S家と湯布院旅行 Yufuin with The S Team

Just back from a good weekend in Yufuin with the S Family. It was nice to go with another family as M had some friends to play with. She, I and Y got on like a house on fire, and we had to do the obligatory trip to the Safari Park.




S家と湯布院に行ってきました。Weechanの遊び相手がいたし、皆がとてもなかよく遊んでくれたからよかった。もちろんサファリへ行くしかなかった！



天気が結構ひどかったけど、頑張って霧の中へ出かけたよ。Yちゃんは仲間はずれになってしまって、しようがなく、DrYと手をつないだ。。。

Too bad the weather was terrible, but we braved the fog for an adventure!　Wee Y was left out of the hand holding, so she made do with what she could get!

So which bus will it be today?? The LION bus!


今日はどのバスになるかな？ライオンバスでした！

昔の友達にえさをやった。
M fed her old friends.

And I -kun finally got up the courage to feed the tigers! Well done I!


Iくんもトラさんにもえさをやることができた！

久しぶりに本当に寒かった！スコットランドみたい！


We were seriously cold for the first time since Scotland!

But today the kangaroos were the only ones fighting so we had a great time!
今日はケンカしていたのはカンガルーだけだから、とても楽しかった！


おいしいものいっぱい食べたし、温泉も入って、いい週末でした。S家、一緒に来てくれてありがとう！天気のとき、また行こうね！


We had great food and had good baths, a good weekend! S Family, thanks for coming with us. Let's go again when the sun is shining!

Disney with my Prince 私の王子とディズニー

On Saturday we went to Disney on Ice with my friend H from Onomichi. First we went out to play near my house. It was great to see H after such a long time.




土曜日にいよいよ尾道の友達のHくんとディズニーオンアイスに行った。久しぶりにあったから先に近くの遊園地で遊んだ。


H and his Mum were braver than us! Me and Mummy were too scared to get on the jet coaster. Wow!

HくんとH君ママは私たちより勇気があった。　私とMummyはジェットコースターがまだちょっと怖い！すごいね！


私はベルになってディズニーに行った。Hくんは野獣／王子役だったね。もちろん王子だよ！ショーの前に近くにバンドの演奏があったから踊ることも出来た。
ディズニーもすばらしかった。Hくんは私ほど面白いとおもわなかったmたいけど。。。。
好きなキャラクターが皆出たし、また１８００円のかき氷が食べれたし、最高の一日だった！


I went to Disney as Belle, and Hayato was the Beast/Prince. ...Of course he was my prince! There was even a band playing nearby, so we got a dance in before the show.
The show was great too. (Although H didn't seem to enjoy it as much as me....!) All my favourite characters were there. And I got to eat another 1800 yen snow cone! All in all a great day!


And as a special bonus, I met my friend YY and my friend M-chan from Onomichi too! (Couldn't get a photo of M-chan!) Everyone loves Disney!

おまけに、尾道の友達のYY君とMちゃんにも会った！Mちゃんの写真は撮れなかったけど。皆ディズニー好きね！

Sleepover - by Mairi 初めてお泊まり

Last week I stayed at my friend Y-chan's house. It was the first time I'd stayed over somewhere without my Mummy. I practised going to sleep by myself for a few days before I went, so I knew I could do it. I was so excited to go home with my 2 friends in Y's car. We went to baby S's nursery and played there for a while, then went home and had a delicious dinner and played all night. I got a little sad after N-chan decided to go home, and I had to call my Mummy, but after I spoke to her, and Y-chan's Mummy gave me a cuddle, I was able to go to sleep fine! Me and Y woke up very very early and had a great time playing till her Mummy took us back to school! Thank you Y-chan family! I had a great time! Next time come and play at my house Y and N!


先週初めて一人で友達のうちでお泊まりしてきたよ！同じクラスのYちゃんの家に行くのはとても楽しみだったけど、Mummyがいないのは初めてだから、何回か一人で寝る練習してみた。一人で寝れたから、Yちゃんの車でNちゃんとYちゃんと乗ったとき、とても興奮していた。赤ちゃんのSちゃんの保育園に迎えに行って、そこの公園で遊んで、Yちゃんのママが作ってくれたスパゲティを食べて、いっぱい遊んで、とても楽しかったです。 寝る前に、Nちゃんが帰ってしまったから、私もちょっと寂しくなって、Mummyに電話してしまったけど、その後Yちゃんのママが優しく絵本を読んでくれたから、やっぱり寝れました。次の朝とても早く目が覚めて、Yちゃんと二人で学校に行くまでにとても楽しく遊んだ！Yちゃんのママがその日のおいしくて可愛いお弁当まで作ってくれた！ ありがとうYちゃんFamily!今度うちにも遊びにきてね！

First Sleepover 初めてお泊まり ー by Mummy

Last night I spent the first night without my baby within 30 feet of me since February 2003, when she was born.
Originally I was going to have her wee classmates round here for a day of play with their mums to break them in, but the usual Autumn frenzy of activity has begun, and schedules didn't match up, so when Y-chan's Mum suggested that we go straight to the kids doing a sleepover by themselves at her house, a whole new battle between the two voices in my head began. You know the ones: " Don't overreact, this is no doubt a perfectly normal age for a child to go and sleep over at a relative stranger's house by herself. Don't mollycoddle! She'll be fine! What could possibly happen? People will think you just want her tied to the apron strings! And think of not having to get up at 6am to make the lunch and take her to school"
And then " But she's never even been there to play!! It' s hit or miss whether she'll even go sleep for her Dad! What if she gets scared?? It's an hour away if I have to go and get her in the middle of the night!!!" And slightly more disturbing thoughts which make me wonder if I'm becoming my mother, " What if she's a nightmare for Y-chan's Mum? What if she wets the bed? What if she's cheeky? What if they all fight?"
In the end the person I want to be won out over the person I probably am, and the date was set for the 3 girls of the class to go home with Y's Mum after school last night.
The drama was heightened last week, with news of all 3 girls getting involved in near fisty cuffs, witnessed by other kids only too ready to report back, over who had lunch with their teacher last week. The teacher, sensibly, didn't want to name names, but the "what if my child is the class bully? What if they all hate her??" paranoia increased... I must say in my blinded by love experience, that nothing I've seen particularly points to this, but teaching small kids has told me that kids are not always the same person when their parents aren't around.....aaarrghhh! Valium please!
Anyway, it was with trepidation that I packed M onto the bus with her overnight bag yesterday morning.
After work, I was impressed that I had the chance to stay late to take in a concert held at my school by a rather famous children's choir form South Africa. Oh, this is the life of people who can get babysitters, I thought! It all seemed rather fun.
After the concert, at approx 5:20pm, pangs of worry (guilt??no!) set in and after opening the phone twice and shutting it, I finally succumbed and sent an e-mail to Y's Mum checking they had all arrived at hers without incident.
The answer "Of course! Don't worry!" with a picture of them all happily traveling to the park, left me feeling foolish...


So, I trawled off for an unusual dinner out alone with my hubby, and we got through two DVDs of the latest season of 24, only interrupted by occasional photo updates of the kids having a great time at Y's, which made me feel both like a prize idiot, and a little relieved!


Playing before dinner...



Spaghetti!



Fireworks before bed!!


Then at about 10 o'clock, the phone rang!!!!!
Sniveling M " I miss you, I want to go home..."
The hour's drive in my head, I talked her down for about 10 mins, until finally she decided she would try another story and cuddle from Y's Mummy. Relieved, but secretly pleased that she didn't not miss me at all after all.....!

An while later, an e-mail saying the two remaining kids were sleeping soundly side by side! Success!

I went to bed expecting the phone call at any second, but we all managed to sleep through, and the next e-mail said M and Y had been up playing happily since 5am!

Hopefully that means I'll get an early night tonight too!

Aaah, another rite of passage ticked off!

So, who'd like to have M to stay over next?????

Dr Yasu turns Prince Charming? 白馬の王子に変身？

I'm wondering what Y has been up to.
On Sunday he came back from an all night shift at work, and started talking about a great massage place he'd heard of near our house, then promptly phoned up and made an appointment for me to go and have a massage that very night!

Yは何か悪いことしているのかな、と悩んでいるの。
日曜日、仕事から帰ってきたYは家のの近くにすごく気持ちがいいマッサージをしてもらえるところの話をする。そして、間もなく、勝手に電話をして、なんとその夜に、私の１時間のマッサージの予約をとってくれた。

Very strange behaviour!

どうしたんだろう？

Then, the next day he actually volunteered to make the dinner! (See photo above - goya champuru, by Yasu, made by looking at Tasty Bites!)

そして、次の日、晩ご飯を作ってくれると言い出した。（上の写真：YがTasty Bitesのレシピを見ながら作ったゴーヤチャンプルです！）

And it was actually quite good!

しかも結構おいしかったよ！

What a nice surprise!
Married for 7 years, is he finally turning into my Knight in Shining Armour?
Fingers crossed!


とにかくうれしかったね。結婚して７年ですが、やっとプリンス　チャーミングに変身ですか？
期待しましょう！

Thanks Y! ありがとう！

And a Quick One for Granny コジャック

High School Musical? ハイ スクール ミュージカル

A bit free and easy with the lyrics, but Vanessa Hudgens watch your job!
歌詞はちょっと。。。だけど次のバネッサハッジンズでしょうかね？

One of the Lads 男の子か？

Today I went to play with the S family in their new house. A new friend M-kun was there too. We had a great time, especially playing with I's cars. Am I not very ladylike or something? Thanks for having us!
今日はS家の新しい家に遊びに行ってきたよ。新しい友達のMくんもいました。とても楽しかった。特にIくんのミニカーで遊ぶのが楽しかった。女の子らしくないか？。。。。お邪魔しました！

I helped Mummy make some trifle before we went too!
行く前にtrifleを作るのも手伝った！

Swimmers 水泳

I went to try out another swimming class today. My friend s F and H go there already. It was a great pool with a flume and everything, and my teacher was good fun too. But it's quite far from my house, so I don't know if I can go every week.


今日は別のプールで体験レッスンに行ってきたよ。私の友達のFとHは毎週そこに通っている。プールもきれいだったし、ウオータースライダーもあった。先生も優しかった。でもうちから遠いから、行くかどうか、悩んでいるところ。。。

Maybe in a few months, I will be able to swim as well as F!
何ヶ月したら、私もFみたいに上手になるかな？

After our class we had fun at F's house, then went out for Pizza on top of a mountain.
レッスンが終わったら、Fのうちで遊んでから、山の上でピザを食べて帰った。

Never miss a chance to show off your new ballet skills!
バレーの技術を見せるチャンスをみのばしたらいけないね！レストランの皆さんの前で発表会！

Angelina Ballerina? バレリーナ？

Marks out of Ten? 生徒に評価される！

Well one of the more scary but I suppose constructive ideas of the powers that be at Jogakuin (my school), is to have all the teachers fill out an evaluation form for each class that they teach, and in return, the students fill out the same form about the teacher. Then you see if your ideas about each other match up. Then they get to write comments about you or your classes. I didn't fill out the form about my kids, due to time restrictions at the end of term, and because I didn't feel I knew the kids well enough to be fair, but they, it appears, had no such reservations about me.
Now given my surprise at how personally I took the comments on Mairi's report card (even though I knew they didn't mean much), it was with trepidation that I went up to find out my popularity rating today.
It's an unnerving thing to be on the other side of the fence, facing the ones you've been trying to impress and impress upon. My policy has always been that teaching is not a popularity contest, and that your job is to get the material across more than anything. I don't care if they hate me if they learn something, I always say. It's alright to believe this honestly, and be aware that you can't please all the people all the time, but it's quite another to be told directly they hate you and why!

Anyway, I won't bore you with the details. Let's just say, that more people seem to grudgingly like me than hate me, which is heartening, and more people feel they are learning something than not, although depressingly, the negative stats are there too. There were a few points which I will take seriously, and try to improve on, which makes me glad I read the report, but I thought I'd leave you with my favourite comment.

Under the heading: "Things I wish this teacher would do to improve the class"

Anonymous wrote : "I wish she'd shut up!"

A great epitaph for a conversation teacher, and I'm sure many of you will appreciate her sentiments! And with that....... I'll shut up!

今日は生徒の評価アンケートの結果をもらいました。生徒たちはいろんな質問に答えるし、個人的なコメントも書くことができます。茉利の成績表のコメントをどれだけ個人的に受け取ったことに自分でもびっくりした私が、ちょっと緊張して、校長室に入って、自分の人気の確率をもらいに行きました。
いつもこちから評価して、判断しないといけないから、立場が逆になるとちょっと怖いね。「教えるのは人気者大会じゃない」、とは私の昔からのポリシですし、個人的に好かれなくても、生徒が何か一つ学んだ、と言ってくれた方が満足と信じてきています。だけど、実際にはっきり直接「嫌いだ」とその理由を言われると、やっぱりいやよね！
それで、結果は？細かいことは面白くないでしょうけど、「嫌い」と言う人より「好き」と言ってくれた人の方が多いから、ちょっと安心しました。「全く何も習っていない」と言う人より「自分の英語力があがったでしょう」と言ってくれた人の方がおおいし。だからと言って、好評率が１００％という訳でももちろんない。建設的なコメントもあったし、反省しながら、頑張ることができるから、結局レポートを読んでよかったと思う。
でも最後に、一番好きな／ショック受けたコメントを教えてあげましょう。

「先生に要望したいこと」のところで：

｢黙って欲しい。」

その気持ちに賛成している人もいるだろうと思って。。。
会話の先生として、恥ずかしいか。。。。？

まあ、それ以上、黙るしかないな！

Back at School 学校生活復活！

Well I'm getting used to being back at school. We've only managed to miss the bus once, and thankfully on a day Mummy wasn't working, and it's even beginning to get cooler in the mornings. I'm happy to see everyone at the bus stop, and then it's off to school.

新学期のリズムをだいぶ捕まってきた。一回だけバズに間に合わなかった、でもMummyの仕事が始まる前の日だったからよかった。学校まで送ってくれた。今朝はやっと涼しいと言ってもおかしくないぐらい秋らしくなっていたよ。毎日バス停で皆に合うのが楽しみです。そして学校にむけて出発！

I'm a busy girl these days. I started ballet last week - note the hair! Mummy needs a bit of practise! And I've got piano lessons and I'm trying out swimming classes too. It's hard work being 4!
最近忙しいわ！先週からバレーを始めた。今日の髪をチェックしてください。Mummyはもうちょっと練習が必要みたい！ピアノレッスンもあって、今スイミングスクールの体験しているし。４歳って大変ね！


Being 7 has its ups and downs too. N just lost another tooth, so she's the tooth fairy's best friend!
７歳もいろいろあるね。Nちゃんは昨日も歯が抜けたから、tooth fairyの贈り物でお金持ちになっている。

A Beautiful Morning Sky きれいなお空

Could only snap it from the moving car, but the sky this morning was a thing of beauty, full of the promise of a cool Autumn. Bring it on!

車からのスナップしか撮れなかったけど、今朝の広島の空は美しいものでした。涼しい秋のメッセンジャーかしら？

Rare Family Outing ３人でお出かけ

Always running back....


and forth....


Just trying to keep cool....


By one means....


Or another ..... (Retro lemonade! Always tastes better out of a cool glass bottle.)


Funky shops and streets to wander....

A clandestine return to Onomichi to visit our old haunts. Nice walk along the seafront. A good Sunday.

Even a skint knee is bearable if you have the right park and the right Puri Cure bandaid.
A rare family outing, and once again only 2 people in the photos.....


　起きてから気まぐれでいきなり尾道に行こうって決めたOn the Pondファミリー。かき氷とレトロのサイダーでちょっと涼しくなった気分。町の道を散歩して懐かしくなった３人。走り過ぎて転んでも、なじみの公園でプリキュアのバンドエードを張れば、なっとくするWeechan！
尾道、いいね！

そういえば、３人で行ったけど、相変わらず２人の写真しかないね。

A New Princess Comes to Visit N姫が遊びにきた

"Baby" N came to stay with Aunty JJ last week. It was so nice having them here. Doesn't N-chan look cute in my old dressing up skirt!　But I wished F could have come too! I love F!! I'm looking forward to him coming back to Japan next week!

先週Nちゃんがお母さんとお泊まりにきた。とても楽しかった。Nちゃんは私の昔のスカートを似合っているね！かわいいいいいいい！でもFくんも一緒にくればよかった。Fくんも大好き！来週帰ってくるのを楽しみにしている！

３７度！ 37℃

Its September - that means it's officially Autumn. Except someone has forgotten to tell the weather. It is still over 30 degrees every day, so there is nothing else for it, than to get straight into the shaved ice! 3 colours at once? Even better!

もう９月になりました。ということは、秋ですね。でも天気はまだまだ真夏ですね。３０℃を超えている日々が続いています。だから、かき氷を食べるしかないね！３色を一緒に食べるのがもっともっとおいしいよ！はやく涼しくならないのかな。。。。

Return to Onomichi 久しぶりの尾道

The other week I went back to Onomichi for the first time since we moved. It was lovely to see all my old friends from my Puppuru music class when I was 2.

この間、引っ越してから初めて尾道に遊びに行ってきました。２歳の時のプップルの音楽教室の仲間に久しぶりに会うことが出来て、とてもうれしかった。



We had great fun playing at YO and SO's house. They had 2 paddling pools out and we turned the whole garden into a mudbath!

YOくんとSOくんの家で遊ばせてもらいました。プールを２つもだしていた。庭はまもなく泥だらけになっちゃった！





Only SO managed to escape the camera!
SOくんだけがカメラから逃げられた！

Thanks for the great time and the great lunch Mrs O! Please invite us again soon!!!!!
Oさん、おいしいランチも楽しいひと時、ありがとうございます！また呼んでね！