Tat's all folks

Tattoos.

A poignantly permanent reminder of an important time in your life or an easily recognisable branding of the classless? Discuss.

I have been thinking about getting a tattoo for a while and I would appreciate your advice. The picture I have attached is of a commemorative coin, issued for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. It is the design that I have chosen to be emblazoned across my shoulder. Maybe.

I chose it after a reasonably thorough period of research. I wanted to get Mt. Fuji because I climbed it on a whim one September and it represents everything that I love about travelling and doing things that everybody dreams about but never gets round to actually doing.

I like the way that the cherry blossom surrounds Fuji-san. When I arrived in Japan in March 2005, Sakura season had just started. While I recognised that the blossoms were beautiful, I didn't understand why they were so important to the Japanese people. Over the next year, I began to appreciate the culture and tradition and it bothered me that I had been so cynical the previous year. When it came time for me to leave Japan the following March, I was a little sad that I would miss the cherry blossoms - due to start opening the week after I left - and it meant a lot to me that this deeply Japanese tradition had become even a small part of my life.

I think this design would make a really fitting tribute to an important year in my life. Or not.

Answers on an e-card.

Better Than Expected

The family have been and gone and life has returned to normal for the time being. It turns out that I was unnecessarily concerned about the visit. We all actually had a really good time. The weather was good and we found the perfect mix to keep everybody happy. This mostly involved walking very slowly between restaurants to accomodate my mum and nan, followed by a couple of beers in the local which filled my teenage brother with unbridled joy. Or at least he slipped out of his hormonal coma for a couple of hours over a lemon-flavoured beer or three. Favourite moment of the week was meeting the clan in a trendy cafe where they told me that it was 'only' seven euros for one beer and two coffees. I laughed and then took them to my Bulgarian mates bar, where we ate steak sandwiches and dessert and drank local speciality cocktails and at the end of the night the bill was just under twelve euros. He gives me staff discount. And the remote control for the TV. Who could ask for more?

It's notable that, wherever I seem to go, the friendliest and most helpful people (read: bar owners) are also foreigners. It's something about people when they settle for a long time in foreign countries. You need to have a very laid-back temperament to accept a new culture in a country that very often doesn't want you.

The attached pics were taken in Belem, where you can get the best cakes in Lisbon - trust me, it's worth the forty minute bus journey! - and the Elevador that takes tourists up and down my street. We literally live on the road you can see in the picture and the little yellow bus ferries its' load past the front door all day long. The novelty of seeing people from all over the world that have come to take pictures right outside my house still hasn't worn off. Sometimes I imagine that they have come to see me. Other times I am sure of it.

Family Fortunes XXX

So the family are coming to visit on Tuesday. Can't wait. My dad, bless him, isn't coming because he doesn't like to use any form of transport other than his car. He likes being in control, I guess. Anyway, that just leaves my mum, brother and nan. My brother is staying on the couch in my living room, while the other two are staying in a hotel at the top of the street. I'm looking forward to seeingthem, obviously, but I'm a bit worried about acting like a tour guide for three generations of my family. What possible activities can you do that a miserably-hormonal 14 year old and a feisty septegenarian will enjoy? Factor in a well-meaning but over-bearing mother and you have a recipe for a National Lampoon-esque week of humourless boredom. Wish me luck, please.
Who knows, we might all have a great time. The family get on really well with my girlfriend so hopefully I'll be able to offload - I mean share - the responsibility. The plans so far involve the zoo and the oceanarium for some wholesome family fun, the beach for a spot of sightseeing and picture opportunities and several good restaurants which, to be honest, are more for my benefit.
The good news is that my mum is bringing me a PSP! Due to some undoubtedly dubious dealings, my mum has found herself holding ten brand new PSP games that fell off the back of a metaphorical lorry. Thus, she has decided that it is worth paying for a PSP console for me. Wahoo!

Pre-Carnival Ramblings of the Randomest Variety

So it's almost Canival time here. To celebrate the beginning of Lent, a huge party is thrown and people dress up and get drunk. It beats Pancake Day. My students' have been telling me that Carnival is not such a big deal in Lisbon because everybody is too busy, nobody is religious and a whole load of other trite generalisations. To celebrate the festivities, I get an extra-long four day weekend next week and I'm hoping to get away somewhere and see some of Portugal. I'm ashamed to say that in almost five months I have barely strayed outside the capital. If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know. Anybody who has ever taught English to foreigners will tell you that students can be a well of local knowledge that you can dredge regularly. As you will also know, they will all give you the same answers. When I asked them where I should go fo Carnival, they all said the same places and gave the same reason - because all of the tourists go there for Carnival! When I explain that I am not really a tourist and would quite like to go somewhere that doesn't contain fat, bald men shouting at underpaid waiters, the students just laugh.

Work has been weird recently because we are really under-staffed at the moment. Last week I taught three classes of the same level on the sameday. Obviously, I taught the same lesson three times- laughing at the same jokes and asking the same questions, knowing that I would receive the same answers. It would fry your brain doing it all of the time, but it was fun to switch off for the day and auto-teach. It's also exam time at the school which means that I can take my Nintendo to class legitimately to give me something to do. Just between us, I was given some great advice about making the test a little light. This means that the ninety minute test is completed by even the most dim-witted student in about an hour. At the end of the test, students are free to sit in silence for the rest of the lesson, or they can leave early. Thus, teacher is able to make an early dart home to watch most of the Portugal v Spain match!! Even better, you don't even have to mark the tests. You can go through them in class "so the students can see how they made their mistakes." Brilliant! I even heard of one teacher getting higher level students to mark lower level papers as an error-correction exercise!!

Going to get back to my book now. I'm reading Perfume, which is ace. Just grisly and gothic enough without becoming plain-old-nasty. It describes eighteenth century France exactly how I would have imagined it. I hqven't seen the film of the same name, but I might give it a whirl when I have finished the book.
Adeus.