December 31, 2024

Tuesday - Rainy, cold and windy

I slept in again this morning and dragged myself out of bed quite late again. I had my breakfast and got dressed. F had made breakfast for his mother so she was fine. 

I ate upstairs and relaxed. After a while, F asked if I wanted to go shopping. I didn’t mind, I didn’t know what I was shopping for!  We also decided to have lunch and headed to a gyudon shop 

We went to the new gyudon place. It was hopping. I had chicken cutlet with cabbage, rice and miso soup. It was okay, but not great. F had some kind of donburi with bibinba-style beef or something. 

After lunch, we went to the grocery store and bought stuff for dinner. F got all the things he needed and then we grabbed an hors d’oeuvre tray too. 

We came back to the house and as we arrived, F remembered that he didn’t buy kerosene, so he basically left me at the house and went off to buy the heater juice!

I put away the groceries and went upstairs. F came back and came upstairs too. I relaxed and a bit later took a nap. I was so tired all of a sudden. 

I went downstairs first to heat up the hors d’oeuvres. Some of them were deep-fried and I thought they would be nicer if I did them in the air fryer rather than in the microwave. I got a lot of them done and then I had to call F down to make his soba for dinner.

He came down and of course, we got in each other’s way, but we tried! I set the table, he got his mother up and we sat down to eat. All of a sudden he was opening up a bottle of sake and pouring some out. I told him I didn’t want any. He insisted and put the little cup in front of my space at the table. I decided I wouldn’t drink it. He told me that I had to drink it and I said I wouldn’t. So then, he told me, “No dinner for you!”. I left the table and went upstairs. 

I wasn’t terribly hungry and I really don’t like soba anyway, so I didn’t care too much. I went upstairs and watched some more YouTube and had a cup of hot cocoa. No big deal.

F came upstairs a bit later and lay on his side of the bed. I just ignored him. After a while, he started talking to me and he apologized to me. I’m afraid I wasn’t too impressed. Then, he started getting all morose and saying a bunch of depressing things that bothered me. 

I went downstairs and went to the kitchen. I washed my air fryer because he didn’t do it and I didn’t want a nasty surprise in a couple of days. I went back upstairs.

He asked me about going out at midnight to the shrine and I said that I had planned to go but wasn’t sure anymore.

He did ask me if he could make me a plate for dinner but I turned him down. I went downstairs and took a shower. After that, I made my usual “lunch” and brought that upstairs to eat. I didn’t eat any of the stuff from the tray he brought. Not impressed.

We got a little friendlier. At midnight I wished him a Happy New Year and then I checked if he wanted to do a Hatsumode. He talked about going to the big shrine in Tsuruoka Park, I wanted to go to the local shrine. We ended up doing that.

We got dressed up to go outside and walked to the local shrine. We did our thing at the shrine. It was open inside so that was quite cool. We didn’t go in or anything. I wanted to, but it’s fine!

We walked back to the house and F said he wanted to go to the 7-11 nearby to pick something up. He invited me to go with him so I said I would. 

We drove there and went in. F got some ramen and I got a bread thing to share with him. As we got back in the car, F said he wanted to go for a drive. It was fine with me. I was a bit curious about what might be open and not open. Nothing except convenience stores! Everything else was closed, even the 24-hour gyudon shops. 

We came back to the house. F made himself some ramen, and I grabbed the umeshu that I had bought last year for myself and brought it upstairs. I had one little bottle while F had something of his choosing. 

We’ve had a quiet evening. I think we’re winding down as it is very late now and I’m getting quite tired. I’m not terribly angry at F now, although I am a bit still. He could have told me in the kitchen that he wanted to do a toast with the sake, or that it was some special stuff that he had bought specially, but he didn’t. I’m so tired of him trying to force me to eat or drink things that I don’t want to. I never used to have this many hang-ups about food, but I will not be forced into eating or drinking things I don’t like. My mother forced me to eat a fried egg when I was six or seven, I didn’t eat another one until I was in my late thirties and in Japan. I still don’t like them and avoid them when possible. 

Anyway, that’s it for me. 

Thank you dear readers for reading my blog and listening to my whining and mostly boring days. I can’t promise that 2025 will be more exciting, but I hope it will be!

Until next year…. 

December 30, 2024

 Monday – Sunny and warmer then rainy

It was a boring sort of day today. I heard the snowplough go through before bed and since it was late when I went to bed, F woke up. I don’t know if he fell back asleep or not as I fell asleep.

This morning when I woke up he was downstairs. The room was warm as he had put on the heater again when he left. It was nice of him.  

He came back to the room around 11 and said that he was going to get his hair cut. He went off, and I got up and dressed. I was going to go out and shovel a little snow, but he got back before I could go out. His hair looked terrible. I don’t usually criticize, but it looks like his fringe is all different lengths. His hair is sticking up at the back too. I tried to go out and shovel a bit of snow anyway as it was gloriously sunny and I wanted to be outside for a bit. I really wasn’t allowed to! F chased me back inside.

I went back upstairs and relaxed for a bit. Around 2:45, I went downstairs, put my lunch together, and brought it upstairs. I ate it and watched an episode of Bake-Off. It was great, of course. 

Around 5:30 I went downstairs and started on dinner. Tonight I cooked chicken drumsticks in the air fryer, plus mushroom penne with added fresh mushrooms, salad and mashed potatoes from a mix. They were quite bad! I added some butter and cheese at the end, but glue, I tell you, glue. 

We had dinner, and no extras were taken of the pasta or the potatoes. Well, I had some, but nobody else did. 

I served some stollen that my friend had given me on Friday for our dessert. It was lovely, but very rich and boozy! We all just had one piece for now.

After dinner, I cleared the table again and did the dishes. I had told F on the weekend that I expected him to help me in the kitchen more since he doesn’t have work this week to make him too “tired” to help. He agreed, but of course didn’t show up for me.

When I finished, I came upstairs and checked out the heater. The kerosene was nearly gone, so I took the tank downstairs and filled it. I brought it back upstairs and started the heater. F didn’t come upstairs for an hour or so. 

I watched a bit of YouTube and then watched an episode of Gotham. It was quite a good one. Young Bruce Wayne wants to learn how to fight. That could be interesting!

Since midnight I’ve been watching YouTube and working on my late-night stuff. 

Tomorrow is the last day of the year. I won’t miss 2024. I can’t say it was a great year. It wasn’t completely horrible, but it wasn’t good. 

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

December 29, 2024

Sunday - Snowy but not too cold.

I woke up a little late this morning. A nice thing was that F had turned on the heater in our room, so when I woke up, the room was warm. Yay. I made a trip downstairs and then came back to the room and went back to bed again. I did drag myself out of bed a couple of hours later. 

F came upstairs and asked if I’d like to go out for lunch and if so, where to?  I suggested going for yakiniku and F was good with that. We went downstairs and had to shovel a bit of snow before we could leave! I gave F a hand and we soon got it cleared away.

We went over to Togashi and were able to get table right away. We ordered off the lunch menu and had a nice meal. After we finished eating, we went back to the car and went to the big electric shop next to the yakiniku place. We went in, used the washrooms and then bought some batteries for the house.

Next up, we went to Musashi, the hardware store. F wanted some winter gloves. While we were there, we also got some masks. Yes, even boosted and vaccinated, we’re still wearing masks. Recently there has been a lot of flu and COVID going around this area, so better safe than sorry. We also have an octogenarian at the house and we don’t want to bring anything back to her. 

From the hardware store, we came back to the house. We had to shovel some more snow when we got back as a big lot fell off the roof and blocked the stairs again. F did most of the work this time as he encouraged me to go in the house.

I went upstairs and he followed a few minutes later. He decided to change the shogi in our room as it was a bit ripped. He took the panels downstairs and did his deed. 

A while later, we decided to go to the grocery store. We had planned to get bentos, but the place we were going to go had closed, possibly permanently. Yikes. I suggested looking while at the store so we went to Mina. Well, F as usual went to the wrong entrance. I don’t know why it annoys me, it just does. I think it has something to do with the fact that I have asked him several times to take me to the other side and he forgets every time. I picked up a few things for my lunch and breakfast, and a few things for tomorrow’s dinner too. 

We bought a few things and then checked out. I needed my bran cereal so asked F to stop at the drugstore so I could get it. I don’t know why the grocery store doesn’t keep it there!

I went into the grocery store and bought my cereal, then came back to the car. We came back to the house. 

F had bought bentos for himself and K, but there was nothing that I wanted to eat. I’d had rice for today and there just weren’t that many bentos available. I got some pieces of fried chicken and decided to eat them at the house. F heated the bentos and made some stuff to go with them for himself and his mother. I went upstairs. 

I spent a bit of time upstairs and when F came upstairs, I went down to make my dinner. I heated up the chicken, made a cheese toastie, and then made some nachos. Basically, I just added some cheese to some tortilla chips and baked them in the toaster oven. I brought the tray upstairs with some of our guacamole and F and I had some nachos. He ate more than I thought he would! I also ate my chicken and enjoyed it. 

A little after 10 I went downstairs and took my dishes down. I washed them and then took a shower. 

When I went back upstairs, I decided to watch something on the Fire Disk. I watched another episode of Bad Monkey. I liked it. It’s an odd show, but entertaining. 

F went to bed a while ago and seems to be sleeping. I did some crochet earlier and finished another dishcloth. I’m thinking of putting one in with a friend’s Christmas present that I haven’t sent yet. Sigh. To be fair to myself, there was a mail strike in Canada, so I couldn’t send it much earlier! My thumbs are also suffering a bit from the crochet. Darn!

Anyway, that seems to be it for now. Tomorrow I’m going to cook dinner and I bought stuff to make my own lunch. F makes too much Japanese food for my liking and since I’ll have to eat it on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, I’m going to avoid it for now!

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

December 28, 2024

Saturday - Cold and snowy

Today turned out to be a good day. Woot.

I got up this morning quite early, and then went back to bed. F got himself up and made K her breakfast and then took her off to the Daycare. 

I dragged myself out of bed and then went downstairs. I found F. He was hard at work fixing the shogi (paper screens) again. I told him there was no hurry so I went upstairs again and got dressed. I waited for him to come up and he offered to take me out for lunch. Unfortunately, his idea was to go to a Japanese restaurant. I didn’t want to go for noodles, but since I hadn’t let him pick a place for a while I said it was okay. And…it was. I had planned to wear one of my new shirts, but I just couldn’t do that for a noodle restaurant. 

We got to the restaurant, got our usual table and had a nice meal. F had soba, I had an udon nabe and we shared an order of tempura. 

After our lunch, we went over to Komeda and got a table. We went in and had a new drink, a cafe chocola. It was basically a mix of coffee and chocolate. I enjoyed it a lot, but it was a bit sweet.

After our break, we went back to the house. I shovelled a little bit of snow so that K would be able to get in easily when she got back. 

We spent quite a while in the house. F did more of his shogi work, K came back and then F came upstairs and asked what I wanted to do. We had talked about going to see a movie, so he decided that he’d make dinner for K. He did that and then we went out.

We went to Kappa Sushi for dinner. We didn’t eat a huge amount which was nice. F tends to over-order a lot of stuff that I don’t really want. Tonight he didn’t. 

After dinner, we scooted over to Machinaka Kinema and went to see Billy Elliot. I had seen it a couple of months ago in Tendo and loved it. I had no idea it was coming to Tsuruoka. It’s a digital remaster, so it looks lovely to watch. F had never seen it before! I am quite surprised. As I expected, he loved it.

When we left the movie we went to the 24-hour grocery store. F wanted some mikan for K and I wanted some snacks.  We went around the store and it was fine. F got a lot of stuff that I wouldn’t have bothered with, but that’s okay. 

We came back to the house but it was quite late. It was after 11pm. F put away the groceries and also was nice enough to fill up the kerosene tank in our room. 

I’ve spent most of the night watching YouTube and doing various internet things. It was quiet but nice.

I’m not sure what we’ll be getting up to tomorrow. I’m hoping things will go well though. Come back a bit later and find out about our Sunday. 

Until tomorrow….

December 27, 2024

 Friday - Snowy and windy later on in the day

I went to bed a bit early last night and as far as I know, F didn’t wake up. Hurray. However, this morning, he left before his alarm. How do I know?  Well, it woke me up of course. I went back to sleep for an hour, got up, and went downstairs. 

I came back to the room and went back to sleep. I meant to get up a bit early for a change, but I overslept. Oops. I got up and went downstairs and grabbed my breakfast. I came upstairs to the room and ate. I did some stuff on my computer and I got dressed for going out. 

My friend texted to say that she was on her way and I waited for her. Around 1pm I went downstairs and then got a text from her that she was outside.

We went over to Cocos, got a table and ordered. We spent the next few hours having a good natter and catching up. We’ve both had things happen in our lives over the last few months so it was good to catch up.

Around 4pm we had to go our separate ways, so we paid and then she drove me back to the house. I went into the house and made sure the kitchen was warming up and that things were okay. I went upstairs to change and relax for a bit. F called to say he was on his way and after a bit, I went downstairs to get started on dinner. 

F called me a bit later and said he was stuck in a traffic jam. I kept up with my prep and started setting the table a bit. F finally showed up just before 7pm. Tonight I did pasta and we had the choice of two sauces. There was the bought Japanese mushroom sauce, and the leftover curry on pasta. So, we all had a bit of both!

Dinner was good and then for dessert we finished up the Christmas Pudding and it was all very nice. I had planned another dessert too but decided to save it for another night. 

I did the dishes, listening to my favourite podcasts about movies and then I said goodnight to K and F. I went upstairs and watched a little YouTube, then did some computer stuff. F came upstairs around 10:30 or so and then I decided to watch something off the Fire Stick. I started the second season of The Devil’s Hour and it was really good! It’s like the entire first season was bringing us to this point. I hope I get to watch more soon. 

F has gone to bed as far as I know. I’m going to go to bed soon too. It was a good day, but tomorrow we don’t have any plans yet. K has her daycare so F should take her in the morning. 

Anyway, that’s it for me. It was a pretty good day. I got to see my friend and spend some time with her and then came back and cooked an easy and pretty nice meal. So, a good day!

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

December 26, 2024

 Thursday - Rainy and warmer

F didn’t go to bed early last night and even though I tried to go to bed early last night, he was still awake. I really am having a hard time with him these days. He keeps blaming me for waking him up when I go to bed, but even when I go to bed early, he is either awake or wakes up. 

F woke me up a couple of times. Once I woke up and I think he was still sleeping, the next time I woke up he was getting ready for work. 

I got up after my alarms went off this morning. I went downstairs, and I checked the snow situation. There wasn’t any, so that was nice. I came back upstairs and went back to bed. About an hour later, F returned to the house and gave me a Christmas card in the mail. Of course, I felt a bit embarrassed that he found me in bed, but oh well. He didn’t stay too long.

I got up at my now usual time and went downstairs to get my breakfast. I brought it upstairs to eat. I watched some YouTube and then the news. A bit later I did a load of laundry. When I went down to grab my lunch, I took out my laundry and then brought it all upstairs.

I hung up my laundry and then ate my yummy lunch! I watched an episode of So Help Me Todd. I’m quite enjoying that show. It’s nice to see a show about a family that isn’t schmaltzy or cloying. 

After 5:15 F called to say he was on the way back to the house. I went down to the kitchen and washed my dishes from the day and I washed the nabe for him. I decided tonight that was the only help I would give him. He doesn’t help me at all, and tonight’s food wasn’t a difficult meal. I went upstairs and when he came back to the house, he came up to say hi. We talked a little and he changed his clothes. He said that it would be ready soon, so I went downstairs and sat in the living room. He did okay as far as the nabe tonight. It wasn’t the most flavourful one ever, but it was pretty good. 

After dinner, I just went upstairs again. I watched a little bit of YouTube. When F came upstairs I asked if he wanted to go out right away or a bit later. He said later. We waited a while and then went to the grocery store. F came in with me and it was as annoying as ever for me! I had to chase him all over the store just to find him to put my things in the shopping cart! 

We just got a few things. I had suggested to F that he leave some of the nabe for K’s lunch, but he didn’t. He said he’d get something in the store, but the things I suggested, he didn’t like. He wanted to cook her some salmon, but they were sold out. They were sold out of most things tonight. 

We checked out and came back to the house. I suggested to him that he cook some of the fish that he bought for K’s lunch. He just looked at me. I said that there wasn’t anything for her lunch and that’s why I told him to leave some nabe or buy something tonight for her lunch. I’m not going to be here for lunch tomorrow so she needs lunch for sure! To do him credit, he did go downstairs and cook for her, but that’s all she’s got for lunch. Some fish. Nothing else. What the blazes was he thinking? The fact was that he wasn’t thinking at all. 

I took a shower around 10:30 and then came back upstairs and watched The Rookie. All of my shows will be off next week for New Year Programming. I’m not terribly happy as Japanese New Year Programming tends to be terrible. Thank heavens I’ve got streaming services this year. 

F has gone to bed and is sleeping away. I’m going to try and go fairly soon. My hands are a bit sore. I’ve been doing some crochet again…nothing exciting, just some dishcloths, but my hands are rebelling a bit. 

That’s it for me. Tomorrow I hope to be having lunch with my friend from the next city. We haven’t seen each other in ages and we really need to catch up. After that, I’ll be doing dinner and then I’m with F for the next 9 days with no plans and I’m more than a little worried about how it’ll go. He never wants to make plans which is horrible. 

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