I'm an Australian, from Australia's most easterly town called Byron Bay. I update this from time to time, with my main blog now being at SydneyFriends Blog

30 August 08

I haven't really paid much attention to this geocities site as you may have guessed by the gaps between blogs, but I'd like to keep it for history sake :). Lately I've been doing plenty of casual teaching, last week I did 5 days at North Sydney Demonstration School, and in my spare time I worked on my site SydneyFriends, which includes a blog, at SydneyFriends Blog, I've been trying to write about Sydney Events, the different cultures that make up Sydney, the making of the site, and ways to meet people. Soon I'll have the Sydney Friends Opening Party, which shall be interesting, it will most likely be held at Shark Hotel, in Sydney city, on September 12th, at 7:30pm.

Lately I've also been thinking of going to Japan again, at this stage I'm thinking of going in October, it could be for work, as I will have a few interviews while I'm there, however, I may just stay a few weeks, depending on a few factors, still being observed ;) - I hope my indecisiveness has nothing to do with being a Gemini, I am sometimes in 2 minds about things, however, my main goal has been building the site, so that's probably why the other plans have taken longer to make.

A few people I know are starting to get into selling things online, so I think I may join them, especially if I plan on living in Japan for the long term.

29 June 08

Well it's been 11 months now so I'll update a bit. I've continued working as a casual Primary school teacher at various schools, mainly at North Sydney Dem, and Homebush Public School, however sometimes still travel over 90 mins to get to a school if I call the agency.
I made a new site and gave it a bulletin board today: www.sydneyfriends.tv however it's still slow at the moment - maybe a server prob. and the bulletin board may need to be changed.
I am considering going to Japan again sometime in August or later in the year.
Any questions about any of the above things pls email :).

29 July 07

I have worked for 2 weeks now as a casual teacher, which has been very interesting, and a growing experience. I sometimes got work near Liverpool and sometimes in North Sydney, so I travel quite a bit. Casual work is good, as I can reuse some lessons, when I go to different classes of the same year that I've taught previously. Less time preparing for lessons and more experience teaching a certain lesson is always a good thing, but I will gradaually build up my resources for classes so I can teach on a full-time basis.

3 July 07

Hello, I've finally finished my B.Teach(Primary), a 1.5 end-on degree, which has once again drained my finances a bit. However I hope to soon get a teaching job which should make things more positive. I have moved out of the city. 1 1/2 years living in share-room accommodation was enough for me, I hope to get my own room soon, I'm currently living at my cousins house while he and his wife and baby are in Japan. Kingsford is a nice area, only 20mins to the city by bus and a few mins to the beaches by car/bus.

19 December 06

As you can see I haven't been updating this much, but I did a big revamp of the page today.
(old page) It was oringally made by powerbuilder that generated automatic HTML for the page, but when I tried to edit it using a HTML editor it was really messy, so I copied all the text and re-did the page.
I've put in a few new elements like the Javascript, links menu, it works best if you move the ads out of the way first.
It took quite some time, but I thought I should keep the old blog, so I've kept it here. The only other changes are that I've reorganised the text a bit and I've tidied up the tables. It's probably not noticible that I've also used a bit of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS).. just a bit, as I've been reading about it lately, and am sure to use it more in making webpages in the future.
All I did with the CSS was to add a bit of padding to this text on the left hand side and give it a white background (so the background of the page doesn't show though that section).

I finished uni in late November for the year (One semester to go! yes!) and have been appliying for various jobs.. I once again tried to get a job in a bank/stockbroking/financial company in an entry level/admin position. However it wasn't meant to be. If I was really interested in it the I would keep searching, but I guess my interest in teaching is too strong to get a full time position in another area at the moment (probably more at a sub-conscious level) so it's stopping me from getting another job. I'll give teaching a go, for a few years, and go from there.

I may be teaching at an English camp for 2 weeks in January, which sounds very exciting and may open some more doors for casual work while I'm studying.

A lot has happened in the past 5 months, mainly to do with study, and having practical experiences at school. My part-time work was mainly in hospitality, at the Museum of Contemporary arts function centre, and I have also kept up English teaching by having some private students.
I won't really get into details about my private life, except that I had a great girlfriend and I will keep in touch with her long distance(via email) I've been single for about 6 weeks now.

I believe that the last six weeks of going to interviews, soul searching, etc. has helped me to learn a lot more about the work of recruiters and what they look for. I even had my turn as being a recruiter, in hiring English teachers for the camp in January, so I sympathise a bit more with them, however I still feel a lot of them are crazy hehe.. In my spare time I have done some reading, eg. Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, - A great book a must read if you are interested in making financial goals. Other interesting books include "The Missing Manuals - Web page design" and Sun Tzu for Success, among others.

For those reading this after November and before Christmas.. Merry Christmas!

4 July 06

Now I'm in my semester holidays, I think everything went fine in the first semester although all the marks haven't come back yet. I went back to my hometown for a week last week, which was great. I went to my brother and his wife's house and saw their baby Toby, who is now holding on to things and walking a bit. Very cute.

I went for an interview today to work at another language school (that I can fit in with uni studies) and it seems to be ok.

Have been meeting a few friends I met from the language exchange group, just hanging out at starbar/foodcourts etc. Sometimes do some study together too. Came up with a new term. F.C.H.

There are exchange groups on the second Weds. of every month at Starbar - 7pm start, every second Sunday at Shark hootel after 3pm, and every Thursday after 9pm at Windsor hotel. I've only gone to the Windsor one once, but overall they all seem quite good, usually a friendly atmosphere where you can exchange langauges, usually Japanese - English.

Lately I've been studying Japanese and Korean languages, I sometimes study them together as there are some similarities in the langauges.

-12 March 06

I have started studying M.Teach(Primary) at the University of Sydney. After teaching in ESL part-time for 5 months, I thought I should try to do something more stable, and since I enjoy teaching I thought this should be the right course for me.
So far it's going well -passed the first week.

I'm still going to 'God in the city' which I've found great. Plenty of people to meet and they also often have great food for an after service lunch. I went to a 'Mens night' meeting last week, which was a night of good food and the speaker spoke well too - about having a quiet time with God.

I have been living in an apartment in the city, on the 30th floor.. right in the center of the city, which is very convenient.. and so far so good. It's shareroom accommodation, so there are 3 rooms and 6 people, I didn't know the people before I moved in, but luckily they are all nice. I share with an Indonesian guy, the other rooms have a French/Chinese girl and a Japanese girl and a Chinese couple.

I still play Othello online sometimes :) and still have language exchanges, lately I study mainly Japanese and Korean.

I went to a Judo class last week which was really fun.. I hope I can fit it into my schedule.. in the future (I also applied for work at a language school today- as I'm no longer working at the other language school due to a timetable clash.

any questions.. please email me :)
-8 February 06

- I'm still teaching in an ESL school near Central stn. in Sydney on an on-going basis, I started in the end of October last year. I don't do hospitality work as often anymore, but I may work on a Saturday night if there is work available and I have nothing planned. I start work at around 8am and finish at around 2:30pm most days...I was also doing private English tutoring in the evenings last year, but haven't started that up again this year yet.

I enjoy studying languages, so a few afternoons each week I have language exchanges, lately I've been studying Japanese and Korean. I must make a webpage in Japanese.... must put that on the 'to do' list. I've had a few job interviews in Japanese... but I'm still not completely confident... I hope to get a job where I can speak Japanese on a daily basis :)

I've been attending the Japanese/English language exchange group which is on the second Weds of every month, at Starbar, Town Hall, which is always interesting.

Other things I do lately include playing pool, going for walks - near a garden/beach/park, watching movies and chatting. I still haven't gotten involved in a regular sport yet.. but plan to shortly.. probably tennis.

This week, besides teaching English, I've been supervising a computer room at my school.. It's the first job where I've actually used the major I studied at Uni :) .. The supervision is only for this week.. but it may lead to better positions.

I've been going to a church called 'Christian City Church - God in the City' which has been great to go to on Sundays... the band and singers are really good and most people there have heaps of enthusiasm. My car is still working well.. (a green Mitsubishi Verada) but may sell it after I move houses in about 1 1/2 weeks.

Hope all who read this are well (^-^).

-19 October 05

- I moved to Sydney on 30/9/05 to look for work, I mainly looked for IT work up north, and it was a bit scarce, so I've moved here to get a better chance of work, also I'm applying for other areas, such as ESL teaching.

I've been doing some casual hospitality work to help pay the bills :) Sydney has been great! love this city, I'm living with my cousin near Maroubra. I put on the web a small Christian Invitation site I made, with some pictures I took of Byron Bay on it. - Take a look
* Here *

- August 05 -

I am currently living in my hometown, looking for work in areas such as hospitality and I.T.

- May 05- I have just moved to Tokyo, to look for different work than English teaching, that may reward better, as English teaching salaries seem to be decreasing over the past few years. I found a guest house fairly easily in Tokyo, however it's a tad old :) but things'll get better I'm sure. I'm looking for work mainly in the I.T. or finance/investment industries. Tokyo is a very interesting city to live in, however I don't blame people for seeming to put up a guard, as there are plenty of dishonest people around. I intend to start a tree planting group in Tokyo (kidding).. but more trees is always a good thing.

Last month I was in Kyoto (for a month), here's a link to some Kyoto pics

(note it's not a very user friendly page yet :) )please give me some recommendations.
Here's my resume

July 2004 I have recently moved to Osaka (on the 21st of June 04) This will be the second time I've come to Japan, last time I worked for a large English school in Sendai (Northeast) Japan. This time I came here on a working holiday visa, and looked for work for a couple of weeks before I found my current job. I will start it in late August.

I have found Osaka to be a very interesting city, with friendly people and a busy city life. The food is very good with popular food being Okonomiyaki and takoyaki.