A series on using past perfect

The next series of posts I'm going to write is on past perfect tense. People already feel present perfect is difficult, so past perfect feels even tougher.

• tough〔任務遂行・問題解決・交渉などが〕難しい、困難｛こんなん｝な、骨の折れる、厳しい、きつい It's tough to be a man. : 男はつらいよ。

For present perfect, please see the series of articles I did on it a while ago:

• http://upgradeenglish.blogspot.com/2009/05/have-you-ever-been-to-this-restaurant.html

I'll start the series tomorrow.

The dinner which I cooked last night wasn't so successful. I tried to make fried noodles and a spicy soup to go with them. The spicy soup turned out alright, but the noodles were a disaster. The flavor was alright, but somehow the noodles all clumped together.

• 塊まり (かたまり) (n) lump; mass; bundle; clump; clod; cluster; (used as a verb above)
  

I was especially disappointed because I had just made great fried noodles the night before. <- past perfect

What went wrong?

I should have taken a picture of my clump of noodles, but I was too disappointed and just ate them instead.

Here's a picture of the successful meal which I cooked on Saturday night: stir-fried greens with vegetarian pepper steak, fried tofu with chives in a five-spice sauce, fried noodles with XO sauce, and spicy cucumber salad. I was particularly pleased with the chives and tofu. I had been thinking about how to cook chives, and when I checked on the internet, I found someone cooking them with tofu and that five spice mixture. <- past perfect continuous

Anyway, watch for the start of the past perfect series tomorrow. Good night!