Today I've had quite a lazy day because my dentist appointment was at 11.30 am and I decided not to come into the office at all this morning. Sometimes I wonder why I'm always here at 9am since I don't really do that much, I suppose it's just because I am able to do nothing whereas if I'm in the house I feel as if I should be doing something.

After the dentist appointment, I went and did the shopping and also bought a packed lunch for Setsuo, his father and I. (His father is desperately waiting for his pension to arrive so I've had to give him money every couple of days to tide him over. I don't mind doing it, but if we give him a lot at the one time, he just ends up buying loads and then can't eat it before it goes off.)

After lunch, I had the year-end meeting with Keita's teacher and was surprised to hear that his average test score is around 85% for all subjects. I knew he was good at maths, japanese and sports but didn't realise he was doing so well in social studies and science. So saying, if you look at all the kids test scores, he is still basically average! In all the 6 years he has been at the school, his grades have never really changed - here it is 3, 2, 1 (equivalent to ABC) and he has mostly got all 2's with an odd 3 now and then - usually for sports or crafts! Anyway, his teacher sang his praises and showed me what Keita had written for the graduation album - all about his dreams to become a professional baseball player which didn't surprise me much.

On another note, Lisa phoned this afternoon to ask if I would pay for her ticket to Spain in the spring holiday. I didn't say yes or no which was just as well because in the next breath she also told me that she thinks she won't have got all the credits she needs for University this year although it won't mean repeating a year. She was worried because we'd said that if she didn't work hard enough, she wouldn't be able to keep her flat - we'd make her come back home to live. If it is the case (that she doesn't get what she needs) then maybe it will make her work a lot harder next year or even for the remainder of this year.

Meanwhile Aya has handed in her notice at work but will work until her contract is finished in March. Her boss is away in the UK for a month so still doesn't know but I think Aya is quite relieved that she's finally got it out in the open. She is still wanting to go back to the UK but I don't know if she has any idea of what she wants to do when she gets there! Now we have to try to think of where to put all the stuff that was bought for her moving to Tokyo - fridge, cooker etc.

Tomorrow I'm off out for a year end party with some of the baseball mothers and then it's Setsuo's company's one the following Saturday (which is also the day Aya will come home and I'll finish teaching for the year). I'm looking forward to all of them.