I met a troop of guys down at the Green Bar (Patio 84 in its new incarnation) where we watched the AFL game between Carlton and Hawthorn. Shaun was needing to fulfill some official duties at the party so he raced out to do that at some point. The rest of us seemed to barely blink and a whole load of other teachers materialised from the heat haze to party further. This went on and on till all hours. It's always a great chance to catch up with colleagues who we rarely see for the rest of the year, but it also proves, invariably, to be a late and rollicking night!
On Saturday, we strolled at a leisurely pace down to the "Eat Burger" restaurant, which is still doing quite a roaring trade with their unusual blend of American diner style fare. Our Din Tai Fung dumpling cravings having been satiated last week along with our Italian pizza ones, we thought it was about time for this one to be treated as well. It was extremely tasty and the high school kids who we saw at a long table, instead of being horrified at the presence of teachers in their haunt, were polite and friendly as we left.....these kids are genuinely "nice"!
I went and got my hair cut down at Bessy's place today ("razored off" is probably a more accurate description of this no comb, steel blades only buzz cut!) and then Cass went and did the shopping. She was close to passing out when she returned: the combination of some heavy shopping items and the hyper sapping heat was not a pleasant one. We recovered by watching the movie "Bad Teacher". This was a bizarre experience: while the temple across the river hosted the most mournful tuneless and very loud karaoke singing of all time, we needed to close the door to drown it out. At the same time, we watched this very American, very silly movie...it was hilarious! I think you really need to be a teacher to appreciate it as it turns a c grade flick into a pretty funny romp as we laughed at all the "types" we could identify amongst colleagues past and present and a bit of ourselves in there too!
I had to go back to Papa Poulet this afternoon as he didn't have our ordered rotisserie chicken ready. I came back and fiddled with the photos on here before setting out again. Photos are a little quirky. I snapped Cass with my phone on the way back from work midweek posing with one of the automated "workers" at a road works. Another is of the girls luxuriating in their room on a shelf and in a basket, even in 35 degree heat....they're quite mad! Cass has quite taken to eating the "Man salad" from 7/11 (the "Women salad" is yucky apparently) and the garbage workers and the cops were out on Saturday night, the cops intimidating with their 125 cc motor scooters (!) and the garbage guys waiting for people to "bring out their dead"! I've also included a few shots of my new intake of kids: as always, cute and delightful!
I've now graduated to the 3rd and final installment of the Millennium series which is engrossing, and Cass is still reading Harts War.