To Ski Or Not To Ski….

Today Doris has gone off to Hyogo Prefecture on the school skiing trip. After much dithering and dallying, it was decided that Doris will NOT ski on the skiing trip. She can go with her manky finger but will not be allowed to ski. She herself actually agreed to this because the anaesthetic needle she had the day before yesterday has scared the living daylights out of her, she does not want to go there again.
Despite this she was very chirpy and really looking forward to the bus ride and the mealtimes and the overnight stay.
Sunshine did the same trip a few years back, though some things have changed because of * dreadful* behaviour on the part of some kids that year, students are no longer permitted to take snacks.

In sunshine’s year, some reprobate delinquents kids actually came up with the idea to smuggle in a few packs of eats to have a midnight feast. The wickedry of it, what dark and twisted mind could concieve of such a plan on a school trip.
On their return, somehow the teachers found out about the contraband Pockys and all hell was let loose. 2 days of lessons lost while all the students were frog marched into the gym for lectures on deceit and rule breaking and general inappropriate behaviour. On the second day they were each given a piece of paper and ordered to name names, McCarthyism is alive and well in Ikoma. Smoke came out my ears at this point and I was prompted to make yet another call to the school expressing my disapproval.
Back in my day school trip contraband was more likely to be a bottle of Woodpecker cider and 20 B and H, and we considered it a roaring success if no one came home pregnant.

So Doris and her year are paying for the sins of those who went before and couldn’t keep their grubby hands off the chocolate.
There is also to be no
mobile phones ( fair enough)
DS, PSP etc ( equally fair)
Ipods ( ?)
magazines
comics ( one ‘proper’ book each)
money
and finally, and I kid you not,
NO JENGA, because we all know what debauchery Jenga leads to.
So far it’s looking like too much fun my brain hurts.
3 years of JHS here and everyone is more than prepared to enlist.

Trying New Things.

If you haven’t already, I highly recommend trying one of those new fangled Raspberry and Passion Fruit Kit-Kats.
Bery bery nice.

A Day Unlike Many Others Part 2.

So the phone rang, actually to back track a moment as I was staggering back up the hill, near my house, I bumped into Kev coming home, he said he wanted to go back to play in the school field with some other kids. OTHER KIDS, Hell fire this day gets better and better. Of course you can go my love. I had to take Jim to ENT at 5.30 so I told Kev to meet us there as it’s near the school.
I get in, I go to check my emails and THEN the phone rings. It’s Doris.
” The school nurse says I need stitches.”
” I disagree, I don’t think you ‘need’ stitches, I think you need to need to let your body work it’s self-healing magic.”
” I want stitches”.
Okay then, I’ll come and pick you up.
Now on the subject of medical intervention, some would say I am too slack, maybe I am, but I do think that left to it’s own devices the body works it out. I belive that without stitches her finger probably would have had a slight bump on the end, I have one myself from when I sliced my own finger.
So I grab Jim and we go to pick up Doris. Quandry! There is a hospital close to ENT but I don’t like it, a much much better place is a bit of a drive away and what to do about Kev? The boys could go to ENT on their own but then they’d have to walk home by themselves. Not good.
Go to the school to pick up Kev and pray that he doesn’t have a thrombosis over the change of plan. he didn’t. Well not in the first 5 minutes anyway.
Drive to other hospital.
Once there I call and cancel ENT appointment, which I had rescheduled from last Thursday because Jim was fast asleep, I rescheduled for later this week and the minute I hung up I remembered that I can’t go that day because Doris will be coming back from a school trip and I promised I’d pick her and her friends up from the bus.
See Doc. who says, if we don’t stitch it she’ll have an odd bump on her finger. She doesn’t want an odd bump on her finger, she’ll take the stitches please.
He gives her an anaesthetic which looked very painful, big long needle, she wasn’t best pleased, then they left us alone for 15 minutes to let it kick in.
She said ( repeatedly) You don’t know how much that hurt.
I tried with the ‘there there-ing’ it’s okay, it’s over now, you’re so brave, you’re so strong, you won’t feel a thing with the stitches, but then I ran out of platitudes and it sort of bugged me a bit, so I thought I should distract her, tell her about when I had an operation and had to have 18 injections in my face, nothing!, and you know kids in pain love that, when you stop talking about them and focus on your own pain.
So I moved onto, ” I had an op on my eyelid and had 14 injections in my eye,” nothing, I had nothing left but my trump card, my ace, “well, when your sister was born I had to have my bum stapled!”
” Ow! don’t tell me I don’t want to know.”
Mission accomplished.
She said, she wished she hadn’t told everyone she did it cutting cabbage, she thinks she should have said she did it saving a child’s life, or one of the cats was trying to get on the knife and saving the cat the knife fell on her.
She was stitched, she was fine, but said she’d probably have a scar.
I say,”that’s okay darling, it’s just part of your story.”
She says what do you mean?
I said, ” you know as you’re growing up, things happen and they mark you in small or big ways and one day someone asks you how you got that mark or scar and you tell them, and it’s your story, you just say ” I got it saving a kid’s life”.
So the Doc asks us to come back on Friday. Doris’ school skiing trip is on Wed, can she go skiing. ” No” says he. ” she should not ski”
That’s sad.
” And she shouldn’t get it wet either, so be careful in the bath”.
It was at that moment I remembered the repair guy was coming at 7 and I now had 20 minutes to get home.
Pay, a not unsubstantial fee for medical attention, jump in car and realise I have two teaspoons of petrol left. Get petrol, get home,
2 minutes later the repair guy comes.
I told him what I thought the problem was, and inretrospect think perhaps that not a good approach, they probably don’t like hearing the problem form entirely clueless old housewives.
As it turns out I was wrong. It isn’t the remote control system, it’s a burst pipe and something else which is going to cost us 90,000 yen to repair ( 600 quid-ish) and we might be better thinking about replacing the system all together ( 1500 quid).
He’s jigged it so we can use it for a few days but it won’t last long, I need a hot bath, my relax pants and Cold Case at 10.
It’s been quite aday.

A Day Unlike Many Others Part 1. ( because I know you care)

It started out great, I had a plan to go to Osaka, ooh the big city and have lunch with a friend. A very very funny friend I might add, so I knew I’d laughing my arse off all day. I got up at dawns first crack to prepare myself for the big trip ( 20 mins on the train).
I woke Sunshine at half past 5 so she could have a shower and start applying mascara in time for school.
There was no hot water. Our hot water heater has been dodgy for a couple of weeks, but I’ve thus far managed to get it going again by pulling the plug in and out a few times, a handy tip The Man, an electrician, taught me.
I didn’t work this time so I’d have to call the repair centre at 9. The same thing had happened a couple of years ago and apparently the remote in the bathroom had lost contact with the mothership in the kitchen and we’d just had to buy a new remote control set.
Sunshine suggested not going to school ( ” I can’t go looking like this” ) I suggested boiling a kettle, even offered to boil it for her, there was snorting. Nevermind.

All chicklets out by 8, went for my morning walk with my friend, came back, called repair centre, they said someone would come at 7 this evening. Perfect.

Set off for the station and I suddenly remembered the guy holding the door open for me. People, 3 days later I am still getting joy from that, so non J people does that tell you how unusual it is?
So I’m tripping down the mountain, grinning away, thinking how nice people are, all people, all people everywhere.
Now there is only a very narrow footpath on one side of the road, so if someone is coming up as you go down,someone has to step off.
Not a problem. I see an old man coming up as I go down. As we near each other, I turned around to make sure no cars were coming up behind me so I could step off, and the old man finds a little nook to stand in and says, ‘ no no no, I’ll wait it’s okay’ so I picked up speed to not keep him waiting and he said’ slow down, where’s the fire? I’m not in a hurry.” he goes on to say, ” the person coming up should always step off because they can see the on coming traffic.” How lovely thought I. Another lovely person.
I got to the station still thrilling about this.
On the platform I leaned again a vending machine and I was looking around at people and smiling like a raving lunatic nicely at people, and thinking again, how very many wonderful people there are in the world at large and in my life in particular and how wonderful life is in general, and here, right now, when some guy SHOVED me out of the way of the coin slot, without even a sumimasen ( excuse me) he shoved me so hard I almost crossed the magic yellow line that I have taught my children to never ever cross unless they are boarding the train.
Such was my joy this morning, it just made me laugh. Then suddenly I saw a friend, a good friend, I would say one of my very best friends here and she was taking the train to Osaka too, so MORE JOY, we get to chat a while.
So the train ride was fun and we made cinema plans.
Then I met my friend Solly and as expected I spent the next few hours laughing my arse off. Solly is off travelling the world for a year, off to do exciting wonderful things and write a book about them, ( someone remind me to put her blog on my blogroll please. ), a super day it was, but after a lovely Indian lunch an stroll around America Mura it was time for me to go home.
So home I came, ready to blog all about the lovely day I’d had and how many wonderful people there are in the world.
Then the phone rang………………

It’s All Fun and Games Until Someone Cuts Cabbage.

WARNING, this post is not for the squeamish, faint of heart please move along, go read Dooce.

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It was, it was, it was all fun and games. It was Jenga, followed by Blokus, then Othello, then Uno and finally gin rummy ( my choice, last of course).

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Where was Kev you ask? He missed the first few Jenga games, turns out he doesn’t always play well with others. He rallied though and joined us for the other games without a hitch.
His day hadn’t started well. The minute I got up he asked if he could have some mercury for Xmas. I really could have done better by just suggesting we talk about it a little nearer the time, as it is only Feb, but I hadn’t had my coffee so I just said “No’ out of hand and thus the tone of the day was set. He spent much of the day reliving and verbalising a catalogue of sleights, both real and imagined.
Games over, and me having lost at all but one measly round of Gin Rummy, the boys loving father took them out for haircuts.
Doris offered to help with dinner, rolled up her sleeves and set to making coleslaw.

It didn’t end well.

She said, ” you gotta put this one your blog Mum.”

As per my daughter’s wishes.

And still she smiles, I love this kid!

Hatsumode.

I know, I know, it’s February already, so I don’t know that it still counts as Hatsumode ( first visit to the shrine of the New Year).
In fact I might have gone at New Year with the outlaws and everyone, I can’t even remember. 20 years of Hatsumodes have all blended into one.

Anyhoo, up at our local, and extremely beautiful temple on the first Sunday of the month is a sort of farmers market. It used to be huge and bustling but not there is only a few stalls but it is a great place to get very cheap organic produce.
I thought one of the chicklets would come with me but when I invited them along they looked at me like I was a mad woman, in fact I heard my mother’s voice on my left shoulder saying ” Have you taken leave of your senses?”

To a man they all said, ‘but it’s Sunday, it’s a day of rest, it’s a yasumi.’
I said, ‘exactly, we have neither work nor school, therefore are free to climb the 2000 steps up the mountain to the temple.’
They didn’t even bother answering me, so I dillied and dallied, then struck a compromise with myself. At 9, Uncle Brick was picking up Sunshine,
I would cadge a lift up and walk back down with my bounty.
So I did, it was cold but sunny.
I did my business, lit the incense, banged the bell, stroked the lucky cow and gave up good thoughts for our continued health, wealth and happiness.

Then I scored some great veggies very cheaply and began my descent.
On the way down there was a little shop selling fresh made bread and a selection of jams. I bought cranberry and walnut.
The thought of the toast I was going to make spurred me on.
Unfortunately when it came to the toast I couldn’t get the lid off the jam.
Doris tried, she is the strongest one in the house, Hell she is the strongest person I know. Kev wanted a go, no luck, possibly because he was trying to unscrew and hold the remote control at the same time.
Young Jim wanted to try his hand, I laughed a little ( possibly condescending) laugh and passed it to him, this is a kid can barely get a tissue out of the box.
Well miracle of miracles, the jam is open.
‘ Thanks love, now, who wants toast with cranberry and walnut jam?”

” Have you taken leave of your senses woman?”

Humanity Is Saved.

Seriously, all faith in humanity has been restored, with just one simple gesture.
Do you, like me, read the news and feel full of despair.
Do you shake your head and wonder what on Earth the world has come to, do you wonder if perhaps the doomsdayers, the armageddonists are right?
Do you look at the way people behave and find it unfathomable?
Well I dedicate this to my J-Gals,( you know who you are) they will not believe this without photographic evidence, but I swear it’s true, not a word of lie, and I am still reeling from the shock.
I went into the 7/11 for my fags on the way home. There was a guy approaching the door in front of me, he definitely had right of way, and I kid you not, HE HELD THE DOOR OPEN FOR ME, yes indeed, for real, ‘maji de’. Not even a half-lean-back, so I could follow him through on HIS open door and hold it for myself, no no no, not that that ever happens here either, he stood aside, opened the door and let me in ahead of him.

I told Sunshine when I got in, she too is in shock, only copious amounts of chocolate will restore her, she said,
” Was it the 7/11 man?”
I said, ” No, just a customer guy, chap, man.”
She said, ” A normal guy? I’ve never heard of anything like it, I’m shaken to the core, pass me the kit-kats.”
Times, they are a changing, good things are coming, dawning of a brand new age and all that.

Joy and Gladness and Fluffiness Everywhere.

Joy is back, filling my life and house with hope and happiness. I pormosie ( by which I mean promise, but I quite like pormosie) I am really not bi-polar!!
Oh why so joyful Miss B? I hear you ask.
Because, and sit down people who know me, I ran 3kms. YAY for me.
For the first time I realised I might actually make my 5km goal. Go me!!
All doom and gloom is gone, my angelic chicklets basking in a bright white light, part sun, part halo, part glare from big screen.

I knew something was going to happen yesterday, when young Jim said he wanted to eat cake.
And I for no apparent reason, entirely out of character, said, ‘good idea young chap, let’s make one’
He said, ( I thought rather rudely ) ‘you don’t know how.’
” Oh ye of little faith, that’s what books are for.” said I.
And low and behold a cake was made, a plain old, common or garden yummy chocolate sponge.
Yes it looked like a UFO, but it tasted fine, ‘damn fine’ I’ll say.

Further good news, 20 mins ago got a fax from Steiner, we have an interview on Wed.
Let’s get crossing bits shall we.
Have a joyous day, one and all.

How Many Coats Are You Going To Put On ?

Well seems like The Man isn’t the only one with a gizmo. Uncle Brick turned up with a gizmo that means I can plug my external HD into the telly and watched stuff on my big screen. As my viewing options widen exponentially I may have to give up either my job or the kids.

Last night we babysat Uncle Brock’s kids for the first time, while he and his wife had a much needed night out, by night out I mean 90 minutes in the restaurant down the road.
Sunshine has been babysitting for them on weekend since T was born 2 and half years ago. I was amazed at how good she was with them, T especially is rather attached to her, and when he had a mini exorcist moment, as two year olds tend to do, she was the only one who could calm him down. It was really enjoyable actually and as I wandered around picking things up, washing the odd dish with little K in a sling on my back, it too me right back, and I sort of missed it. Physically life with older kids is so much easier, but mentally, gawd, I wish for simpler times, times when a rocking, a carrying, a few verses of Bat Out of Hell brought peace and serenity to the home.
Now it’s a constant state of damage control and negotiation.

Uncle Brick is taking three of mine to see “Where The Wild Things Are” today, no doubt followed by food/bowling/game centres etc, anywhere where they feel they can test the elasticity of his wallet.

Sunshine is meeting Big Love 2 and so is applying what appears to be the 19th coat of nail polish.
I myself will work.
I have given my chicklets a nutritious brecky of left over pizza and corn soup, thus fullfilling my daily quota for Random Acts of Kindness.

Kev is suddenly into yoga and I promised him a morning workout, hope this makes him all relaxed and zen-ish.
So onto downward dog and full moon……

An Unproductive Week.

Had a couple of days of pestilence and dis-ease this week.
I thought I had swine flu, because a friend I spent some time with last week went down with it, but in one quick call I discovered I had entirely different symptoms.
I had the kind of symptoms that leave you feeling entirely empty, like anything that possibly can, has vacated the premises.
The kind of symptoms where it’s wise not to stray too far from home.
By the end of the day, I was a washed out rag.
I thought Kahil Gibran was right, all things in direct proportion to their opposite, I was as empty as I was once full.
Thought I must have lost a stone at least.
Turned out on my metric scale I’d lost 17 grams.
Not having a very productive week.
That said, I watched a lot of TV, glad I got that done!
Fret not though friends, I am restored to health and strength.