Feeling A Bit Better

 I think my moaning post yesterday was a lot of frustration.

We've been in this house for almost a year, but things aren't really sorted.

I'm not sure if paying for renovation is worth it. The bones of this house aren't that good. The other day, David tried to put a shelf up for the cats, but found the wall was too thin to take the weight of the shelf. These are the load-bearing walls, so they should be more solid!

We've also figured out why some of the floors are soft and give way when you stand on them. My mother-in-law only used two rooms, her bedroom and the kitchen/dining room. The other rooms were closed up. In Japan, the humidity can get very high in summer, up to 80%. Even in the bedroom she was using, she never ran an air conditioner, which would help to dry out the rooms. So maybe the floors are rotting because of damp. My room and Christophers' rooms are the worst, but even David's room has a few soft spots. 

I'm wondering what would! Be best. Try to renovate here or rebuild. I would love to rebuild, but the cheapest would be at least 20,000,000 yen ( about £100,600), which of course I don't have. 

Renovating wouldn't be cheap either. Just to do the toilet, bathroom, and kitchen could cost up to 4,500,000 yen, just over £2,000.

I have no idea how much it would cost to replace the floors, plus we need to extend the dining/kitchen room so we have a living room!

There's just a lot to do, but no money at all. This month, food prices are going up again. Over 3,000 items will go up by about 20 yen. That might not seem like a lot, but just 5 items means an extra 100yen on food!

I just don't see a way forward. I can't get a mortgage, no income and age. David or Christopher might be able to, but it's risky.

The best is to spend money to change the name of some of the land, then try and sell or rent it! We wouldn't get much, actually, it probably won't sell, this is not a popular area! There's land for sale near here that has been on the market for over 10 years!

So I'm fed up and rather frustrated, it always seems like one step forward, 10 back!

Just to add to my misery, we had the most incredible storm this afternoon. 

This was just the beginning. We ended up with a very close thunderstorm. This is not my image of October; this was like a summer storm that we get in August!

Just Moaning

 Not a good start to the month! 

I spent yesterday evening psyching myself up to do something in the garden today! I kept telling myself that even 15 minutes would make a difference. I went to bed just after 10pm and had an excellent sleep until just after 2am. I woke up coughing and choking; my allergies had kicked in. I took some medicine, but it doesn't work right away, so I sat on my bed sneezing for three hours. I was undeterred. I know once the medicine kicks in, I'll be okay for a few hours, I can still do the garden.

I got up at 5:15am to make a lunch box (obento) and breakfast, only to find out that it was pouring down with rain. 

By the time I had done a few chores, I was feeling really rough, headache and a low-grade fever, which happens every time my allergies are bad. David made lunch, but I wasn't hungry, so I went to bed for a bit!

A couple of hours later, I could hear the cats fighting, so I went to investigate, only to find that the bathroom door was open and the screen on the window was open a bit! Three of the cats had gotten out: Mama Cat, Fluffy and Toast.

I know that most cats can survive outside, but my cats have always been indoor cats. Mama Cat is okay; she comes back when she's hungry, but Fluffy and Toast are more vulnerable!

I went out and managed to get Mama Cat and Fluffy back easily. But Toast kept running away. I spent almost an hour trying to get him back. I had to give up as I was being eaten alive by mosquitoes, and my back and legs are really painful.

Toast in the storage place

I really don't want to live here. It's so hard to do anything that needs doing. I have a few hours in the morning to do chores as David sleeps after lunch. In the other house, I could space out the chores over the day as David was sleeping upstairs; this house is all on one floor.  I can't run the vacuum cleaner or move things, as it makes too much noise. David is already too tired from working nights. So he really needs to sleep.

The garden is too much to take care of, even with all of us having a go, it doesn't get done. I have the most free time, but my health isn't good enough to do enough to make a difference! Pulling a few weeds helps until it rains and they come back!

David wants to start an English school here. I've encouraged him to try, but I honestly don't know if it will work or if we'll spend money on leaflets and other advertising and get no one. I've signed up for some online teaching programmes, but nothing as yet!

I'm feeling discouraged! It all seems so hard, and at my age, I would like things to be a bit easier. 

I hope things will get better, but at the moment I want to sell up and move back to the other city!

The Beginning of October.....

 Brings lovely cool mornings and evenings.

Spiders and spider webs, all over the garden. Just going to the car, I walk into one or two!

These are everywhere

And sneezing, snuffling and coughing, my seasonal allergies have started! 

Christopher started work on the first of October! Which means my schedule has changed, I have to get up early to make breakfast and a lunch box for him. I know he's an adult and could do it himself (and sometimes he might have to), but I feel I should at least do that!

I'm hoping that getting up early will help me get things done! Especially the garden. I took a little video this evening. I have been ignoring the disaster, but it looks like I'll have to go out and make a start. Everywhere is totally overgrown again. I know that happens, but I wish it would happen more slowly!

Now that the intense heat of summer has basically finished, I really want to make the most of this month. 

I feel overwhelmed by everything that has to be done, but just sitting in my room isn't going to change things. I think the best is to just pick a spot and start working on it, bit by bit. Even just 15 minutes a day, I should see some results, shouldn't I?

September

 This past month turned out to be a lot harder than I had envisioned!

I thought the worst would be going to my doctor to check how my blood sugar was doing. That turned out a lot better than I thought, even though the doctor challenged me to lose weight before my next appointment in December! I'm happy to report that I'm on target for that, having lost 2 kilos this month.  The big problem is the temptation to start baking now that the weather is cooling down! One thing that I am looking forward to is making pots of soup; they are so filling without a lot of calories! 

I didn't get all the jobs I planned to do. Part of the problem was the heat; only in the last week or so has the temperature dropped below 30 °C. Additionally, we've had thunderstorms every week!

I think the thing that broke September for me was Hannah having another seizure! I really hoped that these seizures were a once-in-a-while thing, like once every couple of years! This was the third one in a year. She had the first one last September, then it's possible she had one while she was at her apartment, then this one. It's about 50 minutes from here to where Hannah lives, a very long drive! While we were driving, Hannah had been taken to the hospital and had some tests and an MRI. I was shocked when I saw her. She was white, her lip was split and swollen, and she had drops of blood on her shirt! The first thing she said was "Sorry, Mommy!" When she came round in the ambulance, her first concern was for the students in the class; she was worried that they might be traumatised by seeing her collapse.

We spoke for a long time with the doctor, he recommended a doctor in the larger city. There are very few doctors who specialise in epilepsy. Hannah came home and stayed here until her appointment with the specialist. 

It was nice having Hannah here for a few days! I think she enjoyed playing with the cats. We managed to have a few walks in the neighbourhood, which was nice!

Her appointment with the specialist was good. He really took time to answer Hannah's questions. The conclusion is that she has epilepsy, it's been there and dormant since she was born! The seizures are triggered by fatigue, and that's why they didn't start until she was an adult. As her lifestyle changed, getting busier and more stressful, the seizures were triggered. I wish she didn't have this problem, but I'm glad that it has happened now and not when she was a teenager. There's no way I could have copied back then. She became a teenager just a few years after Hisao had died. I was in such an emotional mess back then, it really would have been too much for me!

She has medicine that she has to take every day. I think it will take a while to get used to it; it makes her sleepy. 

The best part of the month was going to see Les Misérables The World Tour!

It was a lovely day out with Hannah. Just going to the city, getting something at Starbucks, the excitement of the crowd, the anticipation of waiting for the start. 

The actors were incredible! So much power and emotion in every song. I'm really glad we had the chance. Also, it was a chance to relax after all the stress of the previous couple of weeks, for a few hours to put life aside was good!

So October, I'm looking forward to cooler weather, getting the long list of things that need to be done finished. 

We moved in here last December, and the house was a lot colder than I remembered it being, so the next month will be preparing for winter! I think I need to buy a couple more heaters.

Also, from tomorrow, Christopher will start work! Good! I hope he does okay at this job!

And we had a visitor this morning!

Preying Mantis came to visit.

Not a good photo, as I had to zoom in; I can't get close to these things!

Shopping

 Recently, David has been shopping on the way home from work. The supermarket he goes to is open 24 hours, which is good, but it means that early in the morning, there isn't a good choice of fruit or vegetables.

Yesterday I decided to go and see what I could get! There are two supermarkets that I like, one has good deals on meat and fish, the other is better for fruit and vegetables!

I was really hoping I could buy some nice vegetables, so that was the first stop. I was shocked at just how expensive everything was! A very small broccoli was 250 yen, about £1.25, which might not seem a lot, but last year the same thing was 100 yen, about 50p! The same for all vegetables! I think fruits and vegetables will get a lot more expensive because the weather has been so bad this summer. Too much rain at the wrong time! One news segment I watched the other week was showing a vineyard in an area that was hit by heavy rain and then a typhoon; every single bunch of grapes had gone mouldy. The farmer was saying that every field he had was the same; he had lost the whole crop!

After being disappointed with the vegetables, I went to the other supermarket to buy some meat! I managed to buy some fish, 10 fillets for 1000 yen, about £5:00, again twice as much as last year. The same for meat and chicken. Last year, 100 grams of chicken was about 40 yen, 20p, now the cheapest I've seen is 70 yen for 100 grams!

Coffee is another item that has gone very expensive, 3 times the price it was in the spring!

We are lucky in that I can buy rice from one of my students, but rice prices are crazy. In less than 12 months, the price has tripled! My student said she was shocked at the price of rice. She isn't seeing the benefit of the price hike. She told me that she only got an extra 30 yen on 30 kilos of rice!

As much as I hate this house, I think being forced to move here was a good thing. There's no way I could pay the rent on the other house! Even paying the tax on this property is hard. 

I'm hoping that things will turn around, but I know that I need to make more effort, especially to get new students. 

One good thing is that it is a bit cooler, still too hot for autumn, but that awful draining heat of summer is fading. It's that nice time of year when I don't need to run the air conditioners or the heaters, a chance to save a bit of money!

One problem, though, are the spiders that come in!

This guy ran all around my ceiling the other day, then it disappeared. Should I be worried?

My new friend?

I've seen a lot of these spiders about. For some strange reason, these don't freak me out! 

The Pain......

 Is real.

My back is very bad and very annoying!

Sitting helps to relieve the pain in my lower back. But if I'm using my computer, reading, watching TV or doing anything when I'm sitting, I get pain between my shoulder blades, and sometimes my neck will start to twinge a bit. I try to lean against something, just to support my back, which helps, but still, after a while, I can feel this tightness starting.

So I get up, try to do some chores or have a walk outside. Again, this is okay for about half an hour, then my lower back starts to scream! 

The past few days, my schedule has been: sit down for half an hour, get up for half an hour, sit down again. It's okay, but some of the things I want to get done take more than half an hour.

The weather is finally becoming bearable; it's not too hot or cold. I really want to do sme deep cleaning before it gets very cold. I need to sort out the kitchen cupboards so it's easier to get to things, the bathroom needs to be scrubbed down, especially the window area, and the room I want to use for teaching needs to be refreshed.  Most of these jobs would take over an hour, I keep starting but not finishing, which is very annoying! Also, the outside needs to be done!  The weeds are back with a vengeance. I haven't been able to grow anything this year. I think I could start on some potatoes, but I honestly don't know, and I don't have any confidence that anything will grow!

I know that I have 3 young men living here, and they do help a lot. David is making lunch right now, and Christopher is cleaning one room. Mikey is out teaching today! I hope that the weather will be okay to do outside a bit this afternoon, but rain is forecast, and it has gone very dark. If not, I'll have to try tomorrow morning! From next week, I won't have Christopher's help at all; he starts a new job, and I know that the first few weeks, he will be exhausted, as a new schedule does that!

So, how to cope with my backache?  I'm doing some exercises, they help, but I think it will take time. I'm taking painkillers, sometimes that helps, and I'm still on my no sugar, low carb diet! I've lost just over a kilo since the beginning of September, not a lot, but I think slow and steady is better than crash dieting and then putting it all on again! I really hope that losing a few more kilos the pain in my back will ease!

Just a few photos of the cats to finish with! They drive me crazy, but make me smile as well

 

Same pose, yoga cats!

It's True

 You can't out-exercise a bad diet!

I really hope with all the walking I did on Thursday (6000 steps) and Saturday (8000 steps) that I would have lost a little bit. 

My eating wasn't all bad; I stayed away from sugar, except for a very small ice cream on Friday. At the cafes we went to, I opted for iced tea, with no sugar. Actually, I've found iced Earl Grey Tea to be very nice and refreshing!

Yesterday's lunch was bad, McDonald's! It was the cheapest Uber Eats available! But again, I got iced tea, shared some fries, and chicken nuggets. So bad, but not that bad!

So why no change in my weight! I'm aiming for 1/2 kilo a week! 

One thing I noticed was I got totally dehydrated both days I was out. I drink a lot of water usually, but when we were out, I didn't drink that much. Also, it was hot and humid and I sweat a lot! I could wring out my undershirt on both days! Last night I noticed that my feet were swollen. I thought it was just from walking, but this happens when I don't drink enough water. Today I've been trying to flush out my system by drinking water regularly!

Let's hope this works! I need to lose constantly!

At least now I can see the limits of my body and how much I need to do to change things!

A few more photos from Saturday!

Hannah outside the station

The lobby of the theater had these beautiful paintings on the wall

The stage

More advertising for Phantom of the Opera