babies.. cinnabons and autumn... OH MY!

So, It's freaking cold. I'm sitting here wrapped in a blanket that's in desperate need of a wash.. only problem is we have been having hardly any good wash days. It's cold, rainy and miserable. Which makes for awesome binging and thinking about babies when you know you shouldn't, but you do anyway and drive yourself insane days...

Saturday was Japan Mama's house warming / meet up/ absolute feast. Had a lovely time, and met Sarah, Ryohei and their GORGEOUS daughter Sakura who Sakurako took a shine to. Was lovely to sit and chat, let the kids play and eat some yummy food. Feeling a little guilty that Riki couldn't join us as he was forced into paying his respects to his grand mother's grave in Saitama. I'm SO glad I didn't have to go. But what pissed me off was the fact that when Riki came to pick me up.. he was very unsociable.. in SHY RIKI mode. I hate it when he's like that. He refused to get out of the car and just say hello... until I forced him. His excuse when we were in the car was that he "looked gay" and wasn't dressed for meeting anyone. Apologies girls for him being such a twat! :P

Ever since seeing baby Sakura and Kenshin... I've been super broody. To the point where I have listed baby names in my head. For those wondering what I chose? Misaki IF I have another girl.. and Haruki for a boy. Really hoping for a boy... but I think I'll wait a few years eh? I think its the cold weather doing it to me. I had a winter pregnancy with Sakura. 2 winters actually. First half of my pregnancy was in Australia, when we came to Japan It was Autumn, and gave birth on a snowy day.

Ending my blog post is the "recipe" for the apple cinnamon pastries I made on the weekend.. as per request! Khea shared her clone of a cinnabon recipe with me, So I pretty much just used some of that recipe and mixed it with a few others floating around the web. I wasn't sure if pastry sheets worked out... but apparently it did ;) Thanks Khea for your link! <3


Cinnabon thingies :P

Serving: 16 bite sized pieces

*4 Pie Sheets (frozen puff pastry)
*1 apple, finely chopped.
*Filling: 3 tbsp Cinnamon, 1 cup Brown Sugar and 1/2 cup Butter (I used "cake margerine" which is a salt free butter)
*Icing: 1 small packet of icing sugar (75g)  50g of cream cheese & vanilla extract

Preheat oven at 190 degrees.

Saute Apple on medium/ low heat with 1tbsp of water, cinnamon and sugar. (feel free to add more cinnamon or sugar, but made sure you don't add too much sugar as your apple pieces will turn into candy!)

While that cools, Take your sheets out of the freezer to soften. Mix the Filling in a bowl and spread onto the sheets. use a teaspoon to "sprinkle" pieces of  apple on the sheets. try do this as evenly as possible. at one end of the sheet, line up some pieces of the apple mixture, and roll starting from that end. The result you want to achieve is having the centre apple filled ;)

Cut each roll in half, and in half again. What helps is placing the rolls back into the freezer for a few minutes so the pastry isn't so sticky. Place into a cooking dish lined with baking paper and place in the oven for 30 minutes (you might want to lower the temp to 180 if you feel they are starting to brown too quickly)

While these are cooking, mix up your Icing. Place cream cheese in a bowl and mix until soft... slowly add the icing sugar and then add a few generous drops of vanilla extract. I also added around 15ml of boiling water to make a runnier icing, hence why I used so little cream cheese.( I figure the pastries are fatty enough without the icing... why make it even more fatty :P)

Take pastries out of the oven and set aside to cool. Ice while still warm...

PERFECT with a cup of coffee by the way!

I still had some filling, apple and icing left over... So I have placed them all in the freezer for next time! ;)

ENJOY <3

ALMOST organised... fucking epic post! with TIROL!

Last night I decided to go to ToysRUs and get Sakurako's birthday and Christmas presents out of the way. Not everything... Just the big things that would be a hassle to buy closer to the shopping madness that is December.VERY glad I went on a Wednesday night! There was hardly anyone there... We actually thought it was closed (despite Riki previously working there and knowing the times! :P)

Went in with my shopping list... veered to the Christmas decorations (which were all looking like the same tacky Disney decorations they had at Halloween) and was quickly ushered away by an impatient hubby who just wanted to get what we needed and leave as he was hungry... I just wanted to browse and get ideas for stocking fillers!! damn it! We had a look at the kids keyboards (not a PROPER keyboard... just one of those cheap play things) and I was stuck between 3 options.. a red hellokitty one that looked flimsy and screamed "massive happy meal toy" another hellokitty one that cost 8900 yen or the snoopy one which I saw online and instantly liked. Laura has one for H and L and said it was great so I decided to go with that one! Not really a fan of snoopy.. and there's a snoopy sitting on it.. but it's not for me! :P

Keyboard... CHECK! ( Christmas present... I'm not ready for my ears to die before christmas...)

Now on to the Bicycle. Sakura's FIRST Bicycle.... She's more than obsessed with Lilo and Stitch (however she cannot pronounce stitch... it's either SUTICCHI or "bitch" )so I thought the "speaking" Stitch bike would be perfect. I must admit, I wanted my baby girl to have a girly pink bike.. and this one is BLUE... although it's a very nice blue and has purple grip on the handle bars. I see more girls with stitch toys and clothing than I do boys, so I think it's pretty unisex! anyway... it was the 2nd last one! EEP! I know they would have been able to order more... but getting closer to Christmas it would have been a bit risky trying to get. No doubt I would have missed out if we waited until the weekend!!!

Bitch bike.. CHECK! (2nd birthday pressie for sure!)Picked up the art easel/ chalkboard/ whiteboard on the way to the register... I stopped to get some batteries for my DSLR.. and that was it. DONE! All I have to do now is book disneyland tonight... couldn't do it last night as I realised I had to book the restaurant a month before the day I want to go.. and it's exactly a month now :P

Riki kicked up a stink about the restaurant which includes a show with lilo and stitch. It's a freakin luau with her favorite character.. and he suggested we should just get something at the food court? piss off! He said " It's 4,000 yen per person... you can't expect my parents will want to pay for that! I dont think they would wanna go in there!"  there was a pause... I blinked a few times... proceeded to face palm... and I then began THAT speech. you know... the one where you prove that someone's idea sucks.. and why?.... here's how it went:

Riki : It's a waste of money. They're gonna have to spend too much and they won't like it.

Me: I'm paying for US... that means WE are going. If your mum wants to sit outside and wait and eat a 900yen hotdog... that's fine. she can go eat her hotdog and perform lewd acts with it for all I care.I'm sure she'll like that right?

Riki: There is NO point going! Why do we have to? we can use the money for something else! My parents won't want us to do it.

Me: It's our child's 2nd Birthday... It's her favourite character.. and It's lunch. We get to sit down at a RESERVED table and not wait around for somewhere to sit. We will be inside out of the cold... what's the deal? You wanna buy some more car parts? GET FUCKED!

Riki: (pauses and closes the car parts page on his iphone browser) NO! I just think its too expensive. They can't be expected to pay it!

Me: Honestly... your mother can buy a new vuitton or hermes bag in the blink of an eye... she buys incense oil that costs 9,000 yen and runs out in a week... she goes holidaying in Okinawa and Hokkaido in expensive resorts with her LOVER.. yeah don't even argue that one... you know she's out with another man.... AND she fucking lunches at all the most expensive restaurants in Maebashi with her "friends" every day... she can fucking pay for it!

Riki: But she's gotta pay for my brother and his girlfriend too?

Me: Who said they're invited? Sorry, I don't want that bitch coming... I don't want to witness a dirty twat attack. If they come they can pay for themselves... they both work! And I'm sure your brother will be passed out in his room with a bunch of guys and a vibrator anyway.

Riki: Fine. I'll ask them tomorrow what they wanna do. I'll call up and book at night. It better be good!

Me: Or else what? you're going to contemplate complaining... tell me how shit it is all the way home in the car.. and then let your Japanese kick in and decide to lose your balls and not complain.. just in case you offend someone?

Riki: You can be such a B....

Me: What!?

Riki: Let's eat chocolate........


So. That was pretty much our night. we ate chocolate and didn't even think about the argument again.What we did think about though, was that BIL's car was suspiciously parked in a weird spot near Mac.. (we had it for dinner.. lazy :P) He wasn't in the car... he wasn't at mac. He wasn't at the supermarket which was on the other side of the parking lot. It was weird. I'm thinking he has been pretending to take the prado to Takasaki station where he is meant to get on a train to Tokyo for cooking school... and going out with friends or LADY friends instead of school! His attendance is very bad. The school has called regularly to ask why he never shows up. They sent a letter saying he will be expelled if he doesn't show up everyday from now on. This little prick thinks him and slut face will be getting married soon. They talk loudly about wedding plans in front of everyone.. she leaves wedding magazines out with things circled. IN RED. (queue 'the shining' music) There is no way in hell he can commit to marriage when he can't keep a job or go to school for his qualifications. Bet you anything the little turd has a GF on the side somewhere... How else would you explain the absences? We busted him with another girl sleeping over before... No doubt its the same one :P she was wearing his clothes home last time we saw her!

So, to end my post... a few pictures the pressies... TIROL ( kinako mochi.. with actual mochi inside) and a cheeky grin from my little monster.

A last minute girl... living in a 3 months ago country....

So, I officially suck at keeping up with my blog... Kinda hard to find  motivation when half the people who read your blog are on your FB list and already know what's going on.. why write about it here as well!? XD

So, it seems that after Halloween... we have officially gone into Winter/ Christmas mode. I can't believe how cold it had gotten this early in November... and how fast the decorations were dragged out. Here's the thing... I'm not usually a sucker for christmas goods.I will usually cringe, comment on how gawdy it all is and go into my "Bah Humbug" mode and hate it until I get a present.... at which point I usually feel guilty for hating it.. yet at the same time hope I'm not looking like I hate it. :P That all changed when I had Sakura! The very day I brought her home from the hospital, I got up into the loft at Riki's house and SEARCHED for a Christmas tree.  I decorated it, put some things out and then realised that was the end of me. I had a Christmas time baby... I would never be allowed to be a grouch about Christmas again.

Our Christmas in Australia last year was great... and this year, I plan on having an even better one.... I realised when going to my FAVOURITE little store last night that there was no escape... I must have some decorations! I might not spend on a Christmas tree... rather some nice decorations/ miniature statues and things like that! I haven't been to that store for some time... absolutely love it! Went to buy a gift last night and saw that they sold Wonka bars, Terry's Chocolate orange... everything I LOVE! Riki bought me a wonka bar, and we had a look at some decorations.. and I noticed they have little music box things... Ponyo, Totoro and some SMAP songs and stuff... Will probably go back tonight and get one for Sakura's Christmas stocking (she currently has a wind up totoro music box that she has to continuously rotate for it to play anything... which is hard for her!) Also saw some nice wall stickers that would go well around the place... so might pick up some of them too!

So, you wouldn't guess I was sick after all that right? haha... sick as a dog at the moment. well, worse because my dog isn't sick at all. He's actually rather healthy. O_O
I started with a sore throat, then got a runny nose and a rather dizzy and hot feeling.. which by the next day turned into a dry throat that felt like it was closing up and a cough so bad I sound like a fur seal doing a mating call... good thing there aren't any frisky lady seals about! So I've had a cough for a few days... yesterday I felt fine, only coughed a few times and thought that i was cured when I went to bed. Woke up this morning constantly sneezing and had a 10 minute coughing attack! To the point where I had to sit on the floor like I was going to die! I was gasping like a fish! Hideous! I've had another hot vitamin C drink and some lemon and honey... still very sneezy though! I don't want to be the dirty foreigner with H1N1... then the Japanese old ladies that give me the evils when I cough (into my sleeve!.. the best place) would have won. I would officially go down as the source of a serious illness... just as THEY would think. I'm going to fight this. No way in hell am I giving in to their damn suspicions!

Hope I get better soon because I very much would like to enjoy the coming weekend, visiting Laura and the family as a "house warming" and get together with Sarah and Ryohei and Natasha...Both whom I haven't met yet! Riki will have to go to Saitama for visiting his grandmas grave... I managed to get out of it! YES! Not being disrespectful... but I never met the woman, yet I'm always forced to talk to some grave with kanji I can't read.. I never heard any stories about her.. why she died for example? It's just creepy. I wouldn't expect Riki to go to my Grandpa's grave!!

So.. this week has seen me budgeting... adding up the expense list for Sakura's Birthday and Christmas presents. Going to Disneyland... which is going to be very costly in the end. Looked up hotel rooms with all recommended disney resorts, and the hotels within disney itself... BOOKED THE FUCK OUT! I emailed a lady and she said people had booked for the 12th of December 3 MONTHS AGO! WTF!? What is with this country!? I thought by arranging stuff now I was being organised. I'm a last minute person.. so for me.. a MONTH in advance is plenty! Obviously not by Japanese Standards! So, tonight's task is to call disneyland and pre book the lilo and stitch themed restaurant as the earliest you can book is a month prior.. I want sakura to have the best table, naturally. I also want to ask if they can do a special birthday thing for her!

Wonder what will happen!? :P

I think by the end of it all I'll be in the foetal position screaming obscenities. Japan really pisses me off with it's organisation. I mean, Ayumi Hamasaki has already planned for her afterlife.. maybe I should too :P

walking 10km in style...

So I managed to go for that long walk on Sunday....
Really feeling it now as I could only find heels to wear out.. oh the pain! Totally worth it though.. the flowers were lovely!

I got myself and Sakura ready... got to the door and looked behind me to see MIL tapping at the window calling me over. I probably should have kept walking but she already saw me look at her... so what's the point? I put down everything and walked over and opened the window "Can I take Sakura shopping??" I thought.. sure... buy her some clothes while you are at it... I'll get some alone time...

Off she went with Sakura and I sat down to have a coffee. After about 50 mins I realized that she wasn't coming back any time soon.. so I emailed her and asked if it was ok for me to take a walk, and asked what time they would be back. The reply was "We are in a traffic Jam in Shibukawa (the next town really) we will be back in the evening" I thought they must be on their way back from somewhere.. WRONG!

I went out with the dog for the massive walk to see the cosmos flowers..
something I really wanted to do with Sakura. Was lovely though, apart from getting my heel stuck in a crack between drain hole covers (a little embarrassing but oh well) and walking off with only one shoe! Haha... got to the flower field and just sat amongst the flowers with the guu meister and taking it all in. Then I came home... did the dishes and a little tidying up... sat down to listen to some music and have a BIG bottle of water... still no sight of the in laws! I thought they would have been home already hence why I took my time. A little odd because usually if they take her out they will take her juice cup and some nappies and biscuits!

At this point I was worried.. had all sorts of things going through my head... What if they lost her.. what if she toddled off and got snatched? WHAT IF THEY HAD A CAR ACCIDENT!?

I'm such an idiot worrying like that, but I almost had a heart attack when I finally got an email saying where they were. at 5 o'clock... "Oh.. we just arrived at Shirane-San" I had to think for a moment where that is... I sent a few emails to anyone I thought might know. Ended up looking it up online and saw that it's pretty much borderline Gunma/ Tochigi. HOURS away from us... Got so pissed off I just sat down and ate some sweets... contemplating what to say/ do. How dare they take my child HOURS away to a mountain no less. If they asked me before hand.. sure... but only If I come too!

Once Riki got home I was pretty frazzled. He asked what the problem was.. and where Sakura was. She usually runs up to the door when he comes home and gives him a hug. Told him that our child was probably at some mountain gift shop hours away with his family. He was shocked! But despite all of it, The night turned out ok. We went to Tsutaya and hired a dvd (Mall Cop) and got Mac ;)

Had a lovely night watching a movie together then Sakura joined us at around 9pm!
What pissed me off was they hadn't bothered to buy her any nappies. She had been sitting in the same dirty nappy all evening. I felt very bad for her. She was VERY thirsty too so I'm not sure if they bothered to give her a drink the whole time!! What was worse.. and a little TMI... but she has held in a poo the whole time and let it all out on Monday morning! She seems to be afraid to poo when she's around them because Riki's brothers tend to point and laugh. Poor kid has a complex about it now.

Monday was shitty... To sum it up we got a call from MIL at around 10. Asked Riki to wash her car and said that she planned a picnic at the park by the river...I ALREADY HAD PLANS! Riki assured me it was just lunch, it would be quick.. then we could go do what I wanted to do... Go up to the mountain to get ice cream and MAYBE go on a paddle boat!! Lunch ended up being dragged out and stressful. Riki's brother had gone to get the food (KFC.... :s) and had been gone for over an hour. I was already dressed... Sakura was hungry.. and Riki was at the conbini getting safety pins for Sakura's overalls. By the time Riki's brother got back... I was trying to dress Sakura. MIL was yelling out at the window again and I was just SO pissed off i started yelling to Riki "I'm trying to put safety pins in overalls on a squirmy child... tell your stupid mother to rack off!!"

After a stressful 3 mins trying to fasten the overalls, We were outside and ready to go. we got in the car.. and MIL exclaims "where is your dog!?" I said "I'm not taking a dog to a picnic... it's dirty and I have a child to worry about!" She started yelling at Riki which resulted in me having to take my dog... dirty stinky muddy footed dog.. all over my clean new clothes I was wearing! Wasn't happy! Got to the park.. and they drove the wrong way. we waited for 10 mins for them to come back... realized I had left my phone at home throughout the mayhem... By the time we sat down to eat, food was cold. MIL called Sakura over to her.. while I was trying to carry things.. and what happened? Sakura fell over into mud. No help from MIL! Was getting even more pissed off.... then BIL's Girlfriend got out of the car... in a SHORT mini skirt that you could almost see her lady parts! FOUL! had to look away... but it was just so in your face as she pranced around chasing BIL... The worst part was when she climbed up on his shoulders.. and sat on his head... he grabbed her legs and stretched them out and there we have it... we saw what she had for breakfast! *vomits*

It put me off my food... and we ended up leaving early... only to have that shit in our faces again at dinner time. what happened?? She decided to do STAR JUMPS in front of Riki's face.. about 50cm away from him... in that skirt! Saw EVERYTHING. I don't appreciate that sort of behavior... especially in front of my husband.

She is the biggest slapper ever to grace Japan...Really need to figure out a way to politely tell her to stop being such a whore!

Getting into the swing of things...

Living in a foreign country sucks from time to time.. you seem to go through a cycle of being miserable... but at some point it all changes back to happiness and rainbows and shit (literally.. there was a MASSIVE rainbow in the sky yesterday!)

I seem to be having a great week... yesterday especially!
Woke up to lovely weather and originally planned to go to Gunma Safari Park but when we realised that we didn't have our Navi anymore ( I made Riki sell the one he bought a few months ago...)  Finding our way to some safari park in Annaka didn't look appealing when we had no idea on where we would be going.

Ended up going outside together to walk the dog around the yard and talked about what we would do for the day. I suggested "shopping" which usually results in Riki getting the shits about spending money on anyone other than himself... thus we have a fight and end up at some car parts shop instead. This time was different! Riki actually took us to Aeon Mall and Uniqlo and actually bought me clothes. Would have bought a nice pair of boots too but I forgot to go back for them. gave up on them already though as there were only 3 pairs left.

Another highlight of the day was buying clothes that fit me in a normal section and not going to the big gals area.. which kills me because it's embarrassing!! I'd be an average size back home but buying clothes here is like the impossible.. until now i guess?? I blame the big milk jugs and the floppy baby belly... but that's all toning up now thanks to billy's boot camp dvd's I have been doing. Was so surprised to try on a size M and have it fit... Ended up buying size L though.. in case i wanted to wear something else underneath as it's getting a little chilly lately! Feels like such a victory!! Hopefully I will be back to my pre pregnancy.. pre office worker days. Now that's it's a lot cooler I can take longer walks too. Always a plus! Speaking of which, I might randomly walk a few km's this afternoon to take Sakura to see the cosmos flowers near the Tone River. Not liking the look of the gray clouds out my window though...

All this talk of slimming down has had me questioning myself though.. mentioned the B word to Riki last week. Never thought I would mention it for a while but I bit the bullet and asked him "When will we have another baby??" I expected Riki to just shut out what I was saying and say "NO MORE" but he actually talked about it... like an adult? (wow what a surprise) and he wouldn't mind... but not JUST yet.. maybe the year after next. I think by that time we will be more financially stable.. hell I have most things we need for it... and Sakura NEEDS a sibling within a decent gap (don't want to be too much age difference) ... but... is all this going to mean my exercise and slimming down will go down the drain? Not like I think I will be able to conceive for a while though.. I still haven't had a period since May?? Stupid damn Depo-provera! was only meant to last 3 months and I already had periods within those 3 months...

Wonder if I could handle another vegemite monkey running around anyway....

welcome to my new blog!

I'm going to kick things off with a positive vibe.

The past few weeks have been great. Minimal arguments with hubby... a new car (wonder if thats why he's happy??) lovely weather (after the typhoon)... and i'm feeling happy. MIL is still a whore... but that's to be expected isn't it! I don't even think beating her around the head with a big fleshy dildo would knock it out of her either.

Lately I have been cooking more... having fun with Saacchan and the dog... AND I haven't got anything bugging me. I have decided to take a more easy going approach to things and I think it's a success...although I do think these happy feelings will all go up shit creek when I start to buy my autumn/ winter gear I'm sure :P

Now to explain the move (blog wise)
A few nights ago hubby was using the computer... looked through the bookmarks part didn't he... what did he find?? WORDPRESS! evil evil wordpress... so.. after I had noticed him trying to gaze upon me writing entries a few days ago (which were NEVER published thanks to my paranoia) I decided to make a move.. and pretend wordpress never existed. Now he remembers wordpress.com and searches for user names he thinks I would have... hahaha.. sucker!

Using this site because I bookmarked it a while ago when I First made this very blog...which I intended for updates on Sakurako for the family... unfortunately I gave up when realising that most my family (excluding immediate family of course) wouldn't be able to find their way out of a brown paper bag let alone remember my blog and check on Sakura's progress. To be honest.. they're a bunch of douche bags anyway and I've never really spent time with them... why do they need to be in my friends circle? (do I have a circle? why can't I have a square.. or.. like.. a hexagon?) So after a few changes with profile... blog name etc... this is my new blog home!


Look forward to more frequent blog posts without the paranoia.

xxx