I am told the one great advantage of a VPN is that theoretically you can access the Internet from any location in the world. Imagine Google appearing in Cantonese while sitting in some Internet cafe in Greece, or browsing the Japanese iTunes Store from Brazil. If someone were to log in via the UK, the obvious target might be the BBC’s excellent iPlayer service. Doctor Who and the Great British Bake Off are two very popular shows, even among ex-pats… Imagine their displeasure if someone over at the good ol’ Beeb were to find a way of detecting VPN-usage! So no more Doctor Who. Or Bake-Off…

It’s OK though; Tom has his means, so we were able to fulfil our policebox-related cravings. I finished off this week with lessons mainly focusing on Einstein’s Enigma, a charming logic puzzle. The vocabulary is manageable for TESOL lessons as it focuses on colours, pets and drinks – the tricky ones are Nationalities (Brit, Dane, Swede, German and Norwegian aren’t obvious) and Cigar brands (cigarettes are easy enough to explain since smoking is commonplace here, but Prince, Blue Master, Dunhill, Blend and Pall Mall aren’t so easy).

Becca came to visit and we had great fun continuing my Disney education (The Little Mermaid this time). Not that we would ogle a cartoon, but someone recently did a set of artwork somewhere on the internet of Disney princes and princesses ‘as they would appear in real life’ so we had great fun comparing those. We met up with Mike for a meal – the same Korean Barbecue place we’d been taken to before. I think they remembered us; this time we gained a ‘Chinese mum’ who insisted on putting the food on our plate, adding spices and making us eat them. ‘Eat it now, before it gets cold,’ Mike translated, ‘and I think that was an order, not a suggestion…’

I think we’ve also found a favourite dumpling shop, around 20 minutes away on foot. We’ve taken to ordering our tea – and then next day’s lunch – at the same time. Unfortunately, this sometimes results in orders in excess of eighty dumplings at once,  and compounded by the fact that we sometimes send one person ahead to order for the other, I think we’re creating a strange impression on the owners. Based on the looks they give us, anyway. Ah well.

—TJC

Featured image: Playing Numberwang (from BBC’s That Mitchell and Webb Look).