贅沢

J got back this morning from his business trip to France with:














All I can say is YUM. These macaroons are like nothing I have ever tasted - to say the ones I have tried here pale in comparison is an understatement.

He also brought back some cheese, salamis, butter and Belgium chocolates.
I can't work out if I am in heaven, or hell!?!? (As I can't eat half of it, and *shouldn't* eat the other half, at least not all at once, hehe)

the biggest loser

It continues.

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

K's 母子手帳.

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

a diamond ring.

*Gasp*

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

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

the last few days

Had a really fantastic day on Tuesday when a friend from when we were on high school exchange in Nagasaki came to visit. She is now living in NY and back visiting for a week (for a friend's wedding). It was about a year and a half ago when we caught up on her last trip back to Japan (for Nooh's wedding!!)Last time we went out to Shimokitazawa and found a quaint little "wa" place. This time she was kind enough to come ALL the way out to visit us on the other side on town to where she is staying and be the 2nd visitor in our new house!!!!

K was excited to see her, and kept on saying that she was going to say "hello" and "nice to meet you" when she arrived, but went a bit shy when friend actually turned up. But this was overcome with some play time with R and K and a tennis ball on the balcony. From then on she was over excited about it all, playing up a bit during lunch (not eating properly etc) and just trying to show off for the rest of the day!!

It was soooo great catch up - I can't believe that we have known each other for 15years, and have always managed to catch up every couple of years whenever we are in the same city: after exchange when back in Bris, when I used to come to Tokes for JET conferences, and now again while she is visiting Japan!! Looking forward to the next catch up - it might have to be in NY (if only I could swing *THAT* one, lol).......But it was cool this time, because it was the first time I have been able to have her over to my house (apart from parents house in Bris). I stayed with her once when I came to Tokyo one time for a Jamiroquai concert, but this was her first time ever to see my place. I am kinda happy that we now have a place that we can entertain people in (if they are willing to travel all the way to get to us, lol!!)

K missed her nap on Tuesday as she was having such a good time, so she had a mini-melt down at about 7:30pm, and then was sound asleep at 8pm Tuesday night, and didn't wake up until 8am Wed morning. She can do ok without her nap it is really only the last 10-15mins, usually after 7pm when she starts to really lose it, however, it again cemented in my mind that she still needs her naps during the day to keep us all sane at night! I am happy for her to be awake until 9pm or so at night anyway, as it gives her time with J after he gets home from work, and there are no melt-downs as she is not overtired.

Then, after our fabulous day on Tuesday, for some reason things have gone downhill yesterday and today (warning - venting starts here!!) : I am feeling pretty crappy and everything (and I mean *everything*) is pissing me off, little things like:

Waking up (again)dry reaching into the toilet bowl.

Can't find a bloody Mizuho bank (or even atm) anywhere near here, or the ones that are around don't have a carpark and are too far to walk to. Ended up finding an atm near playgroup, but think I may have to change banks or something....

the fact that K won't keep her arms in the childseat seat belt in the car. I yelled at her in the car when out and about on Wed - forgetting that I had the windows down, and some old fart outside on the other side of the road gave me a filthy look. aaaarrrgggh

I have been having almost constant headaches for 2days now.

and I am super bloated and just general icky feeling, including some lower abdominal pain.

I am not concentrating on things at all- driving at the moment is not a good thing as I find myself not paying enough attention.....

My computer is giving me the shits at the moment - keeps on playing up, freezing, doing funky things. I haven't been on facebook for a while as the inbox there freezes and doesn't open for me half the time.

last night I opened the door to the "pantry" (old cupboard we are using in makeshift time until we get new cupboards in the kitchen, probably after the fridge arrives this weekend) and not one, not two but three freakin' tins of random tinned food jumped out at me, and of course, made these big nasty holes in the floor - freakin' tateuri and their cheap-shit lino floors that can't stand up to anything. There are holes and scratches all over the place, which I then get into trouble from J from because I am not careful enough, and it is not normal to drop so much stuff. My mum always did say I was like a bull in a china shop, though.....

oh, and bloody Japanese TV is really giving pissing me off. What was the point of getting a fantsy pants 46inch TV, when there is nothing but mind-numbing crap to watch?

Not a good 2 days overall, but just because of the little things pissing me off. I guess I am tired and worn out (from what I don't know, as I don't do much except sit around thinking about how tired I am, lol), as K and I both went down for a 3 (THREE!!) hour nap yesterday afternoon, and a 2 hour nap this afternoon when we got back from playgroup.

Hoping that I can get over it soon though. I don't like feeling bleugh and crabby all the time. And cracking up at K and her antics only tends to make my head hurt even more. sigh.

blogging instead of sleeping

Thanks for all the comments!!

My baby bulge started around week dot - seriously I feel like I have been "showing" since the start. I could so be putting up bump photos already! The ultrasounds have been the crappy ones that are hard to decipher in picture form. Hard enough to decipher on screen. Which might be good in the end though as I don't intend to find out the sex of tj-baby (didn't for K either- until the doctor came in to deliver K, as in "ganbatte, last push now" and told me that I was "pushing for a little girl" aarrgggh!).

The cravings for salty foods continues- so maybe tj-baby is a boy?? Although I remember sending salt and vinegar pringles to Gaijin Wife when she was preggars with Marina, so I am not sure if the old wive's tale holds true....or *was* that when she was preggars with Shou? hmmmmmm.

I have been trying to limit the AMOUNT of food I have been eating though, and have also taken on eating a bowl of salad before the meal (or instead if it works!!) as I have been feeling so bloated otherwise. Of course, I have only been doing this for 2 days, and have now run out of lettuce so I don't know if it will continue or not.....And I am sure that midnight snacks of boiled eggs (salted, of course) don't help. I am surprised I haven't put on 10kg already!!

I guess it will be nice again being pregnant over the winter - K was due mid April but came early at week 38, on April 2nd. I think the estimate for tj-baby is a bit early so am actually expecting it to arrive early May. It will be a good time of year, though.

Now if only this new sofa wasn't so damn comfy and I could get my barge-arse off of it and get to bed- 1am is way past bedtime, I am sure.

time for a new blog ticker

insomnia - can't get to bed before 1am, even then am not able to sleep

headachy, especially at night time

gassy, IYKWIM.

absolutely worn out after simply walking up a set of stairs

needing to nap in the afternoon (I kinda like this part)

the first thing I hug in the morning is the toilet bowl (I thought this had passed already, but it is back this week)

not being able to watch Grey's Anatomy without ending up choked up and teary eyed (bloody hormones don't mix with Season 6!)

feeling constantly bloated, but yet still wanting to eat, and actually eating it ALL especially the ↓

instantaneous and urgent cravings for: senbei, potato chips, (salty) nuts, fizzy drinks and hard boiled eggs (wtf??!)

yep



12weeks and 4days.

EDD: April 27th, 2010!

All going well so far, baby has healthy heartbeat, and even did a little stretch during the ultrasound at my check-up today, just to show that he/she is genki. Too cute. Still not too convinced on the EDD, though - my personal estimate was around May 12th-14th, and the estimate we got last time was for May 7th, so it is coming forward each time. And the doc said "big baby" so I am wondering how accurate it all is.....I think they said K was big during pregnancy, but ended up born at 2464g at week 38...hmmmm.

Anyway, am very excited about it all, and intrigued at how different this pregnancy is panning out to when I was pregnant with K - the cravings are a totally new thing for me. I never even knew that you could have cravings this early in pregnancy! It seems odd to be feeling queasy at the *thought* of food, but then stuffing it into your mouth (as I have been doing) and feeling good while doing it. I am sooooo gonna put on a pile of weight this time round (gah!).

So I guess the next thing to do is put up a new ticker - will get on to that tomorrow. Really should get to bed now, before 1am hits and I turn into a pumpkin - or I EAT one, lol.

sofa, so good

What a lovely Sunday morning, that I have spent inside on the (NEW!) sofa, veging out after a 5am wake up call. J left again this morning for another business trip - he was home 2nights 1day, lol.

But it was an eventful day yesterday - he suggested we head off furniture shopping again. I have to admit that I was SOOOOO over Ikea and didn't want to go, but there was a rug there that he liked, and wanted to buy, as well as some more bits and pieces, so we went along. Turned out to be the right decision, as we came back with a great sofa, at a great bargain! It was reduced in price as it was the last in the range. Oh, and probably because of the colour - it is turquoise blue!!!!!!!! Sooooooo not what we were thinking of at ALL, but suprisingly, when I saw it out of the corner of my eye in the store, I thought it looked cool, and so did J. Now having it in the living room, I think it looks really good - a definate "feature". And I think it compliments the rug that we had in mind too, and goes with the black/brown tv and display cabinets. So all is good.

Getting it home was a bit of a nightmare though - it comes in 2 pieces, and while one fit in the back of the van, one had to be thrown onto the roof-racks - we got it up there, only to realise that the car wouldn't be able to get out of the carpark, so had to get it down again, drive the car around to the loading bay outside and throw it up again! In front of everyone eating their Ikea hot dogs! I am sure it was a great spectacle to watch.

Got the smaller part of the lounge upstairs somehow, but the bigger part was not gonna fit up the stairs, so J had the bright idea of us lifting it up the slope at the side of the house, which is like a super steep grassy slope, and in through the living room window. I was shit-scared of doing this, as I had vision of me letting go and J tumbling to the ground only to be squashed by a big turquoise lounge suite. Anyway, as luck would have it, the house next door has been sold, and there were workmen in there yesterday (landscaping the back yard, making a wood deck, by the looks of it) and when they saw us about to pull the lounge off the roof, they kindly offered to help lift it up! Sure saved me! So now I am comfortably sitting/lying on lounge (it is a corner sofa).

Also got a new fridge last night - it will arrive probably next Saturday. Again, I think we got a pretty good bargain. It is a 475L fridge (compared to our current "bar fridge" at a measly 183L). I am *so* excited to have a fridge so large. It was the largest fridge that we could fit up the stairs (it is one of the narrow makes). Anything bigger and it would have to be lifted up over the balcony, at an extra 30,000yen or more.

Once the fridge comes, we will have more of an idea of how much extra space we have in the kitchen to put some sort of crockery cabinet and one of those Japanese space saving cabinets with the sliding bench for the microwave oven/coffee maker/ blender and whatever other electrical appliances there are.

It is kinda amazing how quickly you can fill a whole house, lol!

correct protocol?

I am wondering what the correct protocol is when a repairman is here re-wallpapering the roof in the kitchen. Obviously, I can't get into the kitchen, but I am getting cabin fever sitting in the adjacent living room (which is crazy because if there was no repairman here, I would happily be sitting on the sofa all day with no worries what so ever.)

I would like to get upstairs and do some cleaning, but I wonder if it is ok to be out of sight (or, let them out of my site...) or should I just embrace the moment and watch some more Lipstick Jungle - my latest US Drama addiction!

.......TV wins. Cleaning can wait.

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.

in the area

We passed a small hoikuen when we went for a walk with R this afternoon - it is literally less than 100m from our house (and basically flat to get there, which is why we passed it today, as had K in the stroller for our walk, rather that on my back in the ergo, in which case we head down the stairs to the park at the bottom of the hill). While I already knew that the hoikuen was there, it was the first time I got sort of up close and personal to it - I didn't realise that it had a big park right behind it! Anyway, this prompted me to google it when we got home - seems that they also do 一時保育, for about 300yen an hour (how cheap!) Good thing to know!

Then I started googling some more hoikuen in the area, and was super suprised to see the range in prices....found one (that obviously looks very good) but it actually charges 2100yen PER HOUR. OMG . that is just crazy. I realise that 300yen an hour is rediculously cheap, but it seems that about 500-800yen is a normal range. how can they charge 2000yen an hour ??- are they serving the kids caviar and champas for lunch...would want to be for that price!! We won't be going there anytime soon. So, I think I might go to the 300yen an hour place sometime this week and enquire about it...

Also found more shops (supermarkets, dry-cleaning, etc) in the area, about 5mins drive by car, and a bread shop(still yet to visit), 100yen lawson (bread and milk!), and cake shop(yummy cheesecake) all within walking distance (5-10mins walk)

Yay, am slowly getting my bearings.

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。