On Friday, we went to a party with a 70s/80s theme for the surprisingly large coterie of teachers at school who turn 40 this year. The "1972ers" have a decade on us of course, but it was interesting to see some of these "young pups" from a decade ago actually turning a reasonable age at last! We're good friends with a number of the 40s, and they included Marcus and Shaun and Nicky (Dan's wife) as well as Michelle L. Shaun had decided that we three Aussies needed to dress up in something rather shocking, so he sourced some early World Series Cricket uniforms at extravagant cost, and had them sent over in time for the bash.
The uniforms were authentic to the stitch, the logo nostalgically 70s and simple, the collar
garish and wide, leaving ample room to unbutton to show off our chains or chest
hair. The pants were slightly flared and unashamedly polyester: a match nearby
would have caused a flash fire. To top it off we'd all chosen a name to be
emblazoned across the back, just like the heroes of yore. We'd chosen quite
carefully, not for looks so much, but for personality. Wol became the firebrand
Croatian/Australian fast bowler Lenny Pascoe, Shaun the flamboyant sex god who
was D.K. Lillee, and I was happy with my choice of the larrikin free spirit
hailing from Dungog, Dougy Walters.
Suffice to say, it was a fantastic fun night, partly due to the fact that my darling wife put in a rare appearance at such a big social event! Cass wasn't overly keen, but she did want to say happy birthday to the two Aussie boys and quite enjoyed her cameo appearance.
On Saturday, we dined early at Din Tai Feng before braving the Halloween crowds at Miramar and surrounds to see the excellent movie, Killing Them Softly, featuring Australia's own Ben Mendelsohn. His was a stellar performance in a very interesting movie. Brad Pitt was superb and Aussie director Andrew Dominic was craftily exact in his visual treatments. The crowd outside the theatre, however, was a sight to behold. There were literally thousands of ghosts and ghouls, demons, monsters and fantasy characters of all descriptions, shapes, sizes and ages, snaking round the two blocks of the department store complex! They were all lined up to receive some kind of pathetic free gift, but it was remarkable for two main reasons: how calm, patient and composed people were waiting in line for so long, but more importantly, how very weird it was to see all these Taiwanese people dressed up for an American tradition!
Sunday, we finally got the Honda fired up and headed over to check the surf. Tienmu's slightly overcast skies and fine drizzle quickly detiorated into a typical other worldly experience on top of the mountain. One almost expects to see Wuthering Heights materialize from the moors, Heathcliff and Catherine emerging from the haze. Shrouds of mist were hugging the slick blacktop as fog lights blazed, trying in vain to cut a path through the soup. Cloud like
entities were whipping across the road and up the mountain grasses. When we arrived at the slightly calmer coastline, the ocean was a
steel grey mass of cross and bothered competing currents, tearing and tugging
it in every direction. We didn't really choose the best of times to make a long awaited re-visit to the coast! We did have a bit of fun at one of Jinshan 7/11s, where we provided much entertainment to a group of locals, firstly by being non-Chinese, secondly having the ability to be actually driving a car and thirdly having the capability to order and eat some food!
Photos are of the cricket legends as well as some of the party antics, Halloween strangeness and 7/11 food choices (Cassy just had a banana and a coffee: I ate all the fried stuff!). We're both reading some new books, but I can't remember what they are....