Well, looks like I've been struck down by the virulent "man cold", you know that disease that equally affects both men and women, girls and boys yet seems to be especially persistent and virulent in the adult male? You know that one that enables most people to "soldier on" at work and at home with little or no complaint, but for some reason strikes down those strongest in society with extra crippling symptoms and suffering? Well, I have that one!
We've been rudely awaken back to reality these last two weeks at work after our whirlwind grand tours over Christmas. Cass was exhausted for ages, suffering delayed jet lag and just coping with the mental strain of day-to-day teaching after her two weeks trekking round France. I've been ensconced in seemingly endless meetings to talk about our latest programmes and combined with some quite bone-seeping cold spells we've been pretty tired.
We still had a few interesting experiences lately. On our way home from work one day we experienced our river road being re-tarred. It is one of the very few roads in the local area that doesn't demand timed parking fees, so subsequently it's packed with parked cars at all hours of the day and night. Instead of just shutting the road off for a few hours, or overnight, when the road needs maintenance they just bring in an armada of tiny forklift trucks and lift all the errant vehicles onto the riverbank! Job done and the little champions wheel back in to lift them all back into their parking places...can you imagine?! I took a little video of the road being re-tarred.
I was near one of our local restaurants last week when I came across the waitress scooping up a tiny black, whimpering ink spot. It turned out to be a shivering, too weak to stand little puppy about two months old. She took it into the restaurant and tried to give it a little water and asked that I watch it while she went to consult the local pet shop and get some food. On her return I suggested she take it to our vet's, Dr. Yang, as I know he takes in rescued animals. I offered to pay for any treatment the puppy might need. Subsequently, early next week I dropped in at Dr. Yang's, paid some cash and discovered the puppy to be the most friendly, affectionate and healthy of creatures! My happiness was tempered by the sobering news that they could keep her just one week.
I decided to break the ban we have in place on private emails to all the school faculty and staff and risk one. I never do it, and decided that this was a worthwhile exception, so sent it to 322 people! The cute photo tugged the heartstrings of a few, but it ended up that one colleague told the local coffee shop owner who knew a woman who wanted a puppy. He rang her and she went with her two kids to inspect and happily, decided to adopt her. It was a very pleasing result, but I found it a little traumatic: there was no way I was going to let her get "the injection". Thankfully, it didn't come to that decision.
Adding to our tiredness has been the annual preparation for Cassy's Book Club dinner. They each host a dinner party once a year and go out for the other meetings, but it seems to be a gargantuan effort to feed these women! We, as always, have to visit every specialty store in Tienmu to source the ingredients for the various courses. Cass couldn't get caster sugar this time, so cleverly used the food processor to whip some regular sugar into shape for her pav! Anyway, suffice to say it was a huge success as always and the non humidity in the atmosphere made the pav the "best ever". They had Australia champagne, French red and various exotic cheeses and meats as well as guacamole to add spice to the pumpkin soup
We got a new Kindle paperwhite the other day to supplement our aging and fading Chinese equivalent bought some years ago. Cass is reading her next Book Club novel, The Dovekeepers, on that. I'm still a big Stephen King fan, so I'm trying Dr. Sleep. Photos: Taipei 101 on New Year's Eve, dining out at the upmarket "Saffron", forklifting cars onto the riverbank and the very cute saved puppy (who was saved, quite coincidentally, on the same day that I brought home two hissing spitfire brown kittens exactly ten years ago!)
There are also more poems on 詩 (Shi)