Somewhat surprisingly, it's the last day of a tumultuous year. It's sneaked up on us a little and rushed into fast forward for the last couple of months yet here, indeed, we are. What a year it's been for the entire world, yet in our little snow globe there have been many numerous flurries and storms. Luckily for us, all the maelstroms have bothered and flung and the snow has settled in the bottom of the dome: I suspect, however, that it is waiting for the tiniest eddy to stir it into action yet again!
This time last year we were tripping gaily through the great galleries of Munich and Frankfurt, basking in Salzburg's musical history and cruising down the Rhine sipping Riesling and spotting castles. No sooner had we arrived home in Taipei than quiet rumblings of viruses from Wuhan were being investigated by the formidable and fast acting Taiwanese CDC. Taiwan dodged a bullet by their swift and decisive action, but it did mean disrupted times for our final ever year of teaching, including learning lots of skills for online learning and teaching and masking up for months of face-to-face teaching to round out our careers. Who said old dogs can't learn new tricks!
We faced the trauma of packing up our house of two decades in the shadow of cancelled flights and dire warnings of being unable to leave the country. We belatedly became Taiwanese citizens, braving the red tape and forms and calling in our credit as long time residents, just in case we were stranded on-island for an extended time when our working visas expired. In the middle of all this, our beloved last surviving cat, Mary, stopped eating and drinking and succumbed to her long standing kidney problems. It wasn't a happy time, and the heartache of leaving our home and colleagues and friends was raw, palpable and long-lasting.
I've documented what happened since that date quite adequately here on these pages I believe, so I'll fast-forward to the last month when we've had much chirpier times!
It's all relative of course. We're very well aware of how incredibly fortunate we are to have our family and friends healthy and safe and to be living in a well managed country. This month we've managed to get out and about a bit more as virus concerns have lessened and Chris and Val have had the big move and are starting to get settled in their new apartment. The seemingly endless cleaning and clearing is drawing to a close and they are very relieved to be over the worst of the moving and are already really enjoying their new city apartment.
We went to The Civic Theatre to see Tom Gleeson live, and in his words, "he didn't disappoint"! He worked a lot of material in his show around a quote by one of his neighbours in rural Victoria, " Just been choppin' up a bit of road-kill to feed me dogs"...he was hilarious! Cass and I ventured down to the hallowed SCG for a T20 between India and Australia. It was great fun and we enjoyed being the rare Aussie supporters among a passionate but respectful Indian cheer squad! The Hughenden Hotel provided Cass with a trip down memory lane (almost literally, as we were in Queen St. Woollahra, her old stomping ground) and we strolled the old neighbourhood before visiting the incandescent shock of the Streeton exhibition at the AGNSW, along with a flash through the Wynne, Sulman and Archibald prize exhibitions. It was truly a treat for the senses!
Jen and Vince hosted a double Christmas, firstly on the day itself featuring the Drinkwaters and the Braggetts, including Sue and Duncan and Mum. It was a beautiful day and full of fine food and good cheer. We all supplied various components of the feast, yet the hosts did the bulk of the hard lifting of course. Not content with one exhausting day, the Drinkwater clan hosted a bigger gathering just two days later when the original gang, with the addition of all the Almonds along with respective girlfriends and boyfriends, attended. All 14 of us had a delicious BBQ lunch and had a rare chance to catch up as a large group.
Our hosting of Boxing Day lunch for the Williamsons was postponed due to Chris being admitted to hospital with shocking pain on Christmas Eve: he's back home now, but slowly rehabilitating from a crack in his back. We're going to join them for a New Year's Eve dinner at their new apartment tonight.
So, we're tentatively optimistic about the coming year and looking forward to doing a few more selfish, retirement style things: it's been pretty hard work at times this year! Cass has finished her "trilogy de Mantel" and is picking up Snow by Banville as a welcome antidote to the heavy pall of Henry's shocking treatment of Cromwell and others! I finished Scrubland by Chris Hammer (I thought it needed a good edit, despite being very well written and entertaining) and I'm now immersed in the ever-consistent Nazi novelist Robert Harris and the new "V2".