The best wave I saw this weekend was the one on top of Cassy’s head on Sunday morning! The surf has been dismal and although Ross and I had decided to wait till Sunday, conditions had actually deteriorated. So, this weekend, for the 1st time in a long while, we didn’t go out at all. Carl did venture over this morning and reported twelve million people taking part in a marathon that followed the coast road. This meant that it took him 25 minutes to get from the Jinshan turnoff to the beach (about a kilometre) after negotiating another million rubber-neckers on top of the mountain trying to get an early glimpse at the spring cherry blossoms. Sounds like a good day to avoid the coast, especially when the surf was near enough to flat.
Cassy endured two days in a row of parent interviews at the end of this week and was subsequently quite exhausted on Saturday. She spoke to nearly 50 parent groups! She’d also managed to grade 44 papers in between interviews, at lunch and before and after: I was tired just thinking about it! My Thursday was very interesting too. One of my colleagues on third grade, John, has been at the school for years and has developed friendships with lots of people. One of his friends is a pilot for China Airlines and this contact saw us gain some pretty special access to their facilities for the entire 3rd grade. We got to spend time in their 15 million dollar flight simulators, which was an amazing experience for me, so I imagine the kids were just blown away, or I hope they were. The simulators are a full replica of the cockpit of a 747 and they can set up scenarios for any airport, day and night, take off and landing. Our group landed at Hong Kong airport at night and even though we were slightly off line, we made it safely. Others weren’t quiet as lucky! The feeling in the simulator is absolutely amazing: I’d challenge anyone to honestly say that it didn’t feel exactly as if we were in a plane landing at night. The hydraulic jacks moved the simulator up and down and side-to-side according to how the “plane” was controlled…it was incredible.
We went out and saw the Pink Panther on Saturday, but pretty much regretted that decision, as it was a very pale imitation of the Seller’s classic from the mid ‘60s. Steve Martin didn’t do himself any favours taking on this role. On the way home, we got some Chili’s “take out” which was mouth wateringly delicious and felt quite decadent for some unknown reason!
Our whizzo computer/TV set up is continuing to provide us with great entertainment. I’ve been downloading torrents to the computer and subsequently beaming the pictures and audio to our TV via our little wireless hot spot we have now created in the apartment. We watched the Chaser’s War on Absolutely Everything the other night and loved it. Australia’s Biggest Loser is not a show I would probably watch at home (so I say!!), but anyway, an Australian torrent is an Australian torrent. We find ourselves drawn to this show because even though it is disturbing, the voyeuristic draw is very compelling. It’s kind of like the attraction of a car crash: you try not to look, but can’t quite stop yourself!
We’re being treated with the A league soccer grand final this afternoon by ABC Asia Pacific, so we’ll check that out and we’re going to watch Capote this evening. Then we’re pretty much up-to-date with all the Oscar nominees, so can watch on Monday night pretty knowledgeable about all the contenders.
The girls get treated with some different snacks on the weekend and I’ve included some shots of the feeding frenzy as well as the “wave of the week”!