My English Diary ~ in Australia~

Notice for the future

2010-01-07T11:49:00.006+10:00

Hello,there. How are you doing?

I haven't made a new entry here for a long time.
Well, actually, I've made a new English blog, called '英語deつぶやきTwitter!’

Click here to jump to my new twitter blog!

I am twittering about my daily life and thoughts in short posts.
I am going to post longer articles here from now on.

I hope you visit my new twitter blog sometime in the near future too.

By the way, I've changed this blog's templates. Personally, I like it very much! What do you reckon??

Thank you for reading!

waiwai

I had a TERRIBLE backache again. (No.2)

2009-11-27T16:56:00.001+10:00

(This story continues from No.1)

Well when I was walking with the dogs on the usual route, there was a calf ahead of us. Mick( the puppy) is still very curious about calves and cows and he can't help following them or barking at them. So Mick was kind of going toward the calf and I was walking with Ambi along the barbed wired fence. We were about a few meters away from him. Then suddenly a cow behind the fence saw Mick getting closer to the calf, she went (×got )berserk screaming at Mick. Ambi sensed a danger and she started to bark at the cow and so did Mick. The cow got sooo mad that she pushed through the fence and came very close to us!! I didn't know what was going on at first, all I could think was I might be in a little bit of a dangerous situation. Obviously the cow was very angry at something! I tried to soothe the dogs but they were both out of control. Luckily Gori heard the dogs intense barking and he screamed at me and told me to run away from the cow. So I did, I ran! I was scared so I ran for about 20 meters totally forgetting about the backache! After I ran, I looked back at the cow, she was with the calf. The cow was the calves mum! She got very angry because she thought her calf was in danger so she tried to protect him. I didn't know cows have got such strong affections towards their calves!

Anyway, as you might guess very easily, my backache got worse after the incident (^^;) Even the foot bath didn't work. On the contrary, it made the pain worse. I think I might have strained my back when I ran. I couldn't stand or walk . I could lie down but that's all I could do for the past few days. Now it is getting better, thank goodness. I can walk pretty normally. I do have some pain when I am sitting but it is nothing compared to the torturous pain that I had 2 days ago, which made me feel extremely depressed.

Anyway, I've learned a very useful lesson this time.
I won't do any walking to vent my bad emotions from now on!!

*This article has been corrected by Gori.

I had a TERRIBLE backache again. (no1)

2009-11-27T14:28:00.010+10:00

Hi everyone, how are you going?

I had a terrible backache a few days ago and thankfully I am on the mend.
What happen to me was...I got carried away walking on the treadmill out of anger and frustration!! The direct reason for these unfavourable emotions was share trading. I missed out the best chance to sell the shares I had at the highest price. At the time I was very upset but in hindsight, I made at least some profit and the price of the stock dropped down afterward so given that, I did pretty well. I should have been satisfied, not frustrated.

I think that trading was only one of the reasons why I lost my cool. Things have been pretty tough recently. We haven't got rain so we had to order another half tank of water, Gori's work is not doing very well ( He has not worked as often as he used to be. He works as a substitute teacher), And on top of that another school holiday, which lasts for 2 months is coming up very soon. We were expecting that Gori would work in Gori's sisters dairy farm during the holiday to earn some money but again her farm is also very short of rain so we are not sure if he will be able to work there. Well we are planning to go back to Japan next March so we DO need to make money! And my back had been a bit stiff and weird and my period is coming soon so yeah I have to admit that I have been pretty stressed out(^^;)

Usually when I am stressed out, I tend to reach for some sweets like chocolate. But this time I was different. I had been doing very well walking and getting slimmer so I didn't ruin my hard work by binging! So instead I decided to let my steam out by walking. Well I did too much. I walked more than 50 minutes at the highest speed I had ever tried! I was OK right after the walk but soon my back started to toughen up but I didn't worry about it. I just thought maybe I walked a bit too much. I know how (×a )backache happens, which is when(× means) muscle around the back hardens (× gets hardened) up and that causes (× a)pain. So if you soften up the muscle, you will be fine. So I thought I needed to walk a little more so I went for a walk with my dogs, which was a bad decision and made things worse(^^;)

( This story continues to NO.2)

*This article has been corrected by Gori.

Bug story

2009-11-23T11:20:00.006+10:00

Do you like bugs?? Well, I myself am OK with small bugs but I don't like relatively big bugs such as beetles. They are a bit scary.

Speaking of beetles, back in Japan, when I was working as an English language tutor, there were a lot of times when I came across beetles and stag beetles. You know, kids love those kinds of bugs and some of them were very nice enough to show me their precious favourite pets, which were not favourable creature to me(^^;) I really don't like their shiny backs! (><) I also remember when I was teaching some kid at her house, I needed to go to the loo so I asked her mum if I could use their bathroom. That was my first time to use their bathroom. She said yes but her face was a bit clouded, I felt something weird about her but I didn't care and went to the toilet. When I opened the toilet door, there were tons of small containers piled very neatly all over the wall behind the toilet bowl from the top to the bottom! I had never seen anything like that in a toilet! I was totally speechless. I didn't know what they were at first but after I had a good look at them, they turned out to be breeding boxes of beetles and stag beetles! It was a really strange view in the toilet. As soon as I got out of the toilet with a very confused face, the mum came close to me and said,' Are you OK? You must be shocked to see those breeding boxes. We are sorry to make you feel that way but this is one of my husbands hobbies. He breeds beetles and stag beetles in there and sells them when they grow big and he says the toilet is the best place to breed temperature wise(×temperaturewise). ' ' Oh OK. 'I answered. But I was pretty convinced because I had talked her husband previously and yeah, he WAS a very interesting person.

Have I seen a beetle here in Australia? Yes, once. There are lots of bugs around here for example, moths, many kinds of bees, stinkbugs, a lot of flies and more, and of course cockroaches! When I was still in Japan, I heard that roaches in Australia were huge! (><) I have seen some roaches in my house but they were tiny ones. But I have seen a BIG one in Gori's parents house! That was big! It was between 8 to 10 cm long! I can swat and kill small bugs but I don't think I can kill those kinds of huge bugs! It might attack me back, who knows!? I don't have a serious problem with roaches ( yet?) but there are some bugs that troubles me... ANTS!!! They are everywhere, in the kitchen sink, on the cooktop, on the flour where dry dog food bag and wherever food crumble exists. I can understand if they are only crawling with somewhere food exist. But Why are they running around on my keyboard? Why are they having good time in dirty laundry? I have used surface sprays and other products to get rid of them but they only work for a day or two and guess what! In no time ants are coming back to say hello to me!! I think the best way is to keep the house sparklingly clean... but... well...I am a lazybones. I have more interesting stuff to do. I guess I will just have to live with them, won't I ?? ( A big sigh^^;)

*This article has been corrected by Gori.

I want to start to do pilates.

2009-11-22T13:22:00.009+10:00

As I said before, I walk on the treadmill and walk with my dogs every day. This is my daily routine. It had been going very well until I hit this miner setback, which is a relapse of backache. I still don't know which position of my chair is best for my back. I can adjust its height as well as its back support and incline of the seat. It's a bit annoying and frustrating to be honest. Anyway I had a foot bath this morning so I am feeling a bit better. I hope the backache will go very soon because I've been itching to beef up my exercise and start pilates soon.

My body is getting thinner and fitter but walking is a cardio exercise so I need to build up muscle so that my body burns more energy. I need to do some muscle training but that sort of training is pretty boring. And my back is still not 100 % recovered yet so I have a little bit of reservations about doing it. But ,, hang on! That brought me some memory when I was doing pilates on a regular basis back in Japan. I did feel that my back felt better after I did pilates.( at that time I didn't have any (×a)backache.) As you may know, pilates was devised by a doctor to heal injured soldiers . And backache was one of their symptoms. So basically it should be good for my back as well. I am toying with the idea of starting pilates again tonight. Well, what should I do? Maybe I could start with very simple easy exercise only for a short time. Yeah, that's it! I will do it!

*This article has been corrected by Gori.

5th year anniversary of our relationship

2009-11-22T10:50:00.004+10:00

Hi everyone, How are you going?
Today is our 5th year anniversary. I can't believe five years have already passed since Gori and I started our relationship. Time really flies.

I am really blessed that I am being with him. We've been through a lot together for the last five years. Especially when I had a panic disorder, I had a very hard time dealing with it and so did Gori, I think. I have to admit I suffered (×from) an emotional roller coaster almost every day back then and there were lot of times when I took my anger (×angers)and fears out on him. But he never gave up on me and our relationship. He was always there and supportive. And even now he still stays like that, which I am the most grateful about.

He has much (×many) goodness in him. He is hardworking, considerate, funny, smart, charming, caring, energetic, strong, calm in an (×at) emergency, optimistic, and helpful. And there is another one as well, that is,, he never gives up on anything! He is so patient! There is (×are) a lot to learn from him. I've been with him for such a long time and thanks to him, I have changed for the better and now I am living in Australia! I wonder if there is anything that he can learn from me to improve himself. He does have some shortcomings too but you know, no one is perfect. And those shortcomings are nothing compared with those wonderful qualities of him. Anyway I have more serious flaws ..(^^;) so I am not in the place to pick on him about them.

We haven't got anything special to do today other than eating out for dinner. We are going to a restaurant in town, which Gori said served very good food the last time he went there. We haven't eaten out for a while so I am looking forward to it.^^

*This article has been corrected by Gori.

It's hot but I love it!

2009-11-20T16:30:00.006+10:00

It's hot today. It is really hot. Today's highest temperature was 35 degrees. I had a look at a weather forecast website and there was a record of the previous weather of the past several days. I got honestly speechless to see that chart! The highest temperature on the 17th was 41.5 degrees! I couldn't believe my eyes! Because I don't remember it got THAT hot 3 days ago! I must have been having the aircon on otherwise I would have known. Wow 41.5 degrees!

It's really hot but as I said before, I really prefer Aussie summer to Japanese one. It's so dry, not muggy at all( at least to me)! After we had very heavy rain, the air gets a little humid but it doesn't happen very often. Maybe I feel like this because I am Japanese, who have to live with the unbelievably hot and humid summer. I am pretty much immune (×immuned)to humidity. Because Gori and his mum and dad sometimes whinge like' Oh it's muggy today!' or something. Every time they say something along those lines, I think in my mind that you can't survive Japanese summer if you are whinging about this much humidity, which is nothing compared to the one in Japanese summer! Having said that, after I had a panic disorder, it seems like my resistance against humidity has decreased a lot and it was pretty hard for me to live in the last summer in Japan. I got easily cranky and upset because of the humidity.

The other thing That I love about Aussie summer is that the temperature (×gets )cools down when it gets dark. I am not sure if this holds true for (×to) the rest of Australia but I have never experienced Nettai ya ( sweltering nights), can cause tortured (×torturing) sleepless nights. We do have a ceiling fan in our bedroom and of course we use it in summer but we have never used the aircon when we sleep at night, which is great!

We haven't had a lot of rain, which can be a big problem but other than that, I love Aussie weather, which is milder both in summer and winter than Japanese counterparts.

*This article has been corrected by Gori.

The 4 th skype session was held

2009-11-19T13:07:00.008+10:00

Hello, everyone, how 're you going?
I am doing alright. My back is still a bit sore but I am coping with it. This morning my leg was sore too, I wondered why.. I think that's because I didn't walk yesterday. My back has been sore so I thought skipping one walking routine or two might be good for my back since it would get some rest but it seems like it worked the other way round(^^;)

Yesterday was the day when the 4th English Skype session with my usual friends from the online English club was held. In the last session, we decided to have a discussion day and non-discussion day alternately from that day on so yesterday was the first non-discussion day.We started with catching up on news of each one of us, which took us more than 40 minutes. Considering that there were three members attended, which was not so many, we might have spent too much time on it. We might want to make some rules about it ( I wonder). Anyway, after that, one of the members gave a performance of ondoku( reading English out loud), which was very good. I couldn't believe that she just started her Ondoku practice with the English material a few days ago! She is so pumped and very keen on it so I bet she will be very fluent at it in no time! Good on her! After her performance, the other member had a question about ondoku and shadowing so we talked about it. Seems like she is up for it as well. We agreed (×on )that all of us would give an ondoku presentation next time. I wonder which material I will read,, maybe an Aussie news item or something?

Next, we played a game called 'Making up stories'. We took turns making one or two English sentences one after another and created one story. We created a very strange story, which involved the police and a private detective but it was a lot of fun. I am looking forward to the next time.

After the game, we had a little talk about future sessions in Japanese.We confirmed the contents of the next session. There was something I had had in mind for a while about the other member's attitudes toward planning sessions and other stuff. I was kind of doing almost every work about sessions by myself,,which was a bit of hard work. I have much more free time than the others so I am handling it at the moment but things can change. I am getting more serious about share trading, which requires lots of study and research. So to be honest, I thought I would be very grateful if I could some help from other members so that I can put more energy and time on the trading. I didn't know if I should tell them or not because this is kind of a complaint or even criticism. But I didn't want to stress about it any more and I believe that all the members are very nice people so I thought that I should open up and get some help. I got up the nerve and told them. I was worried about their reaction at first but now I am glad that I did it.Thankfully, they understood me and reassured me that they would be more cooperative from now on. I am relieved and also I feel that we have one step come closer to each other, which feels good!

＊This article has been corrected by Gori.

Storm.. storm.. here it comes.

2009-11-17T21:05:00.012+10:00

Hi everyone. How's it going?

Well, as the weather forecast had predicted, a storm came to our area this afternoon. This was something we'd been waiting for a long time so I was sooooo excited about it. I checked the radar loop on the website of the Bureau's Meteorology so many times to confirm the movement of the storm. There was a pretty big thunderstorm formed on the radar and it was coming straight towards where we live. I went outside to see the sky and I saw some dark clouds in the distance, which I was thrilled about (×made me feel thrilled).

The storm was severe, yes, it sure was.

But....

It didn't rain much!!!

It was the thunder that was very severe, but it didnt rain much!!
We were expecting it to be bucketing down (×bucketing-down) but it was nowhere near it. I was soooo gutted.

We saw countless number of lightnings up from here. Gori got so excited about it so he took some photos of it. It must have been very noisy from rumbling but I had my ear plugs on so I don't really know about it. It's been raining lightly since the heaviest part of the storm passed through.

There was a little nice surprise happened unexpectedly. Usually when a storm hits us, our internet gets cut off and it takes many hours to get it back on. Guess what I am doing now? I am blogging, aren't I! I am using the Internet! The internet was not disconnected this time in spite of that severe storm. Good on you, Skymesh ( our internet provider)! Keep up your good work!

↑It's cool, isn't it??

＊For your information, I wrote this article last night.

*This article has been corrected by Gori.

＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊
今月の目標１５記事達成！！やったぁ～♪

It's hot... very hot today.

2009-11-17T10:51:00.013+10:00

It's hot... It's scorchingly hot! The weather forecast said the temperature would go up to whopping 38 degrees today! They said there's a strong heat wave around Southeast Queensland and it'll be staying here for about a week. I've been here for about 2 years now but this is going to be the first time I will experience this much heat! Seems like they haven't had this bad heat wave since year 2000. Thank goodness we have aircons in our cottage. I am technically not an aircon person, but I can't survive this summer without them. Our city is located a bit inland so the temperature tends to rise higher in summer and drop lower in winter than in other cities. It's really hot but I prefer Australian summer to Japanese one because it's not muggy at all! And even when it is very hot in the daytime, the temperature drops down and cools down at night so I really like it. Now I am getting used to Aussie summer, I don't think I can survive Japan's unbearable humid summer any more. ( scary!)

When the temperature goes up, there is high possibility that a thunder storm forms in the late afternoon. It's been hot so we are expecting it to happen but so far there is no sign of it (^^;). The weather forecast said it'll thunder this afternoon so let's see what will happen. We desperately need rain. Oh God, please give us rain, a lot of lot of rain!

By the way, I've watered the back garden for two days. The trees and plants are looking much better! I will keep watering them until we get some rain.

*This article has been corrected by Gori.

Walking gives me a lot.

2009-11-16T16:13:00.009+10:00

Hi, everyone. How are you going?
I am doing well. My back was pretty sore for the past several days but thankfully it's getting better and better. I found out the reason why I got a relapse. Seems like Gori unconsciously changed the height of my chair when he was using my PC and forgot to put it back to the height that it had orginally been. I didn't know anything about it so I kept sitting on it. I was dull enough not to notice the difference (^^;) Anyway I am very relived to know the cause. At least I know that my walking routine had nothing to do with it. What a relief.

Speaking of walking, I walked for 40 minutes on the treadmill today! This is the longest record so far so I am so stoked and proud of myself. I have been walking for almost 2 months now and the distance I have walked has increased(×The distance I walk for is increasing) day by day. I also walk with my dogs in the afternoon before dark too. We usually walk on the driveway in Gori's mum and dad's property, which includes some relatively steep slopes. When I started this walk, just 10 minute walk made me feel out of breath but now I can walk for about 30 minutes. I am making a progress. aren't I?

When I walk, I try to soften up my back as well. This technique is very similar to the one I showed you in my previous blog, which targeted the neck and shoulders. I press the hard part of my back with my fingers and keep it that way and walk normally for about 30 seconds. I've been doing this for a while and now I know the stiffness trigger point of my back, which is the bottom of the ribs and the muscle where the backbone and the ribs meet. Every time I do this muscle softening up technique, I can tell that the back really softens up. It feels much lighter, which gives me more motivation for walking. So in my case, walking is good not only for being fit but also for my back! I am thrilled!

*This article has been corrected by Gori.

They are dying!

2009-11-15T10:46:00.011+10:00

They are dying! The trees and plants in our gardens are dying!

As you may know, Gori and I are living in his mum and dad's cottage. They were living here while they were building their current ( huge! )house. Gori's mum has a very nice taste in decorating houses and she also has a green thumb. She says she is not good at growing veggies but I DO know that she has a great sense in creating pretty flower gardens. We have a front garden and back garden at the cottage. There is not much going on in the front garden at the moment ( I planted some herbs in Gori's hand-made pots but I let the watering slide (×watering them) so now they are almost dead(^^;) On the other hand, we have (should l say 'had'?) a very nice back garden, which Gori's mum made. When I saw them for the first time, I realised her great sense. That's because you can see beautiful flowers from inside the house through the kitchen window! She is clever, I thought. I like it because sometimes working in a kitchen is a monotonous and uninteresting job but every time I look up, I can see pretty flowers thriving in the garden, which makes me feel happy and encourage me to do the kitchen work. Gori's mum is so smart that she chose all-year-around trees and flowers and they are very strong against dry weather.

↑It looked very nice, didn't it?

But now........

Look at the photos! They are dying! It's been sooooo dry since we haven't had rain for such a long time! Dryness is so severe that all the plants have started to wither. I didn't notice their shocking condition until I went to the garden to pick some lime leaves for cooking thai curry yesterday. Well to be honest, I have(×had) not been paying attention to the garden for a while because it'd been pretty hot so I have (×had) kept closing the curtains of the kitchen windows(^^;) As soon as I saw what's going on in the garden, I decided to do something about it. We don't have a lot of tank water at the moment( actually we'll have to order water again very soon unless we have heavy rain in week or so.) but fortunately we have bore water(spring water), so this morning I hosed each of the trees and plants one by one and it took me almost an hour to finish. You might think we should use the bore water for living but when Gori's mum and dad tested the water, they found out that it contained high level of some harmful minerals in it so we had better not use it just to be on the safe side. But a few days ago when I was talking with Gori's mum, she said that when they tested the water, they didn't test the water straight from the well, instead they used water coming from the water pump. So she said that there could be possibility that the minerals came from the rusty pipe so she is going to test the raw bore water next time. I really hope her theory is right then we don't have to worry about water any more. Fingers crossed!

It is very hot today too. So I guess all the water I gave to the garden this morning has already dried out. I am going to water it later this afternoon.

*This article has been corrected by Gori.

I had my second haircut in Aus.

2009-11-13T12:05:00.005+10:00

This morning I went to town to get my hair done. My hair was pretty long and heavy, and on top of that, the(×its) ends were dry and damaged so I wanted to do something about it. I had a hair cut once here in Australia about 10 months ago. My hair turned out to be OK, actually it was better than I had expected ( I had heard a lot of bad rumors^^;) I have very thick, coarse, rebellious, strong and naturally curly hair so I always have trouble having a nice hair style, even back in Japan! Well, I haven't mentioned it yet but Gori and I are going to go back to Japan next March for about a month( exciting!), so I thought I could wait until I go back to Japan and get a haircut at my Japanese beauty salon but I just got sick of washing and blow-drying my long and thick hair! It was really a pain in the neck!! So I decided to get it done here in Australia.

I rang up the beauty salon to book a haircut with my hairdresser who cut my hair last time. But unfortunately, she was not in today so I could have booked with her some other time but I was itching to have a haircut so I just booked with any hairdresser available when I popped in. I had reservations about how my new hairdresser would cut my hair but it actually worked favourably (×favourable) for me. My new hairdresser was male and he said he loved cutting Asian hair because it was tough and strong. He said so, many time while he was working on my hair. We had a nice chat and my hair looks even better than the last cut. I like it a lot. But there was also a little surprise. That is,,,,he straightened out my hair with a hair straightener BEFORE he started to cut my hair! Usually, you get that sort of thing AFTER you get a hair cut so I was a bit worried. My hair still looks good but I am not sure how it will look after I wash my hair next time... I really hope it still looks good.

*This article has been corrected by Gori.

Hey fever??& Oh my back!!

2009-11-11T11:15:00.007+10:00

I've been feeling a bit strange. I sneeze, I have a little bit of runny nose and my eyes are very tired and dry. I might have a hey fever or something. I did have a hay fever back in Japan, which was very serious. It affected (×got)my throat so I couldn't eat properly and I didn't even want to speak. That was hard.

My back is a bit sore again too. When I felt (×got )it again I was(×felt) devastated.. Because the first thing that came to my mind about what caused it was my walking routine. But I also thought 'why now??' And then I looked back those past few days and I thought I got it because my posture was bad when I was sitting on a chair. I was so into share trading that I didn't care less about my back when I was sitting in front of my PC. Anyway it feels better this morning. From now on, I should be more careful when I sit, especially when I am doing the share trading.

*This article has been corrected by Gori.

my opinions about Japanese Eng;lish education ( No.2)

2009-11-09T10:54:00.003+10:00

Here is my opinion about Japanese English education. (NO.2)

（小学校での英語教育について）

３、小学校での英語の授業は必要か？
(Do you agree with having English classes in primary schools?)
I agree with the idea that a language should be taught when a learner is younger. Obviously, the younger is the better when it comes to learning a language, especially in terms of pronunciation. So I think teaching English in primary schools is a good idea. Having said that, it’s totally up to the teachers, teaching methods and materials to decide whether this attempt is going to be successful or be another depressing disaster.

４、小学校から英語を始めることで日本人の英語力は向上すると思うか？
(Do you think Japanese people's English ability will improve by starting English education in elementary schools?)

As I mentioned above, it completely depends on how the teachers teach and what kind of teaching materials to be used. If they can teach properly, I am certain that pupils learn English and be communicative in English. But it is just a start, it shouldn’t be stopped at the elementary school level. It has to be continued onto middle school and high school too. I think there are some changes should be made in higher English education systems too, such as shifting the entrance examination for university or college to less grammar and reading based and more communication-based one so that there will be more listening and speaking classes in the middle and high school.

５、小学校英語教育の問題点、そしてその改善方法は？
What kind of problems are there in the current English education at primary schools? How can we solve the problems?

I think there are many problems in the current education systems in elementary schools. The biggest problem among them is the teacher’s poor English language and teaching skills.

It is no wonder that elementary school teachers are worried about English classes because not only they themselves can’t speaking English and but also they have no ideas about teaching English. I think most of the teachers have forgotten about English itself since they were not required to study English to become an elementary school teacher. Honestly, we shouldn’t rely on those teachers who are not confident in their English and teaching skills. How can you teach properly when you are not sure about what you are doing? I have to admit that present Japanese elementary school teachers are striving to do their best and giving as good lessons as they can. But I still think that is not good enough. Local municipalities and schools are trying to support the teachers by giving intensive English courses where teachers can learn teaching skills and lesson plans and speaking sessions with native speakers. However, the most important thing is the teacher’s English skills. If they are going to teach English as a main teacher, their English has to be very fluent. As an English language learner, I have to say that it takes years to become fluent in a language. Anyway present elementary school teachers are already having a lot on their plates so I don’t think they should teach English.

I think the education ministry should give up on forcing current elementary school teachers to teach English to pupils. Native English teachers should teach English as a main teacher and as a support teacher, the education ministry should consider hiring Japanese professional teachers of English language education. There is a non-profit institution called J-shine and they train and accredit private English instructors so that they have enough ability to teach English in elementary schools. More and more private English instructors are acquiring the certificate and they are waiting to work in schools.

I am not saying that we should do as I’ve suggested forever. We should introduce this teaching system as a temporary solution and at the same time we should train prospective teachers in universities. University students have more time to learn English and teaching skills so they can be fluent in the language and more capable of teaching English.

Lastly, I find it disgusting to know the attitude of the education ministry. I have to say that they are not serious about the English education in elementary schools. I think like this because they don’t provide detailed curriculum or teaching methods to teachers. They devised this textbook called EIGO NOTE but they said that basically teachers can do anything in their English classes, which can create a big difference among pupils’ English abilities when they enter junior high school. I have to say that the ministry has introduced this English education in elementary schools just because other Asian countries are doing it. I think it is quite superficial and it won’t change anything until people in the ministry change their attitudes.

my opinions about Japanese Eng;lish education ( No.1)

2009-11-09T10:36:00.007+10:00

Here is my opinion about Japanese English education. (NO.1)

第３回テーマ　日本の英語教育

１、少なくとも６年間は英語を学習しているにもかかわらずなぜ日本人は英語がしゃべれないのか？

(How come Japanese People are very bad at speaking in English even though we learn it for at least 6 years at school? )

・ Lack of motivation and definite reasons for learning English because English is not so important in Japanese society. People’s lives and careers don’t rely on English skills.

・ People have forgotten that English is a language and a means of communication. English is considered just as a school subject and students are studying English just to pass exams which stress grammar and reading. Hence Japanese English education is based on grammar and translation-based learning, not listening and speaking.

・ Teachers themselves have been taught in the old-style grammar and reading-based teaching method and they can’t speak English fluently. They don’t have a clue about how to teach kids to improve their listening and speaking skills. And poor English listening and speaking ability in teachers creates nothing better in students.

・ English is not spoken in English classes to give commands and instructions to students. Mainly Japanese is used in classes.

・ English textbooks are full of explanations and instructions in Japanese not in English.

・ The full potential of native English teachers is not being utilized during English classes. They are just used to practise English words and sentences over and over again like a parrot.

２、どうすれば日本人の英会話力は向上すると思うか？（改善策など）
(What could be done to improve Japanese people's English communication ability?

I have come up with three ideas to improve Japanese people's English skills ( especially for students).

・Creating a new style of teaching.

Making the most of native English teachers and let him/her teach English alone for one period and then Japanese teachers review the class and teach grammar in the next period. In this case, Japanese teachers are not supposed to speak during the native teacher’s session so that the students can concentrate on English the native teacher is saying.

・ Motivating students by creating an oral communication test and making it requirement for the exam.

Currently students are studying English for entrance examinations of university or college which put emphasis on reading and grammar. This is the main reason why grammar and reading are mainly taught in schools. I think it is very difficult to give a speaking test for each examinee because of time constraints. So instead, we should create a new oral communication test like Eiken( but the new test targets listening and speaking skills) and require students to have a high score of the test before they apply for the exams. Then students have a reason to improve their listening and speaking skills. We should also make writing and reading test easier so that students can have more listening and speaking classes.

・Creating an English only TV channel ( especially for children)

People watch TV every day. If there is a TV channel that broadcasts nothing but English programs ( mainly children’s shows), available every day, it could be a very good opportunity for children to become familiar with the language and learn a lot from it.

*This article has been corrected.

My Japanese friend's visit

2009-11-09T09:20:00.006+10:00

Yesterday one of my Japanese Friends came over to our place. Gori and I picked her up at her place at around 11:00 and we had a chat in Japanese over a cup of coffee( I can't take caffeine so I drank chinese tea^^;) with biscuits which she had brought with her ( I love her!).

Gori looked pretty happy since he got to speak Japanese. I had assumed that his Japanese would be very rusty since we don't usually speak Japanese at home. But he was not that bad at all. I think we should talk in Japanese more often but my Japanese is terrible and I have strong Saga dialects. Since Gori has basically learned standard Japanese, it's difficult for me to teach him... because I don't speak standard Japanese! (^^;) Gori sometimes asks me some questions.. like what a Japanese word or sentence which has equivalent meaning of a particular English counterpart is. And there are lot of times when I can't answer them straight away! It's quite frustrating and a bit sad... you know. I can tell that my Japanese skills are deteriorating. I really need to brush up my Japanese too. But I still want to put English first.

Well, getting back to my friend's visit, after we had a chat, we played a monopoly. Monopoly is a board game where you buy properties as you move on the board and if someone lands your property, you can collect rent from them and buy more property or buy houses on your property.. something like that. You can negotiate and trade properties with other players and if you are short of money, you can mortgage your property or sell your houses. The winner is decided when everyone but one person goes bankrupt. This is a board game, so basically it is luck that decides if you do well or not but having said that, strategy is also important. Decison, decison, decison,, you know.

My friend loved this game and we played twice! It takes at least 2 hours to play this game when we were very close to finish the second game, I was very tired and was running out of concentration. Anyway I won the first game and Gori won the second one. We had a very good time together and I am already looking forward the next time!

*This article has not been corrected yet.

Soften up your neck and shoulders and feel better.

2009-11-06T09:56:00.011+10:00

As I've said a few times I've been feeling tired recently. When I am feeling tired, I feel frustrated because even though there is something I want to do and my spirit is up for it, my body is just not keeping up with it ( sigh).. Anyway I've found out that why I am so tired; my neck and shoulders were very stiff! After I noticed (×I've noticed )it, I gave my original rub to those muscles to soften them up, and guess what!? I feel much better now! I was feeling very sluggish and was even thinking about going back to bed to have another sleep but now look what I am doing! I am blogging! My neck and shoulders have been loosen up and my head is not hazy but very clear. I've gained back my drive for English study too!

Stiff neck and shoulders are the norm in the modern society. Almost all the people have them or have experienced them. And there is also a case where some people don't notice that they have them. Well, I was one of them, actually. I'd never thought I had stiff shoulders until just recently. I'd never felt any stiffness or pain in my shoulders. When I went to my hairstylist back in Japan, they always gave me some massage around my shoulders and neck. The staff who was rubbing my shoulders always said, 'Wow! your shoulders are very stiff! 'but I didn't believe it. It seems like it runs in the family because my mum, brother and sister are the same as me(^^;) How insensitive is that!

There is a special way of rubbing your muscle. Actually, it is not ' rubbing'. It is more like moving a part of hard muscle and soften up. Here is what I do.

*Softening up your shoulders*

1,Find a stiff muscle in your shoulders by pressing the muscles by a finger.

2,Press a finger tip on the hard muscle and keep it that way. eg. if the hard part is on the (×your )right side of your shoulders, press this (×the )part with a finger of your left hand.

3,Put your right hand onto your waist with your elbow bent.

4,Move your right shoulder slowly back and forward by using the elbow as lever. When you do this, you have to KEEP THE FINGER TIP PRESSING THE HARD PART OF THE MUSCLE. You are supposed to feel some movement of the hard part, which is crucial for loosening up the muscle.

5,Continue 1-4 until all the muscles in your shoulders have softened up.

*Softening up your neck*
1,Find a stiff muscle in the back of your neck by pressing the muscles by a finger.

2,Press a finger tip on the hard muscle and keep it that way. eg. this time if the hard part is on the (×your )right side of your neck, press this (×the )part with a finger of your right hand.

3,Move your neck back and forth slowly with your finger pressing the hard part.

*Start 1-3 at the bottom of your neck which is connected to the shoulders and gradually move upward until you get to the base of the skull.

I hope you feel better.

*This article has been corrected by Gori.

I like the study for discussion sessions!

2009-11-05T12:07:00.005+10:00

Hello there.

Yesterday afternoon, another Skype English session was held. There were supposed to be three members joining the session but one of us got sick and had to cancel it (><) I feel very sorry for her because she was very motivated for the session so obviously she was looking forward to it.

We started the session with a small talk in Japanese then moved on the discussion. Yesterday's theme was ' Japanese English education system' . Since I had been interested in the topic and had plenty of time to prepare for it, I was able to come up with my ideas and opinions thoroughly . When I do some study for a discussion session, I always pick up some articles from some websites which are relevant to the topic and learn the background and current situation about it. Then I print out the articles and paste each of them onto a page of a notebook. After that, I wrote down new words and expressions from the articles. I read the articles and words out loud over and over again. After I finish it, I get to form my opinions. I really like this learning process because it is very educational and fun! I feel that I am really studying! It feels as if the time has (×had) gone back to the school days. The more I study, the more I can tell my knowledge is increasing and I am becoming more knowledgeable(×smarter)!

I had a very good time at the session yesterday. We had a lively discussion there! I am going to attend another session of the same topic on Saturday. We are expecting a new member there, which is very exciting!

*This article has been corrected by Gori.

Tough luck, dogs! & Melbroune Cup

2009-11-03T13:01:00.021+10:00

Well,,, our dogs are very stinky, extremely stinky!! I can't stand the smell!
They must have rolled onto a dead cow again!! ( We live in a cattle farm so there are lots of cattle. Unfortunately some of them can't survive because of a disease or tick problems ><) We gave Ambi and Mick a bath just 3 days ago before Mick's castration. They smelt beautiful after that but now.... absolutely pong　( ×pongy)!! I don't want to give them a bath again! It's a kind of pain in the neck, you know..

Yesterday Gori and I went to his mum and dad's house to have a Melbourne Cup lunch with their friends. Melbourne Cup is an Australia's traditional horse race held in Melbourne. It takes place once a year and it is a very important event for Aussies. I read an article about it when I was taking English classes at TAFE and I learned that it is not just a gambling but a part of the Australian culture. People go to see the event especially women get dressed in a very fancy dress and wearing a fashionable hat, which lifts up the festive mood in the event. There are also fashion shows and competition during Melbourne Cup. Usually horse racing is a male thing but this kind of fashion events attracts women's attentions as well. I didn't know anything about horse racing but I picked one horse in the race and bet 10 bucks on it. ( actually, that was Gori's money^^;) My horse was doing well in the beginning but it couldn't keep up the speed. It was a very tight race and all the horses were running very close each other. I don't even know exactly where my horse placed(came in→これもOK), but it was a nice experience and I had a good time.

We wanted to take our dogs to the house as well but since they were so stinky, we thought they could murder someone there( laugh) so we decided not to take them. Soon after they found out that they'd been left behind, they started yelping and whinging so loudly. I felt a bit sorry for them, but we didn't want to ruin the get-together by their pongy smell! So tough luck, doggies!

*This article has been corrected by Gori.

I'm very happy but I might need some break

2009-11-03T09:49:00.006+10:00

Hello, everyone, how are you going?

I've been feeling a bit tired recently. My life has been much better because my back is not as sore as before, actually it's much better. I've been walking almost every day for about 5 weeks or so, which makes me feel happy and excited because this is something I couldn't do for a long time. I like doing exercise(×exercises). Exercising is good both physically and mentally. When I had a terrible backache, I tended to get stressed out very easily but now I think I am coping with things better.

Now that I've walked continuously more than a month, walking is becoming a part of my routine. I can tell that I am getting fitter and slimmer, which gives me more confidence about myself. In addition, I am enjoying the activities in the online English club and I am very motivated to study English.

It's been fantastic recently and I am very happy about it. To be honest, it's been quite some time since I felt this happy(×like this much). I feel like I've gone back to being a normal(healthy) person.

Having said that, I have to admit there is also a tiny bit of feeling that I might need some break. Maybe am I doing too much??? I guess I should slow down a bit.

*This article has been corrected by Gori.

Mick is going to become a half-boy

2009-11-02T11:08:00.006+10:00

Hello everyone, how's it going?
I am a bit sleepy and tired now because I had to get up a bit earlier than usual.

This morning Gori and I took one of our dogs, Mick to a nearby vet to have him castrated. We've been keeping Mick for about 8 months and he is now 10 months old, getting very close to his maturity. We had been considering (×about) when would be the good time to neuter him but we were kind of procrastinating to carry it out. Partly (×that's )because (×that) Gori said he had heard it from someone that if you fix a male dog too soon, the dog becomes a wimp. Mick is already a scaredy-cat ( He is scared of thunder and yelps at a tiny bit of pain or something like that.)We didn't want Mick to be even more wimpish, but the time had come. Actually, we were desperate to do it because our other(×another) dog, Ambi's period started a few days ago! We can't afford another dog so we had to do it very soon.

We had a bit of trouble when we tried to put him in the car. At first Gori was going to drive and I was going to hold Mick in the backseat but it didn't work. Mick got scared of being trapped in a car and tried to do a runner. He was out of control so I couldn't hold him. So we had to change plans and Gori and I swapped the roles. This time it went smoothly, thank goodness. We took him to the vet. The vet checked him out briefly and we decided on his discharge time and came back home. We are going to pick him up around 2 :30 this afternoon. I hope everything is going to be alright.

↑He was tiny and sooo cute when we got him.

10 months later......

↑He is big and strong ! (but a bit of a sissy^^;)
His face has changed a lot, hasn't it?

*This article has been corrected by Gori.

I've joined an online English club

2009-11-01T15:45:00.000+10:00

It's been a long time since I made the last entry. (AGAIN!)
I've been just slack, sooooo slack. I've been keeping my Japanese blog up to date, which is good but this one...(^^;)

Anyway, I've made my goals (or say, to-do-list) for English study for this month.And one of them is to write at least 15 English diaries or articles this month. This time I mean it. I WILL keep this promise! I am on fire!!

Last September, I joined an online English learner's club called Virtual English Club. There are lots of inspiring members who are pretty serious but enjoying their English studies in the club and they always give me a lift and more motivation for my English study.

I took the initiative in holding an English speaking session on Skype, which I had wanted to do for a long time and so far we've had 4 sessions . We have day time sessions and night time sessions and both sessions' contents are basically the same. We are going to have another ones on Wednesday and Saturday. We discuss various kinds of things during a session. We decide a theme and questions(× for a theme) beforehand so that each member can prepare for the discussion. The next discussion theme is Japanese English education which is very controversial and since I myself have been (×gotten) involved in the English education as an English-language tutor, I am pretty interested in it. I am looking forward to the next session.

＊This article has been corrected by Gori chan.

Mum's visit

2009-09-30T19:26:00.005+10:00

Hi everyone, how's it going?

As I had mentioned before, my mum and her friends came over to see me last week. They stayed only 3 nights with me but they said they had a good time. I was so glad to hear that. We didn't do much; we drove around Gympie and went down to Sunshine coast to have a look at the beach (not swim^^;) and went shopping. They really liked our cottage and its surroundings. They also had a good time mucking around with Costa, Ambi and Mick. My mum got very interested in chickens and she said that she wanted to keep some herself too. I had really wanted them to relax here because they had been leading a hectic life in Japan. They were surprised to look at the stars in the sky at night. Sooo many stars! You never see this many stars in Japan.

3 days passed very quickly and we drove back to Brisbane airport on the 23rd. On the way, we were hit by a sand storm but it was not that serious so we guessed there would be no problem with my mum's fight back to Japan. Unfortunately, mum's flight was not a direct one to Narita, so they had to fly to Sydney and take an international fight to Narita from there. I did'n t know how bad the sand storm had been in Sydney until Gori and I got back home. I got shocked to see a picture of Sydney of that morning, it was all orange! I got a bad premonition at the time, and I was right.. I got a phone call from mum around 10 pm and she said their fight to Sydney had delayed about an hour and they couldn't catch the fight to Japan! When they arrived at Sydney airport, the plane had already taken off... I couldn't believe those kind of stuff had happened to us!! I was very worried about them because their English was not that good. After a little bit of commotion at the airport, they got a new fight arranged and booked a hotel to stay that night. They had to stay in Sydney for two nights.

It must have been a very stressing night but mum said she was able to practise her English at the hotel and had a good time. I sensed that she is now more confident about her English. Today I talked to her on Skype and she was more keen on learning English! Good on you, Mum!

I got pretty tired after mums left but I had a good time too. I felt my mum and her friends had become much smaller. Is that because I am used to seeing Aussie?? They are bigger than Japanese, is that the reason??

Mum is coming soon.

2009-09-18T20:58:00.006+10:00

Hi everyone, how are you going?
I was very tired today but I am feeling better now.

Today Gori and I went to town to pick up some groceries and other stuff we needed. It was pretty hot today. I felt extremely tired when I got back home and I didn't want to do anything after that. I even felt grumpy and I might have taken my anger out on Gori. (Sorry)I wondered why I was feeling like that. At first I thought I was simply very tired because I had been flat out recently about tidying up the house. I was pretty stressed out. I'd done a lot but still there were some more things to be done and I was kind of overwhelmed by them. I didn't feel well and I thought a nap might help me so I had a lie down for a while. But even after the nap, I felt still not right. I felt thirsty and my head was a bit hazy. Now I think that the Sun got me in the car on the way back home and made me feel unwell and grumpy. I must have been wearing too much clothes. Anyway I feel much better now.

Gori was very helpful today. He cleaned the barbie, his hobby space and the patio. The hobby space is now sparklingly clean! I have never seen such a clean hobby room before! His help took a load off my mind. Mums( Mum, her friend and her daughter) are coming next Sunday and going back to Japan on the 23rd. It is going to be a very very short visit(^^;) I really wish they could stay longer. They wanted to change the schedule but it's too late to change it. They could have stayed another 3 days longer... Anyway, I hope they enjoy their stay in Australia. I am looking forward to seeing them face to face.

14th was my birthday.

2009-09-17T11:46:00.009+10:00

14th of this month was my 31st birthday.
Time really flies, you know. I can't believe I am 31 now.
Anyway, Gori's mum's birthday is 15th, so this year we had a joint birthday party on the 15th at Gori's parents house. In the beginning we were planing to celebrate this occasion at a nearby restaurant. They serve pretty good food. But When Gori's mum rang them up to book a table, they said they are closed on the 15th. And then we decided to have a party at the house. Gori's mum said that she was going to invite some of her friends too and there would be about 10 people at the party. I wanted to make something for the party so I decided to make rolled sushi. Gori's sister and her partner love this and I always make sushi for them when they come over. Once there was a time when they came over with such a short notice so I didn't have enough time to make it, you know, you need plenty of time to make sushi from scratch. They were very disappointed about it. Anyway, at the party Gori's sis was enjoying my sushi ( unfortunately her partner couldn't make it) She gave me some present and a card (she is very sweet) and on the card, it read ' I love your sushi!!' Oh thank you! I was very happy to get that comment.

Well, Let's get back to the party. I was expecting 10 people but it turned out to be 15 people there. I didn't know any of the guests but they were very nice and most of them were interested in Japan and one of the couples love Japan, and they have been to Japan some times. I talked to the husband and he was so excited about Japan and he said he loved Japanese structure and neatness. He likes the Japanese people's attitude toward elderly and someone who lives in higher level in the society. He mentioned about bowing and polite language. I wanted to tell him that that kind of custom who show respect to other people is fading away but I didn't want to upset him so I kept it inside. We also talked about sushi and he told me that he himself make sushi at home but it doesn't turn out good. He said especially cooking rice is difficult because he hasn't got a rice cooker. I can relate to that because I don't have one either. I failed some times in the beginning too. It's OK with me now because I did a lot of research on cooking rice in a pot and got the hang of it. While he was eating my sushi, he came up with an idea, which is that we will have a sushi class and I will be a sushi teacher and teach him and other his friends who are interested in sushi. He was extremely keen on it so I was taken aback a bit but I have taught how to make sushi to one of Gori's mates so I said OK. I am looking forward to it.

Gori and I bought a wine and Andre Rieu CD. I am glad she liked them. Gori's parent's gave' a The Bold and The Beaustiful 20th years anniversary book'!! Do you know 'The Bold and The Beautiful? It's an American soap opera and Gori's mum loves it. I sometimes watch it too. When I started watching it, the relationships between the characters were sooooo complicated, especially who has been married whom and who is his/her mother that I was very confused! But now I am getting used to it. I really like that book. It's really interesting. I want to use it to study English too.

They also gave a cheque of 200 dollar!! I was surprised to see that! They are always supporting Gori and me, and I feel very indebted to them. Thank you very much!

Now that I've turned 31, I should make a this years resolution, shouldn't I?
It's very similar to the ones I make on the new year day but what 's the heck.

・I will improve my English. (diary, reading, increase vocabulary)
・I will lose weight and become fit!!
・Don't worry too much, Always be happy and optimistic.

Thank you for reading!

*This article is not corrected yet.

hot water problem

2009-09-17T08:52:00.007+10:00

Hi everyone, how are you going?

Our gas boiler has been acting up recently and that's bugging me a lot(^^;)
I need hot water to do my lovely foot bath and I really need to have a shower every night to loosen up my muscle and relax. The gas boiler is very fickle, some times it works perfectly, other times it just doesn't work at all, which leaves me cold in the bath tub! How stressing is that! It's been getting warmer here in Australia but still it gets pretty chilly at night. And as you may know, my mum and her friends are coming very soon!! We've got to do something about it!! Luckily Gori learned gas-fitting at TAFE and he's been working on it. Last night, he told me that he 'd found what was wrong with it. He is going to fix it this afternoon. I really hope it will be OK. Otherwise it's going to be a little bit of disaster! Mums are coming next Sunday!

Since there was another drama happened again last night, I couldn't have a shower.
My back is a little tight now. Maybe I should have a foot bath this morning.

Thank you for reading!

*This article is not corrected yet.

My back is getting better.

2009-09-16T19:13:00.012+10:00

Hello everyone, how are you going?
I'm doing well. I haven't written an article for such a long time, that was simply because I was slack, that's it(^^;) I knew in mind that I should keep an English diary to improve my English but I was kind of busy blogging the other blogs and I had a bad cold in July and since then my backache had become worse. But fortunately my back is getting better!(finally!) I've tried everything I could think of to fix my back and some of them worked a bit but none of them fixed my back completely.

My backache comes and goes. I've been having this backache for about 2 years so I could say that I have a chronic problem(×one). Shoulder stiffness and backache are very common among people living in the stressful modern society. They are so common that some people say that you have to take them and live with them because there is no cure for them. Of course there ARE some things(×stuff) for them but they are just temporary pain relief and nothing more than that. What I'm talking about is a fundamentally(×fundametal) complete cure. I wonder if there is a real cure for them.

One of the things I've tried is reading a book. Yes, just reading a book. I came across this book' healing back pain' on someone's blog. I got interested in it so I read the reviews on Amazon(×Amason). Most of them were in favour of the book so I bought one. The book is about that a backache is coming from your mind, and the reason why your mind does that kind of thing is that it is trying to not get you realise your anger and stress. Your mind doesn't want you to notice that you are feeling stressed about something so create pain in your back to distract your attention. His method to fix a backache was that when you have a pain, you shouldn't think about it, if you think, you get trapped and that's exactly what your brain want. You just don't give into the pain because your mind (brain) is just tricking you. You simply think about what kind thing is bothering you in your life now and recognise it and if possible, try to solve it. Just thinking like I WONT LET YOU TRICK ME, MY BRAIN! works pretty well.It gave me a little bit of wow, to be honest. After I read the book, I actually felt that my pain was easing a lot. But as you can guess very easily, it came back later on(^^;)

What I have been doing right now, and I really feel the difference (of course for the better) is having a foot bath. I've been doing it for about a week now, and I can definitely say that my back is getting better, less pain!! The Benefit of foot bath is as you know to warm your body up, which means it makes your blood circulation better. I never thought that my blood circulation was poor because I rarely felt that my hands and feet were cold! But I think I was wrong. My body must have been cold! ! My mum's therapist says that keeping your body warm is really important, coldness causes a lot of harmful symptoms. Now I can understand what he means. It is just having a foot bath for 20 to 30 minutes a day ( I do it at night right before I have a shower and straight go to bed. I think that's the best!) and you can do it while you're watching TV and surfing the Internet. And my way( and I will let you know later) is very easy and economical! I really love having a foot bath!
I recommend it to anyone.

Well, I got a little too excited about foot bath so I need to calm myself down.

I think that one of the biggest problems about having a back pain, especially if it's chronic, is not the actual pain but having a bad feeling of despair, which means that you don't know if your backache is ever going to be get better and fixed or not. Of course you hate the pain because it's sore! I myself have gone through a really tough time! You try everything to get rid of it but none of them gives you exactly what you want. Then you feel that you might have to spend the rest of your life having this backache. Just thinking like that makes you feel stressed and worsen the pain. You even feel depressed if your pain is really bad and serious. This kind of emotion exists in minds of patients who have got a mental illness, such as a depression and some kind of mental disorder. I myself experienced a panic disorder a few years ago. So I know I'm right about it. Everybody needs a hope for the future to live or let's say, to make efforts to live. Luckily I found a hope and a way to get better. I never gave it up and stuck to what I was doing and finally I got over it. Now I feel a hope for my backache too, which makes me feel really happy and gives me the drive to live my life! I feel I've started to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Thank you for reading!

*This article has been corrected by Gori chan.

That's my bad...(^^;)

2009-03-19T08:47:00.004+10:00

Hi everyone, how are you going?

I am doing.. well.. so-so.

In yesterday's blog I mentioned that I had a backache but it has become a bit worse since then(^^;) That's probably because I went for a walk yesterday morning and I also had to squat many times at work.

The reason why I got this backache is that I had too much exercise two days ago. I have been on a diet since this Sunday. What I do to lose weight is to do some walking ( with Ambi), step exercise, muscle toning with light weights and pilates. I don't do all the exercises everyday, of course.

Among these exercises , the ones I really find helpful are walking& stepping and pilates.

when you want to lose weight and tone up your body, you gotta do some moderate aerobic exercise such as walking, swimming, and biking etc and strength training for example, weight training, sit-ups, push-ups etc. So walking and stepping are really good for burning my fat and pilates is good for tone up and sculpt my body. It's also good for my mental health too. I really like pilates because it really works very well! No wonder Hollywood celebrities are going crazy about it. I did pilates 3 days in a row ( but not yesterday due to my backache) and now I can definitely tell the difference around my belly!! It is really amazing and a big wow to me!!

When you go on a diet, which would you care more, about your weight loss or size??

Well I care more about size, I mean how I look rather than how much I weigh. The reason is very simple; nobody can tell how much you weight by the look!! I DO weight myself on a regular basis but I am more focusing on waist size. After all if you just drink some water, that makes you heavier, doesn't it? I don't want to get bothered by it.

Well back to the reason why I got this backache, I did exercise for more than one and half hours two days ago! It's not that I did that long non-stop, I did 3 kinds of exercises for 30 minutes each separately. I had never done those kind of things before, so obviously I got carried away.

And I have my reservations about my technique of pilates. I have been doing pilates on and off for more than 4 years. I bought a pilates book with DVD and learned the exercises from them. But now I feel that as time has gone by, I have forgotten the very important basic part and have been doing in my own way, which might have caused my back problem(^^;) Well I gotta shape up and get back to the book and DVD and learn the technique once again. Pilates was created in order to heal injured soldiers by some doctor and it is supposed to be good for people who have got a backache not causing a backache!

Anyway I gotta rest for a while until the backache goes. I really hope it goes very soon.

The sky is pretty dark now.

2009-03-17T17:20:00.006+10:00

Hi everyone, how are you going?

I have a bit of a backache but it's nothing serious.

This week is the third week of Gori's TAFE course and he left for Brisbane on Sunday.

I am getting used to being alone without him, thanks to our lovely pets, Costa, Ambi and six chooks.

It was bucketing down outside just a few minutes ago but now it's let up.

I thought we were going to have a storm this afternoon because it was pretty hot and muggy today. I've been in Australia for about a year and half now and I think I am getting a better guesser about predicting whether or not a storm will come.

Now the sky is still looking ominous, I hope we don't get a serious storm. You know why?

That's because it affects the TV signals, especially the sound. And of course it could cause a blackout as well. We've got some torch, candles at hand just to be on the safe side, but I don't want to spend a night alone in the dark, you know.

Well I think I should write English diary more often in order to improve my English.

Writing is a good way of sorting out the grammar things and vocab in the head, I think.

what a nice feeling!

2009-03-05T09:15:00.005+10:00

Hello everyone, how are you going?

I am doing pretty well(^^)

My new roster has been working very well for me.

All the pressure has gone and now my sleeping condition has improved a lot.

It's not that I can sleep like before I started to work, but I know that I did sleep and that's a nice feeling. So I feel more energetic and stronger, which makes me feel happy and motivated to work and do other stuff such as studying English, exercising and blogging, etc. Gori is still away from home but I am feeling very stable and confident. You know the last time Gori went down to Brisbane to take the course for a week, I was very vulnerable and I had a hard time dealing with it but now I am not like that at all. I feel very very happy with me!

These kind of things are very normal for healthy people ( I am not telling you that I am not healthy) but for me after I've experienced panic disorder and other health problems, starting working and keeping it up is a really big thing. When I got the first insomnia, honestly I felt devastated because I thought I might end up quitting the job. That could be a traumatic setback next time I wanted to get a job. I really didn't want to quit the job easily so I was pretty worried. But now things are picking up. I am sooooo relieved, you know.

twist and turn

2009-03-03T12:53:00.005+10:00

Hi everyone, how are you going?

I am doing alright. It's been quite a while since I made the last entry of my blog.

I haven't mentioned this yet in this blog but now I've got a part-time job, which

is working at a sushi bar in a shopping centre in town!

I started working in the last week of January. In the beginning I was working 4 days a week, ７-8.5 hours a day. I thought I would be OK with this work schedule but after a week I found myself struggling with it. You know, I hadn't worked almost 2 years, so at first I thought that my body was just not used to the new routine. But things get a bit different when you suffer from insomnia, don't they? Yes, you are right, I have been struggling with sleeping at night. It was really hard in the first three weeks. I couldn't get to sleep at all especially when it was the night before working day. I must have been feeling some strong pressure or something about the work. Because my roster was pretty tricky, which had 8:30-17:00(Monday), 6:30-14:30(Tuesday), 13:00-8:30(Thursday) and 8:30-15:30(Saturday) and on top of that, my roster changed every week so it was no wonder that I had difficulty in adjusting myself to this new way of living. I thought I would be fine but obviously I was kidding myself.

I wanted to start working mostly because I wanted to earn money. I had been using my savings and as you can guess it had become less and less. So I really needed to make money. And also there was another reason for it, which was that Gori was going to attend a course in Brisbane to become a gas-fitter and the course was to start on the 16th of February. The course is on every other week for 8 months. So actual school time is 4 weeks. This week is the second week of school time and Gori went down to Brisbane on Sunday and coming back on Saturday.

Anyway I wanted to start working because I thought I would be very bored doing nothing without Gori for a week. You know A week alone is a bit too long, we've got our lovely pets but still .. you know.. Before I start working I thought I would get used to the job before Gori's school started but it didn't turn out like that. I have to admit that there was one time when I regretted my decision because I struggled .. really struggled without him. I felt very fragile so I even had to cheer myself up in mind in order to keep myself together and get through it.

Now things are much better. I talked the owner of sushi bar, who is Japanese and a very thoughtful man and he was kind enough to arrange my roster and give more suitable one to me. Now I work three days a week, 5-6 hours a day, with no very early shift. It's been like this for two weeks and I feel much better and relaxed.

Before I was like.. pushed too hard by job and sweated a lot

but now I am confident that I can handle it and I even enjoy it.

Review on the movie Shrek

2009-01-23T19:42:00.005+10:00

Hi everyone. How are you going?

I am doing well.

It's been raining around here so it's pretty muggy, which reminds me of Japanese summer.

Guess what! Our water tank is full now!! How exciting!

In the last entry I mentioned that I had been working on writing a review on the movie Shrek,

and I have finished it. So It would be great if you read it. The first draft had a long summary of the movie,

so I made it shorter in the second one. Maybe I shouldn't have it in the review but you know, I put a lot of

effort in it so I just didn't delete it.

Here is the review. ↓↓

＊＊＊＊＊＊＊

Movie review on Shrek

‘I have never seen such a well-made animation movie before!’ This was the first impression that came to my mind when I watched the movie, Shrek. Everything on the screen was so realistic that I couldn’t even believe my eyes. This movie was released in 2001 and it was awarded an Academy Award of Best animated feature in 2001. Usually animation films are for kids but with this movie, even adults enjoy it very much. It is a very entertaining and compelling movie.

This movie’s main character Shrek is an ugly green ogre (voice of Mike Myers). He lives peacefully all by himself in his swamp. He is frightened and hated by human and he thinks that’s the way it is and he enjoys his lonely isolated life. But one night the quietness gets deprived by fairy tale characters including talkative Donkey (voice of Eddie Murphy), They say they were forced to come to the swamp by the order of Lord Farquaard. So he decides to go to see Farquaard to get his life back, and sets out for a quest with Donkey. He talks to Farquaard and he promises Shrek to give back his swamp in the way it used to be in return for rescuing the Princess Fiona (voice of Cameron Diaz) from the castle guarded by a dreadful dragon. It was an unexpected offer, but Shrek takes it and goes on another quest. After the exciting battle against the dragon, he manages to rescue Fiona. As they spend time together, he finds himself to be attracted to Fiona but he doesn’t know what to do. This could remind us adults of our first love in our childhoods.

Through his journeys Shrek learns to build an indispensable friendship with Donkey and he also realizes that he is not a cruel monster as what he always thought him to be. This scene where Shrek describes ogres as onion because ogres have layers like onion as well could make you feel a bit sympathetic. I think this is a main theme of this movie for viewers, which is ‘ Don’t judge a book by its cover ‘, or’ True beauty is in the inside’ . The more we get to know Shrek, the more we get to find out his true personality, which is very lovable and trustworthy.

This movie Shrek is made up of a lot of humor and funny gags throughout the show, which is very amusing and also its computer animation is awesome. Its music is also spot-on to each scene and very effective. Voice actors pulled off their roles perfectly, especially I admire Eddie’s work. His dubbing makes the character of Donkey even more annoying and more lovable.

Shrek is a pretty short movie, which goes only for one and half hours. The story is more like a comedy than a fairy tale and there are lots of twists and fun. It is such a wonderful movie that I can recommend to anyone.

＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊

Thanks for reading. Have a nice weekend!

I am an early bird today! & my homework from school

2009-01-20T06:14:00.010+10:00

Morning, everyone. How are you going?

Gori and I were early birds this morning. We got up at 5:45 because Gori was going to work for

his sister and her partner today. They are moving out soon so they need somebody to clean up

their house. They have big farms, and there they grow cattle and milk cows so they are leading

a pretty hectic life every day. They don't have time to do it themselves.

Gori, on the other hand, he is still on his school break. He tried to find some casual jobs

during this one and half month break but no lock. So this job is going to be good for us.

Well now I am awake, but I am not sure if I can stay up this way in the morning.

You know, if you get up earlier than the usual, you always get sleepy after a while.

I have a lot of free time today so I am going to study hard!

I've got to work on my homework which is writing a movie review.

I was supposed to write a review of the movie 'Australia' but I don't know why but

it's not shown at the movie theatre in town anymore. I wanted to go to see it with Gori

in the beginning of this month but when I checked out their schedules, they had already

finished showing it (^^;) Oh well, seems like it was not so popular, wasn't it??

So I've decided to review a different movie, which is my favourite, Shrek!

It's a kind of old movie now ( released 2001) but I like it very much!

To tell you the truth, I DID work on it yesterday but it ended up summary of the movie (^^;)

not a review... Well I was a bit disappointed, because I spend quite a long time on it..

Anyway I will do my best today.

Have a nice day, everyone.

Let me sleeep!!

2009-01-14T12:49:00.002+10:00

Hi there, how are you going?

I am feeling very tired this morning because I had a broken sleep last night. I went to bed around 10 pm ( I am living like a grandma ^^;) For some reason I didn't get to sleep smoothly and it took me about 30 minutes to fall asleep,which is unusual to me.

I was woken up in the middle of night by some strange noise from outside, there is a carport right next to our bed room. The sound was something like .. something was walking on the gravels there. I thought it might be a chook which had been locked out so I thought If I am right, I had better put her back in the chook pen. Because Ambi had been off her lead at the time, so she might do some naughty things to the chook. I was very drowsy but got up and tried to find out what's going on there but it was too dark to see anything. After all I got overwhelmed by sleepiness, I convinced myself that it was a cow roaming around and went back to bed.

I was asleep for a while..... but again, I was woken up... but this time by the sound of rainfall, which was pretty hard. I thought...raining is good but not now....

And this morning, I think it was around 6, Gori woke me up. He is not an early bird usually, but this morning he jumped out of bed at 6!

Ohhhhh pleaseeeee. Let me sleep.

I asked Gori about this morning and he said he had woken up by Ambi's annoying noise!

Thanks for reading again. Have a nice day, everyone.

↑They are Gori's heifers.

Say cheese, Costa!

2009-01-13T12:58:00.003+10:00

This is our cat Costa. He is castrated so he is a half boy.

He used to be Gori's mum's cat. He is about 10 years old.

Costa: What ? Are you taking a picture of me??

What a hassle! Ok ok but take a really nice one, alright?

Waiwai: Ok, I will try...

Costa: Ahhh, my face is very itchy!! Have I a got a flea?

Waiwai: Stay still, please.

Costa: I am sorry about that. Ok now.

Waiwai: Say cheese!!

He looks pretty dignified, doesn't it?

done with the chair make-over!

2009-01-12T23:10:00.007+10:00

Hi, everyone. How are you going?

I've finished with the chair make-over so I wanted to let you know.

It took me such a long time because it'd been raining and Gori was using the patio for building his work bench. He used some steels and welded them and ground them. I couldn't stand the noise when he was grinding. Now it's over so I am happy. I gave the chairs a second coat of varnish and had Gori screwed their seat pads back to them.

These are the chairs before the make-over.

↓We took this picture when Ambi was a puppy.

We guessed this chair was going to be her favourite.

but.......

We were wrong... the very next day we found out...this ↓

Ohhh nooooo!

Well now, let's see the same chairs after I've given them a make-over...

ta-da

Well what do you reckon? I like their antique touch.

Hey chooks! Behave yourself! & My favourite pasta

2009-01-07T21:30:00.007+10:00

Morning everyone, how are you going?

Gori and I have got a veggie garden in the backyard and we also have some veggie pots in the front garden. Gori made these pots from crates ( What a handy man he is!) We grow basil, rocket and spring onion in the pots. They were thriving until about 3 weeks ago but now almost all the leaves are gone (especially rocket) because our chooks pecked and ate them all!

We've got a chook pen which Gori made from scratch last May. The chooks are in the pen in the morning and evening and we let them out for a few hours in the afternoon as play time. The chooks love to be freed. As soon as we let them out, they make a bee line for Ambi's dog house and start eating Ambi's leftover dog food! Ambi try to guard her food but she always fights a losing game. We usually put fences around the pots but our cunning chooks always find a way to the pots and enjoy the veggies there without our knowledge (^^;) Now the veggies look very shabby and that discourages me to take care of them(^^:)

Anyway we need to grow some new seeds and replant new seedlings there. I think the place where we have the pot now gets too much sun so veggies get dehydrated very quickly.We gotta think about relocating the pots as wall. I have never grown veggies before so I don't know what I am doing but I will learn the hang of it soon as the time goes by, will I?

I made basil source with our fresh basil, walnuts, garlic, olive oil, parmesan cheese, salt and pepper. I made a basil cream source pasta with it and it turned out very well! I loved it! It reminded me of my favourite pasta that I ate in a Italian restaurant in Japan!! It was sooo good that I ate the same pasta 3 days in a row!! ( Crazy??) But unfortunately, Gori didn't share the same opinion with me(><) He said he prefers normal cream source pasta.　I can't believe it!

↓↓I made this with bacon, sausages, onion, shitake mushrooms and thickened cream．

Taking up a new hobby?! Furniture make-over

2009-01-06T20:42:00.006+10:00

I have been working on giving our old furniture a bit of a make-over.I wanted to do it because I wanted my friends to come over to our nicer and more comfortable house. But I can't afford to buy new furniture so I decided to make it pretty by myself!

I started with wooden outside chairs which have been outside for a long time so all the paint on them has come off and their surfaces were very rough and dry. One of the chair's seat pad had been torn off by Ambi ( naughty!) so it really needed to be fixed. I began with painting them with brownish oil paints and after the paint got dried, I painted varnish on them to give them a glossy finish. I also made new seat pads for the chairs. I bought some materials and foam from shops and cut them round, then stapled them tight at the back of the pad. I am not finished completely yet, I think I should give them a second coat of varnish and then it's done.

It's been very interesting and has become a great change of pace! I am very happy with my job. Gori says they look like brand-new ones! I am almost finished with the chairs but haven't touched the table yet. When it's all done, I will put their pictures on my blog!

This is our dog Ambi.↓↓ She is the one who chewed off the seat pad! But that happened when she was a puppy. She behaves much better now!

Our final battle against the pipe blockage

2009-01-06T13:51:00.007+10:00

Hi everyone, how are you going?

It's rained quite a lot recently, which is good because I had been longing for it for a long time. It had been so hot recently so the rain cooled down the air, thank goodness. It's overcasting at the moment and I am expecting some more rain, we really need more water.

Well speaking of water, we finally found out what the cause of the pipe bolckage was, which had been a real pain in the neck!! We had had this trouble since we moved in here. We'd tried some pipe cleaners (chemical), pipe cleaning machines both manual and electric, one worked OK but none of them worked fantastically. When another serious clogging started, and that was about a week ago, we decided to take a drastic measure, which meant digging the pipe out! We assumed that it's the end of the pipe that had been clogged but we didn't know where it was. We don't have a sewage system like cities and all the gray water goes down to the paddock in front of the front garden. So the pipe is in the ground which makes us feel no wonder the pipe got clogged. You know, lots of dirt and stones can get inside the pipe very easily!

Anyway Gori speculated where the end was with his educated guess and he started to dig, I however, wanted to help him but nothing special to do so I became a supervisor lol. We were very fortunate because we got the pipe at the first go! Soon after that we found the end which was clogged really badly. (><) Gori got rid of the clogging and all the gray water and yukky stuff came out(^^;) （Sorry if it's too disgusting)

Now all the clogging is gone and water goes down the drain soooo smoothly! We feel much better and very thankful for the fact that it didn't cost us fortune to fix it up. We were worried that we might have to rent some big digging machinery if we wanted to dig the pipe out but it turned out very well without it! We are very happy !!

This is where the end was. (It's hard to see, isn't it?)

Looking back on last year and resolutions for this year

2009-01-06T13:09:00.007+10:00

Hi everyone, how did you spend your New year's break? Did you have fun with your family or friends? Me? Well honestly, it felt like just another ordinary days to me.

I can't believe that year 2008 ended and year 2009 has started. Time really flies, doesn't it? My goal for last year was to get used to the Aussie way of living. I didn't do anything very special or active at all but I really needed that time so it's ok. I have to admit that I went through some tough times last year because of this change of life. Back in Japan, I did almost all the things by myself but here there are a lot of things I have to get help with. It gets very frustrating sometimes because I can't do it in my way. You know, everyone has his or her own way.

Anyway I am glad that Gori and I have pulled through them together. I feel that those tough times have made our bonds even more stronger.Is this what they call 'a blessing in disguise'?

Let's get back to the new year's, well have you made your new year's resolutions yet?

As for me, I've got three goals for this year.

・To improve my English skills a lot and take an IELTS test (within 6 months)

・To get some qualifications for job such as a business course and start working or Start working as a unskilled worker.

・To get fit ( including losing weight)

I really want to start earning money soon but to do that I think I should improve my English more and also I should build up more strength. I guess my English is good enough for unskilled jobs such as fruit picking or working in a factory, something like that. So I guess iI should take it into consideration, shouldn't I?

Welcome to my new blog!

2009-01-06T11:43:00.008+10:00

Welcome to my new blog!!

I am Wai wai. I'm Japanese, living in QLD, Australia. I came here in December 2007. I live with my Aussie boyfriend, a cat ,dog and six chooks! They are all my good family.

I like baking cakes, singing, exercising and studying English. I have been learning English for quite a looooong time and I love it! I really want to improve my English more so that I can get a job and become more communicative. I am also interested in learning good things for my body and mind. I am susceptible to stress so I want to learn good ways to handle it and be strong!

In this blog, I am going to write about my cute pets and life in Australia and thoughts on lots of things in English.

Please feel free to give your thoughts and comments to any articles!

Thanks for coming, I hope you enjoy my blog and visit me again soon (^^)

Best of luck,

Wai wai