1. What did you do in 2010 that you’d never done before?
Finally went to Disneyland
2. Did you keep your new years’ resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
YES! I lost weight, after reaching a peak in about March, I lost about 7kg
3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Yes, Ming-Ping and Andrew got themselves born
4. Did anyone close to you die?
No
5. What countries did you visit?
New Zealand and Hong Kong
6. What would you like to have in 2011 that you lacked in 2010?
Intact shoji
7. What date from 2010 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
My birthday, I had a good one last year! And Christmas, as I was at home in NZ with family; also the drama of getting back to Nakastu on Dec 30-31
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Getting a contract with OIT!
9. What was your biggest failure?
Failing to do osouji. Again.
10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Broke my toe.
11. What was the best thing you bought?
iphone
12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
Kanji, for spontaneously starting to do laundry finally after ten years
13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
ALL my family for leaving their clothes all over the place. Myself included.
14. Where did most of your money go?
Travel!
15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
The trip to NZ
16. What song will always remind you of 2010?
Anything by Lady Gaga, or her doppelganger chez moi, Eri-Gaga
17. Compared to this time last year, are you: i. happier or sadder?
same, always happy. Perhaps happier
ii. thinner or fatter?
thinner
iii. richer or poorer?
richer for a bit, then poorer again as the tax bill hits!
18. What do you wish you’d done more of?
cleaning
19. What do you wish you’d done less of?
Reading the Daily Mail online
20. How will you be spending Christmas?
With my family in New Zealand
22. Did you fall in love in 2010?
Several times, all with the same man...
23. How many one-night stands?
hahaha!
24. What was your favorite TV program?
Star Trek repeats, the only thing I have time for
25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
I wouldn't say hate because I won't let her create such damaging negative emotions in me, but I am surprised and disappointed by one person's turning against me.
26. What was the best book you read?
The Head Trip, Adventures on the Wheel of Consciousness
27. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Lena
28. What did you want and get?
iphone
29. What did you want and not get?
New car
30. What were your favorite films of this year?
I only saw Avatar, Lovely Bones and Alice in Wonderland.
31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
See my blog entry for those days!
32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
A cleaner
33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2010?
Split personality - three different wardrobes for home, work and play
34. What kept you sane?
beer and internet. Preferably not together...
35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
No-one. Maybe Johnny.
36. What political issue stirred you the most?
The hint of a possibility that Japan might, perhaps in the near future possibly sign the Hague Convention
37. Who did you miss?
Everyone!
38. Who was the best new person you met?
My sister's boyfriend James, so funny!
39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2010.
I made a DELICIOUS pumpkin soup the other day, and I didn't follow a recipe, so I can't duplicate it unless I hurry up and write it down! Here's what I think I did...
Fried 2 medium onions with a couple of cloves of garlic and a packet of bacon chopped up, in a large hunk of butter, maybe 50g. It was lots of butter, I just chucked the rest of the packet in!
Added water, with 3 NZ OXO chicken stock cubes. I think that's important, as while I do like to make my own stock if possible, I always have success with the OXO cubes!
Three small pumpkins. I mean baseball-size. They were selling them last year around Halloween and I bought them, thinking I would do something fancy like cut the top off and serve pumpkin soup in them, but I never got round to it. Being a gourd, they kept well in the fridge, and were fine when I cut them up!
Three carrots. I was going by the 'use what you have' system, rather than going shopping, so I did not go out and buy more pumpkins, I just added three carrots. They're orange!
One daikon (white radish). A rather small, pitiful fellow, quite shrivelled, possibly harvested last winter, and given to me by MIL, on one of her 'here take all my food' binges.
Cook, cook, cook, then fish out the lumpy bits and blend them. I have no seal in my blender. It was not pretty. Orange rice cooker, orange bench... yummy soup!
Final important detail: added 2 teaspoons of curry powder at the end.
Amy and Lena got their ears pierced while in New Zealand. Both of them had wanted it done the last time we went, but they chickened out, then we ran out of time, so they both made me PROMISE that it would be the first thing we did when we got there.
It very nearly was! They were done on the first day, but after a nap and a swim. Of course you have to wear them for six weeks to ensure they heal properly, and that six weeks was not up when the first day of school rolled around, so we had to risk it.
Earrings are quite risque in Japan, banned in schools and considered inappropriate for children. So it was a long-shot that we would get away with it.
Amy's teacher told her to take them out. When Amy said she literally couldn't (she couldn't pull the tightly wedged butterfly off) she got right in her face and told her in no uncertain terms that she could NOT wear them to school
Lena was also told off, and told she may as well let them heal over, as earrings were banned in Junior High School.
So, everyone who told me their kids got theirs done and it was no big deal, that obviously doesn't apply here.
Kanji had a PTA meeting tomorrow, and is wondering if it will come up. He's preparing to tell them we had it done because it's NZ culture - all the girls their age have them done. But that we will follow the rules and not wear them to school. Sigh. Which means a daily fuss with the removal and re-piercing each afternoon at 4pm.
Right now I would really love Japan to get a big dose of that political correctness Westerners moan so much about, and allow my girls to wear their 'culturally appropriate' accessories. And those of you safely ensconced in your home culture, don't fuss when Indian girls wear a nose ring, and Maori kids wear a bone necklace and Muslim girls wear a head-scarf. Just let them be.
Edited to add these photos:
I saw the clear studs last year, and while I forgot to buy them when I got back, we rushed out to get them yesterday after the big telling-off. However, it's still clear and plainly obvious that there is something in their ears, and I think it would just be too defiant of them to just turn up at school the next day with earrings still in, only just a little smaller... we'll sneak them in later on when all the fuss has died down.
For now, we have these: kind of like a toothpick, plastic, you put it through the tiny hole in the bottle of disinfectant then through the earring hole to clean it. I figure if we do this every afternoon and replace the studs for overnight, we can get the holes healed, and maybe sneak the clear studs through in a month or so.
Of course I have LOADS to catch up on, a whole trip to NZ, Disneyland, a missing camera, a fantastic stay at the beach, getting caught in snow, Christmas and New Year, loads of shopping, hot pools, lakes and rivers, the wonders of the iphone, a fab weekend in Miyazaki, I'm sure there's more.
But for now, it's the quiet end to a busy day.
The kids are having their piano lesson. It's 9:06pm but no Japanese person would be surprised at the time. Oh well, teacher got a new day job, has to do overtime every day, but we like her so much we decided to switch to having dinner and baths first, and the lesson from 8pm. Before, the lesson was at 6pm, but it was after 9 by the time everyone was ready for bed anyway.
At this rate (yawn) I think I'll be joining them! The 6:30am alarm KILLED me this morning.
No kids all day, at school at kindy, and I was busy finished four proofreading jobs. Starting on the Journal tomorrow. I'm late starting that, and it's a biggie! I foresee some late nights...
