Hope you are enjoying being reunited with Shun. One good thing about you changing jobs is if you work in the city then you’ll be able to meet him for lunch. You’ll can meet me too! Also I reckon you should approach government departments for temp work yourself, because if you go through the agency they get a cut of your money and you’d end up with more in you pocket if you arranged it yourself. There are plenty of places you could work who wouldn’t care if you are only here until June next year.

So Shumpei’s probably here by now!! Hope you two had a wonderful reunion!! hope to hear about it in a later post!!

I can’t believe next time you guys will be back in Japan you will be Mrs. M!!!!!

*HUGS*

I’m so excited for you that Shun will be here so soon! I’m guessing it’s going to be hard for you to sleep tonight - hooray! :o)

I have no idea to plan wedding stuff - I would ask around, I guess? And spend a LOT of time on the internet. And start looking for dresses as soon as I could ;o)

I’ve been eating lots of soup - there’s a new brand out that’s like 2 for $6 at woolies, all vegan and low fat and very nice (I’m too lazy to make my own!).

Hope you both have a great ‘welcome home’ weekend :o)

Have a good weekend- what are you, Mark and Ali up to?? Anything exciting?! Is it getting cold (and windy) down there!?!

Mandy: Long comments are the best! I love them personally! I write long comments sometimes and my comments are longer than the post- but considering you included two awesome looking soup recipies in your comment then I wouldn`t even consider it to be that long! You know what else is really nice! Grilled pumpkin! Japanese people do it at bbq`s and it is fab!! The green pumpkins will be fine just cut them REALLY REALLY skinny!

The wedding cars- yeah I didn`t even think I really needed them but mum insists that we have one for me and dad from the house and another for the bridesmaids- then we would use those two cars after the ceremony to go down to the beach for photos?! I like the idea of a vintage car! If I have to have cars at all!!! hehehe! I can understand the purpose of it I had just not really thought about it before! I am waiting til Shun gets here to start making any more decisions! We are going to the venue next Friday for a meeting with the wedding lady there which will be fun!

The weightloss- weight seems to fall off me in Australia and then I just gain and gain and gain in Japan! I eat better here I think- light cheese, lean meat, more vegies etc! Plus I am walking most days for 40 mins or so (4-6 times a week although rain earlier in the week and then been sick later in the week meant only walked twice in the last week) and I have been hula hooping in the living room which is toning my stomach a little I think! I am going on a 5-6 good days a week 1 bad day (usually saturdays because I will have wine and eat out) and so far it is working ok! I think it will start to come to a stand still soon though and will have to start working a little harder!

You have a good weekend too babe!

Sorry to hear you are still unwell, but hope you are beginning to feel better. I have 2 soup recipes for you! I am not such a huge fan either, but find them a quick and easy thing to pop on on the weekends so I can take leftovers for lunch.

Pumpkin soup:
1) Chop up lots of butternut pumpkin (I usually use a whole one - like 1kg), 1 potato, 1 leek or onion.
2) Fry the onion in a little olive oil, making sure it doesn’t burn (I always seem to though - it’s just to avoid floating black bits)
3) Add the pumpkin and potato and cook them until they are beginning to soften, and stir so they don’t burn too much. I might add you can add any veges in at this point. I’ve added broccoli and cauliflower and it gives a slightly more vegetable flavour!
4) After the veges are really soft, cover with chicken stock. You could also use vegetable stock, but chicken gives a little more flavour. Just use enough so that all the vegetables are covered. Maybe aroudn 1L of it. You can use liquid stock from the carton, or make it up using stock cubes and boiling water.
5) Just let that simmer away on a low heat for around an hour. I then turn it off and let it cool when it is beginning to get all mushy.
6) After it has cooled, I put it into the blender to make it all smooth.
7) Put it back on the heat and add some skim milk if you like to make it a bit more creamy.

To serve, grate a little Parmesan on top. It is SOOOO delicious! And really hearty. If you want a more intense flavour, you could roast the pumpkin in the oven first. ME LOVE ROASTED PUMPKIN! (It’s a good weight watchers snack too at 0 points - just spray with olive oil and roast for around 45 mins - fab!)

The other one is a chicken vegetable one. Basically, just get a bbq chicken from the shops and shred it all. Choose whatever vegetables you like - best ones are leek, zucchini, mushrooms, carrot, corn, onion, potato, peas and cook in some olive oil/olive oil spray. Cover with around 1 L of chicken stock and add the shredded chicken. Let it all simmer for around 1 hour and you could add some pasta shapes in as well. This is a really yummy dish for when it is cold and my Mum makes it whenever I am sick. Serve with hot bread!

In terms of transport for the wedding, have you thought about hiring cars from a traditional car hire company instead of going for wedding cars. As soon as you mention the word wedding, it seems an excuse for suppliers to add 15%. You could hire some really nice new cars for a much lower price than traditional wedding service. Depends what kind of cars you want though! You could also call local car dealerships to see if they might be able to offer a deal as well. Fancy swanning around in a nice new Merc?? Just an idea!

Anyway, have a fabulous weekend! I am sure you will be with Shun! I am so happy for you to be seeing him again!!!

xoxoxoxoxoxoxox

PS I am so sorry to write such a long post in a comment - is this bad blog etiquette?

Re Soup: Here is a really easy recipe. Get 1 leek and a few potatoes. Chop the leek into 1cm thick circles and the potatoes roughly into quarters (no need to peel, just wash). Cook the leek in a little bit of butter for a few minutes, then throw in the potatoes, cover the whole lot with water add a stock cube (I like the Massel ones, they don’t have MSG or nasty stuff) and boil until the potatoes are soft when you poke them with a fork (maybe half an hour). Then let it cool down a bit, and blend it until smooth with a stick blender or in a food processor. I like to eat this with bread rolls or toast, and I usually cook some bacon cut into little squares to sprinkle on top… but chopped parsley would be good too and is healthier. It freezes well too, so I usually make a double batch and freeze half for a lazy standby dinner.