OBACHAN'S SCRIBBLES

Last week was the second week at my new nighttime job. In mid February, I started working at a private school from 5 pm to 9 pm, 4 days a week, as an office clerk. (They have night classes.) Unlike the days in the kitchen at an izakaya or a kaiseki place, the work at the school is not physically demanding, and I can go home a lot earlier. Friday night used to be the hardest night and I was never able to get out until after 10:30 pm, but now I can have a late-night supper around 9 or 9:30 pm in my room, watching TV. Although I have made several mistakes that I’m supposed to make in the beginning of any kind of job, my boss and his wife don’t seem to be thinking about kicking me out YET. What’s more, they said that I could bring the goodies I bake to school events such as Christmas party or Halloween party, and share them with the students and the colleagues. That's exactly what I've been dreaming of! So… I guess I’m lucky to have found this job.

It’s been really warm and my allergy is not terrible at this point. So I go walking quite often these days. Actually that’s the only exercise I do recently. I used to do stretching and some kung-fu exercise in my room. But these days, with Pinoko in my stomach, I’m a bit scared to do certain moves. Perhaps it wouldn’t make any difference because, as far as I know, you can’t prevent ovarian torsion completely by avoiding certain physical moves. And with the size of my Pinoko, maybe I don’t need to worry like that at all. But still… you know. I just want to feel safer.


Anyway, I go walking quite often, and now is the best time to enjoy the wonderful smell of plum blossoms as I walk. The smell seems to be stronger at night. Or maybe I just feel it stronger at night. When it’s dark, I get limited visual information, so maybe my ears and nose become more sensitive in order to compensate.

These are the shots I took yesterday. They both smelled wonderfully.

It was darn warm today with the daytime high of 21 degree C or something. Can you believe this? It’s February! My boss said that an old guy in her neighborhood was worried about a possible big earthquake. According to her, he said it was unusually warm just like this before a major earthquake hit this prefecture about 50 years ago. Gee, I hope it doesn’t happen … especially before or right after my surgery …