Cass, on the other hand, began the night in rather couth fashion with cheese and crackers along with a glass or two of wine. They were having a little farewell for a departing colleague in one of the classrooms, yet said colleague did not appear! Slowly, the crowd whittled down till just Cass and Louise were left. A fellow Aussie, Louise shares Cass’s views on all sorts of issues and topics, so they had a great old time as they worked away on the bottles of wine remaining. For Cass, it was a really big night, as she is not usually imbibing to this extent. Suffice to say that both of us had a rather slow start to our Saturday!
An entertaining and friendly colleague, Tommy A, is leaving TAS after a long stint and working next year and beyond in Tanzania. He’s a great guy and we’ve got to know him particularly well as the number one fan of faculty band, QvQ, 3 of the band members also being in our book club. I had offered to help in some capacity to organize his farewell party so my services were required on Saturday afternoon/evening. After many years watching, my skills as a band “roadie” were about to be tested to the limit! Wally had his van loaded with gear and parked up the hill. I was to collect it, get Kenny G and his guitar, pick up a spare amp from another location and get all the gear way downtown to a new venue, Pipe. Wally was busy with graduation at school, so would meet us later. I had Kenny and also Juan on board. Juan was a classic character: a French speaking Cuban with limited English and Chinese, it was hilarious trying to communicate! His big African drum suited him, his dark skin, dreadlocks, sunnies and dripping jewelry all adding to the look. We were quite a sight as we sluiced through the middle of the city, dropping on and off expressways and cutting through frantically busy, Saturday night backstreets. Somehow, after a few misjudgments, I managed to find the place and we got all the gear unloaded and set up: it was tiring, but kind of exciting as well!
Pipe itself was a hidden gem. Housed in an old pump house way south of the city nearest to Gonguan station, it perches high above a tributary of the Damshui River. Inside, huge metal pumps dominate the room and impossible heavy chains and hooks still hang in their original positions from the vaulted ceiling. It sounds like a perfect venue for heavy rock, but it had been just a little too gentrified. Kenny decided the lights needed to be dimmed just so people couldn’t really see all the flash furniture! As the place began to fill up, I was already planning my exit. I was on duty from 4.30 in the afternoon, so I thought that 9.15 was a pretty good stint. I wasn’t really up for another big night and the lure of some off typhoon surf loomed large for the morning. Wally had already planned to leave the band van overnight and pick it up in the morning, so I was officially off duty. I walked to the station and got the MRT home: it was a long ride!
Sunday early morning came and went as we slumbered on: this year is really catching up with us. By the time we eventually roused ourselves it was 9 o’clock, and I’d missed Dan and Simon who were heading to Green Ball. We had our usual Sunday breakfast with clippings from the Herald (thanks Mum!) and then got a few supplies from Carrefour this afternoon. We’ve got a lot of jobs to do this week before we get on that plane on Sunday afternoon…wish us luck! Photos: I have a relatively big pullout class of 21 kids this year and here they are just a couple of days ago practicing their readers' theatre scripts. Various shots of Pipe and the bike path nearby. The last shot is the collection of paintings and art we just got framed by our local guy. He even framed my Indian puppets in a 3D job. They look great and best of all they cost a total of $100...couldn't get one done for that back home.
I'm sure their are no readers out there who are unaware of our status, but just in case: this blog will have its annual hiatus beginning today, all the way through till early August. See ya!