Hell

 That's the word Christopher used to describe the other house.  And he's right!

The house is a disaster, not just the mold, trash and smell of urine but the structure itself is damaged.  I noticed that the color of the outside back wall was different.  The wood has gone a green color and feels damp. The two patches are where the toilets are.  Looks like they have leaked.  Inside looks okay but I have no idea what has happened underneath.  Another load of money to put into the dump.  

Then I decided to move the last few things off the kitchen stove and counter.  

This is the counter!

That black is mold!  The counter top and sink are covered in it.  The stove is mix of burnt on stuff and mold.  The floor is soft infront of the counter and sink, so maybe rotting as well.  I just stood there and cried!

How did this get to be my life?  I'll be 62 in the summer, I don't want to move, to clean up a house that is never going to be home.  I wanted to travel.  Before Hisao died we planned to travel in Japan.  Now all the money I make will be put into this hovel!

I feel trapped and angry.  I have no escape plan, no second choice.

Today the company that is going to build on the land next door came and checked the boundary between the two properties.  Looks like they will be building new houses there.  Nice, clean, modern houses with manageable gardens!

I keep getting told that I will save money on rent, that even having a loan will be paid off.  Problem is I won't be making as much as now.  We plan to keep teaching using the comminity centers but there are only certain days that they are available and trying to get the days that match the students schedule is going to be difficult.  Most of our students are kids and they are very busy.  

It's just one problem after another.  I feel all joy is being sucked out of my life!!!

Two Sick Cats

 Last week we found a lump on Fred's shoulder.

Fred in the carry case

We thought it was just from fighting but it didn't go down after a couple of days so Hannah took him to the vet.  Turned out to be some sort of cyst, the vet pulled out a lot of yellow fluid, gave him some medicine, and sent him home.  The lump went down a bit but seems even bigger today.  We will keep giving the medicine and see if that helps, if not back to the vet.

Then Alfie stopped peeing!  So again Hannah took him to the vet. 

Alfie

He has a bladder infection, so he got medicine.  Then we noticed he still wasn't going to the toilet and throwing up a lot.  So Hannah took him back, turns out he is constipated and full of gas, more medicine.

I feel so sorry for Hannah.  Not only did she have to carry the cats to the vet, about a 5-minute walk but she paid for everything, about 100 pounds.  She also had to get a vaccine for herself, the measles and rubella shot.  From April she will be working part-time at a local nursery and there have been a lot of measles cases recently.  That cost her 50 pounds!  I wish I could help her out but at the moment I am only just covering our rent and utilities.  

And I'm still exhausted from last week but am determined to go to the house twice this week as well, I must get it sorted before the summer.  I plan to clean out here in the summer, at least I can use the air conditioners!!!

I Over Did It

 Mikey, Christopher, and I went back to the house yesterday.  I was all fired up to get as much done as possible.  The weather was nice, sunny, and warm but not too humid.  After an hour I had to call it quits.  My back was screaming!  I remember moving a box on Wednesday that was heavier than it looked and something twinged in my back but I shrugged it off. Thursday I was in pain but again I put it down to age and the fact that I've had back problems most of my life.  Friday I woke up feeling okay so went but the pain was awful and so annoying as I really wanted to do a lot.  

The pain made me miserable. As I cleaned out things I noticed so many more problems.  The bathroom sink is a built-in unit, which is standard in Japan, but the waste pipe has been leaking, so the bottom of the unit is rotten and I have no idea what the floor underneath is like.  The same thing has happened in the sink that is in the dead space in front of the toilets.  I really have no desire to move there, it is so depressing to think about it.  Yes, I'm grateful we have that house because trying to rent somewhere else with nine cats would be impossible.  But at the same time, I feel as if I'm going to be working to pay to fix things that should have been taken care of years ago and not left to get really bad.  I know that my mother-in-law spent over 5000 pounds on clothes that she never wore but nothing on fixing the house, I feel so sad.  All seems such a waste.  I remember after she built this house she would come to my place and yell at me for having a piano and computers, I worked hard for them.  I just feel she had no sense about taking care of the house when she could.  

This is the trash that is outside

 

In the house is another room full of stuff.  I found it easier to pile things near windows so they can be taken out.  Some stuff we burned but there is still a lot.  Cleaned out one bedroom, just the old mattress there, the bathroom is done, and most of the Buddhist room.

The Buddhist room

There are thousands of incense sticks that I have to get rid of.  I'll use them in the summer near the windows to keep away mosquitos!

Outside

Looks like one of the neighbors decided to "help" by cutting down some trees, but I think he cut down the blueberry trees!! 

We will go next week and see if we can finish off a couple of rooms.

I think we will have to call the city hall and pay to have the trash removed.

Then the cleaning has to start.

How to remove black mold that is inches thick?

How to get the smell of urine out of wooden floors?  I know our cats pee in places they shouldn't but I clean it up and use alcohol to get rid of the smell.  Looks like my mother-in-law had a few accidents but never cleaned up.  She was offered home help but refused it!!  Yet another thing to deal with!!

Also, the windows are caked with dirt.  I think the main room windows got cleaned twice in 32 years when we lived there, the other rooms never got done.

Going to sulk now!!!

I Went, I Saw, I Gave Up

 I didn't give up 100% but I threw in the towel for the day.

The plan was to go to the other house early and stay until 3 or 4 o'clock. While there we would start a fire and burn a lot of the trash that is hanging around.

But Mikey forgot that he had an extra lesson at 4 o'clock and it's very windy today, starting a fire would have been rather dangerous.

There is so much stuff to be disposed of.  Years and years of living crammed into a small house.  Some things we can burn, old wooden furniture that has become moldy and all the clothes that she bought and never used.  I did try to take some clothes to the recycle shop but we were spending more in gas going there than we were making.  Old books can be taken to a place that recycles the paper and metal can be taken to the scrap place to be reused.  But there is a lot of plastic waste and we have thousands of CDs and DVDs that I don't know what to do with.  I watch programs from the USA and UK about hoarders, I love the idea of having a skip to throw everything into or having places to donate good stuff to.

 I wanted to find something good about the house.  The design, size, and location are bad but there must be something good in there.

I found a couple of things, the light fittings.

The light in the entrance

And one of the bedrooms

They need cleaning but are actually very nice.

Also some flowers were blooming which helped the outside to look a bit brighter.

A bit of color in the garden

Also, the view from the bedrooms is nice, at the moment.  I'm wondering if anything is planned for the land next door.

The view from the bedrooms

If the weather cooperates we can go again on Friday.

We have to get as much done as possible. 

Mikey said that there are companies to take away plastics, CDs, and DVDs but they are expensive.  I'm thinking of using one of the storage rooms to dump everything until I can save money to pay to take the stuff away.  I know it doesn't solve the problem but it's an idea!

Just Thinking

 I want to step away from teaching English. 

In every house I've had, I've always had one room for teaching.  Made my life very simple when the kids were little.  Just a 30-second commute, from one room to the next.  The house we are moving to just doesn't have the room to do that.  Also, it's in the middle of nowhere so I don't think getting new students in that area will be easy.  I'm hoping we can keep the students we have here by using the community centers to teach but I want to put the classes together.  At the moment I have one lesson on Monday and one on Wednesday, and a few on the other days.  Mikey has 4 or 5 a day.  I don't want to travel 40 minutes, one-way, teach for one hour and then sit and twiddle my thumbs for a few hours while Mikey teaches.  Here while Mikey teaches I can cook, clean, or get a few things done.  Also what about the future, 5 or 10 years from now?  We either have to make this school profitable enough to support any families the kids might have, and they all work together, or find another business.

What to do about David and Christopher?  They have part-time jobs here that they kind of like.  They could get more hours and stay here but they don't want to.  Also, wages are very low. The minimum wage for this area is just over four pounds and no real overtime!  David's supervisor, who is responsible for three or four different shops only gets 3 to 4 hours off every 24 hours.  It's dangerous as he is driving to different stores.  

The area we are moving to has almost no public transportation, a bus every hour and it doesn't go to the areas where there might be jobs.  David needs his own car and Christopher needs a driver's license. Another two worries.

I've been thinking about trying to start a different business but what?

I've thought about making a travel and food blog.  But I don't travel, I want to but no money! And most of the recipes I use are from other people or books and I have no idea about copyright laws.  

We have a load of land so I thought about using some to rent out storage lockers but that's not popular in the countryside.  We missed the solar panel chance.  

Starting a pet-sitting business and pet hotel.  But no start-up money.

We have persimmon trees, so fruit picking is an idea but very seasonal.  We could try to grow other fruits but I have a black thumb and again very seasonal.

I guess we need a family meeting and find out what everybody wants to do.

I look at these kids making money on YouTube etc and wonder if that is really possible.  Would anybody be interested in a 60-something fat foreigner living in Japan?

I have no classes tonight, so going to attack the kitchen, maybe bake, do my exercises, and get ready for tomorrow!!!!

Sleepy Sam!

Just A Cat Post

 I haven't written about the cats recently!

They are still driving me crazy, still cute, and at times very funny!

At the moment Alfie is purring away, lying in the sun with Hannah playing with him.  He tends to be a loner, and prefers the other cats to playing with us! But catch him at the right time and he will play but not sit on your lap.

Alfie in the sun

Fluffy still tries to get chicken when it's cooked.  Whenever I've cooked chicken I either have to fit a lid on it or put it in the oven or fridge.  The other day I had cooked some chicken but it was too early for lunch so I left it on the stove.  I went to the toilet, came back, and could see Fluffy's tail in the kitchen. She heard me come in and jumped off the counter (Yes, I do bleach the counters every day) and came strolling into the living room, looking all innocent!  

Fluffy with Mikey

The other cats are doing okay.  Why do we think that cats like to be alone?  My cats won't settle at night if there is nobody with them.  Fred and Frodo are the worst, they will cry for ages if somebody isn't with them when it's bedtime.  When David isn't working it's okay as they can settle but the other nights either Hannah or I have to sit with them until they fall asleep.  I use the time to read, in the past two weeks I've finished about five books this way!  I've tried playing with them, getting them to chase up and down the corridor, and then feeding them before bed but even if they are tired they want somebody with them to sleep!  

afternoon nap!

This week I'm hoping to go to the other house on Wednesday.  It's a national holiday so no classes.  I hope we can spend the whole day there.  I'm planning on making some onigiri (rice balls) and getting fried chicken from a local store that specilizes in fried chicken.  I'm hoping to get a lot done, we will see. One thing I want to do is to take down what I call the dead photos!  In Japan, there is a tradition of having photos of those who have passed away displayed in the room with the Buddhist Altar.  There are photos of people that I don't know and for some unknown reason these photos creep me out, they always have done.  I feel the eyes following me and judging me on everything I do.  I plan to take them down, take the photos out of the frames, and put them in a photo album. 

I'll try to update after Wednesday!

It Is The Season Of

Taxes

And allergies.

And frustration. 

Even though I don't earn so much money I still need to do taxes or rather Mikey has to do it!   By declaring income I get assessed for my national health insurance. For 3 people I pay about 50 pounds a month for national health insurance, then for any trips to the doctors, dentist, or pharmacy we pay 30%.  Helps a lot!  Especially I still have another four years to check for the cancer.  With most cancers after five years of nothing you are cancer-free, the type I had the doctor has to check for ten years!  

March 17th is the deadline for the tax form to be handed in this year.  Mikey did it yesterday!!  The tax office has made it easier by having what they call "E-Tax", which just means that instead of writing everything by hand you can type on the computer! Not really that much easier!  Also instead of waiting in line at the tax office, you can send it over the Internet.  I guess that does help.  We drove past the tax office last week and the queue was out of the building and down the side.  I wouldn't want to wait in that queue.  One thing I do is keep last year's tax forms, in a big brown envelope with TAX and the year written in large letters.  Helps!

Of course, the lovely warm weather brings allergies.  Mikey was sick last week.  I think he caught a cold but because of his allergies, it was a lot worse.  He was sick for 4 days, didn't eat for two but made up for it when his appetite returned!  I got hit yesterday.  Runny nose and sneezing.  I took my tablets but didn't help all that much! A friend was telling me about a leaf that grows wild that she chews on to stop allergies, I found that you can buy a tea made from that leaf, so I got some yesterday!  I have no idea what it is in English, doesn't taste nice but if it helps I don't care about the taste!

The frustration is the feeling that time is passing by too quickly and I'm not getting enough done to move. I need to clean out, get rid of, and pack up stuff here and clean out the other house.  Every day I try to do something toward that goal but it all seems too much.  I feel overwhelmed with everything.  I want to run away and not deal with things but I have no choice.  We have found out that we can connect the toilet to the mains sewage but it will cost a lot, we can get a special loan from the city to help pay but we will have to pay it back.  I get the answer to one problem but then another comes up.  Even though I know paying rent is a waste of money as the house would never be mine I would rather do that and stay here!  

Hannah with the cats

Hannah went back to the school where she did her teacher training.  She asked the homeroom teacher if she could come and say goodbye to the kids when they graduate.  The teacher invited Hannah to come to the last English lesson.  When Hannah got there the teacher said that she could teach the lesson.  Poor Hannah had about 5 minutes to prepare but she did okay.  She went to the goodbye party and had a nice time.  One of the students wrote in her memory book that Hannah coming to the school was the best thing of her 6th-grade experience.  I'm glad Hannah had such a good experience and that the students liked her, I feel this has given her a much-needed confidence boost.