Ouch

I'm in a little bit of pain today. Yesterday afternoon, in an effort to be a good "Japanese" housewife I attempted to sweep the road gutters outside our house. The one tricky thing  is that I have to shift the heavy concrete blocks. The ones that make it less of a bump to drive into the carport. I usually try to do as much of the shifting as I can with a spade or my foot, but in my hurry I picked up the edge of one with my left hand and pushed it further away from the gutter. Unfortunately it fell flush with its neighbour and my middle finger was between the blocks. Ouch. 

Hardly any blood, but my fingernail changed colour instantly. I spent a lot of yesterday afternoon and evening caressing an ice pack.

It reminded me of the time I had a sleep over in grade six or seven. My first sleep-over . . . and my last, I think. We had only a few hours sleep and in the morning there was a rush to use the facilities. A line formed and while I waited I used the door frame to hold my weary frame up. Pity it was the same place where the door hinges were placed and when the girl in front of me when to shut the door, she couldn't. I still remember her saying, "I can't shut the door, I can't shut the door!" I couldn't catch my breathe enough to say, "My fingers are in the door!" before my friend did some serious damage to two of the fingers on my dominant hand. That injury took a long time to heal . . . but you don't want the gory details.

I just hope this one isn't so bad. It all hinges (sorry, bad pun) on how damaged the nail bed is. I'd rather not lose the nail, but what choice do I have?

I do have to choice to go back out and finish off the sweeping, but I might put that off a little bit longer. I'll stay here and keep editing magazine article, typing with my nine good fingers.

Three boys encounter a baby

A friend at church had a baby five weeks ago. On Sunday, while sitting outside in the sunshine with her baby, she encountered our three boys. This is the conversation that ensued (written by our friend):

Oldest: That's a cute baby. Anything miniature is cute.
Me: Thank you.
Youngest: His eyes are like this! *squints hard*
Me: Yes, it's bright outside.
Middle: Is he still drinking blood?
*All of us look at him in surprise*
Middle: I mean! I mean, um...
Me: Milk?
Middle: Yeah. *embarrassed smile*
Me: *smile back* Yes, he's drinking milk.
Oldest: A baby doesn't drink blood! Not unless he's an evil baby.
Youngest: Babies aren't evil.
Middle: Well, he looks like he could be evil.
Me: *laugh* Really? I don't see any horns on his head.
Middle: But his face is like this. *scrunches brow and squints*
Me: It's pretty hard to see when the sun is shining.
Youngest: He needs a hat.
Middle: Here! *takes off his baseball cap and plops it over Cai's entire head*

I love boys. ♥

She wrote this on Facebook. I checked it with the boys after I read it. They denied nothing. David laughed and laughed last night when I showed him. Boys, and what goes on inside their heads!

Cross-country means we crossed a border?

We're into our second year of having a middle schooler at CAJ. That means that we're into our second year of out-of-school hours inter-school sport. Our eldest son is a restless chap. Since he was very young he's needed to get out of the house and get his energy out (yes, this is a boy-thing, but having had other boys, his need to move has often been higher). So, the opportunity for him to be involved in school sport is very welcome.

But as I noted in this post earlier this year, inter-school sport in an American-type school is quite different from our Australian experiences. For starters, they do more training and everything is extra-curricular. Hence, meets are after school or on Saturdays.

On Saturday we went to the first cross-country meet. It is held on an American Military recreation base. Therefore our passport numbers and identification were required to enter. It was well worth the early start (6.50 leaving), drive through Tokyo traffic and the security check. Actually we're pretty jealous. These facilities are lovely and you can camp there too . . . presumably if you are American and with the military!

Top of "Gut Hill".

Anyway, it was like a day-camp. We set up our camping chairs in this lovely level clearing in the midst of forest and watched the kids run. Oh, we did do a bit of exercise ourselves. When the middle school boys were running (this is another difference, they aren't classified according to age, only middle school or high school), we walked along the gravel road to the top of "Gut Hill" as the cross-country runners nickname it and cheered on the kids as they climbed this amazing hill at a run (most of them). It is about 300m long and I wouldn't like to guess its gradient, except that I'd not like to drive or ride down it!

It is a beautiful setting to go and watch inter-school sport, if the weather is favourable. Thankfully it wasn't raining, but it was pretty hot and humid. This is only a relatively small piece of hill-country. It is hard to imagine when you are in the middle of it that there are big roads and buildings near-by, for it is surrounded by Tokyo.

One attraction for the foreigners, especially the Americans, is the little shop. It sells American stuff, particularly food. This holds less interest for us, for actually much of it is more foreign to us than Japanese treats now! 

The funny thing is using the restroom at the shop. The shop is actually in the entrance to a small fancy hotel. When I went to use their toilets, I couldn't reach the hook on the back of the door to put my bag on. So I figured I really had left Japan and made a short visit to America without even hopping on an aeroplane!

If we choose, we can go back there next Saturday. Despite the early start and the long drive home (going there is okay because it is early, but later it is a bit tedious), I think I might just go and set up my chair and take a good book.

Tragedy anniversaries are heavy

Today, as I look down my RSS blog feed, I see, "Six months on" and "10 years on". Eerily the two anniversaries coincide. Six months since the giant earthquake that triggered a monster tsunami and nuclear crisis in Japan. Ten years since the disastrous plane hijacks and deliberate crashes in the US.

Can I add another? Yesterday it was nine months since the flash flood in my hometown and  nine months ago today the Brisbane river began to breech its banks in a sizeable flood.

And another? One week ago a downgraded typhoon was hanging over a portion of Japan, dousing it with well over a metre of rain. Again, lives, property and livelihoods have been lost.

It's been a shocking year. I wish I could write something profound, but I cannot. The loss of life, property, livelihoods, and even the loss of everything except ones own person are tremendous. It is hard to fathom. It is heavy to write about.

Yes, these are but a small handful of tragedies that happen every year. Mostly our news gets filtered to local or sensational concerns. But there are people dying in tragedies every day. Some days less, some days more. Some tragedies attract more media notice than others. Tragedies that affect more affluent countries, for example, attract more press, I think I'm safe to say. Tragedies that happen to famous people and places attract more attention.

If you've been to a place where a tragedy occurs, it hits you harder. If you know someone who's been directly affected by the tragedy, it hits you harder. In March people who had previously never appeared to cared a whit about Japan were suddenly contacting us and our family to enquire about our well-being. Humans are strange creatures.

It is equally hard to fathom that all these tragedies and yet we ourselves are physically untouched. I cannot say we are mentally untouched. It is hard to say how we've been changed, affected or what lingers after seeing these events take place. 

I do think I am somewhat effected by something like compassion fatigue. I found it difficult to take a look at the story about the typhoon last week. I feel a little overwhelmed by disaster stories.

I wondered at the time why I was so lacking in "fun" when we visited Tokyo Disney in July. I wonder if it was a part of this fatigue. As I look back I wonder if it was a feeling that with so many disaster and people suffering out there, why should I be wasting all this money and having a good time in this place. It was a weird day that I didn't particularly enjoy and that I felt guilty about being a part of (even though it was a gift from generous friends).

Well, I've raved on and on. It is hard to gather thoughts on such a day. The weather is even heavy. The humidity in the 80s, the thermometer over 30 and the clouds have hung ominously all day. Hopefully tomorrow will be better.

Twin pram for dogs?

A Japanese friend asked me the other day what the average number of children is, in Australia. It is very low in Japan and it is getting low in Australia too, I'm pretty sure, hence all the incentives to have babies. But have Australians descended to this?

This is very common, as is the carting of dogs around on the hips like babies. I hardly even blink an eye any more.

Actually a quick Google search reveals this:

According to the World Bank 

Australia is 137th in the world with an average fertility rate (the expected number of children born per woman in her child-bearing years) = 1.9 children.

Japan is 187th with 1.37 children.

Singapore, Hong Kong and South Korea have a similar rate to Japan, as do a number of European countries like Germany. Other European countries are slightly higher like Australia, as is North Korea, Chile and UAE. The world average is about 2.5 children.

Japan has 13.1 million pet dogs. See an interesting article about it here. According to the article, "In 2006 the number of dogs (13.1 million) exceeded the number of children under 12 (12 million) for the first time."

Stained Glass Hearts – a book review

This is the Pink book that I mentioned back here. Despite it's shocking colour (to my eyes), it was an interesting book. I love books that are written by people who have had struggles and aren't afraid to admit it. And this is one of those books.

The author's struggles included addictions and being bound by many fears; but the book doesn't major on her story, but more on lessons she's learnt through her brokenness. 

It is neither a biography nor a self-help book, though it does tend towards the latter. She offers ways to help us heal our broken hearts and ways to notice the beauty inside our selves, as well as outside. At the end of each chapter she includes suggestions of things that have helped her – an art gallery of quotes, poetry, music, scripture, artists and more.

I have to admit, though, that her writing style took some getting used to. I got to the end of the book and had to look back through it to get a better gist of what she'd been talking about. She's got some gems of insights, but often they are hidden between stories from her own life and others' lives. So the overall effect is very much like looking at a stained glass window. You get a feeling for an overall beauty and need to take time to ponder the art work closely to pick out the extra beauty. Given the title of the book, the style is probably very appropriate.

Let me quote a couple of great things she says:

"I didn't understand that God had made me with a will stronger than any emotion I could experience and that I could begin to get well by choosing different thoughts and actions . . . I grew stronger inwardly every tie I chose to believe God instead of my fierce fears." p54

and

"We don't know what we need in a crisis until someone provides it. Then sometimes not until later, we realize how significant each contribution was to our sanity and to fan fresh hope into our spirits." p38

This is well worth a read, though probably a strolling read, rather than a sprinting read.

This is another review for http://booksneeze.com/ 

Disclaimer: A complimentary copy of this book was provided to me for review by Thomas Nelson Books http://BookSneeze.com. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

Recipe substitutions/omissions

It is something I do all the time, often without thinking. Thinking about it, I did it before I came to Australia too, it's just stepped up a bit here where not all the ingredients are available.

When I see Self-Raising Flour, I automatically add Baking Powder to our plain flour. I just skip over added salt and often other little additions that aren't essential to the recipe, like celery, parsley (because I don't like them) or Bay leaves.

Other things are hard to get or expensive to get. Some I do without, others I substitute for and still others prevent me from making the recipe at all.

For example:

• I substitute for evaporated milk a lot of the time (milk plus butter does the trick). It isn't at my regular shop and it's expensive.
• A lack of puffed pastry prevents me from cooking a number of recipes.
• Sour cream is also expensive and comes in tiny portions. We cannot get low-fat versions either.
• Corn syrup I encountered yesterday, I just substituted sugar mixed with water.
• Cheese is an expensive thing to buy and most local stores only sell "plastic" varieties; very processed. We buy blocks and grated from Costco. As for all these Gruyer, brie, etc. I don't bother.
• Cream Cheese I can buy, but not 60% Less Fat version. Just the old ordinary fat-level one.
• And of course packet mixes just are not available, at least the ones in Australian magazines and recipe books. French Onion soup, for example!
• Yesterday I also ran out of Baking Powder. I had Baking Soda, but the substitute for Baking Powder is supposed to be Baking Soda plus Cream of Tartar. Cream of Tartar isn't something I've seen here, so I kept looking. It was essential for a quiche I was in the middle of making. Someone online suggested Baking Soda mixed with some natural yoghurt would do the trick, and it seemed to too, a nice fluffy quiche emerged 45 minutes later from my oven. 

I get frustrated when I read recipes that have ingredients like "Dutch cocoa", "smoked paprika" or "Roman beans". I doubt I would bother to go looking for these ingredients if I lived in Australia.

And there's cuts of meat that we cannot get. Like lamb or roast beef or beef steak.

But mostly we make do. Really, many of the things we cannot find are extras. It is quite possible to make basic meals without them. An immediate turn-off for me is a recipe where the list of ingredients is longer than the instructions.

Most times I cook from scratch. So on Friday when I wanted Cherry sauce, I made it from the dried cherries I had in the cupboard. I also made my own cheesecake and pickled the hard-to-find canned beetroot myself. I once made an Aussie meat pie, pastry included, from scratch. (Never done it again, it took ages.) Grocery shopping in Australia was bewildering for much of the year we were there, because there were so many ingredients, some of which I'd never heard of before.

Most of my recipe books are of the basic kind, without all those hard-to-get ingredients. Occasionally this book (published before I was born) comes in handy too. It has a wonderful selection of from-scratch recipes.  Yesterday I read about how to make Chocolate Eclairs from scratch. I'll have to try it one day so that I can say I've done it! But I still have to do calculations, it is in pints and ounces after all.