There has been some stifling heat this week, that real take your breath away stuff that just forces you back into some air conditioning. We have been artificially cooled each day and night this week, at work and home. Combined with this heat, there has been a peculiar huge intense tropical downpour each day. This has been most curious, as it has occurred whenever we decided we were going to walk or bike to or from school each day! We tried to fool the storm a few times by leaving at different times but it still got us!
Virg’n Mary have even enjoyed the air conditioner this week, quite unusual for them, as they will seek out the hottest parts of the house in which to sleep and relax. The surf has remained quite the millpond and we have not even ventured over. There is the slight promise of a typhoon way off the coast towards the end of the week, so we’re all pinning our hopes on this storm to blow a little bit of swell our way: we don’t care how stormy/rainy it is, anything would be better than the flat conditions we’ve had now for 3 weeks. Yes, three weeks already and at some times it feels like months. Mum sent some clippings which arrived in record time from Australia so that last weekend, we enjoyed clippings from just the Saturday before. We read some more of these this weekend and they were especially enjoyable this morning as Cass cooked pancakes for breakfast! What a great treat that was, washed down with some strong coffee. We went to the pictures again today, as the weather was so enervating as to preclude any other activity. We saw “Redeye” which was quite a competent thriller, but we found it a little formulaic and not great in comparison with the funny “Wedding Crashers” from last week. We grabbed a quick takeaway lunch and settled in to watch the football between the Eels and the Raiders this afternoon. We’re off to one of our favourite restaurants, “Bird”, tonight, a Thai restaurant just up the way that serves delicious and authentic Thai fare. It’s close, so we think we’ll be able to make it there and back without getting heat stroke; I’m only half joking, it is psycho hot!
I had a fairly quiet day on Saturday after more than a few beers on Friday afternoon/night. I started in the afternoon with Ross and Gurecki just for a few quiet ones, but we ended up heading to the Green Bar after a great time on the terrace at Wendel’s bakery. I’ve included a few shots of the festivities…there were lots of our friends out and about, so plenty of encouragement to stay and have “just one more”. Suffice to say that Saturday was very quiet indeed and Cass popped in and out a few times while I enjoyed some time on the lounge in front of the telly!
Work will be busy, especially early this week as I prepare and present the ESL information night. I’m not at all nervous about this, which could be a worrying sign (!). I’m still teaching a full load while doing my other duties, and keep getting told that the issue will be resolved soon. I would much prefer if I were given some time off in form of a sub, rather than extra money, which is another possibility.
Carl and family got a dog this week! They’ve been interested for some time, but were worried about the usual things: apartment living, what to do in the big break etc. She’s a beautiful dog, a retriever of some type, but unfortunately, has got into some very bad habits while living with other families. She tends to ignore the litter tray and just relieve herself wherever she likes! As you can imagine, some hard and fast training has to occur and I think Hiroko has been at her wits end during the day. Carl is doing his best when he gets home and I’m sure they’ll have “Chisel” trained before you know it.