Monthly Up To Date

There`s more than one way to do life

2011-04-12T22:07:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-11T15:48:00.000-07:00

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

2009-02-14T12:33:00.001-08:00

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?

2008-07-20T20:56:00.000-07:00

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Geneology - Family search

Another morph of Iacinta and Vincent

2008-07-09T23:16:00.001-07:00

MyHeritage: Celebrity Morph - Free family tree - Family reunion

MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebrities

Rumi looks like . . .

2008-07-07T22:25:00.000-07:00

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

2008-06-15T17:34:00.000-07:00

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.

May 2008

2008-05-22T20:23:00.001-07:00

Today I ate the last apple of the tree. It looked something like the image on the left - probably an heirloom of some sort. It didn't taste sickly sweet, in other words.

Every day for the past two months I've helped myself. The tree is on the side of someone's driveway on the way to work. I walk by in the morning and then at night, and I pluck one each time.

The owners don't touch it. They probably don't even know that it's there. The tree grows within a hundred yards of a supermarket where people buy apples in plastic every day. Weird.

Saw What a Way to Go: Life at the End of Empire this month too. Very, very worthwhile seeing. It helped me clarify what I want to do.

Just back from the Regent Theatre 24-hour second-hand book sale. Mami and I walked home - well, to the car - with two cartons' worth. $50 @ a dollar a pop. You can't go wrong!

April 2008

2008-05-07T14:26:00.000-07:00

In April I made progress on two fronts. In terms of pedestrian training, I completed my second 12-hour walk/run, covering 77 kilometres in terrible weather. I'm very pleased about that, but will now concentrate on shorter distances in preparation for the Christchurch half-marathon early June.

I've also spent a lot of time at the computer. The final draft work of Hadashi no Tabi: Barefoot through Japan is almost complete (but how often have I promised that!). Fingers crossed, in other words. I shall make the book available on Lulu. I shall make a shortened version available online. And I've just recently learned that the slide show I prepared has been selected to grace SlideShare's homepage!

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March 2008

2008-04-14T18:47:00.000-07:00

This month my old high school (Kaikorai Valley High School - now Kaikorai Valley College) held its 50th Jubilee. Over a thousand people attended from overseas and around the country. It was fun to catch up with the likes of Rodney Thompson, John Begg, Estelle Fraser, Peter Scott, Howard Broad, Darryl Daglish, Bryan Jamieson, Karen Little, Kevin Marlowe, Liz Sawkins, Gerald and John Schoones etc. Where's everyone else?

They've changed.

I've changed.

No one changes.

February 2008

2008-03-03T17:04:00.000-08:00

A good month all told. Lots of sun. A lot of cold also. Some good training in terms of 24-hr barefoot walk preparation.

The main fun would have been the Otago Rail Trail Duathlon that Mami and I took part in. We formed a team of three with Paul Hamilton from work. I'll post a single photo here. If you would like to see more, read a short account (I have yet to write) at my ultradistance blog.

Work has been quite busy due to the Literacy and Numeracy evaluation that the Learning Centre has been asked to administer.

Attended the 50th birthday party of a High School classmate, Ian C, who I've seen perhaps twice in over 30 years. How we age! (Actually the two of us are in pretty good shape!)

January 2008

2008-02-10T19:20:00.000-08:00

Late last year Mami and I travelled to the Nelson-Motueka area in the north of the South Island. We stayed and/or visited friends along the way: James and Ilhye, Kathy and Jim, Fiona and Martin.

We also met Jurgen and Kyoko. They are involved with setting up Atamai, an eco-village that is being built. Mami and I spent a week or two looking over the land and speaking to some of the people involved. We are certainly interested.

I decided to work part-time this year. My proportion will be 0.6, and I shall be at the Learning Centre at Otago Polytechnic on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. People ask me,"So what will you do on your days off." How sad that they need to ask!

My youngest daughter, Iacinta, flew to Kiribati for a three-month stay. She is keen to pick up the language and culture. Through emails I have communicated with her more often than when she is here! Iacinta will be in the sixth form this year, at Otago Girls' High School, Vincent will be in the seventh form at Kings' High School, and Albany will be doing her second last or is it final year of her Law/Japanese double degree.