This might be the last hurrah for the silver bullet: I'm trying to organize a final inspection, pay some lingering insurance and get the paperwork changed to the new owner. A teacher in the lower school, co-incidentally doing the exact job I did for ten years or more, has agreed to buy it after sorting a car-park for it through the week. She'll use my underground park for this coming month then move it to a spot in her alley. It's a classic old car and we'll miss it!
The hilarity never stops round at Wal and Annie's place on a Friday night! I occasionally go around for a couple of hours prior to going down to Uli's as the boys sleep later these days and they're a handful: I think Annie appreciates Wal's involvement and it smooths his exit later on! They are quite the hoot and I enjoy all the antics, mainly because I know I only get a very small dose. It reminds once again that we really don't know we're alive: I'm exhausted after this tiny taste of reality. The "nappy head" game was just one of many: the boys really like my underarm farting noise game as well!
Taiwan is still showing the rest of the world how to deal with the virus...it's an amazing array of contact tracing elements that they've employed to keep everyone safe. I read something a little sad the other day, but it really resonated with me. Taiwan is so proactive and ready to pounce on any outbreak mainly because they know that no-one will help them. China has dominated the world stage for so long and has actively bullied organizations like the W.H.O. and U.N. to deny Taiwan entry into these organizations. It has also intimidated individual countries who have had the audacity to co-operate with, let alone recognize, Taiwan. So, therefore, and sadly, Taiwan is well aware that they must rely on their own auspices to survive and now they are a shining light for the rest of the world to follow. With their unselfish and massive donations of PPE to countries throughout the world, people are starting to understand Taiwan's recent motto: "Taiwan Can Help"....let's hope they remember when everything settles down.
We're glacier-like in our progress, but we're cautiously crossing a few things off our increasingly long list. Cass is getting our cable TV subscription extended by a month as it's about to run out. I'm hopefully getting the car sorted. We're going to bite the bullet and tell our landlord, Mr. Lee, about our move today. We've been putting this off as he can be terribly long-winded, and no doubt will insist on an interminable meeting. We have to do it though, as there are many aspects of the move that we need to negotiate: rent extensions, clean-up responsibilities, timing etc. etc. We've also enhanced his property with built-in air-conditioners and will leave any white goods he wants....hopefully this gives us a little bargaining power to escape a month's rent. Wish us luck!
One extremely exciting aspect to our week was the deposits into our accounts of our "retirement" funds from the school contracted financial advisors. We'd never seriously relied on these funds as they just seemed so nebulous and far removed. It's not officially superannuation, so we could get a payout, but it occurred and we're delighted....bonus!
Photos: the silver bullet in the bat-cave, Cass with an armada of Youbikes, nappy-heads, and Taiwan showing the world how to do it (without lock-downs). Last, a Taiwan map drawn by an Australian artist plus video of a recent river walk.