It's an interesting experience arriving back at work after a week off. The mental strain of dealing with all those people, students and colleagues, is enervating! Cass also has had to deal with a sub teacher in for her close teaching partner so that has been an added strain after his father-in-law died unexpectedly last weekend. I've had a few laughs: my long-time companion, Chee Chee the monkey is still being farmed out to one of my students once in each 10 day cycle, and increasingly has morphed into an androgynous being, especially by some of the more independent minded girls. One of them made him a lovely wig this time after making him a dress in her previous babysitting stint. This monkey again travelled far and wide, this time going to Hawaii! Over the years this monkey has travelled more than we have (15 different countries by my rough count): perhaps in our next lives we'll come back as cute stuffed animals on class assignments in an international school!
Cassy has turned my birthday into something of an extravaganza this year and has stretched it out beyond the single day or weekend. She started by making me my favourite delicious banana cake and has bought me white bread for my toast and used some of our precious (dwindling) stock of Anchovette to go on it. We're devouring the cake as slowly as we can, yet I always seem to be delivered of an enormous slab while she has just a sliver!
I'd had a football fest with some different drinking buddies on Friday night as Wal was away at his annual coaching tournament in Jakarta and managed to watch a good part of two AFL and two NRL games: too much football is never enough! They weren't all quite my cup of tea, so I was glad to have the football as a distraction to the conversation.
We went down to Macaroni Grill in Minsheng Rd downtown on Saturday night, ostensibly for "my" birthday, but mainly as Cassy had wanted to go last week yet we couldn't seem to fit it in. It was superb as usual and again, we had trouble (in fact we didn't!) tearing ourselves away from our previously identified favourites. We did demur on the lemon cake we usually have though, as we wanted to have another slice of banana cake when we got home.
On Sunday we went across to the "Wovie" cinema to see "The Grand Budapest Hotel". Wow, what a cinematic treat this turned out to be. It was awash with sumptuous sets, extravagant costuming and the cleverest, most engaging dialogue. The direction was seamless and the premise didn't overstay its welcome. It reminded us both a little bit of Tarantino's masterful "Inglourious Basterds" in its almost comic book style of cinematography and I had flashbacks of kids' movie "Hugo" as well, about the little kid living alone in Montparnasse railway station. Suffice to say, it was a thoroughly delightful experience and a perfect end to our weekend evening...we recommend it!
I encouraged Cass to take up an offer of another ad audition earlier in the week after her agent, Jo, recommended her for another spot, this time in an ad for Thermos. Her last ad played to a potential audience of 100s of millions in China after a brief run on TV here, so it's lots of fun. She was to play the part of an "older"(!) woman being wooed by a similarly mature man playing love songs on his guitar for her as they sat side-by-side on a park bench. She told me that she also had to "European" kiss him on each cheek after he played! She enjoyed the whole exciting vibe down in the studio and was quite looking forward to the ad if she made it through. The production house, however, decided at the last minute to change the script completely and not have any foreigners in the ad...the foibles of show business! Maybe next time...
I decadently went ahead and booked myself a personal day for my birthday and after a punishing start I've had a very lazy day, thanks very much. I got up early to do my yearly push up challenge: Cass says that I should do fewer each year as I get older, but I'm managing to do one more each time....I must admit the last few were very hard! Here it is.
Photos: the spiders are still pretty big in Taiwan...spotted in a classroom across the hall from mine. Chee Chee adorned with wig, Macaroni Grill and a close up of Cassy's earrings featuring a variety of stones: amethyst, ruby, tourmaline, topaz, diamonds and pearls!