and has helped me fix this so in principle FB should now see a link to my website with a summary, rather than reams and reams and reams of writing; I hope people will now leave comments at turquoise rather than on FB where they are ephemeral like the wind not carved in stone to haunt you forever more.

Let’s see if it works with this long and convoluted test post.

Also, Torchwood is on.

This is from my diary from when we first relocated to Japan – pre-blog. Other entries can be found here.

Phew! Work has certainly picked up – I’ve been doing 9-hour days with posters and slides. Cam got home on Saturday afternoon, surprisingly non-tired and with a new pair of shoes (!). I didn’t do much on Saturday: pottered into Shibuya for Metropolis and bought a hoe. Had intended to poke about some nice shops but that was a bit impractical carrying a hoe, so I just came home. (Hoe has stood in the hallway ever since, I really should do some weeding.) Side-tracked on my way home by an arum lily in sunshine yellow, I was doing so well not buying plants but I’d been coveting it all week and decided I deserved a treat. It is beautiful!

Sunday was a bit of a failure. I wanted to go and see the cat sculptures at…um, well I’ve forgotten its name – we got the trainto Nishi-nippori, anyway. Had a nice walk – saw plenty of real cats, but could not find the museum at all. Eventually gave up – and found it on the map at the station. I had trusted the map in my guidebook (and assumed there was a typo in the address) and it was wrong! Bah. Am hoping to convince C to try again next weekend. We stopped at Harajuku on the way back – saw some freaks (they seem to sing these days) and the dancing teddy boys, and went to the Thai food festival in Yoyogi Park. Food looked and smelt fab, but it was really busy so we went for rotating sushi instead. Today I have worked (and worked) with just a quick dash to Shinjuku for printer ink. C has gone to dinner at the British Embassy tonight – lucky him – so I am in on my own again.

Maggie is starting a (low-key) campaign for a pet. What about a cat? she asked, hopefully. I would love a cat – in fact I hate not having one – but am scared after losing one on the road that it would happen again. We have barky dogs on all three sides of our back garden so any peace-loving cat is bound to venture forwards, and the cars come awfully fast along our bit of (30 mph) road. She thought about that. Well, what about a goldfish? I don’t think they like roads. Yes, fish are nice but you can’t cuddle a fish, can you (for some reason she found this hilariously funny). If I’m having a pet I’d like to be able to cuddle it.

She thought some more. OK then, how about a goat or a gecko?

So there we are. A goat or a gecko it is.

I felt like a terrible mother yesterday as we heard the sound of the brass band coming up our road and went out to see Maggie’s rainbow troop (are they a troop?) parading past, followed by lots of her schoolfriends on a float in their pretty posh dresses (“the rose queen”), followed by various other people we know. Fortunately the day was saved by Cameron taking the girls down to the village fete and buying them sweets, but she still wondered why she wasn’t there parading. The reason? We have only lived in the village for 3 years which is not long enough to Just Know what is going on. I was vaguely aware of the rose queen thing, as there was some letter about a rehearsal home from school, and when we watched her making her promise at rainbows there was some vague comment about well it’s the rose queen next weekend and you all know what to do if you are walking with us (?) So if I was any sort of proper mother I should have been more proactive and gone to find out but I honestly had no idea what it was, and certainly no idea that they would walk past our sodding house!

On the bright side: Tamsin was actually physically born in the village which might allow her to tap into the collective mind. Give it a few years and she can tell us what is going on, where and when.

This is from my diary from when we first relocated to Japan – pre-blog. Other entries can be found here.
Oops! That’s a whole week flown past without writing. I’ve been so busy…

Cameron was just about recovered at the weekend; fit for a couple of low-key outings, anyway. On Saturday we went to Shinjuku, to the bookshop then to Shinjuku-gyoen where the wisteria was just about over, the irises not quite there yet (why is nothing ever out?). It will be beautiful when the waterlilies flower though I have no idea whatsoever when that might be. We sat on a bench and listened to the crows for a bit.

Sunday was HOT! We went to Omotesando for cash (hooray! Bank account now operable) then to the Togo shrine in Harajuku where there was a flea market. Poked about there for ages, while staying out of the sun, then walked (by mistake) to Shibuya and (realising our mistake) back again. Eventually found what we were looking for, the Nezu institute of fine arts. Museum itself a little disappointing (I am still wondering if we missed some of it) but lovely garden full of statues and lanterns. Nice and shady, which was necessary, and the irises there were out. Saw a turtle sunning itself – I am still not blasé about turtles!

Monday I worked and C flew off to Houston. The bad news is they got the flight transfer they wanted so won’t be back until Saturday. It’s too bad – Monday should have been a holiday and trvelling at the weekend too. Bad Shell.

Went to yoga on Tuesday morning – I think the teacher may be trying to kill us and I still hurt today. Coffee after with Gail, and Gail’s mum and dad, then I went and joined the library, which has certainly got enough books to occupy me for a while. Then to Shibuya for a mop, bucket and broom – with my yoga mat as well, I was popular on the train! Yesterday was hectic (I don’t honestly have time to work) with the rest of the lease furniture arriving and a chap coming to fix the satellite tv all at once – they’ve taken away my desk! So I’ve set up the patio furniture in the office…of course the only way to fix the TV was for me to buy a new box! Still, if it does work it will be worth it and this one does seem much better. Then in the afternoon, the mad Yolly arrived to clean and iron and ask why we have no babies and tell me I am like her daughter. Barking. Had to pop back to Omotesando for more cash after all that (but I do have a nice clean house). She even folded our carrier bags!

And today I went cooking, which I enjoyed. There was a nice American gir l called Karen, an Israeli girl, and a Japanese woman who has been going for years and years – and the teacher. It was good! And we ate it afterwards, which was good too. Gochisosama deshita.

c.f. full term with Tamsin – not so much smaller, is it! (Is obviously not a mega-baby this time, is rather more to do with pies and the consumption thereof, and exercise, a dearth of.)

This is from my diary from when we first relocated to Japan – pre-blog. Other entries can be found here.

Poor Cameron hasn’t been well this week. It’s Golden week so he’s had a couple of days off, but he spent most of yesterday on the sofa. He’s gone in today because he’s off to the states on Monday and has to prepare, but I’ve no idea what sort of state he’ll come back in. I’ve been sent hardly any work today, which is a bit annoying but does mean I can go to a bookshop (I’ve finished all my books!) and get out in the sunshine a bit. I’ve taken tomorrow off.

We think we felt our first earth tremor a couple of days ago – we were sitting watching TV when the house shook! It was like someone slamming a door (hard) or a big lorry driving past. We can’t have a proper quake yet because I haven’t yet collected together water, tinned food, etc. (If I had it wouldn’t be much good as the tin opener is still on the ship.)

The rest of the rental furniture is arriving next week – although they are going to take away the temporary stuff, including my desk, which is not ideal – and also a maid! 4 hrs/week. Hoorah.

This is from my diary from when we first relocated to Japan – pre-blog. Other entries can be found here.

Golden week, so C is off today, Weds, maybe Thurs, and Fri. I am working but I expect I will take Friday off for a long weekend. And Golden it is today: cloudless blue skies and hot hot sun.

We spent Saturday pottering round Shinjuku after a long lie-in; I think I am still jetlagged and C was suffering the after-effects of two welcome parties on consecutive nights (I have been watching some truly dreadful television). We went for revolving sushi – Cameron’s first time – and bought the inevitable CDs and an amp so we could use Eiji’s CD player, which he brought round on Sunday. Did nothing Saturday night, then went for lunch with Doug and Verity on Sunday, which was very pleasant – out on the roof of the Monsoon cafe (I feel a bit sunburnt today) with pina coladas and plenty of wine.

I was busy on Friday: had a haircut (slightly traumatic but she’s done an ok job. Love the leather beds for hairwashing and the head massage), which I was late for because the replacement fax machine arrived; went to Shinjuku to get our alien registration cards; went to Hiroo to the supermarket and met Gail for lunch, then back to wait for my groceries (I like this delivery system)!

This picture is the reason I wanted to fix my blog. Though it has taken me so very long to do, and I have been hiating for so very long, that I don’t suppose anybody will see it who isn’t friend or family. Hey ho: I will pretend to myself and post it anyway by way of an announcement.

Maggie came home from school with this card that she had made for me, the day after we told her there was going to be another baby. If you can look carefully you can see, peeping out of my tummy (for that is me, the funky smily lady in the cool purple frock), and tiny, smiling, waving baby. Inside, the card reads “to my littl baibee I love you” and it is quite one of the sweetest things I have ever seen.

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