....fotojenik.....that's the name to remember. Now my sister Sue is fully set up and ready to go, I thought it was about time I mention her new business to you again. She has a nifty little studio set up and will travel, as they say, to look after any photographic requirements you might have. She's an expert at portraiture, especially kids and has just completed her second wedding shoot. The results are spectacular; interesting and different and at a very reasonable price. She's well worth contacting on (02) 4961 3362 if you're in or around the Newcastle area. She'll even look after your framing.
It's hard to believe that it is the end of March already; school has less than a quarter to go before we're home again. At the moment, I'm trying to ride out a severe head cold after worrying at first that I had contracted the deadly SARS disease (being typically over-dramatic). I need to get well for the arrival of Cassy's parents on Monday who will stay for a week before heading over to China for a while. This will be their second visit.... it can't be too bad here after all. We're both looking forward to their visit of course and Carl Hiroko and the boys will also enjoy seeing them, so we'll organise a few get-togethers. Chad is also threatening to have a drink with Chris.....look out!
I was very concerned to read in the online paper that the majority of Australians now support the war.......we're working with a vast majority of Americans here and even though there are a few red neck flag waving good ole boys and gals, people here are as horrified as we are. Probably best let this topic alone....I'll start ranting.
We've borrowed a little Laser from some friends so we can take Chris and Val up into the mountains and maybe out to the coast (Taiwanese families can fit 4 on a scooter, but I think we might be a bit bigger than most!) so that should be fun.
A whole stack of our colleagues, about 90 all up, have gone to Thailand for a conference and some lazing around on beaches. The strange fascination with working in part of your holiday is explained by the fact that the school pays your airfare, conference fees and accommodation for the length of the conference at a 5 star resort! I'm still trying to come to terms with the professional development funds available here......we used to get excited when we got a trip to Sydney!
More are staying here however, for all sorts of reasons: hosting visitors, staying safe and not traveling with what feels like a target on your head, worries about SARS etc
Anyway, we'll be here and..........loving it! Best to all back home, if you haven't written an email get to it you slackers!

We've enjoyed immensely the emails we've received over the past week. Our great correspondents Thurza and our parents were joined by Sue and Ildi, the latter certainly not slowed down by baby Anika.
Cass and I didn't get to bed till about 1 am this morning after a marathon session at the "Brass Monkey". We arrived at 3.30 in the afternoon, in time to secure pretty good seats for the World Cup match, which began at 4. And what a match! The bar was filled with about 2/3 Indians and 1/3 Aussies for the big battle. The Indians were setting up some great chants and adding to the atmosphere with whistles etc. They are a wonderful crowd; we loved being there with them. Some of the more boorish Australians started up some rather strange chants and of course, the ubiquitous "Aussie, Aussie, Aussie" which lacks a lot of imagination and Indian flair, but at least gave the boys something to shout! We were mesmerized by the Australian batting performance and quietly congratulated ourselves on our commitment to the game that saw us witness one of the great innings. Suffice to say, we were a little tired when the alarm went off at its usual pre 6am time, but not disappointed.
The precursor to all this action was of course the first Indian vs. The Rest of the World cricket match, right here at Taipei American School on Saturday night. The Indian dads had been pestering (sledging!) us for some time to have a challenge match and finally we got it together on Saturday. Our team of Aussies, NZ, South Africa and even a Canadian all had a bit of a bash and a bowl. We had a ball! The Indians were a little surprised by our ability I think (even though it was more bash than caress!), as they have been playing regularly in a secret location for some time. We had no equipment but borrowed theirs, even down to the white ball, as it was a "day/nighter".
There were some surreal moments. The one which stands out most vividly is standing at first slip and looking around some time during the Indian innings. The field was lit up and we were applauding our bowler's just delivered ball a la the "real" Australians. Apartment buildings surrounded the ground on all sides and behind them the mass of Yangminshan mountain rose. A white bed sheet flapped from the balcony of a nearby high-rise with the words "Play Cricket, Not War" emblazoned on it for all to see. A fellow teacher who lived there was making a point, which we all appreciated and agreed with.
This message struck home with a vengeance the next morning when our Australian colleague woke to be told his cameraman brother had been the victim of a suicide bomber in Iraq.
"Play Cricket, Not War" made even more sense after that.

It was a great night at the cricket downtown and we plan to go again for the semi on Tues and the final next Sun (assuming we make it.... not much doubt)
We've had an amazing weekend as we have taken delivery of a digital set top box for the TV, which adds certain digital channels to our usual 104 channels on cable. We get a number of new ones, but most notably BBC World, TV5 France (in French), DW Germany (in English and German), a Korean channel, a Malaysian channel and a few we already get on cable, but of better quality. The main one is.........ABC (Asia Pacific)!!! It's just unreal; we get news each night at 7, with great local (Aussie) stories and of course, sport for the last 10 minutes. We get old episodes of Water Rats and Blue Heelers (which we never watched back home and are thankful now!) and great current affairs like Focus from SBS, Landline and best of all, Four Corners.
So this weekend we're reveling in our Aussie TV and listening to 2GB footy talk streaming live over the Internet. We're listening to the continuous call team right now, and have just heard the Knights win in a classic come from behind fight. We celebrated by playing and singing the "Playing Hard, Playing Tough" song of the Knights that we've downloaded from the Knight's website... the neighbours must really think we're nuts now, if they didn't before!
Of course, there was a period of about an hour this morning where we were watching the ABC TV with sound muted, listening to 2GB AND reading the latest and greatest clippings that Mum has sent from the Newcastle Herald. In between times I was ringing Carl so we could marvel at the programming on our new TV (he got it too; in fact, found us a much better deal than the original one we had heard about)
So, it's a far cry from days in Japan when I sometimes wondered whether Australia was still actually there. No Internet, email, TV etc..... we're doing pretty well here now in comparison.

Well, mid-week is not a usual time to have fun, but I broke the rules a little last night. We'd received an email at school about the Aussie-NZ cricket game in the super sixes in the World Cup. The oddly named (yet quite apt, considering recent weather) "Brass Monkey" in an unexplored part of town was advertising the game as being on the "big screen". Anyway, after the Aussie innings, about 7.30 our time a bunch of Aussies rang around and 8 of us headed downtown to catch the NZ innings (including one kiwi and two Yanks) What a night. We looked around the bar and commented that we could have been anywhere; everyone was Aussie, Kiwi or Indian. Wickets were cheered or ignored depending on whom you were supporting, beers were drunk and stories shared. The screen was, indeed, BIG and we're looking forward to our semi and hopefully the subsequent final on Sunday week. Brass Monkey, here we come!!
We went up to the fumaroles today with grade 3 on a "field trip" (excursion) and enjoyed some great sights and weather. My darling wife continues to plug away at work and I have promised her she will accompany me next time there is cricket to be watched downtown. She was a touch upset about missing out this time round(!)

This was some sort of psycho cold snap we had this weekend! 10-12 degrees but with some humidity heavy wind as well and that cold just cut through every layer of clothes we had on. I suppose we should be thankful; no doubt this we'll be the last little bit of cold we have as we move steadily into another hot, humid summer.
We've enjoyed reading about Newcastle, family and friends via a great succession of emails from my sister Sue, Cassy's Mum and Dad, my Mum and our friend Thurza. Lois wrote late last week as well and filled us in with some "Grammary" goss. We kicked off the weekend by reading some excellent news clippings that Mum had sent over. It's always a little bit like Christmas to check my mailbox at the school's post office to discover that familiar big white envelope! Mum does a great job picking out some local stuff that we can't get over the internet etc and it helps us feel a bit closer to home. This was especially important for us this week as we officially resigned from our jobs at Newcastle Grammar and felt a bit strange and isolated here. We're comfortable with our decision and incredibly happy with our jobs and life here, but it's certainly the end of an era for us both and it signifies a massive commitment to our plans to work overseas for some time.
We sandwiched "The Hours" last weekend with Shanghai Knights and "Analyze That" this Saturday. I love De Niro and we'd seen the first installment and it was a lot of fun. In fact this one was so much fun, we shocked the local crowd a little by laughing uproariously at regular intervals....they didn't seem to get some of it, I think a lot is probably lost in translation in a comedy.
Anyway, the high brow entertainment out of the way on Saturday, on the way home we bought "The Majestic" and "Panic Room" on video for $5 as a package. Not usually buying videos we couldn't pass by this bargain....something quite mysterious about recent movies so cheap, but they look genuine enough. Well, we came home, watched "The Majestic" and dined on Cassy's delicious "Salmon Supreme" while quaffing a bottle of Rawsons Retreat (not so cheap!!)
Sunday was still bitterly cold and a late breakfast, more clippings, a bit of internet and lazing around saw us ready to eat lunch out! We ate at a German cafe/coffee house near where we live called 'Backerei' and we had a special meal with soup and cake and coffee to accompany Cassy's pesto tagliatelle and my German sausage and sauerkraut.
A slightly less glamorous afternoon followed where we bought a fluoro globe in one store and then caught the MRT a couple of stops to buy a metal blind to replace the (second!) PVC blind that had broken in our bedroom.
Chris and Val are coming to visit us at the end of the month for a week before they make their way over to that really big China across the strait from us........we're really looking forward to seeing them.

Framingham masters subject finished on Friday night with an exam. This went OK I think, so to celebrate a little we went up to Section 7 and went to a nice restaurant and ate gourmet pizzas! They were delicious and we wandered back down the road doing a bit of window-shopping along the way. Saturday saw us having a magnificent leisurely brekky of raison toast and coffee while reading all sorts of interesting stuff about Newcastle as Mum had prepared and sent another package of clippings. We read some more this morning but saved a bit for next weekend.
Back to Saturday.....We hopped on the bike and made record time down to the Living Mall to see "The Hours". We both thought it was a fantastic film, but I have to say I'm a little perplexed why Julianne Moore and Meryl Streep have only been nominated as "best supporting". I thought Julianne Moore, in particular, stole the show; her performance was mesmerizing and while "our" Nicole did a very good job, I despair a little that all it takes to be nominated for a "best" award these days seems to be the portrayal of a mentally deficient person. Anyway, enough of that.....Thai restaurant "Bird" sang for our patronage, but we zoomed off across town to a little back alley where "Mr. Fish" lives! 2 pieces of battered fish, chips, vinegar, salt and tartare is a little touch of heaven here in Taipei. After dining we explored some wacky back street life in the south eastern corner of the city, interesting, but a story in itself, so I'll leave that to another time.
We were determined to leave early on Sunday morning to view the cherry blossoms in Yang Min Shan national park. We left to go up the mountain at 10, but it was still early enough to beat most people up there. As we drove around we saw many beautiful cherry blossom trees and I was reminded very much of Japan, even though the trees here were much younger and not as big. We embarked on a walk up a mountain trail and although at the time it seemed rather steep, we persevered for ages, as the track got increasingly steep and dangerous with moss and water making our footholds precarious. We eventually gave up and turned back down, mainly as we were sweating a lot and not really enjoying it. On the way down we thrilled to the close sighting of a Taiwanese squirrel scooting along branches doing his thing. We stopped and watched for 5 minutes and felt our walk was worthwhile.
Cass had made some chicken sandwiches (!) for lunch and we ate them looking at more blossoms. After a quick tour of the visitor's centre we did another little walk to a viewing pagoda where not only could we see all the way down into Taipei city on one side, but we got a true idea of the mountain we were trying to climb on the other. A Monster of sheer (not quite!) walls and endless inclines of frightening proportion. At least we felt a little bit better about wimping out of the whole climb. Home via the "back gate" to escape the by now teeming hordes who had found their way up the mountain (for example, the coach car park which holds 150, was full, many of them double deckers!) The Aussies seem to be kicking some major pommy butt in the cricket right now, which makes us a little sorry we didn't venture to "The Tavern" (The big English hangout downtown) which is showing the game live. We'll go and cheer them on when they're in the "super sixes". That's all for now..thankyou kind folk who have emailed us with a personal message.