Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known

This morning I kind of had one of those “Holy shit! What am I doing?!” moments. Not in a bad or regretful way, but just realising in nine days I am packing up 20kg of my worldly possessions and moving halfway across the world…alone.

It’s either incredibly brave or incredibly stupid – I’m really hoping it’s not the latter.

This time I am going to take full advantage of the duty free alcohol, last time I bought some little baby bottles for the novelty factor but this time I’m going to do it properly. I feel a 1.5L bottle of Absolut should help things make more sense on those first insane nights alone in my apartment…or at least ease the crushing sense of self pity consuming me when I haven’t worked out how to buy a futon or anything bed related and am sleeping in a hastily constructed nest of my own clothes with my cats.

I can’t quite explain how much of a huge relief it is to think that I may have pets soon after arriving. Pets make everything OK, I just couldn’t think of anything worse than coming home and not having a fur-child saunter out from its preferred sleeping place to meet you. Even if everything else goes pear-shaped, having a pussycat (or two) to talk to and pat makes it seems much better, it’s even scientifically proven!

It feels a little like when I headed off into the bush, I have a bit of an idea about how things might go down but not a huge idea about what to expect. I am hoping, desperately, that it will turn out to be as awesome as my time out there did. Let’s all hope that my “blind faith” approach pays off for another time.

In other news, I have to work tomorrow. If given the choice between working tomorrow and slamming my hand in a car door I can’t say it would be an easy decision, but hopefully a busy day of kid-wrangling will take my mind off the insanity that currently surrounds me. I am in preschool which is good because they are my preferred room and I am supposed to work on Wednesday but I am not sure if that’s going to be possible so tomorrow is shaping up to be my last day of work in Australia.

Also, if you are in Brisbane and want to buy an awesome, small, Hyundai hatchback for just $8500 (OBO) you should probably email me – delightfuljen [at] gmail.com

Done:

• Get WHVisa
• Book and pay for flights
• Organize an apartment
• Get roadworthy so car can be sold

In Progress:

• Pay security deposit on my apartment (Monday)
• Get passport and visa back (Thursday)
• De-clutter my room/life

To Do:

• Get travel insurance
• Sell my car
• Finalize car loan
• Have my crafty garage sale
• Pack
• Renew my license
• Finish up at work

The other day I had a bit of a spaz, my flights are costing me around $1600 and the intital deposit on my apartment is $2000 so dropping such a large amount of money in a relatively short space had me spooked. I had my ususal panic attack about having no money/ what if I don’t get a job/ when did I ever think I could actually move OS alone/ it’s all going to be a miserable failure, but I’m over it now. This time feels so different to London, I know why I’m going, I know what I want from this experience and despite my little “moments”, I just have this inherent feeling of goodness about it all. like just a total and complete blind faith that it’s all going to work out ok. It’s almost as if since I pushed so hard to make it happen, that everything has started falling into place – like I proved to the Universe how badly I want it and now the path is wide open for me.

I’ve even sorted out the pet thing! I have found a couple who trap stray park cats, neuter them and release them back into the parks. Because the cats are feral they are not suitable to be rehomed but this ensures there won’t be as many unwanted litters and they can be looked after properly (once they are released the people come back for food runs so the cats get fed nicely). Anyways, sometimes they find (or are given) litters of tiny babies who can be raised to be nice cats and therefore rehomed. So I’m going to give one two of them a home. I know, two fucking cats, it’s the whole fish and a bicycle thing, but hear me out! We have three cats at the moment, so having one cat would not feel right. Getting two together means they have company while I’m at work and they can look after each other and it’s two babies who would be otherwise living in an orphanage. I understand the comittment, I’m not going to turf them out once I get bored/decide to move. Once they are part of my crew then it’s that way for life and I will accommodate them accordingly.

The one thing that is causing me just a bit of angst is the very real possibility that I will be single for as long as I’m in Japan. If you are a gay boy, the scene is thriving, but as a girl your options are somewhat more limited. I believe there might be about three other lesbians in Tokyo all of whom are girls who’ve been involved with Tex at some point. I’m not particularly interested in being involved right now nor in the immediate future but having the option would be nice! Hopefully I am wrong but I am yet to hear anything good about the girl scene in Tokyo. Thankfully SusieQ is considering the possibility of being my Christmas Fairy and coming over to share the holidays with me so I can always get my lez-beans fix from her, just to recharge. Fingers crossed! If she doesn’t come I’ll have to revert back to my original plan for Christmas – waking up, crying because I am all alone for the first time on Christmas (even more so if I have no furchildren to celebrate with) and then eating and watching TV I don’t understand. You see why I would love her to come, fingers crossed.

11 days!

• I am knee deep in tissues and there is no end in sight. My body is creating ..stuff in colors I didn’t know was possible, I sound like a 75 year old, pack a day smoker with a cold, and I just ache. I haven’t had the flu in ages and I had forgotten how shitty it is. I suspect being very run down and working with the dirty urchins some people refer to as “children” is how I managed to contract such a fantastic illness. On the upside, I get a week off work and forgoing showering, changing clothes and other personal hygiene related tasks is entirely appropriate as anything more than dragging myself from bed to the couch and back again is just way too difficult.

• I have decided to fold a million paper cranes. Not like today or anything, but over time. The story of Sadako says you get a wish for folding one thousand cranes, so I imagine you get a whole bunch of wishes for folding one million but I’m not doing it for the wishes. I suspect it will take me a fair while to do but I mostly want to do it just for the sake of plugging away at something which is going to take a long time and getting it done, sort of like going to uni…just less exams. As far as I can gather (from a quick google) no one has folding a million cranes alone before, so it might be like a Guinness Record. I don’t know what I’ll do with a million cranes once they are done, maybe auction them? Or donate them to someplace? Thoughts and feelings?

• How do people do Halloween? How can you possibly choose a costume? What is the point of Halloween, I know kids go trick-or-treating but what do adults do? Is it just a chance to dress up and drink (cause I’m down with that) I just want to make sure I’m not missing the point. At the moment, I’m thinking of being a nerd or the toothfairy Yeah, I decided to go with a “hippy” largely because I can wear things straight out of my wardrobe and add a scarf tied across my forehead, and a peace sign necklace and I’ll be done. If I wanna go OTT I could add a tooled leather bag and feather earrings. I doubt I’ll be able to get a full costume in Tokyo (because I am big and I expect costumes to be little) so I’m kind of working from things I already own and things I can take with me and just accessorize once I arrive.

• Tig Notaro is my newest FB friend. Because I am extraordinarily lame, this makes me feel very cool because she is FAMOUS and now she is my FRIEND. She’s an entirely hilarious comedian and I think I would like to be BFF with her in person, if she ever wants to do gigs in Tokyo I’ll totally play the role of crash pad or we could just get married, that’d be ok too (best of all, she’s done with that, if ya known what I mean). Go watch this and try not to love her, I dare you.

• Oh, so about Tokyo, I put a deposit on some new flights today. My expected leaving date is 8 October. This is, of course, based on the fact that my luck has not entirely turned to shit and the lovely consulate does actually give me a visa. If all goes to plan, I have to fork out many thousands of dollars in the coming month. $1700+ for my flights, and like $2500+ for apartment related expenses (including first months rent and stuff, so not all bad). It has become one of those things I can’t think too much about because if I do think about it and realise that I’m spending many thousands of dollars to move to a country where I don’t really know hardly anyone and speak almost nothing of the native language…and I don’t have a job. Once again I will be relying on my blind faith approach to life and diving in head first and hoping for the best.

• Wanna know my plan for my first week in Tokyo? Yeah, I totally knew you did wanna know. OK, so I arrive on the 8th at night time (like last time), I will go to my same hotel from last time and have my same first dinner of champions that I had last time and crash go shopping. The next morning I shall go apply for my gaijin card and get the letter to say it’s being processed, then I’ll go  visit my new apartment for a proper inspection and assuming it’s all as described and the same as the pictures I’ll sign all my documents and get the keys for a move in on the 10th. After that I shall begin to sort out a keitai (mobile), a futon, towels and bathroom stuff and a cat. My apartment comes partly furnished so I only need to sort out something to sleep on and I will be ready to stay there, I will also have to buy things like drinking glasses and cultery and all that, but I figure so long as I have a bed then I can work on the rest over the next couple days. My apartment is able to have pets so I want to get one as soon as I can. I have always had a cat ever since I was born and being out in the bush without a pet of my own for two months was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. If it wasn’t important for finding work I’d get a cat before I worried about  getting a keitai, even. I just would hate to come home at the end of a day and have no one to talk to. Plus, when I am lonely or homesick having someone who is “mine” will make it better. I suppose you either get it, or you don’t, but I am a pet owner through and through so I can’t live without one. A puppy would be super cute but they bark and need far more attention than a cat does. I am going to call my cat Cinnamon and teach it to walk on a harness. I suppose I could just try and meet someone and have a real person to talk to at the end of a day but who can be bothered, cats don’t argue with you (much) and don’t mind if you leave them home alone to go drinking with your friends.

So, as part of the whole WordPress deal the stats give you a whole bunch of information including the search engine terms that have lead people to my blog. The terms that I frequently get me visitors relate to a few general themes: frangapani tattoos, pash rash and STD eyes. I feel it’s sort of like my public duty* to address these issues, so here we go:

Frangapani Tattoos: I should probably preface this by saying how much I dislike frangapani stickers on cars. Everyone and their friend has one and there are so many shitty, ugly, faded stickers around that it makes the few nice, tasteful ones look bad just by association. I feel the same way about frangapani tattoos, there are a few nice ones but there are also a whole lot of shitty ones out there. I won’t tell anyone that their tattoo is any more or less valid than anyone elses, but maybe it’s one of those tattoos that you should think a little about first – so you can find something a bit cool and different – rather than just picking out the standard frangapni picture from a tattoo flash book in the store. Plus, please take the time to find an artist you like. Don’t get a tattoo because it’s going to be cheap or because you can’t get in right away with the artist you’d rather go to so you’ll take anyone. It’s going to be something that is going to be with you forever so if you aren’t going to invest some time or money into something like that, what WILL you spend the time/money on. If you have even a shadow of a doubt, don’t do it. When you want a tattoo and have the right design fo you, you’ll know, and there won’t be any question about whether to go through with it.

Pash Rash: Well,I feel the best way to avoid pash rash is to be kissing girls However, for those who choose to persue boys, pash rash does tend to be an issue at some point. Obviously, clean shaven faces are the best for avoiding any rashes, but I am lead to believe beardies are equally kind to girly faces, it’s just that inbetween stage than tends to shred. I don’t know if it’s totally unavoidable – I suppose you might wanna skip anything too hot and heavy for a week or so if your boy wants to become a beardie, or maybe just keep the pashes short and sweet so your skin doesn’t get too red and angry while he’s super prickly. If you’ve found yourself unavoidbly rashed up, fear not. DO NOT load up your skin with lots of yucky stuff like concealer and liquid foundations. Pash rash is like a minor graze so putting a bunch of makeup over it would be like putting concealer over a grazed knee, it’s just going to be a shitty idea. Use a really light, simple, non-allergic mosituriser to keep your skin soft so it doesn’t become dried out and scabby, you have pash rash, not leporasy. If you do want to cover it, please use mineral makeup! It won’t make your skin any more angry than it already is and won’t get all clogged up in your pores and junk. Resist the urge to touch your face as much as possible, just give it a bit of time to heal. The more you annoy your pash rash, the longer it will take to heal – stick to keeping it clean and moisturised and free of make up as much as possible and in a few days you should be over the worst of it.

STD Eyes: Stop Googling and go to your Doctor, immediately. We are talking about your eyes and vision is not something you want to fuck with. Seriously! Maybe it will only be a minor eye irritation or a viral thing, but it’s much, much better to be safe than sorry. If your eye is itchy and red then it might be just an allergy so give it a day or two and if it doesn’t go away, see a doctor but if there is any kind if discharge particularly a colored discharge close your laptop this second and call the Doctor. Do you like seeing? Enjoy watching TV, reading stuff online and seeing your beautiful friends and family? Yeah, I though so. Call a Doctor, dude!

Today one of my terms was “waiting for the special time pictures” and I feel this one is too important to ignore. I’m of the opinion that you don’t need pictures or video of your “special time”. The only people who need to be seeing that stuff are you and whomever you are sharing this “special time” with, therefore making any sort of photo/video entirely redundant. You won’t use the pictures for your annual Christmas card, they won’t become Facebook profile pictures (please, for the sake of everyone on your friends list, don’t do it) so you just don’t need the pictures. Also, when the relationship draws to a close, whomever has the “special time” pictures has the upperhand. Of course you’d love to think that this person might be mature enough to destroy the evidence but I’ve seen enough Judge Judy to know that it is not always the case. Don’t do it unless you’d be happy for your closest friends and family to witness you in compromising positions, if that doesn’t bother you then snap away, my friends!

* This public duty is, of course, entirely self appointed. I don’t actually believe for a moment that people do actually require my advice

• Ahhh dots, posting using dot points is like putting on a pair of old slippers, all warm and comforting.

• So, I lasted a total of three-ish days with hair extensions. I tore out my last four yesterday afternoon (and a tiny patch of my hair, so not only do I have short sideburns again, one of them now also has a bald patch). If you are someone who has almost exclusively had short hair, I can’t recommend against getting extensions quite strongly enough. Everything about them was shitty – the hair was a different texture to mine (very thick/course vs my fine/silky hair), the little crimp thingys kind of pulled a little and it stung, the clip were right on the spot I slide the arms of my sunglasses over to put them on meaning several times a day I’d pull the shit out of my hair, the weight of even slightly longer hair than I was used to drove me mad, the hair tickling my neck made me insane. If you are used to having longer hair I suppose it wouldn’t be so bad because you’d be used to the feeling of hair all over your neck and the weight of extra hair hanging off your head, but if you aren’t used to it, it’s shit! More power to anyone who is willing to suffer the constant, minor discomfort of extensions for the sake of looking cool is a much better person than me. I take my hat hair off to you.

• Yesterday at kindy, I got to clean up a dead rat. They are doing lots of digging in the vacant block behind kindy for some pipes or something and we suspect they’ve displaced a bunch of creatures who had been living there. In the morning there was some kind of hopping, rat-like creature digging in our yard and that afternoon some of the preschoolers were squealing “Ewww, a mouse” and I went over to find a very dead rat lying on the ground. They were all instantly fascinated because it was 1) an animal 2) dead, the other teacher was dry retching already so I told her to fetch me the dustpan and a garbage bag and I’d do the rest. I should mention here that the worst part of being a teacher is having to pretend to be brave when you really aren’t. I knew that if I touched the creature and it was still a bit alive and moved that I’d throw it to the ground, squeal and jump away, it’s not what I’d like to do in front of a class of kids who think I’m a bit cool, but I’m a sissy who doesn’t like creatures so I yam who I yam. Anyways, the rat thing was properly dead (but still intact, so hurrah for no guts to deal with) so I showed the kids as it was lying in the dustpan, they all “oooh” and “ahhh”‘ed over it, then I put it in a bag in the wheelie bin. We believe it’s not the same creature from this morning because the earlier one was larger, so hopefully the nice, native creature is still alive somewhere.

• Today, the de-cluttering process began. I started cleaning out my office/junk room/spare room/sewing room. I have a fuck load of stuff, I think it would be safe to say that I’d have at least half of all items that have been stocked in Spotlight or Riot or Lincraft and the like, over the the past five years. I have SO much stuff. I’ve decided to go ahead with my crafty garage sale, I’ll be selling fabric, paper, quilting stuff, scrapbooking stuff, stickers, teacher stuff like toys, books and educational games as well as pre-made stuff that I have made for sale…and never quit got around to selling. It’s not worth the effort of listing it all on eBay and it’s far too much trouble to take allll my crap to a weekend market to try and sell it, so a garage sale it is.

• I put my hand up as I was folding a length of fabric just before, and right into the path of the metal ceiling fan. It hurt like nothing else and I immediately wanted to faint and/or throw up. I managed to get a big chop right in my first knucle on my pointer and it’s all swollen and black-ish. I wouldn’t be entirely surprised if it’s broken because last time I broke a finger it went black quite soon after the fact so that’ll be fun, either way it makes things a bit tricky to avoid using one of your pointers. After icing it for a while it still hurts so bad which makes me angry, I don’t like hurting.

• There is a new “Where’s Wally” book out. I was obsessed by Where’s Wally when I was in primary school and I think I might go and buy this new book tomorrow. Hurrah!! Even if I can’t use my pointer to search for him!

Enough with this sad-sackery! If you all wanted to glass me lately, I don’t blame you, I kind of want to glass myself. Thanks to the miracle of brain candy and a little bit of self pep-talking I have stood myself up, dusted myself off and “given it a rub” (the same advice I give my kids when they trip over or knock themselves on something) and I’m ready to get on with it.

I am going to Japan. I am going to find a good job. I am going to have a cool apartment. I am going to love it. There is no one and nothing that will get in the way of this. There is a school waiting for someone just like me, I’m actually a pretty alright teacher. I know my shit, I’m easy going, friendly, trustworthy and professional as all fuck and lots of schools would be lucky to have a teacher like me. The kids even like me too! Jac is out doing a prac in the bush and she saw one of my kids I had while I was out there and asked if she remembered me. She told Jac that she does remember, Jac told her that I’m kind of her best friend and my prep told Jac “Yeah, she’s my best friend, too”. It’s been three or so months since I’ve been there and one of my little preps, who is only five and has so much going on and would have been able to forget me in an instant still thinks we are best friends. One of my toddlers who had to be moved up to another room today because we were short staffed cried because he couldn’t be with me. That’s what it is all about!!

Why should I let three silly job interviews discourage me from something that I want so bad that it has kept me awake at night and caused me to physically hurt because I want it so much. If there was a pair of shoes I wanted, I would not let the fact that they were not stocked in three differents stores stop me from getting them so it seems terribly silly to give up so easily on something far more important than shoes.

Speaking of shoes, I’m going to buy a pair tomorrow. I’m still a wee bit heartbroken but because I am both shallow and materialistic I am going to buy some new shoes. Some “Fuck everyone, I am fantastic and infinately employable” shoes!

I took tomorrow off work (mostly so I can go and get all my visa application business sorted out, but partly so I can have a day off to chill out and get on with things) so I’m sure that things are going to get better.

Here are some things that make me happy, and thusly make it possible to believe that everything is going to get better:

• My new sidies. I got extensions, so I have asymmetric long bits, they are the perfect length for twirling on my finger and I have hair long enough that it gets stuck in my lip gloss – it has been very many years since this has been possible.
• Feist’s “1 2 3 4″ video clip, her sparkly blue jumpsuit and the colorful dancers make me very glad.
• Cross-stitching naughty words on doilies. I made D’Brother a “Get Fucked” doily from my Natalie Dee cross stitch kit for his birthday.
• New shoes. This needs no explanation – I have two X chromosomes.
• Hooping. Because hooping is RAD!
• Fingerstache.
• Getting the new Frankie.
• Cadbury Snack
• Sleep
• The way the Lush store smells. I could live in there if they’d let me…and if I could have curtain on the windows and like a bed and the Internets and stuff, but how fantastic would it be to live in a place that smells so delicious all of the time?!

I’ve been rejected by three of three schools. Awesome. I was fobbed off again with “You were a very strong contender but they position has been offered to another applicant”.

Well, Shitty McShitterson!! Being a strong contender doesn’t help me, actually. It’s almost just mean to tell me that because it means I was almost good enough, but not. “Sorry, you would be our first choice if we were looking for someone just a little bit shittier than our top choice, but unfortunately someone else was just that much less shitty than you are, I’m sure you understand, right??”

I think I’ve only ever been to one job interview that didn’t result in a job offer, so this whole “failure” deal is new to me. I don’t particularly like it, I think it bites ass, actually.

I have been trying to justify the fact that I *am* a good teacher. Like what if I did seven years of uni to just be totally shit at what I do?? I have many prac reports that justify that I do a pretty good job, so hopefully all of that just wasn’t the result of having nice host teachers who didn’t want to hurt my feelings.

I’ve decided to take the next two days off to get my visa sorted sleep, cry, eat and wallow.

So, you know the nice school I wanted to work at that was going to be fun and easy? Yeah? Well, they don’t want me either.

I got told it came down to me and someone else, which makes me feel good and that much worse, all at the same time. I’m glad that I was good, but obviously really sad that I’m not good enough.

It’s just shitty, and I’m trying really hard to resist the urge to just cry and fall in a heap but I suspect it’s more because I’m so tired and not capable of dealing well with anything at the moment.

I emailled the hardcore school today to follow up about the interview, but I suspect no news is not good news in this case. I’m trying so hard to not go down the “Nice work, you wasted a couple thousand dollars going to Japan to not find a job, good work you!” path. Now I’m wondering if I should even bother, what if I move there and I’m always the second best person for the job. Being second best is all well and good but it does not pay the rent.

SHIT!!

Here is the possibly not long awaited Tokyo post! Are you all excited?? For the sake of not taking up a large portion of your day ranting like a mad person about how fabulous everything was, I thought I’d do what I do best, dots:

• So, first up. I fucking adored Tokyo. I know the clever ones amongst you might have got a little inkling about this from my posts since I came back, but let my publicly announce it here. Tokyo stole my heart, well and truly.

• Jobs. This is what everyone asks, I guess because it’s the reason I went. Either way, I get asked about this at least five times a day. I interviewed with three schools, I’ve heard back from one. The one I heard back from I wouldn’t work at anyways, because they were offering me very shitty pay which was not the salary they advertised and had I know this I wouldn’t have bothered to do the interview. Turns out, they don’t want me – they’ve decided they can’t afford to actually hire a teacher because they need a bilingual staff member more. The school has 10 kids, another point they neglected to mention, that and the fact it’s run from an apartment in suburban Tokyo. So yeah, needless to say I’m not upset not be working there. I should hear back from one school today. The super amazing school I wanted so badly totally lived up to my expectations, it’s hardcore. Totally super elite, amazing curriculum and philosophy, fantastic vibe, basically everything you could ever ask for in a school…however, after seeing it, I don’t know if I want it so much anymore. I’m not sure if I’m ready for it, I think it would be a fantastic place to work but maybe after I’ve spent a few years sorting out how this full time, teaching alone, having your own class teaching business actually works. Especially without working in a school where parents pay more than my current yearly income to have their children educated. The first school I interviewed at seems to be the “just right” one. Good location, nice vibe, cruisey, a bunch of Aussie teachers and I think it’s a school I could just walk in tomorrow and teach in without having to go home every afternoon and cry and drink a bottle of wine just to convince myself I can go back tomorrow and do it again.

• Tokyo is, without a doubt, a fashion capital of the world universe. Granted I existed solely in the city while I was there, but during that time I saw only one person who made me think “Hot damn, touch up those roots, my love”, aside from that every single person is flawless. I’m not even exaggerating (I know!), seriously, everyone is perfect. I saw a lady riding a bike while dressed perfectly, immaculately made up, with sweat running down her neck but to look at her, she could have been photographed as a model for some sort of chic, city living type clothing brand. It’s amazing. The other brilliant thing I discovered, I fit into Japanese clothes! Not even fitting in like “I-can-make-this-fabric-encase-my-body-but-if-I-breathe-I’ll-hulk-it-right-off-me” way, like a normal clothes fitting way. Thankfully I only discovered this around the middle of my trip because had I know it from the start, it would have been a different story. I still did ok though, I think I came home with six or seven tops. Shoes however, a definate no go, damn these kangaroo feet! It’s also weird that I never once felt self-conscious despite living in a country that has ads in magazines for women who’ve gone from 45kg to 38.8kg. I’m pretty sure that my bones alone would weigh more than that! I expcted to feel like a total BFG but surprisingly I didn’t. I feel more ugly/self-conscious back here, strange huh?

• It made me gleefully happy that everything is open so late. The shops and stuff don’t open until 10, so there is enough time to sleep in, shower, get dressed, do hair and walk wherever you need to be before the shops open, then once they are open you can go shopping, staggle home – laden with your purchases, rest your giant Tokyo cankles cause by insane heat/humidity and hours and hours of walking in improper shoes, then head back out when it’s a little cooler for another round of shopping. It means that even after I work a full day there are still a number of quality shopping hours left in the day. This works for me so beautifully I can’t even explain it.

• Everything in Japan is cute, everything. Even the stuff that has no need to be cute is cute, not even like intentionally cute, it’s just inherantly cute. Being a lover of all things cute, this works for me. Last night, I ate a boiled egg shaped like a bunny head. Who even needs bunny shaped eggs?? No one, but it’s too cute to hate!

• I miss iced tea so much. Like proper iced tea – cold black tea. None of this Lipton or Nestea shit! Iced tea is cold black tea to which you add slices of lemon (or lemon juice) and sugar syrup if you so choose. So good, it’s actually refreshing and won’t give you a dizzing sugar high like “iced tea” here does and leave you feeling more thirsty than you were. It’s also served everywhere, any place you can get a drink of some type, you’ll find iced tea. That alone is enough of a reason for me to move back.

• WINNERS. So I know that you’ve all just been waiting to know who won, so I will put you out of your misery. Drum roll, please….the winner is Enny with her guess of 210. I took 174 pictures and her guess was the closest to the actual total. I know it’s not very many pictures, but Tokyo is so BIG and COLORFUL and EXCITING it seemed impossible to capture on my camera. If I was a good photographer I am sure it would be possible, but I’m not so I left the photos untaken. It seems almost cruel to capture Tokyo in anything less than the perfect shots. Our random winner is…..Mars! Mars has been hoping to win a Crappy Magnet competition for the longest time and I’m so glad she came up as my random pick. So, what do you win? Well, trot on over to my new Flickr to see photos from my trip as well as the magnificent prizes!

If you guys have questions or anything, please do ask. This is a terribly scatterbrained post as I don’t sleep anymore so I’m incoherant most of the time nowadays. If anyone knows how I can make myself sleep I’ll give you a big, giant kiss on the lips. At the moment it feels as if my eyes couldn’t be hanging further out of my head and I have to fight (hard) to nod off while patting my kindergarteners off to sleep, or when driving and other equally inopportune times but cannot sleep once I go to bed, I NEED sleep.

You know what’s depressing?

Buying Tencel jeans*…for the second time in your lifetime.

*I know, right? Tencel jeans? Just try a pair on and then try not to buy every pair in stock, trust me. They were beautiful and soft when I was in Grade Seven and they are just as nice to wear these days. I wore the pair I had back in the day until they were literally worn to shreds, I fear my new pair will meet a similar fate. It’s a sad day the first time you realize a fashion trend you participated in the first time around has come back in.

P.S. I know I haven’t blogged about Tokyo or announced a winner for the photo competition yet, I’ve been busy and I’m super tired and junk. It’s gonna happen tomorrow or Tuesday, pinky swears.