Cassy had very few requests after her week at camp. “I just want to be clean and go out and eat a nice meal”. So after Cassy scrubbed off the grime of a week at Fulong on the northern tip of the island, we headed straight to Wendel’s where we enjoyed a couple of big cleansing Erdinger beers and delicious entrees and mains. It’s not that Cassy finds the whole week a real hardship: as any teacher who has ever been away on any sort of camp knows, it is so enervating being on duty 24/7 as well as being “up with people” every waking moment, with camp people, colleagues and kids. Her accommodation was adequate and as I mentioned last week, she avoided a tent night or two by doing even more work on the meals. I have to admit being a little surprised though: Cassy didn’t fade on Friday night and even stayed up till 11.30pm to see the end of the Bulldogs for season 2006.
On Saturday, we had a pretty laid back day (sorry, that should read, I had a pretty laid back day!) and even though I made a few pathetic offers of assistance, Cassy seemed to find it quite cathartic to do endless loads of washing and scrub away the last memories of her week! I watched so much TV on Saturday, I was disgusted with myself: I even got a cramp in one leg from sitting down so long! I filed my self-loathing away, ready to be addressed first thing Sunday morning: if the surf was shot, then I just had to do something! We watched some torrented Australian Idol from last Sunday and Monday in the afternoon: is it just me or are these guys supremely talented this year? Normally, I watch Australian Idol and get the odd twinge of horror as it can be like watching park cricketers instead of the test team compared to the American version, but we’re both really enjoying this series. Perhaps we are really becoming too easy to please…I don’t know!
Sunday dawned on my promise to get active, so leaving Cass for a sleep in, I packed my gear, scootered up to school, retrieved the car and made the mad winding dash to the coast. Despite sending out 5 or 6 texts to various possible starters, none took the offer up and I think they may well be disappointed now. I got to the activity centre to be greeted by big, powerful swells breaking beyond the harbour breakwater and peeling right, the odd one wedging up perfectly to allow a choice of right or left. I was in seventh heaven for a few hours, but it wasn’t quite the same being out there by myself….I can just imagine how excited Ross would have been with the fact that we had the beach to ourselves and beautiful sun, light wind and big waves. I managed to totally exhaust myself before climbing back in the car for the long haul home. I stopped and got some goodies from the Yangminshan Starbucks for a very late breakfast for us when I got home.
Clippings, tasty morsels and beautiful aromas complemented our breakfast: Cassy went mental and cleaned the house and cooked dinners AND a banana cake while I was away. I think she’s reveling in the fact that she can enter a kitchen that isn’t a rat infested putrid hole like the one she avoided eating any product from in the last 5 days! We zipped over to the Shilin Eslite bookstore to get Cassy’s new book club book: “Saturday” by Ian McEwan, then headed back over to HOLA to order some curtains. We had measured up before we left, so we could get a rough quote on the fabric we chose: wow! These curtains are pretty expensive! A couple of people are coming round tomorrow after work to measure up properly, but it will be worth it, as since the bedroom has been painted so expertly, the old Venetian blind is looking pretty shabby.
Virg’n Mary have been most excited to have Cassy back. Even though I performed all the necessary duties to look after them and they were reasonably tolerant, they never quite went overboard to gain my affections! I had some good long pats and played with them a lot, but they have followed Cassy around like little dogs for a couple of days since she’s been home.
Photos: Boats in Jinshan harbour festooned with lights for a practical purpose: to attract squid. These boats are moored in the very harbour next to the activity centre beach, where the big surf was today. Another photo is a group of young people from some hinterland who must never have seen the ocean before: they were ooohing and aahhing every time a wave came close and quite embarrassingly, to a person, applauded my exit from the water after my last wave! I get mobbed by some of my 3rd graders in the park and Virgy gets her tummy brushed!