January 20, 2022

Thursday - Cool and snowy

I woke up this morning when my alarm went off, but I didn’t get up right away. I snoozed for a bit before I moved myself out of bed. I went downstairs and then came back to bed for the tail end of the news and then some reading and snoozing.  

I got up a bit earlier than yesterday. I took a load of laundry downstairs and discovered that F had left a load in the washing machine last night. Grr.  I took it out and put mine into the machine. I also checked the snow situation outside. Ack—The snowplough had gone by already so there was a wall near the road. 

I hung F’s clothes upstairs for him and then put my winter coat on and I went outside and shovelled snow for about 45 minutes. It wasn’t bad until the wind blew. Then I got a face full of icy needles and I couldn’t see what I was doing. Yuck. I got the opening cleared, did a bit more of the path too. I even got some mail while I was on the road, as the postal worker came by!

I came in the house, grabbed my breakfast and then went upstairs. I did another load of laundry and hung things up too. 

I had a quiet afternoon. I watched some YouTube and checked email and such. 

F phoned me and let me know that he was going to be late. It was his finishing time and he was in another town waiting for people to come back. I went downstairs with my coat and checked outside again. The entrance was still okay, but the steps were covered in snow….it had fallen off the roof. Boo. I went outside and it took a few minutes before I got it cleaned up again.

After that, I came back into the house and got started on dinner. First I did my dishes from the day, then I got stuck in prep. Tonight I made “Buta-Tama-Kimchi” and also bibinba rice, salad, gobo salad and spinach cake. I did a lot of prep for the Buta-Tama-Kimchi but it was worth it. Basically, I just chopped up the pork, cut up big pieces of the kimchi and broke a couple of eggs into a bowl. When F did make it back, somewhere a bit after 7 pm, I told him to go upstairs and change and then come down for dinner. 

Dinner didn’t take too long tonight as the prep was done and many things were already plated and on the table! And how was it? Pretty darn amazing! Dinner was really good. K kept helping herself to things, as did F, so that was a good sign. I said to F that it was a (mostly) Korean meal made in Japan by a Canadian…thought it was funny!

We didn’t finish eating until quite late, so I didn’t get finished doing dishes for a long time. I was finished just before 10pm. We were supposed to go out tonight to get more groceries, but F is taking the day off tomorrow, so I might too! I decided that I didn’t need to buy groceries tonight. F has to go to his office tomorrow in the morning but not for work. He’s not too happy about it, but he has to do it. 

I watched a little telly and then some YouTube too. I’ve really got to get myself off to sleep soon, so I’ll turn off my computer and go to bed. Eventually!

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

January 31, 2020

Friday - Rainy with hail

I woke up this morning and hadn’t heard F leave. He was quiet this morning I think. I had a quiet morning as usual, I got two postcards in the mail and had my breakfast.

Today I tried extra hard to watch down my backlog of shows on the DVR. I managed a bit. I also worked on my knitting a bit until I ran out of yarn. I had to start frogging another project so that I could use the yarn from it to join on my cowl. I didn’t finish, I ran out of time. No big deal.

F came back to the house around 6 pm. On the phone, I suggested 3 different places we could go. He asked me to pick one, but I said it didn’t matter to me, and he could pick it today. He chose the keiten sushi place, Kura Sushi.  We all bundled into the car and went over there.

We had a pretty good meal.  We had onion rings and french fries as usual, and lots of different kinds of sushi. It isn’t the best stuff, but it was okay.

We came back to the house after dinner, then F and I went out again. We went to Komeda Coffee and just had coffee. F said he didn’t want cake, and I didn’t need cake because I was still full, so we spent some time drinking our decaf and playing on our phones.

We did a fairly quick run-through of the grocery store and then came back to the house. I took a shower fairly soon and then watched a bit of TV. Tonight was some Big Bang Theory and then a couple of episodes of The Walking Dead. Not great to watch before bed, but doable I guess.

So, from now our weekend gets underway. I’m not completely sure what we’ll get up to tomorrow, so come on back later and find out. Until tomorrow….

January 30, 2020

Thursday - Rainy

I woke up this morning to an empty room. For some reason, I hadn’t woken up when F left and my heater wasn’t on. It wasn’t terribly cold in the room, but it wasn’t that warm either.

I watched my shows, went downstairs for breakfast and ate that, and a little later had a nap. I haven’t had one since I came back from Canada, but I had the need today.

In the afternoon I did a few things on my computer but didn’t accomplish anything I really wanted to do. F texted me and said that he’d be away tomorrow night at a party…I told him it was okay, but I needed to get in something for K and me to eat. He also asked about his mother, but at that point, I hadn’t seen her all day. A little while later I heard her bumping around downstairs.

I realized when I was watching some of my telly off the DVR that I could probably make something for dinner if F was okay with it. We had kimchi, pork and onions so I could make buta-tama-kimchi. When he called I offered to make it and he said it was okay. He’d bought the pork for another dish, but he’d bought a lot so there would be leftovers.

I went downstairs and started putting things together for dinner. After F arrived, I cooked it and it turned out rather well. We had a simple meal with rice, buta-tama-kimchi, salad, miso soup for the others and some pickles. Most of the food disappeared, and it was nice. I cleared the table and F showed up and helped me do the dishes. After he left the room I cleaned the stove off because it had been a while I think.

We talked about going out for a coffee but I really wanted to be back before 9:00 pm to catch the last Harry Potter movie. F procrastinated but eventually, we went out. I didn’t think we’d make it back in time, but we had our nice frappuccinos quickly and parked the car back at his house at 8:57pm. Safe!

We watched the last film in the series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2. It was great. I really have enjoyed watching it night after night. It was on TV all the time over Christmas and New Year in Canada, but seeing all the films in order was really great fun.

I did some knitting while I was watching and have finally just started casting off my cowl. I’ve been working on this thing for the last 4? years, so I’ll be glad to get it off my needles. I’d like to make another hat to go with it, I’ll see if I can find a pattern that I like. I might just use the same pattern as last time and hope for the best, we’ll see how it goes!

And that was my day pretty much. F and I have been getting on quite well tonight. He’s decided not to go to his party tomorrow night. I’ve been trying to tell him to go, but he insists that he doesn’t want to. As long as he knows that I’m not making him stay away, that’s all I care about.

Come back later if you like and see what I get up to on Friday. Until tomorrow….

January 29, 2020

Wednesday - Rainy and warm

I first woke up around 6 am because F’s light was on. He was awake and using his computer. He was still majorly grumpy with me. I had checked my phone on the way downstairs and saw a message from an old friend that I haven’t been in touch with for years. 

F took today off work. He was complaining about being dizzy, so probably not a good thing to go to work. I suggested he go to the doctor early, but he didn’t.

I had a fairly quiet morning. I watched my TV programmes and I kept the volume down so I wouldn’t disturb F. I had some breakfast and even though I offered tea or coffee it wasn’t accepted.

In the afternoon F went to the doctor and was gone for a while. I did a final push on my column and got it done and submitted. Yay for me. When he came back, F was still grumpy but didn’t seem quite as bad.

He had a nap for a while and then went downstairs. I think he made something for his mother and himself to eat. While he was doing that, I asked him to take me grocery shopping later on. I wouldn’t be able to eat much tomorrow if he didn’t. He said he would.

He came back upstairs and then we went out. I asked to go to MaxValu as they have good deli stuff. I got some groceries for my lunches over the next few days and some bread, something for dinner, more yogurt, usual kinds of things.  F did ask me on the way to the store if I’d prefer to go to a restaurant, but I didn’t really want to go to one. 

We came back to the house and I heated up the food. I was supposed to be sharing it with F I thought. He made a beeline to the washroom and was still there when I filled a plate for myself. He was still in there when I came back downstairs with my empty plate and washed it. I asked him through the door if he wanted some of the chicken and since he didn’t I put it away. 

I watched the Australian Tourist show I like and then settled in for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt. 1. I haven’t seen this one in ages and I really enjoyed seeing it again. I did a bit of knitting during the movie and F and I gradually got a bit friendlier during the evening. 

I took a shower after the movie finished and came back upstairs with a non-alcoholic drink. I think I bought it 2 years ago for New Years or something! It was okay. 

That is about that. Not sure what I’ll get up to tomorrow as I have free time now the column is done. Should I do some Postcrossing or start a new crochet project?  Not sure.  Come back later and see.  Until tomorrow….

January 28, 2020

Tuesday - Rainy

My day started really well. I got up, watched the news and even got some mail.  Actually, I got the best mail today!  A few days ago I had seen a picture of Nigel Slater and Nadyia on a British magazine cover. Since I am a huge Nigel Slater fan and I really like Nadyia since she won Bake-off, I wrote on Facebook that it was sad that I wouldn’t be able to read the magazine article. Well, a couple of my friends in Britain saw my post and sent it to me!  Happy, happy day!

I did a couple of loads of laundry and even spent time on my column. I think I just need to proof-read it and send it in. Fingers crossed anyway.

I got a text from F that he was going to take off next Wednesday and next Friday. I don’t know why for either day. I had suggested next Monday and a trip to Costco, but he’s strange that way.

When F came back tonight he wanted to know what was for dinner. I told him that he was supposed to do the crab for dinner. He asked me what I was going to have with the crab and I said I didn’t know. I had bought salad yesterday.  I also said I didn’t want rice or miso soup with it. He got angry and said that the crab was like a snack and we should have something else. I told him I said that yesterday but he refused to buy anything to eat with it. He stormed off to bed and I got quite angry at him. I told him it was his responsibility to feed his mother and that I wasn’t going to do it.  After pouting for a while he went downstairs and I guess fed her. 

When he came back up I asked him what they’d had for dinner and he’d shared one of the crabs with her and something else I guess? I was upset. He ran off to the onsen with his mother eventually, took ages before they left.

I had my dinner, I had some frozen pasta from the freezer. It was good. I watched some YouTube and then at 9:00pm put Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince on and watched that. When F came back I asked if he wanted to watch it too, but he yelled that he didn’t.

I enjoyed the movie a lot, even though I had a grumpy, noisy man in the next part of the room. I did a couple of rows of knitting while I watched the film. 

When it was over I watched an episode of The Handmaid’s Tale off the DVR so that I won’t lose my place in the show and then turned off the TV. Someone is still very grumpy although he’s gone to bed. He’s even asked me to cancel the hotel room that I reserved for the two of us next weekend, but I’m holding off for now. 

And that’s about it. I wonder how many days I’ll be in disgrace? I don’t really care. I just wish I hadn’t bothered coming back from Canada. 

I’m really trying to hold on to the happy thing that my friends did for me though. It was so sweet of them to send me the magazine, it was a treat to read too. 

That’s it for me. No idea what’ll happen tomorrow. Come on back later and find out. Until tomorrow….

January 27, 2020

Monday - Clear and sunny for some of it

I woke up this morning surprised that I had fallen asleep. I wasn’t able to fall asleep as easily as I usually do today, I think it was because of the coffee I had at the restaurant yesterday evening. Darn. F had gone and I hadn’t heard him this morning.

I watched the news as usual and thought about doing laundry but didn’t. I really should have, but the pile is quite big and I didn’t feel like it. I had a quiet morning, but I did answer the door when we got a delivery. I didn’t see K until noonish and then she went back to bed. She needs someone like her daughter to come over and take her out for a bit.  Someone to make a big fuss over her, unlike me who basically just leaves her alone.

I watched some telly, had my lunch and even worked on my column. I think I have it finished, I just need to rework the opening and the closing. Yay me. 

I texted F today to tell him about his delivery and he said that he was thinking of taking a day off soon, did I have an idea of when would be good. I suggested that he take next Friday off and then he could join me in Niigata a day early.  I’d have to get the hotel to accept me having someone in my room, but that probably wouldn’t be a big hassle. I hope. He’s thinking about it, but we’re not sure if it would be a good idea to leave K alone for two nights. He’s supposed to come to Niigata on Saturday for one night. We’ll see how it goes. Fingers crossed it works out. 

F called me after 5 pm to say that he was on his way, so I went downstairs and got started on dinner.  It was a simple one tonight, just roasted chicken in the toaster oven, microwaved broccoli, rice and miso soup for the mister and his mother, toast for me.  I actually really enjoyed it.  Oh, yeah, there was salad too. 

After dinner, F washed the dishes and I dried them, then I did up the garbage for taking out. I’d forgotten last week. I also put the meat trays by the door to return to the grocery shop.

After a few minutes, F and I went out to the grocery shop. We did return the meat trays and I got things on my list. F was a bit odd if I’m honest. He wants to eat the crab that we got yesterday at the gas station for dinner. That’s not that strange, but he keeps saying we don’t need anything else with it. Umm….really? I would like something, not sure what exactly. I’m also not sure that two crabs are going to feed three people…they aren’t THAT big!

We also picked up some kerosene because we were nearly out and came back to the house. I sort of wanted to go out somewhere, but whatever.

We watched Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix tonight. It was good. It’s probably my least favourite of the movies though, I really don’t like Dolores Umbridge!

And that’s about it. I watched a few minutes of the Grammys rebroadcast. I enjoyed “The Body Electric” performance from Fame and I was even happier to see a little flash of Lee Curreri playing the music.  He was Bruno in the film and TV series of Fame, and was my favourite character!

Tomorrow I have laundry to do and to edit my column. I’ll see if there is anything else that I can do too.  Come back later if you will and see how things go. Until tomorrow….

January 26, 2020

Sunday - Warmish and clear

We stayed up much too late last night so this morning we slept in quite late. F shook a leg earlier than me and took his mother off to the onsen. I got up and had some tea. I decided that they’d probably be back in an hour or so and we’d go out for lunch, so I didn’t have breakfast. 

F and his mother got back around 2:45. Then, he wanted to know where I wanted to eat, even though he had eaten something. I wasn’t too pleased but suggested the Gusto near Yamaya since I wanted to go shopping there. I kinda needed to use the washroom but decided I’d wait until we got to the restaurant. 

On the way to the restaurant, F said he needed to buy gas and sure enough, the gas-light in the car was on.  (Why does he do that?) I thought it would be a simple, quick task, but no. It wasn’t. We drove into the new station and of course, it was wall to wall cars. F had to sign up for a customer card and then they gave him two cartons of tissues (five boxes each!). That took ages as he couldn’t get his phone to work. Then he parked the car. Huh? He asked me to go into the station with him. Eye roll. We got in and it seemed that he was applying for yet another credit card. (They pass them out to F like they are candy.) Next thing I know, F is filling out a form for ME to get a credit card. I’m bewildered, but since I’m always, ALWAYS whining about not having a credit card in Japan sort of glad. I was a little less glad when he told the woman that a major department store had turned me down for one.  He didn’t mention it was 18 years ago and I didn’t have PR at the time. I’m not sure if they’ll give me one, but I would really like one. I just don’t know that a gas station credit card was my best choice, however. I still needed to use the washroom.  We were given some frozen crab and MORE tissues. We got 5 more cartons of tissues. 

We finally got to the restaurant and it was after 4 pm. I hadn’t eaten all day!  I wasn’t too happy. I made a beeline for the washroom, then came back and ordered my meal.  The food was okay, I had a mixed grill and shared an order of fries with F.  He had a noodle dish that he didn’t like much.

After our meal, we went to Yamaya and I picked up a few things. I got some tea, some snacks, some nice cheese, and some pasta sauces. Hurray for that. We went over to the hundred yen shop and I ordered a towel that I had collected stamps for. It’s just a little one, but looked nice. We then went to another two hundred yen stores looking for a car garbage bag. F had two hanging garbage bags that we put behind our seats. One mysteriously vanished while I was away. We couldn’t find one that would do, sad to say. 

We went to the grocery store and I picked up a few things for lunch and tomorrow’s dinner. I also got a jar of Real Mayonnaise from the US.  Japanese mayo is okay, but I’m not a huge fan. We also got K a bento.

We went back to the house, took all of those tissue boxes out of the car and put the groceries away. F gave his mother the bento and then we headed out again.

We went to the Internet Cafe and got massaging chairs for the next 3 hours. It was quite enjoyable. We also had our dinner there. Both of us had the yaki-curry, which was baked curry. I had mine with eggplant and spinach, F had one with beef. My lunch had a lot of meat, so I didn’t need it for dinner. I watched quite a bit of YouTube. I did do a bit of knitting, but not that much.

We came back to the house when our time was up. I relaxed for a few minutes then sorted out the garbage in my part of the room and let F deal with his.  Then, I went downstairs and did the kitchen garbage.  I took a shower and then came back upstairs. 

That’s about it. Tomorrow I have to cook dinner, but also I need to work on my column a bit more. It’s nearly done…after I finish I’ll have to polish it a bit. 

Oh, my jaw update…my jaw is a little tender still, but I didn’t have to take any pain medication today. I think it is a little swollen to be honest. My bite feels off too, but I think that is to be expected.

Also, the moral for today is if you have to use the toilet…go BEFORE you leave the house. Always good advice!

Come back later if you like and see what I get up to. Until tomorrow….

January 25, 2020

Saturday - Clear and mostly sunny

Happy Robert Burns Day!

I had a mostly good day today. I’m in a bit of pain still from my dental work that was done, but apart from that, today was a fairly good day.

F and I slept in. He didn’t get up and take his mother to the onsen. He also decided not to go to Yamagata tomorrow. Sigh. Was hoping to go, but…

He made some food for his mother and then decided to take me out. He suggested Hyakkenbori which was a good suggestion. We both had nice meals, slightly different riffs on the same thing. I had chicken ochazuke and he had tuna ochazuke.  Basically, we got a dish of food and then when we were nearly finished we could put it in our rice bowl and then add some pickles and stuff and then pour tea all over it. It was good!

Original Tray from Restaurant

Ochazuke version 

F's Tuna Tray. He had rice underneath the tuna, different from mine!

F's Ochazuke version

We had a little time after our meal before my dental appointment so we went to the Chido Museum. Their display today was moderately interesting for me. They had some scrolls on offer. Half of them were art works, half were calligraphy. I didn’t mind the art at all.  As usually happens, we went to check out the garden afterward.  It really is lovely. I think of it as my surrogate garden!

We have NO SNOW this year! The trees are tied up to prevent damage from the snow.

We went to the dentist then and basically from 2 until 4:30 or longer, I was being worked on. She removed a couple of my crowns and gave me temporary ones. She wanted me to replace them with ceramic crowns, but the cost was huge and they aren’t covered by insurance. They are at the back of my mouth so I don’t think they’ll be highly visible anyway. I’m going with the ones that we can use insurance for!

We picked up a bit of food for F’s mother’s dinner and dropped it off. After that, we drove out to Mikawa Mall. We went into the mall and I had 4 pairs of new pants measured and put in for shortening at the repair place. They do a great job and it’s a hard one to do by myself, so I’m okay with it. 

We left the mall and went over to Don Quixote for a while. F wanted something electronic for his phone and I was looking for interesting cereal or whatever. I got a couple of cheap toothbrushes and did get a bit of cereal too. Yay. We left the store with a lot of stuff in one bag. 

We went back to the mall and had dinner at the pasta place. The freezing had worn off my mouth, but I still had to eat rather gingerly as my jaw hurts. I had carbonara and so did F, they were different types though. I liked mine a lot.

We went upstairs and bought our movie tickets. We had a little time before the film, so we went to the bookstore. We didn’t buy anything, but we did think about it. 

We got some drinks for the film and then went in to see Cats. F said he liked it and I believe him, I was kinda bored. I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t love it either. I loved some of the performances, however, but it just seemed to go on and on. 

After the movie, we left the theatre. F said he wanted to go back to Don Quixote. I thought he was joking but he wasn’t. He hadn’t checked out the ramen. Yes, he was serious. And a bit of an idiot. But, he’s mine, what can I say?  We went back and spent a few minutes getting him some ramen.

We drove back to Tsuruoka and came back to the house. We spent quite a while getting the rooms upstairs warmed up and on our individual computers. F has gone to bed and he’s vowing to get up and take his mother to the onsen in the morning. I hope I’ll be sleeping. I took an OTC pain pill when I came back here, I’ll look up the instructions and see if I can take another one now. I don’t want to overdo it. 

So that was my day. It was pretty darn good, despite the dentist stuff.  Come back later if you like and see what I get up to on Sunday. Until tomorrow….

January 24, 2020

Friday - Cold and rainy

I woke up early this morning but got back to sleep a bit later.  I bid F a good morning and snoozed a little longer.

When I got up today I did my usual things. I made the bed, watched the news and NCIS.  I grabbed my breakfast this morning and while I did that, I put together a couple of plates of stuff for K to eat for her lunch. I left it on the table as it was darn cold in the kitchen and went back upstairs. 

Today I got stuck into the cull of my women’s group and it went fairly well. It didn’t take very long this year, something that I am quite relieved about.  

I had my lunch, did a little internet stuff and also worked on my column for about 3 minutes.  I watched the news at 4 pm too.  After 5 I went downstairs to wash my dishes. F called to say he was on his way and to ask if I had any ideas for dinner. I did…we had planned to go to Cocos Ichibanya for curry.  

When F came back to the house, that’s what we did. We drove off to Cocos and when we got there, we all had the same thing, Grandmother’s curry with scrambled egg. Both F and K won free spoons, I didn’t get anything. Sigh. The curry was good at least. On the way back to the car, K almost went to the wrong car!  There was another blue car parked near our car and she headed towards it. I had to chase her down and stop her!

We came back to the house and F and I vegged for a while before going out.  We had talked about going to the Internet Cafe but decided to go to Komeda Coffee instead. I thought it would be a bit cheaper, but it probably wasn’t!

We had a cake and coffee set which was nice. F disappeared into his phone and I did into mine too. After a while there, we went over to the grocery store and picked up a few things.  

We came back to the house. I tried on my new pants again to make sure that I had sorted them into the right pile for going to be shortened.  I hope to go tomorrow and get then fixed if I can.  

I took a shower and when I came back upstairs, F was in bed. He’s snoozing away now.  

Tomorrow I have a dental appointment so I’m not sure how I’m going to be after that. If I feel up to it we may go to a movie at the mall and have my new trousers measured and put in for hemming. If not, I may just go to bed early! 

Come back later if you like and see if I post. If I don’t post, I’m likely in too much pain or too tired! Until tomorrow….

January 23, 2020

Thursday - No idea, didn’t go out

I woke up this morning early…6:00am early. I needed to make a run downstairs but discovered that F had gone down first. When he came back he told me that I had woken him up with my snoring. Huh?!

I fell back asleep and when my alarms went off he had already left for work. I watched the news from the bed, then got up afterwards and got dressed.

I had a quiet day really. I watched quite a bit of TV, I worked a little more on my column and I did some internet stuff. I didn’t really bump into K at all today.

I went downstairs around 5:30 to start working on dinner. F called to say he was coming back to the house so I got busy. Tonight I did pasta with a Japanese ume sauce, a salad from lettuce and I made a soup that I had read about called Fried Water. It wasn’t really fried water, it was a quick-ish onion soup with egg and bread.  It worked out quite nicely.  

F came back and after he changed, helped me put the food on the table. Things went quite well and everything disappeared. Well, most of it did.

I started to clear the table but F did a runner. He’d complained earlier about feeling dizzy. I got stuck with all the cleanup and the dishes. I don’t really blame him if he was sick, but after the last few nights when we’d worked together quite well, it was a bit sad. 

I went back upstairs after I finished, which was after 8 pm. I did some computer stuff for a while and then put on the TV just before 9 pm to catch Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. I watched it and F did too. 

That was really about it for my day. It was quiet. Tomorrow I have to do the actual cull of members from my email groups. I find it a bit hard and sad to do, but it really must be done.

Come back later if you will and see what I get up to on Friday. Until tomorrow….

January 22, 2020

Wednesday - Clear and sunny

I woke up this morning very early because a light was shining in my direction. I had to go downstairs, and then I got back into bed. I tried talking to F but he was a bit grumpy. I think he wanted an extra five minutes of sleep, but I had wanted another hour or more!

He left early for work and I fell asleep again. I got up later and watched the news and decided that the earlier news is better for me as it has more news in English. There is news from Australia, the UK, Singapore and maybe even the Philippines.  

When I got up, I had a quiet morning really. I watched some TV and checked my groups and read through Facebook, the usual. I didn’t see K for most of the day again. I got some mail today, I re-activated my Postcrossing account again and I got a Gotochi card from Japan today. Yay. I even managed to work on my column a little too. Hurray for me.

I went downstairs to get started on dinner around 6pm. A few minutes later, F called to say he was coming back to the house. I pulled a few things together for dinner and it worked out quite well. We had a fish stir-fry from the grocery store. I had to defrost it before I cooked it. I also cooked some frozen vegetables and made a butter-soy sauce for it. K and F had miso soup, I skipped it. Dinner was quite good.  

F gave me a hand with the dishes again and then we went upstairs for a few minutes. F wanted to go out, so we headed off to the local drugstore. I told him to go in first while I headed across the street to mail a postcard at the Post Office mailbox. I came back and we did a little shopping.

We bought so much stuff that the small shopping bag that F had brought into the store with him was full. I had another bag in my purse so we used that too. We left the store and came back to the house.

At the house, we got ready to watch Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban which was on tonight. It was great. Of course, I’d spent Christmas holidays watching lots of Harry Potter, but it was nice to see the whole thing from the beginning. 

And that’s about it for my day. I’ve been enjoying the Harry Potter movies on WOWOW this week, and so has F. It’s funny how I can hardly ever get him to sit and watch movies with me, but a certain magical lad draws him in.  

Tomorrow I’m planning to cook dinner again, probably pasta but I might make some soup to go with it and the salad. Might being the prime word here. 

Come back later if you like and see what I get up to. Until tomorrow….

January 21, 2020

Tuesday - Colder and a bit snowy

I got up this morning and watched the news from my boudoir, more or less. Actually, it was just from my bed. I stayed under the covers until the room warmed up. It did eventually!

I watched a few of the morning TV programmes and also did a couple of loads of laundry. I hope it all dries before the weekend as I want to take my pants to the mall to be hemmed. 

K was up today, which was a nice thing. When she stays in bed all day I get quite worried about her. I bumped into her a couple of times today. She does a weird thing that I worry about. She heats up water on the stove and then takes it through to the bathroom to have a wash there. I think she thinks it is cheaper than just turning on the water heater. The water heater that I have on all the time now because I can’t stand the freezing cold water. I dunno. My biggest worry is that she’ll spill the hot water all over herself and really hurt herself. The problem is that she just won’t listen to anyone else about dangers like that.

Anyway, during the day I watched a couple of shows off the DVR and I wrote a couple of reviews on my column. Hurray for me. More than a couple actually. I’m not done yet, but it is going well enough.

I did work a little on the cull of one of my on-line groups, I checked the members to see if they were still in our group. Most were. Yay.

I went downstairs around 5:30 to do my dishes and start heating up the stew. F came back to the house without calling. I wasn’t too pleased as we’d pre-arranged that I would ask him to go shopping for me!  He did obligingly go out and pick up a couple of things for me, so that was nice of him. 

While he was gone I was busy. I cooked some of the frozen broccoli and added it to the stew, and I got all the things out that would be needed to serve the meal. When F came back I sent him off to get changed and put the salad in the bowls. 

We had most of the leftover stew for dinner with some rice and a side salad. It got good reviews, so I’m happy. It was a nice one. F gave me a hand with the dishes afterwards, so that was nice too. 

F wanted to go to the onsen and he wanted to take his mother as well. I tagged along to get some lobby/knitting/reading time and it was nice. I read a bit, listened to music for a while, and read part of my book.  I enjoyed myself. We dropped K off back at the house and then went to Mina for a little grocery shop.

I picked up some frozen food for dinner tomorrow and also suggested to F that he get something for his mother’s lunch. What did he do? He grabbed a bunch of food for himself to eat tonight. Say what? I asked him before we went through the checkout what he had got for his mother’s lunch and he hadn’t go anything. Hmm.  He did have the good grace to go back and pick up a few things.

We came back to the house and put away the groceries. I headed upstairs and started watching Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. It was so good! I made some tea for myself and settled in to watch. F had some sushi and then had some noodles too. So, he had stew for dinner, and then sushi and noodles for second dinner. Is it me or is that weird?

After the movie, I took a shower and then came back to the room to blog and get ready for bed. That was my day. It wasn’t too bad. It was nice not to have to do a ton of cooking tonight because I just had to reheat the stew. Yay for that. 

And that’s it for me. Come back later if you like and see what happens around here. Until tomorrow….

January 20, 2020

Monday - Cool and rainy/snowy

I woke up early this morning but managed to get back to sleep for a while. After F left, I stayed in bed for a bit but watched the news on TV. 

I debated doing some laundry today but talked myself out of it. Tomorrow should be fine. I had a quiet morning, I didn’t see K at all today until dinnertime. I barely even heard her.

I watched quite a few morning TV programmes and in the afternoon put on some stuff from the DVR. That meant I had some Walking Dead and some Handmaid’s Tale which is a strange combination!

I had a busy day on my computer today. I got a few ideas worked out for my next column and I started in on the cull of my online Yahoo group that I moderate. I contacted a few people and happily, some of them have got back to me with the news that they have already renewed. Yay for that.

F texted me in the afternoon to say he wanted to take time off and go to the doctor. I told him it was a good idea.  His neck has been bothering him again. He called a bit later to say he was going to the doctor and would be home afterwards.

I watched the news and then went downstairs to do my dishes and start dinner. F made it back before I had done too much, so he was around for most of the cooking. For a change, it was fine! Usually, he just gets in my way, but tonight we were helping each other and joking around. It was lovely really. We had the food on the table in not too long and then we all ate dinner.

I had made a chicken fricassee from a Japanese roux and it was very nice. We had lots of veggies in it and I served it with a side salad, so that was good too.

F washed the dishes afterwards while I put the rest of the stew in the fridge. I dried the dishes and we had the kitchen tidied up quite quickly. I thought we were going to go out, but later F said that he didn’t want to go. I didn’t mind too much. I watched Bake-Off and a bit later found the first Harry Potter movie on WOWOW so we both watched and enjoyed that. It still stands up I think.

And that was about it for the day. Tomorrow I have to do some laundry and work on my column. I’d like to also look at the cull of another group that I belong to to see if it needs doing or not. 

Anyway, for a change, I feel really tired, so I’m off to bed.  Come back later if you like and see what I get up to. Until tomorrow….

January 19, 2020

Sunday - Warmish with a little rain

F went to bed before me last night, but I wasn’t even that late. I think I went to bed around 12:30. I woke up around 6 I think and I noticed that he was watching videos on his computer. Sigh.  He’d woken up and wasn’t sure what day it was. He panicked a bit because he thought it was Monday, then relaxed when it wasn’t.

I finally dragged myself out of bed for good around 10, F was a bit later! He made his mother some breakfast and then the two of us went out for brunch. We tried to go to a new restaurant, but the parking lot was full. We ended up going to the Daiichi Hotel for a nice lunch. The only problem for me was that all of their specials had tomatoes in them!  All of them. I ended up eating the one that I thought had the least and picking them out.  I had a bacon and cabbage and dried tomato pepperoncino pasta.  It was really good.  F had the fish and his looked nice, even with a tomato sauce. We both had the salad bar and a small dessert and coffee. 

Before going to the restaurant, we’d put my watch in to have a new battery installed, we picked it up on the way out. We discussed going to a movie and then decided to get K a bento at the grocery shop in case she got hungry.

We picked up some nice things for her, drove them to the house and delivered them. F was taking his own sweet time and the movie was starting soon.  We got to the cinema a scant 4 minutes before it started. He got the tickets and I got the popcorn and drinks. The only problem, I got one big bucket of popcorn and we weren’t sitting together. Dufus husband had picked our seats across the aisle from each other.  Say what? We could have sat together at the side but he chose to put me in the main part of the theatre and he took the side. To be honest, I was really upset.  I know that he likes to have us sit one seat apart for his back, but it just seemed rather horrid to do that to me.  

We had gone to see Ford v. Ferrari. I liked the movie a lot, didn’t really like the seating arrangement. Every time I felt like it, I handed the popcorn bucket over for him to grab some. 

After the movie, we went for dinner in Foodever. I had gapao rice from the meat place, F had noodles from the soba place. We both seemed happy with our food. Unfortunately though, F decided that it was really important to watch videos on his phone with an earphone in. I tried talking to him several times but wasn’t heard or was ignored, not sure which. 

We picked up some groceries for tomorrow night and then some kerosene for the house.  We got back to the house and F asks if it is okay if he went to the onsen. Of course it was. He asked if I wanted to go and I didn’t. He said he’d ask his mother. Fine.

We go in, he unloads the kerosene, I start putting away the groceries.  Then, I started to clean out the fridge as I told him I would tonight.  They left and I finished doing the garbage and decided to take a nice relaxing shower. 

I was just about to take shower when I heard the door open.  F had spent all his money earlier and couldn’t afford to go to the onsen tonight. Ha ha ha. 

Of course then his mother wanted to put her stuff away in the bathroom that I was trying to use so that wasn’t annoying at all. Finally she was done and I took a not very relaxing and much too short shower. 

I went upstairs afterwards and watched a little TV. Then I found out more bad news. My favourite TV channel, D-Life is going to end at the end of March because of the whole Disney channel thing. What on earth will I do?  Seriously, I watch so much D-Life that I am not sure about my survival after it goes.

That’s really about it. F watched TV downstairs which was a good thing that he stayed out of my way. I can’t believe that I came back to all this crap. Losing my favourite channel seems like the worst thing ever. I kid, but only a little. 

Tomorrow I have to make a stew for dinner, but I have stuff for my lunch too. Breakfast should be okay. I’m also really happy that I threw out a bunch of crap from the fridge and freezer. It needed to go so badly. There still is a bunch in there, but I’ll leave it for another time.

Come back later if you like for more whininess and whinging.  Until tomorrow….

January 18, 2020

Saturday - Sunny and clear, fairly warm too.

I woke up a bit early this morning, I am still quite jet-lagged. I ended up getting up around 9. I spent time on my computer and even made some breakfast for my husband and I. Don’t get too excited, it was only yogurt and cereal, but I don’t do that often.  

We had doctor’s appointments today so we left the house around 11:15 and got to the office before 11:30. It was busy and we couldn’t even sit down for ages. We waited for over an hour to be seen, luckily I had taken my Journal with me so I had something to read!

After we left we went to the bank because F didn’t have enough money with him, then went back to his house and picked up his mother. We took her to Arpeggio, the Japanese place on Ginza-dori for a nice lunch. I had katsu-don and I enjoyed it, F had the fish set lunch and his mother had ginger pork.  After lunch, we came back into the house and vegged for a while. 

 Around 4 F and I started to get ready to go out again. We were going to the Aquarium again to see a concert. We picked up something for K’s dinner first and dropped it off. 

We got to the aquarium and had a good snoop around. There are a few changes underway, including some building going on. It looks like some of the jellyfish have been replaced too. I was enjoying looking at the jellies and the octopuses when F announced he needed the washroom. Good grief.  We walked back to the washrooms and took care of business. Then he wanted to go back the same way to wait for the concert. I told him to go ahead and that I’d go in the other way we usually go. He finally left.  I don’t know what he was on about. We’ve always gone in the way I did tonight and it was fine, in fact, they sort of asked that we not go in the way he wanted to go. 

Anyway, I went in the way I wanted and then got in a line which wasn’t a good idea as the people in line didn’t have memberships like I did. I figured it out eventually and got into the theatre where F was waiting and sitting. He was all grumpy and mean and said he wanted to sit somewhere else but I wasn’t there.  So….why didn’t he just sit where he wanted?  I don’t know. I offered to move with him but he didn’t want to anymore. Can’t please some people.

The concert started and it was…strange. It felt like the male performer was going to be doing some kind of from the heart riffing on jellyfish. He started in English, but it was Japlish English and didn’t make a lot of sense. When I finally decided to think of the whole thing as Performance Art it made more sense and I could enjoy it more than if it was a bad concert. The female performer that he worked with was very talented but had one of those high squeaky voices that many Japanese women singers have. I didn’t really understand why they were working together. At one point he was playing the koto and nearly banged some of the audience on the head so I am glad that we didn’t move to the front row.

Afterwards, F bought the woman’s cd. Sigh. I think high and squeaky singing is in my future. 

We decided to go for dinner. F’s first suggestion was closed (whew, cause I didn’t like it).  I then suggested going to the Mikawa Mall area and going for okonomiyaki since we haven’t had it in ages. He agreed to my idea, but when I suggested turning towards the mall told me that I had the wrong road. Er, no, _I_ didn’t. He did. He drove us the wrong way but did have the grace to admit it. 

We went for okonomiyaki and it was nice. We made two kinds, one with some seafood in it, and one with kimchi in it. Both were pretty good.

We came back to the house after our meal. F got into bed ages before me. Of course, he had lost his phone somewhere in the house so he had to find it first. Then I was able to show him my pictures from my holiday. He got the whole thing with explanations too!

Anyway, that’s it for me. Not sure what we’ll get up to tomorrow. Come back and see if it is fun in any way, shape or form! Until tomorrow….

January 17, 2020

Friday - Warmish and clear

I’ve had a good few days. I won’t go into much of them, but my trip back to Japan was fraught with worry as the weather in Canada was really bad…it was colder than minus 30 at times and planes were running late.  I just made my connection in Vancouver even though I had left myself more than two hours…I made it though.

I had won my bid to have Preferred Economy on the way back and it was lovely!  If I can, I’m doing it again. I had a lovely wide seat with a leg rest and a nice recline that didn’t bother anyone. We got some nice touches from the airline too, slippers, toothbrushes and toothpaste and even a special dessert during the flight. I think my favourite bit was the noise-cancelling headphones-the noise of the plane’s motors really bother me and this time it didn’t. I almost enjoyed my 9 or 10 hours on the plane!

My hotel in the airport was fine, I had a nice dinner and then crashed. In the morning I had breakfast at the hotel, then checked out and met some friends. Two of them came to the airport to meet me. It was lovely to see them and we had lunch in a pizza restaurant.  

My last flight for a while was good, and hubby was waiting for me at the airport near our city. He’d taken a bit of time off, so that was really sweet of him.  We got his mother a bento for a meal and also a few groceries and then we had a nice dinner before coming back to the house. I was in bed before 11pm I think.

Today I got up at my usual Japan time and watched the news. The room was cold so I had to heat it up. I made the bed and basically did a few things around the room.  When it was time for breakfast I took a load of laundry down and washed that, and tackled the kitchen. It wasn’t good. People hadn’t used liners in the corner basket for example, so I had to clean that up. I threw out a few bits of wrappers that never got near the garbage and even took a bag of garbage out to the garage. Bleck.

My suitcases didn’t arrive until the very end of the time they were supposed to. I was making my lunch when they came. I took one upstairs, but the heavy one I waited a little bit first. I took out half of the stuff in it, then I was able to maneuver it up the stairs. 

I spent part of the afternoon unpacking and trying to find places for stuff. I got my small suitcase done, but still have the big one to do. 

F came back around 6 pm tonight. We had decided last night that we’d go out for dinner.  I had asked for sushi since I haven’t had any for a month.  (Well, I did have some in Canada at a party, but it wasn’t real sushi!) Sushi was good. Both F and his mother ate a lot. It was a surprise to see K eating so much. She kept grabbing her favourite fish before she’d finished her other plate of it.  She had three plates of saba!  

We dropped K at the house and then F and I went off to a drugstore. We needed a few things for the house. After that, we went for coffee to Komeda. It was back to the old thing of sitting across from each other and not talking. Boo! I must stop that somehow.

We came back to the house and had showers. F tried on the long johns I got him in Canada and they fit but are a bit long. I think they’ll do. 

I’m off to bed in a minute or so, I’m still too jet-lagged to really stay up much later. 

Come back later to find out how things go on the Shonai Plain.  Until tomorrow….

January 13, 2020

Monday - Cold but crisp and clear (and I do mean cold...it is -34 degrees Celsius)

Today was okay. I did that thing again where I fell asleep with the TV on. I woke up around 6 am and turned off the TV and slept on a bit longer.  When I got up around 9:30 my sister was less than pleased with me. Me still being in bed made her delay her workout.  Oh dear. She does love to work out.

I had breakfast and some tea, then got dressed after my sister finished downstairs.  Her son came back from school for lunch, then left for school again.  It is so cold in this part of the world that the school buses aren't running, but if you can get to school, they expect you to go.

My sister and I went out to the bank for me to pay my credit card bill.  It was a little complicated, but I got it done finally!

I came back to the house and worked on packing again.  I've spent most of the day on it to be honest. I have my smaller suitcase stuffed.  My bigger one isn't stuffed, but it is so heavy that it is teetering on the border between okay and overweight. I hope my pyjamas aren't too heavy!

This evening my brother-in-law took us out for dinner. Unfortunately, my niece had a late class today and couldn't come. We drove into Edmonton and had a lovely meal at The Keg. We had some gorgeous food, starters like deep-fried cauliflower and baked brie, then for our main I had Top Steak with a twice-baked potato. My sister and I shared a dessert, which was lovely. My brother-in-law and my nephew shared the same one.  We were quite stuffed when we left!

We came back to the house in Beaumont and relaxed for a bit. We watched a bit of TV and then my niece called. She couldn't get her car started. Her father talked her through what to do, and was going to drive into the city to help her. Happily for all of us, the car started before he got very far and she arrived back at the house a while later.

I came downstairs to finish up my preparations. I hope I have my suitcase as full as I can manage without going over. I'm going to leave behind a shirt and a pair of pants that don't fit all that well.  I hope that I won't regret that later!

I'll be away from a computer for a few days and I'll likely be so jet-lagged when I get back to Japan that it might take me a few days to start blogging again. Never fear, I'll be back when I can.  Wish me luck on my long journey back to Tsuruoka.

Until next time....