How do I change a sad day to a happy day?

Yay, I passed my jap tests, both oral and written and am going on to elementary 2.   Sometimes I wonder if I have taken on more than I could manage, and I have not had time for baking (which is not necessary bad even though I love baking, or everyone in the family will end up putting on weight, especially Vincent as he has to taste everything I bake to show his support!).  I also hardly have time to play with my crafts.   But I do love everything I am learning, and I think it is ingenious of me to combine jap with calligraphy.   I recently bought a synthetic brush from korea and it is really good for writing small characters, unlike the natural wolf hair brush, but it does have its limitation as it is not as easy to control and the flow is not as smooth as the natural wolf hair brush.

I am beginning to love the japanese language even though it is a great pain to learn (especially at my age), all the new enunciation, conjugation, different forms of verbs (the japanese are the most polite people ever, they have polite, respectful as well as humble forms of verbs.   But as Qi always reminds me, look out for the logic and everything will fall into place.   She should know, she has learned so many languages, jap, german, spanish and french.

I am determined to master japanese and hopefully by the time I am done with elementary 2, I can write a short note to Tak-san's wife, I finally know her name, "Jiu mei zi-san"   it is kinda sad, only to know her name after Tak-san's passing, and she sent me a note with her name.   My main purpose of learning jap, other than having a keen interest in Japanese culture and calligraphy, is to be able to communicate with her and maintain contact now that Taksan is no longer around to translate for us.

I have a delightful time in London, it is good to have the entire family around me, laughing, talking and just being together.    As the girls grow up, it becomes increasingly difficult to gather them together, so the 9 days in London is really precious to me.  

We celebrated Vincent's 50th birthday in advance in a quaint little restaurant.   We had grand plan to surprise him, but in the end we just ask him to choose the restaurant as it was too cold to carry out our plan.

As expected Vincent would be in Kuwait on his birthday, leaving on Sunday and back on Friday.   I on the other hand am going to Malacca with my girlfriends.   The six of us have been friends for 30 years and this is the first time we are travelling together!   Violet will be driving Sor Tin's car (as she is the only one with the mpv and Violet is familiar with the route).

I was telling Jer this would be the first time I am travelling with friends, as all my holidays travels are with the family, other than the times I travelled for business when I was working.  Woo-hoo, I am looking forward to a great time, even though it is only a overnight trip.