2009-02-28 14:01:00
Each year in early spring I go over the books, to see how we're doing financially. You could say that it's a bit of a tradition, but truth is that sometimes it's out of necessity. Unlike last year I came away feeling pretty positive :)
On the "debet" side of the sheets we'll find my monthly income and a quarterly subsidy from the .gov (for Dana). On the "credit" side of things there's all the regular expenses, like our mortgage, food, baby stuff, insurances and stuff like that. In the end we're about four-fifty in the black, which is pretty damn awesome! Unfortunately we also spend about threehundred each month on "random" stuff, so the actual end result is closer to one-fifty. "Random" stuff in this case being unexpected expenses for Dana or us, as well as some entertainment (ie DVD, snacks, etc).
The quarterly bonus I'm earning at my employer also helps out a lot in quickly building up our savings. The size of said bonus completely depends on my hourly tarif and the amount of hours I work, but currently it's safe to assume that I'm earning an additional 50% on top of my base salary. This amount will go directly into savings, with a very rare exception here and there.
All in all I'm pretty content! We -could- be saving more each month (and we will), but we're definitely out of hot water!
kilala.nl tags: money,
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2009-02-27 18:34:00
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Yesterday I was met at the door by our mailman upon return from a walk with Dana. (off topic: we saw spring's first flowers! /o/) She had a sturdy, white envelope with my name on it, brandished with the Japan Post logo. Kaijuu had agreed to do a little shopping for me while he was in Osaka and the stuff he sent me arrived only a week after he did! Glee! ^_^ |
The parcel also contained the Alps Hiroba manga I'd been wanting to read. To my knowledge it was already sold out in most places, but Kaijuu managed to snag it at Mandarake. Mandarake in this case is a chain of secondhand book/game/dvd/cd stores well known among Japan travelers :) Seriously, you wouldn't believe the Japanese secondhand market! The books are like new, as if they were never read! And this book only set me back Y210, which is a little under two euros. Lovely!
The story is of course in Japanese, but the artwork is expressive enough for me to get the general gist of what's going on. Of course, it's pretty hard to miss the hilarity of the situation when the girls discover that the Suica penguin has a secret lair with trains and tanks under Shin-Shinjuku station. ^_^;
Finally there was a little surprise in the bag as well :) Dana got a great pink shirt from Comme ca ism, which some people compare to the Gap. Apparently it's a famous chain of family stores, where everyone in the household can shop for clothes. So... Dana's first engrish shirt! /o/
Kaijuu, you're awesome :) Just so you know, m'kay?
EDIT:
Jes' coverage of a Tigers game has convinced me that my next trip to Japan should be during summer. It sounds like a hoot!
kilala.nl tags: japan, friends, awesome,
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2009-02-27 18:05:00
Mmmmm! *burp* I'm so damn full! ^_^
Tonight I cooked a dish that I hadn't had for at least ten years: Pyttipannu. Pyttipannu is a Finish/Swedish (Scandinavian?) variation of the fried-leftovers-for-dinner concept. As the Wiki page suggests people don't even use leftovers anymore and simply cook the meal from scratch.
In this case I took the usual diced potatoes, mushrooms, onions and hammed and made an easy, yummy and horribly filling meal. Conform to our family's tradition the ham is not an expensive piece of fresh ham, but instead a nice slab of canned ham :D The only thing I forgot to add was the fried egg.
You know? Like the American hash, this stuff would be great for breakfast as well! :9
kilala.nl tags: cooking, finland, childhood,
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2009-02-27 07:55:00
This week's been mostly run-of-the-mill: we're tired, we're busy and we're doing okay :)
I took Blackie to the vet for her annual checkup (which is quickly becoming a bi-annual checkup because we keep forgetting) on Tuesday. The vet finally decided on a good way to handle her, which is great. Usually Blackie gets all stressed out by the vet and fights her tooth and nail! This time around they just plopped a towel over her head and went about their things. No problems at all! :D Worked a damn sight better than trying to actually -wrap- her in a towel. That's about the only time I've seen murder in our cats eyes ^_^;
The good new is that Blackie's completely healthy! We were a bit anxious about her health, what with friends and relatives repeatedly asking if she'd lost weight. But no, she's consistently been at three kilos for the past three years and she still is, so no problems there. *phew*
Dana's doing great by the way. Her cold's completely gone and the Pavlik harness looks like it's really doing its job! Her left leg has a much large range of motion these days! Dana also keeps developing her vocal chords and discovered the high tones this week. A month or two ago she went for volume, shouting HEYAHEYAHEYAHEYA at the top of her lungs and now she keeps on singing <3
She actually started doing that one night after her midnight feeding. I told her "Shh, no... Now is sleepy time and tomorrow you can sing for your mother all you want." She promptly went to sleep and from the next day onward she hasn't stopped singing :D
What else is there? Hmm... Work's been a bit heavy, with us being understaffed for two weeks. One guy's been on sick leave for three weeks now, another went on a short holiday and then I got ill as well. That's been a week with an average of 1.5 people on the job :( We've built up a bit of a backlog now. Oh well, we do what we can.
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2009-02-24 05:39:00
Marli had trouble sleeping last night, so after making her some hot milk around four I got up and went to work at five for a change. Let me tell you, there's something very relaxing about breezing through the Bijlmer business park, windows rolled down with the Civic making nary a sound in EV mode. Just a faint glimmer of sunrise on the horizon and noone on the streets but me.
It's also great to be in the office this early! It gives me at least two hours of real quiet time to get things done. I may have to do this more often :)
kilala.nl tags: relaxing, work, car,
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2009-02-22 21:11:00
It's that time of the year again: tax season! In the Netherlands, Q1 is the traditional time of the year to send out all paperwork relevant to the filing of taxes. Employers send reports on your income/taxes, banks tell you about your mortgage and bank accounts, pension plans tell you what your current status is and so forth.
I still need to file my income tax for 2008, but luckily this time around I've gathered all the paperwork ahead of time. Last year I had to scramble for everything, making one hell of a night. We also sent in our preemptive claims for 2009, which is looking very favourable.
I was actually kind of "forced" to do the 2009 claims a year early because the IRS had decided that Marli ought to cough up 600 euros as a preemptive payment for 2009. This was based on her tax returns for 2007 and 2008, in which we filed in such a way that all the returns were in my name. This time around, with Marli being without a job, I knew she wouldn't have to pay any income tax so I took the time to fill out the VT form. Wouldn't you know it? Instead of having to pay 600 euros, Marli will actually be -getting- 2000 euros ahead of time! /o/
Thinking that my own income tax would mess things up for the 2009 season, thus negating the return Marli'd be getting, I decided to refile for the both of us together. Lo and behold, my income screwed up absolutely nothing! No, we're actually set to receive around 4000 bucks! Glee! ^_^ That'll immediately go into savings, to fill up the emergency fund.
kilala.nl tags: money,
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2009-02-22 21:09:00
Just wanted to welcome home our dear friend Kaijuu from his short, but well deserved trip to Osaka. It's great to have him home again ^_^
He also brought us two lovely omiyage!. For Marli and Dana there's a wooden block puzzle from the Ghibli character store and for me there's a bottle of genuine okonomiyaki sauce from Fugetsu. <3
kilala.nl tags: friends, japan, okonomiyaki,
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2009-02-17 21:16:00
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Today we learnt an important lesson! Common sense does not always cross the boundaries that separate fields of profession. |
A few hours later the one stirrup that'd gotten dirty was clean again. Unfortunately it was also a full centimeter shorter in each direction! And this is where the thing about common sense not traveling comes in.
Everyone who's ever made their own clothing, or sewn any remotely interesting project knows that you pre-wash your fabrics to account for shrinkage. You never put anything together before the materials have been washed at least once. So why the fsck did nobody at $MEDICAL-COMPANY think of pre-washing the fabrics used for the Pavlik? Wonderful...
Luckily the local hospital could fit us in tomorrow morning so we can get some new spare parts. *grumble* They might as well provide us with proper washing instructions as well.
kilala.nl tags: annoying,
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2009-02-17 21:04:00
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Via Danny Choo's blog.
For a moment let us disregard the fact that there's a scantily dressed, well-endowed woman on the front page of my blog. That is not the issue here even though it might raise an eyebrow or two.
No, the issue here is the fact that for quite a long time I've admired the workmanship that goes into some of the collectible figures that are made in Japan. The past twenty years this has been a growing market, originally starting out small and with a rather large amateur/DIY community. These days new figurines come out every week, most of them rather well made, some bad and some just pure awesome.
Case in point (regarding the "awesome") is the figure shown above, of Yoko Littner from the 2007 hit anime Gurren Lagann. It's obvious why Yoko quickly gained a large fanbase in both Asia and the west. *cough* However, the nudity is not the reason why I'm nuts about this particular figurine. It's the exquisite detail that's gone into it! Tiny details have been painstakingly painted, like the stitching on her belt and the burn marks on her coat. It's obvious that Alter aren't just going for the quick and lecherous buck. And seriously, at about E70,- I think it's well worth the money!
It's being introduced in Japan in the summer of 2009, so this might actually be the first figurine I ever order. So far I've held off on collecting these things because on the one hand it's a costly hobby and on the other hand it tends to take up a lot of space.
kilala.nl tags: japan, toys, art, awesome,
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2009-02-15 14:47:00
A few of my mates are currently in Japan, on one of their regular trips. *waves at Kaijuu et al* Twice a year, my friends at Shiranai Travel organise a group-trip to Japan, taking care of the travel and accommodations for those coming along. This time around they've chosen to simply spend nine days in the Osaka area, not traveling very far around the country.
As part of the service they provide the guys at Shiranai put together a small guide book for the travellers. About 20-30% of the group are seasoned veterans, but the rest of the group gladly welcomes the information bestowed upon them. Aside from the various dos and don'ts and tips on how to get around, the booklet also contains a few dozen suggestions for day trips. I've always found the directions for all of these sights to be spotty at best, so I decided to help them out a little.
Last week I spent most of my free time putting together a Google Map with all kinds of neat sights and attractions around Japan. Obviously a lot of it focuses on the Osaka and Tokyo areas, but I also added plenty of stuff from remote areas. To give the Shiranai booklet and info a modicum of exclusivity I'm not going to share the direct URL to the map set, but here's something else!
View Larger Map
As an additional aid to the planning of day trips I'm also working on maps of the Osaka (pictured above) and Tokyo subways. Of course all of the subway lines are already on the maps that Google provides, but it's a bit hard to keep track of which line is which. By overlaying my map sets on the actual map it becomes a cinch to discern the Chuo line from the Midosuji line :) I can't imagine nobody's done this before, but I couldn't find anything so far.
Shiranai Travel - Osaka subway map
Shiranai Travel - Tokyo subway map (work in progress)
kilala.nl tags: japan,
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2009-02-15 14:38:00
Thanks Edmond, for wondering about our health :) I know it's a bit weird for me not to post anything for over a week, but don't worry: we're still alive.
The past week or so has been a bit "weird". Dana got her Pavlik bandages, then she got the cold, then I got cold, then our daily schedule got screwed up a few times and then we were all just crappy. Not crappy in a bad way, just ... crappy. We're fine though (am I confusing you yet?).
Nothing much's been going on, that's all. The little spare time that I did have left got spent on research. Speaking of: thanks to Digitist, for sending me a PDF of that medical article I'd been wanting to read. It gave me some useful background info on the stirrups Dana's wearing these days.
kilala.nl tags: life,
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2009-02-06 16:23:00
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One will probably remember the rather ill-fated drop that damaged my iPhone back in December. Since then it's been perfectly serviceable, with the obvious drawbacks of having no wifi and wonky bluetooth. Since it's officially a company phone it's of course The Right Thing(tm) to get it repaired on my bill, which is what we've finally gotten around to. |
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2009-02-05 01:34:00
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This week's been pretty rough on Dana. She's on her second head cold, and is having a hard time feeding. So far we've had to resort to salt water nosedrops and cut onions in her bedroom.
Aside from that there's the rather unpleasant news that Dana's been diagnosed with Developmental Displacement of the Hips (DDH) (Wikipedia), which means that one of her femurs is not slotting into the hip socket. Because Dana was born in breech position we were already expecting -some- problems with her hips, but never thought to find something of this extent. Right now her right ball joint is growing outside the socket, almost creating a secondary socket. She's now been given a Pavlik harness, which prevents her from stretching her legs and which forces her thighs in an optimal position to slot back into the hips.
The crappy thing is that our regular hospital didn't pick up on this for over three months. They'd been making echos, but never got any further than "Yeah, we can't really see anything because the pics are too blurry. She will probably need some help later on, but we'll need to recheck later.". So, nothing more than a definite maybe. Well, we got some X-rays done about a month ago, then visited her pediatrician who told she needed orthopedic help. Unfortunately the orthopedics department at our regular hospital was booked solid for a few weeks, so we had to go to another one. After finally meeting with the guy today one could say that hell broke loose.
The orthopedics doc was livid that our hospital hadn't picked up on this before, because treatment should've started earlier. I've read up a bit on the subject and various medical journals seem to indicate that the effectiveness of a Pavlik harness drops after four to six months. So yeah, if Dana'd gotten her harness right after the X-ray was taken, things would've been more favorable.
Getting the harness was a hassle as well, since apparently the casting department of the hospital we went to was deserted, so we had to go back to our usual haunt again. Back and forth, back and forth =_= We now have a checkup scheduled for the 6th of March, but since the aforementioned journals indicate the necessity of regular checkups on the Pavlik harness I'll push for an earlier appointment. I'd rather go see the orthopedics people again in two weeks, than in four.
*sigh* For now there isn't much else we can do but wait... Let's hope the harness can still do good.
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2009-02-04 08:38:00
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Hooray for Japanese silliness! For years now (I've no clue when this got started) emoji have been a staple of Japanese cellphone culture. Combining cuteness with typing efficiency, the Japanese implemented a system involving smileys and dozens of other icons in their keitai. One can cut down on the amount of words tremendously by simply stringing together a few of these symbols to form a semi-sentence. |
There are multiple ways of getting emoji to work on your iPhone, though all of them require firmware version 2.2 or higher. Unfortunately the emoji keyboard is invisible per default outside Japan, but using apps like Typing Genius - Get emoji ($0.99) one can enable the option in System Preferences.
kilala.nl tags: iphone, japan, apple,
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