July 27, 2014

Sunday - Rainy and cooler

A quiet day.

The first time I woke up this morning the apartment was empty.  F had gone off searching for his iPhone.  He came back with it later.  He'd left it at his mother's! 

It was a little hard to get up this morning as I'd opened the window and every few seconds a delicious cool breeze came in.  I didn't want to move!  Finally I did, checked email and the like and of course discussed the eternal (infernal?) lunch question.  He suggested a new place that was near his office, so I decided to be nice and agree!  We got there in the pouring rain, and discovered that it was a Taiwanese place selling ramen.  Quelle surprise!

 Fortunately for us both, it also had other food, and we had lunch there.  I had chicken and cashew nuts, which wasn't too bad, and F had a dish that looked like eggs, black mushrooms and other veggies.  They were quite good, so we'll probably go back.

After lunch we went to S-mall and had a drink at Doutors.  It was nice just to be out for a while honestly.  I'm feeling a bit housebound with all the sun and heat these days. We hacked the hundred yen shop and I found a multitude of things that I needed/wanted, so got some of them.  I got a bigger sieve.  Technically it is for making green tea, but I plan to use it for draining my yogurt.  I like it thicker and the tea sieve that I'm using now isn't big enough.  I also got a new towel, I go through a lot of towels for my neck in summer, and a roll of Scotch tape.  Always useful.  F picked up a few things too, then we headed home.  F dropped me off and went back to his mother's house.  She wanted to exchange the shoes she bought yesterday, so needed him to drive her.  

I had a nice afternoon without him. I watched a bit of TV, read some blogs, the usual.  He came back and we both got stuck in our computers.  

Around 7 he started asking for dinner. I wasn't that hungry yet, but decided to humour him.  We agreed on Bikkuri Donkey! but when we got there, there was a line up.  Oh no!  F didn't want to wait, so we went across the street to Jiro, our old favourite.  It was a little busy, but we got a table. Tonight I had chicken and F had the gratin set.  His looked good. He had gratin pasta with fried chicken, salad and a roll.  Mine was teriyaki chicken I think, with a side cabbage salad and a few french fries and a few green beans.  It was really nice.  

I had asked that we go to karaoke tonight, but after dinner F begged off.  His neck had been really bothering him today, so I didn't mind too much.  We bought a few groceries and then came home.  

We had a quiet night in too.  We both got to watch a bit of TV and F set up the breadmaker for the morning.  He's going to make some whole wheat bread.  I found a recipe for home made pita bread, so if I'm brave one day, I'll try it!  I haven't made bread since I was a child, so I'm a tad nervous.

And that was basically my day.  I'm not sure what I'll get up to tomorrow.  I did write a few postcards tonight, so I'll have to scan and run them off to the post office, but apart from that and cooking dinner, I'm just not sure.  Come back tomorrow and find out what I get up to?  Night.

July 26, 2014

Saturday - Hot and Sunny

An interesting day.

I got up this morning to watch Gordon Ramsay.  F came home just as it was starting, so we both half watched it.  Afterwards I was tired so I went to lie down for a while, of course I dozed a little too.  F started watching boxing or fighting, so I left him to it.  

I got back up around 12 and we discussed lunch.  It took us a while and we finally decided around 1:45 to go to a local place that we often go to.  It wasn't the best choice today.  

They had a new waitress and she was awkward and a little intimidated I think.  People at other tables had to ask for more water and she completely missed the fact that F needed some too.  We were at the next table!  The starters were good as always, but I had chosen to have pork and vegetable rolls with a yuzu-koshou sauce as my main course.  F had fish today.  Well, I ate half of my first roll and discovered that the pork wasn't completely cooked.  Worse than that really, it was raw.  

I ate part of the second roll. It wasn't quite as bad, but part of the pork was definitely pinkish.  Sigh.  I ate what I thought was safe and left the rest.  When the "head" waitress took my plate she noticed that I'd left rather a lot of pork and was very surprised to see the uncooked meat.  I ended up getting a second plate of the same thing.  It wasn't raw, but there was still a tinge of pink in places.  

Anyway, as long as I don't get sick I'm quite pleased with the way the restaurant handled the situation.  I would have liked my DH to have spoken up earlier to either of the waitresses, but I know Japanese people don't like to make a fuss generally.

After lunch, F brought me back home and went off to see his mother.  She had some errands she needed to run. He was gone for a while.

I watched a bit of TV and tootled around on my computer.  Didn't do as much as I wanted, but it was okay.

Around 6 we went out to a yakitori restaurant.  It was F's choice, and I was okay with it.  I like this particular place and tonight was no exception.  The main point of interest about this place is that the majority of the food is pork.  Usually yakitori is thought to be chicken, but in this area, pork is more often used.  We had a nice meal, although it was quite high protein!

After dinner we drove over to the movie theatre, but on the way we saw a festival was going on down Ginza Street, so we found some parking and went to see it.  There was singing, games for kids, food stalls, in fact, if we'd known about it earlier, we probably could have had dinner there and had more fun!  We did have a tiny kakigori each and then headed back to the car.  

Tonight we went to see Any Day Now with Alan Cumming and it was great!  It was set in the 70's and for me, it was so evocative of that time period!  The way the characters acted or reacted, the clothing and the interior decorations were exactly how I remembered the time. It was a very good movie, with a plot that resonates even now.  

After the movie, F and I came home.  I put on the TV, but didn't really watch anything.  I turned it off a bit later. Late Saturday night has become a wasteland for good TV.  Even the pay channels are letting me down these days.  Sigh.  

I made a pot of tea and it was wonderful.  I had a cup and will drink more tomorrow when it's cold.  

I have no idea what we'll get up to tomorrow.  F has no ideas, and I haven't been anywhere in ages, so would really like to go somewhere or do something!  Got to go.  Night!

July 25, 2014

Friday - Hot and Sunny

A good day.

I overslept a little this morning. I planned to get up around 8:30 to take a shower, but instead I kept sleeping. I was having an interesting dream where I was performing on stage and doing a comedy routine.  It was going over quite well when I woke up!

I showered and then watched a bit of TV and checked email while I got ready to go out.  At 10:30 my friend arrived and we went out.  

We went to Gusto and had a nice meal.  It was quite nice. We sat in the cool restaurant and had drink bar and talk.  All too soon, my friend had to leave for work.  

At home again, I relaxed for a bit and then actually thought about going out for tea downtown.  Then, I realized that I've been promising myself all week that I would vacuum the apartment, so I did that.  It took a while and I did a few other household chores too, so, when I finished I was a big drippy mess. It was so hot!

F came home a little late today, but wanted to eat soon afterwards.  We decided to go to the Indian/Nepali restaurant.  We went there and had a great meal.  I had Sag Chicken curry again. It was delicious. This time F had Keema curry, but he had it quite hot.  I tried it and it was good, but I wouldn't have been able to eat it at the heat he wanted!  

After dinner we came home.  My back started to hurt so F put some of his sticky plasters on it, but they didn't really help that much.  We watched some TV and I enjoyed it, then F went to bed.  I should go soon, but it is so hot I'm not sure if I will be able to sleep or not.  

I'm not sure what's on the agenda for tomorrow.  We might go and see a movie in the evening and I know that F has an appointment in the morning.  Come back and find out what we get up to! Night.

July 24, 2014

Thursday - Hot and Sunny

A good day.

I got up early today and put a load of laundry in right away. I surprised myself with that.  I checked email and such and then hung up the laundry when it was done.  At 10:30 I settled in for Charmed and breakfast and the newspaper, followed by a little bit of crochet.  

I was just finished making the bed and changing into house clothes when F called to see if I'd like to go for lunch.  I said sure, so had to change again!

We went to a gyudon restaurant where I had gyudon on tofu with miso soup on the side.  It wasn't bad at all.  

I came home and scanned the cards I was sending out, plus wrote two more while I watched DCI Banks.  I am enjoying the English Detective show that WOWOW is putting on in the afternoon.  A little after 4 pm, I raced off to the post office to mail my cards.

When I came home again I got started on the yogurt and cucumber salad.  I had drained a lot of the yogurt overnight, so it was thick and creamy, but I had to drain the cucumbers too.  Unfortunately I didn't rinse off the salt quickly enough so the salad was a bit salty, but honestly not that bad.  I got it all done and put in the fridge.

F phoned at that point to say that he'd be a bit late and I told him it was fine as the salad had to chill.  

When he came home later he cooked his udon or whatever, and I put out the other food.  I cut up the roast duck that we bought yesterday and put out the cucumber-yogurt salad and also a regular salad for me.  Dinner was nice.  No muss, no fuss.

We had a quiet evening in.  I watched my double shot of House & Bones, followed by a very interesting The Good Wife.  Really enjoy that show.  

I did have a funny thing happen when I was making the salad today.  The garlic powder had caked, so I was loosening it up with a spoon.  Suddenly, the now loose garlic came cascading out of the bottle and sprayed me from head to toe in garlic powder.  It went everywhere.  It stuck to my t-shirt and my undershirt and we won't even mention what other places it ended up in.  I told F that when I wash my clothes, the washing machine is going to smell like garlic soup for a while!

That's about it for me. Tomorrow I'm meeting a friend early for a change.  We'll have tea or something, maybe a bite to eat, and of course, lots of talk!  After that, who knows?  Come back tomorrow and find out!  Night.

July 23, 2014

Wednesday - Hot and muggy, rainy at night

A good day.

I got up a little late this morning, but did get up.  I watched my show while I checked email, then went over to the couch and had breakfast while I watched my other show!  I took a shower and I was relaxing in front of my computer a bit later when my cell phone rang.  

F was calling to say that he'd been given the rest of the day off and did I want him to bring me anything.  I asked for a Subway sandwich!  

The next thing I knew, he came home with a sub for me.  It was so nice.  He didn't really have any plans for the afternoon, and neither did I, so I suggested going to the Internet Cafe, and that's what we did. 

We got there around 4 and each got a massaging chair.  We stayed for 5 hours, could have gone for a bit longer, but had to get to the grocery store, so left.  I didn't watch any movies, but I did watch some TV on a channel we don't get at our apartment, and some regular stuff too.  I did a bit of crochet and read some of a magazine, so really, I enjoyed myself.  It was cool there, I could drink all the tea I wanted and we even had dinner there.  

We got stuff for dinner tomorrow night. I think it's going to be partially a fend for yourself night, but I'm going to make a cucumber and yogurt salad, and there will be some sliced duck too.  

Tonight I read email, wrote up a couple of postcards, did the garbage, and now I'm blogging.  Tomorrow, I don't really have much planned.  I'll likely have to make the aforementioned salad, and run to the post office to mail my cards.  I hope to write one or two more.  Come back tomorrow and see what I get up to!  Night.

July 22, 2014

Tuesday - Muggy and hot

A good day.

I got up early this morning and turned on my computer, did the usual stuff I do.  I was so sleepy today that I took a bit of a nap between my two shows, but managed to wake up in time for my other show.

I stayed home today, and enjoyed myself.  I did turn on the air conditioner in the afternoon. It was getting very, very humid and I was very, very sweaty!

I got to work on dinner around 4 pm.  I was making a caesar salad, so I had to cut up the veggies and wash the lettuce.  F came home just about the time that I finished doing that sort of prep.  I had also put together some bread, butter and garlic for garlic toast.  

I checked on cooking methods for the chicken breast, but discovered that I should have started hours ago, so just did it as is.  I grilled the chicken, toasted the bread, and served it all up.  It was really nice.  Honestly, it was so nice not to have anything too heavy on a day like this.  

F did the dishes and I got to work on registering my postcards.  I received 7 in the mail today, plus a package of Gotochi cards that I had swapped for.  I was a happy camper! 

I decided not to send any cards tonight, but hopefully I'll have time tomorrow night.  

We had a quiet night, F has already gone to bed, and I'll probably go fairly soon too.  

No idea what I'll get up to tomorrow night.  Come back and find out what happens!  Night.

July 21, 2014

Monday - Hot and sunny

A very good day.

I got up around 9 this morning, which surprised my husband.  Last night, my dear husband wanted to know if he should try and wake me up in the morning.  I rather indignantly told him that I could and would wake up myself!  He didn't believe me.

I took a quick shower and then checked my email and my social media sites.  I watched the end of Charlie's Angels and then at 10:30 I watched Charmed.  After that, I got dressed and waited for my friend.  

She came with her son and the four of us drove off to Fireball.  We had a good meal there.  My friend and her son had pizza and F and I had pasta.  Of course we all shared and had some of each others.  We chatted and watched the little guy and had fun.  

After lunch we spent a few minutes letting my friend's son play on the slide and play house outside the restaurant, then we drove over to city hall.  We parked our cars and then went over to the Chidokan museum.

The Chidokan is an old Samurai school and it has some artifacts and old buildings to look at.  It was free and it wasn't busy, so it was a pretty good place to bring a little boy with lots of energy.  He didn't bother people there and he could run around on the grounds, and wouldn't hurt anything.  

After we saw enough at the Chidokan, we decided to go to McDonalds for a drink, so headed over there.  We sat at a table and chatted and were glad that we were out of the sun for a while.  

After that, it was time to go our separate ways.  F and I came home and F took a nap.  He was quite tired.  I read my book and relaxed.  

In the evening, F and I went out for dinner. I didn't want much, so we went to a Taiwanese restaurant and had hiyashi chuka.  I quite enjoyed it. I had mine with chicken on it.  

When we had finished eating, we went over to the MaxValu and bought groceries for tomorrow.  I'm hoping/planning to make a big salad with Grilled Chicken on top of it.  I'm hoping that it'll be good.  Fingers crossed. 

I'm not sure what else I'll get up to tomorrow.  I had a great day today, and a really nice weekend.  Woot!  Come back tomorrow and I'll fill you in on all the scuttlebutt.  Night!