February 22, 2026

Sunday - Cloudy but warm

I woke up early this morning, F was still in bed! I went downstairs and then came back upstairs and went back to bed. I slept a bit longer, got up and dressed. 

F came upstairs and we talked about where to go for lunch. He wanted to go to Arpeggio and so we went there. We had to wait outside for ten minutes but were able to go in after that. We had a lovely meal but it took ages to arrive. We waited more than 40 minutes which I think is quite a long time to wait. It was today’s theme though! I worked on my book while we waited so it wasn’t too bad. I finally got 1984 finished. It wasn’t my favourite book ever, but I’m glad that I read it. Mostly. 

After lunch we hit up a grocery store for K’s dinner and some snacks, then we went back to the house. F stayed downstairs to clean up and I went upstairs to relax.

At 5 pm K’s Care Manager came and we had our meeting. It went okay I think. I don’t always understand what is being said. Her next appointment with us is on a public holiday in March. I’m not impressed! I don’t even want to go to these meetings, and we have to waste a national holiday talking about a nasty old lady who doesn’t like me! F may not see it that way.

F gave his mother her bento for dinner after the Care Manager left. We headed out to go to the festival. We drove to the place where we were supposed to be able to catch the bus to the top of the mountain and…there was no bus! It was dark there. F checked his phone and I checked my online-source and I noticed something odd. The blurb said that the Lantern Festival was on Sunday February 23rd. Great, except that today was Sunday February 22nd! F’s source said the 23rd as well, so….we were a whole day early! Oh no!  We drove up to the temple area to see the lanterns. The lanterns were built and there was a design made out of snow, but nothing was lit up and there were no people at all. I think we’ll try again tomorrow night, probably.

We talked about where to go for our dinner. F was on a ramen kick again and I told him he could go if he dropped me off somewhere else. He then suggested soba, which I was NOT in the mood for either. We made a quick stop by the house to change out of our boots and then ended up going to To-en, the Chinese restaurant on the other side of the park. We were able to be seated right away, but it took about 45 minutes before we got any food. We had ordered by phone so I was wondering if maybe it hadn’t gone through, but F swore it was okay. Sure enough, my dish showed up next. We ordered 3 dishes to share. I ordered Mapo-dofu on rice, F ordered yakisoba with 5 things and we shared an order of kara-age again. I hated his yakisoba and when he gave me some, he gave me too much. It’s so bland I can’t taste it, but he loves that stuff. Anyway, it was fine. We both ate enough and it was good, for the most part.

After dinner, we hit up the grocery store again just to get something for K’s breakfast, and also for mine. If we go to the early movie tomorrow afternoon, I’ll probably need a quick snack/meal. 

We came back to the house. Upstairs, I decided to watch the episodes of The Handmaid’s Tale that I had recorded last week. They were fine. F went to bed and fell asleep. On Facebook I noticed that people were watching the Canada vs. USA men’s hockey game. I decided to look and see if it was on Japanese TV. Big surprise…it was! So, I watched the second and third period of the game, and then that sad overtime period. Canada lost, but it was a good game and the teams were really well matched. There was a nasty penalty that Canada got in the third period (I think) and it really was nasty. When I saw the replay it made sense. 

And that’s it. Today was a mostly good day. I’m glad that I got through 1984 finally. It was quite the slog in places, other parts were fine. 

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

February 21, 2026

Saturday - Sunny and warm

I woke up when my alarm went off this morning. F and K were just in the process of leaving. I went downstairs, used the loo and then came back upstairs. I went back to bed for a bit. I got out of bed around 11 am and went downstairs with my towel to take a shower. 

It was a rare treat to be able to take a daytime shower. Japanese people rarely shower in the daytime…I prefer it, but I wouldn’t be sure of privacy when K is around, so…

After my shower I went in to talk to F and we talked about lunch. He wanted Arpeggio which is a nice place, but I suggested the place we like in Fujishima-machi. He liked that idea, so he called the restaurant and made a reservation. They get busy sometimes, so it is often necessary. 

We left the house a few minutes later and drove out to Fujishima-machi. We parked and went in. We both had the same lunch, a ginger pork lunch set. It’s reasonable and very good. 

Lunch was great. On the way back to Tsuruoka we stopped at the post office so I could mail some postcards. Just two this time, I’ve been busy this week!

We went over to Komeda coffee and after a couple of minutes of waiting, we got a table and had coffee. I had decaf, F had regular. 

We came back to the house as F said he was tired. I headed upstairs, he stayed downstairs. I spent a lot of time on my computer so I relaxed and enjoyed that. K got back at her usual time and F and her spent the rest of the afternoon together watching the Olympics. I also worked on finishing up the hat that I loom-knit. I like it!

After 7:30 F and I talked about where to have dinner. I gave him a lot of ideas but we ended up going to Misono. I didn’t mind as we haven’t been there in a while and I like the food. At Misono we both had chicken dishes, I had kara-age and F had the chicken cutlet. He liked mine more than his! I thought they were both nice. I didn’t have a pork dish as we’d had pork at lunch. 

Following our meal at Misono we headed over to McDonalds. I had noticed on an ad that they had a new dish, Creme Brulé Hot Donuts. I mentioned them to F and we went over to McDonald to try them. They were okay. Not my favourite, but fine. We had to order on their stand at the door which was a pain in the butt and neither of us knew what we were doing! We had a drink and our hot donuts, and as usual, I had to drag F out of the place. He starts playing games or watching videos on his phone and he doesn’t want to go. 

Looks like a chocolate egg. It isn't!

We went to a drugstore next. I bought a few things for myself and the house. They have reasonable prices for pasta sauces so I got one type, then F picked up an adult beverage for himself. We paid and then came back to the house. 

F set up the rice cooker for himself and K, I headed upstairs. I started the heater and relaxed. It was a pretty nice day so far.

I watched The Hunting Party at 11 pm. It was fine, not anything wonderful yet. I’m not sure if the show will move beyond catching murderers who escaped the prison that blew up. I think they are trying to do that, but I don’t like “big conspiracy” dramas really. Oh well.

F went to bed around midnight, I’m still up. I’ll be going to bed fairly soon I think. I had a good day. I got a lot of my book —1984— read. There’s a big bit in the middle that is so incredibly boring and political, but then when I slowed down and think about what he was writing I did get most of it. I’m around 84% in so not too much more to go. 

Tomorrow we have a couple of ideas of how to spend the day. We also have a meeting with K’s Care Manager tomorrow afternoon. I’m not really looking forward to that. Sigh. 

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

February 20, 2026

 Friday - Clear and sunny

I woke up early again today and I was a bit sad about it. I had half planned to get up at my usual time and go to the movie, but I needed more sleep. I didn’t go. I did find out today that the film has been held over, so I have another chance this weekend if I can get to the cinema. 

I went back to bed and slept quite late. I dragged myself out of bed later and went downstairs. I snagged food for my breakfast and brought it upstairs to eat.  After breakfast I did a load of laundry and when it finished, I hung it up in my room. 

K was up for most of the day today. It’s really unusual these days, so maybe the sunny weather woke her up or something? She even ate one of the lunch plates that I made for her…that’s fairly unusual these days.

I also wrote up another movie today for my column. I’m basically done except for the conclusion and checking grammar and such. Woot! I may have to shorten it which would make me sad, but it could happen. 

I had lunch and watched another episode of The Good Fight. I have now finished Season 5, so I have 10 more episodes to go. I should be okay I think, but I have other shows that I’d like to watch as well that are being taken off soon. Sigh.

Around 5 pm I went downstairs to wash my day’s dishes. I came back upstairs and started to get ready for going out. F said that he’d stop and get a bento for K and he showed up around 6 pm tonight. 

He gave K her bento and told her that we were going out. We did! In the car, I made F check that he had his Aquarium card handy. I had already done that in the house. 

We drove to Tacto, the concert hall in Tsuruoka and parked. We went in and were able to get seats near the back of the room. We weren’t in the big concert hall, we were in a little side area. It was a cool space. We were there to see a free concert by a local performer of the Bass and a guitar player as well. They were really good. We’ve seen the bass player before, she runs a restaurant we go to often, but the guitarist was new to us. F enjoyed it so much that he bought their CD afterwards. At first he wasn’t going to do that as he thought we didn’t have a way to play it, but I reminded him that I can play it on my computer. 

After the concert, he talked about going to a restaurant where the performers might show up later. I reminded him that the restaurant was rather expensive so we went somewhere else. 

We ended up at Cocos which was a nice surprise for me. We had a nice meal there too. I had pasta with a salad and drink bar, F had Caribbean chicken which he said was a bit too spicy. We shared an order of fries that weren’t my idea! 

We came back to the house after dinner and I ripped the cd to my computer. Then, we listened to it. It was very nice. 

F was really tired so he went to bed already. He has to get up early tomorrow to help K get ready for her Day Service. I’m going to take a shower in the morning. With K not being around, I won’t need to wait until night. 

So, that’s it for me. I’m not sure what we’ll get up to tomorrow. Come back later if you like and hear all about my day. Until tomorrow….

February 19, 2026

Thursday - Snowy and cold

I woke up with my alarm this morning, not earlier. That was nice. I did my usual thing of sleeping late, but got up eventually and got dressed. Today I decided to make some oatmeal for myself. Of course, it boiled over in the microwave so I had to clean that up. It was nice to have it for a change though.

I had a quiet afternoon. I went down early for lunch and prepped a marinade for the meat for dinner tonight, and prepared an onion boil too. Then, I did my lunch and took it upstairs. It was good. I did watch another episode of The Good Fight while I ate it. 

F called around 5:30 and actually made it back to the house before I went downstairs. I was a bit caught up in something. Tonight’s dinner was good. We had the coro-coro steak, onion boil, salad, potato salad, kimchi and some cheese sticks I rescued from the freezer. Dinner was quite nice actually. 

I did the dishes afterwards and then I went upstairs to change my clothes. We went over to Mina and bought groceries for tomorrow and then F drove us over to the gas station where he bought some kerosene. We only made one wrong turn on the way to the gas station. Sigh. F has lived here almost all of his life, so why do I know the city better than him in places?

We came back to the house where he put the kerosene away. I filled up our tank from upstairs and K’s tank in the living room too. F was a dear and took the tank upstairs for me. 

I watched the last couple of episodes of Lynley tonight and really enjoyed them. F did his usual distracting thing of talking to me 5 minutes before the end of the show. I really wanted to tell him to stop talking to me! 

Well, that’s about it for me for today. I didn’t work on my column at all, and I’m not sure I’ll work on it tomorrow or not. Come back later and find out! 

Until tomorrow….

February 18, 2026

Wednesday - Cooler and cloudy

I woke up early this morning, not as early as yesterday, but early for me. I went downstairs and then came back upstairs to the room. I sorted out some clothes for me to wear when I went out later on and then I went back to bed for a snooze. 

I woke up later and then decided that I should stay at the house and work on my column instead of gallivanting around the city and going to a movie. It’s a little ironic that I had to stay back from a movie in order to write my movie column! I could go tomorrow but the weather is supposed to tank so I’m not really too keen to go now. Oh well, I can stay here and watch The Good Fight or something else. 

I got up earlier than usual for me and went downstairs. I grabbed my breakfast and brought it upstairs to eat. I had a quiet morning and then early afternoon. I actually did buckle down and wrote quite a bit of my column, actually enough that I could go out tomorrow and not feel guilty. I’m thinking about it!

I went downstairs around 3 to make my lunch. I was late as I was writing for my column. K was up and in the living room so I offered to heat up her lunch for her. She didn’t know what I meant at first, but I gave her the heated up plate and turned on both the heater and the light in the room for her. She’s a funny old bird at times. She was watching the Olympics.

I came upstairs to eat and also watched another episode of The Good Fight. I’ve been enjoying the episodes a lot lately, and I have to get them all watched before March 20th.

I watched the end part of the news and a little later F called me to say that he was on his way back. I went downstairs around 6pm and got started on washing dishes and doing prep work. Tonight we had a pork stirfry with seaweed and chikuwa (fish paste tubes), rice, potato salad, steamed broccoli and salad. Dinner was good, but F wasn’t overly hungry and neither was K so there were a lot of leftovers. The good thing is that I get leftovers for my lunch too. Woot. I packed K’s lunch before I served dinner so she’s got enough. 

I did the dishes after dinner and listened to some podcasts while I did that. When I finished the dishes, I started on the garbage in the room. I got that done and then F helped me with his mother’s garbage. He got her stuff out of her room. I tied up the bag and put it into the genkan for him to take out later. 

I headed upstairs for some rest and relaxation. I watched a bit of YouTube and then went downstairs around 10:30 to take my shower. The water temperature fluctuated while I was in the shower so that was a bit unpleasant!

I came back upstairs and talked to F for a few minutes. I reminded him that there is a free concert on Friday night that he had wanted to go to and told him that if he does want to go, we have to plan it now. Tomorrow we’ll have to get food for breakfast and lunch and maybe he’ll pick up some bentos for dinner on Friday. 

I watched The Irrational off the DVR. I was about 15 minutes late to start watching so I watched it that way. It worked well tonight- it doesn’t always work.

So that’s about it. Since midnight I’ve been finishing up nightly things and getting myself ready to go to bed. I’m not sure if I’ll go out tomorrow or not, probably not if I’m honest. It’s a shame as I want to see the film on a big screen, but I need to finish up my column if I can. I’d also like to send a couple of postcards.

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

 

February 17, 2026

Tuesday - Cloudy but warmish

I woke up early this morning and had to make a trip downstairs. This was before F had even got up this morning. I felt quite bad about it as I did wake F up. He had to get up a few minutes after I went back to bed. 

I had planned to get up at my usual time this morning but I overslept! I got up and went downstairs then came back to the room and went back to bed. I didn’t really sleep this time and finally dragged myself out of bed and got dressed. 

I went downstairs to fill up my kerosene tank. I checked the heater in the living room and it was okay. I took the tank upstairs and then brought down a load of laundry and washed that. 

I decided I’d watch an episode of Lynley in the early afternoon and I did. I have two episodes still to watch, but I’m enjoying the show. The only thing I have against it is that the actress playing Barbara Havers is too attractive. The character in the book is not attractive and she smokes like a chimney. 

I got my lunch and brought it upstairs before 3 today, so that was good! I watched an episode of The Good Fight and it was great. There are all sorts of things happening. I’m not sure about the storyline where they want Diane to leave because she isn’t African American. 

F called after 5:30 and a little later I went downstairs. I was horrified to see the kitchen door was open. K was in the kitchen messing around with some flowers….I had had the heater on in the kitchen for 2 hours and all the heat I had built up in there was gone. I’m afraid I swore rather loudly and K looked a bit scared of me. Good!

Tonight I did a pork roast in the air fryer. I also threw in some whole potatoes to bake as well. There may have been half an onion put in the air fryer too!  We had roast pork, baked potatoes, steamed spicy cabbage and salad. F and K had leftover rice from yesterday too. Dinner was good and I really enjoyed it. 

After dinner I washed the dishes and then got changed so F and I could get some groceries. We drove off to Mina and he came into the store with me. He wasn’t quite as annoying as usual, so we picked up some food for tomorrow fairly quickly. F paid and then we came back to the house.

I put away the groceries and F set up the rice cooker for tomorrow. I headed upstairs and I did think about watching another episode of Lynley, but decided to watch Project Runway instead. It was okay. I’m honestly not enjoying it as much as I used to. I’ve always been a huge fan of the show, but right now it’s a bit meh. 

After it finished, it was time for Resident Alien. It was as funny as ever. I did have to put one of F’s sticky plasters on his back though. He’s still having neck problems, poor thing.

I finished out the night by relaxing and doing my internet stuff for the day. I did look at my column today but I’m thinking of doing something else as I’m not really happy with the way I’m going. I have no idea how or what to do at the moment.

There’s a chance tomorrow that I might go out and see a movie. There’s a movie that I missed the first time and it’s been re-released so I might give it a try. I’ll let you know later!

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

February 16, 2026

Monday - Colder and cloudy

I woke up this morning and went downstairs. I did go back to bed when I came back upstairs, but took a while before I fell asleep again. I did manage to drag myself out of bed and got dressed. I went downstairs, checked the mail (I got a letter-yay) and then put my yogurt in my bowl. 

I went back upstairs and decided that since I was back to the room in time, I’d start watching Lynley which was on WOWOW today. I’ve read a lot of the Elizabeth George novels and I really wanted to see this version of it. I had set the DVR to record the episodes, so I thought I’d watch the first one and if I didn’t like it, I could stop recording. Well, I did like it so I watched 4 episodes in a row of it! 

I went downstairs after the fourth episode and grabbed my lunch. When I came back up to the room I didn’t have time to watch anything off the DVR or Fire Disk so I watched some YouTube and then the news. 

I went downstairs around 6 pm to make dinner. Tonight it was toaster oven chicken, salad, vegetables and macaroni and cheese with canned tuna in it. F had set up the rice cooker for tonight so we had rice too. I thought dinner was good, but no one except me had seconds. 

I did the dishes after dinner and then did up the garbage for tomorrow. I went upstairs and relaxed for a bit and after 10:30 I went downstairs and took a shower. 

When I came back up to the room I watched another episode of Lynley and then turned off the TV after it was over. I watched a bit of YouTube and started my end of day things.

So, that’s it. Tomorrow night I’m going to be roasting some pork in the air fryer and hopefully doing some baked potatoes too. I hope I can do both at the same time!

I did start my column today, but I need to do more work on it. Next week is a short week and I need all the time I have on it. 

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