Foto Friday PLUS today only!! Bonus in-law rant!

Weeks are flying by, less than 3 weeks until I'm back in Aussie. Kind of looking forward to it in that will be great to see everyone and everyone will be thrilled to see Ash, (and take him off my hands hehe) but will definitely miss Ryota and being 'home.'

Had a few in-law incidents over the past few weeks, we're in a futon debate at the moment, all the in-laws are fighting for Ash to be out of the crib and on to a futon. I'm not against futons, fuck I like them, sleep on one! But we spent $400 on the freakin baby bed, it's taking up room, he should sleep in it! Plus, it's a safe place for him, he's into everything at the moment, we're baby proofing like crazy. It's the only place where he can't chew the shit out of something that will get lodged in his throat. Everyone here insists that he's waking up because he's hitting his legs and arms on the crib but I think it's bullshit, we tried him on the futon one night and he rolled off on to the tatami and woke up anyway. So for now he stays, I'm the one who gets up anyway!

The main in-law problem lately has been SIL. moody little bitch has been hell to be around lately. She's always been moody and that's partly why I like her, she's unpredictable and kind of bitchy to people who piss her off, but her latest hissy fit is the most childish thing I've ever heard. She's jealous because her Dad wouldn't buy her a jacket she wanted.... Ummm can you say 12 years old???

Basically, SIL really doesn't like her Dad, she's still cut about how he left her mum, and that's cool, FIL was a right wanker at the time, she has every right to still be pissed. So she never goes to see him or calls him, even when BIL and Ryota and I go, she stays home. FIL always asks about her and what she's doing and we usually make some excuse like she's working because we can see the hurt look on his face.

FIL is pretty generous (making up for bad fathering perhaps??) and always buys us little (or big, kitchen chairs, finally, woooohoooo!) prezzies. He bought Ash a new high chair the other day and BIL some ridiculously over-priced anti-balding shampoo and SIL was miffed when she heard about this. So she called FIl and without even saying "How are you?" first said, "Can you buy me this jacket I want on the Internet?? Just give me your card number..."

I was gobsmacked when I heard that, sooooo cheeky!

I honestly think if she'd asked FIL if they could go shopping together for her winter jacket he would have jumped at the chance, but as expected he said no. Thank god, I would have really lost respect for him if he'd said yes.

Anyway, since then, SIL has been in a foul mood towards everyone, including Ash, which just isn't fair. She thinks that we shouldn't go to FIL's house but fuck, that's our choice not hers. (Plus, I need some new bedding! ;) Ryota got so sick of it he went off his nut the other night and basically said he didn't care whether she was family or not, a bitch is a bitch. It was harsh but even Grandma and MIL told her she was being an arsehole, and since then she's been back to normal. Gotta love Japan and the feeling burying tactics that go on then get smoothed over until someone goes crazy with a knife at Akihabara station....

Been a few other things like Grandma telling me Ash is too cold because his shoulders aren't covered but nothing a few "Sou ne's" can't fix.

OK here are this week's piccies!

Old school! Was having contractions here, hence the timing sheet next to me! なつかしいいいい！

Ash has taken to shouting into wrapping paper then waiting for a reply, very cute.

Drunken photo from the end of the wedding, Ryo-chan looks like he's gunna keel over!

Was this little man's birthday party the other day, we had lots of fun, Happy Birthday Raiden kun! Check out his mummy's cool blog here!

We loooovvvveee yoghurt!

R-E-S-T-E-C-P

I have a new found respect for Grandma-in-law.

I've never had a problem with her, although sometimes a bit pushy, she's never done anything that's really pissed me off, and you've gotta love an 83 year old Japanese lady who goes bananas for KFC. Funny too, because she's the most old school 'Japanese' out of all my in-laws, and I'm finding that we are similar in many ways. Actually, just one way: everyone around us treats us both like complete idiots with the mental capacity of 2 year olds.

Example, whenever anyone loses something at the in-laws' house, it's blamed on Grandma. Every time. No matter what it is.The other day, MIL lost an envelope containing some important secret city office business, now I had seen her shove the envelope in her bag and tried to put this point across when she was frantically searching for it all over the house, but my small gaijin cries of "Hey, it's in the bag" were inevitably lost in the panic.She instantly went on a Grandma blaming rant and literally said "Obaachan is going senile, she always tries to clean up and forgets where she puts things!" I was slightly horrified at this, considering MIL is 50, has lived with her parents all her life and still doesn't wash any of her own clothes or vacuum.

Grandma, not one to sit down and take shit, started ranting right back at her, saying if she wasn't so fucking messy she wouldn't lose things. At this point SIL and BIL were all behind MIL, backing her up exclaiming, "Yeh, you always put my shit away!" It became clear to Grandma that I was the only one who was even slightly on her side, so she settled for ranting at the gaijin not sure if i was understanding, but added lots of "な" at the end to show she was ranting with me not at me. I did lots of nodding and silent pointing towards the bag but nobody really got that I knew where the envelope was.SIL then joined in the fun by saying she couldn't find her glasses and that Obaachan must have cleaned them and lost them. 5 minutes of chaos later MIL had found the envelope (in the bag I'd been pointing at) and SIL found her glasses (in her own handbag) and while everyone scattered, mumbling that Obaachan usually does put things in the wrong place, I was left with Obaachan while she continued her 'Nobody listens to me anymore' tirade.

Nobody accuses me of being senile, (yet) well, most of the time anyway, but I do get clumped in the same 'don't trust her she'll fuck it up' category that Grandma does because of my apparent complete lack of understanding of anything going on.One example when it came to me was my tax, now I'm a long-termer in Japan and have married a local, unfortunately I actually have to start paying my tax slightly on time. MIL kindly went to the city office for me to sort out how much I owed which was great but what she didn't tell me is that she got them to divide it up into 2000 yen installments which means I'll have to pay interest on it for about 50 fucking years which I didn't want to do.She just didn't feel the need to ask me which way was better to pay it because she thought I mightn't have understood but fuck woman, give the foreign girl a chance! I then went to the city office by myself (well with offspring) and paid it in full like I planned to before.

The biggest defiancy point scorer recently has definitely been Obaachan though, she's such a rebel. Despite all instructions, wait for it... she's been going out of the house! To the supermarket!! ON HER BICYCLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Shock horror!All the in-laws just called her stupid and said not to call them when she falls off her bike.So Obaachan came over to our house especially, asked where I was then relayed the story of how she went on her bike and got the shopping because she was going crazy staying in the house everyday. She told me with a huge grin on her face because she knew I'd understand and be the only one to understand for that matter. It made me smile because she was so proud of herself in her little going out outfit and sunhat, bless her little cotton socks.

I hope I'm as feisty as her and still tucking into a 3 piece chicken pack when I'm 83, you go girl!

Feeling better today

Happy to say my bitchy mood has passed, PMS perhaps?
Ryota knew as soon as he got home last night that I was in a foul mood, and my bursting into ridiculous girly sobs probably didn't do much to help. He's not the best with girl problems though, the first thing he said was "Wait, what day is it?? It's not mother's day is it??" Poor flower is scarred from my last hissy fit. He then went on to just repeatadly ask me what was wrong, I tried to explain I couldn't put my finger on it, just felt shitty. But that wasn't good enough for him. Bloody men, clueless!

I then made the mistake of trying to explain it to him in Japanese, when I said "I feel like my life has no meaning" he said I sounded like a suicidal building jumper, which I wasn't I was just trying to explain to him that I'm a pretty shitty housewife, I really am. I can cook OK and the house is clean(ish) but I'm just not made to be a housewife. I liked my job, I was good at it, I hated quitting. But I couldn't get across to him how having no job and being an average housewife really makes me feel quite useless. However it did feel better to get it off my chest and I scored a massage out of it.

Also my MIL asked her boss for tonight off (she really is nice, I don't give her enough credit) so we are going to the snazzy Kobe restaurant tonight. We've got a late booking so hopefully I can milk Ash up and he'll sleep over at the in-laws so I can have a shandy or 10. I'm a little pissed at the short notice because I have nothing new to wear but it feels nice to not have to cook and just do my hair and make-up and stuff. Although I MUST run today, I think that's why I felt so shit yesterday, no running days make me feel like a housebound baby whale.

P.S. Happy 4th of July Yankees! Blow something up for me.