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…. 

February 15, 2026

Sunday - Warm and sunny

I woke up fairly early this morning. F wasn’t quiet and he woke me up. I did fall back asleep. My alarm went off and I woke up and turned it off. Then, F came back to the room and wanted to go for lunch.  He even had a place in mind.

I dragged myself out of bed and got dressed. I went downstairs, ready to go, and found F in the kitchen about to cook some ramen for himself. Hmm. I guess he didn’t understand me when I said that I was going to get dressed. He put his stuff away and we went out.

We went to F’s favourite fish restaurant. It was okay, but it wasn’t great in my opinion. F had a special cod meal, I had tuna cheek. I got F to ask the waitress to have it made less salty, but it was just as salty as ever. Sigh. F liked his meal a lot. I’m glad since it was quite expensive too!

We decided that we’d go and do our grocery shopping after lunch. We went over to PAL shopping area and went in and did our shopping. Recently, F has stopped waiting in the car for me and he comes into the store with me. It’s quite annoying. I ask him to get things for his mother and he seems to think that he doesn’t have to! It’s up to him but it annoys me as he’s always picking on me and yelling at me about getting in other people’s way. On the other hand, he doesn’t seem to notice when other people get in my way and I don’t punch them! I’m nice that way.

We bought groceries and then went back to the house. I put them away and then I headed upstairs. I relaxed for a while. F eventually came upstairs and then I made him some cocoa. I offered him a cheese toast later on and he accepted. I had some leftover bread from last week and I wanted to use it up. I made the toast and then brought it upstairs.

We ate our toast and left a few minutes later. 

We drove out to Mikawa and parked at the mall. We went in and then upstairs to the cinema. We bought our tickets and then had a seat outside for a few minutes. When they announced our theatre was open, we went in and bought our popcorn and drinks. We went to see Crime 101 with Halle Berry, Mark Ruffalo and Chris Hemsworth. It was pretty good and I enjoyed it a lot. I hadn’t heard much about it until this last weekend when the reviewers I follow said that they liked it. 

After the movie F and I talked about where to go for dinner and he suggested udon. We went to the chain place in Tsuruoka and had a pretty nice meal. I was so happy that I didn’t have to eat rice again. I’ve had it for three meals this weekend and that was too much. 

We came back to the house afterwards and just relaxed. K didn’t eat the dinner we brought for her and F didn’t want to wake her up. That was his choice. 

We came upstairs again and I watched a little YouTube and then decided that I wanted to watch last week’s The Handmaid’s Tale as new episodes are on TV tomorrow night. It was a fairly good episode with nobody dying! 

F went to bed before midnight and I turned down my light in the room. I don’t want to have a fight with K tomorrow at all. 

That’s about it for me for today. Tomorrow I have to start work on my column as I’m getting too close to the deadline for my liking. I may do some laundry too. 

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

February 14, 2026

 Saturday - Cloudy but warm

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Well, I woke up early this morning…for a Saturday. I went downstairs but F and K were still here. F came upstairs a bit later and told me that K refused to go to her Day Service. F’s sister was going to come over and take her a bit later. He also said that she was complaining about me again. Eye Roll. 

F went off to take his car into the dealership for a check up or something. He’d told me he’d like to leave at 10am so I was up and dressed and ready to go at 10 am. He wasn’t ready to go. When he came back, he had to find his cell phone. Sigh. We left around 10:40!  We drove off into the wilds of Yamagata. I had mentioned to F that a couple of years ago we had stopped in at a little coffee shop that was quite cute. We always said that we’d come back and have a meal sometime. Well, it turned out that F’s restaurant was that little coffee shop! We went in, were the only customers and had a lovely meal. Well, mine was! I had a curry doria which was basically rice in a curry with a meatball and covered in cheese and broiled in the oven. Mine was really good and I enjoyed it a lot. F had a shrimp pilaf and didn’t like it as much. He thought his was small, and it did look that way to be honest. 

After we ate, we drove into Sakata and went to Kaldi. I bought my favourite tea and F got some cakes, I also picked up some decaf coffee at the Muji store. While I was there I texted my friend to see if she’d like to come to Mr. Donut and have coffee with us. It took a while before she got the message and then she invited us to her place, but we had just sat down at the Mr. Donut! She joined us a bit later and we had a bit of a chat. It was lovely to see her.

We had to run back to Tsuruoka to meet K coming back from Day Service. It looked like F’s sister persuaded her to go so that was good. I did suggest that F fill up the car as his car would only run for 20 more km.  Why does he do this? He knows it drives me crazy and upsets me. 

We made it back to the house in time. I went upstairs and spent a bit of time there. F stayed down with his mother for the most part. He did come upstairs a bit before 7 and said that his mother was still upset about something and wasn’t making any sense. He gave her the food that I had saved for her on Thursday night with a couple of extras. 

Then, it was our time. We went to China House and had a good meal. I had my favourite Mapo-dofu and it was lovely and spicy and warming. F had ebi-mayo or fried shrimp in mayonnaise. He liked his and I pointed out that it was his second time having shrimp today!

After our meal, we went to the grocery store and F bought a few groceries. We came back to the house then and again, I went upstairs. 

Tonight I decided to watch a couple of things on TV. I watched Evil off the Fire Stick and then tonight’s episode of The Hunting Party. It was good but I’m wondering about this show. Will they run out of criminals to round up?

F went to bed after a while and I got stuck into my end of day things. I’m also about ready to go to bed now too. 

I’m not sure what we’ll get up to tomorrow. We should do our usual grocery shopping and I’m hoping that we might hit up a movie in the late afternoon, if F is up for it. 

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

February 13, 2026

Friday - Warm and clear, rainy at night

So, I had a good day today!  I woke up before my alarm today which was odd, but not a big deal. I went downstairs and then came back upstairs and went back to bed for a bit. I dragged myself out of bed a bit later and then got dressed. I quickly checked my computer and then packed my backpack to go out. 

I left the house around 11:30 and hightailed it to the bus stop. When I got there, I found out that the bus was running about 5 minutes late. Sigh. Oh well. It was nice out and I didn’t mind waiting too much. 

I got on the bus when it arrived and rode it all the way to S-Mall. At S-Mall, I decided to go and have lunch first. I went to the Daiichi Hotel and had the weekly lunch. Today it was curry and rice. It was good, but there was definitely too much tomato in it for me. When the waitstaff brought it over to me I was a little sad and worried. I’m okay so far!

When I finished my meal I paid and then hit up the chocolate shop in the mall. They didn’t have what I was looking for. I saw some chocolate in another store and looked around. They had what I was looking for. Whew! I bought a box and they offered to wrap it for me. I thought it would be okay if they did it right away, but she told me it would take 5 minutes. Yikes. I was trying to catch a bus. However, another clerk came over and she did it. It took no time at all, she handed over my parcel and I ran to the bus station. I had to wait a bit there, but no problem. 

I rode the bus to the closest stop to Machikine Cinema, got off and walked to the cinema. There was a lot of snow down the road so I had to walk very carefully as I was in my shoes, not my winter boots. I had about 15 minutes before the movie was going to start so I decided to go to the nearby drugstore! I did a very fast grab and fill up my basket trip, paid and then fastwalked back to the cinema. I bought my ticket and went in to see Knox Goes Away. It was a cool movie, directed by and starring Michael Keaton. It was about a hitman who found out he had CJD and was going to lose his memory in the next few weeks. Around the same time, his estranged son comes to him and asks for help. He had killed someone and didn’t know what to do. It was quite a good movie with a great cast and a really intriguing story. It was violent in places, but not as bad as you might expect.

After the movie, I left the cinema and walked over to the post office. I bought some stamps, my bestie has started to send me real letters and I have to write back. I bought a few stamps so I can. 

As I had about 25 minutes before my bus was due, I had a seat in the post office. In the corner, they have a table and chairs set up next to a pop machine. I sat for a while and read things on my phone. When I had about 5 minutes left I left the post office and walked over the road and waited for the bus.

I caught the bus and rode it to our stop. I got off and of course it started pouring down as soon as I got off the bus. I fast walked again back to the house.

When I came into the house, I turned on the heater in the kitchen and then went upstairs and changed my clothes. F called soon after I arrived, and I went downstairs a bit later.

Tonight I made pasta with a garlic sauce. We also had salad and bacon. It was a nice meal. It was simple, but really good I thought. I did the dishes afterwards and then went upstairs and relaxed for a bit. 

I took a shower after 10:30 and then came upstairs and watched the final episode of season 2 of Gen V. It was good and typically bloody and gross-out. 

After midnight I gave F his Valentine’s Day present and surprise, surprise…he gave me one too! We gave each other chocolates and shared a bit with each other. 

I spent some time working on my internet stuff and I’ll be going off to bed soon. 

Tomorrow, F wants to go out of town and try a new-to-us restaurant. I’ll fill you in on what happens with that. Come back later if you like and hear all about my day. Until tomorrow….

February 12, 2026

Thursday - Cooler with hail

I woke up this morning, went downstairs and then came back up to the room. I went back to bed and had a nice and long snooze. I overslept a bit, but got up and dressed. 

I went downstairs and checked the mail. I got a postcard and a card for Valentine’s Day. It was nice to get real mail! I grabbed my breakfast and came back upstairs to eat. 

I had a good afternoon. I attended a meeting of a book club. I feel a little sad in a way, I’m not reading any of the book club books…I can’t get hold of them around here and I probably couldn’t afford them anyway. I did talk about the books that I am reading now…1984, The Cat’s Table and After Strike. I tried to read 1984 before when we moved to this house, but I’ve got a digital copy of it now and I’m a bit further than I was before.

I left the meeting at 3:30 and went downstairs to get my lunch. I brought it upstairs and watched the news while I ate. F called around 5:30 and a few minutes later I went downstairs to the kitchen.

Tonight I did pork chops in the air fryer and then some steamed veggies, salad and some kimchi. F had made rice so there was enough food. Oh, K and F also had some niku-man. I couldn’t have them as they had tomato sauce in them. 

I did the dishes afterwards and then came upstairs. Tonight I had a TV night. I watched the first episode of the last season of The Handmaid’s Tale and an episode of The Good Fight. It was good, Diane is fighting back against people trying to get her to leave the firm. 

F didn’t go to bed until quite late, but he’s asleep now. 

Tomorrow I’m planning to go out and see a movie in my favourite cinema. I might go and have lunch first as well. It has been a while since I did that and I miss it. 

Come back later if you like and see if I actually get out of here! Until tomorrow….