An Invasion, An Earthquake, A Storm And A Mistake

 Have made the last couple of days very interesting!

We had a couple of nice days after about a week of heavy rain. I did a load of laundry on both days as the forecast was for another week of continuous rain. 

I managed to wash a few of the heavier blankets that I want to put away for the summer. I went to fold one yesterday and noticed a lot of black bits on it. At first, I thought they were seeds that got stuck on the blanket, which happens a lot, so I picked it up to take outside to shake it clean. When I picked the blanket up, the black bits began moving, definitely not seeds. I called for David, of course, I can't deal with bugs, which these black bits were. I thought they were ants as they were the right colour and size. David took the blanket out and gave it a good shake. When he bought it back in, he said that they weren't ants but baby praying mantises! I spent ages checking the other laundry, my bed and the floor to make sure there were no more. My room was invaded by praying mantis babies, not nice at all!

This morning, Hannah sent a message saying that there had been an earthquake in Miyazaki. The epicentre registered an M5 quake. Miyazaki is about a 3-hour drive from where we live, but it registered an M2 here. The whole island of Kyushu was affected by the quake; most places were just small jolts, but it's a reminder of how powerful these earthquakes can be.

I didn't feel the earthquake because the house was already rattling a lot. We've had the most awful of storms the past 12 hours or so. Heavy rain and wind, almost typhoon-like!

Mikey and I had to go to the other city to teach, actually, only 3 out of 7 students turned up!

These are little videos I took on the way to the city!

The last video is just as we are entering the city, you can usually see buildings in front, but today the visibility was very bad!

And the mistake was rather stupid of me! I was rushing to get ready to teach. I grabbed my roll-on deodorant and put some on, put on my T-shirt, then sat down to sort out the teaching materials. As I was doing this, I became aware of a burning sensation under my left arm. I have no feeling on the right side because of the mastectomy.  I took my T-shirt off, thinking it might be from the detergent, but then I could smell the muscle pain relief rub I use for my back. I had picked that up instead of the roll-on deodorant.

Left is the rub, right is the deodorant.

I hope the next couple of days are better! No more insect invasions or earthquakes, please! I think the rain is set in for a few days, though! And no more daft mistakes!