On top of the world...wooo...hoooo

Such a feelin's coming over me....
wooo hoooo!!!!

Karaoke star.
In the care home twice-a-month karaoke club.

We've been going to the Sunday afternoon club...in the staff canteen...with about 12 residents...listening and applauding performances of mostly enka - Japanese, ballads about missed hometowns, rain, bars, women who wait and snowy scenes...lost love, regret and unfulfilled lust.
All of THAT on a Sunday.

Okaasan really seems to enjoy. She claps along...we went to a concert event with two volunteers in kimono singing...and Okaasan loved that too...apart from the three trips we had to make to the toilet with her. The staff had given her an enema in the morning...and we got the results as she relaxed.

Anyway. Suddenly, the organizer of the club approached me yesterday.
Would I like to sing?
Ahhhh...my singing is best done and listened to with a lot of alcohol. Which wasn't available at 3 pm on a Sunday.
I scanned the karaoke machine for something I knew. For something this generation of audience would know...
Madonna? Maybe no.
Queen and Adam Lambert?
Disney songs?

Chose the Carpenters...On Top of the World.....
Which is how I came to be chirping along a la Karen Carpenter in a solo performance in the care home canteen. Dear Son completely refusing to help me out, even though he as a far better voice than me.....Okaasan head bobbing and swaying along.

The oldies seemed to love it...clapped along...it's a popular song in Japan...even people in their 80s have probably heard it somewhere.

I reached the end. Relief. Finished. Done.

Oh...........................da da....Such a Feelin's coming over me...

WHAT???
I'd pressed the Song Choice button twice on the machine.
Pressed by the organiser...I had to do it all a second time...


agggggggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

I am thinking of some Sinatra next time..."My Way"???

Happy New Year!

YES!!!   Still here!!!

Somehow we slipped  from 2019 into 2020 and I never even blogged about it...furiously busy actually doing tour guide work over the so-called winter holidays and hardly time to change socks.

Okaasan. Fine. Hasn't got the influenza yet. Pretty lively when we go to see her.
Not much talking...and walking is shaky.

The last month or two we (or usually Dear Son) has taken her to the karaoke group that meets in the staff dining room of the care home. It is organised by one of the residents, and usually about 10 people get together round the big TV and a few of them sing songs with　microphone.
Okaasan claims she doesn't know any of the songs, but since the average age of the group is 80 and all Japanese, it&S a fair bet that she does know them. She nods her head in time to the music, even claps...and looks happy.

So good.

Dear Son has had some health problems this winter. Not serious, we hope. But he hasn't worked so much and so Okaasan has had weekly visits from him. With me occasionally. 
Near Year Day we went and had sweetened sake and chat. The care home had decorated the walls, finally! And there was special food on the menu.

So. Onwards into 2020. The Year of the Rat!

Really I should blog more. But working life is busy with the teaching and the guiding. So I hardly sit here calmly at the computer and think about this blog. But I WILL try harder this year to average more than once-a-month blog....