英語deつぶやきTwitter!

Good morning. It's been nice and warm around here recently. Today, I am going to have another language exchange session on Skype. I hope she shows up on time. I have been pretty busy doing a lot of things so I haven't been able to get around to twittering on this blog. At the moment I have got a lot on my plate, which are very important issues for me. I can't say what they are now but I have been working hard to solve these issues and I am just about to finish.

Hello, there. Today I had my first language-exchange session with the Brisbane girl who stood me up last Monday(^m^). She apologized me for not turning up last time. She said she had forgotten to write about our appointment in her diary. Anyway it's water under the bridge. We should move on.

We started our first session in English first. I was totally taken aback because she spoke extremely fast!! I don't know anyone who speaks as fast as she does!!! She speaks very quickly and she doesn't stop!! I was very busy trying my best to keep up with her but I think I understood about 70% of what she said. After the session I said to her how fast she had spoken and she apologized for it. She said even her Aussie friends complain about her speaking speed and tell her to slow down. Well, I was glad to know that I was not the only one who had trouble understanding her. She asked me to tell her to slow down a bit if she is speaking too fast,which made me felt better.

To be honest, I was a bit disappointed at today's session because I couldn't get to talk as much as I wanted but I should try to look on the bright side, shouldn't I. This will be a great training in terms of improving my listening skill and improving my cutting-in-on- a-conversation skill, you know what I mean?(^m^) And if I can make a conversation as much and fast as she does, that means I will achieve my goal!!

Hi there. My English study has been going pretty well today. So far, I've done three 50-minute sessions. My mind became much clearer after I posted the last tweet. I want to have anther English study session before Gori comes back home. Speaking of Gori, I've baked lemon cakes for Gori. He loves the cake. He has been flat out working this month and plus he didn't give into the flu so I think he deserves a little bit of treat. I hope he enjoys the cake. By the way, I have let my exercise slide for the last 4 days so I WILL jump on the treadmill in the daytime today!!

There is some issue that has been bothering me for a while. I am dying to sort it out but I don't know how to do it because it is a very sensitive issue. I would have confronted it ages ago if it wouldn't affect many people. Maybe I am being paranoid but I hate having this kind of pent-up emotion that seems to be going nowhere. Anyway, I feel a bit better now, I really needed to let it out otherwise I wouldn't have been able to concentrate on my study and other stuff today.

Did anyone watch the State of Origin game 2 last night? I did and I have to say that it was pretty boring!! Of course, I was happy to see the Maroons thrashing the Blues but honestly it was not something that I had expected. I expected it to be more exciting, a neck and neck battle between them. I have watched State of Origin twice so far but even I with little experience could tell that the Blues were no match for the Maroons. 'They are not a team.' , this is what Gori's sister said very disappointedly. ( She was supporting the Blues because she was born in NSW.) I totally agreed with her. They didn't have any strategies or plans, I even felt that I wasn't sure whether or not they really wanted to win!! It must have been extremely humiliating for them to lose 5 Origin series straight. I do feel sorry for the players because I think they could have played better if their selectors hadn't swapped some of the players at the last minute! They shouldn't have done that! Their fan must be devastated or even sick of it now. Anyway I had a good time last night, having dinner with Gori's family and the lamb roast was very yummy and tender, the upside-down cake with ice cream that we had for dessert was gorgeous and most of all, Gori and his dad were chuffed about the victory.

Hi, there. Today I attended another Skype English session with my friends. We discussed Japan's increasing divorce rate and same-sex marriages. I think I handled pretty well with the former topic but I was kind of struggling with the latter one. The reason why I struggled was simple; I hadn't prepared it well enough to express my opinions about this touchy and controversial issue. I have been studying English using this text book called Opinion 1400 by Z kai and it carries articles about this topic. I have studied these articles for quite a long time so I thought I'd done enough but it turned out that I was wrong. I have been slack in terms of digging into discussion topics and studying them. So I've decided to turn a new leaf and plug away at this area, too. Now I've got lots to do regarding English study, so I will tackle them one by one and little by little so that I don't get overwhelmed by them.

It was nice and warm this morning but it's getting colder and colder. Today I have done 2 sessions of English study but I have been easily distracted by my thoughts, which rarely happens to me. There are a lot of things I'd love to do, for example I want to make new entries on my Japanese blog, to work on writing draft of my English learning method and to study English by a different approach and more! I am so pumped up that I find it difficult to concentrate on one thing!!

I've spent a lot of time on the Virtual English Club forum again! Today I devoted myself to creating my own signature that I put at the bottom of my posts in the forum.

I had heard someone talking about this 'signature' thing before but I didn't have a clue what that meant. Well, I had been wondering how other members in the club had been managing to put up a notice of their blogs' URLs at the bottom of their each and every post. I had thought that they had been putting up those information every time they had made a post, which was extremely time-consuming and irritating task to do. But now I know that what was behind it! They had been using a signature function and had created their own signature, well.. it's not technically a signature, it's more like a notice of their blogs and twitter IDs and every time they've made a post, the signature shows up on the post automatically! How handy is that !! I can't believe it took me such a looooooong time to make this fantastic discovery!! (^^;) But now that I've got my own signature, which took me hours to complete, I can enjoy activities in the club in more relaxed way.　

By the way, our club has been getting several new members recently, which is great! I hope they enjoy their activities in the club and improve their English skills as much as possible!

＊大過去（had ＋past perfect(V)）がいまいち曖昧。後でゴリちゃんに見てもらいます。

My hands are so cooooooooold!! Should I put on gloves?? No way! I wonder how I can warm them up. Maybe by soaking them in hot water or something? Well, it's not cold outside but I DO feel cold inside the house. Why is that?? Oh hang on, I didn't have a foot bath last night, did I? That may be it! Should I have one now?? Well, anyway, I will set about studying English shortly. I am pretty motivated about it!

Good morning. Gori is working today. He is still fluey so he took some flu tablets, just to be on the safe side. He has been taking every single remedy to get over the flu, for example, wearing a sweater, ugg boots, scarf around his neck, and even a beanie. He has also been taking some echinacea, which is a health supplement made from herb called echinacea. They say it's effective against colds and flues. Gori absolutely swears by it. He's also been taking enormous amount of vitamin C tablets which I think he should have taken as a precaution BEFORE he caught this flu(^^;) Anyway ,I am pretty impressed by his actions to fight against the flu this time. I can tell how serious he is about this. After all, he can't afford to lose his teaching contract coming up this Thursday, so he has to get over his flu and he is the only one who can do it, not anyone else, including me. What I can for him is nothing, compared to what he can do for himself, do you know what I mean? Oh well, I might sound a bit harsh on him but deep down, I am very happy with his attitude!! Good on him! I hope his efforts pay off and he shakes off the flu very soon.

*I am going to write titles of my tweets in Japanese from now on. This way, I thought might be more appealing to readers(＊＾＾＊)

I have been wrapped up in writing articles on the Virtual English Club forum. Today I have incorporated a new roll-calling system into our Skype English session team. The system is actually a website called 出欠党幹事長 and It's really convenient and easy to use. All you have to do is just to fill in details of your meeting and make a URL of attendance chart by a click. And then you just post it on your website or send it to people. The good thing about it is that everyone can check attendance charts any time. I hope it works well for us. I am a bit tired. I need a break!! 出欠党幹事長 website? Click here

Gori has been fluey recently. He has got a runny nose and a bit of sore throat. Those symptoms are not serious so he is working on his radio-controlled airplane now. I hope he will get rid of it soon because he has got a teaching contract with his school and it starts this Thursday. I should keep him nice and warm and make some nutritious food for him. And most of all, I should try not to catch his cold.

Oh well...My language-exchange partner didn't show up, I mean she didn't get online(^^;) Today is a pubic holiday( Queens Birthday) in Queensland and I guess she has forgotten about our session because of it(^^;) I was kind of toying with the idea that I should double-check with her beforehand but I didn't. Anyway I was a bit disappointed but this kind of thing happens sometimes. I will snap out of it and do things I want to do(^^)

I've just finished the housework. Today I hung some of the laundry in our bedroom. It's cloudy outside and the humidity in my district is about 70% at the moment, according to a weather forecast website. Oh, look at the time! I gotta go and get my Skype online for my first language-exchange session! Wish me luck!

Good morning. I am feeling good this morning although I was kind of expecting some muscle pain in my legs and back since I had walked up the steep slope and exercised on the treadmill yesterday. There is a little pain in my bottom but this is nothing. OK I will finish up the housework and get down to English study and other stuff I want to do. By the way, I am going to have a Skype language-exchange session with an Aussie girl who lives in Brisbane at 10 a.m.. I have never done this before so I am a bit nervous but also excited.

I've just done 3.5 km on the treadmill. I feel refreshed. I think that those remedies for humidifying the rooms have already been working. It could be my imagining thing, but it was much easier for me to jog on the treadmill tonight. Up until yesterday I became out of breath easily and I also felt some kind of uncomfortable pressure on my chest when I was exercising on the treadmill or even just lounging around in the room. But tonight, I feel much better, even rejuvenated. I became happier and more pumped as I was jogging on the treadmill. I definitely feel that the air in the rooms has more moisture now. It was cloudy today so it could be a reason for it but I think those remedies are working, too.

I like this smaller font better than the previous large one. I wonder why I had been using that one without any doubt for such a long time. It's too large and clumsy to read, isn't it? I am happy with this present one.

Gori and I walked down to a dam in his mum and dad's property . There is a bush lemon tree near the dam so we went there to get some bush lemons. To be honest, I was kind of reluctant to go there because we had to walk down and up the very long and steep slope to the dam. I had done that before and I had had to rest at least 3 times so I had got totally knackered..But to my surprise, I was able to walk back up the slope without any rest this time!! I was amazed! Seems like my exercise on the treadmill has been helpful for building up my strength! Well, my legs are a bit wobbly at the moment but I am proud of myself and I am glad that I've done it. Now I am baking a lemon cake. My mind has changed from bread and butter pudding to lemon cake.(^m^)

I made a potful of bolognese sauce this morning and Gori and I had it with spaghetti for lunch. Feels like I've eaten a tad too much.(^^;) I hope I don't get sleepy in the afternoon. It's cold today. I want to eat something warm for dessert such as bread and butter pudding. But I know it is not good for me because it has got a big calorie so it affects my waistline ^^; and since I use white bread in it when I bake one, that could bloat my stomach and make me sick. But I do want to eat it.....What should I do?? Do you think I have got a strong willpower to resist this temptation??

It's been sooo dry recently. My skin is dry and gets itchy. And of course, when it gets cold and dry, you have more opportunities to encounter this,,, that is...to get a bloody shock of static electricity! This is sooooo annoying and I am pretty much paranoid about it! Every time I have to touch metal parts of furniture or something, I get scared(><)

I have got to do something about it!! I have made up my mind to address this issue, which is humidifying the rooms! I've been using a spray bottle to spray water into the air for a while. Well, it seems to be working but having said that, I use a dryer to dry our laundry so the air gets really dry very quickly so I think this remedy is not good enough. I needed more effective way of humidifying the rooms. An idea popped into my head was to buy a humidifier from shop but these things are pretty expensive and we cant afford it. And anyway I learned that some times humidifiers' filters get moldy and that could cause some allergy or breathing problems so I gave up on the idea and looked for another cheaper ways.

Then I found that putting a glass of water in the room is also effective and growing plants in the room has got a similar effect in terms of increasing humidity in the room. Hanging laundry inside is also a good idea but I don't have enough space for it and after all hanging the laundry in the room doesn't look pretty, does it?

These three remedies are very easy to implement, aren't they? I've already put a cup of glass of water on the kitchen bench and hung a wet towel on the steel bar on my treadmill. As for the plants, we have to go to town to buy one but it's Sunday today so the shops are closed. We will have to do it some other time. I hope these things work.

For more information: Click here

Gori has been watching Rugby Union Test match on TV. I really don't understand it (^^;) I definitely prefer Rugby League (NRL) to Rugby Union. I don't even understand the rules of AFL,either. I like NRL because its rules are very simple and straightforward. Having said that, I don't get one of the rules which is forwarding or something. Speaking of footy, State of Origin game 2 is coming up this coming Wednesday, which I am looking forward to. Of course I am on the Maroon(Queensland)side.