computer cat
Mary has taken quite a shine to lying on top of the computer as we work and proceeds to bliss out on the heat to the extent that when she drunkenly hops down, she appears quite floppy and listless for a few minutes (photo above and below). She's had ample opportunity to be up there while I've been tapping away at my assignments this week, now mercifully finished and crafted in the same exacting manner in which most of the others have been created (i.e. shoddily pumped out at great ferocity with no draft and no revision!) I have at least one more course before Christmas and I'm looking for another graduate course at 600 or 700 level from a Uni in the States that I can do then transfer into New York State.
The ESL booklet was finally printed this week and although only 20 pages long, it has been rather a chore and I'm very glad to see it in the hands of parents and teachers as well as the School Board. I had been extolling the magnificence of the product for some months in my monthly report to the Board, so I was very pleased that I could finally issue them with the finished product.
Taiwan has served up a potpourri of natural phenomena over the last few days. While Japan has been smashed and battered by a succession of typhoons and rocked intensely by earthquakes, Taipei has experienced minor versions of the same. At time of writing, Ross, Carl and I have returned from a surf at the Pillbox, where a building typhoon swell shows all indications of unleashing some ferocious winds in the next 24-48 hours. We got some good clean waves at first, but sheeting rain and buffeting winds saw us abandon our efforts after a couple of hours. Cass jumped off the lounge last night hurting her injured ankle a little again when a fair earthquake upset our equilibrium. The apartment swayed and shook for a good 30 seconds, but we always see this as a good thing: better a series of little quakes than a big bertha after a long period of inactivity. Most of the recent typhoons have veered off before making landfall here, but this one looks like hitting about 2 tomorrow afternoon, possibly disrupting home time at school. We'll wait and see; the school usually takes their cue from the Taipei city government and they hold off till the last minute to announce school closures.
We watched the Aussie/Kiwi league test here today and delighted in the Aussie's win, although we wished Ross and Ains were here to make it a little sweeter! ABC Asiapacific continues to entertain us with some great TV, Kath and Kim starts tomorrow and the Melbourne Cup carnival will feature 6 hours of coverage. Unlike at home, this day has no resonance with our colleagues, so Lewy and I just might have a personal day to enjoy the coverage and have just a couple of sensible investment wagers!
I have to mention the photo below. During my conferences this week, this little fellow, all of 8 years old, decided that he needed to dress up for the occasion: his Mum told him he didn't need to, but he insisted on putting on suit and tie and even affected a Taipei American School badge on the lapel. If not quite presidential material, he certainly looks the part!
Thanks to our regular correspondents who sadly appear to be in a dwindling number. If you got an email from Cass in the last day or so you are in this group, so I'll take this opportunity to castigate anyone else reading this and "challenge you" (quote from our past boss, the mustachioed provocateur himself, Alan Green) to let us know you're still alive.