at an impasse

I can't seem to find a free watchable version of GA S05E09 anywhere. My usual site jumps from the 2min mark to the 15min mark, and I cant get it to play properly, and another site plays episode 10 when you click on the link for episode 9. what to do? what to do?

Yes, I am up to season 5 already - wasn't it only a few weeks ago that I was crying over not being able to see season 4? lol. Well, I have been watching the grey on this site, and I just seemed to keep on clicking on the next link, then the next one, until I was halfway through season 5. I can't get enough of it!! (which also explains my lack of blogging recently, despite the two trips that I have to blog about, Okinawa and Golden Week with the PILs; as well as some real progression with K and toilet training)

Well, it's monday again, so I am gonna spend the day cleaning and spic and spanning the joint, and if it is as hot as it was yesterday (30deg!!!) then I might even get more washing done too - lots of rain last week did nothing for our post-holidays overflowing laundry basket. (unless, of course, I can find a good link for ep9 within the next few mins, in which case I will probably spend most of the day watching the rest of season 5 haha)

a bit of fun

can't sleep....again. so I thought I would purty up my page.

the last few nights I have been a bit insomniac-y.
it *might* have something to do with finding CastTv (thanks Illahee!!) where I have started watching "Samantha Who?" and "Private Practice". I watched S04E01 of GA, but then found that I had to pay to watch the next several episodes, so have taken my viewing elsewhere until I find a suitable free GA S04 viewing platform. Oh, I tried "Lime Wire" but all I ended up downloading was the audio, no vision- (did I do something wrong Nooh??? )

I did this

Saw this on Illahee's blog, and couldn't resist. I got a bit caught up in memories though...or should I say, got a bit caught up because I COULDN'T remember half of the places/times/names etc. So I took a while searching through my photos, asking J about things we have done together to get the details. I ended up going overboard with comments in brackets, but hey, gotta write these things down while I remember them, lol!

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland (Tokyo)
8. Climbed a mountain (Major ones are: Mt Fuji overnight to see the sunrise through the clouds; several on the Incan trail to Macchu Pichu; several in Patagonia's Torres Del Paine national park on a 5day 4night 70km hike; Kumotori-yama, Tokyo overnight; Yakushima, overnight to see the Jomon-sugi pine trees; day-hikes to Gassan in Yamagata, Hakoda-san in Aomori, Mt. Kuju in Oita and Mt. Takao, 857m in Tokyo!!)
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables (oooh, cherry tomatoes when I was at uni. Planted them, ate a few then promptly forgot about them.They still pop up every yeat though, hardy fruit!)
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France (no, the line up was too long to get into the Lourve, so I ate ramen at a nasty shop across the road with a Japanese lady who was showing me around Paris)
20. Slept on an overnight train (too many times maybe!? China: Shanghai to Nanking, overnight; going from Beijing to Ulan Baatar, Mongolia, through the Gobi Desert AND BACK, 3days 2nights, Japan: Kansai to Fukuoka, overnight 2003 to start my job in Beppu, Australia: Northern New South Wales to Albury/Wodonga on the Vic/NSW border, overnight when I was a littlie)
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon (only mini-marathons, longest 10km, does that count? Also have done mini-triathlons with swim 800m, cycle 20km, run 3km)
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise (Singapore-Malaysia-Thailand about a week; Chilean Fjordes, 3 days)
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language (Spanish in South America while travelling. Una cervesa, por favor!)
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke (often, and often badly)
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance (not for me though, my boyfriend during uni broke his arm - a complicated break at that- in several places while we were skiing at Perisher/Smiggens at the end of a ski season. We had to get the ambulance to drive the 3hours to Cooma, and I missed out on half the ski trip, boo-hoo. By the time we got out of hospital, there were not more skiiable slopes)
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling (Scuba-diving (introductory dives) here in Japan - in Oita at fishing port!, The Red Sea, Egypt and Phi-phi island in Thailand; Snorkelling Great Barrier Reef and Galapagos)
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater (ET with my older brother when I was just a wee tyke still at primary school; a few grown-up drive-in dates when a bit older....)
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China (2002; walked 10km along it!)
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching (hmmm, seen whales while out on the sea, does that count?)
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy ("doll", who was a doll and "pinky" who was a doll with a pink dress on. Original names, right!)
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar (only cheap stuff though)
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle (well, it felt like it was speeding when I was only 10years old and on the back of it)
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous (The drummer from "Greenday", after a concert he came back to my friend's house!!!! We drank beers on the sofa together.)
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee

I'm red

Spending the whole day wasting time, I succumbed to the crayon test.

You Are a Red Crayon

Your world is colored with bright, vivid, wild colors. You have a deep, complex personality - and you are always expressing something about yourself. Bold and dominant, you are a natural leader. You have an energy that is intense... and sometimes overwhelming. Your reaction to everything tends to be strong. You are the master of love-hate relationships. Your color wheel opposite is green. Green people are way too mellow to understand what drives your energy.

What Color Crayon Are You?

Hmmm, red IS my favourite colour, how freaky. And I do OVER-react to everything, lol. There might be something in this crayon test after all.

playdate and mummy's purse

I managed to get a teeeeny-tiny amount of housework done this morning before we were out the door on our way to a play date. K was packed up with salmon and tuna/mayo sushi rolls (one of each) that I whipped up with a pack of microwave rice (naughty mummy!?!?). Forgot to take anything for me (oops). So came home to make a bit of cheese on toast, only to find the cheese sorta mouldy (that white furry type, only on some of it)...ssssh, don't tell the fridge police (a.k.a. J) about that one.

So, back to this morning....a bit of a struggle trying to get K into the stroller to go to the train station, but I even left home 5mins earlier than needed to account for this! So we made the train, and arrived at our playdate on time. After some playing and some lunch, K was relatively easily bribed back into the stroller with a drink of milk (loves her milk, this one). She was getting sleepy, so I thought I would spend a bit of time looking at the shops, and maybe even get something different for dinner at the nice supermarket with some foreign stuff in it. I loaded up my basket with taglatelli and ravioli, Time-outs (which I was craving last night, but J came back from local 7-11 with a "crunky", which did the job, I admit, and some pumpkin kit-kats, for Halloween I guess - they even taste nicer than it sounds, too!) and a few other carefully thought out items and just as I put the basket down at the checkout and reached into my bag, I realised that I had forgotten my purse!!!! Nooooooooooooo! So I had to leave all my precious goodies at the checkout (I waved them goodbye, seriously!) and come home empty handed. Then when I scanned through the ticket gate at my train station, I saw that I had only 40yen left on my passmo!! And my keitai had died before I even got ON the train this morning. I wonder what would have happened if my passmo had run out before I got home? I had no money, and no keitai. Would we have ever gotten home????

So now I am gonna sit on the sofa for a bit and reflect on just how lucky I am to be back in my own house.....and chomp through a few pumpkin kit-kats, while dreaming of time-outs.

This is my first post from my computer for a while - after our busy week last week, I have hardly been on the computer to check (or reply to) e-mails, let alone blogs. And both J and I crashed early over the weekend.....actually, an afternoon nap would be nice too...shame K woke up as soon as we got home this afternoon.

hyaku

This is my 100th post! yay!

Am celebrating with 100 candles on a cupcake.... I really should take a photo of *that*!

I was going to write more random stuff, but I think the 100th post deserves to be just about being 100. So happy 100th birthday to me (sort of?!?).

b.g.m.

Last week, it was "Echo Beach" playing at one of the local supermarkets.
Do you know the song, it goes like this:

Echo beach, far away in time
Echo beach, far away in time
Echo beach, far away in time
Echo beach, far away in time

I think it might even be an aussie song... wait while I look that one up....

Today I have been bombarded with Brittney. The shopping street has loudspeakers, and that is where good ol Brit is coming from. This morning it was "Hit me baby one more time" and this afternoon they were still thrashing her with a song I can't remember (actually don't know) the title of. It was Brittney though, for sure. I wonder if the local chamber of commerce the offical sponsor for Brittney's return?

I haven't heard this much nostalgic music since I was on a backpackers cruise ship for 4 days in the Chilean Fjords, actually on our honeymoon (whoo-hooo). I blogged about that in a different life, and different blog provider, but I am thinking about transplanting all my South American and other holiday posts to a blogger blog. I think that will be my summer project!

............and several hours later.......
I must apologise to Martha and the Muffins for trying to claim them and their 198o hit song as Aussie. Although, according to the bible (wikipedia) there was a cover version done by an aussie band in 1995....And did you know that "In 2005, "Echo Beach" was named the 35th greatest Canadian song of all time on the CBC Radio One series 50 Tracks: The Canadian Version." very cool.

So here are all the lyrics to that classic song:
I know it's out of fashion
And a trifle uncool
But I can't help it
I'm a romantic fool
It's a habit of mine
To watch the sun go down
On Echo beach, I watch the sun go down

From nine till five I have to spend my time at work
The job is very boring, I'm an office clerk
The only thing that helps pass the time away
Is knowing I'll be back at Echo Beach some day

On a silent summer evening
The sky's alive with light
Building in the distance
Surrealistic sight
On Echo Beach
Waves make the only sound
On Echo Beach
There's not a soul around

From nine till five I have to spend my time at work
The job is very boring, I'm an office clerk
The only thing that helps pass the time away
Is knowing I'll be back at Echo Beach some day

Echo Beach
Far away in time
Echo Beach
Far away in time

REPEAT AND FADE

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.

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!

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!!)

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........