Well, it’s anathema for either one of us to cheer manly in any game, least of all a grand final, but when the Melbourne Storm was the alternative, we cheered the Sea eagles home to a most famous “Eagle rock”! What a game. We were all anticipating a close game after all Melbourne’s well documented dramas with the judiciary and offialdom over the past fortnight and Manly’s slow and methodical power end to the season but… who could possibly imagine that Manly would obliterate that oft quoted fanciful score line of 38-0 to East over St. George in 1975? I for one, had no idea it would happen, and as Wayne would know, I’ve often quoted the 38-0 mantra for his edification as the Eastern Suburbs of 1975 were my team of choice before the Knights entered the comp in 1988.We had a hard core crew around here today, one which has been pretty solid fr the last 7 years. Wal, Gurecki, Lewy, O’Rourke were the mainstays of those years and they all joined Cass and me again. Brandon joined us this year, a great addition, as a sports fan and fairly new AL fan he has real passion for all Australian sports. The American accents and the occasional rather naïve observation were the norm, but who really cares? When you have Victorians and Tasmanians and a couple of North Americans in the crowd, it becomes the norm. Shaun turned up, which we all really appreciated to keep the tradition going, even though his second daughter, born just last week, has kept him fairly sleepless the majority of the time. He made it till half-time, had a can of Asahi, then beat a retreat back round the corner with eyes hanging down his cheeks and dark circles that would make Leo Sayer proud.
A few of us ventured round the corner to Uli’s German Bratwurst House to have a couple of micro brews to further analyse the game. This twilight game was just the ticket here as the Aussie 5pm start translated to 2 pm here with daylight savings kicking in the eastern states just a few hours before kickoff. It was just like the old days: a 2 pm start! Wonderful, all done and dusted by 7 pm, back home to write the blog. Just like the old days as I said, but I don’t think I’d be writing a “blog” in the old days. We’ve had an extremely social weekend, culminating in the hosting of the grand final today, but it all began on Friday night.
Cass had her post camp party on Friday with her middle school colleagues down at Alleycats. It was a bit strange, as they hadn’t actually attended the camp, postponed by typhoon Sinlaku a few weeks back. She managed to glean all sorts of gossip and information which kept me entertained most of the day on Saturday, with lots of, “Hey, guess what so and so said?” and, “You’ll never believe what so and so did…”. I was ensconced at Diamond Tony’s with the usual suspects and didn’t get anything! We were keen to have a quiet Friday and no one was really keen to go and have a drink, but one of our American colleagues bailed Wal up in the hall late in the day Friday to ask if he and Braggett and Gurecki were keen for a drink. We thought we’d better go as Grande is a great guy and rarely up for a get-together, but as it turned out, he didn’t show! We ended up discussing all the world’s problems as usual, but we won’t miss the opportunity to give it to him deluxe on Monday!
On Saturday night, Cass and I went down to KGB (Kiwi Gourmet Burger) to sample again their “Kiwi Mate”, a burger you could get on any corner back home, but rather special over here. A burger here does not have tomato, pineapple and especially beetroot as staples, so it’s a little slice of heaven. Saturday night is always a people watching experience on the heaving, packed Taipei mass rapid transit system, and didn’t surprise again. After a 30 minute trip down, eating and 30 minute trip back in the seething mass of humanity on a Taipei weekend night, we were a bit tired, but still committed to a party at Lewy’s place.
Robin and Chris worked here in Taipei for years before moving down to Singapore a couple of years ago. Chris was Cassy’s team leader (a role she now takes on) and Robin worked in the lower school with me. It was great to catch up with them amongst lots of our current colleagues and also DJ, who with wife Catherine had moved from curriculum director here to the volatile political hotbed of Myanmar to be superintendent of a leading Hong Kong school this year. Everyone loves DJ: the guy is charismatic, intelligent and principled. It was great to catch up with all concerned before we scootered home along the river road and flopped into bed ready for the big day today.
Taipei…still serving up an eclectic mix of entertainment and life experiences! Photos. Cass caught by an intrepid photographer on the MRT going downtown, the cats luxuriating on the shoebox yet again, and the boys taking in a historic and exciting NRL grand final. Also featured, a shot I took through a window on the way back from the train staion: 8pm Staurday night, poor little kiddies getting drilled within an inch of thier lives at the "Join Young Enrichment Academy"... maybe that's why Asian kids are acing all those world achievement tests!