2023

Looking back on the year, lots of memories, some good, some bad, most just things that happen.  

Things started out on a low note, I got diagnosed with diabetes and we lost the house.

In the first five months I did really well on my diet, lost about 7kgs.  I'm not sure what happened but after May I just couldn't keep it up!!  And of course, I've put weight on over Christmas.  Try again in the New Year, I need to get back to cutting sugar and carbs!  I have a doctor's appointment on January 24th, I hope my blood sugar number is lower!

Losing the house has been much more difficult to deal with!  I think that because affects all of us and not just me it's harder.  Both David and Christopher will have to find new jobs.  Christopher will have to learn how to drive and we will need another car.  I'm trying to find positive things about the house and area but for every good thing, there are ten bad things.  The house is about 33 years old and has never been taken care of.  The toilet tank is broken and even if I can't do anything else I have to get that changed.  They are building new houses on the neighboring land and I'm hoping that the main sewage has been connected to that area, if so then we can ask to connect our house as well.  The tiles in the bathroom have been broken and are dangerous.  This happened about a year after the house was built and never repaired.  Most of the outside drains to the rainwater are broken and held together with tape.  We still have a lot to do.  My goal is to move in by October, we have until January 2025 but moving in January would be hard as it's too cold and that house gets very cold.

I need to get to the city hall and find out what we own, and whose name is on the deeds to the lands.  There is a "land bank" run by the city hall where we can register the land, people can then buy or rent it from us.  I would love to get that sorted as soon as possible.

The kids have settled into their own routines.  University, work, and teaching English.  Nothing has changed in that area.  David got a promotion a his work, not sure what but it's a bit extra money.  Christopher is still at the supermarket.  Hannah is doing well at university, the highlight for her was her month-long teacher training.  From April she has just one more year to do!  Mikey has been very busy, teaching of course but also working for his friend's cotton candy business.  This is the first year since the pandemic that festivals have been held, so of course very busy.

Mikey ended up in hospital for 3 days with gallstones.  That was a shock.  I think he has realized that he needs to take care of his health more, he is eating better so maybe it wasn't a bad thing!!

Summer was long and very hot!!  It's getting harder each year to deal with the heat.  I don't know if it's because I'm getting older or that the summers are hotter and longer.  Most days I'm just exhausted by the heat and find even the easiest of tasks difficult to do.  One thing I found was getting up very early, about 5am and doing the basic cleaning really helped.  By 8am floors had been swept and mopped, dishes done and some days lunch started.  Then I could just relax with the air conditioner, read or watch T.V.  I feel a bit sad because I think that half of the year I'm stuck in the house.  Going out is hard, even just to the local shop I get sick!!

Managed to see a couple of musicals with Hannah.  She went by herself a few times to see things that I wasn't interested in.  I'm glad that she wants to go out, and happy that she has her own money to use.

So 2024.  Big question mark.  I hope things get done, that we get the other house repaired and that the move is smooth.  

Happy New Year to everybody!!

Mikey balancing his phone on things!!

David and Hannah 

Christopher at work

Hannah's birthday

cabbage hat

road outside flooded

David's birthday

Hannah

Mikey's drawings

Mikey's magic show

Christmas

 This year was a very quiet celebration.  Again Hannah and Christopher had university and work on Christmas Day so we had a nice meal on Christmas Eve.  Also, I told the kids not to buy presents as money is tight and they are each saving for different things.  I bought a little gift for everybody but spent under 100 pounds.  Also, I didn't bother trying to buy traditional foods through the internet.  

Christmas lunch was a large chicken leg (no whole chickens but I got one for New Year's), with loads of vegetables, Yorkshire puddings and baked stuffing.  

Christmas lunch

David bought a load of sushi and cakes for dinner.  I had some chicken breast cooked, so chicken sandwiches, sushi and cake.  Nice.

Recently Google Photos has been putting memories of Christmases from long ago.  Here are some memories that have come up.

Hannah is the baby here

Just being daft

Because of the daftness, it took 3 hours to get this photo for our new years card!

Christmas morning opening presents

I like looking back on these photos, kind of bittersweet!!!

I was hoping to get away with not cleaning because it's too cold but the weather has warmed up so no excuse!!  Big sigh!!!!

Mikey's Magic

 Between Christmas parties for our students and doing magic shows Mikey has been run off his feet since Wednesday.  He finishes on Sunday but the next two days will be crazy for him.  He has to drive from teaching to the magic show venue back to teach then another show at another place.

Wednesday was his first show at the elementary school where Hannah did her teacher training.  She had to go back a week after she finished to hand in a report.  She was talking to the homeroom teacher who said that she wanted to do an end-of-term/Christmas party for her class and had to do magic, which she didn't want to do.  Hannah said that her brother was a magician and of course, the teacher asked if he could come.  From the photos, it looks like the kids had fun.  I can't put photos of the kids because I don't have permission but there are some interesting ones of Mikey.

Floating table

I have hands!!

I don't know this trick but looks fun

And just to add to the fun, we've had snow the past couple of days.  It's gone very cold, -2 last night.  Hannah went to university only to be told that most students hadn't turned up so just go back home.  Poor girl, it's 40 minutes train ride and then 30 minutes walk.  I did tell her that most people wouldn't go and that there was a good chance of classes being cancelled but she had to go!!!  The snow has almost gone but it is very cold again so I'm wondering if we will get some more tonight!

our yard this morning

Eleven Years

 Yesterday was eleven years since Hisao passed away.

A few months ago when I was cleaning out some bookshelves I found my diary from that time.  In it I had written that I wanted time to go fast and slow, fast to move away from the intense grief, slow because I wanted to spend time with my kids.  I felt that time would lessen the pain and heal me a bit.  The pain has indeed lessened and I can look back on things and laugh without ending up in tears.  But sometimes I still get hit by the grief.  As the kids grow I feel sad at all the things Hisao missed out on, all the things the kids didn't get to do with him.  The other day I saw a camper car.  One thing we dreamed of doing was hiring a camper van and traveling around Japan.  Never got that far!

So another year.  It seems so hard to think that much time has passed.  Hannah was only 10, she's now a young lady of 21!!  Mikey was just 20, almost 21, and now he's in his 30s.  So much water under the bridge!

Found some lovely photos!!

On the back it says 1967, so maybe 6 years old

on the back with his older brother

High school, his painting was displayed at the local art museum

early 20s

when we first met

At Mom and Dad's house

Hannah And Me Outing

 Yesterday Hannah and I went to the city to watch a musical.  Lovely musical, Crazy For You, nice late lunch, good shopping, and magical Christmas lights.  But exhausting, totally exhausting!!

The exhausting part started as soon as we got to the station.  Hannah looked at the board and saw that the train that we needed to get would be arriving at 9:31 (Japanese trains are nearly always on time to the minute), it was 9:28.  I got down the flight of stairs to get to the platform, then got in the elevator to get up to the platform (the walkways between the platform are underground) but it was the wrong elevator and took us back to where we had started from, got back in the elevator, went down to the walkways again and could hear the announcement for the train, ran, other rather hobbled along to the stairs, climbed up them as fast as possible only to hear Hannah say it was the wrong train.  The destination was right but it was the express train that you have to pay extra for.  Not a good start to the day.  We had a short wait but it was so cold.  The winter so far has been very mild, last week a couple of days were up to 23C.  Yesterday was very cold, high of only 4C, and snow flurries!!

When we got to the city we planned to walk to the place where the theatre is.  It's a shopping, hotel, entertainment center, and business center.  It's about 15 minutes walk from the station complex but when we got to the exit we changed our minds.  The snow was really coming down and because of all the tall buildings, the wind seemed a long stronger than it really was.  We got the subway.  It's only one stop from the station but very deep, about 5 floors down.  

The station we arrived at was very nice, they had a display of artists' work and other historical things, very clean and well cared for.

Some of the displays in the subway station

When we got to the shopping mall we ran into problems.  Hannah needed to find a convenience store to put money on her electric payment app.  We walked from one end to the other but couldn't find one.  By that time we had to get to the theartre for the start of the musical.

The poster

Cast list

theatre name

I was a bit worried that I wouldn't be able to follow the plot.  Most of the musicals I've watched have been ones that I know the story to and are therefore easy to understand.  I've seen bits of Crazy For You but not the whole thing and had a vague idea of the story.  I was amazed at how easy it was to follow.  The actors were very good and of course, the singing and dancing were incredible.  I really enjoyed it and wished that we could see more musicals!!!!

After that, we had a little something to eat.  We had a snack beforehand but was feeling a bit peckish.  Went to an Italian restaurant.  Pizza, fried shrimp, soup and fried potatoes, nice, filling and warming.

Hannah enjoying lunch!!

We went back to the station and did a bit of shopping.  By that time the Christmas lights were on.  Really beautiful.  Also, they had a live singer with an incredible voice.   We didn't stay long as it was bitterly cold but it was nice to see.  We haven't been for a few years because of the pandemic so this was a real treat.

Really beautiful.

All in all a really nice day out.  I don't get that often, I can't drive and even though I can walk to the local shops I don't as often as I used to.  I need to get more confidence in my ability to walk.  Having a bad knee meant that I didn't try to walk that much but now it feels better (but not fixed, just I lost some weight) I should try to get out more.

Dad called last night.  Asked why I didn't write about him "Working 40 bloody hours a week to pay for Christmas"  Sorry Dad.  And thank you.  Not only for working so much but showing that your family was important that you would take on any job to pay the rent and put food on the table.  It was easy to write about Mom because she was the one who did the Christmas things but just as important was  Dad who made the money!