So, it's about time I updated here, isn't it?

Well. Just had a nine day holiday from work, in which I got to really check out a few places in Japan that were on my must see list for while I am here (Kyoto, Osaka, Himeji and Nara), and that was very cool. When it comes down to it, I am here mostly because I want to see something different, so it's good to actually do some of that.

I do like my job though. It's strange, I had that thought the other day - I like my job - and it was like a revelation, I don't think that I have ever been able to truthfully say that... though I guess honestly there are always certain aspects of any job that you can like... anyway. Sure, I don't like it in the way that I am about to start a teaching career, but it's a cool thing to do for a year and I am happy enough to be doing it. I like my kids and I think I am getting better at my job. I always tend to have a bit more enthusiasm for my work after a holiday too, a bit peverse I know but that's me. And, I have already had the longest working stretch I will have to do without holidays... I actually have another week off in about a month's time. To be honest, I get more holidays with this job than I have had in years. And better pay. Not too much to complain about.

I had some friends from back home visit this week, which was great, fabulous to catch up and good to hear some familiar voices... though by and large, I cope without that just fine. The Jazz Singer has been going through a bit of homesickness I think, and she talks about her life as though this year right now is not actually a part of it, it is something 'other'... but this is my life, right here and now, not whatever I left back in Australia, I can't make a distinction like that. I guess I am also quite used to having distance between me and my loved ones... and you find out that the people who matter will find a way to remain in your life anyhow, where ever you are. I know who the stayers are by now :)

Things with the Writer have been good. I wasn't sure quite what to expect when I came back from Kyoto but it has been good, if anything we are closer than before... this continues to happen and I continue to marvel at it. I always feel as though I am about as close as I can get to a person... and then we get closer still. I don't know how it all works, just that it does. He's not perfect in himself, but in this relationship he has not done anything by me that I haven't liked... I'm still kind of waiting for something to happen to fuck it up, it doesn't seem possible... but next Wednesday marks three months of survival. I kind of have an idea that if the shit ever does hit the fan it will be when our year here is up and we have to rejoin the real world... and that's a little way away, still plenty of time to work it all out.

The only thing that has not been too good lately is my health, but I think it's mostly due to accumulation of shit food in my system. When I hurt my hand a month ago I couldn't really cook so I've been living off easy meals and fast food pretty much since then, and of course the week in Kyoto we didn't eat the best, it's damn near impossible to do on holiday... anyway, I really do need to get my shit together as far as my health is concerned. I have a laundry list of complaints at the moment, ranging from a urinary tract infection and back pain caused by it trying to move upward into my kidneys (pretty well gone, thanks to some anti-biotics), diarrhoea, nausea, sciatica pains in my legs, my wrist still aching a bit, and fierce period pains which I could liken to someone trying to scrape out the inside of my uterus with a blunt knife (thankfully gone also!). Crap food is at the root of most of the problems - I got diarrhoea from shit convenience store food (I think), and the germs from that probably caused my urinary tract infection. Some decent food should clear that up, as well as help my wrist to repair itself faster. It's weird because I have had periods in my life before where I have expected a lot of myself and not taken great care of myself, but my body seems less able to cope with that in recent years... getting old :) I just need to learn to make taking care of myself a priority, something I've never really done... it's something of a necesity just now though.

I'm going to have a quiet weekend at home this weekend. I rarely spend a weekend at home here, we're always going somewhere, and I really want to make the most of my time and see as much as I can... but glancing up at my wall just now where I have stuck all of the tickets from the various places I have been, I can see that I certainly have not been wasting time. I don't feel too bad about taking a weekend just to wind down and recuperate.

Before After

© Blueshoe 1999-2005