Farewell 2009, hey there 2010!

I don't particularly like the misty eyed, summing up of the year stuff that goes on in the media this time of year, nor the setting of resolutions that just get broken by the 10th January. New Year can end up being maudlin, disappointing and lonely for so many people. It's only an arbitrary date in the calendar. I prefer the pagan idea of New Year actually being at Hallowe'en seems to make more sense to have new year then, as the winter sets in. Or be like the Romans and have new year in March as spring begins. I also like Chinese New Year, it's always so colourful and joyful. Most of this year will be Chinese year of the Tiger, and I was born in a tiger year which is cool.

I chose the picture above to sum up 2009 for me. It's cherry blossom, so of course relates to Japan and my wonderful holiday there. The blossom in fact was photographed on my mobile phone in St James' Park London. 2009 may, indeed I hope be, the last full year I spend living in London as Jase and I are looking to move out of London in 2010. I also think that cherry blossom is hopeful and 2009 has been a difficult year in some ways but a wonderful year in others. With out hope I wouldn't have enjoyed the wonderful times.

So here's to more wonderful times in 2010!

Merry Christmas

Well it's Christmas Eve, Father Christmas is making his way around the world and can be tracked by the US military on the NORAD website I love the fact that Santa is officially 100 times faster than the Japanese bullet train. Now that is fast! Lovely scene of the sleigh traveling past Fuji-San.

My Christmas Eve has been quiet. This morning I went into town to collect some last minute Christmas essentials like beef dripping for our Yorkshire puds. We are having roast beef (sirloin roast) for Christmas dinner. I've made braised red cabbage to go with it and sorted out the taters and parsnips ready to be roasted tomorrow. So organised this year!

I just wanted to wish everyone who reads my blog a very merry Christmas I hope you all have a fabulous festive few days!

Saturday before Christmas

Well, it's the Saturday before Christmas. Things are getting quite festive, particularly with the snow we had earlier in the week. Rather disappointingly though Wimbledon didn't get any snow that settled, though just a little way south, west and east they had loads! It really didn't seem fair. But here is a picture from last year's snow in Edinburgh.


I've had a quiet week, feeling a lot better than I did say 10 days ago. I am even planning a return to work towards the end of January which is very positive. I shall write some more about that and my CBT later.

Cherry bun recipe

I have been doing some more baking for Christmas, today cherry buns. I think that they're actually quite Christmassy because of the cherries and almonds that go into them. They have the slight taste of marzipan, which is something I only ever really eat at Christmas. I am going to make a large traditional Scottish cherry cake for Christmas instead of a Christmas cake. I shan't make that unitl Christmas Eve though.

The cherry bun recipe is dead simple:

Standard sponge cake ingredients:
220g self raising flour, caster sugar, and marge
4 beaten eggs
100g of glace cherries (plus a few more for decoration)
100g ground almonds

I followed advice to make the cherries less likely to sink when baking, the advice was to wash and dry the cherries then toss in some flour. It seemed to work!
Make the sponge mixture as usual, by beating the butter/marge with the sugar, then gradually beat in the egg and finally sift in the flour.
Then stir in the cherries and ground almond
Dollop into cake cases in bun tins bake for 15 - 20 mins at about 180 C (I think that's gas mark 4)
I made 24 small buns but you could make 12 muffins with the mix easily I reckon.

I also used the M&S glace cherries which are dark not the traditional bright red and are soaked in cherry juice, they are delicious!

I had a lovely walk yesterday along the Wandle river. It was one of those sparkly, cold winter-sun day's. The song thrushes and robins were singing their hearts out all along the path to Mordern Hall Park. At the National Trust cafe and shop I had a lovely mince pie, quite unusal pastry, more like a traditional Bakewell tart (not the Mr Kipling sort) but with mincemeat in the middle instead of jam. From the shop I got some lemon curd and quince jam and made jam tarts. I over rolled the pastry so some of them shrank slightly. They tasted good, though not as nice as my cherry cakes :-)

CBT and Brighton

I had a really positive day today. I wanted to write about two of the reasons why my day was good. Those of you famila with psychotherapy will know that CBT is cognitive behavioural therapy, so the first part of this blog entry is a bit about that and how I have been feeling since being signed off work. The second part of my blog is about Brighton.

I'm sure that those who have not been seriously affected by stress or experienced a long term mental health condition must find it hard to understand what is all about. For me the last month has been a terrible one, looking back in many ways this whole year has been. Focusing on the last month though, I have been in almost a state of shock. All of us will have experienced that surge of adrenalin which makes your stomach lurch, your head swim, your body shake and the blood drain from your face. Most of us will only experience this a few times in our lives, if we receive shocking news or are involved in an accident maybe. For the last month I have felt like this for most of the time.

I have been shaking, twitching, finding it very hard to concentrate, feel sick, headachey, I feel very afraid of just about everything. I then slump into a state of listlessness and exhaustion. I think what I always under estimate and many others don't understand is how exhausting and debilitating living like this is for any period of time. I have some good days and some bad of course. I had to come home early from my parents because I was feeling bad, I just had a weekend where I felt totally hopeless. While all this is going on I am also feeling guilty for feeling like this and not being able to work at the moment.

So why do I feel like this? How can I ever feel better? Are questions I have been asking myself. Well, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (which I haven't started yet but My psychiatrist has recommended I read about and follow the exercises in a book Called Mind Over Mood) is a way of constructively answering those questions. It's none of that "Tell me about your Mother?" business, instead the basic concept is that our:
Environment
Feelings/ mood
Physical state
Behaviour
Thoughts
are all intrinsically linked and affect one another. Patterns and cycles can be formed in how we respond to any of them because they all impact on one another. By considering how, my present situation, the past few years and major life events have impacted on all of the above I can begin to understand why I am feeling, and behaving as I am and also identify patterns to change and those to strengthen - there are always positives as well as negatives.

With some trepidation I started working on this today. I had been putting it off but today I felt like I could make a start. I have only taken a few tiny steps down this road but right now it seems to make sense to me, and not much has made sense over the last few months.

Brighton

So Brighton, well it was sunny today and I have been advised by my Drs that I need to get out into the fresh air and also, when feeling positive need to do things that on bad days I might find too stressful. There is no way this weekend I could have faced the train journey or crowds in Brighton. Today I knew it would be quiet in Brighton and the train journey didn't seem too daunting particularly as I wouldn't have to use the underground.

Although it was sunny until lunch time by the time I reached the beach it was cloudy. When I arrived in Brighton I took my usual route through the North Lanes, stopping off at the Dumb Waiter for a veggie breakfast. I'm sure the gull (I think it is a herring gull) pictured below would have loved some of the food. I'm guessing the gull is a youngster which is why his feathers are brown and his beak dark at this stage.

I managed to do a bit of Christmas shopping in the lanes. I love the North Lanes of Brighton I have whiled away a lot of time there, just mooching about and people watching. I headed down to the sea front after a couple of hours and took a picture of this adult herring gull who seemed to be looking right at me with his greedy little eye.

It was absolutely freezing on the sea front but I had a good walk, enjoying the sea air and the out of season atmosphere of the sea side. When we lived in Newquay my favourite time was off season in the winter when the rock shop went back to being a bakers!

I took a few pictures of the old burnt down pier as the rain clouds gathered in around it. I was lucky that the rain only reached Brighton as I was walking up the hill to the station. I still had the odd wobbly moment and I had to make sure that I didn't rush around too much as that makes me anxious. But all in all it was a successful day out, the first I have managed by myself in quite a while.

As well as Christmas presents for friends I also bought myself a rather nifty jumper dress, totally 80s-Christmas-jumper-tastic! I shall wear it on Christmas day and at New Year!

Mince pie Monday

The very "rustic" mince pies above which look like they were made by a 5 year old were actually made by 35 year old me! They are mini mince pies, made with a Nigella recipe. I made my own mince meat as well. The mince meat is lovely but the pastry not up to my usual standard. I shall blame this on following the modern method of using a mixer to mix the pastry. I usually do it by hand ensuring the pastry is well aired. I shall revert back to the hand made method in future I think. Still the mini pies won't be too bad with some custard!

This weekend we put up the Christmas decorations, well I did it as a surprise for Jase although it was a surprise for him I also deprived him of joining in with the decorating so my surprise wasn't as great as I thought it would be. We have always decorated the tree together, I wish I had waited now and not surprised him at all!
I haven't been able to take many good pictures of the tree, my camera isn't great and I'm not a brilliant photographer. But above is a snap of the tree and below a close up of some of the decorations.
If anyone is wondering about the sparkly pink stags pictured earlier in my blog, they have pride of place on our book case, and the candle with Christmas decoration is on our living room table. Below is a picture taken by Jase of my favourite Christmas decoration my ruby branches. I bought them in a lovely little shop in Dulwich village about 5 years ago. Some of the beads have fallen off but it wouldn't be Christmas with out them.

Chatsworth by candlelight

Today Mum and I went to Chatsworth House in Derbyshire, although we have visited many times before, during December the house is decorated for Christmas and lit by candle light, so we thought it was worth another visit. Above is a picture of some of the decorations on one of the many Christmas trees inside Chatsworth.

We also went for a walk in the grounds although it was very cold, not getting above 4C I took some photos of the holly, below which was very festive.
Inside the house the decorations were based around fairy tales by Hans Christian Anderson one of the trees was decorated by the Duke and Duchess' grand children, they chose the little mermaid as their theme. The tree was decorated in seashells and creatures which made a very unusual Christmas scene. Below is one of the seashells nestling in the branches of the tree.
Here is another unusual image, lovely Greek statue next to the purple themes decorated Christmas tree. The hundreds of older ladies visiting Chatsworth today spent a lot of time viewing this scene, i am sure it was the tree they were interested in! I haven't seen Chatsworth so busy or the visitors so uniform. Almost all seemed to be over 55, with white hair and wearing a red or pink coat.
Chatsworth's grounds were full of sheep as ever, many wandering across the road as we tried to leave the grounds. This sheep however was just bleating at visitors arriving in their cars.
I am certainly feeling a lot more festive now, I can't wait to get my decorations up!

Yorkshire and Christmas

I arrived in Yorkshire yesterday morning to stay with my parents for nearly a week. Yesterday my 3 nieces and nephew were staying. So not much of a rest, but still really lovely to spend some time with them all. The play centre we took them to was an experience I wouldn't want to repeat every weekend! They loved it of course, but the noise! Not the most salubrious of surrounding for the adults to wait in either. The food was good though. Although you could definitely tell I was up north, I ordered a cappuccino and they guy serving asked me if I'd like anything to eat with it, nothing unusual there but the food he offered me was chips! Would you like chips with that cappuccino, love. It has a ring to it!

Today I met up with my friend Ruth for a coffee. The weather was abysmal, icy, driving rain so it was nice to have my first mince pie of the season and a latte. Lovely.

This week we plan to visit Chatsworth House for their "Candle light Christmas" which should really feel like Christmas is near, and of course see how the other half celebrate Christmas! At this time of year, I like to get out Stations of the Sun by Ronald Hutton, an excellent book which provides a really good grounding in how the rituals of the year have been celebrated in the Britain of the past. It really shows expertly how pagan, folk and Christian beliefs have been woven into our festivities today. It also shows how our modern celebrations incorporate the influences of many other nations. It doesn't just cover Christmas of course, but the whole year. Anyway well worth a read if you are interested in the history of "real" people, and its legacy today.

I have a busy week but a restful one, as well as visiting Chatsworth I should also be visiting my Great Aunts later this week over in Stoke on Trent. So should blog later in the week I am sure.

Giving thanks

I like to say thank you. One of the things I love most about Japan is that there are so many ways to say thank you and show appreciation. When I got back from Japan last month, I felt like I was being so rude in the UK because I was only saying thank you or thanks to shop and waiting staff a couple of times at most when receiving stuff.

Today being Thanks Giving in America I thought it would be an appropriate time to make a small list of the things I am really, truly thankful for. Not the obvious things like my family, or my boyfriend Jason; I could never convey in words how grateful I am to have him in my life. Or my friends like Lorraine and Ruth who I feel so privileged to know and call my friends. Don't worry you can get rid of the sick bucket now. I want to write about the really small things in life which actually turn out to be the things that make me thankful in life.

For example I'm thankful for the autumn leaves, most of which have blown off the trees during that last couple of storms. At this time of year, with the light dwindling, a tree topped with a shock of scarlet or fiery golden leaves really warms the heart.

But here is a list of things that I am very thankful for:

Attic bedrooms, I always wanted one and I have one now!
My Sony Reader
Chai tea
Visiting a live volcano
Bookshops particularly old dusty ones
Having tasted Sacher Tort at Hotel Sacher in Vienna
My lava lamp
Snow, particularly having played in the heavy snow of early 80s winters
Nessie, the Loch Ness Monster
My cat Rookie
Hot baths
Dame Shirley Bassey singing Big Spender or anything really!
Mountains
Being lucky enough to live in Cornwall
The smell of roses in the summer and lilac in May
Motorbikes
Seeing dolphins in the Canary Islands and in Scotland
Cat Bus
Blues, folk and loud, loud rock music
Pie and mash
The sound o af tennis ball on racket strings
Real ale or whiskey
Freshly baked bread
Shakespear

I could go on for ever.

So when I am feeling grumpy in the future and forgetting to be thankful I shall come back and look at this list.

A short history of my history teachers

Two twitter conversations this morning got me thinking about first my history teachers when I was at school and being thankful for having such good history teachers. (It's Thanksgiving in US today hence the being thankful thoughts.) This all started because of Andrew Marr's The Making of Modern Britain.

I was very lucky to have 3 totally different but brilliant history teachers during my secondary school education. I started secondary school at Newquay Tretherras School in Cornwall. Mr Jackson was my history teacher for the 2 years I was there. We did early British History with him and then right up to the industrial revolution. Mr Jackson's specialist subjects in history though were the Princes in the Tower and the Tudors. Mr Jackson organised a Tudor evening where we all got to try Tudor food and I developed my love of syllabub. Us girls thought Mr Jackson was quite dishy but impossibly old, thinking back he wasn't even 30! But the one aspect of history that he taught that really made him stand out was the Princes in the Tower. He was a member of the Richard III Society who want to promote a fairer more accurate picture of Richard III. Mr Jackson also had his own mission to prove that Richard III was not the only one who could have and had motive to kill the Princes in the Tower.

Mr Jackson taught us how to look at different evidence, evaluate it, search for bias, and make our own conclusions using the evidence we had. Until that point I thought history was just all fact that could not be challenged. I learnt for the first time that history is told differently by each person who tells it and you can learn a lot more if you understand the motivations for why that person is telling the story. History wasn't set in stone it was a huge puzzle to decipher.

In my 3rd year at school (year 9 now) we moved to Yorkshire and I attended the Hayfield School
where I chose to study history for GCSE. My teacher was Mr Fleet, an eccentric Scot, the type of teacher they just don't make any more. He called the dustbins a "waste paper receptical" a personal stereo was a "walking man" and when my brothers class were unreceptive he would produce a turnip wearing a hat and shades and address his lessons to the turnip, who would answer all questions in a suitably turnipy voice! With Mr Fleet we learnt about the wild west, the history of energy and the Northern Ireland troubles.

For A-level I continued to be taught by Mr Fleet, we had European History with him, Gustaf Adolfus, Catherine and Peter the Great, the Louis' of France all covered. He ran our lessons like lectures in preparation for university. I was always grateful for that. Our other history teacher was Mr Saddler, a red headed, left wing, Yorkshire firebrand. He could have been standing on a soap box in the middle of Donny Market in the 19th Century or early 20th speaking up for the working man and injustices to women. His lessons were run very differently, we were learning about 19 Century British History, Engels, Tom Paine, Jeremy Bentham, the corn law, the Catholic Emancipation Act, Wellington, Castlereagh and the working men of Britain.

Our favourite pursuit was to distract Mr Saddler from his task and get him to talk off topic, anything going on in politics was bound to get him going. Margaret Thatcher had just resigned and it was a great time to discuss British politics with him. The majority of the class were Tories largely because their parents were, my friend Ruth was the lone Lib Dem and then there was Mr Saddler and me holding our own against the rest placing our faith in Labour. I'd love to be able to ask Mr Saddler what he thinks of the last 17 years in UK politics. I am sure he is dismayed by most of it.

I had many wonderful teachers whilst at school, and since I have had the pleasure to work with some excellent teachers. But my 3 history teachers were so consistently wonderful and so utterly different. I am so thankful for being lucky enough to have been taught by them and to have learnt from them all.

Inside sport special - depression in sport

Tonight on BBC1 at 10:45 Inside Sport will be tackling the issue of mental health and sports, particularly looking at depression and anxiety. As the BBC website says:

"Marcus Trescothick is joined by former boxer Frank Bruno, Northern Irish footballer Neil Lennon and legendary All Black John Kirwan to discuss their battles against depression and to examine the myths and misconceptions that still surround mental illness."

Gabby Logan has written about it on the BBC website here

I am really pleased that this topic is being dealt with on a sports programme, for one it may bring the issue to the attention of many people who would not tune in to a programme about mental health normally and because some of those people may well find support from watching the programme.

I have also been writing today about language and disability on my sister blog The Salmon Leaping

Camp Christmas

I am not known for my restraint in taste when it comes to Christmas (or anything really!) This year I decided not to do my usual and by loads of new baubles for our Christmas; last year we had so many I couldn't physically put all of them on the tree! It was a real dilemma deciding which sparkly and twinkly ornaments to leave in the Christmas bag. So this year I have limited myself to buying a few non tree related decorations. So pictured above is my plunder. A pink feather boa wearing glittery stag, with a young pink sparkly deer with out a boa so a naked deer I suppose? There is also a candle decoration to end all Christmas candle decorations, it is resplendent with fake fir, apples, red berries, baubles, boxed presents including tartan ones. My Mum thinks you should always have a nice bit of tartan at Christmas.

We haven't put our decorations up yet although I am chomping at the bit to get them out. I really like being totally unsophisticated and breaking out the Christmas deckies before December. I know its naff but I celebrate the winter solstice as much as Christmas its self and welcome the brightness and cheer in such gloomy times. Up until 17th Century churches and communal buildings would be decorated from 1st December until 1st February to warm up the dark winter nights. Sounds splendid to me!

Oh and Christmas related literary trivia of the day: the first use of the word bauble, like so many other English words, is recorded in Shakespeare! I can't complete the fact because for the life of me I can't remember which play!

A trip to the funny farm

I have blogged a few times about my experiences at hospitals, there was this entry about Moorfields Eye Hospital A&E, or this entry from when I had an X-Ray at the Nelson Hospital. So why am I so reluctant to blog about my trip to the hospital yesterday?

Probably because yesterday I was visiting the Community Mental Heath Team, not as an adviser on disability rights or rights of access or even to advise mental health nurses, all of which I have done in a professional capacity in the past. No this time I was there as a patient to see a psychiatrist. Not something that I feel completely comfortable announcing on my blog, although of course you all knew it was coming, I have talked about my mental health before.

But as I have alluded to above I have worked for the last 10 years promoting the rights of disabled people including those with mental health conditions. So I should walk the walk as they say and do what I can to lessen the stigma attached to mental health conditions, to being mad.

So I went to the hospital yesterday to see a psychiatrist. I was incredibly nervous. I was shaking, twitching, trying to remember to breath deeply but somehow I just couldn't. The waiting was the worst thing. I'm not good at waiting generally but yesterday it was agony. I could hear the blood pounding in my ears, it made me feel like there was a boy racer car in my head, it's stereo blasting. Thump, thump, thump, thump.

As soon as I saw the psychiatrist though, I felt better; he looked totally normal and was clearly a smoker which some how reassured me. I didn't want to talk to someone who didn't have their own weaknesses. I would have hated to see some pious, holier than thou type!

I was there all afternoon, after being afraid that I wouldn't be able to talk, everything just tumbled out. I was like the local grass on a cop show, squealing, except it was my secrets I was telling not the local villains'. Afterward I felt pretty shaky for most of the night, but today I do feel relieved.

I suppose the turning point for me was that after 12 years of experiencing mood swings, anxiety, depression, panic, and fearfulness on and off, I finally want to do something about it and get better. I don't just want to be patched up and stagger on for the next few months until the stress gets too much and I explode again.

I have been signed off work for a while, I have instructions to avoid stressful situations and try to do normal things slowly. My existing medication has been increased slightly. I have been given some books and a programme of work sheets to go through before I see my psychiatrist again in a few weeks. There is the possibility of more medication in the future but hopefully I won't need it and cognitive behavioural therapy too. It is all remarkably sensible. I just have to co-operate.

I never intended my blog to become a journey into my mental health and how it is being treated but I'm cool with it touching on the subject every now and again. Writing is one of the few things I still feel able to do and to concentrate on for more than 20 minutes so its important that I do write at the moment. So my blog won't go bare!

Stormy weather

We have had a week of bad weather across the British Isles. Autumn storms first of all battered the south of England as I previously blogged about and yesterday terrible amounts of rain fell in Cumbria and South West Scotland. The BBC have viewers pictures of the floods in Cumbria here.

Today in London it is very dark and dismal, the kind of day when rain just drizzles all day and it doesn't get properly light all day. A good day to be at home with a warm drink and a good book to read.It has been hard for me to concentrate much this week, but today I am feeling a lot calmer so hopefully I will get quite a bit of The Girl who Kicked the Hornets Nest read. I have so many good books to read!

I wanted to find a picture which sums up the weather and my mood so chose the photo below which I took years ago with my first digital camera. I think it was 4 or 5 mega pixel and that was really good back then! The violas were in a window box on my window sill in my old flat in Forest Hill, south east London.

Inherit the wind

On Wednesday night this week, my Mum and I went to see Kevin Spacey in Inherit The Wind. It was one of the best productions and plays I have seen in a long time.

I've not been very well for the last couple of weeks, feeling very anxious, stressed and generally not good. As I have mentioned before on this blog, I have ongoing "mental health issues" over the last 12 years. Sometimes I feel good sometimes I don't. Anyway when I'm not feeling good theatres can really stress me out, it's the very small spaces and crowds as you are getting into the theatre that really freak me out and I have had some trips to the theatre ruined or abandoned in the past when the crowds are just too much. We got to the theatre early to avoid the worst of the crowds which was a good idea.

The other problem I have when I am not feeling good is my concentration span is totally rubbish! At the moment I am finding it hard to concentrate on watching TV, reading etc. so I was really worried I'd fidget and twitch my way through the play, not paying attention, even if the play was good.

The play and performances were more than good. They were fabulous. I was rapt. I needn't have worried. Kevin Spacey and David Troughton (son of Patric Troughton - Dr Who trivia of the day) had such stage presence playing their larger than life characters beautifully. The whole ensemble cast were amazing, the direction excellent, it struck me as rather cinematic in the way Trevor Nunn directed it but not in a bad way.

The play tackles the issue of religious extremism, 1920s deep south style, and it is timely that it is being shown in Dawin's anniversary year. (The play tackles the true court case where Bertram Cotes a high school teacher, was tried for teaching evolution when it was banned from schools in Tennessee, for being un-Biblical.) I went away from the play thinking that the greater message was about modernity and where we are heading, the speed of change. Some of the deep south religious extremists are cruel, bigoted and stiff necked. (If I remember rightly the Old Testament God isn't too keen on stiff necked people.) One of the characters representing modern America is also cruel, cynical and inflexible in his beliefs. The play is a warning of extremism of any kind, religious or otherwise. To think, to reason, to doubt, to reason some more and try to understand is what makes us human.

Storm

Ever since Michael Fish and his fellow weather men and women, failed to give us sufficient warning of the 1987 hurricane which hit the British Isles and caused death and damage, the UK Meteorological Office has been rather generous in issuing weather warnings, in my opinion. Then we had the snow chaos in London in 2003 when motorways were blocked and motorists trapped in their cars. That lead to even more cautiousness on behalf of the Met Office.

This means that I tend to not believe the weather warnings issued, though I still read them. I am British after all and so obsessed with the weather!

Any way the weather presenters had been bigging up this storm which was due to hit southern England over night including London. It would be the worst storm of the year and maybe the worst we have had for a couple of years.

Well it did hit as predicted and kept me awake on and off from about 4am. There was wind, rain, hail, lightning and thunder all you could want from a storm. The squally showers, as they call them, are still washing in now at 3pm, but the worst seems to be over.

I had a hair dressers appointment this morning, sods law, and 5 mins before leaving the house I recorded what the rain was like. The video below was taken from one of our upstairs bedrooms.
Hopefully it will give you an idea of what the weather was like and why I didn't get much sleep this morning. I have to say this shower was rather tame compared to others!



I guess it goes with the territory of living in a flat with attic rooms!

I have to say when I went out into the storm it reminded me of waiting for the school bus in Cornwall, this kind of weather is all to common down there!

Video from Japan holiday

My camera has a very basic video function, and I used it a couple of times on holiday when I wanted to capture sounds of Japan. Next time I go to Japan I will get one of those microphones for my iPod touch so I can capture sound properly and not have to worry about images!

The story behind this clip, is Scotland. When in Nagasaki we stayed close to Glover Park which was built around the large colonial style home of Thomas Glover who originated in Scotland. Thomas Glover brought the first steam train to Japan in mid 19th Century. He also built the first asphalt road in Japan. Modern day Glover Park loves all things Scottish, honouring Glover's home land. As walking around the park bag pipe music was piped out from trees and bushes, which is what I tried to capture on the video.

Tokyo Sky Tree

To follow on from my last blog entry - I have just been reading about the Tokyo Sky Tree which will be when completed twice the height of the Tokyo Tower, pictured in my previous blog entry. The Sky Tree is needed for Japan's digital switch over (see it's not just us Brits switching to digital) because the Tokyo Tower is just not tall enough to blast out those digital TV signals across Tokyo.

The Tokyo Sky Tree is being built out near Chiba, and when competed will be a whopping 630 meters tall! There is a great picture of what it will look like, cherry blossom at it's base and all, on the Wikipedia page I have linked to above. You can also check out a web cam of progress here.

It's due to be completed in December 2011 and opened officially in April 2012. I think a trip out to Japan at Christmas 2011 or for my birthday 2012 would be just great! On my list of places to visit next time are:

Mt Fuji
Kobe
Shkoku

Of course another trip would include southern Kyushu and Okinawa but that might have to wait until even later!

Final photos from Japan

I had these last few photos from our final weekend in Tokyo just waiting on my camera to be uploaded. Above is a picture of a rather wet cat who was watching Dave the hotel cat and a very similar cat we named Bob, who just had to be Dave's brother, shelter from the rain. Dave's mate Bob seemed quite mad. Every now and again he'd dart up the nearest tree trunk, about half way up the tree and then suddenly jump back down. The cat in the picture just watched them from up the bank. We decided she must be Dave and Bob's Mum and I named her Mo.

On the our last proper day in Tokyo, which was building up for a small typhoon, we decided to go for a walk around Akasaka which was deserted, it being a Sunday. We walked round to Yotsuya station. The station seemed quite old and the Wikipedia page says it does indeed date back to late 19th century. On the bridge at Yotsuya station we could see Roppongi Hills ( Mori sky scraper) So I suggested we take a train over to Roppongi Hills - not the kind of place I usually want to visit but as it was our last day, I thought it might be nice to do something different.

The Roppongi Hills sky scraper is so tall I couldn't get a decent picture of it close and I can't seem to find any I took of it from a distance. However when we got to Roppongi Hills Jase was able to take the picture below of the Tokyo Tower, which is Japan's tallest structure.
We discovered through wonderful Wikipedia that the hotel we always stay in in Tokyo - The New Otani was the tallest building in Tokyo and the outside was used in James Bond, You Only Live Twice as Blofeld's HQ

Outside Roppongi Hills sky scraper is a spider sculpture like the one that was at Tate Modern in London, as our holiday had featured a number of spiders it seems only fitting to finish on a picture of me below the spider.

Christmas cooking

I have decided this year to actually try to bake and make many of the Christmas goodies I'd just usually buy from the super market. This isn't because of the credit crunch or anything although it will help I am sure, but because I now have to restrict my diet and really monitor the amount of fat I eat. So I am planning to make my own mince pies, Christmas cake and maybe even pudding. As I type this I have my first batch of fat free mince meat bubbling on the stove! The flat smells delicious, orange, apple, spice and alcohol!

It's a simple recipe, I've only made a small batch to begin with to see what it is like. I've used:

125g of brown sugar
125ml of cider (I am using up some pear cider we had so it may not be ideal - I'll let you all know)
500g cooking apples (lovely British Bramleys)
peel of one orange (which you boil first for 5mins to get rid of toxins)
Juice and zest of half a lemon
75g currants
75g raisins
35g glacier cherries
35g blanched chopped almonds
1/4 tea spoon of mixed spice
1/4 tea spoon of cinnamon
pinch of ground ginger
3 table spoons of brandy

After boiling and cooling the peel, dissolve the sugar in the cider on a low heat, then add all the fruit, nuts and spices and simmer for 30 mins until mushy! Then add the brandy and allow to cool.

I have seen the recipe attributed to Nigella Lawson, and a number of other TV chefs. I'll let you all know how it turns out!

Food glorious food

I am typing this on the plane on the way home from Japan. By the time I upload it I’ll be back at home of course but right now it is 10:50 AM UK time but my body thinks it is 8 PM back in Japan. I thought this would be a good time to do a round up or list some highlights of the holiday, or at least start one! I think this may go on for some time, writing up highlights of my holiday for my blog!

I shall start with food! My top 10 favourite dishes from my holiday in Japan!

1) Hakata ramen: This ramen is so different to any ramen I have tasted before. It is pork based and nothing is wasted in going into the soup for the ramen. I have not tasted anything so vital with meatiness since eating wild boar stew in the south of France. The Hakata ramen made me want to go out and perform a ceremony in thanks to the pig for giving up its life and energy for me to eat it in this ramen! Tasty does not do it justice. The noodles were slightly thinner than the ones I normally get in ramen in the UK and the onions in the ramen were wonderful so fresh and flavoursome!

2) Mount Aso beef stew. I ate this in a railway caff! Real honest hearty food cooked in front of us by the cheerful chef who also was in charge of the station shop! It was the seasonal special meal and came with fresh local salad which was also delicious! The beef again tasted fabulous like it had been running about on the fertile slopes of Mount Aso only that morning! The stew was thick and had seasonal mushrooms in it as well!


3) Japanese apples the size of pumpkins! I didn’t dare eat the really huge apples which literally are the size of a melon or a small squash. I did eat the ones that are about the size of a grape fruit! They were lovely fuji apples with the sweetness of red apples but the texture of a crisp green apple. They are expensive at about 70p - £1 each but well worth it. They are packages in their own protective sleeve which resembles an Elizabethan ruff! Due to the typhoon that hit just before we arrived there was a glut of applies in Japan that had fallen during the storm and needed to be eaten! So I helped out! Interestingly I caused real fascination for a young Japanese girl who watched me eat one of these large apples on the train. I must have appeared like a savage to her, biting into it. I noticed that apple is usually served sliced and most of the apples are just too large to bite into and eat comfortably!

4) Clam soup and Japanese red wine: When we arrived at Nagasaki we didn’t notice anywhere to eat near by. It turned out there were plenty of places a short walk away but we didn’t want to go exploring on our first night there and so decided to treat ourselves to a meal at the hotel restaurant. It receives very good reviews although a little pricey. The restaurant is a French Japanese fusion - very interesting. We had a fabulous 4 course meal but the highlights for me were the soup course - clam soup. I had not tried clam before but this soup was delicious! The little clams were still in their shells and the clattery shells were very pretty and the meat very tasty. As I was having beef as my main I opted to try a glass of Japanese red wine. I have to say it is one of the nicest red wines I have had in a long while; very easy to drink but full of flavour! Unfortunately I don’t know what its name was!

5) Chestnut cream cake and tea: I had these at the Glover Garden Tea Rooms in Nagasaki. I have not been able to eat much in the way of cakes or puddings over the last few months due to a stomach complaint and I am supposed to stick to a low fat diet, but I let this slip in order to try the sweet chestnut cake. It was beautiful. I savoured every last bite! The tea rooms were delightful the kind of establishment sadly dying out back in Britain.

6) TakoYaki Octopus balls in a boat: The sound delightful don’t they? They actually look great and taste even better! I had been watching the cook continually turning the doughy balls with octopus in the middle, to make sure they are evenly browned all over, for days when we were first in Hakata. It wasn’t until our return that I got to try them. A wonderful treat with the sweet sticky sauce all over them!

7) mystery udon at Tosu station: On our way to Kumamoto we had a half hour wait for our connecting train we had asked for extra time to change in case the station was hard to navigate. Of course being Japan it was totally smooth and easy to find our way around! But having the extra time meant that I could stand at the udon stand and try some mystery udon with a potato cake in it! I think i may have unwittingly asked for the breakfast udon either way it was delicious! I just wish that we had udon stands on our train station platforms at home! I’d eat there every night on my way home!

8) Mapo Dofu in Nagasaki China town: I had tried mapo dofu back home once but it had been an odd affair and Jase had told me it wasn’t at all like the real thing. So where better to try the real thing than Nagasaki China town! It was fantastic, so soft tofu with a rich meaty sauce that is both hot but delicately sweet. We have tracked down a recipe and I am going to try to make it at home!

9) Omu rice: It is no delicacy it can be found in any cafe or izekaiya in Japan it is what it says - omelet covering rice and rich meaty stew. Cheap and cheerful and total comfort food!

10) Ginger ale kit kats! Yes the world’s finest invention it’s a kit kat but it tastes exactly like ginger ale! I could only eat a small amount due to my avoiding fatty foods but it tasted good!

I know it was top 10 but I do have an 11 again from Nagasaki where we tried manju - again I could only have a tiny bit due to it being very fatty pork in a soft bun but unlike the usual pork buns sold in convenience stores etc. this is an open bun and they are everywhere in Nagasaki! Very tasty but could only eat a bit!

I should also give an honourary mention to the mushroom burger from freshness burger that was in fact a large portobello type mushroom in a bun with all the usual gubbins. Very odd but very tasty!

So ends my food odyssey of Japan 2009!

Kumamoto wildlife

Today we visited Kumamoto castle and Suizenji Park. It was a beautiful sunny, warm day. There are pics of the castle on my flickr page and I'll blog about the castle later. At Suizenji Koen we cane across the heron type bird above (I think it is actually a grey egret) patiently watching the lake. He was most obliging for photos although he referred to move so we weren't able to get an action shots. It was only once we had moved on that a party of school children scared him away. The bird made a great racket about it too!

We had moved on to have a look at the cats below. We think the black cat captured here was the Mum. She was very friendly, she looks just like my cat Rookie. She miaowed a lot and came over to me for a big fuss. She was with a much smaller, shy, stripey cat who we guess was her kitten.
Close to the black cat and her kitten was the cat I photoed below. He was having a great time sharpening his claws on the tree, and looked very pleased with himself!
As ever Jase has also uploaded his pictures to flickr too.

Volcano

Today we visited Mt Aso, Japan's most active volcano and one of the worlds largest calderas. Except Aso-san is in fact 5 volcanoes surrounding the huge flat caldera caused by the last huge, super eruption. Above is the view of the active crater as you look down on it from one of the viewing platforms. The picture shows the poisonous steam and fumes which are emitted by the crater. But I am getting ahead of myself...

Our day started early we had left the hotel by 7:40 and were on the train to Aso by 8:30. Today's train was bright red on the outside and consisted of just 2 carriages. Everything in the train was totally immaculate as ever. I particularly liked the checked tie back curtains. Jase took the picture of me below on the train.
It is an hour's journey to Aso town which is situated in the flat caldera plain below the 5 peaks of Mt Aso. It seemed a bit of a one horse town, very quiet and laid back. Unfortunately some of the tourists who also wanted to get the bus to Mount Aso like us, were not so laid back. In fact one man of indeterminate nationality - (all I can say is he spoke English and German but was not English or America and I don't think he was German either,) was so rude! He was charging about the place, barking orders at the polite and helpful station staff as if they were his slaves and shouted continuously at the taxi driver who he had ordered to translate for him. The thought of having to go up to the volcano's edge with such an obnoxious and discourteous man was not an appealing one. His wife who appeared to be long suffering spent most of the time as we waited for the bus, running away from him and hiding! He would bellow her name and order her back to his side when he noticed she had sidled off.

We caught the bus soon after arriving at the train station. It took about 30 mins to drive up the side of the volcano on the bus, my ears popping all the way. I was able to get the following picture from the moving bus' open window, so I am very pleased with it given the circumstances!
At the Mt Aso centre we were informed that due to the wind direction and the nature of the poisonous gases the viewing platform for the crater was closed. The crater can be reached by road or by cable car. Both the road and the cable cars were shut. During the day the crater viewing area can close and open many times depending on the conditions so we decided to be patient and wait. The obnoxious man was far too impatient to wait and stormed off as soon as we got there, not to be seen again. After about an hour of waiting many people seemed to drift off, but Jase and I stayed. One of the guides from the centre came over to talk to me, she was doubtful if the crater would open any time soon. She was very helpful and seemed to enjoy talking to me she trying out her English me my basic Japanese

We had an early lunch of udon at the Mt Aso restaurant and after eating our meal an announcement came over the PA system saying that part of the crater viewing area was now open. Our patience had paid off, we had waited 2 and a half hours but within 10 minutes had caught the cable car and were looking into the boiling sulphurous lake in one of Aso - san's craters. As pictured below.

The guide we had spoken to earlier saw us get off the cable car as she drove back down the volcano in a car, she waved happily at us, obviously pleased that the earlier bleak outlook had been proved wrong!

Jase took some really great pictures which you can look at on his flickr page as usual and there are more of my pics on flickr too.

Although the wind had died down slightly and the fumes had eased you could really taste the sulphur and the conditions were rated as dangerous for anyone with chest or heart conditions. I did cough quite a lot and by the time we left could feel my lungs tickling slightly like when you are recovering form a cold or flu! It was also pretty chilly at the top of the volcano in spite of all the steam! Once we were down in Aso town again it was lovely and warm though!

Aso-san isn't always as gentle as today and dotted around the crater viewing areas are little shelters and hides for you to seek refuge in if Aso-san decides to start hurling rocks down on you!

After our spell at the crater we went back to Aso town and I tried a local speciality of beef made from brown cows, a bit like highland cows. The beef is shredded and served in a thick stew with rice and seasonal salad or veggies. It was delicious. I took some pictures of these tasty cows which are on my flickr page. To think I was vegetarian for over 3 years!

We were back at the hotel in Kumamoto by 7pm although it felt a lot later. All in all it has been a very satisfying day. I have waited 35 years to see an active volcano up close and I have now. All I can say is I now want to see lava flows so I think it will have to be a trip to Hawaii - maybe a bit sooner than another 35 years!

Tomorrow we shall visit the castle and a large park in Kumamoto.

Castle At Night

Castle At Night
Originally uploaded by JasonGDoig

As promised a picture of Kummoto castle from our bedroom window. Jase took this at about 7 pm at night. We really are lucky with such a great view. We plan to visit the castle on Thursday and also a large park which has a miniature mount Fuji in it. Should be fun! But first we have Aso-san Japan's most active volcano to explore. Fingers crossed the poisonous fumes don't close the viewing platform!

Kumamoto

We got to kumamoto yesterday (Monday 19th October) in the afternoon. We had to change trains at Tosu which went smoothly. There was a little udon noodle stall on the platform at Tosu and I had fabulous udon with some kind of potato and spring onion cake floating in it as well as the usual meat, fish, veggies and noodles of course. It was totally delicious.

Our hotel at Kumamoto is just north of the castle but our room faces south right on to the castle. It must be the best view in Kumamoto! I'll have to keep you waiting for a photo as I am waiting for Jase to upload his pictures on to Flickr.

We ate last night at an izakia called Wara Wara, they are a chain of Japanese pubs where you order all kinds of food that all go well with beer! I had Kirin Ichiban last night a fresh lager but very tasty. We ordered lots of small dishes my favourites were the scallops, pork and onions, and chicken skewers. Really good grub!

This morning we decided to walk to the bus/tram station and buy a day pass for the tram and then go to the JR station so I could get us tickets for Aso tomorrow and Hakata on Friday. We thought buying the day pass would be easy. It has been very simple to get day passes everywhere else. Not today. It took us ages to find the ticket office. When we did find it the poor ticket sales girl was totally nonplussed by my requests in basic Japanese. She knew I wanted a ticket but wasn't sure where for and when we said for Kumamoto she still looked very concerned. We had to apologise and leave.

We were both totally stressed out. We walked to the tram stop but there was nothing there about tickets We walked back up to the station and as a last resort popped into a hotel there to see if someone spoke English. We found a lovely receptionist who actually volunteered to come with us to the station ticket office and translate for us. We aren't even staying at the hotel and she was so helpful. It turns out that the initial confusion was caused by the plethora of day passes available some for just Kumamoto city some for the whole prefecture, some just for buses some for just trams and some for both! We got our day passes and thanked the incredibly helpful hotel receptionist profusely!

There were no problems getting our train tickets to Mount Aso or back to Hakata on Friday.

Tomorrow we will set off before 8 for our day trip to Aso-san. I can't wait!

Nagasaki Chinatown Street

Chinatown Street 2
Originally uploaded by JasonGDoig

As promised here is a brief entry about our trip to Nagasaki china town on Sunday night. It is a very vibrant but compact area of Nagasaki full of shops and Chinese restaurants. I bought myself a lovely chinese bracelet and silk purse, and a couple of presents.

We had a lovely meal of mapodofu which is soft tofu and mince meat in a beautiful dark sweet but spicy sauce. I am going to try to reproduce it when we get home, found a good recipe on the internet.

Cofee and caterpillars

Jase took some great pictures today, I like the one of me above and usually I don't like pictures of me. But Jase also took lots of pictures of birds of prey hovering above us and a procession which went past our hotel. You can see them all on Flickr.

The rest of the pictures on my blog today I took!
I have become a big fan of Tully's coffee in Japan. I even have a loyalty card! I should get my free coffee by the end of our trip. Above is a picture of my coffee and Jason's Mango Tango Swirkle as well as my sweet chestnut bun and Jase's apple pie.

We walked around the harbour this morning and I took a picture of the boat below. There was a big event going on, for school children, something like a sports day. Since being in Nagasaki we have noticed a lot of large parties of school children and near the peace park yesterday there was a large gathering of children again doing sport and some kind of environmental event. Japanese children are certainly kept busy!
Also on our walk this morning I took a few pictures of a caterpillar on a flower and this one although not composed very well is actually my favourite.
We did a lot of walking today and climbed Hollander Slope which is just a steep hill bordered by large European style villas. The area was part of the European quarter.

This afternoon we watched a TV programme showing how sumo wrestlers exercise and train every day. It was eye watering stuff involving doing the splits and carrying another sumo wrestler around on your back! After all these exercises the wrestler is then expected to eat the equivalent of about 4 full meals all at once!

I have been making a few very short videos of our stay mainly when I want to capture a sound of some sort. When I get back home I shall upload them.

Tonight we went to China Town. I'll post pictures and tell you about it tomorrow once we have got to Kumamoto. The journey to Kumamoto should take about 3 hours and again I bought the tickets successfully using my basic Japanese.

Nagasaki peace park

Today Jase and I went to the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb museum and peace park. It's a hard subject to write about. When we visited Hiroshima last year we visited the museum and peace park. The museum at Nagasaki was no less shocking, bewildering and saddening for having already visited Hiroshima, in fact it made it more moving.

The museum has a few exhibits which can be touched (they are clearly designed for visually impaired people but any one can touch.) It is still fairly rare for me to find tactile displays in British museums. No matter how much I see to touch something does make it incredibly real for me. (As I am sure it does for those with full vision.) There was a roof tile which had been transformed by the heat of the blast from smooth to a rough surface like a cats tongue. There was also a cider bottle which had been melted and reformed as it cooled into a strange mangled and smooth shape but still kept it's hollowness. It looked like it was made of toffee.

The peace park is beautiful and you leave the museum and parks with an overwhelming feeling of how pointless and futile war of any kind is and yet most of the human race is inextricably caught up in the web of destructiveness.
Just outside the Peace Park we met another cat, this one was rather friendly and happy for his picture to be taken. I think she may be a female so I shall call her Nora Neko (neko being Japanese for cat.)
I took more pictures which you can see at my flickr page here

Glover Hill, Nagasaki

Above is a picture of me taken outside one of the fine Victorian houses built by the first British expats in Nagasaki after Japan opened her borders during the mid 19th Century.

We got to Nagaski and our hotel there just after 2pm having caught the Kamome train at 12 from Fukuoka. We spent the morning in Fukuoka walking along the canal and drinking coffee. The train journey to Nagasaki was a good one with very striking scenery particularly of the cliffs and the sea. It was reminiscent of Cornwall in places.

Our hotel is at the foot of Glover Hill as explained above the Victorian expat enclave. Glover himself was the first Brit to arrive - he introduced the first steam train, asphalt road and brewery to Japan. The present day Japanese brewery Kirin is the successor of this first brewery and the Kirin dog is based on one of Glover's dog.

Glover was Scottish which means that the gardens have saltires flying and bag pipe music playing at certain points around the park. You can see more of the gardens and houses at my flickr page here
Glover Hill and its views across Nagasaki harbour are apparently the 3rd most romantic settings in Japan. It certainly was stunning and very relaxing. Above is a view from the hill across the harbour. Puccini made Glover Hill famous after staying there and setting Madam Butterfly in Nagasaki and Glover House.

On the way up to the Glover Hill gardens is a street with touristy shops and stalls. Along this street we saw lots of cats. Below is a picture of "Colin" (I named him this time following Jase's earlier theme with Dave the cat) He was enjoying himself in the afternoon sun. On our way back to the hotel at around 5 we went past more cats being made a fuss of by the local shop workers.
Tonight we treated ourselves to a 5 course meal in the hotel's French restaurant. The clam soup we had was divine!

Jorogumo (spider) island

I am really pleased that I was able to get the photo above of the jorogumo spider because I only have a little point and shoot digital camera. I had to put my camera on to the taking photo's of pets setting which I found rather amusing!

I took the photo on a long thin island which links one side of the lake in Ohori Koen (park) to the other. The path is over hung with trees and smaller bushes which is the perfect habitat for the joro gumo to spin her meter long webs. It was quite perilous sometimes picking our way through and below the webs! They didn't seem to bother the locals though and the gardens were full of school children painting and sketching the park and its wildlife. There is an art gallery at one end of the park which probably explains the emphasis on art.

The park was very relaxing, Jase got to use his camera and when he was setting up his tripod or changing lenses I read my book. Below is a picture I took of some flowers by the lake side.

After spending all morning at the park we had lunch in a little udon cafe where no one spoke English. We managed fine. Jase had his favourite katsu kare with udon this combination seemed to amuse the waitress no end. I had an udon set which was udon in a pork based broth and some fried and shredded onions and beef with rice. It was delicious hearty food and very cheap too. If we had been sitting at the window then we would have had a view not dissimilar to the one below, over the lake.
After our late lunch we went to the station to buy our tickets for Nagasaki for tomorrow. Again I ordered them in Japanese and it all went very smoothly. We popped into Yodobashi Camera for a quick look at telescopes for my Dad but the selection in Tokyo seemed slightly better. I love Yodobashi Camera it sells everything electrical or gadgety including accessories and in all kinds of colours and styles.

This evening we have been watching some Japanese TV. Columbo is about to start but we have been watching a programme involving animals in a TV studio running through a maze of dominoes the animals used included a Capybara, a duck, ferret, dog, cat and some kind of sloth. They also had a tiger cub being bottle fed in the studio and a man being lowered into a cage with a bull in it. Japanese TV baffles and amuses all at once!

The journey to Nagasaki tomorrow should only take a couple of hours but it will be a busy day tomorrow so may not blog for a while.

Nat On Lake

Nat On Lake
Originally uploaded by JasonGDoig

Jase has taken quite a few pics today from Ohori Park. Here is a link to them. This one is of me naturally!