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Thanks for always reading the MEC blog.

I recently moved it to http://englishatmec.blogspot.com

Hope you continue reading at the new address. Please comment or send a mail anytime.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Weekly Idioms 2

Idioms for this week: "apply for" and "as far as...concerned"

"apply for" - "I'd like to apply for the manager position advertised in this morning's paper." "You can apply for an ETC card on the Internet." "What is the procedure when applying for house loan?"

"as far as...concerned" - "As far as I'm concerned, I don't think he is suitable for the job." "The schedule is too busy, as far as he is concerned."

Weekly Idioms

I've been a little busy the past couple of months, accounting for a lack of blogging or tweets. Sorry about that. Hope to stay regular, so please comment to keep me motivated.

From this week, I started introducing some useful idioms. Try to put them into your conversation or how about writing some examples for us to read here?

"a couple of" - When I woke up this morning, there were a couple of sheep in the kitchen. They wanted some breakfast, so I told them to wait a couple of minutes. One of them remembered he had a couple of things to do, so he went back outside.

a couple - 2 or 3; a few - 3-5/6; several - 5-9

"account for" - The prolonged heat this summer accounts for the prices of vegetables going up recently. The high prices accounts for a lack of vegetable for dinner.

Go Away Rain!

It's raining again! I guess we need rain to make the plants grow, but I wish it would just rain at night time so we can go about our day tasks as usual. Plus it's nice to listen to the rain while in bed.

Here are some weather words and their meanings:

http://bit.ly/avCt6T

Lake Taupo Cycle Challenge

If you want to combine cycling with a trip to NZ this November, how about taking part in the Lake Taupo Cycle Challenge - New Zealand’s premier cycling event – with a total of 12 different cycling events based around NZ's largest lake. Last year, over 11,000 people took part.

There is an event for every level of rider – a challenging but achievable 160 kilometre ride for individual riders or teams of two, three or four can participate in the team event, which is an achievable goal for new or less experienced riders. Plus there is the Extreme Enduro - eight times around the lake, covering 1280km!!!

You can enter for any of the different events online at http://www.cyclechallenge.com/ or see this 日本語　site http://www.realnewzealand.net/events_races/road/road_report_001_2010tour.html

Friday Flix

Okay, it's Saturday, but here's a movie you might like to watch over the weekend. Let us know what you think of it, or recommend a good movie you've seen recently.


'It Happened One Night'

Released in 1934, this romantic comedy stars Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert and won many Academy Awards. The story sees Ellie run away from her over-protective rich father who is trying to stop her marrying he doesn't think is suitable for her. While on the run from Miami to New York, she meets Peter who has just been fired from his newspaper company. Peter decides to help Ellie in return for writing a story about her time escaping from her father. Troubles along the way see them lose their belongings and money, along with meeting some interesting characters along the way.

Do they make it to New York? Does Ellie marry the man she wants to marry? Look for the movie in the video store and watch to find out.






Or look here - http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XODcxNjUwMjg.html

150km Swim???

Today I joined two others to ride around Lake Biwa. The weather forecast said 'maybe rain, maybe clear up' so we decided to go anyway. As we drove along the expressway, the rain got heavier -aargh.

When we got to Nagahama (http://bit.ly/bh60p0) it wasn't really raining, so we set up and headed off. The road was still wet, but not so bad. However, as we rode further, the rain started to get heavier and our clothes and shoes got soggier.

Most of the way around the lake there are cycling lanes, so on a day like today it was lucky to be off the busy road.

Unfortunately as we were so wet and the cloud was quite low most of the time, we didn't take any photos along the way, so you will have to imagine as you read this. Just think of sitting on a bicycle in the shower for eight hours and having your legs, arms, face and clothes covered in sand and dirt.

Overall, it was great trip, but here are a couple of memorable parts:

The Tsurube's Kazoku ni Kampai-style greeting with an old man and lady in a small village and asking for directions.

The policeman in the Koban who advised us not to follow the shoreline past Omihachiman Kyuka-mura as it was too narrow. So we went on the cycle lane next to the main road which ended up being overgrown with flowers.

Have a look at the map: http://bit.ly/96XzE3