July 31, 2023

Monday - Hot and sunny, then stormy with thunder at night

I woke up this morning when my alarm went off. I got up, went downstairs and then came back to watch the BBC news. When it finished, I went back to sleep and stayed in bed for ages!

I woke up around 11 but didn’t get up until 12ish. Sigh. I grabbed my breakfast and then I came back upstairs to eat. F wanted to know if I wanted to go out to eat, but I really didn’t. I ate my breakfast and dressed. I had a quiet early afternoon. 

I did a little printing in the afternoon too. I printed out my schedule for F and also sent a screenshot to my sister so she can plan to pick me up!

I made lunch for F and me. It was just a simple one of cheese toast and an open chicken sandwich each, but it was good. I think F liked it. 

I watched a lot of YouTube this afternoon and then went over to the bed for a quick nap before 6 pm.

I went downstairs and made dinner. I cooked a little and I also used some prepared foods that I had bought. We had air-fried chicken drumsticks, salad, pasta salad, cucumber pickle, and some tofu. F and K both had rice with their meals. It went over quite well. 

I did the dishes afterwards of course. The weather had changed during dinner, and it was pouring. We had a lot of lightning during the evening too. 

I took a shower during a lull in the storm and came back upstairs and watched another episode of The Crowded Room. I think the psychiatrist has finally figured out what is going on. Good for her.

Unfortunately, our DVR seems to have stopped working during the storm. I was watching my show on the Fire Stick, but I can’t seem to turn on the DVR at all now. I’m not happy about this. It doesn’t work properly, but I’ve got a few workarounds….now if it doesn’t work at all I don’t know what I’m going to do. Sigh. 

I’m not sure what’s going to happen tomorrow. F has his physiotherapy in the morning, no idea what else will go on during the day. I’m not even sure if I’ll be able to record The Walking Dead tomorrow or not. 

Anyway, come back later if you like and hear all about my day. Until tomorrow….

July 30, 2023

 Sunday - Hot and Sunny (Again) (Darn it.)

I slept in this morning except I woke up earlier than I wanted. It was so hot in our room that I was sweating. The “cool pad” that I had on my pillow was soaking and so was the pillow underneath. Argh. I got up somewhere around 11 am and turned on the AC. F was lying in bed beside me but didn’t seem affected by the heat. I’m not sure how he does it.

F made breakfast/brunch for his mother and then we went out. Our first choice, Jiro, was closed already when we got there, so we ended up at Misono and had lunch there. F had their version of ramen and I had their chicken cutlet but not a set meal. Mine was good, big, but good. I was so glad that I didn’t have the full set meal. 

After lunch, we went over to the Pal shopping area and I went to Daiso first. I got a new, longer string for my glasses and a couple of other things. F couldn’t find a parking space before I went into the store, so I didn’t know where he was parked. I got outside and didn’t see him, so I phoned him. He said he was in the shoe store. I thought that was a bit odd, but okay. I went over to the shoe store and went in. Of course, F wasn’t in the store, he was parked outside it. I’ve no idea why. He said he told me outside the store…maybe he did. I was trying to find him and stay out of the sun. I was really angry with him, so I dumped my stuff, gave him the diet Coke that I had bought him and walked to the grocery store. I was upset. It’s so hot outside and the sun is so strong and I didn’t have my hat on. 

I bought groceries, I got stuff for K’s and F’s breakfast for tomorrow and Tuesday, and something for Monday’s dinner. I’m going to try and cook again. I’m sure I’ll regret it!

We came back to the house and I put away the groceries, F beetled off upstairs. At least he turned on the AC for me!

I spent time at my computer and after a while went over to the bed. Around 6 pm I wanted F to start thinking about dinner and then around 7 we decided to go to Cocos. F asked his mother if she’d like to come and she would. So, we all bundled into the car and drove over to Cocos. We had a pretty good meal, sort of. The dish I wanted wasn’t available today and so I had to have a burger that didn’t come with very much. F and K had a Japanese set meal, and they seemed to like it, but F complained about one part of it! I kept the others plied with drinks. K was amused by the robot delivery system, so I was a bit sad for her that the waiters delivered our meals personally!

I paid at the end and left. K did a fairly fast walk to the car after F and then spent the next 5 minutes in the car wheezing. I was a bit worried about her if I’m honest. It could have been the changes in temperature. I should probably have suggested that F get the car and she waits inside, but then again, why couldn’t HE think of that. Maybe next time.

We came back to the house and relaxed. I watched Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris at 9 pm and loved it. I had tried to get F to watch it with me, but he didn’t. I grew up reading Mrs ‘Arris Goes to Paris in the Readers Digest Condensed Novels so I have loved the character for a long time.  The movie was really sweet and Mrs Harris as played by Lesley Manville was wonderful. And of course, “Hello to Jason Isaacs!” He’s really become a great character actor lately.

After the movie was over, I turned off the TV and got started on my evening stuff. And now, here you are. I’m not sure what’s going to go down tomorrow if I’m honest. K has an appointment in the morning, I know that F needs to go to City Hall sometime but I don’t know if it’ll be tomorrow. 

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

July 29, 2023

Saturday - Hot and sunny

I didn’t set my alarm for an early wake-up time this morning. Hurray. I woke up around 9:30 and dragged myself out of bed a bit later. I got dressed and a little bit after 11 am, F and I went off to our doctor’s office. 

We had an okay time at the doctor’s office. It was a lot of sitting around for 2-3 minutes of time in front of the doctor. We went to the drug dispensary after our appointment and then were ready to have lunch. 

I suggested to F that we go to Kissa Marina because I really like that place. F was okay with that and off we went. It wasn’t busy, so we were able to get a table and have lunch. I had carbonara this time. It was good, but I preferred my usual dish. F had a roast beef donburi. He wasn’t too pleased, unfortunately. He said the roast beef was tough. The soup that we got today was very salty. That wasn’t the strangest thing though, our waitress was wearing a t-shirt that said," Koenji F***ing City” in a fake Asian-style script. I was a little surprised but I may have been the only person who noticed it!

After our lunch, F basically just wanted to go back to the house. I was a bit tired and didn’t mind too much. I had plans for myself. 

So, I booked my trip to Canada in September. It wasn’t too easy. I had to try 3 different credit cards to get it done, one of mine and two of F’s. I also booked a hotel for myself for the night I come back to Japan in Haneda Airport. I still need to get travel insurance, but I’ve asked F to help me with that. 

It took a while to book everything and let the people in Canada know about it, so it was fairly late when I finished and could relax a bit. I never did get to take a nap like I thought I would!

Around 6:00 I talked to F about dinner. Although I wasn’t too hungry, I worried that K might be. We talked and decided to go to Gusto with her. Around 6:30 or so we bundled into the car and went over to Gusto. We had a pretty good meal. We were able to get into the restaurant right away. K and F both had cold udon and I had curry with a cutlet. We shared a plate of fries and I kept us all supplied with drinks. We had a nice meal really.

We came back to the house and I watered the plants outside and then went upstairs. F had turned on the AC again, so it was nice in our room. I watched a bit of YouTube and then watched the second episode of The Walking Dead from Tuesday.  A little after that, I watched CSI: Las Vegas. It was quite a good one about influencers.

I had thought about watching a late-night movie but decided not to do that. I got into my blogging and usual evening stuff and now you are up to date!

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

July 28, 2023

 Friday - Hot and Sunny

I woke up first around 8:00 and watched the BBC news segment, then turned off the TV and went back to sleep. It was hot in our room, so darn hot. 

I woke up again around 10 and had to turn on the AC as it was over 30 degrees in the room. Ack. I watched the news, fell asleep in the middle and then had to rewatch it to see the whole thing!

I got up and was going to grab my breakfast when F asked if I’d like to go to Arpeggio for brunch. What’s a gal to do? I said yes. He made lunch for his mother, and I contributed my remaining English muffins to the cause. He gave her them with some butter and ham, apparently, she liked that.  

F and I went over to Arpeggio and had a lovely meal at the restaurant. It wasn’t busy today, usually, we go on the weekend and it is packed. I had the soboro and F had the 10 dish meal. We were both happy.

We left after we finished eating. F had decided that he’d like to get his car checked, apparently, he gets a free one-month check-up. He called to see if he could get it done today. We were told it was fine at 4 pm.  It was around 2 pm at the moment.

We decided to go for coffee, so F drove down to Komeda Coffee. On the way there I suggested checking out Chateraise, which is a new place that opened in Tsuruoka a few months ago. We went in and discovered that it was basically a cake shop! They sold a lot of different stuff, so F and I picked up some ice cream.  We paid and then went and ate it in the car. It was quite nice, not fabulous, but nice.

We went over to Komeda and spent an hour or so there having an iced decaf coffee each. It was lovely. When we got close to 4 pm, we drove over to the car dealership and went in. They took about 45 minutes to check out the car. We were inside having a lovely beverage. I was reading and texting with a friend.

When they finished, we left. We drove to the grocery store and I picked up a few groceries. I got something for F and K’s breakfasts and also something for K’s lunch tomorrow. I got bentos as well for dinner. I came back out to the car and then we left. We got some gas for the car and then came back to the house.

I put the bentos in the fridge and put the other stuff away. F and I went upstairs, but before we did, we turned the AC on in the living room where K was. She refuses to use the AC but we turned it on for her. 

We came upstairs and I spent time on my computer. A little before 7 pm I went over to the bed and took a mini-nap. F and I had a little chat and snuggle and it was nice. 

We went downstairs at 7 pm and I heated up the bentos and we ate. Everyone enjoyed their meals and we had a nice time. During dinner, the doorbell rang and it was some new neighbours dropping off a snack for us. That’s quite nice of them. I’ve never done that sort of thing!

Tonight we just had a quiet evening. I watched an episode of The Walking Dead from Tuesday and then I took a shower.  When I came back upstairs, I finished up the silly astrology matching show. Whew. I don’t want to watch that again!

I turned off the TV and returned to my usual night-time things. It’s been a fairly good day, but it is so hot right now. I’m not sure if it is just that I’m feeling the heat more than usual or that I’m jealous that F is off work so I don’t want to cook, but it is probably a mixture of both things!

Tomorrow morning F and I are off to the doctor’s office and then who knows? We certainly don’t know!

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

July 27, 2023

 Thursday - Hot and sunny

I didn’t get to bed last night until very late, it was somewhere around 4 am, so I decided to forgo the BBC news this morning and just set my alarm for 10 am instead. I did wake up earlier but fell back asleep. It was so hot when I woke up that I was sweating. I turned on the AC and then went downstairs for a few minutes.

I came back upstairs and sorted my laundry, and then took it back downstairs and put it in the washing machine. I ended up doing two loads of laundry today and going outside the cool room to the hot downstairs meant I was constantly sweating. I had breakfast, but I also had to have a sports drink as I was feeling quite rough.

F had scheduled a massage for himself at 3 pm, so around 1:30 I went downstairs and made lunch for F and me. We had cheese toast and an English Muffin each. I made one side with just butter and the other side had mayo and sliced chicken. It was pretty good actually. 

We left the house around 2:30. It was a bit after, to be honest. F dropped me off at S-Mall and I went in. I got something for the kitchen at Daiso and then went downstairs and went to Doutor. I had an iced decaf coffee and read a lot of my book on my phone. I relaxed for a while and when F was finished he called me. I told him where I was and checked that he wanted to come and have a drink with me. 

I moved to another table when F arrived and I went back to the counter and ordered more drinks. This time I had a rooibos iced tea and F had an iced coffee. 

After a while, we left the mall and went over to Mina. I picked up a few things in the store, and today I was able to get onigiri for K and F’s breakfast. Yes, it’s a day old, and yes, they don’t seem to care. 

We came back to the house and discussed dinner. I suggested going somewhere cheap and suggested Gusto, but in the end, we decided to try the new gyudon shop that has just opened. We waited until close to 6:30 and piled into the car.

We took K with us which is always an experiment. She doesn’t hear well and isn’t exactly a lot of fun for us, but she has been in the hot house all day, so I wanted her to have a little cool down. 

F grabbed the computer first. At this place, you order on a machine by the door and then pay and then sit. Well, F had no idea how to use the machine and I basically only got a choice of 6 things, none of which was what I wanted to order. Sigh. I picked the least awful thing and that was that.  Later I realized that F hadn’t been working the machine correctly (I could even put it into English if I wanted) and had eliminated more than half of their menu. 

We were given a table and waited for our food to be finished. We had to go up and pick it up, which of course meant that I had to go up and get it. F can’t really manage a tray with his stick. Two dishes were done at once so I went up. I was going to try carrying them, but happily, a staff member carried the other one for me. I went up later for my own one. It was self-service for drinks too, so I got things for K and F…I got myself some water.

The food was okay. It wasn’t horrible, but it wasn’t great. I had hoped to have fried chicken, but F just didn’t show me that part of the menu. Sometimes I think he just doesn’t understand how to read Japanese. I get so frustrated with him. My Japanese is better at times!

After we finished, I had to take all the trays back to the kitchen. It definitely wasn’t the most relaxing meal for me. I’m not sure if I’ll go again willingly. 

We bundled K back towards the car and drove back to the house. It was quite quiet on the way back, except for the music in the car. My iPhone provided the music. It was rather annoying as I didn’t want to do that.  I did suggest to F earlier that he either get an old phone or an old iPod and load it with music in the car. That way we can change the music and listen quite often if we want. He shushed me as he was trying to phone his massage place to say he was running late. 

We had a fairly quiet evening at the house. I watched a bit of YouTube before Grey’s Anatomy came on. I missed it last night, so watched the rebroadcast tonight. I followed that up with The Rookie. 

F is still up and it is quite late. I don’t know if that is a good thing or not. I’m not sure what we’ll get up to tomorrow. I’ve managed to avoid cooking for most of the week so far. It is so hot and the kitchen is not the most fun place to be in this heat. We’ll see what happens tomorrow night! 

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

July 26, 2023

Wednesday - Hot and Sunny

Today was a pretty good day. I slept in early on and then had a quiet afternoon. Let’s back up a bit.

F got up this morning and went out to his onsen. I slept on a bit after I watched the BBC News bit. I got up during the next news programme that I watch and saw some of it. I got dressed and went downstairs to grab my breakfast. F came back and upstairs. He wanted to go for lunch just after I ate my breakfast and I really didn’t want to. 

I went back to the bed and had a bit of a nap. I woke up at 1:30 and we still hadn’t had lunch. Oops. I offered F some cheese toast and a chicken sandwich and he accepted. I went downstairs and made them, then brought them upstairs and we ate. I watched the US news while I ate.

Around 5 pm F and I went to the grocery store, Mina. I picked up a few things for the next couple of days. I didn’t find anything for tomorrow’s dinner, but I didn’t look that hard. F came in with me for a while and then didn’t feel well and went back to the car. 

I grabbed a couple of extra things and then came back to the car. F had moved the car so I was a bit freaked out at first! Luckily I found it.

We brought the food back to the house. We’d gotten K a nice bento so F heated it up for her. We left the house around 6:30 or so. On the way to the mall, F kept trying to connect my iPhone to the stereo system in the car. I was getting rather upset with him because he wasn’t paying as much attention to the road as I wanted him to. He could have pulled over or into a store’s parking and done it in a couple of minutes, but nope…kept driving. 

When we got out to the mall I took a minute and got it done. It was something silly. F had the right screen at times, but didn’t scroll down far enough to connect.

We went into the mall and after a quick run through the 100 yen shop for another glasses cord which I didn’t buy, we went up to the cinema. We got to the ticket booth and I started the process of buying the tickets. F opened his wallet and said he didn’t have enough money. Sigh. Luckily, I did.

I bought the tickets and then we went to the close-by Food Court and ordered bibinba for ourselves. I had my favourite kimchi pork and F tried the yakiniku bibinba. The lady in the kiosk was nice enough to carry F’s over to him because I couldn’t do two at once. 

We spent a bit of time at the Food Court, even after we ate and then I suggested that we head to the cinema again. We did. F realized that he had enough money to cover the movie, so he paid me back, and then he gave me money to get the popcorn and drinks. I gave him his ticket so that he could go and get seated.

I bought the drinks and popcorn and went into the cinema. F wasn’t there, so I dropped off the munchies and headed out to the washroom. I bumped into F on his way into the cinema.

We went to see Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part 1 and it was fun. It wasn’t the deepest movie ever, but the stunts were great and the action never let up at all. I hope we don’t have to wait too long for the finale. 

I’m not sure that F was too happy during part of the movie. I think he got a bit stiff and couldn’t move too much. However, he did say that he enjoyed the film too.

We came back to the house after we left the mall. We listened to some of my music in the car. It was a bit of a surprise!

Back at the house, F took out the gomi. I had done it up before we left the house earlier. I said that I wouldn’t want to do the garbage around midnight and I was right!

I started sweating as soon as I got in the house and until the AC kicked in up here. I took a shower and then came back upstairs. F went to sleep and now I’m just about done my blogging and all the other stuff I do this time of night. 

So that’s it for me. Come back later if you like and see what I get up to on Thursday. Until tomorrow….

July 25, 2023

Tuesday - Hot and Sunny

I woke up early again this morning to watch the BBC News and turned off the TV as soon as it was over. F was getting ready to leave for the hospital too. I had to turn on the AC as it was so hot in the room. After F left the room, I turned it off as it was fairly cool and I was going to go back to sleep.

I woke up again a bit later and it was boiling in the room again. I turned on the air conditioner again and left it on. I got up, got dressed and watched the news, ate my breakfast and waited for F to come back. 

F wanted to leave for lunch as soon as he came back, so that’s just about what we did. I didn’t want to go right away. He suggested someplace that I didn’t think would be cool enough (temperature-wise). His next idea was great, but on the way there, I remembered that Tuesday was their closed day. We checked it out and it was closed. Then F suggested going to Fujishima to check the restaurant he likes there. We got there and they were closed today. Sigh. We drove back to Tsuruoka and almost everything we thought of was closed! Finally, we ended up at a Tonkatsu restaurant and it was open. I was worried about the time, but we made it! We ordered at 1:15 and got our meal ten minutes later. We actually spent a few extra minutes hanging out in the restaurant because I didn’t want to be too early for my hair appointment. 

F dropped me off at the hair salon and I went in. My stylist came out to meet me a few minutes later and we got down to business. As usual, I got a great haircut and we had a little bit of chatting too. We finished early so I texted F to see where he was and how soon he’d pick me up. I thought he’d be in S-Mall or Starbucks, but he went back to the house. That’s all the way across town. Of course, it took him more than 10 minutes to pick me up so I was a little bit upset, but glad he finally showed up!

F and I went to have a drink at Cafe Studio Cinq. It was nice in there as always. I had an iced Darjeeling tea, and F had an iced coffee.  While we were in the cafe, F asked me to photocopy some papers for him, so we went back to the hot steamy house to do that.

I copied his paper and gave it all back to him. Then, we bundled back in the car and went out to Mikawa. F needed to give his boss the original paper. It was a note from his doctor saying that he’d had an operation and couldn’t work for a while. It only took a couple of minutes.

F asked what I’d like to do after that and I suggested going to the grocery store and picking up bentos for dinner. I basically refused to cook tonight as it was just so darn hot in the house. 

I went into the grocery store and picked up some bentos for us all. I got myself a kara-age one and for F and K I got them both keisen-don. I did text F to let him pick what kind of bento he got. I paid and then we went back to the house.

It was a bit early to eat when we got back, so I came upstairs. F stayed downstairs with his mother and watched TV for a while. He came upstairs after a bit and around 7:30 I suggested that we really should eat. Poor K was probably hungry.

We had a nice meal, K and F’s bentos were small, so they were done before me, but so what. I got graced with the dishes of course, but it didn’t take that long to clean up afterwards. 

I came back upstairs and watched a bit of YouTube. At 11:00 pm I watched Resident Alien again and kept the TV on so I could record The Walking Dead. I thought I might be able to catch it on the Video on Demand part of our cable system, but it isn’t available, sad to say. 

That’s about it for today. I’ve just been watching YouTube and listening to a few songs along the way too. 

I’m not quite sure what we’ll get up to tomorrow, but we might finally go to Mission Impossible if F is feeling okay. You’ll have to come back and find out if we do go.

Until tomorrow….