Herb tea

Now a new week has started. Though it's a holiday today on Japanese calender, Yuki goes to work as usual. I do chores in the morning, and in the afternoon I'll go out to attend a workshop instead of seeing the dentist.

In my garden SYUMEIGIKU is too full to stand straight. So I cut some of them and "just " put them into the big vase. Not so bad. We feel fall, don't us?

 

Well I coincidentally got this herb tea. Do you know that? It seems to be famous in the US? in the UK?

 

 

I tried to have it. It tastes --- I was really surprised --- like Chinese tea.
I'm really sensitive to coldness, I hope my body temperature raise up to 36 degree Celsius or more.
My body temperature is usually around 35.5 degree Celsius.

How much is it if I asked someone to clean the windows?

Well, well, according to the newspaper, you should start house cleaning (Here in Japan in December is the season of general house cleaning not spring cleaning. Because I think, in December we don't have much pollen, we don't have much rain even though it's really cold.) from this month little by little ( for senior people.)

I think it's a good idea.
What people usually do?
Cleaning conditioners, cleaning  the kitchen stove and a kitchen ventilating fan, and cleaning the bath room and cleaning the windows.

In our case, we usually do cleaning the windows.
(we often skip cleaning conditioners and ventilating fan.)
This house is old, so compared with current houses, we have more windows.
And -- if we were too old to clean the windows ---
I looked up the cost on the net.
It costs 400 yen a pair of large windows currently.

well, well,  additionally, it costs at least 12000yen to clean an air conditioner, and it costs also 12000 yen to clean a ventilating fan.

Toufu au gratin

I don't know how call GRATAN in English, according to my dictionary, it is showed as "au gratin".
Anyway, yesterday I tried to make perfect Toufu au gratin, it means that I used only Toufu to make white sauce.
Just I whipped TOUFU with a little powdered consomme.

And bake it in the oven.

 

Looks perfect. The taste is not so bad, it means -- it was a little TOUFU-ish.
So if you love TOUFU, the taste is wonderful, and you are not a lover of TOUFU, the taste is not so bad.

However it's really easier to make TOUFU cream instead of white sauce.
It might be better to add some soy milk or some cheese (if you don't mind too much calorie).

From a radio program

I listened to NHK radio program in English.
It was an interesting article.

This is that Technology & Business: Responding to Your Specific Needs - New Housekeeping Services

(I don't know how long we can listen to it on the net.)

Here in Japan having housemaids is not so popular (among not the upper class), of course I can't afford to hire a housemaid either.

However looking back to about 50 years ago, not only the upper class but also landowners or some middle class people used to hire some housemaids. (Well, my grandaunt was single forever, and worked as a professor at a women university, and she hired a housemaid, which was also her friend, my great grand parents hired some housemaids because there were lots of people to live together.)

Now, it's completely different.

And now we face the population decline  because of the declining birthrate, though increasing the number of senior people.

So for senior people they have no one to help them. It means they might need someone who do house chores instead of them. However the people in their 60's or 70's are not used to accept other people who do house chores or ask something to other people .

For young people in their 30's or 40's, probably after 10 or 20 years, it will be usual that  a couple work "outside" together, (I think doing housework at home is a kind of work.), so they might need a house made, but what such a housemaid does? Do they live in such a big house?
Such couples don't have free time in weekdays, so they can't go to bank or post office  to do fill out paperwork. However housemaids won't be able to take care of such paperwork because these days it's really difficult to deal with personal information.

---- sorry I can't put together my thoughts. (even though in Japanese).

Anyway the article was interesting.

They are good phrases, aren't they?

In your country (not Japan), Is it familiar to talk with a psychology counselor?
I think nowadays it seems to be usual little by little. So these days I  see lots of blog talking about psychology. I'm a little bit fan of two couselors' blogs.

What he said today was that
"people surrounding you look bright and attractive means  that you are bright and attractive."

It is said we love our own kind.
So to be honest, these days I feel blue, however the people surrounding me are still attractive and cheerful. --- It means I still have power to get cheerful!!!!

And
Another phrase was that
Sometimes talking with someone including counselors, is effective, however the final way is just "courage" to break anything saying "let's do it (without thinking".


It's right.
I think, if I feel my courage, it's not the time to do a thing. For that to happen, it's OK to be still, just wait for coming up your courage.

What phrases encourage you?

This is today's breakfast.Yesterday a friend came to my house and had lunch together.I grilled chicken and made marinated beans. She brought green-tea cake. So I shared it to Yuki for our breakfast. It's not leftover.