August 16, 2018

Thursday - Cloudy, then torrential rain.

An okay day.

This morning I got up, did my usual watching of the news and then checking my email.  Got my breakfast and a little later, started in on my lesson planning.  I didn’t do a lot of prep, but I needed to look at the texts and see what was taught before….just basically to get a little comfortable with them.  It was very humid at the time.  

I was working quite hard when F called to remind me that he was coming back to the house after twelve.  No problem. I told him again that I might need a little time to finish up.  We ring off, I get back to work.  I get an alert on my phone about the weather.  I can’t read it because it’s in kanji, so transfer it to my computer and figure out what it says.  It didn’t affect this area, so no problem.  I went back to work.  F phones me to say he’s finished.  He asks if I want anything. No thanks, I say.  I’m nearly done planning but not quite.  F arrives back at the house and comes up to the room.  I have all my books in order across the bed so that I can put them away in an order that makes sense to me.  I tell him I need 5 or 10 more minutes to finish planning, but I’m nearly done.  He storms off.   I didn’t talk to him again for more than two hours, because he went downstairs and cooked lunch for his mother and himself.  BOO!  He promised me yesterday when I was in the grocery store that he would take me out for lunch. I had planned to buy myself food, but he said not to.  

Our afternoon was supposed to go a lot differently.  He was planning to take his mother to her hometown and then come back and take me out. However, his uncle cancelled that plan, so he didn’t take his mother anywhere.  I was sad for her. 

Around 2 I realized that if I didn’t hear from F soon, I could just try catching a bus from the bus stop and go downtown.  I thought that was a bit dumb, so finally tracked him down and suggested rather strongly that he buy me some lunch.  He was rather whiney but did agree.  Of course, NONE of the places that I like to go was open at 3 pm, so we ended up at a keitensushi place.  We did have a fairly good meal there, ate entirely too much sushi.

After our lunch, we went to Doutor in the mall for a coffee and a bit of wifi.  We didn’t talk much but did put out a few ideas for the evening.  I was getting sleepy, so we came back to the house after visiting a grocery store.  We got a bento for K and a few things for my lunch tomorrow.  

F and I decided to go to the Internet Cafe.  I took along my crochet too.  It wasn’t very busy at all, so we each got massaging chairs.  I spent my time watching Bake Off Celebrity shows and then an interview with David Essex.  I did do a little crochet too.  We each had our dinner there. I had pasta which was okay.

We came back to the house around midnight. I took a shower and F went to bed. He’s tired, and I don’t think he’s feeling all that well either.  Poor thing.  

I get really upset because F doesn’t think that I have to plan for my classes and that I shouldn’t take time away from “us”.  But, I gave up Monday because he took off a full day, and today he wasn’t supposed to be around as much as he was.  It really bothers me how I have no support from him.  

Anyway, that’s it for me. I do have a class tomorrow evening, so I need to do a few things to prepare.  Next week I have classes every day and then I’m done again when my friend comes back to take over again.  Whew!

Come back later and see how I get on. Until tomorrow….

August 15, 2018

Wednesday - Sunny and hot, torrential rain now

A good day.

I got up this morning and did my usual stuff.  I felt a little run down, so I had some of my sports drink and it did the trick.  I did a couple of loads of laundry today and then got stuck into my lesson planning.  I also watched a bit of stuff off the DVR.  I have to make space for the stuff I like this weekend.  

I barely saw K at all today.  She spent a lot of the day sleeping in the living room.  I did let her know that there was food for her, I’m not sure if she knew it was for her or not.  

I got a couple of days of lessons planned today. I have a bit more to do tomorrow.  Bit of a spanner in the works though as F has decided to take the last part of the day off.  He has to take his mother to her hometown for Obon.  He took Monday off, so I didn’t plan that day, but I need the time to do my planning/checking what I’m going to teach.  

It was a horrid sweltering day today. The temperature in our room up here was around 30 degrees and the humidity was awful.  Even though I wore a loose dress, I had sweat everywhere. Yuck.  

When F came back to the house tonight he was asking about dinner. I suggested taking his mother out.  We could have ordered in bentos, but she’s not had a break from the heat and humidity for days.  F thought it was a good idea.  

We all trundled off in the car and went to Gusto.  F and I had the same chicken dish, and his mother had fish.  She ate everything!  So did F and I though. F always says he hates Gusto, but I don’t think he really does!

We brought K back to the house and then the two of us went out again to a drugstore to get some necessaries.  We spent more money than I expected, but it was a good thing really.  No junk food, just some things for the house and health.

We had a quiet evening at the house.  I watched The Blacklist Double shot and enjoyed it, F went to bed.  The expected storm has finally hit us and I think it woke K up as I hear her bopping around downstairs. She’s probably closing windows.  Mine are already closed as I have the AC on because I can’t sleep when it is this hot.  

Tomorrow I plan to get up and after the news do some of my lesson planning and hopefully get enough done that I won’t have to do any after F gets off work.  Fingers crossed that happens.  

Come back later if I’m not swept away and see what happens on Thursday. Until tomorrow…

August 14, 2018

Tuesday - Hot and humid and sunny

A goodish day.

I had a hard time getting out of bed today. I went to bed a bit late last night and didn’t sleep well.  F didn’t sleep well so it can be hard to sleep near him.  F went off to work and a little later I woke up and got up.

Today I wore one of my new things from yesterday’s shopping trip. I wore a long dress, it said it was Resort Wear.  If my sister saw it, I’m sure she’d say I looked like Mrs Roper (from Three’s Company). It kept me mostly cool and decent, so that was good.  

I did a couple of loads of laundry this morning and had my breakfast. I watched a little telly but buckled down to work finally. I even decided to have my lunch early for a change so that I could work uninterrupted in the afternoon.  Good choice!

I looked at a few classes today and got 3 planned. It wasn’t really enough, but it was a goodly start.  I think the others will come fairly easily.  

I didn’t see much of K all day.  She spends a lot of the day sleeping in the living room.  She has her things that she likes to do, and I have mine so it seems to work.

When F came back to the house tonight he wanted to make udon for dinner and asked me to have some too.  I agreed, with the caveat that I could use a pasta sauce on it, instead of the horrid stuff he uses.  He agreed but wasn’t too happy.  I asked him what he was planning to serve with the udon and he had no ideas.  Ack.  We went to the grocery store to pick up a few things.  I got some roasted chicken, we got a nice salad, and F picked up a couple of things to go with his udon.  We also got a bottle of iced tea.

We came back to the house and F went into cooking mode.  Of course, every pot in the house was used and I’m not sure any restaurant would let him cook there, but we finally got things done. He wouldn’t tell me what to do to help him, but I didn’t want to make a mess for him.  Finally, we got everything on the table.  I had my udonghetti and it wasn’t great.  He’d over-cooked the udon anyway, so it was really too soft for spaghetti.  Still, we had a nice dinner and it was nice to sit and have a meal with K in the house…even though it was terribly hot all day.  Yuck.

F washed the dishes and I dried them.  He does them in no order that makes any sense to me, and I tried to gently suggest that he do the glasses, cutlery and chopsticks first since they come in contact with our lips, then the plates, then finally the pots and pans, but my help wasn’t appreciated.   As someone who is still working on making him wash dishes with hot water, I’ll keep at it. 

After a little break from each other, we went to the onsen.  It was quite busy tonight.  F went to take a bath, I revelled in the cool air and then worked on my blanket.  I fixed last night’s error and even got a little bit more done.  I think it is going well. We stayed in the spa’s lobby right up until they closed. I was enjoying the cool, F was enjoying the wifi!

We came back to the house via a convenience store for some ice cream.  We ate and then I took a shower.  Before I did, I turned on the AC in the room. It was 30 degrees and very humid.  I’ll turn it off before I got to bed.  

And that’s about it for me.  Tomorrow, more lesson prep and laundry too most likely. It’s supposed to rain as well.  I hope that’s a good thing!  Come back later and see what I get up to. Until tomorrow….

August 13, 2018

Monday - Hot and Sunny

A goodish day.

I slept in a bit this morning but woke up when F announced that he was going to take his mother to the doctor.  I got up then and after they left took care of a personal chore and was in the washroom when I heard the car drove up again.  They were back.  The doctors are off because it is Obon!  

I watched a bit of TV and had my breakfast at the house.  I think F gave his mother some breakfast.  Around 12 we served up F’s blueberries from yesterday.  That was rather yummy! 

After 12:30 the two of us decided to go out.  We talked about lunch on the way and I suggested 3 places.  F countered with 2 places and I didn’t mind either of them and said so.  We ended up at the hospital’s restaurant.  Now, if you are a long time reader of this blog, you might remember that three years ago almost exactly, F had a run in with a half-wild cat and had to be in the hospital for 10 days, so it was a little odd to be at the hospital for “fun”. They do have a good restaurant and they are quite famous for their food.  F had grilled fish and I had hiyashi chukka. It was quite nice.  

After lunch, we went shopping.  I had asked to go to a lower cost shop to see if they had any work clothes for me.  We looked around the shop and I got a basketful of things to try on.  I tried most of the things on and some weren’t bad. Because I do have a lot of clothes I tend to be very picky these days and won’t buy things that are overly tight or the wrong material.  Some things could have done, but I chose not to get them.  I ended up getting a summery dress and a tunic top that will look good with leggings.  Nothing for work sadly. I’ll have to troll my closet again and see what I can use to make do.  

We stopped for a drink at a coffee shop and then came back to the house. We were just about there when F asked if I’d like to go to the glasses shop with him. He needs new glasses.  We stopped off at the house and F got his prescription and his mother. She asked if she could come along.  We had no objections, so off we went.  We got to the shop, F looked at frames, I helped him, and we found a good pair for him.  His mother sat and watched most of the time.  While F was being helped, I gave her a drink from the drink machine.  

We came back to the house and F and I discussed what to do.  Finally, I suggested going to the grocery store and getting a tray of food to share with his mother.  They have lots of pre-cooked food available for Obon.  F liked the idea so off we went.

I picked up some food for the next couple of days for me and also some things for dinner to go with the tray we picked.  The tray was a little heavy on the meat and we got a veggie thing and a dessert thing.  

We came back to the house and had the food.  It was quite nice in all honestly.  We had a chicken one. I think it was really for two people, but the three of us enjoyed it.  I was glad that we added on the extra stuff too.  

F and I took care of the few dishes and then we headed out to the Internet Cafe.  The parking lot was very busy, but when we got in the massaging chairs weren’t. Yay.  They had a four-hour package tonight, but we decided that we’d leave before the time was up since F has to work tomorrow.  

Basically, that’s what we did.  I watched the last half of Bake-Off, but sadly the reception on the TV was terrible.  I found Okuribito on the TV, but since it didn’t have English subtitles, gave up on it. I watched a bit of YouTube instead.   I also tried to do some of my blanket joining, but took it back to fix a bad spot and joined it wrong. Grr!  I’ll have to take it back again I think.  

We left around 11:30 and got back to the house. We tried to look for meteors but I didn’t see any. F said he saw one so that was good.

I watched Project Runway and some other stuff, and I’m going to go to bed really soon.  F stayed up a bit late, I hope he’s okay tomorrow.  

We had a pretty good day today.  I’ve got to do a lot of work prep this week as I have five days of classes next week.  Wish me luck with it all! Come back later and find out how things go.  Until tomorrow….

August 12, 2018

Sunday - Hot and sunny

A good day.

F and I both slept in a bit this morning.  He got up and set up the bread maker though, so that was good.  I finally got up just before the bread was due to be ready.  I decided to have a proper breakfast, even with F’s bread on offer.  I had some cereal and yogurt and a bit of bread.  Yesterday I didn’t eat properly so I thought I’d better take care of myself today.

In the morning F had asked me if I’d like to go to the blueberry farm for a while.  I wasn’t sure, then said that I would if we could go later in the day.  It was very sunny today and I didn’t think I could hack it in the early afternoon.  

Around 3 pm, we drove off to the blueberry place, paid our money and went picking.  Of course, we could eat as much as we wanted too, and we did!  I had no idea there were so many different types of blueberries!  It makes sense, of course, I just didn’t know about them.  We each picked a small container to bring back with us, but managed to eat quite a lot along the way! It was fun.

On the way back to the house, we decided to have coffee or tea but had a problem finding a good place to go. We ended up at Cafe Heart & Peace.  We each had a crepe there, plus an iced coffee. It was quite nice and the least busy I’ve ever seen it.  They were still sold out of almost everything though!

In the parking lot, I saw a funny thing on their van.  Their logo is a bird in a frying pan (they make pancakes and crepes) and there was a grasshopper on the logo.  I wondered which was more dangerous for the grasshopper, the frying pan or the bird!

We picked up some food for K from the grocery store and came back to the house.  I had found some Swedish biscuits being sold off for 100 yen so bought two boxes.  They are so yum.  F said I should have bought more, but they expire in a week!  I don’t want to eat that many in a week!

At the house, F gave his mother her food and then we went out again.  We walked to the local yakitori-ya and had a lovely meal.  We had all kinds of dishes and they were great.  After we finished there, I thought we might come back to the house, but F wanted to go to another place.  

We called a taxi and went to a bar that he likes.  It is okay, just a tad expensive. We were there for a while, sang a few songs at karaoke and had a drink each.  We came back to the house by taxi. I had wanted to walk around a little more just to clear my head, but F didn’t want to.

We came back to the house and I got stuff done.  I bagged up the blueberries that I had frozen earlier, then set more out.  I took a shower too.  F took one after I did as well.

We watched a little TV together and then F went to bed.  I’m still up, but it is very late and I’m a little tired now.  

F took tomorrow off work, so I’m not sure what is going to happen.  I don’t know if we have any plans for Monday or not. I don’t really, but I don’t want to waste F’s day off.  Then again, I have work to do so who knows!  

Come back later on and see what I get up to. Until tomorrow….

August 11, 2018

Saturday - Warm and sunny

A goodish day.

I slept in a little this morning and so did F.  We were quite lazy, which was nice for a change.  F did get up and made breakfast for himself and his mother.  He asked if I wanted some too, but since it was bloomin’ noodles again, said no.  I had an energy bar for my breakfast. 

In the afternoon, F was supposed to take me out for lunch but didn’t. He fell asleep instead.  I tried not to grudge him. He doesn’t get a lot of time to just relax in his house.  

He finally roused himself around 4:30.  I told him that I’d like to go shopping and then go and see the movie in Mikawa.  F thought it was a good idea too, so got up.  We bought his mother a bento from the grocery store for her dinner and then we went off.  We had a quick and not too bad snack at Kappa Sushi, then hit up a store that sells large size clothing on the way to the mall.  I tried on a couple of things and ended up buying a t-shirt in burgundy.  It’s quite nice and was on sale. Woot.

We drove to Mikawa and got a good parking spot near the theatre entrance.  We went in and looked at women’s clothing.  They had some stuff, but they didn’t have as much as the Niigata store did.  I tried on a few things, but I wasn’t happy enough with the shirts as I had hoped.  I didn’t buy anything there. Sigh.  We looked at the men’s socks and I got a couple of pairs, and F picked up a few things for himself.  

F took our new things out to the car and left them there.  We went and had dinner after that.  Dinner was at the pasta restaurant and we both had the same thing, a cold pasta dish that was really nice.  

We went upstairs to see Ocean’s Eight and both of us enjoyed it.  I wouldn’t say it was the best movie ever, and I really would have liked to learn more about the characters, but it was fun and pleasant and worth watching.  

We drove back to Tsuruoka and made a stop along the way for some drinks.  I’ve been really thirsty today since I had sushi.  It always gets me. 

We came back to the house and watched the last episode of The Good Doctor.  It was quite good.  After that, F basically fell asleep and I’m still up.  But..I’m going to bed now.  No idea what we’ll do tomorrow, hope it is something good!  Come back later and find out. Until tomorrow….

August 10, 2018

Friday - Hot and humid, rain at night

A good but sticky day!

I woke up fairly early today and managed to get a bit more sleep.  Even though it was a work day, I slept in a little bit.  

I had a quiet, normal sort of morning.  I had breakfast and then lunch, I did my dishes and then I got dressed for work.  

I took a taxi to my first workplace, taught a couple of classes which went fine and then took another taxi to my second workplace.  I had a little extra time so I had a quick snack, then set up for my class.  This last class went quite well too.  Hurray.  I’ve taught most of these students before and enjoy them.

While I was closing up shop, F texted me.  I went out to meet him and we went off for dinner.  Well, it was dinner for me, for him it was dessert!  We went to Gusto and I had some Japanese fried chicken and then a parfait, F had a parfait and we both had drink bar.  

We came back to the house after our meal and F went to bed.  I stayed up and watched a couple of TV shows, particularly Instinct and Bates Motel.  Bates Motel has really amped things up this last year.  The last season will be on sometime I think.  

It was a long but good day and I’m tired.  I’m also tired of this horrible weather.  Today was hot and sticky when you aren’t under the air conditioner. Luckily I was for most of the day, but it was hard to leave the rooms with AC! 

Not sure what we’ll get up to this weekend.  F has also taken Monday off, so not sure if he’s got plans or not.  I hope it doesn’t involve driving to look at flooded areas or going north in a rainstorm! Come back later and see what we get up to on Saturday.  Until tomorrow….