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This journal is written by Kuma (Felis catus) and Kuma's owner Y (homo sapiens). We have moved from Japan to Australia in 2011.

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2016-01-04 03:00   The Backyard Singers

Y (Kuma's owner)

I have been searching for the name of this black bird.

Willie Wagtail

He sometimes visits my backyard. His song was nice and I wanted to know the name but I couldn't find it. I have uploaded this picture to my Twitter account expecting that someone will know the name. My expectation was right, two of my Twitter friends let me know the name of this bird. It was a Willie Wagtail.

Thanks to my Twitter friends!

After that, I had another singer who can sing beautifully. It was a Gray Butcherbird.

Grey Butcherbird

He had a beautiful voice. Every time I hear his voice, I try to take a video to record his melody but he always comes near the window or on the pinch hanger. I want to record him somewhere on the tree, you know. Somewhere in nature. It doesn't look nice to see a singing bird on the pinch hanger with washed socks underneath. I wonder why Grey Butcherbirds come close to humans? I have searched for a Grey Butcherbird's video on YouTube. There were several videos and I noticed that some Grey Butcherbids sing on the balcony or handrail of the veranda. It almost looks like saying "Look, I can sing more beautifully than any other birds!"

I'm looking forward to seeing him on the backyard tree next time, not on the pinch hanger.

| | Category Birds

2016-01-02 02:10   Aussie English

Y (Kuma's owner)

It was a long time ago when I first arrived in Australia.

I had studied a little about Aussie English before I came and I thought I was well-prepared.

However, after I arrived in Sydney I keenly realised the difficulty of accent. I had enrolled in an English school. On the first day, a teacher said to us "G'day!", but to me it sounded like "Get die" . I was surprised from the start.

Fortunately, the family I was staying with spoke very clear English like English teaching materials. As I had been getting used to the teacher's accent, it made it much easier to understand other people's pronunciation.

But there were other hurdles ahead I had to jump.

Japanese learn American English at school. As you know, American English and British English are different. One day when I was walking on the street, a car came and stopped beside me. There were two ladies in the car and one of them spoke to me.

"Do you wanna lift?"

Suddenly, my head was filled with question marks. Yes, I had studied the word "lift". I knew lift means elevator but I was on the street! I thought that lady might be a strange person. She didn't look like it but maybe she was. I said "No, thank you." politely and they went. After that, I talked about what I experienced to the family where I was staying. They said a lift means a car ride.

Aussie English was not built in a day.

| | Category Misc.

2016-01-01 00:03   My first writing

Y (Kuma's owner)

The end of 2015, I have seen a lots of hashtag #accomplish on Twitter.

I asked myself "What do I want to accomplish in 2016?".

I listed up some goals that I wanted to do. I wanted to draw pictures well, play the piano, grow vegetables, gohiking, do calisthenics and write a journal in English. No, no wait. There were so many goals. I knew I should not begreedy. So I have chosen two goals. Drawing pictures and keeping a journal in English. Maybe an illustrated journal is agood idea too.

Well, the introduction became too long.

Here is my first English journal with a photo.

This photo was taken this morning with a compact camera I bought last December. Technologies are advancingremarkably. I could even take a bird which was walking far from me with this small camera. I'm very impressed.This birdis a Peaceful Dove. The Peaceful Dove is a small bird and has light blue eye-rings. They are cautious, I always have tomove slowly otherwise they fly away.They are also one of the birds that I want to draw because I like the pattern of theneck and eye-rings. It was nice to have a Peaceful Dove as the first guest in the backyard this year.

I hope 2016 will be a peaceful year.

Peaceful Dove

| | Category Birds

The end of the entry