No Need to Send Troops, I'm Fine

Okay, I've been told that people actually read this thing and an update is overdue... My bad! Sorry. I've been having a pretty crappy time of late, and I didn't want to bore you with the details. However, here's the barest of stripped bones.

I'm broke, and some of the people at work are probably cutting up their dried squid treats with scissors, since their knives are still stuck firmly in my back.

Anyway, I've talked to my boss and picked up about 8 more hours a week. So the broke thing won't last for too much longer!

I've also made partial peace with the work thing (meaning, I sneer at the main perpetrators, and go out of my way to annoy them) and I'm just trying to remember the fabulousness of my real friends!

Doings of late...

I've been babysitting Oliver, who is DELICIOUS. Look how cute!



I've been eating ridiculous amounts of dan-ping (which is essentially a little scrambled egg with a tortilla on top, then stick some plastic cheese in the middle, roll it up, cram it in a box, cover it in thick sweet soya sauce and go) which has made little impression on my rather pleasing weight loss. Finally found some working scales the other day, and I've lost 9kgs! Eeek. I thought those articles about alcohol being fattening were just someone having a laugh...

The weather is finally perking up, thank goodness. Who would want to live on a freaking tropical island?

I'm currently sharing my batcave with Rachel, another teacher from work. She's leaving soon and her lease has expired, and for some reason my well-hidden soft side came out and I couldn't bear the thought of her sleeping in the ball pool at school.

So here we are, very snug! She grinds her teeth a fair bit, but I'm willing to forgive.

What else? Well, last week I went on a bit of a hike up a mountain. I know what you're thinking - "Jody? The world's laziest trollop?" but you have to remember that Taiwanese don't really DO the outdoors. This mountain is almost fully paved with little walkways and ornamental roses and crap.

Overall impression? Meh. It's no New Zealand. Although it did have a hot-water river, which was kind of cool! Here 'tis.



Oh, and I don't know if you can tell from this picture, but I swear this is a statue of the God of Paprika. It was so weird, and DEFinitely covered in paprika!



And that's about it for now. I've got a new adults class starting this morning, for which I have prepped nothing, and about which I have thought very little. Bad Teacher Jody. Oh, and now that I type "Teacher Jody", I remember that I also have to try and get the whiteboard marker stains out of my hoodie. Bloody kids! I must have looked particularly miffed about it, because they came up one by one to assure me they were not to blame. "Teacher, not me!"