Back in England.......continued

During our stay in London we went to the British Museum.  Even though we spent a good 4 hours wandering around we didn't get to see everything!  I was really impressed (there again I am easily impressed).  I miss good museums! We have them in Japan but they are expensive and of course in Japanese!  We ate lunch in one of the cafes there, I was shocked at the size of the portions. I don't remember the portions being so big!  But it was nice!

my lunch was steak and mushroom pie, kids had pizza

Happy but totally exhausted!

The last day in London we wandered around Oxford Street!  It was okay but not the great shopping experience I thought it would be!
That evening we saw "The Phantom of the Opera".  Hannah's treat!  She was so excited that she was shaking!  We had to pick up the tickets that I had ordered on line. My plan was to go about an hour before the performance started, we turned up almost 3 hours early, Hannah couldn't wait!  While waiting we had a look round Piccadilly Circus.  Strange place!  One shop that caught out attention was the 'Kingdom of Sweets', the whole shop sold nothing but snacks, candies and chocolates! 
We ate dinner at a Lebanese restaurant! 
The show was very good.  I like musicals but have only seen them in Japan, so this was a real treat for me as well!  All in all worth the money!

in the hotel room before the theatre

where the phantom of the opera is playing

outside the theatre

dinner

Hannah with the tickets

That was our time in London!
I enjoyed myself more than I thought I would!  I refused to worry about things during this time!
I spend so much time worrying about life that I never really enjoy myself but for those few days I turned off that part of my brain and just relaxed with the kids!  Well worth it!
Maybe one more post on England then back to day to day life!!!!

I'm back.........again

But this time I went somewhere, even though it was a few months ago!
The end of February, beginning of March, Christopher, Hannah and I spent
two weeks in England!
My first trip back in 13 years!  It was really great but as usual the trip was awful!
12 hours squashed in a tin can is not my idea of fun!  Plus a long lay over in Hong Kong,
8 hours of hanging around!

Waiting at the airport

our first plane

Lay over in Taiwan, interesting murial

Hong Kong airport

After 26 hours of traveling we arrived in the UK!
This time I decided to spend a few days in London! Even though I am from the UK I haven't seen
much of London!  After getting to our hotel, showered, had a cup of tea and headed out to explore.
First was The Tower of London.  I remember going there with the school years and years ago but I never saw the Crown Jewels!  We got there at lunch time so decided to have some good old fish and chips.  Nice weather, no rain, slight breeze off the river, so we sat outside to eat!  Big problem pigeons and seagulls.  Just finished eating when a seagull flew over and pooped on my head!  I couldn't believe it, first day back and a bird sh*t on me, welcome home!!!
The Tower was nice and very interesting.  But too many stairs that I couldn't cope with!  But we saw the Crown Jewels.  They were impressive!!!!

on the way to the Tower of London

Fish and chips, below Hannah just had chips!

Entrance to the Tower of London

Traitors Gate

The main part of the Tower

Guarding the Crown Jewels

That was our first day!
I will try to write more!
Since I came back I have been so busy but I hope to keep this blog up!

David's Cooking

David now does at least 90% of the cooking here. Most evening I am busy or too tired to bother! the past couple of years David has started to do more and more of the meal planning and cooking. The past couple of months he has branched out into baking. He loves trying out new recipes, last month it was apple cake!  But his favorite dessert  is choux cream.  He has made these a few times.  Most of the time the choux pastry puffs up and is really light, with custard, cream and strawberries inside the dessert is really  great! A couple of times they have flopped and became dog food, she will eat almost anything.  Except real dog food!   When I was down stairs earlier I saw David stirring away in the kitchen!  Tonight's dessert is choux cream!!!

These are the ones he made last week!  They don't last at all!

Few Photos

Got David to upload some photos!

From our Halloween party.  Mikey got wrapped in toilet paper to look like a Mummy!

trying to put up the Christmas tree, took two days!

Students helping with the other tree

But decorated Mikey instead!

David doing "first footing" New Years Eve

Christopher's birthday

Hannah ready to go back to school!

Hope you enjoyed these few photos! 

I'm Back

Haven't been anywhere but I am back to blogging. The past few months I have been without a reliable computer.  I gave up trying to post.  A few times I would be half way through a post when my computer would crash taking with it my writing!  I now have a lovely new computer and no excuses for not writing.  Thanks to all the people who sent me comments asking me to continue to write. It's nice to know that somebody is reading!

The past few months have been busy!
David got a temporary job for about a month,  doing land surveying in Kumamoto (yes the place where the earthquakes happened).  Between earthquakes and typhoons a lot of land was destroyed and boundaries between land were lost.  David spent almost three weeks there, staying at a small ryokan (typical Japanese Inn). The work wasn't too hard, but long hours!  He came back for a week, then left again for Kumamoto to go a driving school. He passed his drivers test on the first try!  But until we change the insurance he can't drive!  He is itching to drive.  And to tell the truth once he can drive it will be so much better for me. David doesn't mind shopping!

December was four years since my husband died. This past memorial was hard for me!  Part of it was seeing how much my kids had done in the past four years and how much hubby had missed out on!

Christmas was okay.  I got sick with a really heavy head cold.  I ended up going to the doctors because I couldn't stop coughing!  New Years was much better and I could really enjoy myself.  didn't do much but nice food, few good DVDs and fun with the kids was what I needed to kick of the new year!

The big news is that I am going to England the end of this month!  It's been 13 years since I've been back.  Far too long!  I am going with Christopher and Hannah.  Mikey and David will go a month later. I am really looking forward to this trip.  Just a chance to get out of Japan for a few days will help!  Also a chance to see my family.

Made A Start!

When I wrote about my house being a mess I had a plan!
I planned that once October started and the weather cooled down I would go through the house like a tornado!
First week of October it was still HOT!  Not warm but hot, 32C for about a week, then we had a typhoon blow by and the weather has finally cooled a bit.
So I put the plan into action, for two days!
I have a walk in closet in my bedroom but I can't walk into it. So that was my starting point.  I boxed up my husbands suits and a load of textbooks from elementary school.  Hannah tossed a draw full of prints that she had from last year!  Took a whole afternoon but it made some space!
I also tackled one cupboard in the kitchen, found that I had tea from five years ago!  Not nice!
The forecast for this week is cooler weather so I am going to get to work again and see if I can do one room completely!  Would be nice!

I've also joined the 21st century.  I have an iPad.  I have resisted this for ages!  I have a kindle fire which similar to an iPad but I wanted something with LINE on!  Christopher has a college trip to Korea the end of this month and I wanted a way to keep in touch with him. Of course the kids are playing on the iPad more than me! 

Nerves

I realized yesterday that living in Japan I am constantly worried about natural disasters!  Japan is one of the most dangerous places to live when it comes to nature.  Between earthquakes, volcanoes, typhoons, thunderstorms and incredible rain storms that causes floods or landslides there is always something to worry about and try to prepare for!  But when I was watching the news yesterday about the explosion in New York and the stabbings in Minnesota I felt that if I lived in the UK it would be the next terror attack or somebody going crazy attacking people that would have me on edge!  Whenever I watch the news I feel as if the world has gone crazy. Not just the people but the planet it self.  There just seems to be so much negative energy from earthquakes to killer storms to terror attacks to people going crazy and killing!  Maybe we need more positive energy in this world to heal both the planet and the people!  So even though I am an eternal pessimist I am going to try and send out positive, loving energy.  Every bit helps!
As I'm writing this I am wondering if the typhoon that has been forecast for tomorrow will hit or not.  Yesterday we had thunderstorms all afternoon and the most incredible rain!  Today it is drizzling.  Who knows what tomorrow will bring.  If the storm hits it will bring high winds as well as more rain.  Rivers in this area are already a flood level. We really don't need more rain!