I took delivery of six ominously thick bundles of materials from San Diego University today for the next installment in the great credit point hunt. These six bundles are, as I write, staring reprovingly at me from their distinctive perch on the top of the filing cabinet just beside my computer desk here. They are really being quite rude…just a minute.
Ah, back again, I’ve removed them from sight for now: how dare they accuse me of procrastination…I must write this blog weekly! It what seems now like one of my worst decisions in recent memory, I decided to apply for 6 subjects at once, to be completed in 3 months, to give me the motivation necessary to complete them. Rationale: if I’d already paid for them I’d do them. The logic is probably quite sound actually, considering what a miser meany I am!
Cass and I have decided not to go home at Christmas this year but rather, to laze around at some resorty kind of place in the Asia Pacific region. I was quite keen to combine this with a surf, but many places don’t quite meet BOTH our requirements. Cassy needs some kind of suitable accommodation (I still argue that a yacht cruising around the Mentawais meets this criteria, but I was outvoted!) and I’m OK, but would still like some surf, which is tough in this region at Christmas. We thought we’d struck some gold when we secured the last 2 remaining spots at a real surfer’s paradise, The Caroline Islands, in Micronesia. The accommodation just met Cassy’s passing grade and the surf was drop dead perfect, December and January pumping at 10’ plus and offshore perfection. I’d go out on the boat each day to the reef and Cass would relax and read and explore the island. Perfect? Yes, BUT, we found out it would cost us $5,000 in airfares and take 2 ½ days to get there and back! We would be shuffled up to Korea first, then to Guam and then Palau and finally Pohnpei, our destination. The reason for the price and the hassle is, as our travel agent explained, that it is not “a popular place for Taiwanese”. Thank God they like Australia!
Anyway, after getting all depressed about missing my dream surf holiday, we’re currently investigating alternatives. We’re keen to check the west coast of Sri Lanka perhaps, or even a less well-known area of Bali (i.e. One where the possibility of getting bombed is remote to zero). Our fall back is a resort in Thailand with a side trip to Kanchanaburi near the bridge on the river Kwai and the home of the Tiger temple. We haven’t got anything organized yet, so we might still come home!
Cass is madly marking memoirs and then putting these grades into her first quarter reports. Yes, the first quarter is just ending. She has been running her usual “Rocktober” this month for the kids much to their bemusement I gather. She either shows a clip of a song from our DVD music collection, or plays a song on CD as the kids come into class each day. She gives them a little explanation about the band etc afterwards. Lots of Aussie gold for their education is essential of course. Most of the kids don’t quite know how to take it all; they’re quite anal little bunnies!
I have “portfolio activity-based conferences” with my little kiddies coming up this week (sounds pretty fancy doesn’t it? I’m sure the majority of the Chinese parents just want to know how their kid is going by talking to the teacher!) So the teachers I work with are madly stuffing everything in sight into these special folders. It’s mind numbingly boring to tell the truth, but it will all be over soon.
We had the usual suspects here to watch the Australia/NZ test here on Saturday night and Ross was all excited when the Kiwis won (see photo) We’d had a pretty good surf earlier that day with Carl and Tobes, so we were pretty happy with ourselves. The Pointyhat has some pretty fancy animation graphics happening so make sure you check it out here. Cass and I saw "Four Brothers" on Sunday, not too bad, certainly a step up from when Charles Bronson used to murder about 20 people for looking sideways at him. We had some pretty good cheesecakes and coffees just before we went in as well!
I get into a bit of a panic when I don’t do this blog on time each week (which is not very often…who did I say was anal?!) but I shouldn’t worry too much. My mum and Cassy’s parents both wrote emails today saying they’d just read the blog and had enjoyed this and that…it was last week’s!! I’m off to have a sedative and pretend I don’t feel the piercing, guilt provoking stares of six paper bundles of pure evil behind me as I tip toe out of the room…