There is so much commercialism around Christmas time that its good to think about those less fortunate. I read about this in the newspaper. Its a website that a parent originally developed to test his son’s vocabulary in preparation for exams. So for every word that you guess right, 20 grains of rice are donated to United Nations. It’s all free since there are corporate sponsors for the site. Try it! It builds your vocabulary, donations are free and its even fun.
|
|||||
|
This is a work in progress. It was published in error. Kate Bush Hiroshima Peter Gabriel Joe Jackson Tori Amos Jane Siberry Pat Metheny Steely Dan Elvis Costello Michael McDonald Earth, Wind & Fire Suzanne Vega Sarah Slean/Lynn Harrison Tokyo’s Ginza is a shoppers’ heaven if you are into designer names. I’m not but I do love the level of service you get any where here. You are greeted loudly once you enter and leave. You can actually find floor clerks everywhere in a department store. Every counter is staffed, every exhibit room in a museum or gallery is staffed (they are also given a chair and blanket to sit down with), there are train conductors all over the platforms. Everyone wears a uniform. I like the information clerks at the department stores. They wear pretty matching hats and shoes. Lots of uniforms even have matching shoes. Even the cleaning ladies at Kyoto Station had matching pink dustpans. Lots of service people like taxi drivers wear white gloves. Well, first of all, how do you order when you can’t read the Japanese menu? We are at a slight disadvantage since the Japanese think we are locals. We went into Mr. Young Man, Kyoto, struggled with the menu. Then we noticed non-Asian tourists being given the ENGLISH MENU. What if there isn’t a English menu? Someplaces have photos and prices so you point to it. Most places have plastic models and pricing in exterior cases so that you can decide before going into the restaurant. I think that you can tell how developed a country is, by the state of their toilets. Japan must be the world’s leader. I read about it in the guide books but its still a surprise when you have to use one. The lobby/lounge is on the 3rd floor or 3F. Breakfast choices were: hardboiled eggs-already shelled, fruit salad -individual servings, different types of sweet buns, jams and of course cocoa puffs and cornflakes Our first dinner meal in Japan, was close to the hotel. It was Royal Host featuring curry specials. It was like an American style dinner. Smoking is allowed in restaurants and many other public spaces. As we will discover, any other cuisine will have their Japanese twist to it. July 24th. Our first day in Japan started really early. We had went to bed local time of 9:30 and 10:30. David always sleeps earlier. But we were both up by 4:00am, plenty of time of time to get to the hotel breakfast for 6:30am. I have a Dream List comprised of things to do before …. We landed in Osaka. We stepped off the plane and once outside, you get blasted. After typhoon season is over, you get hot temperatures and high humidity for all of July and August. 30-40c. Last night, David went to bed at 11:00 pm and set the alarm for 3:45am since the limo would be picking us up at 4:15am. Such an ungodly that we couldn’t ask anyone to drive us to the airport. It was so early that I wish we didn’t have a chatty, friendly driver. I never slept since I was packing and cleaning. It was like being a teenager and pulling an all-nighter with the boys. Since all the boys were obviously not interested in going to sleep, I got photos of them together. At least they were awake enough to see us off. And also to give us their wish list for Japanese gifts. Eric said no consumables since he wanted a durable souvenir. Chinglish t-shirts for all, a sushi poster for Eric or fake sushi, of course they would love electric games or toys! Paul let me his 2 travel guide books which I started to read. I’m starting to get excited. We had to replace the torsion spring on our garage door. This meant that we couldn’t use our car until the service guy came. We could have lifted the garage door manually but its a 10×7′ door. Its like having your car locked in. Eric went to the Chinese Embassy to get his visa today. Adam is singing Chinese songs now. Terra had her pet white rat with her today. I’m trying not to be biased against it. I’m fine as long as it in its travel case. His flight arrived earlier so we rushed off to the airport. Some of his friends went too so I made them hold the banner that said “welcome home, Adam” One strange guy saw it, read it and told his arriving friend that we had made it for him because his friend’s name happened to Aaron. We had to wait 1/2 hour before Adam came through the luggage doors. Even strangers were clapping when we were cheering. Then we got Adam to run through the banner. Where: Saturday, we went out for lunch at a restaurant Indo-Chyna on Ossington that served Chinese, Vietnamese & Thai food. It had only been opened for 2 months. It had 2 wonderful paintings on the wall, one depicting a woman sitting down on the grass with a bowl of fruit. It was sorta like a retro vintage advertisement with a plain background. The rest of the wall were plain. There was also french music playing in the background. Imagine Stevie Wonder sung in French by a woman. Who: David, his old manager Greg who is now his co-author. Greg’s girlfriend, Indira and her sister Sonia Hot Women was the theme for Bizzy B’s Hive ATC meeting yesterday. It was a rowdier meeting more than usual due to the subject matter. S.V. went for the smut factor. C.M. said that she had suffered for her art since she was accused of buying porn, and not even good porn as artwork for her cards. She got a lot of strange looks as she was cutting up nudie figures while riding TTC. L.W. was really productive while she was waiting for the police since she had witnessed a B&E. MDW wasn’t as productive as she had hoped since her car was AWOL. Its these interesting background details that I find fun and enjoyable as well as what inspired people. S.V. said that she used parts of her daughter’s discarded bustier for her cards. With Adam away in China, and Noah visiting his grandparents for 2 weeks, the fridge wasn’t particularly full. Then I realized ‘oh my God, I’m such a bad mother, there isn’t enough food for when they both come back home! Off to the grocery for a major haul of food. Feeding four teenagers is quite a feat compared to just when two of them are living at home. Even then, Ryan’s friends were here a lot and they were being fed too. We had Eric’s girlfriend stay with us for a week. Terra is Korean so we had to explain some of the food items. And that in her family, they use food leftovers to make sushi just like we use leftover to make fried rice. It was a fun having another female in the house. |
|||||
|
Copyright © 2012 Swordflower: strength in creativity - All Rights Reserved |
|||||
