Monday afternoon and time is a draggin. Prospects for going home at the end of the week are making us edgy to get out of here. We have a very short stay really (less than 2 weeks) so we're looking to pack as much eating, drinking, being merry as well as relaxing into that short time.
We (somewhat belatedly) saw "The Ring" here on the weekend and I have to admit I haven't been so scared since all work and no play made Jack a dull boy in "The Shining"! "Our" Naomi Watts was pretty slick too we thought. We had dinner at a fancy Thai restaurant at the top of the Living Mall called "Bird". We sat beneath a fake tree, which had real birds in little cages chirping away all evening. It was a delicious meal....rivaling the best Thai we have eaten. We bought a book called 'Taipei's top 100 international restaurants', which is in both Mandarin and English. We have already picked out a few must visit places and were delighted to see a number of restaurants we have visited got a mention; we thought they were great, the book thought they were just average, so we can't wait to visit the 'good' ones!
A ride home at night with Saturday party crowds out and about was another special experience (!) We stopped at a park behind the fine arts museum and went to a spot just half way in that we have found on the way home. Why? We watch planes come in to land! They fly into the domestic airport just beyond this park and fly straight above us here. If you lean back as they go overhead, it's great fun. Oh well, small things........!

I've been so slack lately but I've been pretty tired and I've had a bit of marking to do too; the joys of the end of term. This semester has gone so quickly in some ways and yet these last few weeks have slowed right down.
Yesterday I went to a "French conversation" get-together at the home of the Middle School French teacher, along with a mixed group of francophones: there are quite a few French-speakers at the school. We indulged in some wine, cheese and gossip (all French/ in French) and I had quite a good time. It was a bit frightening as there are some native speakers and some others who are very adept; my French is very rusty but I was pleased to be able to follow what was going on - even if my own efforts were a bit pedestrian.
Today I had coffee after school with one of the women I lunched with at work last year, Pat. Her daughter is in grade 3 and I ran into her last week dropping off the daughter at school. We arranged to meet and had a good chat. She's a lovely person and I enjoyed catching up with her.
This week saw the announcement of some significant news by the guy with whom I work very closely (Chris Hall) : he and his wife are having a baby in June. It may mean that he/they won't be back next year, although it hasn't been decided yet. It would be a bummer for me as he's fantastic to work with and we get on very well. Also, our great "team leader",Kara, is going to the job fair so she may be leaving too. Hopefully Cathy Funk will hire comparable replacements, if it comes to that.
David's done his reports but mine can't be finalised till I mark one last project that the kids hand in on Monday. Our grades aren't due till Thursday, but I'll do some preliminary maths this weekend to make the final calculations a bit easier once I get their projects marked. The reporting system is a bit primitive over here - no class rankings/average, exam marks/average/rankings, cumulative rankings - just a grade based on class work.
We put up our xmas tree tonight - the fibre optic model from B&Q. It's a beauty!! We no longer rely on the tv for visual stimulation - we just sit mesmerised as the tree twirls on its base, brilliant colours glowing and pulsing through a broad spectrum.
No great plans for the weekend - will see what takes our fancy once we get there!
Eight sleeps to go!

We had a great weekend, exploring the north coast highway no. 2 which eventually finds its way out of the city sprawl and hits the coast. We saw amazing volcanic extrusions and arches to walk through, coastal walks and stone bridges linking rocky little islands just off the coast, which you could walk across. It was the first truly pretty area of scenery that we'd seen. We traveled about 100 km, which isn't much in Aussie terms, but a fair hike on a little buzzing scooter!!

We plan to investigate this highway further.....one side of the road is a beautiful rocky coast with smashing (small!) waves, with mountains rising straight from the road on the other side...stay tuned.

We've got really slack with the site here, but Cassy won't write anything as she says she's lost all impetus. We're very much looking forward to coming home as you can probably guess!

We had a good thanksgiving party with Chad and Cathy on Thursday- nice food and fun company. David especially enjoyed his "evening"/morning. He and a few of the other stayers went downtown and extended their fun. I was a piker and came home at about 10pm (we started at 2pm). We bought some good Aussie wine (didn't trust the cheap muck we brought over to be of a satisfactory standard - not that they're real wine buffs or anything, but we didn't want to bring Aussie wine into disrepute) and I certainly enjoyed my share... It was good quality - no hangover

Friday, David "rested" and we listened to the cricket and read our books. The cricket is almost surreal at the moment. What's next? Beat them in 2 days?
On Saturday we received some terribly sad news, which, though we were expecting, cast a great pall over us which is still there now. Our friends and family know what this is, so enough said in this open forum.
Saturday we needed to distract ourselves so we went to the movies and saw "One Hour Photo" with Robin Williams - whom we don't really like - but it was an interesting look at a disturbed personality (who, ironically enough, was correct in his estimation of the situation, but weird in his response to it).
Sunday we didn't feel up to much so listened to the cricket till lunch, then took off on Blackie to check out the Matisse exhibition down near the Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall. Well, we checked out the queue...and thought we might come back another day - earlier is better if you want to beat the crowds here. The show's on till mid-Febrary so we should be able to catch it sometime before it ends.

We'll have more than a thought about our friends in Newcastle tomorrow...it's a day we wish we could share.