Strange Rainy Sunday

Yesterday we went to a party and were greeted by a wall of babies.

Granted it was a 1st birthday party, but it was overwhelming nonetheless.

Kei and I had forgotten the latest accessory was a baby and came without.

"Where's your child?" was the question from one bemused parent.

"We don't have one." The shame. So we borrowed their baby for a bit and tried him out for size.

He fit very well and snuggled and cuddled.

Luckily both Kei and I are very child friendly and are well versed in the bubble world of parenthood. I rather like babies and children and the party was lovely.

Especially when it got down to a manageable amount of babies.

5 is fun.

15 is not.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DYLAN!

Friday night I went out with work pals and went to a very cool little place in Shinjuku called 'Little Asia'. It is on the roof of a building just behind the big McDonalds in Kabukicho near the cinema square. It is very close to where all the crap transexuals sweep the streets with green plastic brushes. But then there are few things I like better than seeing 50 year old men with long hair and a boob job sweeping the streets for 'Club Huge'. Anyway, the place we went to was called See Fa and is one of many little restaurants, representing many different types of Asian cuisine, that are situated on the roof of the building. We had a very reasonable 3000 yen set. 2 hours nomihodai (drink as much as you want) and set food menu. The food was very good actually - thai curry and veggies and salad and the likes and I would recommend this place for a good cheap night out.

After that, for reasons that are a mystery to me, I went out for a drink with a new guy at work, then stumbled into my fave bar Araku to catch up with Ash and T. And have another drink. Good. Opened purse to pay. No money. Good. Pissed and penniless and apologised profusely in that way that only drunk people apologise, ie repetetively. Then walked home on a journey that seemed to take years. Every taxi that went passed I instinctively twitched to flag down then realised I had about 23 yen in my purse. This happened at regular intervals on the journey as alcohol memory teased me with the promise of a taxi in the forgetting of the cash flow problem.

Today has been a great and weird day. After a good night's sleep last night after the kid's party and a cancelled night out, we woke up and watched Stanley Kubrick's Lolita. Then we fannied around for ages eating lunch and doing washing and were suppposed to meet April and the kids but just couldn't quite make it out of the house. Rainy and we are tired and we haven't had a lazy house day forever. We had long longering baths and snuggled in our stinky bedroom, which has turned into a small village of books and stuffage.

So when Kei went out to get ingredients for dinner, I took a few pics of myself because, well life's too short to get ready to go out and then not go, and waste good make up.

Oh and we had squid for tea.

Lives in a House, a Very Big House in the Country

I love our trips to the family home.

It's so different there.

The pace, the way of life, the lack of hectic.

And the incredibly hard work that everyone everywhere is doing.

The rhythm of the land.

As Keisuke said, he liked the way you see the perfect circle, the cycle of food.

From picking, to preparing, to eating to putting the waste back to the land.

Very little is wasted there.

If you need a bit of negi for you your soup.

Just pop out and pick it.

Ooh aah just a little bit

Last night I had dinner with Jen in Baba.

We talked a lot about exercise and fitness, so it got me motivated.

This morning I did just a 5 minute work out and it improved my day so much.

I am now comitted to improving my core inner strength in order to make every day better.

Just 5 minutes every morning on the abmaster (300yen from the flea market) will have me in better shape from the core in not time.

Now I just have to sort out my ever annoying finances and paperwork. gaaaaah.

Today is my Birthday!

36. Here is my lovely birthday gift from Kei.

This is a picture taken exactly 10 years ago in Amsterdam where I spent my 26th birthday. This was pink champagne in the garden of of our hotel. By the way, that is my former boyfriend, Si. He's a lovely fella and that was a funny old holiday! 10 days in Amsterdam. I want to take Kei there some day.

Kei just made me dinner and I worked today. We spent all day in the park yesterday and half the day in the park the day before.

Now we are watching 12 monkeys.

A few fabulous things that I saw this week include the following out of my fashion magazine hobby (hard to believe). It was opened and first I saw this fabulous article:

Kind of Scary Spice goes to Abigail's Party. Love it. D&G.

Hello. Hello. Hello. Oh Hello. Perfect specimin.

And just take a look at this fantastic suit. I want this suit.

Love Vivienne. Looking fantastic. She reminds me of my Nan. Except a bit cooller. But not much. My Nan had a suede trouser suite. God I wish I hadn't thrown that out.

My new sunglasses - hocked from the clothes swap! Total find!

Cute hair. I would love this hair. If it wasn't curly. My hair would look mental in this style.

Student Behaviour - sort of

So I woke up at 4.30 itching with a mosquito bite. It wasn't a mosquito bite but a simple itch. Very annoying.

Was woken up at 6am by a phone call to tell me that school was cancelled becausse of the typhoon. Yay. Kei put the telly on for reasons unkown to myself until I turned it off at about 6.20.

Woke up at 8.07 to a 'SHIT' and a panicky husband late for work. Got up and helped him speed things up a bit.

Hit the bed again. Woke up and I do mean WOKE UP having not peeped at 12.00 midday. Far out. Was so stunned that I lay spread out on the bed thinking about how late it was until 1pm. Got up. Ate a yoghurt made loose leaf tea. Drank 2 cups.

Sat down and read through recipe books to try and get back my cooking mojo. I used small stick notes to mark the recipes I intend to make.

I washed many random items such as pillow cases and bean bag covers and things that have been in drawers getting foisty.

I made some wipe up cloths out of 2 old shirts of Kei's and cut off the buttons.

We will embark on a domestic detox starting this weekend. Infact I have started already. Anyone want a bean bag?

On the floor

In front of me

About 45 degrees to my right

To my right

To the right of that

To my left

Fascinating.

Frangipani has a room for rent. Very nice place it is too...

Room for Rent, Tokyo. Oct 1, 2007...
Anyone want to move in here?
My current room-mate, Fuku-chan, is heading back to Berlin to continue her baking studies. She's out on October 1, and we need someone to take on her room. I'm hoping for a more long-term person this time - I knew that Fuku would only be here for a while, but as we had already lived together and knew each other so well I was happy to have her back again. It's such a drag to hunt for a new room-mate that I don't wanna have to do it again for a while....
Anyways, I'm hoping for a vegetarian non-smoker (I know they exist), or at least someone who can cope with a vegetarian kitchen. Someone who likes a drink, music, the internet...
The room is a large, parquetry-floored room with floor-to-ceiling sliding doors opening to a lovely garden with grass. It's about 13 mats in size.
The house is fully-furnished, with all the usual mod-cons and wireless internet, and the room has some furniture in it too: a double futon, shelves and hanging rack, floor couch and table, TV and vcr and misc lamps, laundry stuff and a shopping bike. (All yours for ¥10 000)
Rent is ¥75 000 pm, there is a small deposit to pay, and all utilities are extra.
2 lines are close by - the Chuo line (Nishi-Ogikubo station is 15 mins walk / 8 mins by bike) and the Inokashira line (Mitakadai station is 10 mins walk / 4 mins by bike), and Kichijoji is 20 minutes walk, or 10 if you're riding. Close to Inokashira Koen, 3 supermarkets (including an international shop), a post office, dry-cleaners, bars, etc etc etc. It's a lovely, quiet area with lots of greenery.
Pictures can be seen here.
If you're interested, please email me at mc.outside@gmail.com, and feel free to forward this info to friends who might be interested.
October 1 is only 25 days away... crap. Hope there is someone out there! * "Room for Rent, Tokyo. Oct 1, 2007..." continues here

A round up of fun and inspiration

I'm loving this website, Bits and Bobbins. Oh yes - it is giving me all kinds of fun thoughts for wardrobe fun! Just the kick up the arse that my dull outfits needed. On inspiration - this is a nice entry that made me think that I too am lucky to be connected to constant sources of inspiration.

Went out last night and met some new people. A really fun couple, one Swedish lady and her Slovakian husband. Representing the Brit corner was me Jo and April and not forgetting Keichan. Izakaya, Pink Cow and Karaoke. Ended up with a bit of a hangover today mind. The 3 drink limit was seriously violated. Damn. But I was having so much fun and the Chardonnay was slipping down a treat.

Back to school tomorrow. Not dreading it.

We have resumed our house hunt. Visited places on Saturday.

Congratulations Pinn chan on the birth of baby Mari!

Facebook is reaching Fever Pitch in my life.

I'm enjoying this book it's an interesting look at my heritage. And my cultural inheritance. Fun fun fun.