2016-06-30 05:01 Wooden Clock Project
Y (Kuma's owner)
I have decided to take up the challenge to make a wooden clock. I know it's not easy. I haven't even made boxes made of wood. I'm a beginner of woodworking. The prop is my husband. He is very good at woodworking.
I bought a book of wooden clocks and had chosen one of the easiest clock that I thought. I checked the materials that I had to buy. Some of them were unfamiliar materials and I couldn't guess what they looked like. I looked for the images through the internet and gradually understood. It's always hard to take a first step in an unfamiliar world. The measurements in the book I bought are basically in inches. That made me more confused.
I asked help from my husband and ordered some materials from the internet online shops. Well, everything that I can do was done. Before I receive all the materials, I would like to change the design of the clock face. It's fun work for me. However, the other work seems to be hard. I think it will take at least three months to complete. My long project has just started.
2016-06-28 00:45 My bad habits 2
Y (Kuma's owner)
I've been keeping writing this journal about six months. The reason for keeping writing is simple. I would like to write in English well. English is a completely different language from Japanese, that's why it's difficult for me to learn.
I remember when I met my friend's wife, she couldn't speak English at all. She is Dutch and one or two years later, I met her again and realised that she could speak English fluently. That made me very surprised and I heard that for example in Dutch "cat" is "kat". Wow, that's similar to English! I was a bit jealous.
English became the world's most widely spoken language and unfortunately it's a far cry from Japanese. Well, never mind. My Aussie friend told me that it's good exercise for the brain to learn different languages. All right, I'm exercising while I'm writing.
Then, I've noticed some issues with my writing. I have bad habits using the same words often. The words are "but" and "because". I have no idea how to solve the issue. Maybe I should read more books.
The one reason that I can think of is I don't have much vocabulary. If I know other expressions, I can use them. Therefore, I try to use a synonym dictionary.
This is all for today's writing and I didn't use "but" and "because" today. Yay!
2016-06-27 08:24 Looking tropical but cold
Y (Kuma's owner)
Last week, the British Pound slammed down due to the results of the UK leaving the European Union and the temperature around here was almost like the curving line of the graph of the British Pound. It dropped suddenly!
I live in a subtropical area. It sounds warm, doesn't it? However, it's cold in winter. The scenery looks very tropical. I can see several palm trees and bright yellow Oncidium is blooming. In the veggie patch, there are still tomatoes. If I take a picture of my yard, people would think it's taken in summer or spring.
Some of my local friends made me surprised because they said that they don't have any heating appliances at home. Wow, They have strong tolerance!
Yesterday's lowest temperature in my town was 0 degrees Celsius (32 degrees Fahrenheit). Even in the same town, the temperature is a bit different. It depends on the geographical features.
Luckily, my area is not so cold but I still need a heating appliance. Therefore, my daily work in winter is picking branches. Eucalyptus contains oil and it burns very well. It's a kill two birds with one stone job. I can clean up the yard and I can use branches as fuel.
I think this winter is colder than last year. I have to pick a lot of branches.