The latter part of last week and the weekend was an absolute whirl of social activity. As we approach the end of the school year it begins about now, with every weekend filled to the brim with all sorts of visits, farewells, end-of-year celebrations, you name it. First cab off the rank this year was a visit by Josh and Kristin, who flew in from Singapore on Thursday afternoon and flew out again on Sunday afternoon. In between times we’ve had quite the catch-up!Josh is the young Aussie who worked for a few years here on grade 5 before following Kristin down to Singapore for the past year. He’s an intelligent and charming young fella and some people have the tendency to underestimate him: he’s a very intelligent and mature man with a rather knockabout and friendly outer skin. Kristin, his fiancée is a music teacher at Singapore American School, but her real talent and focus is opera singing. She has a stunning voice and is on the cusp of breaking into the big time. Even with such a superb instrument, I think she has had some self doubt, but Josh has encouraged her to follow her dreams and she is scoring smaller jobs in Singapore and is set for a huge audition with the Australian Opera Company in Sydney in July. By the way, she’s also an American!
We’d arranged to meet for a quiet catch up on Thursday night, but an entourage of strange mix and large proportions had attached itself to him mollusclike at a small function at school. By the time he met up with me and Wal, there were all sorts of human chattels hanging off him, and although we managed to have a bit of a chat, we arranged to meet a bit farther away from school on the Friday afternoon. Friday was fantastic: we met at the Qiyan Wo Soo and just Wal and I, along with Lewy and Gurecki managed to have a great long chat and catch-up. This afternoon became evening and we had some dinner, then resisted the “pleasures” of a big rooftop party that was going on to head to the Green bar to watch the AFL. It wasn’t on, but we ran into some other ex TAS teachers down there, Lee and Russell, so that was also quite interesting. A few partygoers filtered down the hill and before you know it, it was scarily late and well past our use by date! As I wandered home in the early hours, I got a text message from Mum in Moscow: I’m quite used to getting same from mates all around Asia or Australia, but got a little shock at this one! It was great to hear she was going well.
In the meantime on Friday, Cass had also been very busy. She is in the yucky process of getting her wisdom teeth filled in a hope of staving off removal for a time yet. She was due to see Dr Fu on Friday afternoon but also had her regular book club meeting and wanted to get her hair cut. She managed to race home from school in the afternoon, get her hair cut by "Bessy in rat alley" (don't ask!), rush home to dust some hair off, then off to the dentist. After the dentist, she headed straight off to La Luna Vague, a little French restaurant in the backstreets here, recommended so long ago by her friend Kathy, and yet not visited. Apparently the food and wine was superb and every dish that came out was exclaimed over by the "bookies".
Saturday was a lie low kind of day. Somehow, Josh and Kristin (young I suppose!) managed to head over to the beach with Shaun and Katie, where they in turn met Brandon and Becky. I’m glad I didn’t try to make that: I was a bit seedy, but also just getting the first signs of a cold/flu, which was making me a little sorry for myself! We managed to watch all sorts of football then got some Fangs takeaway for tea.
Sunday, we were due to meet them for breakfast with Wal down at Wendel’s, but my symptoms were quite bad by then. We decided to just meet for lunch as had been pre-arranged by the Koo family in honour of Josh being back. I drugged myself up and we headed off up to the low reaches of Yangminshan to the Koo compound. Andre and Jana seem quite fascinated by Australians and we are regularly invited to attend dinners etc at their company or house. I have a suspicion that we aren’t into the toadying mentality of many other foreigners here and the locals could be quite sycophantic around them. They are exceptionally lovely people and incredible hosts: I suppose with dizzying wealth it does bring out the very worst in some people with whom they have to associate: I genuinely believe they feel a lot more relaxed around the more egalitarian Aussie approach to things. I’ve mentioned this rarified living before, but this was the first time we’d been to their home: it was quite staggering. I was actually fascinated more by the original impressionist paintings on the wall than anything else…hard to believe! After our prelunch drinks of free flowing vintage 2000 Veuve Clicquot rose, we were ushered into the dining room to be served course after course of the most incredible foods, some of which, even though we recognized the fine preparation, were not quite our “cup of tea”. The main courses were accompanied by the most sublime Chateau Latour red, a pure Cabernet sauvignon or a large percentage cab sav to my guess, but with an amazing richness to it, more like a shiraz. This wine was just pouring freely from large crystal decanter jugs: each time your glass got near empty, a waiter would fill it up again. Anyway, I’m sure you get the idea: suffice to say, it was yet another almost “out of body” experience here in Taipei! I have stayed home from work today to nurse my flu, but may well battle out to my Chinese lesson later as I missed it on Thursday as Josh was arriving. Everywhere we went, I forgot to take my camera this weekend, which was a shame, but I squeezed a couple of shots out right at the end. Cass and I just back from lunch, Josh and Kristin waiting to be picked up by Daniel and the girls on top of the filing cabinet(still)!
Saturday was a lie low kind of day. Somehow, Josh and Kristin (young I suppose!) managed to head over to the beach with Shaun and Katie, where they in turn met Brandon and Becky. I’m glad I didn’t try to make that: I was a bit seedy, but also just getting the first signs of a cold/flu, which was making me a little sorry for myself! We managed to watch all sorts of football then got some Fangs takeaway for tea.
Sunday, we were due to meet them for breakfast with Wal down at Wendel’s, but my symptoms were quite bad by then. We decided to just meet for lunch as had been pre-arranged by the Koo family in honour of Josh being back. I drugged myself up and we headed off up to the low reaches of Yangminshan to the Koo compound. Andre and Jana seem quite fascinated by Australians and we are regularly invited to attend dinners etc at their company or house. I have a suspicion that we aren’t into the toadying mentality of many other foreigners here and the locals could be quite sycophantic around them. They are exceptionally lovely people and incredible hosts: I suppose with dizzying wealth it does bring out the very worst in some people with whom they have to associate: I genuinely believe they feel a lot more relaxed around the more egalitarian Aussie approach to things. I’ve mentioned this rarified living before, but this was the first time we’d been to their home: it was quite staggering. I was actually fascinated more by the original impressionist paintings on the wall than anything else…hard to believe! After our prelunch drinks of free flowing vintage 2000 Veuve Clicquot rose, we were ushered into the dining room to be served course after course of the most incredible foods, some of which, even though we recognized the fine preparation, were not quite our “cup of tea”. The main courses were accompanied by the most sublime Chateau Latour red, a pure Cabernet sauvignon or a large percentage cab sav to my guess, but with an amazing richness to it, more like a shiraz. This wine was just pouring freely from large crystal decanter jugs: each time your glass got near empty, a waiter would fill it up again. Anyway, I’m sure you get the idea: suffice to say, it was yet another almost “out of body” experience here in Taipei! I have stayed home from work today to nurse my flu, but may well battle out to my Chinese lesson later as I missed it on Thursday as Josh was arriving. Everywhere we went, I forgot to take my camera this weekend, which was a shame, but I squeezed a couple of shots out right at the end. Cass and I just back from lunch, Josh and Kristin waiting to be picked up by Daniel and the girls on top of the filing cabinet(still)!