Naoko's news, views and shoes thread

[ishtat]

They keep asking her to work during rugby matches. That's evil!

Maybe just as well, Wales beat Scotland 27- 23. She's probably curled up in a corner twitching 'might have beens' from time to time.

 

[MichaelinChina]

Congratulations on the visa.
!

Thanks Ogg! Rushed to get it before 15th. haha now I am told I don't start until 22nd.
Plus 2 other foreign teachers have not arrived (still in US and NZ, respectively) and both have yet to get their Z visas too.

 

[NaokoSmith]

We like to park somewhere off-the-track for a week or so to enjoy the view, read, sketch, play, compose, fabricate, swim, explore, blaspheme, whatever.

It sounds like so much fun. My neighbours have a very old looking small blue camper van which they park discreetly behind the garages and go out and about in, accompanied by their small Jack Russell. It has a bumper sticker saying Adventure before dementia LOL

The Circulon is non-stick, but it just doesn't sear as well. It is however much more reliable for omelettes and scrambled egg, which I invariably burn on the bottom.

a burnt bottom is a terrible thing <snerk>.

My first piece of Le Creuset is a large frying pan which has had a burnt bottom for about forty years. My mother had a massive collection of LC and nothing but LC and my brother took this one out to the back garden and used it to fry sausages on a camp fire with his mates! It made the frying pan very black and the metal got some cracks in it on the bottom. I figured a crack in your bottom is fine <snerk> so I reclaimed it when I left home. Over the years I gave it a clean (some of the black still refuses to come off), heated it gently with oil in it a few times, and have been enjoying using it for decades.

I had less success with my omelette pan, which my friends bought me for my thirtieth birthday and which I tried hard to keep from careless housemates. I still use it but the omelettes do stick to it unless I put loads and loads of butter in. (That's my excuse anyway.)

All my pans have got long affectionate stories attached to them. I have one cheap small saucepan which I am a bit worried will wear through and get a hole in it. I will never throw it out, though, as my best friend gave it to me when I had no money and had just moved into my first home. He didn't have any money either! so it wasn't exactly top of the range even then. His mother had given it to him when he first left home, LOL. I think of both of them when I use it - I use it if I have to boil an egg or heat up sauces or something which would not be good to do in a Le Creuset pan.

I mean you wouldn't drop a cat in the washing bowl now would ya?

Our cats will come in the bathroom while I'm having a bath, and stand up on two legs peering over the edge of the bath at me. The younger cat likes to drink the bath water! One day she came rushing in just as I'd pulled the plug on the bath, jumped up and then jumped down into the bathtub half full of water and was very surprised and indignant. You have to imagine a cat trying to lift up each foot to get it out of the water then realising the other three feet are still in water and trying to lift them too

I hope to go cycling later this Spring but I'll have to go to a nearby Country Park with a one-way cycle track.

When I get a bit older, I am determined to buy a tricycle. I think they are most practical - especially if you get them with that little lockable cage between the back wheels, which you can put all your shopping in. I shall get a red one.

Many, many years ago, I spent my first rugby season playing lock. I was tall for my age. And, despite being in the midst of it, I had no idea what was happening in the scrum.

The following season, a few of the other lads had put on a bit of height and I was banished to the right wing - from where I still had no idea what was happening in the scrum.

I was a hooker , so I know EXACTLY what goes on in the scrum <snerk>. (OK, I mostly played full back but I did hook a couple of times - shut up, stop sniggering. And I seriously know what happens in the scrum )

A bit like the magic Cauldron, I guess.

You sound as if you are feeling a lot better.
*hug*s

I have, however, just come back from Hong Kong with my brand new Z (work) visa.

Hooray!

Where is Naoko anyway?

Here I am!

I had to teach all day yesterday. In return for a paltry half day's pay I said I would co-ordinate the day. I actually like bossing people around ... I mean co-ordinating, but I wished I hadn't put my hand up for it in spite of the extra money (not much).

I was anxious about the trains, so I got up very early. Luckily the wonders of the internet meant I could check how they were doing and they looked fine so I was able to spend half an hour extra pottering round before leaving the house at 7.45 to catch the bus. That was the last relaxing moment I had for quite a while! When I got to the regional centre, I had to identify our two teaching rooms. We had a big one with a projector that I couldn't get to connect to the computer, and an annex with no computer in it . Then I found out we had another tiny room next door - but the computer didn't work.

One colleague arrived and she showed me that we could project our presentations onto the whiteboard in the big room so that was sorted. But we couldn't get the computer to work in the other room. Never mind, another colleague said she didn't need the computer. I noticed another room wasn't in use so I rushed down and the security guard agreed I could have it to teach in for the afternoon, when we needed two computers.

However as the students drifted in, it began to look like there wouldn't be that many of them so I agreed with the colleagues to keep them in one group in the nicer big room. While they taught, I had to sit out in the annex with the small child (eight) whom one student had brought along with her. I must say, he was very good but it added a bit to my stress, thinking what to do about him. I'm sure we are not supposed to allow children to come along but I would never like to turn a student away because she hadn't been able to get childcare cover - especially since next week I will have to take Piglet to a tutorial myself as the Fella is overseas and I haven't been able to get any colleagues to swap with me. (Get my line manager to deal with it? Don't make me laugh!!!)

I staggered back to Cardiff having missed the first half of the Wales v Scotland match . It was a lot of fun being in the city centre, though, as the streets were quiet and hung with dragon flags and saltires in a really friendly way. I rushed through to my favourite cocktail bar - I wasn't going to risk a pub again after the fiasco of last weekend. (Incidentally I met a very nice older man on the train with whom I had a chat about the FT which I was reading and he said approvingly he loves it too.) I was just in time to get a double Lagavulin and see Laidlaw tip over the penalty for Scotland to go into the lead at half time! By the end of the match, though, after Scotland had played so well and still not won anything, the only drink to have was one of my favourite cocktails: Pursuit of Happiness *sigh*.

Oh, this younger English guy started chatting to me in the cocktail bar - but as he was pretty young, and I had had a good breakfast that morning (and he was sitting next to his girlfriend), I didn't take him very seriously. We had a nice talk about the rugby though, he was very respectful - I must be showing my age more than I thought, LOL.

The bar soon started filling up with men in boots and kilts coming back from the match, and some jovial relieved Welsh men and women. I was very lucky as my bus came along not long after I left the bar - taxis were in short supply of course. The driver leapt out of it, shut the doors, and shouting apologies ran down the street with her large boobs wobbling dangerously in her red Wales rugby shirt, clearly desperate for the loo poor thing, but we didn't have to wait long for her.

I plan to have a day off today before teaching again tomorrow night, and on Tuesday night *puff pant*. I shall go to the health spa for a swim and then hope to get a seat in the bar to see the England v Italy game - I'm not sure if the booted kilted ones will have flown North ... like birds flying South, or something, or if they will still be hanging around ... with their ... sporrans hanging nicely around too <snerk>.

 

[redzinger]

Saw this and thought of this thread. No idea why...

https://www.facebook.com/Wales2WinR...48910050965/10153283874725966/?type=3&theater

 

[stickygirl]

Saw this and thought of this thread. No idea why...

https://www.facebook.com/Wales2WinR...48910050965/10153283874725966/?type=3&theater

They look so much thinner ( and ) when they've stripped off! On the field they look like knuckle-draggers - male paradigm? Ooops a bit early for me using fancy words!
I'm jealous of Naoko enjoying the liquid atmosphere in Cardiff

 

[Handley_Page]

They look so much thinner ( and ) when they've stripped off! On the field they look like knuckle-draggers - male paradigm? Ooops a bit early for me using fancy words!
I'm jealous of Naoko enjoying the liquid atmosphere in Cardiff

Yes, Jane, but you haven't forgotten that you, too, can enjoy a liquid atmosphere; anywhere you want !

 

[stickygirl]

Yes, Jane, but you haven't forgotten that you, too, can enjoy a liquid atmosphere; anywhere you want !

Yes, but post-match streets are something I definitely avoid: testosterone and alcohol are a dangerous mix.

Talking of dangers, I spent a few minutes yesterday as a volunteer casualty in the water and, yes, the temperature of air and water were both close to zero. We had a practise day with safety experts at a sailing club and because no one else spoke up, I got to be the sacrificial student on whom recovery techniques were practised. The expert later announced that he was "prepared to play victim but you guys were up for it so..."
Armed with so much good knowledge, I am now preparing a safety boat course for next weekend to teach sailors how to avoid killing their friends on a nice Sunday-gone-bad. I will not be putting people in the water because I can testify to how debilitating it is and it's not an approved teaching method.

I will have other, much more experienced instructors helping, but I have been appointed 'lead instructor' for the day. I really want it to be a great course, but there is so much to teach that I am filling pages and pages of notes without a proper structure. I am sticking to my technique of carpeting the floor with sheets of A4 and drinking coffee. Any proper teaching tricks would be appreciated.

 

[oggbashan]

... Any proper teaching tricks would be appreciated.

The simplest and an effective method:

1. Tell them what you are going to show and tell them. If there will be handouts, tell them so they are not frantically scribbling unnecessarily.
2. Show and tell them.
3. Ask them to show and tell you.
4. If they fuck up 3, repeat 2 and 3 as often as required.
5. Tell them what you and they have shown and told.
6. Any questions?
7. Tell them they are awesome students (or word of your choice - dumb, dangerous, stupid, competent, helpful etc.)
8. Give them something - a certificate, a diploma or whatever to show they passed/attended/failed the course.

 

[stickygirl]

I like no. 5
Since it is a subject open to all sorts of perfectly safe interpretations and methods, I'm going to acknowledge that: "someone else may have a different method but you need to examine to basic principles to decide on the appropriateness of a method in a particular situation". Then we'll teach them the principles of 'not chopping up people' (with propellers) up or 'drowning them' (or both).
I'm frightened of drying up or getting suckered by a difficult question but I will have other instructors there to help out.

 

[oggbashan]

The easy version for a basic talk:

1. Tell them a summary of what you are going to tell them.
2. Tell them.
3. Tell them a summary of what you have told them.

If you can, add 'Show them' to 2.

 

[curl4ever]

.
.
.
<the story of your very full day of teaching and socializing>
.
.
.

*hugs*

 

[NaokoSmith]

Maybe just as well, Wales beat Scotland 27- 23. She's probably curled up in a corner twitching 'might have beens' from time to time.

Oh I missed you, Ishtat! I probably did a blank on those words 'might have been ...' Did you see that we suffered from ANOTHER dubious refereeing decision yesterday

(Did you read my post about your shoe stories? (Here.)

Saw this and thought of this thread. No idea why...

https://www.facebook.com/Wales2WinR...48910050965/10153283874725966/?type=3&theater

Those Wales players certainly look ... "fresh"

I think I might have seen Jonny Gray coming out of the Hilton this morning as I tootled to the gym for my swim. He had that tousled look that the Gray brothers do so cutely.

I'm frightened of drying up or getting suckered by a difficult question but I will have other instructors there to help out.

It's good to let the students interact, rather than just tell them about stuff. Ask them questions: "OK, now I've explained it to you, can you figure out what you should do in this situation?" Getting them to repeat it back to you, or to mime out what you have just told them they should do, helps embed the learning in their minds. If it's quite simple and easy to repeat back to you, it makes them feel good about their learning. The certificates is a good idea too - people love certificates.

I had a most lovely lunch. I went for a swim, and I had looked up the bar menu next door online. It didn't look too expensive, especially as I have that 15% off card. However when I got there, they were only serving the Valentines Dinner menu. They said I didn't have to have the full A La Carte three courses, but I was glancing through it and I figured I might as well. It was all very tasty - especially for some reason the vegetables. The creamed swede was just delicious. And I had Turkish Delight ice cream, which is my favourite

Meanwhile, there was virtually nobody in the bar watching the rugby on their tv screen (which is nearly as large as mine is), although a few envious heads popped in from people who had been dragged out to Valentine's lunch in the restaurant. So it was a bit like being in a comfortable armchair at home, except that I had three waiters hovering round me and didn't have to wash up afterwards Italy showed that their sparkling form in the previous week's match was not just a flash in the glass of Prosecco. The scoreline flattered England, although I think it also showed what a canny basturd Eddie Jones is. He took many forward replacements and brought them on in the last minutes when Italian players were tiring, and that meant he could drive through all of those tries right at the end.

So ... wooden spoon decider between Scotland and Italy coming up in two weeks' time, as usual *sigh*. I always feel torn, I would so like to see Italy start winning something, but I wish it wasn't against us .

curl

 

[stickygirl]

Those Wales players certainly look ... "fresh"

I think I might have seen Jonny Gray coming out of the Hilton this morning as I tootled to the gym for my swim. He had that tousled look that the Gray brothers do so cutely.

It's good to let the students interact, rather than just tell them about stuff. Ask them questions: "OK, now I've explained it to you, can you figure out what you should do in this situation?" Getting them to repeat it back to you, or to mime out what you have just told them they should do, helps embed the learning in their minds. If it's quite simple and easy to repeat back to you, it makes them feel good about their learning. The certificates is a good idea too - people love certificates.

Really? Certificates? Most of them are old enough to be my father - do people still like things like that?!

Meanwhile, there was virtually nobody in the bar watching the rugby on their tv screen (which is nearly as large as mine is), although a few envious heads popped in from people who had been dragged out to Valentine's lunch in the restaurant.

I'm quite sure your Valentine would be there beside you, spooning luxury (weird) ice cream to you licky lips
Oops, sorry, that sounded much worse than I intended :-\

 

[Ewobbit]

I was always a little weird on the teaching gig. But, my subjects and students were likewise.

I tended to hand them something and let them tear it up. Then, I'd ask them a series of carefully phrased questions to get them to tell me what was going on. I "taught" a handful of high school dropouts how to do trig and analytical geometry that way. I just didn't mention that I was teaching them math.

However, I doubt that method would work with over 10 or maybe 12 students. At least I don't think I would have had enough on the ball to keep track and keep them all on task.

 

[NotWise]

Here I am!

Yay! Missed you for a couple (or three) days.

 

[MichaelinChina]

The easy version for a basic talk:

1. Tell them a summary of what you are going to tell them.
2. Tell them.
3. Tell them a summary of what you have told them.

If you can, add 'Show them' to 2.

That's pretty much how I teach my Chinese students to give oral presentations.
The same outline is used for essay writing too.

Once they understand that (for a 500 word essay), 100 words can be allocated both to the intro and conclusion, leaving only 300 for the body.

Most students omit the intro and conclusion then struggle to find 500 for the body and for the listener/reader the essay/speech is hard to follow.

 

[MichaelinChina]

Welcome back Naoko! Happy Valentines Day for yesterday.

 

[NaokoSmith]

I'm quite sure your Valentine would be there beside you, spooning luxury (weird) ice cream to you licky lips
Oops, sorry, that sounded much worse than I intended :-\

Mmm, that sounds a lot better than I had thought

I was always a little weird on the teaching gig.

Hullo, o hairy one.

Yay! Missed you for a couple (or three) days.

Awww, that's sweet! *snuggles*

Welcome back Naoko! Happy Valentines Day for yesterday.

Thank you.
I had a fun day - hope you did too, maybe with different exercise than swimming

I should've posted this card for you all yesterday but I was selfishly busying myself, rushing off to be waited on in the cocktail bar while watching rugby, LOL.

https://images.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fs-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com%2F236x%2F23%2F2e%2Fee%2F232eeecfce31743a725e5607d6d59582.jpg&f=1

 

[MichaelinChina]

quote Naoko:

Thank you.
I had a fun day - hope you did too, maybe with different exercise than swimming


We mutually agreed on no roses, although we walked past a florist with piles of cut flowers.
Instead, we had a nice dinner together at a nearby restaurant. Dessert we had back at home, a small pack of Ferrero Rocher chocs, a glass or two of a nice Australian Shiraz with some Bega (Australian) cheese. Then settled in to watch an amazing talent show on TV. Then ahem... bed!

 

[NaokoSmith]

We mutually agreed on no roses, although we walked past a florist with piles of cut flowers.
Instead, we had a nice dinner together at a nearby restaurant. Dessert we had back at home, a small pack of Ferrero Rocher chocs, a glass or two of a nice Australian Shiraz with some Bega (Australian) cheese. Then settled in to watch an amazing talent show on TV. Then ahem... bed!

That does sound like a relaxed and fun day.

 

[MichaelinChina]

That does sound like a relaxed and fun day.

Yes it was.

Compared to the day before where I walked my feet off and today when we went to the police station to re-register my address with them (no problem) and then on to the bank to close one account of mine and open a new one - to avoid recurrent withdrawal fees, due to my relocation from one province to another. That was not so smooth. What should have been a simple process turned into a frustrating one (the teller misspelt my name and had to redo the application).
But we got there in the end! Wife was given a boxed tea pot and 6 cups as a valued customer. I got to carry it home!

 

[ishtat]

Meanwhile, that thread of Ishtat's about a conspiracy of women has been playing on my mind. I did want to go into it and make a reply but when I last looked it had been taken over by posturing chauvinist pigs. I know Ishtat sometimes checks in here so hopefully he will still find and read this. I think the story belongs in here anyway, as it's about shoes.


I think Ishtat's story is what Mr Darcy calls an indirect boast. Ishtat says he feels embarrassed at the way his wife and daughters got together and cashed in on his offer to get everyone a nice wedding present, so as to wangle pairs of expensive Italian shoes out of him. Really, though, it shows how generous he is - and how pretty the women of his family are since they will wear beautiful shoes.


I like Ishtat's story because it goes to the heart of the problem for feminism about gender relations. It is romantic, it makes us feel good to hear about Ishtat's daughters wheedling with him, and that he was so kind as to indulge everyone with expensive and beautiful shoes - even though if you ask him he will probably say that he doesn't know why women have to have such useless items of clothing.

?[/I]

I will agree with your basic point about an indirect boast, but don't recollect saying I was embarrassed - but perhaps I should have been!

As I was making an argument about my dad's conspiracy theory I was a bit economical with the facts, to simplify my point. I was pretty certain from the get go that the girls mother had given her imprimatur to the shoes idea before the D2, D4 delegation talked to me - so they didn't have to wheedle much.

Shoes are a really sore point with the women in my family; they are all tall, very tall, shortest is 182cm, tallest 191cm. None is the slightest bit sensitive about her height, but the shop assistant who said, "I'm afraid we don't have that style in your size - in fact we have no shoes of any style in your size at all," is remembered 10 years after the event - with venom.

Thus the shoes decision had maximum kudos to me - and I could boast too; in fact I suppose the unexpected magnitude of the arrangement perhaps enabled me to max out the boast.

 

[redzinger]

Shoes are a really sore point with the women in my family; they are all tall, very tall, shortest is 182cm, tallest 191cm. None is the slightest bit sensitive about her height, but the shop assistant who said, "I'm afraid we don't have that style in your size - in fact we have no shoes of any style in your size at all," is remembered 10 years after the event - with venom.

I can really appreciate that - when I lived in Portugal and Spain, it was rare for me to find anything in my size, a 42 or UK 8. The only shoes I found in my size were horrendously ugly.

The irony was that I would return to the UK...to buy a pair of shoes made in Portugal or Spain.

(Have I written this before? I'm having deja vu (deja ecrit?). I've had a rather heavy weekend.)

 

[Ewobbit]

Hullo, o hairy one.

Hello yourself sweetknees. I was just checking to see if Chewbacca was hiding in here. I'll be so quiet you'll hardly notice.

 

[NaokoSmith]

Wife was given a boxed tea pot and 6 cups as a valued customer. I got to carry it home!

LOL

the shop assistant who said, "I'm afraid we don't have that style in your size - in fact we have no shoes of any style in your size at all," is remembered 10 years after the event - with venom.

I hope they put poison ivy on his/her grave each year.

I would return to the UK...to buy a pair of shoes made in Portugal or Spain.

I actually find I'm buying German these days. The styles are really chic, with a kind of modernist slant, and they even fit my broader feet.

Hello yourself sweetknees. I was just checking to see if Chewbacca was hiding in here. I'll be so quiet you'll hardly notice.

Read your thread - so thrilled!

Gosh, guys, I am pretty tired out. After the teaching/co-ordination fiasco on Saturday, I also taught online on Monday and Tuesday night, and Piglet came back from being tootled round cosmonautical exhibitions by the Fella in London on Tuesday, plus my cousin came to stay.

It was so nice to see my cousin! I have to explain she is my cousin when I introduce her, as she is of course a different racial profile, but apart from looking like a pea and a carrot in a pod, we are so similar. We are about a year apart and were the ones who played together as kids - it was her who persuaded me to get up in the early hours of the morning and sneak down to open our stockings before the others got up one year .

She is also very intelligent and has to bite her lip when people who are in positions above her say stupid stuff, so she doesn't show them up. Like me, she has been through a heap of different kinds of jobs. She was in the navy (landmark discrimination case when they booted her out for falling pregnant), a little while ago she managed to get a job as an air stewardess! I was so proud of her, but eventually she missed home so she is now a teaching assistant for special needs children - and she is also a trained bouncer so she does a bit of security work on the side, LOL. She was telling me how one of the kids said to the teacher: "you are the intelligent one because you are the teacher," and he sighed and said: "actually, that's probably not right."

She has never settled into a relationship, either; I am at a loss to know why as she is highly intelligent, with a cutting wit, and has sailed through difficulties in life which would make lesser mortals curl up and put out white flags. Yes, LOL, meeting up with her helps explain to me why lesser male mortals run away from me too.

We come from a different class background - her mum was very poor, my dad made a bucketload of money (which he managed to throw away in handfuls, none left now - don't get hopeful!). I went to university, eventually got my PhD and do this minor lecturing job, she went into the navy, got through life and has her minor teaching job.