Being Dumb

 About 3 years ago I started to have pain in my right knee.  It's always worse after sitting for more than an hour or in the morning.  Went to a doctor that specialists in bone and pain management.  Turns out I have bone on bone arthritis.  For the past few years I have been taking pain killers to deal with this.  The best is to loose a lot of weight, I'm trying but it will take time to loose the amount I need to feel better, about 3 to 4 stones.   I felt that the painkillers weren't doing that much.  I get three months of painkillers at a time and keep the ones I'm taking in a plastic box on the dining table. The extra are in the pharmacy bags in a draw.  Yesterday I was looking for something else and came across the extra medicine.  I looked at the instructions on the bag, I'm supposed to take 6 of these tablets a day, 2 at each meal.  For the past 3 years I've been taking two a day!  No wonder they weren't working.  I could never figure out why had so many of these tablets left over after I had finished the others!

Should be 6 a day, not 2!!!!

We have had a little visitor the past few days.  A really noisy, sweet looking cat.  At first I thought it was one of our ginger cats as it looked like them.  But no it's stray.  It's been fixed so we are wondering if it got out and got lost.  Hannah set up a plastic box with blankets and food.  He comes and goes.  David called to the vets to ask if anybody had lost a cat and checking social media.   I would take it in but I really can't afford it, also our cats really hiss and growl at it through the window.

Sorry for the mucky window! Our visitor.

Back to Normal

 Kind of back to normal.  I still don't feel 100% but I know that last time I had flu it took over a month to feel good again!  So I'm doing what I need to do but also resting as much as possible.  Being able to shop helps, I'm buying loads of fruits and vegetables and preparing healthier meals.  

A lot of my classes have been canceled this week as schools are closed because of corona or flu.  Seems to be the season!  I'm hoping things will improve soon!

It's been very cold here the past few days, we even had snow the other night. Woke up to white roof tops.  It hasn't gone above 10C the past week. The cats have taken over the beds and heaters, smart cats!

Alfie snuggled in bed!

Keeping warm on the sofa.

Hannah's results came form university.  She has passed all her courses.  GPA is 3.1, bit down but she missed the last test because of corona and struggled with math.  She just passed her math test, which she is very happy about!  Now she is looking for a driving school.  She has saved enough money to pay for it.  But I can't imagine Hannah driving!

Bored

 Nine days in isolation and I am going stir crazy!  I remember thinking when all this started and some countries had very strict lockdown rules that it must be nice not to have to go to work or go out, just stay home.  But just 9 days and I've had enough!  I thought because of technology that it would be okay but there is only so much TV I can tolerate and spending time online isn't as great as I thought it would be.  I miss going shopping, I miss teaching.  Some of my classes are challenging and make me think of different ways to engage the kids in activities to help them learn. I think part of my problem is that I'm not 100% well, so even doing a few things wipes me out!  I remember the last time I  had flu it took over a month to feel 100% again so I guess this is the same.

The high lite of my day is walking to the gate to pick up the post.  At the moment it's all flyers for kimonos, or pizza or funeral homes.  The flyer from the funeral home made me smile.  It showed the set up for a funeral, the place for the coffin, photo of the deceased and flowers.  Across the top it says "Living".  I think it means living room style!

Photo of the flyer!  

Of Course

 I got corona!

Started Monday evening.  I thought it was just a severe allergy attack as I had all the symptoms for that.  Runny nose, sneezing and very itchy eyes.  So I took some allergy medicine and went to bed early.  Woke up in the middle of the night with a fever of 38.8C, definitely not allergies.  With the fever came an awful headache and a cough.  Now I was getting worried because if I have it then it's possible my kids might catch it.  Hannah is always the big worry as with just the flu she can get a fever of over 40C.  

Tuesday morning Mikey called to the local hospital and was told to bring me in at 10am.  When we got there we were asked to wait in a tent outside, a clerk came and took my details, we were then told to wait in the car until called for testing.  That was nice as I could sleep in the warm car.  About 30 minutes later we got a call on Mikey's cell phone.  Walked back to the tent where a nurse took the swab (not nice).  I felt sorry for the nurse, must be a hard job taking these tests all day.  Back to the car to wait for the results, again about 30 minutes. The doctor came to the car and asked a few questions about my general health.  He was a bit worried about my weight and being prediabetic and offered me a bed in the hospital.  But I know that the stress of being in hospital wouldn't help and said I would rather go home. I was given a load of medicine, went   home, ate a piece of toast so I could take the medicine and went to bed.

By Wednesday evening both Hannah and David had mild symptoms so they went to the hospital and got tested.  Both were positive but not too sick, fever and body aches.  Mikey and Christopher went on Friday for tests.  Mikey was positive but not sick and Christopher was negative!

Until we found out that Christopher was negative nobody could shop.  We had a few days worth of food but Friday started to run short of basics.  Christopher's manager had offered to pick up stuff for us but I was hoping we would be okay.  Yesterday morning we found the group that Christopher works for does online shopping so we put in an order but it won't come until Tuesday!  Christopher asked his manager to buy us a few things, he sent a list.  The manager dropped off two bags of food, about 3000 yen worth (about 20 pounds worth) and refused payment!  I was so moved by this!

We haven't been too sick.  For me the coughing is the worse.   We all had very mild symptoms for which I'm very grateful.  My heart goes out to those who suffered the worst symptoms and especially to those who have lost loved ones to this awful disease.  I'm hoping and praying that it is coming to an end.  

We have to isolate until February 11th.  Both David and Christopher aren't working and our school is closed down.  Hannah has started her spring break from university but can't go to her work until our isolation is finished. We are struggling for money, I've used all the saving we had when we had to close in 2020.  There are some grants and loans that we can apply for so I hope we can get something soon!

I'm hoping to start feeling better soon.  I'm okay, fever has gone but the cough is still there and I'm so tired!  I never realized how much I did in a day.  My life is pretty mundane, same thing every day but I actually miss do things.  Even cooking.  Going to the supermarket.  Teaching, never thought I would miss that!  I get so bored!   

The cats are great at entertaining me!  This was some of them trying to get into a room.

The two black cats make this look freaky!

Let me in!

Will update again!

Should I Worry?

The past week a few students have called to say that they can't attend this weeks lessons.  Most of them are attending local junior high schools or high schools that have an outbreak of Omincron Variant in their school.  Hannah has had no work this week because the 3rd grade students from the local school were sent home on Monday or Tuesday and were told not to go out for a least a week.  So that had me a bit worried but this morning we got a call that one of Mikey's students has tested positive for the virus.  Fortunately she was absent last Monday so I'm hoping that she hasn't exposed Mikey or the other kids!  I guess it's back to wiping down everything with alcohol after each lesson and having the windows open, even though it's cold! David suggested having plastic dividers up on the desks but I don't see the point of them, the virus is in the air and can fly round the dividers.  The only way to be 100% safe is to wear a hazmat suit with filtered air.  

This past week I've been trying to cook fresh foods as much as possible, making vegetables are larger part of the meals.  It's the only way I can think of boosting our immune systems.  On Wednesday I made a big pot of meatball soup, very nice and warming.  Because I know the kids would feel it isn't enough I made bacon muffins and corn muffins to go with it.

Bacon Muffins

Corn Muffins

I want to boost our immune system because I don't want to get sick, not just covid but colds or flu, I just don't have time to be sick!

What A Life

The past week or so there had been an awful smell in the room that I share with Hannah.  At first I thought it might of been the cats so I checked around but nothing, then I realized that I hadn't taken the trash out for a week, so I did that and opened the window to air the room but the smell was still there.  It smelt like plastic.  Yesterday morning Hannah was studying when she noticed smoke, at first she thought it was just dust floating up. When she looked closely she saw that one of the plugs was burning!  Apparently she had too many things plugged into the extension cord and the plug had over heated.

It had burnt through to the back!

Rather bad!

Then last night we had an earthquake!

I know this is Japan and earthquakes happen a lot.  But where I live we don't get that many.  Until the Kumamoto Earthquake in 2016 I could count on one hand how many quakes I had experienced and most of them were very small!

Last nights earthquake was a magnitude 6.3 at the center but here a 3!  It hit just after 1 am.  We haven't had any after shocks but  nearer to the epicenter they have had a lot of after shocks.  According to the news it could take up to a week to settle down!  I know I panic easily but I think part of it is that it's the middle of the night. Things always seem worse at night!

27 Years

 Today is the 27th year since the Great Hanshin Earthquake.

A few months before this we had been in Kobe visiting Hisao's family.

I remember when the earthquake happened.  I use to have the TV on so I could listen to Japanese, at that time Mikey and David were little so I had no time to really study so listening was one way of picking up some words.  The quake hit early in the morning, at 5:46 am.  It registered at 7.3 on the Japanese Meteorological Agency scale.  Watching the news programs that morning I was shocked at the amount of damage that the quake caused.  I believed that Japanese structures were built to with stand strong earthquakes, I guess I was wrong.  One of the most famous photos was of a raised highway that had fallen over, another was the fires that broke out.  About 6434 people died in this earthquake.  At that time this was the biggest earthquake after the Tokyo earthquake in 1923.

One of my students lived in Kobe at that time.  She got so angry because her beautiful china tea set, that she had bought all the way from England, got broken.  She said that she had been so careful transporting from England just to have broken in her apartment!  But she was also grateful that she didn't get hurt and she could stay in her apartment.

This morning there was a memorial service for those who lost their lives in this disaster.  Even 27 years later it is still heart breaking for those families.