Our Christmas break, which starts next Thursday about midday, has certainly crept up on us. I thought I had all sorts of time to work out a vague itinerary for our trip and to get the car serviced and freeway worthy etc. Cass has to get Lily organized to look after the cats, and we both need to do all sorts of stuff in a few days. This last week has been very busy for a number of reasons for Cassy, culminating in her hosting her book club on Friday night after preparing reports for the end of semester.Through the week, I noticed all sorts of strange behaviour and it took me a while to figure it all out. Cassy was asking me about my specific plans for Friday night (I was going to the lower school Christmas party) and started to go through very unusual and rare cleaning procedures. The ceilings in our bathrooms eventually build a light, streaky mould due to the lack of ventilation after a few years, but I showered on Wednesday to find it gone, the ceiling sparkly clean. Even though the house is always spotless, as Friday approached, it became more “showpiecey”, things appeared in artful arrangements, great bunches of beautiful budding flowers appeared and extra oven cooking was going on through the nights. Before this, of course, the gourmet supermarkets had been raided and interesting items were lined up: pates from France, special ingredients for allergic guests etc etc. Suffice to say, that the massive preparations were very worthwhile from all reports, as the chicken pumpkin curry main course and Pavlova for dessert disappeared and the attending book readers stayed way into the night, so late in fact that said busy hostess was wishing them away!
I attended the LS Christmas party at the principal’s house perched precariously on the very top of a ridge overlooking Taipei: the view is spectacular as dusk turns to night and I often find myself a little spot outside to take in the view. After that, Wal and I whiled away a little time at a new bar just around the corner from our place and ate some barbequed chicken and beef skewers, which were especially delicious. We enjoyed the ambiance and it reminded me a lot of bars in Japan: mostly because unlike the usual foreign friendly places we haunt, there was no English spoken at all: another reminder of my limited skills!
Shaun and Katie (we attended their wedding in Tasmania a few years ago) were moving house from up the hill to a newly renovated ground floor place just around the corner from us in Lane 10, Ker Qiang Rd. In a moment of generous spirit, I’d offered to help with the move, so subsequently found myself outside his door at 7.45 Saturday morning! I ended up ferrying carload upon carload of kiddy toys and various paraphernalia done to their new place for about 5 hours, worked myself into a ball of sweat, then got home to have an extremely late afternoon breakfast with Cassy! Later that day, I moseyed around to make sure that everything was OK and ended up arriving just at the “right” time to re-arrange some big items that they’d had second thoughts about…..! I really didn’t mind though: they are a lovely couple and very genuine, kind people and I think it will be great to have them just around the corner, with their one year old daughter, Bella.
We were both planning a lazy and entertaining off day today and I had bought the rights to the cricket. Both exhausted after the end-of-term school stuff and our social commitments, it would have been great to laze around and watch the one dayer between NZ and Aust. The start was great, the Aussies got 3 wickets…then the rain came tumbling down and didn’t let up. Oh well, it gave Cass a chance to snuggle with the “girls and have a good read and me a chance to re-visit my Taiwan books and maps to start to plan the “great adventure”! Photos: Cass at breakfast, book club visitors and our new neighbours tearing their hair out with the moving process!