Just over a month to Japan!

I won't even start with the old "I'm not dead" joke.

We've been doing a lot of clearing out to make the place presentable for people coming over, to reorganise our storage space and just to figure out what's going on with all the stuff we have. We finally got all the cardboard from the move out into a recycling collection and gave up on shredding the huge stack of paper that needed it and brought it into himself's office for shredding instead. We picked up an Ikea shelving unit for free - had a little adventure getting it home on the train with a little rolling platform - and now have all the books out of the too-damp garage and cellar.

Other than that, the planning for Japan is almost complete. Waiting for a response from one guest house and then we need to get the Japan Rail passes (which we can get here in Zurich) and an official translation of himself's passport from the Swiss embassy in Tokyo so we have the option to rent a car. It's going to be expensive... so I'm determined to enjoy it!

I was at a rakugo event organised by the Zurich Japanese Society on Saturday - I didn't even know they existed until they handed out fliers for it at the Swiss Japanese Friendship Society's New Year party - but it was lots of fun and got to have another delicious bento from Washoku and some handmade Japanese sweets. They don't last, so I'm having the last one tonight, pumpkin paste in a glutinous rice wrapper. This is a photo of the bento from the Friendship Society's New Year party.

Work has been all on/all off as usual, so I'm trying to make the best of the downtime to make a start on the newsletter for my translators' group (which I foolishly offered to put together) and look into marketing myself. I don't enjoy selling myself - not sure if it's a confidence thing or just European reticence, maybe both - but I do need to generate more business.

Also been doing some baking, and really enjoying making this fool-proof recipe for blondies (no-chocolate brownies). Well, I did replace the nuts with chocolate and caramel chips. But mostly non-chocolate.

Zurich is unusually warm and flowers are starting to come up already - although there's every chance that winter will bite before spring arrives. Needless to say, the skiiers and snowboarders are despairing of the whole thing. Himself has a new board after ripping the bottom out of his old one on some rocks last year, so he's not taking it out until everything is white for a few feet down.