Somehow, we’ve managed to go to bed later and later and subsequently get up later and later every day this week. The arctic temperatures, drizzling rain and frigid winds have certainly helped, as have the lack of other incentives to leave the house. Chinese New Year is a time for travel to the family home wherever it may be on the island, so shops and businesses shut down and the roads become choked with traffic as everyone heads home for food and crackers and fun. We on the other hand, luxuriated in some fantastic downtime and lots of rest, a perfect start to what will be a very hectic next 8 weeks.In a couple of months, auditors will visit the school and put a fine tooth comb through the mane of English and ESL. It is a regular review that happens every seven years, but unfortunately occurs in my watch. I have been thinking of ditching the leadership role for a little while and I am now regretting not pulling the plug last year to avoid all this hassle! Cass will be involved as well in the English area and we will both be building up over the next few weeks, gathering “evidence”, materials and making sure everything is ship-shape for this visit. I have already made and distributed a number of surveys and started to gather heaps of things for our department, but there is a lot more to do yet. They will arrive the week after our next break in a couple of months, so between now and then we’ll be very busy.
So, this week, we’ve really viewed as a breather before the race begins in earnest. We’ve bought the rights to the one day series and started the break by having nearly all the Aussie boys from school over here to watch the Twenty/20 cricket. Actually, we had all the Aussie boys on island except one, that exception being a very strange case of self-imposed isolation: quite sad, really. Anyway, even though the game wasn’t great, we had a very convivial time and it set the scene for a terrific break. We have watched all the one dayers that have been on since, including one very interesting one today!
We whizzed downtown when there was a small lifting of the more objectionable weather on Wednesday and decided to go back to one of our favorite old haunts, the Core Living Mall. We used to hang out here with great regularity some years back when it first opened, enjoying its beauty and wonderful VIP cinema. Since more magnificent centres have opened all over the city, including right here in our suburb, Tienmu, we haven’t been down there. It was really interesting to get back there and we enjoyed a tasty dinner at one of our old favorites, “Bird”. We checked out a rather finer dining alternative called “Lawry’s” for a later date, perhaps when we’re dressed up a little better!
Cass suggested that we go down to Beitou on the train to the Royal Host yesterday after I had an ill fated surf run. It is always fun to go to this Japanese “family” restaurant and it serves up one of the best steaks in town, a good thick slice of premium New Zealand fillet. The surf run was organized by Dan, but I followed him out as I needed to give the car a run. Our latest big surf spot, Green Ball, was a heaving cauldron and was not inviting at all. The swell was huge, but unrideable, swell and winds all coming in the wrong directions. Dan and I both agreed that it was the coldest day and the biggest swell that we had experienced here in Taiwan…it was bitter! In fact, this whole Chinese New Year has been bitterly cold: every day in single figures and dipping down to around 6 degrees yesterday. One thing that has warmed us up however is Cassy's cooking: not only home cooked lemon butter on the toast this week but a great big pot of minestrone...I was very spoiled!
Tragically, we report yet another death this week. On Tuesday, in an open water swim down at Kenting (our Christmas holiday spot), one of our male upper school colleagues drowned. We don’t know the details till we arrive at school tomorrow, but he is married with two young children and has been at the school for a couple of years. Another tragedy: I hope this awful string of news can come to an end with this week’s notice.
Photos: Some shots of the cold and bleak, Cass in the mall, Wol with nose suds, Cass and little friend, me showing the 5000 varieties of soy sauce (there’s another shelf behind this one!!)