Not so Random Thoughts

Let me take a moment to consider how damn busy I always am on Thursday.

...

Okay, now that's over, I know you don't want to hear, yet again, about how damn busy I am on Thursday. Instead, here is list of not-so-random thoughts that floated through my head starting from the Supermarket check-out and following me all the way home in my little Green Machine.

It's 1pm, do I have time?

Stupid shoes (egg-on-floor-disaster-scenario-imaginings)

Forgot the test! (getting into car)

Forgot the money! (driving out of supermarket)

My budget and the exchange rate (big road)

Room configuration, or 'Amy's loft project' (turning into Youme Town road)

Flights to Japan (festival road)

Concrete walls - are they Japanese or NZ? (out back of Youme Town)

My kids are still on the radio! Cute! (turning over the bridge)

Erica's amazing start to finish conversation (coming up the drive)

Details later if this day loans me any more time

....

Well, after canceling one lesson due to Lena's fever AND her need to finish all her winter homework finally, here we are.

I was wondering if I had enough time when I saw the clock at the supermarket at 1pm, leaving me only one hour to eat lunch and finish checking an essay, and I had also thought I might have time to hang some laundry right then. That was not to be...

Then I slipped a bit on the supermarket linoleum and wobbled a bit but did not fall. I had raw eggs in my bag, cue the egg-on-floor-disaster-scenario-imaginings - MAN would that be SO embarrassing!

Thinking Stupid Shoes reminded me of work that morning, when instead of my usual high-heel clip-clop across the foyer, up the stairs and down the corridor, I CLUCHUNK CLUCHUNKed all the way. My winter shoes, with a big thick heel, had lost the rubber sole of the heel, and the resultant clank seemed to echo through the hollow core of the heel - into the ears of every single human in the building. (I tip-toed on a side-trip to the loo on the way to my class because I was so mortified!) Suffice it to say that not only will those be getting re-heeled asap, I will also stuff those heels with cotton wool before I go to the cobbler.

Thinking about work as I headed for the car reminded me of a major oversight I had discovered at work that morning - I actually forgot to test my class. I tested the other three classes! I concluded that it was because it was the last class before the Christmas special lesson and winter break, and they are also my best class, so I would have been doing extra activities. Well, no worries, they are my best class so they wrote it there and then, and all handed it in before class ended!

Thinking about stuff I've forgotten, as I drove out of the supermarket car park, I realized I'd forgotten the cash to send to NZ. Isn't the exchange rate treating us well these days? I'm paying off that card bit by bit...

Thinking about my budget, as I drove down the big road past Wonderland pachinko parlour, got me thinking about the massive house transformation again, which has already been downgraded, with Amy's loft to be put in in time for her entry into Junior High School in 2013, when Erica will begin kindy and she can then take over Amy's desk downstairs. For now, Erica can have the low computer table, when I give the Mac back to AFWJ. Part of the house organization involved housing Mum when she comes in April, so part of the plan is working that out.

Thinking of Mum of course had me thinking, as I rounded the corner and headed toward Youme Town, of the flights, which are yet to be finalized, and my indecision because I don't know if should wait until a month before to see if some cheaper seats become available then, or just go with the $1600 Malaysian Airlines seats now.

By this time I had weaved my way through the back streets to the back of Youme Town, past some very old houses. Two had painted concrete brick walls, with some of the bricks with decorative holes in them. Were they familiar to me because we have walls like that in New Zealand, or were they familiar to me because I've seen them so many times in Japan? A 'you've been in Japan too long' moment.

By that time I was swinging past the cemetery and over the bridge, and Amy and Lena came on the radio, giggling away. They do part of the announcement for the Aroma Cafe lunch-time show, over some jazzy music, you can hear them laughing and giggling, saying Aroma Cafe! Hngh, hngh, hngh, hngh, hngh. (a chuckle. Amy has an adorable chuckle, Lena's is more a tinkling laugh). It always makes me smile when I hear it - and I remember how annoyed I was with them at the studio because they would not settle down and stop giggling! And then that was the only bit he used...

The smile followed me up my drive, where I remembered lunchtime, how I was there to pick up Erica's kindy bag. She now sits behind me in the car, so I could see her over the seat back as I reversed. Hello, how are you? I said, I'm fine, Nice to meet you, she said. We giggled a bit at the formality of the greeting, then she started asking herself the questions I usually ask her when I pick her up from Aiko to take her to Keio. 'What did you do at kindy today?' then started answering it, talking about it being too cold to go outside and eating lunch. I asked what she ate for lunch, and was impressed when she translated it all for me into English, without prompting, though she must have been eating it 'in Japanese' if you know what I mean. It was rice, and soup with tomato, and something with beans.

Which brings me to my front door, and the end of my internal monologue.