Meeting old friends for the first time

I met Julie through out blogs many moons ago, she was starting out with Montessori and I think stumbled across my blog when looking for inspiration. We became bloggy friends, commenting on each other blog and so on and then when Facebook became a thing our friendship moved over there too.

When her son eldest son got sick, Ebi-kun saw the picture of him in the hospital bed and wanted to send him his robot that he had designed (I sewed) but robot had had a run in with a nose bleed so I explained it wasn't very hygienic! Ebi-kun decided to design a new robot, so we made him and sent him off and when Eli got better they sent us a fab parcel from Hungary!

It's funny how these little stories make such a big impression on out kids.

Anyway, Julie and her family are currently living in China and were planning a trip over to Tokyo so we arranged to meet up. It was great to finally meet her in real life! Although a bit weird too, just knowing someone online for so long then finally meeting them!

We went to an okonomiyaki place for lunch, where you cook the meal yourself at the table, the kids all loved the yakisoba!

Then we headed into Ueno park to the shitamachi museum. I have never been in this place before, if you are in Ueno with an hour to kill, go and check it out. It's only a couple of hundred yen to get in. It was also quite hands-on so the kids were having fun trying things out and trying to work out what everything was.

Then we had a bit of a walk around the park, Julie's family had plans to do Shibuya and Harajuku in the afternoon and we needed to get back, so we parted ways but not until the kids had a good run around the park. It took them a while to warm up but then of course they were best buds when it came to leave! Always the way.

It was fab to spend some time with Julie and I wonder about all the other bloggy friends I have met over the years, maybe I'll get to meet them too one day!

Halloween Party 2016

Ohhh my favourite time of year, not because I love zombies and the such like, (this is the person who hasn't yet made it through more than 3 minutes of the walking dead!) No, it's the artistic side that I love, the creating and trying to make things look realistic in a gruesome sort of way. Does that make me weird?

Probably!

This year we all dressed as Japanese ghosts/monsters. Ebi-kun went for Sakado from the Japanese horror film, The Ring - and NOOOOO he hasn't watched it but he knows who she is!

I went for kuchi no ona - the woman with a ripped mouth. I had so much fun doing this, I need more practice with liquid latex though, I did have flappy latex syndrome and I'm not sure why. I will have to brush up my skills for next year!

And daddy made his own costume and was the One Eyed monster, her is was caught eating giant ants.

I'll be sharing some food tutorials with you, as always, here is a sneak peep... Jason tucking in, it's hungry work being a serial killer!

We didn't have so many families this year but everyone came dressed up which is fun and now a lot of places in the neighbourhood do the trick or treating, so much fun for the kids!

The local cake shop goes all out and all the staff dress up too, I loved Porko Rosso this year!

I'm not entirely sure what this fella was up to, he wasn't giving anything else just pretending to sprinkle something on the kids, which was actually which un-nerving, certainly made me laugh though.

Possibly the scariest costume... Donald Trump!

The two older lads in the group decided that they are too big to trick n tear now so they were handing out the goodies instead.

Ebi-kuns game this year, of course included eating! He has 6 bowls with mystery foods in each one. The kids had to roll a dice then pick something from the matching bowl number. The challenge was to eat the mystery food without pulling their face. If they did it, they got a treat and if not a trick. The tick meant putting their hand in a pack of cooked spaghetti to find a treat. 

It was revolting but they kept coming back for more!

Where's Wally (Waldo) 'enjoying' the BBQ lamb caramel that Ebi-kun tried for one of his taste tests.

Jennifer had baked mini cup cakes and got the kids to decorate themselves - smart move there! Needless to say they all got demolished!

All in all another great Halloween party wrapped!
I'll be back later with tutorials for some suitably revolting food, so that you can start planning for next year!

Building dens and getting mucky at Lyme Park

[15th Aug]

Despite just returning form our grand tour, and not even managing to unpack properly, there was no rest to be had as we had another playdate lined up, this time with one of my best mates, Lesley and her kids. We decided to meet at Lyme Park again as it's about half way for both of us and the kids really enjoyed it there last year.

My mom drove and Lesley bought her mom over too, so we left the moms people watching and drinking coffee in the courtyard whilst we went to the play area.

The boys got straight in there, no messing around and started building a den. It's a great set up, there are lots of branches around and a number of trees that are suitable for den building. There were a group of lads trashing other people dens but I put on best scary face to keep them away!

In the den!

Of course they had to try and cross the stream, which resulted in two mucky little boys! But they had fun...

I think I-chan was feeling a bit let out, maybe next time we need to find a little girl to come along with us. The moms had a good natter though and it was great to catch up with Lesley. Of course we keep up with the comings and goings on facebook but that's not the same as having a good chinwag.

The play area also has climbing equipment, not so much for the little ones, it is really suited for maybe 5 years and up.

It was a really hot day but much of it is under the trees, I think the moms got the worst of it, too busy nattering to notice the sun! Lesley's family are all very fair so everyone was looking a bit pink by the end of the day.

We had a great afternoon and the sat nav chose an interesting route to take us home, very scenic, driving through the Peak District does make me miss home, rice paddies are pretty but they have nothing on the rolling hills of home!.

Euro Tour 2016 - Brighton BBQ with friends and family

[13th Aug]

Not only does my best mate live in Brighton, my uncle lives there too, he is just 4 years older than me, so he has always been more like a cousin or annoying older brother than an uncle. Di kindly offered to do a BBQ so we could invite uncle Si and the family around along with some other random friends.

But first the boys needed to burn off some energy so it was down the park for football training with Mark. This is the third year that Ebi-kun has joined, he really enjoys it, which baffles me because Mark is very old school in his coaching techniques. No pussy footing around, he bollocks the kids if they are getting it wrong and praises them when they get it right, his favourite phrase is ... you doughnut!

After training Ebi-kun came into the kitchen as said "Mark really likes his doughnuts doesn't he?" Mark is, shall we say, quite portly so Di was aghast and thought Ebi-kun was quite out of character being so rude! Ebi-kun was referring to Marks favourite phrase though, certainly made me laugh.

Annoyingly Ebi-kun has picked up the phrase and is now calling everyone a doughnut! gah!

Rob got his BBQ on, he did a great job, everything got demolished! I don't think there were any leftovers!

It was quite an eclectic mix of people, Rob's best mates, my uncle and family and the next door neighbours. The kids got on well and we didn't have any fights - which is always a good thing if you ask me! 

They were quite busy playing football, rugby sevens and shooting each other with nerf guns.

I think there was some team plotting going on here, Ebi-kun and my littlest cousin...

We had to get the family shot, this is actually the best one of the bunch, which doesn't say much for the rest really!

And Neil got the job of rescuing the balls that had gone over the fence, luckily Ry has about 15 footballs, so it takes them a while to run out of balls!

The drink flowed and the kids were still running around shooting each other quite late, it was a good job I had packed the bags before the madness began! Great day with old friends and new and lovely to catch up with family too!

A day to remember - reunion of old friends

As  you know, I'm part of a bilingual playgroup and Ebi-kun joined when he was just 6 weeks old, he has grown up with these kids and it's great that when ever we get together they just get on with it and go and play. There are never any fights or arguments, they all get on great!

This was a picture I took of them a few year ago, they all look so cute and little!

And here they are now, we had one kids missing as he is off in Portugal playing football for Urawa Reds Jrs and we had an extra couple in this time (the boys in red). Ebi-kun really hit it off with the older of the brothers and wanted to play with him again but sadly they are visiting from the States and were heading off to Osaka. We are going to see about setting them up on skype!

Of course we couldn't let all the kids have all the fun!



As the kids alternated from playing outside then coming in to cool off, the dads played music...

Ate cheese!

By using a blow torch on it!

We did let the kids eat too, we're not that mean, although I think most of them missed out on the blow torch cheese! Too bad!

And yes, there were cocktails, lots of cocktails. Although I stuck to the wine, the next day was really hot and not the best weather to recover from a hangover!

So yes, a good day was had by all, the kids were all exhausted and the adults (most of them) drunk!

Looking for ward to the next event!

Forgotten Fields And Famous Authors...

[8th August]

We were awake bright and early on Saturday morning, no thanks to the whingy kids in the tent next door! We had some heathy snacks for breakfast then headed up to the ticket office to see if they could replace Ebi-kuns wrist band, they had put in on too tight the night before and it was hurting him. They chnaged his band without issue and we discovered a couple more screw ups from the organizers, firstly the toilets hadn’t been cleaned over night - porta-loos at their best, or not. 

Lots of grumbly parents as kids were kicking off and refusing to use the minging toilets and then we discovered that they arena wasn’t opening until 10am and of course, this is where all the food stalls were. No food to feed the kids, not everyone had bought either food with them (big daft really) or cooking equipment. More angry parents ready to rush the gate by 9.30am! We kept the boys busy, playing hairdressers!

Apart from these teething problems, everything else seemed to go OK. We had toasties for brunch then lazed around as the boys played football. Nic, one of our uni friends (that I used to make dance outfits for) lives literally next door to the site and he had free tickets so we met up, again I haven't seen him since we left uni but we are mates on facebook.

Nic bought his partner Steve with him, who is lovely and funny too and he also happens to be an international best selling author, he wrote Before I Got To Sleep which was made into a film last year and last week he left to do a book tour with his latest book Second Life, if you love mystery thrillers, you will love his books!

It was really good to catch up, it was as if we were back at uni, stupid stories and remembering all the daft things and people! Nic and Steve didn't stay for long, they had things to do (and probably have a much nicer toilet back at home!)

Once it started heating up we headed into the Big Top Tent which was excellent. They had shows and activities on throughout the day, kids Zumba was hysterical they also did a beat boxing class, trapeze lessons, juggling and other circus shenanigans then later in the evening they had films showing in there. Just outside the big top there were hula hoops, juggling balls, things to toss and jump on, tight ropes to try, a section for the little ones and some crafty activities too - all very well done. 

The boys spent a lot of time in there as we sat under the big trees enjoying the atmosphere and a crafty beer or two. We tried to take a siesta because we knew the boys would struggle to stay up late, Ry managed to fall asleep but the rest of us were too hot. Bit of a fail really.

For dinner we headed over to the exotic game burger stand, Ebi-kun had his eye on the kangaroo and I decided to try the llama (I have had alpaca before in Peru so figured it would be similar. Both were good. Di and Ry just went for plain ole cow!

Ry and Di are both Super Furry fans but Ebi-kun and I are not so bothered, we all stayed up to watch them play but Ry wasn’t happy because they didn’t play his favourite track (in Welsh!) maybe next time. So it was another later night...

Top Of The World - The Shard, HMS Belfast and Peruvian dinner

[5th August]

Today we headed into London, to London Bridge Station. When we arrived we got off the train and all the emergency alarms went off and everyone was told to exit the station. We met Brogs (a uni friend) just outside the station and made our way to The Shard.

Di had won a red letter day and decided to trade it in for 4 Shard and Champagne tickets so we only had to pay for 1 child in the end, which is just as well since a regular adult ticket is 33 quid!

To get to the top you have to take 2 lifts. Then when you get to the top, you have an amazing view! The Shard is currently the tallest building in Western Europe (something in Russia is apparently taller). We had a beautifully clear day and could see for miles.

We all got the interactive gadgets, the boys loved them and sat and listened to everything on there. They have done it really well by keeping the info short and sweet and with lots of random facts thrown in. This gave us girls time to catch up and sup on some champagne, very civilised - must say, the bubbles got straight to your head when you are at that height!

There are two floors to view from, the second one is more garden like with fresh air and plants. Apparently there are 9 apartments within the Shard building each one costing around £50 million! 

After we had taken in all the views we nipped to the loo... this is most certainly a loo with a view!

Then we headed off to the war ship HMS Belfast which is docked in the Thames.

Unfortunately we weren't on the ball and hadn't printed out the discount vouchers before leaving the house - I know, very shabby of us. If you are planning to go make sure you do it, it will save you a fair bit. It was expensive to go in but it was great, the boys loved it! Be warned, there are 9 floors and most of them are accessed by going up and down steep stairs/ladders.

We took a break on deck and had fun waving to the tourists as they went by and the boys got busy with selfies...

We also had fun posing with the models on board....

As evening drew in, the rain arrived and we headed back towards the station to Tito's Peruvian where we met another two old uni mates, I haven't seen Matt and Damien since we graduated in 1995! It was good to catch up and hear about other course members that they are still in touch with.

We had a great meal, I went for the lomo saltado which was my favourite dish from when we were travelling in Peru.

We left around 8pm, the boys worn out (moms too) and headed back to Brighton. The weather on the way back was crazy pants, on one side of the train it was beautifully sunset skies and the other black clouds and thunder storms, we did get a stunning double rainbow too! Good way to end a fab day.