You can see little Virgy is still able to relax in the heat! Her guts always seem to expand a fair bit over the big break here, and we suspect there's not a lot of exercise going on, just lots of eating and sleeping. I do understand, however, her reluctance to do anything more strenuous, as we ourselves have been loathe to drag ourselves away from the cool sanctuary of our apartment as this brutal heat spike goes on and on.I went to book club after a few beers with Gurecki and Wal on Friday night, but wisely made an exit before the vodka shots started going down! Stupidly though, I left a bag of 2 books on the ground just outside our place and by the time I realised where I'd left them, the recycling lady had come along and snaffled them...I'll have a bit of explaining to do next time. Saturday was a very low key day for both of us, although I did set up a wireless internet router in the house. Set up sounds rather technical, where all I really did was plug in all the cords the right way, put in the set up CD and away we went. The password didn't work at first until we realised we had to key in the other "encryption key" which was a bit weird. Anyway, all's well that ends well and it was tested on Cassy's laptop out in the lounge room and on my iPod all over the apartment. We have a warp speed connection these days, and the 3 appliances running off it at once didn't seem to affect it one bit.
"Inglorious Basterds" was the pick of the flicks on Sunday so I booked some tickets online in our favourite seats, then went to pick them up on my way to the 1000 steps. Tickets duly collected, I soldiered on. It was crazy up there yesterday! There were families trying to drag up/ cajole/bribe little kiddies all the way, old people, young people, fat and skinny, sweet and smelly and the whole gamut in between. How many mental defectives could possibly want to pit themselves against these monsters in the 36 degree midday sun? Plenty! I gave up trying to post a decent time, satisfied myself with making it up and back and getting cooled down and showered before motoring off to the cinema. The picture was spot on, a Tarantino classic hit with all the hallmarks of previous films, but with more emphasis on taut tension and clever dialogue than ever before. The violence was even more graphic and horrifying, but mercifully short each time allowing a hand up to shield the eyes and a healthy "la, li, la" to dull the hearing a good antidote! Brad Pitt was a revelation: as we've known for quite some time, this guy is far more than a pretty face. You know those films that keep coming back to you the next day? Real, quality, memorable films? This is one of those for sure.
The newly opened Papa Poulet was our destination for a takeaway chicken and proprietor Chris was chuffed that so many people had visited in the past week. I scanned one of his fliers and sent it around the staff at school, knowing they would appreciate his sensational rotisserie chooks just as much as we did. The other more selfish reason is that we want the guy to stay in business...!
I've taken the car down to our mechanic today and gone through my usual spazzy set of Chinese phrases to try and get a few things done. One of the reasons we haven't ventured out for weeks is, apart from the heat, the fact that the car air conditioner couldn't cope with it. It's doing little more than fanning warm air around. Anyway, without any English, I've communicated my belief that the air con is busted or leaking, the fact that I want new spark plugs and a change of not only the oil, but also the oil filter. I hope I said this OK, because the guy seemed fascinated that I would want an oil change, going over the costings with me: don't people change their oil here?
Somewhat ironically, considering these limited successes on the language front, I've decided to cut back my Chinese lessons to once a week (hence the time to write this now after my slackness yesterday!). I must be getting too old for this language learning caper as stuff just doesn't stick like it used to, so I'm just going into maintenance mode. I reckon I know enough to get us out of trouble (or into it!) so that will do for now. Another irony is that I might even just do a little more independent study without the pressure of a lesson every few days.
Photos: Virg relaxing in style, getting a Papa chicken down near the Shi Dong market. Cassy is reading Unaccustomed Earth and David is reading A Day at the Races by Matt Dray.