February 28, 2025

Friday - Sunny and warm

I woke up again this morning when F got up and got ready for work. However, I pulled the covers over my head and went back to sleep. Yay.

I ended up waking up before my alarm later. I got up and went downstairs and then came back to bed. I watched a couple of videos before going back for a bit of a snooze. 

I got up later, dressed and went downstairs to get my breakfast. I came back upstairs and ate. Then, I decided to get stuck into my column. I finally finished it and sent it into the editor. Yay. I also did a load of laundry and hung that up too.

At lunch, I went downstairs and put my lunch together. It was a bit small as I didn’t have any salad. I watched episode 7 of The Walking Dead and it was okay. I watched the news around 4 and also answered a text from F asking for English help.

F phoned after 5 to say he was on the way and I went downstairs and got started in the kitchen. F was back fairly early and he said he was hungry! I asked him when he’d like to eat and he said before now! Well, I don’t have a time machine of course, so I offered to make dinner a little bit early. I think it ended up being about 10-15 minutes before usual. Tonight we had spaghetti with garlic soy sauce, smoked duck and salad. It was really nice and almost everything disappeared. 

I did the dishes and went upstairs when I finished. It was a little early, somewhere around 8:30. I relaxed for a while and had a drink. I went downstairs to take a shower. After my shower, I made myself some popcorn with butter and Worchester sauce topping. That was very nice! I do love Worchester sauce!

I came back upstairs and watched an episode of The Great British Bake Off. I enjoyed it a lot. It was Pastry Week and I was surprised by what they had to make! Samosas don’t really seem like pastry…of course they are, but it was a tad odd. 

Anyway, after midnight the TV went off and I got things on the internet done. I’ll be going to bed soon as I’m a bit tired.

Tomorrow morning I have a dental appointment that I am almost looking forward to. I think one of my teeth has broken around a filling. It didn’t hurt at first, but more recently it is a little annoying to chew harder or chewy things on that side. I’m also hoping that we can go to a movie in the evening as there are now 3 movies in English in the area. Woot. 

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

February 27, 2025

Thursday - Clear and sunny, warmer

F was rather noisy this morning and was in and out of the room looking for his wallet and whatever he couldn’t find. I ended up waking up and going downstairs a few minutes after he left.  I did my usual thing when I came back to the room of watching videos before going back to sleep. Today, one of the videos was on repeat on my phone as I kept falling asleep on it!

I woke up a bit later, dressed and went downstairs to get my breakfast. I brought it upstairs to eat. I had a quiet morning and early afternoon. I did look over my column and listened to the computer read it. It was okay. I’ll do a final polish of it tomorrow and send it in. Whew!

During my lunch time, I watched The Walking Dead again. The cable channel is running 4 episodes a week and it is a little hard to keep up. I’m not sure why they are running so much of it a week. 

I went downstairs to start on dinner before 6pm. Tonight I made mini-hamburgers (from the store), a cabbage pickle/salad thing, potato salad and roasted veggies. Dinner was pretty good and almost all of the food disappeared. That was good! 

After dinner, I did the dishes and then went upstairs with a can of root beer. It was nice to have. F came upstairs a little later and we had a quiet evening in. I watched the second episode of Doc, the new show on cable. It was good. 

While I was listening to the news in the kitchen I heard that Gene Hackman and his wife had died. I wasn’t a diehard Gene Hackman fan, but I did appreciate his work. He was always good in whatever movie he was in. One of my favourite films of his is The Quick and the Dead with Sharon Stone, Russell Crowe and Leonardo DiCaprio. He was the villain of the piece and he was terrific! I know that he had retired a few years ago, but I missed seeing him in films. 

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

February 26, 2025

Wednesday - Warmer and clear. 

I woke up when my alarm went off this morning. I went downstairs and then came back to the room. I watched some videos and then I went back for another snooze.

I got up later, dressed and went downstairs to get my breakfast. I brought it back upstairs to my room and ate. I watched some of the news as well. I had a very quiet afternoon. I did a row of knitting and also worked on my column. I think I finished it too! Woot.

F texted me during the day and said that he had booked himself in for a massage in the evening, at 8 pm. Yikes. We generally eat at 7pm, or thereabouts. That didn’t give him a lot of time to digest. 

At lunch I went downstairs to put my lunch together and brought it upstairs to the room. I watched an episode of The Walking Dead and then I half-watched the news. I’m getting overloaded and angry every time I see the orange idiot on TV, or even just hear about him. 

F called me after 5 and hinted strongly that he’d like to eat dinner earlier than usual. I had a lot of prep to do tonight so I wasn’t too impressed, but I did go downstairs a bit earlier than normal. 

Today I cooked some buta-tama-kimchi (pork-egg & kimchi) and made a vegetable stirfry. Dinner was rather nice I think. We also had some salad, some macaroni salad and rice. F had made rice too. It was good. I even served it about 20 minutes early so F was able to finish up in time to take a shower before he left. 

I did the dishes, which weren’t too bad tonight and then I had to do the garbage up from the kitchen. I even asked K, since she was still up, for her garbage. She didn’t understand at first, but then she figured it out. She brought her yuckies over to me and put them in the bag. Hurray for that. I left the bag in the genkan and then went upstairs.

I waited for F as we had to do grocery shopping tonight. However, I heard the door open downstairs, but F didn’t appear. Hmm. I waited until 9:30 and went downstairs to check. F was sitting by himself in the living room with the TV blaring away. I reminded him that we had to go out and buy groceries and he seemed rather nonchalant about the fact that I’d been waiting for him!

I went back upstairs to get my coat and bag and then we were off. It was too late to go to a nearby grocery store, so we went over to MaxValu as it is a 24-hour grocery store. I went in and did the shopping by myself. I was a bit happy about that. 

I got some food for the next couple of days. Unfortunately, they didn’t have a ton of stuff, but it was okay. Tomorrow I’ll be making mini-hamburgers for us and having some mixed veggies and salad with them. There’ll be some rice as well I think.

We came back to the house and I put the groceries away. F wasn’t feeling too good, unfortunately. His stomach was protesting all day he said. I went upstairs and then had to go back down in order to fill up the kerosene tank again. With the colder weather, we’re having to refill the tanks in our heaters quite often. 

I watched an episode of Mythic Quest tonight. I’m enjoying it, but it isn’t quite as funny this season for me. I hope that it picks up soon. My DVR recorded tonight’s episodes of The Walking Dead so I’ll probably get round to them soon. 

That’s about it for me for today. It was an okay day and it was so nice that it didn’t snow at all. I’m so tired of snow!

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

February 25, 2025

Tuesday - Sunny and warmer

I woke up with my alarm quite early, made a trip downstairs and then went back to bed. I fell asleep, but woke up later when I heard loud noises on the road. It turned out that the snowplough was clearing our road. That was great, but they blocked off our parking space. I got dressed, went downstairs and then went outside. I shovelled a little bit of snow next to the area where I would get in the car, and I cleared away the bigger blocks of snow. 

I went back into the house and put my breakfast together and went upstairs to eat it. I also sorted my laundry for later. I backed up my computer and after 1:30 I started my laundry. I was downstairs in the washroom when I heard a person walking around. It was F. He’d popped back to the house for a few minutes. He left a few minutes later.

I made my lunch around 3 pm and then went upstairs and ate it. I also watched an episode of The Walking Dead and thought it was quite suspenseful. After lunch, I watched the news and also worked on my column. It’s coming along slowly.

I went downstairs close to 6pm and got started on dinner. Tonight I did Toaster Oven chicken, and I made an onion pickle kind of thing. We also had some salad, some macaroni salad and rice. F and K had a few mini-tomatoes too. Dinner was quite good and we all had a nice meal.

I did the dishes and I didn’t take too long to do them either. That was good. I had done a few before dinner and I just didn’t use a lot of pans. I went upstairs and said goodnight to K and told F I was going upstairs.

I had a good time relaxing upstairs. I got the room warm and watched a few videos on YouTube. A little before 11pm I made some popcorn for myself and then watched FBI: Most Wanted. It was okay tonight. 

Since midnight I’ve been working on Internet stuff and watching some YouTube again. 

Today was a bit sad as it was the anniversary of the day my mother died. I have outlived her now, I’m older than she was when she died. It always surprises me when I realize that. She was wise in so many ways and I’m not sure that I will ever be that!

I’m not sure what I’ll be getting up to tomorrow. I have to work on my column of course and cook dinner. I’m hoping I won’t have to worry about snow. Fingers crossed anyway!

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

February 24, 2025

Monday - Snowy and cold, some sun in the daytime

This was a nice day, which I am happy about. Often during a long weekend F and I end up having a fight, but this weekend, we didn’t. Hurray. I think it was that we had evening plans for each day so we didn’t get bored with each other!

This morning F made breakfast for his mother again and was nice enough to wait downstairs for my package to come. He even brought it upstairs for me. Yay. 

It was a little late when we went out for lunch because we stopped to have a nice hot beverage here. F’s first choice, Fudo, was closed today so he suggested going to Kushibiki to the restaurant he likes out there. We drove out and there was one parking space left, which we took. We did have to wait for a little before we were seated at the counter in the back. We both had mapo-dofu dishes, I had mapo-dofu on yakisoba, F had mapo-dofu ramen. We were surprised that it was really spicy today! It was good though.

After lunch, we went to S-Mall and had coffee at Doutor. I had a decaf cafe-au-lait and F had a blend coffee. We just relaxed for a while but then decided we had to get busy. 

We left the mall and went to Mina to do our grocery shopping. I had to stop into the washroom and pull my socks up again, literally! One sock had bunched up in my instep and it was hard to walk. We bought some groceries for the next couple of days. We also got a bento for K’s dinner. F was going to give her a tiny one, I suggested one that was a bit bigger. She eats quite a lot!

We just had time at the house to put away the groceries and grab something to use as a blanket in case I became cold. Then, we drove out to the Aquarium at Kamo. We went in and had a little look around. We went through a lot of the exhibits and then F wanted to get a drink. We went back to the beginning and bought drinks at the vending machines. Then, they announced that we could go into the concert area, so we had to walk quickly to get there. We found seats at the back. This time they didn’t have any chairs. A lot of people had to sit on stools. F got us seats on the bench so that was nice. However, I sat next to a really cold metal railing! I had to stuff my jacket and the blanket between me and the railing. 

The concert was good and we enjoyed it. It was a vocal trio and they were accompanied by the woman who works in Arpeggio. She was playing bass for them. It was a good concert. They sang in English and had good pronunciation! That can be rather rare. 

After the concert, F and I went to the car and we drove back to Tsuruoka. We talked about dinner and I suggested Cocos. F agreed to go there and we had a pretty good meal. I got some fries for free since I’d got enough points for them, and I had chicken. F had a burger and then we had either rice or bread depending on which one of us it was. We also had drink bar which was good. I had an iced decaf cafe latte, F had a hot decaf cappuccino. 

When we finished and had relaxed for a bit, we paid and came back to the house. We had a quiet evening in. F ironed his work clothes, I took a shower and then watched the last episode of Bad Monkey. It was surprising really…in a good way mostly. I did enjoy it. I’m not sure if there will be a second season or not, but it would be fun. 

And that was my day. Tomorrow F goes back to work and so do I in a way. I have to get my column done and I also want to do a bit of laundry. 

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

February 23, 2025

 Sunday - Cold and snowy

I woke up this morning around 9:30 and made a trip downstairs. I came back to the room and went back to sleep. F came into the room around 11 and wanted to talk about lunch. I was still in bed! I wanted breakfast more than lunch. He got a bit huffy and left.

I dragged myself out of bed and a little later went downstairs and talked to him. Of course, he had no ideas of a place we could go and I had to come up with some. He chose yakiniku.  We went off in the car to the yakiniku place and got in right away. 

We both had lunch sets. F and I discussed getting one set bigger and sharing the extra meat. That’s what we did. We also didn’t have any drinks today so it wasn’t as expensive a lunch as it could have been. 

After lunch, we went to the nearby electric shop and I did a little shopping. I got a cord for charging my phone and a new phone case. Mine had broken in one point and was looking quite scuffed up. The new one is nice, but the buttons are rather stiff. 

We went over to Starbucks for nice beverages. I had a chamomile tea latte and F had a frappuccino, his usual one. We enjoyed ourselves there. We went to a grocery store next and F wanted to get food for dinner. I didn’t know what he meant. I think he expected me to cook dinner. That would be a big no from me dawg. I take the weekends off.  We decided that we’d get bentos and maybe something else to have with dinner. I got a soboro bento and F got maguro (tuna)donburi for himself and K. 

Next up, we stopped at the gas station and picked up some kerosene for the house. We came back to the house and F put away the kerosene, and I put the bentos on the table in the kitchen. I went upstairs to relax.

We had our dinner around 6 p.m. downstairs. I heated up my bento, and F heated up some of the other stuff we bought. Dinner was fine. It seemed a little small, but still okay. F washed the few dishes, and I dried them and put them away. 

I went back upstairs for a while. F came up a bit later. We decided that we’d leave for the cinema around 8pm. In the end, we left a bit earlier but it was okay. 

We got to Machinaka Kinema around 8:20 and had a couple of minutes to wait. We bought our tickets and when it was time we went to see Back To Black, the Amy Winehouse biopic. The actress gave it her all, but it wasn’t a great movie overall. F didn’t really know who Amy Winehouse was, so I think he didn’t get the film. He’s also not a fan of films with drugs in them. 

We came back to the house via a conbini for some late-night snacks. Then, we came back to the house. I heated up my tortilla and brought it upstairs, F took a while before he did his food.

I didn’t watch any TV tonight as it was late when we got back. I’ve been doing my internet stuff ever since I came upstairs.

I’m not sure what we’ll do tomorrow night. We might go to a free concert at the aquarium, or we might have a night in. It depends on how F is feeling and whether we get enough things done. Come back later if you like and hear all about my day. Until tomorrow….

February 22, 2025

Saturday - Snowy, sunny, clear and cold

I was supposed to be able to sleep in today so why did I wake up at 8:30?  I went downstairs and then went back to bed for a minute…times 120 or so.  F kept coming into the room which was fine. He left to take his mother to the Day Service and then to have a massage. 

I finally dragged myself out of bed and took care of a personal errand that I hadn’t done in ages. When I was done, F was parking the car. I went upstairs and a few minutes later, F came back to the room.

His massage was okay, but he did complain a bit about it as usual! His favourite masseuse isn’t there anymore so no one compares to her apparently.

We talked about going for lunch and I suggested Monami at the Daiichi Hotel. They had a very nice sounding lunch special this week so we decided to have that. We drove over to the mall and went into the Hotel. We were able to get in and we ordered the curried chicken stew lunch. It turned out to be very tender and delicious. 

After lunch, we did a little shopping. We checked out the closing grocery store and F picked up a few things. They were selling off their alcohol so he bought some and he also got something for K’s breakfast tomorrow. He put the shopping in the car and I went into the import food store. I bought some lemon pepper-ish stuff and F bought a bag of popped lotus seed puffs. I wanted to go up to the Daiso, so we did that. I got some corn nuts and clips and F picked up a few things too. 

Then, we hit up Baskin Robbins! They give us a coupon on our birthday month so we can get a free single scoop of ice cream. I took advantage of that, F had to pay for his. He had chopped chocolate and I had Jamoca Almond Fudge which is so good! F’s was good too, we taste-tested each other’s of course.

We left the mall next, or almost did! On the way to the car, F decided he needed a washroom break so I asked for the car keys. When I got to the car, it was covered in snow. It wasn’t too deep, but it was all over. I opened the car and took out the brush and swept off most of the snow for him. Then, I got in the car and waited. It wasn’t long.

We came back to the house. F stayed downstairs and I went upstairs. I spent time on my computer and F made his mother her dinner after she got back.

We had made plans to go and see a movie at 6:10, so we left the house a little late. We drove over to Tsuruoka Machinaka Kinema and went to see White Bird. It was a good movie and I was very verklempt at the end. I think F liked it too. 

After the movie, we needed to eat. I suggested going to Gusto and F grudgingly agreed!  We went in, found a table and had a fairly decent meal. I had a lemon-avocado-shrimp-ham-cream pasta dish that was very nice. F had cut steak that was okay, but not great. We shared an order of fries and they were very nice too. 

We left when we finished eating and came back to the house. We both headed upstairs. F was lovely and filled up the kerosene heater for us and then we had to try and heat up the room. It took a while.

At 11pm I watched the first episode of The Day of the Jackal and it was great. Eddie Redmayne was good and it was nice to see Lashana Lynch again. She kicked butt in Bond, so I’m looking for her to do the same or more here. 

And that’s about it. I’ve watched a lot of YouTube and I have done a lot of stuff on the net. I haven’t written my bestie back yet and I haven’t worked on my column today. Oh dear. It was a good day though and that gives me hope for the rest of the weekend. 

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

February 21, 2025

Friday - Warmer and sunny

Today was a decent day for the most part. I woke up this morning when my alarm went off. I went downstairs and then did my usual going back to bed with a difference. I got half-dressed and then went back to bed! I was thinking a delivery I was waiting for might arrive and then I could run downstairs faster. However, I didn’t hear about the delivery as it didn’t arrive in the morning. I watched some videos and then slept for a bit.

When I dragged myself out of bed, I dressed and then went downstairs. I went outside and checked the snow situation. There wasn’t very much at all. I did clean up a little bit. I know that K will be out in the car tomorrow so I wanted to make sure she could get into the car without slipping. I went into the house about 5 minutes later.

I made breakfast and took it upstairs to eat. I decided before I started to eat that I would go down and put a load of laundry in to wash. I did that, then came upstairs and ate my breakfast. After a bit I noticed that F had left his onigiri behind so I ate them! I did two loads of laundry today and it is hanging up in the room. 

I went downstairs and got my lunch, I brought it upstairs to eat. I watched another episode of The Walking Dead and about halfway through I thought I heard the delivery van outside. I went downstairs as fast as I could and found a delivery slip in the mailbox. Sigh. I missed it. I discovered that there was a lot of snow outside on the steps though. It had fallen off the roof, so I moved it and cleared the steps. 

I went back inside and upstairs to finish my lunch and the programme. After that, I watched the news.

F called a bit after 5 pm and said he was on his way back. I went downstairs after a while and got started on dinner. Tonight, I took the leftovers from last night’s stew and turned them into a casserole by adding some pasta and a bit of ham. It worked really well and everyone had seconds. Woot! I served some kabocha salad and baby leaf salad greens with it and opened a can of pears for dessert. Dinner was good and I spent a bit of time cleaning up afterwards.

I went upstairs after I finished and relaxed with some YouTube and decaf coffee. After 10 I went downstairs and took a shower. When I finished there, I made some popcorn in the kitchen and brought it upstairs to eat.

I watched an episode of Gotham and I did a row of knitting on my hat. When I finished I turned off the TV and went back to YouTube. I’m doing my internet stuff too and I’m just about done now. 

Tomorrow is the first day of a long weekend. K is off to her day service and I’m not sure what we’ll get up to. Come back later if you like and hear all about my day. Until tomorrow….