a few good things

found K's 母子手帳! Had put it in a very safe place, in the wardrobe underneath everything else, haha. At least it is found, now I can look into the vaccinations that she still needs. Oh, that calls for another trip to city hall.....damn it.

found K's winter clothes! in the same wardrobe! This time they were up on the top shelf, but I couldn't get them down. We cleaned out said wardrobe last night so that is why everything is coming out of the woodworks. It now means that I don't have to buy up all the winter clothes for K, as there are still heaps she can fit into (were too big last year) and also found winter pjs I was about to buy more of. Looks like we can hold off on a big shopping trip for a while yet.

stopped by Costcos on the way home yesterday, and bought a turkey!! A whole one. AND (here is the best part) it actually fits in the freezer!! Ok, it is one of the smaller ones, but still, it will also fit in the oven too. Too much excitement. Now I just have to work out what to do with it - have never cooked a whole bird before, hehe.

and K was a really good girl at costcos yesterday. It is the first time in a while that she has been good while out, and it definaltey made the day a lot more enjoyable for all of us.

am super impressed with our fridge. Not only did the turkey fit in the freezer, but so did 3kg of beef mince (we are having a taco party this weekend for J's mates), 1.5kg of pork, about 5 干物 fish (big ones) and all the other stuff I had already in the freezer. AND the costco pizza box fit into the fridge, just like that!! And we can shut the door, lol! Am loving having a bigger fridge.

mikan. We bought 2 big bags while down at the besso over the weekend. And we are all eating them like crazy. I am glad I finally got a craving for something that is healthy. My fingers are starting to go orange, though.....

K can peel the mikan by herself. I think that is cool!

also brought back our doonas and blankets, that were in storage at the PIL's. It has been nice enough weather to wash and hang them out today, so am expecting a toasty sleep for all of us tonight (as opposed to the three of us fighting for the one single doona and single blanket!)

and finally, I have piles of ironing to do, all of J's workshirts. And this is good becau--------------se......... it means I get to sit in front of the computer and watch some english tv shows. I sense a bit of GA viewing this afternoon!

diamonds are a girl's best friend...

especially when they *do* show up!
I found the missing diamond ring last night. yay. It was not where I thought I saw it last, which now gives me hope for finding the 母子手帳. It was in the same drawer, but not in my jewellery case, but put away safely in it's own jewellery box. I have put my engagement ring now into it's original box, waiting to take it back to the place we had it made so they can fix the claw. I feel better it being off my finger in case the stone comes loose, and I also feel secure in the fact that I will not lose the engagement ring asI have now blogged about where I put it, lol.

Today is another day of rain, rain, rain. 100% chance of rain today - they were right! I was hoping to go down to the main station area and get some library books, halloween related stuff from 100yen shop and do some grocery shopping for dinner tonight, but will not be venturing out in this rain. So will probably have to drive down to a supermarket. Since J brought back the French butter, he tried it out on toast this morning, but said he couldn't taste much difference, and needs to try it on a french stick or baguette, so I am going to get one for tonight. Which means dinner will be something that goes with bread....hmmmm. Still thinking what to do there.

As for the bringing in of cheese, butter and salami....well, it was all very low tech. J bought it at the supermarket just before he was heading to the airport, and put it in those silver coolers-type bags but with no dry ice or anything, just as is, as he put it into his suitcase. Not the best way to transport cool items, I would say, but hey. Lulu, I have no suggestions on what to do for sausages, as you don't want it to stand out that you have them and get them taken off you, right? My parents once brought over prawns - frozen, and put in one of those foam eskies with dry ice in it, sealed and then put inside another foam esky and again sealed with tape and I think wrapped in plastic (flash-backs to "Northern Exposure", hehe) too. But this was obviously questioned when coming through quarantine, but could get through as it was not a prohibited item. Do let me know if your mum does manage to smuggle sausages in to you - it would be a big coup for Aussies all over Japan, lol.

the biggest loser

It continues.

After the recent debacle of losing my sunglasses before the move (which I never found again, even after searching through all the boxes once we got into the new house - I ended up buying a new pair in Oz) I have somehow managed to lose the following all within the last 1-2 weeks:

K's 母子手帳.

I am sure this puts me at the forefront for the "worst mother in the world (or at least Japan)" award. I realised that I had lost it after I was down at city hall getting the new 母子手帳 for tj-baby, and I mentioned that we had just moved, and the lovely lady there (not being facetious, she was actually really helpful) told me I should get K up to date with her city-offered immunisations, as the schedules might be different from town to town, so I should bring her 拇指手帳 in next time too. So I came home and searched the house high and low, but cannot find it anywhere. Which is strange, because I actually vividly remember it being in a wine box (used as decorative storage item) in the living room. But now, I wonder if, in all my wisdom, I moved it from there to the famous "somewhere safer" which of course I cannot think where that might be. *sigh*

a diamond ring.

*Gasp*

Talking to some people the other day about engagement rings etc, and one lady said that she lost the stone out of her ring. Which made me look closely at my ring, and realise that one of the clasps is all skew-whiffed and out of place, so I thought I should put my engagement ring in to be fixed. And as I quite like having a ring on that finger, I thought I would fish out the three-stone ring that J got me once as a present.....but it was not to be found in my jewelery box. Again, I distinctly remember looking through said jewelery box about a week or 2 ago, after getting back from Oz as I was going to change the ring on my right hand from gold ruby ring I bought myself in Sri Lanka, to either the sapphire ring I bought myself in Hawaii, or the diamond ring J got for me, but decided in the end that the ruby ring fits my fingers best, so left it as is.
When I went searching for the diamond ring tonight, though, of course it is NOWHWERE to be seen. What the hell could I have done with it???

FWIW, the battery charger that I thought I had lost before going to Oz, well, J found that in his unpacking. So maybe there is still hope for me and the　母子手帳 and diamond ring yet. I really hope so.

losing stuff and moving stuff

Sitting here having an ume-shu minus the "shu" (guess that makes it ume juice) and racking my rains trying work out WHERE THE HELL my sunglasses might be. I definitely had them on yesterday afternoon on way home from playgroup (because I basically cannot see without them, even on a cloudy day the glare usually gets me) since I don't remember squinting all the way home. But they are now no where to be found. And I have even gotten well into the habit of putting them in their mega huge sunglass case, so it is not like they wouldn't stick out like a sore thumb anywhere.....

This follows high on the heels of a lost camera batter charger - we have been looking for THAT for 3 weeks now. I cannot find it anywhere. Also, can't remember where it would have been last. Obviously, it is not in all the usual places. gaaah.

And it doesn't help now that we have started packing - I am constantly wondering if I might have put it in with such and such in this box...but I guess it will either turn up before we move, or come out of some random box once we have.

So yes, we are moving, next Saturday actually.

Into a house.

That we bought.

Crazy stuff. It started out as a simple observation that we could *buy* an apartment for the price we are paying each month in rent, but then of course we thought about it and realised that we don't like the apartment lifestyle (what with dog, and kid, and camping/surfing trips, having a car park miles away i.e. not in the front yard is a bummer....) so we started looking at houses. Again, I say crazy - looking for a house in metropolitan Kanto!!!! I don't know how many times we found a great place in Chiba or some other inaka town and said to each other "man I wish we could live here!" but one of main conditions with moving was that J would be able to commute within about 30mins, door-to-door. We figured there was no point living in a great place that HE never got to be in, or got to see us in!!! Cut to 7months later, after searching on the internet every night for houses, spending weekends out looking at houses only to be bitterly disappointed when they are located beside a shinkansen line/factory/cemetery etc etc, or are built on a block the size of what we would use to park the car on in Australia, getting well and truly over the whole househunting biz, and we found a place that we like. It is not our dream home, but it is hopefully ok for now. Saving graces of the house are undercover parking for 2 cars, 4 min walk to train station, and a very teeny tiny, but definitely existent back yard!! We spent the last 2 months sitting on the edge of our seat waiting for loan approval (it came through last week) and J signed the papers yesterday. We have to push the moving to make it by the end of the month, because all of us - me, K, J and his parents - are going o/s on Sept 2nd. We are spending a week in Cairns, then K and I are going down to Bris for the rest of the month (thank you jetstar!!) So basically I will move into my new house, then 4 days later go o/s for a month. Yay.

So I am trying to use up everything possible in the fridge/freezer before the start of next week. I had a pile of capsicums in the fridge for some reason, so last night's dinner was: Spaghetti bolognaise, with red and yellow capsicum and 100% beef mince. Yum

On the menu for tonight:

goya champuru (still got some goya to get ride of)

chili prawns (prawns found in the freezer)

nira egg roll (left over nira)

wakame miso soup (tons of wakame still)

vine-ripened tomatoes (without lettuce because it is so expensive at the moment, and would cause more stuff to go INTO the fridge if I bought it)

Tomorrow night:

pork chops with shiitake mushrooms and onions

asparagus

mashed potatoes

pumpkin

We have one room already full of boxes, and still piles of shit everywhere that needs to be packed, but I am very much a last minute doer. I can't get myself motivated to pack ages in advance, as I am always worried I will need that random object we haven't used since we got here sometime between packing it in a box and moving. J is on my case to do it little by little, which I know I should, but I have assured him that I will get there. I am already having trouble sleeping (must be the excitement) so figure I won't sleep much next week before the move.

One good thing, I have a feeling that the little amount of pre-moving cleaning and packing I have been doing has somehow helped me lose a few grams.... I feel slightly less stuffed into my clothes. Probably the 10000L of sweat that I am outing every time I move an inch. Also have less of an appetite (especially for snacking) so am looking forward to what the scales say at the end of the move! I am already down 3.5% on my starting (over)weight. My goal is to get about 7% off, which would put me back to where I was pre-K. That's too cryptic, isn't it. Basically I have lost 1.5 kg, and need to loose another 2.5kg.

So I guess I should at least attempt to get one box filled while the monster is asleep - yesterday's effort ended up in K packing up half the cutlery in with the winter clothes....note to self, don't take eyes off boxes while K is around. We would have had to eat with out hands until December if I didn't catch her in the act!! hehe.