Summer Holidays...

After an exhausting week, Mike and I are off to Thailand tomorrow for some much needed SUN and relaxation. We'll be taking the friendly airport limousine bus out to Narita in the afternoon and arriving at the new Bangkok International Airport around midnight. We have 5 hours or so to kill until our 6am flight to Koh Samui but we'll be sure not to forget the cards on this trip!

Mike's at his work Christmas party tonight, but (in true Japanese style) partners are NOT invited so I am hanging out at home packing and cleaning out the fridge. I was severely disappointed to find Wolfgang Puck is closed for a private party tonight so I couldn't get a Chicken Chinoise salad to go with my bottle of Cloudy Bay. The pitfalls of living in such a business area - all the restaurants nearby are catering to office Christmas parties!

Great thing about packing for a beach holiday - there's not a lot to think about! Bikini, t-shirt, boardies, jandals, towel. Done. Oh yeah ... don't forget spare knickers!

Enjoy your Christmas parties and BBQs everyone! We'll be home on Christmas Day if anyone wants to call xoxo

Hey, I'm not THAT good

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Have just spent the last 20 minutes trying not to punch the computer screen and then throw the entire thing out the window. For some reason blogger is getting a wee bit clever and "knows" that I am in Japan ... which means it thoughtfully opens in Japanese every time I try to log in and post a new entry or update anything. Super. I might be 2 lessons away from finishing Japanese For Busy People Volume 1 but all that means is I can introduce myself and ask random questions (which never receive the answers I want which means I am often none the wiser and most likely thoroughly confused and embarassed). I can not read even a little bit of the kanji. OK, maybe I know more than I think ... like I can tell that the country location in my settings is Nihon. But that is it.

Mike is working late tonight, trying to get some projects (i.e. the bugs) ironed out before we take off on Saturday. He tried to get a few things done yesterday but do you think anything worked? No. So a wasted few hours at the office on a Sunday, but we did manage to go out for the afternoon and visit the talking 7 dwarfs in Hiroo (hilarious).

5 more sleeps till we go to Thailand and I am very excited about the prospect of sun and warmth. I don't think we hit 10 degrees today and despite having central heating I am actually cold right now and considering putting a blanket over my knees while I work on my Japanese homework!

Speaking of blankets, I went to Cold Stone last Friday - no, it's never too cold to eat icecream in Tokyo! Mainly because the cafes and restaurants here provide gas heaters and blankets during the winter months so you can still sit outside. Felt kind of weird eating icecream with blue lips and fingers but d@mn it tasted good! Funniest part is the staff singing jingles (in Japanese) while they work ... evidently it's part of the American tradition (Cold Stone is a US company), but I have never seen so many Popstars working in an icecream parlour, it has to be seen to be believed.

The Christmas party on Friday was a mild success: managed to get 4 out of 7 kids up the front to perform and they looked pretty cute. The picnic on the beach looked rather sad as Elizabeth's friends didn't join in (the three who refused to leave Mummy's knee) but Wags, Captain Feathersword and Dorothy were all stars! Elizabeth promptly burst into tears after we finished singing, but at least she stuck out the entire song! Not so many parents give gifts at international schools but I did receive a bottle of Aussie Reisling and some biscuits so can't complain really!