Not a lot has been happening lately. Lisa went off on her snowboarding trip and she DID snowboard - I bet she comes home with a sore leg but at least she'll of had fun! She is due back tomorrow early morning and I'm just hoping she takes the train rather than phones for one of us to go and collect her. If it's relatively early it'll be okay but the telephone/internet/TV company is coming to put in the 'hikari fibre' and also the dogs are going to the pet shop to get bathed and trimmed so one of us needs to be here and one at the new place. We also need to take the TV out of our living room and to the new place so they can connect it up to 'sky perfect' (a kind of cable TV) on Friday. I don't mind since I don't really watch it anyway but I think both Setsuo and Keita will suffer when they have to watch it on a small TV until we actually move.

I got an email from Kana to say that she still isn't at all homesick and that she really likes her host family. She's already been and bought her school uniform and will start on Friday. I have a feeling I'm not going to get as many emails from Kana as I used to get from Lisa!

Tonight Keita has been complaining of being 'tired' and feeling sick so I hope he is not about to catch the flu that's going around. It'll be a shame if he does and can't play in the last of the baseball matches but also I don't want to catch it either!

It's been quite a depressing week since first of all the father of two of my students died (he was only 39), one of Setsuo's customers died (we were at different funerals on the same day), then Bingo died and then early Sunday morning my friend's Mum also died. I'm hoping that is the last for a while.

Yesterday Keita's 'All Star Team' won their match again and I finally got to see Keita hit a homerun! Every other time he's done it, I wasn't there. Setsuo and Lisa decided they would come a bit later and because it took Lisa so long to get ready, they missed the first 20 minutes and also seeing it, I don't think Setsuo was very happy. The name 'Keita' must have been lucky yesterday because not only our Keita but another Keita from one of the other teams (which formed the All Star team) also scored a homerun and those were the only 2 points that were scored in the whole match. Good that they won, bad that there is yet another match next weekend - I don't know when I'm ever going to get time to start packing. I thought yesterday's was the 2nd last game but it turns out there is next weeks and then the final. Next week will be tough as the opposing team are a good one.

Lisa decided to go snowboarding after all so left last night at 8.30pm to take the overnight bus to Nagano. She phoned this morning to say that she'd arrived okay and that it was freezing!

I just received an email from Tracey, Kana's host mother and in it she said

"What a gorgeous girl .We can already tell that she will fit so well into our family."

Well I already knew that she was gorgeous but it was nice to hear someone else say it (even if she was just being polite!

I wonder how Kana feels. I know she was a bit nervous about meeting them for the first time but I'm sure she'll be okay. She'd already made a pavlova with Annalise who is 13 and been out to explore the farm too. No mention of the brothers but I'm sure they'll be staying out of the way a bit until they all get used to each other - especially Scott who is 15 so nearly the same age as Kana.

Lisa came home yesterday and so was there when Kana phoned last night. All day long she has been saying how she wishes it was her who was back in New Zealand!

Today it's a lovely day although cold and with a few fleeting snowflakes now and then.

I posted off everything that Kana couldn't pack into her suitcase and also a second box full of sweets and rice crackers - the contents cost about half of what the postage did but at least both boxes should arrive within a few days (the internet quoted 3 days but I think that's pushing it a bit!) Now, I really can start thinking about packing up the house although it won't be this weekend because Lisa will be home from tonight for a few days and I'll be out at Keita's baseball match on Sunday. I thought it was the final but it turns out that it's just the semi-final so we may have another match to go to the following week too. At least this week the coach is going to take them to the practice ground earlier so we'll have an extra hour before we need to leave.

Well I suppose it's time to go and prepare lessons.....

Today, around 7.30 am Bingo died. We've known it was coming especially these last few days when he couldn't swallow any food and from yesterday afternoon he was also refusing water. In fact, I phoned the vet yesterday at lunch time with the intention of asking him to put him to sleep (they were closed for the afternoon so it didn't happen) so really I'm happy for Bingo rather than sad. We took him to a 'pet cremation' place in Takarazuka where they do a kind of funeral (weird really) and he will get cremated at 5pm today with all the other dogs and cats that were brought in. There were a whole load of 'options' but what was the point?

We tried to explain to Setsuo's father - even went as far as showing him Bingo in the box - but I don't know if he really understood or not. It's times like this that we know he really is senile!

Anyway, Bingo is probably romping around with all the other cats and dogs - and ready to bite the first ankle he comes across! - Keita can get his own room back now that we don't have to have Bingo in there, and in turn, Keita and friends no longer have to use the new house as their gathering area.

The two photos of Bingo were taken near the end of December when he was slightly better. He'd just had a bath so he looks rather bedraggled!

Kana got safely off to NZ yesterday and was all smiles just like Lisa 4 years ago. I wonder if she will be like Lisa and phone home in tears a few days from now! I hope not because there is nothing worse than having to listen to them crying that they just want to come home and not being able to do anything about it. Of course the homesickness soon passes but until then it is heartbreaking being only able to say 'stick in there'.

We managed to finally get her suitcase packed at about 5 pm the day before she left - nothing like leaving things to the last minute! There are a lot of things that have to be parcelled up and sent to her though because there was no way we could get everything in and have the suitcase still weigh 20 kg (in fact it was just under 22). This year they also have to take a lot of school books with them and also where Kana is going, it's a lot cooler than where Lisa was so she will need thicker winter jackets etc so I can see me having to make a few trips to the post office.

Now that the job of getting Kana organised is over, I have no excuse for not starting on the packing......

Lisa just phoned to say that her cast has been removed but she now has on a 'supporter'. I was thinking about the stretchy bandage type supporters but she said it cost 8000 yen so I think it must be something different. She has to go back again in 2-3 weeks but her two snowboarding trips planned for the end Jan and beg Feb are no go's! At least she'll save a bit of money!

Kana is out with friends from her club tonight and then again on Saturday she'll be out with her old junior high school pals. I just hope she's in the house long enough to pack her suitcase! We have more or less bought everything she needs but need to get it all sorted out and see how much the weight comes to. I'll have to post some of her school books to her (can't remember having to do that for Lisa) and also winter jackets etc. I've also had an e-mail from her host mother who sounds really nice and I think Kana is going to enjoy staying with them. They had a new house built just over two years ago just outside of Geraldine with 5 bedrooms, a study and two lounges and she has invited us all to go and stay with them. Her youngest brother who lives in Australia is married to a Japanese woman so they obviously know a bit about Japan and the customs.

Meanwhile, on the moving front - still no progress other than we have got the date for the phones to go in, Feb 6th, so the office will have to be moved by then. The carpenters are in the process of moving everything from the 1st floor storage area into the new warehouse near Juso park so the whole place looks a tip! One of my student's parents are keen to buy the house but we may have some difficulty selling it because we built over the legal limit and so there is a chance that the big banks won't approve a loan for them. (The smaller banks will although the interest rate on the mortgage will be higher) They are coming tonight to talk prices and then once Kana is away and I have the chance to get the house in a bit better shape, they'll come and look it over. Here's hoping....