Fukui Is Many Nature...

I've just had a fantastic weekend - one of those weekends where you
don't feel sorry about going back to work on Monday, because you feel
you've done so much and had so much fun that it would be greedy to ask
for more. Yes, it was that much fun.

It all started with mine and Flick's six month anniversary on Friday.
Of course, technically speaking, you can't actually have a six month
"anniversary"*, but sometimes you've just got to ease off the
grammatical reins, kick back with a bottle of wine and celebrate the
times you've had.

Then on Saturday Flick managed to persuade me to make my second ever
visit to the gym. I'm not sure if I'm cut out for the gym - I must be
the only person in the world who can fall asleep while doing
press-ups. Still, it's fun to go with Flick, and she enjoys laughing
at me while I try and use the weight machines, so it's all good.

Saturday afternoon was the highlight for me though: we decided to
climb a mountain to the west of Takefu called "Onagatake". Although it
was fairly steep, it only took about an hour to reach the top and the
views were amazing. Fukui really does have some beautiful mountains,
and even though they extend in every direction it's all too easy to
forget they're there when you're surrounded by concrete in the towns.
They look fantastic at the moment too - the new spring leaves make
everything look ultra-green. No wonder most Japanese people I speak to
say that spring is their favourite time of year...

Then on Saturday night it was Nicola C's birthday party (thanks Nicola
- great party!), and on Sunday I ended up playing football with a load
of Brazilians. As you do. All in all, a great weekend. And now I'm
exhausted. And I have a large pile of essays to mark with the title
"My Favourite Foods". The first one goes like this:

"My favorite Foods is apple.
Apple is very delicious food.
All people likes apple.
Apple is popular foods.
I like apple color very much.
I like apple very much, but my family is not like apples.
I want to eat apple every day."

[Sigh] I've got 80 of these to mark. That one was one of the better
ones too. Here's another one:

"I like cake.
Beacause sweet and I am go a long way toward healing an body.
Think you."

Bear in mind that the kid who wrote that last one is 18 years old, he's been learning English for over five years, and he still can't spell "thank you".

It's going to be a long day...

*"The word "anniversary" is based on the Latin "anniversarius,"
meaning "to return yearly." It's based on the root words "annus"
(year) and "versus" (to turn). So by practical definition,
anniversaries can only occur once a year."
(http://www.mentalfloss.com/archives/archive2003-01-17.htm). I still
can't find out the correct word to use for a six month "anniversary"
though, despite a thorough search using Google... "Bianniversary"
perhaps? Ideas anyone?