March 18 2009, Pandora Bracelet, Olympus E-520
My birthday present from Shun. A pandora bracelet and a dog charm and a flower charm- the other two came from money my dad gave me for my birthday. I look forward to adding to it over the upcoming years…
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Yesterday I met up with Cassie & Princess Poppy and Sophie & Sakurako after work.
We met up outside Hungry Jacks in the mall and if you have ever had to meet up with someone in town in Brisbane then more often than not the agreed meetings spot will be the Hungry Jacks. It is a it of a Brisbane icon of sorts where all the drop-outs, school kids & language students hang out plus it is pretty much dead bang in the middle of town.
I saw Cassie first, didn`t click right away as I had my eyes peeled for a stroller and this lady smiling at me had no stroller- I soon discovered Poppy strapped to her back in a carrier.
Sophie showed up soon after with Sakurako in a stroller! We decided that with the little ones it would be best to grab take-away coffees and drinks and head down into the Botanical Gardens so that the girls could run around on the grass while the mummies & me could chat (& chase after kids of course!)
I met Sakurako`s frog and Poppy`s Lovie dog so we were friends from the start! In fact Sakurako was quite happy for me to hold onto Froggy!
We found a shady spot right near a playground and the girls, while a little shy at first, soon became fast friends.
Who are you??? Checking each other out…
Sakurako fed her snacks to the birds even chasing an ibis to share her sandwich while Poppy picked all of the blueberries out of Cassie`s muffin!
Where are the birds gone?
nom nom nom- Yum!
Us “big” girls chatted while the girls explored the park! We chatted about Japanese bureaucracy we had faced at consulates, airports etc and then poor Sophie got a call from her hub saying he was having issues at Aussie Immigration. Ironic really! I guess the bureaucracy exists everywhere. Seems they got their issues sorted though, shame that Sophie & Sakurako had to leave early though
Sophie & her beautiful daughter Sakurako
After saying goodbye (regretfully!) to Sophie & Sakurako, Cassie, Poppy & I explored the park some more and poppy discovered all the cool equipment the park had but what was even more facinating for her was all the dirty bark that could be picked up and rubbed all over her and the equipment especially the see-saw!
Poppy the poser! Pulling faces
Cassie & Poppy
Such a fun afternoon- Cassie was lovely. Very down to earch and so easy to talk to. She is the kind of mum that I hope to one day become!! We swapped stories about our boys, about our families and more. Such a shame that we don`t live closer together in Japan but I am sure we will meet up again sometime in the future.
Sophie, Sakurako & I (maybe with the boys!) hope to meet up again before they head back to Gunma-ken in April.
Here is one final shot of Poppy & I- I look shocking but ignore that and look at the cute little girl I am holding instead.
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Jacqui from BloominginNihon & Meeabee fame tagged me for the 7 things I love meme and I thought what the hell, I wanted to post but didn`t have much to say so all is good.
So here goes:
1. Time- I love time. Time to do things I want, time to relax, time to plan and time to spent with people I love.
2. Shun & family- Up until recently I always put my family in one category and Shun in another but slowly I am realizing that Shun is my family too and this past year he has integrated so well into my family life here. I love him & I love my family, equally!
3. Friends- cliched I know, but I do! I am not sure what I would do without my friends and I am so luck to have friends all over the world! I can not wait to see what adventures we will have in the future.
4. My camera- I love getting creative with it and I am so happy to have it back!! I hope to improve on my photography a lot over the upcoming months.
5. Words- Without words, where would we be? I use words to speak and write, two other things I love very much. Similar to photography I hope to get better with my the way I use words.
6. Hula Hooping- There is just something about swinging a hoop around your hips (or arms, legs, neck etc etc!)
7. Planning our future- There has been a lot of that going on lately in Lulu & Shun`s world!
Now I have to tag 7 people so I after a little bit of innie minnie miny mo…
Sara, Nay, Gaijinwife, Sassy (Who I am meeting up with tomorrow!WOOT!), Nooh, Khea & Fiona
Just because you were not tagged doesn`t mean you can`t participate- list the things you love in the comments section OR post them on your blog and leave a comment letting me know you have done it! It was hard for me to only choose seven things when I love so much more! Perhaps I will add some of my others in the comments (like cheese and chocolate which came a close 8th & 9th!)
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If these last couple of (stressful!) weeks have shown me anything it is that I am definitely a comfort eater. I always knew this- I am pretty certain I have always been a comfort eater. I had thought I would be better now seeing as I have put so much effort trying to lose weight and watch what I eat but instead I reverted back to my unhealthy ways.
I am just not one of those people that gets stressed and doesn`t eat nor am I a person who stops eating when they are sick. Quite the opposite on both counts much to my dismay!
I have lost just under 12kgs since coming home to Australia and I am not ready to stop now. I am determined to lose those last couple of pesky kilos. I got on the scales today and it seems I have put on half a kilo in the last couple of weeks due to comfort eating, lack of exercise and lack of motivation to attend weight watchers meetings.
I know stress affects people in different ways but I am determined to not let it run my life creating havoc on my eating habits/exercise habits.
So my goals for the upcoming weeks are:
Learn to stop letting my emotions and stressful situations control my eating and get back on track with planning ahead (or at least change my comfort foods from chocolate to fruit or veggie sticks 
Get back into an exercise regime- this means returning to aqua aerobics, walking more often, hula hooping and doing either pilates on DVD or returning to yoga class.
Start tracking my food intake again- ie. writing down what I eat.
Return to meetings from next Thursday (this Thursday I have plans with two friends in town)
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March 23 2009 (Today!), Abbey at home before her walk, Olympus E520
This was taken earlier today. Abbey has grown up a lot but she still acts like a giant puppy!! She is smaller than the average blue heeler but she makes up for that in enthusiasm.
I need to get back into taking Abbey for longer walks again. We went for about 3km today and will go again tomorrow- maybe a bit further!!
We will miss her a lot when we go back to Japan.
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I saw this at Marianne`s blog and numerous others (didn`t think I could leave comments on heaps though- hehe!) and have decided to join the pay it forward revolution! Here are the rules
1. Leave a comment with the link to your pay it forward giveaway from your blog (So you need to write about this on your blog)
2. Be willing to follow through on sending out 3 prizes to lucky winners of your contest.
3. Make sure your profile lists your profile contact information OR leave your email addy with your entry in the comments section (So that I can contact you for your address to send you your goodies!)
Now if you are one of the first three people to leave a comment on this entry I will send you a present in the post- what it will be I have not yet decided but if you have any ideas then they are welcome! If you are based in Oz then you will get the gift before I leave- if you are in Japan though you might have to wait a couple of months.
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March 10, 2009, Kokeshi doll @ home, Olympus u830
On Friday I had the day off work because my Shun & I were going to my second cousin Amelia`s school to talk to them about Japan. They are 10 years old and learning about Japan and some Japanese this term at school. When my cousin`s wife emailed me several weeks back to see if we could perhaps go to her class I jumped at the chance. It has been almost a year since I last stepped foot into a classroom and I miss it (surprisingly!).
After emailing back and forth with Amelia`s teacher we settled on Friday afternoon for a 45 minute session and the topic was “Hinamatsuri” or “Dolls festival” which happened on March 3rd. I am not sure what you know about hinamatsuri but I did not really know much about it before but I did a bit of research in preparation.
Some interesting tibbits I found out included
- On a girls first hinamatsuri it is called hatzu-zekku and it is common for the grandparents to buy their granddaughter the dolls.
- A doll set traditionally has 15 dolls!
- Sometimes paper dolls are made (often with attached boats!) breathed on, rubbed against their bodies and sent down the river taking with them bad luck and bad health and bringing good luck and health to the children!
- Meiji Jingu, a shrine in Tokyo, sells environmentally friendly paper dolls for people to use that are made out of fish food!
- There is a hinamatsuri song- which i now know!
- A doll set can cost up to about $10,000
I learnt a lot more that we shared with Amelia`s class. I forgot how funny 10 year olds can be and their crazy questions which included things like
- Can we all come to your wedding?
- What happens if moths eat the dolls clothes?
- Do the emperor and empress dolls change when they real emperor changes? (I don`t know the answer to this but I thought not)
- Do people try to steal the dolls?
- do the dolls really eat the snack that people leave for them?
And a lot more! After talking about hinamatsuri and having question time and showing some pictures and some dolls we taught them the song “ureshii hinamatsuri” and made origami paper dolls!!
This picture is of one of the dolls I took with me to the lesson. I don`t have any real hinamatusri dolls ( or hina ningyo) so I took two kokeshi dolls that I have to show the students.
We had a lot of fun! Shun was extremely nervous and did not say much but the girls adored him!
I am hoping my DSLR camera will be returned to me this week. I plan to ring them tomorrow!
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Some people come into our lives and quickly go.
Some people move our souls to dance.
They awaken us to a new understanding with the passing whisper of their wisdom.
Some people make the sky ore beautiful to gaze upon.
They stay in our lives for awhile, leave footprints on our hearts, and we are never the same again.
I am lucky to have had many wonderful friends in my lifetime. Some friends like Mandy (bridesmaid)…have been in my life for as long as I can remember….because we met at preschool aged four. Now Mandy is in London now and we do not see each other very often but when we do we can pick up from wherever we left off without any issues. We know each other well, and we know each others families….we will always have an invisible string tying us to each other. She has been there forever and she will continue to be there forever…
Other friends like Cat (maid of honor) & James (best man) came into my life by chance when we were all at the same university in Tokyo on exchange. I may never have met them otherwise but can not imagine my life without them now. They are such a big part of my life and when I am in Tokyo I rely on them so much. They are my support network away from home (along with Shun of course) and they are part of the happiest memories of my life. Would we have been friends if we had met briefly under different circumstances? Maybe but I think it was the situation we were in that made us so close and what has kept us so close….
Other friends, like Nay & Sarah, came into my life through this very blog and the fact that we were in similar places in our lives. While I have only met Sarah once for a long weekend and Nay only a handful of times (and all three of us have never been together in the same room before!) these two girls will be in my life forever. Last night, we were talking on Skype and it wasn`t until it got to 11:30pm and I realized that more than 3 hours had passed. I count on these girls to be there when I need to chat, to send messages back and forth and to plan our futures (like a trip to Izu later this year, hey Nay and a trip to Niigata to meet Sarah`s baby in the summer!) and bounce ideas off! We may never have come into each others lives if it wasn`t for blogging and our love of our Japanese men…….but am I glad they are in it? Definitely!!! I wouldn`t have it any other way. Even though Nay will be in Shizuoka, I will be in Chiba or Tokyo & Sarah will be in Niigata that doesn`t matter- we might only see each other every other month once I am back in Japan but it won`t matter because we will always have the plans in place for our next trip to visit!!!
On Friday night I caught up with a friend, Dani, and we went off to the Brisbane comedy show at the Powerhouse to see Adam Hills . Dani & I are very similar and for this very reason we had a falling out near the end of high school and only reconnected again a couple of years ago. We will finish each others sentences, laugh together at stuff that nobody else would find funny and can sit around chatting for hours over a bottle of wine or two and some nice food. I could go months without seeing or speaking to Dani (similar to Mandy) and then we would go out for dinner and things would just pick up from exactly where they left off…
Clarie, my best friend from high school (and another bridesmaid!),and I were inseparable from ages 13-16….hour long phone calls after spending all day with each other at school, sleepovers, letters back and forth, shared secret crushes and many a drunken nights!!! We took family holidays together and shared the same hobbies…we have both grown up so much since we met yet our friendship has stood up the changes and we are still very close. Clare is now in Mt Isa for work and we only catch up when we are both home in Brisbane which is not as often as I would like. Clare was part of a group of friends in highschool I now have nothing to do with…..in fact Dani & Clare are the only two highschool friends I still see at all. I admire people that have kept the exact same friends from highschool that they had while there were in highschool because while I had close friends at school I am no longer in touch with any of them. If I saw them out I would stop and say hello but we have nothing in common anymore and it is just fake niceties that we exchange. But this isn`t the case with Clare….Clare was there the first time my dad got sick and she & her family has done so much for me over the years (and my brother incidently enough- Clare`s brother and my brother were the same age and are very close, even now)…
I have lots of best friends now. In primary school & high school I thought the goal was to have ONE bestfriend…the friend you shared everything with, did everything with & was always there. Some of my best friends from my childhood are still in my life (namely Mandy & Clare!) and some are not there at all anymore. I now know that that isn`t what friendship is…..I have a collection of friends, some of whom make up my best friends…all of whom I love dearly and who are all in my life, leaving footsteps on my heart. I hope you will take time to think about the friendships you hold dear to you and remember what friendship is about….
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While the days in Brisbane are not really getting any cooler (yet!) the nights are starting to cool down a little so I have pulled out my knitting needles and wool and have started knitting again!
I am working on a scarf that I started last year for my friend Junni. It is a mottled red colour to match his snowboard gear and I just heard from another friend the other day that he is in hospital at the moment with a broken arm from a snowboarding accident. Apparently he was very lucky not to have had more serious injuries. I know he will be up boarding again next winter so I am aiming to have the scarf finished before I returned to Japan to give to him. He put in this “order” for a scarf a long time ago so I really should try to finish it!!! I am also wishing him a fast recovery!!!
Am also knitting a couple of cute baby things for Sarah`s bub- now we have a confirmed girl I can satisfy my pink and purple knitting cravings! Currently working on a little hat.
Pictures to follow sometime soon!
Perhaps I will go really crazy and pull out the sewing machine again this weekend!
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Aussie girl with Japanese husband living in Chiba, Japan with a baby boy born December 2009. Just trying to make sense of the crazy Japanese and Aussie worlds she lives in...
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