Work work work!

Happy New Year n' all that! I'm afraid my posting has fallen by the wayside for the past couple of months, despite possessing a brilliant little bubba whose daily shennanigans would no doubt make for fascinating blogging... and oh how I would love to upload a thousand pictures of my buddha-baby for you to drool over! She is quite scrumptious if I do say so myself.

I am, however, trapped in a seemingly endless cycle of work, work, and more work. I woke up to myself and realized that my poor husband really needs my help in order to grow our imports/wholesale business, and I have been wearing my President hat every day since mid-December. We now have 4 employees (real humans - Kentaro used to exaggerate and count our pets when his suppliers in Japan would ask) and are on the verge of new accounts, new products and new madness in the warehouse. Maybe a new warehouse too, as the old one is getting TIGHT.

We were approved by the naval base to sell a certain line at their stores, and now we have our own vendor badges which allow us access to a part of Guam we had previously never seen! Pretty cool.

I am still at DFS one day a week, and still teaching English at the Japan Club, but the rest of my time finds me in our warehouse, typing invoices and pulling orders whilst trying to entertain Miss S and convince her that the warehouse is not a boring place to be.

And in baby milestones - Miss S is now rolling both ways, saying 'Mama', and warming hearts everywhere.

She's Just Lovely

I am smitten with my baby. 100%. When I'm not with her she is all I can think about, which is why we have decided that I will cut my work hours back yet again from part-time 5 days/week to just one day.

Mom aka Grandma Brown aka Babu has been babysitting since I went back to work at the end of October, and suffice to say that it ain't been easy. Miss Sakura is quite particular about when she wants to nurse, and if I am not there to perform the task then she makes her displeasure very, very known. NOOOOOO to bottles and other attempts to distract from what she wants. It makes sense that an almost 4 month old would want to be with her mother 24/7. Didn't you?

We celebrated Baby's First 100 Days by dressing her up and taking pictures. Traditionally we would take her to a shrine and have her blessed by a priest, but this will have to wait until we are back in the land of shrines. In the meantime we were able to take adorable pictures of Sakura in her kimono (she will wear the same kimono in her 3rd, 5th and 7th years, as is the custom), although when I say 'in' her kimono, it was actually just draped across her.

She's a bouncing baby and is more the size of a 6-9 month old at almost 4 months. She is growing like a hulk and all of her adorable clothes are getting used far too infrequently (sometimes just once!!) I am rather tired of the sumo comments, as I am of people assuming that my healthy little girl is a little boy!

At any rate, she's just lovely.

The Day Sanity was Restored

Minutes after Obama's declared (projected) victory, facebook statuses (statii??) were updated around the world and I learned with glee but no surprise that my political views are 100% supported by my friends, be they in Australia, Japan, Austria, New Zealand, England, Canada, Guam or the US. This outpouring of support for the new President has really touched me and inspired in me a hope for a new direction for the country which I am starting to call home. Again.

In an otherwise crappy year, Sakura's birth and this victory stand out as 2 wonderful highlights. I look forward to positive change and I look forward to the new face of the US which Obama will represent.

Blogging with one hand

Well there are no surprises as I'm sure everyone (all 3 of you) who reads this blog knows that we welcomed Sakura Bella into our lives on the 9th of August!

But what may be lesser known is the story of her birth, so I shall endeavour to divulge a shortened version of that here.

On the day before 8/8/08, I tried everything known to man to induce babies, as I wanted Sakura to have a cool birthday! She was due on the 12th, so I figured she was probably ready to come out anyway. So I had a ridiculously hot curry, followed by a whole can of pineapple, a long walk around the neighbourhood and a few cups of raspberry leaf tea before bed. The 8th of August came, and the 8th of August went... or got as far as 11pm when I started having cramps and Kentaro hit the sack. I had never experienced any Braxton Hicks, or 'practice' contractions, so I figured I was probably having a few of them. They were annoying enough that I couldn't sleep, and by 3am they were downright painful, but after googling all I could about 'false labour' I seemed to fit the bill, because of the location, duration and frequency of the pains. I called the birthing centre just in case, and they told me it was false labour and to please stay home. I called them again at 6am to tell them I hadn't been able to sleep all night because of the pain, but because the cramps weren't coming close enough together and were not located in either my lower back or abdominal area, I was advised again to stay home. At 9am Kentaro awoke to find a very unhappy India. I told him we might as well drive to the birthing centre so they could at least do a physical assessment even though we would probably be turned away again. This first time mother stuff is so difficult because it's so easy to overreact! So in the car we went, and even stopped by the post office to check mail on the way. We got there, and they all confirmed my first mother status as I walked in, with knowing smirks on their faces. Then they measured my cervix and found it to be 8cm dilated, and I felt like giving them all the finger!!! I then decided I'd better call my parents! They rushed over, and at noon, I was given the go ahead to push, and another 3 hours later Miss Sakura Bella popped out!

And with my insurance with DFS, the whole birth cost me $50, which I reckon is a bit of a bargain for the world's cutest baby.

Welcome to the Family, Chibi-chan!

Our little green-eyed blue-eyed white devil.

A few thousand words' worth

By popular demand, a 'bump' shot - you can't see it? Aww, too bad ;P

My sexy fisherman
'Tora', one of the four kittens we've raised from birth
Kentaro's baby bumps

My English class at the Japanese School

Me and Takayama (the pro-wrestler who features in 'Kill Bill')
Cat sitting Jango Brown (he lurves Cookie)
Our avacado harvest (round 1)
'Tenshi', another of the four

My quarterly entry...

Well for those few of you who still read my blog, apologies again!

But never fear, for I do predict a resurgence of my blogging motivation, and it will probably occur sometime in mid-August, along with the arrival of Little Miss Babyguchi. I have every intention of making Salt and Sesame a gratuitous baby pic fest, and to show how serious I am I will start now:

Ain't she cute?

Other things that have kept us busy since my last post in January include but are not limited to:

1. Taking in a mega-feral cat and her 4 newborn kittens and figuring out what the hell to do with them.

2. Hitting the beach with style in our new shiny yellow kayak.

3. Gathering and grating coconuts to make kelaguen.

4. Harvesting our avocadoes and bananas.

5. Behaving like Guamanians in general.

6. Hiding news of Babyguchi until late March when I finally got my first ultrasound and felt ready to broadcast her existence.

I have had requests for a good 'bump' pic but so far have only taken a good one of Kentaro. I will wait until mine is better than his to post it.

Hugs and kisses.

Umm, Happy New Year?

Don't you hate it when you turn around and realise you haven't updated your blog for a few months?

And there's no good excuse, either. What have we been doing?

Well let's see:
Halloween came and went,
as did Thanksgiving.
Then I had some out of town guests for a few days,
then my birthday,
then Dad's birthday,
and just before Christmas, Kentaro and I landed a ripper case of food poisoning after dining at a local Japanese restaurant. It knocked us both around for a good week or so and ensured that we weren't able to eat a damn thing on Christmas Day, which was a huge tragedy as my parents whipped up their Christmas extravaganza.
Solon and Jess flew in for the festivities and flew out again on Solon's birthday,
New Year's was a complete non-event as we were still feeling under the weather,
and Solon and Jess were kind enough to fly in again just for Kentaro's birthday on Jan 3rd (a very conveniently timed layover on their trip back to Oz after their head-splitting tour of Japan).
And here we are on the 13th and I'm reckoning it was probably the dullest holiday season of all time, much much worsened by the fact that we both worked every bloody day throughout the whole period.

Here's to 2008!!!

Happy Halloween!

Bidet-ing my time

After living for 3 years in Japan and spraying all over the country, I thought I would have used enough Japanese toilets, in all their 'squat', 'Western', and 'washlet' gadgety glory, to be able to avoid the incident I had yesterday.

Kentaro and I went for one of our regular Saturday Guam drives (guruguru Guam doraibu), and happened upon a nice Japanese golf resort in the middle of the island. It reminded us of a typical onsen resort, with its landscaped grounds, cafe-restaurant, lockers, and shoji-screen decor. Except there wasn't an onsen, boohoo.

We thought we'd spray here before leaving, and headed towards the restroom. Upon completion of business, I reached down and fumbled for the flush mechanism, my hands grasping a strangely shaped knob. I turned it, and got the surprise of my life when water came JETTING out of the bowl, completely saturating my shorts and half of my top. My first instinct was to run away, but realising that that would just create an even bigger mess, I bravely fought the jet and reached in to turn it off. I then followed my instinct, grabbed a confused Kentaro, and hastily exited the facility, leaving my water-drenched stall as a warning for its next visitor.

*blush*

Premature Pumpkin Death

Well nobody told me that a jack-o-lantern will decompose into a soggy mess within 3 days of lighting a candle inside it!

We thought we were so ahead of the game by carving out our big pumpkin last Monday. I gutted the gourd and roasted its delectable seeds while Kentaro carved out a terrific design, and we put it, lit, on display in our window, chuffed that we were all prepared for trick-or-treaters come this Wednesday.

By yesterday the thing was growing a forest of mould inside, and the outside was buckling and seeping ooze which threatened to overflow onto the floor. It earned itself an untimely date with the dumpster. D'oh!!!

Kentaro is still armed for Wednesday night with a black cat and a truckload of candy (I will be at work, of course, leaving him to fend off the deluge of kids that will no doubt come a-knockin').

BYE BYE!!!

Thanks to my two TV ads that play every 15 minutes, 24/7 on the local 'Visitor's Channel', I have become somewhat of a reluctant celebrity on Guam.

I do a promotional spiel for 'Hafatel', a Guam-based cellphone service provider, which has me reading a very predictable script in a swimsuit top. But people almost never recognise me from this one - although a co-worker did approach me one day and stared at my cheek, wondering to himself, "Wow, she really does have a big mole there, just like the Hafatel commercial." I gave his culture the benefit of the doubt.

My other ad has me introducing the endangered ko'ko' bird, aka the 'Guam Rail', and this one is unscripted. I man-handle the little bird all throughout as I'm waffling on in Japanese, and at the end I grab its little beak and make it bow goodbye to the viewers whilst saying "Bye bye! Bye bye!" like a 2 year old. Watching it afterwards I was surprised the bird didn't try to peck my eyes out. But I guess my true personality shines through in this one, because no matter where I go, I hear:

"Oh look, it's the ko'ko' girl!"

Or better yet:

"BYE BYE!!!! BYE BYE!!!"

Piss off.

Like Pigs in Mud

Last weekend, I had a real, 2 day weekend.

So we decided to take advantage of this momentous occasion by booking ourselves into the PIC Hotel in Tumon, using the voucher Mr. Nole gave us as a generous wedding present in May.

PIC has been around since I was a kiddo and was always in the top 3 list of places I wanted to go (the other 2 places being McDonalds with the wicked indoor playground, and Jones Beach Resort). It is famous for its water & activities park. Waterslides and pools abound, with other activities including archery, tennis, snorkeling, kayaking and hourly aqua aerobics! It has a very 'summer camp' feel with extremely genki staff smiling and encouraging guests to join in and have fun.

I checked in solo last Friday afternoon while Kentaro was off doing a plum-wine tasting at Cost-U-Less, and enjoyed a few hours reading books and painting my nails in our beachfront room.

We dined at Jamaican Grill, which is just about our favourite restaurant on island, and ordered the works - ribs, jerk chicken, Jamaican and red rice, kelaguen salad, a "jerk" burger with curry mayonnaise, and for dessert a Jamaican Grill take on the 'banana split' which was more like a challenge to unearth the lone banana under 3 pounds of ice cream & whipped cream with a cherry on top. Thank God we only had to roll across the road afterwards to return to our hotel room.

Saturday was the best day EVER for 2007 (excluding the wedding festivities of course).

The Boy and I reverted to age 10 with the greatest of ease and spent the day running up, sliding down, running up, sliding down, running up, sliding down backwards, losing mat and bruising ass, running up, surfing down on knees, ad infinitum.

We also heartily enjoyed the 'floating bridge' - a series of 10 foam squares linked together extending out over the centre pool. The real kids had a pretty easy time with this as the object was to walk out across the bridge, U-turn and come back. The kids weighing 60kg and 80kg had a harder time as the squares tended to sink under our weight, hindering balance. This game had us busy for a good hour and a half, and after a bit of staring I really forgot we were the only kids over age 10 lining up to try again. Though the 80kg kid only ever managed to do a good impression of an elephant tripping on a banana peel, the 60kg kid conquered the floating bridge on her 62nd try and showed those kids a thing or two.

We became adults again at lunchtime when we dined at Hanagi. I have never seen a Japanese buffet that includes ALL of: udon, soba, tempura, tonkatsu, tsukemono, teppanyaki, sushi, sashimi and goma ice cream, and I riked it arot.

All in all it was a ripper of a weekend. Now back to 6 day working weeks.

G-Day

Kentaro's green card was finally approved and arrived in the mail last week. Woohoo!

After 6 months of waiting it was rather anti-climactic, and given that he has been working for our company anyway it doesn't present any immediate benefits except for us being able to leave the country should we need to. He wouldn't have been able to leave Guam during the application process without nullifying his application.

However we can all breathe a sigh of relief now that this most recent challenge has been hurdled. How nice that we now both have valid visas to live and work in each other's country should the need arise!

August weather is cloudy and rainy and I'm ready for it to end! It's a real bummer when my one day off a week can't be a beach day because of lousy weather!

Our new house is ab fab, and we are looking forward to hosting a family member temporarily - Casper is going to spend a month with us while the parents go on the honeymoon they never had.

That's all folks!

Our House

From the front.

From the back.

The House is Warm

We held our Housewarming Party last night.

Thank you to the parents, Judy, Dottie, Doris, Becky, Hiro, Mohammed, Rowena, Minako, Sachiko, Saori & kids, and Naoko & kids for helping make it a fun occasion!

Playing House

Well I seem to be doing a bunch of grown-up things recently. It must be my time. I bought a cat, tied the knot, committed myself to a gruelling work schedule, and now I have a house to call my own.

Kentaro and I have entered the wonderful world of home ownership, complete with loans and common area fees, and the freedom to lay down tatami flooring and shoji screens wherever we so please. Yatta!

Following ever so subconsciouly in my parents' footsteps, we have purchased a Perez Acres townhouse all of a 2 minute walk from the townhouse I grew up in. It's not new or flashy - but has comfort and nostalgia in spades, plus is right next to a pool and basketball court. AND there's a bloomin' avacado tree in the front yard. When we saw that our eyes lit up - for different reasons. I was thinking, "GUACAMOLE, ALRIGHT!!!" while on Kentaro's mind was, "CALIFORNIA ROLL, YATTA!" I think we'll make a lot of both. :)

Tagged

I have been tagged by Laura.

1. I have to post these rules before I give you the facts.
2. Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
3. People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
4. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
5. Don't forget to leave them a comment telling them they're tagged, and to read your blog.

Hmmm well twiddly dee dee, let's see... I'll try to stick to random facts, as the random habits might be a bit revolting to readers.

1. I was named after my wonderful Grandmother, India Olean Brown.
2. I was officially enrolled in and due to commence a Masters of International Communication at Macquarie University when Kentaro dropped out of the sky and proposed, whisking me off to Florida.
3. I lived in a weasel/cockroach/giant spider/flea/jumping mini spider-infested 80 year old barnhouse in rural Japan for one year, and loved it.
4. I sang solo at the Sydney Opera House in an emerald green ballgown.
5. I can devour a jar of Nutella in one sitting with a single chopstick. And I do.
6. I am a regular face on Guam's Visitors' Channel.
7. My cat Cookie is a furry black talking machine. She spouts kitty talk 24/7. Funny stuff.
8. I can kick your ass at Mario Kart 64.

Now comes the tough part. I don't think there are 8 people I know who blog and would actually do this, so I'm cutting the number to 2.

Natalie and Libby. You're on!

All work and no play...

makes India a dull but responsible adult!

Well I was bound to end my lady-of-leisure lifestyle sooner or later, it's just a shock to the system after all this time!

It has been a long while since my last post, but we have been very very busy!

My Personal Shopper position has turned out to be more of a concierge role, but I am serving high-spending customers and have the chance to meet some real characters. Predictably falling in line with my experience, those who spend the most (eg dropping $20,000 on one watch) are the most nonchalant and friendly about their purchases, while those who spend in the lower end of the ultra-high spending category are often trying to impress somebody, whether it be the friends with whom they travelled here, their partners, or themselves, and can be more challenging to deal with.

My duties as concierge include serving delicious coffees and chocolates, and quality-testing these products thoroughly.

The teaching is also going well. I have some lovely adult students at the Japan Club of Guam (Job #2), and my kids at the School (Job #3) are good on most days!

Kentaro is not letting the fact that he still hasn't received his green card slow him down at all. As President of Sekiguchi Trading (Job #4), I have hired/enlisted him as my slave and he is doing my bidding all over town. Our sake is now available at all the major supermarkets and most of the hotels in Tumon. The next step is to broaden our product line and advertise advertise advertise!

Speaking of advertising, my 5th job as Japanese-talking face on the Visitor's Channel is starting to get me smiles from strangers and phony requests for autographs from co-workers.

Episode 1 of the Guamazing Race features Monday night, which will no doubt earn Kentaro and myself even more fame on island. Episodes 2 and 3 follow the next two Mondays. I can't wait to see us sweating like jungle pigs as we truck up and down the mountainous south of Guam.

My parents have purchased local membership at the Hyatt hotel, so on my day off we can lounge around the pools there and pretend that we're on vacation in paradise instead of just living here!

Mr & Mrs Sekiguchi

It's all on now!

The first wedding guests, Solon and Andrew, arrived at the crack of dawn Friday and were followed in the afternoon by my wonderful grandparents, aunt & uncle from the States.


There have already been quite a few memorable occasions and many many more are predicted!


It has been far too many years since I have gathered together with my relatives and we are all definitely feeling the love. I couldn't ask for a nicer family!


Kentaro, Grandma and I were good sports tonight when asked to get up and bellydance at the local Persian restaurant...

Countdown

Well, this wedding of ours is finally just around the corner.

We have been so busy settling in to our new lifestyle here in Guam that I've had little time to cultivate my inner Bridezilla.

Our first guests (Grandma & Grandpa Brown, Aunt Mickey & Uncle Wayne from the States and Solon and Andrew from Oz) arrive on Friday morning. Gary from Hawaii flies in Sunday, leaving Jess, Jen, Mike, Nhu, Phillip, Alex, Toshiko, Yoshiko, Miho, Yuki, Mayu, Soichiro, Marcia & Ross flying in Monday, the day of the BIG FIESTA. On different flights of course.

Tuesday is the main event with the ceremony kicking off at 5pm, at the Hilton.

Then the rest of the week will be spent snorkeling, shopping, eating, swimming, drinking, touring, relaxing and more eating.

Good times and exhaustion for all.

On a work-related note:

I will continue my part-time roles as English Teacher at the Japan Club of Guam and Japan School of Guam and pick up a third FULL-TIME position at DFS as a Personal Shopper/Concierge in their VIP lounge. It will be a rough transition back to the world of full-time work after this extended period of early retirement, but I am happy knowing that I'll be speaking lots of Japanese because I don't want to lose it.

Wish me luck!

卒業おめでとう！！！

ワンさん、やった～～！最初から最後までよく頑張りました。尊敬します！

My wonderful friend Wan Lu graduated from her Post Grad International Education degree after 2 years of hard slog! Congratulations!!!

She's half my size and looks half my age but is in fact 4 years older. Check out these gorgeous graduation pics:

Mahi Burgers

We are getting used to this tropical lifestyle and taking advantage of what it has to offer.

Sometimes we like to stop at the local fish shops to see what the professionals bring in.

For $20 this delectable dolphin was ours (and no, it's not a real dolphin):




Fish enough for the whole week! What a luxury it is to have a fish burger, with extra fish.

Pity I ate a few fish burgers before going to my neighbor's poolside fiesta, which was full of fiesta delights such as red rice, barbecued chicken and ribs, chicken kelaguen, velvet cake, coconut pie and Dottie's famous choc-chip brownies. Of course I didn't let a mere busting gut prevent me from feasting. As I was told by one of the young fiesta-goers, "This is a fiesta! We come here to eat!"


Um yeah must think about that wedding dress I need to fit in a few weeks...

We love-a fishy...

Kentaro's latest theme song is this, by Rather Good, which he hums whilst slicing and dicing his latest catch.

He has also proven himself to be quite the Gatherer, locating bounties of breadfruit, calamansi, papaya.

Our Catch & Snatch of the Day looked like this:

It was very tasty, and free.

Glad I don't need to worry about doing THIS on my wedding day...

I'll be doing my own make-up, but not this.

ME LOVE COOKIE!!!

It must be sorrowfully admitted at this point that our beloved cockatiels and the namesakes of this blog are not with us in Guam.

Had we known we would be moving to Guam I would have left them in Florida for a few months, as it is possible to import pet birds from the US to Guam, but not from Japan to Guam. And had we moved to Australia, customs there wouldn't have taken them either. So all that paperwork and hassle not to mention dollars to get them to Japan, for diddly.

But we have learned many things the hard way, sigh, and our little feathered babes are enjoying themselves at the German-themed village in the mountains of Akaiwa, Okayama Prefecture. Say hi to them if you're ever in the neighbourhood! They are surrounded by hamsters and guinea pigs in the air-conditioned comfort of the barnyard staff room. *sniff*

On a happier note, we decided to invest in a pet that is international-move friendly. Welcome Cookie to our clan!! It's a shame, she would have looooved Salt & Sesame I'm sure.

Guam shots

I used to collect shells on this beach with this old guy when I was a wee widdle one.

Kentaro's introduction to the art of palm tree sprout collecting (we planted it in front of our townhouse, see below).

Home sweet home.

Pool, SWEET pool.My man, the sushi chef.
Walking off the margaritas on Hagatna Bay.

Happy Valentines...

Oh man, does it get better than Ferrero Rochers, pink champagne, strawberries and teddy bears?? (Thanks Mom).

Happy Australia Day!!!

(we got a new camera, yippee!!!)

First Blog of 2007

Happy Bleated New Year, here are some fainting goats!

Kentaro and I have officially lost our camera.

The last picture we took with it was on New Year's Eve when his whole family was gathered around making mochi balls. It's a Japanese thing. Whether it got mushed into the mochi and gobbled up with the rest of the food we're not sure, but that was the last time we saw it.

We braved the cold that night and headed to Saijo Inari Jinja where 60,000 other residents of Okayama decided to take in their hatsumode, or first shrine visit of the new year. Thinking we could beat the crowds we left the house at 10pm, only to get stuck in some very uncelebratory traffic. It took us 3 hours to drive 15km, and we would have walked had it not been zero degrees outside.

We made use of the time by creating all kinds of resolutions for 2007. Ours are rather broad this year, along the lines of: Get a job, find a place to live, get married, settle down, etc.

It was definitely worth braving the cold, crowds and fatigue once we clamped our chattering mouths around a hot taiyaki and prayed to the fox gods for a healthy and prosperous 2007.

Wish us luck, and best of luck to you too!

Guam Guam Guam

There could not have been a better place to be this year for Christmas, for us.

Thanks to Mom & Dad, the most hospitable and generous people on the planet. Loving your work! And thanks to the Butthead & Jess, for getting your butts (and your heads) to Guam in the nick of time.

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas...

Kentaro and I are doing our best to eat up and create more physical insulation to combat the chilly temperatures. Japanese houses, unlike my ex-house in Sydney, are the same temperature inside as outside. They only prevent drafts, and some aren't even too good at that.

Here are some glimpses into our first week of December...