False start

This morning I woke up in time to go to my Op Shop tour in town. Or so I thought. Dad offered to drive me into town but no matter which way we went, the traffic was awful! Eventually Dad drove me to Paradise to catch the bus but I knew that I would be late as the bus left at 9.30.

I got into town just after 9.30 and started walking towards what I thought was Whitmore Square. It turned out to be Light Square so I rang Dad to find out where I should be going. He explained that it was over the other side of the city. There was no way I would make it.

I found a CIBO and sat down to wallow in my skinny decaf cappuccino. I was disappointed that I missed the tour but decided to have a look around town instead. I wandered to the Myer Center and spent ages looking through Myers. Dad came in to meet me for lunch which we had at the David Jones food court.

We walked around and looked at a few shops before deciding to try our luck at the Amococo tent. We walked over to Rymill Park and bought our tickets. We had to wait half an hour which was ok. Dad had a coffee and we sat on the second hand lounge chairs in the tent outside waiting for our turn.

When our colour was called, we lined up, took our shoes off and waited to get inside. Once we were inside, we were amazed. From the outside, the tent looked pretty cool with these domes that looked like Islamic designs from some mosques. It was made of silver plastic with panels of coloured plastic. From the inside it looked like stained glass. It was just beautiful.

We slowly walked around the tent looking at the various spaces and shapes and colours and taking some photos. It took us about 20 minutes to walk through and find our way back to the exit. It was much better than we expected and not what we expected at all. Definitely worth the $2.

From there we walked back to the car and headed home. I spent the afternoon watching some TV before walking to Woolworths to pick up some supplies for dinner. I bought a ham bone, some chick peas and stock to make a ham and vegetable soup. I chopped everything and got it on the boil while I continued to work on my earrings. They were really fiddly but I slowly made progress.

I stopped to have some dinner and watched some more Tudors with Dad before finally finishing the earrings. Overall I was really happy with them. They were the most complicated things I had made. I headed to bed about 11 and finished my book - Leaving Microsoft to Change the World - which was about the founder of Room to Read. It was an amazingly inspiring book and makes me want to get into more NGO work. About midnight I finally fell asleep.

Kate Ceberano

This morning I woke up reasonably late and started working on a new earring design before Kate arrived with Jessie the dog about 12.45. We went for a walk down to the lakes and did a couple of laps before heading to the cafe for lunch. We sat there for ages chatting and drinking coffee.

Before we realised it, it was 2.30 and it was time to head back. I picked up some stuff and then we drove over to Burnside Primary School to pick up Luke. Kate then dropped me at the chiropractor for my appointment with Malcolm while she did a few things at Burnside Village.

I got out well before her so I started walking to their place up Kensington Road and she would pick me up. I got all the way up to Hallet Road and probably within 300m of their house before she finaly caught up with me.

Back at Kate's place, I had a shower and then Stan cooked us dinner before Kate's friends Alexandra and Kerry came over. About 7.30 we headed into town and found a park off Rundle Street. Poor Donna who was supposed to be meeting us drove in but couldn't find a park so she drove home again and had David drop her off. Eventually she caught up with us as we stood in the line waiting to get into the Speigeltent.

While we waited, I popped over to the bar and bought a bottle of bubbles which the bar lady gave me in an ice bucket with 4 glasses to take back to the girls. This definitely made the wait more bareable although I only had a couple of sips of Kates. Eventually the show before ours finished and we headed into the Speigeltent. It was the first time I had ever been in there and it was beautiful with mirrors on the walls and wood panelling and even a bar inside!

Kate Ceberano took the stage with her brother who played lead guitar and her band. She started with a few classics of hers and a couple of covers before throwing it open to the audience to choose songs out of a hat. She even did a Divynls song which was pretty funny. Some of her really old songs came out of the hat and it was funny to watch Phil, her brother, calling out the chord changes to the rest of the band who obviously hadn't played them for a very long time if at all. Kate was very funny and entertaining and the show was a lot better than I expected. We all really enjoyed it and said that we wished it had been longer than it was.

After the show finished, Donna headed home in a taxi. The other girls and I headed to Cocolat cafe for a coffee and a couple of chocolates - yum! Alexandra drove us back to Kate's place and then Kate drove me home about midnight. I was exhausted but it was a good night out.

Ross' 37th Birthday! A super lazy day

Today I didn't do much at all. I spent the morning in bed and then spent the afternoon on the computer catching up on my blog and looking at a few other things. Dad and I watched more of the Tudors and decided that we would go out for tea to celebrate Ross' 37th birthday.

I made a few pairs of earrings before we walked up to Oakden Central hoping that it was open as it was a public holiday for the Adelaide Cup. It was open and it was schnitzel night so Dad and I each had a beef schnitzel. It was delicious. We walked home again and we were happy that we had left the heater on as it had been a miserable cold day all day.

I made some more jewellery while we watched some more of the Tudors. About 10, both Dad and I were half asleep so we headed to bed. It was nice to have a low key day! Happy Birthday Ross!!

Brunch and catching up with extended family

This morning I drove over to King William Road to meet Stan and Kate at Jones The Grocer for brunch. It was delicious and surprisingly it was a nice day. After breakfast, we left Stan and Luke and Kate and I walked up and down King William Road trying on some clothes but neither of us made a purchase - unusual for us!

On the way home we zipped into Burnside Village to pick up some bread and we chatted for ages over a coffee before finally going back to Kate's place. I hung out there for about 1/2 an hour before it was time for me to go and pick Dad up. I managed to find my way back to Woodhouse where he was all packed up and just finishing up with the group he had been camping with.

We drove into Stirling and had a coffee and a snack before driving home again. We were both knackered so we each had a rest for an hour or two before it was time to get up and go again. We were on our way to Annette's place for dinner.

Neither of us really felt up to it but once we got there it was really nice to catch up with family again. Diane and Russell (my cousin) were there as well as Annette, Ed, Rowan and Narelle. Ed cooked up a BBQ and we braved the cold to eat outside before moving inside to chat the night away. It was great to catch up with everyone again. Particularly Diane and Russell who I hadn't seen for 12 years.

I drove Dad home about 11 and we both fell into bed exhausted after a good night.

Weekend by myself

With Dad gone, I had to amuse myself today. After a leisurely sleep in, I got organised and headed out about 11 to see some of the craft shows that were linked to the Fringe. First stop was the Wevers Guild of SA. As I walked in the church hall where the exhibit was being held, I was clearly the youngest there by many decades but I was surprised that a lot of there wor was really contemporary and not just granny rugs and knitted jumpers. Some of the woven scarves were exquisite! A lot had already been bought and although I couldn't bring myself to pay over $100 for a scarf, they certainly were beautiful. Some of the woven art work was interesting too as was the felt work. I entered the raffle (which was kind of mandatory) and then headed out the door.

Onto the next exhibition which was the Embroiders Guild of SA. A similar set up to the last but this time you did have to pay $5 to get in. I have always loved embroidery I think because Mum did a lot of it when I was a kid. Some of the work was beautiful, particularly the Japanese inspired art works with gold and silver thread. There were your usual daggy cross-stitch samplers as well but the majority of the work was very high quality and quite unique. I made my way through the exhibit and into the main house where I got talking to a lady who was into collecting embroidery tools - ok, this is where I had to draw the line. I made my escape back into the real world.

Having had my culture fix for the morning, I drove to Harbortown to do some mindless window shopping. I walked around for ages but with no purchases. I did buy some more raffle tickets to help the paraolympians. So in total today I entered three raffles.

I was getting hungry by this stage and I knew I wanted to cook pasta for dinner so I went in search for good fresh food. I meant to head up to Burnside Village but missed the turn onto Greenhill Road so instead I tried my luck at the Central Market. As I pulled in, it was 3pm, and of course what time did the market close - 3pm. So I walked back to the car and joined the queue to get out of the carpark and paid $1.70 for the privilege.

I drove up to Burnside Village and bought a nice piece of lamb fillet, some fresh pasta and some putanesca sauce to make dinner with. While I sat and had a coffee and some sushi, I checked my phone and there was a message from Kate inviting me around for dinner. They didn't have anything planned so I said I would bring the food I had bought over to cook. I popped home and grabbed my beading stuff before driving over to Kate's place.

Kate and I did a bit of beading while Stan cooked dinner (again). We ate pasta in the lounge while watching the NAB Cup semi-final between St Kilda and Freemantle - a complete whitewash with St Kilda thrashing them. After the footy I headed home again. So much for my quiet day by myself! Thank god for good friends.

Hypnolarious

I slept late this morning (again) which I think is becoming normal. Dad was busy doing things for the camp coming up so I amused myself doing this and that. I drove up to Ingle Farm and bought myself some sports socks as the one pair I bought with me, Black had chewed a hole through them! I also bought some fresh ham and hommus for lunch.

After lunch, about 3, Dad was ready to go up to Woodhouse so we drove up the freeway to Stirling and then Dad showed me how to get to the Woodhouse Scouts Camp from there. I just hoped I could remember it when I had to pick him up. I helped him unload his gear and had a bit of a look around the site which was beautiful before heading back home.

I had a shower and got ready to go out and meet Stan and Kate so that we could go to this hypnotist show called Hypnolarious - part of the Fringe. I picked Stan and Kate up and we arrived early so we walked along Hindley street before we found this little Tapas bar where we stopped for a drink. Obviously they were doing flamenco lessons upstairs as the sound of people's feet could be heard as we sipped our drinks.

We almost lost track of time so we walked quickly back to the Chaos bar where the show was being held in time for it to start. Obviously we didn't know we should have arrived earlier for the dinner which we had booked because as soon as our main course was served, the lights went off and we ate in the dark as we watched the show. It wasn't too bad though.

A number of people volunteered from the audience. I almost did but missed out. In some ways I am glad I didn't. Out of the 10 people on stage, I would say that 7 were truly hypnotised. A couple of people left the stage soon after he started as they were obviously not hypnotised. Other than that, it was amazing what he had the people do. He had one girl convinced that a man in the audience was wearing her shoes so she went and found him and took his shoes off him and wore them back onstage. Then he told her they weren't hers and she need to go look again so as this girl came past our table, Kate told her that the hypnotist had her shoes. This backfired on Kate as he then told the girl that Kate had her shoes so she had to give them to this girl. It was pretty funny really.

There were also the usual tricks where he made them think the audience was naked, that their shoe was a phone and that they were all part of a Ricky Martin concert. One trick I thought was pretty amazing. There was a big guy up on the stage and the hypnotist made him lay on the floor and told him to be really stiff like a rod. A bunch of guys from the audience picked him up and balanced him on two chairs. He managed to keep his body upright. Next he asked a lady from the audience to stand on top of him! He didn't move at all. The guys then lifted him off the chairs and placed him back on the floor and when he "woke up" he didn't know anything about it. I thought that was pretty impressive.

Normally I guess I would be a sceptic with things like this but seeing it in real life definitely made you wonder. It was a pretty godo show and we stayed around to have another drink afterwards. None of us were ready to go home so we walked down Hindley Street and found the Apothecary - a tiny little bar/ restaurant. We had coffees (well Stan had an Absynth) and chatted about the show before heading back to the car. I dropped them off and headed home about midnight. It had been a great night.

Alice in Wonderland

This morning I slept in until 10. I forced myself out of bed and actually went for a walk down to the other lakes at Northgate. On the way back I stopped in to pick Dad up and we walked down to the Lakeside cafe for a coffee and I had some breakfast. We sat there for quite a while before walking around the lakes and back home.

I had got an email saying that my new passport was ready so we drove into town to pick it up. The new passports are beautiful with a different scene on each page. I did laugh out loud when I was flicking through and came across a page with a bunch of netballers on it! While we were in there we also went to the Central Market and picked up some sausages and other bits and pieces for a BBQ dinner.

We dropped the food off at home and then headed up to Tea Tree Plaza. Dad made an appointment for the optometrist next week to try and get contact lenses and we had a coffee before heading to the cinemas.

It was the first day that Alice in Wonderland had been released in Australia and although we went at 4.30, it was still pretty busy. The movie was in 3D and it was the first time Dad had seen a 3D movie. The movie itself was pretty good but there were big long stretches where not much happened. I also didn't think the Aussie actress that played Alice was that good either. It definitely wasn't worth the $35 we payed for both tickets but I am glad I have seen it.

After the movie we drove home and started on the BBQ. Dad cooked the sausages while I made a quick salad. We had venison, buffalo and goat sausages. The buffalo was my favourite and the goat was my least favourite. After dinner we watched some TV for a while before heading to bed.

More appointments and beading

This morning I drove to the doctor in peak hour traffic which wasn't fun but so easy compared to KL! After seeing the doctor, I headed back home for a while. Dad and I drove up to Tea Tree Plaza so that he could get a few things for his next scout camp. We had a coffee and a wander around before heading back to the car. We drove to Harvey Norman so I could pick up the photo book that I had made for our trip to Cambodia. It turned out really well!

By this time, I had to head over to Magill for my acupuncture appointment. I had made an appointment with Robert Oon who was recommended by Michelle my naturopath. Robert practiced traditional Chinese medicine and so it was a bit of a change again back to Chinese acupuncture after having many session of Japanese acupuncture.

We chatted for a while and he read my pulse before asking me to lay on the bed so he could put a few needles in the usual spots. He left me there and I promptly went into a deep sleep. It was fantastic! I was there for about 30 minutes before he came back and removed the needles. If nothing else I felt incredibly relaxed. I made another appointment to see him in two weeks.

From there I drove over to Kate's place and we got busy making some jewellery out under her patio while Stan cooked us dinner - a good deal! Stan had cooked a chicken curry with bananas. It was delicious! After dinner we watched some TV before I headed home around 11 again.

A day up the river

This morning Dad and I had breakfast at home before driving up to Mannum for the day. We drove up via the chain of ponds in the hills and stopped in at Birdwood for a coffee and a snack before continuing on. We arrived at Mannum about 11 and parked on the main street so we could have a walk around.

Mannum hadn't changed much since I was there a few years ago. It was still a sleepy little place but it was a beautiful day and Dad and I enjoyed walking along the main street and just sitting in the reserve by the river soaking up the sun, watching the river and the birds.

We went to the tourist information center and picked up a pile of information on various areas around SA. After dropping the info in the car, we walked along the river up to the pub, passing the bowls club on the way. They obviously had a big social tournament going on as the music was cranked and most of the teams were dressed in costume - looked like my kind of bowls!

We wandered into the pub at about 12 and there was hardly a soul inside but within 15 minutes, the place was packed. Dad and I shared the special of the day - a dozen king prawns and I also had a side of salt and pepper squid. We ate lunch looking out at the river - it was beautiful.

After lunch we wandered back to the car and drove across to the ferry. The river was actually really low - the lowest that Dad can remember seeing it. We crossed the river on the ferry and continued the back way to Murray Bridge. Didn't look like much had changed there also. We continued onto the freeway and headed home by about 3.

We both had a bit of a rest back at the house and then I got ready to meet Donna to go and see a movie. I drove over to Norwood just in time for the show to start and to meet up with Donna. We went to see The Blind Side. It was a pretty good movie and not as "cheezy" as I thought it might have been. Sandra Bullock was excellent.

After the movie was had dinner at Primo's and chatted for quite a while over food and coffees. I left Donna about 11 and headed home.

More appointments

This morning I went to see Michelle the naturopath. Last time I had seen her was in October when she had put me on the detox program for 6 weeks. I was really happy with the results from last time so I was interested to see how things were going now.

After running a couple of tests, she told me I had lost some more weight but it had been fat and not muscle. I was happy with that because I had been working pretty hard at the gym to build up my muscle. I had a higher level of toxins than last time she saw me and was dehydrated but this didn't surprise me after the chaotic travel schedule of the past couple of weeks and I think I caught a sinus bug while I was in Japan and was still trying to recover from. She prescribed some more magnesium and also a supplement to help me absorb more from my food as well as a zinc supplement. I walked out of there a bit fed up with it all and constantly being told that I need to do more.

I had lunch at home and then headed over to Kensington Road to go to my appointment with Kate's chiropractor. Malcolm was a breathe of fresh air and his jovial, talkative manner but me completely at ease. He explained every thing he was doing and did a lot of muscle tests to check where things were out of alignment. He made some small manual adjustments and recommended I go for a walk rather than getting straight back into a car.

I walked down the street and across the road to have a coffee at one of the cafes before walking back and driving home. I had about 45 minutes before I headed out again and this time into town to attend a workshop called Websites for Artists. I parked on Hindley Street and walked to the Jam Factory and found my way to the presentation room.

The start of the presentation was the most valuable as the lady talked about various free methods of setting up an online present. A lot of them I had heard of before but there were a few new ones. After this, representatives from ArtSphere a website company for artists pitched their products which although was ideal for serious artists, it didn't really apply to me at the moment.

The presentation ended and I drove home about 7.30 and picked a cooked chicked up on my way for dinner. I watched some of the Tudors with Dad before going to bed.

Dinner with good friends

This morning I woke up late and Dad and I walked down to the cafe for a leisurely breakfast. We walked around the lakes and then back to the house where we picked up a couple of shopping bags before walking to Woolworths to buy a couple of things.

Back at home I spent most of the afternoon giving the bathroom a thorough clean - exciting stuff! I was quite amazed when I realised this is the first time I had had to clean a bathroom in about 6 years - oh what a tough life.

The council were doing some work on the water mains up the road and so they turned off the water at some point so I had to stop cleaning for a while. I left the basin tap on just to let me know when the water was back on. Later, Dad walked up the hall and heard the tap on. I had left the cleaning cloth in the basin which had blocked the plug and therefore the bathroom had flooded - whoops! Luckily I hadn't mopped the floors yet so I got busy doing that.

When Dad went up to his bedroom, he wondered why his shoes were squelching on the carpet. Apparently the water from my bathroom had run under the cabinet into his bathroom and out into his bedroom. The carpet was saturated! We grabbed all the towels we could and started mopping up as opened all the windows. What a drama.

So after all that, we got ready and drove over to David and Donna's place for dinner. I couldn't believe how big Patrick was now and Annabelle had grown 5cm over summer! It was nice to spend some time with them. We drove home about 11 and again fell into bed.

Into the Fringe

This morning I had breakfast at home before heading down to Greenacres in time for my passport interview. I had almost run out of pages in my current passport so I needed a new one. The girl at the post office was pretty crap and the first thing she did was cut up my current passport. She obviously didn't bother to read my application because I had requested a frequent traveller passport and she tried to charge me for a normal one. Once she had done the application online, she was about to send me on my way. I asked her where the passport would be sent to and she said the address I had on my application. Of course this was my Malaysian address. I tried to explain to her that I needed to pick up my passport here because otherwise how would I get into Malaysia to pick up my new passport now she had cancelled my old one. This sent her into mass confusion. Luckily she had enough initiative to ring the help line and they explained to her that I could simply pick it up from the passport office in the city when it was ready. I thanked her insincerely for all her help before walking out. What is the point of having to go to an "interview" if the person doesn't even read or check your application!

Anyway, back at home, Dad and I decided to go into town and check out some of the free visual arts exhibitions around the city. We drove into King William Road to the Hyde hotel. We had some lunch and then checked out the Uniquely SA photo exhibit that was displayed around the pub. There were some beautiful photos and all of them definitely portrayed SA.

From there we walked down to Victoria Square where we stopped to take photos of the two giant blow-up astronauts wearing tutus which were the Fringe mascots. We continued down to North Terrace and walked to the Torrens Parade Grounds where we visited the Helpman Academy Graduate exhibition. Basically a selection of the graduates from art schools around SA had their final graduation pieces on display.

Some of the work was amazing. I particularly liked a number of charcoal potrait drawings which were incredibly detailed and looked more like black and white photos than charcoal drawings. It was the finest charcoal work I had ever seen. I also like some of the sculptures including a hanging tear drop basket made out of steel. It looked like pipe segments had been squashed and then welded together into a shape similar to a 1970's bamboo swinging chair. One ceramic piece also stood out. The work consisted of three busts of carnevale women wearing elaborate headresses. Fine porcelain ceramic was the media and it was incredibly detailed work.

From the parade grounds we walked along the Torren's river past some of the other Fringe venues until we got to the Botanic Gardens. We went in search of another exhibit which we couldn't find so we wandered through the gardens and saw two weddings taking place. It was a beautiful day and would have been lovely for their big days.

Back up to East Terrace and we walked over to the Amacocco tent. There was an hour and a half wait to get in so dad and I skipped that and continued along Rundle Street looking in some of the boutiques. We stopped at CIBO for a coffee and also to look at their photo exhibit showing behind the scenes looks at last years Fringe.

We were pretty exhausted from all the walking by now so we walked through the mall and up to the tram to catch it back to where our car was parked. We drove home and I had a rest before having to get ready to go out again.

Again, I drove over to Stan and Kate's and we headed in with Luke to go and see a show called Circus, Trick Tease. We tried to find somewhere to eat and ended up at the Belgium Beer Cafe which was packed and the service was slow but eventually our food came and we wolfed it down before almost sprinting to the the Garden of UnEarthly Delights in time to catch the show. We pushed through to the front of the line much to the displeasure of the security but we did manage to find the venue and get a seat seconds before the show started.

Basically it was three performers who did mainly gymnastic type routines of balancing on each other and also using people from the audience. I was impressed when the "strong man" lifted four grown women who were sitting on swings suspended by one bar. That must have been over 250kg he lifted on his shoulders.

All three performers were amazingly strong. The other guy managed to balance on his head on an inverted wine bottle that was on top of blocks stacked about 2m high. And the girl, besides being very funny, managed to climb on top of both of the guys who were standing on each other's heads so she ended up being about 6m in the air standing on this guys head! It was quite amazing.

The show went for about an hour and although some parts were a bit raunchy (I felt a little uncomfortable for Luke) it was amazing. Afterwards we drove up the Parade and had a coffee at Manto's before I headed home. It had been a big day of Fringe activities.

Shopping and catching up with friends

This morning Dad dropped me at the doctors where I had to pick up some stuff and then I walked up to the Norwood Parade as Dad was doing his bus induction for the Kiwani's. It was a beautiful day so the walk was great although I was seriously sweating by the time I got there.

I walked around and stuck my nose in some shops but resisted the urge to buy anything. I had a coffee in the mall and continued to window shop before I met Dad at Manto's for lunch. We headed home and I chilled out before having to get ready to go out again.

I drove over to Stan and Kate's place as we were going out to Sinclair's Gully winery for the evening with some of their friends. We left about 6 and drove up to Norton Summit and beyond into the bush where we came across the tiny winery. They produced organic wine so we went through the tasting list and met up with Kate and Stan's friends. We moved to the big table down on a small landing where they brought us tasting platters to accompany our wine selection. As the sun set, black cockatoos flew through the trees and two friendly wallabies decided to come and visit the winery which was a big hit with the kids.

As we chatted, ate and drank, we listened to a lady singing. She was apparently one of the acts from Fringe and she was pretty good. After dark, a fire juggler came on and we all headed up to watch him. By this time, most of us had had enough wine to think that it looked pretty easy :-)

Back down at the table we finished our wine and wrapped up the evening before heading back to Stan and Kate's place for a tea. I drove home and fell into bed about midnight.

First day in Adelaide

We arrived on time and things were looking good until I got to the e-gates which weren't working. But I managed to get through immigration quick enough. Down at baggage claim it was another story. It was like a train wreck! The Singapore Airlines flight had landed 5 minutes after ours and so 600 people were crammed in a tiny space trying to get their bags and line up in the one line for customs. It was ridiculous.

I finally got out and met Dad over an hour after we landed. I was so exhausted from the travel over the past few days. We dropped my stuff off at home and walked down to the cafe for a coffee. I thought I had better try and stay up for a while before completely crashing. From the cafe we walked to Woolworths so that I could get some credit for my phone and a couple of other things.

Back at home I unpacked and then finally succombed to my exhaustion. I slept for a couple of hours and felt much better afterwards. Dad made us a chicken salad for dinner which we ate outside under the pergola as it was a nice night. I tried to watch Elizabeth the Golden Age with Dad but it was just all too much so I crawled into bed early.

Unpack, wash, repack!

I slept in as much as I could this morning and tried to recover from the frenzied trip to Japan and the long flight home. Eventually I dragged myslef up and got busy. I pottered around the house getting things organized to take to Adelaide as well as doing the washing and unpacking from Japan. I was supposed to have an acupuncture appointment today but I cancelled it and instead made waxing a priority!

About 2, I drove out to The Curve for my waxing appointment which was hugely overdue. How can that much hair grow in one week! Needless to say I was there for a long time and it was agony. I drove home again and managed to squeeze in a nap before Ross got home from work. He helped me finished my packing before it was time for us to drive to Sentral.

Back at the train station, I checked in my bags and said goodbye to Ross. Once at the airport I got through immigration and headed out to the other terminal to find something to eat and to pick up a few things. I ended up at Dome and enjoyed my minestrone soup before trying to hunt down something to dry up my running sinuses. In the end I ended up at the medical clinic and bought some antihistamines from the doctor for the flight.

As we boarded, the flight was jam packed. I had managed to get an aisle seat but in the middle section and right down the back of the plane. As usual, I only had about an hour's sleep and spent the rest of my time watching My Sister's Keeper (not a good movie to watch on the plane as I bawled my eyes out!) and playing games on my iPod. Again it was another uneventful 7 hour flight.

The long haul back to KL

Another early start this morning. Warren was kind enough to drop us at the train station with our bags to catch the train to the airport. We got to Kichijoji and went to buy our airport express train tickets only to find out there was only standing room available. We had no choice but to take them.

Once we got on the train we were hoping to just snag some seats but the conductor put pay to that. We had to make our way down the train to our assigned carriage and luckily we found a couple of fold down seats in the area between the carriages. It was freezing cold though!

We finally arrived at the airport at 8am after having left Warren and Julie's at 5.30. We checked in and headed to Starbucks to warm ourselves up. Through immigration and I bought a couple of things duty free before we caught the shuttle train to our boarding gate. Unfortunately they couldn't sit us together so we were each on a window seat in rows behind each other. The flight was uneventful but long and I managed to watch a movie and played a truck load of games on the iPod but I couldn't sleep. Ross was out like a light behind me!

Once we landed in KL we soon realised that it was pouring down outside so we decided to catch the train to Sentral and then catch a cab. Although it took ages in the peak hour traffic it was better than walking in the rain. We finally got home 15 hours after we left Warren and Julie's place. It had been a long haul.

I ran a bath while we cleaned up the usual welcome home presents from the cats. After soaking in the bath for a while, we heated up a frozen pizza for dinner, watched some TV and then fell into bed exhausted. It had been a great trip to Japan and so much fun to catch up with good friends again! But it was sure nice to sleep in my own bed. I had managed 5 different beds in 8 days in Japan. Only 24 hours before I head off again to Adelaide!

Last full day in Japan

Both Ross and I were pretty exhausted by the pace of the last week in Japan. While Warren and Julie headed back to work, we lazed around the house in the morning and finally got organized to go and do something about 11.30. We caught to train to Kichijoji and spent the day wandering around there.

First stop was the technology mecca of Yodabashi. Ross had been there with Mark and Warren during the week and I was really keen to check it out. We landed in the camera section and I spent a while looking at lenses and light boxes and other camera accessories. We managed to find a really helpful salesman and although he did not speak English we managed to bumble our way through to purchase a macro lens, a remote shutter release, a new camera strap, a lens protector filter and a small light box. Not too bad!

We went up the various other levels but nothing else really grabbed our fancy. Julie had mentioned there was a bead store on the top level so I headed up there to take a look. They did have plenty of beads but nothing overly unique and it was really expensive compared to KL. So I left a bit disappointed but happy with my camera haul.

We walked around a few more malls before getting hungry and so we started looking for a place to eat. We wanted Japanese food as it was our last day but the first restaurant we went into did not have an English menu, the menu had no pictures and they couldn't speak English so really Ross and I were stuffed! We walked around for a while more before getting too hungry to think straight. We finally decided on a resturant upstairs which seemed a bit like a do it yourself tepenyaki place. We soon found out that it was a tepenyaki savoury pancake type place. Again with no English menu or anyone who could speak English, we managed to stumble our way to order with the help of the pictures. The waiter was kind enough to show us how to cook one of these pancakes and then Ross followed suit with the other. We also cooked our own gyoza on the hotplate. The food was delicious though and really hit the spot.

From there we walked back to Isetan and we made our way to the supermarket section. I had offered to cook dinner for Warren and Julie and thought I would buy the ingredients to make the salmon dish that Kyoko showed us at the cooking lessons. I had the recipe and Kyoko's shopping guide to help me but we still had to ask fo help for a few things but we managed to get everything.

So with food in one hand and camera accessories in the other, we made our way to the main park of Kichijoji. It was beautiful and built around a big lake. The afternoon was sunny although cold and we really enjoyed the slow saunter around the lake watching the locals go about their business. It was a nice way to end the day. As the sun made it's way down, we headed to the train station for the journey back to the Lavender's.

Warren and Julie were home when we arrived and after taking them through our day, Julie and I got busy preparing dinner. It was delicious! After dinner we chatted, watched TV and had more strawberries (yum!) before heading to bed. It had been a great last day in Tokyo with friends.

A relatively low key day

Ross and I woke up about 10 and finally managed to get organized enough to leave the hotel about 12. We left our overnight bags with the concierge and caught the train to Harajuku. It was the first time that Ross had been there. It was great to go back on a Sunday because much more was happening.

We walked down Takeshita Street before looking for a small flea market at the nearby shrine. No luck with the market but the gardens surrounding the shrine were beautiful and we saw our first traditional wedding for the day.

From there we walked to Meji Jingu shrine. We were lucky enough to see two weddings taking place and one where the men of the family were actually inside the shrine itself offering their prayers while the massive drum was being played by a Shinto monk. It was a beautiful afternoon.

Around the corner from the shrine was the Yoyogi park. As soon as we entered the park, we were confronted by the infamous rockabilly Elvis'. Apparently they belong to two rival "mafia" gangs in Tokyo and every Sunday they have a kind of dance off with each other. Just bizarre! And the funniest thing was they were crap dancers! Ross and I were mesmerised by this for a while before we finally dragged ourselves away to look at the other sights in the park. Every where we looked there was something going on. A lot of groups were obviously rehearsing plays in full costume. A bunch of young Goths were simply stalking about the place. Many people were practising musical instruments or martial arts. It was amazing to see.

By this time the temperature had dropped significantly so Ross and I made a B-line for the train to pick up our stuff and head to Warren and Julie's. We finally arrived there about 5 and we were frozen to the bone and exhausted. Warren was kind enough to go out in the cold and get us Indian takeaway for dinner which we scoffed before heading to bed not long afterwards.

Fish markets, brunch and back into Shibuya

This morning was an early start. Ross and I were up at 5am to make the first train into the city at 5.36. From there we connected to a train that would take us to Tsukiji Fish Markets. It was easy enough and we knew we were in the right place as we got off the train and was met by the smell of fish.

We didn't know where the markets were exactly but it didn't take us long to work out they were just next to the station. We wandered around amongst the darting tray trucks and found the small outer market where they sold an amazing array of knives and other goods. From there we managed to weave our way without getting killed by the trucks into the cavernous market section.

Ross and I have never seen so much or so many varieties of seafood. It was quite amazing. One of the first sights that greeted us was a guy with a hand trolley stacked with 6 massive deep frozen tuna. We wandered among the stalls taking photos and just watching in amazement at the frenetic activity that was going on. We bought some tuna sashimi and worked our way back again to the outer market to hunt down a sushi place for breakfast.

We entered this tiny little sushi bar and picked a relatively small sample plate of sushi to share. It was freezing cold (I had 5 layers on) so the warm green tea was welcome. The old man behind the counter prepared each piece of sushi by hand and tried to show us on the menu what we were eating (he didn't speak any English but when we said we were from Australia he said "Skiing" so maybe he thought we were from Austria). It was surprisingly delicious. Nothing tasted too fishy or slimy - except for the raw prawn. Perhaps that's where the saying 'Don't come the raw prawn with me!" comes from :-)

After sushi, we found this little stall selling ceramic dishes and bowls and I went a bit nuts. The downside was we had to carry it all home. But it wasn't too bad and before we knew it we were walking from Tama station to Warren and Julie's place for brunch. Sue, Julie and the boys were home when we arrived. Mark soon followed along with Dee and Lyndell. We tucked into Julie's awesome brunch of pancakes, maple syrup, bacon, eggs, quiche and the raw tuna we bought at the fish market. I also scoffed a bunch of the amazing Japanese strawberries - the sweetest strawberries I have ever had.

Just as we were finishing up, Steve Histler, a guy we taught with in Kuwait turned up. It was great to catch up with him. I hadn't seen him for about 6 years. About 11.30, Ross, Dee, Lyndell and I made our way back to the house to pack up our stuff and make our way back into town for the night. The people who stayed in the house would be back from their ski trip tonight so we had to move out before they arrived. Ross and I left our suitcases at the place for Warren and Julie to pick up while Lyndell and Dee dragged theirs to the train station.

The trains were chock-o-block and Lyndell only just managed to get on by straddling her suitcase. In Shinjuku, we left the girls as they were staying nearby for the night and Ross and I made our way to Shibuya. We finally found our way to the Cerulean Tokyo Tower Hotel - a fancy 5-star joint - and checked into our room. It was so nice to have such a big room and our own space!

We were both pretty tired but we forced ourselves to go and walk around and ended up in a big department store called Q-Tokyu. On the top floor were a bunch of art galleries which we wandered through before making our way out onto the roof top via the cute pet store. It was a beautiful afternoon so we soaked up the sun before heading back inside and working our way down the various levels of the department store. We walked back to the hotel where I had a bath before crawling into bed for a power nap. I woke up soon enough and started getting ready for the night out. Ross finally woke up and before long we were ready to head out again to meet up with everyone for dinner.

We walked to the restuarant and passed an amazing boot store on the way. Every kind of boot imaginable was on sale - it was quite incredible. Eventually we found the restaurant and ran into Warren outside. We went upstairs and met up with Julie at the table and before long Dee, Lyndell and their friend Simon showed up too. We ordered appertisers while we waited for Sue and Mark to turn up. We enjoyed our meal and then headed downstairs to another bar for a couple of drinks. Warren and Julie wisely left us then as we slowly started to degenerate into the usual drunken night out.

From that bar we moved to an expat bar called The Hub which was super crowded and smoky but at this stage we didn't care. We had one round with Mark and Sue before they had to head back to catch the last train. Ross, Dee, Lyndell, Simon and I were the last ones standing and numerous rounds of vodka, soda and lime were consumed. Ross made mates with some locals one of which was getting married. The rest of us were kept amused by Lyndell's game of stuffing matchboxes in everyone's pockets.

Later in the night, Simon's mate Carlos arrived and the girls had quite a crush on him - pity he has a girlfriend. About 2am, someone had the sense to call time and we struggled up the stairs and put everyone in a cab before Ross and I walked back to the hotel with a slight detour at McDonald's (again!).

Cooking class and Roppongi

We had an early start this morning. Sue and Julie walked to our place and we made our way to the train. Julie was cruise director and had managed to work out how we could make our way into the inner suburbs of Tokyo to our cooking class. We caught the train to Roppongi and walked from there to meet Kyoko for our class. On the way we picked up some wine to enjoy with lunch.

Kyoko was a lovely lady who opened her home and arms to people wanting to learn Japanese cooking. We were asked to take our shoes off and don a pair of Japanese slippers before she took us on a tour of her home. First stop was a traditional room with bamboo mats on the floor. This room was used for worship and contained two shrines - a Buddhist shrine for their ancestors and above this was a Shinto Shrine. She explained the significance of each and then also explained that her family were not actually religious but this was more about tradition. Off of this room was a beautiful traditional tiny Japanese garden with two blossoming trees - one red, one white.

She explained some more about how the room could be used for large meals and also as a sleeping room and we got a tour of the linen press to show us the futons (too funny!). We were then asked to wash our hands and meet her upstairs.

We met her mother who was the loveliest, tiniest woman I had seen. She was amazing paper artist and had created some beautiful pictures that Kyoko had around her house. They were all done by tearing paper by hand - it was quite amazing.

We settled into the small kitchen where Kyoko served us tea to start. She had prepared recipes and a shopping list for us which we passed around before she started the class. She had done most of the preparation like chopping etc which would have taken a lot of time.

We started with the tempura which we had as an appetiser. Kyoko was very health conscious and used a lot of lot fat techniques in her recipes which was great. She had varied the usual tempura recipe and rather than depp frying she shallow fried small fritters of three types - ham and broccoli, mixed vegetable, and prawn. They were delicious and she served them with a dipping sauce which she made as well as wasabi salt, normal salt and curry powder - so good! We were all salavating by this stage.

Next we marinated the salmon for the main meal and got busy preparing the gyoza. This was quite and adventure. Although we had prepared gyoza wraps, the technique was not as easy as it looked. It involved pleating one side of the wrap and sealing it well. We all managed to finish although they weren't the best looking gyoza in town. Kyoko got busy boiling and frying the gyoza while we moved onto the salmon and mushroom dish. We also made a beef salad and an apple and cabbage salad so we had plenty of food.

Kyoko had set her dining table with cherry blossom placemats and tiny twigs of actual cherry blossom which accompanied her beautiful blue and white traditional Japanese china. We transferred all the food to the table and sat down to a feast. All the food was delicious - particularly the beef salad, the gyoza and the salmon. It was a beautiful sunny afternoon and we sat chatting for ages over the food and wine.

Kyoko shared with us a lot about her family. Her mother had been living in Nagasaka when the bomb was dropped and somehow she remained unaffected. Kyoko herself had symptoms of the radiation which only showed up after she had her son. She also told a story of her inlaws who lived with her and her husband for over 40 years until they passed away two years ago. Unfortunately the father-in-law used to physically abuse Kyoko for many years until one day her husband came home in time to witness it. The inlaws had to live with Kyoko and her husband as her husband was the oldest boy in the family and this was the tradition. Kyoko nursed both the mother and father until they passed away and had said it was very hard especially since the father-in-law was such a horrible man.

She also told us that she has had many people come and stay with her and invited us all to stay if we were ever back in Japan. She was a lovely woman and it was a lovely afternoon. We were sad to leave. Just before we left the table, Sue maaged to stick her elbow in the soy sauce - a perfect way to end the day! We also learnt from Kyoko that the name for a fat eggplant was kamunasu - and so Dee was renamed Kamunasu-san in honour of her trying on the eggplant costume the other day - very funny. We made our way downstairs where Kyoko's mother had neatly lined up all our shoes which we had dumped in a pile by the door - she was too cute.

We made our way back to Roppongi station and then went up a lookout tower in time for sunset. We lingered over a cocktail as we watched the lights come on over the city. We left Dee and Lyndell to explore Roppongi for the night while Sue, Julie and I headed back to Julie's place to meet up with the boys. We walked up the road for Italian and I was impressed by Warrens cheese risotto which was actually made in a huge cheese round - very cool.

Warren dropped us off at their friend's house and we made plans with Mark to meet him early in the morning for a trip to the fish market. Ross and I hit the sack and I was out like a light after a busy day.