There`s more than one way to do life

Am reactivating this blog to help family and friends keep up to date with our family`s doings to whatever extent they might wish. This instalment: Travelling to Japan from NZ early April, 2011. The trip went well overall. Sachi was even more settled than six months ago; now at one-and-a-half she is a more seasoned traveller. We were pleasantly surprised to be farewelled at Momona Airport by about 10 Japanese mums with their children. Guys, you shouldn`t have, but your presence was much appreciated. (Tamami-san, we won $10 with one of the scratch cards that you gave us!) We stayed overnight in Auckland at a rather grungy hotel, but it was cheap. The tap in the bathroom failed, and the owner and son were busy working on the plumbing in the next room while we slept. The only travel hiccup was when the airline wouldn`t let me board the plane, as my return date was after my three-month visa. (We`d been told to apply in Japan for my spouse visa as it is easier that way. Tip of the day: it is never easy.) Managed to make another booking on the spot for June or July, which I`ll cancel. We spent a second night after an 11-hour trip to Tokyo, and then three hours later another 2-hour flight to Fukuoka. Took a taxi to the youth hostel and then the next day to the railway station. Six pieces of luggage mostly with wheels. It was doable . . . just. After the bullet train to Kumamoto, Mami`s mother and sister Rumi took us the rest of the way by car. The first few days in Uto City have been very quiet and pleasant with great spring weather. Our mountain bike takes me around wherever I need to go (to the library where I`m typing this for instance). I`m searching for a child`s bicycle seat for Sachi. I have books to browse and a stamp collection to sort. There`s a tape cassette player for my Berlize language lessons. And I came across the book Tales of a Female Nomad by Rita Golden Gelman that I`ve already read and had left behind the last time we stayed with the Japanese grandparents. I think it was used for a recent film with Julia Roberts. And that`s where the title of this post--More than one way to do life--originates. I plan to explore the present journey in greater detail.

September 2009

I simply must inform you about last month's big happening. Sachi Jerika Lucas was born at 3.41 a.m. on the 17th September. She weighed 7 lb 1 oz or 3.22 kg. Everyone is fit and healthy and well. Slightly sleep-deprived, but.

February 2009

And just like that half a year has gone by since I last posted. Oh well, good intentions . . .

This month classes resume at Otago Polytechnic. After a year 'away' I have my own ESOL class once again. I look forward this year to resuming my student-centred, student self-directed focus. I've been struggling against the mainstreamflow to implement this approach for the last ten years. But now this paradigm is being pressed from on high (by the CEO no less) and so I dare to hope for a new dawn.

Is this the age of Aquarius?

Which Parent?

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Geneology - Family search

Another morph of Iacinta and Vincent

MyHeritage: Celebrity Morph - Free family tree - Family reunion

MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebrities

Rumi looks like . . .

MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebs

MyHeritage: Family tree - Genealogy - Celebrity

MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebs

MyHeritage: Celebrity Morph - Free family tree - Family history

MyHeritage: Family tree - Genealogy - Celeb

MyHeritage: Celebrity Morph - Geneology - Free family tree

MyHeritage: Celebrity Morph - Family search - Family history

MyHeritage: Celebrity Morph - Family pictures - Family reunion

MyHeritage: Celebrity Morph - Pedigree - Family tree search

MyHeritage: Celebrity Morph - Trace family tree - Free genealogy search

MyHeritage: Celebrity Morph - Genealogy software - Geneology

are likely to require to perform their role well.

Why One to one-to-one? Well, a peer tutor typically works 1:1 with a student. And 'one' of us at the Learning Centre, William Lucas who bears a striking similarity to Benjamin McKenzie, is the person in charge (though strictly speaking, working Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays, he is 0.6).

MyHeritage: Celebrity Morph - Pedigree - Family tree search

And just to prove it wasn't a fluke (now you know what I spend my free time doing), here's another:

MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebrities

June 2008

This month we're into winter, and we've had a couple of good freezes in the past week. It's been difficult to train barefoot over ice. Not because of the cold, but because of limited traction.

Anyway, this coming month I'll be a 'forced bachelor'. Mami is attending a conference in Croatia, and she will visit her family in Japan after that. Coincidentally, she was at the airport the same time as Albany, my eldest daughter, on her way to a conference in Vanuatu. They'd better make the most of it. Air travel is going to be a thing of the past.

I'm going well on my own, cooking Indian dishes for the first time in a while. Banana puri, raita, cauliflower curry and rice. Yummy! But I'd better go easy on the oil. A recent ultrasound at the hospital confirmed that I'm full of gall stones - at least a dozen. They are a good size too - one was measured at 1.4 cm!

Finally, I have dabbled with posting some recent photographs of the past year or so. If you click to see all of them, they come up in colour.