Some days I should just stay out of the kitchen

today I

* made my favorite almond cookies, was hoping to shape them into hina-sama shapes. K and L helped cut out pig shapes, hearts and flowers and I made just two (prince and princess) Hina samas. So glad I didn't waste my time shaping them -- all the biscuits Mergd together to form one big flat mess on the trays in the oven ;( not sure what went wrong, as it was kinda my fail-safe recipe....not anymore,right??,

* made mini quiche (since had the oven going anyway making failed biscuits) with broccoli and tuna, in wanton wrappers for cases. shouldn't have strayed from my normal quiche fillings.....K didn't like it, as I expected;( And the quiches all stuck in the muffin tray and came out looking like a big mess.

So it was a kinda epic fail day in the kitchen.

In other random news:

**Cleaned the kids room, living room, kitchen only to have them messed up even more than when we started about 5 mins later:( sigh. But I guess that is a daily thing, right? )

**Got halfway through the mountain of clothes waiting to be folded and put away. was gonnna do the rest once the kids were asleep, but after an EPIC three hour nap from BOTH kids, bedtime was pushed back til close to 9pm... So I am now sitting under the kotatsu watching dead boring Japanese tv instead of folding.

**I've gone caffeine free! Decided last week to try it - was drinking cups of tea all day long, and the cookies that go with the drink of tea got out of hand, so that my clothes are now all too tight - a problem in winter, unless I can find some potato sacks;(
am actually feeling a bit better without the caffeine/all-day-long drinking, and enjoying my camomile, rosehip and decaf teas. I have drunk coke, and eaten chocolate though, so not fully de-caffeinated yet, but it is a process, right?!
actually, it IS a process, as I am hoping to go sugar-free -- starting March, I am gonna attempt my no junk food/chocolate diet, and try to cut out sugars from my diet. I think this will be challenging. But hoping that I can do it!

**and I haven't forgotten my 101 things....although I think I still have about, uh, 101 things to complete. (sigh) if only the kotatsu wasn't so cozy...........

more bullets

I reckon I've got a good, oh, 2 mins to update before L decides to let me know that it is "all about him", haha. For now, at least, he sleeps, so I will try:

L had his first trip to a shrine today, at 3 weeks old. We went sightseeing in Kamakura. He also had his first BF at a shrine, lol. I remember we took K out sightseeing with my parents to Asakusa when she was about 2 or 3 weeks old, and I was BFing her outside the main shrine there too. Too funny.

J rang up 4:30pm on Friday afternoon - on the home phone (bcoz I have a habit of leaving my mobile on manner mode so never hear it ring, oops). Was a bit worried why he was ringing at that time of day, thought something might have happened.....turned out he had just got a phone call from his boss (who himself was o/s on a bus. trip) with a decree to go to Indonesia for a trade fair. From Monday. So he leaves tomorrow morning, for a week. Gets back the day my folks leave, next Saturday. (sigh)

Made the trek out to playgroup during the week - was great to catch up with everyone, and show off L ☺
After playgroup, we walked around the shops for a bit too, so it was a long day in the end, but worth it! Although I passed out that night, and had trouble waking up Fri morning too (was actually woken by FIL's 100 or so phone calls - he was ringing to ask if it was convenient for him to come over and do some plumbing work here, (he is fixing up the outdoor garden hose connections etc).Granted, it was 9am or so, so any normal person would be awake, but I wonder why he thought after me not answering the first 5 calls to my mobile OR the call to the home phone that it might be convenient?? He just kept calling until he got me anyway, and came over anyway, so we were stuck in the house Fri while he did all the work. DOn't want to sound ungrateful as he has done a fab job of insalling hoses on the balcony, and in the backyard, but it is never at our convenience.....(see below)

RANT starts here:
On Sat the PIL both came over - was supposed to be the last time to see my parents, so we were gonna have lunch. Also a kind of late mother's day, since they were away last weekend. When I spoke face to face to FIL on Fri, I said that it would be better to do lunch, as L gets a bit fussy in the evenings, and also he wants to be nursed more often. I suggested a bbq at home, as going out for lunch is a bit 面倒くさい too, but he said that I should discuss with J when he gets home from work and get back to him (Why can things never be decided, always takes 4 or 5 times to get anything decided argh!)

Ater J's phone call that he was going on a sudden business trip, I knew that he would be late home Fri night, so rang FIL after dinner to say that we would just do lunch on Sat, prob go out somewhere as not enough time to prepare anything now, and that they should come by around 10:30am or so.

So come Sat morning, and they don't turn up until nearly 11:30am, with 2 boxes of donuts...Give them about 10mins here, and then FIL "suggests" that we go out for DINNER instead and just have something light (perhaps donuts?) for lunch.

I lost it. What is the fricken point of me sitting there the day before telling him that evenings are not so good, so lets do lunch, when they arrive and want to change the whole thing to suit themselves anyway????? If we go out for dinner, it means getting home late too, so K doesnt get to bed until too late, L being fussy, and someone having to prob hold him the whole time at the restaurant, and the biggest fear I had was that it would mean that PIL would stay o/night too. I am just not ready to have them stay over here, with my parents too, and me up half the night with L, and then have PIL up at 4am (coz they dont sleep) fart-arsing around the house, AND I would have had to get the futons out for them, and there is nowhere for them to sleep as I am in the spare room with L at the moment anyway. Just everything that prob doesnt seem like much now I have written it down, but man it pissed me off. They are nice people, and the do a lot for us, but it is often unwanted help. Take the backyard for example. They NEVER listen to how J wants it done. FIL just does it the way he wants to. Then they get upset and say we don't like the way they have done it - but they won't listen to our requests or opinions anyway.

I worked out the problem with them is that they don't OFFER to help/do things, they TELL US that they are doing the things for us. You can't politely turn them down, as they just won't listen. It is the same thing with going to their house and being GIVEN a cup of green tea/tea/coffee...as opposed to going to someone's house and being offered a cuppa "would you like a tea or coffee?". With PIL we just don't get a choice.

Anyway, the whole "lets go out for dinner instead" pissed me off, I got the shits, had a blow-out with J, yaddi-yaddah, you know the score. In the end we went out for lunch anyway (I guess I got my way, right?) and they left early evening to go home. I felt bad after having lost my stack with them, but man they get to me sometimes.

Oh and the best thing - as they were leaving yesterday afternoon, they turn around to TELL me that they will come back Sat morning (the day J gets back at 11am from Indonesia, and my parents leave around 4pm to go to Narita) to say good bye to my folks and bring presents for them. Oh, and that we should "DO LUNCH" then too. ARRRRGGHHH.

END RANT

L has woken up while I am writing this and is now asleep again on my chest. Cuddly little koala that he is ♥] but now I am getting tired and want to lie down....might try it in case I can get a whole 10mins in before it is boobie time again. The fun!!

talking about boobies, after nearly a whole week of pumping and resting, managed to get back to BF from Tues this week, and have been nursing at all but one feed a day (still get Nanna to give him a bottle of ebm around dinner time so I can get the prep done). Phew it has all settled down and we are back on track with that.

Dont even know if this post is gonna make any sense. Have some serious mumy brain going on at the mo. J asked me to get the bath ready for him and K while he went to the shop to buy some milk (which we had fully run out of) and onions for the curry he was making for dinner (thanks j, yum!), I nodded and said "sure" then promptly forgot about it, so he came home expecting a bath drawn, but instead had to clean out the tub himself, oops. Not to mention my lack of focus/concentration for anything/everything.

would someone please put me in a straightjacket

No, I am not going crazy (well, I guess that is debatable), but I seem to have this horrible infliction, a hand-to-mouth kind of reflex that I cannot control. , Basically, I am very quickly eating my way through anything I can get my hands on. I simply cannot stop eating. If only it was fruit and vegs...but of course, it is random craving type things, like rice and umeboshi (wtf?) and peanut butter sandwiches, and of course potato chips and chocolate - can't get enough of that good stuff. Thank goodness R is away at PIL for a week's holiday, or else I may even have started gnawing on her drumsticks, aaah, I mean legs. I am so not even going to think about what is gonna happen at my next weigh-in (although last week I somehow managed to get through ok, being right on track for weight gain....) I just need some kind of self-control....or a straight jacket to keep my hands away from stuffing my face!

J is away until next Wednesday, in Indonesia/Malaysia for a business trip, which is probably going to be a bit of a waste of time now by the sounds of it, since his boss, who was supposed to go with him was not allowed to board the plane at Narita as his passport only has 4months validity left, so he couldn't get into Indonesia lol. What a dilbo.

Randomly, here are some yay's and nay's over the past few weeks:

YAY
♣ being pregnant, and having a belly so big your legs and butt actually start to look small!
♣ not having to clean or cook for a week or more (while J is away)
♣ having a girls date with K yesterday afternoon, after playgroup. After lunch, we went to Krispy Kreme donuts and sat like big girls on the comfy sofa chairs (one for me, one for K and one for "baby" (her doll) while we enjoyed the original glazed krispy kreme donut each, and a glass of water since they had no de-caf.) The we walked around a shopping centre (although I only actually went into two shops, H&M, and all we bought were hair clips for K!...looking forward to getting back there once I am back to normal-ish size, and Starbucks where I got the new sakura mug!). It was so much fun, I just let K do as she wanted (within reason, of course, the usual hold hands on roads rules were still enforced) but I let her take as much time as she wanted dawdling, picking up leaves outside etc. I actually felt relaxed after a shopping trip - amazing!
♣ doing K's hair in braids and piggy tails..she loves having her hair done, and I enjoy doing it! And of course she looks so damn cute with it all done up.
♣ being able to spend 1-on-1 time with K (probably the last chance for a while once TJ-baby gets here)
♣ being entertained with K's funny K-isms and just watching the things she does, the way she plays. She has really grown up so much, and I can't believe she will be 3 in just a few weeks!
♣ having a bubble bath
♣ going out for lunch with a friend, at an all-you-can-eat buffet!
♣ 30-Rock. My most recent US sitcom addiction. I am almost at the end of season 1 already.
♣ thinking of names for TJ-baby....and *possibly* having found a good girl's name

NAY
♣ getting wedgies from my undies - even the big gramma type ones (hence proving that indeed the butt is getting bigger, and the tummy/butt ratio thing is just an illusion)
♣ the house being a mess after not having to clean for several days already....tomorrow is designated CLEANING day (weekends mean nothing when J is not here)!
♣ missing J
♣ the skype connection to Indonesia being crap and not actually being able to talk properly when J rings
♣ eating so much I feel sick (but then starting again almost straight away - I am like a bottomless pit at the moment!)
♣ a stuffed up nose that I can't seem to get rid of
♣ trying to think of a good boy's name for TJ-baby...yikes. I wish I had kept the list we made before K was born....
♣ TJ-baby's "low kicks" (or possibly headbutting) - an experience I am not enjoying. Luckily they seem to have stopped for a while and we are back to regular punching bag exercise.
♣ J taking his super warm down jacket with him - what am I supposed to wear? I can hardly zip up any of my own jackets at the moment.

things I've done this week

not really exciting, but:

finished reading a BOOK! ( (Mr Toppit) (and I only started it over NY too)

had friends over for playdate and lunch, and made filo pastries - yum!

found the big park closeby (on 2nd attempt, today with J - we looked it up on google map before heading out!)

tried new cake shop (up behind station) - average

had neigbours over for a playdate, and sussed out some info on local pre-schools

found an English preschool close by (and also double the price of local schools, sigh)

watered the garden everyday (the cycad, lemon tree and fan leaf palm we planted after NYs are thanking me)

managed to leave the house 9/10 times without my phone. If only I was trying to make a statement.,....unfortunately, I am just forgetful....

made lemon slice, mushi-pan, and just bought some peanut butter from Costcos to make peanut butter cookies. Enjoying the baking (but may HAVE to stop until after my next docs appt)

finally got set up for online banking for my Japanese a/cs (then got slightly depressed when I saw all the "outgoings"....

watched very little TV, neither online US sitcoms nor J-TV. About to make up for that now with an episode or two, maybe Gary Unmarried, for want of something better until the next ep of GA airs next week.

skyped with my BFF finally - we kept missing each other over Xmas and NY.

and acted in several "My Little Pony" skits, with director K (hehe)

hospitals, police stations and the big apple

On Christmas Eve (afternoon) after a long day out and about at playgroup, followed by lunch out with everyone (who would have thought I would want to eat after pigging out so much on Xmas day! lol) we got home, and I had just changed into room wear, with a nice pair of thick socks, put on the kettle and poured myself a cuppa, when I was coming down the three stairs between the kitchen and living room, and slipped and fell with a wham right on my lower right side/back, then my butt. There was tea all up the wall, and floor, and I was in a bit of pain. And I could feel a sense of dread wash across me....so I sat on the sofa for a while to recover and finished off whatever tea was left in the cup, while googling "falls at 22weeks pg". Most of them suggested calling the docs at least, so I rang up the clinic and they said they would recommend I come in for a check - I had 30mins to get there before closing, so rushed K out of the door to the clinic. Got there in time, had a quick one-over by the docs, ultrasound - baby all well and kicking as genki as usual, so relief there. Was glad I went to get checked tho, for my own peace of mind, otherwise I would have been worried about it until my next check up!!!

Xmas day I then ended up at the police station, as had to renew my drivers license, and only had until today (28th) so figured best not to leave it till the very last day. So we went on the 2nd last day! lol. They are now doing IC card licenses, so I didn't even get my new license on the spot - I have to go back in FEBRUARY (!!!) to pick it up.

Boxing Day we headed in to the big smoke of Tokes. J is being MC at a friend's wedding 二次会 so he was meeting with them at the restaurant for a 打ち合わせ. They invited me to come along too to have dinner after the meeting. We arrived about 4pm, K fell asleep on the train getting there, so was still asleep when we arrived. I walked around the shops (really just restaurants) and then sat down at Maccas with a hot apple pie and cuppa for a while. Then went off to check out the bookstore before we could meet up with them for dinner. They had Christmas Illumination at the building, which was quite nice, but there was soooooo many blue led lights, that my eyes actually started to チカチカする after a little bit! Got home near 10pm.


Day after Boxing Day - I think hitting the big apple got to us, and we all slept it. I even managed to sleep in until 10am!!! Yep, when K woke up (around 9am!), J took her downstairs for breakky which was nice. We walked down the road for Ramen for lunch, then it was just a quiet day at home, rearranging the upstairs bedrooms so that the bunk beds could fit in. We did up our Nengajo in the evening.

Today - dropped off some shirts at dry cleaning and got some more nengajo post cards for the ones we stuffed up yesterday (lol) then the bunk beds arrived, so we set up one in the "kids" room, and one in our room. Tried to get K to nap, but it was already nearly 3pm, so we just read Dora then came downstairs to take R for a big walk. Am hoping that K will crash tonight relatively early now. J is at a work do, his last day of work for the year before NY break. So K and I will eat turkey soup leftovers (again!!) and then try out her new bed! She seemed pretty excited about it, and even though we don't have a super cute sheet and doona set for her yet, so liked the one I did have with ants and 4 leaf clovers on it! The main thing was she wanted the pink blanket, so that might just be enough to keep her in her own bed!

Should be going away to the PIL for NY, either leaving tomorrow or Wed (I am pushing for Wed since J seems to want to stay for 5 (FIVE!!!) days. I think I need one more day of sanity at home to prepare for THAT one.

the week before Xmas

I haven't been blogging much, as I seem to find myself out and about the last few days/weeks running all sorts of errands, doctors visits, shopping expeditions, christmas parties.....I guess it is just silly season business.

Have got a few things under the Christmas tree - all for K of course. Another package arrived today with stuff from my brother. I think she will really enjoy Xmas this year! I have a turkey we are gonna roast up on Wednesday 23rd when PIL come over for our Xmas celebration. Still have to decide what else to put on. Am kinda excited - first Xmas in new house and all that jazz.

Anyway, the week in review:

* Mon - already I can't remember! Oh, hang on - I....nope, no idea. Ah, ok just checked out my 家計棒 and saw I bought stuff at Ito Yokado, so remembered we went down to the bank to pay a tax bill (ugh!and it took forever. had to pay at bank since it was overdue, oops!) then got some stuff for the pot luck party on Tuesday. Afternoon a write off with naps. Also was my nephew's bday last week, so finally got to skype him, which ended in an hour long chat to my sister, also a half hour skype to mum so absoulutey nothing else done in the afternoon!!

* Tues - had a Xmas party at our old playgroup. It is a fair way away, so we didn't get back until after 3pm, and K was still sound asleep in the car until after 4pm!

* Wed - had apt in the morning at ob-gyn (will post about TJ-baby's progress in a separate post I think) then we drove to shopping centre at the next train station area, to see if I could get a Xmas present for my friend at home....no luck. But I still managed to buy up heaps - I am so in a shopping spending mood at the moment. yikes. So much for our budget AGAIN this month, lol. Also wanted to check out what kinda toys are around for K for Xmas - so that when PIL come over next week for Xmas lunch, I have an idea of what to tell them to get (We are going shopping together to get K a present that day too)
Came home to have lunch, but then realised I still had heaps of Xmas cards to post, and really had to get present for friend, so skipped K's nap and we kept shopping by car again in the afternoon. She was a trooper, out all day with no nap. Found something somewhat suitable for friend, so posted off cards and presents in afternoon.

* Thurs - ended up taking K down to peds as she came out with a rash on Wed night all of a sudden. It looked like someone had slapped her face, and it had been attacked by a hoard of mozzies to boot. When we hopped in the bath, it came out all over her back, and she spent most of the night scratching in bed. It had gone by the morning, but we went anyway, the doctor said it was 蕁麻疹(hives), gave us some syrup to try to prevent it coming out again (for a week at least) and cream to stop the itching. After docs, had to ems a package to J's host family in the US with rice crackers, dried squid, character candy stockings for the kids....we always leave it to the last minute, hope it arrives. Then stopped off at the shops AGAIN this time to get some fleecy lined wind proof pants for me (for night time walks with R) in Mens XL!! and some pants for around the house for J (in Mens M!!!- something wrong with this picture, right, lol!)

* Fri - finally a day at home! Spent morning cleaning, and actually feel like I accomplished something. Amazing how much you can get done in a morning. We usually use the mornings to go out, so that we can be home for K's nap, but the afternoons go so quick, and if I end up napping too (being all worn out from the morning activities, preggo excuse that I am using a lot lately) then NOTHING gets done. Since it was nice weather, we got 3 loads of washing done, plants got watered (they were almost on their last legs - my thumb is anything but green!), bathroom got the full treatment, upstairs got aired out all morning and then refreshed with incense burning now, made a batch of cookies, cleaned out the kitchen and rubbish bin. Still have a pile of stuff to do this afternoon, but am taking a peanut butter s/w break now with K while watching Ii tomo.
back again....
After lunch I did a quick vacuum, put K down for a nap and decided that my aching back and I needed more "down time" so put the kettle on, and settled in to watch "Gary Unmarried" with a cuppa and a biccie or four. I am watching the pilot episode, as all my fav shows are on holidays over Xmas, so no newbies online to see. And already it is nearly time for K to wake up again....too fast for my liking.

On another note, it seems that whenever we go out by car to the shops, it seems to take up a whole day each time. Or maybe I just really haven't been out "shopping" for so long,I forgot how tiring it is walking around shops and shopping centres. Until recently, our shopping has really been in and out of the grocery store as fast as we can type stuff. I guess it is a good thing to see that K has got to the stage where we CAN go out for a morning of shopping without it being a disaster (unless of course Daddy comes, in which case K seems to turn into devil child - I guess she is just playing J and me off against each other, but still, doesn't make for happy mummy or happy families. lol)

so much to tell you......

The shift button (that I usually push with my right hand pinky) seems to be playing up, not working half the time and it is pissing me off. I can't manage to switch my (bad) typing style to accommodate using the left hand side shift button. So I am retyping almost everything I type anyway.

I got a shock when I jumped on the scales last night....in preparation for today's doc appt, thought I should pre-weigh just so I wouldn't be surprised when the docs started ripping into me for putting on too much this time. But when the scales were showing that I had put on 3.9kg ALREADY (at week 16!) I was flabbergasted! With K, at around this time, I had put on about 1kg. BIG difference. No wonder I am feeling the need for maternity clothes this time, as I am already so big!
Anyway, a re-weigh in this morning before leaving the house, and I was only up 2.9kg - so it MUST have been the yaki-buta restaurant dinner that we had last night that still hadn't been digested.

Then, when I got to the docs, what would you know, the scales read EVEN LESS again, and I was only showing a 2.1kg weight gain! woo-hoo. Gotta love scales that work the right way for ya! Although it is double the weight gain I had when pregnant with K (so far) I am soooooooooo 納得 of it, because I know I have been indulging, what with french macaroons and chocolates, almost daily butter and french stick eating marathons and the cravings for salty potato chips and maccas.....I was always gonna gain more. I am surprised that it hasn't ballooned out more, ttytt. Now I just gotta put my policeman hat on and not forget that just because I haven't ballooned yet, it does not give me license to keep eating the way I am going. (Although I just had a hot milo, and I am going to have some corn chips tonight after I finish this, because I do feel like it, lol). Healthy eating starts tomorrow!!

Week 16+6days check up. TJ-baby is fine, genki, ぐ～　ぱ～ing and stretching legs when on ultrasound. This time the doc checked out baby's stomach other internal organs and said all are growing normally so no problems there. Baby's head is big, measuring in at that of a 17~18week old in-utero, but doc said that there is 個人差, and the standard measurements are for Japanese babies anyway, so my foreign-blooded baby is sure to be bigger. _(rolls eyes) They said that with K all the way through the pregnancy too, and she was the 2nd smallest in the nursery when she was born, but hey.....My sister and brother were both born small, my sister's three kids were all born small (and early) and K was early and small too. I think it does run in the family, but still, it will be interesting to see what happens this time.
(FWIW, I was born on time and normal weight - how plain, lol)

We had 8 or so of J's friend's over (Japanese people he met when on working holiday in NZ many moons ago) for a housewarming party Saturday night. We snacked on chips, dips, olives, cheeses, salami, and pate (well, I didn't have the last 3) and then had do-it-yourself tacos. It was a really good night! Hopefully next year when it warms up and the grass is ready out the back, we can have some bbq parties too.

We got a new breadmaker!! It was a housewarming present from these ↑ guests. J tried it out straight away on Saturday night, and we had fresh bread at about 9pm, haha. It was sooooooooo yummy. Now I am gonna get some whole wheat and make some even yummier bread! I am so excited because I had wanted a breadmaker for ages, and J's friends remembered I had said that, so it was a really great present. Now the breadmaker is sitting on the shelf beside the rice cooker. Talk about merging of cultures, haha.

and now wouldn't you know it, the whole time I have been writing this post, the shift button on the right has worked fine. It must have been a rogue corn chip crumb or something lodged in there that worked it's way out.

K and I are going for our seasonal flu jabs tomorrow.
There is still no talk about when the swine flu jabs will become available here. My ob. is offering them only to 30week+ pregnant women, as they don't have enough vaccinations available. The other clinics I have tried are still unsure when they will even get the vaccines. It is crazy. Another friend just emailed to say that her daughter has the flu - that is now 3 people I know that have been swined. I am worried that by the time the vaccine becomes available, it will be too late. I am trying to be vigilant with hand washing, gurgling (?)うがい for me and K. And avoiding public transport as much as possible.....but we can't be holed up in the house the whole winter, K needs to get out and play with kids at playgroup, etc. Just hope we can somehow stay swine-free!

I am trying hard to get our new budget/家計簿 working, but it is hard when we have so much stuff to buy for the place. It seems every day we think of things we need to make our life 快適. simple things like towel rails in the kitchen, or cleaning products, or condiments.....stuff that needed to be bought anyway, but still it all adds up when you buy it at once!!! And then this month's electricity bill came in today - wowza. Of course there are more places to use electricity in a house than a 2room apt, but still, it was a shock! The 床暖房 and oil heater we have been using a lot of also adds up. I guess we just have to work our way through things and find the places that we are using up the electricity and then try to 節約 from there. And since everything is all-denka, it is probably more too. Anyway, that is (one of) my aims for the next few months, to try to get the electricity bill down, by cutting down on 無駄使い around the house. They say that even pulling appliances out of the wall over night/when not in use (for e.g. the modem and internet connection) can make a difference too. 頑張ります。

K has been a bit of a pain recently - serious tanty hell going on. This morning there were tears at the breakfast table, I am still not sure why, but it didn't help that we had to be out of the house before 8:30 to get to my docs appt. I was so close to having to throw a half dressed, unfed kid into the car, but she managed to go to the toilet and get dressed just in time to make it! But yeah, some serious terrible 2s going on. Oh, and the major thing at the moment, is her inability to share. No, it is really more of a "pick up everything in the room and hold it to her chest saying it's mine" whenever there are other kids around. Or even better, snatching from THEM. I cannot work out how to teach her to share. It has gotten bad the last month or 2. If we keep going, I am worried that no mums are gonna let us play with them!!!

ok, I have had enough of babbling now. If anyone is still reading, お疲れ様！ I am going to crack open a mitsuya cider and throw some corn chips in a bowl and vege in front of the tv. Remember - healthy eating starts TOMORROW!

a few minutes to blog

I've just given K another 10mins before bed time....since she napped from before 2pm to nearly 4:30pm this afternoon, I figure she is not really tired yet anyway!

J is away on a business trip (he left Sunday morning) to Singapore for a trade show. It sucks that he had to leave half-way during the long weekend. He gets back into town Friday night, then leaves AGAIN Sunday morning to go to France for a week! So we were away for 3weeks in Aus without him, get back for a week together, then he is basically gone for 2 weeks. K is missing him - she was already missing him when we were in Aus, but at least we skyped nearly every night. But he can't skype from Singapore, and just now while I was writing this, the computer let out a tiny "beep" and K thought it was daddy calling on skype, so she gathered up the things she was playing with (a bath seat, and a packet of An-pan-man curry - we just got back from shopping!!) to show off to him, it was kinda cute!

We had friends come over Sunday night to stay - our first house guests! It was cool, and especially as we hadn't seen each other for a while. We still haven't got everything in order in the house yet, but they are cool, and I am sure not worried about having to step around boxes (lol).

We actually bought a new convection oven on Saturday, but I have no idea how to use it so had to cook up the lasagna for dinner in the old oven. The new oven is still sitting in the living room - waiting for the kitchen cabinets to be decided on so it has somewhere to sit! I am thinking of trying it out anyway - have a few ripe bananas, so what about a banana cake to christen the new oven???

Is it too weird to bake a cake in the living room, though?!?

We had an early dinner tonight, after which K was asking to go shopping. Seriously! So we jumped in the car and drove down to Donkey to get some supplies (like mirin, a feather duster, hand soap - all the random stuff!) then decided to stop by the supermarket on the way home to try pick up some reduced meat to make a curry. Found some new back streets which made the trip faster and easier. I am hoping that my shopping trip tonight means that I don't have to go out again now until the weekend. We have playgroup tomorrow, and then the repairman coming Friday to fix the roof where the bath leaked the first day (when they hadn't connected the pipe that carries the hot water into the bath - we had about 1/4 of a bath water on the kitchen floor!)

Ok, it is now getting close to 15mins. Better get this kid to bed.

a bit of blogging

Still don't know if I feel ready to blog again, but since J is putting K to sleep (so that I could actually have a relaxing bath at night time - I usually have a morning 2sec shower!!) I seem to have a few spare minutes.

It is weird - I feel like there are so many things I want to blog about, but whenever I think of sitting down, I end up wanting only to write about what we are having for dinner!! So instead of turning this blog into a foodblog, I have dedicated a-whole-'nother blog to that! Not really sure why, but I have a feeling that I will probably be blogging there rather than here for a while, but I am sure that when I feel the inclination to blog again here, I guess I will come back!

Anyway, a quick round up of things I have been meaning to blog:

*our trip home and all the fun things we did. It was soooo good to catch up with friends that I haven't seen for years - a friend on jet with me, friend from primary school now living in UK and a friend from when I was on exchange. I am also feeling very lucky to have such great friends back in Bris who always make time to see me when I am in town. Even though we hardly ever speak while I am here, it still feels normal to catch up with them from where we left off the last time!

*my feeling like tourist in my own country.
For a while when I found myself not knowing how to act at the checkout, and fumbling with all the huge coins and plastic notes - why does Australia need so many denominations?? I guess this time I had a bit of a bad case of reverse culture shock or something like that. Perhaps it was subconscious knocking of Australia, you know, especially when right after just having bought a place here in Japan.

*observations of being at home and seeing so many friends and friends of friends now (finally, as in there is such a baby boom right now, everyone in their thirties is going all at once for the baby-rush) with kids and the kind of things they talked about. I thought it was really sad when friend went to nurse her 9 week old in a public toilet while we were out at a restaurant for brunch....literally, she was sitting on the toilet seat. Now, I understand that I had issues for the first few months with breastfeeding in front of others, and was no where near smooth at the whole whipping the boobie out, aiming it at K's mouth (teasing her with it for a while at the same time to get her interested) and then keeping it in there, but as much as I fumbled under the nursing cape (and never really "enjoyed" bf like some people say they do), I never felt that I had to do it out of other people's view. I felt sad for her. She also said that some other new mothers around her where trying to tell her that she should put her baby into the nursery room by herself already, or else she would get separation issues. The baby is 9 weeks old, sheesh!! Another friend of a friend was saying how since her baby was born, she has put it on a tight schedule - feeding baby on HER(the mum's) schedule, etc. Perhaps it was just people I happened to be around this time, but I found people to be very "detached"...I guess I am more leaning towards attachment parenting in some ways, if only because of space constrictions in Japanese apartments which sort of naturally lead to co-sleeping, and I so love my ergo and baby wearing! I understand each to their own, and am not knocking their way of doing things, but it sort of re-inforced in my mind that even though Japan sucks in a lot of ways, I think their attitude towards early parenting leans towards attachment parenting styles too, and I am thankful that I got to experience that with K, as I wonder (doubt) if I would have even been exposed to that sort of thinking if we had her in Aus?? hhmmmmm.

*coming back and slowly getting the house in order
We bought a tv stand, display cabinet and side-board type low display cabinet for the living room from Ikea on Sunday night - J spent a few nights putting it all together. The mega-huge 46inch TV sits on top of it, taking pride of place, while we all sit as far away as possible on the other side of the room (as I say, as far as possible in a japanese size house!) so that we dont go cross-eyed! Although, must admit that after a few days, the TV doesn't feel so overbearingly big anymore.

*typhoons.
The winds and rain hit last night, and seemed to petter out by morning, but I drove J to work just in case the trains were all stuffed up....turns out they stopped not long after he should have gotten on, so it was better in the end to have driven home (and it only took 30mins to drive there, 15mins home!). All morning with the wind howling, I was thinking back to when I was in Beppu and a typhoon would come and us contract workers would get the day off work when it was strong wind warnings. I used to think it was so wrong though, sitting on my balcony watching the primary school kids trudge off to school, while we got the day off (only because the uni was on the top of a freakin' mountain and it had its own weather patterns!!). Usually got over my guilt in time to go shopping and long lunching with workmates though. Loved those wine and pasta lunches!!

Tomorrow is Friday and I have more random stuff to do like go to bank (gotta find one around here first) and city hall so I guess another morning will be gone with that. Am gonna walk to next closest station, should take about 20mins and it is all down a slight hill (am gonna catch the train back!). Hoping to make it a bit of an adventure and find new shops of use in the future. At least it should be fine, for the first time almost since I got back, so it is perfect timing for a bit of 冒険。

the end of the ants

(1) I have been reluctant to post about the ant situation, in case they came back, but we have been ant-free now for over 3 weeks. After our visitors left (during which time there were several ant sightings) J came home with some ant baits, apparently harmless to animals and kids, and we placed them around the areas the ants were marching. Within a few days, they were gone. A few random/left over ants remained for a while, but we haven't seen an ant for the whole month of July, so I am going to say that our ant problem is solved. Yay! So much for my eco attempts to get rid of them...should have brought in the hard core store bought stuff earlier.

(2) In other news....we are spending a lazy morning (see a pattern here??)here. Just got back from our walk-with-R-slash-mini-supermarket-run to buy milk and for some reason 5 lemons....what am I going to do with 5 lemons? I soooo get sucked in to the bargain fruit and vege bins out the front every time.

(3) Tonight's menu is going to be:

pumpkin soup (we got given a whole pumpkin the other day!)

vege salsa: tomato, zucchini, enriki mushrooms, and any other veges I can find in the depths of the fridge

corn on the cob

pork steaks

maybe mash potato, maybe just boiled potato - not sure how many potatoes we have left

(no room for lemons in that menu, lol!)

(4) And today K and I will be munching on peaches, pears and grapes in my attempt to be good ;)

(5) It is overcast and not as hot as it has been, which is nice. I still think the aircon will come on as soon as I start doing anything remotely house-work like - I am not a masochist..or is that sadist? Either way, AC will be involved.

(6) Over the long weekend we are going to catch up with some friend's of J from when he was in the US which will be fun. The have kids older than K so she can do her usual idolising trick....

(7) So now the only thing question that remains to be answered it what are we going to have for lunch?? I guess it would be wrong to waddle across to KFC, wouldn't it???? (Angel T says "MUST CONTROL URGES - refer back to No. 4 above!!" Devil T says - just do it, (evil laugh))

what's new pussy cat?

lots of fun things, like:

* mexican night at friend's house on Sat night. we caught the train so we could 'avafew and enjoyed the yummy coronas with lime, a great accompaniment to the soft tortillas with refried beans, home made guacamole, cheese, sour cream, mince and chicken and beef mexican fillings. Ate so much but it was all so goooood! A few bottles of wine over a friendly game of taboo (how much fun is that game! thinking of buying one for when friends come over!). The kids played together well, and K didn't get to sleep until we got home, after 11:30pm, but it was a great night!

* was invited around to a newly found Japanese friend's place today for morning tea, and she even prepared lunch for us. I met her out walking R and over the past several months, we chat when we meet, and she seems really cool. Last time we met we exchanged deets, and today we met up at her house with her and her 2yo daughter and another lady (whose hubby is from the Bahamas) and her 1yo daughter. It was lots of fun, and we chatted about Japan and how cliquey it can be with mama-circles: both of the ladies today had been outed by Japanese mama-cliques at kindy or the park and think it is crazy. They were really cool and down to earth people and I hope we can meet up again soon (probably at my house next time!)

* foreign friend came over with her 2mo daughter this afternoon for a chat. Everytime I have seen baby E she has been asleep, but today I got a little cuddle out of her (yay!). so tiny and light (I am used to lugging a 12kg kid around)

* I made some anzac biccies to take today, and they turned out really nice. The leftovers are running out very quick as I cant stop eating them, though.

right, better get back to dinner prep, hubby should be ringing soon to say he is on his way home. Tonight - alfredo pasta with mushrooms, chicken, asparagus and onion, side salad.

* oh yeah, made a goya champuru two nights ago, reminiscing over okinawa. it was really yummy! I think we will be eating a lot of it this summer. The stuff we ate in okinawa was all quite bitter, so I am ok with it being a bit bitter now. actually enjoying it.

random ramblings

found my keitai. had lost it for about, oh, 4 days. I had it on manner mode, the one that doesn't even vibrate when it rings or emails come in, as I sometimes get 1-giri calls in the middle of the night, or e-mails from donkey hote with their daily specials (signed up for it when we lived across the road from a donkey, and used to do our daily bread and milk shop there....can't remember how to un-subscribe, haha). so the phone was on total silent mode. So I couldnt find it anywhere...until I went to do a fleecy jumper load in the wash, and there is was in the pocket!

we are very lucky we didn't burn the entire apartment block down. when K goes to bed, we use a bed lamp, and turn it off after reading time is over, but before she is asleep. the lamp always gets really hot, so I am pretty careful about it, but somehow the other night it must have gotten moved so that it was facing the curtains. actually, it must have been touching the curtains. because we now have gaping hole in the curtain where the light bulb burnt through. I didn't even realise until the NEXT NIGHT!! we are just SO SO SO lucky that it didn't start a fire. J says its because we bought curtains that are fire-resistant. I am just sick to the stomach thinking about how close we were to a serious disaster.

J is away for work, so I gave myself a designated day off today (I think Monday's are going to become the new Sunday for me!) and slobbed around most of the day. Dinner for me was a quick stir fry of all the left over veges, that turned out a bit champuru like. It was SO nice, and simple! K's dinner was a vege pasta, with pumpkin, carrot and tofu puree for the sauce, with chopped up eggplant, asparagus, zucchini and sweet potato. She lapped it up too.

I realised that lately I have been neglecting R. We haven't had the one-on-one time so much,. So I have decided that we are going to designate at least one time each day for R-chan play. K loves plying with her, so it will be good for both of them, and me too I think.

set myself a few mini-goals of things to do this week, while J is away. K's naps are all over the place at the mo, and it takes an hour to get her settled down (we have started "quiet time" as lead up to her sleeping, but it still takes her an hour to get quiet, before she blows her top, screams for a few mins then falls asleep in sheer exhaustion. this is usually about 2:30pm if we are home. so even if I only let her sleep for an hour, then it means that she is not ready for bed again until after 9pm. tonight it was after 10pm when she finally closed those little eyes. no screaming or anything, just.....awake until then. sigh. so on a normal day. it really means that the only time I have to do things without interruption are the 1hour she is asleep during the day (that is OBVIOUSLY Grey's Anatomy time) or after she goes to sleep, which is the only time I get to see my husband. so while he is away, Ithought I could catch up on some outstanding projects, but it seems I am blogging instead (which is only really to try to stop myself from watching more GA). Now I can't be arsed doing anything of consequence, since Ainori starts toon too....so I eat a piece of cake* and drink a cuppa instead. oh well, will get onto that stuff tomorrow night I guess...

cake, mentioned in * above. I shouldn't be eating any more cake. somehow the 2 or 3 extra kilos that managed to fly back with me from Oz have morphed into another 2 or 3. they must go. they need to go. If only there wasn't all this yummy sweet stuff waiting for me to eat it. but I have taken a small step - I am now drinking my tea SUGARFREE!! I used to take it white with 2 (TWO!!) now I am only white. gotta start somewhere. yay for me.

playgroup tomorrow. this time I have bread in the house (how is THAT for planning) so we can make sandwhiches to take for lunch, rather than the usual last minute buy up at the conbini on the way to the car. yes, am still going by car. We have been on the train, and K has been suprisingly good, but I am enjoying the ease of the car for now. I think that the main thing that is stopping me from training it is that when I change trains, I have to lug the pram up and over the overhead pass to get to the other side of the train line. nope, can't be arsed with that one yet. and I am worried that if I go by train, I will end up shopping before we head home, and buy more crap I don't need, just because K is (should be) asleep in the stroller so I have time to LOOK, haha!

life back in the land of the rising sun

So we have been back 2 weeks now. (Which is half the amount of time we spent in Aus)

I haven't really blogged since we got back basically because I attempted to spend the first few days back in Martha mode, going through the whole house and getting it in a suitable state, washing all the holiday clothes, putting away holiday stuff etc etc, which I did for the first 2 days.....then:

Wed Jan 7th
we had a get together with our playgroup mums for one mum who is heading back to her home country to live. It was really sad to think that she will be gone from playgroup, but I am really happy that she got to go home, as she never really enjoyed her 3 or so years here in Japan. She is such a free spirit, and living in Tokyo just wore her out, I think. I have to admit that her leaving made me think about how I would feel if I was going back to Australia to live. It is funny, I don't think I want to live in Japan for the rest of my life, but right now, I would be really sad to leave my life in Japan (as much as it pisses me off a lot of the time), my friends here in Tokyo, obviously J's family too. It was an interesting revalation in a way, to find that I do indeed think of my life here as home. I think I will try to make some more positive posts about Japan this year too, to remember that!

Thurs Jan 8th
Local playgroup at jidokan. This month I am in the leader's roster, which translates to I am going to organise one meeting this month (on the 22nd) to have a "Let's play in English" day. I am planning that at the moment...

Fri Jan 9th
Woke up with a shocking headache, runny nose, cough....yappari, a cold! Spent most of the day in the house.

Sat 10th & Sun 11th
Went to see PILs for the weekend. K must have caught my cold which knocked her around quite a bit on Sat night. She was chockablock with flem (yuck) and hardly slept. Which means I hardly slept either.

Mon Jan 12th
The public holiday, so we went shopping for a bit. K was still average.

Tues Jan 13th
Took K down to get some meds to help her cold that was not getting much better (still cough and runny nose persisited). Didn't leave the house again for the rest of the day.

Wed Jan 14th
I thought that we were pretty much over the cold. But we still had a quiet day. Today was the day that I understood the reason why people insist on putting all fruit and veges in those little plastic bags in the supermarket....it is so when you are packing your shopping bag after you have paid for it all, you do not end up throwing an onion at the old lady beside you (slipped right out of my hand....oops)

Thurs Jan 15th
Didn't go to our English playgroup as my cold came back with avengance. I had a huge headache, aching bones, puffy face....I was a mess. I can't remember the last time I felt so sick, actually. Went to sleep when K did, both for nap and early at night.

Fri Jan 16th
Still feeling shite, so took the opportunity to sit on the sofa all day, watching episodes of Grey's Anatomy and drinking cups of tea. It was *so* nice. Luckily, K was pretty obliging for most of the day too.

Sat Jan 17th
Visited PILs, stayed for sukiyaki dinner, which I didn't enjoy that much because I still had headache, and horrible tummy ache now too. *sigh*
K showed off her new skill of counting from 1-10, as well as entertaining us all by singing every song she knows......"Twinkle Twinkle", "Donguri koro koro" etc etc. It was so cute!
Got home late, but ended up spending hours on the NEW COMPUTER, just playing really, and enjoying the fast connections and internet page openings.

Sun Jan 18th
Still headachy and tummy achy. Ate nothing all day (didn't even have a drink of tea!) as had no appetite at all. Which turned out to be a godsend - did I mention that food back in Oz was all so yummy, I managed to come back to Japan with a spare tire around my waist. I am chalking up the tummy ache/lack of appetite as a diet trick.
K decided she didn't want to go down for her afternoon nap, so after about an hour of book reading on the bed with her, I gave up. She then fell asleep eating dry sultana bran (the breakfast cereal) in front of the TV at about 4:30pm. Typical. She didn't get to sleep at night until 10pmish. Totally out of whack.

Mon Jan 19th
K and I didn't wake up until 9:30am!! wow!!! While still have this bloody headache, the rest of me is ok (so much for my new "diet" haha) and it was relatively warm today, so I loaded up K into the stroller, and we took R for a nice long walk along the riverside. Met (as in, for the first time) another lady with a baby on her back and a dog (how I usually walk R) so we had a play and a chat with them. J came home from work feeling sick - looks like my cold finally got to him too. I feel sorry for him, as it was not a nice cold at all. Loaded him up with meds and genki drinks and sent him off to bed early.

So basically my life back in Japan has been not much more than staying in the house suffering from this cold. It is amazing how fast 2 weeks can go by and yet I have done nothing. I kinda like it though.... maybe that is a bit of the blues seeping in there though. Tomorrow we should 復活する - planning on going to playgroup, although I have to admit the thought of getting ready (and taking R for an early morning walk) and getting out of the house before 9am seems near impossible to me right now. It also doesn't sound like much fun! But I know once we get to playgroup, it will be good to see everyone again, and nice to have gotten out of the house after my mini-recluse of the last few days.

The rest of J's week in Australia

Wednesday Dec 31st
We left K at my parents house in Bris at about 10am and drove to the coast for our first ever night away from K. I wasn't as much as a mess as I thought I might be. Of course, that was only because I was leaving K with my mum, who has raised and looked after hundreds of kids - there isn't a kid she couldn't look after (read: tame!) She is the mother of all mothers! She is actually who I aspire to be like as a mummy....but my goodness I have a LONG way to go.

Anyway, J wanted to go surfing while in Aus, and since he didn't bring his board, we had to first BUY a new one (how convenient, haha!)So we hit some surf shops down the gold coast highway. Being a better decision maker than me(we are total opposites - he is rash, I am guarded!), he was ready to buy at the first joint, but I convinced him to look at at least another shop. We found a small place where the board shaper himself came out to talk to us. Turns out his wife's Japanese, and he is looking to move to Amami Oshima sometime in the near future - nice! Anyway, he let J try out a board to see if he liked it, which he did, so J bought there. With new board in hand (or at least loaded into the back of the ute) we drove to Point Danger for some not-so-dangerous waves (only small swell)for J and some not-so-dangerous shopping (only bought a cheapie sun dress) for me.

NEW YEARS EVE
In the past, whenever I (and friends) have tried to do something for New Years Eve, it pretty much always turns out to be a fizzer. I think we put too much pressure on ourselves to have a good time. We have gone to fancy balls, gone out to the city, gone out down the coast, had parties at home....but this year, we hummed and haa-ed for a while, then decided to make it a quiet night getting together with me and 2 of my friends from high school, one of whom lives down the coast. So J and I got to her house about 6pm, enjoyed some cheese and biccies and a few glasses of bubbly before our other friend arrived (the bubbles went to my head and I was pished by 8pm, no lie!) Then we all walked down to the surf club to see in the new year. And you know what, I think it was one of the best NYs I have ever had!! Just being silly with old friends, singing classic 80s and 90s songs and having a few drinkies, followed by nachos back at the house as a midnight snack.

Thursday January 1st
We woke up early, about 6am to drive down to Byron Bay for some more surfing. The waves, again, were not really in our favour, so we had a yummy breakfast then tried to reach the back beach at Byron, and ended up 20km down the highway at Lennox Heads(I think we missed a turn). Despite the small waves and choppy conditions, J had a surf, me and friends sat on the grass and watched after taking a VERY BRIEF dip as the water was SOOOO cold. We headed back to Bris mid afternoon, and then went out for delish steak dinner with my parents at a pub.

Friday January 2nd
I had planned to meet with friend L yesterday, but was so buggered from driving up and down the coast that I postponed it until this morning. Since she lives inner city, we took the opportunity to visit the outdoor shops in the Valley, and I got a pair of Fairy Down (NZ brand that was recently bought up by MacPac, and only just available on the Australian market) travel pants, and J got a few bits and pieces. Then we met said friend in the Kathmandu shop, where she said "I don't think I have ever been in a shop and NOT wanted to buy anything before" haha. That is so funny because J and I can spend HOURS in those sort of shops. But put me anywhere near a department store these days, and I am outta there so fast. Got home late afternoon, had a bit of a play in the pool then headed out again to meet friends L and A for a delicious dinner and great night chatting away.

Saturday January 3rd
Hit the shops early this morning with mum while J stayed home with K. Had a few last minute things to get, including a gold chain for myself. I decided I wanted one to put my pendants on. I was looking for a strongish one, and had seen one at about $250, and other slightly finer ones elsewhere at about $140. I was thinking I would just get a thinner one, since I had no more time and couldn't find a thicker one anyway.Then, when the lady in the shop told me the necklace was only $65 I couldn't get to the register fast enough to buy it. When I got home, I looked at the receipt and found out that had apparently bought a pair of "Sterling silver cubic zirconia earrings"!! No wonder my necklace was so cheap! what a lucky bargain!

Lunch today was J's only frey into seafood in Aus this trip. We took mum and dad out to lunch at Wilson's Boathouse at Manly, which has a good reputation for it's yummy seafood. Shame about the service which was CRAP! Totally crap. But the food was amazing, we all agreed on that. The fact that it was pouring rain and 30knot winds didn't deter from the lovely setting, and we also got the chance to watch crazy yachties try to get their 2-man yachts out of the harbour for a race in the wild conditions. Now that is entertainment!

Back home from lunch just in time for my brother to come over - he had been away on holidays to Nth Qld the whole time J was in town, so hadn't had a chance to catch up until now.

Tonight was the big bonanza - 13 of us went to see the Australian Outback Spectacular Show. It was a great show, really good value for money, but the highlight was obviously that J was picked to be in the show!!! He had to take part in the Todd River Boat Race (anyone who knows about Australia would know that Todd River in Alice Springs is a dry river bed, so the race boats made of random materials, like Fosters beer cartons a-la- Fred Flinstone style). J enjoyed it too, and even hammed it up for the crowd and did a fabulous wave for the audience after the race which had my family in stitches. The other highlights of the night included having to wear cowboy hats, getting frozen daiqiris in plastic cups that flash!!! and me and my brother trying to outdo each other in the yobbo steaks. He would yell "you bewdy", I would let out a "yeaaaaooooh!" (first time I did it, he turned to me and asked me why I was miaowing "miaooooowwww" so of course I had to keep on doing it more and more cat-like for the rest of the night.) My nephew said at the end of the show that brother and I are just like each other, haha! All in all it was a great night and fantastic to get my sister, brother, nieces and nephew and 2 close friends together to go. K was an angel again for the night with my mum and dad (who have seen the show 2 or 3 times already).

A week was WAY to short, but I think we got to see lots of people and have some fun too. It was definately worth the big price of the plane ticket for J to spend some time in aus, his first trip back since we got married in 2005. I am sure that he enjoyed it too.

First part of J's week in Australia

Things were pretty maniac for J's time in Australia - a week is just not enough time!! But neither is a month! We had such a great time back seeing everyone in Aus that it was very sad to leave yesterday. Mum and Dad said the house is already too quiet with us gone. At least we have skype to keep in touch.

Anyways, the week in review.....I hope I can remember what we did last week - it was so full on!

Sunday Dec 28th
Having slept little with nerves (of excitement) we headed off to the airport to pick up J. It only takes about 20mins from my parents house to the airport, but I had come through pretty quickly back at the start of December, and I didn't want to have J waiting in the arrivals lobby thinking we had forgotten him so we left at about 7am, the same time his flight was supposed to arrive. We waited and waited and K did a sterling job of waiting for about 40mins, then got antsy, so K and I went to play on a seat nearby, as mum and dad stood on the lookout. There were a few false-alarms from mum ( she saw guy with glasses come through, who looked like perhaps a 13year old Singaporean off the Singapore flight) then Dad (saw a random guy who looked middle eastern!) but eventually J came out and K was super excited to see him, as was I! The day was basically spent interspersed with J napping, and my family and a close friend coming around for a bbq lunch.

Monday Dec 29th
J had a short list of things he wanted to do whilst in Australia, and one of those was to go out on the boat, and go fishing. Monday was a great morning weather wise, so we headed out at 8am for a cruise around the bay, with mum, dad, mum J and K and my sister and 2 kids. We stopped off the back of Peel Island and threw in a line (well, dad and the kids and J did while mum, sister and I ate corn chips and dip inside the boat) but nothing was biting, so we headed off to Horseshoe Bay, which is one of the most beautiful areas of Moreton Bay, imho. I thought we would be close enough to shore to jump in and wade across to the beach, but we were a bit too far for that, so J and the kids jumped off the back of the boat and swam there, while mum, sister and I ate turkey and ham (left overs)and salad sandwiches. It was a really nice half a day out on the boat. We all came home tired as (being on the water does that to you) so lazed around in the afternoon.

Tuesday Dec 30th
Since J didn't actually catch anything yesterday, dad took J and my nephew out in the boat again at 5am to try to get some serious fishing in. All we heard about was the story of "the one that got away"!!
A couple of friends from when I was on JET came around today for lunch - mum and I did a combined effort to make a vege quiche and it turned out really good. They brought around a bottle of NZ sav blanc which we demolished. I was teetering at 3pm! In the evening, Lulu and Shun from Cherry Blossom Adventures came over for a feast (haha) of okonomiyaki. We had met up a few times already but it was nice to have a few drinks and some cheese and biccies on the front balcony watching a gorgeous sunset and chat together. The only downside was all the mozzies, which came out of NOWHERE that night and ate into us all as we ate into the okonomiyaki.

...to be continued...

the week that was

On Wednesday we (me, mum, K, niece and nephew) went to Australia Zoo (was gonna link to their site, but it was one of those that come up automatically with audio and it was of Terri yelling out "crikey". Not what I needed to hear. I could't turn it off fast enough. I wont - put anyone else through the trauma, so no link here). It wasn't too hot a day, nor were there too many people there, suprisingly for beign school holidays. We walked around all day, watched a crocodile and animal show, saw all the animals and ate our picnic lunch in the sit down food court area because we couldn't find any grass (that didn't have kangaroos lazing around on it).

K loved patting the kangaroos, although I think she may be a *bit* confused as she kept calling them "hippos". We are reading Sesame Street Little Ernie's ABC at the moment, and "H is for Hippo"!

Wednesday night I left K at home with mum and niece and nephew while I went out for dinner with friends for one of their birthday. We ended up at the same cafe we always go to when I come back, sitting in the same seat as last time too, al fresco out on the sidewalk and spent a great couple of hours chatting and laughing. K was an angel for mum, she went right off to sleep, most likely as she was tired from walking around Australia Zoo all day - man I was tired too!!

Thursday and Friday we didn't do much, just stayed around the house, went across the road to the park to play, and napped. It was nice to just enjoy the afternoon seabreeze we get at my parent's house (they are across the road from the water, and we always get the lovely breeze)

This morning we went Saturday morning shopping, a ritual in our household. We started off at the farmers market (which is only on once a month) down on the waterfront, enjoying some Andes music as we bought up yummy fresh fruit and veges. Then we went to a small shopping centre, where we bought the rest of the essentials. We used to go to this particular shopping centre every Sat morning (and every Thursday night for a while after Thursday night "late night trading" came in about 25years ago!)and I remember buying cinnamon donuts there often. I was gonna buy some today, but resisted.

This afternoon I went over a friend from high school's house today for a bbq. We had a fantastic reminiscing session, watching videos of one of our 21st birthday parties and reading through old letters we wrote to each other when we were at high school. My sides split from laughing so hard at some of the video footage (of us dancing at the party!!)and all the memories that came with the people in the video.
My friend has 2 gorgeous dogs (labs - one gold, one black), and K just loved playing with them all day (at one point she was "riding" on the back of one of them, like they were a horse. She enjoyed it so much so that she didn't have a nap, but she was so happy playing that she was ok without a nap. She crashed tonight though, haha!

Now I am listening to the 'carols by candelight' on TV as I type this up. Only 4 more sleeps 'till Christmas, wow! We aren't doing the Christmas gifts this year, except for the kids, which I think is good, as it is soooo hard now to buy stuff for people - even buying for my 8 year old niece and 12 year old nephew is hard enough: they just have EVERYTHING already. But I just realised I have only got some boxer shorts for my nephew, and nothing for my niece yet.....what to do?? Probably end up panic buying next week. Along with 1.5 million other Brisbanites.

a bullet kinda day

It has been a while since I have done a proper post, but in the meantime, a bit of a random list, in point form.

you know when you go to the shops for like some bread and milk and come out with 3man yen worth of stuff? well that was me today at costcos. oops. Accidently found myself scouring through the clothing section, and couldn't resist this cute little costume piece for K -
getting ready for next year's halloween!, as well as 2 jumper type jackets for J. I usually am pretty controlled at costcos, seriously, as it is pretty close, I only buy milk, some meat/chicken and bread there, so I usually get out of there under 1man yen. But today K was a good girl sitting up in the shopping trolley so I took advantage of it and walked through the middle aisles. A bit of impulse buying never goes astray, right!?? And I DID get a bargain, just hope J likes it now. If not, I am gonna take it back on Friday (and probably pick up something else instead, haha)

so yes, that means that J and I have made up (I didn't blog about it, but we had a little one day spat on Monday.) Thanks to gaijin wife and all my playgroup mummies on Tuesday who listened to me diss him IRL, a lot. By the way, gaijin wife, I won't be cancelling his ticket home anymore, hehe!! We are both soooooooooooooooo pig-headed (頑固) that it is usually the little things that end up in big rows. I felt humbled listening to a playgroup mummy talking about how she can't be bothered arguing any more - that it is not worth it. I so need to grow up and become like her!

I haven't been blogging much recently , and I think it is time to fess up as to why - I am addicted. This time, it is Grey's Anatomy. I found a video store about 5 mins walk away that has 200yen rentals every Tuesday and Thursday. And I am hooked. I am already on season 2 and I only started a few weeks ago. I actually have the box set of season 3 sitting here at home waiting to be watched, but I put it off until I had seen the fist 2 seasons. glad I did. I watched another 4 episodes this week already.

I now GET all the "McDreamy" references. It is nice to be up with pop culture again (yay)

I am also enjoying ironing these days..... that is because I have started doing the ironing during K's afternoon nap, while I watch Grey's Anatomy - that way I don't feel like I am just bludging on the sofa. Of course, it now takes me 2 hours (well, 2*45mins episodes) to iron 2 shirts, haha

K has been much easier to deal with on trains and going out recently. The stickers are a great diversion, and I am a bit less uptight about taking her out, so I think that helps. I am also learning to deal with the in and out of the stroller dance (the chorus of which is usually "I want to be carried now".)

K is on fire with talking lately. She has a pretty big vocab list,both in English and Japanese. She has spent the last week or so throwing her Curious George toy on the floor and saying "ita~i" (it hurts). She is also now starting to call J by his name (as well as Daddy. She uses both). It was funny when we were in a shop the other day, and we went down a different aisle to J. For the next 5 minutes, K was calling out "J" throughout the store until we found him again. It was quite cute.

I think that is all I have time for today. As soon as "Inai-inai-ba" is over (K's absolutely favourite tv show) we are off for a walk with R. Our walks are getting earlier these days, as it is like dark by 5pm. Only a week until we are home!

in other news...

K is now an Aussie citizen. Well, actually she has been for more than a month. Apparently. Sheesh, she is only 1 year old and already I am losing touch with what is going on in her life (lol). So while I was waiting twiddling my thumbs for the embassy to contact me to tell me her citizenship certificate had come through, they were obviously thinking what a wierdo I was for not coming in to pick it up - it came back at the end of September, and the officer on my case supposedly contacted me to come and get it, but I didn't get any email that I can find. Oh well, it is all ok in the end. So I am going in on Wednesday to pick it up and apply for her Aussie passport now!

So J got back from Las Vegas with presents for K and me. K got a whole heap of clothes from Gap, a jacket, a cool burgandy tracksuit set, a gorgeous little purple cardie with just two buttons on the top. And I got a bag from Abecrombie and We don't have them in Aus, or here in Japan for that matter. So I puller out the first item, a cool hoodie with sheep skin type lining. The size looked about right, but then I checked the tag on the hoodie - it said "L".
Me: "Its really small for an L, isn't it?"
J: "Yeh, they were all like that. That is the fashion these days"
Me: "hmmm. How about these pants.....they fit, but I obviously can't go outside in them can I?" I say trying on a pair of yoga pants (even I wouldn't buy them for myself because I know they do nothing to flatter a big rump.)
J:"hehe, no, you can't go outside in them. I guess I should have bought the LL size"
Me: (starting to feel a bit deflated,finds the shop tag on the pants..) "J, these are L size alright, GIRLS LARGE!!!"
aaarrrgggh.
I don't know if I should be flattered that J thinks I am hip enough (and tiny enough) to fit into girls clothes (even though he bought them by mistake) or if he is secretly trying to tell me to lose weight to fit into them, lol!!
So anyway, what am I supposed to do with all the clothes?? A hoodie, yoga pants and a long sleeve top. There is no shop in Japan, but apparently they do ship here. Should I ring them and ask if I can send this stuff in to be excanged for GIRLS LL (which probably would fit, I hope, hard to judge the size) or wait until he might go back to USA to change them, or inlist a friend in the US to change them for me?? Shipping costs alone now will kill us. *sigh* what to do. You gotta laugh though, right?

found out there is no such thing as the good karma fairy. J ended up having to work last night, and tonight, so won't be home for dinner. So all my pre-made dinner from Mon night....I have been eating it breakfast lunch and dinner for the last 2 days to get rid of it.

I guess my housewife hat is still on but it seems to be tipping procariously to one side. I am still making a list every morning, but the list is getting shorter....haha! 頑張ります!

apparently orange crayons taste good

so, how did it get to be Wednesday already?!?

Oh, I know:

We left home Friday night right after dinner and headed down to the PIL's summer house for the weekend. It was nice - J ran around doing all the cooking, and I even got a nap on the sofa while K had her nap. But I still had to do the morning calls. Ok, K is very easy, getting up at about 7:30 most days, so I know, I know, I have nothing to complain about. But it was still giving me the pips when J managed to sleep in until at least 9:30am while I was up, walking and pooping the dog, and entertaining K just like every other normal day. No such thing as a weekend for mummies.



So we were away all weekend anyway, and then Monday was a catch-up day. As in, we left the house in a rush on Friday night, so I still had stuff everywhere, including a pile of ironing that yes, I still do for J, what can I say - I am hopeless at housekeeping, so I feel that it is the least I can do. But before the catch up, I made a quick dash to Costco. A week before when we went there, we saw the 2008 model Maclaren stroller there. My very good japanese friend from when I was here on JET is 6months preggars, so I was going to get the stroller for her as a baby present. But it was all sold out, in like less than a week! argh. After walking around for about 20mins, all I had in my trolley was 3*1L of milk. You know when you go with a purpose, then you just don't want anything else!? Well, it was like that. But I figured I couldn't go to the checkout with only 400yen worth of stuff, so I threw a 2kg bag of chicken breasts and a 1kg of lamb into the trolley and felt better. I made the most DELISH lamb roast on Monday night, if I do say so myself.


And the gravy was FAB- secret ingredient.....well. you try to guess! J couldn't pick it.
Oh, and the most amazing thing - K did pee-pee in the potty!! It was just before shower time and J had her sitting on the ptty while he got a towel and she was like "pee-pee" and she DID it. Her first time!!

Tuesday was playgroup, our first meeting since the summer holidays, so it was great to see everyone again - and how fast all the kids grow, even in just a month! We had lunch with everyone, then caught the train home (after stopping off at the 100yen shop for 15 useless but "for some reason they seemed necessary at the time" items)

And then all of a sudden it is Wednesday already. Today we stayed at home, mainly because it is sooooo hot today! Even inside with the aircon on(set on eco at 28deg) we are hot! K is currently drawing with crayons - she seems to have really taken to this drawing business all of a sudden. Every time I turn around, she has climbed up on the chair at the table (see a pattern here?) and grabbed a pen to start drawing.

Dinner has been cooked - yummy Alfredo style chicken and mushroom pasta. But just got call from J that he will probably be having dinner out with boss and clients. Oh well, more for me!

OMG, K has just eaten half the orange crayon!!!!!!!! aaaaarrrggggh