All Whites, All Right!

So I no longer live with the ignominy of coming from a distinctly un-soccery country – and in my extended family, that has been a deep shame, until today… by breakfast time this morning we had discovered the joyous news that 80% of the countries of our collective ethnicity (England, USA, Japan and now New […]

Film

It took us several months to get life into enough of a rhythm that we didn’t get to the end of each day and just fall exhaustedly into bed. But once we had reached that happy place, it was obvious that we needed to reintroduce the joy of film into our lives. We had dispensed […]

Not Working Seems To Be Working…

…for now anyway. After reading my lovely friend Mandy’s comment on yesterday’s post, I have spent some time today reflecting on things I have put out into the blogosphere in the past year, and musing on how not working feels now, after more than 18mths of the habit. I have been inspired by, and feel […]

Amnesty International Art Auction

Last night was Amnesty International night… We discussed final plans for our Silent Art Auction that we are holding in a few weeks. Since my life still pretty much revolves around Kazuo, I was grateful for the efforts of Helen who has really taken this event on and will be the reason for its success. […]

Contingencies

Just having one of those days when I realise that I am not too good at contingencies. It is all or nothing with me… and usually that has stood me in reasonably good stead. But I realise that the stakes have changed. And though I do subscribe to the idea that even life’s most painful/challenging/frightening […]

Leaves

I am obsessed this week with the amazing leaves in our neighbourhood… can’t get enough of tromping through them when we go out for a walk, totally fascinated with the never-ending clean-up job in people’s yards, utterly intrigued by the big trucks and sucky-blowy machinery that the council uses to collect them from the big […]

Helmet Free!

Well, it has taken me a while to get round to this – but I wanted to give a FINAL update on the helmet – it is all over! We are still somewhat skeptical that it made any difference, or was really all that necessary. But the fact remains that in the three months or […]

Out and About in the Sun

This morning, the sun streamed through our windows, the baby woke at dawn, it was cool and crisp outside, and this is how the neighbourhood was looking: We busied about getting ready to enjoy the day… coffee, cereal, showers, rugging up for the cool outdoors… and then Akira biked off to work. Kazuo and I […]

Gratitude

I am inspired at the moment by the thoughts of the everyday wonder of ordinary life, and of trying to make a habit of being a little more thankful. This was also brought home to me last night as we sat and discussed the Science on Tap event that Akira took our friend Christine to […]