September 30, 2016

Friday - Sunny but cool

A good day.

I’m going to go to sleep soon since I am really tired. I got up early this morning.  I had a fairly good day.  

F came home at night and just crashed for a few hours.  I ended up cooking dinner at 10 pm.  It was good, but a bit late.

During the day I got a few things done, but not all that I should have.  I still have some laundry to do next week.

Tomorrow, I’m not sure what I’ll get up to, come back and find out!  Until tomorrow….

September 29, 2016

Thursday - Rainy then clearing

We’re back from Seoul.  We had a great time  there, although I got a bit too much sun on Monday and it rained all of Tuesday. If I have time I’ll try and write up a post about it, but don’t hold your breath.

Last night we stayed in Sendai, did a few things like see a movie (Sully), shopping, and eating out.  I took F to a place that I visited with a friend earlier this year and I over-indulged in french fries and got rather sick last night.  I had an early night last night.

Today, we had breakfast in the hotel, I made a mad and successful dash to a post office for Gotochi cards and then we left the city.  Before we were able to leave, F had a brain freeze and thought he’d lost the car keys.  He went back to the hotel to look for them, made arrangements to have his car towed out of the parking building and then came back and found them in his pants from yesterday’s pockets. In his suitcase.  Where I had told him to look already.  He phoned to have the towing cancelled again.  

We went to Costco in Yamagata, had lunch there and then did a little shopping.  It was a tad expensive, but we renewed our membership and bought a pre-paid card for gas, so actually got more than it seemed.  I got a new jacket there and a book, got more quinoa, some tuna, potatoes, broccoli and avocados. We couldn’t find any tortilla chips this trip though.   That was a first.

We had a drink (me) and some frozen yogurt (us) before we left Costco and started the drive home.  We made good time and when we came home I quickly checked the fridge and then we headed out again to buy groceries.  Neither of us wanted to go to a restaurant so we bought take out sushi and came home and had it.  

We had a fairly quiet evening.  F went to bed early as he’s not feeling well.  I had a bit of a cold when I left and maybe he’s caught it now?  I hope not.  He’s a bit worried about a work situation so I hope that things work out for him when he gets there.

Well, that’s it for me for now.  I’ll try talking again later.  Until tomorrow….

September 22, 2016

Thursday - Cloudy and Rainy

A good day.

I got up this morning to an empty apartment, so I did my usual stuff.  I watched The X-Files, had breakfast and tea.  F came home and I kept watching my other show too.  Afterwards, I took a quick shower and then we went for lunch.  

I had suggested Cafe Studio Cinq, so that’s where we went.  It was very nice today, as always, although F thought it was too expensive.  Gah.  

We went to Musashi for a couple of things and then ended up at the Internet Cafe.  I wasn’t terribly pleased to be honest as I hadn’t taken my bag of things to do with me.  Still, I thought I’d spend some time surfing the web or whatever.  We arrive and F was able to get a massaging chair, but I wasn’t.  I went to a reclining chair and watched The Rock, or part of it.  I chuckle a lot at that film, Sean Connery, a 60+ year old man manages to do what the Marines/special army guys can’t do.  

The staff worker came to tell me that I could change to a massaging chair at the very end of the film.  It took a few minutes and I missed the end.  Sigh.  And then, I tried to watch YouTube, but for some reason it had no volume at all!  So, basically, I had a boring time, with the exception of watching The Rock and a bit of Agent Carter.  

After a long while, F came to get me and we checked out.  He suggested Tonkatsu for dinner and as it had been a long time since we’d had it, I was fine with it.  We went to our usual place and had a nice meal.  The restaurant wasn’t too busy, but it seemed to take a long time to get our meal!

Next up, we bought a few groceries.  We are planning to get bento for dinner tomorrow night, since we don’t want to leave a lot of mess behind in our apartment.  I might get Subway if I have the chance, although that is a little doubtful.  

I made us some tea and watched Bones and did some crochet during it.  F went to bed fairly early as he has to go back to work tomorrow.  

The two panels of my upcoming poncho.  Same colours, totally different looks!

So that was my day.  It was quite nice to be honest.  Tomorrow I need to do a few household chores and finish my packing.  

I’m not sure if I’ll update tomorrow night.  I might try and get an early night, but you never know.  I won’t be around for around a week, so don’t miss me too much!  Until……?

September 21, 2016

Wednesday - Sunny and warmer

A good day.

I got up on time this morning, and watched The X-Files.  I had my lovely overnight oats and really enjoyed them too along with some tea.  I tried to have a relaxing morning, but F popped home once to pick something up.  

I finally got dressed and then made the bed, I got out of the way so that F could use the kitchen.  I watched a bit of TV and enjoyed it too. I got caught up on a lot of my weekend telly and finally got around to packing my suitcase.  I’m not finished yet, but I did put things in and thought about the outfits that I plan to make and wear.  I am taking a few extra shirts and things in case I spill or have some kind of accident happen.  

F came home around 6:30 and I cooked dinner then too.  It was quite simple tonight, just lemon pepper chicken, tofu, cucumber sticks and salad.  F had rice with his too.  I didn’t go to a huge effort which I’m glad about. 

F did the dishes and then proceeded to have a couple of beers too.  He was in bed by 10:10 I think!  I went to the couch and had a couple of hours of crochet fun while I watched a couple of programmes.  

After my shows, I did up the garbage for F to take out in the morning.  If he doesn’t take it out, it’ll all have to stay in our apartment until we get back, which I really don’t want!  Actually, I think he’d take it over to his mother’s for HER to put it out, but that’s not right.  

I’ll most likely be back tomorrow night.  Thursday is a national holiday here and I have no idea what we’re going to get up to.  It’ll be one of F’s last chances to pack for the trip, so I don’t know if we’ll be gallivanting around the city or not.  I hope to go and have a drink out at least! 

Come back later and find out all about our day.  Until tomorrow….

September 20, 2016

Tuesday - Rainy and cooler

An okay day.

I got up in time to watch The X-Files and did.  I had a nice breakfast and some tea too.  I dozed off between my shows, but somehow managed to wake up in time for the second one.  Yay me.

F came home about 3 times during the day and phoned me at least twice.  It was a bit annoying since I had wanted to get some work done, but find him being home a huge distraction.  I can live with him coming home for lunch, but the popping in drives me to distraction.  I was just going to have lunch when he came home.  Gah!

I looked up some tours again, but didn’t book anything.  I have a basic plan for the first day, but would like to have a little leeway in what we do.  I think if we schedule ourselves too much, we won’t have any fun.  I suggested either contacting the travel company office in Seoul or the hotel, or a tourist office and asking them to book the tours that we want there.  I don’t know if F trusts me though.  

He cooked dinner tonight.  He made nabe.  It was okay, but to be honest, he uses a soup base for soba and I just don’t like it.  It doesn’t taste like anything.  I had requested a chicken consommé base earlier but I was overruled.  And, F used the shimeji that I bought for my cooking of dinner tomorrow night in his nabe!  I was a tad put out.  He offered to get more, but it’s probably fine.  Probably!

After dinner I did the dishes and then looked up more tour stuff.  I put on Criminal Minds at 11 pm and watched it and did a few rows of crochet.  I am still enjoying the work. F went to bed a while ago, and I am still up, but planning on going to bed any day now!

Tomorrow I will be cooking dinner, hopefully get a few things packed into my suitcase, and maybe do a bit of vacuuming.  I bet I don’t get anything done again.  Sigh.  Come back later and see!  Until tomorrow…. 

September 19, 2016

Monday - Cloudy with scattered rain

An okay day.

I slept in a bit this morning, but finally got up.  It was so dark outside that it seemed like night.  I showered and got dressed.  Then, I decided to change my clothes and wore one of my new things from Saturday.  It was a good idea and I was terribly comfortable all day!

We tried to have lunch at Hyakkenbori, but it was quite busy, so went to Futaba instead.  That was really nice.  I had fish and F had pork for lunch!  We had the opposite of what we usually have.  After lunch, we tried to go for coffee, but the coffee shop was closed.  

We ended up at the Chido Museum to see an exhibit of a Yamagata artist, Y Sugawara.  Surprisingly, I liked his paintings and thought they were rather good. I liked getting up close to see the brushstrokes, but found they were greatly improved from a distance!  I even recognized one of the places in the picture, so yay me. 

We checked out the garden and the pond as usual.  It looked nice and I even got F to take a picture of me.  However, he didn’t tell me when he was going to take the picture so I didn’t smile in any of them.  Sad!

Sort of an OOTD pic.

We went to the coffee shop/restaurant that is next to the museum afterwards.  I had an iced coffee and F had a huge kakigori!  I could have had one, but they only had one made with red beans and I didn’t think I would like it.  The waitress did bring F a small bowl with his kakigori, so he gave me a bit.  It was okay but I really think it was too much!

We came home for a while after our drinks and looked into a tour for when we are away.  I didn’t have a lot of luck so I suggested that F sign up for it instead.  We ended up going for dinner.  

Today we went to the little restaurant near the theatre that we’ve gone to twice before now.  They have reasonable, locally sourced food, with all you can eat rice, miso soup and pickles. I had chicken namban which was a bit disappointing, and F had chicken steak which he quite liked.  I’ve had it before and should have had it tonight too.  

After dinner, we had an hour before our movie started, so I suggested doing our shopping.  We went to our grocery store and picked up a few things.  Tomorrow F is going to do a nabe and on Wednesday I’ll do some chicken.  Yay us.  

We brought home the groceries and then went out and saw Now You See Me 2.  It wasn’t a necessity to see the movie, but F seemed to want to go.  I liked it, but wouldn’t go again, F fell asleep on it at the beginning, but liked it overall.  

We came home and I made us a cup of decaf coffee each and we tried to book the boat tour.  F had to register for it and it sounded odd, so I tried in English.  They kept flipping me into PayPal, which I did NOT want to use, so I gave up on it too.  I looked up other companies, but they were charging exorbitant fees so I told F we’ll try and book something when we get there.  Maybe the hotel or the tour company will do it for us.  

So, that was my day.  It wasn’t bad at all.  F and I didn’t argue, which is sort of amazing. We didn’t do a whole lot of things, but it was nice to have a bit of a lazy day for a change.  Come back later and find out how Tuesday goes.  Until tomorrow….

September 18, 2016

Sunday - Cloudy

A good day.

We both slept in today.  Or did we?  I slept in.  I actually went to bed before F did.  He was still up when I made a trip to the loo, and came to bed soon after that.  He didn’t sleep, and got up again.  When I finally got up around noon, he still hadn’t slept much.  His neck was really bothering him.

We stripped our bed today and turned the mattress, then went out for lunch.  I picked Bikkuri Donkey!! and it was okay.  I had a different dish today, a burger with bacon on it, and we shared a salad.

After lunch we drove off to the laundromat and washed some of our bedding.  It didn’t take that long, which is a little sad as I really hoped to get a lot of my book read.  I did read a bit though so that was good.  When we were done, we came home and made the bed.  

I tried to take a nap later, but failed. After a bit, F went to his house to check on his mother and then we went out for dinner.  We went to a Korean restaurant and had some yummy food.  We came straight home afterwards.  I had sort of wanted to go for coffee, but didn’t actually say it plainly for F.

When we got home, we watched Creed and I have  to say I was pleasantly surprised.  I quite enjoyed the movie.  I think F liked it too.  I did some crochet while I was watching, I got 4 rows done, so yay me.  

F went to bed and is sleeping, but I’m not sure how well.  His neck is bothering him and there’s a typhoon in the offing, so it might be bad for a bit.  

I’m not sure what we’re going to do on Monday.  I’d like to go for coffee or something, but it doesn’t really matter.  I also have to start thinking about packing!  

Come back later and find out what we get up to.  Until tomorrow.  

September 17, 2016

Saturday - Cloudy and then rainy

A very nice day!

I went to bed rather late this morning, so when my alarms went off to day, I got up, checked my email and then went back to bed.  I woke up around 11 am and got up for good.  

F asked about lunch and I suggested a fish restaurant that he often suggests for us, so I think I made brownie points.  Yay.  And…this is huge…he asked me if he should cancel the free tour on our trip.  YES!  I said, "Yes, please!"

We had a lovely lunch and then we did a bit of running around.  My wallet that I have had for years fell apart a couple of days ago and I wanted to see if I could have it repaired.  It was expensive when I got it and it is more a case of the leather coming out of the frame than a rip or anything, so I think it can be fixed.  The first place F took me to said they couldn’t, the second place, a shop in the mall took it and said they’d check into it.  Of course, if the repair is too expensive I won’t do it, but basically the wallet looks like it is in good condition apart from this.  I’ve been stuffing too many shopper point cards in my wallet.  Sigh.  I bought F a drink at Doutor and we toured the hundred yen shop. 

We took a trip over to Yamada Denki to get an adapter plug for our trip and then we toodled over to Shimamura, a Japanese clothing store.  We spent a bit of time there and I tried on a lot of clothes.  Most fit fairly well (yay!) and I ended up getting a long cardigan, a long t-shirt dress and a short t-shirt/top thing.  All of them are in shades of grey…

We followed that up with a quick/not so quick trip to a hundred yen shop that we don’t go to very often.  A few things for the apartment and us were picked up there.  We also grabbed a few things to eat.

We drove home and had our snacks and then left again to go to the Night Bazaar on Sanno-Machi, near downtown.  It rained a bit on us so when we got there, people were starting to pack up and leave.  We looked around a little, bought a small pizza made by one of the area’s premiere restaurants.  That provided one of the few bad times of today.  F just would not stop somewhere and let me eat the damn pizza!  He kept trying to find a “place to sit” but honestly…I wanted my pizza hot! Finally, I pulled him off the road a little into a quiet area and said, “Now let’s eat!”  It was good, but would have been better if it was hotter.

After we walked the length of the road, the rain was stronger and people were leaving, and the tents were being packed up, so we left too.  I suggested going down main street and having something else to eat there.  F suggested yakiniku, so that’s what we did.

We went to a local place and had some really good meat.  He had a beer and I had oolong tea.  After an hour or so, we left for home.  We stopped into a convenience store for a washroom and some ice cream, then went on our merry way home.

We came home and had a quiet evening.  F has been watching all kinds of boring sports, but honestly, I don’t mind that much as I’m paying attention to my computer.

So, that was my day.  It was really good and I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the rest of the weekend is as good.  Come back later and find out what I get up to.  Until tomorrow….

September 16, 2016

Friday - Warm and Sunny

A good day.  Rather than stay up any longer, I have decided to just blog the food that we were served at the restaurant Luna in Tsuruoka.  It was a lovely meal and we both really enjoyed ourselves.

I complain about F a lot, but he is a lovely guy most of the time!

September 15, 2016

Thursday - Sunny and warm

A good day.

I got up early this morning and decided to just stay up.  I think I did snooze a little on the couch later, but no matter.  I didn’t have breakfast or coffee until later than usual. 

I expected F to come home for lunch, but he didn’t.  I was quite glad of that.  I watched some of the stuff off the DVR, especially Agents of Shield.  I really am enjoying that show.  I’m not sure why, I just do.  

I did some laundry today, a lot actually, and I did a spot of cleaning too.  I folded up some clothes and put them away too.  I noticed when I was putting clothes in the washing machine that the lint trap had a huge hole in it, so I sewed it up.  It wasn’t a beautiful job, but hopefully it’ll do the job for a while.

I scanned my cards and after my late lunch I ran them to the post office.  I came home another way and got a lovely view of Mt. Chokai in the background.  

When I got home, I started working on dinner.  I did some eggplants as a stir-fry, so got the ingredients ready and prepped everything else for when F came home.  

When F came home he said he was tired, but did laundry and then sat on the couch and watched TV.  It might have been the news, but I must have asked him 5 times to come to the table when things were ready and he ignored me.  The pasta was basically ruined but we both ate it anyway.  The eggplant was quite nice.  

After dinner, F made a big scene about feeling dizzy and let me know that my putting things away off the table was annoying for him.  I really didn’t know what he was on about.  I always clear the table and put things away because he doesn’t/won’t.  Then, since he was such a delicate flower, I did the dishes too.  He protested, but I told him I didn’t want him fainting and breaking any of them.  I do believe him that he wasn’t feeling well, he didn’t drink much today and it was warm. He could have just asked me nicely if I’d do them.  

I had planned Postcrossings for tonight, but didn’t do any.  Instead I did some crochet during Bones.  My other programmes weren’t on tonight so I just chilled.

Tomorrow night we have a dinner date if F gets home in time from work.  I’m not completely sure that I will be updating, so please don’t wait up for me.  Come back later, in a day or two, and see what I’ve been up to.  Until tomorrow?

September 14, 2016

Wednesday - Partly Sunny, warmer

A good day.

I got up this morning and did my usual things, except I took a shower around 10:00 today.  After that, I watched my show, surfed the net a little and watched more TV.  F came home for lunch, but my friend arrived so I had to leave.

We went over to Pisolino, the Italian buffet place.  She had a hankering for salad, and I’m always happy to go and get salad and other nice things to eat. She got a lovely pizza and I had pasta and we both helped ourselves to the buffet.  We had some great chats and then went over to a clothing store across the way.  We had a bit of a snoop and found some nice things.  We didn’t buy the said nice things, but I did tell F that I’d like to go back this weekend!  

She dropped me off at home and went on her way.

I came into the apartment, watched a bit of the news and then got stuck into dinner prep.  I had planned originally to cook pasta, but since I had it for lunch, changed my mind.  I prepared the chicken I bought last night for cooking, made an eggplant dish and when F called to say he had finished work, was just about ready to start cooking.  When he came home, I popped the chicken in the toaster oven and by the time he finished his shower, had everything ready.  

We had marinated eggplant, salad, lemon pepper chicken, and miso soup.  There was even cut up nashi for dessert.  Things were really nice and F seemed to enjoy dinner.  I’m beginning to wonder if he likes having at least one dish with “the Japanese taste”.  The eggplant was very gingery and was quite good I thought.  I’m not a huge fan of ginger, but I didn’t mind this.  

I started the dishes after dinner, but F actually took over from me and did the rest.  Yay.  He watched a bit of telly, but I took over the TV from 10 pm on.  I had some tea and watched Blindspot.  We had our nashi around 11 too.  F went to bed, but I’m still up of course.  

I did some crochet tonight and I also did a couple of postcrossing cards.  I feel like I’m falling behind lately.  I’m not getting many out each week.  I just seem so busy all the time!  That’s my opinion, not really a fact.  

Not sure what I’ll get up to on Thursday, but F booked us into a fancy restaurant on Friday night for our anniversary dinner.  I’m looking forward to that.  I might even wear a dress or something…I’ll have to see about that though!

Come back later and check out my Thursday happenings.  Until tomorrow….

September 13, 2016

Tuesday - Cloudy and cooler

A good day.

I got up this morning and watched The X-Files and had my breakfast.  I had some tea as well.  I had made overnight oatmeal last night, so it was a nice and no-stress way to start the day.

I made the bed and even got dressed during Burn Notice.  F was around the whole morning.  He hadn’t gone to his mother’s this morning as he said he was planning to do. 

We had lunch at a new place that F found out about recently.  It used to be a bento shop, but now it is a teeny little restaurant.  It is one of those places with good food but too many tables.  We were up against a wall at the back counter.  I had chicken which I hoped was just fried, but was actually deep fried, and F had steak donburi. Mine was good, but his looked much better!  The music was great for me, all 80’s music!  I enjoyed that part of the visit.

We went to Tokai after lunch and I picked up a new sunhat, partly for the trip, and partly for putting away until next spring.  It feels slightly Audrey Hepburnish! Next up, we went to the car dealership as F wants to have some work done on the car.  They were having a half holiday or something today, so there weren’t many staff around.  

We had coffee or tea at Doutors and then went to the 100 yen shop.  I got a couple of binders that I am planning to use for my Gotochi cards.  F got a few things too.  

We came home and after a little while I got so sleepy that I went into the bedroom and took a nap.  F thought I was hinting at something (I wasn’t) so followed me into the bedroom.  The fact that I fell asleep convinced him that he should fall asleep too, which he did.  I woke up a couple of hours later and got up, it took him a bit longer.

When F was awake, we decided to go to the new fish restaurant and went by car.  We were given a private room to eat in, which was nice, but it was next door to a really noisy group, which wasn’t.  We did have quite a nice meal though.  I had a negitoro-ikura donburi and F had negitoro and maguro.  We shared a cheese senbei which was cool and we weren’t sure what it was exactly!

We picked up a few groceries after dinner.  I think I’ll cook tomorrow night. It’ll just be something simple like pasta, but nice enough.  F might take us out for dinner on Thursday or Friday, I’m not sure.

We came home, and vegged a bit.  I watched Criminal Minds which was a bit odd as two of the guest stars are from other shows that I watch, and I had seen it before, probably when I was in Canada last year.  I sat on the couch and did some crochet on my lovely poncho.  Still having fun with it!

When midnight came around I gave F his anniversary present…a dvd of Creed, the latest in the Rocky/Stallone movies.  He seemed quite pleased, and sad that he hadn’t got me anything.  I told him how annoyed I was with him that he had watched half of the movie at the Internet Cafe earlier this month….he’d also asked that we go there today so he could watch the rest of the it!  My going to sleep ended that.  

Tomorrow I’m having lunch with my friend from the next city and then I’ll be cooking dinner as I said.  I just hope that tomorrow will be a good day.  Come back later and find out!  Until tomorrow….

September 12, 2016

Monday - Cloudy and rainy, cooler

A good day.

I got up this morning at my usual time, had breakfast and did watch The X-Files.  Carrie Hamilton was in this one and it was rather good…sort of like a sad Groundhog Day. I had breakfast and tea while I waited for F.  

I took a shower and got dressed.  I watched the end of Burn Notice and waited for F.  Then, I watched Agents of Shield and waited for F.  Finally at 1pm I went to the bedroom for a nap.  He came back quite a bit later.  He did have a reason though.  I knew that the Emperor and Empress were in our city, I just didn’t know that their motorcade was going past the local museum.  The streets were packed apparently, and F couldn’t get through.  He was too busy trying to take photos of the Royals to think of phoning me!

We went out for a nice dinner to Hyakkenbori.  Their special today was grilled salmon, so we both had that.  I was very pleased with it.  We had tea or coffee then too and went over to the train station.  I bought train tickets for my trip to Niigata next month.  I was trying to get a special offer, but it was only for people staying over for one night, not two.  Sigh.  Oh Japan, be more flexible!

We went to Aomoriya, the fruit shop and went to their newly renovated tea room for tea and tarts.  I had a nice fig and grape tart, F had an autumn fruit tart.  We both had the house blend tea and it was great.  We sat overlooking the street and watched people go by.  We also talked about going to see Suicide Squad today and discussed the showing.  Usually we go to the late show, but I knew that F was tired.  He asked that we go to the 5:25 one, which was fine with me.  

Yummy Fig and Grape tart,  tea, and street scene.

We made a brief stop at home to pick up jackets and use the washroom, then drove out to Mikawa.  We went to the theatre right away, got our tickets and went in to the movie.  We saw Suicide Squad and like Two-Face in the old Batman movies, I am of two minds about the film.  I did enjoy some of the characters.  I liked Will Smith as Deadshot, Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn, and Viola Davis as Amanda Waller, I didn’t like Leto as Joker and I thought the final villain was a bit silly.  Still, overall I was entertained but I don’t know if I need to see this film again or not!

We had bibinba for dinner at the mall after the movie.  I had a normal sized one, F had one that was huge!  He said he was hungry but after he finished it, he said it was too big!

We drove back to Tsuruoka and bought me some soy milk at the store and then came home.  We watched a little bit of TV and are both still up at almost 3 am.  I’m surprised that F is still up, but don’t want to bug him by saying so!

Tomorrow I’m hoping that we’ll finally do some laundry at a laundromat and start discussing rationally what we are going to do on this horrid trip that is coming up all to soon. Keep your fingers crossed for me that we don’t get into another pointless argument again!  Until tomorrow…. 

September 11, 2016

Sunday - Cloudy and cooler

A good day.

I got up this morning after my usual Sunday morning sleep in.  I did feel a little bit sorry for F because he had such an early morning today, but It is Sunday, and I had to do it!

I did get busy when I got up, I made the bed, which I usually don’t do on Sunday, and I did some laundry too, also, not usually done on Sunday!  I had breakfast and coffee for a change and just enjoyed myself for a change.  I caught up with some of my computer things and also the TV on the DVR.  Yay.

I had a lovely lunch of English muffins and tomatoes, and then scanned my postcards from last night.  I ran them off to the post office and enjoyed getting out of the apartment for a little while.

I came home and started to get ready for dinner.  I actually used a cookbook tonight and found a recipe, and another from Cookpad.  I did quite a bit of prep and got things so they were ready to go when F came home.  He texted me a bit and finally called me to say he’d be home soon.  

F was exhausted when he arrived home.  He ate his lunch bento and I asked if he still wanted dinner.  He did, so I quickly cooked and then served dinner.  It was really nice.  We had a quick omelette with shrimp and peas from Steamy Kitchen, and a zucchini salad from Washoku.com.  We also had tofu and salad.  There was dessert too, but F didn’t eat very much.  It was just fresh fruit, nashi pear.  

F crawled into bed as soon as he finished eating and I haven’t seen much of him since.  I hope he doesn’t wake up now as he’s had to be up and our around this time for the last two days.  It is now 4 am and I need to get some sleep!

I’m not sure what we’ll get up to tomorrow.  I don’t know if we’ll be able to discuss what on earth happened last week or if it is better to just let it slide.  Come back in a while and find out about my day.  Until tomorrow….

September 10, 2016

Saturday - Rainy and cloudy

A much better day.

I got up this morning just a little later than a weekday and got dressed and made the bed.  Then I did something that wasn’t so usual.  I went out in to the apartment lobby and swept it.  F and I are on duty this month.  He’d done it a couple of times, but I hadn’t.  I did a very thorough job, went upstairs, did the steps too, the works.  

I came back in, washed up and then had breakfast and watched a couple of BBC shows on the telly.  I watched a couple of episodes of Once Upon a Time too, and then was just settling in to watch Agents of Shield when F came home.  What?  So early?  He had said he’d be most of the day.  

He was reasonably chatty for a change and told me that he’d finished for today.  Tomorrow he’ll be back later in the afternoon.  He’d also dropped his cellphone and smashed the glass on it.  It still worked, but looked awful. I had been about to have my lunch at home, but F asked if I was hungry and wanted to go out.  I said yes and yes. 

I tried to find a place on Facebook, but instead, found another that we hadn’t been to before, so we decided to try it.  It was a little cafe with Italian food, so off we went.  We got in just before last order and had some very nice pasta.  The set came with salad, soup, bread and a drink.  We added on dessert too. 

Lunch was great and we both enjoyed being in a new place.  I’ll have to remember it when I go out with my friend again.  

I suggested popping into our cell phone provider’s store on the way back from the restaurant to see if F could get his phone fixed and if I could have something done about the spam I’m receiving on my phone.  

We went in and were trapped for the next 3 hours!  I jest, but only a little.  They increased the filter protection on my phone so that was good, but poor F.  He decided to upgrade his phone, so got a newer model and made some kind of difference to his (our?) service package.  We went in a little after 3 to the office, we left a little after 6.  I asked F jokingly if he thought it was time for dinner, and he did.  I knew he had to have an early night, so we found a Chinese style restaurant that is okay for both of us and had dinner.  We ended up by buying a few groceries at the shop and then coming home.  I watched a couple of hours of TV and did a few Postcrossing cards up.  I’ll get them ready to go out tomorrow.

So, that’s about it.  F has another really early morning coming up, and then he’s off for a couple of days.  I’m hoping that he’ll have a good day and be in a reasonable mood when he comes home tomorrow night.  

Tomorrow I have a few things that I’d like to do, including getting my cards ready to send off, and watching some of the TV on the DVR.  Come back in a bit and see what I manage to accomplish.  Until tomorrow….

September 9, 2016

Friday - Rainy and cooler

A mostly quiet sad day.

I woke up last night around 5:30.  I may have dozed off a bit until it was time to get up, but I’m not sure.  I got up early for me, so that I could take out the plastic garbage, since I wasn’t sure if F would do it.  

That done, I came back in and tidied up the bedding and spent a bit of time in the kitchen.  I had my usual quiet morning and watched a bit of TV.  I was surprised that White Collar wasn’t on this morning.  They used to replay Castle on Friday mornings but they didn’t show White Collar today. 

During the day I watched some of my TV that I had taped during the week, and finished all but one program I think.  I made sure to have lunch today too.  F came home for lunch and was almost friendly.  I asked him if I should cook dinner tonight and he didn’t say no. I asked him to just call me when he was on his way home so that I could start the pasta.

I had a good and quiet afternoon and then F just showed up.  I was rather disappointed that he didn’t call, so I asked him if he wanted me to cook dinner.  He didn’t.  So, I put all the dishes away from the table and then made my dinner.  I concocted a mixture of mashed potato and canned tuna which I fried.  It was quite nice honestly! 

I cleaned up my dishes and spent a lot of time being quiet in the corner.  F went to bed early as he has a very early work assignment tomorrow morning.  I’ll probably go to bed fairly soon.  

We didn’t shout at each other today, and chatted a little about inconsequential stuff, so that is better, but things still aren’t good.

Tomorrow I’m at home alone, not sure for how long.  I’ll hopefully be able to update later on too.  Until tomorrow….

September 8, 2016

Thursday - Rainy and Humid, Cooler

Another bad day.  

I woke up fairly early so that I could check to see if F took out the garbage when he left.  He did, so I went back to bed for a little.  After that, I got up and watched The X-Files and then Burn Notice.  I enjoyed my breakfast and my tea too.

F didn’t come home for lunch, so I got to enjoy my time alone.  In the afternoon, I decided to clear off my side of the kitchen table.  It has become a dumping ground for F’s crap over the years.  I asked him to clean it off at Christmas and he didn’t, and it has been driving me nuts.  So, today, I cleaned it. When I finished my side, I did the other side for good measure too!  I threw out a bunch of flyers and crap we didn’t need, and made two piles of papers for him.  Some was stuff that I thought he might need, the other was things that I thought were garbage, but really should be looked at just in case.  It took ages.  I also cleaned the coffee pot and threw out a bunch of old jars and junk that I didn’t really want.  

F popped home for a minute in the middle of me doing that and then left again. He didn’t seem too impressed with me.

When he came home a few hours later, he was still incredibly rude and angry.  I tried to explain about the two piles of stuff, so he did what he always does.  He got a box out and put all the stuff from the table in a box and put it in the tatami room.  I’m quite sure that he’ll never open it again unless he needs something from the box.  

He started making himself some ramen and since I hadn’t even had lunch yet and didn’t want to stay home any longer, I got changed.  I went out.  

I walked over to Bikkuri Donkey!! and had dinner, read a bit of my book too.  After that, I went to the drugstore for a few things.  When I came out of the drugstore it was pouring rain.  I am so glad that I had my umbrella with me!  I walked to the grocery store and bought myself some fresh tomatoes and a bag of English muffins. Next up, I went to McDonalds and had a McFlurry and a drink and read my book again.  A bit after 9 pm I made my way home.  

F and I had a big fight and it wasn’t good.  He was still upset about the paper I ripped up, said he couldn’t believe that I had done it.  He tried to tell me that he was very interested in the places I had listed and that was why he was so upset that I ripped it up.  If he had actually BEEN interested, I wouldn’t have ripped up the paper.  I was upset because I’d spent 2 hours with my guide book deciding what would be interesting to see and he spent 3 minutes looking at the tour company’s “free tour” and deciding he would like it better because of the free lunch.  I told him tonight that I won’t go on the free tours that he has booked because I’m not interested in them.  He said that I had to because it was only for two people.  I said just tell them I’m sick, you can still go, but he’s really furious.  We both would like to cancel the whole bloody trip now, but can’t because he won’t be able to get any money back.  I’m sick about the whole thing.  I told him I’d fly back to Canada from Seoul if he’s not careful.  

I asked if we could discuss it later when the weekend is over, but I’m not sure that he even wants to do that now.  I’ve been cast as the villain in his life and I’m afraid that he won’t change his mind.  

Thankfully he went to bed a little bit later and has stayed in the room.  I did watch a bit of TV and have calmed down a bit.  I am quite sad, I was really looking forward to this trip, but now I’m dreading it.  Last year at this time I was getting ready to go to Canada and I was so excited, this year I won’t be able to go.  I’m not sure why F is so upset about things. I know he’s stressed at work, but I’m not sure why he can’t see that yelling at me makes it worse.  

Well, hopefully I’ll be blogging at you again tomorrow night.  Don’t worry if I end up taking a night or two off.  I’m still here, but I may need an early night or two to support F and his work.  Come back later and see if this whole thing has blown over or not.  Until tomorrow…..

September 7, 2016

Wednesday - Cloudier, Hot

A confusing day.

F got up early today for work and made sure to make a lot of noise.  Of course I woke up and had to get up for a minute.  I tried to go back to sleep after he left, but it wasn’t happening.  I got up instead and did a few chores.  I even vacuumed!

The Fire Alarm Inspectors didn’t come again today.  I ended up snoozing on the couch and missed a bit of a show.  I got up when it finished and went back to my chair.  F showed up for lunch and didn’t say much to me.  I asked him about dinner but he didn’t really answer.  

In the afternoon I watched a lot of Agents of Shield and did some stuff on my computer.  I had a fairly quiet time of things. 

 Around 6 I started getting things in order for dinner.  I didn’t know when F would come home.  When he did about 30 minutes later, he basically said that he didn’t want anything.   He went out for a walk, telling me that I should cook for myself.  I finally did and of course he came home at the same time.  I ate at the kitchen table and at one point F  tried to give me some yakitori.  I told him I couldn’t eat it because I didn’t have the calories available, so he threw it out.  I could have eaten it tomorrow for lunch.  At one point when he wanted into the kitchen, he chose to climb on and over the island in the middle, rather than asking me to move.  I’m not sure why he didn’t just ask.  He told me that I was rude, but honestly, clambering over the kitchen sink isn’t exactly polite, is it?

After I ate and finished my dishes, I decided that I needed to get out of the apartment.  I got changed and went for a long walk.  I did stop and get some ice cream along the way which was nice.  

When I came home F was in the bath, he didn’t seem happy to see me later.  We had some nashi, watched a bit of my TV, and I even let him watch some of his.  I was quite miffed because he made a big “thing” about getting to watch his stuff, but then left the room 10 minutes later, went into the bedroom and closed the door.  It was weird.  I went in to check if he was really going to bed and he was.

The rest of the night I’ve just been watching telly and trying not to get carried away with this phase of our lives.  I’m hoping that when this stressful time for F is over, so will these hard times be for us.  

Anyway, tomorrow he said he’d be late, so I might either make my own dinner or go out for it, depending on how I feel.  Come back later and see what I get up to.  Until tomorrow….

September 6, 2016

Tuesday - Hot and Sunny, with some rain

Was a good day…now a bad one.

I had a decent enough morning.  I did my usual things and watched The X-Files and then Burn Notice.  I’m so glad they are showing that one as I missed it before.  I was up early and dressed myself again, but there was no inspection today.  

In the daytime I scanned my cards and got them ready to go out.  I put them aside for a bit.  I did a few other things, watched a bit of telly, the usual.  Around 4 I had a very late lunch and then remembered I had to go to the post office, so off I walked as fast as I could. I had to buy a stamp, so I had to be there before the post office closed.  I just made it.  Lucky they weren’t busy.

When I came home I started dinner.  Tonight we had “bangers and mash”, so I had to peel potatoes and then cook them.  I also had to cook the eggplants again and prepare the table.  I got things done, but after F came home I had to hustle.  It was a bit difficult and as usual I didn’t have any help.  

F finally came to the table and we ate.  Things were nice!  My “mash” was nice, and the sausages were surprisingly good.  F even volunteered to do the dishes tonight.  

F asked me a couple of times about going out for a walk, but I said no.  I meant it last week when I said I wouldn’t go again.  

F watched a very boring and noisy soccer game between Japan and Thailand, so I missed my TV show.  I wasn’t too pleased honestly.  I spent my time making up a listing of things we can do when we’re on holiday.  Some of the things are a little difficult because the two days we’ll be there are the two days that many places close.  I spent two hours on this and made a little chart so it would be easy to see.  I saved it on my computer.  

When F’s game was over, I went over to show him it and talk about it.  He pulled up the “free” tour that the travel company gives us.  He had told me that he would cancel it if we came up with something better.  I don’t have any interest in the free tour because it’ll be in Japanese and because they’ll drag us through a tourist shopping trap.  Now he tells me that we really shouldn’t cancel it.  Huh?  They have a free lunch.  Oh yum.  You know, lunch that you don’t pay for tastes better.

He wasn’t interested in looking at or hearing about the places on my list so I felt like I had just wasted my time.  I got up, took my paper and ripped it up on the way back to my computer.  F went crazy.  He got really angry, started talking about cancelling the trip or sending me by myself and really worked himself up into a state.  I told him it wasn’t a big deal and that I could print another paper but he was determined to be agitated.  Then of course he couldn’t calm himself down to go to bed.

He was in a state for a while and then went to bed after some ramen.  He closed the bedroom door quite firmly on the way. 

So that was my day.  Not really sure why he got so angry.  I was the one who was angry and I told him that.  Apparently I’m not allowed to have emotions.  

Come back later and find out if my Wednesday is a better day or not.  I’m thinking not.  Until tomorrow….

September 5, 2016

Monday - Hot and Sunny

A busy day!

I woke up early and got dressed.  I was convinced that the Fire Alarm Inspectors were going to come today so I made a path for them in our tatami room.  They didn’t come, but I’m glad I did it anyway.

I watched my shows and drank some tea and had breakfast…it was a good morning.  In the afternoon I looked up some recipes and then decided that I had to go to the store.  A little after 2 I set off on my big boat/bicycle.  Did I ever mention that?  My MIL gave me her bicycle.  It is huge and honestly, I don’t really like it, but it does have a basket on the front, so works for carrying stuff. 

I bought a few things in the grocery store and then came home via McDonalds.  I had a light lunch there, basically a hamburger, salad and a drink.  At home, I did a bit of dinner prep. I had found a recipe for eggplant and decided to try it.  I had bought a few things for it and then had to put it all together.  I did, and then put the dish in the fridge to marinate.  I did the same thing for the pork for dinner.  

Around 5 pm, I was thinking about kicking dinner prep into high gear, when F called to say he’d be late.  He was very late.  He didn’t get home until after 8 pm.  In fact, I had actually cooked the pork before he arrived because I didn’t want to wait anymore.  Dinner got good reviews, but honestly, the marinade for the eggplant was a little sweet in my mind.  It needed more ginger or less sugar.  Tomorrow. 

I thought that F was really tired since he had said on the phone that he’d like to go to bed right away, but he stayed up watching (bad) TV.  I was a bit miffed.  He left to take his shower and I switched the channel.  When he came back, he wanted to watch his stuff again.  I wasn’t pleased really, but let him.  Just glad for him that I wasn’t a fan of what’s on today.  

Finally he went to bed and I’m still up, but am planning to get to bed soon.  I’ve had a lot of really late nights lately, an earlier night would be good.

Come back later and find out what I get up to.  Until tomorrow….