Cherry Blossom Adventures

I am exhausted.

I feel like crap.

I am so glad it is Friday and that I now have two days to sleep and do nothing.

This week has caught up with me in more ways than one.

I am so exhausted yet there are going to be many more weeks like this and I can`t help but think this is just the beggining.

My body feels like jelly and so does my mind- I am mentally and physically drained.

I need sleep.

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See this!? I made it!

I am still having sewing lessons, my fourth will be this Sunday, and they are going well and I am loving have those couple of hours on a Sunday to focus on sewing.

This weekend I am going to make something from this book by this lovely lady!

I will probably have another two lessons after this and then try to sew a bit more by myself- I can do simple stuff alone but reading patterns is still a little lost on me. I do hope to get better though.

I think I will wear my new top to my sewing lesson on Friday. My teacher is awesome by the way, I take my machine and go to her house and she teaches me for about 2.5 hours. She is really really reasonably priced as well so if anyone is in Brisbane and after a good sewing teacher please send me an email and I will be happy to pass on her details.

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As you know the last couple of weeks have been a very emotional and busy time for us. Yesterday I was off work to take my father to the hospital to have some tests (a CT scan & a biopsy) and about a week ago I hinted that there was more trouble coming up for me and my family. Last Monday my fathers oncologist said that due to the rapid growth of the lumps he had under his arms and in his neck, his cancer was progressing and that the starting of treatment would be fairly imminent.

The results of the tests yesterday will not be back in for a couple of days but it looks as if the next step will be starting chemo again. He is fairly adamant that he does not want to do chemo again but we will wait and see. I talked about my fathers cancer, non- hodgkins lymphoma, previously here. Up until earlier this year my father had been in remission for 7 years.

The weekend was a very emotional time for us. Sunday & Monday where quite possibly the worst days I have ever spent with my father but I am happy to report that the last two days have been a lot better. Some of you know what has been going on  and I am sure the rest of you can understand why I am not going to go into too many details.

Shun came with me yesterday to the hospital and even though the hospital is close to my work and I could have gone in for a couple of hours at least, I decided against it and where I currently working, and my managers there have been fine with me taking the day off. On Tuesday night I slept for 2.5 hours and while I got extra sleep last night I woke up this morning with a migraine and couldn`t go to work. It means that I have missed the last two days, and I will have a lot to catch up on tomorrow. I woke up at 6am to get ready for work but I just couldn`t face it so sent a message to my manager and went back to sleep. I woke up a couple of times but didn`t get out of bed until 2pm. I feel a lot better now but I still have a headache and am feeling quite exhausted…I guess it is my bodies way of telling me the last couple of weeks have caught up with me.

I could of gotten a lot of things done today with the day off but instead I slept & then finished a game of monopoly with my dad & Shun ( I won!) and while I will probably have a headache for about a week (that is the way my migraines go)  I am feeling much better and I think I spent my day well! Dad & Shun are now in the kitchen cooking dinner- we are having an easy tea of sausages on breadrolls. It is Shun`s favourite!!!

Like I said, I could of spent the day doing so many other things, catching up on the cleaning, washing, writing applications for my current job (It is getting advertised so I will apply for it- and if I get it it would mean I would go on their books) general writing, catching up on blogs,  studying, sewing or doing wedding stuff.

Instead I slept & played monolpoly and I can`t help but feel that it was  a day well spent!!!

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Several days ago Benay & I were chatting on Skype and conversation moved from passports to visas to zangyo (overtime) to recipes and then to teaching our future kids English.

There are two main methods/strategies of raising billingual children, one OPOL (One Parent, One Language)  and another known as ML@H (Minority Language at Home).

We debated over these methods as I have always though that Shun and I would go with the OPOL method while Benay thinks ML@H is the method she and Naoki would go with.

Benay made some really good points and it did make me think more about it because this is something Shun & I will eventually have to decide on. When you think about it international marriages and families do provide more challenges and decisions that need to be made perhaps more so than a standard marriage does. That said, there are so many people out there now making their international marriages and families work and I know that Shun & I will make ours work as well. Sometimes though, I think about all the things that we will have to decide and it is mindboggling.

Benay and I had a healthy debate about which was better and why we would use one method over the other but ultimately we decided that we really have no idea which method we will end up using because we do not yet have kids and really have no idea what kind of kids we will have and which method would work better for them and our families.

I guess I have always thought we would use OPOL because Shun had never really spoken English before and I would of hated for our future children to pick up on his bad habits the same way I would hate for our kids to pick up on my Japanese mistakes and immitate them. I figure if I speak English with them and they are with me the majority of the time before they go to school then there English would hopefully reach a native level. There Japanese would reach a native level because they would attend Japanese kindergartens and speak Japanese with Shun and his family.

What would you do? Do you have experiences with either of these? Do you believe one of them works better than the other? Or perhaps you used a completely different method?

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Reading the blog posts that came through my reader overnight I discovered that quite a few blogs I read are joining in for Nablopomo challenge for the month of November- the original National Blog Posting Month.

Some of you may remember that I actually did Nablopomo in September as part of my 101 things in 1001 days list. I wasn`t going to sign up for this month but I actually had a lot of fun doing it in September so I have decided to give it another go.

Earlier this week I tossed up joining Nanowrimo (National Novel Writing Month) but decided with all that is going on at the moment I couldn`t devote the time to the project that I want to. That doesn`t mean I don`t believe I have a novel in me somewhere- I am sure there is a brilliant idea floating around up there in my head bursting to come out but I just haven`t reached that point yet!

But, Nablopomo is something I know I can do. So you can all look forward to hearing from me every day this month!

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Well the photos finally uploaded to flickr after much effort and waiting on my part I might add. We did have a lovely weekend down on the Gold Coast though (Coolangatta) and it is just so nice to be able to spend time with my dad (and Shun of course) especially considering how is health was only 4 months ago.

We actually stayed down the coast because for Father`s Day I gave dad two tickets to see Toni Childs in concert at Twin Towns just over the border in New South Wales. In the end he asked me if I would go with him so I booked a place down the caost for us to stay the night as part of his birthday present (Fathers Day 1st Sunday of September and his Birthday is today, the 20th). While we only had two tickets we thought staying down there was the best idea and it meant Shun could come with us even though I couldn`t get another ticket to the concert.

There was fruit juice and smoothie places EVERYWHERE! We went for a walk along the main street in Coolangatta before we could check in checking out the smoothie bars, the beach, the new resteraunts and hotels that had popped up since we had last been down there and of course I checked out my favourite all-time second hand book place (I was good and only bout 8 second hand novels!!!!)

At dusk we hung around the pool.

And luckily we had booked into the seafood place downstairs for dinner. Honestly, if you are ever staying down at Coolangatta and like seafood you should definitely book a table at Fisherman`s Cove. We went a couple of time when I was younger (We used to stay at Calypso , the hotel above, over Christmas, Summer holidays) and it has always been good. Check out the bug dinner….Dad & Shun certainly enjoyed it (I had ginger chillie prawns which were also bellisimo!)

The concert was awesome. Toni Childs ( I am not sure if any of you have heard of her? but her most famous songs were Zimbabwe and Many Rivers to Cross) had the most powerful voice I have ever heard and she danced around the stage barefoot and I honestly think that so many people in the audiance were just in awe of her talent. I have to say that the girl before her Jess McAvoy was also quite good- her voice was not quite as powerful but she was an excellent entertainer and a brilliant guitar player. I quite liked her and have since downloaded a couple of songs from Itunes!!!

Despite been out quite late the night before we were up early the next morning (early for me on a weekend at least- just after 8am). Dad had already been for 2 walks along the beach by the time we got up not to mention almost completed the Sunday paper crosswords (he got up at 4:30am which is the time he pretty much wakes up every day…sometimes on Sundays he sleeps in an extra hour though).

We checked out, ate a lovely local breakfast and had a quick walk along the beach before heading to Currumbin Bird Sanctuary which we had decided to stop at on the way home.

I haven`t been to Currumbin Bird Sancturary since I was a baby. It has been so long in fact, that I do not remember. It wasn`t really like how I imagined and surprisingly we saw no lorrikeets which the sanctuary is famous for (we were there the wrong time) but we did see the wild bird show and reptiles, feed the kangaroos and emus and saw a crocodile which was so big that we actually thought it might have been fake (and therefore dead).

Do you see the last picture of the emu? See the black tuffs of hair on the side of its face- that is its ears. Does anybody else find that weird??

Anyway, we had a great weekend and if definitely goes to show that a weekend away can make the world of difference in attitudes. It was so nice to get so much fresh air, sunshine and conversation in on one weekend. I hope Shun & I or Shun, Dad & I can take another weekend away together soon. In fact I think a weekend away to Melbourne in November may be in order…

Today is the last day of Septemer, and I have successfully posted everyday so yay!

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I have tried for over an hour to upload some of our photos from the weekend up here and they are still not all up. I don`t know whether to blame the so slow Australian internet or the super mega sized photos which I probably should of made smaller before deciding to upload.

Some of the weekend photos are up at flickr- others are not and will hopefully make it up there in the next century.

It is frustrating the hell out of me and I keep thinking about what I could of done with that time instead (Although while it was happening I did watch La Bumba the story of Ritchie Valence….you know, the guy who died in the plane crash with Buddy Holly and The Big Bopper? Well it was good anyway. I have mentioned once before my fathers random taste in dvd`s and this was one of the ones from his collection.

In other news I sent off for my information about AFWJ (Associaton of Foreign Wives Japan) and will be joining up soon. A lot of women living in Japan married, engaged or living with Japanese partners are members and it is a great way to meet up with other foreign women living in your own area. It especially seems to be great for women with kids (A little way off that yet, ourselves!) as they can meet up and chat and share experiences. I already belong to a couple of other online forums, Foreign Wives Club & MIJ and it is great to hear about how other women are doing. It might seem a bit strange to those not in international relationships but I think we can all agree that it is nice to be part of a community and when I return to Japan while I will still have my friends there and Shun`s family (and Shun of course!) it will be nice to have an even larger network of people that I know I can turn too if I need it.

I have well and truly totally fallen off the weight loss wagon- I know I am doing it too yet I can not stop myself. Exercise, apart from walking Abbey a couple of times a week and hooping about 5 minutes a day, is non existent. I have also stopped counting points for weight watchers and haven`t been to a meeting in 3 weeks. I am bad. I know I need to get back on track- I was doing pretty well but I have already put a bit of the weight back on (only a little bit so far but still!). I need to get back on track but I just can`t seem to find the motivation lately…

Shun finishes up English school this Friday- he will have done 8 weeks which means he has been in Australia for about 12 weeks now. Time has definitely flown by. He will be looking for a part time job. We are not really sure what he will do yet or what he can do really. His English is still quite limited but we will write up an English resume for him and see how he goes. Any ideas? I was thinking maybe at a cafe in the kitchen or something? Or maybe a supermarket? I am just not sure he would be able to find any work in the IT/Computer industry unless his English was a bit better….which is a shame because I know he is missing his job.

Anyway it looks as though the photos are almost finished uploading so I might be able to do a post tomorrow with them. If you want to ave a look before then check out my flickr. This is such a random post of mismatched sentences…

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I had a great time over the weekend. I promise a post tomorrow or Tuesday with photos from our weekend trip. It was nice to get away and most importantly my Dad had a great time.

I have only JUST managed to get through reading all the blog posts I missed since Thursday (had very little internet time on Thursday and Friday as well!), all the comments, checking my email, facebook and forums. I really must cut down on internet time.

I can`t believe September is almost over (and posting every day will also be over for me!)…less that 3 months til Christmas and less than 8 months til our wedding and less than 9 months til we return to Japan. Time is flying by.

Abbey was ok while we were away, we couldn`t take her with us, but luckily my brother and my mum both came over to visit and feed with her during the 36 hours we were away.  She was definitely happy to see us upon our return though!

I was going to write up a bit blog post with pictures but I am too tired and I want to spend at least a little time tonight studying Japanese since I haven`t done any this weekend. Kanji is still doing my head in- I have no idea how I manage to speak Japanese just fine yet reading anything above an 9 year old`s level is impossible.

I am also going to spend a little time before bed watching ainori- I love that show!

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On Thursday nights we have dinner at my mum`s house- it is great because she is like me and can not cook small dishes so there is always leftovers and lucky for us that usually means lunch for Friday. Tonight was lasange-Yummy!

In Japan I drank a lot during the week- Shumpei worked late so I would often have a couple of glasses of wine by myself or stop off at a bar where I knew the owner for a couple of drinks, before heading home. Yet in Australia, I hardly drink at all. Occasionly if I go out for an event (For example a concert or wedding or dinner out if I am not driving) I will have a couple drinks but I never drink in my dad`s house. Yet sometimes, as a contribution to the fact mum makes us dinner once a week, I might take a bottle of wine. or 2. Like tonight for example. The amount I was drinking in Japan bothered me a lot which is why I gave up alcohol for a month or so earlier in the year- I was worried that I had a problem with drinking but am releived to say it didn`t seem to be the case because I gave up coffee at the same time and that was a hell of a lot harder to give up than alcohol

So long story short, I am a little drunk on a Thursday night due to the wine I took t mum`s. Shun drove home since he hadn`t had anything but iced coffee and vitamin water. As I said, in Australia I hardly ever drink on weeknights, if at all, so I am slightly worried about how I will pull up tomorrow.

But hey, I can`t be too drunk since I remembered to blog!

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I am really really really bad with money. Anybody would tell you. I try to save but my money just disappears. While Shun & I are in Australia I am the only one working full-time and while he might eventually get a part-time job or baito it is basically  my salary that we have to live off. He came with quite a bit of savings but English school was very expensive and with no incoming money his money will run out soon I am sure. When I was in Japan I would go a couple of months ok and then my parents would send me some extra money because I would get stuck…That is how bad I am with money just to give you a bit of an idea.

It isn`t like we have a lot of expenses here in Australia…my dad lets us live here rent free and while we contribute to groceries each week that is the extent of our “living” expenses. On top of that there is our train tickets, petrol (which isn`t too bad because I don`t use the car much during the week) and social outings! My parents are also helping out A LOT with our wedding expenses so there are only a couple of things that Shun & I will be paying for ourselves.

Looking at that, I should be saving a lot right? Well I have hardly saved anything since I have been here…but I really really need to try harder. When we go back to Japan we need to have a bit of money behind us if we want to buy a car and to put down key money and bond on a new apartment.

Last night Shun & I were talking about money. We have talked about money before but not really to much extent…I know that Shun`s salary is not great (compared to a salary for the same job in Australia it actually quite shit…) and I know that if I go back to teaching for a couple of years before we have kids then my salary won`t be great either.

Later on down the track when we have kids I would like to be a stay at home mum for awhile…even if it is just for a couple of years. During that time I would probably still do some private English lessons but I would like not to work full-time. The main reason for this is that I want our children to be bilingual yet if I am not with them often enough in their first 3 or 4 years then their English would probably be minimal.

Unfortunately I know we probably wouldn`t be able to make ends meet if we only had one salary coming in. So I really really need to try and save more while we are here this year. I also need to figure out what I will do for work when I go back to Japan and what I could do to work from home once we have kids. So I really need “good saving” vibes from all you dear readers (and ideas of how to keep money coming in after children!)

I felt really bad asking Shun what he thought we would do for money once we went back to Japan knowing that his salary is not great. I felt like I shouldn`t bring it up but I am a big believer that if we talk about things then we could come up with good solutions together. He seems to think it won`t be a problem and luckily he is a lot better with money that I am…I need to learn how to be better! I still can`t help but worry though…

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