The Big 4-0!

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

After the excitement of Halloween, I had time to contemplate my impending 40th birthday. Another milestone drops off the list. When I was a child, the very idea of the year 2000 ever happening was the stuff of science fiction, never mind actually turning 40. Now that it is here, I find myself much more philosophical about becoming 40 than I was when I turned 30. Maybe I just didn't have time to think about it, who knows.
I always joke about Mairi's annual birth"week", but this year really was the never-ending birthday for me. On the actual day, I went into work to find a bottle of champagne on my desk from BigJ , which was lovely, and good wishes from all sides, and then it was off to a lovely French dinner (that's what the photos are Mum) with Hubby in the evening.The next day, the lovely Shez brought me an equally lovely homemade cake to the book club meeting I was hosting. And then of course there was the surprise party, the organizing of which was an international effort of embarrassing porportions.
I had a lovely time aboard the Ginga cruise ship with most of the leading characters in my life in attendance, all thanks to my good friend L and my ever OTT sister. THANK YOU to all involved. The words are not enough. If I wasn't overly surprised by the supposed main event when my sister appeared out of the toilet half-way through, ( her mobile phone delivered to my house from Kansai Airport on the morning of the party was a bit of a giveaway), I WAS genuinely surprised and touched by all the people who turned up on the night, and who helped to make it a night to remember.
Cheers! Once again, relive it through the slideshow above if you will.

Loads of Halloween Fun

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.


So, as we're playing catch -up, I thought I'd embed a flickR slideshow of all the Halloween fun of 2008.

As usual we did our Halloween Family Picnic in the park. This year we thought we were going to have to call it off as we had our first ever rain in 5 years. But the die hards of Hiroshima were not to be put off by a few rain drops, and we huddled under a few generously brought tarps, tents and parasols until the rain finally stopped and we were able to play plenty of games, ducks for lots of apples and most importantly collect and devour loads of sweet stuff!
Numbers were down on last year because of the weather, but it turned out to be a great number - about 40 kids- and we all had a great time. Thanks to K and N especially, 2 of my students, who were first there and last to leave, volunteering to help the kids in the games, practise their impressive English skills, and generally be my slaves for the day!

Next it was actually Halloween, and at lunchtime on the 31st, my colleagues and I deigned to make asses of ourselves for the pleasure of my students, and got dressed up to dole out sweeties to those who braved the ordeal and answered a quiz. Granny was chief sweet dealer, and was far too kind to the girls, so the sweets ran out far too quickly. I had a lot of complaints, but hey! It's first come first served!

Then at night, off we went again, this time for Weechan's school trick or treating. This year we managed to walk quite a bit of the way, turning heads as we went in our ghoulish costumes!
Spot the witch and the devil who are Mummy and Weechan in the slideshow above!

SO Where did we leave off........

Aaah Yes, it was the day before the Halloween Picnic, and they had a Food Festival in Chuo Park, nest to the castle!
Granny tried a few weird and wonderful things!

This spicy Korean chicken was my favourite!

Dr Dad found a tasty curry so we were all happy!

Happy Moo Year!

Well, it's already well into my second year of the cow in Japan. Wow! Have I really been here that long?

Anyway, just a note to apologize for the lack of posting, and to let you know that my MacBook is finally back in my posession, good as new, fresh with new keyboard apparently worth 31,oooYen!
This all goes to prove that cleaning and I don't mix. In some desparate attempt to please my mother (yes, Mum, it would be your fault!), a couple of days after my birthday, I decided to clean the screen of my laptop with some OA cleaner I found at school. While I am not so stupid as to actually spray the keyboard with the stuff, I will admit my naivete in thinking that wiping the keys with the tissue I used for the screen wouldn't do any harm....WRONG!
Immediately, the line of keys from A to L went on strike in protest, and were not to be negotiated with.
So, apart from no blogging, I haven't been able to give appropriate thanks for all the palaver surrounding my birthday, or make my excuses for being uncharacteristically late with everything at Christmas, or anything really. Who knew life was so tied up in a laptop. This from a woamn who had never touched a computer before the year 2000!
Oh well, I have a lot of catching up to do, but it will take some time. Let me just start with a hearty HAPPY NEW YEAR to you all.
Check back occasionally if you are interested.
Cheers the noo!