May 14, 2025

Wednesday - Warm and sunny


I went to bed a little late last night, and fell asleep fairly soon. I woke up at 7:00am when F’s alarm went off. However, F wasn’t in the room! He’d left the house around 6:30 or so! I went downstairs and then came back up to the room and watched a few videos on my phone before falling asleep again. When I woke up, I got dressed. I planned to go downstairs, but I heard K’s daughter down there. She stayed for a while and was doing stuff in the living room and kitchen with K. I waited a few minutes, but had to go downstairs anyway. 


I came back up to the room and watched a few YouTube videos. A little later I went downstairs to get my breakfast. K’s daughter (aka F’s sister!) had left. She sounded sick and had quite a bad cough. I’m not terribly happy that she chose to come over to see her mother with a cough. I hope she wasn’t infectious.


I got my breakfast, ate it upstairs and then had a quiet afternoon. I did work on my column. I’m not done, but I did write quite a bit. I also did a load of towels and hung them up in my room. 


During lunch, I watched last Saturday’s episode of Lockerbie. It was good. Now that the crash is over, I think I’ll be able to continue watching the show. I have to take too many aeroplanes to watch things about plane crashes. 


After lunch I watched the news and spent time on my computer. I was writing and getting ready to go down to cook dinner.


F called around 5:30 to say he was on his way and a while later I went downstairs to get started on dinner. Today I did air-fried chicken from the store, broccoli, salad with bacon bits and some cucumber pickle. Dinner was good and almost all of it disappeared! I made a plate for K’s lunch tomorrow before I served everything. 


I did the dishes and then I got the garbage ready to go out. I put the bag in the genkan for F to take out later. I said goodnight to K and then I went upstairs. I relaxed for a bit and then after 10:30 I took a shower. I came back upstairs and watched The Irrational again. Tonight was about Art Forgery. I quite liked it.  I turned off the TV when it was over. 


F went to bed a while ago and I hope to go soonish. I’m planning to go out to Mikawa tomorrow and do a little shopping. I really need to keep going out and doing things by myself. I stay in too much and spend too much time alone. 


That’s it for me for tonight. Come back later if you like and hear all about my day. Until tomorrow….


 

May 13, 2025

Tuesday - Warm and sunny


I woke up this morning when F was getting dressed for work. He left and I went downstairs. I came back upstairs and gathered my clothes for later. I was sitting on the bed getting ready to go back to sleep for a while until my alarm. However, I heard the car coming back into the parking space outside. Hmm. F was coming back to the house. 


It turns out that F had forgotten to pay a bill and realized that we might have a utility cut off today. Yikes! He meant to pay it but made a mistake on the date. He ended up taking the day off work too. 


He paid the bill and called the company…things were fine. Whew! I slept a bit late since my sleep was disturbed. I got myself up and dressed. I grabbed breakfast and wondered where F was. I didn’t see him for hours.


I did a load of laundry and had time to hang it up too. I half wondered if F would want to go out for lunch, but I didn’t see him so made my own lunch around 2:45. Then, F came back. I took my lunch upstairs and ate while I watched an episode of Buffy. It wasn’t one of the good ones!


I watched the news around 4 pm and then went downstairs around 6 pm to start dinner. I was busy for a while. Tonight I made a pork and veggie stir-fry with salad and some potato salad on the side. Dinner was a bit late but it was pretty good I think. 


Afterwards, I did the dishes and it took a while. I finally got done and wanted to leave for the grocery store. However, I was late, F was late and then it was late. I asked to go to MaxValu instead of my usual place. We drove there and I went in. 


I did my shopping. I don’t really like shopping there because it is so big, but I managed to pick up most things. Yay. I got a few things for myself as well.


We came back to the house and I put the groceries away. I went upstairs after a few minutes and then watched tonight’s episode of FBI: International. It was okay. This new guy on the show has really changed things up, but not in a good way. In my opinion anyway!


Before midnight I turned off the TV and somewhere after 1am I woke F up and suggested he get into bed. He was sleeping on top of the bed and had been for a while. 


So, that’s it for me for tonight. Tomorrow I hope I’ll work on my column and probably do more laundry! Wish me luck with that.


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

May 12, 2025

Monday - Sunny and warmish, rainy in the evening. 


I woke up a little this morning when F was getting ready for work. I sleepily told him he could turn on the light if he needed and I pulled the covers over my head! Later, when my alarm went off I woke up and went downstairs. I came back to the room and watched a few videos in bed before falling asleep again. I woke up much later and dragged myself out of bed.


I dressed and went downstairs and got my breakfast. I brought it up to the room and ate. I watched some videos and basically just had a quiet day. I didn’t do laundry and I didn’t work on my column. Sigh.


I brought my lunch upstairs and ate. I watched The Great British Bake Off while I ate. It was the semi-final episode and I think the wrong person got sent home, but that’s just my opinion!


Later on I got a few texts from F about next week. We are planning to put K in a short term stay home while we are busy with my sister, but K is saying that she doesn’t want to go. Sigh. We’ll probably be out from the morning to late at night so we think it’d be better for her. She’d be looked after and fed and fussed over, which she doesn’t get much of here. I told F that I’d stay out of it and let him and his sister decide what to do. I think that she should go, but I think she’s probably nervous or scared about it.


F called me after 5:30 and said he was on his way back. I went downstairs a bit later and started on dinner. I was quite busy for the next hour or so. I did air fried chicken drumsticks, salad, shio-cabbage, potato salad and some steamed veggies. Most of the food disappeared and it was quite nice. F had complaints however. He thought the chicken wasn’t salted enough and he announced he didn’t like green beans. Okay then. What the heck! The steamed veggies came from the store and I didn’t pick them personally. 


I did the dishes after dinner and it took a while. There were a lot of dishes tonight. 


After I finished, I went upstairs and relaxed for a bit. F took a shower tonight and went before I did, then I went down. I took my shower and after that I made some popcorn. I found some microwave popcorn a couple of days ago and had one bag. It was caramel corn, but not sickly sweet thankfully. I enjoyed it a lot. I also shared it with F, so I didn’t have it all. As I was late getting back, I decided to watch a shorter programme. I put on The Big Door Prize and watched the first episode of the second season again. It was good. 


And that’s about it. Tomorrow I have to work on my column and my laundry! 


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


May 11, 2025

Sunday - Cloudy but not rainy, windy too


I went to bed quite late last night, but this morning I woke up fairly early. I got up around 9:30 and then went back to bed for a bit. I dragged myself out of bed a while later and got dressed. I went downstairs and went to talk to F. We decided to go for lunch. I had a hankering for chahan or fried rice, so I suggested the restaurant on the other side of the park. 


We drove to the restaurant, but it was closed! They were open during Golden Week, so I’m sure that they took this weekend off instead. F suggested a restaurant in Kushibiki. We drove out there but it was really busy and there was no room in the parking lot for us. We drove back to Tsuruoka and ended up going to Kappa Sushi instead. We had an okay but not great meal there.


After lunch we went back to the house. We were going to have a visitor at 3 pm, so F wanted some set-up time for her. At the house, I went upstairs and relaxed for a bit. I went downstairs about 5 minutes early, only to discover that the care worker had already arrived. Oops!


The meeting went okay. No big deal. 


After the meeting, K headed back to bed and F and I headed out to do some shopping. On the way to the stores, F suggested going to Ikoinomura, the tulip hill. We drove up there, via a convenience store for some drinks and snacks. We parked and walked over to see some of the tulips. They were slightly past their best, but some of them were still gorgeous.





We came back from the park and made a pitstop at a drugstore. I bought a few things there and then we went back into Tsuruoka. F wanted to go to the hardware store, so that’s what we did. I stayed in the car though.


Next up we went to Gyomu Supa. F came in with me which isn’t my favourite thing, but whatever. I was ready to go long before he was. I picked up a few necessary things for the kitchen. 


Next up we went to the grocery store and again F came in. We had talked about going out for dinner and I told him that I really wanted to have chahan. I’ve been trying to get it all weekend. He announced that he could make it and I said to him that I didn’t want his chahan, I wanted proper chahan from a restaurant. He was insulted and basically didn’t want to buy any groceries at all. We got a few of the groceries and then left. Of course, since he was angry with me he hadn’t bothered to go through the store in a sensible manner, picking up stuff that we actually needed. He threatened to leave the store a couple of times. 


He paid for the stuff that we bought and we drove back to the house. On the way he suggested I get out of the car when I said I wouldn’t eat his chahan. Then, he asked me nicely to try it. I said I’d have a bit.


Back at the house, I went upstairs and he had to cook rice first. Of course, you shouldn’t make fried rice with fresh rice. He called me down around 8pm to have “dinner”. As soon as I left the room I could smell the fried rice. It was not a good thing. I smelled burnt onions, and grease. Yuck. I got a bowlful of F’s fried rice and it was tasteless. That was it by the way, just a plateful of fried rice with no seasoning or flavour. I had to grab the peppermill to add a bit of taste. I ate it, but F didn’t give us anything else. I wasn’t planning to just eat fried rice, who would?


After I finished eating, I just went upstairs. I didn’t say anything nice to F about his food. I would have been lying if I had. I made myself a cup of instant pasta as I was still hungry. 


F came upstairs a bit later and I remembered something. I hadn’t bought his mother anything for her lunch tomorrow. Breakfast yet, lunch no. I asked F if he had and he said he hadn’t. He asked if I’d like to go back to the store and get something for her. 


We drove over to Mina and went in. We got her a few things for lunch tomorrow and I got my coffee creamers and a few other things to made up some meals over the next couple of days. 


We made up a bit on the way to the store and then at the house F gave me a hug when he was upstairs with me. I was really upset about the whole fried rice thing. I really wanted some good rice and F’s was not it. He might have tried, it had pork and egg and onions in it, but the texture was off and it wasn’t what I wanted. Our original plan was to get bentos and that would have been so much better, even if I didn’t really want that either. 


Anyway, in the evening, I watched another episode of Gotham. Tonight was a good episode and many plots moved forward a lot!


And that’s about it. Tomorrow I have a few things to do around the house and I need to work on my column too. 


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


May 10, 2025

 Saturday - Cloudy but warm, rainy later on


I slept quite late this morning without an alarm and it was very nice! I went downstairs and was surprised that F was here at the house. He had tried to go to his doctor’s office, but it was closed today. Poor thing. 


I went back to bed for a bit and watched rather too many videos. I think I snoozed for a few minutes, but did drag myself out of bed finally. I got dressed and while I was doing that F came upstairs to see if I wanted to go for lunch. 


He suggested calling his eel place and asked if I’d go if they were open. I said I would, but I didn’t think they would be open! F called, and finally found out that the restaurant is only open for lunch 4 days a week and not on the weekends. Yay! I hope he’ll stop asking if we can go on the weekends! I doubt it. I suggested going out to Fujishima town to the restaurant that we like there. F thought it was a good idea and called to make a reservation. Woot!


We drove out to Fujishima and found the restaurant. The parking lot was full, so we parked in the second part of the restaurant and walked back. We went in and were seated right away. On the way into the restaurant, I noticed a flyer about a Wisteria festival and it was happening today and tomorrow. After our meal, we decided to check out a few places and see what was happening.


F parked near Hisa Park and we walked over to see what was happening. The sad thing is that the Wisteria wasn’t looking that great. It feels like it would be better in a week or two. When I thought we would head back to the car, F wanted to go and look at some buildings. I was surprised, but went along with him. It was a good idea. We went into some of the older buildings in the city and looked at some old photos and also some art. Outside the building there were a bunch of Wisteria plants set up for sale and to show off. I think there was a competition or something. These ones looked very nice. 


We went into a couple of buildings and then left. We came back to Tsuruoka and went to Komeda Coffee for about an hour. F had a Frappe that looked nice, I just had a standard iced caffeineless coffee. It was fine. 


We came back to the house and I came upstairs. F stayed downstairs to welcome his mother back to the house. A while later he came upstairs and we discussed dinner. I suggested going to get us all bentos, but then he decided that he would make his mother’s dinner. He did that and then came back to the room for a while.


We went out around 7:30 or so and drove over to Misono. We went there during Golden Week and had seen other people having the kara-age set meal and the fried chicken looked so good!  We both had kara-age. F had the whole set meal and I had the plate. I didn’t need rice or miso soup. I wouldn’t have minded his other side dishes, but I didn’t need them!


We enjoyed our meal but it was big! F even gave me one of his pieces of chicken because he was getting too full.


Around 8:20 we left the restaurant and then drove over to Machinaka-Kinema and went to see Firebrand. This was a film starring Jude Law and Alicia Vikander about the marriage of Henry VIII and Katherine Parr. There were some good points of the movie, Jude Law was great and the costumes were excellent, but the movie played very fast and very, very loose with actual history. I even had a problem with the tagline of the movie….It was, ”Henry VIII had six wives. One survived.” That isn’t true! Two of his wives survived him. One wasn’t his wife anymore, but she was still alive when he died!


So, we liked it, but I didn’t love it.


We came back to the house and relaxed. F fell asleep fairly quickly, I turned to YouTube for some entertainment. I missed tonight’s episode of Lockerbie, I did record it so I might watch it. I’m still debating whether or not to keep watching. I’ll try and watch episode two and then I’ll decide I guess. 


And that’s about it for me. I had a pretty good day. I’m not sure what I’m going to get up to tomorrow. We have a meeting with K’s Social Worker and I’ll have to do a shop for the groceries for the next few days. I could be busy!


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

May 9, 2025

Friday - Sunny and warm, rainy at night


I went to bed a bit early last night and that was a nice thing. I did wake up a little early this morning, but it was after 7 and F was getting ready for work. I went downstairs and then came back up to the room. I went back to bed after F left and watched a few videos before falling asleep again. I ended up oversleeping but finally dragged myself out of bed!


I made my breakfast and brought it upstairs. I ate and watched a few YouTube videos. I ended up doing some laundry a bit later and hung it up in my room. I grabbed my lunch next and brought it up to the room to eat. I watched the third episode of Magpie Murders and later on the news. 


F didn’t call me tonight because he was doing some long distance driving. He’d gone to Yamagata city today and got back a bit late. I went down to the kitchen and waited to hear from him. I did a little bit of prep and also listened to my podcasts while I waited. F called a few minutes before 7 and I told him I’d hold dinner until he arrived. 


He came back to the house and went upstairs. I started the spaghetti boiling and I also heated up the ham cutlets that I was serving with it. 


Dinner was quite good. It was a little late, so that was sad, but everyone seemed happy with their meal. 


I did the dishes and then went upstairs to relax. I watched YouTube again and then went downstairs again to take a shower. After my shower, I came back upstairs and watched an episode of The Power, which I haven’t watched in ages! It was quite good. I will try and finish it up soon as there are only a few more episodes.


Since midnight I’ve been watching YouTube and getting ready to blog, or blogging. It’s been fun. 


I’m not sure what we’ll get up to tomorrow. K has Day Service and F was talking about going to a doctor. His knee is bothering him again, sad to say. 


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

May 8, 2025

Thursday - Sunny and warmish


I went to bed a little bit earlier last night, but F wasn’t sleeping. I think he didn’t sleep much last night. I fell asleep but woke up before 6 am when F came back into the room. I might have been okay but a few minutes later F woke me up! On purpose. He said I wasn’t breathing. I have a machine for that, he didn’t need to wake me up. To say I was grumpy was an understatement!


I went downstairs and then didn’t go back to bed. I went through to my computer and spent a bit of time there. I was hoping to wait until F went to work but I finally gave up! I went back to bed and  F wanted a snuggle. I felt like I was being rather mean so I hugged back a little. A little while later F got up and got ready for work and then left. 


I didn’t go back to sleep immediately. I watched a few videos on my phone and fell asleep on them! I slept rather late today, but it wasn’t all in one go. 


I got up and went downstairs and got my breakfast. I brought it upstairs to eat. I had a quiet day. I was supposed to do laundry, I didn’t. Sigh. 


I had a quiet day until 5:30 or so when F called to say he was on his way. I waited a bit and then went downstairs. 


Tonight I was quite busy in the kitchen. I made some shio cabbage and then worked on the main dish. I had found a Cookpad recipe for buta kimchi. I made it. It took a little bit of time to prepare the veggies and the sauce, but it got done eventually. 


Tonight we had salad, shio cabbage, and the buta kimchi with leftover rice. It was a pretty good meal.


I did the dishes and then went upstairs. I changed for going out and then F and I drove over to Mina. I went into the grocery store and bought a few things for tomorrow. I got F some onigiri and a nice sandwich for K’s breakfast. 


We came back to the house, put away the groceries and a bit later I watched tonight’s episode of Yellowstone. I’ve been enjoying this series, I think this is the last season now. I did most of a row of my sweater tonight, but I didn’t finish it. I need to crochet faster!


And that’s about it for me. I’ll go to bed soon and I hope that F won’t wake me up tomorrow morning! I hope that he manages to sleep all night tonight. 


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