Medley of thoughts before holidays

We're winding down here, on our way to family holidays. This weekend I'm walking away from my computer and email and other work messages for a couple of weeks. Oh, and daily language study too! A total break during which I can forget about what plate/ball I might have accidentally dropped. Ah, the bliss.

This is the park near where we'll be.

I've been working hard these last few weeks to clear my To Do list of urgent matters. It's quite a trick to managed when you are responsible for social media posts five days a week for your organisation, but I've got a good team and we've worked together to get the next month sorted ahead of time. I've also got a team working on magazine matters. Almost anything that arises in that realm can wait till I get back too.

And though I have generally felt okay recently, I think my body is sending me signals that it's time to take a break. It's been a very rough year for us personally, as you might have guessed (see this post about death and this one that includes a brief reference to the uncertainty we have faced over the last several months with one of our boys). 

On Monday we had our first COVID-19 vaccinations. So thankful! Japan is really getting a hurry on with these. Nearly 25% of the population has had their first injection, which three times what it was a month ago. The next day I had an unusual few hours of gastro upset. There were other factors involved, so it's impossible to say why, but I think it's time for a break.

We're headed to the same place we've had family (non-tenting) holidays twice a year in the last three years. I anticipate that our time away will be very similar to last year (see here). Which suits us just fine, especially the one who gets anxious about change.

We're also excited to have finally been able to book another camping trip for early August. We're staying pretty close to home, though, no new prefectures to add to our list, but still three nights in the mountains next to a stream sounds really good. It's cool today, but by then the stream will also sound really good (and they have showers too!).

When we come back the Olympics will be close to opening ceremony and it will be fascinating to watch that event unfold on Japanese TV. We no longer have our Olympic tickets; though we've still got two tickets for the Wheelchair Basketball and Paralympic Athletics in late August, in a couple of weeks we'll find out if we can still attend.

I've kind of dropped the ball on writing about "Come" (see my kind-of resolution from January), but I really don't think I have brain power to write anything on that today, so maybe later. Maybe I'll get an urge to write while we're on holidays, but I kinda doubt that. Usually holidays pass in a blur of reading, eating, sleeping, playing games, and watching movies with the boys. Generally taking a break from thinking about putting words together.

See you on the other side!