Cherry Blossom Adventures

When the jacarandas start to bloom you know summer is on its way. The heat starts to roll in, dry and thick and as a kid, that always meant summer holidays and Christmas were just around the corner.

Through end of September and October the jacaranda trees with there purple flowers line the streets and the wilting blooms litter the sidewalks, parks & streets. While the jacaranda trees are native to South America, Mexico & the Carribbean most of Brisbane seems to have adopted them as their own. In fact, I only learnt this just now, but the jacarandas are so famous in Brisbane that in the 1930s & 1940s new mothers were given a jacaranda sapling as they left the hospital with their newborns.

Where has this year gone? It is almost November yet it seems like just yesterday that 2008 rolled around.

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Thank you to everyone who commented on my last post. I really appreciate all the support I recieve from my friends whom I know both in real life and in the blogsphere. Yesterday we were hit with another blow but I need time to process before I write about it here.

Popularity: 10% [?]

In an effort to improve on my writing I have decided to sign up for Encyclopedia of me which started over at Bella Dia (and which I found out about by reading Laura`s blog here...)… participating in this hasn`t actually improved my writing at all but I still live in hope…

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V is for Vicious Cycle…

My father is an alcoholic.

He was never violent or abusive in the way you think alcholics are. In fact we had no idea he was an alcholoic until one day he went into hospital with severe stomach pain which turned out to be pancreatitis. He detoxed in an emergency room and ended up in the ICU (Intensive Care Unit) before getting transferred to a private rehabilitation centre. We knew he drank, we even knew he drank a lot although we had no idea how much.

My father is an alcholic and he will always be that way. I was a student in Japan the first time he detoxed. I was not here and I am constantly reminded of this. He stayed in hospital and a rehabilitation centre for almost six weeks all together. He almost died.

My father is an alcoholic. I came back to Australia earlier this year because he was drinking again (they had also found that his cancer had returned after 8 years in remission however he is not undergoing treatment for this at this time) and while my family had not given up on him they had been through it many times before so I came back to care for him.He entered rehab again 3 days after I arrive. This was is 4th or perhaps 5th time to enter the facility and like we do everytime we hoped it would be the last time. It was a bad detox, perhaps the worst or at least the same as that first time. He ended up in ICU again and we were told that he probably wouldn`t make a recovery and it was very touch and go for about a week. We were told if he did make it he would be left with a type of alcoholics dementure meaning he would more than likely need 24 hour care.

My father is an alcoholic and when I returned to Australia earlier this year I almost lost him. He was lucky to survive the latest detox and I honestly thought he would not make it long enough to see Shun & I get married or ever meet his future grandkids.

My father is an alcoholic. When I saw him at the hospital he did not recognize me and I barely recognized him. He could not walk, could barely talk and wanted me to help him escape. Now, several months later he still does not remember me coming to see him.

My father is an alcoholic and when he left the rehabilitation centre this time around we really thought things would work out (like we have every other time). He attended AA meetings 2 or 3 times a week and would go to his rehabilitation centre for one day a fortnight. While he didn`t remember much of his time from the hospital his mind eventually returned back to normal.

My father is an alcoholic and he takes a medication that makes him violently ill if he drinks or has anything with vinegar in it.  He has tested the boundaries of this medication at least once since getting released from the hospital. If he drank while on it, got sick and continued to drink he would go into a coma and die.

My father is an alcoholic and today I found three empty beer bottles hidden away under the house.

My father is an alcoholic and I fear this vicious cycle will not end until he kills himself. And that scares me so much…

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I have had a couple of strange searches that have led people to my blog of late.

Including

• chikan porn (WHAT??get out of here!)
• chikan forum (why?)
• shirley temple badges Australia (Got no idea)
• pee pee cone (My own fault I guess as I once wrote about the pee cone)
• did people love ray charles? ( I am sure they did- I certainly think he was awesome)
• western chikan groping (Why all this chikan stuff? I wrote about chikans ONCE)
• Jonathon Shampoo Australia (Again, I have got no idea)
• groping on the bus chikan (I was on a train?!)
• harajuku girl (I have about 50 searches for this a month that leads to my blog and another 100 or so cherry blossom searches)

I am too tired and lazy to do a proper post tonight. I did have a haircut today and an awesome massage. Oh and we used fresh herbs from our garden in dinner tonight.

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Several weeks ago I send out a facebook message to a couple of primary school friends I had reconnected with thanks to facebook. I said that we should catch up and so we arranged a date that suited us all, booked a place and then this past weekend the big  day came.

We went to The Lighthouse Restaurant at Cleveland, close to our old primary school stomping grounds (and where two of the girls still live) and caught up. I arrived first and Rachie O arrived soon after and for awhile there we thought it might just be us but Carlie & Michelle showed up. We were expecting another two but they must have decided not to come which was fine since the four of us had a great catch up.

I had seen Rachie O earlier in the year when I was home for Christmas but I hadn`t seen Carlie or Michelle since I was about 17 and even before then after age 12 it had been a bit sporadic. It just goes to show though, that while time passes us by at what seems like lightening speeds sometimes, there are some people in your life that you can meet up with and just take off from where you left off.

With the amount of time I have spend living overseas since finishing highschool I have only a handful of friends from Australia whom I know I have the kind of relationships with that we can just pick up where ever we last left off and go from there. (Mandy, who couldn`t be there for our little reunion is one of those people also!)

While I was a bit nervous about meeting up with these girls again, because you never know if it is going to go smoothly or if the conversation will flow and lets face it, primary school finished over 10 years ago so who knew what we would have in common anymore. I am happy to say though that there was no uncomfortable silence and we really could just take off from where we left off.

We chatted about careers, our boys, our futures and our pasts. We reminised about crazy primary school memories and laughed over old inside jokes.

A common theme in our conversation was friendship and how we had evolved and formed long last friendships with some and not so long lasting friendships with others- both from our primary school days and our highschool days and even our lives now.  I know that I will see these girls again sometime soon, and we are arranging a get together before Christmas, this time with our partners as well.

While we have all gone our separate ways, one of us an accountant, one of us a lawyer and one of us a personal trainer (who was also a manager of a chalet in France and also a car saleswoman!) and me, a roaming girl with no real career yet, we still had common ground. These are girls who I have known since I was 4 or 5-we saw each other grow up, we know each others brothers and sisters and family and we remember what the others dreams were all through primary school! I know it sounds cliched but the conversation honestly never did stop and surprisingly we still had a connection even after all this time.

Five hours later we hugged, said goodbye and promised to not let so many years go by without another reunion!

Do you still have primary school friends? Do you meet up on a regular basis? Since the facebook revolution have you reconnected with people you haven`t seen or spoken to in years?

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I had never seen a whale in its natural habitat until Saturday when myself, Shun & his school friend Kaori and her friend Kana got up super earlier (ok not too early but 6am is early for a Saturday!) and headed into town to catch a bus out to Redcliffe for a whale watching day out.

We boarded a big boat (one of two allowed to do whale watching in Brisbane) and headed out past Moreton Island to see if we could catch a glimpse of some whales.

We were really really lucky to catch sight of a mother and her baby who swam up close to the boat and put on a bit of a show. The guide guessed that the calf would have been about four weeks old and he definitely wasn`t camera shy.

I must admit I was happy to hear that the boat and the guides will glide up to a pod but if they disappear under water and don`t come up to breathe very often then they leave them alone and look for another pod.  In fact the first two whales we caught a quick glimpse of quickly disappeared so we moved on leaving them be.

We had lunch on board (including prawns! Yummy!) and fell asleep on the bus home. Been out on the water all day can be quite exhausting. It was such a great experience though.

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A couple of days ago I posted a post titled “U is for Unbelievable…” with a competition asking you to guess which of 23 statements was NOT true.

Only one of you guessed correctly.

I figured that either Sarah, Nay or Jen MIGHT guess it right or if Mandy was around I knew she would get it since we have known each other since we were four and she knows pretty much my WHOLE LIFE STORY since she has lived it with me.

In the end it was NAY that guessed correctly when she said # 9 - When I was younger I was suspected of having menangitus, scaring my parents to death, but in the end only had a virus.

To my knowledge I have never been suspected of having menangitus- I was pretty sick in preschool with a stomach bug and it took them six months to figure out what it was but when they did, and I took the correct antibiotics, I was better within a couple of weeks.

All other statments on the list are TRUE! So there you go, did you learn anything knew about me? Was the correct answer unbelievable?

Nay, do you eat minties??? I will send you some- otherwise let me know what it is that you want from Australia?!?

Popularity: 6% [?]

In an effort to improve on my writing I have decided to sign up for Encyclopedia of me which started over at Bella Dia (and which I found out about by reading Laura`s blog here...)… participating in this hasn`t actually improved my writing at all but I still live in hope…

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U is for unbelievable…

Choose which of the following is the MOST unbelievable about me- only one of the following is not correct. Are you any good at guessing which? You are allowed two guesses and everyone that guesses correctly will get some Japanese candy and if you are in Japan, well I will send you some minties, the only Aussie candy I can think of. (23 to choose from since I am 23)

1. I once stole make-up from kmart while I was still in highschool but I can not remember for the life of me what it was.
2. I have had something I wrote published under my real name and also have had something published under an alias/psudonym
3. I knew all the words to “Imagine” by John Lennon by the time I was six.
4. I modelled togs in my year four fashion parade and a strap slipped down revealing my chest…and I did not notice. It still remains one of the most embarrassing things to have ever happened to me.
5. In primary school I also played the part of a speaking tree/bush in a school play
6. I once slapped a highschool friend in the face, knocking her down, while walking to school one day. This incident is still brought up by people I went to school with.
7. Shun proposed to me for the first time the second time we met.
8. I am a gossip magazine addict.
9. When I was younger I was suspected of having menangitus, scaring my parents to death, but in the end only had a virus.
10. I attempted to gain the Duke of Edinburgh award.
11. My favourite sunglasses cost $11 from Target in the city.
12. My first ever gift after I was born was a paddington bear from my dad.
13. It was raining the first night I was ever in Tokyo.
14. The first time I tried smoking I was in elementrary school.
15. I have been on the radio several times and once an emal I sent was read out on air of Triple M.
16. When I was 15 I had a crush on a guy two years younger than me who lived in New Zealand.
17. My favourite Tv Show as a kid was flying doctors.
18. I started to read at age three.
19. I used to teach English to a famous “manga” writer in Kichijoji.
20. While walking down the street in Harajuku, with Enny, we walked past Nicole Ritchi…
21. I used to be really afraid of staying home alone and used to think every little noise was someone trying to break in and come in and murder me.
22. I also used to think a native Indian lady lived in my closet.
23. My favourite flower after cherry blossoms are Gerberas.

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• I have a sewing lesson next Sunday for 2.5 hours and another scheduled for the same amount of time a week later. I think If I have a bit of guidance then I will be able to go from there. But get this, the five hour worth of lessons only costs $85 and it is a private lesson, at her house, and she provides all the practice materials, instructions and gives all students a mini sewing kit. I am stoked to have found this lady and even better her house is just a 5 minute drive from my house.
• I am thinking of singing up for a cooking class with my dad or a weekly writing course somewhere near town. Not sure yet. I might do both depending on costs. My dad likes to cook and I thought the cooking would be something we could do together. We are thinking Thai at the moment… I also really want to do a writing course of some sort also but I guess I am thinking really I should just write more and that would give me the practice I need.
• The next couple of weekends are pretty busy- next weekend especially. Friday night we are eating out in West End at a famous Indian resteraunt with some of Shun`s school friends and my friend Dani. Shun`s friend Yuya has been wanting to meet Dani for ages so it is kind of a mini set up although not really I guess due to the communication issues they will face. Then on Saturday Shun & I are going whale watching. THen on Sunday I have my sewing lesson and am then meeting about 5 friends from primary school, some of whom I haven`t seen in about 10 years…..that is the wonders of facebook for you!
• We are making a vegie garden tomorrow. I am very excited. We are thinking Corn, Capsicum, lebonese cucumbers, snow peas, strawberries, different types of herbs, lettuces of some kind,cherry tomatos,red onions and garlic root (ninniku no me…still not sure where to get this from yet though). I also have my heart set on a mulberry tree!We will need to build a little fence for it so that Abbey can`t get in as at the moment that is what she is doing with the strawberries I had growing. She eats them before they get ripe enough for us to pick them. Silly dog!
• I met up with my friend Dani last night for the first time in ages. We enjoyed thai food, wine and then back at her house a very unpolitically correct movie. This morning she cooked me breakfast and I went off to have an hour long massage before coming to pick me up at my place to go shopping. The shopping idea was a bit spur of the moment. Dani & I have not shopped together since highschool but we have discovered that we now make EXCELLENT shopping campanions! Plus a lot of shops where having mid season sales…I got a couple of bargains! Dani got to my place before I got home and she was playing with Abbey and talking to Shun when I got in. She was very impressed with how much better his English has gotten in the six or so weeks since she last saw him. He was very humble about it but I think he was happy that she noticed! Dani & I had a love hate relationship most of the way through school…we are both scarily similar and that caused some problems but now that we are older we just deal with each others crap and I have to say that one of the reasons we get on so well is because we both spent time overseas when we were about 19/20 and grew up a lot where as some of the other people we went to school with pretty much failed to do this. Dani cracks me up….today for example we were driving along and saw something on the road which looked like a roast pork…I said “wow did you see that, what was it” and she replied ” It looked like a roast- should we stop and pick it up for dinner and when mum asks us where we got it we can say side of the road” …..we both agreed later that it had probably been a palm frond (sp?). We also decided that spatious shouldn`t just mean full of space but also “out of space like”.
• Shun & I went to pick up my engagement ring the other day because they had it since they were making the wedding rings and we saw our wedding rings- they are done and I am in love. They were SOOOOO good! Shun`s only requirement for his that he wanted to be able to wear it in an onsen (!!! I know right!) and I wanted mine to fit with the engagement ring. So Shun choose a titanium ring and I had a platinum ring made with white and blue diamonds to match the engagment ring. We are SOOOOOOO happy with them!
• Would it be appropriate to rock up to my own wedding in a mini? I am thinking of doing it. We are having hiring car difficulties at the moment for the wedding since a lot of classic cars etc are no longer available and my mother has proved me wrong again because she did tell me about 2 months ago that I really should book cars sooner rather than later and yet I rang 5 or 6 places the other day and nothing. Shun likes the idea of a limo though….so maybe we will go with that (or a mini!)
• There seems to be a bit of a baby craze happening at the moment- it is making me a little clucky. Not enough to make me want to get knocked up just yet, but I am getting cluckier all the same!
• Work is driving me a little insane at the moment. The lack of communication where I work is amazing- I am only a temp staff member and I know this, and I also know that it means I shouldn`t let stuff get to me, but the lack of communication amougst the staff is making my job harder and it honestly feels like I am hitting my head against a brick wall at times. Plus, the girl I started with Sam, is leaving in two weeks to go back to travelling (she was backpacking, over from England). I am thinking about telling my agency I do not wish to be extended anymore and asking them to find me something else. Knowing that I am only going to be in Australia until end of May, makes job hunting a little difficult. I might see good full-time jobs online but I would feel really bad taking on a permanant position knowing that I will not be there for more than six months. That is why temping suits me, but I just feel like I could be doing something so much better than general admin work and I also feel like I should at least be trying to use the Japanese/PR/Journalism skills I have. I know I should just pull my head in and deal with it, especially since I am unlikely to be extended past Christmas anyway since the person who used to do my current job will return to his position then but still, I am more than a little over it.
• Hard to beleive Christmas is just over 2 months away- I better get started on my plan to make sure Shun experiences a proper Australian christmas. I guess we will have to get a tree…
• I might be going to Melbourne in November- if James, our friend in Japan, heads home to Melbourne for a couple of days then we will go down to see him and hopefully catch a show while we are there. I have my heart set on seeing wicked!
• I guess I had a lot more random stuff to say then I thought- thank god for dotpoints!

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Or more appropriately titled Lulu`s sewing blunder #32

Turns out there is a different foot for zips. I attempted to make a little zip purse on the weekend and couldn`t for the life of me figure out how people do zips so figured I would just give it ago by myself.

Bad idea.

Why didn`t anybody tell me you need to change machine foot (feet?) for that.

Such a shame as I was just about to consider a career in dress making. Oh well I guess it is back to the drawing board for my career search…It truly is a shame that I am a crap sewer and also a crap writer otherwise I could of had one of those cool crafty blogs that everybody loves.

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Perhaps it should be the art of Korean or Asian BBQ but we will stick with the original title for now.

I love the way Japanese and Korean people BBQ- everybody standing around the BBQ with paper plates and chopsticks, everybody cooking together and eating as they go along. Friday was Shun`s last day of school and since he had been there for 8 weeks he had made quite a few friends, most of which were Japanese or Korean and on most Friday afternoons they went to Roma Street Parklands for a BBQ and a couple of drinks.

For BBQs in Australia, one person cooks while a table is set with salads, potato dishes, bread etc while the meat cooks off to the side. Some will stand talking to the cook while others will sit at the table waiting for the eating time to begin.

Not Japanese people, or Korean people for that matter.

Everything is chucked on as we eat. If a Japanese person has done the shopping then usually you will have noodles to fry up also but if Korean people have done the shopping then you will most definitely have kimochi. Everyone stands around, nobody sits usually and the conversation goes back and forth as one uses their chopsticks to pop a peice of pork or some kimochi in their mouth.

It is the same in Japan when we had BBQs, everybody standing around, everybody cooking and everybody eating as they go along. I definitely miss it.

I should point out here though that if you are camping then you will probably have yakisoba or Japanese curry for dinner and not a typical BBQ. Where as, camping here, is usually always a BBQ.

When I was in Japan I missed Aussie BBQs but now that I am here I miss Japanese ones just as much! It was fun to go out Friday after work and have a BBQ with Shun & his friends. There were lots of language school students around in the park and at one stage I joined another Korean group of people and played some random Korean drinking game…was a little difficult since I speak no Korean (Except to be able to say “silly” and “how are you!” or “chopsticks”) but it was fun all the same and I may have picked up some new Korean words! Myself & Kousuke, a friend of Shun`s from school taught them to play a Japanese drinking game as well.

Now that Shun has finished school I am not sure how often he will see his school friends but I do hope he continues to go into town occasionly (Although a couple of others finished Friday also, and Kousuke flew home on Saturday morning) and catches up with them. Even though if he is hanging out with Japanese friends I know he isn`t speaking English but it is better for him to get out and make friends than stay home all day. Hopefully after we sort out a TFN for him then he will be able to get a part-time job maybe.

Last night we had a great end to the weekend with an Aussie style BBQ complete with steak, moroccan lamb shanks, salad & bread. The art of Aussie BBQ while not the same as as a Japanese BBQ, is just as good for different reasons.

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