While still drifting in and out of a “return to reality” mood, I’m starting to see a little light at the end of the tunnel. What has exacerbated this feeling is the fact that I’m teaching a full load and still expected to do my administrative duties. It’s a hard ask at the start of the year in particular. I’m also working with 3 new teachers this year, who all are adapting to my presence in their room with varying degrees of stress, relaxation or trepidation! I’ve got so used to working with Blair and Chad over the years and I miss that easy rapport we shared. Belinda, John and Gerri will be just fine, but we all need to get used to each other and the way we each work. All the teachers amongst my readers will understand the daunting prospect of another teacher teaming with you, same room, same time. In contrast, Cassy is reveling in having her partner, Kristin, back with her. Kristin is just so delightful; she thanks Cassy at regular intervals for the work she does and the easy working relationship they have developed. Cassy’s classes are shaping up very nicely too and she was really pleased to see that Carl’s youngest boy, Sean, is in one of her classes. She taught Steven a couple of years ago. She also has a student who bears an uncanny resemblance to the “Bride of Chucky” who is quite precocious and demanding, but I’m sure she’ll deal with her in the appropriate manner!
I have been doing some boxing training here with Ross the past fortnight, using the extra gloves, wraps and focus pads that I brought from home. We are using a heavy bag that Aaron the pool guy had secreted away in his storeroom, until we get a better one. We string it up on a chin-up bar in the corridor outside the weight room, but it’s a cramped area and we have to take it down each day. Clarky has given me the OK to hang a heavy bag in the weight room, so I’ve been busy finding a good bag locally this week. I can’t find a speedball, which is a bit frustrating, but I’ll keep searching. Hopefully we’ll get properly set up in the next few weeks. Our new Aussie, Josh, who works on the 5th grade team with Ross, has even begun a new blog calling it the Pointy Hat boxing club, but I don’t know what he thinks he’ll post on there!
The surf has been as flat as my mood this week and all the Pointy Hat surfers have been very frustrated. I’ve resorted to posting photos that members took when they were home and also world’s smallest wave entries, but that has been about all. We were hoping for something today, but the tragic scenes that greeted us via web cam photo this morning were even worse than we expected.
Cassy had an interesting day yesterday when she traveled downtown on the MRT with 1 of her book club friends, Kathy and another woman from school, Carol, to check out some upmarket home ware and lifestyle stores. She came back most impressed with them all, some Swedish inspired and one specializing in exquisite Chinese antiques and other objet d’art where a sales assistant accompanied them around the store explaining each item if needed. She bought a small mat for the cat’s room and a set of 4 hand made glasses which are simply decorated and very stylish. We had a scrumptious meal at the Moroccan restaurant here in Tienmu last night and invited Carl, Hiroko and the boys. They hadn’t been there before and they were most impressed. It is swathed in silk and Moroccan curios inside, dimly lit and the food, in Tajine ovens, skewers and cous cous can transport you away from Taipei. Sitting there with our friends, we could have been anywhere in the world. We’re off to the pictures later this morning to see “Wedding Crashers” with Owen Wilson. Anything I’ve seen him in has been hilarious, so it might be just the tonic! We’ll come home to catch the big NRL game between the Saints and the Eels and I might try and drag myself into the weight room for an hour or so after that, seeing as I haven’t done one active thing all weekend. I’ve included a photo that Lewy took last week after he presented me and Ross and Gurecki (back to camera in horse impression!) with Delbridge Racing caps. He is a part owner in a number of horses back home and we share his passion to a point. (Just back from the pictures…it WAS hilarious!)
Now Monday afternoon and this short addendum. The software won’t load photos to the web so I’ve been delaying this post. It may end up being unaccompanied. We had a very civilized afternoon when a tropical storm, which just wouldn’t stop, thwarted our shopping plans, so we took the car! Underground parking, trolleys etc…we felt most spoilt. Taking advantage of the car, we bought mega packs of everything and what seemed like a thousand kilos of cat litter. I still had to take the car back to school and ride the scooter through the downpour, but it was quite the adventure!