twilight

was so tired tonight but as soon as i got into bed I became fully awake. Am looking for something to do (no, not *that* - j is away for work this week,hehe). A friend lent me books 1&2 of the twilight series and i devoured them. read book 2 in 3 days- havent done that since bk(b4-k) i guess... although there was that nora stint last year... Anyway, I need some more vampire and werewolf action soon. hopefully i will get #3 in the series tomorrow- but HOPEFULLY that wont be until evening bcoz i dont think i should put the housework off for another day: I can barely see the floor and my undies have been worn the right-way-round, inside-out,back-to-front and reverse back-to-front! yep, my latest obsession is in full swing.

Pancake Tuesday (+1)

This morning I realised that yesterday was Shrove Tuesday - I always seem to miss Easter relatated stuff in Japan... but, I figured we were close enough - only out by one day- so I made up a quick batch of pikelets (from pancake mix) and K and I had a lovely pikelet and jam morning tea to celebrate the start of lent.

Then I went out and bought a block of ghana chocolate - so I guess I won't be giving up chocolate for lent, haha.

Oh, and today is Ash Wednesday, but since we live in Japan, I am guessing we won't see people walking around with ash dots on their forehead, like we used to all day after Ash Wednesday mass.

And I guess while I am at it, I should make a note here that Easter Sunday is 12th April. Better remember that one.

kotatsu (oh-oh) and 3-go (go-go)!?

ok, strange title, but I am in bit of a silly mood.

this morning we were somehow out of the house and ready to drive to playgroup by 9:15am (as in, all seated in the car at that time). Then as I got to the traffic lights, I had a horrible thought - the kotatsu!!!! J uses it most mornings for a few minutes to defrost, I guess, while he gets changed (socks go on under the kotatsu - I must admit, I would be the same too!) but her usually turns it off a before he leaves as K and I are not up and about in the living room at that time. But today, I was up. And as I was about to drive away from the house for the day, I remembered that he used the kotatsu, and that it might still be on. So I did a quick u-ey, ran upstairs and checked - yep, it was on. Safe. Reminds me of the time I got to work in Oita, sat at my desk only to get this feeling of dread flush over me that I had left the kotatsu on. I drove the 30mins home down the mountain to check (it was off, oh well) then 30mins back up the mountain to work again. Better to be sure though, right.

And the 3-go, well, it seems that we are no longer a 2-go rice family any more. Last night the rice was all gone - not a skereck left. I like to have some left over, sort of keep it up my sleeve, you know, for K's lunch the next day if needed. So tonight I am cooking up 3-go. I don't know if it is just my imagination or not, but it seems that whenever I cook 3-go of rice, it never comes out as nice as 2-go. Guess we will find out tonight. (It is going with ginger pork, broiled pumpkin (かぼちゃの煮物）and....and....and.... well, I am still thinking of something else to go with it. Maybe some stir-fry veges.

irrashaimaseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

that is the god-awful screach that greeted me at Tullys on the way home from playgroup on Thursday last week. We had just gotten off the train, and K was finally asleep, but we were now only 8mins from home..... so I figured it was a great opportunity for a splurge - quiet time for mummy! I studied the seasonal beverages sign outside Tully's and was taken by their "romance strawberry mocha" and "romance white mocha" - I had to have one, but I hadn't decided which one yet - I was going to do that at the counter, so I walked to the door and went in. And then it happened. 3,4, possibly 5 staff screaching out to welcome me. And then, there were eyelids fluttering, and then, there was a no-longer sleeping baby in the stroller. And then my dream quiet time was gone. All gone. Just like that. Poof!
I must have looked like I was about to cry, as the staff member closest to the door shot out a look of empathy my way. Either way, the dream was gone, and I left, coffee-less. K did fall asleep again as soon as we started walking, so we kept on and did some shopping while she was sleeping. But that is not the point. I wanted a few minutes of nothing. *sigh*

And while I am at it, I hate how when you walk into coffee shops or fast food shops, they want you to come straight up to the counter and order off the menu at the register. I like to look at the menu, think about things. I may ALWAYS order the same thing, but I still like to look. I feel pressured when I have to walk up to the counter and look at the menu there (perhaps that is their aim?!?). I don't understand what diffference it makes- fast food is still 10times slower here than at home, since they usually make it a-la-carte anyway. *end rant*

Anyway, I made up for the missed coffee time, sort of, on Friday, when we arrived 20mins early for a play date. We dropped by Starbucks and tried their honey orange latte! Sort of reminded me of those orange chocolate balls, Terry's or something they are called, right. yummy. K was a dude, sitting up on the seat beside me, kampai with her milk. She lasted for a good 12mins, so I was impressed!

hai, o-ka-pi!

Last Wednesday was a public holiday so we headed out to Zoorasia in Yokohama. (I was singing U2 songs in my head all day for some reason, hehe, which then reminded me of schoolies, as some friends were really into u2, and we were doing some wierd "zoo" dance thing or something. I , myself was more into the chilly willies (RHCP) at that time...but I digress....)

So, Zoorasia, it was an amazing zoo, and I totally recommend it because it has the most amazing range of wierd and wonderful animals, it is really clean and smells like roses (well, maybe not roses, but there is none of that usual Japanese zoo smell around) and the animal inclosures are relatively natural looking.

K's favourites of the day were the elephants (zou-san) and monkeys. I was impressed to see the tree kangaroo, as I had never seen one before, and the Malayan Tapir, which K kept calling an elephant:


but I definately think the highlight was the OKAPI, or as K knows it, the zebra, haha:


very cool

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!

k is for klepto

K has in the past shown tendancies - playing with toys, kitchen timers, cups at other people's houses only to shove them in her bag, where I find them at our home hours or days later. Yesterday, she may have taken the cake (not literally - it was more about taking the toothpaste!).

We were out shopping, and she takes her little shopping bag with her, just to have something to hold, rather than the entire basket which was already weighed down with goods. Yesterday I gave her the toothpaste and told her to take it to daddy, as she was getting bored of the whole "hold hands in the shop, don't touch everything" routine. At the register, she didn't have anything in her hands, but was getting antsy so we proceeded, J paid for everything while we took the anpanman nappies and started to walk to the car for a nappy change, after which we spent 15mins trying to get her into her car seat. It was during this time that she pulled out a nice new UNPAID-for tube of toothpaste from her little shopping bag! oooooooooooooooooooops.

ok, theoretically, we were still in the carpark, and could have gone back to pay for the tube of toothpaste, but...well.....too much hassle. and still had a not-wanting-to-get-in-carseat-for-anything-kid to deal with so we let it go. bad me! But I really must watch her next time and check HER bags for things before we get to the supermarket. Or else I may see her on tv, being busted by the manbiki g-men !

curious

I went to see "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" with a friend last night. We me up in Shinjuku at the theatre, and since I hadn't eaten all day (a story perhaps for another time) I grabbed a basil-flavored hot dog, which was very nice, to tide me through the nearly 3hour movie. I hadn't been dying to see this particular movie or anything (n fact, I would have liked to have seen "Australia", but it is not out until the end of the month, but since J had a nomkai with some mates on Sat night, I figured it was my turn to go out on Sunday night.

I had a bit of a mini-scare with trying to buy on-line tickets - I stayed up until midnight on Thurs night to pre-purchase tickets online, since the movie only opened on Saturday, I thought we would be better to have the tickets in advance, rather than risk not getting a seat on the day. I must have tried 30times on-line to get these tickets. Every time I put my credit card details in and clicked "submit" it came back with a very brief error message of "failed". But the seats were gone. So I tried again, and again,....until I got worried that in fact I had bought the tickets each time, and I was going to be charged for 60odd tickets!! But thankfully, when we got to the cinema, it was packed, so I figure my credit card is safe. My friend pre-ordered the tickets online to be paid by cash, and she was kind enough to get to the theatre an hour earlier to pick them up and pay for them.

So, it was a good movie, interesting, and yes, Brad Pitt is pretty darn sexy in it (obviously when he is younger, haha) although I think the movie put me in two minds in some places...this review seems to sum up my thoughts about that - but it is a fairly detailed review, so I wouldn't read it if you don't want a lot of the story given away.

Post movie we headed off to a yakitori place for some yummy kushi, chuhai and strawberry cocktails!! and a fun few hours of chatting about everything and nothing. It was great to "get away" and J had a good night with K too. I think it is important for him to to spend the time alone with her.

I am hoping to have more of these "get aways" this year, and definately would like to see more movies on the screen. I think next time, I will aim for "Ladies day" or "First of the month day" as 1800yen a ticket is just over the top. Although, prices in Australia when I went back at Xmas were like $15 to go to the movies at Carindale....I remember when I was a young'n, we used to go to the movies for like 7 or 8 dollars. Anyway, it is worth it!

toot-toot

That is the sound of my own horn. And I am a-tooting it!!

I think I have come forward, all be it a few small steps, in my efforts to become a "good housewife". When I set out dinner last night, I noticed that:
* all the plates were hot, freshly cooked (not half cold) which means I am getting my timing (and order) right in cooking things. since we only have 2 gas coils, it means a lot of juggling, but I am getting it!
* there was a huge selection of dishes!!! When J and I first started living together, I was SUCH a one-dish girl. Which is fine with home cooking, but Japanese style, a bowl of rice and ONE main dish just doesn't cut it really, haha. Last night I had a pork and vege stir fry, chinese veges in sweet and sour sauce, renkon kinpira, roasted chicken legs (from Costcos, granted) with fried rice and a side of mini beef udon noodles! Ok, it sounds like a bit of a mish-mash, but it all went together very well, and ALL tasted yummy.
* I am getting my portions right. I used to make MILES of food. Now I try to make enough, but not too much that we get left-overs that I have to eat for 4 days in a row or forget about and simply throw out.
* I am getting better with my flavourings. Everything I used to cook was "aji ga usui" according to J. Last night he even commented that my kinpira was perfect! nice!

Add to that, I am getting better at actually PUTTING AWAY the washing within a day of it being washed...most likely because it is all hanging in the living room (the only heated room) to dry, lol. I actually enjoy doing the washing - sorting it to put in the washing machine, taking it out of the washing machine and hanging it up - recently I don't even mind folding it (although K has taken to "folding" it too, making it 2 or 3 times the amount of work for me, haha) but putting it away has ALWAYS been my downfall. But baby steps, and we are getting there.

And I am keeping all sorts of places around the house spic and span and dust free - places that I wouldn't have even THOUGHT of cleaning a few months ago.

So I just thought I should toot my own horn once in a while too. I know it is all still in housekeeping 101 - "housekeeping for dummies", but to me it is a little achievement. Next, I need to tackle my cluster and hoarding problems. But they are the really big problems....maybe they might have to wait until 2010??

small sigh of relief

This morning when I took R for a walk (at 10am - I just can't face the cold mornings, haha) I saw a mother with a kid about K's age. The kid was in the pram. No, actually, the kid was doing "the prawn" trying to get out of the pram. And he was screaming, a lot and very loud. And while I shot the mother what I hoped was a look of empathy, I was also letting out a little sigh of relief that K is not the only one who nuts out in public. I just never see the tanty-in-public. Even in Aus, for the whole month I don't think I saw any public tantrums. I know they happen, but it is nice to see one that is not coming from my tempremental offspring.

Yesterday we went down to the shops in the car. We were only there for about 20mins, and I think K was pretty good in the shop - carrying the basket the whole time. But she lost it when we tried to get her into the car. I let J deal with it this time - I figure he needs to be the one to take control rather than sit in the driver's seat waiting for it to end sometimes - and calm came about 13minutes later. I guess in the scheme of things, 13 mins is not long but it seems so much longer on tanty-time I am sure.

I do seriously dread taking K out sometimes at the moment though, because I just never know when it is gonna strike. But at least I know that I am not alone!