Cooking Class

The cooking class went well. I was a little apprehensive that things would not work out, but in the end, it was all fine. About 16 students turned up and I think they were happy with the class and with the end result.

Today I taught the class how to make traditional Scottish shortbread. It's not all that difficult. In fact, it's extremely simple. Mix 190g of butter, 90g of fine brown sugar, and 235g of flour and divide this into 12 small balls. Flatten the balls and place in the oven at 170C for 25 minutes. Voila!!! Traditional Scottish shortbread, guaranteed to give the eater a cardiac arrest within seconds. I don't think I'll ever eat shortbread again, now I know how much butter and sugar goes into them.

The class went well because the recipe was simple and was great for fitting into a one hour slot. I had to be on constant guard because the hoods on the kitchen extractor fans were really low and had very sharp corners. Obviously the kitchen was not designed for a 184cm tall Scotsman.

I have two more classes to lead before the community course finishes. On the 12th of December, I will teach the class English which will be useful for their visit to British Hills in January. I've mentioned British Hills in a previous post. My final class will be on the 19th of December and will be about Christmas (language, traditions etc). Thanks for reading.

British Hills

I cycled to a place called British Hills today - only about 60km of cycling but quite difficult as the place is at quite a high altitude. British Hills is a recreation of a British country village with a castle, pub, and other British style houses. The weather even felt British, due to the altitude. I am very impressed with British Hills as all the buildings look authentic and they organise a large number of British themed events throughout the year. All the staff speak English and many come from Britain.

I've been to British Hills many times - the place always seems busy and the guests and visitors always seem to have a good time. I visited British Hills 3 times with my old school (Shimogo JHS) and the students all seemed to benefit from the experience. The school trips typically lasted 3 days and the students were able to take part in different classes and activities that gave them a good idea on the British way of life.

Of course, every time I have visited British Hills, I've gone straight to the pub to take part in the very popular British tradition of getting drunk.

Despite the cold and windy conditions at British Hills, the rest of the cycling journey took place in clear weather with a temperature of about 30C. I was pretty exhausted when I reached Shimogo and stopped off at a new(ish) cafe called Doronko for a beer. Doronko is great because it serves my favourite Japanese beer called Yebisu. After the 60km cycle in hot conditions, the beer was fantastic!! Work at my new schools has been okay so far - I'll try and post a blog later in the week with my thoughts and photos.