auto-reply

tj-injapan is out of the blogsphere for the next week.

Yes, she did survive the weekend with the PILs (although day 3 did bring about many more 'grit teeth and bear it' moments than the previous day and a half....)

She is now entertaining her own parents who have "dropped by" on their way home to Oz, after a 2 week cruise up "the Danube" (last stop - Amsterdam!).

Will be back in full swing next week, when not only the parents are gone, but J is away AGAIN for work!!

not so bad

day 2, night 2 of weekend with the pil- it's not actually that bad. omg - I think all the recent days & nights alone with J on business trips has sent me bonkers, to say that (lol). I have to admit though that K is just loving it (all the attention) and the pil are enjoying & being entertained by K! And I must have mellowed in my loneliness- i only had 2 grit teeth & rolls eyes moments so far!
right, sending the pil off to bed so i can watchエンターの神様

Hasegawa-san, I hate you!

Well, hate might be the wrong word to use - Hasegawa-san, I have HAD it with you.
I can't really hate Hasegawa-san, as I don't know who they are. Except, that they were obviously the previous owners to our landline phone number. And they left a lot of people in the lurk when they changed phone numbers, because we must get at least one phone call a day with someone looking for Hasegawa-san. Ok, a phone call a day doesn't sound like much, but they are the SAME people ringing all the time, SAME company etc. I wonder if they think I am lying when I say that I am not Hasegawa-san, and try to ring back straight away to catch me out.

The other day, I answered the phone in English, as I was expecting a call from my parents. The guy on the other end even replied with a smooth "Hello" but it didn't sound right, so I quickly threw in a "moshi-moshi" and he got straight to it - "Ah, moshi-moshi Hasegawa-san"... NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

me: you've got the wrong number. This is not Hasegawa-san
him: well, who is it then?
me: It's NOT Hasegawa-san
him: when you answered the phone, you spoke in English. Are you a foreigner?
me: that is none of your business.
him: none of my business (said with a smirk, I am sure) oh, ok.

Then the other day, I got another call. I thought it might have been J's parents, so I answered.
me: moshi moshi
them: I'm calling about the something or other...
me: are you looking for Hasagawa-san?
them: yes
me: look, this is not Hasegawa-san's phone number any more. It hasn't been for the past 5 months. I am sick of getting phone calls all the time for Hasegawa-san, so can you please make a note that the number has changed and not ring me again.

I thought I had made it pretty clear. Then, yesterday afternoon. 3:54pm. It happened again. The phone rang. I answered it.
them: Hasegawa-san?
me: NO! (CHIGAIMASU!!) and I hung up on them. Slammed the phone down on them, actually. Fingers crossed they get the messsage this time.

Later last night, about 11pm or so, I was putting out the garbage for today's rubbish collection, in the big industrial type bin at the front of the apartment block. Some random suit walked past, and was seriously staring at me. I gave him the evil eye back, then turned to walk up stairs, but noticed he was still staring at me, so I called out to him "WHAT?" and he said "NOTHING" so I am like, "well stop staring then." I actually said that, hehe. Think I might have scared him off too!

nostalgic music

I wrote this post last night, when I was feeling *obviously* feeling all nostalgic, and a bit melancholy too perhaps. 2 chu-hais and a can of beer later, and this is what I came up with, although I somehow forgot to actually post it last night...hiccup!

(cue long unnecassary blurb about to simply explain that I was listening to some old CD of mine...)

It was raining this morning, so our playgroup outing (a picnic to a garden) was cancelled, and we all gathered at a free community playroom.
As it was "respect for the old day" yesterday, and we hadn't seen the PILs for aaaaaaaaaaages, I thought we might drive to playgroup, so we could see them afterwards. I rang to check they were home, and MIL said to bring R over earlier, so I went there first, and was then about 30mins late for playgroup. Also, the car stunk for the last half hour of the hour drive there, as K thought she was playing an extra part in Lethal Weapon 21, and she packed a VERY loaded weapon(euphemism for a big old bog!). Anyway, after playing with her friends (and even calling one of the kid's by name!!)we drove back to the PILs for a cake and iced tea. In the 2hours we were gone, R had been pooped and piddled several times, and had taken up her royal place on the couch (have given up telling them that R is not allowed on the chairs...). We chatted, K entertained us all, and somehow I managed to agree to going with the PILS to the holiday house this weekend, with no J, who is away yet again on business. He will actually be in Hokkaido playing golf with clients about the time on Saturday evening that I am pulling my hair out and grimacing, wondering why the hell I agreed to go alone with PILs......

Anyway, K fell asleep almost immediately on the car ride home, so I did a brazen thing and took out the already well worn nursery rhymes CD, and threw in a CD I had burnt off of random songs.

(right, back to the main story then....finally!)

It was like going down memory lane! All the songs had a little anecdote to go with them, and it made me think back about songs that reminded me of previous boyfriends (haha!!) and the like. These are the songs I was singing with tears in my eyes in the car:

Kissing you - Desree. That was the song my boyfriend from when I was at uni and I were going to play at our wedding reception....until I dumped him to come to Japan on JET. We were together for about 4 and a half years, but from the very start I always knew I wanted to come to Japan, and so did he. He was a really nice guy, always buying me flowers (and sending them to my work sometimes to my utter embarrassment aarrrgh!)
Anyway, the song is from the Romeo and Juliet soundtrack, one of my all time favourite movies and soundtracks!!

(editor's note: Yes, I realise it is a sad song, but I was really set on having it at our wedding for some reason(that obviously never eventuated)!)

Going slightly off subject, another song from that soundtrack that was on the CD was the You and Me song, by the Wannadies. I lurve this one too!Definitely an up-beat song.


Fukuyama Masaharu - Squall (song words)
Is it just me who thinks he is sexy, in an oh-so-boyish way in looks. But that voice, aarrrrrrrrrrr!
This song reminds me of a (J) guy I dated very briefly, about 3 months. It just happened to be the exact 3 months before I finished my JET contract, and had to leave Japan. It was very full-on. We had been friends (used to go out in a big group often) for the whole 3 years I was working there, and about 5months before my contracted ended, we started working together on a project. When we got together, we had to keep it all hush-hush, but the electricity in the room (he was at the desk beside me) was probably pretty obvious and most people knew in the end anyway. Anyway, just before we got together, he sang this song at Karaoke - I swear it was for me!! Surely anyone would melt if this was sung to them at Karaoke!
I still love this song anyway. My favourite lyrics:

探してた、あなただけ
"It was only ever you I was searching for"




And then all this tripping down memory lane made me sad when I started thinking that J was away AGAIN for the whole week. So I will finish with the song that we used as our song to walk-in to our wedding reception:

Crazy in love by Beyonce.

Yeah baby, yeah. It may not be all rosey all the time (a lot of the time?) but I would like to think that we are back on track and if not "crazy in love" then at least a little "crazy" for the rest of our lives!

PS I am really enjoying this music talk - think I might post some more about it another day too!. I was so into my music when I was in Uni, but coming to Japan, well.....I lost touch. Now I feel like my older sister. Whenever I was young, she was ALWAYS listening to the likes of Abba, CCR (you know, the creed? no, do I have to spell it out for you? ok, Creedence Clearwater Revival...c'mon, you know you know them!) and other 70s and 80s stuff. Her radio was always set on FM104! And my brother, always with a Chisel (Cold Chisel, that is) LP on. I used to think that they should SO get with the times. But hey, now I still enjoy all that good ol' Aussie Rock, and my songs from high school and uni days. Coming up next time: "Catholic School Girls Rule", and other favourite songs from my seishun/youth.

sooooooooooo

I bought the sewing machine today.

It is still sitting in the box at the front door.
It may never see the outside of that box.
I haven't the faintest how to use it.
I vaguely remember the apron we had to do in grade 8 (Mrs Trudjian, our home ec teacher, and yes, the name fits the image of her.)

I need to hem a dress of k's and take up a pair of pants I bought. So I bought the cheapy sewing machine to do that, basically.(The ones at the local janome store had too many extra zeros in the price tag....they could probably cook up a roast at the same time as overlocking though. Well, they would want to for the price!)

I am not having second thoughts, just letting it sink in for a while.
I mean, I bought an iron earlier this year, and now a sewing machine.

Since when did I become so Martha???

we're goin' on an airplane

just payed for the tickets. (on J's credit card which is why I am still so jovial, haha).

I originally found a cheap direct flight with one of those random travel agents on yahoo travel. (why are they all located in Tokyo kanda area?) Anyway, I was a bit stumped because they didn't quote a fuel surcharge price for K. Last year when we went home (with her being only 5months old) I was charged the full adult fuel surcharge price, so I didn't want to make too much about the fact that there was no surcharge price listed, just in case it was a mistake on their part. So I went to the JAL site, just to squiz, and found the direct flight available for only 1000yen more than the hole-in-wall travel agent was quoting. So I reserved on-line at the JAL site, thereby holding my seat, while I reconsider everything, make sure dates are ok, etc etc (warning - worry wart alert, haha!!). I check the on-line reservation every day this week (to make sure what, I don't know). I snatch J's credit card off him as he leaves for his island getaway, as I have to pay by Monday 15th and my credit card limit is a piddly 10man.


So I get the courage tonight to actually plug the credit card details in and push the little button on the screen to make that 14man purchase, not bad really for direct flights to Bris, returning Jan 4th, just in case J can get time off work over Xmas/New Years to come over for a few days.... I live in hope! Lucky I had reserved my seat earlier this week, the ticket price for the same day has now gone up about 6000yen - they automatically adjust the price based on how booked the flight is, the more booked it is, the dearer the fare, it is called "dynamic pricing" I think.

But as I was about to push the buy button, I had a sinking feeling that the price quoted from the travel agent was actually 13man (ok, only 1man difference, but it all adds up - and I always try hard to get the best price, and every yen counts, right!?!) But I double checked, and I was mistaken - they travel agent had quoted my fare and K's fare (about 7000yen, only 10% of the seat price, plus a bit of tax, and no fuel surcharge)separately. phew.

So I bought the tickets - yahoozies! And the countdown to take off begins. Can't wait. Although I am sure as soon as I get home, I will be pining (sp?) for Japan and J, lol!

born to shop

Had 2 funny little experience in a shop today.

It all came about because J is going away for the long weekend to a tropical island resort (uuuuh, actually more like a volcanic island resort!) and he wanted a frisbee to play with. That sounds quite ridiculous now that I wrote it, hahaha, but last weekend we were at a picnic for our playgroup families, and he was playing frisbee with an American daddy, and he was like, wow, I haven't done that in ages, it was fun! And since he is going away with his mates for a wild (as in natural, in the bush type) weekend, he thought a frisbee would be just the thing to take with him.

So I said leave it to me. I went down to the local k-mart style store, and found one there, but I knew that he would be stoked if I got him the Patagonia one he searched on the internet for (and left the page open for me to see). So after lunch today, I loaded K up into the stroller and we headed off to the Patagonia shop, which by chance(!) are having an end of season sale. I wasn't really planning on buying anything more than the frisbee, and maybe a shirt or something for J (he's been working hard, he deserves it! And every time we go out lately, we end up with something for me,so I guess it should be his turn once and a while, haha). But you know when things are on sale..........

I still managed to be sensible about it, and even refrained from picking up the fleece vest I have been wanting for ages, but I did end up coming out with a reversible jacket for K, that will hopefully last this winter AND next winter (am I crazy to think that?); 2 base wear shirts for J, the type that take the sweat away from you and keep you cool/warm whatever the case may be. and of course the main reason I went there:

Tried to take photos of the actual clothes, but K wanted to wear it all, and got upset when I took it off her, haha. And I couldn't let her have them, because I am not sure I got the right size for J or not (gasp! she doesn't know her hubbys clothes size! double gasp!!!)

Anyway, the funny experiences:
1) The staff must have thought I was a freak or something, going up and down and around the aisles, but it is hard with a baby in stroller and tiny shops with lots of people eager for a bargain. Finally one staff member had enough courage to ask me in English if I was looking for anything in particular. She guessed my accent when I said "a frisbee" - turns out she lived on the Gold Coast for 5 years, and I was like, well, I am from Brisbane. Then we were talking about some things, her hubby is a kiwi, my hubby is Japanese, yaddah-yaddah-yaddah, and as we were rounding up the small talk, we both said "excellent" at exactly the same time. That really made me giggle. But I am wondering now, if "excellent" is actually something I caught off J and my kiwi friends? Do Ozzies say that? Hmmmmm.

2) I go up to pay for the goods, and pull out the money I have stashed in an envelope for our weekly shopping (actually, it is supposed to be enough to last for the next 2 weeks) and would you believe that it was almost the EXACT amount, only 40yen out! It was a sign from the shopping gods that I was MEANT to buy all those items. That money was born to pay for the patagonia goods.
I was so happy walking out of the shop, probably the happiest and most satisfied I have been when shopping recently (I seem to have lost my shopping groove).

When J comes home for the 1 hour family visit between his business trip last night and heading for erupting island tonight, I will first bring out a frisbee I bought at the 100yen shop - can't wait for his reaction (bet he is totally pissed off). Then I will bring out the shopping bag. Hehehe!

how to walk the dog

I read a book last year, a friend who has been involved in seeing eye dog training and dog obedience recommended it : The dog listener, by Jan Fennell. It was quite a fascinating read, explaining how dog have descended from wolves, but still their inherent behaviour is like that of wolves. Wolves have an alpha pair (the two leading dogs in a pack) who all the other wolves obey, you know, by eating after the alpha pair, walking behind the alpha pair when going out hunting etc. So...(Ok, I am simplifying it from my memory but) all we humans need to do is become the alpha pair in our dog's eyes, and they will WANT to cooperate with us. We won't have to yell and scream and pull and push. But because wolves are always vying with each other to see who is the strongest, and are often changing the alpha pair status, you have to continually reinforce your status as the leader to your dog (can be done by simple things such as always making your dog walk out the door after you, never before you).

E.g. in our case - actually, R has very sensitive skin. She is a Jack Russel Terrier, and apparently they are prone to it. Probably one of the major things that aggravates it, is the fact that she still thinks she is the leader and I am her pack dog. So she likes to lead me off on our hunting adventures, aka morning and evening walks, pulling so much that her lead rubs on her neck. I did try the methods suggested in the book last year, and we came some way to improvement in R's overall behaviour, but I admit to being lax and just letting her pull sometimes. So we are back to the situation where she has a very sore looking neck from pulling on her lead. Sooooooo, today I have been trying to follow the Dog Listener's methods again, and whenever R pulls on her lead during our walk, I simply stop dead in my tracks, ask her to sit down, then when she has done that, I take a step forward and she follows me, knows I am the leader. Sounds all very peace-loving and hippy, but it works. But my goodness, it takes FOREVER to get 100m down the road doing this every 2 or 3 steps, which is how much she is pulling!! So today's walks were a bit stressful. And as I was doing my take one step forward, make R sit routine tonight, a stupid woman comes out of some shop and goes "oh, she is so cute".
Now, our little R-chan understands the word "kawaii" (cute) and she laps it up whenever anyone tells her she is kawaii. I said to the woman, "I am in the middle of training at the moment" and she was like, "oh, but the dog is wagging her tail, she wants to play" and starts patting R. I was sooooooooo livid. I wish R was a more aggressive dog and I could have used the "sic 'em" command, hehe. So I still have a lot of work to do with R. She is still only just over 2 though, and as a Jack Russel is probably quite high strung anyway. Hopefully tomorrow's walks will be better though.

Now if I could only find a solution to her freaking out whenever I even touch the vacuum cleaner. I currently put her in the toilet while I vacuum or else she would destroy everything in her site - she just goes ape. It is not the sound that bothers her, I think she may want to play with the vacuum head? Whatever it is, it is annoying!

But we still love ya, R-chan.

And K just *adores* you!!

Reporting back...

Operation De-clutter:
well, there will be no photos of the declutter, because I am too embarressed to show everyone what a really pathetically small area I am talking about, hahah! But I think it is a great idea, which I will use for my own reference only in the future! On Friday, I actually did manage to get the area around the phone and genkan, and the table all de-cluttered......and all the clutter moved to form another pile of clutter!! Some of the stuff went in the "I will deal with this later" pile sitting in the bedroom clutter. I am trying, but I think my body us not built for keeping a house clean tidy and decluttered, *sigh*. Baby steps, right?!? I still have the area around the TV to do, as that was the most cluttered, and I am going to be brave and post the pre-clutter picture here. The original idea was to keep K away from the TV, by using her playpen, but gradually all the stuff that we didn't want her to touch, and other random stuff ended up there.

Stay tuned for an de-clutter update sometime in the next millenium.

Sew it:
Nothing happening on the sewing machine front yet. I am still thinking of buying a machine, but haven't looked any more into it. It will probably be another dust collector, anyway. I might go into the Janome shop down the road one day this week for a squiz. And I am going to check out that link, thanks illahee.

My time:
This weekend just gone, I had my very first bout of "my time". J looked after K for the whole afternoon, from her after lunch nap until she went to sleep at nighttime, while I was off at the movies (THE MOVIES .... I haven't been to the movies since J and I went to see the documentary movie Deep Blue several years ago. Oh, he did remind me last night that we saw some movies, including DaVinci Code while we were on holidays in South America. But the last movie in Japan was Deep Blue!!)
A friend and I went to starbucks (where I ordered a VENTI (?? the hugest one anyway) sized frappacino and a poppy seed cake) then to see Sex and The City (while pigging out on a L size popcorn and a soft drink) then finished it off with a few chuhais and skewars at a yummy yakitori place. Hehe, I think I got carried away, but I was excited about being "free"!! I really enjoyed SATC, so glad we saw it on the big screen. It was funny, and entertaining and pulled on the heartstrings too.
This is the first time that J has looked after K for such a big chunk of time. Actually, only the 3rd time he has looked after her while I do something other than go to the dentist. One time, was when friends were here and I took them out to TOkyo Tower at night, and the 2nd time was a nomikai with the local mums group, that he rang me up at 2 and half hours after it started asking when I was coming home. Hm. That didn't do down well!
But yesterday, they had fun together, and so I think it was good for him too. Am already planning my next mini-getaway

But can I be a real wuss(and oyabaka), and admit that on the train ride home, I was soooooooooooooo lonely - it didn't feel right just being me on the train, without having to entertain a 1 yo with random songs, or pulling out more snacks etc. I missed K. We have been lazing around all day today, as she wouldn't leave me alone most of the morning, I think she missed me too (haha).

Gari-gari-kun (it's an ice block):
I am eating a cola flavoured one as I write this. Yum!
J always says to get one from the bottom of the freezer because they are the lucky ones. They have had this competition going with gari-gari-kun for like the last 30years or something that you can win a free gari-gari-kun if you get the lucky one, with "winner" on the stick. We got a winner the other day, actually, but that was when J picked it. The last several we have eaten (ok, it is our summer addiction for this year) I picked out of the freezer, and I have no luck whatsoever so they have all been losers. Oh well. Guess it just means I have to buy more!

to sew or not to sew

THAT is the question.

I am thinking of buying a sewing machine. It is the 2nd time I have seriously thought of buying one. Last time was when I was pregnant with K, and had delirious ideas about making baby clothes. HA! This time I hold no such dilusions. I will use the machine for hemming only. I already have several items of clothing (and some curtains too actually) in need of some hem work. But since I know NOTHING about sewing, I have been shying away from buying a machine. I just don't know what to look for. But, I happened to see one at Donkey Hote last night when we went for a family excursion after dinner. It was a "Jaguar". A quick search on the internet and I realised that the price at Donkey was actually higher than the rrp. Gasp. So if I buy, it will be from Rakuten.
Anyway, another search for an English site brought me to this fantastic piece of work. From what I could gather before my head exploded from the tremendously badly designed home page was that Jaguar is actually a Japanese company. And they have sewing machines that are good for overlocking (something I have heard of, but am yet to fully understand the concept of). But basically, I really don't understand ANYTHING that they are saying on this page. Soooooo I figure if I buy the cheapy one for beginners, it will probably still do more than I can, so I can't go too far wrong. I am gonna keep looking around a bit - there is actually a Janome store 150m away from my house. Hey, I wonder if I take the clothes that need hemming into the Janome store, and pretend that I am looking to buy a sewing machine, if I could somehow swing it to "practice" on the machines in there.........then I wouldn't have to buy at all (ahahhahah!)

I've decided

Today is going to be the day that I de-clutter.And I am putting it out there in blog land as motivation for me to actually do something rather than procrastinate the whole day away. (Yes, I realise I am already procrastinating by blogging about something I am yet to do, but it is a start, surely).
There are basically 4 areas that I want to de-clutter: the dining table, around the phone, the genkan and around the TV. Does't sound like much, but if you could see my house....well, let's just say that I have been secretly taking lessons from Granny K.
I hope to report back with a de-cluttered life (or bench space at least) at the end of the day.
But first, a R-chan needs a walk (my 2nd procrastination, and it is still only 8:30am)

Milk and Ginza

I've got the hiccups. And they won't go away. I haven't even been drinking.

We just got home from the shops (not the really popular supermarket near the station, because that really wears me out going at this time, toooo busy, which means that I can't take K in the stroller), just to buy more milk. We are going through sooooo much milk lately, I am thinking of adopting my own cow. I am drinking a lot, mainly I think because I have been making more western food, and there is nothin I like better with a roast lamb, for example, than a big glass of cold milk. Or a bottle of red wine, of course.

J rang up this afternoon (twice actually, but I missed the first call because I was having a major power nap with K, apart from the weekend, this was the first time in ages, honestly). He was in Ginza and wanted to know if I wanted him to pick up anything for me. Ha. Ha. Ha. How are you supposed to respond to THAT? I put in a request for a diamond tiara from Tiffany's. He said why don't I bring you home some hotel bread. Hmph. He had 2 hours to kill while waiting for some clients, before taking them out to dinner at the hotel restaurant, in Ginza. So he won't be home before 11pm at the earliest is my guess. It will all be forgiven, of course, if there is something bling in his bag for me, haha.

Wouldn't you know it, as soon as I started writing this blog, my hiccups stopped. How funny.

apparently orange crayons taste good

so, how did it get to be Wednesday already?!?

Oh, I know:

We left home Friday night right after dinner and headed down to the PIL's summer house for the weekend. It was nice - J ran around doing all the cooking, and I even got a nap on the sofa while K had her nap. But I still had to do the morning calls. Ok, K is very easy, getting up at about 7:30 most days, so I know, I know, I have nothing to complain about. But it was still giving me the pips when J managed to sleep in until at least 9:30am while I was up, walking and pooping the dog, and entertaining K just like every other normal day. No such thing as a weekend for mummies.



So we were away all weekend anyway, and then Monday was a catch-up day. As in, we left the house in a rush on Friday night, so I still had stuff everywhere, including a pile of ironing that yes, I still do for J, what can I say - I am hopeless at housekeeping, so I feel that it is the least I can do. But before the catch up, I made a quick dash to Costco. A week before when we went there, we saw the 2008 model Maclaren stroller there. My very good japanese friend from when I was here on JET is 6months preggars, so I was going to get the stroller for her as a baby present. But it was all sold out, in like less than a week! argh. After walking around for about 20mins, all I had in my trolley was 3*1L of milk. You know when you go with a purpose, then you just don't want anything else!? Well, it was like that. But I figured I couldn't go to the checkout with only 400yen worth of stuff, so I threw a 2kg bag of chicken breasts and a 1kg of lamb into the trolley and felt better. I made the most DELISH lamb roast on Monday night, if I do say so myself.


And the gravy was FAB- secret ingredient.....well. you try to guess! J couldn't pick it.
Oh, and the most amazing thing - K did pee-pee in the potty!! It was just before shower time and J had her sitting on the ptty while he got a towel and she was like "pee-pee" and she DID it. Her first time!!

Tuesday was playgroup, our first meeting since the summer holidays, so it was great to see everyone again - and how fast all the kids grow, even in just a month! We had lunch with everyone, then caught the train home (after stopping off at the 100yen shop for 15 useless but "for some reason they seemed necessary at the time" items)

And then all of a sudden it is Wednesday already. Today we stayed at home, mainly because it is sooooo hot today! Even inside with the aircon on(set on eco at 28deg) we are hot! K is currently drawing with crayons - she seems to have really taken to this drawing business all of a sudden. Every time I turn around, she has climbed up on the chair at the table (see a pattern here?) and grabbed a pen to start drawing.

Dinner has been cooked - yummy Alfredo style chicken and mushroom pasta. But just got call from J that he will probably be having dinner out with boss and clients. Oh well, more for me!

OMG, K has just eaten half the orange crayon!!!!!!!! aaaaarrrggggh