The Great Midnight Bug Fight!

 I really don't like bugs, even the ones that some people find pretty or cute, like butterflies or ladybirds (ladybugs). They just make me go cold, some make me scream, like cockroaches and praying mantis. The weird thing is that I'm alright with spiders; I would rather they stay outside, but unless they are massive, they don't bother me.

Recently, there have been a lot of stink bugs on my window at night.

As I'm reading or watching TV, I can hear them flying into the window. It irritates me, but as long as they stay outside, I don't mind. I keep my window open, as it is still cool in the evenings, but I have a screen mesh that I keep closed until there are too many stink bugs on it!

One of the bugs on my screen last night.

Last night, at just after 11pm, I decided to turn off the TV and read for a bit. I just got comfortable with my book when I could hear this very loud buzzing and then tapping sounds. I looked up to see a stink bug circling my light. Every now and again, it would hit the light. I knew that I wouldn't be able to sleep with that in my room. Time for action!

I knew we had some fly spray, I had bought a can a couple of weeks ago. I remembered seeing it in the dining room. But of course, when I went to get it, it wasn't there. I looked around for a few minutes before I remembered seeing a can in the bathroom. I found an almost empty can!

Back to my room, the stink bug is still circling the light. I sprayed the fly spray, but instead of a nice mist coming out, I got these drops of liquid and a tiny bit of spray. I shook the can and tried again, same results. I now have a very agitated bug, going faster around the light and fly spray trickling down my arms. I'm watching this bug. I have maybe enough spray for one last shot. I have to make it count, I have to kill it, or I'll have to sleep on the sofa!

I was watching the bug so intently that I got dizzy! Finally, a chance, a last shot! I managed to hit it! But my arms are now itching because of the fly spray that is flowing down them!

I went to wash my arms, realising that I might have lost the battle and wondering how comfortable the sofa would be!

When I got back to my room, the first thing I noticed was how quiet it was, no buzzing! I'd won, but I have no idea where the body is! I'm still looking for it!

Finally, I can get on my bed, read and then sleep, but of course it wasn't that easy. Because the spray didn't come out in the usual fine mist, I had splashes of fly spray on my bedding, so at midnight I had to change my bedding! 

I really don't like bugs!

Google Photos

 I keep my photos on Google Photos. 

One feature that I love is the collection of photos they put together for you at the top of the page. The photos are curated and displayed with titles like "cuddles and purrs" or "7 years ago".

Some of these photos are then organised in collages to keep.

This is one of our first dog, Lou!

Lou

We had her 20 years ago. 

I like how the photos can be rather random but follow a theme.

Photos of Dad's house

I never would have thought of putting photos like this together.

Of course, there are collages of everyone and the cats.

One of the collages of Mikey

Christopher

And food, lots of collages of food.

This one was labelled "Sweet Treats"

This is one that came up today, "Cuddles and Purrs With Fred"

A Fred collage.  

I've always loved taking photos. When Mikey was a baby, before digital cameras, I would take 36 photos every month. The same for the other kids. I liked having a visual record of them.

There are very few photos of me as a baby or young child, which I always felt that was sad. 

I often wonder what people in the future will say about these photos, these snapshots of our lives. 

Life is so fleeting, even though sometimes it seems long, but things change so quickly. One day, you have a young family, enjoying adventures, enduring sleepless nights, homework tantrums, birthdays and Christmases, then life happens, and the kids are grown. You are left with memories and photos that make you smile and cry!

I hope you enjoy these little collages of my life.

Hannah and I collage

David

I Messed Up....

 A new recipe!

Hannah bought me a cookbook a few weeks ago. All of the recipes can be made in the microwave, which, in the summer, will really help. We are planning on buying an air conditioner for the kitchen/dining area, but the extractor fan over the stove top doesn't work. Even with an air conditioner on, standing over a hot stove is going to be awful.

The recipes are very simple, using ingredients that I usually have on hand. Of course, the recipes are in Japanese, I can read most of the text; what I can't read, I either use my phone and Google Translate or ask one of my kids to help.

My cookbook from Hannah

With my Japanese cookbooks, I usually write out the recipe in English, either on the book itself or use a sticky note.

This time, however, I thought the recipe was easy enough to do without doing that. 

The recipe was breast chicken, Chinese cabbage and green peppers.

Chop the chicken and cook in the microwave, when cooked at the vegetables and seasonings. Nice and simple!

I cooked the chicken, I then looked at the recipe again to see how many green peppers I needed. It was then that I noticed that I should have mixed sake and potato starch together and coated the chicken with that before cooking the chicken. Never mind!

I had to change the seasoning. According to Google Translate, I needed fish sauce. I have no idea what fish sauce is, so I used oyster sauce. Also, the recipe is just for two servings. It said to use two leaves of Chinese cabbage, I used a quarter of one; I wanted more vegetables in the dish. I have a habit of changing up recipes a lot!

Even though I messed up, it tasted alright.

The chicken is under the vegetables.

This made enough for three people. 

I've learned my lesson: write out the recipe before you start!

Wildfire

 Living at the foot of a mountain, I constantly worry about landslides and, to a lesser extent, flooding. There's a stream at the back of our property. Most of the time it's just a few centimetres deep, but during the rainy season it fills up, it's about 2 meters deep. A few times it's flooded the area next to it, but into the house.

I never considered wildfires; they happen in Japan, but usually further north and in the autumn. Japanese summers are very humid, which makes it difficult for a wildfire to take hold, difficult but not impossible.

Tuesday morning, about 10 o'clock, I heard a helicopter go overhead. Occasionally, we get helicopters passing over here, but they don't hover around. This one kept going round and round. At first, I thought it might be the hospital emergency helicopter. 

After an hour and more helicopters, I realised that this was something different. I stepped outside to see what was happening. I noticed that the mountain seemed hazy, I then noticed the smoke.

Hazy mountains and smoke.

Our neighbour was outside, he told us that it was a wildfire and that we were safe at the moment. 

I had to go to the other city to teach, we left at about 3 o'clock. There were still helicopters, maybe some news helicopters as well as firefighting ones, plus a lot of fire engines going past.

On the way to the other city to teach, we stopped at a store and got these photos.

The vegetation is very dry; the winter was dry with very little rain and almost no snow. 

Where the fire started, workmen were cutting down the grass and undergrowth. The motor on one of the machines caught fire, and with all the dry grass around it just spread very quickly.

Fortunately, it was contained and put out in one day. On Wednesday, there were helicopters flying over the area again, maybe just checking that it was completely out.

Plus, it has been raining since last night, which really helps!

I never thought that I would have to add wildfires to my list of worries.

Just Wondering.....

 If I made a mistake.

In the depths of winter, when it was hard to get out of bed because the house was too cold, Hannah and I made plans to see the musical "Sunset Boulevard" in Tokyo in July.

When we made these plans, summer seemed very far away. I thought that by the time summer came, I would have lost weight, made money, and acclimatised to the heat and humidity.

I haven't lost weight, but I still have 8 weeks, so I could drop a few kilos and get used to walking a lot.

I haven't made any money, but I hope to make a bit before I go. Hannah has paid for the tickets, the flight and the hotel. I'll pay the expenses when we are there. If I haven't made enough, I'll have to borrow from David or Christopher.

That leaves getting used to the heat and humidity. I don't have the confidence to do that.

One big problem I have is that I sweat a lot. Because of the humidity, the sweat doesn't evaporate at all. I carry a small towel to wipe my face, but it leaves it dry and sore. I'm wondering if there is something I can use, some kind of cream, to stop or at least reduce the sweating. 

I'm planning on buying these little hand fans and cooling towels for my neck. I also have to find some kind of electrolyte drink that isn't full of sugar. I drink a lot of water, but in the summer, I need to make sure my electrolytes are balanced as well.

When I got sick the other day, I really wondered if going to Tokyo in the summer was a good idea. I really want to watch the musical, it's in English and is only playing for two weeks.  The question is, can I survive?

I had heat stroke when I was in my 20s. I was so ill for about a week, but it took over a month to recover 100%. It's really a big problem in Japan; every year 100s of people end up in hospital because of it.  I'm very careful in the summer; I don't leave the air-conditioned room unless I have to. But by doing that, I only really live for half the year. I joke that I do summer hibernation! I really want to go out more, even in the heat. I guess from this trip, I will see if I can be more active in the summer.

Over the next few weeks, I'm going to go out in the day, just to get used to the heat and humidity, just pottering around the garden, not at the hottest time of day but in the morning. Just a few minutes to see how I feel. I hope that I can used to heat and deal with sweating.

Wish me luck!

For the past hour or so I've been hearing helecopters over head, which is very unusual in this area. We sometimes hear the hospital emergency helicopter, but they leave very quickly.

Curiosity got the better of me, so I went out to see what kind of helicopter it was. 

The helicopter was circling the mountain, I noticed smoke, looks like a wildfire had started.

Smoke from the wildfire.

In Japan, wildfires happen more often in the winter because the humidity makes everything damp. At the moment, however, it's hot and dry. I met our neighbour when I went out, he said that we aren't in any danger. I hope that's true. Plus, the forecast is for rain tomorrow.

I'll let you know if there is any more information!

They're Here

 The cockroaches!

David ordered some cockroaches to start a business of selling them to people who keep lizards as pets.

He has to let them breed until he has a few thousand, then he can start to sell them. 

They are not in the house, they are not coming into the house, ever! 

The cats would play with them, maybe eat them, so the only safe place would be in my room, and that is an absolutely no, never going to happen scenario.

David was asleep when they came; Christopher bought the package in. It looked like the pack that the cat's flea medicine comes in. I told Christopher to open it to see if it was the cockroaches or the flea medicine. He opened it and showed me. I screamed, not a high pitch lady like scream, but a deep, gruff sound, more like a growl than a scream. Christopher said I sounded like an old man!

David is having far too much fun with these cockroaches. He walks up to me, grinning. I can see the cogs turning in his brain, thinking of all the pranks he could pull.  

This morning we were chatting in the kitchen, facing each other and drinking. David suddenly started to laugh. He asked, "Why are we standing in the kitchen, facing each other and drinking?" It was a bit weird!

I really hope he can make money with this little business. He needs to change his job as the night shifts are making him ill, but the daytime jobs just don't pay enough. If he can make something with this business, then he can get a part-time job locally.

David with Fluffy.

Here's hoping that cockroaches are popular! 

Heat Exhaustion

 Every year, on the first hot day, I get sick!

I think my body just can't cope with the heat. Today, Mikey and I drove to visit Hannah. It's just over an hour from here, so not too far, but it got really hot, up to 32℃, which is hot, especially since the air conditioner in Mikey's car wasn't working!

We picked up Hannah and drove to the house that Mikey is renting. He wanted to drop off some stuff. I wasn't allowed to take photos of the house; Mikey and his wife are very private. But it's a nice house! Two floors, with two tatami rooms downstairs and two upstairs, a big kitchen, but no garden at all. It's an older house, but well-maintained. It's in an area of older houses, all close together, a typical countryside town in Japan.

Hannah and I went to the little shrine, just two houses down from Mikey's place.

Nice little shrine

There's a small pond that's fed by a stream; it has turtles in it!

The surrounding area is very nice, all countryside. The rice fields are being harvested at the moment. I felt sorry for the workers in the fields, it's hard working in the heat!

I took a little video as we drove back to the city. It's hard to believe that just 5 minutes later we were in the city again.

We took Hannah shopping. Next week she has teacher training for two weeks. She needed a couple more white shirts to wear with her suit. After that we had lunch at a resonobale restaurant.

Hannah and I both had a burger.

Mikey had a mixed grill. Very filling.

Took Hannah to a supermarket. The places near her house are a bit expensive, so when we visit, we take her to the discount supermarket. 

After we dropped Hannah off, we headed home, another hour's drive, with no air conditioner. I was really trying to enjoy the scenery; the area between the two cities is very beautiful.

More rice ready to be harvested.

Waiting for the lights to change on the bridge

I really wanted to get back, to get in front of a fan and cool off, but I think we hit every red light! Plus the level crossing, which took a long time.

A long train!

Even though I felt awful when I got home, with a fever of 37℃ and a headache, I'm glad I went out. I rested a bit and feel a bit better, but rather tired. So a bit of dinner, but I don't know what and an early night!