Another week just whizzed by here in Taipei, courtesy perhaps of a truncated week with the kiddies as we had two PD days to end the week. Cass was entertained by a couple of visiting experts on the subject of differentiation and I had a similar topic on Thursday, followed by reading comprehension on Friday. It was all so very humdrum, we can't believe how cynical we are, but seem to have this cynicism confirmed at every turn by so-called experts telling us what to do. It's just that when you have been teaching for a long time, everything old becomes new again, and due to our change in teaching environment, we've even seen the third coming of some initiatives and styles and approaches. It's kind of cool to see people get so excited about things: no doubt the first time around, we were enthusiastic too.
That said, we both admitted that we'd been to a lot worse, so not all was lost on the two days.

Australia Day saw a celebration of sorts when we watched the Aussies annihilate the Poms in the cricket and had an "Australian of the Year" presentation, put together by Josh. It was quite hilarious, along the lines of the recent ABC series "We can be Heroes", and we were in awe of the time and effort he put into the whole presentation. I was quite humbled to be awarded the Australian of the Year (Tienmu, Taipei version!!) and was given a bottle of wine with personalised label etc. It was a great laugh! We had a relatively early night, Cass not making it for the celebrations as it actually started to sleet just before she was to come down!

Saturday was bitterly cold and miserable so we decided to hunker down and watch a couple of movies that we've had ready to go for a little while. The first one "Babel" was an interesting movie, reminding me a little of "Crash" with its interwoven plot lines and characters and juxtapositions of time and space. It was pretty sad in parts, usually a choice of movie we avoid here, but beautifully photographed and thought provoking. Interestingly, I'd been hearing about a movie for a while which sounded very much like this from some of my colleagues: the plot sounded similar, the actors matched....the only thing was that they pronounced it as 'babble'! Now, I wonder what sound they think a brook makes??!! The other movie was the Australian movie, "Candy", another fairly tragic story, but again, beautifully acted and directed. All three principals were at the top of their game...it was great entertainment.
We went out to Cassy's favorite Japanese style curry restaurant here, "Aubergine" for tea. It is an excellent choice for us, with items on the menu to tempt Cassy's craving for something vegetarian and tasty and my "leaning" towards meat (boom, boom).
The city was alive and pulsing as usual: crowds all rugged up against the cold as if they're about to join Mawson in the Antarctic...it is cold, but do you really need the gloves, hats, scarves and full length puffy coats!

Sunday dawned as a sun shiny day, probably even colder with no cloud cover, but no wind chill as the gentlest of zephyrs was all that could be felt. Carl and I hoped that these conditions would suit the Pillbox, so we headed off to find a wave about 10 o'clock. There was a very enjoyable 2 foot wave at the Pillbox, the ubiquitous lack of any other surfer(which we love!), sun shining, water relatively clean and the pigs seemed to have had recent ablutions as their usual noxious odours were only sometimes caught on a puff of off shore wind. Carl supplied the cup of tea after we got out, our "Tobes" bottles cleaned us up and off we drove home. Cass and I settled in to watch the one day cricket between the Aussies and the Kiwis in the afternoon and evening and enjoyed some awesome Aussie batting and some spirited chasing by the Kiwis, nearly resulting in an upset. For some reason, the normal TV cable is only offering me a few ghosty Chinese and Japanese channels at the moment: very strange and something I can't seem to fix...I'll keep trying.

Full week this week. I have a field trip to the earthquake and fire museum tomorrow and I meet with a short listed candidate for the upper school principal's job on Wednesday. We have received the news that the school has not only employed our new superintendent for next year, but that she will be starting early, in fact, just after Chinese New Year. There seems to be a flurry of activity lately in preparation: dotting the "i"s etc as bosses make sure meetings are being held regularly and all tasks are being done. Does that sound too cynical again?!

Photos: Aussie of the Year!, Cassy with snuggling cats and chocolates, betel nut girl and car sales on the way back from the Pillbox.

With the Aussies playing the Poms on Friday, we were desperately trying to catch the score in between classes at work. After school we rushed home and settled in to watch the last few hours and enjoyed it immensely. We were joined by Wal and Josh and we had a few beers each, which persuaded us that we should put in an appearance at the school's board party, being hosted at the very grand Grand Hotel. This is an iconic hotel in Taipei, quite famous for its ornate architecture and also the fact that it half burned down some years back and was totally rebuilt to the original standards. The highlight of the party was an encounter I had in the men's room with one of the new board members. He seemed quite fascinated with my Aunty Jack T-shirt, said he loved it and said we should swap shirts. Before he knew it, I whipped it off and proffered it to him. He was no doubt regretting opening his mouth as I am now the recipient of a very flash Brooks Brothers cotton business shirt....I hope he loves that Aunty Jack!
Cass and I decided to venture down to the Hsin Yi district on Saturday night, home of the frighteningly tall Taipei 101. The MRT was our chosen option for transport, but we'd forgotten how many people go out on a Saturday night. It was mental! We had to stand up all the way to Taipei Main, getting jostled and bothered by humanity all the way. The crowd on the second line was mercifully thinner and we were disgorged at City Hall to 101 lit up magnificently against the dusky sky. The mall through to the cinema district was very vibrant, distinguished by marble statues and people imitating statues. I always have an almost overwhelming urge to touch or pinch these people: I wonder how kids resist?! Clowns and buskers, statuesque people and of course, all the young and beautiful mingled as they trouped off to whatever entertainment took their fancy. We were off to Romano's Macaroni Grill. Family and friends back home are aware of my penchant for eating veal: ostensibly as it is unavailable over here. Well, another one bites the dust! Not only veal, but Australian veal is on the menu at Romano's, at a premium of course, but there nonetheless.

I had an eventful Sunday morning. After traveling over the mountain, I was greeted by great angry monsters breaking way out to sea. It was cold, wet and windy, but I decided to brave the conditions at Green Bay. After getting a few super slams, common sense overtook valour and I headed for home. As I was at Green Bay, I thought I'd zip back via the expressway. So complacent by now, after having done it so many times, I managed to miss one vital "veer off", only to find myself rising and rising until I was on a high speed supper express ribbon, seemingly sluicing through the sky! It was a great view up there, but the next exit was 20 km past where I wanted to get off! Suffice to say, I eventually made it home after some scenic adventures in downtown Wugu and going back across the Bali red bridge.

Cass and I then settled in to watch the one day cricket and enjoyed a pretty close fought game for a change: something of a rarity this summer. Cassy seemed to be doing lots and lots of domestic activity this weekend with washing, shopping, cleaning etc. it was exhausting just thinking about it(!)

My camera has a mysterious "smudge" on it at the moment which I can't get rid of: it has got some dirt caught internally, making it near impossible to take a decent photo. I have included a couple of older ones: Gerri's class with whom I work, our new painting bought over Christmas, and a photo of the aforementioned Aunty Jack shirt, now not in my possession!

Our trip home was eventful, action packed and highly enjoyable in the main but we’re acting a little spoilt these days as we resent the great travel-unpack-pack-travel routine in the space of a few weeks. It all goes with the territory I suppose. Within a day of getting home I was already organizing payments for our next trip, this time to Bangkok in March. The mind numbing hours at airports, in hire cars, waiting, on planes, waiting, in cars and waiting (in Taipei traffic!) gets a bit tedious, but all in all, the joys of a mild Aussie summer outweighed the hassles.

Apart from catching up with family and friends, another attraction was the cricket. The Ashes series, even if viewed on TV was a major drawcard. Cass was a little taken aback when I was invited to the first day of the Sydney test by our friend Michael, who lives in the unit next door: she would have loved to come too! I had one of the most memorable days I’ve had for a very long time, being ensconced in the member’s stand and partaking of all the side benefits afforded to SCG members. I rubbed shoulders with lots of the rich and famous and took some great photos of the players and other interesting sights. I thoroughly enjoyed the day.

The great day at the cricket was complemented by the viewing of same on TV. Cass and I loved watching the Pommies getting carved up day after day, game after game. We both managed to catch up with our families and friends, but perhaps not to the extent that we could have. We’re taking the approach more these days that we need a holiday; especially in this short summer break and that we’ll just relax and bum around. If we’re specifically asked to go somewhere or join in some activity, we’re usually delighted to do so, but organizing events ourselves is just too much hard work in a short period. Suffice to say, we did our big walk up the hill most days, I surfed lots when the conditions allowed and the Harley got a few airings, going on long meandering trips through the hinterland of the valley, exploring lots of backwater roads and connections!

This week back at work has felt a bit like the Long March. The alarm rang at the crack of dawn each morning in pitch blackness and, often, we found ourselves getting home in the quickly fading light as well. A far cry from getting up when we felt like it, and reading the paper till our walk beckoned mid-morning! The days seemed interminable and even though we both slipped back into routine quickly enough, Friday always felt a long way away. I went with Josh to support Wal’s girlfriend Tina, as she gave her final grading concert for her Master’s degree in classical music composition this Wednesday evening. We went out to Neihu where Tina played and conducted orchestras and sextets through a range of her original compositions. It was quite entertaining and we were all very impressed with her talent (even if we were not sure what was really happening!!). On the opposite end of the cultural spectrum, Josh and Wal and I went to see the new Rocky movie in between catching a bit of cricket at the Green Bar on Friday night: we loved the movie and shared our horror at how long the week had felt! We’d managed to have 3 boxing sessions through the week and we were all feeling a bit bloated and out-of-touch after our 3 week lay off: nothing like a bit of Balboa to get the adrenalin pumping again, I’m sure our sessions this week will have just a little more zest!

Cass and I fired up the “Auburgino” for a drive out to the wind and rain-swept northern coast on Saturday with the vague idea that I would have a surf if we found anything rideable. This didn’t happen, because apart from the 12 degree temperatures, the wind had taken its toll on the waves and most spots looked more like the insides of a churning washing machine. Later that evening we discovered that there was a tsunami warning for the Taiwan north coast after the big earthquake out to sea, a fact we were blissfully unaware of as we drove along the flats right next to the ocean for mile after mile! We watched “Crash” on DVD on Saturday night at home and were most impressed: somehow, in all our movie viewing, we’d managed to miss this one, a Best Picture winner at that!

Sunday was very quiet…we watched the one day cricket from Hobart (7am start here!) then wandered out for a walk to Takashimaya to get a few supplies and “some air”. Wow, I’d forgotten what a pain writing this blog can be too…maybe I’m just getting really lazy!