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Gee, the last long entry has given me stiff shoulders.  I am using Gori's auntie's dining table as my computer desk, but it seems that it is a bit too high for me. I have been trying to adjust my chair or using a stool under my feet but still it doesn't feel right. I had better reduce the time for typing on my computer. Oh, look at the time!!  I gotta do my regular morning exercise! Bring it on!!

Speaking of air-cons, I can't help telling you that Aussies love air-cons!!  They want to turn on their Air-cons even though it is not that hot.!! I am Japanese and I am very used to Japanese summer, which is scorching and extremely humid,  I find Aussie summer pretty comfortable compare to Japanese counterpart.  I am quite happy as long as I have a electric fan or ceiling fan, which is my favourite.  Having said that I have to admit  that since I came to Brisbane,  I have suffered from sleepless nights because of heat. It had never happened when I was in Gympie. I wonder why. Well, still I prefer Aussie summer to Japanese one. Anyway, I have had enough summer taste so I cant wait to enjoy cooler breeze in fall.

 In our first plan, we were going to find a place to live and move out before she came back. But we haven't even gotten a place yet. We are struggling.  We have been trying very hard to get one but there must be lots of competitions going on since a lot of people are looking for a place to live. And also our application form is not looking spectacular because the last rental we had was back in Japan, which is difficult for Aussie real estate agents to get a confirmation of our rental.  And Gori has been working full time for about 2 weeks now but there is this bloody one and a half months period when he didn't work( from the late December to the early February )so it's difficult for us to prove that we have a stable income. It is very depressing that things haven't been going as we wanted and planed but it is not that it is the end of the world or we don't have any hope.  His aunt knows about real estate stuff pretty well and she says she is happy to help us get through this problem. She says she knows somebody who might give us some tips. Last night she went to see him for a drink but we haven't had a chance to talk to her since then so hopefully she will inform us today. I really hope we get a place to live as soon as possible.  This place is good but I really want to have our own place and settle down. Fingers crossed!!

One of the good things that I did in the last few months is starting the online English club and getting it into gear. So far, we've held 3 trial sessions for guests who were interested in our club and I am very happy to announce that all of the guests have joined the club! Now we've got 10 members altogether, which is very exciting! I hope all the members in the club have a great time speaking English and also improve their English skills!  It was a tad hard to arrange and operate everything from scratch but thanks to our hard work and effort,  we were able to pull it off! Now that the club is settled and heading for the good direction so I can be more relaxed and do some other stuff I want to do.

To make sure that I don't have an allergy to pollen,  now I keep the front door open and go outside without wearing a mask. Let's see how I feel. My nose is a bit runny at the moment but that's nothing. It would be fantastic if I didn't have an allergy to pollen, then I could go bike riding with Gori chan without worrying about allergy!! 


Well, I feel embarrassed to have made such a drama over it. But..... that's me ^^; I hope you can cut me some slack! LOL.

I had a bit of lie-down so I'm feeling a little better. But my throat is still funny so I think I should stay away from studying English, especially reading out and shadowing, which are the integral parts of my English study. I feel frustrated not being able to study because in mind I am so pumped up for it. I am itching to do it but I cant!!   I had been a bit struggling with my English method but I managed to find out what was wrong with it a few days ago. Since then my English study has been back on track and now this!! (Sigh)  My brain is still half-dead. Do I just have to live with it??  I gotta find a way to get through this. Oh hang on! Am I acting like a drama queen?? LOL! Oh boy, I am bored :D

Good morning. I had a trouble sleeping last night. I woke up with my nose stuffed and heavy & cloudy head this morning. I was tempted to go back to sleep but Gori needed a lunch to take to work so I had to get myself on the move. but fortunately I feel better now. Well seems like that my allergic symptoms are back now. I am really not sure what my allergen is. It could be pollens, pet fur or house dust or even all of them!!  My throat feels funny.  I had an extremely bad sore throat in the first year when I developed a hey fever. It was absolutely unbearable!! I should keep my throat moist otherwise I will be in trouble.

Hello again. You might be wondering what happened to our hot water system. Sorry for not informing you sooner. Well, the new hot water system came on Thursday that week, which was 2 days later than the day we had been informed. Anyway it was delivered safe and sound so I was happy. As soon as Gori came back home from work, he started to work on it. I wanted to go to town while he was fitting the system, but the procedures were pretty interesting to see so I decided to stay. It took him about 2 and a half hours to get it done. I was very chuffed when he finished and turned on the hot water!! It was amazing!! The hot water came out of the tap in no time!! With the old one, I had to wait at least for a minute or so until I got hot water, but now we get hot water almost straight away!! Now we can save a lot of water too! I am soooooo happy with this new one!! I hope this thing works for a looooong time!!

Hello there. It's been a long time since I made the last post. I had been too busy to get around to making new ones.

Well, the issue I mentioned before, which had been bothering me for a long time, has finally been sorted out. It has taken a load off my mind so I feel much better. Now I am able to focus on things I really want to do without any emotional disturbance. There are a lot of things to do, for example, exercising to become fitter so that I can go bike riding with Gori chan and finishing up with my English learning methods which taking too much time.

There was one time when I contemplated my life so far very seriously, especially my involvement with the Internet world. I thought I was being involved with the Internet world too much by blogging, tweeting and online English activities and so on, and I found that unhealthy. I felt that I was not living a real life in the real world so I should get out more so that I will be more active in the real world. But having said that, I also had a feeling ...or more like a truth that I have met a lot of nice people online and now some of them are good friends of mine. We share our passions, happiness, and problems. Even though I met them online, in the Internet world, they are now very important to me and have become a part of my life. I am so grateful to be able to build such a strong relationship with them. Yeah, they are my real friends.

The online world seems like a fake world but we shouldn't forget that behind the computer screen, there are humans there, humans, like you and me are the ones who are in the online world, just like the real world. Some are nice and others are evil, and that's a fact of life wherever you go. You just have to deal with them one by one with your own principle. You can't go without the Internet in this modern age. Well I don't think I can! The important thing to keep in mind is how you strike the balance between the real world and the online world and putting both worlds into perspective and that's my next challenge.

As I mentioned in the last post, our gas-operated hot water system had broken down so we had ordered a new one on the net, which we did last Friday. Gori had told me that the seller said it would take about 3 to 4 business days to deliver the product, so I had been counting days, longing for its arrival. It's quite inconvenient not to have hot water, you know. Obviously you can't have a hot shower or bath and of course you can't use hot water when you are doing the washing-up. Luckily, Gori's mum and dad are living very close to us, we had been using their shower since this incident happened. It's OK and we should be very appreciative of being able to have a shower but to be honest, it is a bit of a hassle. Having a hot shower every night plays a big role in my life, because without it I can't sleep well, which can affect the next day's productivity and suffer from backache, which makes me feel soooo down...


Anyway, I had been waiting, waiting, and finally the day when the new one was supposed to be delivered had come! I was sooo excited! I hadn't done any exercise because I couldn't have a shower in my own good time. 6 days had already passed without any exercise so I was itching for it. But...you know what?? it didn't come. ... So I thought 'OK, don't get upset yet! Probably it will come tomorrow.' And the next day,,,,, it didn't come, either!! I was running out of my patience!!

Guess what??? Yesterday when Gori came back from work, he broke a news of a bad bad thing, which was he had received a phone call from the seller and they said they had not been able to identify our address so they hadn't even sent the thing yet!! Hello~~?? We ordered it a week ago!! They could have called him to check on the address a long time ago! Obviously Gori got angry to hear the terrible news on the phone so he accused them why they hadn't called him much earlier. And you know what?? All they said was ’We've been too busy to ring you up.' It's outrageous!! No wonder that I got soooo upset and very grumpy to hear the news. Gori and I even had a bit of fight over it, which was totally unnecessary .

It's very upsetting and extremely disappointing but we've already paid for it and now we know that it's on the way here. It should be here by this coming Tuesday. All we have to do is just to grin and bear it. Oh boy, what a bummer!!!

Our gas-operated hot water system is out of order again! This thing is very temperamental and has acted up every once in a while, which is extremely annoying! But this time it seems like it's finally had it, totally.

As you might know, Gori is a gas fitter so he has been looking into it to find out what was wrong and after his attempts and efforts, he diagnosed that it was unfixable(^^;) However, I was not convinced by his diagnosis because he hadn't taken the system apart, so I insisted (or maybe begged him^^;) that we should have a very close at it by taking it apart as much as we could. He agreed with me, saying' We've got nothing to lose. '. He looked into each part of the system one by one very carefully. And me? well, I tried my hardest cleaning up the clogging in the burning part while he was at his inspection. He found out a cause-could-be so I got very excited. But he said ' Don't get your hopes up too high, just yet.'

After we finished all the cleaning and stuff, Gori put the system back into one piece and we turned on the hot water. I was very excited! But....unfortunately, nothing happened....
The system didn't come back to life....

Well, I was disappointed at the result but we have done everything we could so I am content. Oh boy, having said that, we'll have to go up to his mum and dad's house to have a shower for a while until a new hot water system comes ( he ordered a new one online yesterday). I hope it comes very soon. I really need to have a hot shower every night to have a good night sleep and my back gets tight and sore without it!

There is one thing that I have been trying to stay away from....that is a lemon cake!! I love this lemon cake for which I got the recipe at Cook pad, a cooking website. But the problem is that once I've baked one, I can't stop eating it! It is very fluffy and moist. And it has got a taste similar to cheese cake. Oh my god! I am working up a craving for it! I haven't got lemons so I gotta go and get some from the dam, which I told you before has got a long steep slope to get there. Probably if I go and get some lemons myself, I might work off the calories that I am going to get by eating the cake!(LOL)

I am sleeeeeeeepy! I wonder if I have caught a cold or something?? I have got a lot to do but I can't bring myself to do them. (^^;) Maybe I am wearing too many clothes. It's beautiful outside, nice and warm. OK, I will pull myself together and work on the stuff I want to do! But first of all, I'll have to shake off this drowsiness! What should I do??

Oh boy, my back is tight. The reason, you ask?? Well, I have to admit that I got a bit carried away when I was doing my regular exercise on the treadmill two days ago. Usually I start with 400m walk as a warm-up and do some jogging for about 200 to 400m and then I walk for around the same distance. I continue this cycle over and over again until when I get sick of it or when I have hit 4.5km to 5km mark in total distance. But two days ago, I was feeling good and very motivated so I jogged for about 800m straight during one cycle! And now I have got a bit of relapse of my backache^^; I should take it easy for a while, shouldn't I?? I have got a lot that I'd love to do but I shouldn't risk it by pushing myself too much!

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^)