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.

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.

singing in the rain

R is back from her week away with the PILs, who, I many have mentioned before, even in the rain feel the need to take her out by car down to the local park or whatever so she can do her business, despite the fact that I have told them numerous times that R is actually toilet trained - you know, we have little doggy toilet sheets here that we put in her house and IF she has to be home alone or IF it is like the middle of rainy season or something, then she can have a widdle there without having to hold it and suffer.

But NO, PILs somehow think that it isn't necessary, and are always crooning about how they didn't need to use any of the toilet sheets when R stays with them - they think they are like super good or something. But in actual fact, they are *+%ing with R's mind!! (lol). After a few days with them, she thinks it is bad to use her toilet, so she "gamans"* until we take her outside. Now since it was pouring all day yesterday, we didnt take her out, because 1) it was pouring!! 2) R is only a small dog - close to the ground. All that water lying on the ground soaks her belly!! 3) we couldn't be bothered going out in the rain!! So she gamaned and gamaned until she exploded all over her house (not on the toilet sheet) and left the biggest puddle of piddle.

So we have to start toilet training again,*sigh* This happens everytime she stays over there. I am grateful that they look after her, especially when I had my friends here, but man I wish they at least let her piddle!!

So anyway, this morning there was a little lull in the rain, so we headed out for a quick walk, to relieve some of R's tension (and built up waz).
We used to have a raincoat for her, but I can't find it, so I did the next best thing - put a plastic bag over her! lol!

it may be a bit hard to tell, but there she is, "wrapped in plastic" lol!
And I am out and about with K on my back, and holding an umbrella (it was misty rain)

and I was in my bright red crocs, which I did take a photo of, but I couldn't save it to my mobile phone for some reason. No wonder people look at us strangely when we go out, lol!


*gaman - this strange fascination Japanese people have of suffering through it. Can be applied to nearly anything I whinge about to J.... (apparently I need to "gaman" more when there is something that pisses me off, as opposed to complaining to J about it.)but is surprisingly "forgotten" whenever a Japanese male in particular has the slightest sore thoat or cough, in which case the never "gaman" and run down to the docs asap to get some meds or have a vitamin drip (rolls eyes).

only day 2?

Tsuyu officially started yesterday in the Kanto region. I am sick of it already.

This year I think I am going to get meself a pair of dem flash wellies coz I am sick of having wet feet and wet socks. Reminds me of when I was at high school - the walk from the train station to our school was alongside one of the main roads in Brisbane. All the cars seemed to take much pleasure in driving through the puddles and splashing the water all over us. There always used to be a line up to the toilets when we got to school - with everyone trying to dry off under the hand driers!! Of course, fold-up umbrellas might have caused some of the damage. At least in Japan they like their umbrellas big. I understand why. A quick walk with R tonight, and neither me nor K in the ergo got even the slightest bit wet (it was only spitting though). Poor R was sopping though... coz she is so close to the ground, her belly gets wets, lol!!

These would be the ULTIMATE wellies: I am usually not a fan of brand names, but I love Paul Smith!! My PS purse is my most prized posession. Alas, I think I would have to have water-on-the-brain (perhaps from too much rain?) to pay $195 for a pair of wellies, so I guess I will have to search for a bad imitation instead.

rain and hats

it's not even the rainy season yet, but another day of rain! Enough rain to make the trains delayed, and our playgroup cancelled (*sigh*) I was looking forward to seeing everyone - we haven't been for almost a month. I even made up sandwiches for K's lunch to take with us, when J msged me to say that the rain and wind was pretty bad, the trains were delayed, and maybe I should reconsider going to the playgroup today. Turns out it was cancelled anyway, so I felt better that it was not just me missing out (hehe). And K's just gone down for a nap now, which is when we would be just arriving at playgroup. She is in that stage where sometimes one nap a day is enough, but sometimes she still needs two. It is hard to gage. But this morning she woke up at 7am, when she usually wakes at 8am (or has been the lst week or so) so I figured she might want to take a morning nap too. (yay, Ergo, for putting her to sleep!!)

Anyhoo, I keep on meaning to recount my recent miracle story. We went shopping to a sports/outdoor shop 2 weeks ago, for J's birthday. We haven't really been to an outdoor shop for a while, so J was SO excited, and wanted everything he saw! especially tents (he "collects" tents, as he says. He has about 7 of them! That means that we can either sleep in a different tent 7 days running OR take 14 friends with us camping, lol!)Anyway, he decided what he wanted for his birthday - these chairs (the second set of chairs, with the high back) and we got one of each in green and maroon (the maroon one is mine!) We used them on our GW camp, and they were SO comfy. One of the other guys had one too - his was navy, so it was pretty funny that we all had different colours!

So we left the outdoor shop, and were just getting off the train at our station when J realised that he didn't have his hat.

It was his "Billabong" baseball type cap that I got him a few years ago from Oz. Of course, I got the blame for it - I must have dropped it off the back of K's pram when I was putting the rain cover on when we left the shop. *sigh*. (Well, granted, I DO often lose bits and pieces, K's socks, hats, blankets off the pram) So while J was away for work last week, I went back to the outdoor shop, 2 weeks to the day, and asked on the off chance if they had found a navy blue Billabong hat near the entrance 2 weeks ago....they reckoned it was a slim chance if we lost it near the entrance. But the staff came back a few minutes later and said they had found one near the toilets, and miracle of miracles, it was J's cap!! I was so excited that we got it back (and that it was found near the guy's toilets, hehe!).