FYI, I was fully crashed on the couch before dragging myself up here to blog this, which really means it is likely to not make a whole hell of a lot of sense!

Anyway, today was kind of a weird day, I felt like I didn't get very much done, which was unfortunate, or I guess really that I was just working on a bunch of little things, not for very much time each and therefore didn't get any one block of anything accomplished (and yes, I'm aware that makes no sense, and no, I don't particularly care).

Biked to work this morning, after chatting with Navina a bit and planning stuff to do when she's here. Honestly, if we do even half of the things that one or both of us has thought we should, she's going to need to stay for two months, as it is, clearly we won't be sleeping for a couple of weeks! Fingers crossed for a favourable exam schedule! I got all distracted giving her links, and luckily managed to get out of the house at exactly the last minute its possible to leave and still bike! It was a really nice day, so I'm glad I did-the blossoms are *just* starting in Aoyama Cemetery-they're going to be gorgeous soon, especially when all the cherry blossoms are out! I'm not sure about the whole Hanami party thing (where you go picnic and party in parks and cemeteries <--that's the weird bit! to check out the blossoms), but it will certainly be enjoyable to bike through!

Anyway, at work I flipped through the new issue of BAB, which came out last Friday, and has my article about cruising in Hawaii in it, as well as double the content of the past few issues - it looks great! Our Canadian cover girl, who lost 30 kilos (gave a few of 'em to me I reckon) after coming to Japan is so inspirational, and her before and after photos are amazing! I too am avoiding all escalators from now on (and biking to work...really!). After that, I worked on the things to do section for the next issue, and then had time to type in a few captions for Bill's partyline before walking to Moto Azabu to go to a couple of schools to pick up work for our kids pages.

One of the schools I went to visited Kidzania recently, so we're using their work for an upcoming issue which has a theme to tie in with that nicely. They were sooo cute! They also made timelines discussing what they want to do with their lives. One boy is going to cure cancer on his way to becoming a botanist, and another is planning on staying a teenager until his 76th birthday. Sooo cute! The kids are so smart too, all of them were bilingual basically, and it was pretty amazing to hear these five year olds chattering away, switching back and forth between English and Japanese. I think the head teacher thought I was a little nuts because I was so enthusiastic about kidzania. Honestly though, how cool an idea is it?! (The correct answer here is, 'yes dani, it's cool' with a minimum of eye rolling).

After that, I went by another preschool to pick up some artwork for the Irish issue coming up, unfortunately, 2/3ds of their class was sick, so we're a bit thin on the ground, but I'm sure we can figure something out tomorrow! Maybe I'll make up a cross word or word search or something like that!

I finished up at the schools at around 4, and since I didn't need to go back to the office and it was time for me to be done anyway, I walked through moto-azabu to Roppongi Hills to wait to teach. That area is sooooo expatish!! I saw soo many gaijin parents and kids, and heard so much English, and saw so many international schools, it was nuts! I guess that's where most of the embassy families and people here on expat packages get put up.

Wandered around the maze that is Roppongi Hills for a bit and then read BAB and some more of the 10th anniversary edition of Wallpaper magazine (from back in October) that I've been working my way through - it's a tome! Pretty interesting though, and very multi disciplinary which I really like.

Teaching tonight also felt a bit fragmented - they didn't really have homework, and they hadn't covered any new material, so I was scrambling a bit to come up with good stuff for everyone to do. The boy read Jo's Journey over the last week and really liked that, so we chatted about that a bit, and we did some spelling, and I think I confused him by trying to make him use a formula in math which was in his textbook on the page they are working on, but that they haven't learned yet. Of course, he made me go on for like 20 minutes trying several ways to explain how to use the formula before he mentioned they hadn't actually covered that in class yet. Things which might be helpful to know and all that...

On my way home, my trusty pump alerted me to the fact I was about to go low (yea, I'm experimenting with the testing thing again, which is going MUCH better this time.) so I stopped in at Subway and then finished biking home. I powered back pretty quickly, which was fun, and a good work out up that last big hill! Made some curry for lunch tomorrow and for Peter if he ever comes home, and ate a little bit but not very much as was still full from Subway. It's yummy though! This time I made a green curry (if by made I mean opened a tin) - I apparently really really like curry if it isn't too spicy.

Watched a couple of episodes of Friends with Venus curled up on top of my head (she's a pushy one!) and then apparently fell asleep before coming up here to blog this. I think I'm going to go to bed pretty soon and try to get a good night's sleep... I love sleep! I think its so ironic how sleep is like your most hated thing in the world when you're a little kid, and then gradually it becomes such an amazing luxury! I kind of wish I was one of those people that only needs a couple of hours of sleep every night, but let's face it, I'm really not!!

Ramblingly yours,

D