Long weekend

Back from an unplanned hiatus. Took a couple of days off to help M celebrate his birthday, and I’ve just been too busy to blog!

The Save the Children booksale was excellent. We went not once, but twice. The first excursion was on the Friday night, and I was pleased to see that there are many, many people in this fair city for whom a booksale is a noteable Friday night event: the line of eager punters snaking out across the green outside the hall just before doors opened was amazingly long. The hall was packed with people and it was very difficult to move. The second time we went was on Monday morning. It was refreshingly different, with maybe thirty people in the hall, and lots of room to browse and read and ponder. All in all, I spent way too much money and landed myself a grand total of 85 books.

Booty (Some of the novels I found at the sale.)

Originally uploaded by Constance Wiebrands.

Other finds include：

• Kamus Lengkap Malay language Complete Dictionary by Awang Sudjai Hairul and Yusoff Khan
• 中国书法文化大观 Zhongguo shu fa wen hua da guan Compendium of Chinese calligraphy culture by 金开诚 Jin Kaicheng and 王岳川Wang Yuechuan
• Unsur-unsur Bahasa Sanskerta dalam Bahasa Indonesia Elements of Sanskrit in Indonesian by Mukunda Madhava Sharma
• Di negeri orang: Puisi penyair Indonesia eksil In someone else’s country: Poems by exiled Indonesian poets
• 淮南子 Huai nan zi (I started trying to read this when I picked it up off the table, unsuccessfully, because it’s in classical Chinese, so of course I had to buy it.)
• 历史专题研究论丛 Li shi zhuan ti yan jiu lun cong Essays on research of historical topics by 陈安仁 Chen Anren
• A pocket dictionary of Chinese-English and Pekingese syllabary by Chauncey Goodrich
• and a few other dictionaries to add to the collection.

What else? On Saturday we went to Cirque du Soleil. Wow. We had good seats (front row, left) and I was entranced by the performers’ costumes, their suppleness, strength and skills. I think I sat there agape for half the show and with my heart in my mouth for the other half – when watching performances high in the air above our heads. They had a juggler too – I didn’t know it was possible to juggle as fast as he did, with his pins constantly spinning. My only complaint was that his performance was too short. At the end my hands were somewhat sore from too much clapping.

Then on Monday night we went out to dinner with M’s family, to an Indonesian restaurant named Tasik (“lake”), on Aberdeen St in Northbridge. The reborn Raos. Raos disappeared from its Mt Lawley location last year, with no warning at all. Apparently they just wanted a break last year. I am very glad they have reopened. I think they’re my favourite restaurant. We had a lovely dinner and a great night. Their new premises are much bigger, but the food is the same good quality and great flavours.

You know what? I didn’t miss the Net at all.