Well we are now at our third night in Tokyo and whoa what a city it is. People watching, shopping and walking has been done not so much “proper sightseeing” but that is coming.
We had rain through the night last night and woke up to it snowing this morning, it continued up until midday’ish. The snow melted pretty quickly but it was nice for that little while.
The shops, whoa. It as all about variety and then some more. In some way I like the limited ranges of things back home. For example you want a pair of nail clippers; back home you probably have about 5 or so to pick from in a shop, here we were in one big electronics store and I kid you not there would have been at least 70 different types!
Still we’ve been having a ball and tomorrow is the halfway mark 🙁 :-).
Mum, the baking powder photo is for you, does it look familiar?
Cherry blossom season is getting quite close and the shops are filling with cherry blossom/sakura themes items (no Kit-Kats yet 🙁 )but I have had the cherry blossom frappacino from Starbucks and mmm it is very nice, will try the lattes soon.
Tomorrow we are doing more of the sane from the last few days and going to karaoke tomorrow night with a bunch of people from the hostel.
Well I’m back in Brisbane for about 24hrs before jetting off to Japan tomorrow morning. The wedding was fantastic on the weekend. It was a wedding that very much fitted the bride and groom (my cousin Erica and her now husband Ash). The wedding weekend was at Coles Bay in the Freycinet National Park area of Tasmania. It was where Erica and Ash decided to get engaged a couple of months ago and a place where they’ve spent a lot of time.
3 pictures for now because everything else will have to wait till I get back from Japan.
Saying hello to Grandad after the ceremony
This photo just about sums up the wedding 100%. The beach, playing in the water, having a picnic and a wedding as well.
and the cake, mmmm flourless chocolate cake and a very very good one at that. With the mountains of Freycinet in the background
Tomorrow – I have work (of course), I get my tooth implant, I’ve got postgrad orientation stuff to do at uni and then I have The Whitlams with the QSO tomorrow night.
Friday – Work and then straight to the airport to catch a flight to Hobart.
Saturday – Wedding of my cousin on the beach at Coles Bay/Freycinet
Sunday – Post wedding activities and flying home Sunday night.
Monday – Work and first uni lecture
Tuesday – Fly to Japan for 2 weeks. (Yeah, I’ll be missing four classes – two for each subject, whilst I’m away)
I’m so crazy looking forward to going to Japan. G (one of my best girl friends) and I are going to have a blast (literally as they having a bit of a cold snap at the moment and it is forecast to snow for the days we are up in the alps!!!).
It’s going to be crazy. I bought a new lens the other week, the 28mm 1.8 which will be one of the two lenses I’m taking to Japan, the other will be the 50mm 1.4. I was thinking of taking my 16-35mm 2.8 but it is a heavy piece of glass. I took a few photos with the 28mm the other day and I’m impressed
Whilst most blogs are talking about goals/plans/resolutions for 2011, I thought it would be much more to the point to see what progress I am doing on my list of 25 things to do before turning 26.
a nice filler photo
The list …
Be finished with orthodontic work.
Going very well, should be no more than a few months to go.
Challenge myself to take more thoughtful photos.
I’m more happy now with my photos than I’ve been a while but I still don’t think I’m taking my strongest photos
Ride my bike more.
Bike goes in for a service on Friday
Get a will.
not yet
Get better with my practice of one thing in means one thing out for my belongings.
Did a big clean out of my wardrobe on the weekend, so getting there
Tomorrow is a lovely day. December 1, the countdown more officially begins for Christmas. On Sunday, I lit the first candle in my Advent wreath. Tonight, I’ve spent the evening making a big paper chain garland, not exactly sure where I will hang it but probably crisscrossing the ceiling of my room. The most important decision that I need to make between now and tomorrow is where I’m going to put my little tree this year. The first thing I did when I came home from work this afternoon was to polish the silver tray I put it on.
ahhh exciting times. This weekend I’ll be doing my first “official” batch of baking and making.
I’m a bit disappointed that I won’t get to put up my vintage tinsel tree this year but there’s not much point since I’ll be in NZ for Christmas.
Saturday night was the Christmas Party and oh it was a great night. Check out my hair!
I got my hair done on Saturday morning and that really made me decide what I was wearing – I had about 3 options lined up and in the end settled on the frock in the above photo (obviously), it’s from Veronika Maine and I love it. It was my birthday frock this year. I found the glasses on ebay – got 3 pair of empty frames for about $15 (score). If I ever need glasses, I hope I can get lenses put in those frames … I wore a netted petticoat to pouf the dress out, pearls (of course) and on my lips was MAC Ruby Woo (that classic matte red lipstick). I’ll have to wait till I get some photos off the others to show you the shirt I got for N. It’s a classic.
We had everything from 20’s flappers to us Mid Century Girls to 80’s glam rock. Just about everyone put a lot of effort into their outfits which made judging for the various prizes very hard!
I had my exam last Friday and it went about as I expected. There were a few things I knew I should have done more study on but all in all I’m reasonably happy with how it went. Now I just have to wait till the 29th for results to be released.
I had almost the best weekend after my exam. I got the CityCat home, did all those jobs round the place that I had put off for the last two weeks, went to the markets, purged stuff from my room, made a really nice turkey and pork bolognese for dinner with N on Saturday night, went to Finders Keepers with G on Sunday arvo (we think it should have been called the Brooch Market as I think the majority of stalls had broooches for sale). Then since Mum was leaving for Patagonia and Antarctica on Monday morning for the next 7 weeks, I headed over for a bon voyage dinner (cold roast lamb, fresh roast vegies, chocolate self saucing pudding and custard – so so yummy).
This is all sounding pretty good isn’t it? but here comes the event that changed the best weekend to the almost the best weekend.
I went to the sewing room to borrow a sewing machine to fill in my time that was formerly occupied with study … Then I stood on something and let out a few words. A sewing room of course meant that I stood on a sewing needle. I looked at my foot and couldn’t see anything but a itsy bitsy teen drop of blood. I ran my hand over the carpet and pulled out a needle fragment – about 1cm long.
Ok I thought, I must have just stood on that spot in the carpet and it poked me and didn’t do anything else …. you can see where this is going can’t you ….
I walked back out to the kitchen, grabbed an ice-pack and numbed my foot for a while and then it was time for me to head home and for Mum to pack her bags.
I woke up Monday morning in pain, so much pain. I called Mum at sparrow’s fart to wish her will on her trip but the call was mostly me sobbing in my pain about my foot. Poor Mum, here she is heading half way round the world for the next 7 weeks and she has a 25 year old daughter sobbing down the phone line in pain.
I took Monday off work, went to the local GP and got a tetanus shot and he told me just to keep my foot elevated and stay off it. By the way, tetanus shots are so painless now – nothing like they used to be. I’ve had no bruise or arm pain – bonus. At this stage I had no reason to think that there was any part of the needle in my foot.
Monday night I was still in agony. Tuesday morning, I drove into work (no way could I walk to and from the train station) for a couple of hours to sort out my work and then I made an appointment with my family GP on the Northside for that arvo. A bit of a chat, a script and an x-ray referral later I was heading down to the local x-ray clinic for a few scans as the amount of pain I was in was indicating that something must be in there.
A few jokes with the radiographer later and ohh look at what we have here. Yep, there sure is a needle in my foot. I must have stood on the needle, part of it went into my foot and then broke off (thus the part I found in the carpet). A call to the doc to tell him that I yep I’ve got a needle in my foot. He then went into organising me to see a surgeon to remove it as it is not something that a GP can remove due to possible complications with the bone/nerves etc. Fun times.
Why hello sewing needle, what are you doing in there?
I had today off and will have the rest of the week off at least.
I’ve got a consult with the surgeon tomorrow morning and hopefully they will be able to fit me in for surgery on Friday…
I’ve spent the better part of the last three days, in bed with my foot elevated and an ice-pack strapped on it at times. Laying down in bed the pain is only there in the morning. I wake up to the most excruciating pain.
As I type this now, I would only be able to tell you that I had a needle in my foot by the fact that I can’t move the smaller toes on my foot or the fact that it is slightly swollen.
If I stand up though, that is a whole different story … that is when the pain kicks in and the needle starts to make its presence known. I’ve become apt at walking on the heel of my foot.
I’m sooo looking forward to the consult tomorrow morning. I just want that thing out of my foot! I’ve spent a fair bit of my life walking round bare-foot and I think after this I will be wearing shoes a bit more than I used to. I don’t want a repeat of this adventure any time soon.
The lesson to learn from this post? Wear shoes when walking round a craft/sewing room.
