penguin*penguin

I got K's latest obsession wrong.

The last few days since we have been stuck in the house all day getting over the flu, she must have watched the penguin*penguin song from "Inai inai baa" a thousand times. She is obsessed. I had it on my keitai even, and was playing it to her as she lay in bed.

Anyway, don't you just think this is the cutest song??

flu, part 2

damn. K came down with it yesterday.

it came on all of a sudden, in the morning when she woke up she was a bit grizzly, but I thought it was mainly because she woke with a bit of a fright. She had a runny nose and cough, which I thought was just the end of her cold. no fever (only 36.3 I think it was). So I took her to playgroup. I am the worst mother ever, I swear. At playgroup she was clingy, and runny nosey. I still thought it was nothing more than a cold. Then she got hot. She fell asleep in the car coming home, and when she woke up, she looked groggy. So we waited outside the docs until they opened at 3pm, when they checked her temp (39.3deg). Doc told me I was stupid for having taken her out today. Yes, that was true. I felt SOOOOO BAD. Not only did K have the flu, but there is now the possibility that we have infected all our friends at playgroup. Doctor made me feel even worse when she found out K hadn't had the flu shot. Yes, I am the worst mother. Anyway, we got some Tamiflu and those stickers you put on your chest to help you stop coughing, and another lot of cold medicine (in syrup form - our third lot of this since we got back from Oz! She now refuses to take it and I can't find any way to get it into her (I have tried all the things I can think of, and everything the chemist and doctor suggested!) so I stopped giving her the last lot. The chemist said it was not that important anyway. And I read on the internet that there is nothing you can take to fix a cold so I am not worried about giving this lot to her either.)

Last night she was still running a high fever, and very groggy. We managed to get two "serves" (?) of tamiflu into her - they gave it to me in powder form, and suggested I mix it with custard or ice cream to give her. That worked well with chocolate pudding for the first attempt when we got home from the doctors, but by nighttime, K wouldn't even take any liquids let alone food. In the end, we had to mix the tamiflu powder into a paste and use a syringe to squirt it down her throat. I have wasted 3 out of the 8 packets of tamiflu powder the doc prescribed over the last day and a half by mixing it one way(that worked last time) only for K not to take it at all the next time. So now we are doing the syringe squirt routine no matter what, but tonight when we did it that way, of course she was screaming blue murder at us, got all upset and threw the damn tamiflu up 1 second after we had spent 10 mins slowly syringing it down her throat. I hope *some* of it stayed in her, though.

But I am actually surprised at how genki she is today. Last night she woke up every hour during the night, and seemed really struggling , but this morning she woke up with a fever running just under 38degrees (not high enough to use the bum bullets) and spent the morning watching re-runs of "inai inai baa" and "okaasan to issho" before starting off a colour-in-a-thon and drawing fest where I had draw a pussy cat 50times over for her. (fwiw, K drew a banana). She had a big afternoon nap, nearly 4hours and then even ate a small amount of rice with salmon for dinner. She has been drinking fluids well today too. And her temperature has stayed below 38 degrees, actually hovering around 37degrees for most of the day. I hope this means that we are over the worst of it. We are still going to be housebound for the rest of the week, and probably into next week just in case.

Poor little K.

I do feel so bad for her having caught the flu, last night when she was so sick it was really heart-wrenching. I just wished that I could take her place or something. I guess I was a bit too blah-zay (how do you spell that word?) when J had it, and should have been more vigilant with things like wiping down things he touched, washing K's hands more often etc. And of course I should have gotten the flu shot for her. I will be doing that for sure next winter.

And more importantly I feel really bad about taking her out and putting others at risk of the flu too. I can only hope that none of the kids or mums from playgroup catch the flu from her.

****
Just wanted to say thank you to tigermama and nay for the comments.

I hope that I didn't come across in my original post here as just writing it so that people would comment that I wasn't a bad mother - I really did feel that way though, seriously. I know it is not logic, but hey, I figure I am not the most grounded and logical thinking person anyway. I also got messages and a phone call back from some of the mothers at playgroup who said "these things happen and not to worry about it" which was nice of them. Also one mum rang to say that (fingers crossed) they and their kids seem to be ok for now, so that is good to hear.

Just writing this now, I think I have realised that the main thing I was feeling was a sense of hopelessness at K having the flu and the situation in general. I guess this is something that as a mother I am going to feel more of in the future too.....

brag-time

I figured it was about time I wrote a post about all the cool things that K does at the moment. (yes, a brag-fest!)

At the moment, she is really into "mama-gokko", pretend play with tea cups, and food etc. She loves making me a cup of tea, and always brings it over with a spoon and a knife in the cup (haha). Then I ask her to put some sugar in it, and she says "poon" and takes the spoon back to get the sugar bowl.

Her favourite song at the moment...it is probably a toss up between "donsuka-don" from Okasan to issho (is a new song where they cheer on people) and "my shadow" from Eigo de Asobo. Yes she is 100% terebikko. And she loves music and singing. She knows songs in both English and Japanese

She is really good at counting to 10, but sometimes if you ask her to "count from 1 to 10" she just goes "1 to 10". But that is quite cute too. She can count from 1 to about 5 or 6 in Japanese, too.

She is putting lots of 3 word sentences together. Tonight she said "Daddy drink water". She has a pretty big vocab, mainly in English, although for some reason the words for elephant and leg she still only says in Japanese. Oh, and scissors she says in Japanese too.

She has called J by his name for a while now(as well as daddy) but recently she has started calling me by my name too. When she is ready to get out of the bath (which J puts her in) she calls me out by name, just like J calls me ****-chan. It makes me giggle.

We read a book, Little Ernie's ABCs every night before bed. It is a Sesame Street
book. It goes "a is for apple, juicy and red, b is for burt in his own snuggy bed" etc. She knows ALL the words for each letter of the alphabet!!! (Although, when it comes to "e is for elephant" she says zoo-san, haha)

She is starting to not let me tie her hair up. It used to be no problem at all, but recently she fights it. the only time I can get it up is if I say we are going out, as she KNOWS that it has to be tied back if we go out shopping or to take R for a walk.

Speaking of shopping, she is shopping obsessed. (Until, of course, I want to go to the supermarket!) She loves to get dressed up to go shopping, put her socks on, put her shoes on, grab a bag to carry, put her hat on etc etc. She is even ok walking down the street to the shop. But if we are in the shop for much longer than, oh, a minute she starts to get fussy. Today we walked to the shop, bought an avocado which she carried all the way to the register (only dropped it once) and gave to the lady, then carried it in the plastic bag all the way home.

She loves playing with balls. She says "catch the ball" and throws it to me or J. She can almost catch it herself.

She is now eating apples (and grapes)!!! I have to thank my niece and nephew back home for this - she saw them eating it and copied! She is also still a bit vegemite obsessed. She often asks me for "vegemite" meaning a vegemite sandwhich. She always puts her bib on before she has something to eat, which is great because as much as she loves yoghurt, not much of it ends up in her mouth! At sushi train the other night, she ate 2 pieces of egg sushi, as well as a chawan mushi. Yep, she is a pretty good eater overall I think.

now, I have just gotta try to remember all of her cute little ways when her nearly 2 tantrums and stubborness kicks in.

flu

So it turned out that J actually had the flu. He was basically on bed rest for all of the week. I have never made so many soups in my life as I did last week, haha. Poor J had it bad, fever over 39degrees, aching body, and a headache that lasted the whole week.

Luckily K and I managed to avoid getting his flu, although I was a bit worried on Wed night/Thurs morning when K ran a bit of a fever, and seeemed to get her cough back, so I pulled out of the local jidokan playgroup (it was my turn to do the English, but we postponed it until this coming Thurs) and I took K down to the docs and asked them to check if she had the flu or not. They swabbed a bit of snot out of her nose and ran a test on that, which came back negative so no flu for her, thank goodness. But she did have a bit of a cold return, but it seems to have basically cleared up again.

So I spent most of the week trying to keep K quiet and entertained in the living room and her bed room/play room while J was holed up in our bedroom. (We are "moving back" into the bedroom tonight!) It was great, because I couldn't do any major housework really, as I was trying to keep the noise down for J to sleep, so I ended up watching 4 episodes of Grey's Anatomy during K's naps....only a few more until I am up to series 3, which I have the whole series of on dvd sitting under the TV waiting to be watched. yay!

Despite having my new computer for over a week now, I am actually getting worse at using it - for some reason I just can't be bothered with it all at the moment, and have hardly had it on all week. I have so many emails that need replying to, but I just can't get myself around to it.... I was actually going to start on some replies now, but ended up here instead, haha. Maybe tomorrow will be my email day.

its been ages

since i have seen any warai bangumi

am enjoying a cuppa tea and some ghana choc with it!

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 plane ride home

Sunday Jan 4th, 2009

I woke up about 5am to finish packing (since we had been out all day and night on Saturday, there were still things of k's strewn all over my parent's house, and random stuff of mine was everywhere too.) So I had a cup of tea to wake me up and threw everything I could find into the suitcase, which I then sat on to shut!! Then had another cup of tea when mum woke up(which unfortunately did nothing to clear my surprise hangover from the night before at the Australian Outdoor Spectacular, oops! honestly, what *was* I thinking??) before waking J then K so we could head out to the airport at about 6:30am.
We got to the airport at 7am, and there was already a big line up for JAL check-in, so I mustered up the courage to go ask the people on the business check in counter if there was any preferential check-in service for people with small kids (like they did for me in Japan). The guy (who must have been the main guy there) said no, but we could line up in the business class line while it was somewhat empty and check-in there (cool!! It pays to ask, right!!) So we line up, get to the counter really quick, and I ask for bulk head seats for all of us - my thought was that K could play on the floor in front of us, so it would be ok since she didn't have a seat for herself. I was SHOCKED to the core when they turned to me and said that not only where there no bulk head seats, but there were no seats for J and I to sit together! WHAT!?!? *apparently* all the seats are pre-booked nowadays, and because J and I had both pre-booked (tentatively??randomly??) when we bought the tickets at different times, then we could not get seats together.
I have to admit, at this time, I started to cry, right there at the check-in counter. I was like "I can't do this on my own!" The guy said the best he could come up with was 1) a single bulk-head seat (C) for me, and an aisle seat (H or something) 2 rows behind on the other side of the plane for J OR 2) an exit row seat window seat, and the window seat behind it.
So we took option 1, with the promise from the guy that he would try to do his best to find us some seats together, "you never know, some people might not show up" or his reassurances that we could probably get people to move for us once we got on the plane. Either way I wasn't at all hopeful. So I was not a relaxed or happy chap, as we went to the boarding gate. Then my saviour, my new best friend, the guy from the check-in counter sees me coming to the gate and he calls me over "just the woman I wanted to see! We found 2 seats together for you (yippee!) and there is a chance that the seat beside you might be free too!"
And would you believe it, we got FOUR WHOLE SEATS TO OURSELVES!!!! It was like heaven on earth (or in the skies or whatever). And K was *such* an angel on the plane. J and I sat on an aisle seat each, and blocked her into the 2 middle seats to play on. She ate crackers, played with the seat belts, pushed the contrast/brightness buttons on the personal tv screen, and just entertained herself the whole time. I could hardly believe it. She even went to sleep!! (I initially tried to get her to sleep in the ergo, but that didn't work, so we both lay down on the 2 seats in the middle and I played her the video of her cousins, taken at the airport before we left and it lulled her to sleep. She would probably have slept for a good 2 hours if the airline hostess didn't drop a can of beer right in front of J and make a big noise. Oh well. That was the only time we was a bit whiny, when woken up from her sleep only 1 hour into it by beer spraying everywhere. Oh, and a bit when we were coming in to land and she didn't want to sit in her seat with the seat belt on. We did't have to walk the plane or anything with her. I *so* know that having the extra seats was our saviour, amnd even if I have used up all my good karma for the year, it was sooooooooooo worth it!

All in all, although I was dreading the plane trip home, it turned out to be such a breeze, that I am thinking we should organise another o/seas trip before K turns 2 (and we have to pay for a seat for her)...maybe somewhere close though. I kinda like the thought of a March getaway to somewhere easy like Saipan, or Taiwan.....We'll see.

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.

am confused (little interlude)

have spent the morning comparing prices and specs on laptops....yes, it is time to get a new one, as the old one (current one) is too too too slow and temperamental. But I am doing my head in trying to decide whether to go for the 320gb of harddisk WITH blu ray disk OR take the 500gb of hard disk but no blu ray for about 15000yen less. yes it has come down to that.

so confused!!

hopefully I can come up with a decision after lunch and post more about our trip then. at the moment i cant concentrate on anything that doesnt have a list of specs involved!!

cut to a couple of hours later and I made a decision! Thanks for the advice, Nooh and GirlJapan. I went for the 500GB, as mainly use computer for photos and stuff these days. Yay! New computer coming this way soon.

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...