How'd that take so damn long?

Okay, so I finished work at 1pm, and had nothing else on for the rest of the day. Images of relaxing at home as the sun went down, nice glass of wine when the sun was still shining.

Reality: run around like a headless chicken and finally crack open the now-not-quite-so refreshing and relaxing champers at 8pm.

Got home, tired, and sat on the sofa reading and 'thinking about' tidying up until Amy reminded me about art class. Drove to art class. Drove to Gooday to get kitty litter. Gaclunked out of Gooday on a flat tyre to K's stand for him to change it (luckily only two blocks away). Picked up L & E, drove to Jiichan and Baachan's stand to get  new tyre. Drove L to salon, picked up A at art, back to salon, to be told that A's hair treatment will take two hours. Back to Baachan's with L to eat ice cream and discuss event timetable, swapping with B one "backstage at the fashion show" for one "karate tournament". Back home for a quick clean up and to change that kitty litter finally. Back to Baachan's to get L then back to salon to fix L's wonky fringe and pick up A, and talk about her new role as spokesmodel for the salon (she gets free cuts and treatment in exchange for generally looking fabulous. Win-win in other words!). Back to salon after driving one block away as I remembered to order Baachan's friends' fashion show tickets. Back to Baachan's to get E. Tyre still not done. Out for dinner with B, A, L & E. Back to Stand, tyre finally done! Drive by cosmos on the way home, get sucked into buying sweets for the children and a shiny new notebook with all new clean pages for A (I share her love of new pages, my Mum will remember how all she needed to do to make me happy was give me blank pages, and A shares this obsession!). Back home yay!!!! Search for The Devil Wears Prada, fail to find it, kids put Gru on (Despicable Me), finally open that damn champagne!!!

Blank

I won't be here long. Very soon, the screen will go black. I will be able to keep typing (I think) and the notification tings will continue but I

(blank)

will not type and I'll go away and wait until it cools down or gets its groove back or whatever the heck is wrong with it!

Kids are all back at school, I've been a work nearly all my hours since half way through August and all through my birthday week, so that was a bit of a bummer and a bit of a less fun summer than usual - what with Amy's school sports club having 13 practices through summer (very tame compared to some other schools/sports, which practice nearly every day) and all the extra-curricular activities continuing. PLEASE someone remind me next year to cancel EVERYTHING if we're to have a chance to relax, and fit in some day trips and overnights, and maybe even get the bloody homework done!

Well, not much else to add. I really need to use the time I have before the next blank to back up the computer!

Bye!

Bouncing Chicken

The chicken was bought last Monday, right at the beginning of Obon week: I thought I'd start off with a nice healthy dinner: chicken, onion, cabbage and red pepper stir fry; salad; and corn on the cob.

Then the kids decided they had to stay the night at Baachan's. Well, who's going to argue with that? Dinner plans were delayed, who knows what I ate, but I'm sure I chased it down with some wine!

And I realized that since Tuesday was o-Bon and we would be eating at Aunty Toyoko's house that night, that the chicken's next date with my kitchen would be Wednesday, so it really should go in the freezer in the meantime.

Wednesday came, and I took the chicken out to defrost in the fridge, Monday's dinner plans in mind. K came home, and lounged on the wicker chair while I tried to finish off a bit of decluttering I had started that day. It was hot, I was tired... we chatted... realized tonight was the only night this week we would all be home... and therefore, this was our chance to to go out for a family dinner.

So... Mr Chicken went back in the freezer, and we ended up eating yakitori with the Haradas, followed by karaoke at the Biliken Club. No chicken.

Thursday was beach day! K had meetings, so because we knew we wouldn't be meeting him for dinner, we ate on the way home. Amy wanted omuraisu (a thin omelet stuffed with flavored rice) so we aimed for the family restaurant in Jusco. It was pretty disappointing...

Friday we went to Oita for a TPet Blinky Bits recording session at Bitts Hall. (I'll explain what that means in a future post!) and this time went to the restaurant I think we all decided would have been the better choice the night before: Capriccosa, an Italian chain restaurant that is truly yummy!

Sat... Sun...

Monday rolled around again.

And, dammit, the chicken got cooked. You'd think I'd be dying to get that damned chicken cooked by now, but there was a part of me (okay, a very BIG part), that was desperately hoping that the children would again beg to stay at Baachan's, freeing me to flee along the coastal road... but that was not to be. Chicken it was. It was okay, after several consoling wines, picking at it while K and I watched stupid J variety shows late at night. At least he likes my chicken stir-fry now, he used to hate it. Or rather, I cooked it the first time, he said 'yum', I thought he meant 'yum', but he was just being polite, so I cooked it again and again until he finally told me he didn't really like it... but that was years ago, before I trained him. Or, is he still being polite? Who knows?

Beach Heat, Fridge Heat and Cat Heat

We had an absolutely fabulous day at the beach on Saturday. It went off without a hitch, I don't think I got annoyed once, I think everyone was just so happy to finally be going! Even the car ride out was fun, with everyone joking and laughing. Nothing makes us happier than the beach! I'm glad I've passed that on to my girls, but sad that they have to miss out on the MONTH-long beach trips I enjoyed as a kid, the 2-3 swims a day, and the spectacular surf. Moments like that I kick myself for not living closer to a beach, but there's not that much I can do about that, except pile them all into the car for the trip at every available opportunity.

One thing we do that I didn't do as a kid is snorkel. I really love snorkelling! I can't wait to visit a prettier ocean; the sea grass and occasional small fish at Nakasakibana is not very exciting, though I still find it so lovely and peaceful, just moving through the water, the snorkel the only sound in the universe, the sand moving along under you, sun sparkling through the water.

And I finally got the definitive Lena beach shot. I've only been trying to get this photo for four years now, since I took a perfect beach photo of Erica when she was 1. I already had one of Amy, so all I needed to round it out was Lena. Now all I need is to print and frame them.

I was half thinking of visiting Katy, but we only left the beach at 5:30pm, right on dinner time, and I thought it would a bit jama for them and tiring for us. Until next time! Chicken and Sav, right?

***********

We got a new fridge. That's the second new 'white goods' in a month, after the washing machine broke last month. I *think* there's nothing else now that will break in a while, though the microwave is second hand, so I guess it could go anytime. 

About Thursday we noticed the bottled water wasn't as cool as usual.... that could be just people drinking it too fast or opening the door too often, but then Friday it started to make noises like a lawnmower. Amazing how quickly things got stinky after that. I moved some things over to the freezer Saturday morning, then K and I went fridge shopping later in the morning. We got a mid-size Toshiba, with a vegetable drawer in the middle and a separate ice tray and cooling box (so you don't have to leave leftovers out on the bench, OR put them hot into the fridge or freezer). Dull gray, and I don't like it as much as my last one, which was red. 

It was delivered today (Monday) so the rest of the fridge inhabitants moved to the beer fridge in the meantime, itself a sub-par, seal-challenged, dusty outdoor behemoth, useful really only for parties. And mid-summer, 36 degree heat, fridge breakdown emergencies! Only problem is that the outside of it is so HOT! I hope that's only because the freezer was firing up...

***********

Bloody cat. Or rather, bloody ME! 

Vanilla is in heat. She is NUTS! She is far worse than Genki, who is too skittish, and Cinnamon, who is too lazy to move very far. Cats in heat don't bleed, and keep themselves clean, so it's not gross. They are very affectionate, kissing and rubbing up against you, or the other cats. They miaow a lot more than normal (Genki the most, since she is the most vocal to start with), sleep way less, and spend those waking hours wandering around the house, miaowing and trying to get out. 

Since it's full-on summer and topping 35 every day, a lot of doors and windows are open. We have screens on every single window and door, but the cats can open either the screen or the window. Most egregious is the front door - it has a screen, but one installed by a moron, with a 10cm gap at the top, enough for a cat to fit through. I jerry-rigged it up with an umbrella in the gap yesterday morning, and held it shut with a guitar case, just so we could get some air through the house.

I woke up to Kanji telling me he was off to work when he saw Cinnamon on the roof. He found all the cats and got them inside, but let me know there was a security breach somewhere. I think they got through the bathroom window that time. I opened the front door. She got through the top of the screen, I caught her that time, so that's when I set up the umbrella and guitar case, then I then saw her get out again, after knocking the umbrella down! So I chased her, barefoot in my nightie, then retreated home to change before squatting down to check under the cars, their favorite place to hide. Once dressed, I found her under our neighbor's car - my neighbor was up, peering at me from her living room window, so I had to go say Good Morning, excuse me, my cat is under your car. Oh, you have a cat? she said. She came out, while I snuck behind the wheel and grabbed Vanilla by the scruff of her neck. I thought I had better introduce her to Mrs. Noda, but that freaked her out and she lay a very deep scratch half way up my left arm in her panic. 

Then last night while we were watching a movie, we heard a ferocious screech coming from outside. We quickly counted cats, and found Vanilla missing. Everyone went in all directions to find her, inside and out, and after we finally managed to find a torch that worked, I found her on the kitchen step outside, rubbing and rolling. She let me pick her up this time. The black and white Tom was sighted too, so I was very worried that she had just lost her kitty virginity, hence the screech. 

Then it happened again today! This time, I taped had a yoga mat taped to the top of the screen door in addition to the umbrella and guitar case, but she still managed to open the door - or maybe Erica had left it open for a bit when she went outside to skateboard. Again, the first we knew about it was the unholy screech. It seems that however much she seems to crave it, when it happens, it's a bit of a shock! I just hope it wasn't enough to impregnate her. I'm kind of hoping they have to do what their mother does with the black and white Tom and the ugly white Tom - spend hours together, doing it again and again, all night long, very loudly, for it to stick. 

If not, she's one dead cat. With her blood disorder, she will not survive giving birth, or an abortion. When I look at her sweet, soft furry face, I can't believe she has so much of a death wish. Well, scratch or no scratch, I'm giving her lots of love. I think she is not long for this world. 

Oh, and I just stood on Cinnamon, and she got her revenge instantly, with a very deep claw to my left heel. 

So I am a very bloody cat owner today. 

Some little odds and ends

I used to be organized, I promise. I knew where every little tool and piece of paper was in this house, and things like desks and bags would be regularly tidied and everything put in its place. Then I had kids, and started volunteering, and worked more, and slowly lost control. Now I'm wresting back that control, piece by piece, and that means pulling down the odd box full of assorted papers that once upon a time I would have make short work of, but more recently just got thrown together on top of a bunch of recipes.

Mostly receipts and notebooks, phone numbers and addresses, but I found this:

KIMBALMANA (goannas)
Wesley NGANJMIRRA (Lightning Man)

Which are the names of the Australian Aboriginal artists who created the art works that have graced my hall walls for years. I helpfully wrote them down before I got them framed and covered forever the backs, where the names are written. I was just thinking the other day how sad it was that I had forgotten even the names/themes of the pictures!

Second was a hilarious reminder of getting your way around Japan pre-smartphone. Three note pages of directions to get to somewhere! I have no idea now where this was heading, and I don't blame you for not reading through the whole thing, but I'm writing it down anyway, just because:

- R at しらかわ shingo
- 254 michi go straight.
- pass road cosmo and nakano
- straight at rd narrow past lake. rd thin and narrow
- L at end of road
- R at next shingo/JA
- up hill, right down to 210
- ? miss landmark, ? top of hill
- no corner just curves down past ?
- back to R10. blue house 本 cosmo and Maruwa intersection L
- R at shimono?? sign (Shell self, Best denki)
- L at ビースパ pett onsen
- THE MALL

- After coffee gasoline Left at pink "Kandamachi"
- right at P + perm (before Station) ? up rd past bikes by tracks
- cross brigde left over tracks. to right.
- down hill now on tracks left
- left at white prefab


Where ever the heck that was, I have no idea how I found it.

Then I found a list numbered from 10 to 25:

10. Just converted her 66yr old mother to the joys of the Japanese houchou (knife)
11. Loves sleeping with her babies
12. hate flying
13. dated a millionaire in Sydney
14. Covered all four walls of her bedroom with Duran Duran pictures when she was 14
15. has a Southern Cross star constellation of freckles on her left cheek
16. did self-hypnosis for childbirth
17. had a cat called Church, dogs called Pixie & Doris
18. likes food starting with 'ch' - chicken, cheese, chocolate & champagne
19. accidentally went possum hunting once - never again!
20. loves swimming in rivers and waterfalls in Australia
21. strung pearl necklaces for her father's shop as a kid
22. is teaching her baby signs
23. likes making delicious desserts
24. owns a kimono & a yukata
25.

Looks like one of those memes for blogs that got passed around so much 3-4 years ago.
Obviously I never made it 25. I wonder what 1-9 were!!!

Ugh, I am SO sick of today!

I really need today to be over. I really should be in bed, only I'm sure it isn't cool enough yet, so I'm trying drinking. I usually don't bother when I'm annoyed, I just go to bed and read so that tomorrow hurries up and comes quicker, but the teency bottle of German bubbly was beckoning me from the fridge. Souvenir from a student. It's only so-so, but why would be any good, since today is a shitty day.

No reason in particular, just stupid hot weather, and not really achieving anything except driving round in circles and making the heat worse by going from cold to hot over and over again.

I went to work and realized I didn't have a class just after I arrived. Neutral. I'm usually happy when that happens because it means an unscheduled break, but I was just kind of blah today. The highlight of my day was a new kindy class. And the shark cat roomba (see YouTube). At the kindy, the kids had fun, and the staff (I had six of them in there at one time!) were impressed. Little K-chan was so nervous before the class she was sweating (I wondered how the teacher could tell the difference, since the place had no air con) but was sticking her hand up for every turn by the end. Little T-chan usually stutters - but did not stutter once during my class! Okay, that made me feel good, who doesn't like a little ego boost?

The day went downhill after that, for no particular reason except heat and not getting anything done, except a job at the PO and the shopping. Failed to pick up the kids at Baachan's - Amy hadn't finished her essay. It was due at 4pm (and that was overtime) but she didn't finish it until 7. I managed to get Erica to her swimming lesson, but that was just more in and out, hot and cold. Back to get Amy and Lena, failed again, back to swimming, back to Stand, to school, then finally home and called to quit juku, dammit, I am NOT going out again, I'm going to drink. Well, eat first. And shower.

So I finally got that wine open, and sitting in one spot finally with the fan on me, I am now only sweating where body bits touch other body bits, which is gross to read no doubt but so much better than just sweating all over the place.

Oh, and Vanilla is in heat again. MIAOUW!!!

90%

I only managed to be 90% lazy today, despite my best efforts.

Slept till 10, and then managed to stay there playing with my devices until nearly 12! Reluctantly got out of my pyjamas to go do some shopping, I got people food, cat food and laundry powder to help me with that 10% of having to do some work.

Work: one load of laundry, tidying the living room and kitchen, and filled two rubbish bags out of the spare room, one burnable and one non-burnable, just to feel I wasn't completely useless and was making inroads on the grand decluttering and re-decorating effort. Actually, I was supposed to work on that all morning while Amy was at her junior high sports club, take the kids to the beach then go to work in the evening... but Amy skipped club, they both decided they needed to stay home to get some homework done, and I realized my class is next week. Oh well.

Next up, pasta for dinner and we're going to watch The Hobbit. I may get home sick...


Saturday was so-so busy, with a meeting, and ferrying the kids to classes (Amy's art and Lena's T-pet idol lessons). Sunday we went to Alex's farewell party, FAREWELL Alex! Make sure you come back and party again! I wrote up about last week, so I'll post those too in a moment!

Three Summer Days

It finally feels like the summer holidays!!!

The first three days the kids were at camp, then I had a full day's work, then the next two days I was hard out cleaning and shopping and cooking for my Gion party, then Gion was upon us, with Amy taking part, then the party and recovery day, more work and then finally this week, Wednesday, Thursday and today were HOLIDAYS!

(Well, mostly. Amy had juku on Wed night, Lena had dance on Thursday and Erica had English and karate!)

Wednesday we hit the shops, Thursday we celebrated a birthday and today we finally hauled ourselves into a pool!


Friday
Have I ever complained about the rules at Kampo no Sato? If I have, please tell me to shut up. After Nakatsu public pool, it's a paradise. There's that 'lifeguard' problem again - just high school boys working part time - none of them even seen well trained enough to even actually look IN the pools, instead of anywhere else, preferably in the direction of the cutest bikini. But that worked in our favor today - they are also far too cool to pay any attention to the customers, meaning we got away with diving and jumping and letting the little kids on the water slide!

We went with Julia and Indy, and we were there for three hours - only a wee splash in the baby pool today, thank goodness, most of the time going round and round and round the 'nagare' pool, which had a current that pushes you around. What on earth are they called in English? And two swims in the big pool, and three turns on the water slide and none of it barred from use by any ages and lifeguards too bored to bother telling anyone off! Perfect!

The kids were exhausted after, I was too. Thank goodness Kanji called just after I fell asleep on the sofa from his favorite bar, and agreed to get us take out! So we ended the night with a family meal in front of a silly Japanese game show, eating izakaya food - fried chicken, potato salad, onigiri (rice balls), yakitori (meat on skewers), and potatoes with cheese - and drinking beer from the bottle (thank you Tomo!)

Happy Birthday Kitties

Thursday I got some work done, and some decluttering! A van-load of random crap and old rubbish from the shed to the rubbish centre. They have a nice system, a lot easier than the old dump in NZ! You drive in, and park your car on a weighing plate, and the lady (who I recognized as a mum from school) gives you a numbered card. You drive into the building (it's a massive incinerator) where there are bays for various recycled materials, and big metal conver-belt shutes for burnable and non-burnable items. The signs say you're supposed to do it yourself, but in reality a bunch of workers descend on you to make sure you get your trash into the right place - and bascially do it for you. I've learned to just grab something, walk aimlessly towards a shute and expect to be roughly told off and told where to take it. They end up doing most of it for me! Wood and furniture; garden refuse and bicycles are taken outside to the yard.

Then on the way out, you park on another weighing plate, and hand back your card, and they calculate how much you brought and charge you for it - my van-load was 600yen. It would be cheaper to sort everything nicely and get it out on the right day for municipal garbage collection, which is free, but it's nice to get a WHOLE lot of crap disappeared in one go.

I came home via the supermarket with sushi for the Cat Birthday Party! According to our Vet's estimate, they were about six weeks when we got them, so he gave them a birthdate of August 1st for the records, so we went with it! We bought them katsuoboshi - shaved, dried fish. Humans also eat this in Japan, sprinkled on dishes as a condiment or used as a stock, and the damn cats will drag the packets out of the cupboard if we leave the kitchen open at night and attack the packet until they can get it open. We got them a few other treats, and some cat toys that were a huge hit, even though they didn't work as advertised (they totally did NOT fly) - I think the cats thought they were real, they 'caught' them and dragged them around the room between their legs like lions, then tore them to bits overnight.

We went to the city pool in the afternoon. I hate the city pool. There are two pools, one VERY babyish, very shallow, just a big round concrete pool with no activities and no shade, and a very deep lap pool. The two pools are separated by a chain link fence, and pre-schoolers are not allowed in the big pool at all. Elementary school kids are, but only with a parent. You can only go in alone from junior high school age. Meanwhile, kindy kids cannot be in the kiddy pool alone. My kids are in junior high, elementary and kindergarten - see the problem?

So Lena ended up in the baby pool, except for when I took her to the big pool, during which time Erica had to just wait on the seats there. Luckily they were both enjoying their first swim of the season enough that they tolerated it... Lena wanted to go in the big pool, but declared the baby pool fun anyway. Erica waited patiently by the big pool, but felt sad that she wasn't big enough to go in. Roll on next year, when Amy and Lena can go to the big pool all by themselves, AND Erica can come in with me!

It's run by retirees, and is so crammed in by rules that no-one goes, meaning it makes no money, so it has to be run by retirees, and not proper life guards, who can't watch everyone properly, so they need parents to go, so no-one goes, and they make no money... in an endlessly downward spiralling loop. It's open in three 2.5hr sessions, with an hour between each session, and you have to pay for each session. Last straw? Being told my Amy that last time she was there with her friends, they saw a man on the castle next door training a camera into the changing room. I hate that pool.

After that, Thursday was just Thursday - English lesson, dance lesson, karate lesson. Same old same old.

Shopping Day

Wednesday was shopping day!

I worked in the morning, while the kids did their homework. After lunch, we hit the mall. I bought Amy and Lena a 'rash guard' each. That always seems like such a dumb word for it when we don't use them for surfing, but for sun protection. Both of them were fine with going brown last year, but Amy decided on her own that she didn't want to tan this year, and Lena was TOLD by her 'Idol Class' teacher to choose either an all-over tan, or none at all! Luckily the trend for what I prefer to call 'swimming tops' is catching on here, and there were some cute ones this year. Amy's has Winnie the Pooh on it. Cute never goes out of fashion in Japan. Lena's is pink with mesh panels in the back and under the arms, which looks really cool, but is maybe a bit loose for proper swimming.

And I bought a parasol! Right now, despite the ozone layer and melanoma rates, NZers will be thinking I am certifiably bonkers. But dammit, it's very convenient carrying your shade with you! I have to walk to the train on Tuesday, and then from the station to the factory I teach at in another town, and it's DAMN hot! I've been using umbrellas, but I decided I wanted a real parasol with a lining to reduce heat and cut UV rays. It's black, and I managed to find one without lace trimmings, just a subtle damask-style rose pattern, black on black.

We also bought face powder - Chacott. Stage make-up, I know, they even had a pure white one, but it was only ¥1200. This was after the girls and I spent a good ten minutes drawing lines all over my face of different Revlon powders, only to find that my chosen shade was sold out. That tells you something about the goal of make-up in Japan - it's for whitening here, not blending in, so while I clearly have lighter skin, it's *my* shade that's sold out!

We also got some toiletries, the yummiest cheese and bacon bread ever at the Jusco supermarket bakery, a water gun for Erica, a t-shirt and summer cardy combo for Amy (she bought it), stuff for the cats and ice creams for us all. We stopped by Shimamura on the way home, where Lena got a top and shorts, and Amy got a gorgeous dress, and I got floral jeans, a peasant top and a maxi dress with a string top to go over it. Amy, Lena and I all happily tried on clothes for an hour, while Erica played hide and seek with her new bestfriendsforever that she met five minutes before.

Ahhh... shopping with the girls!

More Joyfull

I can't seem to keep away.

Apparently there's a girl in this house called Amy, but I'm not sure, I don't see her often. She's quite nice, she's says hello and goodbye, and I think she's human, because she moans dreadfully about the noise when I wake the other two in the morning for rajio taiso. (If you don't know what that is by now, stuff it, go check July of every other year!).

She appears out of bed, nags me incessantly for the ten minutes demanding to know where her gym clothes are, where her underwear is, where she left her head, and MUM PLEASE DRIVE ME! Which I do, because a) it's only time I get to talk to her, b) it's already a hard morning for her running in the sun let alone walking there too and c) there's air con in the car.

In the morning Lena and Erica do homework. I gave Erica a kindergarten book to work with, and Lena helped her with it - who knew? She is a natural teacher, patient and good at explaining. And Erica is an active learner - she spent most of the time with her feet kicking out behind her, she would stop moving long enough to write a word, then kick again. This does not bode well for school, but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.

The wraith appears again around lunchtime, which she skips, checks once with me that her outfit looks okay (feeling happy that I'm still trusted to know, though she defers to Lena if she's there) and off she goes again. They reappeared once this afternoon to 'show' me their very tomboy friend, the 'big version of Erica'. Then off again, to Joyfull apparently, where they went yesterday too.

Amy handed me the drink tickets when she got home (for a discounted all-you-can-drink drink bar), but I told her to keep them. She was so happy - more so at the implication that it was fine that she went, and fine for her to go again.

She reappeared again at 6, having spent THREE HOURS at Joyfull. And off again to Gion practice. I'll be taking Lena and Erica to Joyfull in a moment, I'm not cooking tonight after slogging away all day today getting the living room clean, including sorting and cleaning books, and 4 DIY projects involving, one of which worked.

That was the extra long studs to hold the book shelf in the bookcase. My attempt to fix the lower panel of the front door screen failed (wrong materials), clearing the paper from the shoji paper doors is a work in progress, and my el cheap air conditioner is still under construction...

Crazy Joy

I'm not sure why my student wants her lesson in Joyfull, a busy family restaurant. I met her first at her house, she has a huge house, and no-one it in - daughter moved out, son at school all day, husband passed away ten years ago. Maybe there were grandparents hiding somewhere, who knows. But her living room was bigger than some people's apartments, and had this... thing... in it. A corner of the room walled off with glass, with a sunken floor and sofas around the four sides of the square that resulted. I couldn't quite figure out what the architect had in mind (and yes, this was the type of house that most definitely came from the mind of an architect, not the pages of a house company brochure), but it seemed ideal for English conversation, as did the coffee table bigger than some people's cars.

But she preferred to drive into town, get a table at Joyfull, pay for drink bar tickets for both of us (which is why I am still awake, still buzzing on the cappuccino), and natter away at our booth, hopefully not disturbing the neighboring diners too much. At first I found it both a bit embarrassing, and limiting - I couldn't really connect the 'quiet dining' persona with the 'outgoing English teacher' persona, who is a lot louder! But over time, I got used to it, to just talking normally, neither too quiet nor too loud.

Unlike our fellow diners tonight.

First of all, we were sitting next to a booth containing high school girls. To tell the truth, they were actually quite well behaved, but you just can't have high school girls anywhere without squealing and loud laughter happening at least a few times. There were kids, of course, being a family restaurant at the start of the summer holidays, but the crying baby, dancing kindergartener and loud requests from the kids at the table in the corner were NOTHING on Loud Guy and Nasty Guy.

Loud Guy was apparent from the start of the night - everyone in the place knew he ordered a cheese-in hamburger. Nasty Guy was sitting with a very quiet wife, son (?in-law) and daughter (?-in-law) and kid, who all looked very cowed, but I didn't notice him until he and Loud Guy started arguing - I didn't hear the whole exchange but it included one telling the other to be mindful of the other customers with that loud voice, then both of them calling each other stupid. I should add Japanese almost never have public confrontations like this. Like everyone else, I very quietly pretended it wasn't happening. Except to take a peek at the protagonists the next time I filled up my Pepsi (not happy with the drink bar selection, by the way).

Finally both lots left, to be replaced by a table full of loud teenage BOYS - much to the delight of the table of high school girls, but not such good news for us! The last thing we did in the lesson was list verbs saying what we are doing right now: sitting, studying etc. I added 'listening to very loud customers' and my student laughed, then Nasty Guy slumped past the window outside on his way to the car park. Grumpy, I said, which resulted in me and my student both looking up the word for a Japanese definition. And me finding this

I swear, the guy looked EXACTLY like this. Whereupon student and I joined the noise and giggled our way out of the lesson!

Hot, hot, and then some

I'm sitting here, in front of my computer,

... wearing a house dress (well, just a loose cotton dress I bought online that is too loosely cut in front so I can't really wear it outside of the house),  fan on full bore blowing on me, not oscillating, a bottle of ice in front of it in the hopes that that will cool the air just a little more, another fan on full bore in the next room, this one oscillating and blowing by me every now and then, with a chamois draped around my neck for more cooling, and another towel to daintily dab the sweat from my face, and a water bottle, empty, because I tend to drink all 500ml at once.

And like that, I can concentrate on work.

Yeah, it's hot, but there are some hidden advantages to going no air con! I am COOLER a lot of the time, except for that one time of the day when I feel like I'm going to melt. But most days around that time, I'm at work (air conditioned), and if not, I take a shower, or go shopping (air conditioned) and every evening I have to take the kids to various classes in the car (air conditioned) so I do get to escape it usually, though I end up having to fight with my students over what temperature to set the air conditioner at!

I'm cooler at night, sleeping. I remember when we used to have the air con on to sleep (switching off later) I would always feel hot in the morning. Now I get to enjoy, really enjoy, the cool breezes of morning, and those moments when I actually get to feel COLD and - gasp - have to put my blanket on (my cotton air cell blanket).

But the best thing is not instantly wilting and breaking into a drenching sweat the minute I leave my house - or just the living room. Which means I can get more done around the house but best of all, spending time outdoors is much more pleasant. All I need is shade and a mild breeze and I feel fine. Night events are even better, no sweat (literally) in the cool evening.

A Few Things

Laugh of the day: Lena was sitting on the floor at the kotatsu doing homework this morning, and felt something brush against her leg. Thinking it was a cat, she reached out to touch.... A cockroach! While she stood on the sofa eeking and freaking and literally crying, the rest of us tried very hard not to laugh, and the cats and I chased the cockroach until I caught it under the bug spray can. Yes, wrong side, I know, but I left it there to deal with later... only to find the can knocked over later. Kind of hope the cats got it, kind of don't, since we sprayed it a lot last night when we first saw it.

(shudder: a cat rubbed against my legs just now!!! Creepy!)

Lena's hissy fit was probably only marginally less ridiculous than Kanji and me squealing and trying to hide behind each other when we first attacked it last night - and it flew at us!!!

But not nearly as funny as Kanji trying out the brand new 'one spray per day' (eg, every 12 hours: no, we have not worked out how that works yet) and spraying himself in the face.

He's not having a good week. He got caught not stopping at a Stop sign. Twice. At the same intersection. sigh. They've been fixing up the roads between our house and his shop for years, and this intersection was finally totally finished, painted and perfect. What better time to set up a sting? I've been stopping at it for ages, because I've noticed the police on that road numerous times - it seems whenever there is roadworks, people think there are no rules any more and do what they like, so the cops follow them there and catch them. Apparently Kanji had not noticed though!

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Just did something I have not done for years, and never in this house. Carried a warm, freshly washed and DRIED load out of the laundry to fold. Ever since the shocking failure of my last drier, which took six hours to dry one load into a crumpled heap because all it did was blast hot air on the just-spun load, I've had to do without. So it was a mixed blessing when the machine started to play up, and a piece of happy luck to find a combination machine on sale for 88,800 (they are usually about 150,000). Now all I have to do is try not to use it too much!

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Three new recipes tonight, mixed results. I added grated carrot to my corn fritters - that worked! I love corn fritters with sweet chili sauce. And added moyashi to latkes. Or, mung bean sprouts to the potato cakes we used to have that we called mock whitebait fritters. Bean sprouts make much better fake whitebait! I also tried crumbed pumpkin slices, Lena's idea after I tried crumbed zucchini a few weeks ago, which she loved. Fail. I tried doing them in the oven and added too much oil. Anyone have any idea how to re-make too-oily crumbed pumpkin into something?

At Fadies to get the chili sauce, I saw.... drumroll please....

Babich Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc. 1980 yen. ($25). And yep, you just know I'll fork out for it! I only just, with a great show of will power, that I managed to not buy it tonight, knowing it would just sit there taunting me all week. Now I am seriously thinking of how many other ways I can cook mung beans and tofu for dinner tomorrow and Friday so I can afford it!

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It's a new Wednesday. Bye-bye laid-back Wednesday, although with swimming starting later the afternoon felt longer. I added juku for Amy from 7-9, after her swimming lesson, so she needed a snack. Now I really do only have Friday left!

One little monkey jumping on the bed

Well, actually she was jumping OFF the bed. The bed in question isn't exactly fun to jump on, with its wooden base with a futon on top... So OFF the bed, landing awkwardly, possibly skidding on her futons set on the floor and

She fell off and bumped her head

Well, cut it open actually. Crashed her head into the squared metal pole supporting Amy's loft bed. I heard the thump, and thought it was particularly loud (I am used to loud thumps from upstairs that I know is the sound of kids jumping off the bed onto the floor. It always startles guests because the whole house shakes and it feels like the ceiling is going to come crashing down, but I know from experience that it won't!). The sound was different this time, so I thought she had dropped a toy drawer to the ground from its place in the upper half of the closet, since her mission that afternoon was to find 'Littlest Pets' toys to give to a friend.

I was eating a banana, so I thought I would finish that then go up and help her clean up the mess. THEN came the scream. You know how the longer the gap, the bigger the scream? Yeah.

So up I rushed, amazing how fast you can streak up stairs when you need to! Banana still in hand, sisters also appeared literally from no-where, I'm sure I was all alone in the living room before that, then they were just there!

I saw the blood running down her face and freaked out a little bit! OhMyGodOhMyGodOhMyGod! Shake hands like fool. Then order Amy to fetch me a towel as I looked around the room which was relatively tidy for once and therefore had no towels lying on the floor. Dump banana on clothes box. Look at sweet, frightened baby and realize I had to pull myself together. Start speaking in a deliberately slow and gentle voice, telling her it was alright, just a little blood, we'd get it fixed up soon.

Pressed towel onto bloody head. "Shall I get your phone?" said Amy, who was thinking more clearly than I was at the time. I had no idea where my phone was, so we all trooped downstairs. We called Kanji first, who was still miles away, having gone to a meeting out of town that day - worst luck, normally he would be able to come.

Mama called the doctor 

Well, the ambulance actually. I was so concerned about holding the towel to her head, and driving, and wondering where I should go, that I decided to call the ambulance.

I probably wouldn't have unless Kanji hadn't suggested calling them that night I broke my toe. If that was worth a call, this was!  and got all annoyed when they started to try out their three sentences of English on her,

and the doctor said,

Well, the ambulance driver said, "Watto aduresso". Damn. Honest, it was just a moment's hesitation, just turned to Amy once to check the word for 'pole', and BAM, that "this person speaks no Japanese so I have to use my three English sentences on her" thing happened. Nice of them to try, of course, but I can speak a whole lot more Japanese, including directions and medical terminology, than the page or two of English they have on a little bit of paper in the back of the ambulance. It wouldn't bother me, of course, only it can sometimes take several repetitions of "I can speak Japanese" for it sink in and for them to both stop trying out their English sentences and worse, trying to decipher my 'English' answers (which are actually Japanese, but it shows how much people can block their hearing).

So I threw several more quickly spoken fully Japanese sentences at them and the switch happily happened, and the ambulance driver said,

"wait outside the bank we'll be there in a few minutes".

I should add here that they really are 'ambulance drivers'. Not paramedics, not nurses. The amount of actual medical procedures they can do are limited - they can't put in lines or give pain medication. What they can do is drive you there safely, and they know where to take you, which, in Japan, is not as clear as it should be.

Meanwhile I found my phone in my pocket, where it had been all along.

Out we go to the street, me holding Erica in my arms, awkwardly pressing the towel against her head, Amy holding an umbrella as it had started to rain. Then she held the towel because my hand was getting sore all twisted around. At this point I thought I might have been able to drive, as I realized Amy could probably do the first aid, though I still didn't know where to go (Kanji had the hospital number, though we could have called and asked).

Meanwhile neighbors gathered. A woman came round the corner, I vaguely recognized her, I think from the school. She stopped her car, jumped out and came over to see if we were okay. "Oh, the ambulance is on its way", I said. I could hear it by then. It seemed to take ages. I remember wondering how they would get the house if we couldn't come out to meet them outside the bank - run in with the stretcher, I suppose.

By the time they arrived I was feeling quite embarrassed, and quite a wee crowd had gathered outside the bank. Oh well, I thought, everyone knows now. So I climbed in the back with Erica (Amy and Lena stayed home), and they wrapped her head up with gauze after judging it to be about 1cm long and1/2c wide, and off we went, Erica's temperature and blood pressure being taken, and me being asked if she had passed out, seen stars or felt sick.

I forgot to look out the front window to see the parting of the ways, except for one point when we were on the main road, and I saw all the cars lined up on either side of the street as we went down the center - meanwhile Erica was calm enough to be fiddling and asking questions about the stuff in the back of the ambulance... by this time I was quite convinced we didn't need an ambulance, but well, it was a bit late by then.

So they drove us up to the door of the pediatric emergency entrance (there isn't a dedicated emergency department in the hospital) where we had to wait a bit for the one on duty pediatrician. She declared it too big for her boots, and promptly called the surgeon. I had time then to call Kanji, who was still on the road, and Kristin, who was on her way to visit with 3 kids (eek! but also, phew - will you arrive and promptly babysit and cook dinner while I hang out at the hospital, please?).

He came pretty quickly, along with my student from last year's hospital class! Erica was SOOOO good. She really likes hospitals and doctors, goodness knows why, with all that has happened to her! She was quite determined that it wasn't going to hurt and she lay still while they cleaned it up and applied the steri-strips. The nurse was funny, handing the surgeon what he needed just before he asked... he'd say 'are...' ('that one') and there she'd have it. Yes, Maria, Mum and Rebecca, I know, you nurses always have to tell those doctors what to do! She was real smooth too...

And we were given two days worth of prophylactic antibiotics and told to go to any old nearby surgeon on Monday.

Back home in time to cook dinner, then everyone arrived - Kristin and the kids, then Kanji, and Erica made a miraculous recovery so she could play with her friends and then everyone said,

no more monkeys jumping on the bed!

Toy Story

It is not a good idea to attempt to manage the toy closet (ie, chuck stuff out) in between watching installments of Toy Story. Skip to 2:15



Not when your kid talks about how the poor toys are going to be burned....



I happily explained that ours would not be going in the burnable trash, that's not allowed in rubbish-mental Japan, but would be nicely buried where some achaeologist of the future will dig them up and and they will be treated like treasure.

Thank goodness my kids don't know the word 'landfill' (skip to 40s)



The other thing you must not under any circumstance do, is use personal pronouns to refer to them. A few weeks ago, I brought Jamma Lammy downstairs to toss, having finally had enough of her. She was a gift ages ago, a girl-shaped alarm clock that sings an annoying song. I don't think we've ever used it as an alarm clock - it's too annoying, and we could never seem to coordinate the feat of having working batteries in both the doll and clock parts of the device. But then each kid in turn 'discovered' her, and had to keep her, occasionally pressing the button that makes her sing and then say "Alright!" over and over again in that way kids do with toys that are supposedly 'interactive' (meaning they just make noise when you press the buttons, so the kid does it over and over again like some kind of drug) So it kept hanging around until the next clear-out.

Then I made the fatal mistake of referring to it as 'her', that I was going to throw 'her' out because 'she' is not very useful, we never use 'her'. Cue sad eyes around the breakfast table. Poor Jamma Lammy.

So, part of the solution is to give some things away.

A little girl we know in Beppu will probably be thrilled to inherit our entire zuzu pet collection, plus accessories. I hope her parents don't kill me.

Kristin, you should know that next time Sasha wants the Littlest Pet shop plus pets and accessories, she is going to be allowed to take it home.

I know a little girl called Pinglet's mother does NOT want more toys, but I hope an elegant evening purse with a few items of costume jewellery that were too nice to throw out will be fine. I guess I'll ask first if she want the old Puri-kyua outfits.

There are two energetic little boys in Oita who will have endless fun with the Fisher-Price toys.

One more little girl in Usa marked herself as a victim of our 'charity' by expressing a love of ponies the other weekend. I hope she likes the pony princess dress we throw in as well. I'm sure her brother will LOVE mowing the astroturf on the deck with our noisy toy lawn mower.

And GW, what do you say to some Bratz dolls, or Barbies?

Thank goodness I know so many people with little kids!

Bonus Jamma Lammy vid:

Calm, clean and quiet

Curry cooking on the stove, kitties curled up or stretched out on the sofa, fan whirring on the other side of the room, treating me to a little flutter of cool air every now and then. Not even the birds are tweeting on this hot morning, leaving me with quiet and peace.

And a living room floor that is STILL clean two hours after I vacuumed! Amazing!

I think I like Friday mornings. Friday mornings are quickly becoming my 'sit at the computer and pretend to work while reading stuff suggested by the gods of facebook' morning. This is a daily habit I have been weaning myself off for a month or two now. With my eager, interested morning mind in top gear I tend to click on everything, and before long have ten tabs open all with thrillingly fascinating or important issues that I must read right now! And of course, nothing else gets done that morning, so I've quit it, but quietly allowed myself to do it on Friday morning (of course I also tidy up, do the dishes, do some laundry and often start getting dinner on as well, but hey, that never ends! By 'doing nothing' I mean not getting on the de-cluttering, class prep, essay checking, yard work or whatever other pressing jobs need doing.)

Today is Father's Day. Not in NZ of course, where it's in September, or in Japan either, where it's on Sunday. But our Father is working on Sunday, and going drinking with a friend on Saturday night (harrumph! I thought it was my turn!) so tonight it is. Curry is on the menu of course, what else? But with a bit of twist tonight - hot Java curry for the mince, and I made a second curry with chicken and a really mild roux. I'm also going to make stuffed ball zucchinis and garlic butter scallops. With sashimi and beer added, and some champers for me, it'll make a nice feast, and no doubt the Father will put something on TV, and that'll be our night.

I've got most of it cooked, so I have a little bit of time after work to shop for a present, eek! What to get! And pick up the booze and sashimi. So it's off to work now, not a particularly taxing job this afternoon, what with having done the same lesson yesterday so I know what I'm doing. And while this bunch can be annoying sometimes with sleepiness, not listening and not following instructions, I'm so used to it that I think I'd be put out if they suddenly all turned into star pupils.

But it's a hot, hot day, and the air conditioning isn't on yet, so we'll all be sleepy, and aching to get out of there....I'll be dreaming of cool champagne and hot curry and watching the clock tick, tick, tick...

June

Rainy June. But not today, beautiful weather today, sunny and warm with a light breeze.

Sounds just like the start of a Japanese school PTA letter. Which means the next paragraph will contain the real business.

Okay, here's the next paragraph. Sorry, nothing to add. Or rather, I really don't want to list all the things I've done but haven't updated on the blog yet, like convention, undokai, parties, bbqs, blah blah blah.

And I certainly don't want to bore you with yet another break-down of my busy schedule, even though it's my personal obsession. And I'm still looking for more work! I'm know I'm mad, but the madness has a purpose.

Ahhhhh.... I know.

I'll blissfully rhapsodize over tomorrow. Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love ya tomorrow, you're only a few hours away now, and I have nothing scheduled. Well, until 2pm anyway, and not counting getting up at 7 to make Erica's lunch to take to kindy. Apart from that I am going to try to squeeze extra ipod game time, extra novel-reading time, extra movie-watching time and perhaps extra sleep into the six hours I have guaranteed with nothing to do (which of course means loads to do but I'm just ignoring it), and the rest into the other six, where I'll juggle swimming lessons, uniform shopping and making dinner.

With any luck I'll turn up at work on Thursday morning and have a panic attack about the stuff I have to do before the weekend, when I have plans to take the kids to a Reubens exhibition in Kitakyushu, visiting friends on the way.

Now, back to looking for photos and starting that convention post...

My desk

One of the most strangely interesting entries in my old diary is an exhaustive list of what lay on my bedside table. Instead of my usual narcissistic monologue, here was an insight in the mundane little details of everyday life, the things I did not think were important enough to devote a diary entry to.

It's like when you look at an old photograph, and find yourself spellbound by the background details, overlooking the smiling faces to laugh at the old wallpaper you remember, or a coffee cup on the table that you loved and smashed to bits decades ago.

So with that in mind, voila! Here is my desk:

At the top is my year planner. Would you believe I couldn't find a poster type, and had to make it myself!? I guess I could find one if I looked harder, they must exist, but was busy and it just needed to be done. With four (maybe five) different annual calendars to juggle (plus private classes) I needed something where I couldn't quickly check, visually, what I have coming up in the next few weeks, and most importantly, when they all happily coincide and I get a holiday! So far there are only three weeks this year when that happens, one week in summer and two over Christmas/New Year.

Next comes the stack of AFWJ Journals and Directories, and folders relating to meetings, the cookbook and calendar committees and convention handbook! So much always to do there, and kept here nicely in reach. It'll be nice to stack those back in another place finally when I stop being Pres next year.

Next come a stack of photo CDs waiting to be loaded into this computer, just as soon as I get iphoto sorted and re-loaded with the backup photos as iphoto seems to have lost dozens of photos (I just get a broken line box where a photo should be), and a framed photos of my girls dressed in kimonos for the girls' festival - the photo frame plays the Hina Matsuri song.

Then there's a weight management hypnosis CD and a Lazydown DVD (a kid's show, just coincidentally next to the weight-loss CD, although if I did the dances from the DVD I think I would lose quite a bit!).

Next comes nihon-go, half a shelf devoted to the books I am supposed to be studying Japanese with, but never do, accompanied by a couple of English grammar books, and the full history of National Geographic on CD-ROM.

Hiding behind are an unused pen stand, one random AFWJ photo CD, AFWJ and other cookbooks for reference, a container full of memory sticks and cards, more CD-ROMs and a bunch of floppy disks (I think I'm hoping they'll sprout a USB hub if I leave them long enough in close proximity to my Mac). A heart-shaped cushion with "I love you Mum", and external hard drive, a fold-out mirror, a Paddington Bear purse, a screen cleaner and a heart-shaped cardboard box that was a present from Erica for something, made at kindy.

The pile of detritus scattered around the base of the computer is normal verging on bad. It gets cleaner, but has got worse too. There's a roll of selotape, a water spray bottle for cat management, a hairbrush, the ubiquitous massive tea mug I use, a letter and a money envelope, a lego figurine (knight from Erica's new castle set), a miniature jack-in-the-box, providence unknown, two earrings, a necklace and a hair clip, a peg with a strap attached (never could work out what these things were for), a broken pair of Kanji's glasses, some parts of the smashed computer screen wrapped in newspaper (there as a reminder to myself that I still have not disposed of the whole smashed screen because I don't know which type of trash to put it wish, or just take it to the dump next time we go), a fake Chanel cigarette box with no cigarettes in it, on top of some notes about the cute things Erica said as a toddler which I have yet to transcribe, a photo, a sock, a beaded hair comb, 2 pencils, a spool of red thread, a thank you letter to Kanji, expired passports (OOPS!), two camera battery chargers, a framed photo of my sisters, the video camera, an ancient Milo tin and a yellow and black dress I wore when I was 16 (about to be blogged about on a different blog), DVDs of the Tudors and some Vanilla scent.

In the second picture you can see the printer, toner yet to be put in, and a few bags and some folders in a box. That's my English teaching resources! There's a whole lot more in the spare room, this is just the 'grab bags' of the things i need every week, sorted into class folders. Under the desk (Amy's old desk, she has moved on to her upstairs loft bed with a desk under it now) are a bunch of photos to be scanned.

UGH that was scary!! I just added I don't know how many things back onto my 'to do' list from where they had fallen off despite being right in front of my eyes.

Golden Week

Another glorious, sunny, relaxing Golden Week at Victoria's in the bag.

And I'm not going to say it's always the same, but different this time, because it was mostly just the same. Except for the mini-circus and me collecting injuries like girl scout badges (in addition to the broken toe, I spent the whole drive down trying to get something out of my eye. Tammy finally gave me some eye drops and the chair collapsed under me while I was leaning back to put them in, leaving me with a streak of purple bruising along my upper arm. Well, the chair was several decades old. Finally I collected a wasp sting at the bbq on the second night, which Victoria cured with ammonia, making me smell like a two-day old nappy all night until I covered it with a plastic glove).

Oh, and I never stepped foot in the temple once! I went up to the toilet 3-4 times, but we did all the cooking in the lower kitchen, and I slept in the corner by the sofas in the old kindergarten with Erica.

Amy and Lena slept in a tent in an old rice paddy out the back of the back garden with Sahara and Sasha. Never seeing them except for when they miraculously appeared at mealtimes is par for the course I suppose.

As is the G&T's on the lawn and the endless bottles of wine, cups of tea in Victoria's kitchen, the bbq and sashimi and chips and dip, shopping and onsen trip and women chattering loudly in English in the kitchen.

This year's parent was Karin's dad Issac, who made the hummus, and made it REAL good. Victoria's helpers were another French couple, this time the girl was the outgoing one, the guy kind of quiet. They were act two in the mini-circus with their hula-hoop routine, following Yuko the balloon lady. I have to say the BBQ night entertainment this year was top-notch!

I skipped the river swim due to my foot, and was happy that Erica didn't seem interested in the river - until the next day, when I knew about it only when she appeared in the back garden soaking wet. Erica being another year older and more sensible is probably why I felt this year to be particularly relaxing - instead of panicking whenever there was a quiet moment, I rested. Since Lena was 5 when Erica was born, I guess that means this is the *most* relaxing it's ever been for me, despite the fact that being an old hand now means I do a lot more of the cooking, cleaning up and shopping, since I know where things are!

The trip there was great.