Food Festival in Perth!

From the 1st to the 31st of March there will be a food festival in Perth, "Eat Drink Perth". A program for the event will be published in the Sunday Times Newspaper on Sunday, February 27. Probably also the program will be available online too. I will tell you more information when I can.

Opportunity for meeting people and practicing English

"Friday Forum" is held every Friday at St Johns Hall, 16 Aberdeen St, Northbridge. It's a forum on current affairs and local topics - and all are welcome. Cake, coffee, forum and friendship are free. We love to talk, share, listen, learn. Times are 9:30am - 11:30am. Topics this month are: Feb 4 (Chinese New Year), Feb 11 (Valentines Day), Feb 18 and 25th (What Makes Us Tick). We have many guest speakers including a school teacher from China, social commentators, Northbridge civic leaders and business people. Great fun and great value! More info (Harry 9444 4626)

- From the Perth Voice Newspaper, 19th February 2011

A free talk at the Perth Museum パース博物館でフリートーク

Singing Honeyeater, originally uploaded by radio4.

Practice your listening skills by going to a free talk at the Perth Museum.　

パース博物館のフリートークでリスニング練習してください

The topic is "biodiversity in the suburbs". Curator Dr Ric How will talk about the Australian animals that live in suburban gardens. 　

テーマは「郊外の生物多様性」です。学芸員 Dr Ric Howが郊外の庭に住むオーストラリアの動物について話します

12:30pm, Fri 19 Nov 2010　日時：2010年11月19日（金） 12:30～
Perth Museum　パース博物館
Perth Cultural Centre　パース文化センター

You need to book by calling the museum on 9431 8480.

ご予約が必要です。（予約番号:9431 8480）

Bake Sale / CD sale / TAFE Clearance 資金調達 !

パン好き？　安い音楽CD好き？　フリー市場好き?

Do you like bake sales? Cheap CDs? garage sales?

Tuesday 12th Oct
いつ？　Time: 9.30AM - 4PM
どこ？　Where : Outside Central TAFE (CIT) - 14 Aberdeen st, Northbridge (the grassy area)

おいしいパン、CD、すてき服、本、ビジオ、物　それで。

Scrumptious baked goods, an awesome selection of CD's and heaps of cool clothes, books, videos and bric-a brac will be for sale.

ALL PROCEEDS GO TO CENTRAL TAFE'S THIRD YEAR PHOTOGRAPHY STUDENT'S GRADUATION EXHIBITION 'Focused @ Infinity'.

Facebook event.

Big Brother Mouse

In 2007 I visited Luang Prabang in Laos with some friends. We came across the "Big Brother Mouse" centre by accident. At the centre, we could share some time with some local Laos people who wanted to learn English. Here's some information about Big Brother Mouse from the website:

"Traditionally, books have been rare in Laos. The number of children who go to school is slowly but steadily increasing, yet many children have never read a book outside of school textbooks. Few Lao people think that reading can be fun, can add to their education, or will provide information to improve their quality of life.

A boy in a rural Lao village discovers the fun of reading Indeed, in the past, it couldn't do any of those things. Very few books were published in Laos, and they never reached the villages where most people lived.

Big Brother Mouse intends to change that. This publishing project was started by a retired American publisher working with several bright and dedicated Laotian college students. Our staff now includes high school students and recent college graduates. Together, we look at the books that children have enjoyed most anywhere in the world. We think about what underlying concepts made those books successful. Then we ask if those concepts could be used in Laos, with new Lao content and pictures.

Our first six books came off the press in March and April 2006. Some are just in Lao; others are in both Lao and English, making them useful not only for our primary audience – Lao children – but also for people of any age, who speak either English or Lao, and are learning the other language.

In our first year, we published 30 books. Now we're continuing to publish new books, while also developing ways to get books into rural villages that never had them.
What's different about Big Brother Mouse?

Big Brother Mouse is not an NGO. It is a not-for-profit, Lao-owned project, with a Lao staff. Volunteers from abroad are helpful in many ways, but everyone shares the goal of helping young Laotions develop new skills.

When we have a rural book party, or hold an art contest at a school, young Lao men and women lead the activities and make the presentations. For the children present, it may be not only the first time they've discovered that books can be fun, but also shows a wider range of possible jobs that they themselves might hold one day.

We are Lao-based. All planning and decisions are made here in Laos, based on and often adapting to the conditions we face. All of our paid staff are Lao."

Blossom

Blossom, originally uploaded by sleepy chan.

Spring is here in Perth!

Jdrama: Gakeppuchi no Eri

I have just started watching this J-drama, Gakeppuchi no Eri on mysoju. Gakeppuchi no Eri describes the turbulent life of Eriko (Yamada), who has been extremely poor since childhood, due to the debt left by her parents. Despite constant misfortune, she aims to achieve happiness and money by moving to Tokyo to pursue life as a manga artist.