Well, that interpretation got a little screwed up. We met up at the social services center at 3, only to find out the assessment was being done at her home, where the social worker was right then. We took a bus there, but we didn't get there until after 3:30, with no sign of the social worker. Luckily, he did stop by a couple minutes later, while we were trying to call the center to see if he had returned. Everything went fine with the actual interpretation, but it meant I didn't get home until 6:30, so I missed the results from the interview. They called and said they would call back again. I hope I didn't miss the second call, too.

Yesterday I had an interview in Sheffield. I should find out the results tonight. I think I did well in the interview, but I don't know about the other candidates. I am a little concerned about getting a work permit for this post, since it was not advertised very long, and the requirements the government sets out says 4 weeks. I hope they wouldn't have to readvertise it.

It was snowing tons in Sheffield. There were snow flurries everywhere, but nothing in London. Then, once I got home to London that night, it started coming down like crazy. I met Victoria at 10pm at the tube station (she was out with friends), and there was an inch of snow everywhere. I made a little snow man on the park bench, but he appears to have been stolen by school kids and used as ammunition, because he was gone this morning.

This morning it finally stopped snowing, and somehow it has gotten warm enough that 95% of the snow has now melted.

I have an interpretation gig at 3, but it is located really close to my house, on Clapham High Street, so it should only take 10 minutes or so to get there.

It has been snowing in London for the last several days. It also got a lot colder again. Of course, the weather is not as bad as Toyama was, but it is definitely cold here. The snow hasn't really accumulated at all. It is mostly a thin layer on the ground, with nothing left on the pavements (sidewalks) and roads.

Yesterday Victoria and I got to meet the Japanese ambassador to the U.K. We went to a Japan Society event for the first time. We have free membership for one year since we are JET alumni. Many of the events are quite expensive, so we haven't gone to them. But this one was reasonably priced, so we went. We met many people there who also had not been to many events either, so I think other younger members are in the same situation. Most of the younger people seemed to be either Japanese or ex-JETs. There is a conversation group every first Thursday, so we hope to go to that next week. Apparently mostly younger members go to the conversation thing, so that should be fun. Our Japanese has slipped some, so it will be good to practice. The ambassador spoke at the event and answered questions about Japanese foreign policy and world events. He told us some interesting stuff about what Japan is doing, but was still very diplomatic (I guess that's why he is an ambassador) about the whole thing. He was especially careful when talking about Japan's support for American foreign policy in Iraq, and with the Kyoto Treaty.

Last Wednesday was my birthday, and it was quite busy. I spent a lot of the day running around at the charity doing various interpretations and some computer work. When I got home, Victoria and I got a little dressed up and went out to a nearby Mexican restaurant on Clapham High Street. There are a lot of restaurants nearby, but they are not that affordable for us right now, so it was nice to experience one of them. The food was good, and the atmosphere was nice in the restaurant. Today I found out about a Columbian restaurant that is supposed to be delicious and cheap. Maybe that will be our next meal out.

This week I am busy preparing for an interview on Thursday, as well as doing all the chores and volunteering at the project. Victoria is in the final stages of making the course schedule for the school, and it is exhausting her. Hopefully it will be finished soon so she won't have as much pressure at her workplace.

Well, I was unsuccessful in the two interviews, but it was interesting seeing two new towns. I went to Southampton, a small port town in the South, for the first interview. The town had a beautiful park in the middle of it, which was more wooded and generally nicer than the one outside our room. The town was quite good about bike trails as well. There were bike paths next to the major sidewalks. This is a great improvement over London, where you have to bike in the roads, which are already overcrowded and full of angry drivers. I thought the interview went pretty well, but there must have been other good candidates as well.

For my next interview I went to Sheffield, an old industrial town in the north, famous for steel construction and other metal work. It is not a big steel town anymore, and is in the process of reinventing its downtown. They had a really nice winter gardens (like a really nice greenhouse) and several free art gallerys near the center of town, a Victorian town hall. In addition, construction was going on everywhere in town. I think it will look very different in five years. My interview took me out away from town to the hospital medical school. I had to take an SQL and HTML test before the interview. I think I did okay on both, because I studied some for the SQL part, since I haven't done that in years.

It turns out, by coincidence, I have another interview in Sheffield for a different university a week from Thursday, so hopefully that will pan out better. Meanwhile, I am still applying for other jobs. Hopefully I'll get some interviews at places that are a bit further south.

Victoria and I have been busy these last couple of weekends. For the last weekend in January, I took her to Canterbury for a weekend trip away. It was a nice town with a beautiful cathedral, and a giant wall most of the way around it. The only bad thing was that we had a bus at 7:30pm to go back to London on Sunday night. Everything tends to close at 5 or 6 on Sundays in the UK, so we were outside in the freezing cold for almost two hours waiting for the bus.

On the 5th of February, we went to Oxford and stayed with Victoria's sister Gillian. It was Victoria's mom's birthday, so the family had a small reunion at Gillian and Nigel's house. We went out to lunch and dinner in Oxford and spent the night there on Saturday. It was a good trip, and I got a birthday cake out of it. Victoria's mother made me a cake ahead of my birthday, which was a really nice thing to do.

This past weekend we didn't really do much. Friday we went to a cafe and played Pass the Pigs, a game which involves rolling pigs instead of dice. On Saturday we slept most of the day. On Sunday we went to Trafalgar Square, in the center of town. There was a large Chinese New Year festival there, complete with parade, fireworks, and stage performances. The square was so packed it was difficult to see anything, so we met up with Chris, Gisella, and Natalie at a nearby tea house. Unfortunately, getting to the tea house was near impossible. We had to walk through Chinatown, which was so crowded that everyone was just pushing each other, and no one was going anywhere. The woman ahead of me almost got in a fight with another woman. It was a bit scary, like gridlocked traffic for pedestrians. I was worried I might have a claustrophobic attack. Things were not helped by the many people performing in the street with Chinese costumes that large groups stopped to watch. The tea house was quite cool looking, with blue windows and aquariums everywhere. I ordered a tea that ended up tasting just like what I think tea in Chinese restaurants in America tastes like. I basically randomly chose, so I guess it was a good choice, as I like that type of tea.

I've done some more interpreting over the last week or two, including interpreting at the hospital, and for a research project. I'm also creating a web page for the project, and dealing with various computer issues they have.