Brew your own beer
A month ago we went down to the GC on a Friday arvo to bottle some beer PC had ordered at a micro-brewery. There are a few franchises around that do that. You just call up and ask them to brew the beer you want, or go there yourself and mix the water, malt, hops, sugar and whatever else you need, brew it and pour it into a container which is stored and managed by the staff. Return to the microbrewery to bottle your beer when it’s ready in a few weeks.
Yesterday we went to another microbrewery in Brisbane. It seems to work in exactly the same manner as the one down the GC and is a similar cost. I can’t take any alcohol so I don’t know how good it is exactly, but seems everyone who has tried it loves it. Since there are no chemicals or preservatives in it, it doesn’t last as long as the ones you buy at the bottle shop, but it has a fresh, clean taste and is much cheaper. So if you are interested in it, give it a try.
Going back to Japan again
PC and I are going back to Japan this coming October again! We found a great deal for the flight tix last weekend and it ended on Monday so we booked the tix on the spot. And Friday I got approval of my annual leave.
This time we are going to stay for 3 weeks. So it would be more relaxed than last time. In February we went to Japan for 2 weeks and it was busy and hectic and flew by before you knew it. So I wanted to stay longer next time.
I know we should save money since we bought a house and are having a wedding next year but going home is always nice. I am so looking forward to it!
Spiderman 3
Last Saturday, we went to see “Spiderman 3” with PC and his friend. I guess it wasn’t too bad, I liked parts of it, and for instance, how Harry and Peter got back to being friends again. But I felt there were oodles of sub-stories. I am sure it wasn’t easy to bring the all stories together and maybe that’s the smart thing, but I thought it’d be better to focus on the main story more.
I know when it comes to sequels of high quality, it is really hard to meet people’s expectations. Maybe that was the problem. But compared to Spiderman 2, it was a little iffy.
Business!?
I saw an article about some teacher’s union accusing supermarkets of commercialising childhood.
According to the article, the teacher’s union claimed that supermarkets exploit children’s insecurities, and play on parents concerns that their kids might be bullied at school if they don’t wear same kinds of clothes or have the latest cool stuff that their schoolmates have. This is happening at every level, drinks, food, toys, clothes, mobile phones as so on.
I understand that. When I was a kid, my parents never had or provided me with junk food. My mom used to (well she still does…) tell me how important it is to have a balanced meal and that is a basic of life. So I try to have balanced meals. I still have junk food, but don’t have them or TV dinners as my meals.
However here in Australia it is popular to have kid’s birthday parties at Maccas, and you can easily find kids having junk food with their friends or parents.
I still believe that parents have a responsibility to their kids’ education, manners, and lifestyle choices, and shouldn’t blame schools or society straight away. However, for kids, especially teenagers I guess, it is important to be “cool” and be like their friends and not to be “weird” or “dull”. And businesses shouldn’t exploit this.
Fiddle-faddle
I was surfing the net and found an article about a young expecting mom being shot and killed as a result of some kind of dispute in a suburb in England…. The inspector said she might have been killed over a row about parking and noise levels with neighbours.
I check Japanese news every day, and see similar stories quite often. Shouldn’t the people life be taken away so easily, especially over such fiddle-faddle. If people paid a little more respect to each other, we wouldn’t have to waste our time disputing over crap, and hopefully save someone’s irreplaceable life.
Own place
We bought a house about six months ago, but we hardly decorate and it doesn’t look homey yet. One reason is because we don’t know when we’ll leave here and go back to Japan or somewhere else. But we love this place and want to work on it to make it nicer.
First of all, the garden. We started working on it, bought pebbles and plants. But since we came back from Japan, we haven’t done anything and it looks messy now… we also want to hang up some pictures so we went shopping over weekends to find some photo frames. The problem is that I don’t like having pictures taken of me, so we hardly have any pictures of the two of us. I guess we have to take more photos now.
Arty!?
Today we went to GOMA (The Gallery of Modern Art) since PC wanted to show me a piece by the Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, whose work he saw in Japan. It was called “Soul under the moon 2002”, it was really bizarre and interesting. It was a small, darkened room with UV lighting. There was a small walkway to the centre of the room, surrounded by water. Small coloured globes hung like stars all around the room and the walls were all mirrored creating a feeling of infinity and space wherever you looked.
After that we went to the Roma Street Parklands to see “Zombie Walk”. About a hundred people dressed up like zombies and walked together to the other side of the city. Some people were really good, but others dressed up all Medieval or like clowns. But it seemed everyone enjoyed themselves.
On the way to the Roma Street Parklands, I dropped by the State and City libraries since I hadn’t been to either since they were renovated and I wanted to see inside. They were both much more modern and spacious. I really never used those libraries before, but they look really nice now.
Motivation
I know I need to study English, but I just don’t feel like it. Last time when I studied English was in 12th grade for my uni entrance examination. English is a necessity for my every day life and I know I have to work on it. I have a reason to study but I just don’t have any motivation.
I have been here for three years but my English has not come along at all. The reason I came here was to go to uni, and I did. I studied at uni for two years and after that I got a job. I thought that if I studied at uni by the time I graduated my English would have improved. I’m sure my report writing skills have improved, the last year at uni I always got a good mark on my papers. But it wasn’t because my English had improved; I just got the knack of it. If you don’t work on it, it doesn’t get better. I know this, but why can’t I just put it into an action? Winging about something is easy but it doesn’t help me at all. If I wanna improve, I have no choice but to study and practice…
Parents
Yesterday I called up my parents and let them know that I am now engaged. PC popped the question a month ago. Actually he was going to propose to me when we were in Japan last month, but when he asked my dad if he could marry me, my dad didn’t give him a straight answer. Well, in my dad’s defence, PC asked my dad only a few hours after they’d first met and my dad couldn’t say yes to someone he didn’t know well - even if we’d been together for 4 years.
It’s not that there hadn’t been a chance to meet him… 3 years ago, when we were living in Japan, I asked my mom if she wanted to see PC - but I assume that she thought we weren’t serious at the time and she said no.
Anyway, PC didn’t propose to me till we came back here. And yesterday when I talked to them, they said sorry for not giving him a straight answer and all my family got to like him. I think asking my dad for permission first meant a lot to my parents, and they really appreciated that. I knew it wouldn’t be any problem, but I’m really glad that my parents got to like PC. That meant to me a lot.
Ally Mcbeal
I haven’t felt like writing my blog this year. But the last week I had to write a business report and I felt my writing skills were lacking a little, so I decided to start writing again.
Anyway, a few weeks ago I bought the Ally McBeal DVD set. I have been looking for it at the video rental shop since last year, but hadn’t been able to find it anywhere and had given up. However, the other day we went shopping for our friend’s birthday present, and happened to find it. I was so excited, and even though it cost me $200, I couldn’t help but buy it on the spot.
Last week I watched the first season, even though I remembered some episodes, somehow I didn’t remember that Billy (Ally’s high-school sweetheart) was alive. I had always thought he was dead and only popped in and out of Ally’s memory. In addition in the episode I watched today, Ling was not a lawyer. It seems I hardly remembered the early episodes at all. So I reckon I can enjoy watching it like it is the first time.