Chuffed

Sometimes when I'm doing the dishes, or when I'm putting away the laundry or something, it hits me.
Thank god.
I remember the faces of this guy and that guy, or that guy I almost constructed a family with.
I would think,
Thank god I didn't marry those guys and did marry with the guy I am with now.
Thank god.
And thank god I went back to Tsuruya to buy that lovely silk agnès b. bag that day.

Organic, Fairtrade or Food Miles?

My inner conflict arises when I go grocery shopping to a supermarket.
First I would carry the shopping basket to where bread is. I usually pick the organic wholemeal bread. Then I would move to look for some fresh fruit. Gala apples from France or cox apples grown in UK? Cox, definitely. Fairtrade bananas or Organic bananas? I usually buy fairtrade bananas. Chocolate is easy. I always buy Green&Black's fairtrade organic chocolate which tastes so good. A little bit tough decisions to make await in the tea and coffee section. Fairtrade or organic? Actually, I just want good Assam tea and dark roasted Brazilian or Guatemalan coffee, to be honest.
When I shop for shoes or clothing, I can get it done in 10 minutes. I hop into my favourite shop, look around, pick some, try them on and buy if I like any and don't if I don't.
But food shopping consists of so many things. Is it fresh? Is it organic? Is it ethical? Is it affordable?
At a charity shop, I recently noticed the little fridge sitting next to the till and the cartons of orange juice in it. It's fairtrade, of course, but it is from Cuba.
Orange juice from Cuba? Can't they sell it to nearby developed country like the USA?
“Cuba can't do business at all with America.” my husband tells me.
Okay, then how about Canada?
“Do you know how far it is from Cuba to Canada?(Slight disgust on his face) I think it's faster to ship orange juice from Cuba to Europe. Do you have a world map?”
Never mind, I say. I try to picture a world map without placing Japan in the center but I can only imagine big five chunks and everything else is blurry.
But you do agree that it's faster and more ecological to get orange juice from Spain or somewhere, if not locally sourced, than importing concentrate orange juice from Cuba, don't you? He agrees.
I'd like to support fairtrade products when I can but it's tricky sometimes. If it's things like bananas or chocolate, I would buy fairtrade products. Even better if it's fairtrade and organic. But when it comes to orange juice, my priority vote has to go to reducing food miles because I think the global warming is the biggest problem on the planet at the moment.

I try to get fruit, veges and meat from a local green grocer and a butcher as much as I can.
My husband and I make 30-minute trips on foot to these shops carrying our own shopping bags.
The veges and meat they sell may not be as cheap as supermarkets' "value" food but reasonable and fresh, as they are almost all locally sourced. No herbs from the West Bank. And I am sure they are "fairly traded" with the farmers unlike the ones in some supermarkets.
Shopping this way seems to work best, quality-wise, ethics-wise and foodmiles-wise.

It's Still Sad

I read online that someone was arrested for trying to bury his wife's corpse in Japan.
Did he kill her? No. He couldn't afford a funeral so he had to face the death of his partner this way.
And it sounds like he's not the only one who was in such a desperate situation.
There were short articles of other people who just left the dead on their futons or abandoned the bodies somewhere. They too didn't have the money to have it taken care of by undertakers.

How sad.
How sad is that that you can't even have a ceremony to see your loved ones off?

I remember watching a documentary about "working poors" in Japan.
A single mum was saying in the interview that once her son needed a new notebook for his Japanese class in his elementary, but she just didn't have a hundred yen to buy him one.
Then the son said, "It's okay Mum, don't worry." and started erasing everything he had written in his old notebook so that he could re-use it.

It breaks my heart to hear these stories.
Yeah, it's not like the end of the world. Things in Japan are nowhere near as horrifying, hopeless or harrowing as, say, D.R.Congo. I know.
But how do you weigh sadness?
It's still sad.

A Naked Knitter Card

I went to a novelty shop to get a Get Well Soon card for my husband's grandmother.
Then I was reminded that it's St.Valentine's Day in 3 days by all those pinks and reds and hearts and cheesy messages in the shop.
The half of what was sold there was Valentine's Day cards.

This year, my husband and I are eating some Chinese take-away on the 14th of February with my father-in-law and his fiancee at our house.
My husband is a flowers-and-candles kinda guy and wasn't keen on the idea of having them visiting us around this time of the year, but I told him I didn't mind. We can't go out for a romantic whatever anyway because of our short person.
A bit sad but I'm cool with it.

After I picked a card for my grandmother-in-law, I started looking for something pink&red for myself. Big hearts, small hearts, "You make me complete", "Love was just a word until you gave it a meaning", blah blah blah.
There was nothing that suited my feeling.
I chose one with no message. It's not even a Valentine's Day card.
But I think it's a perfect card for my husband and me.

It will be hidden in my drawer until my father-in-law and his fiancee have finished their house tour.
Or even better, it will be in my husband's sock drawer until they've left.
A card that needs to be hidden.
That's what makes this card a perfect Valentine's Day card.

Not So Simple

It's been almost a year since I moved to this side of the planet.
For about a couple of months after arrival, I constantly received the same question from various people asking me if I was settling in okay.
And each time I replied with different answers according to the state I was in.

"Oh, you know, England is nice."
Translation: I am not sure if I like it or not. I mean, it's okay but it's not great.

"Yeah, yeah, I am glad I came here."
A polite lie to my father-in-law.

"England sucks."
Letting it out to my closest friends.

"I am not sure yet."
When I was talking with non-British people.

Whatever I was saying, it wasn't accurate.
The thing is, it's not that simple.

Money is one issue.
We would have enjoyed it more if we had more money.
We are broke.
We are surviving but have no extra money to afford any excursions.
Thank god we have no debt but it is so difficult to save money since only one of us is the bread winner.
We spent all of our little saving to start our new life.
Reality bites. And it itches for a long time.


And I am, simply, a kind of person who takes time to adjust to a new life.
I can't say anything about it until I am ready to do so.

Hey, maybe that's what I should have said.

Anyway, I'm surviving.
Although it's still lacking a lot of things, life does feel a bit easier these days.

Puberty

About 8months ago my son started acting strange.
A few weeks later, I learned that his pubes had started growing.
No, I didn't peep.
That was the only reason I could think of so I joked about it and he said yes.

A couple of months ago, he brought me a tooth and asked me if he should have put it under the pillow.
Hey wait a minute, you still had a milk tooth?
How can a kiddy have a milk tooth and pubes at the same time?
I exclaimed and my husband covered his ears trying not to hear it.

The next day he found a pound coin under his pillow and showed it off to us.

Since then he had two more milk teeth came out.
Again, how can anyone...?
My husband covered his ears and sung a random song.

The third one came out just the other day. My son placed it under his pillow but this time he didn't even find a penny.
He seemed disappointed.
"Sounds like the tooth fairy didn't come to collect the tooth last night."
I turned to my husband.
"He didn't?"
He said, and mouthed, "Oops."

That night, we were doing the dishes after dinner.
"So...you did put your tooth on the right-hand corner of the pillow, right?"
I asked my son.
"No. In the middle."
My son looked startled.
"Oh that is why the tooth fairy couldn't do his job. There's a proper way to put a milk tooth. Wrong place. Oh no wonder. Am I right? You should put your milk tooth under the right-hand corner of the pillow, right?"
"Yes, that's right. And he will be back within the next three working days."
My husband assured the kid without hesitation.

Sure enough, the poor kid found a shiny golden coin later.

But I wonder...
How could a 12-year-old who doesn't believe in Santa Clause anymore buy the tooth fairy story when he was introduced to it a few months ago?
I'm not sure if I should let him, but I guess it doesn't matter anymore.
His milk teeth are all gone now.

Separate Bedrooms

Since I was a very young girl, I had always thought everyone should have her/his own bedroom even after marriage.
It's not that I had never moved in with someone else and shared a bed with them, I have done a couple of times or more in my life.
But not having your own room for the rest of your life?

Wouldn't you want to have a freedom to choose whatever duvet cover you like?
Whouldn't you want to have a "me-moment" anytime you like?(I'm not talking about self-love here, if you are thinking of it.)
Wouldn't you want to listen to a piece of music you like to make you fall asleep nicely?
Why would you want to give up all the above and more just because you are married?

When I got married to my husband, I asked him if it was acceptable to have separate bedrooms.
"No, Babe. I don't think so."
Oh, okay.
I guessed that's part of being married and sharing "life" with someone.

Sharing a bed every single day wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.
It was a bit stressful at first as my husband was a very light sleeper, making it difficult for me to relax.
But these days he usually sleeps like a log and even snores at times.(I was tempted to draw eyes on his eyelids several times but have never tried it. )

However, I was kind of forced to sleep on the floor in my son's room for the past two nights because my husband caught a cold again. I wanted him to be able to sleep well and I didn't want to get the nasty germ from him. Also, he has been wearing the same pair of pants for three nights and hasn't taken shower since Saturday morning. Yaik.

Now I shoud be getting some sleep but I am sitting in front of the computer typing this because I can't sleep.

See?
If I had had my own bedroom, I would have been sleeping soundly whether or not my husband had a cold.

The 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

A friend of mine sent me the link of an article of Guardian.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/dec/01/foreign-office-human-rights