Cass is hosting her Book Club group next Friday so this weekend the seemingly never-ending preparations began. In some ways, it's quite a good thing: we take the chance each year to look around the apartment and see it with fresh eyes and then do something about the things that offend us!
We scooped up some extra goodies during our regular supermarket run and got a few more at the "City Super" down at SOGO when we were there to visit Din Tai Fung. There will be further visits to various outlets in the days to come!
I take the opportunity to clean off the verandah for its rare beautification. There is a pesky, woody, weedy plant growing out of the drain-hole in the corner that is so ferocious in growth and so tenacious in survival that I have been unable to kill it. I simply hack off whatever evil foliage has formed and leave the chunky nub to sprout again later. Whatever is in the depths of that drain-hole certainly provides a bountiful feast for this hardy weed: I hate to think!
Our leather lounge has succumbed in a couple of places to years of over energetic cat "fizzling", and has split the leather where cat claws have ripped and teared as they leaped. We patch it up with fabric tape and pretend there's nothing to see! The accumulation of documents and daily "stuff" needs to be whisked away, so that the table becomes a showpiece for the meal: we just usually eat our breakfast around the piles of stuff until we get sick of it and have a cull. Every year at this time I look wistfully at the multiple shelving units housing hundreds of DVDs and CDs: I should get rid of them, but how to start? Do I throw them, keep them, sell them, give them away or ...? The question becomes more and more rhetorical as each year goes by and they remain, gathering dust, a testament to old technology and a distinct lack of conviction (on my part)!
We visited our favourite, the incomparable and ever reliable Din Tai Fung on Saturday afternoon and penciled in our order. For all the years we have been going there the price has remained exactly the same, which is a rarity in itself. The xialongbao and fried rice, the spicy cucumber and stir fried cabbage, the vegetarian dumplings for Cass and the bottomless cups of piping hot tea are delivered to the table with energy and verve, at sensible intervals, and simmering from the wok or bamboo steamers. We always leave well fed and in an upbeat mood: a dining experience that suits us perfectly!
Our computer guy, Dick, visited through the week and declared our computer terminally ill after going through a battery of tests. He has taken it away, will try to retrieve as much data as possible, then transfer it to an energetic new model full of power and memory and hopefully ready for a busy and energetic life. Our computer is put through quite a torrid experience as it streams live sport, downloads large files, burns and transfers data heavy files and videos and photographs and functions as a laptop substitute when we're at home. I pity the poor thing, and I understand how it succumbs to various maladies eventually. Doctor Dick is due this week to deliver a new, fast, powerful athlete who hopefully won't get sick for some time to come!
We're anticipating another great slab of poetry to grade mid-week, so there's no respite. That, along with regular after school meetings and preparing for the "Bookies" on Friday should keep us as busy as ever. Photos: We're always excited to see new restaurants opening up and the Pita Bar up the road has delicious offerings. Din Tai Fung chefs furiously kneading dumplings, Cass under the CNY decorations at SOGO, Mary avoiding a photo (she's a master at this) and a selfie with a couple of old Chinese people behind the old Aussies! I'm reading "Easy Riders, Raging Bulls" by Peter Biskind and Cass is reading the stellar, contemporary Aussie classic, Boy Swallows Universe, by Trent Dalton.