101 things in 1001 days update

Items crossed off the list in the last few months:

27 . Get back to pre-pregnancy weight
28 . Be able to fit into my Helly Hansen bamboo pants again
31 . Get a professional pedicure at least once.
(again! actually 2times while back in Aus. I love the spa pedis there...)

72 . Organise the playroom so it's easy to clean and keep (relatively!) tidy.
I think I can say that the new organiser/cupboards I have in there are doing the job just fine!

90. Go to the hairdressers at least once a year
Also got a fab style cut (longish bob) while in Aus (colour honey brown with blond highlights) on a "grabone" deal. It looked great when they blowdried it in the salon....looks kinda ok still now, but no way I can re-create that salon look, since my hair flicks OUT rather than under :(

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And I am working on these at the moment:
29 . Follow a daily face firming ritual every day for 2 months in succession (0/2)
Started this while in Aus and intend to keep it up. So far 3weeks :)
My "ritual" involves use of lotion, emulsion and cream with nanocube samples that J got :)

54. Read 5 novels in English (3/5)

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Still, it seems like I have a LOT of stuff left to do on this list!!! Perhaps now L is a bit older, and not stuck to the boob 24/7 I will get a bit of a chance to get out and do some exercise? And since K has started pre-school/kindy 2 days a week I might get some time to get the sewing machine out? Well, that is kinda the plan.....

getting back into it...

the Helly Hanson Bamboo Pants that is!!! ( #27 on my 1001 things in 101 days!)

So obviously this blog was abandoned, along with my life in Japan 2 months ago amidst a partial-meltdown (my own and apparently one in Fukushima Daiichi too) that led me to Aus for a break. Well, we got back to Japan earlier this week, and am now trying to re-adjust to life. I lost any desire to blog whilst in Aus, as I often do, as there is so much else to take up my time, and getting on the computer at my folks place can be difficult....

But now I am back, I feel myself starting to think "ooh, I wanna blog about that" a couple of times a day. I guess I will get around to blogging some of that stuff, but for now, the only really important thing I have to blog about is the miraculous re-appearance of my Helly Hanson Bamboo pants. It has been over two years since I wore (fit into) them last, and even then they were verging on camel-toeing :(

But I pulled them out a couple of days ago in my "spring cleaning" effort in my wardrobe, and was pleasantly surprised to see they fit! My other favourites, the red "mamut" 3/4 length pants are also now back in the drawer of clothes to be worn, so I am looking forward to summer now and getting re-acquainted with many old clothing favourites ;)

As for blogging, I have managed to cross a few things off my 1001 things in 101 days list, so will have to update that very soon.

March 11 Earthquake

three days on, and my head continues to ache --I just need an outlet for my fears

I am one of the lucky ones. My family is all safe, and together with me. We had no damage at all due to the 'quake (yes, we felt the quake, the whole house swayed, and I felt like I was on a boat for the next day and a half with all the tremors, but in Yokohama we are so far away from any serious effects)

Yet still I couldn't bear to go to sleep last night for fear of what we would wake up to. What may have happened over night......

Unresolved issues with the Fukushima Nuclear reactors cooling; possible Magnitude 7 earthquake (aftershock?) in the next few days; images on the TV of thousands of people who have lost EVERYTHING - total devastation.

I feel confused - relief that my family, friends here in Japan are all accounted for, yet guilty that we are all ok, while so many others have lost their loved ones; relief that we managed to get supplies like water, canned food, candles so we are somewhat prepared for scheduled power outages, yet guilty when I think that so many people are lining up for more than a day to get minimal supplies like water and rice....

Many people are going back to their normal routines here (there were kids practising baseball in the park as usual, workers go back to the office today, many schools are open as usual....) yet I sit in the living room amist our emergency evacuation stash of clothes, helmets, water, sleeping bags........ready to jump in the car if somethng unspeakable happens in Fukushima at the reactors.

I feel an information overload, yet crave more information. I can't tear myself away from the TV/internet/facebook yet every piece of information, every image I see makes me more confused, scared one moment, suprisingly positive the next.

I want to flee, but if we leave now how long do we stay away for? Japan is an earthquake and tsunami prone country. If we leave now, I wonder how can we ever come back -- surely the fear will always be with us that the next time, it might just be the big one in Tokyo they are always taling about. Running away now, when we are at our most prepared seems innapropriate.

At the same time, the fear of the unknown -- what could happen if there is a nuclear disaster? - runs through my veins. I wont go outside. I wont let the kids or dog out (poor R). Is it over-reacting - we are over 300km away from the reactors? I just don't know......

I feel all of these things, and we really suffered nothing.
I can't even begin to imagine what the people in Tohoku are going through. My thoughts remain with them constantly.

someone's ears must have been burning...

Fri night, J was gonna be late home from work due to a one-day biz trip, so I was gonna miss out on ANOTHER ladies night out. The ladies had already been out once, and I missed out coz J was o/s. The next one is planned for when J is o/s again, so they kindly tried to make a mini-night out when my schedule was free so I could join in. Then, at the 11th hour, J found out he had a domestic biz trip, so I was gonna miss out AGAIN. I swear they thought I was lying about it all!!

BUT, things worked out and he got home at 7:42pm. I left home at 7:50pm, and made it only 30mins late for the nomikai!

AND, wait for it, I even went ALONE! I had assumed that I would have to take L with me, coz, well, J has NEVER put him to sleep, and he usually goes to sleep nursing anyways (at night), so I figured it was a no-brainer that I would just take him with me (wear him while swigging back a few pints, haha). But J offered to try to put him and K to sleep, and the selfish part of me said, why not! I was worried that L would scream and carry on and not get to sleep, but also had fingers crossed that J could "wear him down" (as in wear in the carrier), which he did. And the best part - L was even still asleep when I walked in the door just after midnight! Of course, he woke up the SECOND I entered the bedroom -- I swear he can smell me or sense me or something ;(

So, yeah, I had a great night with some great ladies, and enjoyed a few drinks. It's funny, when K was little, I really really felt the desire to have a night out, to have my own time, to just GET AWAY from it all! (I never got it, until K was something like 18months old, mind you, but I always wanted it). I really have not felt that need AT ALL with L. And now, I don't know what to do with myself when I am on the train alone (why does the same 25mins feel so much longer when I am not trying to calm/entertain a pre-schooler and baby for the entire trip), or in the bath alone (I usually call K in after 5-10mins anyway), or in the toilet alone, hahah!

So, anyways, yay for J, no matter whether his ears were burning OR he read my last post or not, his offering to look after both kids so mummy could go play were very much appreciated! lol.

Petty, perhaps...

But I am not going downstairs, gonna stay up here in bed with the kids and maybe even read a book.

All I did was ask J to brush K's teeth before bed. I had put BOTH kids in the bath myself, AGAIN (despite the fact that he was home) and yes, he did dry off L but really was there any need for him to snidely ask why he has to be the one to brush K's teeth?? It is the ONLY thing that I even ask him to do for the kids. And I have to beg, prompt, reminder him every night to do it. God forbid he should have to help out. In the end I brushed her teeth, got her dressed, got both kids to sleep while he enjoyed a leisurely bath all by himself, the bastard!!!! (said only slightly tongue-in-cheek)
So I am sulking upstairs.

I never thought he was gonna be such a hands-off daddy (sigh)

I feel like that Macaulay Culken kid in Home Alone

or maybe Miss Piggy.

J is off to China this time, for a week, for work. He left at about 4pm this afternoon from Haneda (so he had to go to work at normal time this morning)
I don't know what it is about him being away, but I might have gone a bit mental today.

I had several cups of tea. So I needed something to go with my tea. So I ate half a pack of country ma'am biscuits....and K and I made a chocolate cake, but turns out she didn't like it, so I had to eat it -- with whipped cream leftover from pancakes breakfast on the weekend.

I am feeling like I wanna throw up about now ;(

I have also been skyving around on yahoo auction all day. And bought myself a nappy bag *finally!*

I have been looking at the skip hop dash deluxe for more than 2 months, and wanting to order it from o/s as it works out almost half the price of retail price here in Japan. But I have just not gotten around to sitting in front of the computer long enough to actually order it....so today I put the disney cartoon network on (we are trialling hikari TV, as we just changed internet provider to hikari flets because we got a deal when the new Yamada denki opened up just down the road: buy a 32 inch TV for 500yen IF you sign up with hikari flets. The Tv is now in the playroom, a.k.a our winter hideout and we are now on flets.) So anyway, K has been entertained all day by the likes of "Olivia", "The Suite Life" and soon to be a bit of "Hannah Montana" me thinks. L is happy just wandering around, clapping and trying to eat whatever he can find (DVDs, K's toys, socks, etc etc) And I have been in front of the computer enjoying the thrills of the auction. I have also semi-unwittingly upped the price of a set of 4 nappy covers to 2.5 times the starting price (I bid at 1300yen, for the 4 -- bargain!). I am now "in the lead" for buying them -- auction closes in 4 hours so will see if they come my way, or I have to do some more tricky auction moves to win (must set a final price I am willing to pay for them or else I can see myself getting caught up in the moment and paying something rediculous, lol.

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7:12pm and just over an hour left on the nappies, I am still in the lead! lol
This auction stuff is all very exciting.

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8:45pm and the auction is still going!!
I was a bit naive, it seems, in assuming that bidding 5 hours before end time I would be in the running. Some serious players came out in the last few minutes and started a bidding war, which I participated in ;) Was a bit of an adrenaline rush!!! My highest bid of 4400yen held on until 1 min beforewas outbidded, (thankfully, was starting to get a bit worried I might actually have to buy it for that price, lol!). Final price was 4900yen - still a bargain for 4 new nappy covers, but higher than I was willing to go this time. But there is always next time.... ;)

taking a sickie

L was awake at 6am this morning. He prob would have slept a bit longer if only I wasnt fussing over him, checking to make sure he could breath -- looked to me like his head was wedged between the pillow and J's body, and I was worry-warting ;(

Lots of wind and rain over night and this morning, so I decided to proclaim a sickie for the day, and had 3 cups of tea before 9am in my pjs. But we had to get changed into real clothes as J is off to China next week and needed his shirts dry-cleaned, so into the car and down to the dry-cleaners, and quick stop off at the ymca there to see if they do 一時保育 at the nursery there (they don't) before heading home.

It looked like it was gonna end up being a fine day, so I did a load of washing, which I have just remembered about now (it is hanging outside....and it has started raining again, oh well.)

Sandwiches in the living room for lunch, as we are on day2 of our 3 month trial of hikari tv. bring on the cartoon network. Did you know that Olivia is a cartoon!!??? But apparently even K can get bored watching tv all day, as shown by her actions just now of clanging about the money box, thus waking up a sleeping L, of course just after I poured a cuppa (altho, admittedly it is my 5th for the day now, so I probably really dont need it)

And now that everyone is awake, I guess that means my sickie is over for the day. Better do something. I am thinking of tackling the clutter in the living room -- wish me luck!!

Oh and we are looking for a one day a week day care option for K. She will go to "pre-school" (the Japanese bastarised version, which is actually a pre-pre-school one day a week thing) but I want to put her into day care for one more day a week, so that I can take L to playgroup. I am waiting to hear back from a few places, including the nursery school about 100m away (close would be good) and an international kindy near playgroup (they have a drop-in system, so I could put her in for just the 2 hours or so we are at playgroup). I guess in the end price will be the biggest deciding factor.

four hundred

It's my 400th post -wow!

Thought I should write something so as my MIL rant is not the first thing that pops up on my computer everytime I open it (J *CAN* read English, after all. Soft, ain't I, lol!)

Seems fitting that since this is a celebratory post, I should mention that I won a competition across at Homemade Mom. (thanks again!) I am looking forward to claiming my prize and trying out the "Sing with Olive" application from Swagsoft soon (well, K, not me, will be singing with Olive)

And what else is there to celebrate? TGIF, of course...even if Fri afternoon happy hour is only in my mind ;P

Why the hell....

(a.k.a. "some MIL gems from the weekend away")

Why the hell does she
* ignore the kids... until *I* go to them to hold their hand/pick them up/ whatever, then all of a sudden she rushes in.

* then ignore the kids a few seconds later when she thinks of something else (e.g. "ooh, look, a pretty flower") meanwhile the kid is left tottering on the edge of the stairs, or in the middle of the road or something.

* spend the entire dinner time asking K if she will eat some x, y z from HER plate. K has a plate of her own, let her eat her own stuff FIRST!

* spend the last half of the dinner telling K "If you don't finnish your dinner up, yaddi-yaddi-yah" when it turns out that BEFORE dinner, she plied same kid with a packet of chips (without telling me), but still expects her to eat all her meal?!?!

* then go and buy a dessert for the same kid she had just told off at dinner for not finishing it!

* pick up a happy baby from downstairs where I am, take him upstairs, then promptly leave him on the floor in the living room (where there are a set of stairs with no gate on them) while she fluffs about in the kitchen doing not much at all.

* sneak food to the kids - she seriously gives it to them only when I am not around, really sneaky like, esp when I catch her out. She never tells me she has given them anything, so when L comes up to me munching, of course I get worried that he has swallowed something he shouldn't have/picked up off the ground etc.

* get all offensive when, after she picks L up and shows him the strawberries for dessert, I say "please dont feed him strawberries as he hasn't had them yet". she says "I wasn't gonna GIVE him any". (yeah, right)

* insist on giving me those bloody uht milks for my tea. I DRINK REAL MILK IN MY TEA. (Lots of it, so one of those piddly creamers doesnt even whet the spot!)

aaah, nothing major, I know, but geez it annoys me, lol!

We're on our way

To the tip of the Izu penninsula again. Let's hope J booked the hotel for the right night this time(^з^)-☆
PIL are with us too -- bet they wouldn't be impressed if we get there and have to turn back lol.

Oh yeah and it's snowing!!! Brrrrr