得意なこと / specialty

昨日、家の用事の合間にPCを開いて、かなり集中して短時間で仕事を進めました。
「だいぶ進んだ、仕事は得意だわ」と言ったら、三男がドクターXの真似をして
「趣味 仕事。特技 仕事。家のお片付け いたしません。」と言ってました。
笑える。
代わりに家のお片付けはやっておくれ。

次男は一昨日、教習所の卒検に合格。
駐車のテストは縦列駐車だったらしいですが、聞いてみると彼は縦列駐車が得意で、習ったときも最初からうまくできて教官を驚かせたらしい。
幼い頃、ベビーカーの車輪をずっと眺めたり、自転車の後ろに乗ってるときにタイヤを眺めようとしたり(バランスが崩れるから危ないとかなり私に注意された)、ミニカーをひたすら走らせたりの成果なんでしょうか。
ちなみに彼はミシンが非常に得意で、「ミシンの王子」と勝手に呼んでるけど、これも同じ能力よね。
私がかなり苦手なとこ。

三男にも何か得意なことはないか。
まずは歌。
よく歌ってるからか、学校でも褒められる。
うーん、もう少し彼の学習パターンを知りたいな。


Yesterday I focused on my job with my PC while I cleaned up my house.
I said that I am good at working and I almost finished what I have to do this weekend.
My youngest son responded that my hobby is working, my specialty is working, and I wouldn’t clean up my house.
This is from Japanese famous drama on TV that her hobby is surgery, her specialty is surgery, and she wouldn’t do anything which doesn’t need doctor license by the main character who is a freelance doctor.
I laughed.
I would appreciate it if he cleaned up instead of me.

By the way my second son graduated from driver’s license school the day before yesterday.
He was tested about parallel parking which I think the most difficult way of parking and he did well.
He said he is good at parallel parking and he surprised his teacher to do parallel parking well at the first time as well.
It might be the results of that he watched wheels of his stroller, that he tried to watch a wheel of my bicycle riding behind me - he was cautioned to stop it by me because balancing of my bicycle would be bad - and that he had his mini cars run silently.
In addition he has been good at sawing with sawing machine and I think it is also from his same capabilities.
I call his a prince of sawing machine.
I hate such things, though.

I would like to know my youngest son’s specialty.
He likes singing and he is evaluated at school.
Well I would like to know his pattern of learning.


結婚記念日 / our anniversary

21回目の結婚記念日でした。
ずいぶん経ったような、あっという間だったような。
家族でお祝いしたいと言ったら、次男が予定を変更して夕飯に間に合うように帰ってきてくれました。
最近は大学生たちがなかなか予定が合わず、外食ができてなかったので嬉しかった。
スペアリブの有名なお店に行きましたが、本当においしくてかなり満足。
長男次男の小さい頃の話(お風呂の洗い場の床のお湯を2人で飲んでたことや、次男が長男にいじめられて体を洗う布で涙を拭いた仕草をしながら泣いてたこととか)をして楽しみました。
毎年書いてるけど、息子たちとともに歩んできた結婚生活。
楽しい思い出がいっぱいです。


Today is the 21st wedding anniversary.
I feel we have been for long time as well as have been for short time.
My second son came home earlier than his plan to celebrate our anniversary together.
Recently we couldn’t go out for dinner because our university sons are busy on holidays.
I was satisfied with the dinner at a restaurant which is famous for spareribs.
We enjoyed talking about our first and second sons’ episodes like that they drank water in the floor of our bathroom and that my second son cried wiping his tears with our body wash cloth because he was bullied by our first son.
As I mentioned every year, my wedding life has been with my sons.
I have many memories.

お片付け / clean up

三男の交換留学生がカナダから来るので、今日はお片付け。
前に長男の交換留学生が来たときはもっと片付けが大変だった気がするけど、それでもかなり大々的。
留学生が来るのはかなり楽しみ！


We are cleaning up our house for preparing for my youngest son’s exchange student’s coming from Canada next week.
It is very hard even though it was harder before my first son’s exchange student’s came from Koria three years ago.
I look forward to meeting his exchange student.


”ワールドカップ / the World Cup”


いろいろ考えたけど、南アフリカはdiversity & inclusionのお手本でしたね。
やはり強いチームは安定した守りを持ち、そしてチャンスを必ず手に入れる力を持つのですね！


I am thinking about the game last night and it was a great reference to prove that diversity & inclusion makes teams stronger.
Strong teams have stable defense capabilities as well as capabilities to definitely get opportunities, aren’t they?

大学教育 / university educations

長男は私立大学理系、次男は国立大学理系に行ってます。
大学教育って私のときからあまり変わらないですね。
高校までが頑張って創意工夫されているように感じていただけにちょっとがっかり。
昔より学生たちはまじめにはなっただろうけど、大学側は何を変えてるんだろう？
1年生だから？
いや、でも1年生でももう少しなんとかすべき。
がっかりだな…。
社会のニーズに合致しない。


My first son is a private university student and my second son is a public university student.
Both of them are STEM students.
I was disappointed with current university educations which are now so different from ones when I was a university student.
From parent’s perspective educations till high school tend to be improved, though.
What are universities changing even though students study more than before?
Does it happen because my sons are still on the first grade?
But I think if so it should be improved.
I am disappointed.
The educations don’t fit for the society.


ワールドカップ / the World Cup

終わりました、ラグビーワールドカップ。
南アフリカは強かったですね。
楽しい時間をありがとう！


The rugby World Cup has been finished.
South Africa was very strong.
I have enjoyed it.

勝負 / games

仕事で勝負をしています。
3年前ぐらいの大勝負を思い出します。
負けたんだ、あのとき。
絶対に勝たなきゃならない勝負に負け、誰も怒らなかったけどしばらくはずっとネタにされ続けた。
今回行ったのと同じ内容のインド出張があったものの、勝負のために泣く泣くあきらめ、上司が代わりに行ったな。
そして今回は勝負の最中にもみんなに任せてインド出張に行った。行ってよかった。
ちゃんとみんながやってくれてた。

負けたことはもちろんよくないけど、結果的にはよかったのかもしれない。
運良く行けたら行ったで、どこかで綻びが出る。
それにあれからしばらく私自身もネタにし続けた。
失敗してもいいんだよとみんなに話せた。
あのとき負けたから、今オロオロしない。
失敗を恐れて勝負をしないのも違う。

勝負の結果は昨日出るはずだったけど、出なかった。
週明けの結果を祈ろう。


We are having a big game on business.
I remember the big fame I had about three years ago.
I lost it.
I lost the must-win game and my lost was told comically for a while even though nobody blamed me.
I had an opportunity to go to India for the same reason for which I went to India last week but I gave up it for the game and my boss went there instead of me.
And this time I went there by delegating everything to my members.
They did great jobs.

Loosing the game was not good but I think it was good for me looking back.
If I won it fortunately, I would loose the other things.
Also I had had a speech about my failure for a while.
I could tell many people that failures were not prohibited but good for us.
I am not upset because I lost it.
I don’t think that not trying due to fear of failure is correct.

The result of the game was supposed to be given us yesterday but it wasn’t.
I pray the good result at the beginning of next week.

緒方貞子さん / Ms. Sadako Ogata

亡くなられた緒方貞子さん。
憧れの方でした。
お会いしたことはおろか、お話を伺ったこともないですが、著者は昔読みました。
私の母より年上で女性で、こんな方がいるんだなと感銘を受けたものです。
なぜならば、母はずっと私に頑張れと言いつつ、自分のことは時代のせいにしていたからです。
私は小さい頃からそのことに批判的で、何度か母を問い詰めたものです。
「私に頑張れと言うなら、なぜ自分はやらなかったのだ？」
答えは時代のせい、家庭環境のせい、いろいろありましたが全て外的要因だったのでがっかりしたものでした。
そんな中での緒方貞子さん。うれしかったのです。
つべこべ言わずにやろう、世界にきちんと役立つことをしようと思ったものでした。

最近少し忘れかけていたかもな。その気持ち。
世界の中の日本人の私に何ができるのか。
そう考えながらこれからも頑張っていきたいと改めて思いました。

ご冥福をお祈りします。



Ms. Sadako Ogata who has passed away the other day.
She was a person whom I admired.
I neither met her nor heard her speech in person but I read her book many years ago.
I was moved that there was such an amazing person even though she was older than my mother and a woman.
It was because my mother had told me to study hard for the future but she had blamed the era for her own life.
I have criticized it and I sometimes asked her why she hadn’t study hard for the future even if she forced me to do so.
Her answers disappointed me because all of them were from external factors like the era, her family situations, and gender.
So I was pleased to know Ms. Sadako Ogata.
I began to want to do something to be valuable for the world without any excuses.

I might have forgot this will recently.
What can I do for the world as Japanese?
I want to work hard thinking about that again.

I pray her soul may Rest In Peace.


次男の宿題 / my son’s assessment

夜12時締め切りの課題があると騒ぎ出す次男。
パワーポイントでお手本のように図を描くという謎の課題。
結構複雑。
思わず一緒に、いやほとんど私がやってしまった。
おかげで間に合った…。


My second son was upset because his assessment should be submitted by midnight.
It was to draw chart following the sample.
It was complex.
I did it with him ....no I did almost all of it.
But it contributed to submitting by the due time.

マスク / a mask

年がら年中アレルギーなんですが、夏の間は少し軽く、かつ暑いのでマスクを外してました。
どこまでいけるかと粘ったけど、今週かなり厳しくなったのでマスク生活に戻しました。
外に出るときだけでもマスクするとだいぶ違うんですよね。
インフルエンザも流行るし、ちょうどいいですね。


I struggle with allergy all year round but in summer    that is slightly better so I have removed a mask.
This week I struggled and restarted masking.
Masking only outside makes me feel better.
It would be good because flu is more popular than before.