fuchsia fragments

The strangest thing has happened this week... there have been TWO resignations in the Tokyo office. After getting the impression that no one resigns, it's very strange! And now I know (or know of) 4 people who've resigned from the Tokyo office. We haven't even had that many resignations within my wider team in Sydney.

Pretty ordinary week this week. Work, run, home. Rain. Windchill. Language class. This weekend I went to Kisarazu Outlet Park. It was very cold and whilst it was a big outlet centre, it let me down. The sales weren't as awesome as Hawaii or Vegas (that's my benchmark) but I still managed to come home with a few items. Most importantly my mountaineering gear and some new Kate Spade! Also had a chai latte that was sheeeeet expensive and a let down at one of the coffee chains. I think I am slowly growing accustomed to crap coffee and an outrageous price is something of the norm here. Boo.

I also had dinner with my new friend (a friend of Janice's) Natsumi. We had sukiyaki (which is Japanese style hot pot with sliced beef) and it was so yummy although the broth was a bit sweet for me. Washed down with beers, it was perfect on Friday night because it was so cold. You dip the boiled meats and vegetable in raw egg before you eat it - and I think this is where the hot pot (steamboat) custom comes from. I personally don't really like to dip my stuff in slimy sauce and would prefer to eat it straight from the pot.

Today, I walked from Shinjuku to Shibuya (roughly 2.5 km) and visited a few shops to find some baking stuff. Not as much as I remembered and also just not... right. Everything is in tiny sizes... even the flaked almonds, almond meal is sold in packets of like... 50 g!

I had all my work skirts dumped on on my bed this morning as wanted to sort through them and sell a few that I no longer really wear. Most of the items barely worn and bought on a whim or on a different wavelength.

I ended up gifting them to my sister. That's an almost-new $500 wardrobe! I could have made some $$ on eBay!

Never realised this till tonight. But sunscreen causes mini outbreaks :( can feel little red dots developing on my face. Next time, will need to use a sensitive skin one!

Was soooo late for my catch up with the Tarjay girls tonight. Ended up staying till almost 7 at work to help an AE with his quote. A learning curve for the both of us but he's so funny! We were cracking accountant jokes at each other. hehehehehe so I wasn't so bothered by staying back so late! And it was coincidentally National Accountant's Day! random...

Anyways, we went to all-you-can-eat hotpot at Capital Thai in Haymarket. It was supposed to be $23/pp but we paid $79 for the 4 of us. Not sure what happened there...

But those little coconut thai dessert pancake ricecake doobies "Khanom Krok"... DELICIOUS... i got there late and there was a time limit but I would have happily just had that all night long! Was soooo hungry by the time I got there. Didn't get a chance to have lunch today either :( and it's only going to get worse with quarter-end......

I'm either blogging every second day, or not blogging at all...

In my defence i got sick (refer to previous post thinking it was hayfever: guess not huh?), and sicker before getting slightly better. went to the doctor to be told that it was allergies causing all these symptoms and there was actually nothing wrong with me. even though had a cough, blocked nose and body aches. wasn't prescribed with any medication and was told to continue taking over-the-counter (non-working) drugs! and he gave me a sample of this hayfever nasal spray... when i am pretty sure it wasn't hayfever. hahaha what a funny doctor...

in between or just before, i hosted my 3rd annual high tea (by hosted i mean lay on the couch for half the afternoon whilst every one else enjoyed themselves), had lots of baking to do and life in general.

was feeling slightly better by tuesday and was planning to work from home in the afternoon only to get onto a role in the office and stayed the whole day. which paved the road for full days of work for the rest of the week. guess i survived.

CFO gave me a overly-ripe banana on friday afternoon, said to me 'don't say i'm not good to you!' and then massively hinted that i needed to bake banana bread for monday. HA HA funny.

spent a good portion of my weekend in the kitchen making sugar flowers and cakes and burning my hands whilst trying to do some fancy pansy stuff with toffee (like build a croquembouche, read about it on my other blog). and silly me being silly like to pop the blisters that protect the burn so it hurts even more. have three so far and they're pretty painful!

went for a drive to donnas and beyond last night. thought castle hill was far. beaumont hills is another 10 kms from her place. that makes it very very very far from my place. huge ass houses out there but not about to make that trek any time soon... at all!!! but nice to just sit and donnas and drink tea and eat her eucalyptus drops, thanks dude!

went to chris' (work colleague) place for dinner last night with other work people. had hot pot and then played a bit of mahjong whilst watching mr and mrs smith on tv. left just after midnight and no joke, it was 1:15 by the time i was home. even in no traffic, it's a long drive!

think i'm ready to let this weekend go, feels like i've achieved a fair bit so rather content!

Finally some time to clear some stuff off my desk at home!

Yesterday, went for a drive - literally - to Newcastle and back. Was very lucky to not be caught by the highway patrol. Lovely day for a drive though, beautiful weather and a bit of a family thing. But nothing exciting. Got stuck in massive amounts of traffic before hitting the highway. Stopped at maccas and got a minion toy (lol) and drove some more to newcastle. Didn't even stop by the waterfront or anything. Was dropping off my cousins brother-in-law to his new homestay for uni. Twas all.

Today, had hot pot at carl's new place. Jayden is so cute! Anyways was really good to just sit around. 

Got home around 4.. and have been spending the afternoon catching up on doing all those mundane tasks that well, need doing. Still not up to my tax return yet though... haha. that might be another few weeks away.

My hayfever seems to get worse and worse every year. My nose is always runny / blocked and makes me feel so dazed. Can't. handle. it. Am pretty sure the over-the-counter antihistamines aren't working too well. Not even spring yet! :(

Organising my time for the next couple of months. Weekends seem to be filling up quick!

that i will miss and treasure.

random impromptu dinner at jans with joyce and michael and gooley. hahaha it was fun cause we had hot pot and put in fish balls and fish paste that they didnt eat. (like on the verge of regurgitating in gooley's case). and then they chucked out all the really fat pieces of lamb and beef. LOL that was like half the packet... like hot pot lamb is like that!! and i never knew u could eat a whole mooncake in one sitting. o_O

do u know how many calories are in one???

still haven't quite worked out the difference between lotus and white lotus. apart from the colour of course. i think i prefer white lotus though. and defintely with yolks. and considering im not a massive fan of mooncakes, theyre tolerable.. during mooncake festival. red bean filling is good too. =) not so much mixed nuts.

the we played wii =D me and shooting games do not mix. sad sad. plus taking cheap shots from behind is.. well - CHEAP! especially when i didn't even have my bearings right yet!! hahaha.

XD

movie needed closure. i felt nothing when dumbledore died.. and yes, way too many romantic references. lol lol.

hot pot was awesome. ate heaps. and talked over each other?

im so tired from work.

had a really not nice customer today who wanted to buy 10 high chairs. we had 5 staff members at one point or another helping her and she didnt say thank you to one of us. plus i spent more than an hour with her. made like 3 phone calls to different stores. explained to her that she couldnt hold anything during the toy sale and then insisted that the other store hold them for her anyway. and threatened to go to another store to buy the chairs if we didnt give ur a further discount.

wtf?

we only gave her a discount cause it was like a significant amount. but still.. just.. did not feel appreciated.

not happy. =(

taking my time.. im like half trying on clothes as i pack. hahaha anyhow, im travelling pretty light i think. with the thought of 'if i forget anything, then i will simply buy it there'. hahaha
anyhow, it still hasnt sunken in. it still feels like a 'today was the last day of exams and we went shopping afterwards' not a 'tomorrow im going overseas' feeling. if that makes sense
hotpot was haha well, lets just say, i can't believe some people could eat so MUCH n still be like.. u know, i can do with another plate of lamb. talk about bottomless stomachs. machines!!

went to our lil ari's place for hot pot. and his mum was telling us how he went to childcare today. and this lil girl (emily, i believe) was like really excited to see him so she ran up to ari and was lil 'ari!!!' really happily. and my godbrother prompty slapped her on the face. poor lil girl.. and she didn't cry. she just had her hands covering her face. he's got a bit of a temper this godbrother mine. but we still love him. he was really happy today which has been a positive change cause poor lil fella's been sick for the past few days. and then he pooped and became a walking stinkbomb. lol
i woke up today with heaps of pain in my neck and back. so i took it as an excuse to not to go the gym (which i will beat myself up about) and lounging in my jammies all day.
looks like we might be flying out sooner than expected.