Rafe and I started the year with a health kick – married life had suited us so well we’d steadily gotten softer and squidgier; as a friend explained in Japanese ‘Shiawase butari ni narimashita” – we were so happy we became fat! The health kick included ramped up exercise and yet another go of Rafe encouraging me to get into running. Well, it may have taken him 3 years and several attempts but I have now seen the light and love running – though it’s still really tough at the time and there are still days where I wonder why on earth I am doing this, but afterward I feel completely de-stressed and at peace in mind and body.
In March/April we spent three weeks in Japan, exploring new places together and catching up with old friends and family. We were joined by the lovely David and Shruti for a week during which we focused on the exploration side of the trip. Starting in Tokyo, we travelled North to Yunishigawa Onsen, a teeny town in the mountains for the most glorious stay in a Japanese inn which has been running for over 800 years and is currently being run by the 26th generation of the same family. Absolutely mind-boggling when we come from a country where all buildings would be less than 200 years old. This excursion gave us one of those once-in-a-lifetime moments: sitting in an outdoor hot spring, overlooking a river whilst snow fell softly on us. We couldn’t have ordered a more perfect moment. Many thanks to Noriko for her recommendation and for doing the phone booking for me – there are some places I do not wish to accidentally offend with my poor Japanese telephone skills!
Enjoying the hot spring waters and the cold, cold snow!
Sitting down to the most amazing dinner, with fresh caught fish and foul. 
From there we travelled to Kyoto, Osaka, Hiroshima, then once David and Shruti returned to Singapore, we continued on to spend more time in Kyoto, Wakayama and Nagoya for the social aspect of the trip. It was fantastic to catch up with so many people over there – friends and host family alike. It was also wonderful to share that side of my life with Rafe – it seems that experiencing Japan also gave Rafe new insight to my personality and understanding of certain aspects of my personality. I had never realised before then how much Japan has influenced me throughout my life.
The A-Bomb Dome and cherry blossoms, Hiroshima
In May, we became godparents to one of our two nieces born at the start of the year. It was the first christening either of us had been to; fortunately we had no trouble with renouncing Satan in order to be appropriate godparents!
Our gorgeous goddaughter, Lani
Lani sound asleep, not at all concerned with all the fuss
The Tinner-Seamer family: Dad, Kerry, Steve, Jan, Rafe, Bella, Lani, Bria and me
The three adorable sisters, Bella, Bria and Lani
Our house renovations still continue, albeit at a snail pace. We have now painted the bathroom, leaving just two rooms to go. At this rate all the rooms will be painted by the end of 2012! Phew!
Ready to paint, just realised I hadn’t taken the “before” photos!
Shakti and Jai were eager to help and indeed did end up with small amounts of paint on their paws for their efforts.
The finished product – it took a month of working on weekends to complete. It looked like so little work, really!
We also had a Hart working bee on our back yard and now have proper garden beds all around the edge. With the addition of a deck chair and umbrella, the backyard is becoming a lovely place to relax. My intentions of having the decking stained before Christmas were thwarted by the almost two months of rain each weekend. I think Australia, or certainly Victoria has been the definition of “It never rains but it pours” this Spring.
Garden beds built by Rafe and Jed. Note the roof gargoyle in his current home. This gargoyle has travelled from Mr Itoh’s roof, to Wakayama, to Australia, much to the amusement of all my Japanese friends: “Why on earth would you want a piece of roof?!”
A more pleasant place to spend time (one day that concrete will go, one day!)
Our front yard flourished this year, with all plants blooming in spring.
The growth spurt happened after these photos were taken; the plum tree in the centre below now stands taller than me! We do think that we should have planted thistles as a hedge though as they seem to reach fence height quite rapidly.
Mid-year, I finally enrolled in a Darkroom Basics course, run by the Melbourne Camera Club (MCC). Once started, there was no stopping me and I think Rafe sometimes doubted his wisdom in giving me the equipment to set up a darkroom at home as he became a darkroom widow weekend after weekend. I submitted images for the Traditional Printmakers and Darkroom Group exhibition at the MCC in August; my first participation in an exhibition since coming home. I am now concentrating on film and slide work, which is where my heart lies, and leaving digital for snapshots at the moment. I have discovered that whilst computers and digital cameras are great, deep down I’m an Analogue Girl, happiest when manipulating dials, knobs and chemicals instead of keys and mice.
For my birthday this year I had a Red Dress of Awesomeness TM which desperately needed an outing, so Rafe donned his tux and took me to Polly for cocktails and then to the Tramcar Restaurant for dinner. It was a deliciously lush night 🙂
Cocktails at Polly – My Oh So Debonair Husband!
A throne for me, no less 😉
Sweet, sweet cocktailOn the Tramcar Restaurant – one of those Melbourne icons that Melbournians see trundling around of a night-time, but rarely venture onto.
It is fortunate that the Red Dress of Awesomeness had its outing when it did because 4 days later….
Having had our trip to Japan, we were finally ready to attend to the directive sung to us on our wedding day by Rafe’s dad and uncle. For those who did not hear, or do not remember this little ditty, the refrain of it was
“Procreate, procreate, give us some grand-kids before it’s too late”.
Well, our first offering of a little boy will be ready for viewing sometime late April next year! We are extremely excited and trepidacious but are reassured by all and sundry that it is both the most rewarding thing we will ever do in our lives and it is one of the most difficult things we will ever do. Sign us up!
Unfortunately the first two trimesters have not been kind, with the changes in my body increasing the amount and severity of headaches and migraines. On doctor’s recommendations I will be dropping down to a 3 day work week for January and February, before starting maternity leave in the second week of March. Fortunately, my workplace has been really supportive and understanding and I think the only one who thinks I’m failing at life and work whilst pregnant is me!The latter part of the year was busy, as it always is once September hits. Rafe’s parents celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary. For us it was like getting to experience our wedding as guests – same place, same marquees, similar amazing food prepared by Sue, silly speeches followed by amusing songs. We had a lot of fun.
A rare opportunity for a family photo – almost got everyone in!
2010 saw us getting more into cycling.It is an activity well suited to all seasons bar summer. We signed up for the 50km stretch of Around the Bay in a Day, however discovered once pregnant that perhaps my body was a little too preoccupied to do it’s best at training. So we cancelled that and instead undertook a more relaxed 30km of the East Gippsland Rail Trail one weekend in October. It was a very pleasant way to spend a weekend. We rode the first two segments (approx 30km), stayed the night at a B&B in the middle of the bush around Mossiface and then rode back to Bairnsdale the following morning. The ride back was almost twice as fast as the ride there, owing to familiarity and improved visibility with rain gone and sun out. The mist makes everything seem magical and ethereal
The trail
Doing as the seat says – taking a moment to enjoy the view
There have been the odd down patches throughout the year – having our house broken into, car broken into and being pickpocketed – but none so horrible as the last 5 weeks of 2010 during which our beloved furbaby Jai was misisng. Having exhausted all options for finding him, we had resigned ourselves to being a one cat household. However on the evening of December 29, Jai emerged from the roof in which he’d been trapped, just in time to begin a new and suddenly much brighter year with us. Shakti was not so sure about this turn of events, having decided that she quite liked having all our attentions to herself, but she is remembering the good things about having her brother home, such as always having someone to snuggle with.
This wouldn’t be an adequate review of the year without some photos of our furbabies!
Bookshelf cats – they like to watch us!
On another bookshelf, looking down upon the world of our study
Shakti is equally obsessed with shoulders – she has even been seen to step from our mailbox onto the shoulders of a passer-by who intends to leave before she has had sufficient pats!
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It’s a tough life!
Jai, back from his mis-adventure, in his favourite snuggle place! A few days of normal diet and he is starting to look more like our puss again, less angular and bony, thank heaven.
Finally, a photo taken by a passer-by of the latest trend for federation houses in our suburb!
It’s been a full year, with 2011 looking to be even fuller. How was 2010 for you?
Wow… I had no idea our year was so action packed. Now that I think about it, we really did to a lot of stuff.