喜多郎 Kitaro - Silk Road from Best Of Kitaro DVD 2001

喜多郎 祭り

Dear all ,

Kitaro is a Japanese composer / musician , in my eyes he is really great .

If my remembrance is correct.

I had listened four time of Live , one in Taipei , three time in Hong Kong .

It's a very uplifting music .

Every time in the Live that he plays this music .

Kitaro always wears white clothes , black trousers , and wears his long hair

with love

Chen Chen

The Animals - House of the Rising Sun (1964) High Definition [HD]

I cannot stop the wonderful music night.

The Eagles - Hotel California-True HD Audio-320 KBPS

Many thanks , the wonderful music night.

Tony Orlando & Dawn KNOCK THREE TIMES

Dear Hugh , thank you so much , you make me remember my teen-age time .

Christie: Yellow River

When I listen it again , I remember my teen-age time .

Roberta Flack - The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face [totp2]

I want to show you how young I am .

Romeo and Juliet 1968 "What Is A Youth"

I like this song , when I was teen-age , I can sing the song .The melody is great .

My current favourites playlist

Here are three songs I've been listening to a lot recently. Robert Wyatt - Solar Flares (Song for Che) Robert Wyatt was the drummer in a 1960s band from Canterbury called Soft Machine, but when he was 23 or 24 he fell out of a window when he was drunk and broke his back. This left him paralysed and he has spent the rest of his life in a wheelchair, but he's continued to make strange and lovely music. This song is from his 1975 LP called Ruth is stranger than Richard. I like listening to this record in the winter as it has a strange atmosphere and reminds me of long cold winter nights. It's quite repetitive and influenced a bit by jazz as well. I find it very relaxing. Maybe you will too!! Gene & Eddie - You've got to love me sometimes I LOVE 60s soul and this is one of recent discoveries. It's from 1967 or 1968 and I bought the single online for $30. It's by a duo - two guys called Gene and Eddie - and I find it really really powerful, moving music. The chorus is incredible and makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end!!!! The Jook - Aggravation Place I grew up listening to post-punk and power pop music and this reminds me of the kind of stuff I left when I was 13 or 14. Loud guitars, harmonies, great choruses that you want to sing along with, tough drumming - and all played with aggression and attitude. Great stuff. The Jook were around in the mid-to-late 1970s. Looking forward to reading about the music you love.

My great holiday in South Africa

I was in South Africa for one week. I had never seen summer in January. It was strange for me. I stayed in a four stars hotel near ocean. When I arrived at the hotel, the room wasn't available for us, so we had to wait for 2 hours.We decided to go to the hotel's restaurant. We had lunch, the food was delicious, but the services was slow. The hotel is located near ocean, so I could see amazing view on it. By the way the ocean was chilly. You can't swim too long. This is because two oceans meet there. During the week in the first half of the day, I visited the most popular places in Cape town. I like Camps Bay, if you go to Cape Town you should go to the Camps Bay beaches because they're spectacular. I heard about the wine tour at the city, so I decided with my sister take excursion to a wine farm. Excursion was interesting. I pick up how make wine. Than, we took bus around the city. It's was interesting. I remember most the townships. Where poor people live, so I could compare two countries and I could see big difference. The main reason was for my cousin's wedding. Wedding was in an amazing place near wine farm. The ceremony started at 4 o'clock pm, only close friend's attended. We were drinking, eating and chatting about everything, so I thing we had a good time. What I can say about Cape Town? It's happy place for life. Maybe I go back in SA this summer. Who know? Alexander

Okinawa

A few years ago, I spent about a week of summer holiday with my friends in Okinawa. It's the most southern region of Japan. Okinawa consists of some islands, so you have to use ships to go to others after you came to centre of Okinawa, but I think they worth visiting. The islands I have ever visited were really fantastic, although I have been to Okinawa twice. And also, all of islands are so small that you can drive everywhere if you rent a car.

Okinawa is quite different place from others of Japan. First of all, you can forget time especially if you are city guys. All of Okinawa are slow pace and I have heard that you could get delayed time even if you have meeting, So I love Okinawa. The place, however, has other aspects as well. For all of Japanese are taught in school or school trip that Okinawa has been occupied in America when The World War 2 had. When we go to Okinawa in school trip, we have to visit the places to escape from bomb and musium of history of Japan.

We did nothing special in Okinawa. We did only driving somewhere, jumping into really beautiful sea, and drinking Okinawa alcohol. The alcohol is called "Awamori". It's so strong and taste is quite strange that it's not my kind of thing, but we drunk too much. In Okinawa, you don't have to think of anything. You can use time in vain and in luxury.

( Part 1 ) The London Trip

Part 1

Dear all ,

Me and my husband and my son went to see The Lion King on Friday last week.

I took some pictures in the theater .

The theater is really beautiful and graceful.

I was so exhausted at that day.

I slept while the music of The Lion King in the beginning .

When I had just woken from a deep sleep then the music was the end of The Lion King .

' What was it like ? ' I asked my husband .

If you cannot sleep at night , I recommend you buy a ticket of The Lion King , the price is 70 pounds , and go into theater , then you can easy into your sweet dreams , but if you buy a ticket which is 20 pounds , I am not sure you can sleep in the beautiful theater as well.

with love

Chen Chen

My favourite holiday

My favourite holiday is a skiing holiday week in the north of Italy with my parents and their friends. When I was thirteen year old we went on holiday in a nice small town called Ortisei, in the Trentino-Alto Adige region, during Christmas time. I really enjoyed it because everyday we woke-up early in the morning and we had a nutritious breakfast with ham, cheese, cereal, yoghurt and afterwards we went skiing. We always had lunch in the typical alpine building, in italian it’s called baita, at the side of the ski run. In the afternoon when we didn’t go skiing we went for a walk in the snowy wood, where we could see beautiful landscapes or sometimes went ice-skating. At the end of the day we went back to the hotel which was really good and provided with some facilities like a swimming pool, a table tennis, a sauna. After dinner we usually went for a walk in the downtown where there were a lot of shops and cafés. The holiday was perfect.

My Xmas holiday

Back in December, I spent five wonderful days staying in a rented villa in Bali, an island in Indonesia. I've been to Bali lots of times - maybe ten or twelve. When I used to live in Jakarta, I went there quite a lot and have travelled around quite a lot. The southern part of the island is the most touristy - it's where all the package tours go and lots of people stay there and just drink and surf and eat for a week or two. Further north, Ubud is the cultural heart of the island, and lots of artists and sculptors are based there. It's very relaxed and chilled-out. On the north coast is Lovina. I haven't been there for maybe fifteen years, but when I was 25 or 26, I stayed there for a few days and went swimming with dolphins one morning, which was an experience I'll never forget. Anyway, this time around, I went with all my in-laws (my wife's family), so it was me, my wife and my daughter; my wife's mum and dad; her older brother and his wife and their two kids and her older sister, her husband and their two kids. We rented a huge big place, done in the traditional style. It has lovely. Very open plan and spacious. There was a swimming pool and you could hear the waves breaking on the beach maybe half a mile away. We also had our own cooks, which was a real luxury. The food was great, and it was lovely to eat all together as a family. It was also lovely wtahcing my daughter play with all her cousins. Bali is just a very special place: quite spiritual (it's manly Hindhu and there are lots of temples all over the place), and with a very slow pace of life compared to London. I could happily go there every year! Anyway, here are some photos of the island. I hope it encourages you to maybe think about going there sometime.

Looking forward to reading all about YOUR holidays. Best, Hugh

Hi everyone

Hello everyone - Welcome to your new class blog. I've set this blog up so that you have a space online to practise writing, to learn about each other and to tell your own stories in English. Hopefully, if you post a lot, you'll be able to see your English getting better, and in a few months' time, you'll be able to look back and laugh at how bad your English used to be - and feel pleased about how god is has become! I'm really looking forward to seeing what you all have to write. best, Hugh