back to old apartment today to skyre my folks & tell them we had moved as dint have time to email them before the move、(I rang them but they werent home)、
and to pick up some stuff we left behind. I came in by train、 and was 2stations away on my way home when I had a shocking thought: ゛did I lock the door when I left?゛ aaaarrgh! so back I went to double check(and of course it was!!!)
so I am finally on my way home now by train、 when I hear a ringing as I wait for the train、 figure it must be some sort of signal or something. Get on the train & Ican still hear it、 it even seems to be gettimg louder、 especially when I take my backpack off....
yep、 the alarm clock in my backpack was the culprit. Talk about going off、 literally o(^o^)o

in the bedroom

I haven`t been around much this last week, as we got the o.k. on the apartment 3 mins from train station on Sunday evening. And moved yesterday & today! Am writing this on my mobile from our new bedroom!!! it is very exciting for someone coming from a one room apartment to have a whole room just for a bed!(*'-^)-☆ K has a whole room for herself too、 she was so happy running around the 6tatami mats like a chicken with its head cut offσ(^◇^;)。。。
is all fun