Mild apologies to our tiny quorem of readers for not posting yesterday, but I do have an excuse which I'll expand upon later. We were a little surprised to get a call late in the week from one of our colleagues inviting us over for a Sunday luncheon get-together with assorted other invitees. Not usually our preferred kettle of fish, it was impossible to say no when the invitation was phrased with no "get-out" clause! As it turned out, it was a delightful afternoon and we were especially honoured being "first time guests". This did mean, however, that we were peppered with questions and we reluctantly ended up being the focus of most conversation as the older friends had their time in the sun many times before! The vegetarian lasagna was scrumptious, the company convivial and the atmosphere relaxed: we even managed a glass of red wine before we wandered the few short blocks home.
I was out at the newly renovated Patio 84, (which in turn was the slightly renovated and re-named Green Bar) with Shaun and Wol with an extended entourage of Dave, John, Jim and Andreas in tow. We ended up having a great time in the not wildly different, but certainly cleaner and updated bar. The Stella Artois beer on tap was amply sampled and we had sore heads in the morning. While I was there, Cass was at Rhonda's place enjoying her signature chicken enchiladas with the book club. They had a great night as well and coming on top of two days of enervating parent conferences for Cass (all 85 of them!!), we managed a very late morning sleep-in on Saturday!
Cass was out and about again on Saturday night with her good friend, Kristin, when they took in the excellent movie, "Philomena" before dining at one of their favourite restaurants, the Tienmu branch of Sonentor. Afterwards, Cass shopped vicariously as Kristin bought all sorts of make-up goodies at Takashimaya, before they each wandered home via the Shi Dong and the river park. Again, what a brilliant place this is where you can wander around at any time of the day and night, in any part of the city, and still feel safe, relaxed and unthreatened.
Cass was at Takashimaya getting a manicure mid-week while I was at home nursing/icing a badly torn calf muscle on my right leg. Wol and I attack the heavy bag at least twice a week after school, but this week, despite an extended (and what I considered very adequate) warm-up, I launched into a barrage of punches off my back leg only to feel the muscle tear. I hobbled around all week, but it is slowly healing: my first "old man injury"...frustrating!!
I was unable to write the blog yesterday as I was due in a multiple hour session with the dentist. A previous root canal and crown had fractured requiring a tooth's removal and I was getting an implant. Suffice to say (of course) it's proved anything but straight forward, so my mouth full of stitches and some strange foreign object drilled into my skull is only just the start. The most traumatic thing about the whole process was entering the dentist's surgery to find two nurses and the dentist, all fully gowned, masked, gloved, hatted and armoured against what I could only presume was the upcoming slaughterhouse scene at which I was the bovine offering! It probably was as bad as I imagined, but mercifully they had de-gowned and cleaned up before deigning to peel my full body covering from me and remove the Ku Klux Clan hood from my head. Oh, the horror, the horror!!
Anyway, after a few weeks of having very quiet and relaxed ends to the working week, we have certainly made up for it this week! Despite the surfeit of socializing, neither of us remembered to wield the camera, so shots are extras from last week, an interesting pre-school nearby and one of the silent army of CCTV cameras in Taipei's streets (apparently littered with more per capita than anywhere else in the world....big brother!!)
I'm reading W is for Wasted by Sue Grafton...reading Kinsey Millhone mysteries is like putting on a comfy pair of slippers!