June 2010 Movies

I saw 5 films in June. It is getting hotter and going to a cool movie theater is a pleasant way to spend a couple of hours. Generally, I was really lucky this month and enjoyed all of the films that are listed below. If I have to pick a favourite I'd say An Education. Carey Mulligan is so very good. Definitely an actress to watch.

17) Precious: Based on the novel "Push by Sapphire - Gabourey Sidibe, Mo'Nique, Mariah Carey, Paula Patton (June 28, 2010)

A harrowing, well acted drama about a girl who lives in the depths of hell and the struggle by those around her to get her out. Precious lives with her abusive mother, is pregnant with her second child and cannot read or write. She is sent to a special programme where her teacher tries to reach her and help her.

In so many ways, Precious is the complete opposite of Jenny in An Education, yet they both have to work for what they want in life.

Precious is a difficult movie to watch, it is unrelenting and sad, but on the whole, well worth the effort.

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16) An Education - Carey Mulligan, Alfred Molina, Peter Skarsgard, Dominic Cooper(June 27, 2010)

An amazing true life story of an intelligent 16 year old who falls in love with a much older, worldly man. Carey Mulligan is luminous as the lead. It is refreshing to see a girl take control of losing her virginity and worry about things like pregnancy, instead of throwing caution to the wind. Also nice to see a movie where the daughter and parents have a good relationship! This is a movie to be on the lookout for.

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15) Iron Man 2 - Robert Downey, Jr, Gywneth Paltrow, Sam Rockwell, Don Cheadle, Mickey Rourke (June 20, 2010)

A fun follow up to Iron Man. This one has Tony Stark under fire from the government as well as from a Russian physicist. It does have quite a good story although there are places where it is hard to follow just what is going on. Sam Rockwell shines as a business rival of Stark. It's nice to see a "comic book" movie that doesn't take itself too seriously. If you liked the first one, you'll most likely enjoy this too.

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14) The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus - Heath Ledger, Christopher Plummer,Colin Farrell, Lily Cole, Johnny Depp, Jude Law, Andrew Garfield (June 16, 2010)

Terry Gilliam's interesting look at fantasy and a man who made a pact with the devil. The movie looks as beautiful as Gilliam's always do, and the story manages to hold together until the end. However, knowing that Heath Ledger died during the film makes me wish that there was a little more substance to the film. Still, enjoyable and not as difficult to understand as some of Gilliam's other work.

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13) From Paris With Love - John Travolta, Jonathan Rhys Meyers (June 2, 2010)

I'm not sure why I liked this movie so darn much. I dislike John Travolta, don't enjoy dumb action flicks, yet I found myself carried along with with this movie. Basically it tells the story of a young Embassy employee(Rhys Meyers) who is marginally in the spy business. He asks for more responsibility and gets much more than he expected. He is partnered with Charlie Wax (Travolta) who leads him on a wild ride against drug smugglers and terrorists. Once the action starts it rarely lets up.

This isn't going to win any awards for acting or writing, but as a pleasant time waster...it's fun. Be warned that it is rather violent. If violence bothers you, don't bother with this film. Check your brain at the door and enjoy a little Paris vacation.

June 2010 Books

Along with trying to run a business, read the newspaper everyday and catch up with a few magazines, I also managed to finish one long novel in June. I'm halfway through another novel, so will hopefully have more to report for July!

11) Brisingr - Christopher Paolini (June 18, 2010)
The story of Eragon picks up where the last novel left off. It's an exciting story and quite a good example of fantasy writing. I had problems with the use of "dove" as the past tense of dive, but apart from that it was enjoyable. It's the third novel in a series of four. Probably not worth picking up by itself, but if you've read the other novels it's an entertaining way to spend a few days.

June 30, 2010

Wednesday - Hot, cloudy, humid with a bit of rain.

An okay day today. I got up early and checked for news, but sadly it was just baseball. Bleck. I decided to go back to bed and sleep on for a bit.

I had a quiet day at home. I didn't do anything exciting. I vacuumed the apartment, did a load of laundry and got the table set up for dinner. Woot.

I watched my weekend's TV and was watching Green Card when F came home. Of course he decided to make lots of noise during the movie and started asking me dumb questions so I turned off the TV.

I got dinner together and then F decided to take a shower. Why then? So annoying. When he came back we ate. We had bought pumpkin soup cold, and then some wrapped sandwiches. We made them to taste with a mixture of lettuce, sprouts, tomato, cucumber and pastrami or fake crab. Very yummy.

After dinner F did the dishes and then watched a bunch of crappy TV. I worked on my Journal column with the headphones on so I could hear music rather than Japanese. I think I'll check it over tomorrow and then send it. I originally wanted it to be longer, but I think it's going to be fine the length it is.

We watched Desperate Housewives at 11. F ended up going to bed on it. He's really tired these days. I watched it all though and enjoyed it. It was all about a handyman who had affected the lives of the housewives. Beau Bridges was the handyman and it was lovely to see him again. He used to be one of my favourite actors when I was younger.

That was my day. I'll likely go to bed soon. It is so hot these days, that I'm a bit tired too. Tomorrow I'm back to work. Wish me luck. Night!

June 29, 2010

Tuesday - Hot and cloudy in the early part of the day, rainy later on.

Generally a good day. I got up a little early this morning...guess after the weekend I was used to getting up before 9am! I got up, checked for news, but didn't find any, then napped on the couch for a bit. I made the bed and then showered after that.

I watched the news at 12 on NHK, and that was about all that I watched this afternoon. I had to leave early to go to my school. I had a nice lunch and then just as I was finishing up the dishes I heard a cell phone ring. I was watching an old movie on NHK2 and was trying to figure out which character's phone was ringing. I finally realized it was MY cell phone. The movie was a bit before cell phones! One of my students cancelled her lesson for today. She was busy.

I cycled over to the school. I took a chance and didn't wear a jacket and got there in one piece and not rained on. Yay. I got ready for my class and waited for the student. She was a little late, but came after a while. We had a good class, but had a hard time getting to the lesson.

I had three hours before my next lesson after her class. I could have gone out, but it started raining soon after class ended. I did some paperwork, some reading and some prepwork.

F called me to say he was finished work and I was surprised to hear from him. Usually he doesn't call me when I'm working, but he'd forgotten that tonight I work. Silly man. Still, it was nice to hear from him.

My last class went quite well and the student left almost on time. I did a bit of clean up, some reading and some more paperwork. I called F and he came for me.

We went to New York, New York for dinner. I had a pork cutlet and F had a parfait. That was all he wanted. He didn't feel like eating much. On the way home we stopped off at the grocery store. We have a package of tortillas that are nearing their expiry date, so tomorrow we're going to make wrapped sandwiches for dinner. We'll have some soup, probably cold, and then the sandwiches. I think it'll be strictly DIY. We got some sprouts, lettuce, cucumber for veggies and I got a couple of kinds of sliced meat plus some of the fake crab stuff. I've never tried it in Japan. Hopefully things will go well. I'll try and do some prep tomorrow for it.

We came home and watched the American Idol season 8 finale AGAIN. Hopefully this'll be the final time. Adam is still great, but so is Kris. Can't believe I've watched it 3 times now. F watched it all too, but midway got in a panic about his laundry. Apparently he didn't have any dry clothes for tomorrow...and we don't have a dryer. Sigh. Hope he'll be okay!

That's it. It was a good day, but very hot and humid. I was lucky I could be inside with my AC at the school. Tomorrow I might resort to using ours at home, but I'll try not to do it. Gotta go. Night.

June 28, 2010

Monday - Rainy and then clearing in Sendai. Clear and humid in Tsuruoka.

A really great weekend. We got up early on Sunday and drove to Sendai. I had a plan. We would check into the hotel, walk to the building behind the theater, have a nice Indian meal and then go and see An Education in the same building. It almost happened that way.

We left Tsuruoka early, so arrived in Sendai over an hour early. F wanted to go to The Mall so we did. While we were there, I realized that Precious, the Academy Award winning film was playing there and although we couldn't see it on Sunday, we could probably see it on Monday. Woot.

After a nice lunch at Lupecia we went to the hotel and checked in. For some reason they had lost my reservation. Of course, it was the one time I didn't bother to print out my confirmation sheet. Sigh. Won't do that again. They did have room for us, and we checked in. Whew. On our way out to dinner, I used the pay computer in the lobby to look up the reservation on the site and got F to give them the confirmation number. Yay. I think it all worked out.

We went to the BiVi building and had a nice dinner at Namascar. It's an Indian restaurant I went to before. We had a nice meal and didn't overdo it. We could have had the special but it was expensive and I think our way was a little bit better for us. We had an order of samosas and then each picked a small curry and a naan. I had almond chicken curry and sesame naan, F had chicken bartha curry and butter naan. We both really liked our meals. We had oodles of time before the movie started so we ended up in a game center. I really don't like those places, but we haven't been in one in ages.

We went to see An Education and both really loved it. I was surprised at how much F liked it. He really likes dramas more than action movies, I forget that. Carey Mulligan was luminous and the whole thing was great. I loved seeing a movie where the girl was extremely intelligent, had a great relationship with her parents and was popular in school too. So many films are about the unpopular students these days.

After the movie, we visited Starbucks and had our Assam Black Tea Lattes before going back to the hotel room. We spent a nice night in, watched a little TV and a little CNN, I got stuck into my book (Cold Comfort Farm) finally and had a fairly early night.

This morning, we got up at 9 for breakfast. Happily, the hotel is undergoing a few changes and they've improved their breakfasts. Usually I don't like what they serve, but today the eggs were decent and there was bacon. Hurray. F had a huge mostly Japanese style breakfast complete with natto so he was really pleased.

We checked out and drove back to The Mall. It wasn't as crowded as yesterday. Yay. We were early again, so we had frappucinos in Starbucks and then went up to the theater. We went to see Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire. It was a difficult film to watch, but the acting was very good. I enjoyed Gabourey Sidibe's performance very much and was even quite impressed with La Mariah Carey as the social worker.

After the film, F and I went to have tea in a tea shop across from the mall and then we headed out of town. I was a bit hungry, but didn't say too much. We'd both had a lot of popcorn and before the movie had shared a Starbucks sandwich, but I wanted something.

We drove for a while and I'm afraid I fell asleep. I woke up when we were driving past Yamagata, a city we often stop in at on our way home. I somewhat testily asked if we couldn't get off the highway and go into Yamagata for something to eat! I didn't know at the time, but we'd passed our usual exit, so we had to get off and then drive back quite a way. We ended up at a Big Boy restaurant. It wasn't bad. I had a burger with cut steak and salad bar, F had an okonomiyaki burger and rice.

We made a quick stop at a hundred yen shop and then headed back on our merry way. We took the highway and it was free for a change. Yay.

Back in Tsuruoka, we came home and unloaded the car and relaxed for a bit. We headed out to get a few groceries and then came home again.

It was a great weekend, probably all the better because we didn't really plan that much for it. I took F to two movies that he would never have chosen on his own, but he enjoyed them both. He's still mulling over them, a lot more than I am!

I thought it was interesting that both films we saw were about young women on the verge of adulthood, both learning and trying to make their lives better. They were very different lives though.

That's it for me. I'm off to bed. Have a good night.

June 26, 2010

Saturday - Hot and sunny, rainy at night.

An okay day. I didn't wake up when Fumihiko left this morning. I didn't hear him at all. I woke up around 8 am and couldn't get back to sleep. I tried, but ended up getting out of bed before my alarm. Weird.

I had an okay morning at home. I did everything I usually do but in a very short time. I was out of the apartment by noon. I went right back in again to close the windows! I'd forgotten.

I had a good day at my school. I was supposed to have three classes but only had two. However, the missing student called to say she couldn't come. In the middle time I worked on my Journal column, read the paper, and prepped for classes for next week.

After my last class, I cleaned up and then called F. He came to get me and we went to Gusto for a loud and not that great dinner. During dinner, F asked me if I'd like to go to Sendai this weekend. I was surprised, but we decided to go.

When we came home, I made a reservation for a hotel room and checked the movie schedule for the theater near the hotel. There is something that I'd like to see, so fingers crossed we can go. F wants to leave very early tomorrow. I'm not sure why he wants to leave so early, but he's the driver.

I packed some clothes and watched a bit of the new 90210. I have no idea what the story is about.

I cruised into the kitchen to get a drink and smelt something really bad. I tried looking around for it and found some of F's negi that were going off. They didn't smell too bad though. Then I remembered that we'd had fish last night. I thought maybe F forgot to take all the fish out of the grill. I opened up the grill and realized that I had forgotten to clean the grill last night. Sigh. I almost never cook fish so had forgotten that it was used. I cleaned it tonight. I do have to say that I'm so glad I found it tonight rather than Monday night after our trip. Yuck!

I watched House and that was that. It's still really hot now, even though it seems to be pouring outside. I won't be updating tomorrow. I could take my computer but I think I'll just leave it at home.

I'll be back Monday night. Don't miss me too much. Night!

June 25, 2010

Friday - Gorgeous day, warm and sunny with a nice wind.

I didn't sleep well last night. I went to bed late and F woke up again to get a blanket. He didn't talk to me this morning, just got his blanket. I woke up when he came back into the apartment after leaving and then a bit before my alarm. I also woke up in a bit of pain. I had managed to find a horribly uncomfortable position to sleep in so when I got up I felt all crinkled up. Luckily that did pass during the day. There wasn't any news on this morning though. Sigh.

I did some email/on-line work and then went back to bed for an hour. I felt better afterwards.

The weather was so nice today that I decided to go out. I had to pay some taxes today, so I rode to a bank and then stopped into a bakery for some nice goodies for lunch. Yum.

At home I watched my afternoon shows and did sort of plan to go out again, but didn't. F didn't call tonight, but showed up around 7 pm. We had talked about cooking at home today but I didn't really expect him to. Still when I asked him about it he said he wanted to do it.

We went first to the drugstore to pick up some essentials and then hit up the grocery store. F bought two kinds of fish which sort of scared me! He bought gindara, which I like, and a block of katsuo which I'm ambivalent about. I got some salad and some things from the deli section too.

At home, he did all the cooking and basically wouldn't let me in the kitchen. He served dinner and it was okay. We had miso soup, grilled gindara and sashimi katsuo, kabocha, shu mei and harumaki. I didn't like the sashimi too much as he'd cut it a little thick for me. The gindara was good, but had cooled down by the time I sat down to eat. I personally don't like to mix cooked fish and raw fish. Still, he tried really hard and dinner was good. I did the dishes afterwards.

We watched this week's Desperate Housewives and then I watched The Spirit. I had heard it wasn't very good, and I have to say I agree. I like stylish films, but I like stylish films with substance. So, I enjoyed Sin City for example, but really didn't like The Spirit at all.

At midnight I turned over the channel and watched Top Gear. Tonight the guys had each built a type of limosene and then they put them through their paces. It was quite funny and a little scary to be honest. Even F laughed a bit at it. He did keep saying things like, "That would be illegal in Japan." Yep, just like all the fun things in life!

He went to bed a bit ago and I was glad to see him go. He has a road trip tomorrow morning and has to start at 6:30 or so to get there in time. I'm a bit worried about him and really wished he'd started out tonight, but he didn't want to do that. So, tomorrow morning I have to get myself up, fed, and over to the school before my first class. Sure hope I can do it!

Anyway, that's it for me for today. Have a good night!

June 24, 2010

Thursday - Windy, cooler and sunny. Yes!

A very strange night last night. I didn't really get a good night's sleep at all. Poor me. I went to bed late and then at 4:30 F woke me up to ask me if I wanted a blanket. What? I asked him about that tonight and he said that I woke him up. Huh? Then, at 6:30 my cellphone got an email. I use my cellphone as my alarm clock so I tend to sleep with it. It woke me up. Ack. Before 8:30 this morning some idiot decided to chop down some small trees next to our apartment, so his machinery woke me up again. I didn't get back to sleep. Sigh. However, when I got up there was actual news on again. What's that, 3 days in a row now? Woot!

I got up, watched news, did a bit of computer stuff and then showered. Usual stuff. I had made some cold brewed tea following instructions on a blog I read last night and I had that throughout the afternoon. It was lovely.

After 1 I had a little nap. It really wasn't a long one and I don't think I fell asleep, but I did feel a bit less tired when I got up again.

Before work I made myself a yummy omelette. I had it with the leftover stirfry and it was good. Gotta love the veggie omelettes.

I left for work a little later than I wanted so I hustled myself over to the school. I got ready right away and it was a good thing too, as my student came with his mother. We did a little business and then my student and I got to work. He's really getting better. His English isn't great yet, but what an improvement over the way he was before! He had even attempted his homework. It wasn't completely correct, but he'd done two-thirds of it, which is much better than I expected!

My second student couldn't come today, so I had a little time for planning and prepping. My third student of the day came and we had a great class. She used a word today that I'd never heard her use before, and used it correctly, so I was really pleased. We were talking about work and brainstorming work related vocabulary so we even went overtime a little. It was interesting so I don't think she minded.

After a bit, I called F and he picked me up and took me for dinner. We went to Cocos and had a fairly nice meal together. He was tired again, but I talked to him anyway!

We were supposed to go to the grocery store on the way home, but F begged off. He needed to go to bed soon. He promised to go grocery shopping tomorrow night. We are talking about cooking dinner at home tomorrow, he might even grill some fish.

At home we watched a little telly before his shower. He's off in bed now and I'm still up. Sigh. I really should get to bed soon, although I don't have to teach tomorrow.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do tomorrow. I might go out if the weather's okay, or I might stay home if it isn't. Either way, I have lots of things to do. Got to go. Night.

June 23, 2010

Wednesday - Rainy.

Today was okay. I got up in time to watch the news again. I was quite surprised about that! I had a good and quiet morning around my apartment.

I had a late lunch and ate half an avocado on bread with wasabi. That was lovely.

I watched a Clint Eastwood movie on WOWOW tonight. It was the first movie I saw in Edson by myself when I moved there, Firefox. It was nice to see it again. F came home on it and didn't recognize the star (admittedly, he was wearing a helmet so it was a little hard to see him). He kept asking me if it was Arnold Schwarzenegger or Steve McQueen. Ack!

F was really tired tonight so took a bit of a nap. While he dozed I got dinner underway. It was quite nice. We had warm kabocha soup, cold tofu and a pork stirfry. It all turned out quite nicely and I enjoyed dinner. I did the dishes too as F was not in a good way.

I put on the last contest day of American Idol tonight. F had told me that he was going to take a shower and go to bed, so I didn't want to watch Desperate Housewives without him. However, he stayed up and watched AI again with me! Oh well. He did go to bed at midnight.

Today, although it was rainy and I didn't go out, was so much cooler than the last few days. In fact, tonight it bordered on being cold. I even closed our living room window because I felt cold. It was a nice break from the humid heat.

Anyway, that's it for me. Tomorrow night I'm scheduled for 3 lessons so I'll be late again. It'll be a nice change to busy again. June hasn't been a busy month at all. Sigh.

Night!

June 22, 2010

Tuesday - Partly cloudy and muggy, stormy at night.

An okay day really. I got up on time this morning. I'm not sure why, or how, but I got up in time to watch the news live. Woot! I stayed up afterwards too. In fact, I ended up watching a dumb Stallone/Stone movie at 10 am so I didn't take my shower until noon. Oh well. Not so bad really.

I had a good afternoon at home. I watched another Big Bang Theory episode and then my usual afternoon stuff. When the time came, I cooked a decent lunch and then went off to work.

I ran a few errands on the way. I did a deposit in a bank machine, then I paid a bill for F at the convenience store. I had offered to do it for him. Then, I stopped off at the drug store near my school for some drinks and supplements for me.

I arrived safely at my school and turned on the AC. I did quite a bit of prep work, including planning a lesson for my student. She hasn't finished the lesson we're on now, but I wanted to be prepared for the next bit.

When my student came we had a good class and finished up the bit I wanted to, plus did a little extra.

After my cleaning up and paperwork, I read the paper and worked on the Sunday puzzle. I'm rather hooked on them. I called F and he was very very sleepy when he talked to me. He said he'd come and get me.

When he arrived we decided to go to Fireball, the little Italian place we go sometimes. We went, and had a great meal. F had chicken, and I had shrimp and veggie pasta. They were both quite nice and we swapped a bit of our main dishes too.

We came home via the grocery store. I'm going to try and make a stirfry tomorrow night. I say try because sometimes it doesn't work out quite the way I'd like it to.

At home, I put on the American Idol repeat again. I know, this is the third time I've seen it, but Adam and Kris are THAT good! F went to bed fairly soon. He's working hard and in this heat is tiring.

A little after he went to bed, we had a huge thunderstorm. It lasted quite a while. In Alberta summer thunderstorms are usual, here, not so much. Ours are usually in winter, which is quite freaky.

Anyway, I'm out of here. Talk to you tomorrow? Gotta go, night!

June 21, 2010

Monday - Humid, hot and rainy.

Today was an okay day. I can't really say that I accomplished much, but it's so hot at the moment that just staying still is hard work.

I got up, watched some TV, watched some more TV and made a faboo lunch for myself. I did. I took the last bit of my leftover mac & cheese and added half a small can of tuna to it, then a camembert cheese square broken up, plus a touch of parmesan as well. Then I microwaved it for a couple of minutes. Yum. Basically a pauper's version of tuna casserole, but I was in heaven!

When F came home tonight I was watching The Terminator. I offered to rewind it, but he said it was okay. Then, he watched a bit of it too, but got up to do laundry and made all kinds of noise during the quiet romantic part just before Kyle and Sarah get to know each other. I got a bit mad and stopped the tape and rewound it. I rewound it because I have things programmed on the tape and I didn't want to tape over the movie by accident.

We went to Kintarosushi for dinner. It was okay, not great. I didn't have to order too much tonight as most of my faves came down the conveyer belt. Hub was in a hurry to leave at the end, not sure why. Went out to the car and while trying to avoid the big puddle he parked in, whacked my head on the door of the car. He didn't notice. Sigh.

We came home and he asked me to put the movie on again, so I did. This time I started it from the beginning for him. It was fun. The story holds up, despite all of the sequels, and versions out there. The special effects weren't great, but they were okay. I always feel a little sorry for Michael Biehn, he was really good in that film, but hasn't been in a lot of other movies.

After that, F went to bed. He stayed up way too late last night so I think he was a bit tired. I went in to visit him for a few minutes and then came out to blog the night away.

Tomorrow I have one class in the evening, but will probably leave here around 5 so I can run some errands. I'll catch you again tomorrow night, if I haven't melted into a puddle somewhere. Bye!

June 20, 2010

Sunday - Cloudy and humid, strong rain at night.

A good day. I overslept a bit this morning and it was afternoon (barely) when I got up. F was watching weird stuff on the TV for a change. Still, he was quite happy.

We had an okay lunch in Grado and took them another load of newspapers. No big deal really. I had a barbecue chicken skewer and F had ginger pork. Mine was good, his was okay. Over lunch we decided what to do for the rest of the afternoon. In the evening we planned to see a movie and I had asked to go shopping at the mall. F had no plans, so I suggested going to buy him a pair of shoes. He agreed.

I knew the pair of shoes that he always wears is really battered, but when he took them off to try on a new pair of shoes, I got a shock. I could see the floor through the hole in the side of the shoe. Good heavens. He tried on about 6 pairs of shoes in the first place but wasn't pleased with any of them. He would have been happy to buy the first cheap pair of shoes that fit him, but I wouldn't let him buy them. We went to S-Mall and had a look there too, but the store didn't have any that met with his specifications. We decided to drive out to the mall.

At the mall we went to the shoe store and discovered that it was the same brand as the one in S-Mall. We couldn't find anything that was close to what he wanted. I suggested Jusco. We went there and there was a much better selection. He found a couple of pairs that would sort of do, and then found a pair he liked. I made him get a pair of cheap casual shoes too. His idea is to wear the same shoes to work as when he's off work. No wonder his shoes fall apart. They don't have any recovery time! He put the shoes in the car and then we went shopping again.

I wanted a present for one of my nieces and I'd done some pre-shopping a couple of weeks ago. We headed upstairs to Uniqlo and I got her some nice things. Well, I think they are nice! After that, we decided to have dinner.

Dinner was a non-event really. We went to a place in the mall and it was okay. Not great. I was getting a bit tired and my foot was really starting to hurt with all of the walking. After dinner, he went to the bookstore for a while, so I waited on a bench in the mall. It was fun people watching.

We went to Jusco again to buy him some socks. A lot of his socks are nylon/polyester type blends and they are so hot in this weather. He got a couple of pairs that are supposed to be cooler, and I got a couple of pairs too. Yay. It's harder for me as many socks aren't long enough for my feet, but I found a couple of pairs that are supposed to be okay.

By now it was time to go to the movie, but F wanted to take the socks to the car first. I told him to go ahead and I'd meet him at the theater. He did and I did.

We went to see Iron Man 2 and we both enjoyed it. I'm not sure if it was as good as Iron Man, but it was enjoyable and fun. I really don't understand when comic book adaptations take themselves so seriously.

We came home via the grocery store in the mall. I wanted to get some nice bread and we picked up a few other things while we were there.

On the way out of the mall I saw an ex-student from L'Eikaiwa and hid! He was a little strange and I spent a lot of energy worrying about him back in the days when I was his teacher. I didn't really want to run into him again. Luckily, F understood and hid with me!

We came home and had a quiet evening. F isn't having a good night, probably because of the rainy weather, so has just gotten up to take medicine. He's got to work tomorrow so definitely should have been sleeping for a couple of hours already.

That's it for my day. Have a good night!

June 19, 2010

Saturday - Cloudy with a bit of rain.

A pretty good day, believe it or not. I got up, checked for news (none) showered and then spent a bit of important time on my computer. F and I went out to Gusto for brunch and it was quite nice. I did feel a little guilty as one of the burgers I had was covered in garlic sauce. I tried to scrape off as much of it as I could.

Got dropped off at school, had a good class with my student. She's so sharp. I have to drill her about the definite and indefinite articles though, but that's pretty much the score for all Japanese people. Japanese doesn't use articles like "a" or "the" so it's hard to remember to use them.

After class finished, I turned off the AC, and all the other appliances in the school, grabbed my handbag and then jumped in our car. Hubby was waiting outside for me, bless him. We drove over to the dentist and I got worked on!

I didn't see too much of the actual dentist today, one of her assistants did most of the work, but it went well. Although they did numb my mouth, I didn't have too much done that would cause pain. They fitted my bridge, re-fitted it, ground it down a bit, and then repeat. It took ages, but finally they were happy with my bite. They actually wanted to grind down my top teeth to make it better, but I wasn't really prepared for that. I kept saying to F, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

We came home after my appointment and I spent a little afternoon time on the old computer. That was nice. Around 5 F drove me back to my school, and I turned all the machines back on.

My 6 pm student came and we had quite a good class. She's in high school, so really knows a lot of grammar, but doesn't speak as much as I'd like. Still, I'm working on it and she has made an improvement in that area. I also had to remind her about articles!

I got F to pick me up after class and we went to Cocos for dinner. By this time my mouth had finally lost its pins and needles feeling, but I just wanted something soft to eat, so I wouldn't have to work out my mouth too much tonight. I had a doria and salad, F had nasi goreng. It didn't taste like the stuff my friend Frank used to make in college, but it was okay.

We came home and F wanted to watch a movie. He picked Empire of the Sun. I tried to steer him away from it as it's a bit depressing, plus the Japanese are the bad guys in the movie. But, he wanted to watch it, so we did. It really is an excellent movie. I had forgotten that Nigel Havers is in the film, and I was really surprised to see that Ben Stiller was too. It must have been very early in his career. It was great.

After watching a bit of Pimp My Ride (F had DVR'd it??) hubby went to bed. I'm still up blogging away. I think I'm going to try and get to bed fairly soon. It's after 3:30 and the sun will be up soon. Yikes!

That's it for me. Gotta go. Night.

June 18, 2010

Friday - Hot, humid and sunny.

I got up at about the right time this morning and stayed up. Yay me.

I took a few minutes and finished my book Brisingr finally. I've been reading that one for a few weeks. I have started, but just barely, Cold Comfort Farm so I hope to get stuck into it soon.

I had a very quiet day around the apartment. Nothing really exciting happened.

F came home and wanted his dinner soon, so we both did a bit. I had set the table before, but F made coffee while I got out the soup. We had bought cold kabocha soup, then some risotto (from a packet) and then some beef stirfry thing I got last night with some salad. It was all quite nice. F did the dishes afterwards.

He came through to the living room and grabbed the TV remote and turned it on. Now, I have this thing about him (and his mother always does this too), he turned on the TV and just watched whatever was on. There was no question to me to see if I wanted to watch anything, or was planning to watch something soon. Nope. Nada. It was some stupid talento show so I decided to go and read the newspaper in the bedroom and leave him to it. I didn't say anything, I really didn't. I don't know if I got a disgusted expression on my face or not...likely, but I didn't say anything. Anyway, he gets up, turns off the TV and then goes and gets dressed and leaves for a couple of hours. Whatever! He was probably parking somewhere in the car watching TV because his wife was mean to him.

I read the newspaper, and then came back to the living room. I did some computer work and then someone came home. He was talking to me, but only barely. Kind of getting the silent treatment for a bit.

Around midnight I asked him if he'd mind if I watched Top Gear. If he was bothered by it, I would have watched it tomorrow night. He said it was okay, then left and went to bed. Boo hoo. Anyway, Top Gear was fun. Kristen Scott Thomas was on tonight, and she wasn't as funny as some of the people, but the host has a big crush on her so it was fun. They also drove tractors which is quite scary. I've driven tractors when I was a teenager and I was always petrified that they'd tip over on me or something. My sister had that happen to her and it was lucky she wasn't hurt.

I have a long day tomorrow so I really should get myself off to bed soon. I'm back to the dentist in the afternoon and should get my bridge I think. I hope I'll be okay to teach afterwards. Wish me luck! Night.

June 17, 2010

Thursday - Warm and sunny.

A good day. I went to bed a little late tonight, so I wasn't happy when I was awoken by a cat. Not a cute little fuzzy thing............ like thisbut a loud, slow-moving thing like this. It was passing by my window before 9 am. Grr. I'm am so not a good person to wake up. I got up for a while, tried to watch news, but I was denied! Sigh. Went back to bed for more sleep after a bit. Silly that, but felt good at the time.

I got up, showered, and then had a bit of leftover chicken salad. I spent a lot of the morning watching The Duchess with Keira Knightley and Ralph Fiennes. It was enjoyable and I felt for her in a way, but ultimately, I'm not sure if the movie actually had a point or not. She basically ended up the way she started. I read up on her on Wikipedia, so I know the story in the movie was a little whitewashed.

I got ready for work in the afternoon and left here just after 4. Luckily I made good time and got to my hot and toasty school quickly. I set up and changed.

Classes were fine tonight. The first one was finishing up the review. I think the student gets it, but he needs a lot of prompting. He needs more drilling I think.

Second class we spent rather a lot of time talking about the weekend and my student's guest. It was interesting and I think she enjoyed it. We did a touch of work at the end though.

I finished up and called F. Tonight for dinner we went to Moku-Moku and both had pasta. They had a Pasta Fair on so we got salad and drink bar with our pasta. Oh, yes, dessert too! We both had the same pasta, bacon and asparagus in a cream sauce. It was nice, but not exceedingly great.

We bought a few groceries in MaxValu, since we were close by and then came home and watched the end of ER. It was one of the ones with Jeannie Boulet back in the show. It was good to see her again.

F went off to bed an hour or more ago and I really should try and get to bed soon too. Yes, I say that every night, but I don't want to spend all of my day sleeping tomorrow. Gotta go. Night!

June 16, 2010

Wednesday - Rainy.

A good day. I did go to bed rather late last night, and then I couldn't sleep for ages. It was getting quite light out when I finally slept. I got up this morning on time, but then decided that I deserved a little extra sleep time! Not sure if that's really true, but I did it anyway.

When I got up I cooked our chicken for dinner. I was making chicken salad so I steamed a couple of chicken breasts and then let them cool down.

I spent some of the afternoon on my computer. Hurray.

Later on, I started to work on dinner. I made the chicken salad, and at the same time decided I was hungry so made up one of my precious Kraft dinner boxes. It was nice and I thought I should probably let F have some for dinner.

When F came home tonight, I sent him off to change right away and then we had dinner. It was quite nice. We had bought some cress sprouts yesterday and with the chicken salad sandwiches was a nice touch. I was a bit surprised when F had some macaroni and cheese on a sandwich. After he ate that, I pointed out the bowl of chicken salad and suggested that he have some of it. He didn't know that it was the main dish. Bah! Crazy guy.

F did the dishes and then we headed out. We were going to the new movie theater in town. I'm quite pleased, there's a lovely new theater that has just opened. Tonight we wanted to see The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, so we did. We got to the theater about an hour early. There wasn't much to do there, but it was okay. They will be playing mostly Japanese movies I think, but they will occasionally play English Language ones. Coming soon is Up in the Air, which I really want to see, and Predators. I didn't really want to see it until I saw the cast list.The cast includes Laurence Fishburne and Adrien Brody. Hmm. Intriguing.

Our movie was quite good. We enjoyed ourselves and the theater was nice and comfortable. It was small, but had good sound, and comfy seats.

We bought a few groceries and then came home and watched Desperate Housewives. It was fun as usual. F went off to bed a little after midnight and I'm hoping to get an earlier night tonight than last night. Fingers crossed.

Have a good night.

1000th Post

I finally came up with a plan for this, my 1000th blog post. I have decided to mention a few things for which I am thankful.

1) I'm thankful for my gypsy childhood. Living in so many different countries before I was twelve gave me quite an interesting perspective on life.
2) For having parents that loved me, and a sister who, although I exasperate her, has been an amazing source of support in my life.
3) For books, even the ones I don't like! I have spent so many happy hours reading and learning.
4) For Friendship, with a capital F. For my friends near and far, both those I have met and those that I haven't met in person, yet.
5) For my students, who have taught me so much about perseverance and patience.
6) For my Funny Fellow who goes by F these days...for loving me, supporting me, and making me laugh even when I don't want to, I'm so grateful for you, m'darlin'.
7) For my readers...I know you're out there. Please delurk and say "Hello!" You know who I am, I'd like to know who you are.

June 15, 2010

Tuesday - Hot and sunny, rain at night.

A good day. Last night after I posted I was early, so I decided to watch an episode of The Big Bang Theory before bed. I still ended up in bed earlier than usual. Yay for me.

This morning I got hubby to round up the cans to take out for garbage. I do most of the other things, but since someone else produces more metal waste than me, he gets to deal with it! He did, which was great.

When my alarm went off this morning I got up and checked for news. None. I checked email and then did a few other on-line things, but took my shower fairly early. I had a good but quiet morning.

I cooked my brunch around 1 and then left for work just before 2 pm. I made good time and worked on getting my school cooled down right away. (In other words, I turned on my AC!)

My student came on time and we had a great class. She hasn't been able to come for almost 2 months so it was nice to see her. After class, she stayed and chatted a bit, then headed off.

I had a couple of hours free so I had some tea and read the newspapers. I got one of them done, but it was the big Sunday one.

My next student came, but could only stay for 20 minutes. We talked about novels and a possible next textbook for her. She had business in another city so had to leave. Still, I was glad to see her.

The student in the last class had emailed earlier to say she couldn't come to class so I was finished. I did my paperwork, then some lesson checking for the next day of classes. Then, I read my other two newspapers and relaxed a bit before finally calling my husband to come and get me.

We had a nice dinner at New York, New York and then did a little grocery shopping. If F finishes work early enough tomorrow then we'll eat a quick dinner at home and then hopefully go to the new theater in town to see a movie. If not, well, we'll still have dinner at home!

We watched the American Idol repeat and then F went to bed. I've been up for a while blogging, checking the blogs I read and looking for interesting internet radio stations to listen to. I just found one that is dedicated to people who became famous on TV. It's mostly American Idol, but I heard someone from the Australian Idol a few minutes ago. It's rather cool actually. I keep hoping I'll hear someone that I know from season 8! (That's the only season of American Idol I've ever seen.)

Anyway, I am out of here. Have a good night eh?

June 14, 2010

Monday - Cloudy and warm, but cooler than yesterday.

A nice day. F was off to work before I even woke up this morning. I tend to wake up early and then go back to sleep. Today, I did that too. Sigh.

When I got up, I thought about taking a shower. I know I should have, but somehow I never got around to it. Oh dear.

I watched the movie I taped last night, I Love You Man. It was a "bromance" and I quite liked it. It was about a man who didn't have any real male friends and tried to make one so he'd have a Best Man at his wedding. Much better than it had to be!

I watched some of Grey's Anatomy after the movie and then rode off to the post office. I had to make a payment to a person in Tokyo. I'm buying some novels from her. I could probably bookmooch them, but I had a chance to get 4 Dick Francis novels at once, so I took it. After the post office, I toddled off to the convenience store to get a sandwich for my lunch.

I came home and ate and watched Cold Case. Yep, it's back. Hurray. The next season will be starting soon on WOWOW so they run the old episodes. After that, I watched the weekend's episodes of CSI and got my murder fix for the day! Both shows were very good, especially CSI New York.

F came home a bit before 6 and I gave him a cold drink as soon as he came home. It wasn't a martini or anything exotic, just some Japanese tea, but he seemed to like it.

We went out for dinner tonight to Togashi, the yakiniku shop we like. We had a lovely dinner there, with a mixture of dishes, not just meat.

Groceries were bought on the way home and then we were home. F went to bed fairly early, but I'm up. However, it isn't all that late yet. I am hoping to get to bed early tonight because I have a busier day tomorrow than I've had in a bit.

Anyway, today was a good day. I only hope that tomorrow goes as well as today did. Night!

June 13, 2010

Sunday - Sunny and hot, a bit muggy too.

A good day. We both went to bed late last night, but as usual for a Sunday, F got up much earlier than me. He was on the couch snoozing when I did an early washroom run. I went back to bed and sleep. My alarm went off at 11 and I gradually came back to life. I did get a big chuckle when I noticed what he was doing. I could hear the TV and I noticed that he was wearing the headphones! Silly man.

I got up and got dressed. We had a quick bite at home of English muffins and then headed out. We were on our way to the Kokusai Mura for the International Festival they have every year. But, on the way there....something happened.

We were driving along and came to a busy intersection. It doesn't have any lights so at times it can be a bit tricky. We were going to turn left and I noticed that there were a man and a woman on the right side, about to cross at the crosswalk there. We made the turn, and as we turned, I saw that the man fell and was lying in the street. I gasped, and F turned to me and said "What happened?" I told him about the man, he had noticed him before the turn too. F pulled the car over to the side of the road, and got out and ran over to the man.

The woman that was there turned out to be his wife and between the two of them, they helped the man up and across the road. F helped hold the man while his wife went back over the street to get her bicycle. F had of course suggested that they call an ambulance, but the woman said they lived nearby and didn't want him to do that. Once the man was across the street he seemed not too bad. Maybe it was the step off the curb that threw him off balance.

Anyway, I was really proud of F for going over and helping out. It sometimes seems like Japanese people aren't very helpful towards each other, but F was great. Yay him.

We made it over to the International Center and went and looked at the food on offer. Some of it looked really yummy. We ended up finally getting some chap chae and some yakiniku from the Korean booth. We met up with one of my students and her guest. Her guest is an American teen on a one month trip to Japan, so we all chatted for a bit. After a bit I pleaded too much sun and we left.

We had a drink at Doutors (their new orzo one), then came home and took naps! It was so hot today, I was just drained.

A bit after 5:30 I woke up and changed my shirt for the evening. Tonight we had dinner reservations for Al Checcino, the famous (in this area) Italian restaurant in Kushibiki. We drove there and had a wonderful meal.

We had sashimi calpachio, risotto, then wonderful rare beef, followed by some gorgeous pasta. F had a pepperoncino and I had a fabulous mushroomy pasta in a creamy mushroom sauce. It was so good. For dessert they brought us two different cakes and we took our pick of them. F had a strawberry thing that was nice and I had a cheesecake-y thing made with gorgonzola and some other cheese. It was much better than it sounds! F had some freshly ground coffee and I had herb tea afterwards. Very, very nice meal. I guess the restaurant deserves its reputation after all!

We came home and had a quiet evening in. We did watch Hot Shots tonight at F's request. It was very funny. Some of the jokes are so culture based that I'm sure F didn't get them, but he got enough of them that he loves the movie too. It's up there with Airplane in his favourites I think.

Anyway, that was my day today. It was good. Tomorrow, I may head down to the post office as I need to send money for some books I'm buying. Wish me luck with that. Got to go. Night!