Kelly Azuma

Return to milk Chocoball

I picked this box of Morinaga Chocoball up from an inner-city oriental supermarket (Loi’s). It was a bargain at only 88 cents as opposed to the normal $1.69, and it wasn’t past it’s used by date either, in fact, it still had a year to go. When i looked on Jbox i found it was a newly released flavour and i wondered to myself how did we get it so fast? Usually Perth gets the new or limited release flavours well and truly near the end of the flavour’s life-cycle. So anyway, at that price i grabbed two. As Yasu and i were going to the movies that night i decided it would make a great movie snack.

The name “return to milk” somewhat baffled me though, when did Chocoball ever have the flavour milk? They started out originally with peanuts and caramel flavours, then strawberry, and a few limited edition flavours like banana, black sugar, white chocolate etc. So how could they return to something they never had in the first place?

Anyway, the outside of the ball is white chocolate with a very light, almost indistinguishable milk flavour, in fact, if you didn’t know it was milk, you would never notice. The inside is a dark cookie-like texture, like an Oreo. The dark cookie is a little bit too bitter and there is not enough chocolate on the outside, so the two are unbalanced, and don’t really match well in my opinion. What kind of milk used in this chocoball is not mentioned, but i would say it’s probably powdered milk. It’s kind of dissapointing for me. For Yasu, diehard Chocoball fan that he is, this was an opportunity to indulge in his favourite snack from Japan, he didn’t mind the flavour at all, but he didn’t really over-analyse it.

I only had a few of these, Yasu ate the rest of my box, and his own. In all it wasn’t bad for 88 cents,  i guess i wouldn’t pay the regular price for these though.

Okay i haven’t updated for a couple of days. It’s been a flurry of excitement around here, not to mention work. We’ve been laundering, washing, cleaning, scrubbing, chucking out junk, and finally we’ve gotten to a mostly spotless house. I must say i’m very proud of Yasu for getting rid of his junk. Usually he takes it out, then thinks he might still need it some day, and puts it back and it stays there for another year. This time he just dealt with it and it was gone.

The last few nights have been hell because i’ve had such bad insomnia, if i don’t take a sleeping pill, i can’t sleep. I hate taking those things because they make me feel sleepy the next day and i don’t get much done. That is not a good thing at this time as we have our guest coming to stay in 2 days.

Last night i didn’t sleep at all. I was wide awake all night. So i got to and cleaned the linen closet and the bathroom cabinets. It didn’t make me sleepy but it did get some extra jobs done that i would have had to do today anyway.

At about 5:30 am this morning Yasu woke up and found i wasn’t in bed and came out a little concerned. He escorted me to bed and gave me a face massage, lightly caressing my face, until i fell asleep. It was really sweet of him and felt lovely too.

At 11 am he woke me up to tell me he was off to his baseball game. I wished him well, and turned over to go back to sleep only to find i couldn’t, again.

So i got up, had a shower and did some more laundry. After this i’m off to tackle the front garden.

Tuesday morning our friend gets here from Japan. She leaves Japan tomorrow (Monday) morning but won’t get here until Tuesday morning. Isn’t that terrible? A whole day travelling! Well i certainly appreciate her efforts just to get here, and i won’t let her down entertainment-wise!

If my posts are few next week you’ll know why – i’m tuckered out from all those tourist activities! I will try to post though. Hopefully i’ll be so tuckered out i’ll actually get some sleep!

I found this tag on a smelly flower bouquet that was made in Japan.

Lavender
PERFUME FLOWER
Career and flower is
the everlasting motive

Hmmm…some strange people out there who make up these sentences!

I had a pretty good day today. After a few troubles i finally got to my new circle and found a lovely atmosphere and a great teacher.

My friend Joyce dropped me off in Fremantle centre, so i did what any girl would do and went shopping! I picked up a few essentials from the health food store, then bought some lunch and ate it in the town square overlooking a park.

The town square

Fremantle Town Square

After that i took a free bus ride around the city and got off at the Fremantle Arts Centre, which used to be the lunatic asylum and is believed to be the most haunted site in WA. While i was looking around the arts centre i heard footsteps behind me on the wooden floorboards but when i turned around nobody was there. Freaky!

Freo Arts Centre, pretty creepy looking!

After that i made my way home and cooked dinner. My mum called me later to say she is coming over tomorrow. She lives one hour away by car from me, and it’s a long drive for her, so she comes about once per week. I try to go visit her as well. I love playing with her dog Toby. He is sooo cute and he loves playing with the ball.

My mum's dog, Toby (Maltese x Jack Russell)

Yasu went to bed relatively early, he remembered something he forgot to do at work, and he was worried about it, so he went to bed in a huff. I stayed up and watched Packed to the Rafters, and All Saints.

I had a reading done today which basically acknowledged that i’ve been hard on myself, and also said i have to be more positive, as being negative is attracting negative things to me. The lady also said i will have a big life change around March next year, but only if i stay positive, so i’m going to try my very best to see things in a rosier hue from now on! No more dwelling on the bad stuff!

This morning was another of those mornings that i didn’t want to get out of bed. I still haven’t figured out, or rather the doctor hasn’t figured out why i feel so lethargic. I’ve taken matters into my own hands and bought some tissue salts “general tonic for exhaustion, fatigue, lethargy”, but combine that with half a sleeping pill at night to fall asleep and i think they are crossing themselves out. I should be able to sleep when i feel so lethargic, but in fact i just feel lethargic, not sleepy!

I managed to get myself out of bed at 11am and i didn’t do anything at all. I didn’t even go out to the post office like i was supposed to. I sat around like a mouse potato (the same as a couch potato but on the computer) for a couple of hours, then took myself back to bed. The next time i woke up it was 5pm.

Ugh, my day was gone and i did nothing with it. I hate being like this.

I made pork katsu with rice and salad for dinner, Yasu came home about 6:30pm and we had dinner together. I usually wait for him to get home before i eat, i prefer it that way. After that Yasu had icecream for dessert and i had strawberry custard (lite). Then Yasu put on his ipod and started singing again. It’s getting to be sooo annoying because everytime i talk to him he never hears what i say, and i end up having to repeat myself. I regret giving him my old ipod bigtime!! My fault…didn’t realise he’d turn into such a singing freak.

Yasu told me he’s planning to take next week off work, for the whole week, so that will be nice to have him around for 1 week, at least his high school friend will be here, so he can’t put his ipod on and ignore us. I have to get my act together and clean the house….i need energy!! I think my cold isn’t getting any better either. My antibiotics run out tomorrow. I’m thinking of going into the city tomorrow to get some tissue salts for my cold. I just need to do something, or else i’ll be sick next week too.

I start a new psychic development circle tomorrow. I’ve been going to a circle on monday nights since may this year, but that circle has ended for the year, and i felt as if i wasn’t getting anywhere, so a couple of girls from the circle and i decided to join another circle. I’m excited about seeing my friends tomorrow and learning a whole lot more!

I guess i’ll leave it there, not much to say as today was pretty boring, and i have to get up early tomorrow morning, boy will that be a killer. It’s also going to be raining, that’s why i have to get up early, to get a lift with Yasu. Night all

I had a hard time getting to sleep last night because i couldn’t stop coughing. I have been taking antibiotics, and i took one just before bed but i couldn’t get to sleep. So i stayed up and played Jewel Quest on my ipod touch while coughing myself silly. Finally i couldn’t stand any more, and about 4am i took half a restavit sleeping pill. Within 20 minutes my eyes started to get droopy and i crawled into bed and must have fallen asleep because the next thing i knew Yasu was waking me up to say goodbye, he was going to his baseball game at 8:30 am. I said my goodbyes and crawled back into bed, the next time i woke up it was 1:30 pm in the afternoon and i felt pretty shocking.

I got up, got dressed and attacked the big sink of dishes waiting for me from the last two days. Yes no maid here to come and do them for me! No fairies either it seems. Just after i finished those, Yasu came home from his game, his team had lost, and he recanted all the funny things that had gone on.

Yasu’s sister had bought him a Japanese itunes card so he got on the itunes store and created an account and set about downloading some of his favourite bands, including Chage and Aska (or in my words “creepy  music”). I don’t know how i could meet someone with such different tastes in music. Ugh. Anyways, he spent the whole afternoon downloading music onto his ipod, and then uploading music from his cd’s, and then he started singing… ugh. Not again. He always sings in the car, drives me crazy, he’s such a songbird, i wouldn’t be surprised if he was a canary in a past life!

Yasu watched the latest episode of 篤姫 (Atsuhime), the current Taiga Drama on NHK. I love all the costumes on that show and the female lead is such a good actress. Later on Yasu downloaded the soundtrack from the show on itunes so i had to hear the song over and over. Now it’s stuck in my head.

I made a big pot of chunky potato and bacon soup and some home made garlic bread for dinner, though we didn’t get to eat it until 8:30 pm as Yasu was stuffing around on itunes. It was yum though! A couple of pics from my phone below.

Chunky potato & bacon soup

My home-made garlic bread

I watched CSI: Miami, a double episode tonight, then served dessert – fruit and icecream. Yasu went off to bed with his earphones in, very annoying as every time i talk to him now he doesn’t answer because he can’t hear me. Boys and their toys! I guess i’ll just have to bear it until he loses interest in his new gadget.

Looking ahead to a busy week of cleaning, scrubbing and washing until our guest comes from Japan.

I woke up feeling abit better this morning and decided that i should pop out to the shops to post a few things that had been piling up. So off i tottled to the local shops, posted my items, grabbed a few things from the health food shop including some Ignatia Amara (a homeopathic remedy for stress) which i thought Yasu would benefit from, as his stress levels are reaching a high point lately, and then went and had a coffee.

After that i went shopping some more in an adjacent shopping centre which is only new, and is still undergoing construction work. I took a photo of the Christmas tree that they had put up, it was too big to fit in the shot.

After that, Yasu called me and said he was on his way home, did i want a lift? So i said i would do a bit of grocery shopping and he would come pick me up in an hour. I got what i needed to get, then sat outside waiting. When Yasu arrived we had a milkshake, him vanilla and myself spearmint.

After we got home i had a bit of a nanna nap, while he went online, until it started raining with thunder and lightning, so he had to turn the computer off. Then the power went off so we were contemplating what i should do about dinner, as i was planning on making a pot of soup with some home made garlic bread, which i couldn’t do without our electric oven.

Yasu had some errands to do near his work so i went for a ride, and while we were out we passed an Indian Curry buffet that Yasu had gone to ages ago, and he suggested we go there for dinner. Only problem was we were both in our tracky dacks (aussie slang for sweatpants/casual wear) but we decided to go in anyway in the hope no one would notice. They didn’t, and we were seated pretty promptly. The restaurant was called The Turban, and it had a good variety of curry dishes, rice, naan, side dishes, and all the extra’s. Dessert was included and there was plenty! Custard, fruit jelly with lychees, chocolate mousse, bread and butter pudding, green sweet sago, rice pudding – orange, white (not sure what difference the colours were, they were both very sweet), chocolate sauce, fruit salad, and some other very indian desserts but i don’t know exactly what they were. Included was a jug of water, and tea and coffee with dessert. It was pretty good value for $30 each. We both enjoyed the different flavours, and the butter chicken was absolutely divine. I’m not usually a big curry person but it was nice just to have something different, and i know Yasu was hanging out for a curry for a while, so it was nice just to go out impromptu.

My dinner

After that we stopped for petrol, then came straight home. Yasu realised that it’s only 8 days until his high school friend comes over from Japan to stay with us for a week, so he started cleaning all his junk out of the spare room. Luckily the girl will stay in our guest room, so we don’t have to worry about where she will sleep, it’s just that Yasu has all this stuff from Japan that he brought back with him last time (it was taking up space in his parent’s shed), and now he has to find somewhere to put it.

I’ve got to do a major clean up of the house this week, and weed the garden. I’ve been a bit slack with the housework the last few weeks. I just haven’t felt like doing any of it. But what am i saying? I hate housework at the best of times, i’m not exactly a super housewife normally anyway… haha

It’s bucketing down outside at the moment, i guess i will sign off before the power goes off again and i lose everything. Oh and if you’re wondering why suddenly i’ve been blogging every day….it’s just because i realised that it was kind of therapeautic to type my day out. A bit of therapy for me i guess.

Enjoy your weekend!