The annual middle school play extravaganza was on this weekend, so Cass was awash in mascara and foundation, lipstick and eye shadow in the glow of the footlights over Thursday, Friday, Saturday and even a final Sunday matinee. She really has this gig down to a fine art now and although the time spent this week has been exhausting, she has definitely honed her performance over the years. Her team of girls is slick, well trained and independent and she often welcomes back veterans of the process from previous years who can give the novice makeup artists the benefit of their experience. Cass took some great shots this year on my urging as I thought it would be interesting to see her backstage annual job: don't they give an interesting perspective?
I had a book club meeting on Friday night and as is the tradition with our final one for the year, we took back all the books we had lying around that we'd failed to return during the year: I found six that I hadn't taken back! Michael, as host, also re-instituted various musical themes and we reveled in a few hilarious choices that people would play at their funeral, favourite songs of all time etc. His music system is something to behold and it is a highlight in and of itself. I'm not sure of the technical specifications, but this thing almost launches off like a space shuttle when the volume is pumped up and bands sound like they are performing on stage at stratospheric volume right in front of you. I'm not sure what the neighbours made of all this, but we were pretty excited! It was a bitter sweet meeting in some ways: Michael (a different one), who started back in 2001 with me is finally moving on and young Dave, with whom I've shared a close personal and professional relationship for the past few years is going back to Canada. It was encouraging to see him looking so well and even having a couple of beers: he's definitely on the road to recovery.
There was yet another farewell party for dave and Tobey on Saturday and it was hosted at Wally and Molly's house. I swung round to Wol's place on the way as he wasn't sure where it was and he and his girlfriend Annie hopped on their scooter and followed mine there. We had a nice time for an hour or so before I decided to exit stage left: when the number of kids outnumber the adults by a fair margin and all of them are bombing in and out of a tiny swimming pool screaming loud enough to raise the dead, it's time for me to leave! Besides, I wanted to see my darling before she again headed off into the night with her "MirrorImage" shirt and bag of potions and lotions. I got some takeaway on the way back and we enjoyed that together before she had to go.
We met up at Eddy's Cantina at the end of her matinee performance on Sunday for a kind of lunch/dinner affair. We were both starving at this point and ravenously attacked our dishes when they arrived! It's always a great meal here: we're so lucky as we used to have to travel all the way to the hills behind Danshui for Eddy's until he opened his branch here in Tienmu....ahh spoilt.
Our evening was so pleasant, partly becuase of the perfect weather and temperatures, partly because we both had a chance to phone chat with our mothers for Mothers' Day and partly because we could sleep in an extra half hour as a PD day at school meant no kids! Usually, the lower school has every hour of the day accounted for with some expert or other giving us the latest buzz, but mercifully today, it has fallen in line with the other divisions and given us report writing time. I've done a first draft of mine, so I'm writing this instead!
Photos: a rather large and interesting ground dwelling bird in the temple park on the way to school, book-ended with a shot of tiny starlings in a nest waiting for their mother to feed them. These nests are dotted along Chung Shan Rd on the way to school, tucked up under awnings and signs. All the shots in between are of the production, with a slide show up top.