Silver Lining

 I still don't feel great.  I did one class Wednesday evening and one Thursday morning and felt like I had run a marathon!  I'm managing to do a few chores but haven't cooked a meal since Tuesday!  

My ears are still blocked, and painful sometimes. My back hurts from lying down too much, I've done some exercise to help with the pain but still hard to stand for a long time!  And it's hot. It's 9:30am and already 29C but feels like 35C.  Today's high is forecast to be 33C with 80% humidity, YUK!!!!

The silver lining is that I've lost weight! 2 kilos!  This morning I weighed in at 93.8kg.  Still far too big but so much better.  I've been stuck between 95 and 97 all year, so I'm really happy that I've lost some.  I know it's because I've had no appetite for the past week or so, my eating hasn't been healthy because what I want to eat is bread or snack bread.  But eating just one piece of bread a day means that I have lost some!  David made a nice lunch yesterday, wraps with chicken, salsa sauce (he added some beans to the sauce), couscous, and salad.  I really enjoyed it, the tomato base for the sauce was refreshing.

lunch

Last night we finished the couscous, chicken and had an omelet with it.

I love Japanese food but at the moment I don't want the usual soy sauce or miso taste.  We've been eating a lot of cold noodles, nice but something different really helps!

I'm trying not to worry about the other house.  I honestly don't know if I can do anything there during the summer.  I should sort out some money and get air conditioners put in!  I hope to go next week.  I hope that the awful rain we've had hasn't done any damage!!

I'm Back

 I didn't go anywhere, just my bed for 5 days.

I think I had Covid.  I couldn't be bothered with going to the doctor for a test.  When I got sick last Thursday Mikey had the car.  He could have dropped me off but I would have to walk back, in the pouring rain.  I asked David what medicine he got, just painkillers and cough medicine. I already had that at home so decided to stay in bed.  

This time the symptoms were weird, low-grade fever but the most awful cough. Still coughing now, not as much but a few times a day.  Headache, body aches, and vomiting.  No appetite for 3 or 4 days, took me a day to eat a piece of toast!  David recovered enough to make a big pot of chicken soup.  That kept me going for a few days!!

On Saturday Christopher and Hannah came down with the same symptoms so they went to the emergency room.  I know there isn't any medicine but I wanted something stronger for them.  Christopher has allergies and slight asthma so any cold or flu has him coughing a lot.  The cough medicine I had was okay but he needed something stronger. With Hannah, it's the very high fever she gets.  She had flu a few years ago and her fever went up to 40.5C, so again stronger medicine is needed.  Mikey dropped them off and then went shopping.  They came back an hour later laughing, the nurse thought that Christopher and Hannah were a couple.

I'm fed up of being sick.  May was shingles, just recovered 100%, was getting into my exercise again when I got hit with this.  I still feel under the weather but need to start teaching, need to clean the house and if possible go to the other place. The last two weeks have been constant rain, I'm wondering if there is any damage to the other house.  Here we are battling mold.  I hope the other house doesn't have the same problem.  From today the heat has started.  Today was 31C,  looking at the 10-day forecast it looks like every day is over 30C.  I don't like the summer!

Sports Drink

This has been my drink of choice for the past few days.  I'm wondering about the slogan, sweat is beautiful!  

Feeling Bleh

 Why do summer colds feel worse than winter colds?

I'm not really sick, low-grade fever, sore throat, and headache.  But I feel like I've been run over by a truck. I have no energy at all. I can't blame it on the heat as it is rather cool today, just 21C at the moment. Yesterday I cooked and cleaned but feel as if I've done more than that.  I know I'm stressed at the moment, the kid's health and our money situation but surely I shouldn't be this tired.  I know there is nothing wrong with me, I had a full check-up at the beginning of the month so why so tired and feeling run down!?

David is feeling a bit better but still has a high fever. He was complaining of a sore throat last night.  I'm trying to get him to eat but he doesn't have much appetite, he had some soup yesterday, wondering what to get him today!!

I wanted to go to the other house today but decided against it. I just don't have the energy and when I feel like this I get upset at the smallest thing.  I need to shop and pay bills!  Then just rest, and prepare for classes for the next few days.  Try not to feel guilty about not going to the other house, I tell myself that even if I go I won't be able to do much.  We still have a few months, I hope to go a few times during the summer.  We will get there.  Having a couple of rooms cleaned out really helps.  I can see what I want to do, how to arrange things and what I need to change to make the house ours and not my mother-in-law's.

One thing I would love to do is to have a second floor.  The views of the mountains are stunning but we can't really see them because of the house in front of ours. It's on a higher elevation and two stories tall. We can see the top of the mountains but I would love to see the sides.  The way the foliage changes through the seasons is really amazing.  There are so many shades of green, in the spring the cherry blossoms and in the autumn the colored leaves are beautiful. Maybe some kind of deck with a second floor?  Something to think about and research!

Mountains from the road

The same range from a nearby park

Summer Colds

 For the past couple of weeks, Hannah has been battling a lingering summer cold. She's not really sick but coughing almost all night has exhausted her.  She had a low-grade fever for a few days.  After another night of no sleep, I told her to go to the doctor to get some medicine to help with the cough. She went to the local clinic and came back with a load of medicine.  I was hoping that she would recover but of course, life isn't that straightforward.  One of the medicines has a side effect of making your heart race. she took the full dose the first night but couldn't sleep because her heart was racing so fast. The next night she took half the dose, which is what the pharmacist said to do, but her heart was still racing.  We checked on my blood pressure machine, her heart rate was 118 per minute.  She gave up on those medicines.  She is a lot better, finally!

But of course, Hannah isn't the only one sick.  Last night David had a fever,  of 38.5C,  a little bit high. He didn't have work so managed to sleep on and off during the night.  This morning he was no better, complaining of a sore throat, headache, body aches, and nausea.  I told him he should go to the doctor so Mikey drove him this morning.  I was thinking that he might have flu.  But he has covid!!  He's sleeping now, I hope he can recover quickly.  We don't have to isolate, covid is in the same category as the flu now. But I told Hannah to inform the manager at the nursery where she is working.  The children are basically babies and toddlers for which covid might still be dangerous.  I'm not sure if the nursery has a protocol in place for this situation.  Hannah said that one of the other staff didn't come in last week because their husband had covid.  

I had plans for today but couldn't do anything.  I have a headache, I think it has to do with the weather. It's raining and the humidity is high.  I struggle to feel good in this weather.  Never mind I can rest again after my class.  

Selfie

 David keeps taking selfies on my phone and sending them to Hannah!  His phone camera is broken, may be taking too many selfies.  

copying the cat's expression

Just Thinking

 The end of this month will mark 20 years since Mom passed away.

I was looking through my photos to find some to put on here. I think I've used most of them already.

Just looking at them gave me a sense of wonder, of capturing a time, an emotion, an event that will never happen again.  Even if we revisit a place the experience will be different. 

The person I am today is totally different from the person I was when I came to Japan.  I wonder how much my Mom would have changed if she had lived.  I think she would still have a daft sense of humor. Christmas would still be a big thing for her.  She would still dote on her grandkids.  I wonder how she would have coped with the pandemic, would she have worried all the time.  (I actually wonder how anybody coped with the pandemic!).

with Alan and his mate

This was on holiday, end of the 1980s, maybe.  

Holiday in Wales

I was 15 or 16 here.    Nice quiet beach in South Wales.  One thing I remember was chasing Steve and Alan around the beach.  It was early in the year, the sea was grey but it was fun just to get away from school for a week.

Going to France

having an extension built

These are photos that Mom sent me.

The top one is on the ferry to France.  She wrote on the back "On the way to France, feeling sick"

On the bottom one she wrote "Showing off on the patio"

I'm glad that I have photos, they help me to recall things, people, places, and experiences. They make me happy and sad. I wish I had more photos of Mom.  But the ones I have I treasure.  

Weather

 This time of year is the rainy season here in Japan. 

The past few years have meant very heavy rain, causing floods and landslides.

I know from the news that some places have been hit with floods but so far we are okay.  We had rain yesterday, almost 24 hours. I enjoyed it as the temperature dropped from 34C to about 25C.  Today it's hot again, up to 30C this afternoon. 

I often think of this poem when the weather is driving me crazy.

Whether the weather be fine or whether the weather be not

Whether the weather be cold or whether the weather be hot

We'll whether the weather, whatever the weather

Whether we like it or not

I love teaching this to my older students!  

I've realized that moaning about the weather is a very human thing.  In the winter it's too cold, in the summer too hot.  I'm trying to appreciate the seasons more, even summer that I don't enjoy.  One way is to enjoy the different available foods.  Seasonal favorites are a big thing here. It's almost impossible to get out-of-season fruits and vegetables.  Autumn is the season for apples, they are really plentiful and delicious but now there are almost no apples in the supermarket. The fruits now are melons, peaches, plums, and some berries.  I can't remember if this is the case in the UK.  Cooking shows have programs on how to use seasonal fruits and vegetables.  I like that they show traditional recipes with a modern twist. I don't watch the programs but buy the magazines, It's one way of studying Japanese!

So summer is here.  Early and apparently this year is going to be very hot.  I'm wondering if the other house will be cooler as it's at a slightly higher elevation. I'm also wondering if one or two degrees will make that much difference when it gets to over 35C.  I guess we will find out!

The cats are suffering from the heat as well.  They are lying around all day, only getting active in the early morning or night.

The other day Alan was flat on his back!  David put his phone on Alan's stomach, Teletubbies.

Teletubbies

Busy Day

 We had to take Frodo to the vet this morning.

Another lump, probably because of fighting.  Mikey took Hannah and I in the car.   The vet is just a five-minute walk but the carry case is heavy and difficult to carry because Frodo was moving around and crying.  

Usually, getting the cats in the carry case is difficult, but this morning they were all having a turn inside.

Alfie

Steve

This is the first time I've been to this vet, a very small place but very nice.  The vet was thorough in his exam. Poor Frodo cried but he didn't lash out at the vet or nurse.  I noticed that the nurse's hands had a lot of scratch marks on them.  I guess that comes with the job!

The building that the vet has shares the space with another business, I think a hairdresser. The vet's parking spaces are marked with a paw mark, I thought that was rather cute!

Mark for the vet's parking space.

After we dropped Hannah and Frodo back home Mikey and I went to the community center to do our monthly volunteer class.

The building is new and very nice.  There are several rooms for meetings, to teach in, a room with a small stage.  A large kitchen that is set up to teach cooking, I don't know if it was at this place or another community center but one class that was very popular was a cooking class for elderly gentlemen.  I think most of these gentlemen had lost their wives and had no idea how to cook.  I thought it was a very good idea. I noticed that the building also had a shower room.  It's marked as an evacuation place, so if there is water and power people can get a quick shower if they are forced to leave their homes! I'm rather impressed by the building and also the way that it is used.  We go once a month, and most of the students are elderly, part of the idea is to help the elderly to have fulfilling lives, to keep them active longer, and put off going into a care home.  The classes that I've noticed are varied, dance classes, cooking classes, English, and some kind of meditation. It's nice to see these people get together, chatting and excited.  

I managed to get a few photos of the building.

The room we use to teach in

Baby changing room, next is the shower room

entrance

space to hang out

After lunch, I decided to rest for a bit.  Today was very hot.  I came down to be greeted by the first massive cockroach of the year.

I really hate summer!!!!