101. What does happiness/joy feel like physically? Tingly
102. List five people you love starting with the one you love the absolute most. WHY do these surveys always ask stupid stock questions like this!? I’m not going to publicly evaluate my friends! I am not going to give you inappropriate personal details of my life! I am not interested in anime!!
103. How many movies have you gone to see this month? Two. The Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls and The Young Victoria. I’d recommend both of them!
104. If you could have 3 wishes…but none of them could be for yourself, what would you wish for?
A. World peace (HAH!)
B. A universal language everyone knew without having to learn.
C. That education wasn’t really only restricted to a tiny minority of the people in the world.
105. In what ways do you relax and de-stress when you are really tense?
Sleeping, or going around in circles feeling productive but really not doing a lot!
106. How much money would it take to get you to drive to school naked in the springtime and get out of the car? N/A – would never do this.
107. Have you ever killed an animal? No, only insects.
108. Have you ever lost someone close to you? Yes
109. What do you think of cloning? It certainly raises interesting moral debates!
110. Do you read or watch TV more often? TV
111. With all this talk of terrorism going around are you willing to sacrifice rights and freedoms for increased safety? To a point, yes.
112. What is the punishment you would come up with for Osama Bin Laden if you caught him alive? I honestly don’t know, it’s not something I contemplate daily!
113. Have you ever named an individual part of your body? No. Only as being the person with “That Hair”, and I didn’t start that! LOL!
114. Have you ever been on the radio or on TV? Yes/yes
115. Have you ever won a lottery, or sweepstakes? No
116. Have you ever won a contest or competition? Yes
117. Do you like to watch The Joy of Painting show with Bob Ross (check out this link if you don’t know who he is. Also please note me if you notice the link is broken) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Ross_(painter)? No, it’s never been on TV here, and even if it was I don’t think I’d want to watch it.
118. Do you know what your grandparents and your great grand parents did for a living? I know that my paternal grandfather owned a grocer’s shop, and that’s about it!
119. Is there anything really interesting in your family history? Kind of, but probably no more so than other families.
120. Is there anyone you trust completely? No, but there are a few people who collectively have my complete trust.

I FAIL at life. Although Miss 15 and Master 13 gave me their email address before they left, I still haven’t emailed them! At first I was in two minds over whether or not I should do so, due to the whole “teacher-student-professional-boundary-thing” but then I figured that since they gave me their address, they obviously want to hear from me, and they’re also coming back at the end of the year, so I feel as if I should keep in touch, considering it’s likely I will see them again!

I have a break this week from any and all teaching (aside from a couple of hours on Monday morning where I’m filling in for another tutor), but after that I’ll have a new girl (who I’m guessing will be about 11 or 12), every morning for a week, and then another boy (around 9 or 10) for 3 hours three mornings a week “until further notice”. I don’t know much about these two other kids yet, aside from the fact that the girl’s English is “fluent” and the boy is a total beginner. Could be interesting!

Yesterday I rang to request an application pack for CELTA, which is, according to my manager at work, the very best ESOL qualification available. The one I’m looking at starts somewhat later than I would like (January 2010), but it’s spread over the right amount of time (10 weeks) and is at a campus in the middle of town, so it seems like a pretty good fit.

So that’s me! Today I cleaned a bit of my bedroom (it’s going to be my major project for this week I have off!), organised my bookshelf by colour, and discovered a box full of old letters and cards from penpals I wrote to when I was in high school! I wonder if any of them have blogs! HAH! What an odd thought.

I know that to some of you this might be rather old news, but I still think it raises an interesting debate, and, since, in answer to my recent question, A LOT of people said they wanted more posts like this, I figured I’d post this to see whether you think the judges in Holland made the right decision or not.

Dutch sailor girl put under care

A Dutch court has put a 13-year-old girl under state care for two months, stalling her bid to become the youngest person to sail solo around the world.

The decision by three Utrecht judges means Laura Dekker’s parents, who support her plans, temporarily lose the right to make decisions about her.

A child psychologist will now assess her capacity to undertake the voyage.

Miss Dekker says she is happy with the ruling, but she will try to convince the authorities to let her set sail.

“I haven’t had the same upbringing as so many other children,” she told the Dutch television programme, NOS Jeugdjournaal, in her only comments after the ruling.

“Sailing has always played an important role in my upbringing and that’s why I want to do this now,” she added.

Source

Interestingly, I read on another website that she believes that if she were a 13 (now 14) year old BOY, her case would have been given more consideration. Do you think this is likely?

It’s not as if I’m expecting to WIN this category, but I still think it would be kind of fun to see how far I can manage to get! Any and all votes would be greatly appreciated!

In other news, I’m two days away from a whole WEEK of holidays (YAY!) so keep your eyes open for a new theme at some point. I like this purple, but I want to try something new, too.

I really should have posted this last weekend, but I only loaded the photos onto my camera a couple of days so am doing it now instead.

Last Sunday we went out for dinner for my birthday. We went to a teppanyaki restaurant which, to cut a long story short, had deep-fried cheesecake on the dessert menu. As much as it sounds like it ought to be featured on This Is Why You’re Fat, we decided that SOMEONE had to order it, just to see what it was like. Since it was my birthday, I volunteered.

Disgustingly unhealthy, but really tasty!

That’s the GOOD photo. Before this one was taken (by my aunt), we had the bright idea to have me in it too, tilting the plate up towards the camera so the dessert could be easily seen.

Just as she is about to take the photo, I hear Jenny shouting “Watch out for your ice cream!”. Aforementioned ice cream had, perhaps unsurprisingly, begun to slide along the plate and come extremely close to heading onto the table. What resulted is undoubtedly THE least flattering photo of me you will ever see on this blog…

Don’t say I never laugh at myself. Also, please note my completely oblivious father in the background. It seems that he was not as alarmed by the escaping ice cream as I was!