No bread for my sandwich maker!

While I got Mami a nice dressing table for Christmas, she bought me a toasted sandwich maker! We called them breville makers when I was a kid, and I used to love them so this was one of the best presents I could have asked for. Most of my Christmas meals were toasted sandwiches with loads of cheese, but I was gutted when on New Year’s Eve, we went to […]

Back to School: Rule Reminders

Since I’m back to school tomorrow, I’ve been thinking again about my ESL lessons, and remembered an interesting moment from last term. I was getting frustrated with one of my kindergarten classes so right at the start of the lesson I told the children that if they crawl under the tables they will lose all their points. I usually give my kindy kids four points at the start of the […]

Wanted: Michael Jackson look-a-like

Mami and I were waiting at City Hall today when I noticed this ‘Most Wanted’ poster. I thought the woman in the middle looked incredibly like Michael Jackson. What do you think? It beats me how anyone who looks so similar to the so-called King of Pop would be able to avoid capture for long… unless it really is Michael Jackson! Let’s compare! Which of the following three is NOT […]

Moving House

I’m at the end of my two-week Christmas holidays, and I don’t feel like I’ve had a moment to relax. Moving house started on December 22nd when I got up early, rented a ‘High Ace’ van and spent the whole day hauling boxes and furniture over to our new house. It was 3am by the time I finally got everything done, and two whole rooms were packed with the stuff […]

Baby in Progress – Week 9

Mami is in her third month of labor now, and ‘Peanut’ is making some great progress. You can now clearly see his or her head, hands and feet! It’ll be another month before Mami goes back to the clinic so I can’t wait to see how much Peanut will have grown by then. Stay tuned! Peanut at 6 weeks: Peanut at 7 weeks: Peanut at 9 weeks: If you like, […]

Mortgage refused at the last minute.

December 20th should have been a historic day in our lives. The day we officially purchased and took ownership of our first house. However, what should have been a time of celebration turned out to be one of the worst days of our lives as Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Bank decided to screw us over by declining our request for a loan despite approving it two months previously. The paperwork had all […]

Baby in Progress – Week 7

Mami has been back to the clinic and had another scan. Peanut (working title!) is currently in his or her seventh week, and is starting to look more and more like….erm… Casper the friendly ghost? If you missed the last photo, “Peanut at 6 weeks”, here it is: Peanut at 7 weeks: So apparently Peanut is the right-hand blur in the big black bubble. The circle on the left of […]