The new me....

I finally got my hair cut and colored....after 9 months of drab, style-less hair. It feels so nice and light. The salon I went to was a newish one that I always get given fliers for walking out of the station. I have yet to find a salon I like that is convenient and cheap. This one wasn`t cheap, despite what the flier said. A cut and full color was advertised as 7000 yen, but I guess bleaching is more expensive, and extra for shampoo and a treatment, so I ended up paying about 12000 yen.  I suppose it could have been worse. The stylist was trying to get me to do a bleach and then a color on top of that, along with the cut, shampoo and treatment, for over 20000 yen. Wow, I don`t think so. The salon is near the station so it was pretty convenient to get to. It also has a kids room so I could take princess P along and not have to worry about finding a babysitter.  Not that P stayed in the bloody room. It was a glass room and I was in the chair closest to it. P spent about 5 mins in there, then came out and watched my hair being cut, and then spent the rest of the 3 frikin hours running crazy around the store. Fortunately the staff were all wowed by her cuteness and they ran after her and fed her candy(without checking with me first, grrr... let`s fuel that sugar high, shall we) for the whole time.  All the staff were decked out in Christmas outfits. The guys were in santa suits. One girl was dressed in a full body reindeer costume, with a curly blonde clown wig and antlers. However I got the bitchy looking girl in the slutty Mrs Santa mini skirt. Lovely. She wasn`t one of those nice chatty stylists that I`ve come to  expect in Japan. And she wouldn`t stop going on about my hair being difficult to dye because I`d used dye then bleached in some highlights. I told her I didn`t expect a perfectly even bleaching because of the mixed colors but she seriously wouldn`t stop going on about it.  That pissed me off. You`d think a professional would be able to just get over it and do their job. But despite all that, I really like how my hair turned out. I like th fact that the color isn`t even and the ends are a bit darker than the rest. I like that its a bit orangey because I was thinking about trying that color anyway. I like the flicky thing the stylist did with the straightening iron and I think I`m going to have to get one. But most of all I love feeling bright and fresh with a new cut and color. I really have to start going more often but the cost really puts me off. I`ll have to look back on these photos and remember how good it feels to have nice new hair.

Mwah.

Sassymoo

iPhone

I recently got an iPhone and while I love the applications, the bloody thing freezes all the time and is seriously shitting me off!!!!! I've tried updating it, and doing a restore but it hasn't helped so tomorrow we're off to the softbank shop to get them to look at it and get a replacement if necessary. That's a lot of drama for one little phone. Has anyone else had any trouble with their iPhone?
Mwah
Sassymoo


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

And the festive season begins

Ahhhhhhhhh, I had my last class of the year today and now I`m officially on vacation! WOO HOO!! I had 2 big Christmas parties with my students this week. The preparation was exhausting since I was feeling so crappy with a cold at the beginning of the week.  But thanks to some fantastic `pulling it out of my arse` from me the night before, I managed to get things sorted and the parties went really well. Wednesday`s party was 1 big party with all four of my classes and their mums. That was a lot of people to wrangle but I managed to get everyone playing games, singing songs, eating costco cake and exchanging presents. Lots of posing for cheesy photos and done done done. Today was just 2 small 45 minute parties with my Thursday classes. We played some games that involved winning a large amount of candy and exchanged presents. Fast and easy. For some reason, the mums,who NEVER come to the lesson, invited themselves along to the party. They seemed more interested in watching/playing with Princess P than watching us play games. I`m pleased that all the parties went well and that the kids had a really good time. I always grump about the work involved in preparing parties but the kids really do enjoy it and I get a kick out of watching them enjoy it.  But that said, I`m so glad it all over!  So, I`m on vacation until January 6th and trying to make a list of things I need to do over this vacation. Not a lot on it so far, but here goes....

*Take Pops to the pool. Its  been a while since I took her last so I`m aiming to take her tomorrow. 

*Sort and chuck out as much stuff as possible in preparation for the big move. (Which hasn`t been decided as our house plans are STILL waiting for approval, grrrrrr. But the building company says March as a estimate.) 

*Go see a movie. 

*Make some Christmas cookies with P.

*Go out drinking at least once. 

*Buy a new computer to replace the one that died. Expensive but N needs it to do work stuff. 

*Take an entire day off to do something by myself.

Not a long or exciting list but I like having clear goals for my time off or I tend to get really lazy and nothing gets done. Well, even with the list I still might get nothing done....wait and see.

In other news....

*Princess P is starting to put sentences together. They aren`t  always correct sentences but she`s really enthusiastic about getting them out as opposed to shorter answers. So I`ve been trying to model lots of short sentences for her and ask her lots of questions that she can answer with them. She`s doing really well with I LIKE IT and I WANT IT in particular. Also, we haven`t had any major tantrums this week. I think we`re both settling in to P being 2 and are getting better and dealing with the ups and downs. I`ve been putting her to bed a bit earlier when I can which may also be helping with her moods. She is a screaming harpy when she`s tired. She gets that from me. 

We are still undecided about what to get P for christmas. We`ve both been so busy recently that we haven`t done any christmas shopping at all. (Sorry friends and family back home but presents won`t be making it to you in time for christmas. ) We`re thinking about getting her a kiddy computer thing that plugs into the TV with some educational games. She`s really into all things buttons at the moment and is always trying to touch the computer. (Hmmm, are we now understanding why we need a new computer?) So, it might be a good investment, and I`m big on educational games anyway. 

Not much else to report. I`m getting pretty sleepy......goodnight all.

Mwah.

Sassymoo

........

Am not dead....just have a boring life....... so nothing to write about.....

Mwah

Sassymoo

Test

Back to the job or not.....

So I went to my old workplace today and met the new owner. She seemed nice enough, very chatty and easy to talk to. It felt really weird going back. I wasn`t a blogger back when I worked at `Clares Garden` so I`m going to give you a bit of info about how it was working there.
Its a daycare/kindy that was opened by my old boss, Rei, who wanted her daughter to go to an English immersion school. Since there wasn`t one close-by, she decided to start one. She poached a couple of teachers from her daughter`s Japanese kindy who spoke some English and started with just a few students and built up to a decent sized school. She also ran a nail salon and clothing store t the same time. Despite having some business experience, she was a crap boss. She wasn`t very professional and didn`t follow the Japanese labour law. We were able to solve some of those problems in the course of my time there, but right until the end we fought about paid holidays. Full-time workers are supposed to get 10 paid days off a year (increasing an extra day per year until it hits 20). Rei offered only 2. The other full-time teacher and I had to push the issue many times, and Rei often said that she couldn`t afford it, or that her daughter would have to give up her dance lessons if we took paid holidays. Lots of emotional blackmail and crying on her part. Lots of little episodes over the 2 years I was there. But the job was pretty easy and the kids were great so I perservered. Then I got pregnant.......That didn`t go down well, not well at all, despite me warning my boss months earlier that I was planning to have a baby in the near future. As soon as I told her I was pregnant, she tried to make me go part-time, and to quit the job. But I had a contract and fought her on it. Bloody hell, pregnancy isn`t an illness. She basicly just wanted to get rid of me and get a new teacher. When she couldn`t do that, she heaped on extra work and I was forbidden to tell the kids or parents that I was pregnant. They said they weren`t ready to tell the parents....huh? Not ready? I kept asking when they would, and kept getting a`not yet` response. But after one of the kids kicked my tummy (accidently, but hard) I told the little boss Mariko that I was going to tell the kids so they would be careful of the baby. She hmmm-ed at me. I told my class and the kids were so excited and careful of my tummy. Later that day Mariko was furious at me for telling them. She kept screeching how she hadn`t given me her `permission` to tell the kids. WTF! What did she think our previous conversation was about?!?! I told her it was my body and I didnt need her fucking permission. Generlly, I don`t yell, but I yelled at her. We had a huge fight and I stormed out, and she had to tell the parents. Right from the start, I felt bad being pregnant because of these people, and didn`t enjoy my pregnancy until I finally went back to Oz to give birth. I left that job with bad feelings that took a long time to pass.
That was one of the reasons I was surprised when Rei recommended me to the new boss. I was excited about the idea of going back since I thought it would be good for Princess P, and with a new boss I asummed things would be better. So I went to meet the new boss today. Just walking into the place I had a rush of bad memories, almost a feeling of dread. And the place seemed different, kinda depressing. I talked to the boss and right from the word go, she was telling me how the school isn`t doing well and they don`t have enough students, and she can`t afford to pay much, I`d have to pay for P to got there, no insurance, etc. Way to make me want to take the job, NOT! Trouble is that P had an awesome time joining in the lesson and doing some art with the other kids. She didn`t even mind when I left her in the class and went to another room. Considering the recent clingyness, that was a surprise! She really wanted to go play in the sandbox as we were leaving and had a huge tantrum when I said no. I`ve thought about it all day and even though I know P would love to go back, there is one thing that I just can`t get past.... Mariko. Going back to work would mean having to team teach with Mariko. I don`t think i can do it. I don`t want to teach with someone I don`t like and someone who doesn`t respect me. I`m at a point in my life where I refuse to be around people like that if I can help it, and in this case, I CAN help it. So sorry P, looks like Clares Garden is out. But seeing her enjoying the class today has prompted me to look into some kind of class for her. So, that was my morning. Starbucks and shopping on the way home made me feel better! And P was really good the whole time we were out and about. That made for a good, good, day!
Mwah.
Sassymoo

better late than never 2

(written in march/09)

my friend's wedding. woo hoo! congratulations myah and tyson!!!!!