The Indian restaurant round the corner has proved to be a real winner. Our dinner last Monday night was absolutely delicious and the menu is extensive and varied, with lots of old favourites and more than a few new dishes to try over time. I went back on Saturday to get some takeaway only to be greeted by a full restaurant, more waiting on benches for takeaway and the Indian gentleman owner acknowledging my “first customer” status with apologies for the wait and more than a slight sheen of perspiration on the brow. Suffice to say, it looks like it may be in for the long haul, despite the appalling record of restaurants here, seeming to disappear overnight. We come back from the big break prepared for a significant change in the shops and eateries landscape and we’re never disappointed.
The week dragged a little at work, with assorted people still mentioning my brief news appearance. I’m in the throes of organizing the ESL parent night which will be held next Tuesday, along with dealing with the usual mind numbing amount of administrivia and countless meetings across all divisions of the school, all the while trying to get to know the new students and parents in my own little teaching world of grade 3. The team seems to be a lot more accepting of my role this year and are quite prepared to “pass” many issues, gratifying in one way, but annoying in another as each decision or meeting erodes the time just a little more. Cassy is absolutely delighted with her new teaching partner, Kristin, an Aussie most recently in Korea. She is delightful to get along with, prepared to follow Cassy’s lead in curriculum work at this stage, yet offering thanks and positive and helpful suggestions.
Virg’n Mary have been unceremoniously de-sexed and the poor little buggers spent the next day at home walking around like the proverbial drunken sailors. We took them in the car in a teeming tropical storm and Mary escaped and clung vertically to a filing cabinet moaning till she was retrieved. It was quite a circus, as the resident kitten at the vets was inquisitive to the point of being painful, checking out what his “sisters” were doing in those funny blue carry boxes, upsetting them all the more. When we picked them up in the afternoon they were both sporting the most curious orange cones on their heads to stop them licking their stitches. After Virg nearly strangled herself trying to remove the cone even when she had the wobbly boot on, we decided it would be wiser to remove them. They’ve been very sleepy, slow and sooky ever since so I think they got a fair whack of the old jungle juice. Talk about service though……for the princely sum of $80 each, they have had the procedure, but also (this afternoon) the first of three antibiotic shots, plus a 5th visit to remove the stitches! We certainly don’t remember any of this carry on with poor dead Eugene, but I suppose, better safe than sorry. The main problem with all this is taking them to the vets each time in their baskets (we normally walk) through all the wonders Taipei has to offer, such as roaming dogs, pouring rain, immovable pedestrians and the ubiquitous non-stop noisy, stinky traffic.
Ross and I had an excellent surf on Friday afternoon after school, small waves but clean and uncrowded. I decided it was best to stay home on Saturday and Sunday with the kitties, but we did venture out yesterday to watch the “Bourne Supremacy” which we both found to be action packed and great entertainment. The day was scorching and heavily humid, quite enervating all round. We sank back into the air conditioning and watched the Sunday NRL game after the seeing the valiant Knights just falter on Saturday. I’ve loaded my Kodak software on the computer and we are enjoying the most magnificent crystal clear screensavers of Newcs at the moment….many of which we snapped on our daily walks on the Bather’s Way. We seem to have a problem with our email at the moment: everything seems fine except we haven’t been able to receive any messages for a week. To all our faithful correspondents who no doubt have hands quivering above the keyboard ready to reply, please hold off sending anything for the moment; I’ll give you a message when we eventually get it all sorted out. Oh. By the way, Stickybeek’s beach webcam is now on the Beach Hotel, giving us an easily accessed, oft updated view just to show us what we’re missing!
