January 2009
Well January for us started with rock climbing! Not for all of us just for Nyah! She came home from school one day with her first party invitation… The invite came in a big envelope & inside the invite was normal size but it came with 3 sheets of A4 paper that was all the waivers/disclaimers you had to fill in & sign which was slightly alarming but normal apparently for over here!! It was at a local gym that is a new building & absolutely huge & I mean HUGE!! But it's lovely all big windows & glossy tiled floors & 2 indoor pools & an outdoor pool with water slides etc etc... this gym is like...well you can imagine...even driving round the car park is like a mini town! They have these rock climbing walls that are higher than a normal 2 storey house at home....all pretty impressive stuff... Off Nyah goes with about 10 other 6/7 year olds who are at least a head if not more taller than her...honestly some of them in her class are almost as tall as Harley! When we came back to pick her up 3 hours, yes 3(!) hours later she was actually on the rock face...now close your eyes & think of Nyah....now picture her AT THE TOP of one of these rock faces...as if she's been climbing all her life, she had all the harness thingies on & couldn't fall as they are also attached to a sort of bungee rope thingy & it was amazing seeing her up there...she spots us watching & is waving & looking at us with this huge grin....it was fab to see them all climbing up & down as if it's perfectly normal to do this sort of thing at birthday parties...what an opportunity eh?! She absolutely loved it & has talked about nothing else since!!!!!!
January is actually over half way through as I type & it’s another sunny day… well outside it’s sunny but cold… it’s 40 degrees fahrenheit which is about 4-5 degrees in centigrade so pretty chilly but I’m sat in one of my favourite places in the house, in a corner which half of it is glass so it’s hot hot hot, Yoji is baking herself on the floor & I’m pretending its Summer, hurry up already, when is spring!?
Recently I’ve been finding it hard to be understood, not sure why, I’m getting a little paranoid as when I hear myself speak I sound the same but I’ve been getting open mouthed stares at supermarket checkouts & blank looks from people when I speak, so much so that I’ve been wondering if I’ve been talking out loud at all! The other day one of Nyah’s school friends mum rang & left a message for us asking if we’d like to come over for the evening for a sort of grown up play-date, well play date for the kids not the adults, more like pizza & wine for the adults! I rang her back on the number she left & the phone was answered by a man, her husband I presumed…. Me: Hi…is Julie there? Man: Sorry no, you have the wrong number! Me: Oh, ok, sorry, bye. I felt a bit of a wally (as you do) thought I must have the number wrong & double checked but it was right… so I re dialed, figured I must have dialed it wrong…. Bring bring (phone sound so you can really picture the scene with me!!!) Man again: Hello? Me: (thinking oh noooo I just spoke to this man a minute ago) Hi..is Julie there…errrrmmm … I think I might have just rang this number though?? Man: Sorry yes you did but it was your accent & I couldn’t understand you!! Me: (thinking I must have got her name wrong?) sorry is your wife’s name not Julie?? Man: Yes ….I just couldn’t understand you!! Me: O…k…I’lllllll speeeeeeaaak niiiiiiiice & slooooooow for you shall iiiiiiiiiii??! Issssssssss Juuuuulllieee theeeeerrreee??! The following day I had to ring the cell phone company (ok, mobile company!) & query the bill (you have to query everything here) now I’m really starting to think I’m going mad…they are speaking Japanese…real Japanese!!! I tried asking a few times if they speak English before I realize it’s a recorded message (how silly do I feel?!) probably saying you have come through to the Japanese help desk please press 1 to… but it only took about 10 times of hearing the same thing over & over before I realized…makes me wonder whether I should actually take up Japanese as a second language??!! HMmmmmm maybe not just yet (**,)
We finally picked up G’s car last Saturday & it got towed back to the garage on Monday…something wrong with it blah blah blah…ZZZZzzzzzzzzz! If you’ve been with us from the start you’ll know all about the car saga’s, not going there….nope, not doing it, been there, done that, no! Talk to the hand! G worked out that he’s had 6 different cars since we’ve been here…now’s he has a slight history of getting bored really quickly with cars as some of you may well know…so I can’t understand why he’s not enjoying all this car chopping & changing a bit more than he actually is!? (**,)
We’ve also been busy this past week with Harley’s ‘Middle School’ choices/options…she’ll start at her new school in August & will be in 6th Grade which is the equivalent of the first year in senior school in the UK (they break up for the summer in May & go back in August over here). She has core classes already chosen for her, all the usual subjects plus PE then you get to choose all the others, things like, art, design, keyboarding, life skills(?!), technology, theatre & speech, then from the languages, Spanish, French, German or Chinese(!!) so lots of choices... & you can also choose Band &/or Choir! All very exciting but a little scary too! Harley & I went to a meeting up at the school & the school looked very big & made Harley look very small…story of our lives over here! At the meeting I went off to listen to the parent stuff while she stayed in the band/music room & got to try out all the instruments in case that’s one of the options she wants to take & she’s decided on either the Flute or Clarinet…again another great opportunity! We had a quick look around after the meeting as they have an actual orientation week in August; she’s very excited about it all which is great!
For those of you on Facebook regularly, you may have seen my status about Nyah & the dentist? I don’t want to relive it all again on here as it was so hideous at the time but the long & the short of it is we took her to the dentist. Now teeth & dentists over here is a very different ballgame to back in the UK! They start them young (preferably at age 3) with x-rays & the full works including cleaning/polishing etc over here & they strive for perfection….just like our local dentist in the UK who treats them on the NHS, very well I might add but it’s just not in the same league! I felt like the worst & most evil of mothers ever to have lived when I told them that neither of my girls had actually had x-rays at the dentist & hadnt even had them offered…well they looked at me like I’d admitting to starving them or something! It resulted in Nyah having to have a tooth taken out under anesthetic.. it’s all been happening here I can tell you! Maybe not an opportunity that I looked at with as much appreciation as some of the others we’ve had I can tell you. She was fine & I’m sure I will be soon!! But I’ve not plucked up the courage to make an appointment for Harley yet!
If you’re still reading I’d like to finish off with a cautionary tale that I learnt from my Sister…(love you Sis!) if you are going to ‘colour-in’ the hole in your black tights as an emergency measure with a felt pen, you really must check it isn’t a permanent marker pen as when the tights move during the day & you need to keep ‘colouring- in’ the hole, when you get home & take the tights off you find if you’ve done it in permanent pen it doesn’t wash off very easily! If anyone see’s my Sister give her a big hug from me & check if she’s wearing trousers! (**,)
This week I’m loving… ‘our’ new president Barack Obama!
This week I’m not loving… querying! Querying everything from cell phone bills to medical insurance bills!
