Well, it is the morning after my birthday. My wife Shao Ping is teaching Mandarin to a group of adults at the Nan Tien Temple just now. I am sitting here in the living room listening to Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds ~ Babe, You Turn Me On…

You race naked through the wilderness
You torment the birds and the bees
You leapt into the abyss, but find
It only goes up to your knees
I move stealthily from tree to tree
I shadow you for hours
I make like I’m a little deer
Grazing on the flowers

Everything is collapsing, dear
All moral sense has gone
It’s just history repeating itself
And babe, you turn me on

There are two gentlemen in our gutted kitchen. They are laying some cement before applying some new tiles. They were both born in Beijing. They have been living in Australia a long time and their children have grown up here. It is funny to hear one of the gentleman to say “G’day” with an Australian accent more broader than my own. They tiled our ground floor several years back. They did a beautiful job. This morning they are so proud due to the Olympic Games opening ceremony. My wife remarked upon the neat way they have levelled the kitchen floor and one of the gentlemen beamed and said, ‘Chinese people can do everything!”.

Yesterday I shared my birthday with a number of people. They include Dustin Hoffman, The Edge and Faye Wong. I admire all three to varying degrees. I exchanged gifts with a student at school who also shares the same birthday and today I will catch up with Luke, a former colleague, also born 080858.

Today is sunny. Later Shao Ping and I shall go out, grab a bite to eat and enjoy the rays. The winter has been cold this week. Too cold. Perhaps my ‘old’ bones feel the cold more now.

Later this weekend I need to begin marking 45 historical investigations submitted by my Year Eleven Ancient History students. Later this term we shall add their investigations to a wiki. They will embed graphics and relevant links. That will be quite an undertaking.