I've re-discovered my old grading prowess during this first stint marking my mini doorstop of papers, 92 strong! This time it's just a paragraph, but even so I've had to eke out a little time, squeeze a little fat from my schedule today, to put fingers to keyboard to get this blog started. Cass has been great, sharing her many tips and tricks gleaned from her years doing this same gig, so I'm trying to follow her schedule that she's mapped out for me. If I do, I'll get them all done in time.

Combined with this great slab of papers, we're also undertaking some "live" grading during class this week as well, as kids present their oral book reports on a memoir they chose a couple of weeks back. It's intense, as not only does the audience have to be perfectly behaved and quiet, but we can't afford to miss a word of what's being reported: we just get one shot, with no videos backing us up. It's incumbent on us to get it right, so the hard-working kiddies don't miss out on a mark they otherwise should have received!

So, obviously, there's no rest for the wicked on the 3rd floor of the B block at TAS! We tried valiantly to wash our grading stresses away on Friday night (or at least I did!), and I met up with Wol to have a chat and some beers at Uli's then onward to watch some football games in both codes as the teams approach the finals. Cass kicked back with the most spoiled cats in the world as they watched game shows on the TV5 French language channel, lying all together on the lounge. Cass is always stoked when she gets a question before the contestants: this time she got three!

We needed a new vacuum cleaner so we bought a jazzy new unit that looks like a Dyson, but only cost $80....obviously straight off a production line in a factory in the depths of the Chinese industrial heartland. Sourced down at Carrefour, I whisked that home on the scooter while Cass did the grocery shopping and we met up later to continue same. After lugging the red bags home in the spitting afternoon rain, we belatedly realized how muggy and foggy the inside of our apartment was! After getting the air-con fired up, I stepped out once again to get the bread for the week and a couple of sublime Oggi pizzas....authentic German fresh cooked bread as well as certified Italian master chef rated pizza. Yum!

We were so graded out this weekend, or in such an ominous warning period for the coming week, that we didn't feel like facing anything beyond a wrap-up of an almost unbelievable week in Australian politics via "Insiders" plus a plethora of pre-finals football on TV. Cass was again occupied in washing great piles of towels and sheets for the increasingly dirty cats and I deigned to go out and get 10 packs of litter to stock up supplies.

We're back into the thick of another super busy week....I'm tapping this out in a ridiculously gratuitous after-school meeting discussing the kids' scores from last year in internal tests....."Serenity Now!"

Photos: Cass outside the roped-off local playground: for some reason (maybe give-a-man-a-job) they're ripping up a play area they only re-built a couple of years ago. Incense burning outside Carrefour to pray for good trade: (must have worked as we bought our vacuum cleaner straight after this!) and Aussie mandas.We're both reading Richard Flanaghan's "First Person" on our dueling Kindles!

Well, we somehow feel transported back about 20 years into an Australian middle and high school system that used to feel like it was sucking the very life-blood from your body, transforming from a vibrant energized entity on Monday into a pathetic lifeless husk by Friday afternoon!

Cass and I both had similar feelings at the end of a very exhausting first full week with students. In some ways we felt a little better, as we ran into our friends on separate occasions later in the week, Dan and Michelle, and both of whom independently came up with similar remarks. At least a decade younger than us, even these teacher-athletes were feeling the start-of-year pressure. Another thing that probably isn't helping is our teaching/student load: A quick look at the student numbers in the chart above shows that they're not going easy on the old folk (us!): in fact we've got the most of anyone by a long way. I suppose we should take it as a compliment!

The heat continues to roll across the city-scape in unrelenting waves, creating mirages on the tarred roads and sapping our strength as we commute to and from school. We're a lather of sweat at the completion of both journeys providing a very uncomfortable start to the workday, despite the cooling towers on the roof pumping cold air into every nook and crannie of the vast building where we beaver away each day. We're glad we're sequestered in classrooms throughout the day though: despite the non-graded attractions of teaching PE, we'd prefer not to be slowly basted and roasted in the ever hotter Taipei sun.

A tumultuous thunderstorm that hammered down sheets of rain in biblical torrents on Friday afternoon delayed our return home. We each had separate dates: me with Wol down at Uli's and Cass with her book club up at Sherri's place. Earlier, when we arrived home from work, bedraggled, wet and tired, neither of us felt much like socializing, yet we each ended up having good nights. There's something about the taste of a cold beer or a crisp champagne, respectively, that provides just the right tonic to wash away a torrid week.

In the slightly less fiery temperatures of the early evening on Saturday, we took our usual pleasure in wandering around our neighbourhood. Everything, and I really mean everything, is available within a short stroll of our front door. We strolled along checking that shops and establishments were still operating, usually a bit of a lottery after we've been away for a couple of months, and we were pleasantly surprised to see all remained the same. Moksha was our destination, a newish Indian restaurant with authentic southern Indian fare, with some different offerings from the usual as well as a very extensive menu. It's a popular spot and we were lucky to snare a table without a reservation. We tried a few different dishes and my fish was delectably spiced and cooked, real melt-in-the-mouth style. The creative serving plates and service all made it a very pleasant dining experience.

Cass continued to catch up with a mountain of domestic chores as well as the increasing demands of our fickle couple of skinny, spoilt cats! Their under-performing kidneys mean more litter being used and more changes of litter necessary, and their ever-changing taste in food means mountains of empty gourmet food tins needing to be transported to the garbage along with the left-overs they refuse to eat: lucky she loves them! I snuck out to test myself against the steps after a long lay-off. How would I go? I was slow and ponderous, bear-like dragging myself up, but I made it to the top and celebrated with my chilled water upon returning to the bottom in a pool of sweat.

Photos: An aged beef room at Carrefour, straight from Australia!, one of Wol's pots, Himalayan salt (just for you, Chris!), Moksha, a very creatively decorated Grade 8 locker, the steps and the view as well as the chart showing what hard workers we are!!

We're back! My apologies to readers who were expecting an update last week: it should have come, but my enervated frame and mind couldn't quite cope with tapping out a little memoir of times past back in the land of sunshine and honey! Now, with a little perspective, yet not much time, I'll make a belated attempt to get ourselves up-to-date.

In a nutshell, the trip back home for northern hemisphere "summer" was cut of quite different cloth than the usual tapestry of events that often occur at this time of year in Newcastle's most unseasonably mild mid-winter. The threads were already coming loose before we arrived as I'd been straining against un-diagnosed and debilitating shoulder injuries for quite some time before we arrived back. I'd been to various "shoulder whisperers" here in Taipei, and while competent practitioners of their particular crafts, they couldn't quite nail down the underlying cause. Treating the symptoms gave temporary relief, but that was all.

The amazing GP Adam F. put me in touch with shoulder guru, Dr Steven K. by calling in a favour and getting me in that day. To cut a long piece of cloth into a manageable off-cut, he diagnosed me with not one, but two, frozen shoulders and intervened with cortisone injections, physical therapy and a regimen of on-going stretches "to the point of pain"! The time back home was interspersed with visits to doctors, clinics and physiotherapists, and both motorbike riding and surfing were too painful during these two months.

We did, however, fill up our days with the adage that more than one job or outing per day was definitely overdoing it! By the time we'd slept in, retrieved and read the paper over a tasty brekkie with machine brewed coffee and prepared ourselves to face the outside world, it was usually mid-morning and time for our walk. The default route was along the Bather's Way to Dixon Park, along to Bar Beach then up the steps of the Anzac Memorial Walk. We usually did the turn-around at Sheperd's Hill fort, but occasionally went further afield to the Bogey Hole, or even Newcastle. This six kilometre return walk up nice big hills kept us fit and active and less resistant to indulge in various Australian treats as they were offered or available!

A five day stint in sunny Mooloolaba and the hinterland of the Sunshine Coast was enjoyed with Ross and Ainslie as we enjoyed our annual get-together. Unfortunately, Newcastle doesn't have direct flights to Maroochydore, so we flew in and out of Sydney. They had hired a car so we able to zip around and away from the coast. We did plenty of bush-walking and sight-seeing, as well as plenty of catching up and red wine drinking!

Jen's and Mum's birthdays are always on when we're home so we were lucky to celebrate with them on the big days. Cass met up with her friends from Grammar a few times and I caught up with Caes and Stoney as well as a bigger group of the "old guys" over the fire pit. I also met up with Mark in one of many sojourns across to Surf House, and we had countless catch-ups and meals with our beloved parents on both sides of the family. Helen was struck down with a lurgy during the two big family events so doesn't feature in any of the photos above, but Neil and Lucy represented the family, and we caught up "in the shed" at East Maitland a couple of times as well!

We managed a day trip into the depths of the Hunter Valley on the bike, but apart from a couple of other short trips, the shoulders buzzing and aching, the bike wasn't called into action. The winter temps were so mild and the ocean so inviting that the siren call of the sea did lure me in for some body surfs on 4 or 5 occasions. I should really say body floats: there are fewer better sensations in the world than floating on your back in a calm cool ocean gazing at the clouds jostling above while listening to waves gently moving against the sea floor.....and all by myself as well!

I need to hold that thought to avoid being overwhelmed by a very hectic start to the year. I've got 104 kids' names to remember apart from anything else! Cassy is being super helpful and supportive and she assures me that things do get easier...!


Link to album....here