I know, crazy, right? When we returned from Thailand, Dave and his wife Toby jetted in from some expeditions in Sri Lanka, where they had enjoyed upmarket jungle huts down far flung roads, far from Colombo and with elephant herds wandering and bellowing on the rutted roads at night. His symptoms appeared just a few hours after de-planing, and we all thought the same thing: what if this had happened away from Taipei's slick and futuristic medical system?
His surgeon was a young superstar, about Dave's age. Dave was conscious throughout his procedure, watching the wire and stent track through his body to the affected area in his heart. The doctors have no explanation why it happened: he had none of the risk factors, no warning signs, not a thing. It was just one of those rare medical aberrations.
I've been super-busy this past two weeks as I've taught Dave's classes double time in his absence and although his substitute is quite capable, the kiddies have needed a little extra tender lovin' care and reassurance that their teacher is OK. He made a cameo appearance on Friday afternoon, and plans to ease his way back in over the next week or two, doing a few half days. We're all so pleased to see his remarkable recovery, although he does still get easily tired.
With all that drama, we were pretty exhausted this weekend and after the hoopla surrounding the birthdays etc, we were keen to just sit back and relax. I took delivery of a big, bruising HD TV last Sunday night (after buying it just a couple of hours previously: gotta love that Taiwanese service!), which I bought with some of the money that my generous parents-in-law gave me for my birthday....thanks Chronic and WoW!
Made in Taiwan, it was so cheap for this quality, I almost couldn't believe it and the picture is as sharp as a scalpel. I thought Cass and I should upgrade so we can take advantage of the slew of HD channels on cable these days, with more and more coming online every month. It's quite mesmerizing and it's hard to tear your eyes away from it!
We drifted down to the incomparable Din Tai Feng for lunch/dinner on Saturday, got our bread for the week at Wendel's on the way home along with a slab of banana cake each. I strapped up my slightly dodgy knee and challenged the thousand steps on Sunday, and while the kneecap whimpered a few minor complaints, I was pleased it didn't howl in protest. I'm adrift of my best times by about 3 minutes which doesn't seem so bad, considering the length of my "break". I suppose I'll know better if I test my knee out properly by taking two steps at a time all the way up... I'll reserve judgement for now! As threatened, here's my pushup challenge from my birthday. I do lots more than this three times a week, but this seems to be the most I can do consecutively.
Cass, the jewelery designer, has done some amazing work over the years, but she received a really fine example of her skills recently with her other birthday present in the form of her diamond and sapphire earrings. She remodeled the diamonds from her 5 stone ring, added 1 diamond, so that the centre of each earring is now in the shape of the centre of a flower. She asked Joe to set specially sourced, deep blue sapphires around these diamonds as the petals. Her old 5 diamond ring has been replaced by a new 5 diamond ring with much bigger stones. Anyway, she's very happy with the result and I'll try to remember to post a photo of them next week.
Photos are of my kids doing their very best to impress this week, along with a few shots of the steps and scenery. Dave is in the background of the last shot as Gurecki and Wal marvel at the scrumptious squid balls at Big Brother! Cass read a book which she loved until the ending....what does it all mean??!! It was called The Sense of an Ending (ironic!!) by Julian Barnes. I am reading the ever reliable Sue Grafton as her protagonist Kinsey asks if V is for Vengeance.
