This is truly heartbreaking.

First of course we all know about the deadly temblor in China. I know they now say the death toll is around 10,000 but never trust those 'official figures'. Pray that rescue could try the best to save as many lives as possible and that the victims there will get enough food. 

Also, a lot of people have indeed overlooked the fact that Sichuan - and especially the area that is most devasted by the quake - is the home for hundreds of wildlife pandas (not those locked up in zoos) in China. As of now there is still no sign of getting in touch with the people/authorities there ...

Argh ... last week was Burma and this week is China and at least 40,000 died in just two weeks time. Can you imagine that?  

Is this really some sign from the Almighty? 

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Second and actually something that is closer to me. 

Just as I was checking work e-mails and doing preps for my classes in the afternoon just now, just as I logged onto my school e-mail account, I saw an email from our school, tellling us that Mr. P - one of our colleagues - just passed away on Sunday. I am more than sorry and yet so shock to hear that. And you know what is the scary part? The scary part is that I still remember so vividly that I just bumped into him at school as well as the parking lot some time last week or so and we just chit-chatted as usual. None of us English instructors knew about his illness (cancer) until this morning ...

My deepest condolences. 

Just now
@ 10:46pm
May Lam (aka Lam Wai Mei / 林慧美) 
- my favorite Japanese-Traveling writer
- the writer who made me fall in love with 吉祥寺 and 伊豆諸島
(that I mentioned here just a few days back)

WROTE ON MY WALL ON FACEBOOK (!!)

Argh ... can't wait to meet her in person in two weeks!!!!!!! 

Mention the phrase "紅白" to any Chinese and I bet 7 out of 10 will tell you that these two colors represent "Japan".

First because of the country's national flag and second because of their famous yearly singing contest (or perhaps a reverse in order for the younger generation :p).

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Anyway, I think the 2 clips below have fully displayed [utilized?] the beauty of these two colors. Talk about gorgeous artworks!!!

[red]


[white]


And, they are my absolute favorite of the season!

No, she is not a mainstream Japan tourist book writer. No, I might not recommend her books to first-time travelers to Tokyo. And no, I don't think her book is for you, if your main reason of visiting Japan is to shop.

I first came across her name and her adventure in Japan a while ago at Vinci's 五天精華遊 programme @ 881903.com. Fell in love with the Japan in her eyes right after that interview. People who like her works like to call her "Japan Village Girl".

No, she does not write Japan Guide Books. 

If you are looking for books that will introduce you to certain high-end shops to eat, or certain secret shops in Harajuku that allows you to buy limited editions of Comme de Garcons T-shirts, tote bags or such stuff, no, her books are definitely not for you.

If you are looking for books that will give you detailed maps and timetables on JR, Shinkasen, Tokyo Metro, etc., no, her books are definitely not going to be your cup of tea either.

If, however, you are like me, who seldom shop on your trip to Tokyo (I really don't. Be it a 7-day trip or just a short 3-day concert trip, I just took with me that pink in color flight-attendant suitcase and that's it). If you are like me, who have no interest at all in those flashy districts like 麻布, 丸之內or 六本木 (by the way, been to Tokyo Midtown twice and actually detest it), perhaps you will like May Lam's (林慧美) books too. 

It is because of her writings that I actually fell in love with 吉祥寺 (despite everyone's saying that this district is nothing more than an ordinary working-class urban area). It is because of her writings that I had decided to pay 井の頭公園 a visit *alone* last month when I was in Tokyo. That was sooo like a pilgrimage, you know. I mean, seeing the park in my own eyes, looking at those 'disturbing' crows from a different (and positive) perspective and, last but not least, tasting those wonderful soba from that tiny restaurant inside the park. These are just all too surreal! It's like apart from those cosplay, sexually-active flashy image about Tokyo, the city itself, too, can be a 世外桃源 through her eyes.

** Talking about 井の頭公園, I took a photo exactly at the same spot as 瑠可 and 美知留 did in "Last Friends" (under the same gorgeous sakura trees). And no, I didn't even know anything about that drama when I visited that park! **

Most important of all, it is because of her writings that, instead of visiting big cities in Japan, I really would love to pay a visit to places like 馬籠, 妻籠, 木曾福島, 藪原 and last but not least, 伊豆諸島 some day in the future. 

She doesn't write for the sake of 'introducing certain shops or restaurants' to travelers, nor did she plan to write something like a Cantonese version of a lonely-planet on Japan (and I seriously don't think she could write better than a lonely-planet either, information-wise). Nevertheless, she writes because she truly wants to share with her readers 'that other side of Japan' that most people in Hong Kong have always overlooked, that side of the country that she fell in love with when she first set foot in Japan years ago. That's why she got this nickname as '日本村姑' (Japan Village Girl). :-)

So now, my point of writing this entry, is actually to announce that, her new book,  "另一個東京" will be out in the market in two weeks. And I really hope to go to her book-signing and reading gathering on the 25th of May at Metro Books!! You see, she promised to cook her favorite hand-made soba for her readers that day! WOW!!! 



Needless to say, I own and have read all of her other works too. They are:

激安遊東京
東京JR中央線散策I: 漫步吉祥寺
東京JR中央線散策II
日本田舍散步紀行
東京島旅日誌: 伊豆諸島北部

Also, her blog is certainly something not to be missed (well, for me at least). Some of the few eye-openers from her recent entries are of course her X-Japan concert trip (she was one of the staff sent from Hong Kong) as well as the minor discovery that she actully drives the same car as I do (i.e. Toyota YARIS/ECHO)!! Silly I know I may sound, and yet reading her blog is always a good way to relax after a day's hard work! :p
 

Please pray for the people in Burma.

And if you can, please do make donations to any one of the charity organizations that offer help to Burma. Looks like the aftermath of this disaster is going to be even worse than the South Asia Tsunami years ago. And, let's not forget the fact that Burma is also one of the biggest rice exporters in the world. So please don't say that this tragedy is not related to you and me.
 
Because it IS!!

Life has been really busy lately (work-wise) and yet I am enjoying every single moment of it. As time goes by, I really think that I did the right thing in choosing teaching as my career. I have seen people struggling painfully through work (and as a result, life) simply because they made a mistake in search of 'the right job'. To me, nothing could be more satisfying than having students come up to me telling me that they start to like English because of me, or that they would like to do so and so after they've graduated because of me. What more can a teacher ask for? Of course it would be good to know that students I teach got an A in exam or an "8" in IELTS but let's face it, not everyone can get an A, right? So, to me, what I treasure even more is 'how' they learn and 'what' they have learned, rather than the gardes they got in exams or tests. Feel free to disagree with me, but this is just what I do anyway. And speaking of which, I just got back the evaluation forms from my classes of last term today and yeah, those made me happy too! :-)

And then right after class today, I got a few students coming up to me asking for more information on IELTS (I was talking about the IELTS test in class this afternoon). I am a bit surprised to see that 4 of them are actually interested in taking the test this year! I mean, yes, IELTS is a must for anyone who wants to study a Masters or any postgraduate programmes in the UK and yet, it is usually set for Year 4 students who are going to apply for graduate schools in the UK (at least this is the case in our institute) and I am only teaching Year 3 classes. At any rate, I told them if they were to take just one test to test their English proficiency, IELTS is surely the one!

For the record, as an EFL (and not ESL, mind you) learner/speaker myself (and now a TEFL instructor) I have also taken tests like TOEFL, Pitman, or the Graded Test before. And yet, I don't exactly think these tests did the candidates justice in testing their real language ability / proficiency (TOEIC, GRE or GMAT are good ones, but having taken these 3 tests still doesn't allow one to apply for postgradudate courses in the UK, not even Oxford!). I have had students taken TOEFL before, got some 600 grades and yet could only obtain a "6" in IELTS in the end. One has to know that most graduate schools in the UK demand at least a "7" for non-liberal arts programmes and then at least  an "8" for something like English Literature / Creative Writing / Linguistics etc. (By the way, some programmes in Oxford and Cambridge actually demand a "9").*

* According to statistics, ESL leaners may find IELTS a little easier than TOEIC, though definitely not the case for EFL ones. Also, some MA programmes in the UK also accept TOEFL results ... 

No language test is a good one unless a candidate is being tested on all of these areas: Listening, Writing, Reading and last but not least, Speaking. (On a side note, I have had friends who well passed Level 1 [the highest level, that is] in the Japanese Language Proficiency Test and yet still cannot communicate fluently with local people in Japan!!! How shocking is that!! Talk about the importance of embedding the 'speaking' section in a language test!) Back to my own experience, I never forgot that 10-minute oral interview I had with my IELTS examiner back then when I was applying for a Masters programme in Manchester. Unlike the newly set-up oral interivew for TOEFL, the examiner actually asked me something like why did I choose Manchester? Why would I want to do an MA in English literature? Why did I choose the UK and not America(!!)? Have I thought of doing an MA in a different field if I did not get accepted, etc, together with those must-have sections like those roleplay game thing and those personal Q& A session. And yet, it was that 10 minutes that I actually came to know how inadequate my English was back then [or even now] (despite the fact that I also got a beautiful grade in TOEFL that same month 8 years ago).  

Anyway, once again, I am glad that my students are thinking of taking IELTS, even though this is one expensive test!!! (TOEFL, or even the JLPT, are a lot cheaper!!). Plus, one can choose to either take the "Academic" IELTS test or the "General Training" IELTS test (the latter a little similar to TOEIC, and also a must-take for people who want to immigrate to Australia, I think).

At any rate, I, too, would like to try the GRE (no GMAT for me, never a business person anyway) someday. And yet, since GRE isn't a pure test just on language proficiency, I guess it isn't too fair to compare it with IELTS. So, let's leave it at that.

* for my own reference, these universities in America also recognize IELTS.

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ps1- Shopped at rakuten (樂天) for the first time today. I hope it would arrive safely in 3 weeks. :-) 

ps2- Moses starts to jump up and down like normal today (and I was busy stopping him all along!) A good sign. :-)

ps3- Dinner for tonight is homemade tuna pasta by mummy! :-)

ps4- Still thinking of what to give my mom on Mother's Day (though I have already booked the table for dinner) ...

But I really didn't sleep well last night
Since today is going to be 'the big day' for my boy

We took him to the vet at 10:30am sharp
Had the vet gave him a somewhat thorough pre-surgery examination

And then left

Got a call from the vet at 1:20pm
And that scared me a bit
Because nurses said even though I have to have my cell switched on at all times
(Just in case you know ... )
They probably wouldn't call anyway
And yet ...
I got their call at 1:20pm
And my mind literally went blank for 2 seconds when I saw from the caller id that it was from them(!)

The nurse told me (on the phone) that he was under surgery now
And that the vet actually discovered that
In spite of having most of the new teeth came out already
Two of his baby teeth were still there ... underneath the new ones
So she called and asked if I would like to have them removed as well
I said yes and continued to ask the nurse if everything was okay for him
And she kinda said yes (did she?) and then hung up shortly after that

Returned to the vet at around 5pm 
As if I wasn't desperate enough to go meet my boy again
It took me a total of 20 minutes to find a parking space nearby
And I arrived at the vet's a little over 5pm
Chatted a bit with the vet and the nurses there about post-surgery care
And then there came my boy with a white Elizabethan collar on
A collar that he has to stick with for the next 2 weeks or so

He is sleeping soundly in his bed as of now
I dearly hope that he wouldn't try to lick the incision (though he probably couldn't)
Or jump onto the sofa like he normally would for the next couple of days or so

But most important of all
I just wish him a speedy recovery from his neutering surgery. 

I believe I have said it more than once here. In an interview by RTHK (a local channel), Jet Li once said that one of his realisation on life is this:

"The busier you are, the more time you'll actually have in a day!"

Regardless of our financial or educational background, all human beings are entitled to 24 hours a day. Whether you realise it or not, it is usually in days when we are fully occupied that we find ourselves more productive and accomplished than days when we don't actually have much to do.

For instance, say like ... I have 4 deadlines to meet plus 2 household errands to run today. In order to allow myself enough time to accomplish the 4 tasks in time, I may as well have to finish the 2 household chores quickly first. On a regular leisure day, these 2 errands may take up to 4 hours, and yet in said busy day, it may take me only half the time to get them done (because I know I have 4 other deadlines waving at me). What does that mean then? Busy as I am, I've actually gained 2 extra hours on a day like such!!! By the same token, even though it may take me at least 3 hours to finish each of those 4 tasks mentioned above if I were to do them separately on 4 different days, since I have to finish them all in a day, I probably will have to push myself to the limit and try finishing them in 8 hours or less (simply because I have to). What does that mean again? It means that although it will take 12 hours for me to get those 4 tasks done if I were to finish them on separate days, it could take me just one working day to get all 4 tasks plus 2 other household chores done if I were [asked] to do them all in 10 hours!!!

You get the point? 

Human beings are like that (or at least I am like that). Sometimes the more time one has on hand, the lazier one may turn out to be and then the more unwilling he/she will be to actually get up and do things.

And it so happened that I have just had a such busy day today.

And it makes me happy.