Volume 12　家で楽しむ雨の日


Taking Advantage of the Rainy Season

Ann: Otherwise, indoor games and activities when it's raining, sometimes, I guess, if my mother was tin the mood she would let us bake. I mean, like, bake cookies or, ha-ha. And that was always fun, you know, to make something or to do some kind of project . . . 

Michael: Yes.

Ann: . . . uh, craft. Some kind of project . . .

Michael: Right, yes. Yes.

Ann: . . . was always a lot of fun. 

Michael: You know, I think rainy days have a lot of benefit to them. If you really allow yourself to be creative then you'll find that you can actually really, really enjoy rainy days 'cause there's so much you can do. Especially if you've got kids. 

Ann: And I suppose the challenge now is giving yourself that space to realize that. Because there are so many indoor things that people do even when the weather's beautiful, meaning, uh, being on the computer or watching TV.

Michael: And I think one thing in the U.K. that was very unique was Sundays. In the U.K., when I was growing up anyway, Sunday is of course the Christian day of rest where nobody's supposed to work. And what that means, nobody's supposed to work, it means nothing is open. The shops are closed. Everything is closed. There's nothing to do on a Sunday, at least when I was growing up. And so that was a great motivator to find creative ways of spending the day, because Sunday afternoons were so unbelievably boring. Now things have changed. Shops open on Sundays, everything opens, and it's become more like a second Saturday. But yeah, we were forced into finding creative ways of spending our time in those days. And I think that's kind of a good thing.

Ann: I think it is a good thing.

Michael: And, you know, this is something to remember. Yes, these days we've got the TV, we've got the computers, we've got the video games and they have their place. But just don't let them dominate your life. There's so much more you can do. Just have a day in which you do nothing that requires electricity. 

Ann: Ha-ha.

Michael: Just a purely analog day. Find creative ways of spending time with the family.

Ann: OK, well on that very positive note from Michael, we'll end here for this month and, uh, we're really glad that you joined us.

Michael: Yes and we look forward to seeing you next month. 

Ann: Bye.

Michael: Take care. Bye-bye.