March

 I know Friday is the end of the month but this is close enough!

Hard month for my body, slipped disc in my neck,  tortured at the dentist, (and have to go back again on Thursday), and of course allergies that are driving me crazy.

Still dealing with the house.  One good thing is the possibility that somebody might want to buy some of our land, we won't get much money but every bit helps.  The house needs a lot of work on it.  The more stuff I throw out the more problems I'm uncovering.  The layout is bad, the large windows at the front are overshadowed by the roof making the rooms very dark.  I understand why this was done as it gets hot in the summer so having some shade does help.  But that means there is no sun in the winter to warm the rooms.  The house here gets nice and warm in the winter just having the curtains open, that has saved a lot on heating, in summer I keep the curtains closed during the hottest time of day.   I'm still trying to think of something positive about the house.  The only thing is the toilets are closer to the bedrooms!   

The House

 The house next door here has been taken down and they are now building two houses on the plot. At first the cats were scared of the noise but now seem to be supervising the work.

Mama cat is telling me that the work is going okay!!!

And the stray cat is still hanging around.  If the door is open he just walks in as if he owns the place. The other day he was in my room with Hannah.  He stayed for a while and seemed very comfortable!

Stray cat getting comfortable!

I'm still trying to drop some more weight.  My next appointment will be in June, so I would love to loose 5kg or more.  But the past couple of days our lunches have not been that healthy.  I made fish and chips yesterday, I did make a salad to go with it, so I ate more salad than chips. Today David made pizza with chips and salad!

Fish and chips, very nice!

David's pizza, also very nice!

It's cherry blossom season.  But it's been raining and windy so a lot of the blossoms were blown down.  Hannah managed to get some nice photos today.

Lovely photos

I hope in April to have all the stuff out of the house and start cleaning.  I need to get as much done before it gets hot as I get sick in the heat and I don't like the insects that come out in the summer.

Doctors and Dentist

 Had doctor's appointments on Wednesday.  One was to pick up my prescription for cancer meds, and the other was to check my diabetes level.  One good thing about this hospital is that everything is under one roof.  Got there early, a blood test, and a pee test.  Waited for an hour for the results.  It's nice that the lab is on-site, no waiting a week for results.  Good news is that all my numbers are better.  Weight is down, even on the hospital scales I was under 100kg, this morning I was 97.6kg.  Lots of waiting around but I was happy with the results and I don't have to go back for 3 months!

The dentist visit was not so good.  Actually, it was awful.  He is doing a root canal, and he puts some kind of medicine in the hole in the gum to kill the nerve.  On Thursday he was digging into the gum and then drilling, without any anesthetic.  I was gasping at the pain.  The dentist asked if it was painful, when I answered yes, he just said okay.  Not okay at all.  It was so bad that I was sweating and shaking after.  The whole day I was in pain, I had to cancel my classes!  I have to go again next week!

Got to the house again today.  Did a bit more.  Because it's raining and cloudy the house feels gloomy.  Got some photos.

View of the mountains

Messing around with Christopher

The house

Neighbours yard behind the house, all bamboo.

What A Week

 Last Sunday Hannah and I went to see 'Dreamgirls.  Mikey drove us into the city, he was going to meet his friend from high school.  

The musical was very good.  Because I've seen the movie a couple of times it was easy to follow the storyline.  The actress playing Effie White was particularly good.  Her performance of  'And I am telling you'  gave me goosebumps!

Posters for Dreamgirls

We had a nice time but I was in pain the whole day.  I woke up at 3am with a stiff neck.  I figured I had slept funny, so took some pain killer and got on with my day.   By the time we got back home, I was in so much pain.  The left side of my neck, down the shoulder blade and shooting pains down my arm.  I had taken over the counter pain killer but it wasn't helping at all.  So I went to the emergency room.  I was surprised that I had a fever, 38C, I didn't feel feverish at all.  The doctor did a quick check and then gave me some strong pain killer so I could sleep.  I actually slept sitting on the sofa, lying down was impossible.  The next day I went to the orthopedic doctor who was treating me for my knee problem.  Got x-rays, turns out to be a slipped disk in my neck that was pressing on the nerve.  Got a months supply of painkillers and was told to rest.  So Monday and Tuesday I spent most of the time on the sofa.   I could read because holding a book or kindle was too hard, I did try.  So I watched daft TV or slept.  By Wednesday I was better and I could teach and by Thursday I was back to making lunch and cleaning.

Hannah made me laugh.  She was cooking herself some noodles the other night when she calls out "Mom, the pot is sad" when I asked what she was talking about she showed me this.

Sad Pot

Quick Update

 I've been very busy the past couple of weeks.  Still clearing out the house.  I sometimes feel defeated by the amount of stuff there.  The last few times I went I spent time cleaning out all the clothes my mother-in-law had bought.  Most of the clothes are still new and will go to the local recycling shop.  I know I won't get a lot of money for them but I feel better knowing that somebody can get use out of them.  Stuff that has been used has been burned.  I felt good that all the drawers were empty.  I decided that I should start on the things that we have stored there.  So I went to the storage building but couldn't even get inside.  So that is my next task.  I have no idea what is in all the boxes there.  For the past 32 years I have dumped stuff there with the idea of getting rid of it later but later never came.  We started to throw out some of the junk but never got back to it.

Other than that it's been busy here.  Cleaning, throwing out, downsizing.  Hard but needs to be done.  I was cleaning out one cupboard last week when I came across some cards that Hisao made for me when I was teaching at kindergarten, that was before Christopher was born, so about 26 years ago.  Why are they still taking up space?

26 year old cards!

Hannah is on holiday from university.  She bought herself contact lenses.  I couldn't go with her, the idea of putting something in your eyes makes me cringe!  She has been trying them out at home for the past few days, I guess it takes time to get used to them.

I have good news and bad news.

The bad news is that I sneezed so hard the other day that I bit down and broke a tooth.  Back to the dentist.  He is doing a root canal but will take a few visits.  It's a front tooth so I have to be careful when smiling.

The good news is that I am finally under 100kg.  First time in about 17 years.  This morning I was 99.3kg.  I can't remember the last time I saw that number!  I eat normally but no sugar and am still trying to avoid carbs.  Somedays I do great other days are harder but I've stopped turning to food for comfort.  I actually don't miss sugar that much!  I have a doctor's appointment on the 22nd so I hope that my blood sugar numbers are better!