i feel a splurge of posts coming, as i enjoy my last few hours of internet access at home...

I phoned up the water, electric and gas companies at school today, reading off a script written to me by the wonderful Noriko Sensei (where would i be without her?). In about 20 minutes, I'd arranged to cancel all three utilities and organise a final cash payment on the morning before i leave. This'll mean I'll be able to have a hot shower, with the light and fan turned on etc if it's all done before 11am when it's cut- brilliant. In Britain, it'd probably take 20mins just to get through the automated answering service and queues, just to get to speak to someone about cancelling a phone line!

Oh and my lesson turned out OK this afternoon. Most of the students had done their homework & we could finish writing speeches for their Room 101 suggestions. This has been a lesson I've taught since working in Austria & indeed had to do it in my GCSE English class. Last lesson, I taught students 5 rhetorical techniques, and they had to use at least 2 in their speeches. (The most common among these speeches being repetition & asking a rhetorical question.) I found them quite persuasive and it made their English sound very natural (even if they had copied lots of ideas from the model i gave them!). At last, a class that let them express what goes on their head, almost as eloquently in English as it would be in their native Japanese. [well maybe that's a bit far fetched, but some of them were quite deep.]