Time's winding down very quickly! Just a short one today and next week we'll be winging it back to Australia for  couple of months and there will be the sound of chirping crickets all over this blog! I have an annual hiatus: it recharges me to go for it in the following academic year come mid-August.

We've got a very old Honda Accord here in Taiwan and it is the exact same model and colour as the one featured with Jesus above....I couldn't resist putting it in. The academic year melting away means there are a lot of farewells: I run the Orphanage Club every Wednesday afternoon after school and the girls got some certificates, although only a couple turned up.

Grading nearly 100 items each time does my head in at times although it's water off a duck's back to the old hand, Cass. I've despaired about my eyesight this year on several occasions, but Cass says some of the samples I receive, (this one is mild by comparison) she couldn't read even with the aid of glasses....makes me feel a little better!

When the birds nest under the awnings and subsequently feed their new-born chicks we know that school is coming to an end. Similarly, the aggressive Taiwan blue magpies have nested in our local park for the tird year running and they've taken a keen dislike to my semi-bald head it seems. I have to run the gauntlet through their park with my bag protecting my head twice a day! The only calm bird life seems to be the "Moop": can you spot him camouflaged against the tree roots?

Next, our much loved "Sovital Toast" is ending its run at Wendel's, much to our horror. When we come back it will be discontinued and we're crossing our fingers that the substitute will be edible: we searched for years for a bread we could regularly eat over here....hopefully we'll find some alternative when we get back. Cass holds up our last three loaves.

We both had favourite classes this year. Cass got one of the kids in her small class to get a shot....every single one of them is a sheer delight and bounce in and out of the class every day with a smile and good cheer, eager to learn and improve. These kids are incredible: our gig is almost too good to be true!

See you in mid-August!

I met a guy who people were fawning over last Friday night, so when he sat next to me at the bar, I asked him what all the fuss was about. Turns out he's a local politician who has become especially popular as he does a regular segment on a local cable TV channel. I got one of his adoring fans to take a photo thinking I could find out later who he really was, but as it turns out, hid identity remains a mystery....maybe I'll see him another time!

At the same time, Cass was with The Bookies at a cute Italian restaurant, Vicolo, near the fabled Il Mercato, down in an alley off Chung Chen Road. They enjoyed some exquisite meals and the little place was a bit of a revelation in terms of ambiance and quality. It might be just as well as the magnificent a la carte version of Il Mercato has packed up leaving just the expanded cafe area behind. The Bookies had a great night and successfully whittled down their long list of 24 books to a more manageable 12 books selected to be read in the upcoming academic year.

It's been a crazy busy week and somehow, both Cass and I managed to write our huge caseload of anecdotal reports. This feat was achieved largely due to the fact that Cass had a huge bank of generic comments from years gone by that she kindly shared with me. We were both able to use these as a base to build our current comments and they were a lifesaver. Not only did we write them all, but we proofread them and printed them for the next round of checking by our colleagues.

We both committed ourselves to this task completion because today, in class, we're doubling up our workload with paragraphs from each of the kids on the set text. More grading! It's today we've realized what gluttons for punishment we've become....maybe we can ditch this paragraph next year???! It's very awkard timing because not only do we have reports but we have the gargantuan task of grading 210 full essays next Tuesday onwards and we'll be lucky to get them done before the end of the following week when "school's out for summer"!

The mad days are upon us again and seem to have sneaked up on us a bit this year. Yesterday we booked the car to the airport and even reserved a hire car for our trip back from Sydney airport on the 4th. We have to start packing up the house, getting jobs done and looking after Mary's needs. I got the car inspected last week, but we have to load up on cat food and litter and arrange for Ani to care for Mary. Added to all that, we've both got duty for a BBQ/dance at school this Friday night!

So, anyway, busy days! We stayed at home for most of the weekend recovering from the big week and we're looking forward to the Game of Thrones' finale tonight. We'll put our heads down this week, motor through to the weekend and then prepare for exam week next week and our big influx of papers to grade. I should get one more blog entry in next week before a bit of a hiatus when we're back in Australia....more later. Just one photo today: me and the mystery celebrity on Friday night!

The MS production has been the overriding force this weekend, but mercifully, it's blown through for yet another year. The load for Cass was compounded this year by her catching a bit of a cold in the week prior, possibly due to being a bit run-down from preparations for said play. The lead-up was marked by multiple visits to various stores in search of the correct makeup, removers and all the associated containers and cleaners that seem necessary. That wasn't all of course: there were liaisons with directors and backstage folks, setting up of equipment, laying out rooms adequately and not to mention wrangling her dozen girls assisting her with all the actual tasks!

Suffice to say it was a monumental task spread over a few weeks, but the intense showtime sessions went smoothly and various quick makeup changes which were quite tense and stressful for all, were successfully accomplished with the minimum of fuss. The play was based on the books and movie about "Shrek" so the transformation from normal humans to green faced monsters had to be done just off stage, very quickly, by a team of makeup artists. The donkey was a little tricky and various narrators and minor characters all needed a bit of pampering, so, as usual, it turned into quite an extravaganza!

As mentioned previously, old mate Gurecki turned up mid-week and we eneded up having a rollicking good catch-up with a few guest artists and I saw him briefly again the next day. It was great to catch up: we speak regularly on the phone if he rings us on a Friday night, or via email, but there's nothing like a good old-fashioned chat. I was glad I'd booked a personal day for the Wednesday as our conversations stretched well past my usual school night bedtime!

Unbelievably, because it feels like just a few months ago we started in this whirlwind, school is rapidly winding to a close. Social events are starting to pop again onto the calendars and we're working our way around some. We missed a farewell for a colleague on Friday due to Cassy's play commitments and my usual Friday night was interrupted due to an upper school sportsman's dinner. Wal and Steve and Ed did meet up with me later on and we checked out the new Patio.

"The Green Bar" was an institution even before we arrived and was secreted down the back end of Tienmu East Road. Some years ago it morphed into "Patio 84" under new ownership, but remained essentially the same beast. It was with some trepidation that we spied it had moved into a much more conspicuous and public position on the main road a couple of months ago. As it turns out, it's not too bad: I think we would have preferred the bigger space and more private position it used to offer, but beggars can't be choosers!

I'm procrastinating: I have 94 lengthy anecdotal reports to write in the next week and a half.....see ya!

Taiwanese efficiency was demonstrated on a recent weekday morning. We were staggered to see a giant park tree had blown over in moderate winds through the night and some workman had already crime-taped the scene ready for action at 7 a.m. I joked with Cass that by the time we walked home about 4.30, that the whole gigantic mess would be sorted to the point we'd never know that it had occurred. Not quite, but by the following morning all had been squared away and nothing was left, not even a hole. By the afternoon, the tree had been cut up neatly and was awaiting haulage, which must have happened overnight as there was no sign at all the morning.

I'd been bragging through the week that I hadn't been sick for about two years....a fact taht I obviously shouldn't have voiced out aloud as the sickness gods wrought their vengeance within hours! I was smitten by a violent cold/flu, seemingly picked up from one of hundreds of snuffling sneezing kids in our classrooms every day. My immune system is not quite as ironclad as I had previously thought!

For this reason, I had no other recourse than to spend decadent spells in bed over the weekend in a bid to recover, followed by endless hours watching football and generally doing nothing. I didn't do any activity that relied on spending more than the minimum of energy and I was very lucky that Cass could do the shopping etc without me. This enforced relaxation I believe has enabled me to get to work today, slightly recovered and ready to face another busy week.

Cass had the play dress rehearsal today and I combined her first three classes with mine so we were both busy. She has an arduous time coming up: due to circumstances, she needs to break her usual routine and stay for the entire duration of the musical at every performance this year. This will see her personal time over the next couple of weeks severely whittled away, so she's far from happy with the situation. Oh well, it will all be over soon!

My great friend, Gurecki, is due to fly in for a lightning visit tomorrow and Wednesday, so we've organized to meet at Uli's, as is tradition, in the usual manner, and with the usual guests. The core threesome of Wal, me and him will be there of course, possibly entertained by cameos from Ken and Michael. Despite the fact that it can't get too raucous mid-week, it will be great to catch up with the latest from Nagasaki.

Incredibly, another year has almost whizzed by: we have just four weeks left of school for the academic year before we fly back to Newcastle for our mild winter for a couple of months. While not wanting to get the feeling of downing tools too early, we are definitely looking forward to the break and managing our time over the interim with our best efficiency.