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!

The Results Of My Planning Book

 I finished the planning book today. It's a thin book, so I could only plan for 3 weeks.

But the results, the patterns I've noticed over the past 3 weeks, are very interesting.

The things I thought I was doing poorly at and the things I thought I was doing well or just okay at are very different.

Sleep, especially sleeping during the day and staying up at night, has been a big worry for me for a long time. This bad habit started when the kids were little, and I was working almost every evening. I would get up early, especially when the kids started school, I would get chores done, meals prepared for the day, then rest in the afternoon because I knew that teaching kids in the evening would be hard if I'm tired. I can get very bad-tempered when I'm tired! Most days I was teaching from 4 o'clock to 9 or 10 o'clock. After teaching, I would be too hyper to go to bed early, so I would stay up until at least midnight. This has become a bad habit. Now, however, I'm not teaching every day, but it is still easier to keep that same pattern. What I noticed during the past 3 weeks is that I have a few days where I'm on the go all day, cleaning, doing the garden a bit, teaching a couple of days a week and studying/reading in the afternoon. Then I would get over tired and rest for a day. I need to even things out more, spread the chores over a few days instead of trying to tackle everything in one day. Also, set a bedtime, even if I'm not tired; just wind down the day by reading and relaxing, not doomscrolling or watching TV.

One thing I thought I was dealing with alright was my eating. I've noticed that I do alright with breakfast and lunch, but the late-afternoon and evening things go downhill fast. I'm not really hungry, but I pick at things. Recently, it's been peanut butter and jam sandwiches! Very bad! I don't keep snacks in the house as I know I'll eat them, but it's so easy to send a message to Christopher and ask him to pick up something on the way home. I think I'll have to prepare some high-protein, low-fat snacks to have at hand. Things like tofu, nato, chicken breast, and boiled eggs. I'll see if I can find some recipes to help with that. I'm back to not eating carbs in the mornings, just some protein and fruit. I found a smoothie recipe that I should start making again: plain yoghurt, tofu and some berries. I use frozen berries as they are very expensive here. The recipe called for equal amounts of yoghurt and tofu, but I use more yoghurt than tofu as I don't want a strong tofu taste. I'm trying to get back into having just protein and vegetables for dinner. I've managed that for the past few days. 

I haven't been exercising as much as I thought I was. I'll have to get back into my chair exercise. I thought I was walking more, but some days I do a lot of walking, other days almost nothing. 

I cleaned more than I thought. Maybe because this house is always a mess, I thought I wasn't doing that much. But almost every day I cleaned, some days more than others.

I've studied a lot, not Japanese, but I've been reading a lot of history recently. 

Keeping this notebook over the past 3 weeks has been very eye-opening for me. I had this image of myself that I don't do anything constructive, that I just sleep all day, every day. I thought that at least I was eating alright, with the occasional treat and exercising more. 

For the next 21 days, I'm going to focus on 2 things: eating and exercise. I read somewhere that it takes at least 21 days to build new habits. I'm going to use my diary to record what I do, how my eating is going, and also why I'm eating too much. I know I'm a stress eater, but I think I eat out of boredom as well. So I want to record what my emotions are around eating.

I struggle with exercise; I find it boring and would rather avoid it at all costs.  But I know that if I want a good, long life, I need to set habits now that will get me fit and keep me fit for the future.

I hope by tackling these two areas that I'll be able to tackle the other areas of my life after/

Talking about the future, Christopher bought a few things for Hannah. Mikey and I are going to see her tomorrow. This photo shows some of the groceries he bought.

Grocery for Hannah

The red packages are spaghetti. Hannah asked how long the spaghetti would last; she thought maybe a couple of months. The best-by date on the back says until 2029. Three years, by that time I'll be 67! Somehow this surprised me. Hannah will be 27, Christopher will be 31!  

I hope by then my health will be better, that my kids will finally be settled and living the lives they want, and that this house and land will be in a better shape. 

Here's to the next three weeks!

Hot

 Today the temperature hit 31℃!

That is crazy for May, the usual temperature for this time of year is mid 20℃s. 

Fortunately, the humidity is low, which means that using a fan helps to cool things down a bit! 

According to the ten-day forecast, the weather will cool down a bit next week because it's going to rain. I hope so, I'm not ready for the heat.

I might start my summer schedule earlier than usual. Five days a week, I get up at 5am to make breakfast and obento. I then rest for an hour or so afterwards, then get up again to do chores and make lunch. My summer schedule has me doing as much as possible before 8am, and the latest 9am. After that, I can stay in my room with the fan, and when it gets really crazy, I can run the air conditioner!

I still have a lot of deep cleaning to do. I was hoping that I would have most of it finished by now, but there are still a few jobs that need to be tackled. Being sick with allergies last weekend threw me off schedule. Christopher doesn't have work tomorrow, so he can help a bit! One job I want to do is to put the heavy winter futons out to air out and then put them away for the summer. Just looking at them makes me feel hot! Another job is folding and putting away the clean laundry that is on my floor, again!

The only good thing about the heat is that the cats don't fight so much. I think the heat tires them out. They have started to lose their winter coat, even sweeping and vacuuming every day isn't helping. We are trying to brush them every day. Unfortunately, it's hard to brush all the cats on one day. I think the best time to brush them is when they are sleeping, but it's hard to find them, or they sleep where it's impossible to reach them.

Today, Fred got a good brushing!

It was going well, even if he was complaining, until Toast jumped up!

I'm going to make some iced tea!  I need a nice cool drink!

Another Oh Bother Post

 A few things happened the other day that had me saying "Oh Bother" a lot, and a few other choice words!

The first thing that had me cursing was my weight.

I used to check it every day. I've always been obsessed with my weight. I can look at photos from years ago and remember how much I weighed! That's rather bad.

Recently, my weight has been going up and down by the same 2 or 3 kilos. I'll get down to 93kg, which is very big but a lot better than where I started from 113kg. Then I'll get up to 94 something, then down to 93kg. I can't seem to break this 93 kg barrier. I'm self-sabotaging myself, and I don't know why. For me, losing weight is really a mental game. I know what to eat, I know what kind of exercise I can do and what is good for me, but I keep shooting myself in the foot. I need to spend some time thinking things through and trying to understand why I'm doing this. My goal for this year is to be under 90kg, so near yet so far!

When I got on the scales the other day and saw my weight had gone up, that was the first Oh Bother moment!

The second was to do with David's car.

He bought this car a couple of years ago, basically to help with moving. From the start, the car had some problems. It looks like an older model, no automatic windows, it has the old-fashioned ones with the wind-down lever. The key doesn't have a button to unlock and lock the door; you have to put the key in the door. Not really a problem, but it gave us a good laugh.

After driving for a couple of months, the engine started to make a strange noise, so he took it in to be checked. Some belt needed to be changed, then the engine light came on, so he took it in again and got a few more things fixed. Since he's had this car, it feels like every couple of months he has to take it to the garage to fix something. The roadworthy test is due in August, the mechanic estimated it would cost over 300,000 yen to fix it, about £1400, it's not worth it. David has decided to sell it and buy another one. He called a couple of companies to come and check the car to see if he could get something for it. The one mechanic said that the odometer had been turned back!  My reaction when I heard that was not Oh Bother, but a lot more colourful language. David basically got scammed.

David's car.

David isn't too upset, he said, it's only a car. When I said that I'm angry because he worked hard to make the money for the car, he said that it's only money! That's David, very relaxed about material things.

And because misery loves company, the tax bill for the land came! Another year of paying tax on land that doesn't make an income. I really want to sell or rent out the land, but until we change the name, we can't, and to change the name costs a fortune. I was hoping we could do it bit by bit, change the name on one plot of land, sell it, change the name on the next plot. But we have to do it all at once!

Feeling Better....

 But exhausted! 

My allergies flared up at about 3 o'clock, Saturday morning. From that time to about 1 o'clock this afternoon (Sunday), I'd slept for about an hour, and that wasn't a good, deep sleep. In 34 hours, just one hour of sleep is a bit crazy! Also, the allergy medicine makes me sleepy, but every time I lie down to sleep, my nose would just run, also the mucus would go down my throat, choking me! I've sneezed so hard that my ribs are painful! I'm hoping that the worst of this attack is over. I have so much to do, and being sick doesn't help at all!

New week, new plan!

According to the weather forecast this week, it's going to start getting hot, up to 29℃, the week after, up to 30℃. Help! Next week, I really need to finish deep cleaning the house so that it's easier to do the basic chores every day! Wish me luck!

One big chore is cleaning the cat hair; it's that time of year when they start to moult, everywhere! I swept up so much hair the other day that I could have made another cat! I'll have to find the cat brush and give them a good brushing a few times a day.

Mango

Christopher just came back from work, he bought me some nice fruits for Mother's Day! I haven't had mango in years; it's rather expensive. 

I'm going to go and enjoy my mango!