Saturday 26 September 2009

Kicking off

Saturday is soccer day. Both the boys train and play for the local junior club, which means that I get to spend hour upon hour on the side-line doing the dutiful mother thing. Which is a bit more involved than it was back home. Training is on Saturday afternoon from 2 til 5, usually running over by half an hour (and Sunday mornings, but we're at church). The athletics ground is brand spanking new, and is just on the other side of our little mountain.

And I admit, the view makes the wait more pleasurable. But at least when it's just training, all we mums have to do is watch and look interested. Match days, well... the day of this home match, dads were asked to come early to prepared the ground for play, meeting at 7.00am! Mums needed to arrive by 8.00am, bearing 2 large blocks of ice (must be made in 1 litre milk cartons), 2 small towels, drinks, packed lunches (it was a tournament), balls and don't forget the kids! At 8.30 there was the briefing on how to use the kakigori-maker (ice-shaving machine, we had to man the stand whenever own own kids weren't playing, and the children could have as much as they liked), and then we were drilled on how to serve the kakigori (ice first, clear syrup next, then more ice, then fruit syrup, do not deviate from this) before kick-off at 9.00am. Of course, everything has to be done just so, no initiative-taking allowed. I got into trouble when, at half-time, I started to hand out the iced towels to the hot and sweaty players but... used the wrong box first. Shock horror. The two boxes were identical, one was for half-time, the other for when the final whistle blows. And as I was the only mother standing on the side-line watching (the others had all retreated to the shade as their UV-protective long sleeves, hats, scarves, gloves and SPF50 sun cream might not offer them quite enough cover) and found that the hoard of red-faced boys were heading straight for me, I opened the box nearest to me. Stupid foreigner.


Hey ho, it's good for the boys and they enjoy it, so I guess I'd better learn the ropes in this new role. I noticed something today at practice that wouldn't happen at home - towards the end, the coach was stood on the pitch directing the youngest players with a cigarette in hand! So much for encourage heath and fitness.

Oh, and today is pretty Ayumi-chan's little boy's 2nd birthday - Happy Birthday Noah-kun! I made him a 'Totoro' cake (Totoro is a character from one of my favourite anime, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Neighbor_Totoro). It didn't quite go to plan, as the fondant icing I'd made was far too dry to do anything with, so quickly had to change to Plan B and work with butter cream. Of course, I couldn't do any modelling, so the finished cake isn't as fancy as I'd hoped (I wanted to include some makkuro kurousuke (dust bunnies?), acorns and leaves), but hey, the birthday boy is only 2 some I'm sure he won't be complaining.

M took one look at the cake and then begged to watch the film after we'd spent a good while marching around the room singing "arukou, arukou"!

15 comments:

  1. OMGosh.... A you did such a fab job on the cake.... You are fabulously talented = )

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  2. Hi April,

    Thank you! I'm so happy to be baking again, I've really missed it! Speaking of baking, did you step up to this month's challenge?! xxx

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  3. Ha ha ha the soccer peccadillos are worryingly familiar. Very impressed that your boys train on grass though. All gravel here. One school somewhere went radical and planted a lawn and it made the news the other week...

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  4. Hi Heather,

    They only got to play on the grass pitch because it was a match, usually they're on the dirt ground. Probably trying to intimidate the other team with the facilities! Our team had never played on grass before, would have made sense to let them practise before the big day as it's really not the same! I'm wondering how long it will be before my boys start to get penalised for not taking training seriously enough... I think they're the only ones who don't play on Sunday or if it's raining!! xxx

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  5. Oh that is fantastic! You're too modest, it's brilliant and even at my age I'd be absolutely thrilled to have a cake like this! :) xxx

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  6. Hi Lorraine,

    Thank you! I wonder, what would be your dream birthday cake?! xxx

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  7. Wow,all your cakes are amazing. Thanks for the compliments that you gave me but this really tops the cake literally!!! I read your blog on the weekend and didn't leave a comment but now I feel I must. 5 minutes ago your cakes appeared in the 'highlights' section on my Facebook homepage!! Seems we have a friend in common! I just want to try them all!!

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  8. Ahhh that is the cutest Totoro everrr!!

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  9. Hi achan,

    Wow, how funny - I wonder who?! I get so excited when planning a cake, I wish I had a birthday to cater for at least every month! xxx

    Hi willowbird,

    I love Totoro! Thank goodness the birthday boy's mum chose an easy character! xxx

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  10. Wow! Totoro is awesome! I want to do something nice and girlie for Marina's 2nd birthday in a couple of weeks but me thinks she would be most pleased with a crab!!

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  11. Thanks GW, but it was easier than it looks! I did a butterfly for M last month, simple and girly:

    http://creatingastir.blogspot.com/2009/09/time-flies-my-little-flutterby.html

    Crab, eh? Well, this is Japan and they are cute here, right? Well, Heather's are, hehehe... xxx

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  12. I have that song on my Ipod 'arukou arukou watashi wa genki' haha :) I love it.

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  13. Hi Kelly,

    hehe, it's one of those tunes that you can't get out of your head! I never get bored of the film, it's just lovely! xxx

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  14. Wow, Totoro is gorgeous!!!! I absolutely love the anime, too!

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  15. Carlos Camacho7 April 2010 at 11:21

    Grass fields in Japan? They exist? I have too many memories of playing on sand fields that felt like concrete when you went down. lol

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