good day

wow. it's finished! i taught my last lesson at nova today. was in a bit of a daze all day actually with mixed feelings of excitement and sadness. a bit like the last day of school. most of my students were wonderful today (two i could've done without), and i even got some gifts! after teaching them for about a year it's strange to know i'll likely never see them again. got quite attached to a few of them actually. big hugs for my workmates too, but have a big party planned on the beach for when i get back from china (bbq, fireworks and a big bonfire!) so HOPEFULLY i'll see most of them again before i fly away for good. so there we go. i feel like i have almost closed yet another chapter in my life, and it's left me feeling a little stunned. but i'm so excited about the next one :)

and great news! my babies have finally sprouted legs!!! went out to check on the wee tadpoles this morning (after 2 weeks of neglect coz of the giant wasps living in our backyard) and i was momentarily sick with worry as i couldn't see any wriggling about. but then suddenly i spotted some tiny brown specks on the edge of the pond: they have turned into the tiniest most perfect teeny frogs i've ever seen! they are seriously about half the size of my little finger's fingernail!! i'm so proud of them and hope and pray that they don't get eaten by cats or birds while i'm away in china.

am flying to china tomorrow!!! i can't quite believe it. life is just a big adventure right now! just finished packing half an hour ago and am looking forward to a good sleep no longer filled with dreams about being late to work :). might get one more blog in tomorrow morning before i head to the airport, but if not, take care, be good, and i'll catch up with you all when i get back to japan. ja ne! xxx

ps. happy birthday pa :) xx

where on earth is the train??

kia ora. tuned into a groovy song right now on zm online, i like it, yessir! they're doing 'class of '93'. it's all good.
it's said that a black cat crossing your path will bring bad luck (and i don't dispute it), but what about big brown bullfrogs the size of a large man's fist? two leapt across the street in front of my feet as i walked home tonight... something tells me they bring nothing but happiness and success. i'm a lucky girl :)
sheesh it's hot. a hot shower in a sauna in a giant microwave on high.
had a day off yesterday - my last day off before china. my last day off as a nova slave. it wasn't bad, had stuff to organise though...like going to yokohama to pick up my chinese visa!!!! rararararararara! like the pic? huh? huh? :) can't believe that i'm gonna be having a drink in some corner of shanghai on saturday night!
oh, something to note... experienced my first late train yesterday (on the way back from yokohama) - it was 7 minutes late! this really is something to note, as trains in japan ALWAYS run on time (to the minute, i swear), unless there is a jumper or crash.
me tired. oyasumi xx

oh my blimin 'eck !!!!!

i figured out how to post pics!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! there's a whole dang other world to this bloggy thing that i didn't even know about!!!! the things you can discover thanks to procrastination :D

4th floor caves in tall tokyo

kia ora folks! had a DAY OFF today (thanks to a shift-swap) and spent it waddling around tokyo with kaz and yasu. first we went to akasaka to meet an old workmate (he's not really old, but he's no longer our workmate) for lunchies. went to this great little korean place and got HEAPS of food for 900 yen (that's a bargain). then we wandered the streets and found a rather big temple. we prayed 5 yen away and then found a modernly artisic waterfall outside the government buildings. kaz got a growling from the policeman because she walked on the grass. but the photos were worth it :) THEN... we went to tokyo tower!! unfortunately the 250m high view from the tallest tv antenna in japan wasn't that brilliant due to the haze, but the wierd (and EXTREMELY phallic - and pink!!) tower cartoon character was worth it! and so were the glass windows in the floor. THEN we went to odaiba. odaiba is a man-made island area in tokyo which i've been meaning to go to for months (quite possibly even a year). the bridge across to it is kinda spiralled and made up of a few entwined veins (for the monorail, the cars, and some other mode/s of transport). odaiba itself has a pretty waterfront with a scaled-down version of the statue of liberty and some very fancy shopping malls, in which we spent most of our time. visited the sony style shop and "woah-ed" at all the awfully technologicalised technology stuff - i found a computer the size of an electronic dictionary!! and a wallace and gromit film set!! we had mexican for dinner - in a cave - on the 4th floor. really well done actually - i half expected to find gloworms. then the long drive home... its such a treat driving through tokyo - see a lot more than you do from the train. 2.08am... night night xx

to loquids!

am certain that's not how you spell those delicious bursts of fruity goodness, but they are definately worthy of headline status. we have a HUGE loquid tree outside the kitchen window which i only noticed yesterday coz it was laden with sunny baubels. i don't think i've seen a loquid tree in full fruit since i was a kid, otherwise it wouldn't have been so many years since i'd last indulged! as soon as i popped one into my mouth, childhood came bursting back in squirts of sweetness. loquid pips have to be the silkiest pips in existance - a pleasure to roll around on the tongue.

bought some funky converse all stars today, for walking around china in :)

pointless ramblings of a d

osashiburi ne!

i hope everyone is genki! the rain continues to pelt us with tiny treats of coolness, but each downpour leaves the air a little stickier than the last. i'm sitting in my little box, the windows open to the night, and the drops outside are on full volume. i love this cosiness. i'm feeling truly at peace with my little slice of the world...

only 13 days until i teach my last lesson at nova! as much as i've complained over the last 14 months it really is a relatively stress-free and sometimes even enjoyable job. i think i might miss it, which is easy to say when the end is so near, i admit. i'll miss the money for dang sure! china too, is now only 2 weeks away. time has sprouted african legs. this time next month i'll almost be home.

this is for ranga: yo quiero ir al bano! ;)

one of my workmates ran over a snake the other day on his bike on the way to work. along with a sad little sigh there comes the inevitable fascination of living where snakes live.

wish me luck with my world cup bets... so far i'm wafting around the middle of the ranks... 15,000 yen is up for grabs! i have promised to buy everyone beer if i win, but that's not likely considering up until about 2 weeks ago i didn't even know what the world cup was!!

oyasumi xx

hello my little lollipops

how have you all been? i've been charging onwards through neverending days of overtime it seems... but by golly it'll be worth it when i arrive back home dripping in dollars!! :D
had a day off yesterday though and went skipping off to the very pretty kamakura (for quite possibly the last time EVER). just strolled around doin some shopping for you little blighters back home... yup! prepare to be showered in chopsticks!!! hee hee, just kidding - i didn't buy anything that even remotely resembles a chopstick.
my next day off is monday, and that will be spent wandering around tokyo all alone searching for the chinese embassy. hmmmm, not really looking forward to that... tokyo is even a tad scary on a good day with friends... let alone all by myself with MY non-existant sense of direction! but on the bright and shiny side it means i'm going to china!!!!! have to get my tourist visa quick smart as i'm leaving on the 1st of july!! only 3 weeks away! arrrrrgghhh! i can hardly contain the squiggles of excitement :D - that wall is gonna be walked!
some of you may be wondering how the wee tadpoles are getting along (i'm sure you are)... well, i checked them yesterday and i seem to be missing some. i'm a little concerned, i guess that's the problem with being a working mum: the little sprockets either sprout legs and up and leave or get eaten by cats when you're not looking! :(
ah well, i shall spare you any further ramblings :) just wanted to check in and say howdy. i hope you're all dandy!

genki de ne! xx