Spring has sprung! We're revelling in the delightful weather, the smells and sounds of early spring and the "spring" in the step of just about everyone out and about. Although Newcastle has a relatively mild winter and nothing to get frosty about by any means, it's all relative, and the emergence from some darker, shorter, cooler days is always a mood enhancer.
We've continued our near-daily trekking up the coastal bluff most days, and coupled with some weight work for Cass, and push-ups and pullups for me, we've managed to exhaust ourselves before breakfast on a number of occasions and certainly get "the noddies" in that blissful, soporific lull after a leisurely lunch! Nothing like the non-working life wethinks!
Despite the fact that we're under our own auspices most of the time and still have to pinch ourselves that we're not locked into Pavlovian slavery with class and meeting times each day, we've still been committed to various tasks. Cassy's parents have been in an absolute flurry of activity, variously negotiating the sale of their current unit of more than 30 years and all the associated tasks attached (of which we're very well aware after recent events in our own lives!), and finding a new place to live and in the middle of it all, experiencing medical emergencies and attending to them and other issues. The poor things don't know whether they're Arthur or Martha.
Cassy and I have tried to offer as much assistance as we can, and despite the fact that C&V value their independence and don't want to hassle us, we've been able to convince them that we'd feel better as well if we were able to assist a little. So, therefore, we've been able to assist with a few little tasks lately, offer any advice or reassurance we feel will help, and make ourselves available for the myriad of jobs coming up in the near future. In fact, we're going to assist with some driving to various appointments tomorrow.
We did get a little time to spoil ourselves recently and dined out at that most decadent hour, lunch-time, at both the Paymaster's Café and Custom's House, both on the lawned foreshore of Newcastle Harbour, bathed in sunshine and with views of the working port and the maritime leviathans that appear seemingly from no-where every now and then, being shunted and shoved by an armada of grunting tugboats! It's decadent for us to eat out at lunch: for 35 years we've had jobs that allow barely a breath to ourselves during the day, let alone an hour for lunch. Who'd look after those kids on the playground or grade those essays?! We revelled in the freedom and realized that we could do this any time we want: the reality has taken a while to dawn on us.
We tackled another of our lurking back-burner jobs this week when we selected 40 classic "must keep" DVDs from the many hundreds we brought back from Taiwan, before packing up the remainder ready for delivery to a charity outlet: hopefully they'll make a couple of bucks to use for different purposes by selling them. Next stop, CDs!
Cass broke out a brand new pair of shoes to meet up with the "Big Four", a quartet of Grammar teachers from years gone by who regularly meet, previously during June and July when we've been back. With less urgency this year, they've delayed till now. I still haven't met up with any of my old mates except Mark: that same lack of urgency is driving my laziness but I don't want another school holidays to fade away without at least an attempt to meet up. I need to get onto that!
Finals time in the AFL starts tonight and the NRL begins tomorrow. We attended a special event of one of the Knights final training sessions through the week: we were mesmerised by the precision drills and Cass commented that they were almost balletic in their choreography. Let's hope they dance well come Sunday! We demurred on the member's special tickets for Sunday's Knight's semi: we hope it doesn't happen, but it looks like they're going to get flogged, and we didn't want to drive all the way to Sydney for that. I'll miss Wal at this time of year, as we made some special times during the finals when we were both back in Taipei, especially on those sweet Friday nights after a hard week at work.
Cass has finished the massive tome, Wolf Hall, and puts it firmly in the "A" range. I'll have to give it another try: I think I'm a bit dumb! She's contemplating launching into the sequel, "Bring Up the Bodies" while she's got the characters still firmly established in her mind. I read a Michael Robotham sequel which wasn't quite as tight or entertaining as the original. "When She Was Good" didn't quite have the shock value or the pacing, but was very competent. I also read "Cry Baby", a prequel to the Tom Thorne novels by Mark Billingham. It was great and now I'm keen to investigate the back catalogue of Tom Thorne thrillers, of which there are 20 or more....should keep me busy!