While we’ve had a notably uninspiring week here at work and play, I find myself, not for the first time, at quite a loss as to a topic for this week’s blog entry. The full week was busy plus for Cassy as her biggest task for the year in terms of marking and grading came home to roost this week. The kids reach the end of the memoir unit where they are meant to display all the pearls of wisdom that have been laid down before them in a crowning final personal memoir. Cass and her teaching partners have decided, in their wisdom, to write the most in depth comments on every aspect of this memoir, and then give it back to the kids this weekend to see if they can improve things. Usually, if they make a bit of an effort they can improve their mark a little. The trouble is that she has to mark, in a very thorough fashion, 49 of these missives, so to see that I have seen little of her this week is an understatement!This, weekend, however, freed from the marking shackles and with mood elevated to a level not seen for a couple of weeks, we’ve had a very pleasant, but lazy, weekend!
Both Cass and I had separate, school sponsored “organized fun” nights out on Friday. I was a co-host, along with my team, for the lower school drinks and Indian food on the rooftop at school, while Cass joined her middle school colleagues for Oktoberfest drinks in the tented courtyard down at Wendel’s.
After a quiet day at home on Saturday, we ventured down to Alleycats’ for some pizza and calzone on Saturday evening, choosing to walk there and back as it was such a pleasant night. The temperature at the moment is just wonderful. Crisp and just slightly refreshing, not too sure whether to take a light jacket, but enjoying the temperature without one: just about perfect with a little breeze. Aaron and Rachel madly bipped their horn at us as we wandered back up the road, they were possibly on the way down to see one of the school’s bands playing downtown. They were starting at some ungodly hour (like 1 am!) and were to be joined by Cassy’s old colleague, Paul H, who was straight off a flight from Jakarta: they must have more energy than us!
Today we got to see the wonderful film, “Michael Clayton”. It was a triumph for all the main leads, a mesmerizing film, each successive scene just adding to the intrigue and wonder. Tilda Swinton was a malevolent ice lawyer and Tom Wilkinson was a most brilliant bipolar ranting genius. It was George Clooney who stole the show however, with an amazing sense of when to give his character just the right set of understated emotion. A scene (cleverly repeated in the film) of three horses standing still and silent on a hill in breath puffing cold air, poised to flee but captivated by Clooney and he by them, is immensely powerful for lots of reasons that become clear through the film. We both loved this movie.
The highlight of this week, for me, was to finally secure my new iPod. Readers of this page will know the background, so I won’t bore you again with the details, but it is a thing of quite amazingly slick tech appeal: anyone remotely interested in IT stuff is quite fascinated. I have downloaded my music (with covers), some podcasts, TV shows and movies and have used the wi-fi internet capability of the iPod too. I have received and sent mail using the onscreen keyboard and checked out the live surfcams. The thing is a little marvel! Cass doesn’t really understand the fuss, but she has noticed that other people are quite fascinated with it as well, which is good for me, as she doesn’t quite believe me to be the raving lunatic she first thought I was when I started touching, sweeping and pinching my fingers all over this funny little thin black box!
Photos: Dave’s 16gb iPod Touch, Cass at Auburgine, waiting to fill up at the special “scooters only” lane at the petrol station, no birds on the bus(!) and an interesting sight of bananas growing vigorously beside and between high-rise apartment blocks!