That small triumph followed a day of horror, however! The car’s battery was dead flat and after arranging a mate to help me jump start it I drove it around for an hour before taking the car for its bi-yearly inspection for which it was late. The guy told me I had to pay a fine first, so I was shunted out of line to a holding bay, went and paid and came back. The car wouldn’t start! A friendly punter nearby drove over close so I could use the jumper leads, and then I went back to Tienmu to get a new battery. Fixed, I went back to the inspection, but this time my insurance card was incorrect. More parking, walking down the road to get that renewed, then back round a big block to try again. The guy in the inspection booth viewed me with great trepidation, but after seeing my up-to-date paperwork, we both had a great laugh at my expense and I was on my way. No doubt he’ll be dining out on the “idiotic foreigner” story for years to come!
Work has been a flurry of usual back-to-school activity. Cass was greeted with a couple of bombshells, which she somehow managed to take in her stride, including that as of next year, her Humanities role will become either English or Social Studies. It’s an easy decision for her to make with her extensive English lit training, but it will entail a lot of changes, including perhaps to her teaching partners. She has also found the heat confronting (as have I), with her shoes uncomfortable and our walk to and from school in the cloying heat very annoying sweat-wise!
I have our Open House on Thursday which will entail me reading at least three of the PowerPoint slides in Japanese. These slides have always been translated into Chinese and Korean, but this year we’re trying the Japanese as well. I also need to extrapolate on one of the main points, so I’m frantically polishing my very rusty skills in that language as well! I need to say just that in my short introduction, but also take care to be appropriately formal for such an occasion. So, life is never dull!
As is tradition, the board is hosting the faculty to a stat of year party at the American Club this Friday. This tends to be a rather lavish affair, fully catered with the finest of food and drink and a good opportunity to catch up with all the people you haven’t run across in a corridor here and there around the school after the big break. So, as usual, we’ve hit the ground running at a thousand miles an hour and won’t draw breath for a good stretch yet.
Photos: at lunch in the Italian restaurant in SOGO, Cass outside another restaurant with beautiful bonsai, and Virg takes an unhealthy fascination in licking my newly shaved dome! Books: Cass reading The Other and Dave moving to another Michael Connelly, The Lincoln Lawyer
