Cass has been at the middle school play this weekend as her yearly commitment starts to really ramp up. The dress rehearsal early yesterday morning is a pre-cursor to a preview on Monday morning (in her preparation time for class) and the main event next Friday, Saturday and Sunday. She went down to the Watson’s treasure trove through the week and loaded up with all sorts of makeup ready for her team to decorate the brace of actors who’ll perform. She has a pretty good crew of seventh and eighth graders who know what they’re doing which is a bonus, but she did have some issues with the lack of air conditioning in their stifling little makeup room: apart from anything else the stuff just runs straight off their faces: apparently the air conditioning makes too much noise(!)
We went out to dinner at Din Tai Feng earlier in the week with Leon and Nicole and had a really enjoyable time. We managed to get a few orders mixed up, but that kind of added to the fun and we had a great chat. Nicole is a really lovely young woman: Leon has definitely done very well for himself. We’d lent them the scooter for the week and I think it was already paying dividends: there are just too many places to go that are off the main MRT/bus routes. Leon’s local knowledge has helped a lot too: although there are bigger and glitzier shops, stores and restaurants, he reckons the basic Taipei is still there pretty much the same.
Wal was away on camp (I have that dubious honour in a couple of week’s time: uggh!)this week so I had a relatively quiet time at work in the latter part of the week. Cass and I are both in that weird time as the end-of-year flurry approaches where we’re pretty much just in a bit of limbo waiting for the frenetic stuff to arrive. I handed out my ESL letters to the kids on Friday, but I have reports to write soon.
Friday night was a farewell for Lewy and Alison along with Yama and Parker who are all off to greener pastures. Yama is off to Doha, L&A off to Singapore as already mentioned and Shane has finally had enough and is heading back to Tasmania. It was a pretty good night all round and was at the Sommelier wine bar tucked under the supermarket on Tien Yu street.
Cass and I went for a big walk along the canal today, arriving home a bit sweaty due to the good pace we set, even thought the temperature had dropped a little today. It was frustrating to see the Knights go down to the Titans in a very close game today….especially as we knew Chris and Val would be sitting there on such a magnificent day nearly topping off Mothers’ Day with a win. Cass had spoken to them on the phone just as they were leaving. I tried to ring my mum today but she was out, but I do know that she received the flowers we sent yesterday, which was great (Belflora, Broadmeadow, shame on you for not having a Mothers’ Day delivery option!)
I went to a very flash dental clinic downtown to get some more work down on my problematic tooth. The opulent lounges in the waiting room and the 10 minute consultation with the fluent English speaking dentist didn’t fill my heart with glee: all I could do was imagine how much it was going to cost! A lot for Taiwan but only a conservative 25% of what it would cost back home, so…..My dentist, Dr. Hsu, was something else: she almost gave me too much information and her regular updates, while meant to be soothing, did little to calm me down! Anyway, I’ll be back for a couple more visits to the Ren Ai road super clinic before this little saga comes to a conclusion.
Leon and Nicole dropped the scooter back in this afternoon and we had another chat: it seems they’ve really enjoyed the week and the scooter was liberating so we’re glad we could make their experience a little better. It will be good to see them again in the New Year when Leon hopes to bring his young son up here to visit his country of birth. Photos: are still in the camera at school, so I’ll post them tomorrow!At Din Tai Feng with Leon and Nicole, with my student Anna and the famous monkey, Chee Chee.