JA2340

My GF at the time ( now life partner) decided that I needed a challenge at age 49. After 3 years of babysitting her dogs while she went skiing, I was eventually convinced to do the trip to Jindabyne for a weekend. Left Tamworth (NSW, Oz) Thursday evening, arrived at Jindy am Friday, got kitted out with hire gear and then onto the slopes. Skiing was all that was offered - all the group of about 16 were long time skiers and no boarders. Since then I have travelled to NZ (once) and Japan 3 times so far), both good! We are so keen on Japan that we are now trying to learn Nihongo so we c

Having flown in fro Oz, We rode at Furano and a day at Kamui Ski Links. Def worth the trip, and next year's accom is booked already! Just awaiting a decent airfare deal, still have until Xmas to get that sorted.

Not so, Tubby. Homer is a drawing. (actually a whole lot of drawings each just a little different from the others)

No, the TV is on atm, but I'm not watching it - it is just there as background noise.

One advantage of being retired!! Getting back to 'work' is easy

Nah, just a BOF (boring old f@rt) who'd rather have fun without stupid cartoons! I actually rather make my own fun - don't need to be 'entertained' by the terebi.

Mantas, Only one suggestion, don't go overboard with it. The gift is symbolic rather than "payment" for the service. Something small but significant (possibly a drawing by the kidlet would be appropriate?) Anyway, what's wrong with a slab? VB might be a bit OTT though. A decent beer would be better!

Yeah, but they are still cartoons! With someone unknown (or sometimes 'famous') reading the lines. Please don't start quoting "Homer said:..." stuff, he's a drawing!

Might also clarify whether you mean 12 midnight or 12 midday. At midnight, a taxi might be a bit hard to come by! There's no such time as 12am (or 12 pm for that matter) because am and pm stand for "ante midi" (or before midday) and "post midi" (or after midday) so midday cannot be either am or pm. Also midnight, as the point at which pm changes to am cannot be either as well.

Yeah, tuff when you don't have to pay rent/mortgage, buy food, pay electricity etc accounts and all the cash you earn can be spent on yourself (beer etc). Life's so easy when you have to use the money you earn to survive as well as pay for the education tuition, texts etc. N O T !!

Jeeze, Indo, Your dad and I are much the same vintage - he is a looong way from old yet! (my b'day is April 23, 1948). My dad is starting to look old, and to feel it - which is more the point - and he is just 83 and Mum is 82.

About half as much as would melt if the temperature were 15 degrees, and twice as much as would melt if the temp were 7.5 deg. Any questions? (ask someone else!)

Never had a period in my life (didn't even have the operation, either!)

Originally Posted By: 2pints,mate The "who gives a toss" option is quite simple - just click away and ignore. OK, done! ignored!

Tubby, what a great idea! Can we send them back?? or maybe just press undo several million times?

Mama, Must be something to do with the shared british heritage? We had to get SOMETHING of use from the empire!

Yeah, sure tubbs, get over it! The question was about working while studying. The premise being that if you didn't you were somehow bludging. Simply put, full time students have up to 26 hours of lectures/tutorials a week. The rest of the time is "free" for them to study, drink, work etc. That some choose to work for part of that time is commendable, but it should not be used as a mark of "superiority". Nor should it be compared to those who work full time and study part-time. For external and part time students, the balance is totally the other way. They have a full time job (w

Originally Posted By: 2pints,mate ... have a huge dome slaphead and just leave a few remaining bits of embarrassing baby fluff on the top (ala Alan Shearer or worse) with normal looking hair on the sides and back. For those of us who are not Poms, who the heck is Alan Shearer, and why is that important? The poll is flawed in that there is no :who gives a toss: option. Actually, most polls are flawed in that they offer only options the designer would be comfortable with, rather than the whole range of possibilities.

Tubby, the man is in Ireland! The options close in a bit the further away you are. John, The best choice is to make one! then go with it. Re english lessons, I would suggest you ask the ski schools at the resorts. They would have a fair idea of the standard of english available. Obviously, a resort that has a website with no English option is unlikely to have much in the way of support for English speakers. OTOH, you could just keep asking. FWIW, I have been to Niseko - and the ski schools there have good English language instructors, and Furano - where the level of support fo

Saw a short piece of one of them, forget which but it don't matter much. What a waste of electrons! Typical Amreican attempts at humour - sadly falling flat. But, someone will probably defend them by quoting what one of the characters "said" - hey, it is ONLY A CARTOON!

Mama, Your mum 'n' I share a birth year! The job I had was to catch the blardy chook and behead it with my trusty hatchet. Then my younger sister (by 3 years) had the plucking and gutting job! I think I had the easiest one (apart from the exhausting chase around the yard to catch it!) I trapped rabbits during my school days, skinning them and selling the skins (dried) for pocket money and keeping the carcases as "underground chicken" to eat. Sometimes, when we had a glut I'd sell the bodies to the freezer man who came around once a week to collect. (We'd be taking up mum's freezer space

People like her are an inspuiration! Every time I think about how "stuffed" things are - a story like that surfaces and I end up wondering what I was concerned about! As a relatively fit (and rarely sick) 59yo, I have little comprehension of the pain and anguish this kind of thing can cause. All that remains to be said is - Go Girl!

Furano doesn't look that wonderful ... http://www.snowjapan.com/e/daily/webcam/index.html

Originally Posted By: Mamabear Yes you can get cash in Kutchan (but not everyone goes into Kutchan) Why not? Kutchan is a very nice town, worth a visit for the day when the lifts are on wind hold, or for the "lay" day you gotta have because you are too stuffed to ski anymore.

Originally Posted By: Fattwins I almost cried watching some of the students balling. Read this and thought ..." What? Elementary kids balling?" What were the teachers thinking?, Then realised that FT meant "Bawling" as in crying. Balling has another (quite different) connotation referring to the copulatory act. Pheewwww!