TESOL Interview

I had my TESOL interview today. Interested? Get clicking!

Emi-san! Konbanwa!

Would you like to know about our first Japanese lesson? Well, get clicking then! Click! Click! Click!

Paul, meet Paul...

When I was talking to Pippa last night, she said, "Ah, so Paul's helping you move eh? He's always helping you out, that boy. What a good friend!"

Spot on, I thought. He sure was helping me out again, with all the big stuff - the desk, the bookshelves, the dining table. His big car and my big stuff...

Pippa and Hula

Text from Pippa: "Let's go for a drink DTRMCR, I haven't seen you in ages!"

Yes, good idea! How about some two-for-one cocktails at Hula bar?

Great!

Moving by degrees

My new housemates helped me to unload the car. It's the little things like that that make such a difference. We sat, had a cup of tea, watched the snooker, and chatted. We talked about TESOL, Japan and college. My new housemates are very nice.

Choo choo

The gravy train keeps on chugging.

You shall not pass!

Seb's Blog about his JET experience

Do you remember my post A Strange Coincidence? From a few weeks ago? Well, Seb got in touch earlier this week and has given me lots of information about his JET experience so far. I'll post some of what he's said once I've asked his permission to blog about it, but rest assured, it's very interesting stuff! He's written about his application process, about his interview, and about his first experiences of the scheme. Keep your eyes peeled for more of what he's said.

He has also been writing a blog about his JET experiences. It's really well written, and would make for a very enjoyable read, even if you're not interested in the JET Programme yourself. I'd heartily recommend taking a look - you can read it here, and it's also available in the blogroll too. Check it out!
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This is a cross-posting from our Preparing for Japan Blog. It's fun over there, check it out!

Yuzu

Yuzu is a new Japanese restaurant in town. I’d read a couple of reviews (Manchester Confidential here, and Taste of Manchester here), and I was keen to try it. Laura and I popped in after work, and before the cinema.

Accepted! Finally! and 8-9-10 too!

“Hi DTRMCR, it’s been decided: the room is yours if you want it! If you do, let me know.”

Excellent! Yes please, that’d be great. Phew! It took eight viewings, but I’ve finally found somewhere to live that I think I’ll be happy in. What a relief!

Also, woo for 08/09/10! By the time we get to 09/10/11, Laura and I will be in Japan! Yahoo!

Viewing #8 – Ayres Road – 6.9.10

A big room, in a pleasant house full of lovely people in a nice area? At 300pcm all in? That sounds perfect.

There’s a garage for my bike, where everybody else keeps their bikes. Paul and Rachel are keen cyclists, Emily a more moderate bike user. There’s a piano in the lounge which Rachel plays occasionally. She’s a teacher, and custodian of the house cat, who also seems friendly. Emily is from Northampton, keeps rats, and is an actress. Paul is about to start an Environmental Sciences MA at Uni. The kitchen is smallish, but bigger than that at Parsonage. The bedroom is on the ground floor. The garden is big, cultivated in part, with a hammock and a huge picnic table. It’s lovely.

My girlfriend and the dole queue*

Laura lost her job today. A hasty one-to-one with her slippery manager resulted in her work being shared between two of her colleagues, and her position effectively being dissolved. She’ll be transferred into a different department, though luckily one that’s located at the other end of the room she works in now. She’ll be doing something entirely different to the job she applied for, was interviewed for, accepted the offer of, and moved 250 miles to fill. She’ll be covering someone who left - natural wastage - and the money that Whitehall pay for her post will be used to plug a gap in her original team’s operating budget. No warning. No option of negotiation.

Is it just me, or is there something really fucking dodgy going on?

*Yes, I know there’s not strictly a dole queue involved in this story officer. What? You’d like to check my artistic license? Sure, just a second…

Viewing #7 - Three Architects

“We’re architects. We met at Uni. We bought this place when it was a wreck, and we’ve done it up. Let me show you round.”

Dark wood floorboards. A nine-foot glass coffee table. Slate paved kitchen. Dining table for eight. A shower head like a dinner plate. Duck-egg blue bathtub, with feet. A very nice house. Bedroom? Smallish. Great Stone Road smallish. Great for downsizing. But not the best value, at 389pcm. And the vibe wasn’t quite right. Too clean. Too catalogued. No, not for me.

Ten four Snowman, east-bound and down

Man, fancy dress is AWESOME!

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

The last time I put a razor to my face was January 2008. To become The Bandit tonight, my beard must go.

Viewing #6 - Withington

An hour before I was supposed to go and meet the housemates at the mansion, the landlord called me. The room had been taken by someone else. I might have smelled a rat yesterday, when my appointment to meet them was suddenly postponed by one day. It was, I conceded, ten days since I’d viewed the place. Then again, it was the landlord who’d suggested waiting that long before meeting the housemates. What a shame. I’d liked it a lot.