We've had a couple of birthdays in our household lately and even though the girls have just had their 14th (!) anniversary of birth in fairly lacklustre style, it's not them I'm referring to. Cassy had hers in very low key fashion a week or so back on a weekday and I followed up this Saturday with my own.
Cass hates the hiatus between birthdays and curses the unfortunate circumstances that allow her to be the elder partner in our relationship for a solid and seemingly never-ending nine days. I try not to alleviate the pain by dropping one liners periodically which acknowledge that she, and she alone, has reached such senior status to be almost unbelievably ancient. Equilibrium has been restored now, at least until next year!
My annual pushup challenge was just that, a challenge, this year. In my 49th year I thought it might be a good trick to do a fair few push-ups for my 50th birthday. In the giddy headspace which accompanies initial success, I decided that I could even do the same number of pushups as my age. If only I'd stuck with that. In my euphoria that I seemed strong enough to do 70 pushups at the time, I decided to set "my age plus 20 extra" as the benchmark for that very first challenge at the half century. Six years later and with a generally wrecked and contorted shoulder I've fallen short, only managing to achieve 70 instead of 76. I took today off as is tradition, but I'm determined to get back in the winner's circle with 77 this time next year so I start another year's training on Wednesday....nuts?....I know!
We had no real set plans for either of our birthdays, which was just as well as Cassy has been frustrated with another bout of sinus related trouble. We're cursing the hacking, sneezing mess of teenagers we work in close proximity to each day....these kids have a fairly loose interpretation of personal hygiene and etiquette! We needed to get up to the doctor's on Saturday morning to source some pills, and Cass was a very quiet shell of her usual self all weekend and has even decided to take a rare day off work today.
Before she was struck down, Cass managed to have a very enjoyable night out with her friend Lisa, where they made their way down by train to the 1914 Huashan Creative Park to a theatre to see a live production. The Diary of Anne Frank was being performed by a professional cast of old and young adult actors, but also starred in the title role, young Camryn, who is a student of Cassy's this year, and also happens to be the eldest daughter of her great friend, Kristin. What a triumph it proved to be! Cass and Lisa were stunned not only by the professional performances, but also the choreography needed to work their way round the set so perfectly for the couple of hours. As Cass says, "We all know the ending, so that's not part of the tension", yet the actors kept the audience riveted to their seats throughout. Here is a link to a review in the Taipei Times. The girls ate a relaxed meal at a cafe on the grounds before the performance and reported it be tasty and sufficient!
I myself had an unusual repast on Friday evening as my usual German sausage haul was replaced with spicy chicken from KFC, home delivered by a sharing friend! I was just settling in to watch the Knights game against Melbourne when Wal rang and asked to come round and watch. He brought us some beers and the dinner so he was a very welcome guest. We later went on and out and about to watch more football so it was a nice little birthday entree.
Crazily, end-of-year routines are starting to be advertised at school, and Friday and Saturday nights are getting clogged with social engagements from farewells to retirements to celebrations of life. Looks like we'll be as busy as usual, as April drains away to May and a finish to the year looms large in early June. Photos: Cass had a cherry beer for her birthday, Mr. Squiggle's spaceship has come back down to earth as a paper money burner in our lane, a breakfast celebration at Wendel's and a possible answer to our biggest question of late: why has the quality of fruit and vegetables rapidly declined lately at our local supermarket? Possibly....it's closing soon..."bye bye sale"?!