We are full of sushi, having brought some from a Japanese supermarket in Brussels. And Japanese pickles, with lashings of ginger, soy sauce and wasabi. And sake, hmmm, two wee bottles each. (Two wee bottles in the microwave at medium for 2 1/2 minutes brings it up to temperature nicely, too...)

My "last day of freedom" was spend doing a little bit of study, anyway, because next week's study requirements are going to come like an express train, I know. But I popped into the bead shop to buy the materials to make "safety chains" for a couple of my elisem "necklace crowns" - they usually stay closed, but in the winter, when I wind a scarf around my neck, they have this annoying tendency to fall open. I'm scared that I'm just going to lose one without even realizing until far, far too late. Hence, an extra little chain, just in case the hook clasp works loose.

Then I dredged up the location of Our Favorite Chinese Supermarket - part of the problem, sometimes, with Mr Sweetie is that he is somewhat more familiar with Brussels than I am - put this down to several years of comics-hunting. Anyway, there seems a moment in every trip, that I want to head to a familiar network, like the Metro or one of the underground trams (there is a need to keep awareness of these two networks distinct, as I discovered today when I realized that "Beurs/Bourse" was absolutely not a Metro stop.... ack! My brain only hurts when I'm trying to rewrite reality to what I think it should be, and it simply refuses to do as it is told) - AS I WAS SAYING - the moment when I want to take the familiar, and Mr Sweetie says, "It's not at all far, we can walk!" Anyway, this means the actual manner of getting to this place has not stuck in my head the way it would have if I'd have been able to pick my own path. However, despite that,... I found Our Favorite Chinese Supermarket, and proceeded to buy in several sorts of things we've discovered we enjoy having from them: pomegranate soft drink, green tea cookies (plus an extra pack for our friends M and F), another little sweet ceramic dish for serving small side portions or snack that was for sale... and a somewhat intimidatingly sized package of dried orange peels. Uhm. Yeah. I want to see if I can make that duck dish we so enjoyed last week. (Don't worry - I'll experiment first with myself before inflicting it on anyone else.)

After that, and feeling in dire need of lunch, was the last errand - to the Japanese market. Ah dearie me... well, it turned out very well in the end, but that was despite a fair amount of bumbling on my part. However, I think the folks there are kind of used to a small stream of non-Japanese trying hard to communicate... I didn't manage to avoid making a fool of myself trying to order sushi - I failed to see that they'd changed their system, and there were sets of the stuff pre-made for sale. Ah ha! At least I could say "thank you," eh? I did manage to ask if it was okay if I could put the sushi sets in a special bag with the ice blocks, before actually paying for it, while I did other shopping. And then I totally missed the display of "kariiraisu-no-rou". Get this: it was because the products were all printed in English. *headdesk* Well, now I know.

While I was finishing this last bit of shopping, a Japanese woman came up to me, and addressed me by name. Ah ha! Old E.! living in the same little town as we do! My goodness but hasn't it been awhile. So, I told her I was going to a near-by Japanese grill-place for some lunch, would she like to eat with? Sure! So, we had a lovely time getting ourselves fed, getting caught up with each-other's news (she's pregnant! four months!!) and then she kindly gave me a lift home.

It doesn't seem like a lot, and yet... I was exhausted, and as soon as all the groceries/errand stuff was put safely away, I went for a nap. Not just a little short fade-out, either. It's what I call a "hard nap" - I felt like I'd really gone into a deep sleep, despite having the .mp3 player with language tapes playing in my ears. I hope that doesn't disrupt my sleep too badly - between the occasional hot-flashes and the still arriving bloody periods, a good night's sleep has been getting a bit rarer than I'm happy with.