Flight of the Conchords

Tuesday, but no playroup since we are on summer holidays. I thought that would mean an extra day for us to be pro-active around the house, but it basically meant:

a morning of some paper pushing at the city hall

a walk with R, with K also walking. Actually, this is a big thing, as usually I strap K into the ergo for our walks. I was being brave/stupid to try walking them both. K holds on to R's leash handle, but I actually hold on to R with the proper leash. The walking part was fine until we got around the corner to the park - K wanted to play. Sure, a few trips on the slide, and swing, I am happy to go with that, but trying to get K to come home, mini tantrum time ensures. *sigh*

quick trip to closest supermarket to buy milk. Which results in major tantrum when K refuses to hold my hand to cross the 4-lane main road. I carry her football hold over the shoulder, with her screaming all the way. Finally screams herself into an apology "I'm sorry mummy" before passing out for nap

attempt to make a milo slice, finding out only after I melted the butter that I have no milo left....quick about face to make a batch of anzac biccies and an anzac slice (since I had already greased the pan too, lol)

quick trip to next closest supermarket (this time with K on back as it doubled as an afternoon walk for R) to buy onions for dinner

yummy dinner of hot pasta salad with s/p chicken wings, and french stick

evening walk to park again, this time with K in pram

Actually, the highlight of my day happened while I was folding the washing....I use it as my special time to watch English programs online. Since I have totally worn out all seasons of Private Practice, GA, and Samantha Who?, I was searching for a new show - hard when the tv show titles all mean nothing to me as I am so out of the loop! But I did come across a show that a friend of mine introduced to me a year or so ago......and the episode from Season 2 I watched today was just (WARNING: possible accent mocking about to occur) "ixcellint" for two reasons:
1) because I now know why men stand AROUND the dance floor rather than on it at clubs and
2) because I realised how lucky I am to have NZ friends who are not ashamed to be friends with a little aussie girl like me. (and no, I don't have your purse)

Flight of the Conchords: (about a NZ duo trying to make it in NY)
I think these guys are soooo funny, rotflmao stuff. I am putting a disclaimer on tho, that it is a bit rude (like the "too many dicks on the dancefloor" song that explains (1) above), so watch at your own risk, and it is a bit wierd at first, what with them breaking into song all the time (I guess it could be called a musical sitcom?), but I still think it is just ace.

today

was hot. it still is actually.
I am sweating as I type this out, as everyone else has gone to bed and all the windows are closed!!

Today was a birthday party for my nephew, who turned 12 on Thursday. I sooooo didn"t know what to get him, so I just got a voucher for a boating/fishing shop as he is really into fishing with his dad. He said he wanted a family party this year, I think because K and I are here for it, so we all went over today for a bbq and swim. When I finally got K down for a nap at 3:30pm (rolls eyes) I spent some quality time alone with nephew and his turtle, "squirtle" out on the front lawn as squirts had his run for the day. It was nice. And despite K's late nap, which she didn't wake up from until 5pm (when I "whispered" in her ear to wake up) she went down easy for bed time tonight so all is good.

Today I watched an episode of "Desperate Housewives", and set the video to record Grey's Anatomy - I am not sure what series/episode it is, but I am so hooked, I am gonna take it home with me and work it out!! I am soooo having "Grey's" withdrawals.

Tomorrow is a lazy day, perhaps a trip out to the farmers markets in the morning, then a friend with her 2 labs might come over to visit. From Monday we have my neice and nephew here most days as school holidays have started, so we are going to go to "Australia Zoo" probably on Wednesday, which will be hot (and crowded) but hopefully fun for the kiddlie-winks!

oh, and one last thing:
Today I realised one of the things I miss about Australia - washing that has been dried on the hills hoist washing line, outside. It feels so fresh and warm and like something straight out of a washing powder ad. I DO miss that in Japan.

cow cow

my friends left for the uk this morn,k's asleep, J's out with the boss for after work dinner and drinks, and there's a 3 hr Red Carpet special on tv now!

red carpet

on now!

dubbed

I never used to watch tv shows from home, coz I always had a cheapie tv that was monolingual. But J's tv is bilingual, so I can get the shows like "Full House" and the midday movie in English (and sometimes French for the midday movie, lol!) - we don't have cable or bs or whatever, only the regular tv channels.

But I have recently been watching a show that is from Australia - it is on Monday nights on NHK Educational (Channel 3) and it is called 気分はぐるぐる. ... (I don't even know what it is called in English), and it's about a primary school student called Taylor and her life. I love it! It's just a kids show, but I am soooo addicted, maybe because it is set on the gold coast? It reminds me a bit of shows like "Paradise Beach" and another one called "Ocean something" - all the lesser known cousins of shows like "Neighbours" and "Home and Away" (Aussie TV's greatest productions, lol!)

Anyway, tonight I was gonna take R for a quick walk before the rain hit, but it was already 10mins before my show was supposed to start, so what to do??? then I had a brain wave - I could record it on the hdd!! (It was a brainwave, coz I haven't used the hdd recorded for months!!) So I hit record and merrily went off on our walk. R was happy, K was happy (in the ergo) and I was happy thinking I could watch my show when I came home. BUT (and there is always a but) I forgot that the hdd ISN'T bilingual -------so I had just taped my favourite show dubbed in bloody Japanese.aarrrrgh. I watched it anyway, and got what they were saying, but it just wasn't the same. I think it might be the ridiculously whiny voices they seem to want to use for dubbing? That and the fact that all the voices sound the same on all the programs, so the main character sounded just like Joey from Full House (lol!!)

It's a bit like when I once tried to read a Marion Keyes book translated into Japanese! I hadn't read that exact book in English, but I had read others of hers, so it was sorta interesting to read the Japanese translation, as I could so guess what the original English sentence would have been!! lol. But I only got about a third of the way through it then thought, it would be much more interesting to read in English! So now when I feel like reading in Japanese (uh, not very often) I chose a book that was written in Japanese to start with. I found some of the murder mysteries pretty easy to read and interesting - can't remember the name of one author I read a few of as they were an easy read.

Anyway, the moral of the story is that I will be sure to stay home at 7pm next Monday night to watch the next episode, IN ENGLISH.

* Just found the name of the show - it's MORTIFIED (it's also written in small print on the nhk site, I see)

amazing

saturday night tv is amazingly bad. I thought the acting in the show "Rookies" was bad, but man was the wind knocked out of me while watching the show on after it, "Gokusen".
I am in awe. Or maybe they are actually extremely good actors, to be able to act THAT bad!!?
At least next up is a show that is meant to b funny、゛enta no kamisama゛!

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!