Fibonacci

This is the season to teach Fibonacci Series. Since I became a Steiner High School teacher, I have been teaching the "Fibonacci" in this season every year as a part of mathematics/geometry lesson.

As a beginning of the preparation, I drew theFibonacci Spirals with colour pencils. Here is the photo of the drawing.



You see a coloured drawing in front of the black and white picture, which is a photo of a pine cone I picked up on the school ground. I traced the pine cone shape onto a tracing paper, and coloured in it so that you see the spirals more clearly.


And....



this has no connection to the "Fibonacci" though I made them as I played with my sons. They are a cat and a tortoise made of beeswax. They are cute on the keyboard, aren't they!?

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Earthquake!!

In England we had an earthquake at 1:00 a.m. last night. England has not had any earthquakes for 5 years. That was magnitude 5, and made a quite big damage for some buildings. Fortunately there were nobody got majorly injured.

Since European countries rarely have earthquakes, people are not well prepared for earthquakes. Most of the buildings in England are built from bricks or stones which are extremely weak for earthquakes. People hang picture frames on a bedside wall, place glass vases on top of a shelf, and put a plant pot on unstable surface. They don't seem to be worried about it.

I must say they have very low consciousness for earthquakes. Of course I can't blame them because they have no clue about how dangerous the earthquakes can be.

When I moved to England, I was scared to see those dangerous plant pots or vases. After 3 and a half years living in England, I seem to have lost the sense of safety to protect myself from earthquakes.

Maybe I need to think about the safety once more, and check every dangerous spot in and aroud the house.



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Ramen!

This weekend, I will have a Ramen Party with my Japanese friends and their families. Since most of Japanese people here in England have a rare chance to eat proper ramen, I decided to make ramen and eat it with them.

I often make noodles from scratch. I kneed udon, kishimen, soba, pasta, and ramen myself, and cut it with a pasta machine.

One of my friends is a professional cook and she is from Fukuoka. Yes! Fukuoka is famous for "tonkotsu" ramen! So she will make two different kinds of tonkotsu soup and I make ramen noodles. Other friends make cha-shu (cooked pork), cooked egg, gyoza, memma...etc, and of course sweets as well!

So I made some ramen noodles as my practice yesterday, because I have not made it for a while. It was good, but I was not satisfied with the thickness of the noodles. The thinnest setting of the pasta machine is too thin for tonkotsu ramen. The second thinnest setting is too thick....

But it will be all right. Not just all right. It will be great!

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profession

I am thinking to change my profession.

I need to attend a university for five years to get the qualification for the job. To get into the university, I have to take IELTS, which is an English language exam. I have taken TOEIC and TOEFL before but never taken IELTS. I did not even know the exam before I researched about the university.

So I need to prepare for IELTS and collect all kinds of paperwork from the university I graduated in Japan, probably from a college I graduated in California as well. Also before applying I need a work experience that relates to the course. It seems very hard to be accepted by the uni. They have more than 1000 candidates for only 75 places. I don't know if I can really get into the course...

... Who knows!?

Even after entering the course, the study I would be expected to do would be a lot and tough.


I keep asking myself if I can really do it. Can I complete the 5-year full-time study as a wife and a mother of two little children? Am I strong-willed enough to do it? Am I smart enough?

I don't know.... But I think I will set the goal for it, and go for it. Even if they don't accept me, it would not be the end of the world. I can always come back to my current job....

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guest

I and my husband cleaned our house thoroughly today, because we will have a guest from today for three weeks.

The guest is a teacher trainee from Emerson College, and she will have a practice teaching at the school I am working for.

She is a Korean girl who taught in Korea for some years. I have not met her before, so now I am a bit nervous as I wait for her arrival.

It is always exciting to have a guest from foreign countries. Our family is an international family, my husband is a German, I am a Japanese, my first son is an American-German-Japanese, my second son is a German-Japanese. And our guest usually add another nationality to my family.

We have had a guest from Japan, England and Hungary before, and this time, Korea.
It will be enjoyable three weeks!

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The Little Prisoner

I have read a fiction "The Little Prisoner" written by Jane Elliott. This is one of the best sellers about 2 years ago.

This is a book about Jane's experiences that she had been abused by her stepfather for seventeen years. Verbal/physical abuse, and sexual abuse she had were described in the book so vividly. It was very hard to read because of the cruelity of what her stepdad had done.

I have been hoping the story would turn to a positive direction at some point, because I knew this book had a happy end. But after 180 pages of reading, I have read only descriptions of heart-breaking abuses. After reading 2/3 of this book I still hoped to have some light in the story, but again the tragic drama went on and on till the end.

Still the ending had a factor of the "happy end", but it was very dark....

I understand that all the experiences hurt her so bad that it was not easy to keep her positivity. I felt very very sorry for her.

Still it would have been better if the book had more positive and encouraging spirit as I expected. Because this review(↓) made me pick up this book.

A heart-rending and inspirational story of a girl who bravely triumphs over evil.

It was not false though this review have given me more positive impression than the story itself.


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Finally

We have a round window in our house like this.↓



This window has been without a curtain since we moved in this house in February 2007. Since this window is round, a square-shaped curtain did not seem right. So my husband made a semi-circle copper curtain rod to fit this window. You can see the rod in the first picture over the window.

But I did not make the curtain for it for a long time, because I did not feel like it. Sewing a curtain is not an interesting project at all, isn't it?....(This is just an excuse...)

This morning I suddenly decided to make the curtain. It took only one hour to finish making it.

Ummm, I should have ironed this curtain before I hanged.

But I am very satisfied with this since we have a privacy now...

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Greetings

English people kiss each other's cheeks. This is one way of greetings like shaking hands.

I have seen one Japanese news article writing about these greeting kisses. The news source was an English newspaper that said shaking hands could be dirtier than kissing cheeks. Somebody in Japan picked up this English article and published this news in online news.

Is kiss really cleaner than shaking hands?

This was a reserch result by an English uni professor and I could easily guess this result was a bit shocking for Japanese people without knowing their life habits. But it would not be difficult to believe it at all if you know English people's habit better.

English, probably most of Europeans, don't wash their hands so often. We Japanese wash our hands frequently, for example when we come home from outside, after toilet and before eating. But English don't wash their hands before their meals, when coming home, nor even after toilet!!!

It is no wonder at all shaking hands with them is much dirtier than kissing their cheeks!


So....I don't think this reserch result apply for Japanese people...


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English!

You might think you would be able to speak English like a native speaker after living in English speaking country for 5 years.

It is not true. At least it has not happened for me.

I have to admit that I have not made much effort to improve my English since I moved out from Japan... But I am still struggling with English!!!


Writing is the worst for me, but expressing myself orally in English is still a big task especially when I am at work where I am not allowed to be "disable" in verbal communication.


Now, I have to go back to my work, which is writing a report for my past work....

Honestly to say, it is a nightmare to write this kind of official report.

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place mat

I have sewn two place mats for my sons yesterday.


The blue one with a moon is for my first son, and the yellow one with a seven-pointed star is for my second son. I made them with very simple designs because children would not focus on the meal if there are lots of pictures that attract them. These mats are simple but still my sons' favorite motifs are on them.

When they are at the dining table, they tend to place their glasses with drinks at the edge of the table. Of course they accidentally tip the glasses over and make a mess on and under the table...

It is not effective to say not to put the glass at the edge, or to be careful for the glasses. Since little children's mind can easily float one after another, it is not realistic to expect them to keep their eyes on the glasses. But they can happily put their glasses on the right place after I told them to put the glasses on the star (or the moon) just once.

So that was the reason I designed and sewed these place mats for them. And this strategy was successful. They are very happy to follow the rule that they place their glasses on the embroidered moon or star, and take great care of keeping the mats clean.

When I was sewing these mats, they were around me being very curious about what I was making. As they observed the progress of my work, they started seeing their favorite pictures on the fabric and got excited. When they found the completed place mats on the dining table on the next day, they were delighted with the happiness!

Here are some details of the embroidery. Chain Stitched moon and star. I filled the moon with chain stitches.




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A Rabbit's Eyes

I have read a novel "A Rabbit's Eyes" this week. This novel was written by a popular Japanese novelist and child's right activist Kenjiro Haitani, and this novel is the only one which was translated into English.

Since I have been a big fan of his works for twenty years, I bought this translation as soon as it was published. I also wanted my husband to read this. (My husband is a German and our common language is English.)

Although I have refused to read English books these days, (^^;) I have read this English book only because I had no Japanese books that I have not read yet. Living in England, getting Japanese books is quite difficult and annoying task actually........

His novel always gives me some wisdoms. Everytime I read his books, I have to face to myself and I have some important lessons by reading his writings. It was the second time to read this English translation and I have read Japanese original book many times, but this time, again...

There are not so many authors that I want to read their books repeatedly. Definetely he is the one of the rare novelists.


By the way, my husband loves "A Rabbit's Eyes", and he is hoping that other novels would be translated and published soon.

Can you possibly transtalte his works into English, and send it to some publishers....???


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Sewing basket

This is my recent work.


I crochetted the basket with twine, and sew a liner for the basket.



So I can store small sewing tools in the little pockets.

And I made some small cotton boxes like this ↑ to fit in the basket. So I can organize thread, tools and materials in the boxes. These boxes are removable so I can move and rearrange easily.

I could not find any nice and efficient sewing box, that's why I made this basket. Now I am quite satisfied with this basket.

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break for mother

Today I went to the town centre by myself just for strolling around the town. I just wanted to walk around by myself, look for some books for no purpose, view the window displays etc... Since I have got two little children, I can rarely have a chance to go out by myself. So I sometimes get frustrated for having no freedom to have a little bit of time for myself.

Yes, mother needs some break as well.

So today, I asked my husband to look after our sons, and went off. .... Just for a few hours freedom!

Although there are nothing special in the town, it is great to pop in the shops that attract me. I didn't have to neither hold my son's hand nor be worried about them starting messing the shop around.


So it was a little refreshment for my soul.

Nottingham

Yesterday my son had an appointment with an eye doctor. It was still 10:00a.m. when we were out of the hospital. The sky was clear and blue that was not very usual in this season in England....And the best thing was that we were off from work!

How can we stay at home on the day like this!?

So we drove off from our town to Nottingham where we have never been to.

Nottingham was the larger city than I expected. There seemed to be more civilized people living there than the black country area where we live. More friendly people, people in nicer fashion, and several expensive boutiques are there. That was no surprise for me, but it was a surprise that there were lots of newly built buildings in the city. In England "new building" doesn't mean anything good. New buildings are often cheaply made. They often use the cheapest materials and use the same design for many new buildings. These new buildings are often mass produced buildings.

So it was a bit disappointing that there are so many mass produced buildings in the city of Nottingham.

One thing I liked about Nottingham was "Old Market Square." The square is the centre of the city and you would find this kind of squares in many European cities.The square in Brussel is the most exquisite one I have ever visited. (I want to go there again!!) This "Old Market Square" in Nott'm is not as beautiful as the one in Brussel, but the way people are gathering and relaxing there with their friends and families are pleasing to look at.

So we strolled around the city centre and enjoyed sitting at the square as we ate some sandwiches in a bright sun light.

That was a good day-out.

Valentine

St. Valentine's day is around the corner.
I don't have much interest for celebrating events, so I do not have any plans for the 14th of Feb. Only one thing we have bought for the day is a box of Lindt chocolate. The heart-shaped chocolates are in a Valentaine special heart-shaped box.

Lindt is our regular chocolate, so it is not very special at all.
But it is good to have a little chocolate to remind us how happy we are.

We have been together for about five years. Since we've met in California, we have gone through so many incidents. The path we went through was not easy at all. My graduation, his divorce, my divorce, getting married, moving across Atlantic Ocean from sunny California to dark grey England, starting new life from scratch, having two babies..... These last five years were extremely intense.....

But we have been always together, and happy. We have been growing our love more and more.
Someone might laugh about this, but I believe that we are one of the happiest couples in the world.

So let's celebrate our happiness and our even happier future!

And..... of course I celebrate your happiness as well!

Half-Term Break

Yesterday was the first day of our half-term break. So we went to Birmingham to stroll around.

First shop we went to was "MUJI" which is a Japanese chain shop. They sell simple items without any logos.

After I bought a kitchen timer at the MUJI, we went to a Japanese restaurant that opened recently. That restaurant serves foods in lunch boxes. It was just like an "obento" that is often delivered to offices at lunch time from some catering company in Japan. The food was not very bad, but it was not good either. Of course I knew it and I did not really expect the taste at all.

But everytime I eat this kind of "fake" Japanese food, that makes me really sad. I imagine people from other countries believe those fake food is REAL Japanese food. I really want to let them know how nice real Japanese foods taste!

In the evening we saw a film at home. That was "Geisha" from 2005. I have read this original novel about 7 or 8 years ago but it was first time to see this film. It was very well-made movie. I have to admit that they(American directors and producers..) grasped the Japanese culture quite well, but I must say this is still American movie with American soul in it. I don't feel Japanese spirit and souls in this film at all.....

This film entertained me a lot but at the same time it made me a home sick..... just a little bit.

I want to see REAL Japan, and eat REAL Japanese food!!!!

It might be about time to have a trip to Japan.....

Sleepy!

I love reading books. My favorites are science, philosophy, spirituality....mostly non-fictions.
Because I think I can learn more things from non-fictions than from fictions.

For the same reason, I rarely read ditective stories or science fictions. So it is quite a surprise that I picked up a detective story "Byakuya-kou" written by Keigo Higashino.

I started reading this because two of my friends recommended this author recently. I think this kind of coincidence would have some important meaning for me.

This is a Japanese story, and very complecated story. Lots of tricks are in the story and this book has over 850 pages!!

Now I have finished three quarters of this book in two days. Actually this is quite a page turner!


I guess you have understood why the title of this journal is "sleepy."

congratulations!

Today I had a cup of tea with my friends, and I learnt that she was two months pregnant. She has planned to have her first baby last year, and they made some attempts for it.

Now as she planned, she got pregnant and she will have a baby in September!!

Also I have learnt that another friend is pregnant. Her EDD is May this year.

What wonderful news I've got!

Since I've got my children, I have been always excited about the news of arriving new lives in this world! Those babies will have very differnt lives, of course. It would not be always easy. But ... life is beautiful. I can tell you that THE LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL,even after I experienced several awful incidents.

Congratulations for the new lives!!!!!

twine

I like twine as a craft material. The natural colour and the texture of twine are great. When you want to make someting natural and a bit rough, then some twine give you great effects.


Since I bought two balls of twine on Sunday, I could not resist myself from making something from them.

This is a photo of the two baskets I crochetted yesterday.

Today I felt like experimenting something new with the twine, which is knitting the twine not crochetting.

Using chunky knitting needles (8mm), I am simply knitting and purling.

Could you guess what this will be?

I don't know yet.

Maybe this will be a shoulder bag or a shopping bag....., or a potato sack..?

spare time!

I finished teaching main lesson in the end of last week. Now I am released from the school and pupils for a moment.

The feeling of freedom is great.

So....what shall I do today!?


Let's have a cup of tea first, of course....., as if I was an English.
And crochet and some sewing....


While I was crochetting, I have received a parcel from Amazon.co.uk..

What I have found in it was.....

"The Calligrapher's Bible"

This is a great little book showing over a hundred fonts. It shows simple but usuful tips for self-taught learners!

And one more book from Amazon was....

"Plato's Timaeus"

Yes, it's the ancient Greek philosopher Plato's book "Timaeus" translated into modern English. I ordered this for teaching Class.8 "the Platonic Solids." But it was bit too late because I have already finished the lessons....

After teaching the Platonic Solids for over three weeks, I don't really want to see this book now....

the Platonic Solids

I love to explore the world of geometry by making the geometric models. When I teach the Platonic Solids at the school, I often have my pupils make models; lots of paper models, clay models and skeltons.

Here are some photos of my models I have made just recently.

A red octahedron in a bamboo tetrahedron skelton.

Do you see an octahedron as an outer skelton? Then you see a cube in it.

Here is a red Dodecahedron in an Icosahedron.

calligraphy

I have restarted practising calligraphy just recently. Since my sons broke my calligraphy pens, I had to borrow my husband's pens.

The pens I borrowed from my husband were "Pelikan Graphos" made in Germany about 50 years ago. He got them from his grandfather. They are old and used but have been very well taken care of. So they are still in great condition.

But I wanted to use "traditional" type calligraphy pens.

Today I bought a set of pens including 5 nibs. They are traditional style. So I need to fill the ink quite frequently. Honestly to say, "Graphos" is much easier to use.

But I want to practise calligraphy with these old-fashioned pens.

You might want to ask me "why??".

Because the old-fashioned pens look more graceful, beautiful and gorgeous. Using this wooden pen with brass nib make me feel relaxed.

Restart

Again I made a decision to write a blog in English to improve my English writing skill. I can not remember how many English blogs I used to have. Now all of them are inactive after giving up so quickly.

So I have just started my new English blog here at blogger.



Let's see how long I would successfully keep this journal...