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A friend of mine has many beautiful roses in her garden. One of her roses is a beautiful apricot colour. It smells wonderful.

Yesterday she told me that the rose bush blooms about the time of her mother-in-law’s birthday. She told me she always picks some and puts them on the memory table in her house.

I have never seen her table, but I thought about the things we might put on a memory table. Photographs of family members who have died? Yes I think so. Maybe some small things that belonged to them, like a small box or ornament. And, of course, flowers.

J.M. Barrie, the man who wrote the book, Peter Pan, said “God gave us memory so that we might have roses in December.”  Of course, he lived in the northern hemisphere, so December is winter. I live in the south, so it is summer in December. I can change his quote to suit me. “God gave us memory so that we might have roses in winter.”

Patricia @ I Talk You Talk Press

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What do you have for breakfast? I notice that most people have the same thing for breakfast every day.  I have coffee and toast. I put Vegemite on my toast. Most people don’t know about Vegemite. It seems to be unique to Australia and New Zealand. There is a similar product called Marmite. It came from England I think. If you grow up eating Vegemite, you like it. But most people think it tastes awful.

If you eat toast for breakfast maybe you put margarine and jam, or butter and honey, or margarine and peanut butter, or margarine and Vegemite on it. People like different things, but maybe everyone has the same experience when they drop their toast on the floor. The toast always lands upside down! It always lands jam side down!

Patricia @ I Talk You Talk Press

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Do you have a pet? Do you buy it presents? In my family, we have always had dogs. We treat the dogs like members of the family. At Christmas, we give each other Christmas presents, so of course, we give our dogs Christmas presents too.

There are many kinds of Christmas presents for pets available. We usually buy toys or dog chews or treats for our dogs. We wrap them up in wrapping paper. The dogs love ripping the wrapping paper off the presents!

One dog we had was always very careful when he took the wrapping paper off his presents. It seemed like he knew there was something special inside, and didn’t want to damage it. He took a long time to unwrap his presents. Another dog we had ripped the paper off as fast as he could! He just wanted to get the present as quickly as possible!

I often buy presents in Japan for our dog. I’m sure she doesn’t understand the difference between and English present and a Japanese present, but I like to get her something different. I wonder what I can buy this year…

Heather @ I Talk You Talk Press

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Every year, I save 500 yen coins. 500 yen is around $4 – $5 dollars. When I get a 500 yen coin in my change at a shop, I don’t spend it. I put it in a special case for 500 yen coins. I have been doing this every year for around five years. My goal is to fill the case. The case can hold 100 coins. Once, I managed to fill the case, but usually I can’t. I usually manage around half or a third.

I start in January and continue until I go home for Christmas. I used the money I have saved to buy travel insurance and my train fare to the airport. It is a big help, because I spend a lot of money at Christmas.

This year, I have filled just over half of the case. I didn’t reach my goal, but I’m happy anway. I will try harder next year!

Heather@ I Talk You Talk Press

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How often do you read, watch or listen to the news? I read online newspapers every day. But I wonder if this is good or not. Of course, it is important to know what is happening in the world. We need to know about the situation in other countries and in our own countries. Many things happen which affect us directly or indirectly.

However, most news is negative. We rarely see happy news stories. How does reading, watching or listening to negative stories every day affect us? Does it make us more negative? Does it give us a one-sided perspective of the world? Many good things happen in the world every day, but we rarely hear about them in newspapers or on news sites.

I’m going to try and cut down on the amount of news I consume. Instead of checking the news sites a few times a day, I’m only going to check them once a day. I wonder if this will have an effect on my mood…

Heather @ I Talk You Talk Press