Remember me? Long, long time for not posting.
A lot has happened since last September -

** Keita finally decided to go to PL Gakuin (it was the first and only school he went to look at) and since last year we've been busy with pre-tests, actual tests, uniform fittings etc and he'll have his entrance ceremony on April 7th. This month we have to get all his belongings sent to the school and he'll move into the dormitory the day before the ceremony. Now that it's getting closer, I think he's a bit nervous about it but over the weeks has met and become friendly with a lot of the other boys. This year there are about 35 new baseball students with about 12 of them being pitchers so he's going to have to try hard if he wants to get into games. Because it's a religious school, Setsuo and I also had to join their church so there have been things going on with that side too although Setsuo is doing the brunt of it! Last weekend there was also an overnight stay for the kids and parents that they both went to - I had a luxuriously, lazy 2 days!

** Spike died suddenly at the end of November. He was fit as a fiddle one minute and then just dropped down dead. We don't know what went wrong but it must have been his heart that just gave out. Daisy's cancer came back again but the vet ordered new meds from America that shrank it to almost nothing although after a few months, it stopped having any effect and is back again. She is on a new lot of drugs but I think is losing the battle as she's really lethargic and has a lot of trouble walking now. Time will tell....

** After the last post where I said Aya and Daisuke had finalised a date for their wedding, they have since split up. It had been on the cards for a while but Aya decided to move out around January and finally found a place that would accept dogs at the end of February. She has already moved in but Daisuke has been keeping the dogs until she gets settled. I think they're going at the end of the week so that'll be Aya's peace and quiet disrupted. We had always said that we'd have no more dogs after Daisy and Spike, but it looks like we are going to get Rex and Mocha. I'm neither elated nor unhappy about it and it'll be easier for Aya if we do have them.

** Lisa also moved out at the end of February. She obviously didn't learn from Aya because she has moved in with her boyfriend too. She is a bit further away from Aya but not that far - probably about 10-15 minutes by car. So after Keita goes to school, we are down to just Kana in the house!

** I started teaching two days a week at a High School about 40 minutes away. The hours are 10 -3 on Wed and 11-2 on Thurs although will change a bit from April. I am teaching the same age as Keita (1st year of high school) and the school itself is quite high level so I'm enjoying it so far. It's a lovely school, nice money and of course I also get paid during the holidays with 2 bonuses a year to boot!!

And that is about it! Hopefully I'll be back updating a bit more regularly from now on!