Yikes, it's COLD.

Hey,

I don't mean to moan about the temperature AGAIN - I've only just stopped complaining about the heat.  BUT last night on my drive home it was 4 degrees!!  I mean, it's 4 degrees in October and it was still hitting 30 in late September!  No wonder it is a massive shock to the system!!  I'm sitting on the couch in my PJs and have spent the last two hours urging myself to go do a few weights.  However, that involves changing out of my PJ pants into shorts, so so far no go!!  (If I work out in my PJs, ok, my merino long johns, then I won't have their warmness to wear to bed tonight, so yes I do have to change)  Instead the only time I've got off the couch has been to make more tea... 

Had an interesting conversation with my boss the other day which ended up with the decision that one of my sisters would fly over for a couple of weeks to cover for him while he takes a holiday.  Currently Beth and Kate are fighting it out to decide who should come.  It sounds like Beth has the time but Kate has the money.  We will see what happens... 

But no wonder I didn't feel like leaving NZ was a big deal - within six months we will have had Kate or Beth, Sandra and Geoff, Trudi, my parents and possibly Laura all visit us!!  We moved to Japan and the rest of NZ is following us!! 

Oh, yay, the sun has come out.  Hopefully that will warm the house a little.  This cold is a particuarly big shock because we spent the weekend at my apartment on Mukaishima, which is always several degrees warmer than Jinseki (last night it was 7 degrees there. Once it was 9 in Jinseki and 18 in Onomichi.  Sucks to have an uninsulated house in Jinseki!).  Jeff stayed down for the weekend, so we could go explore the island where I stay.  We drove round the edge, past lots of little ports and old fishing boats and peered at houses that were built with no reference to the fact they were on the sea.  While in NZ houses in that situation would be all decks and big sliding doors, here they would abhore the idea of indoor-outdoor flow (outside dirt coming inside... ugh!!) and everything is very shut off, with only a small balcony that you can hang your futon over to air them. 

Geography note:  I probably haven't explained this previously, but I use Onomichi, Mukaishima and Innoshima fairly interchangeably.  In actual fact, Innoshima is where the main school that I work is, Mukaishima is a smaller school that I stay above and occasionally teach in and Onomichi is the main city that I drive through to get to the islands.  'Shima' means island. 

Saturday night in Mukaishima was fun.  Jeff was supposed to meet a friend in Fukuyama, but it was going to be a really late night and would rely on me being sober driver and driving home pretty late.  Here you cannot even have one drink and drive, BUT (or perhaps because of this) non-alcoholic drinks are almost the same price as a beer when you buy them at a bar.  None of this 'free drinks for the sober driver' stuff!!  So we postponed that plan for a different night and Jeff and I were free to do our own thing.  Conveniently my flat in Mukaishima is within walking distance of two supermarkets, a mall of sorts and a number of restaurants (starting with the okinomiyaki place next door - yum!).  In fact, not just walking distance, but walking in heels distance.  That close.  So in celebration I put on my heels (first time I've worn heels in Japan, so it was a big deal!!!) and we walked around the corner to a ramen place.  There we had yummy ramen and a pork dish that the guy whipped us up and didn't charge us for - little pieces of pork cooked to perfection with a blow torch.  Yum!  We even had beer with dinner - BOTH of us!!  It was so nice being able to have a beer together at a restaurant - another first for Japan.  We then went for a little walk down the street before retiring to my apartment to watch a movie on my laptop and share a bottle of red wine.  Yay!  So it was a really chilled but enjoyable evening. 

That's about all to report, I think.  We are trying to figure out the details for our Christmas holiday - and trying to save our pennies so we can afford it.  Jeff has been kept busy with speech competitions and helping out with an older people's group for English language practise.  The school speeches are funny because the winner of the school speech competition then has the ALT (i.e. Jeff or Luc) write their speech for the regional competion.  I wrote a couple of the Jinseki ones this year.  So Jeff and I were laughing that it will be my speeches taking on his!  (Luc will write some too, but Jinseki or one of Jeff's schools always wins, so it is really just Jeff vs. me!!)  Maybe we should bet a massage on it...  Hmm... too cold for massages, maybe bet a nice homecooked meal on it :)

Ok, now I REALLY need to lift some weights before getting out of the PJs and going to the supermarket.  Hope you are all doing well.

Charly