TESCO!!!

It was a real struggle to get out of bed and get to the gym this morning.

I literally had to drag myself there.

Of course, I'm always glad I went after, but it's been a while and my whole body was feeling tired after a hardcore aqua aero workout. 

After the gym I decided to hit up TESCO. Of course, it's not as good as Tesco back home but it does have a few bits and pieces in there - not at the same price of course! I only intended to pick up a couple of things, but it turned into an 1man spree, with my basket being loaded up with GINGER NUTS, CUSTARD CREAMS, SHORTBREAD BISCUITS, TESCO FINEST SAUCES, FRUIT N FIBRE CEREAL, not to mention copious amounts of meat and fish.


There was no way that I could get all that stuff back to my place, so I jumped in a cab.


My fridge is HEAVING. YAY! Why did I go so overboard? I'm hoping that all the food I have will force me to stop eating all three meals out. I spend so much money every day on food - it's so unnecessary! And with my trip coming up and my plans for next February, I can't afford to be throwing money around like that. And with all this food, I know I will feel guilty about eating out so much, so I'm hoping that I'll be able to discipline myself a bit better. Plus, I'll be on holiday from the 22nd and there's no way I'm gonna be throwing all this stuff out, so.......


Gonna start looking up some interesting recipes right now! 


I should be studying but hey - whatever! I've decided not to stress myself out about the JLPT on Sunday. Regardless of the results, I'm gonna be taking the test again next summer, so I'm just gonna relax, make sure I get plenty of rest and drink Red Bull - advice courtesy of my teacher. Sounds good to me!


xoxo

Another Sign!!!

I just opened a letter from the FCO.

It was nothing exciting but just the fact that I have received something from them - especially with all the thinking that I've been doing over the last 3 months.....

....definitely a sign!

Let's do this!!!

xoxo

Trust Yourself

A woman's intuition is a very powerful thing.

When someone told me a potentially good piece of news last week, I didn't really believe it. I don't like to jinx things and felt a little annoyed that that person had told me.....just because I thought he was going to jinx it.

But I allowed myself to believe that it was true....and then today comes around and I find out that it's not. I knew it!!!

I annoyed at that person for jinxing me and I'm more annoyed at myself for allowing that person to make me think that something I knew wouldn't happen would happen.

It's always worse because when it doesn't work out like that, then you just feel disappointed, but if that person hadn't of said anything, then I would have been none the wiser.

Lesson learned.

xoxo

HeHe!

No matter how tired I am after work and no matter how much I just wanna go home instead of going to Japanese class, I'm always glad I went.

Why?

My teacher is just awesome!

Man, he had me in absolute hysterics today! Nothing feels better than laughing. :)

And nothing feels worse than knowing I have to pay 202,000yen's worth of bills tomorrow!

=(

xoxo

How Long?!

And this time I'm not talking about sleep....

...I'm talking about my hair!!!

I normally wash my hair in the morning and then rock up to work with it soaking wet - ready to let it dry naturally into my waves.

But man, the mornings are getting so ridiculously cold - I don't want ice forming on my head!!! 

So I washed my hair tonight and blowed it out.

DAMN!!! It's halfway down my back!!! I've been waiting for my hair to be this long for ages and even though it grows quickly, I always end up cutting it too often. This year, I've limited it to every 3.5 months and at that time, I only have an inch cut off.

It's certainly paid off!!

Now I just need it to be this long when it's naturally wavy!!! And when that happens, I'm gonna be shaking it all over the joint like B!!!


HAHA!!


Night loveys!


xoxo

How Long?!

8 hours of sleep last night!!!!

GET IN!!!!

It might not sound like a big deal for a lot of people, but for me, 8 hours of QUALITY sleep NEVER happens.

I normally only get between 4-6.

Having that hangover all day yesterday definitely helped. I was in bed and knocked out by midngiht and then up at 8am feeling great. OK, well not feeling great but not feeling like crap - like I do every morning I wake up.

It's only 5pm and I'm feeling kinda knackered. It must be all this sitting on my arse watching ANTM! LOL!

xoxo

ガンガン

My goodness me, my head is pounding.

I haven't even been able to relax today either - I was enjoy a nice long shower and the doorbell started going crazy. I ignored it the first couple of times, but someone was just not giving up.

My roommate didn't tell me that we had engineers coming over today to change all these thingies that we have in the ceiling. Then they're like oh, we're going to change the air con units. I'm like all of them!? And they were like, no just one. When I asked them which one, they didn't have a clue. We have 5 air con units in our house so they were fart arsing around trying to figure out what was going on and then I had some other guys banging and drilling about. 

If that was annoying enough, the air con guy is still here! I'm like man it takes you 2 hours to change an air con unit?! Really?! I just wish he would hurry up and f*** off so that I can have a bit of peace and quiet. Not quite the relaxing, slobbing around day off that I had planned.

Not happy.

And my head is pounding.

xoxo

The Best Yet!!

OMG I am more hooked on GG than ever!

Hands down - season 5 just smashes all the other seasons out of the water! I have NEVER reacted this much to this show and I am so effing excited for what I think is gonna happen next!


And all I can say about it is YAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!


As you can see I am spending my Saturday off work very productively - HAHAHA!!


I knew it was going to happen like this anyway - I knew I would be too hungover to actually do any studying. I have a whole fridge full of food too and I just can't be arsed to cook. Not that I can stomach much to be honest - feeling very, very rough.

I had a blast at ageHa last night - I just wish it wasn't so cold so I could've enjoyed the dancehall outside a bit more. They changed things around now so ALL of the dancefloors are literally just that - for dancing. You can't even take your drinks onto them anymore. It's kinda nice coz it means no one is gonna spill anything on your shoes but it's weird not having a drink in your hand.

Got the last bus back to Shibuya at 5 and finally made it back to my house shortly before 7am. Haven't done that for a long time and I am certainly feeling my age! LOL!


And as usual it was one of those things where I barely slept, so I am really feeling this hangover now. >_< Definitely gonna be a lazy one for me!


xoxo

Beautiful

Have a look at the picture above.

This is the view from my head office window at about 5pm.

A clear view of Mount Fuji in a gorgeous sunset.

I love sunsets - they always make me think. I love watching the shapes the clouds make and all the gorgeous colours in the sky. So pretty.

When I find the time, I'm gonna create an album of all my favourite sunsets. LOL - chance would be a fine thing!

After I finished work today, I got on the train to go home. When I got back to Shinjuku station, I suddenly had this overwhelming craving for kaiten sushi. I can't even remember the last time that I ate it - I work so close to Tsukiji that I've developed a taste for really awesome sushi. I never really bother with kaiten sushi anymore.

But I couldn't control this. I did all I could but to run!! I got in, plunked my arse down, and was pulling plates off that belt before I could even get my chopsticks and pour myself a cup of tea.

Back in Kyushu I used to go to kaiten sushi a lot. It was much cheaper over there too! I remember that I hit a record of 18 plates. But today, I only had 6...and it still came to nearly 1000yen! DOH! But at least I satisfied the craving. It was so, so strong. Weird.

Enjoy the sunset people!

xoxo

Thieving BASTARDS!!!

Them student loads lot are right f******!!!

Despite the fact that I sent my Income Assessment Form in on time, they still took the £300 penalty from my account.

I've never made a phone call that fast!

The woman straight up admitted that my application was received in PLENTY of time and that money shouldn't have been taken out. Apparently I will get a refund on that.

The next crap bit? Coz I managed to clear a very nice salary over the last 3 months, they are trying to tell me that my monthly repayments are 15x higher than what I was paying last year!! I hadn't received confirmation in the post, but when she told me what I would be repaying over the phone, I just shrieked.

WHAT!??!?!?!?!?!?!?!

I actually sent in 6 months payslips, but they wanted the most recent 3 months. Which were the 3 months where I reaped crap loads of bonuses and extra work. They didn't even take into account that those 3 months weren't my normal salary - as they could see from the other payslips which were less than half that amount. Oh no, they just took those 3 months and calculated my repayments from that. 

Absolutely livid, but they are outright not gonna reduce the payments. They will only calculate it based on those 3 months - regardless of what I've earned for the rest of the year. 

Outrageous!!!

GRRRRRRR.....

xoxo

Oh And BTW....

...I've decided to do my CELTA in Thailand.

xoxo

Liberating

It's amazing how liberating it is when you decide to just stop caring about something.

I feel like a whole weight has been lifted off my shoulders. A very un-Jade thing to do, I've decided to step back and let someone else take over. Let all the pressure be on them and I'll just cruise along and do my thing.

The competitiveness has gone and now it all feels so much better.

The situation ISN'T better, but now that I've decided that there's nothing I can actually do about it, I've just said F*** IT. 

Why?

Because it isn't worth fighting for. And even if I did continue to fight for it, the sad realization of the matter is that I wouldn't get it anyway. No matter how hard I tried, all the efforts would go unnoticed. Just as they have been for pretty much the entirety of this year.


I've decided to put my efforts somewhere else and that alone feels great.


xoxo

The Next Step

Kk, so I've been thinking a lot recently about my next step.

In light of recent events, I have decided that I've pretty much hit as far as I'm gonna go in my current company. The position I want is out of my reach and even though I understand that you have to start somewhere and work your way up to the top, but when it means spending a minimum of a year in a position that I just don't want and have no interest in, it's not worth it.

There are other people who would love to take the position so I'll leave it for those who want it. I don't wanna end up hating my job. It's one of those things as well, that I would be taking a pay cut and restricting myself in so many other ways so something that I don't want for a REALLY long time.

Not on it.

So I've decided to focus my energies on what I came here for. 

I've been saying over and over again that I can't move on until I get my Japanese proficiency to the next level, but I've been thinking a lot and I've realised that there's a lot of other things that I can be doing in the meantime. I mean, at the moment, I'm not learning ANYTHING and I'm not feel ANY sense of self development.

And I really don't like that.

What's the point of doing something where you can't learn, develop and grow?

That's what I'm saying - I've hit a peak and I've been knocked back when I've tried to take it to the next step. For no other reason than my strong personality.

Don't even go there - it makes me mad even thinking about it. Actually, it doesn't make me mad....just confused. But I'm over it. The whole thing with moving up anyway.


So, what is the next step?

I was getting around to updating my CV and I realised that even though I have 4 years of teaching experience, I have no official teaching qualification. Anyone can come here and teach English so at the end of the day, just having that experience on your CV means absolutely NOTHING. If I decided to go and teach in HK, for example, I wouldn't even make it to the interview...purely for the lack of an official qualification.

4 years is a long time and I don't want that time to be meaningless. I don't want it to just be wiped out and looked over.


So I've decided to do my CELTA. Trust me, I really don't wanna do it but I need to have SOMETHING to make all this work I've done stand out and actually be respected. 


I was looking at the courses in Japan. Of course, this country has to make it impossible! The only centre is in Kobe and they ONLY offer the part time course - once a week for 3 months. It wouldn't have been so bad it was the usual intensive one month course because I would be able to transfer to Kobe with my company and then it wouldn't matter paying rent on 2 places for a month. And I'd still be able to work and earn something. But 3 months?! It's too long to be paying rent on 2 places and I don't like the idea of a stranger taking over my place with all my stuff still in it. Unless any of my lovely friends want to?!

 3 months just isn't feasible. Not only that but the course fee (with the exam fees) is a whopping £2700!!! It's between £1000-1500 everywhere else! Well, actually it's super expensive in Singapore too but whatever. Where they get the nerve to charge double over here is beyond me!


So I've basically narrowed it down to 2 choices and I really can't decide which is best.


As I'm going home next year, I was thinking about just staying on and doing it while I'm back. The pros? I wouldn't have to pay for accommodation and would be able to shop at Tesco for ages!!! The cons? I would have travel expenses and if I went home for just a month, I wouldn't be able to enjoy the Olympics. If I decide to go back to the UK for 5 or 6 weeks, then I would hardcore suffer the next month when I get paid. That's a long time to not be working....


The second choice is Bangkok or Phuket. The course fee is £1500 and that includes accommodation for the month. In Bangkok it would be a studio apartment and in Phuket it would kinda be like uni halls. Think I like the idea of Bangkok better and it would be cheaper to get to...not to mention the cost of living there is considerably lower as well.


If I went to Thailand though, I would definitely have to cut out one of the other big holidays...actually maybe a couple of the big holidays that I was planning next year. I love the idea of having the new experience of living in another country as well. It's just that I wanna enjoy my time back home so I would definitely have to go back for longer than a month. And during the Olympic period, everything is just gonna be so manic and expensive. As much as I love London, I really f****** hate tourists. And the school that I would be doing the course at is in...wait for it...COVENT GARDEN!!! Could you get any more annoyingly central?! There are CELTA courses in other locations - even super close to my parents house but they are either part time courses (over 22 weeks) or they don't have flexible start dates.

Really not sure what the best choice is. It would be hard to be back in London and not be able to spend as much time as I would like with friends because the course is hardcore. 9-5.15 every day. Actually, that doesn't sound too bad given the hours that I do here.

Definitely a lot to think about. I'm really not sure what to do. What do you think? UK or Thailand?


Help!


xoxo

Lazyitus

It's my day off and I have a severe case of lazyitus.

I feel great after hitting the gym this morning and now I'm back home, I just can't be arsed to do anything.

I have a humungous pile of washing and my books are screaming at me to be opened and studied. After all, it's only a matter of weeks until the JLPT now.

But I don't wanna do anything. After all the stress that I've had over the past few weeks, I just wanna kick back and relax. Not sure I'll be able to though, with all these stuff going on in my head.

I'll watch ANTM and then decide! HAHA!

xoxo

It's All In The Stars!!

OK, so I'm not one of those people who die hard live my life by the stars, but I do read my horoscope everyday.

Why?

I'm not sure. Obviously I love reading all the good stuff but I ignore all the bad stuff and palm it off as a complete load of rubbiish.

LOL - I'm sure I'm not the only one!

I always read it in the morning and then again at the end of the day - again, I don't know why - it's just something I've gotten into. 

For the last 8 days, my horoscope has been 100% DEAD ON. No joke. Everything that was written in it matches exactly what's going on right now, from recent conflicts with superiors to new love interests. It's been written down to a tee.

Weird, right? I'm not saying that it's gonna be like that every day from here on in but it is fun to read! And I'm thinking that there has been a pattern of advice in there over the last week or so, that maybe I should just give in and listen to the stars!! HAHA! 

Can't hurt, right? I mean, what's the worst that can happen? 

And on that note, I'm getting ready to go to the gym. First time in......how many months!? It's been that long, I'm not even sure! But now that I don't have a Japanese lesson to go to afterwards, I can take my sweet time and chill out in the sauna for a bit. Nice. 

xoxo

Done, Done and DONE

Going to an all girl schools, I'm no stranger to bitchy two-facedness and liars.

I saw it every day and was on the receiving end on a couple of occasions.

Everyone is bitchy at some point. Everyone slags someone off at some point.

But for me and people around me, when we get that chance to honestly express how we feel, we take that chance - the consequences being what they may.

It's a shame more people aren't as honest.

I've recently witnessed something which has COMPLETELY changed the way I look at 2 people. I overheard something and then watched as they sat back and so openly lied in front of other people instead of owning up and telling the truth.

So, so disappointed in them - I can't express enough. What I thought were such beautiful people just turned out to be just so, so ugly. I can't bear to watch this kind of two-facedness and I most certainly do not abide by lies and bitchy behaviour. It's unacceptable and I have completely lost my respect for them. I actually feel kinda betrayed by them too, knowing that they are that ugly on the inside. I don't surround myself with people like that and people who are around me and know me well, know that these are the two qualities that I despise most in people.

It's also a reminder to just watch my back because at the end of the day, people are just not what you think they are.

They're more spineless than you could ever imagine.

Shame on you ladies. Shame on you.

xoxo

Seriously?!

I got my test voucher for the JLPT this weekend. 

Despite getting my application in super early, I still have to trek it up to Saitama to sit the test.

Not impressed!!! I was hoping to get a uni in Tokyo!! Obviously hoping for Shinjuku-ku, but even west would have been good!

Course not. I'm not that lucky.

*sigh*

It would be so nice if just for ONCE, something would go my way.

I always try not to hate on those who have everything fall into their lap while I have to work my arse off for everything. And the reason is because one day, I believe that I may just get that lucky break.

LOL - that certainly ain't happening any time soon!

Back to the grind.

xoxo

Percy Pigs!!!!!

LOL!

I went out for dinner and drinks with my girl last night. She recently went to HK....and you know what that means....

MARKS AND SPENCER!!!!!

And you know what that means.....

PERCY PIGS!!!!

God I love those things. I'd forgotten about them this morning actually and while I was trying to work out whether I had a hangover or not, I suddenly remembered, jumped outta bed and ripped that packet open!

LOL!

I'm actually really impressed that I haven't polished off the whole bag already! I'm going to see if I can make them last for a day. Anything longer than that is just way to realsitic.

Had a super fantabulous time last night. You know I've been really sad about my girls leaving this year so I've kinda held back from getting too close to this one. But she told me yesterday that it looks like she's gonna be in town for another couple of years! \(^0^)/ That definitely makes a difference.

It has been so nught over the last few days not having to get up at 5am. I was up at 10.30 this morning. 10.30!!!!! That was definitely helped by how much wine we knocked back last night but this is the first day in a really long time that I have woken up in my own bed and haven't had to set an alarm.

Fantabulous.

The downside is that I still have to go into work later and that leaves me with such little time to do all this stuff that I need to do.

So it's off to the dry cleaner's for me!

xoxo

A Change Of Scene

So I've been working at the same office in my company for over a year.

I love Ginza and I love working in Ginza but let me tell you something - the weekends and holidays in that place make me wanna scream!!! The streets are so crowded with people and tourists just mooching about and, quite frankly, outright getting in my way. Some people have places to go, you know!!!

Today was my first day at another office. I haven't transferred - just having a lil change of scene one day a week.

My goodness me - what a completely different vibe!!!!

Fantabulous thing number one - because I left a little earlier, I got a seat on the train!! On both the Oedo line AND the Yamanote line - SCORE!!!


Fantabulous thing number two - I could walk in a straight line because I wasn't having to dodge around loads of people.


The actual office is a lot quieter because it's more of a residential area, but I noticed such a mammoth difference in clients and coworkers. Everyone was so nice and way more relaxed. It was cool.


It's definitely making me think about moving around a little bit more to see what some of the other branches are like.


We'll see.


xoxo

愛 ミス ユー

You know what....I haven't had the easiest week in the world.

And it's at times like this when I really, REALLY miss one of my girlies.

It's only been a few months since she left, but the absence of a fabulous, talented, intelligent and inspiring woman in my life becomes more and more apparent everyday.

Yes lady - I'm talking about YOU!!

Missing you like crazy.

xoxo

One Month To Go!

It's exactly one month until I take the JLPT.

Time to see if the thousands of pounds I've spent on Japanese classes this year is going to pay off.

The stress of studying is definitely taking it's toll - bad skin, grey hair - I've had a couple of people mention recently how white I'm looking!!! I had a good look in the mirror today and I have officially lost all the tan from the summer from my face. Luckily the rest of my body is still holding onto it! LOL!

The crappy bit about that is that I won't be getting any beach time until February. Noooo!!! The other problem with that is that I might have to dye my hair lighter. I can only rock this dyed black hair when my skin is darker otherwise not only will I end up looking like a goth, but I'll be looking like a deathly sick one as well!

Not cool.

xoxo

Noooo!!! *PR SPOILER ALERT!!*

Did you see the finale of PR?!

I cannot believe Anya won over Josh!!!

OMG! 

In the beginning I was totally rooting for Anya and was absolutely loving what she was putting on that runway. But, as usual, she started to get a stinking attitude and the way she was talking to and treating other designers completely put me off....and then I started to get completely won over by Josh.

His finally collection had diversity and rangr - Anya's was 8 dresses, a bathing suit and shorts. Nothing tailored, no range - just a whole load of different prints. If that had been someone else who could sew and actually had the skill set, they would definitely have been cussed out for being one-note for sure.

So disappointed for Josh - he deserved it so much.

xoxo

What Are The Odds?!

Here in Tokyo, it's kinda rare for someone to just randomly approach me walking in the station and ask me out.

It happens when I'm standing still, it happens in clubs and it happens anytime a guy has consumed enough booze to have the courage to do so.

I was walking from the Odakyu line to the Oedo line in Shinjuku station on my way home from work, when suddenly this runty looking sleazeball of a guy comes slithering up to me and was like "Excuse me, did you just finish work? Do you want to have dinner with me?" I was so kinda thrown and then looking at his greasiness that I just came straight out with "英語分からない" (I don't speak English). It's actually something I've been saying a lot recently, purely out of annoyance that Japanese people automatically assume that all foreigners in Japan speak English. Even if most of them do, that's just not the point. 

He the proceeded to ask me the same question in Japanese. I knew that answering in Japanese would lead to some kind of conversation with me trying to get rid of him, so I thought I was being super smart replying with "Nao falo nada de japones" (Portuguese for: I don't speak any Japanese). Feeling slightly smug inside and increasing my pace intending to fabulously walk off, you can imagine my shock and horror when he turned around and replied to me IN PORTUGUESE, "You're Brazilian?! WOW! How beautiful/sexy you are!" 

Man, I was left absolutely dumbstruck. What are the odds of some Japanese guy randomly asking you out AND being able to speak Portuguese! I was like are you F****** kidding me?! I swear that kind of thing would only happen to me! I had no idea what to do, so I just decided to pull a face, ignore him and walk without looking back to see if he was going in the same direction. I was waiting for my train just shaking my head and kinda laughing to myself at what had just happened.

It's actually kinda awesome! HAHA! Doesn't matter whether I'm Brazilian or not - just the fact that I tried to be smart and it COMPLETELY backfired on me is hilarious! And so typical that I would be the one to run into someone that speaks Portuguese. Definitely gave me a giggle to add to the rest that I've had today. 

Awesome day at work - I love presenting so much. =) And I found out today, that there is always an open place for me in head office to join the team there. It's always good to know that you're wanted and valued. I wish more people would look at me the way those guys do!

xoxo