I have always wanted to have my own house – I guess I can blame it on being on Aussie. I haven’t really given it much thought – until recently that is… Naoki and I haven’t even really discussed it because it just hasn’t been an option for us.

You see, Naoki and I have plans on moving back to Australia in the next 13 years or so. It was something we decided upon way back before we were married. I needed to know that the option of moving home was available to me. Because seriously, at the time there was no way I would have been able to marry Naoki without that option available to us.

I guess now with Baby N growing inside of me I have started thinking a lot about our future and wondering if what we are doing is right. To be honest I am starting to believe that our dream of moving home one day is very unrealistic. As sad as it makes me feel to say this but I just can’t imagine it happening.

Why?

Well for starters although I speak English to Naoki nearly 100% of the time his English is not improving at all. He still can’t communicate easily with others. He still makes grammatical mistakes in easy sentences. And I seriously think he just doesn’t have the motivation to improve… For us to move back to Australia Naoki’s english would have to improve immensely for him to find a decent job. I can’t imagine him being a house husband. He would go crazy. Also, he loves the job he has now and I can’t see him being happy in lower ranking job.

Although I have a degree in accounting I seriously believe that I will never get the chance to work in an Accounting firm. Accounting standards and practices change constantly and being an accountant involves continuous learning. As hard as this is to admit, I know that nobody in their right mind would hire me -by then a 36 year old, a 15 year old degree with no experience – over a graduate who is up to date with all the new standards and practices. I am kidding myself to even think I would be able to get a professional job in Australia. I left Australia when I was 19 years old and before that the only work experience I had, was cafe work. I don’t have ANY professional skills…

So even forgetting for a moment that neither of us would be able to get a well-paying job in Australia, the cost of living in Australia would ruin us. I mean, to buy a house in Australia, even a really, really old house, would set us back at least $300,000 or more. I guess if we were to move to a country town in the middle of nowhere we might be able to get one cheaper but if I am going to move back to Australia than I plan on living as close to my family as possible. Renting is another option but still it’s expensive. House rental these days in Brisbane, even in the suburbs, would set us back at least $300 or so a week. Add on top of that groceries, at least say $200 a week at least (because hopefully we will be a family of 6 by then), we would have no money at all. We would still need to be able to save money each paycheck for plane tickets because we have family here in Japan that we would be visiting once a year.

I have spoken to Naoki about this but he won’t talk to me about it. He still believes that we will be moving back to Australia so will not even think about buying a house in Japan.

I blame my confused state of mind on the pamphlet I received in the mail last weekend. It was for a second-hand house right near Naoki’s work. From what’s on the pamphlet it looks like our dream house. It is a 2 storey house, only 10 years old. Upstairs has 3 bedrooms, 2 verandas, a toilet and storage area in the roof. Downstairs is a lounge room, a dining room, the washitsu (Japanese style room) plus of course the kitchen, bathroom  and toilet. It also has a small balcony off the lounge room. All of that for only $180,000. The loan repayments every month are only about $500. It is cheap enough that even if I never find another job we would be able to afford living there and fly home (with all 4 kids) once a year, as long as Naoki continued to get his bonuses. You would never find a house that cheap in Australia… To be honest, this house might not be our dream house – we wouldn’t know until we went and saw it. I have no idea how big the land is, if there is any carports or anything like that. But I just can’t get the stupid house out of my head.

I would love my children to grow up in a house not an apartment. I would love having a yard that Milo (and the kids of course) could run around in. I would love to have enough room for guests. I would love to have space for all the crap that we have accumulated but can’t throw out. I could go on and on about the positives about buying a house now. But the most important is that we can afford to buy a house now - we have enough already saved for a deposit (and would still have savings left over) and because of the way the economy is at the moment, Naoki is not working a lot of overtime but we can still afford the repayments.

If we bought a house now, we have a good 10 years or so before we even plan on moving back to Australia. We could get a lot of loan paid off in that time, especially if we put more than that was required every month into the loan. Maybe if we did move back to Australia, we could rent the house out? Or sell it? I don’t know…

It’s never going to happen though – as I said, Naoki won’t even think about it. But it was nice to put all my thoughts down on paper per se.

*Disclaimer to my family reading this*
THIS DOES NOT MEAN IN ANY WAY THAT I DON’T WANT TO MOVE BACK TO AUSTRALIA. IF IT WAS POSSIBLE, I WOULD MOVE BACK TOMORROW… But with Baby N on the way I really have to stop being selfish and start putting our own little family first – and at the moment I am just confused to which path we should follow…

This week I tried out 3 new recipes but unfortunately only two of them were successful.

The first is ‘Spicy Vegetable Parcels’ which I made for lunch on Sunday. With the weather cooling down over here the parcels really hit the spot!!

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon oil
1 onion, finely diced
2 cloves of garlic, crushed (or cheat like I always do and use the already crushed garlic)
1 tablespoon curry powder
400g potatoes
1 1/3 cups prepared vegetable stock
1 1/2 cups of frozen mixed vegetables
3 sheets of puff pastry

Method:
1) Heat oil in frying pan and cook the onion and garlic until tender. Add the curry powder and cook for 2 minutes.
2) Add the potato and season well with salt and pepper
3) Stir until well coated in spices
4) Add vegetable stock and simmer for 10 minutes or until potato is tender
5) Add frozen vegetables and heat through for 5 minutes. Allow to cool
6) Preheat oven to 220 degrees celsius and line a baking tray with baking paper.
7) Cut each pastry sheet into 4 equal squares and place 1/3 cup potato mic into centre of each piece. Fold in half to form a triangle and seal edges with fingers.
Place on baking tray. Brush with lightly beaten egg and bake for 15 minutes until golden brown.

My thoughts:
I halved the recipe and used the pie sheets you can buy here in Japan. Doing this worked out really well – I had no leftovers at all. It ended up making 6 parcels altogether. The only thing I found was the liquid wasn’t enough to boil the potatoes until they were tender. I needed to keep adding a little bit of water until they were done.

 I thought this recipe was great for lunch – not too filling but more interesting then a sandwich!!

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The next recipe I found in my recipe book – it is one of the original recipes I brought back with me from Australia more than a year ago now. It is a recipe for ‘Tuscan Pesto Chicken’.

Ingredients:
75 grams pesto
4 x 140g skinless chicken breasts
3 tomatoes
55g cheese
sprigs of fresh basil, to garnish

Method:
1) Preheat oven to 200 degrees celsius. Line baking tray with baking paper.
2) Put the pesto and chicken breasts in a bowl and toss them until well coated. Arrange the chicken breasts a few centimetres apart, so they don’t touch each other, on the prepared baking tray.
3) Bake in oven for 20 minutes or until the chicken breasts are cooked through and the juices run clear when pierced with a skewer.
4) Slice tomatoes. Top each chicken breast with the tomato slices and sprinkle over with cheese. Return to oven for 3-5 minutes or until cheese has melted.

My thoughts:
This recipe was super doper easy to make. In fact I really didn’t follow the recipe at all. I had a little bit of pesto frozen in the freezer that I used – I didn’t even bother to weigh it. I coated the chicken pieces on a cutting board with my fingers, lol! Also I only used one chicken breast that I cut into half instead of one whole chicken breast each. With the side of salad and roast potatoes I served with it, it was definitely enough to fill our hungry bellies. It has definitely become a favourite in our house though – Naoki absolutely loved it!!

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The other recipe I tried was for ‘Apple and Cinnamon Muffins’ that I found on www.taste.com.au. We had guests coming over for lunch on Saturday so I wanted to make something yummy for dessert to go with the pizza we had prepared.  The muffins were a disaster though. They didn’t rise at all and were all wet and gooey inside. I followed the recipe so I don’t know what I did wrong but I have already deleted the link to the recipe and won’t be trying it again!!

I came home yesterday after visiting A-chan with a bunch of new recipes to try!! All of them have been tried and tested so I am confident I will have more ‘Two Recipes for Tuesdays’ to post in the next coming weeks!!

On Saturday Naoki and I noticed that every time Milo was scratching her ear she was yelping out in pain. We tried having a look but she wouldn’t let us close enough. She seemed to be in a lot of pain but we couldn’t work out what was wrong with her. Her ear was definitely itchy and she was continually trying to scratch it even though it hurt her so much. It brought tears to my eyes to see her in pain like that.

The veterinary clinic down the road is shut Saturday afternoons and Sundays so I took her to the Vet first thing this morning. Poor Milo completely freaked out and peed all over the weighing table. She was howling and scared stiff. Once again my eyes filled with tears (stupid pregnancy hormones!!). I couldn’t hold her tight enough though. She kept squirming out of my clutches and eventually the other Vet needed to come in and help.

The Vet examined her and was soon able to tell me what was causing the pain. Milo has an ear infection. What caused it? Me not cleaning her ears… I didn’t even know you had to clean a dog’s ear!! How stupid am I… 

The Vet did say that it wasn’t that bad and put some medicine in her ear and told me to come back in a week so they can have another look. She wants to clean down deeper in Milo’s ear but because it hurts her so much at the moment she said she will wait till next week. Until then I have to wipe the insides of her ears 3 times a day to get all the gunk out.

I feel absolutely horrible. Milo is in pain and it’s all my fault. I just can’t stop thinking about what an awful mother I am going to become. I mean, geez, I can’t even look after my own dog

To end on a happy note, I really like the veterinary clinic we take Milo to. They are friendly and don’t mind at all that I am a foreigner. Today we were chatting and the wife mentioned that they have a Sheltie as well and asked do I think Milo would enjoy having a play with their dog, Lassie? It was raining outside so instead of letting them play in the dog park outside the Vet brought Lassie into the examining room and the two dogs got to know one another.  This was the first time Milo had been around another dog so I was a little bit apprehensive but I shouldn’t have worried. She was a little scared at first but you could tell that she was interested in Lassie and wanted to play. After about 5 minutes or so she was fine and they were chasing each other around. It was sooo cute to watch!! It made me laugh to watch them play because their playful antics were exactly the same!! The Vet said we can bring Milo around anytime we want and play with Lassie if she is outside in the dog run. I think I am just going to have to take her up on that offer

Last but not least my favourite picture of Naoki and Milo:

Looking out the window – watching the world go by. Milo’s favourite pastime.

I have something weighing heavily on my mind at the moment. It doesn’t seem to matter how much time I put into thinking about it I can never decide what I am meant to do.  I know that whatever decision I make there will be people who criticise my decision and that’s what makes it even harder to choose. I don’t want to have to make this decision at all but Naoki is putting pressure on me now that it is cooling down.

The swine flu vaccination is being released here soon and Naoki is dead set on me getting it. He believes that everyone is going to end up getting swine flu this year. I really believe he is blowing it out of proportion but there have been people at his work with it so we aren’t completely safe.

 I’m pretty sure pregnant woman are one of the first people the vaccination is being offered to. Knowing how low my immune system is usually and now being pregnant as well, Naoki believes that if I get swine flu I could end up getting very, very sick. I can understand his reasoning – I think last year I was sick with a cold the whole winter and remember, I nearly ended up with pneumonia. If I wasn’t pregnant and was able to get the vaccination I would. I would be the first person lining up for it.

But what bothers me is there is no evidence (or none that I have come across in my readings) that the vaccination is safe for my unborn baby. I don’t know what it will cause now or in the long term for Baby N. How can I agree to this vaccination not knowing that??

From what I have read though there seems to be 2 different types of vaccines – one of them is adjuvant free which is supposedly safer for pregnant women to get. Naoki hasn’t really done any of his own research into the swine flu vaccination and there is no way my Japanese skills are good enough to find out if the adjuvant free vaccination is even being offered in Japan.

My thoughts so far are that I would consider getting the adjuvant free vaccination but I am not too keen on the other type. I don’t even really understand half the stuff I read online though. I am not a doctor nor do I have any medical experience. Why is this my decision to make?!?!

Any thoughts?

＊UPDATED＊

I have added a poll on the right hand side of my blog for all of you to guess Baby N’s sex if you want to!! I have already voted for a boy – I have thought it is a boy since I found out I was pregnant. Naoki is dead set certain it is a girl though… Can’t wait to find out!!

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(17th October, 2009)
Dear Baby N,
I naively believed that once I hit the magical 2nd trimester I wouldn’t worry so much about you. I was wrong. Utterly and completely wrong. To be honest I found the last 4 weeks to be the hardest so far. There were days that I really thought I had lost you and would crawl up in bed and cry for hours. It was irrational to say the least. So far, my pregnancy with you has been pretty close to perfect. I have had no bleeding, no cramping, nothing. But still, I couldn’t help but worry that something had gone wrong.

So as you could imagine I was pretty much a wreck by the time by 16 week appointment came. I shouldn’t have worried though because you were healthy and growing appropriately!! You are now measuring in at 9.1cm from head to rump. I thought that you were a little undersized but apparently by Japanese standards I have nothing to worry about!! I still haven’t seen you wave at me – actually besides from one little hiccup (which I thought was the cutest thing in the world) I haven’t actually seen you move. You have been asleep at every appointment so far!! You really must love your sleep, just like mummy!!

The doctor told me that if we are lucky she might be able to tell us if you are a baby girl or boy at our next appointment. I have been dying to know since I found out I was pregnant with you.  Daddy and I already have you name picked out. We chose both the girl’s name and the boy’s name before we were even married. I know that it takes some people a long time to choose  a name. Some people don’t even chose a name until they have given birth. But we know the name we have chosen for you is perfect – it suits you already!! I want to tell you a little story about when your cousin was born 9 years ago. Aunty Kylee didn’t name your cousin Lachlan until after he was born and it took ages for any of us to really feel comfortable calling this tiny little baby by his name. It definitely suits him now and I can’t imagine him with any other name. Now, let me tell you about Sara and her baby girl, Sakura. Like mummy and daddy, Sara & Ryohei had chosen a name for their baby before they knew the sex and from the moment they knew she was a girl, she became Sakura. The weekend I went up to visit after Sara had given birth, Sakura was just that – Sakura. The name already suited her. I know that is going to be the case with you Baby N - We can’t wait to call you by your name!! (although it has to be a secret on my blog, ok? Shhh… don’t tell anybody!!)

Apparently I have gained 2.5kgs in the last month. I was as surprised as the doctor was. The doctor basically told me though that I was gaining too much too quickly and really needed to watch what I ate. She expects me to gain no more that 8kgs in my whole pregnancy with you. I was really depressed when I came home from the hospital because of my weight gain. She even underlined my new weight in red – just like I was some naughty schoolgirl who did badly on a test. I don’t understand how two countries can have such a different outlook on weight gain in pregnancy. According to Baby Centre Australia, by 16 weeks I should have gained at least 2.2kgs, maybe as much as 4.5kgs. So realistically, my weight gain shouldn’t be a problem. I have to tell you Baby N, that I am not afraid of gaining weight while pregnant with you. If that is what my body needs to protect and bake you for the next 6 months than I don’t care how big I get – that’s the truth. But in saying that, I don’t want to get fat for no other reasons besides the fact I am eating unhealthily. So from today I am going to be watching what I eat and trying to avoid certain foods. One of my challenges on my 101 things in 1001 days was to give up coke for a month so I have decided that this month is the perfect month to do it- don’t get me wrong, I really don’t drink much soft drink at all. But when I do, it needs to be coke. We usually buy one 1.5 litre bottle a week and drink that between the both of us. I am also trying to increase the amount of water I drink. Now that it is starting to cool down the amount of water I have been drinking has decreased a lot. Don’t worry, I have no plans on starving myself or doing any silly type of diet. But I am going to be more careful with what I eat…

Oh, I nearly forgot to tell you the most exciting news of all – I have been feeling you move around in my tummy for the last week or so. Your movements are still very random and sporadic but I swear I have felt them!! Sometimes it feels like you are trying to tickle my insides, other times it feels like I am on a rollercoaster and just lost my stomach, other times my stomach just feels ‘weird’. I can’t even say that I feel you once a day because I don’t. Your movement only ever lasts a few seconds and if I wasn’t concentrating I wouldn’t even have noticed. I can’t wait for your kicks to become stronger so that I know without a doubt it really is you I am feeling. Hurry up and get stronger Baby N, because daddy really wants to feel your kicks too. I think he is slightly put out that he has to wait when I don’t!!

The clinic we are going to is really behind the times in regards to technology. We are able to get a copy of each ultrasound if we want one but it recorded onto a video, not a DVD. Lulu had a great idea when she came to visit that I could watch the video on my TV and then record it with the camcorder. Surprisingly enough, it actually worked out quite well and I am going to put your video up for everyone to look at. I find that the video is a lot clearer than the print outs I get – if everyone looks close enough they will be able to see where your eyes, nose, mouth and ears are. In some shots they will even be able to see the rubbery cartilage that will become your backbone!! Oh, and the scene where you hiccup is too cute for words that I just have to make sure everyone is on special look out for it!!

done

(The quality isn’t that great but if you make it bigger, than you can see the different things I was talking about easier)

I don’t have a bump as such but my stomach shape is definitely changing. If you didn’t know I was pregnant, you wouldn’t be able to tell but the permanent bloat I have is something I have never had before!! The photo I am going to upload is especially for my sister who told me she didn’t want to miss out on watching my bump grow…

Keep growing up nice and strong, Baby N. Only 1 month till I can see you again!! 
Love always, Mummy

PS – Baby N, I love you lots and lots and lots, but please?!?! All that hair on my belly is not nice…

Any of you who read Lulu’s blog will know that she came down to Shizuoka to visit us for a few days. As I write this she is on her way back to Tokyo, stuck in traffic due to the annual road works done on the Tomei highway.

I was worried about the traffic before she bought her tickets and actually suggested putting her trip off till another weekend but I am really glad that she did come down. I had a wonderful time with her. I am so glad that our friendship is able to continue to grow although we can’t visit each other often.

Monday afternoon/night was spent mostly chatting but we also squeezed in a walk with Milo and finally  we sat down to watch ‘Miss Congeniality’ with some cheese and crackers to munch on. It’s funny because before I fell pregnant I hated all types of cheese unless it was completely melted and then only a little. But now I have found myself CHOOSING to eat cheese – smoked cheese with pepper to be exact. It is delicious!! Lulu was also kind enough to set me up my computer so I can download and watch TV from my computer. Unfortunately I am still not able to get any of the Aussie dramas I like but there are a few American dramas that I know and watch which I will start downloading for myself. I have a feeling that I will be spending a lot more time in front of the computer now!!

Tuesday we headed down to Lala Port in Iwata to watch ‘My sister’s keeper’ at the cinema. The movie is based on the book written by Jodi Picoult that both Lulu and I have read and enjoyed so it was a perfect choice for us. I have to admit I didn’t cry as much as I thought I was going to but Lulu did need to hand me a tissue (or two) throughout the movie!!

There are some parts of Saturday that I am sure Lulu won’t be forgetting for a while – i.e a scenic tour up and down a mountain because I couldn’t find the entry to Route 1… Or the conversation we were having with Naoki on Saturday night that ended up with me bawling my eyes out (stupid pregnancy hormones…) but what can I say? I take after my mum in regards to getting lost easily and Naoki and I are infamous for fighting in public

Today we took Milo to the beach which was nice. She seemed to enjoy it a lot more than the first time we took her. Now that summer is completely over, I plan on taking her back a lot more often. Then we sat down and watched ‘Miss Congeniality 2′ before I drove Lulu to the bus stop where we played Sudoku for an hour waiting for her bus to arrive.

I am really grateful that Lulu came down to visit us. I loved having her here and thought the few days flew by way too quickly.

It’s funny to think the next time we see each other will be exactly on her due date (unless goma chan arrives exactly on his due date!) as we plan on stopping in to visit before we pick my mum up from the airport.

I am not even 4 months pregnant yet but I have already been subjected to “the talk” from my MIL.

Basically she has implied that she wants me to go back to Fujinomiya to give birth and then spend the first month of Baby N’s life with them there. Of course, Naoki would still be here in Makinohara.

In no uncertain terms I told her that there is no way I am giving birth in Fujinomiya – that I have already booked into the clinic in Kikugawa and that is where I will be giving birth.

I also explained that I would rather go home and have Baby N spend her/his first month with both mummy and daddy. I have to admit I am slightly nervous about bringing a newborn home to an empty house without somebody close by whom I can ring for support (i.e. my mum). But just the thought of spending a whole month with my MIL when my hormones are raging and I am struggling through the first month of motherhood makes me shudder. I want to be in my own home with Naoki and Milo.

She also suggested that she could come here for a few weeks after the birth to help out. She doesn’t like this idea as much as me going there because she would actually have to take time off work. I guess, if I can’t convince her otherwise, I could live with it… I suppose

Naoki gets one week maternity leave that he plans on taking the week I get out of hospital. I see no sense in him being at the hospital with me when I have the help of nurses so I asked him to wait till I get out of hospital.

I don’t know… I know that some people are happy to have the support of their MIL but everyone knows that I don’t particularly get along with mine and I really think I would be better off without her getting in my hair…

What to do? What to do?

I can’t believe how long it has been since I last did a ‘101 things in 1001 days’ update.

unfortunately I haven’t been able to cross off a lot and it seems as more and more time passes the less things I am actually going to be able to finish. It looks like the charity of my choice is going to get quite a large donation off me.

4) Learn to cook 20 new recipes – DONE! I was able to complete this task easily.  In hindsight, I should probably have given myself more of a challenge. Finishing this task isn’t the end to my cooking adventures though. I think I take after mum in that I am always searching for new recipes to try.

13) Go camping – DONE! We went camping for our 1 year anniversary a month ago. Check out my archives if you haven’t read about our first camping adventures!

50) Go out and have a romantic dinner and some fun for our 1 year anniversary – DONE! THe restaurant we chose wasn’t the most romantic but it was a lovely night out and was perfect in every way.

74) Talk to a random stranger – DONE! This was made a lot easier after Milo become a member of our family. I am nearly always stopped by somebody along the way wanting to talk about Milo or my life in Japan in general. It seems that having a dog takes away the ‘foreigner fear’ that has made most people run in the opposite direction when seeing me on the walking track.

79) Make 5 new friends – DONE! Funnily enough most of them are other bloggers in Japan – Lulu, Sara, Khea, Melanie, Cassie.  I have also met a few lovely ladies at Adele’s playgroup that I now consider to be friends – Chris (who unfortunately is moving back to New Zealand in January), Chiharu, Junko and Tammy. Unfortunately I have not met anybody around here to become friends with…

90) Do something nice for somebody and expect nothing for it – CONSIDERED DONE! Being able to say this task was complete was a challenge for me. I couldn’t decide out of all the things I do what I considered good enough to be able to cross this off my list. A lot of things I do for others I expect myself to do – for example, allowing elderly people to take my seat in the bus/train, picking up items that other people have dropped for them, letting people who have less groceries go before me in the line, running after somebody to give them something they have dropped or forgotten. I don’t consider any of these things ‘doing something nice for somebody’ because it is just what is expected of me and I wouldn’t do it any other way. So that’s why it has been difficult to finally consider this task complete.

For the last year I have been getting an Australian magazine subscription called ‘That’s Life’. I love the reading the stories, doing the puzzles and finding new recipes to try. But what has given me more pleasure is knowing that somebody else is enjoying them as well. I have been keeping my magazines and then sending them off to Cassie in Osaka where she too can get the pleasure I did from the magazines.

In a way I am still not sure my action is considered ‘good enough or not’ but it’s not like I am going to stop striving to be nice to others so I will cross it off my list.

 There is still a lot of things I haven’t done on my list and I don’t think any of them are going to be crossed off soon. There are a few that I am planning on doing and know when I will be able to cross them off:
42) Have a baby – hopefully in April next year
61) Watch sumo in real life – hopefully in July next year in Nagoya (with baby in tow)
93) Visit a cemetery and put flowers on a lonely grave – next December when I am back in Australia. I have nowhere I can go to visit my grandma, grandpa or my brother so the flowers I will be laying will be for them.

The two recipes I am going to share with you today are both desserts…

The first is ‘Passionfruit Cheesecake Slice’ which my mum has been making for as long as I can remember but until now I have never attempted to make it myself. It has always been my favourite and once I grew out of birthday cakes for my birthday this cheesecake was what I always requested.

Ingredients:
Crumb Crust:
180g coconut biscuits (I just chose a sweet packet of biscuits and it worked out ok)
90g butter

Topping:
250g cottage cheese
250g cream cheese
1 can sweetened condensed milk
4 passionfruit (I didn’t have any fresh passionfruit so I used tinned stuff mum sent)
1 dessert spoon gelatine
1/4 cup of water
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 teaspoons vinegar
3/4 cup cream

(* all measurements are Australian standard sized so 1 cup = 250mls)

Method:
Crumb Crust:
1) Crush biscuits. Combine crumbs with melted butter.
2) Press mixture onto base of lamington tin, lined with aluminium foil. (I used my oven tray and just put aluminium foil over half of it because I halved the recipe. So I would say that a Japanese oven tray would probably be the perfect size.)
3) Refrigerate until firm.

Topping:
1) Beat together the cottage cheese and cream cheese until smooth.
2) Add condensed milk, cream, lemon juice and vinegar.
3) Dissolve the gelatine in the water (I used boiling water to ensure it dissolved properly)
4) While beating the cream mixture, add the gelatine.
5) Fold in pulp from 2 passionfruit.
6) Pour mixture carefully onto crumb crust, spread smoothly. Spread remaining passionfruit on top.
7) Refrigerate until set. Cut into slices.

My thoughts:
I think the cheesecake worked out quite well but there were a few things that I noticed. Although my cheesecake set I think that it was a little bit softer than it should have been. I blame it on the tinned passionfruit because it has a lot more liquid than a normal passionfruit would have.  The other thing that would have made the cheesecake a little bit better was if I blended the cheeses together using a blender, not my hand mixers. I don’t own a blender yet but it would have been so much easier if everything wasn’t flying out of the bowl as I tried to mix it, lol!

The other recipe I tried was a completely new one for me. In fact, I never even knew that such a thing existed until I searched for it online and found a recipe. You see, a week or two ago Naoki’s mum sent us a box full of Aomori red apples and a bunch of pears. I don’t like either very much but I particularly don’t like pears. It’s not the taste per se but the texture of them. So Naoki suggested I make them into pear pie… and amazingly pear pie does actually exist!!

So today I tried out the recipe and the pie is waiting for Naoki to come home so we can have it for dessert. Naoki had an overnight business trip yesterday so I am planning a yummy dinner to welcome him home I just hope it tastes as good as it looks…

I got the recipe from here: Fresh Pear Pie

Today I received yet another care package from my mum (and sister this time!). I wasn’t expecting it till at least Saturday so when the doorbell rang this morning I was pleasantly surprised!!

Mum’s coming to stay in December for a month and is planning on bringing loads of stuff for the baby/me when she comes. But she already has so much stuff that she decided to send me some of the stuff.

Today’s package consisted mainly of maternity clothes – a few my sister bought for me, one I bought for myself off Ebay and the rest were from my sister’s friend. I was so excited to receive them and I just had to try them all on and imagine myself wearing them with a bump. I love all of them – the variety, the colour, the styles!!

The maternity clothes probably won’t be used for a while yet but I do know that I will be maternity clothes a lot earlier than most. My own fault really – my whole wardrobe is filled with tight fitting clothes that after I gain a kg or two they seriously won’t fit. Actually one pair of shorts and a skirt I own have already been put away for ‘when I lose all my pregnancy weight and become thin again’…

(Yes, that is Milo in the picture… seriously, she is with me nearly all the time unless asleep in her favourite place – the genkan (shoe area?!)… )

I got one pair of jeans that fit under your bump and 8 shirts – 3 of them long sleeved which will be great in winter. I also bought a couple of pairs of pants, 2 long sleeved shirts and one jumper when I was back in Australia in August. That with the few things I have been given from friends, think I am just about set in the maternity clothes department!! The only thing lacking is jumpers I guess, especially a nice winter one to wear while outdoors. I am getting mum to look into a maternity jacket for me or if that’s not possible I have asked her to pick up a couple of jumpers in XXXL or something to cover my bump and keep us both warm this winter

I know that some women hate watching their figure change and their stomach get bigger and bigger but I am really excited about it. All I can say is, ‘bring on the bump!!’

I also got a couple more DVD’s of my favourite Aussie TV programs, some tomato and chicken soup packets for lunch, 2 packets of chocolate bullets and 1 packet of raspberry bullets in my care package. I have been craving bullets for weeks now and they definitely hit the spot. I can’t blame my pregnancy on the cravings though. I have always been a craver!!

Thank you mum and Kylee!! I really, really appreciate it. Love you both lots!!!!!!!!