A Furry Guest and a Reluctance to Abstinence.

As of Thursday last week I've been looking after a black and white cat. At first, and not surprisingly, he was frightened of me and the new environment, but he has finally warmed up to me by happily sitting on my lap and purring when I stroke him. The only problem I still can't resolve is the fact that he pees everywhere. Not quite everywhere, but a fair amount, on my zabutons and sofa... His owner says that he apparently does it when he's feeling lonely, but he even did it when I was there. My guess is he's trying to own the place by placing his scent everywhere. Hoping he will calm down a bit as the days go on, or at least before I have to give him back to his owner when she comes back from her trip.

The spot he claimed as his own on his 2nd day here.

I found a "heat-tech" mat for pets which I placed on his spot; he seemed pleased.

 

Him finally warming up to me.

He's cuddled up asleep in my arms like a big baby as I type.

It was 'Pancake Day' yesterday. Not being Christian I wouldn't feel right calling it "Shrove Tuesday". Which is also why I'm reluctant to give something up for Lent, especially when I'm trying to include more on my plate with the resolutions I made in January, which I'm not doing too badly on. I'm improving on cooking more and spending less money, and though I've started to exercise a little I still fail on over-indulgence. Gluttony is definitely one of my biggest sins.

Nonetheless, it would be stupid and pointless of me in trying to give up chocolate, biscuits, or anything of the sugary kind because frankly, it would make me go a little mad, and it would end up backfiring in me eating more through frustration. And though I do eat those things, I don't eat them in big doses, and a little bit of sugar now and then is needed to kick me awake at work.
One thing I can, and probably should give up, not just for Lent but cut down on in general, is the dreaded "kashi-pan", translated as "sweet bread" in Japanese. To the Westerner, where the thought of sweet bread stops at croissants with jam it might seem a little odd, but Japan is full of amazing ranges of bread, both savoury and sweet. But, all white bread; i.e. refined gunk. Japanese bread (pan) tends to be much softer, chewer and delicious in a different way compared to the hard, jaw-aching breads we have back home, and are certainly more addictive and can be frightening to one's health when eaten in large portions. I've always been a huge fan of bread, and though I do like wholemeal and "brown bread" it's more difficult to find here, meaning I wolf down the bad stuff. As a result, I should wave bye bye to it, or at least to the white range, for this time period at most and resort to consuming smaller amounts of it afterwards.

Going back to the fact that it was Pancake Day; the last time I made pancakes was back in the U.K. when I was still a student at Uni. I therefore decided to make some for the first time since coming to Japan.

They don't have British-style pancakes here, only what they call "hot cakes", which is what we refer to as "Scotch pancakes", I think. They're thicker anyway, whereas the English pancake is thinner and would probably remind most Japanese, and Americans, of a crepe.

I looked up savoury pancakes, and BBC recipes helped me out.

I changed the recipe slightly using what foods I had, and used wholemeal flour and soy milk in the hopes of creating something slightly healthier. Result was pretty good, although it was super filling.

By the by, some readers who kindly read my rambles may notice that the photos in my Blog have been slightly, ur, up-graded. So long to my crappy mobile phone camera, though still loved and used, and say hello to my shiny new digital camera. I found the kawaiist case for it too.

I also started up another Blog because...because. Well. I thought that now I have a new camera and will be snapping at things more often (she says), I'll make a photo blog of entries of mostly pictures I took. materialistic things, mostly, hence the naming. It's the blog for when I'm feeling too lazy to use my fingers to type words. Not much to see there yet, though.

Happy Belated Pancake-English-style day, anyway.