I had a TERRIBLE backache again. (No.2)

(This story continues from No.1)

Well when I was walking with the dogs on the usual route, there was a calf ahead of us. Mick( the puppy) is still very curious about calves and cows and he can't help following them or barking at them. So Mick was kind of going toward the calf and I was walking with Ambi along the barbed wired fence. We were about a few meters away from him. Then suddenly a cow behind the fence saw Mick getting closer to the calf, she went (×got )berserk screaming at Mick. Ambi sensed a danger and she started to bark at the cow and so did Mick. The cow got sooo mad that she pushed through the fence and came very close to us!! I didn't know what was going on at first, all I could think was I might be in a little bit of a dangerous situation. Obviously the cow was very angry at something! I tried to soothe the dogs but they were both out of control. Luckily Gori heard the dogs intense barking and he screamed at me and told me to run away from the cow. So I did, I ran! I was scared so I ran for about 20 meters totally forgetting about the backache! After I ran, I looked back at the cow, she was with the calf. The cow was the calves mum! She got very angry because she thought her calf was in danger so she tried to protect him. I didn't know cows have got such strong affections towards their calves!

Anyway, as you might guess very easily, my backache got worse after the incident (^^;) Even the foot bath didn't work. On the contrary, it made the pain worse. I think I might have strained my back when I ran. I couldn't stand or walk . I could lie down but that's all I could do for the past few days. Now it is getting better, thank goodness. I can walk pretty normally. I do have some pain when I am sitting but it is nothing compared to the torturous pain that I had 2 days ago, which made me feel extremely depressed.

Anyway, I've learned a very useful lesson this time.
I won't do any walking to vent my bad emotions from now on!!

*This article has been corrected by Gori.

I had a TERRIBLE backache again. (no1)

Hi everyone, how are you going?

I had a terrible backache a few days ago and thankfully I am on the mend.
What happen to me was...I got carried away walking on the treadmill out of anger and frustration!! The direct reason for these unfavourable emotions was share trading. I missed out the best chance to sell the shares I had at the highest price. At the time I was very upset but in hindsight, I made at least some profit and the price of the stock dropped down afterward so given that, I did pretty well. I should have been satisfied, not frustrated.

I think that trading was only one of the reasons why I lost my cool. Things have been pretty tough recently. We haven't got rain so we had to order another half tank of water, Gori's work is not doing very well ( He has not worked as often as he used to be. He works as a substitute teacher), And on top of that another school holiday, which lasts for 2 months is coming up very soon. We were expecting that Gori would work in Gori's sisters dairy farm during the holiday to earn some money but again her farm is also very short of rain so we are not sure if he will be able to work there. Well we are planning to go back to Japan next March so we DO need to make money! And my back had been a bit stiff and weird and my period is coming soon so yeah I have to admit that I have been pretty stressed out(^^;)


Usually when I am stressed out, I tend to reach for some sweets like chocolate. But this time I was different. I had been doing very well walking and getting slimmer so I didn't ruin my hard work by binging! So instead I decided to let my steam out by walking. Well I did too much. I walked more than 50 minutes at the highest speed I had ever tried! I was OK right after the walk but soon my back started to toughen up but I didn't worry about it. I just thought maybe I walked a bit too much. I know how (×a )backache happens, which is when(× means) muscle around the back hardens (× gets hardened) up and that causes (× a)pain. So if you soften up the muscle, you will be fine. So I thought I needed to walk a little more so I went for a walk with my dogs, which was a bad decision and made things worse(^^;)

( This story continues to NO.2)

*This article has been corrected by Gori.

Bug story

Do you like bugs?? Well, I myself am OK with small bugs but I don't like relatively big bugs such as beetles. They are a bit scary.

Speaking of beetles, back in Japan, when I was working as an English language tutor, there were a lot of times when I came across beetles and stag beetles. You know, kids love those kinds of bugs and some of them were very nice enough to show me their precious favourite pets, which were not favourable creature to me(^^;) I really don't like their shiny backs! (><) I also remember when I was teaching some kid at her house, I needed to go to the loo so I asked her mum if I could use their bathroom. That was my first time to use their bathroom. She said yes but her face was a bit clouded, I felt something weird about her but I didn't care and went to the toilet. When I opened the toilet door, there were tons of small containers piled very neatly all over the wall behind the toilet bowl from the top to the bottom! I had never seen anything like that in a toilet! I was totally speechless. I didn't know what they were at first but after I had a good look at them, they turned out to be breeding boxes of beetles and stag beetles! It was a really strange view in the toilet. As soon as I got out of the toilet with a very confused face, the mum came close to me and said,' Are you OK? You must be shocked to see those breeding boxes. We are sorry to make you feel that way but this is one of my husbands hobbies. He breeds beetles and stag beetles in there and sells them when they grow big and he says the toilet is the best place to breed temperature wise(×temperaturewise). ' ' Oh OK. 'I answered. But I was pretty convinced because I had talked her husband previously and yeah, he WAS a very interesting person.

Have I seen a beetle here in Australia? Yes, once. There are lots of bugs around here for example, moths, many kinds of bees, stinkbugs, a lot of flies and more, and of course cockroaches! When I was still in Japan, I heard that roaches in Australia were huge! (><) I have seen some roaches in my house but they were tiny ones. But I have seen a BIG one in Gori's parents house! That was big! It was between 8 to 10 cm long! I can swat and kill small bugs but I don't think I can kill those kinds of huge bugs! It might attack me back, who knows!? I don't have a serious problem with roaches ( yet?) but there are some bugs that troubles me... ANTS!!! They are everywhere, in the kitchen sink, on the cooktop, on the flour where dry dog food bag and wherever food crumble exists. I can understand if they are only crawling with somewhere food exist. But Why are they running around on my keyboard? Why are they having good time in dirty laundry? I have used surface sprays and other products to get rid of them but they only work for a day or two and guess what! In no time ants are coming back to say hello to me!! I think the best way is to keep the house sparklingly clean... but... well...I am a lazybones. I have more interesting stuff to do. I guess I will just have to live with them, won't I ?? ( A big sigh^^;)

*This article has been corrected by Gori.

I want to start to do pilates.

As I said before, I walk on the treadmill and walk with my dogs every day. This is my daily routine. It had been going very well until I hit this miner setback, which is a relapse of backache. I still don't know which position of my chair is best for my back. I can adjust its height as well as its back support and incline of the seat. It's a bit annoying and frustrating to be honest. Anyway I had a foot bath this morning so I am feeling a bit better. I hope the backache will go very soon because I've been itching to beef up my exercise and start pilates soon.

My body is getting thinner and fitter but walking is a cardio exercise so I need to build up muscle so that my body burns more energy. I need to do some muscle training but that sort of training is pretty boring. And my back is still not 100 % recovered yet so I have a little bit of reservations about doing it. But ,, hang on! That brought me some memory when I was doing pilates on a regular basis back in Japan. I did feel that my back felt better after I did pilates.( at that time I didn't have any (×a)backache.) As you may know, pilates was devised by a doctor to heal injured soldiers . And backache was one of their symptoms. So basically it should be good for my back as well. I am toying with the idea of starting pilates again tonight. Well, what should I do? Maybe I could start with very simple easy exercise only for a short time. Yeah, that's it! I will do it!

*This article has been corrected by Gori.

5th year anniversary of our relationship

Hi everyone, How are you going?
Today is our 5th year anniversary. I can't believe five years have already passed since Gori and I started our relationship. Time really flies.

I am really blessed that I am being with him. We've been through a lot together for the last five years. Especially when I had a panic disorder, I had a very hard time dealing with it and so did Gori, I think. I have to admit I suffered (×from) an emotional roller coaster almost every day back then and there were lot of times when I took my anger (×angers)and fears out on him. But he never gave up on me and our relationship. He was always there and supportive. And even now he still stays like that, which I am the most grateful about.

He has much (×many) goodness in him. He is hardworking, considerate, funny, smart, charming, caring, energetic, strong, calm in an (×at) emergency, optimistic, and helpful. And there is another one as well, that is,, he never gives up on anything! He is so patient! There is (×are) a lot to learn from him. I've been with him for such a long time and thanks to him, I have changed for the better and now I am living in Australia! I wonder if there is anything that he can learn from me to improve himself. He does have some shortcomings too but you know, no one is perfect. And those shortcomings are nothing compared with those wonderful qualities of him. Anyway I have more serious flaws ..(^^;) so I am not in the place to pick on him about them.

We haven't got anything special to do today other than eating out for dinner. We are going to a restaurant in town, which Gori said served very good food the last time he went there. We haven't eaten out for a while so I am looking forward to it.^^

*This article has been corrected by Gori.

It's hot but I love it!

It's hot today. It is really hot. Today's highest temperature was 35 degrees. I had a look at a weather forecast website and there was a record of the previous weather of the past several days. I got honestly speechless to see that chart! The highest temperature on the 17th was 41.5 degrees! I couldn't believe my eyes! Because I don't remember it got THAT hot 3 days ago! I must have been having the aircon on otherwise I would have known. Wow 41.5 degrees!

It's really hot but as I said before, I really prefer Aussie summer to Japanese one. It's so dry, not muggy at all( at least to me)! After we had very heavy rain, the air gets a little humid but it doesn't happen very often. Maybe I feel like this because I am Japanese, who have to live with the unbelievably hot and humid summer. I am pretty much immune (×immuned)to humidity. Because Gori and his mum and dad sometimes whinge like' Oh it's muggy today!' or something. Every time they say something along those lines, I think in my mind that you can't survive Japanese summer if you are whinging about this much humidity, which is nothing compared to the one in Japanese summer! Having said that, after I had a panic disorder, it seems like my resistance against humidity has decreased a lot and it was pretty hard for me to live in the last summer in Japan. I got easily cranky and upset because of the humidity.

The other thing That I love about Aussie summer is that the temperature (×gets )cools down when it gets dark. I am not sure if this holds true for (×to) the rest of Australia but I have never experienced Nettai ya ( sweltering nights), can cause tortured (×torturing) sleepless nights. We do have a ceiling fan in our bedroom and of course we use it in summer but we have never used the aircon when we sleep at night, which is great!

We haven't had a lot of rain, which can be a big problem but other than that, I love Aussie weather, which is milder both in summer and winter than Japanese counterparts.

*This article has been corrected by Gori.