a la Helen...

...who does diary-style blogs to sum up the day...

All in all it was a good day, with the first cool breaths of autumn making the weather very comfortable, and almost chilly early in the morning.

I woke up at 6:30 when the alarm clock went off, and pressed snooze of course. Again at 6:35. Finally at 6:40 I whisper-yelled (so as not to wake Erica) at the kids to go to Rajio Taiso and went back to sleep.

Got up at 7:45 with Erica nattering on about Amy and Lena. I got dressed upstairs, went downstairs and put on some laundry, fed and changed the baby. First job of the day was a big clean up of the yard. I did that before breakfast, even before my cup of tea. I've found I have a lot of energy first thing in the morning and can get quite a bit done if I use it wisely.

At about 8:30 I came back inside, gave Erica some more breakfast and myself a cup of tea. From then until 9:45 I tidied up, cleaned the kitchen, did some more laundry, checked the email and nagged Amy and Lena to get ready for summer school.

Breakfast was a muesli bar and a cup of tea in the car on the way to Keio. I dropped off the big girls, then swung by Shinsenichiba on the way home to pick up some fish for dinner. I also got milk, yogurt, tomatoes, some cheap chicken thighs on special, and some salad and prepared fish for lunch. Then I stopped in at the post office to send some mooched books to America.

Usually the old lady who fills in there doesn't antagonize me, but she did today! "U-nai-tedd States, that's America, isn't it?" "Yes, that's America. Bookrate seapost please". Okay, she managed to get that done, then reached for the second package. I said this one is the same, "to America" "yes, it's the same" "seapost?" "Yes, the same as the last one" "bookrate" "Yes, the same as the last one!". "It's a book, is it?" "YES IT'S THE SAME AS THE LAST ONE!" Does 'onaji' have a different meaning in Japanese that I'm missing?

Back home where I corrected two essays, which took a whole hour due to interruptions - 1) Erica breastfeeding (I can play scrabble and read the news, but can't type while she's on me) 2) moving my car for the carpenter (more on that later) and 3) giving my details and phone numbers to the friendly neighborhood copper doing his friendly neighborhood nosy-parker update on who lives in all the houses.

Lunch was the fish, an egg on wholemeal toast and 10 grapes. Erica had a tomato, rice with furikake, fish and 10 grapes. She did a wee-wee on the potty, then I took her to bed.

While she napped I tidied up and finally hung the laundry and folded some of yesterday's. When the time came to pick up Amy and Lena, I carefully brought her downstairs and into the car like I had yesterday, but she woke up today. She was happy though, as I told her we were going to get Amy and Lena.

We got home and Amy and Lena decided they wanted to watch Grease. I made them some popcorn, then crumbed the fish for dinner, and continued to tidy up the kitchen. I also had a cup of tea and zoned out in front of facebook for a bit.

Kanji came home at 3, and I conferred with him about dinner, then tidied up the living room and changed out of my garden shorts to go to work at 4pm. My usual student Takato came, and a student who might be interning at Nakatsu hospital from next April, who seemed very bright and keen so I hope he does come here! We played a game and chatted, and I came home at 5pm.

I started to get dinner ready. I had mashed potato to fry up, and added mixed veges, and a dip left over from the party that I had frozen, made out of chick peas, roasted red pepper and garlic. It made a very yummy bubble and squeak. While it slowly crisped up, I started to wash the things I had collected up from my yard tidying. Kanji went out to do some shopping. He had started miso soup while I was at work, so he finished that, and fried up my fish plus some he'd bought previously. That's what I mean by conferred about dinner. We often end up with his ideas AND mine, plus rice and soup!

After dinner I zoned out a bit playing scrabble, then cleaned up the bathroom after having grubbied the room up cleaning up the yard things, then cleaned me and Erica too. Amy and Lena stayed with their Papa, doing riddles in Japanese from a book, and making some up too I think.

We got up to bed at about 9pm, so no reading tonight. I started feeding Erica, and Amy and Lena read quietly by themselves for a bit. After they all got to sleep, I sorted out the clothes too big for Erica to put up in the cupboard. That was the last thing on my list to do today, and means that tomorrow I can clean out the two wardrobes, and the upstairs rooms will be finished.

Now, it's FAR too late to watch an episode of The Tudors, but I will anyway, and wash it down with some chocolate. I'm allowing myself after-dinner chocs this week, as it's my birthday on Friday.

(PS about the carpenter. That's the extension roof going up outside our living room door to the garden. I actually decided I didn't want it and went round yesterday to tell Jiichan so, but he said it was too late, it was already begun. I decided I don't want my washing machine out there after all, too often I finish laundry late at night at hang it on hangers to be put out the next morning, or do delicate individual stuff late at night. I don't want to be heading out there under a lean-to to do that sort of thing. He just said, I don't need to put the washing machine out there. I said mottainai (what a waste!) He said now we can have a yakiniku party. I was also worried about my winter sun and the kids' garden, but the real reason is that I really want a new house so I think we should keep improvement to this one to a minimum. They won't increase the value of the house as they do back home, it's just money down the drain. But it was too late to cancel, and they laid concrete for the posts today. It's not so bad, doesn't go out as far as I had imagined, so maybe it will make a nice nook for barbecueing.)