decorating

is just the most exhausting thing to do. spent all Friday afternoon trying to get rid of this wallpaper frieze. it's not being very cooperative. then, all yesterday was spent painting. first the kitchen ceiling, then half the walls. in red. i knew it'd make the small room look smaller, but it's quite amazing how much smaller it now looks. which is why i've decided to leave the other 2 walls white. cos that red is really, really red.

amazingly enough, the actual kitchen will actually be delivered on Thursday (so i'd better get a move on and finish painting the actual room). only thing missing is the cooker, which i ordered yesterday, only to find out i might have an electrical problem that would then need to be seen to before i can install anything. just great. and i'd originally thought i'd move in this weekend. now i'm wondering if i'll get there by the end of November...

beautiful autumn

i thought i'd never see it anywhere else, the autumn beauty. nothing could possibly compare with Japan. with its passion for admiring the changes. but maybe something can. last autumn was pretty wet and depressing for a variety of reasons, but this one is magnificent. October has so far been sunny (bar 2-3 days last week), and very mild (currently 20C!). the sky is a blue i'd never seen here in autumn before - or maybe it's just that in all my years of living here, i was actually at school, and thus unable to see it all, as i left before and came home after daylight. but coming home these days is amazing. i have to drive up a small hill, with view on the closest mountain. and everywhere, trees that i'd hitherto only thought of as brown, in this season, turn out to vary in colour a lot. you just have to see it in the sunshine. so i kind of feel like i'm in Japan, and that's just heavenly.

Martha's Way vs Maxine's Way

a friend recently emailed me this. it's quite hilarious. my only question is, who is Maxine??

Martha's Way* versus Maxine's Way^

* Just put a marshmallow in the bottom of the cone to keep it

from dripping on you.
^ Just suck the ice cream out of the bottom of the cone, for
Pete's sake! You are probably lying on the couch with your
feet up eating it, anyway!

* To keep potatoes from budding, place an apple in the bag
with the potatoes.
^ Buy Hungry Jack mashed potato mix, keep it in the pantry
for up to a year.

* When a cake recipe calls for flouring the baking pan, use a
bit of the dry cake mix instead and there won't be any white
mess on the outside of the cake.
^ Go to the bakery! They'll even decorate it for you.

* If you accidentally oversalt a dish while it's still cook-
ing, drop in a peeled potato and it will absorb the excess
salt for an instant "fix-me-up."
^ If you oversalt a dish while you are cooking, that's too
bad. Please recite with me the real woman's motto: "I made
it and you will eat it and I don't care how bad it tastes!"

* Wrap celery in aluminum foil when putting in the

refrigerator and it will keep for weeks.
^ Celery? Never heard of it!

* Brush some beaten egg white over pie crust before baking
to yield a beautiful glossy finish.
* The Mrs. Smith frozen pie directions do not include brush-
ing egg whites over the crust so I don't.

* Cure for headaches: take a lime, cut it in half and rub it
on your forehead. The throbbing will go away.
^ Take a lime, mix it with tequila, chill and drink!

* If you have a problem opening jars, try using latex

dishwashing gloves. They give a non-slip grip that makes

opening jars easy.
^ Go ask that very cute neighbor if he can open it for you.

* Don't throw out all that leftover wine. Freeze into ice
cubes for future use in casseroles and sauces.
^ Leftover wine??? HELLO!

blasts from the past

it's been a weird week so far, and we're only Tuesday... first, i got this email from my sister. about an old flame of mine. what had happened between us, back in the days? memories awakened. feelings. all this to find out she'd met him in a London pub and that she was really attracted to him.

next day, back home, realised my ex was on messenger. for the first time since he'd put me on his list, 2 months back. he signed in just after me. or so it seemed. so i signed out, and signed back in, to see what he would do. nothing. as predicted. or maybe he was hoping i'd do something. which, frankly, after all i've done so far, i can't be bothered to.

then, this morning, this guy sat opposite me in the bus. i never really look at people in the bus. i have my book, and i was totally into the story. can't remember what made me look up, but i did, and this guy, i kid you not, looked exactly like my ex. except for the piercing. and he must have been younger, but you couldn't tell. he had the same hands, and the same nose. totally ridiculous, i know, but after yesterday's msn incident, well, it was really, really weird.

nabe time

so in Japan, it's nabe time. or getting there, anyway. but these last few days, i've been feeling a distinct craving for nabe, and it's not like i even like it that much. but suddenly, not being there, i just really wanted to have some. and so it is great that i live in (or very very near) fondue country. so last night, i took off to Geneva with some friends and we had cheese fondue. it was delicious. kills all my efforts to cut down on cholesterol, but i'm sure i'll survive.

decisions, decisions

so, here i was thinking i'd chosen my kitchen, but then, after having called IKEA and talked with the teleseller, i was suddenly wondering. seen as i had to pay by cheque, and the post had already gone, i had to wait for the next day anyway, and suddenly, i got thinking. that counter i'd ordered, it had to 'breathe in' the humidity in the kitchen for 24 hrs before i could set it up. then, because it was real wood, it would have to be set up in a different way than a stratified counter, which, although easy, sounded to be an extra hassle. and, and this was the most annoying factor, there would need to be a 7mm gap between the counter and the wall. and here i started imagining all the crumbs and various things falling off and accumulating with no way of getting rid of it - and various new lifeforms appearing... after having put up the kitchen, i'd then have to 'oil' it, until the wood couldn't absorb anymore, and leave it to dry another 24 hrs.

and suddenly, having a real wood counter seemed more hassle than it was worth. it's not like i'm gonna live there forever. and it's twice as expensive as a stratified counter. so that was one change. i'll spare you the other minor changes. i've made a final decision and the cheque has been sent. it'll be delivered in 3 weeks.

home owner for real

and so this is it! i own my own place. MY apartment. MY space.

well, ok, so the bank currently owns a lot of it, but eventually, in quite a few years, it'll be all mine.

now i have to get to work and repaint it, then order the kitchen next week (there isn't one, and i really can't move in without a kitchen!), move my stuff in, and in about 3 weeks, i guess, i'll be all set for the housewarming party.

a woman's logic

so, this morning i'd mostly managed to talk myself out of attempting anything with Mr. Nice Guy. i'm really good at talking myself out of some things. but then, of course, i was still looking forward to seeing him and his smile, so when he didn't show up, it made me feel kind of empty. it's one thing for me to decide i'm not pursuing the matter, it's another entirely that he should not be there to witness my not caring at all about him. although the fact that it annoys me so much may be a sign that this could be worth pursuing. if it wasn't suicidal, that is...

just my luck

so, making an effort here, although it could be termed suicidal, if one thought too much about it. point being, seeing as lover boy on holiday who should by now be more than back hasn't got in touch, i thought i'd get more interested in people around me at the moment. enter Mr. Nice Guy (well, as far as i know, which is not at all), whom i see every day. we went from smiling to saying hello yesterday (i know, it's totally pathetic, seen as i noticed him a whole month ago), and i thought i'd try to move things along a little quicker.

having noticed he always left the building and turned left (when i turn right), i decided to rush down to the lakeshore (which is to the right), sit down somewhere prominent where he couldn't miss me, and wait. i had some reading to do, and i was eating an apple for good measure.

after 15 mns of this, ample time for him to walk by, unless he'd manage to outrun me getting out, i actually had to get back and talk to some people at work, so headed back. who should i see coming out of the building at that very moment? Mr. Nice Guy. talking to someone else. due to lots of things that i won't explain (but that explain why i termed the whole endeavour suicidal), i walked past him and his mate without a second look (honestly, there is a really good reason for that). besides, they were in the middle of a conversation and he was not facing me, so any eye contact would have been totally missed.

so i guess i'll have to try again tomorrow.

crop circles

just been on this site, which, apart from anything else, has really cool pics of crop circles. all of them look totally man-made to me, which is not to say i don't believe some of them are genuine. have a look and decide for yourselves!

http://imageevent.com/cropcirclerational/cropcirclesdecoded

baby days

i was working in my father's office when i saw his old agenda cum address book. i opened it and noticed it dated back to the year i was born. opened up to the actual date and found notes about my birth. labour started the previous day at 6pm and there was a contraction curve underneath - not that i can understand it!

going through the pages, there are notes on feeding times, sleeping time - with a special mention when i started to sleep through the whole night, which apparently happened quite soon - the first time i smiled, my passion for my hands, and then later, my feet, my first tooth (with a whole diagram that was filled in through several months), etc.

most of it was written by my mother, in that first year, but my father kept it and made several notes through the years, so that i know when i started speaking, walking, cleaning up, and how my dog felt about it all.

it's funny, i never really thought about it before. you never really think about specifics. knowing that you were a good well-behaved baby, or a crying one, etc, is the usual info you get and you never think further, because it doesn't really matter. but still. it matters now.

autumn colours

autumn seems to have set in, here. it's been raining for 2 days, leaves are turning yellow or brown, or, in some cases, red, which reminds of me the beautiful automnal colours in Japan. like spring, autumn is a fabulous time in Japan, and everyone goes off into the mountains, or to temples, or various other places, to enjoy the beauty of nature. i took this picture at a small temple in Dazaifu, in Kyushu.

in Dazaifu