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.

homesick, hormonal and a little bit hysteric!

yep, that was me last week.

A big thank you to Sarah@mummyinjapan for pointing out that I was homesick - you know, it never even registered to me that that was what was going on. I think it has been a long time since homesickness hit me so hard! I was ready to buy a plane ticket outta here (just for a break) but the summer holidays season is here, and well, we just can't afford a trip home when it costs K almost as much as me, because we have to pay the surcharge for her, even though she doesn't have a seat (wtf!! that is utter crap, but what can you do?).

A big thank you to M-san and Akazukin for your comments too. Everything said really helped put things in perspective for me. M-san, yep, it can be stressful sometimes. I guess I usually don't let things get to me so much, but sometimes, aaaarrrrggghhh!! And I know that at least the attention we get here is generally good attention, not like I imagine a lot of people have experienced in the US or Australia etc with racism just be cause you are Japanese (were you ever told "go home china-man?", or someone would say "They really should speak English now they are in Australia/US/..." when you speak Japanese with your kids) It makes me sick when I hear people talking like this, especially after living here and knowing how hard life away from "home" is. Akazukin - K does the same thing on trains, especially trying to get attention from young college girls or old ladies, waiting until they say "kawaii" then pulling out all the tricks: peek-a-boo, "ito-maki-maki" etc, lol. I am sure they think the same about me too "poor baby, with such a grumpy mother" lol!!

Yes, I think that my hormones were on full-blast after nearly a 2 year absence!! Guess they had some "making up" to do. Hoping things settle down a bit next month, if not, I hope that I will recognise it when the tears well in my eyes over being asked to move out of the way while packing my shopping bag at local supermarket because some old lady is trying to get to the little plastic bags they have to put your tofu etc in!

anyway, I *may* have had a bit of a hysteric break down on the weekend, when the thing that topped it all off was having friends over, and me having to look after not only K, but one of their kid as well while everyone else was chatting/eating/generally being merry. I would like to get away from it all sometimes too, but no-one to look after K for me. J is pretty hopeless when it comes to that. the last time I asked him to look after K while I went out for lunch, he ended up saying that he would come along too, which of course meant that I had to watch K during lunch!! lol. Typical male!?! lol!

But I feel much better having gotten it "out there". Normally, I would keep it to myself, but by actually saying it (and writing it here) and talking with friends, I think it has helped me to realise that I need to be in control myself. And that everyone has moments like this, so thank you again!

Things are better this week. I had an early night last night and now we are just lazing around at home today, taking it easy, me eating nearly all the Aussie chocolate biscuits (Arnotts Caramel Crowns!) that a friend got me from her recent holiday to Aus. Gee they are yummy! At this rate, there will be none left for J, oops! I wonder if i can blame *that* on the hormones too?? lol.

the week in review

saturday morning, 6:03am. We left home in the rain with K (awoken from her sleep to be shoved in a car seat) in a suprisingly good mood. She even managed to fall back asleep on the drive out to Narita. It only took 1hour, almost to the dot, to get from home to Narita, which is pretty cool I think! It then took me something like 20mins to find my way into the carpark - I swear they have changed things out there - I coukdn't find the carpark I usually park in, which puts me out in the open (as opposed to in those multi-story car parks where I can never remember if I am parked in the blue penguin or the yellow giraffe section) and right next to the entrance to the walkway to the airport arrivals floor. So we drove around and around, entered one carpark, then realised it was for buses and employees, so quickly exited that one (nice guy on the exit booth even told me I wouldn't have to pay - gee thanks, I mean, I was in the carpark for all of 5 seconds, I would HOPE I don't have to pay!).
It all worked out well, and i got to the arrivals hall about 10mins or so before my friends arrived, so I had just enough time to feed K her breaky before we got back in the car for the ride home! Oh, and R didn't end up coming out to the airport - actually the PIL's took her for the week, which was a great help, so that while I was off galavanting around the sights of Tokyo, she was being pampered and probably feed up with snacks all day, I bet she loved it!

We actually went all the way down to Odawara on Saturday, to see the Odawara Castle, and Sunday headed to Hakone, the bubbling hot springs of Owaku-dani, and lake Ashi-no-ko and the shrine there in the pouring, and I mean pouring rain. We came back home a bit earlier than planned on Sunday coz it was just tooo wet to do much else.

Monday it was overcast, but not raining, so we headed in to the Imperial Palace, Ginza, Omote-sando and Harajuku and the Meiji Shrine.

Tuesday was a perfect day, so we started off at the Hama-Rikyu Gardens, then caught the "water bus" up the Sumidagawa river to Asakusa. Saw a sumo wrestler down the back streets and got a photo with him - he leaned over and touched K on the head - I think I head somewhere that is supposed to bring good luck? (J knew nothing about it, hehe)! Came back home Tues afternoon for a rest, before heading back to see Tokyo Tower at night.

Friends left on a 9am train on Wed morning out to Narita and K and I have spent the last 2 and a half days lazing around, lying on the couch, taking long naps and trying to recover! K has had a cold (runny nose, all stuffed up, cough and sore throat) since Wed last week, and she got a bit of a temperature again on Sunday night (it hit 38.5) so we took her down to the outpatients again and got some meds for her. Her temp came down pretty quick. But she is STILL stuffed up. *sigh* Apart from Sunday night when she had the temp, she has been her usual genki self, but I have kept her home from playgroup this week and last week, as I don't want to have her spluttering all over the other kiddies and giving them a cold too. And I am all stuffed up too (my sore throat over the weekend has gone, but am still very flemmy). Plus yesterday was really cold, and rainy. Today is back to warm and sunny weather, so we just headed out before to buy some veges for dinner (oh, and a donut from Mister Donut for mummy's afternoon tea break.) Which got me thinking about why if

fruit = fruutsu; and
nut = nattsu; and
donut = donatsu
then why is it called Mr. Donut?

still in front of the tv!

well、 I actually did get off the couch to take R for a walk when realised rain had stopped. Even dropped by supermarket to get some veges for K`s din-dins (somehow a caramel swiss roll cake also sneaked home with me!、 so I did it justice with a cup of coffee for afternoon tea).
they are doing that thing on tv where they show a 1-&-a-half hour preview of a 2hour tv show that starts in less than 2hours time (rolls eyes). And its repeats of stuff I`ve already seen a few weeks ago.guess I can watch something else tonight now! Can`t see me moving off this couch for the rest of the day/night now.

lazy sunday

It`s raining.K is down for a nap, J is at work, R is playing quietly with a stuffed toy in the shape of a bone, and I am on the sofa with a doona and a cuppa, ignoring the boxes around me for a while!

sitting on the sofa

another day of moving over、 yay! but there is still heaps of stuff to move. we have too much rubbish & I know it`s my fault as I`m aself-confessed hoarder. But you just never know when you will need that seemingly useless piece of ribbon or paper bag (yes I am also a bag lady!)
anyway、 we are back into it tomorrow、 which will hopefully be the last day of moving. for now、 I am just happy that I have somewhere to sit and relax with my refreshing vanilla icypole after a hot bath.