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.

a day at the dentists

I am just cracking open my second chu-hai (-196C ume, followed by orange). I had a dentist visit today, so I figure I deserve it (strange logic, I know). I went to the dentist that I found last year, when we were living in Tokyo (close-ish to Shinjuku
). Apart from the fact that he is the best dentist I have found so far in Japan, and he is really good with kids (potential dentist for K) I also had a procedure done there last year, so I figure it is worth going out of my way (about 50mins by train) to see him again. "Father, please forgive me, it is 4 months since my last check-up....." I am on the 3-times-a-year check-up schedule, but it seems that all is going well on my front tooth (I had a gum graft done, to try to build up the gum around one of my bottom front teeth, which was basically going bald for want of a better desctiption). I am guessing that it was all the stress of the move and J's new job that LEAD me to eat miles and miles of sweet sugary things which caused the cavity in tooth L4 (I am just making that up, I don't know what the tooth is nicknamed).So today we braved the rain and a grumpy K to go to my 3pm dentist appointment.

You see, K had a bit of a bad night - she kept on waking up crying and rolling around, like she was trying to find a comfy position or something. She did this what seemed like every hour all night. She obviously got a bit excited around 3:34am, because that is the time she grabbed my mobile phone (from under my pillow) and rang J's mobile phone (which was under HIS pillow). I woke up to a not so happy J telling me that K had just rung him. I thought it was a dream. Anyway, this morning K was a bit crabby, so I rang the dentist to try to reschedule, but all other times I could go were booked, so we went today. I tried to keep K awake until as late as I could, in the hope that she would sleep while I was at the dentist, but when you have an hours worth of transit to get to the dentist, it is pretty hard. She woke up when we were waiting at one train station because of the bloody loud announcement saying that the train station was now no-smoking. Thanks. She did fall asleep once we were on the train again, and I thought we were in luck when she was still asleep as I jumped into the dentist chair. But of course, I should have known better, and she woke up basically the moment the dentist sat beside me to say "let's begin". But she was an ANGEL!!!!!!!! again for the whole 2 hours (yes, 2 HOURS) I was at the dentist, getting a filling (from eating all that yummy stuff) and then a good cleaning down. My dentist did everything on this one visit just so that I wouldn't have to trudge all the way back there again next week. did I mention that he is great (better not say that too much, you might catch on that I have a crush on him, lol!) Next visit - in another 4 months time. I am off to pencil him into my diary now.

throwing caution to the wind....

I turned off my very best friend,acey (the a/c) last night before I went to bed. It was a surprisingly coolish night, with a lovely breeze, so I thought I would try to go for a non-a.c. night. Our first since about July 9th (yes, poor lil' acey has been working hard for the money, so hard for it honey, this month - on 24/7 really because even if we are not home, R-chan is, and she would shrivel up and die if I closed all the windows and turned off acey. And there doesn't seem to be much point in turning off acey for an hour or 2, because せっかくall the nice cool air in the house would simply float outside and we would have to start from scratch again.) So I though it would be nice to give her (acey) a break, and let some real air into the house. FWIW, acey is very efficient, and we run her at 28degrees all the time, and she still cools down the entire apartment, which we were pretty amazed at!

So when I woke this morning, it was still nice and coolish, breezy-ish, so I opened up all the windows to try to create some sort of wind tunnel effect, which was going ok until the afternoon lull hit. It is quite warm now, but still not unbearable. Probably because I am making good use of acey's rellies, fannetta (the pedestal fan) and reiko (the 令風機, where you put water into the tank in the bottom and it blows out cool air!) The only problem is that now I can't be bothered leaving the house, cause I would have to go around and close all the windows, and probably start up acey again. So tonight will have to be a "dig something out of the freezer" dinner. Lucky it is just for me - I'm not fussy! lol.

No chu-hai for me today - yesterday's may have knocked me around a bit, I think I may have been dehydrated. That is what I am blaming the post-chu-hai headache on, anyway. Right, off to drink some good ol' h2o. I think K is waking up from her nap too.

fizz and trans-fats

my latest obsession.

I am having an afternoon ume chu-hai with some prawn crackers (which I threw in the hot oil myself - I am not sure exactly what temperature to cook them at, so they are a bit massacred, but hey). I am a bit into fizzy drinks at the moment. Must be the heat. It has started raining here now, so we are inside for the rest of the day - poor R might not even get an evening walk.

J is away in LA for a meeting tomorrow. Well, actually he leaves tonight, gets in this morning, has meeting today, stays tonight then catches a plane tomorrow to get back on Thursday. hehe. These time zones are crazy.

right, off to the sofa with Nora (Roberts) for some trashy romance novel time.

my horoscope for the day

Today will be chock full of simple pleasures that remind you how life can be quite delightful and sweet sometimes! Right now, all you want is a good cup of coffee and a comfortable chair where you can sit and read a book. Or a smile from an attractive stranger as they walk by you on the sidewalk. Or the ability to make your favorite child giggle uncontrollably. Spend time with the special people in your life, and special moments will inevitably result.

and you know what....it was pretty much right on! I had a nice day playing and giggling with K, reading some mags on the sofa, and am rounding it off now with a bit of blogging therapy and a lime chu-hai before I prep dinner!

All is good (again, yay!)

oh,and

I'm trying to gain back the respect of my friends, with an extra large chu-hai (whatcha think, gaijin wife?!lol)

調子にのって・・・

must be going weak in my old age! got a bit "into it" after my first chu-hai and went for another one, but it mustn't be sweet enough for me- 2 sips and I am giving up!
My friends in Oita would be disgraced (not only because I gave up, but look-it's a "yuzu" chu-hai) ごめんな!