Ahh, my favorite time of year. The sun is shining, the temp is in the mid-20s and the nights are cool. Ideal hiking weather, which I hope to do a little of soon.
Miyu's sister is staying with us for a couple of weeks b4 heading off to NZ for a Working Holiday, and she's a god-send. Jay loves her, she's a hairdresser so we're getting free snips and she does the washing up after dinner. Plus she's trying to cram in some last minute English learning, and I'm glad to be able to help out in that respect.
Jay is now pretty comfortable walking around, and he's discovered climbing. He loves to climb up on a dinner table chair after pushing it up to the sink, and help out with the washing up. The small things in life really are quite wonderful.
It's a Saturday night, and I've been out with my friend Jason, who turned 40 last week. He was looking for some advice in the love department, saying that he was wondering if it would be OK to ask out a 21 year old at a North Korean university...I tried not to laugh, and told him quite directly to steer well clear. Sometimes he he's quite childlike himself.
Looking forward to my regular Sunday morning run around the Imperial Palace tomorrow morning with Joseph. It's great to spend some time with my friend and share our thoughts on life, and it leaves me very energised for the rest of the day. The reason we're doing it is to be in in shape for next year's Tokyo Marathon, where we'll hopefully get a place in the 10k run (although we only have a 1 in 17 chance of getting placed, as it's so popular!) We've currently stuck to one lap of the palace, but we'll soon be working our way up to two laps, which will be 10k. The run itself is very easy, as it's very visually stimulating, and there are a horde of other runners racing around, even though it's 8am on a Sunday morning.
Work is going quite well. There was a bit of a lull in September, but it's again picking up and I'll probably be doing about 50 hours a week up until Xmas, which is good for the family coffers. It's also pleasing to see that my hard work there is paying off, in that I've build up a solid reputation, and my services are so in demand that the staff are fighting over getting me to take on their clients. It's also satisfying because this is what I visualized for myself two years ago when I got the job, and now it's been realized.
We're contemplating buying a house or flat, which is pretty exciting, and something that I'll feel very good about. A place to truly call our own, and to do with as we want. Ideally we'd like a garden, but it would mean moving further out, to somewhere like Kamakura. I do like urban living, but the prospect of all that space, really appeals, and I'm sure would greatly benefit Jay's development. Just got an image of a house up a hill, overlooking the ocean. Summertime and we're having a garden party with a group of friends. The bbq is sizzling, and we go and cool off with a swim in the sea. Ahh...