Off to Oz

He plays football at dusk
Originally uploaded by sigsy.

I'm off to Oz for 10 days. From rainy cold and unpredictable Tokyo to Thunderstormy Gold Coast and friend's wedding. I'm going alone. And the prospect does not feel good at all. i'm going to miss my honey. And he is feeling funny and asked me to stay home with him tonight for the holidays. I have made a mental note that I don't want to go away for any length of time wthout him again. I miss him too much.
Looking forward to getting away though, been feeling a little ansty with the schizo weather and a mountian of things to prioritize - nice to get some perspective. Just wish he was coming too...

Keio Line

Keio Line
Originally uploaded by sigsy.

Happy Birthday Mrs S!

Giant frisbee
Originally uploaded by sigsy.

We had a fun day out with the Sugis yesterday. It is Mommy's birthday today so we had lunch and a little outing to the park. Sas is growing so fast and is just so much fun these days. Saizo is getting a little personality too. So cute when he smiles. He likes Ocean Drive by the Lighthouse Family, which is strange because I don't but it popped into my head while I was holding him and he loves it.

Especially when you say the 'skyee' bit.

Saturday saw more flat hunting and dinner at the Outback Steakhouse. I'm rather enjoying our quiet Saturdays at home these days. Friday night we hit Araku in Golden Gai again, where there was a great turn out and we ended up staying there until after 3. We had a well needed drink though. I had a bit too much red wine and had a thick head the next day, but it's all good. Still recovering from the tiredness though.

Off to Oz on Thursday so have this nervous excitement going on.

Not only that but I am also to be hosting a Workshop at the end of May, so if you are based in Tokyo - save the day 26th May 2007. It will be a Workshop that explores our career choices and work history and should be a good one. Watch this space for more details!

So looking forward to getting away. I had a lot of time off over the Easter Break, but my oh my I am looking foward to seeing my old friends and getting to Australia for a few days, just to ground myself.
The weather here is being odd and I can feel a little irritation swelling up inside.

And days with the Sugis are always great fun, they are so happy and being 4 - the lady is taking

it all in her capable stride and glows with it!

Wish I could see more of them. The latest announcement is that they are ready for an onsen weekend away. This is fabulous news! Bring it on.

More news is - I won't be making it back to UK in the summer as I had previously hoped. As we are in the process of finding a new home, we have to budget. And that trip is a casualty, sadly. Also I don't want to spend any more time away from my hubby. We've already spent weeks apart this year, so I'd like the whole summer with him.

chocolate cupcake

chocolate cupcake
Originally uploaded by tracymadaj.

Can't be bothered to make an entry, so I decided to pilfer this fabulous fun picture from somebody's Flickr site, from My Little Mochi's Weblog!

The sakura that fell to earth

Sakura Close up
Originally uploaded by sigsy.

Taken with old point and shoot.

The World's Most Expensive Pantyhose...

I have varicose veins. There I said it. Or more accurately I have one varicous vein that has various tributaries. It is enormous. It is frightening. It has made my mother, my own mother, she who gave birth to me and nursed me, recoil in horror at it's sight and touch. Put it this way, if David Cronenberg, Tobe Hooper and Quentin Tarantino were making a slasher- horror involving the bloody slaughter of blue cheese, my left leg would star. Definitely.

Not only that, but it aches. So I wear a little sport support on it to keep it in.

Just under 2 years ago I saw a specialist about it and he suggested that surgery would be a good idea, you know where they slice open the top of your leg the pull the offending vein through it. Stripping the vein. Nice. But due to various things like I was soon to be married, didn't want to have any problems with that, was worried about flying after the surgery, was working a lot, and that during my 4 week holidays from school I had to watch 'the Office' over and over again, I put off having the surgery.

On Saturday my leg was IN AGONY. So painful all the way up and down it was awful. So I went to the doctor's on Wednesday, with my tail between my legs, and sought advice. He said that I have to wear a full leg support stocking all the time until I have surgery. And if I decide to get pregnant (and I'd better do it soon because I'm 35...he was quite clear about that) then it will get worse and I'd have to wear a full support all the way through the pregnancy and wait until after to get the surgery. He prescribed that I go to the nurse and get fitted with a full surgical stocking tout de suite and that's exactly what I did. It took about ten minutes to get the thing on and it is so tight that you need a silky foot glove to get the thing over your feet. Then you have to adjust it to erradicate hammok-gusset. Then you feel like every part of your leg is being squeezed in a nylon lycra (by Dupont) vice. Not only that but the foot has the fetching design of not being quite a legging, nor fully enclosed so that the toes peep out of the bottom, but the stocking end in the middle of the foot. fetching indeed. I'd include a picture, but the thought that you might know I were wearing such an item in your presence...

Whatever you are imagining - it's worse.

After a bit of adjustment and admiring glances from the nurse while I fought back tears of shame and disgust we agreed that this was indeed a fine fit and I should purchase. It was also agreed that I should begin wearing them without further ado, so I slipped my jeans back on over them, popped on my shoes and admired the cut of the stocking showing half way down my foot. American tan, industrial strength, even-your-Nan-would-flinch, nylon.

So off I went to pay for my consultation and my fancy new footless tights nightmare.

Holy Shit

Holy GOD DAMN MARY MOTHER OF JESUS WEPT WEEPING CLOSE YOUR MOUTH STOP CRYING.





20,000 YEN...

20,000 Freakin YEN...

A HUNDRED QUID

a HUNDRED HUMILIATING QUID

Now, I was stood there wearing these babies so I couldn't exactly go back and give them back now could I. So I handed over my readies.

And I have to admit, my leg felt better.

Sexy even.

So now I am the proud owner of a pair of hundred pound surgical stockings. Ask me nicely and I'll show you. I'm booking in for surgery AS SOON AS I get the all clear to do so.

Sunny Sunday

Today is a sunny Sunday. Having debated whether or not to take a 2 hour chunk out of my day with yoga, I decided against it and instead will buy

A CAMERA!

A. NIKON. D. 40.

A girly camera. Light, simple to use (for an SLR) and reasonably priced (for an SLR).
The best thing is that we have saved up over 30,000 yen's worth of loyalty points on our card for BIC Camera. So I'm going to save maybe half! Hoorah. I am excited and nervous about is next step into taking pictures. Excited because, well it's obvious. Nervous because I can get very excited and then, if I don't become an instant champion/expert or as Dooce always says 'Valedictorian' of things, I can easily tire of them. But pics are a big part of my life and I am so into this next phase.

Then we will head out to Yoyogi Park, because frankly, I am desperate for some exercise so we'll play soccer for a couple of hours and I will try out my new camera. A bit. Depending on how much battery I have.
Then we'll head out to Chofu to get some onsen action.

But for now I am sitting in front of my PC, checking out my regular Blog reads, looking at and being inspired by various artists and their Blogs and thinking about what I would like to do.
I have Googled today:
Making cushion covers.
Chofu Onsen
Futakotamagawa onsen
Cooking cockles
D40 (well actually I have been getting some advice from a fellow Flickr lady who put me on to this fabulous webpage for advice on the D40)

I love the Internet and in particular Flickr because of these kinds of events:

• I upload all my wedding pictures from last year for 1st anniversary
• They find their way onto the front page as pics of interest for a very short window of time
• La Belle Province just happens to be following the top page links, that day at that time,to my pics and leaves a comment.
• I go to her Flickr site and have a mooch at her pics. She uses a D40. I have been thinking about buying one for ages.
• I Flickr mail her for advice and to find out how she likes it.
• She mails me back with a link and 3 mails later, she has convinced me to go out and finally get this camera at the next opportunity. Today.
• I forfeit buying this dress or this dress in favor of wearing a dress already in my possesion and getting the camera instead. I rarely wear dresses and I take pictures almost every day. This seems logical.
• When I purchase my camera I will let La Belle Province know and we will have an online friendship.
• Planned Happenstance.
• I love that.

For Mummy

4.4.07
Originally uploaded by Bird in the Hand.

KIDNAP!

The past week has been very eventful. Last Friday night we had a sayonara party for our friends and colleagues, Mel and Wes. In a carefully coordinated event, they were kindapped from the office by a team of kidnappers in fancy dress and taken on a wild goose chase around Tokyo, with only enough money for the train fare to their destination and clues in their pockets. It was great fun and as they are getting married at the end of the month, we staged a fake wedding for them in the Rock Factory in Roppongi. Then went on to Castillo for some cheesy dancing. The theme was British, so I did chav as did Grant. I love dressing up! I'm going to Brisbane at the end of the month to attend their wedding. I love a good wedding! I'll also be catching up with my lush chums, Megan and Geoff, Carla and Gareth and Hayley and Wayne. I am so looking forward to it.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MUMMY SUE!

Well today is the birthday of my Mum, Sue of Wallasey. She is 60. It is amazing. She and my Dad have just bought a motorhome and her pressie from my Dad was a Bicycle. A BICYCLE! So they are going to get onroad, with the bikes on the back and cycle around the British and European countryside on a whim!


That's her on the left with her sister on the right.

Poor Suzie is poorly though. I called and she cancelled all her plans for today as she has a virus and has been throwing up and such for 3 days. She was fine when I spoke to her on Sunday.


Anyway she got flowers, balloons and champagne through the post from us and more to come. Maybe a pair of cycling shorts. Or a yellow Tshirt. I believe the Tour de France is passing through London this year.

'I want to ride my bicycle, I want to ride my bike'

'BICYCLE BICYCLE'



Especially for you Mommy Dearest here is a picture of your son-in-law being really classy as a birthday salute to you:

Happy Birthday! You are looking FINE baby girl!

The Kids Are Alright...

A picture of a picture of Sas Taking a picture of me
Originally uploaded by sigsy.

I've been letting my faux-nephew, Sasuke loose with my camera recently for a kids-eye view of what goes on in the world. There have been some great results. Quite a lot of pictures of half people's faces or chins, but some pigeon action shots, a row of chairs he lined up in the park and some stunning shots of me and his Mom. Not to mention extreme close-ups of his wee brother.
Here is a picture of a polaroid of him taking a picture of me at our hanami party in Yoyogi on Saturday. What a super afternoon we had!

Meeting up with Blog Buddies

Gifts from Afar
Originally uploaded by sigsy.

Tonight I met up with some Bog Buddies. It was cool. I'm trying to think if this was the first time I had blindly met up with Blog folk and of course it isn't. Martine of Frangipani and Pinn of Dumplingrrl were the first last year in preparation for my wedding I used their talents. And Pinku.
Tonight I met up with Timorous Beastie, Jo in Japan and Nix and Knacks and one of Jo's friends. We went to an Izakaya in Shinjuku near studio Alta and had a yarn and listened to each other's stories. It was a fun night and I hope to do it again soon.
I stupidly forgot my camera, so here is a pic of the gifts that Nic brought. Thank you!

One Year Ago Today

Monochrome Couple
Originally uploaded by sigsy.

Was my wedding day. The first one anyway. And amazing, magical, spontaneous and unique celebration that far surpassed any thing I could have imagined. And not only that. But it was been a great year and the best thing I have ever done. Every day I look forward to seeing my husband and am so glad that we made the committment. It feels good. And if it feels good do it.

Unless you are smoking crack.