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!

bits and pieces

I think that 五月病 finally hit me... talk about ギリギリ! If it had have hit me much later, I wouldn't be able to pull the 五月病 card. lol.

So just feeling "listless", add that that a bit headachy, and the fact that it has been HOT the last few days and you get the picture. J also felt sick last night - it hit him all of a sudden too. wonder what it is/was?

Am feeling a bit better now though - might be the 2 glasses of vino I had after lunch!? haha.

Guessing I should do a round-up of things, coz if I try to post everything in full, I will be here all day. Let's see if I actually can brief it (I am known to ramble...)

• chinese for dinner


This dates back to last Thursday night. I made my favourite "chicken and cashew nuts" FROM SCRATCH, and added some 麻婆豆腐(mabo dofu spicy tofu) from the packet, 青梗菜 (chin-gen-sai - which I think is what we call bok choi?) with oyster sauce and some steamed asparagus. It was all pretty darn good too.


• R is back

She spent last week at the PIL's. When she is here, I complian about her going spaz over the vacuum cleaner, and stuff, but I really miss her when she is gone. We took her out last night to play at the park with the soccer ball. She is an amazing soccer player, this dog. And it is soooooo funny to watch.I might try to get her on video doing it one time....


• Ikea

Went to Ikea a few weekends ago, and found this awesome tunnel for K to play in!! And since we are 親ばか we even bought the golden retreiver, who she LOVES.

It's name is "goldie" and when we say "where's goldie" she goes and gets him and gives it a big hug and kiss. too cute.


• Midori Sushi

no, the sushi was not green, but we ate at Midori Sushi on Sunday, the PIL's shouted us (yay! tastes even better when you don't have to pay, lol). If anyone is looking for a great sushi joint, then Midori Sushi is IT! We used to go all the time when we were "courting" (hehe, nice word for it) and BK (before K) but haven't had a chance to go recently. This time though, it was perfect timing as K fell asleep just as we sat down at the counter (I had her in the ergo) and slept through the entire meal. We were there for about 1.5hours.

I went all out this time and had:
1 海鮮サラダ　（seafood salad shared amongst all 4 of us)
1 plate of various clam saashimi 貝刺身 :　赤貝、ミル貝、あわび、つぶ貝
2貫　うに, sea-urchin one normal, one that had been preserved in salt water
2貫　はまち (they didn't have any ぶり so had to go for the はまち。 ぶり (yellow tail) is my ABSOLUTE favourite, but the hamachi was pretty good too.
2貫　平貝　(taira-gai) with lemon and salt YUM!
1貫 こぼれうに (sea urchin that is overflowing off the rice)
1貫　こぼれいくら (salmon roe that is overflowing off the rice)
and 2 beers!!

That is all I can remember, might have had more?! It was all DELISH though. And the best part - K slept the entire time we were at the counter, on my back in the Ergo.

I really recommmend Midori Sushi if anyone wants reasonable but yummy sushi in Tokyo. We always go to the original store, in 梅丘 (Umegaoka on the Odakyu line) about 15mins (?) from Shinjuku. FWIW, it cost about 14,000yen for all 4 of us, and me and FIL were drinking. And MIL only orders the most expensive Tuna and Uni. The sushi ネタ are all so big you get full quick, so we always take our time. and sitting at the counter is the best way to go.　But be warned - we have had to line up here for 1hour sometimes, especially for weekend lunch. On Sunday we went at about 1:45pm and got in straight away!


• Italian for dinner


Last night was Italian...in a bit of a strech of the word. We had タラコ spaghetti, margerita pizza, salad with smoked salmon. And a teeny-tiny bottle of lambrusco that I bought at the discount store for about 200yen!! I had half of it last night, and the last glass today with lunch!

Nothing exciting really, but that was the round up.