Saturday - must be Sapporo

Late into the night I was chatting things over with my good friend Peter. I wish I could get to see my friends like this more often - or find a way to get them all in the same place every once in a while. Anyway, I think we sorted many things out in the world, as we watched "The 100 Best Rugby World Cup Tries". Peter's a Kiwi, so we didn't agree on anything at all :) unfortunately, he can't make it to the Bledisloe Cup game next month in Tokyo. Anyone else going to be there instead?

Today I was making sure that we retained some good faith. Due to no reason of their own doing, some OEs missed the chance to examine last year and their approval lapsed. Righting wrongs, after an intensive day with me at Peter's SOEN English School in Sapporo, they are now back and track.

Following up last night's training at Hokkai was a PET training event this evening; another late night with dedicated teachers proving their commitment to their own professional development, and the promotion of quantifiable English language assessment. Everyone left Peter's school tired but unbowed; we SHALL examine in November!

No food left at Jusco as Auld Lang Syne was telling us to leave - Peter & I grabbed a few croquettes (yes, beer too) and spent the next three hours vainly trying to find the All Blacks vs Springboks anywhere on the TV/internet. (In doing so we both saw the score but didn't tell each other until 2.30am when we gave up!)

Gallavanting around

It's been a bit busy last few weekends for me - I think my family are starting to forget what I look like.

About a month ago I was catching up with my old mate Julian from Barnsley. He has just moved back to Osaka & we explored the old part of town with another mate, having a great meal in a famous but local Korean restaurant. Unfortunately, the food poisoning I got wasn't worth it, but anyway, it's been a while since I have been to Osaka - always exciting and vibrant, and quite different to Tokyo.

The weekend after that, I went to the annual JALT (Japan Association of Language Teachers) conference, this year held near Yoyogi Park. The conference is never exactly exciting, but for me it is a great chance to catch up with a lot of people in the same place, and talk "shop". I managed to find some old Cambridge examiners who want to get back into examining, and interviewed a couple of prospective new ones. I went to a few workshops, picked up some new tricks and remembered some old ones, listened to the good & the great. In between, busy networking. Here you can see my mates from OUP - nearest is Koichi who is a Matsumoto boy, working hard! The OUP was party was good fun, and I met a couple of extremely interesting people.

The first weekend in November I flew up to Sapporo to train a bunch of new examiners. this meant taking two days off work at Luna & cancelling classes, which I hate doing - sorry guys. It was one degree above freezing when I arrived, and snowing - I nearly came straight back! I trained a small group of new examiners for YLE on Saturday, then met the main group of existing OEs on Sunday. Training continued then for KET on Sunday afternoon; PET on Monday morning and a big co-ordination for both that afternoon. A very full schedule and no time for souvenir shopping - I nearly missed the plane back (again) as it was. Literally got back home, changed clothes and came to Luna & taught 4 classes straight. Of course, I did manage to find a pub and watch the football on Saturday, with my Kiwi mate Peter & his lovely wife Yoko, who owns a very nice little school in Sapporo. (The very same pub I was in on June 16th 2002, before the England v Argentina game in the World Cup!)

And this last weekend was another away fixture. I stupidly planned a meeting for Sunday before I could actually get there on the first train, so I got the train down on Saturday evening and found myself in Nakano (instead of Shinjuku). Fortunately, I had my subway map with me & got to Akasaka in time to meet Tall Tim for a curry. We then sampled Whychwood & Old Speckled Hen in the Hobgoblin while we watched Liverpool beat Bolton. Training a brand new group of OEs for FCE was a challenge, as I wanted to improve on the style I was shown. With a bit of help we managed to get my PC hooked up to a projector and could save a lot of time/argument while watching candidate samples on DVD. I was also able to show the new online system to the trainees 'live', which made life a lot easier.

So if I haven't been able to check this blog too much lately I apologise - I haven't been 'here' enough. I have also been a bit behind on my inbox - hope you can appreciate why now! The next few weekends? Let's just say I'm only half way through a very busy season!