2015-04-17: Appearances can be deceiving

At our Japanese class our teacher got confused when we were answering some questions. This is not an unusual occurrence. Ewa pronounces extra letters at times and I just make up words when I feel like it.

The cafe we study at has an ashtray in the toilet. This is unusual.

For once this was not the root cause of the misunderstanding. I had said that, roughly speaking I moved to Australia when I was 20 and was there for 20 years. Poor teacher thought I was confused between "20 years ago" and "for 20 years" because, according to her, we are 25 and 30 years old not 38 and 43.

Duck and Weave, Duck and Weave, then kick him when he's not looking

A couple of other locals have had similarly bad guesses at our ages. At boxing this morning I figured out how to use this to our advantage. I will try and enter the youth boxing tournament. I figure they will hit me a lot but they only look to weigh about 20 kilo which I ought to be able to take and grind out a win on style points.

Under 15's could be pushing gullibility levels though

This is how you get achievements! Find a combination of skill level / weight class / age which is weakly populated for a competition.

Traveling Advice: Stupid Showers

We are encountering a lot of the "shower on a hose" arrangements. I have always hated them as they invariably swivel to aim the water where I am not. Then I end up cursing and trying to figure a way to twist the hose around the taps to achieve a flow directed where I want to be.

And I don't get what the low holder is for. I am starting to suspect people here shower while kneeling.

I thought I had accidentally solved this issue in Tsuwano when I noticed that the shower head actually swivels separate to the hose. I felt very proud of myself and envisioned a future free of fractious faucets. Unfortunately this only works on about 60% of showers.

Rating: 6/10 (because it works 6 times out of ten)

Supposedly they won't crap near water or something equally idiotic

In the eighties in NZ there was an urban belief that putting a plastic bottle of water on your lawn would stop dogs crapping everywhere.

Of course they can't crap on the lawn if it is completely covered so she may be on to something

Apparently stray cats are more of an issue here but the same principle is believed by at least one old lady down the road.

Ox tongue for lunch. Just included this because the bowl is supposedly of oxtail soup. It is so clear that I was surprised. On the bright side I guess dogs won't crap near it. Oh and it did have some flavour, was okay. Prefer mine.