From now on, I shall check every Malayalam (Indian) film released. It would be a very strenous thing to do but maybe worth it — because I might just see myself in the silver screen!
I was out today looking for another nursery for Pristine. At the end of the street, so many Indians were standing […]

Dubai is teeming with nursery schools offering various curriculums: montessori, international, English or American. With more than 80% of the population are composed of expats from over 200 countries, Dubai schools caters to different student’s needs. Or so I thought.
It’s been almost two months since I started looking for a nursery school to enrol my […]

I am loving the new skin wordpress just released. Fell in love with it at first sight and no doubt, this will be the blog theme I’ll have for a while — until maybe another cool release.
Why I am loving it? Simply because the image header is a lot like the beaches here in the Arabian […]

I am too sleepy today. M and I were discussing about a thousand and one things last night, talking for more than three hours (!) in the dark.
After 45 days in Dubai, the cosmopolitan desert life has seeped into me slowly and constantly and I am finding myself complaining of every little thing that gets […]

Unbelievably cold today morning when I went out at 8 a.m. Humidity coupled with sudden plunge in early morning temperature down to at least 17C and the whole city is enveloped in fog! 17C is pretty cool, refreshing really. I didn’t have to sweat while walking for 15 minutes to work.

 
Emirates Twin towers engulfed by […]

It’s been exactly 44 days since we arrived in Dubai. I entered on working visa, my trailing spouse and our daughter came with me with visit visa. Being Japanese nationals, they are entitled to automatic visa on arrival valid for 60 days only.
So, 60 minus 44 = 16 days left before their visit visa expires and we are starting to […]

A colleague here in my new workplace looked at the picture of the snow-capped mountains I posted previously and asked me with a blank face: why did you choose to live in a rural place like that?
At the mention of Japan, you could imagine the bustling Tokyo area, or the ever alive Osaka, full of […]

Co-sleeping with my own child is the only child rearing style I know in terms of nightime parenting. We had no question about it when Pristine and I got home from the hospital four winters ago.  Where co-sleeping is controversial in some countries, it is perfectly normal in Japan and in the Philippines.
At three years old, our […]

A dear friend sent me a surprise today. I thought I am in for an overtime when the mailer took time downloading one single email. I thought it was some stuff with huge capacity document attached for translation. It was not. Instead, the email contained this photo attachment:

Matsumoto, Nagano Japan — where I lived for […]

While shopping alone in the nearby supermarket, my hubby came upon a woman from the Philippines who offered him a sample of some drink product. Then she asked him, “are you Chinese, sir?” — to which my husband replied that he is actually Japanese, not Chinese nor Korean as most people in Dubai would assume […]