Thursday 3 May 2012

Golden Week Oyomesanning.

First....Ladies and Gentlemen!
The evidence!!!! 




Yup. Okaasan ate the Taiwan bananas!!!! She ate 3 of them over the past 3 days, each time telling me how totally different they taste from other bananas and how she first ate them pre-war when her father brought some home (when Taiwan was part of Japan "all the same red on the map") and then later IN Taiwan she ate them freshly fallen from the tree.
Of course these bananas were just okay - not great - particularly because they had some black marks on the skin etc - NOT the same at all. But she ate them with a vague show of gratitude and I felt pleased enough that I'd given her a good experience in connection with me - trying to build lots of "positives" in my direction.


Meanwhile: I have been busy in my Golden Week....Making a TERRACE!


From this:



to......................this!!!


I am a DIY genius. Maybe. If it rains today and the whole thing washes away...then I am not.
An ex-colleague in the UK, whose Dad had told her how to make a terrace 8 years ago, was advising me via Facebook. And I found lots of great How To videos on YouTube, with a guy called Mr Kraft of some American DIY center reassuring me about each stage, and finally my team was completed by the staff of the local DIY center who saw me several times a day buying MORE foundation stones! More sandy stuff! Oh and what about renting that shuddering plate machine thingy for 24 hours...oh yes....

It's really been my entire last 3 days. Making this terrace.
In between I had to go teach two classes ;-( and I fed Okaasan and cleaned up enough at the end of the day to cook family dinner.

Last night Yujiro and I went out to see Titanic - the remix version in 3D. The movie started at 5 pm, so after finishing the terrace I scrubbed my hands clean enough, showered, changed and started prepping Okaasan's dinner.
She started to get ready for going out...yes, yes, I'm making your dinner because sorry tonight we are out at a movie, no, no! it isn't any trouble at all, what? your front door key? you can't find it.......can't find it....oh...ahh.....10 minutes of hunting...hunting in every part of her handbag and shopping bag....aghhhh!!!..Oh, why not take mine? Luckily I have a spare car key. Huge rush to get to the movie theater...

Such is our life.
Epilogue: when I asked my keys back this morning that entailed ANOTHER 15 mins of panic hunting for the keys - first finding Okaasan's keys several times...and finally...finally finding my keychain with the house, classroom and car keys on the same holder.
Sigh.


No comments:

Post a Comment