Goodbye 2020

 What is there to say about 2020?

I never thought that I would be living through a pandemic.  These things belong in SF movies or in history.  I remember studying about WW2 in school and thinking that I was lucky not to be born in such a time, that I could never cope with the stress of sending our men off to fight, not knowing if they would return or return whole!  Although the pandemic was not too bad in Japan it still impacted us in a rather negative way.  I honestly don't know how people in Europe, UK or USA coped.  

I started off the new year determined to grow my business.  I really wanted to visit UK in 2021 so a year of hard work I should be able to save enough money for that.  David made new leaflets, we got them printed and the boys started to go door to door.  We got a few new students and I thought things were going okay.

The end of March David left to join the Japanese Army.  That went wrong very quickly.  During his training he got stress fractures on both knees.  He need time to recover but instead did a 10 kilo march in full gear.  He got out on a medical discharge 3months later.  Even now he still has pain from time to time.

March was also our lockdown.  Unlike the UK it wasn't enforced.  All schools closed, public places closed as did most stores, supermarkets and drug stores being the exception. I tried to shop once a week not easy with limited space but some how managed.  We didn't close our school, it's our only source of income and there was little help from the government.  We gave the students a choice, if they felt safe they could come, if not take a holiday.   It was hard, our income went from almost 3000 pounds to about 800 pounds (our rent is 850 pounds).  

April 1st my mother in law died.  Old age, she was 83 and had spent the last 2 years in and out of hospital and in a care home.  We inherited her house and a load of land which we are still trying to figure out what to do with.

Because we were in lockdown and not teaching so much we spent a lot of time cleaning out my mother in laws house.  I had kept so much in storage there, it was really like a trip down memory lane.  I shed a few tears as I remember all the things we did as a family when the kids were little.

One of our kittens got adopted by a lovely lady in the US Navy.  Because of lockdown she couldn't leave the city she was in so we drove almost 3 hours to take the kitten to her. It was nice to get out and see somewhere different.

End of lockdown, start of summer David came back and got a part time job a local convenience store.  Christopher was working at the local supermarket stacking shelves before it opens. 

Then our lovely dog died.  She had been slowing down over the past few weeks, I thought it was the heat and her age. Turns out she had cancer.  The vet said that she was suffering and too far gone, she wouldn't last the night so best thing was to have her put down.  Even now I'm crying about this.

The rest of the summer was hard. Too hot and not able to go anywhere because of Covid 19.  Wearing masks in the heat made me rather ill.

Autumn saw Hannah begin her search for a university.  Because of her homeroom teacher she decided to be a teacher.  Hannah always thought that she couldn't be a teacher because she is shy but Hannah's teacher is also shy.  Poor Hannah worked so hard for her first university but couldn't pass but got into her second choice.

I'm sure I've missed out a lot but 2020 is almost over and 2021 is a new start. I know things haven't really changed, if anything with this new variant of the Covid 19 things could get worse.  But I feel that doctors and scientists have more idea how to deal with it and of course there is the vaccines that are being rolled out.  So 2021 I need to make money, I really want to go back to the UK for a visit.  I need to step up my teaching, especially teaching kids, I've kind of lost the plot there.  I hope to spend more time with my kids, we are all getting older and more busy, with everybody's schedules being all over the place it is difficult to get together.  

Few photos in no particular order!

Photo I found in mother in laws house, hubby with his long hair.

Leaving for Japanese Army

David

 Lovely early morning adventure because of David.

He managed to fall down the stairs, this was before 6am. I was in the living room and heard this awful thud, I went out and David was picking himself up.  I asked if he was okay, he said yes and went to the toilet.  A couple of minutes later I heard another crash.  I went running and David was on the floor.  His eyes were open but unfocused, he was sitting, leaning forward and moaning.  He grabbed my hand so hard I thought he would break it.  He then went down again, eyes rolling back. When he came too his pupils were just pin pricks and again unfocused.  I shouted Hannah, who was awake to get Mikey.  He called the ambulance.  I managed to pull David up and get him to the living room, he sat there feeling rather dazed.  He remembers falling down stairs but nothing after until he was in the living room.  Got to the local A&E, which is small but able to deal with most things.  (It's the hospital where I had my surgery a few years ago.)   Hannah came with me because of all the forms to fill out.  David was checked over and had a CT scan.  Apparently he his head when he fell down the stairs and has a concussion!   Not what I needed at this time of year!

And just to add to things it's snowing and actually sticking.  According to the forecast it should snow over night until sometime tomorrow afternoon.  

Christmas

 First the good news, Hannah got into university!  It was her second choice and not exactly what she wanted, she wanted to be a junior high school teacher, this university is for elementary school teachers.  But she can study special needs education, which is her main interest.   

Christmas was nice!  Christmas Eve I went to a local supermarket to get a few things.  I wasn't doing a traditional Christmas dinner so wanted something special for Christmas Eve, got some nice sushi and beef sushi. David made hamburgers and fried chicken, we had salad as well.  Later we had cheese cake, half price because it was packaged as Christmas cake!

Christmas Eve dinner, not too much so we didn't eat ourselves sick!

Christmas Day was good.  All the boys bought gifts for everybody.  I think this was the first year that everybody had some kind of income.  I got a nice bag from Mikey, a new purse from Christopher and two books from David!  I bought the kids something, clothes and books for the boys and an electronic dictionary and DVDs for Hannah.

Dinner turned out to be a mess.  We thought we had ordered KFC but somehow the order didn't go through.  So at 4:30 David and I ran to the supermarket to find something for dinner.  The reason we were going to get KFC is that both David and I are very tired, so a nice relaxing way to have dinner.  We got some nice steak, and load of vegetables.  David cooked and it was very nice!

Christmas dinner, David also made the cake.

Of course Christmas is not Christmas without some drama! On the way home from the supermarket we found a stray dog.  Poor thing looked awful, coat was all mated and looked like it was bleeding on the face. It still had a chain on so it maybe escaped from somebodies yard.  I wanted to take to the vets and then bring it home.  David called the police, I sat in the car crying.  The police came and said that they would try and find the owners but I am sure it will end up at a shelter and almost all shelters here are kill shelters. I know that we can't take care of anymore animals, 9 cats is rather over whelming!  But it breaks my heart to see animals mistreated like that!  My kids said that it is usually the kids that want to bring home the strays and the parents say no, here it is the opposite!

Eight Years

 Yesterday was 8 years since Hisao passed away!  Some days it feels like it just happened, other days it seems like a lifetime ago.

This year it has hit me harder than other years. Part of it is the difficulties caused by the pandemic.  Most years I treat Hannah to a musical as part of her Christmas presents.  We spend the whole day out, lunch, musical, then the Christmas Market on the way back.  This year there are no musicals and I don't want to risk going to the city as I know it will be crowded. Also I go to Costco for Christmas dinner, again I don't want to risk it.  Even on a week day it is crowded.  

This year I've stayed home, baked cookies for the students, done Christmas parties and tried to not get too down!

Hannah has another test today for her 2nd choice university, hope she passes this time.

It took 3 hours to get this photo!

Not sure where the last two photos were taken!

Half Way Through December

 Poor Hannah didn't get into her first choice for university.  It was a long shot to begin with.  One thing in Japan the name of the school that you have attended is very important.  Hannah's high school a commercial school, which is considered rather low ranking.  Hannah did get the test results that she needed, for 3 years her average was 4.2 (5 is the highest, to attend university 4 is needed), she studied hard for the entrance test but didn't make it.  Rather disappointing. She has a test for another place next week.  The problem is the other university doesn't have junior high school teachers course, which is what Hannah wanted to do.  This other university is for elementary school teachers, but it does have special needs which is what Hannah is really interested in.  

Because of all the drama with Hannah I have only just put up our Christmas tree. I use to do two or three, now only one.  One problem is the cats, the one I put up is in a room the cats aren't allowed in.  Another is just not having enough energy to do anything.  This year I am not doing a typical Christmas dinner.  The only place to get the meat is Costco, which is always crowded and with Covid still hanging around I don't want to risk it.  So this year we are having KFC, typical Japanese Christmas dinner!  You actually have to preorder, stating what time you want to pick it up.  We'll eat around 4 o'clock as Mikey has a magic show at 1 o'clock.

Our little tree

Pink cat? No just the sun through the curtains