I need to SHOP

The entry today has got nothing to do with the title of this blog. Just some (negative) ramblings of my life but this is my blog and I write whatever I want.

I was in a bitchy mode this morning. I blame it on the lack of sleep. My 3 year old is not feeling well and has been coughing thru the night. I went to bed only close to 2am last night (or should I say this morning) with a heavy heart (will talk more about this later) and got woken up at 5am due to my son's terrible coughing. Went to sleep on his bed to keep him company and never quite got a wink after that. I think I got a total of 3 hours sleep in all. That can very well justify my bitchiness this morning in my opinion.

So what could I do to let my steam off? I called my son's school to inform that he will be absent today. I was hoping that nobody would answer my call so that I could leave a voice message and at the same time remind his principal that she had yet to respond to the email that I sent her 2 days ago. Unfortunately, a teacher answered the phone and I had to talk nicely. But feeling unsatisfied, I decided to send an email directly to the principal after that phone call to remind her in writing that she is supposed to respond to an email that she received 2 days ago. Okay, I did not exactly write that but I think I managed to deliver the message across with professionalism.

This not responding to emails thing is one of my biggest pet peeves. I just cannot stand people who do not use their emails to communicate effectively and professionally. It's fine with taking your sweet time with personal emails from friends but it really isn't right to delay responding to work related emails that had specifically asked for action from you. I have always been very particular with emails and when I was still working in my last job, I dealt with many emails in a day. Even when an email did not require me to action on, I would still respond with a short message just to acknowledge receipt of the mail. And for emails that required me to spend time working on an action before I could give the sender a satisfactory answer, I would at least respond to inform that I was working on it and gave my sender an indication on when he could expect an answer. That, to me is basic email etiquette and professionalism at work. Seriously, how hard is that??

Enough of that.

So like I said, I went to bed late last night with a heavy heart. It was a sad day for Aiden as he played with his bestfriend, D, and his sister for the one last time. D and his family leaves Japan to return to America today. Aiden and D met at school about a year ago and D was the first kid who went to Aiden to say hi. And he tried to scare Aiden by growling but my silly boy thought it was funny and since then, it was all about D. Aiden looks up to D a lot because he is one year older and sometimes, chemistry is a funny thing. He just really, really like this American boy.

Because of the kids, D's mother and I hang out a lot too. She and her husband are really nice and we have been to each other's place for dinner of weekends. I am really feeling sad that I have lost another friend in Japan.

This is the 4th time this year that a friend leaves. I do know many people here but I don't like to call everyone a friend. To me, a friend has to be someone you enjoy spending time with. Someone more than just an acquaintance. I have mentioned many times that it is hard to forge friendships when you live in a foreign country so I'm always happy when I find someone I can call a friend. And so it is hard when these friends leave.

Everytime this happens, I feel like I am taking a bullet. Okay, that may be exaggerating but you get the point. It is always moving on again for me. A part of me is numb but another part of me wonders how long I can handle the downside to living in a foreign land with no family and real, permanent friends.

Maybe it's time to go shopping again.
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My little pain in the butt

My 3 year old boy is a morning person and often wakes up around 7am, occasionally earlier. But for some reason, his body clock seems to be wired in such a way that he only wakes up really early on weekends (when we want to sleep in) and on days that he has got no school.

The moment he wakes up, he will burst into energy and come running to our bedroom. Instead of waking us up directly, he will hover around us like an annoying fly and make a lot of noise like jumping around, or deliberately walk around with heavy footsteps. Or he will pretend to have difficulty putting on his underwear and talk to himself out loud. I mean really loud like even the neighbours can hear him. In short, he will do everything he can just so we can no longer sleep on, yet we cannot reprimand him coz well, he never actually told us to wake up did he? Irritating.

And guess what happens on the days he has school and has to up by 8am latest? Yes, he doesn't wake up and I often have to drag him out of bed by 8.30am when we are running late. How he manage to do this I will never know.

This is my annoying little shit.

What's for dinner

Pineapple salsa, panfry fish fillet and carrot rice.

I find pineapple salsa works very well as a side condiment to fish. It is a little tart, with a slight hint of sweetness, and helps to add some dimension to a simple dish like a sea salt and black pepper seasoned fish fillet.

Recipe for pineapple salsa

Freshly chopped pineapple
Diced red onion
Diced red chilli (I left this out as I didn't have any at home)
Italian parsley
Pinch of sea salt
Pinch of black pepper

Mix all of the above in a bowl. Let it sit for at least an hour before serving.

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Bento Update: Papa Bear and Mama Bear

Finally a bento update. I have been making less than satisfactory bentos lately. Not sure why. Kinda out of inspiration I guess. This Papa bear and Mama bear bento is the only one that I am satisfied with.

The pink ears and "face" (the part where nose and mouth are - not sure what to call that) are ham and eyes, nose and mouths are nori. I also gave mama bear some rosy cheeks with ketchup. These rice bears were accompanied by homemade beef patties.

I am running out of ideas for cutesy bentos. Perhaps its about time I start doing up bento sketches so that my creations don't turn out disastrous in my early morning rush.
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Life on a choo-choo train

I sat infront of my pc this morning, trying to find the motivation to write. I have been busy with setting up this new place and this week has been taken up by invitations to sayonara (farewell in japanese) parties and a birthday celebration. It doesn't help that we are travelling again in 2 weeks time (back to Australia) which means I have so much on my "To Do" list that constantly occupy my mind. I also blame my lack of blog updates on the location of our work desk in this new place. Must be the fengshui no good.

I was looking at my calendar yesterday and it suddenly dawned on me that there are only 3.5 months left in this year. Where did the past 9.5 months go? I remember being young and always wanting to grow up fast. Now in my mid thirties, life seems to be going at a scarily fast pace. The next couple of months are going to be eaten up by many activities again - 2 weeks in Oz, Halloween party in end october, Granddad's visit in november, a pal's visit in early december, Aiden's year end school function, our best friends visiting from Oz etc. And very soon it will be 2011... And I will be 35. OH.MY.GOD.

On a positive note, I really do enjoy having so much to look forward to in my life. And I'm not hard to please at all. Thinking about events like my brother-in-law's wedding (because weddings are beautiful) and seeing my 3 year old dress up for Halloween makes me smile. And I am again reminded to live life with passion. And hope.

Here's a piece of raw chocolate tart that I made sometime back. Have a very sweet weekend!

What's for dinner?

The house is almost unpacked with just a few boxes lying around but I'm still trying to settle in my usual routine and playing catch up with chores and errands. I was looking at some photos that were taken before I went to Singapore and saw this which I have yet to post.

This is my "What's for dinner" post this week (for those who visit this blog frequently will know that I like to post an entry on what's for dinner once a week).

I'm pretty particular about Aiden's nuitrition and keep track of what he eats in a week as a general guideline. Above is one of Aiden's typical dinner - steamed fish fillet (seasoned with ginger, sesame oil and a dash of soy sauce), rice and a salad. He loves fish which is great as they are full of nutritional value and is especially good for brain development. I mentioned before that Aiden doesn't really like cooked vegetables so I iend to prepare a green salad as a side for him.

This is his way of showing appreciation for his dinner.












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New Beginning?

I have been so so busy since we got back from Singapore that I haven't even had time to breathe properly. Almost straight after we arrive back in Yokohama, we started packing up the apartment instead of unpacking our luggage. We were moving to a house in 7 days and there were lots to do. Collected the keys last wednesday and I started moving some personal items like clothes and shoes by myself over 2 days when Aiden was at school. Then came Friday, the actual moving day. We had movers who started work at 8am on Friday morning. They had to make 3 trips between the old apartment and the new house (thank god these locations are not far from each other). They didn't finish the job until almost 11pm that night!

This move has made me realise how much stuff our family of 3 own. Seriously way too much. I'm quite turned off by myself honestly. We (mainly me I guess) have been accumulating things everytime we move and we have moved 6 times (including this round) since 2005. This is probably more than some people have moved in their whole lifetime! My husband and I are now so efficient in moving that we can now claim to be experts in this area. But I am really really tired. Hopefully we can stay up in this house for at least the next 2 years. Doesn't sound hard does it?

Many people have asked why we have to make our lives so difficult. Well, in the past we had to move between countries because we accepted overseas job offers for the sake of our family's future. Our move this time is for several reasons. Our previous apartment is beautiful and very large by japanese standards. But it is not serving our needs very well. Our 3 year old is an active, developing boy and we don't want to have to restrain him from some of the physical activities (like running and jumping) at home just because we fear disturbing the neighbours. Also, we have been having so many visitors and it will be nice to have the extra space. This new place is great. We finally have our own garage again. And we even have a roof terrace with great views of the neighbourhood. The move was by far the hardest we have ever done but we were mentally prepared for it. I know many people do not like moving because it can be so exhausting and frustrating but I am not the type who will let these reasons stop me from having a nicer home to live in. After all, it was only one week of stress and exhaustion which will be over.

The one good thing that has come out of this move is that after seeing so much stuff I own, I have decided that perhaps I should really stop buying. Haha, I know some people are laughing at me. Well, at least give me credit for saying that I want to try. Maybe I should stop buying clothes and shoes and just save up my money to invest in another good bag. Perhaps a jumbo 2.55??
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