The mind has left the building..

Mine, not hers.


Off to the UK next Tuesday for the loooongest holiday in years and years, seeing lots of wonderful friends, eating carrot cake every day and going to what's it called - the big sports, event thingy they have over there in London. You know, what's it called?

All ready to do TWO country supporting at the Olympics!

So, my brain has really left already and is impatiently waiting at the departure gate at Haneda Airport, getting stressed in case body arrives too late. The body is still going through the motions back in Sapporo.


Okaasan is fine, usual life.In fact, even surprised us a few times by DOING things like washing up plates in the kitchen in the morning, and wrapping up newspapers nicely for recycling.
Not sure if she has understood I will be away soon, certainly I've told her a few times...but there was no particular interested response, so maybe no.
I did have plans to try and get her to the hair salon before I go, but MY chaotic life and its needs take precedence. So, she'll go hairy for a few more weeks, because I doubt darling son will notice - unless he falls over her tresses on the floor.


She is in paper cutting/tearing mode.
Sits in her room cutting up the back of supermarket flyers into little notepad-size useful pieces and wrapping up newspaper into balls to stuff in an array of little bags she has on the carpet. Like, 10 bags maybe? The kind of little bags every Japanese woman seems to have, useful little bags for stuff.


Anyway, I will be gone till mid-August. I don't know yet about my Internet connection while in the UK, so this may be a last posting for a while.
At the end of my trip I am going to stay 3 days at Dad and Jane's village, staying with their friends and making sad walks through the woods and fields near the house where they lived for years. So many memories. It'll be hard. Somebody else lives in the house now, and there is still the garden and the tree where I scattered Dad's ashes 3 years ago, and Jane's ashes 2 years ago.
Living here in Japan, all of that seems so distant. I probably conveniently push aside some of the grieving, I expect the trip back will release it all messily.


Anyway, unless Okaasan barks at the neighbors or cooks me a 5 course farewell dinner I probably won't post here for a while.


Over and out :-)