It's amazing how time flies. This corresponding week last year we were rail-passing around Kyushu, having an eye-opening adventure on tiny mountain railways, quaint little country trains and hurtling shinkansens, visiting towns and villages that were cute and surprising, all the while as peak cherry blossom time saw the sakura drift like snow all around us.

Not this year, however. We're apart for the week and two weekends, Cassy jetting off to Shoal Bay for the duration and me holding the fort and looking after grand old Mary right here in Taipei: it's been an interesting time from my perspective!

Cassy's parents are world cruising during the entire June/July break so we won't see them at all during that time which will be highly unusual. Normally, we wouldn't make the trek anywhere too far especially as the break seems to be only just after we returned from our Parisian adventure. With Chris and Val's looming absence on her mind, Cass decided to investigate some flights to see them in this break with the intention to just hang around at home and not have any other agenda than catching up with them.

I've had email and phone communication with Cass this week and it sounds like they've had a fun and reasonably relaxing time, certainly enough to shake off the 3rd quarter at work and get some quality time with her parents. Val has been cooking up a storm and they've enjoyed some lazy days in and around the Bay, doing just enough to keep themselves amused and not enough to enervate. I was surprised to see that Val and Cass had hiked all the way to the top of Tomaree headland however: that's quite the workout! They also managed to get up to Cessnock to the famous "End of the Line" shoe-store and discovered it's finally become eponymous! With the looming closure just days away, they stumbled on the final throes of the shop, and Cass bought up large at greatly discounted prices: she's stoked! Check out their adventures here.

My week has played out in a very loose state of consciousness by and large! Sometimes the days flash by without me realizing the sequence of the day has really played out and concepts such as time for meals and activities get very fluid. On other days, I've exhausted my itinerary and activity list in an hour and the rest of the day seems quite interminable. Most of the time I seemed to flit from thought to thought and activity to activity with a random pattern, but I've managed to fill up the week quite adequately.

I did lots of little jobs in the first few days and also went downtown to the Hsin Yi district, better known as the home of the ex-tallest building in the world, Taipei 101. The weather was stunning and there was a zephyr just fanning a full sun, mid 20s temperature and encouraging the pedestrian to stroll around the district which was what I did. I deliberately caught the line to disembark at 101 in order to walk across the suburb to Bellavita where a quite stunning display of Banksy's works were hung for just one week.

The exhibition was more extensive than I'd expected, and although we'd seen some of the works in Amsterdam the previous Christmas, many of them were new to me. I spent some time there before wandering in and out of the intersecting streets in the district marveling at the new buildings that seemed to have popped up, or at least "matured", since our last good look around down there. Check out the album of Banksy ad Hsin Yi architecture right here

I've scootered up to the lower slopes of Yangminshan National Park on a couple of occasions before hiking further through the spring grasses, which sang a soothing swoosh as I tramped by. I was surprised to come face to face with giant buffalo at the top of one of these climbs: the giant beast just took in my petrified frozen figure, then turned its great eyes of dark pools away from me and shuffled off into the grassland again, disappearing from sight in seconds. I almost felt as if I dreamed the whole incident, but caught a waft of his musty odour as I continued on the path to confirm it did, indeed, occur!

On another day I broke the car free from her garage across the way and motored through to Jinshan. I spent some time at the petrol station doing a little maintenance before discovering a lake-like beach and swell at Jinshan itself. Undeterred by this expected event I changed into the boardies and set out to test my shoulders. I was kind of glad that there wasn't enough swell to warrant releasing the board as I was determined to test out my slowly improving shoulders with a gentle swim at best. My frozen shoulders have slowly improved under twice daily exercise routines and I thought they could handle a little test. I was stoked to swim a few tentative strokes without pain then did a few hundred metres: that was too much as they ached the next day, but the tide is turning!

I watched every game of football in the first round and quite a lot in the second! Normally, Cass wouldn't tolerate such decadence so it was a good chance to get my eye in early and learn some of the new line-ups. I think I learned a lot! I also learned a lot about introverts left to their own devices for set lengths of time. I didn't speak to one person apart from basic interactions in shops and restaurants from one week to the next: this is not healthy for the mind, and unusual for me. I didn't particularly enjoy the experience but I do know one thing that it has confirmed: I miss my wife in all respects! She'll be home tonight and I can't wait to see her again...

Spirit Week is a peculiarly American middle school and high school concept that leaves us a little stunned and more than slightly bewildered. I never really quite understood the enormity of the concept in the division until I joined last year despite Cass giving me detailed breakdowns of the intricacies and intrigues of the week for years and years. It is an unstoppable force, a tsunami of emotion and chock full of bizarre rituals and quirky activities that could keep me writing for a month!

I'll save you from the minutia, but the broad brush strokes are fodder enough for a few laughs if not some cringe and surprise. The week starts to build momentum weeks before its official start as the team of kids and teachers tasked with organization begin putting some of the protocols in place. The eagerly awaited dress-up day schedule, when published, signals the official green light of the drag race which starts with a furious spin of the tyres, gains momentum very quickly and often ends in either a parachute to slow the juggernaut or a fiery wreck!

Even though teachers aren't officially counted, we're strongly "encouraged" to take part and set an "example" for the kids: as if they need any further encouragement. While we wear our pyjamas or cartoon character outfits we're still supposed to teach our respective lessons all week: it's bad enough that we look like spaz-dogs, but it's hard to keep a straight face when teaching Shakespearean soliloquies to an audience in fluffy slippers and onesies! As you can imagine, apart from the official "fun" activities, the classroom experience is draining and seems to last forever!

There is a special schedule all week which shortens the periods by 5 minutes each. This allows a 40 minute slot before lunch each day for cheers, games or practices. All of these events involve 600 teenagers screaming at the top of their lungs for interminable periods with great fervour and excitement. The result for the teachers varies. Some "kings of the kids" style teachers seem to wallow in nostalgia and transport themselves back to their own middle school days, whipping themselves into a frenzy, dressing with more commitment to the cause than most of the kids, and variously making fools of themselves. There are others who grin and bear it and complement their daily outfits with noise-cancelling headphones and smile at the ones who are freaking losing it! There are a range of types dotted along the spectrum from these two extremes. Can you guess where we are on the continuum?!

I could go on and on here but not only would it frighten you, the reader, but it would probably make me question my sanity when I recall some of activities I smiled and nodded to! Instead, I'll fast forward to the weekend which was dreary and wet, yet we still had a pretty good time. We got out and about on Saturday in the neighborhood armed with our trusty umbrellas. The wind was mercifully calm and the temperature mild, so despite and perhaps because of the rain, we had a pleasant stroll or two. We eventually mosied on down to the Very Thai restaurant where we had an absolutely delicious meal, partaking of many of our favourites including the fried eggplant and the shrimp pancakes and other morsels.

We getting ready for next weekend when Cass will undertake a flying visit to Australia for a week during our Spring Break. I'm tasked with caring for the grand old madam, Mary, and keeping the home fires burning. Cassy's parents will be cruising during our entire winter holiday, so she thought she'd take the opportunity to see them now. Photos today are dominated by our efforts to commit to each dress up day: pyjamas, retro, element, cartoon, colour and hair  plus an odd kid shot and the relaxing Thai meal!

Big thanks to my sparse readership for your forbearance: there was a perfect storm last week in terms of lack of activity on our part, a dearth of photo fodder and a landslide of work and grading that had pummeled us into submission come the weekend. Despite the fact that we had two full days of parent conferences this week, it still managed to be a little better!

One event I could have reported on last week was the successful running of another of Cassy's Book Club hostings. Once a year, each member of the club hosts all the others at their home, providing food and beverages and a delightful warm venue! I described in some detail the lengthy and sometimes annoying process of preparation but it does have some benefits: those pesky "once in a blue moon" jobs do get done and the house shines for some time lingering after the event!

Cass usually does all the cooking, but did a bit of a swifty this year and got the "doings" of Chicken Shawarma Pitas from the local Pita Bar that is run by an Israeli family whose daughter Cass taught last year. The food is particularly delicious and along with the appetizers of cheese, nuts and grapes and the perennial dessert of Aussie pav, the night was a great success. Cass even threw in a bottle of Veuve Cliquot, a present I received from one of my students.

We had parent conferences on Thursday and Friday and the upper gym, usually pulsing with bouncing balls, the slaps and yells of volleyball players in full flight or the squeal of rubber soled shoes on wood, was humming to a very different beat. Parents and students descended like a plague of locusts and fed voraciously on the offerings we, the teachers, served to them. The trouble is that the numbers are of almost biblical proportions as well: as you can see above, I'd seen 32 sets between 8 a.m. and 12 noon on the first morning! This set the pattern for the two days: Cass was similarly inundated over the four sessions and we almost literally collapsed at 4 p.m. Friday when the hordes finally departed; they satiated and we spent.

We celebrated by having a cup of tea, a handful of nuts and a collapse on the lounge at home! I went out and had beers a plenty with Wal later in the evening as he had an early mark of sorts from his athletic coaching duties and the boys were squared away at his parents-in-law's place for a couple of days: we made the most of the freedom! Not feeling terribly adventurous on Saturday after our assault in the latter stages of the week, we changed our set plans for the day (a trip to Yuanshan and the park and eating hub, Maji Square) to include takeaway Oggi pizza and a one-dayer from India, where the Aussies nearly carved out a patient win.

The TV viewing was possible as Dick and his son visited through the week with the long awaited new computer: they got it set up with various programs and running well before I spent some time downloading various programs and apps that we needed to make our lives run smoothly. I'm delighted to report that, after a few minor hiccups, all systems are "go": torrents are downloading, VPNS are masking, apps are presenting and live sports are streaming along with any or all of this beaming across to the TV when we fire up the equipment. Happy days are here again!

It doesn't take much to get me excited these days! I got a message on an app I have for the local French owned supermarket, Carrefour, through the week introducing an English company called Churchill's Sausages at a counter in the local store. They advertised sausages, pies and sausage rolls of various flavours. Cass and I had a chat with the guy, then bought a couple of different sausage rolls and pies which I sampled for dinner: pretty, pretty good is the verdict. How exciting to find a pie option so close to home in our suburb!

Spirit Week is on this week at school....not our favourite time of year (being a close second in repugnance behind camp), but at least it should be good for a few funny photos next week! Photos this week: Cassy's Book Club, lion dancers training at the local PE college, Spirit Week bulletin board prep, parent conferences, a last pack of Japanese senbei and Churchill's Sausages and Pies!