August 1, 2026

 Saturday - Cloudy & Rainy

Today was a bit better of a day than I expected, and yet, some of it was rather frustrating too. 

I woke up this morning around 9am. I try to wait until F leaves with K for her Day Service. I went downstairs and then came back up to the room. A few minutes later I went back to bed for a longer snooze. 

I finally got up and dressed. We had doctor appointments this morning so we drove over to the clinic and went in. I had asked F to help me fill in the paper last night saying that I knew about the side effects of the vaccination and that I wasn’t pregnant or breastfeeding. I’m a bit too old for that! Unfortunately, F hadn’t filled in HIS form, maybe because he didn’t know about it? So, I could get the shot and F couldn’t. Of course, mine was the one we had to pay for. 

I got my shot, we picked up our medicines, and then it was a very late lunch time. It was almost 1pm by the time we finished. 

F had suggested a place he went to recently for lunch. They serve Omu-rice. I was worried that it would have tomato in the rice, but they didn’t. It was more of a chahan than a rice filling he said. Okay then. 

We drove to the restaurant and it was really lined up. F went and put his name on the list and we were 4 groups back, so it would be a while. Luckily it wasn’t sunny as we waited outside for a while. At one point I did remind F that I hadn’t eaten yet today, so as it got close to 2 pm and then later he was annoyed with me and said we could give up and go back to the house (where there was no food that I would want to eat….)

We finally got in and F ordered for us. It took a while to arrive but when it did, it was rather nice. It was quite big…and we ordered a small one each!

After lunch we came back to Tsuruoka and F went to a grocery store. I stayed in the car as I was a tad tired and didn’t want to go out. Then, we came back to the house.

F bopped around between upstairs and downstairs, I was upstairs for most of the time. He came up for a nap after his mother got back. I decided I’d take one too. I took a couple of 20 minutes of snoozes. I did try to suggest F go downstairs and make his mother’s dinner, but he kept putting it off. Finally around 6:30 he went downstairs to cook for her.

I got redressed and waited for F to finish. We finally left around 7:10 and we still had to eat. We set off, and then F tried to go to the wrong restaurant so we had to turn around. We finally got to the gyudon shop. I had curry with a caesar salad and miso soup, F ordered his usual gyudon with an egg and miso soup and pickles. We did have to call the waiter over a couple of times. They forgot my salad dressing and they didn’t give us the free tea they give everyone. I ate all of mine, F stopped halfway and said he couldn’t eat anymore. 

We left. F swore that we could get to the cinema in time. We sort of did. I had told F the movie started at 8pm but it really started at 8:20.  We arrived at the mall after 8. We went into the mall, up to the cinema. We tried to buy our tickets but the point cards didn’t work. We had to buy the tickets without them. F was absolutely useless at telling me what was on the screen when it had a message about the cards. We got the tickets, then went to the popcorn ordering station. F hung way back and then got mad when someone else took “his” turn. ACK. Finally we got our snacks and went into the cinema. There were washroom runs for both of us.

We went to see Spiderman: Brand New Day and it was great. I’ve always been a huge fan of Spiderman and Tom Holland too, so I was predisposed to like it. It was funny, bittersweet and also quite good. The character has been changing a bit and I’m there for it. 

After the movie, we left the cinema and drove back to Tsuruoka. It was about 11:30 when we got back. F went to sleep soon after, I’m up late as usual. 

My arm hurts a bit, but so far that’s all the bad side effect that I’ve had. I’m hoping that I’ll be okay. It was my second shingles shot if you were wondering. 

Anyway, that’s about it for me for tonight. I’m not sure what we’ll get up to tomorrow, it’ll probably include grocery shopping, but we’ll see. Come back later if you like and hear all about my Sunday. Until tomorrow….

July 31, 2026

Friday - Rainy, cloudy and humid

I woke up before my alarm this morning. I did my usual trip downstairs and then came back to the room. I went back to bed for a bit, but I didn’t go to sleep again. I tried to nap, but it wasn’t happening. 

I got up, dressed for going out, watched a review of a couple of movies and then made my break! I left the house and walked to the bus stop. I left the house at 10:30 and made it to the bus stop just before the bus time. Surprisingly, the bus was only 2 minutes late and I was the only passenger at first. 

Now, when I got off the bus near the cinema, there were a few other passengers. One was a lady who had some trouble getting on. She had a cane and sat near the door. When I left, I had to ask her to move her feet so I could get by. I might have forgotten to swipe my card, I’m not sure. As I was getting off the bus, I saw the lady’s hat on the step, so I got off and then handed it back to her. 

I walked from the bus stop to the big drugstore. I grabbed myself a bottle of rooibos, then also picked up a few things for a mini lunch and a walked back to the cinema. 

I went in, paid my money and then went to see a documentary about Twiggy. It was called Twiggy.

I really enjoyed it. I used to have a record of Twiggy’s and I liked it very much. I also was over the moon to catch a glimpse of my favourite British rock singer, David Essex. Twiggy came over as very nice, unspoiled and a real person. It’s quite interesting just how many walks of life she was able to enter. She was one of the first supermodels, she sang, she danced, she did movies, TV, and albums. 

After the film, I used the outside of the lobby to have a seat and eat some of the food I bought earlier. After that, I walked over to the bus stop.

I caught a city bus to the mall and did a little shopping. I didn’t get anything of note, just a few things for myself. I debated with myself whether to get an ice cream or go to Doutor for an iced coffee. Doutor won. I went in and had a sandwich and a decaf iced coffee. The coffee was strong, but just what I wanted!

I decided to catch the 15:15 bus back to the house. I waited for the bus and then got on. I had an enjoyable ride back to my stop. It was rainy outside but it was cool and dry in the bus. However, when I got off the bus and tried to swipe my card, it didn’t work. The bus driver did some magic with the card reader however and it worked. Whew!

I came into the house and went upstairs. I turned on the AC and stripped most of my clothes off! I hung up my clothes to dry and enjoyed the cool air. I had some tea and then F called me around 5:30. 

I went downstairs to start dinner and a little later F came in. He was soaked from just walking back from the car. He had done some shopping and put it away, then went upstairs. A few minutes later I got a text that said he couldn’t eat again tonight. Sigh. I asked him if he wanted me to make him a plate and he said he did. 

So, K and I had dinner together again. It was fine. When she went off to the washroom, I turned the TV so that the news would be in English. She can’t hear it anyway, and there are subtitles so she can follow along if she wants. Dinner was okay. She got some mini-tomatoes and we had garlic butter pasta with sliced chicken breast and salad. It was good. 

I did the dishes afterwards and then said goodnight to K. F had come downstairs so there was a line up for the washroom!

I took a shower before 10 pm tonight and then thought I’d watch a movie on the DVR. I started Monkey Man. I liked what I saw but then decided not to watch it tonight. It’s not all in English and it was quite violent and I wasn’t in the mood for that kind of thing. Instead I watched another episode of Ride or Die. It was fun actually. That’s what I was looking for. 

And honestly, that was about it for my day. Tomorrow we have a busy day. I’m hoping to be okay to go and see the new Spiderman because I love Spiderman, but we’ll have to see if it happens!

Come back later if you like and hear all about my day. Until tomorrow….

July 30, 2026

Thursday - Rainy, cloudy and humid

Today was quite a day. I’m not really sure what happened. It wasn’t terrible but it wasn’t great either.

My day started as it has recently. Woke up with my alarm, went downstairs, went back to bed for a bit. Got up later and dressed. I went downstairs and checked mail (none) and then I set up the meat for tonight’s dinner. I marinated it in some garlic and olive oil. I stuck it in the fridge and left it.

I went upstairs, ate breakfast and then relaxed for a bit. I decided to work on my pyjama bottom again and I think I finished it! Yay me. It’s about time. 

I went downstairs to get my lunch and then brought it back upstairs to eat. Today I decided to watch an episode of Departure. It was the last one of the second season. It must have been around the time of Christopher Plummer’s death as they had dedicated the episode to him. 

I relaxed until F called to say he was on the way back. I did read on FB that Glen Hansard died yesterday in a motorcycle accident. He was an actor/musician. He wrote the song Falling Slowly from the movie Once with his partner at the time Markéta Irglová. They won the Academy Award for best song for it. It’s a lovely song. 

I went downstairs and went to the kitchen. I didn’t turn on the AC at first, and when I decided to do it, F arrived at the same time. For some reason, F started fooling around with the AC and it didn’t work anymore. I was trapped in the kitchen getting hotter and hotter and wasn’t too happy about it. Honestly, I’m really upset about the whole thing. 

Tonight’s dinner was good, even though I was so hot. I’d asked F to bring some pilaf or frozen rice from the store since he didn’t feel like making any last night. We had shrimp pilaf, salad, butter soy sauce mushrooms, eggy tofu and coro-coro steak. I think things were nice, but I was so sweaty afterwards that my towel was soaked. 

At one point, I went out of the kitchen to use the washroom and it was cooler out of the kitchen/living room than in it. I told F it was and then I closed the door to the living room and opened the kitchen window. It was still hot, but slightly better. 

I went upstairs to change my clothes to go to the grocery store and basically had to change almost all of my clothes. Yuck. 

F drove me over to the grocery store and then I went in. I bought some food for dinner tomorrow night, food for breakfasts and a sandwich for my breakfast too. 

We came back to the house and I put away the groceries. I went upstairs to relax and use the AC. It was so nice in the grocery store that I didn’t want to leave it! I watched some YouTube and then I watched The Rookie. It was one with some “zombies”. They weren’t really, just people who had been exposed to some kind of toxin that made them act strangely. 

After the show, I turned off the TV and then I started watching some YouTube. F is currently up, but he was sleeping earlier. 

Just so I don’t blame F for no reason about the AC, he thinks that the outside unit wasn’t working tonight. I’m hoping that we can get it working again or I might run away until Autumn!

Tomorrow I’m planning to go out in the morning to go over to Machi-ne Kinema to see a movie. I hope that I can wake up to go! Come back later if you like and find out if I survive cooking dinner tomorrow night! Until tomorrow….

July 29, 2026

Wednesday - Rainy, cloudy & cooler

I woke up this morning when my alarm went off. Actually, I think I might have woke up earlier, but I fell back asleep again. Yay. I went downstairs and then came back to the room and sorted out my laundry. F had turned on the AC when he left this morning. It was sweet of him, but I didn’t think it really was making a difference. I set it to turn itself off again and then went back to bed. 

I snoozed and then when I finally woke up, dressed and went downstairs with my laundry. I went to the washroom and then started the machine. When I came out of the bathroom, I heard the front door open. F was back. He had a bit of a break and he brought me some ice cream, so he was doubly welcome! I also grabbed my breakfast and then we went upstairs. F relaxed for a while and I had some tea and I even gave him some too. 

I had a quiet afternoon after F left. I ended up going down a little late for my lunch. I brought lunch up to the room and I watched an episode of Elsbeth that was fun. It was about nuns!

After 5:30 F phoned me and said he was on his way back to the house. I got ready to go downstairs and then when F arrived I was most of the way through the dishes. Tonight I had an easy night. I did pre-made burgers from the store, fries in the air fryer, salad, cucumber pickle and potato salad. It turned out quite well. 

Dinner was in front of the TV as usual and it was all about the earthquake in Kumamoto. I know it is reasonable in a way, but Japan has this thing where they go over and over the same thing on the news. Ain’t nobody need one hour of repetition about the earthquake. When they were talking all about the Tohoku earthquake in 2011 it drove me crazy. I got to the point where I couldn’t watch Japanese news at all.

I did the dishes and put everything away. F was yelling at his mother about something. It turns out that she’s coughing into tissues and then rubbing the table with them to “clean” it. Sigh. F jumped into action and cleaned the table properly and then wanted to wash the placemats. That was fine except I was planning to do the garbage in the kitchen. He cleaned, I did the garbage up in the downstairs except for the stuff in the sink. F said he’d do it so I left him to it. 

I went upstairs and watched some YouTube and then F came upstairs. I went downstairs to take my shower. K was bopping around downstairs but she disappeared finally. I showered and when I finished, I went into the kitchen and made myself some popcorn. I haven’t had any in ages and it was great. 

I came back upstairs and watched the first episode of Grey’s Anatomy for season 22 I think. It was  good. They picked up right from last season. It is getting to be such a silly show though!

I turned off the TV when the show finished and then went back to YouTube. F is in bed, but I’m not sure if he is sleeping or not. I hope so, for his sake. 

Tomorrow I have to prepare the meat for dinner. F didn’t make rice so I’m not sure that there will be enough food for us all. I hope so! I thought I might ask him to pick up some frozen pilaf or fried rice on the way back to the house. We’ll see what he says.

Well, that’s it for me. Come back later if you like and hear all about my Thursday. Until tomorrow…. 

July 28, 2026

Tuesday - Rainy, cloudy & humid

Today, I got up early again. I made a trip downstairs and then reset my alarms so that I would wake up in a little bit. I did manage to get up when my alarm went off, but it took a little time. 

I went downstairs and got my breakfast and then came upstairs. I tried to join the Zoom meeting but for some reason I couldn’t get connected. It took ages and I didn’t get in until after 10:30. Oh dear!

The meeting was….well, it was nice to see everybody, but I wasn’t very talkative. I didn’t have much opportunity to talk as the topics that came up weren’t very interesting to me. Oh well. Maybe next time. 

After the meeting I took a nap! I really didn’t accomplish much I’m sad to say. I snoozed until lunchtime and then got up and went downstairs to make my lunch. 

When I ate my lunch I watched another episode of Breaking Bad. I think the show is brilliant, but I’m not sure that I’m enjoying it! After the show, I watched the news until there was a disaster alarm on the TV about an earthquake in South Japan. 

It seems like it was a really terrible earthquake in Kumamoto. An Aeon Mall was very badly damaged and there may still be people trapped inside. That gives me the willies as I often go to our local Aeon Mall to see movies or do shopping. Sigh. 

F called me after 5:30pm. He said he was on the way back to the house. I went downstairs a little later and got started on dinner. Tonight I did chicken drumsticks with salad, potato salad and I whipped up a little canned corn and tuna salad. That was surprisingly nice! Dinner was good, but F was feeling really tired and didn’t eat much. 

After dinner, I did the dishes and then got ready to leave for the grocery run. F finally got ready and we headed out to the car. He gave me a hand with the recyclables and then went back to the car. He didn’t feel well again. 

I bought the groceries, running around the store like a headless chicken. I paid and then came back to the car with the big bag. We came back to the house and I put away the groceries. 

We headed upstairs and relaxed. F headed off to bed fairly soon, I watched Law & Order. It was okay. 

Since it finished I’ve been watching YouTube and doing my end of day stuff. I’m looking forward to going to bed soon! I don’t say that often. 

Come back later if you like and hear all about my Wednesday. Until tomorrow….

 

July 27, 2026

Monday - Cloudy and humid, cooler

I woke up early this morning, but fell back asleep. I couldn’t properly wake up at my alarm time, but finally dragged myself downstairs. I came back up to the room, checked a couple of things on my computer and then headed back to bed. I watched a few videos and tried to go back to sleep. I didn’t manage for a while, then finally did fall asleep. Of course I ended up oversleeping again. 

I finally got up and dressed. I went downstairs to grab breakfast. When I first got up this morning, K hadn’t eaten her breakfast, but this time it had vanished. She hadn’t eaten the food I left for her lunch though. 

I had a quiet day today. I wrote a letter to my bestie and I backed up my computer. Two things that I needed/wanted to do. At lunch time I watched Saturday night’s FBI and then some of the US news. I relaxed afterwards and finished up my letter.

F called me quite late tonight and I went downstairs even later to start dinner. I got things started, well, the dishes anyway. I got them done and then F arrived. He helped me turn on the AC in the living room and also announced that he didn’t want to eat dinner. He had a headache. Oh dear. I was glad that he told me early this time. I also decided to change the menu tonight. I had planned to do chicken drumsticks, but thought I’d do the ginger pork I had planned for tomorrow. I was running late and the pork was less work. I think it was a good call. 

Tonight for dinner we had ginger pork, rice, salad with some young corn pieces, steamed vegetables and K got some mini-tomatoes. I made K her lunch plate for tomorrow and F a plate for later if he wanted it.(spoiler…he ate it later)

I did the dishes and then went upstairs. I relaxed for a while. F got up and then decided to eat his dinner. He went downstairs, brought his food up. Then, he went downstairs again and made noodles! He ate them too. 

I went downstairs and took a shower, then came back up to the room. I decided to watch something on AppleTV.  I started it on the TV but then I thought I could watch it on my computer so I could use headphones and not bother F. Of course, trying to sign in on my computer was a PITA! It wasn’t quiet either as I had to get codes sent to my phone. Oh well. I did it finally. I watched an episode of Widow’s Bay. I’m not sure why, but I didn’t realize it was quite horror based. It was funny too, but today’s episode was a bit spooky. 

After the show, I shut down AppleTV on my computer and went back to YouTube and my end of day stuff…and here we are!

Tomorrow I may join a Zoom meeting if I can wake up in time, and I might do some laundry or something. Come back later and find out what I get up to. Until tomorrow….

July 26, 2026

 Sunday - Rainy and cloudy, cooler but humid

I woke up this morning at my usual time. I went downstairs and then came back to the room. I read a few things on my phone and then watched a video or two. I went back to sleep and a bit later F came in the room. He went back to bed too. He fell asleep, I woke up around noon and got up. 

I spent time at my computer until F woke up again. It was close to 2pm and then he wanted to know where I wanted to go for lunch. Most places would be finished lunch, so….I don’t know?! He was grumbly about not going for keiten-sushi…or this or that…Finally I just said let’s go to Gusto. We could have drink bar and it was still early enough that I could have a coffee. F wasn’t too happy about it, but caved.

We drove over to one of the Gustos and went in. We got a seat right away and ordered soon afterwards. F had some curry, it’s one of the specials that they offer now. I ordered for him and made a mistake…oops. I ordered him the bigger version rather than the smaller one he wanted. Sorry. I didn’t see the code for the smaller one. I had my favourite mushroom pasta. It came with nama ham and and I ordered a chicken salad on the side. We both had the drink bar and yes, I got my coffee…I had an iced cappucino and it was nice. 

After our lunch, I asked F if we could go to the Seria nearby. I wanted to check out the hundred yen shop. I bought a few things, mostly stationary. They had some really pretty letter sets and envelopes. I also got some coat hangers for doing laundry. 

We came back to the house after this. I wasn’t too impressed, but whatever. I spent time on my computer, F came upstairs and took another nap, then went downstairs to make his mother’s dinner. I’ve been in the kitchen tonight and he’s left it in such a mess for me. I am not impressed with him. 

F tried to be all nasty about picking a place for dinner, but I suggested a local place we like, Misono. We went there, got a table and both had the same thing, sort of. I had the kara-age plate, F had the kara-age set meal. He had rice, miso soup and a side dish of tofu. I just had the plate with the fried chicken, salad and a pasta salad. It was really nice. F complained afterwards that it was too big for him. I told him that was why I had the plate versus the set meal!

We had to do our grocery shopping afterwards so we went over to the PAL shopping area. F stayed in the car and I went in to do the shopping, Yay. 

I bought stuff for F’s breakfast, K’s breakfast and lunch and the family’s dinners. Oh, and my lunches. Very important! I went a bit over budget but it was okay I think. I didn’t buy any junk so that’s good. 

We came back to the house and I put away the groceries. F had to do his ironing for work so I came upstairs and started watching Ride or Die. When F did come upstairs, I stopped my show (I had just started it, so no worries) and asked him if we could make plans for September. 

Basically, it’s our anniversary in mid September and it’s a fairly big one. I had hoped that we could go away for a night or two, but F didn’t want to. If we had arranged it early enough we could have put K in a short term stay, but again, he didn’t want to do that again. Sigh. We’ve made a hotel reservation for a night at a really gorgeous hotel in Tsuruoka. We’re going to have a night in a room there and then have a nice breakfast. It’ll be a nice change for us both I hope. We’ll have to make arrangements for K’s dinner and her breakfast, but hopefully we’ll be over the worst of the heat by our anniversary. We’ll be in the same city so if we worry about her, we can always check on her. 

I went back to my show and F went to bed. Ride or Die was pretty good, it was still quite funny. Some of the other characters were featured tonight so that was good. 

I’m not sure what I’ll get up to tomorrow. I might use some of my new stationary, I might write a postcard or two, I might think about my new column, or I might just concentrate on how to stay cool!

Come back later if you like and hear all about my day. Until tomorrow….