Posted in General on May 30th, 2008
Since starting this blog I’m always on the lookout for the next suitable topic. Perhaps some kind of major event or incident. Today’s entry however is inspired by the smallest of creatures.
Recently, at nights, the temperature has been steadily rising. It has got to the point where the other night I had to keep the window open slightly, just to be able to get to sleep, which doesn’t bode well for the summer. I’m not sure whether it was the open window or not, but (more…)
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Posted in General on May 29th, 2008
Every so often, I look things up in my electronic dictionary. There are two different English-English dictionaries. One is the Oxford English Dictionary, which is great for looking up the origin of words e.g. yolk comes from the old English for yellow, and the other is Cobuilds, which has good entries on using English.
Sometimes, when I look up words (more…)
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Posted in General on May 28th, 2008
I have always found it slightly bemusing that people can grow so attached to animals and even plants. I mean, I had a dog while I was growing up and I loved her dearly, and enjoyed looking after her. When she passed away last year, I was upset even though she was all the way over in England. However, I don’t think that I have ever had a real love for a pet before.
Having said all this, the other day I was extremely surprised to find that I (more…)
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Posted in Cooking on May 27th, 2008
When I eventually become more systematic and organized (there is a slight chance that will never happen), I am going to try and write set content on set days. eg cooking on Mondays, English on Wednesdays and general content on Fridays. In addition, I am thinking of ways to make the same content accessible to different levels of English learners (at the moment, I am thinking of Japanese explanations, help with vocabulary and grammar etc). Until then however, some of my posts may seem random 
It was only a matter of time before I wrote a post about cooking and food! Last night we had spaghetti for dinner. Usually, (more…)
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Posted in General on May 24th, 2008
I spent the other day out in Shiga, teaching at a few companies. I find it quite therapeutic to go somewhere other than Kyoto or Osaka for a change. There are a few things that really stand out as being different in Shiga. The first is the ruralness of Shiga. I know there are a lot of rural areas in Kyoto and Osaka as well, but even the urban areas feel rural in Shiga. I don’t mean this in a bad way whatsoever. I know in Japanese “田舎” can have a bit of a negative connotation but in English it simply means “countryside” and in fact, often has a positive meaning.
Although I really like (more…)
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Posted in General on May 23rd, 2008
Unfortunately, I couldn’t come up with anything more original or witty as the title to my first post. My aim with these blogs is to discuss English learning, cooking, things about Japan, thing about other countries, pretty much anything I suppose. People are free to contribute posts, articles etc… If you would be interested in such a thing, please contact me.
I have been spending a lot of time recently trying to (more…)
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