18 November 2010

It remains cold, but at least the sun put in an appearance today. Nick had the day off to do some final revision before his looming exam, so at least we got to see a little of him. Bettina had gone into hospital at dawn so our planned playdate at her's was off, but Jo and I agreed we would meet anyway round at her place. Emily and Isy played quite nicely with only a few minor wrangles, so I was pleased not to have a repeat of Emily's selfish behaviour.

After lunch I managed to prise her away as it was clear that Isy needed a nap and I had mentioned the possibility of heading out to Haneda airport for a spot of plane-spotting. I had been meaning to take her for ages but never seem to have enough free time on non-nursery days. We really enjoyed the monorail ride out there, with Emily chattering nineteen to the dozen about all the things she could see from our great vantage point: various Tokyo landmarks, the airship, shinkansen, boats, planes, control tower.

We stopped off to have a quick snack (Emily ate a whole Christmas tree danish)

then went up to the roof to see the action. It was quite chilly up there but we stayed half an hour. Though two runways were in use there didn't seem to be that many take-offs occuring, given that from our balcony we can usually see a plane rising skyward every two minutes. Emily was chuffed to see both Pikachu planes though; one landing and one taking off.




With the sun rapidly descending towards the mountains

we made our way home again, with one final treat when the airship flew directly over us as we walked home from Tamachi.

A message from Bettina was awaiting me in the evening, but not what I expected: she had been sent home at noon and contractions had stopped for now.