I got home from Japan on October 11, and felt really tired and jet lagged. On the 15th Kathy came over for coffee, and I was telling her how bad I was coping with it all, and she said are you sure you’re not coming down with something? I said no, it’s just jet lag.

Then on the 16th I woke up extremely sick with a cold, and this dragged on for a week. As I began to feel a tiny bit better, I developed a migraine, and had headaches off and on until just a few days ago. Imagine my mood.

I really couldn’t do much except e mail photos around and put some on Facebook, but other than that I didn’t accomplish anything. The poor dog wasn’t walked for a week so he was quite confused and upset as well.

I managed to follow along with my two writing courses, as they’re on-line which makes it very convenient. I foolishly tried to do something with my new WordPress website, but can’t do one single thing, so had to give up. I’ll have to hire a teenager.

The nice web designer got rid of fruitcake.ca, as people were starting to order, so I told him please close that immediately! One day I hope to have a nice website all about me as a writer. Of course there’ll always be recipes and stories about bees, flowers, dogs and all of that, but the main theme will hopefully be stories I’ve written.

To whit: the novel writing is going abysmally. The outline is due in two weeks, and by God I’m going to have it done. Thus far I have a title, The Revolt of Helga Glasscock, and some vague idea of what the book is about. Strangely enough, it’s not about a woman who decides to open a fruitcake business.

At this point I envision it as a tale about secrets, but told from a humourous viewpoint. Because growing up in the small town of Osoyoos has provided me with a wealth of stories, I plan to include flashbacks whereby Helga talks about her growing up years there.

My pal Beverly from White Rock came for her final visit of the year. We did our usual stint at the thrift stores, and I must say I’m getting really good at saying no. Even if an item is new, of excellent quality and of course dirt cheap as it’s at a thrift store, if I can’t think of a good reason for the purchase, I just won’t make it.

But one thing I got, for which I have no place, but oh well, is a cute side table. It appears someone put nice stone pieces on the top, as it’s so heavy. It was $10 and of course we only go on sale days, so with tax it ended up under $8.00

And as I explained to Bev this can be the first item for my ‘studio’ project, which will begin in the spring. As you may recall, the ‘children’ have been asked to get out of my garage, which will be all spruced up and turned into my very own area. So now I have a lovely side table to decorate around.

The dog and I were huddled by the fireplace all afternoon yesterday as Fortis shut off the power in our area. It was nice, as I read, though what I should be doing is writing. I finally did force out the opening scene of my novel, so that’s a start.

I just got back from an amazing 11 day trip to Japan to attend Nicky and Haruka’s traditional wedding ceremony at a Shinto shrine. You’ll recall they were married here on my lawn in April, but her parents couldn’t attend, so she wanted to have a nice wedding there.

Our trip began in Osaka, where Denis, Nicky and I landed and were met by Haruka. We took the two-hour bus trip to Kyoto, a 2000 year old city where Haruka had found a 300 year old house for us to rent through Air B n B. We then spent three days traipsing about temples, palaces, and a bamboo forest.

It was 30 degrees and very humid, but the house was updated with air conditioning. I had to sleep on the main floor as the steps were so narrow to the second floor I said I’m going to kill myself in the night going down to the bathroom.

In the shower/bathroom, the tub was about four feet deep, and the windows opened out into our own private little garden. So adorable!

Then we flew off to Sapporo and on our way we stopped at a place known as Hell Valley which is called Shikotsu Toya National Park and is an area of hot springs. We stayed at a traditional “onsen” hotel, which means one has natural springs’ hot tubs in the hotel.

Yes, we went in the nude, but men and women are separate, thank God. It was lovely as Haruka and I went to an outdoor tub and were alone there, sitting in the rain. Quite the experience.

After that we headed for an apartment Haruka had rented in downtown Sapporo, her home town, and the site of the wedding. We did things like shop and had a ‘conveyor belt’ sushi dinner at a restaurant with her parents. Literally, plates come by the tables on a moving belt, and you pick whatever you want.

The wedding was on Saturday, and it took the bride and groom three hours to be dressed in their traditional kimonos. Denis and Haruka’s dad were in tuxedos, her mom in a kimono and I wore my own outfit. I could’ve rented a kimono but said why?

All of this was done by the Century Royal Hotel and they had a van which took us to the Hokkaido Shrine. There the beautiful Shinto wedding ceremony took place, with about 15 Sawayas on one side, and two Schiller Doyles on the other.

After the ceremony, in which we all drank Sake as part of it, we went back to the hotel for everyone to change into more comfy clothes, then up to the revolving restaurant on the 22nd floor with a gorgeous view of Sapporo. There we were treated to a most divine eight course dinner that was truly to die for.

The next day the five of us (Haruka’s dear mom Yuka joined us) headed to the town of Niseko where Haruka works. It’s a ski resort and it has a breathtakingly beautiful volcano which is known as ‘Little Fuji’. On the way we stopped at a town by the sea call Otaru which I was nuts about.

And then it was time to fly home, and as usual, I arrived home feeling like a bag of merde due to the extreme time change. It was worth it though.