CORRECTED
My 10-day year-end and new-year holiday has begun. It is always very busy at this time of year.
New-year cards, year-end cleaning, year-end parties and so on.

I'm a member of an English book club on Mixi. The organiser selects an English book each month and the members read the book at the same time. That motivates us to finish reading the book and we can ask others about words and sentences we don't understand.
Anyway, this month's selected book is Skipping Christmas written by John Grisham, a story of a couple who decided to skip Christmas.

I also want to skip some jobs this season like them.
Three years ago, our company decided not to give us employees' addresses because of their security policy, so I can reduce the number of new-year cards.
I'll do year-end cleaning until new-years eve, but it won't be finished.
I also clean my house during the Golden Week holidays in May. Cleaning the house in good weather is easy and it makes more sense.


○ the Golden Week holidays → the holidays にかかる形容詞だから theが必要
× the Golden Week → 固有名詞だからtheをつけない

ORIGINAL
My 10 days year-end and new-year holiday has started. This long holidays and this season's irregular jobs make us very busy.
New-year cards, year-end cleaning, year-end parties and so on.

I'm a member of a reading English books community on Mixi. The organiser select an English book each month and the members read the book in same time. That motivates us to finish reading the book and we can ask others some words and sentences.
Anyway, this month's selected book is Skipping Christmas written by John Grisham, a story of a couple who decided to skip a Christmas.

I also want to skip this season's some jobs like them.
Three years ago, our company decided not to give us employees' address because of their security policy, so I can reduce the number of new-year cards.
I'll do year-end cleaning until the new-years eve, but it wouldn't be finished.
I clean house also Golden Week holidays in May. To clean house in good weather is easy and it makes more sence.

It's too cold to wake up happily this week, isn't it?
I respect my husband that he never oversleeps. He wakes up by 5:30 a.m. and leaves home at six.
I go to work at 7:40 so I have enough time to do laundry or read books after I say, "Have a good day" to him.
However, my futon tempts me to slip into it and I can't beat the temptation.
OK, I'll sleep just 30 min... zzz.
Then as you imagine easily, I regret that I have to wake up with cold again.

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The Whispering Knights / Penelope Lively / Oxford Bookworms Library Level4 / 16,000words Total 1,297,172words / ★★★☆☆

The Whispering Knights (Oxford Bookworms Library) (2000/03/23) Penelope Lively 商品詳細を見る

I need to write an article for my homework.
I usually write what I did or thought. Describing general thing is more difficult for me.
I heard an interesting story about Merlion recently. I hope I can write it correctly.

As you know, Merlion is one of the most famous sightseeing spots in Singapore. It has a lion's face and a mermaid's tail.
I thought that there must be only one Merlion in the world, but it's not true. I saw three photos and unbelievly there are five Merlions in Singapore.
There was the first Merlion in a park. It was not so big and a new bridge was build that it became difficult to see the whole body.
Then a bigger Merlion was build in the same park and the first one was moved.
The third photo that I saw was the biggest, 37 m tall. People can climb in the tower like the statue of liberty. Its eyes flash at night.
I thought that they would be based on something of a myth. But they were build for tourism.

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The Sky Is Falling / Sidney Sheldon / YL6.4 / 70,808words Total 1,281,172words / ★★★★☆

The Sky Is Falling (2001/07) Sidney Sheldon 商品詳細を見る

I'm going to meet my friend and we chatted about the waiting time and the place.
I made her surprised because I said the wrong date. I checked my notebook and soon I realized my mistook.
By the way, I bought new notebook for the next year. Can I blame the notebook for this mistake? No? =P

I prefer calendars or notebooks that start from Sundays. If Sundays are painted with red and Saturdays are painted with blue, it's perfect. Maybe the reason was that I used to have this type.

Most of calendars start from Sundays, in the other hand most of note books start from Mondays, aren't they?
I searched why there are some calendar systems. I can't say for sure but this is a possible answer.
Sundays start calendar system is derived from Christianity, and Mondays start calendar system is derived from business.

What type of calendars do you like? Each person would have their favorite calendar. I want a standardized system at least.

The former vice defense minister Moriya was arrested on suspicion of taking bribes.
The former defense minister Yuriko Koike tried to fire him a few years ago, but she couldn't prove his suspicion. Then both Moriya and Koike had to resign from their position.
I guess Koike was glad to hear his arrest because she felt vindicated.
By the way, many people thought highly of her but I thought she was a token female member of cabinet.
Prime ministers tend to take female ministers in an attempt to show their impartiality. Many female politicians' former job were such as news caster, sports player, professor, etc. None of them succeed as a politician in long term.
In my opinion, they are intelligent, having a self confidence and a sense of justice but they lack communication skill to their junior workers.

review
*She felt vidicated 正当だと立証された
*thought highly of → respect
*token → 名ばかりの
*impartiality → 公平性
*sense of justice → 正義感

I had lunch with five coworkers and this was a conversation in the lunch time.

"I had thought that 流行語大賞 (The most popular word) this year would be 'そんなのかんけいない' but the award was given 'どげなせんとあかん'. I've heard the phrase but who said that?"

"This was said by Higashikunibara, the governor of Miyazaki, and wasn't it 'どないかせんといけんばい'?

The phrase means that we should manage these problems, in Miyazaki dialect. No of us were sure 'いけんばい' or 'あかん' or so on.

It was strange that 'The most popular word award' was given to the phrase that nobody knows.
The award should be given for the phrase that was spread among people.

I listen to an American broadcast program, VOA Special English.
What does Special English mean? The newscasters speak English clearly and slowly for non-native English speakers.
We can hear the programs and read the scripts on website for free.
Their topics are manifolds; such as history, current news, American life and so on. We wouldn't lose interest.
I was used to listen to NHK's English programs. They were great but we couldn't get the supports like VOA.
Japanese government spend much money for workers' reeducation and it is criticized.
I think that to get free NHK's program on website is great idea.