Wednesday, 28th November

I have to confess to telling a lie today. It's not something that I do very often (lie that is) but today I told one of my students that I suddenly got a sore stomach and cancelled her lesson! She always comes on her own - doesn't want to study in a class but also doesn't want to pay for a private lesson and because she is one of Setsuo's customers, I feel that I have to go 'her way'. It usually works out okay for me because she doesn't come every week and so I get a holiday then. She is supposed to phone around 9 am to let me know if she is coming or not but today didn't phone until just before 12 and I said it was okay but after thinking about it, just didn't feel like teaching her so rang her back just before 1pm with 'my ailment'. At least it gave me time to get part of the dinner prepared for tonight.

Yesterday because of lack of time and lack of ingredients to rustle something up with, I just made a sausage and vegetable soup. The veg was just what was in the fridge (a real mixture - potatoes, carrots, mushrooms, okra, cabbage, chinese cabbage) and since there was also a packet of sausages I threw the lot in with consomme and a tin of tomatoes and voila, we had soup. Oh I forgot, I also added pasta to make it a bit more filling. There was a huge big pot of it but once I got back at 9.30pm, there was just enough for me left over so the taste must have been quite good (either that or it was the lack of other dishes that kept them eating it!).

Tonight, since I have more time, we are going to have chicken and vegetable rice, soup (haven't decided what kind yet), Mountain Potato which is eaten raw, grilled mackerel, kamaboko (pressed fish cake) and tofu. All of it is easy to prepare. (I made Inari sushi at lunch time for snacking on - Ka/K are always hungry now that it's become cooler).

I really have to go out shopping after my lessons. There is almost nothing in the fridge at the moment and we are out of milk and bread too.

I also have to get S's photos from the holiday posted off too. I promised S I'd send them last week but they are still sitting where they were. Tomorrow ........