Mexican Christmas December 24, 2006

Hi all,  It’s late on Christmas Eve and I just got home from a mexican restaurant.  Nothing says Christmas like margaritas and enchiladas! It’s a fairly authentic restaurant. I say authentic loosely because they make their own corn tortillas and fantastic verde sauce that taste very proper – but then there’s Pace-like salsa and dodgy refried beans. The frozen margaritas are fantastic but the margaritas on the rocks are basically a shot of tequila over ice. As with most mexican restaurants overseas, there are a few good meals and the rest of the menu is just there as filler. Wow, I just realized that I should totally post this on a restaurant review site

 Anyway, this is probably my last post for a few days – so have a very Merry Christmas (think of me while you’re having fun and I’m at work for 8 hours) and I’ll hopeful be back soon writing tales of debauchery in Osaka.

Mulled thoughts December 21, 2006

Hi all, it’s almost santa time… I just finished buying and wrapping all my presents with a few days to spare, phew! I thought what better way to get into the spirit then some mulled wine. Yum. So here I am sipping my warm and fantastic wine, blogging away. I work on X-mas eve and X-mas day (the whole non-Christian country thing), but I get off work early so it’s not bad. The family’s coming into town and I get a week off for New Year’s celebrations. Should be exciting, looking forward to spending some quality time with the folks and the new man… It doesn’t really feel cold enough to be Christmas here. It’s in the mid-50s during the day and not much colder at night. There is always something about a white Christmas. I bought a huge, pink, fluffy hello kittie stocking. I fell victim to the massive hello kittie store yesterday. And yes, I even saw the hello kittie vibrators that everyone talks about. Or “personal massagers”. And no, I didn’t get one… I was tempted. I’m really looking forward to the new year. Perhaps I’m naively optimistic that this next year will be better than the last, but perhaps not.

I want to ride my bicycle… December 18, 2006

Ok, so in Osaka everyone has a bike. Where I live, there are really nice and large bike lanes raised away from the road and sectioned off from the sidewalk by shrubs every few meters. The problem is that nobody uses the bloody bike lanes! Every time I leave the house it’s a kamikaze mission to get to the grocery store. People in other cities would be so envious if they saw the bike lanes here –  so why is it,  I have to stop, start, dodge and duck to avoid getting run over by them?!?! Seriously people, use the bike lane, it’s there for a reason. They ride on both sides of the sidewalk and in the middle too, making it impossible to walk in a straight line from A to B. The amount of times I get buzzed by a speeding bike is insane.  There is a lovely and empty bike lane for them.  If I stop posting, it means I’ve met an unfortunate end underneath a little old lady’s bicycle…

‘Tis the season December 16, 2006

Forgive me blog for I have sinned, it has been over a week since my last post… New job and new gentleman friend keep a girl busy. I’ve put up my little X-mas tree (it’s about 3 feet tall), mailed my Christmas cards and started my Christmas shopping. I still have a full 10 days until X-mas, whoo hoo! Everywhere I go here there is Christmas music. It’s actually quite insane how impossible it is to escape the music. I think it’s because the music reminds people of Christmas and then they think of presents and then they shop. So really Christmas music is just a subversive marketing tool. It totally works. I’ve had that damn Mariah Carey song stuck in my head all week, ‘make my wish come true, all i want for christmas is you….. you, baby…..’ Oh god, it won’t go away!!!!

There’s all this super cute hello kittie christmas stuff here too. I caved and bought a hello kittie ornament for my tree. It’s pink and shiny and I love it! There’s also a 6 foot tall hello kittie dressed up in a santa’s outfit in one of the shopping districts. It’s kind of scary though. It reminds me of the marshmellow man in ghostbusters… only smaller and cuter.

Black suit, fuzzy slippers December 7, 2006

So, I thought I’d write a little bit about my office attire. It’s strictly business conservative until you get down to the feet. Within the office you need to change out of your shoes into either: a) office shoes that are used strictly within the office or b) slippers of  any variety. So I wear a black suit to work and change into slivery, puffy, fuzzy slippers when I get there. It is so comfy and fun. I think all offices should impose a slipper rule. There’s less wear and tear on your shoes and it totally rocks. I also have a pair of gold sequin slippers that I wear at work. I like to alternate slippers depending on my mood.

Dog lingerie December 6, 2006

Ok, so today I went shopping for lingerie and was shocked to find that I could also purchase matching clothes for my dog. I mean it wasn’t exactly thongs for dogs, but you could get your little sexy outfit and then get your dog a matching t-shirt doggy outfit. Personally, I don’t know if I want my sex clothes to match with my dog’s outfit. That just seems a little too kinky for me.

So anyway – why was I shopping for lingerie, you ask? Well, I just started seeing someone and thought it might come in handy. And hell I’ll use any excuse to go shopping for cute, frilly knickers. All I’m going to say  is that I am very happy with the way things are going. I don’t think he’d like me posting personal stuff – like his penchant for women’s nighties