Sunshine thru clouds

GOLDEN WEEEEEEKKKKK!!!!

That's a series of public holidays in Japan, all lumped together and called "Golden Week". I have got 6 days of no work - gonna stay close to home with garden, cats, movies, books, housework, making-signboard-for-classroom...oh and looking after Okaasan while Yujiro starts work as a cycle taxi driver.

Sunshine vs. clouds? Not just the weather - but Okaasan's brain.
It's so surprising when she says something completely normal - like the sun breaking thru the usual rolling grey matter. Yujiro is away cycle taxi working and at an end-of-season ski teacher party. I'm on Okaasan Duty.

Yesterday she came into the kitchen to ask me: "I'm going to the dentist for my tooth check aren't I? When is the appointment?" and I told her Monday and helped her write it on the calender in her room...had a chat about a childhood accident which had made that tooth crooked etc Best to go and get the dentist to check it etc.

Surprising because although we thought she remembered about her tooth - she must be able to feel the difference in her mouth all the time - we weren't sure talk about a dentist visit had sunk in...and stayed. But it obviously did. All good for Monday when I have to take her!

And then. Before going out yesterday (movie and dinner - 4 Hours of Royal Wedding AND Dinner With Okaasan Avoidance) - I checked that Okaasan had enough money for coffee and chicken nuggets in Seicomart. Recently this is her new routine...go and sit at the counter in the convenience store and drink coffee with a few bits of white stuff pretending to be chicken.

"Money? Oh yes, Yujiro gave me some yesterday thankyou! I have enough!" she trilled happily.

Wow.
Really.
These kind of conversations are so normal. But not with Okaasan usually. Where am I going? Why? When? Do I have money? Yesterday? He gave me? When? Really?

Sunshine vs. Clouds.

Excuse me.....What? Me? Royal Wedding? Yes, I know...I AM British. But sorry, no...not much interest really. If I'd had a foreign friend (yes YOU Heather-chan!!) to sit and watch it with and make snarky comments then maybe I'd have watched it. But that and dinner with Okaasan isn't my idea of a Fun Evening.
So I escaped, left Okaasan sushi on the kitchen table and went with a newspaper and a book downtown, ate a hamburger, saw a movie...walked in the spring night.
Came home later to catch CNN with Piers Morgan and Cat Deely making great snarky comments about "The Kiss" while Anderson Cooper displayed his recent Humor Bypass results by talking sincerely about flypasts and a great-moment-in-history.

Best royal wedding video? This one I think....