Quick Catchup

TESOL. TESOL. TESOL.

My life is completely taken over by this course BUT it should get easier after this week when the first piece of coursework has been handed in.

I don't want to talk about TESOL though.

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Spotted on a t-shirt, worn by a girl in her 20s:

Whip it to me. I'm gonna come. Can I come? [sic]

[only in Japan, heh?]

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Apologies for not keeping track of everyone else's blogs. I'll slowly catch up with them.

My social life has been cut right down due to tiredness, TESOL work and trying to cut back on spending.

Of note recently though: a week ago I went with some friends to the open air restaurant at the top of Parco in Ikebukuro. It's a two hour nomi- tabehodai deal (ie eat and drink yourself stupid for a set price) but I managed to control my drinking compared to last summer when I went there and really overdrank. By the end of the pub afterwards I wasn't quite so sober though. But it was a fun night.

Then last night I experienced the hospitality of Timorous Beastie and Timourous Beast in their lovely apartment after my course ended. The evening started off with the lovely Shiomi having a breakdown in her, normally, impeccable sense of direction and getting me lost! Can you imagine the cheek of the woman? Okay, there was a little diversion to try and get some proper lemonade for the Pimms, but still.

Beastie and Beast plied us with lovely food. Although the scared look on Beast's face as he handed a plate of something and said 'try this' was a little disconcerting. The aubergine-pesto-cheese-pancake was lovely though, as were the salad the soup. According to her blog it was pumpkin; I have to confess I thought it was carrot...

Liisa and her Finnish friend plied us with a most bizarre Finnish vodka based licorice drink. That wasn't really to my taste. At first. By later in the evening I couldn't get enough of it though.

Somewhere along the line the decision was made to troop off to karaoke, with Liisa's friend declaring she would NOT be singing as she hadn't had enough to drink. Yeah right. Guess who sang to EVERY song?! Beastie refused to put any songs on but was caught sneakily singing along at some stages. Liisa and Finn friend showed what rock chicks they really are as they sang, danced and generally picked lots of rock numbers I had never heard of...

I of course was the image of decorum and quietness and sat quietly behaving myself. It was after a particularly throaty version of 'Hey Mickey' that I discovered the true benefits of the strange Finnish drink.

Good fun, really!