Cassy's cousin, Ashley left us at about 10am this morning. We got Daniel to pick him up in one of his flash Mercs so he didn't feel too plebian being in scummy Taipei!
We had a good time over the past few days and we think we've shown Ashley a little bit of normal living in Taipei life as opposed to hotel/meeting/restaurant/looking at very ugly part of town mentality. We introduced the poor fellow to variously intoxicated Americans, Aussies and Kiwis on Friday night but spared him the baby shower we were supposed to "bring him along" to on Saturday night.
We ventured to the night market after spending an afternoon exploring the MRT and the flash shopping centre in the newer area of town.
We watched "About Schmidt" on DVD at home last night and I just arrived back in time to say goodbye to Ashley after another early morning session of dragon boat race practice this morning. Even though I do say myself, we're actually getting pretty good! I got a turn sitting at the flag catcher's spot today and these boats are pulling some pretty awesome power at times. The surge from a big effort run of strokes is very strong, and it was also interesting to see how hard our coxswain has to work to keep the thing running straight. He's an amazing teacher...very patient and seems to know how to push us to our limit before easing off (he's an Aussie of course!)
The other potentially very exciting bit of news about Dragon boat Festival is when it is on. We race on the weekend of May 31-June 1, but if we continue to win we might be back for the finals on the following Wednesday. The school is sponsoring our entry so we.....have to have the day off! Now there's some extra incentive, although we suspect it might be like a Taiwanese novice rugby league team coming to Newcastle trying to beat the Knights with just a couple of months training!
Anyway, lazy day today, watched some Knights on tape (thanks Sue!), read some Newcastle Herald in clippings (thanks Mum!) and organized some new keys for our place back home after some scumbag tried to break in the other day (thanks Xris and Val!)
I'm going on an overnight camp with the grade 3s on Thursday-Friday and you can imagine how overjoyed I am at the prospect.......
Our latest flight home has been cancelled and we're trying to book tickets via Japan, Thailand and even Auckland. Wish us luck, but even it means a slow boat away from China we're coming home in June!
Sunday, April 27, 2003
Monday, April 21, 2003
We have been pleased to hear that Chris and Val arrived back safely from their HK and China adventure and what a trip they had. With the SARS virus scaring away nearly all the tourists they were treated like royalty and had a ball.
Carl and I had a beer with "the Gurecki" on Friday afternoon before we headed down with Carl's family to meet Cass for tea at a new Indian/Japanese curry house just round the corner from our place (Kari Curry!). It was fantastic, could end up being a favorite of ours...it's sure close enough. I had Cassy's newly arrived golf clubs in tow (!) For those who know us, you'll realise that golf is not a sport that either Cass or I indulge in, but we both have a set of clubs now, courtesy of a factory, which had gone bankrupt, closed down and flogged off all its stock. I wont be so indelicate as to reveal their cost (mainly because I'm not lugging any home for people!!), but they have graphite shafts etc and are rated by far better judges than I as excellent sets.
After a top lazy Saturday morn reading Mum's great newspaper clippings and marveling, amongst other things at Newcastle's spiraling real estate prices we headed off to the Shin Shin cinemas. We'd been there before, but were suitably unimpressed with their '70s fit out, sound and comfort. After a total refit we were very impressed. Big roomy new seats, big screens and great sounds plus a discount for TAS faculty all made this worth a visit...we'll be back!
We stopped at the night market for Cass to get a new watch battery and also bought some delicious Indian takeaway, cooked in front of us at a street stall.
Sunday saw me up at 6am to go Dragon boat racing training! We will compete in six weeks time in the Taipei dragon boat festival, a massive festival here as you can imagine and we're trying to beat the Chinese at their own game. Time will tell how successful we'll be, but if aching muscles today are any indication, we'll be putting in a big effort!!
Home at 10 for brekky and then a trip to the beach on Blacky, carting our chicken sangas (yes Val, Cassy did make them), thermos of ice water, boardies, towels and.....our new pop up beach shelter! As it folds into a large disc and has straps, I strap it on my back, Cass has a backpack and off we go. We stayed at the beach for 4 1/2 hours, unheard of in pre-shade times. As it takes an hour to get to the coast, we don't want to waste the trip. It was great; we read our books (True History of the Kelly Gang for me) had heaps of swims and even dazzled the locals with some more body surfing.
Back to work totally relaxed today, I was secretly pleased to see that my 17 fellow crewmembers were in varying states of distress. Oh well, better get over it soon; 5.30am on Wednesday is our next training time!!
Carl and I had a beer with "the Gurecki" on Friday afternoon before we headed down with Carl's family to meet Cass for tea at a new Indian/Japanese curry house just round the corner from our place (Kari Curry!). It was fantastic, could end up being a favorite of ours...it's sure close enough. I had Cassy's newly arrived golf clubs in tow (!) For those who know us, you'll realise that golf is not a sport that either Cass or I indulge in, but we both have a set of clubs now, courtesy of a factory, which had gone bankrupt, closed down and flogged off all its stock. I wont be so indelicate as to reveal their cost (mainly because I'm not lugging any home for people!!), but they have graphite shafts etc and are rated by far better judges than I as excellent sets.
After a top lazy Saturday morn reading Mum's great newspaper clippings and marveling, amongst other things at Newcastle's spiraling real estate prices we headed off to the Shin Shin cinemas. We'd been there before, but were suitably unimpressed with their '70s fit out, sound and comfort. After a total refit we were very impressed. Big roomy new seats, big screens and great sounds plus a discount for TAS faculty all made this worth a visit...we'll be back!
We stopped at the night market for Cass to get a new watch battery and also bought some delicious Indian takeaway, cooked in front of us at a street stall.
Sunday saw me up at 6am to go Dragon boat racing training! We will compete in six weeks time in the Taipei dragon boat festival, a massive festival here as you can imagine and we're trying to beat the Chinese at their own game. Time will tell how successful we'll be, but if aching muscles today are any indication, we'll be putting in a big effort!!
Home at 10 for brekky and then a trip to the beach on Blacky, carting our chicken sangas (yes Val, Cassy did make them), thermos of ice water, boardies, towels and.....our new pop up beach shelter! As it folds into a large disc and has straps, I strap it on my back, Cass has a backpack and off we go. We stayed at the beach for 4 1/2 hours, unheard of in pre-shade times. As it takes an hour to get to the coast, we don't want to waste the trip. It was great; we read our books (True History of the Kelly Gang for me) had heaps of swims and even dazzled the locals with some more body surfing.
Back to work totally relaxed today, I was secretly pleased to see that my 17 fellow crewmembers were in varying states of distress. Oh well, better get over it soon; 5.30am on Wednesday is our next training time!!
Monday, April 14, 2003
I went to Chad's "baby shower" on Friday night and we had a ball. I helped some of the boys move some ice and chairs around before adjourning to a pub down the road for a few pre-party drinks with Carl, our NZ mate Ross and the "amazing Gurecki" who is a New Yorker who seems to dislike his countrymen intensely and has a tendency to go off in a kind of Seinfeld on speed/Tourette's syndrome fit at regular intervals, especially with a few sherbets on board. With such amusing company, we managed to arrive late at the party in full swing. All men, different ages, nationalities, ideas etc all had one thing in common; they were mates of Chad's, so we ended up having a great time. Suffice to say that Saturday morning probably had many of the participants reaching for the painkillers and the fluids!
On Saturday night, a surfie colleague from the U.S. rang with news of a surfboard stand at a trade show downtown. Cass and I investigated this on Sunday morning and after wandering around looking at sporting goods for an hour and a half (Cass was thrilled as you can imagine!) I walked out having bought a board! It's a 7' 3" thruster with fcs fins which means I can remove them for traveling and a hard bag for the plane....Bali reef breaks, Sumatra or even the Maldives look out! (Cass says "Maldives")
Anyway, it was pretty cheap, as the guy didn't want to take all his display stock back to China. We (the T.A.S. boys) actually bought 6 boards from him yesterday, so we might even try to give them some action here on a weekend or wait for some typhoon swell.
This purchase was funded by Chris and Val who left me some serious birthday cash so...thanks!...you can see it didn't take long to spend.
We ate lunch at the American Tex/Mex restaurant Chilis, which although offering beautiful tastes, made us realize why we usually eat locally. We paid $85 for lunch, no wine!!
I was delighted to get some e-cards and messages from family and friends today. My aunty and uncle timed the sending of a card to perfection when I picked it up today at the post office as well. Thanks to all, although these "in your forties" birthdays are pretty forgettable really!
We've booked some alternative flights home, as the school might not allow us to go through Hong Kong unless SARS gets a bit better. We're more worried about not getting our frequent flyer miles! Just thought I'd add a touch more here as i spoke to Mum for about 20 minutes on the phone just now. It was lovely to have a little chat on my birthday........
On Saturday night, a surfie colleague from the U.S. rang with news of a surfboard stand at a trade show downtown. Cass and I investigated this on Sunday morning and after wandering around looking at sporting goods for an hour and a half (Cass was thrilled as you can imagine!) I walked out having bought a board! It's a 7' 3" thruster with fcs fins which means I can remove them for traveling and a hard bag for the plane....Bali reef breaks, Sumatra or even the Maldives look out! (Cass says "Maldives")
Anyway, it was pretty cheap, as the guy didn't want to take all his display stock back to China. We (the T.A.S. boys) actually bought 6 boards from him yesterday, so we might even try to give them some action here on a weekend or wait for some typhoon swell.
This purchase was funded by Chris and Val who left me some serious birthday cash so...thanks!...you can see it didn't take long to spend.
We ate lunch at the American Tex/Mex restaurant Chilis, which although offering beautiful tastes, made us realize why we usually eat locally. We paid $85 for lunch, no wine!!
I was delighted to get some e-cards and messages from family and friends today. My aunty and uncle timed the sending of a card to perfection when I picked it up today at the post office as well. Thanks to all, although these "in your forties" birthdays are pretty forgettable really!
We've booked some alternative flights home, as the school might not allow us to go through Hong Kong unless SARS gets a bit better. We're more worried about not getting our frequent flyer miles! Just thought I'd add a touch more here as i spoke to Mum for about 20 minutes on the phone just now. It was lovely to have a little chat on my birthday........
Wednesday, April 09, 2003
After our drive on Wednesday we invited the Lochrin family down to our place for drinks which we disposed of very well, after Carl had spent a hot day golfing and we had been around the world. We had a great time having beers on the verandah and Chris and Val were able to catch up with Carl and Hiroko, Steven and Sean. They were able to marvel at how big the boys were getting before we headed off to Ulis for tea. Rainy day Thursday saw us camped in and having a good chat about this and that before Chris and I went out to get the famous Ker Qiang "pizza" This onion patty is flopped and crushed and transferred from bamboo pot to bamboo pot before we bring it home and add egg, cheese and some spicy sauces to the rather bland mix. Delicious(and cheap)! In the afternoon we went on the MRT to Nanking East rd, where Chris and I went to the French electronics and book store FNAC, while Cassy took her Mum to Ikea before we experienced some rush hour MRT (tried to get SARS, but we weren't successful; I've know idea why, because we were sneezed on by about 1000 masked and sniffly people!) Ocean's 11 on DVD for evening.
Rain again on Friday, but a slight break saw us once again up to Yangminshan where we saw the famous flower clock and also saw the very famous Taiwan blue magpie up close!! We walked up to a viewing pavilion as well but the rain and mist spoilt any sweeping vistas on this day. Carl rang and said they were off to Teppanyaki for tea, so we invited ourselves along to that. Chris and Val had enjoyed this style of cooking last time and did so again before the boys (Chris, Carl and I) headed off to the Green Bar for a few cleansing ales. I swung by Chad's place on the way to invite him and Cathy encouraged him to go along (he didn't need much arm twisting) even though she's just a few weeks away from having their first baby.
We had a lot of beers and a lot of laughs, mostly at my expense, especially when all 3 were threatening to go to the fabled and much maligned "Mama's Bar" at 2 in the morning!! Thankfully sanity prevailed and we went home then: Chris was good enough to pretend to his wife and mine that he didn't have a hangover the next day!
On Saturday the 5th Cass had a great birthday and received cards from her Mum and Dad of course, along with my Mum and Sue. Later on in the day, we went to the movies and saw "Chicago", which was very entertaining (even though it's not my favourite type of movie) and then we had dinner in a great Thai restaurant within the Living Mall complex. The whole experience was enlivened, for Chris and Val, by riding on the scooter! Val accompanied me on the way downtown and Chris was my passenger on the way home. Cass went with the other party on each trip on the MRT. Even though it was a relatively quiet weekend, due to "Tombsweeping Day" (!! yes, they really do it!), the ride was quite thrilling for them. (see previous "scooter" entry for an idea!)
We had a wonderful relaxing day in the "Garden of Perfected Benevolence" the next day where we had a picnic lunch and a wander before heading to the crazy excitement of Shilin "night markets". Val bought some good CDs and I managed to buy a "bargain" backpack for $5, only for the zip to fall apart the first time I used it. Sunday night back home reminded me again about the joys of having a car in Taipei. I dropped everyone off before driving around Tienmu for 40 minutes looking for a park. I eventually gave up and parked it illegally at school overnight and walked back home!
Back to school with a partial quarantine on Monday, home for Cass to share a belated birthday drink of champagne with her parents (Moet & Chandon no less!) then out to Fangs Chinese restaurant for a farewell dinner. Chris and Val went off in Daniel's Mercedes limo for the airport at 7 am Monday morning as we headed off to work. It was a great week and we're looking forward to having more good times come June/July.
Rain again on Friday, but a slight break saw us once again up to Yangminshan where we saw the famous flower clock and also saw the very famous Taiwan blue magpie up close!! We walked up to a viewing pavilion as well but the rain and mist spoilt any sweeping vistas on this day. Carl rang and said they were off to Teppanyaki for tea, so we invited ourselves along to that. Chris and Val had enjoyed this style of cooking last time and did so again before the boys (Chris, Carl and I) headed off to the Green Bar for a few cleansing ales. I swung by Chad's place on the way to invite him and Cathy encouraged him to go along (he didn't need much arm twisting) even though she's just a few weeks away from having their first baby.
We had a lot of beers and a lot of laughs, mostly at my expense, especially when all 3 were threatening to go to the fabled and much maligned "Mama's Bar" at 2 in the morning!! Thankfully sanity prevailed and we went home then: Chris was good enough to pretend to his wife and mine that he didn't have a hangover the next day!
On Saturday the 5th Cass had a great birthday and received cards from her Mum and Dad of course, along with my Mum and Sue. Later on in the day, we went to the movies and saw "Chicago", which was very entertaining (even though it's not my favourite type of movie) and then we had dinner in a great Thai restaurant within the Living Mall complex. The whole experience was enlivened, for Chris and Val, by riding on the scooter! Val accompanied me on the way downtown and Chris was my passenger on the way home. Cass went with the other party on each trip on the MRT. Even though it was a relatively quiet weekend, due to "Tombsweeping Day" (!! yes, they really do it!), the ride was quite thrilling for them. (see previous "scooter" entry for an idea!)
We had a wonderful relaxing day in the "Garden of Perfected Benevolence" the next day where we had a picnic lunch and a wander before heading to the crazy excitement of Shilin "night markets". Val bought some good CDs and I managed to buy a "bargain" backpack for $5, only for the zip to fall apart the first time I used it. Sunday night back home reminded me again about the joys of having a car in Taipei. I dropped everyone off before driving around Tienmu for 40 minutes looking for a park. I eventually gave up and parked it illegally at school overnight and walked back home!
Back to school with a partial quarantine on Monday, home for Cass to share a belated birthday drink of champagne with her parents (Moet & Chandon no less!) then out to Fangs Chinese restaurant for a farewell dinner. Chris and Val went off in Daniel's Mercedes limo for the airport at 7 am Monday morning as we headed off to work. It was a great week and we're looking forward to having more good times come June/July.
We've had a great week with Cassy's parents here and have enjoyed our "Spring Break with heaps of fine food, drink, company and adventure!
I won't try to mention everything we did, but rather give a bit of an overview. We gave the "olds" the use of our bedroom and ensuite for their stay, which gave us a chance to check out the famous Ed's Bed, which we bought some time ago...it was pretty good!
We had borrowed a little Laser from some friends here so were able to take Chris and Val a little further afield and really give them a taste of some of the places we've managed to see since we bought our scooter (which will be referred to as "Blackie" from here on!)
Yangminshan was an early target for the car and the steaming fumaroles put on a real volcanic show for the visitors before we went to Buffalo Meadows, enjoying a relaxing walk as well as very close contact with some impressively massive bovines. The camera got a workout and we had a great day. The next day was one of of the finest we've ever experienced in Taiwan, so we headed out towards Baishawan beach and the wonders of the north coast highway. I'd never considered Taiwan as a tourist destination before we came and even before we had our scooter I wasn't really convinced. Blackie has literally expanded our horizons and we were eager to share this feeling with Chris and Val.
The shimendong water formed caves and arch, along with the curious 18 kings temple, where a dog has been deified for trying to save his master from a shipwreck long ago, apparently refusing to budge from the shoreline or eat or drink till his master came back. We went further than ever before along this highway and were thwarted in our efforts to see the beautiful candle island, but we'll try again! Chinshan gave us an excuse to try a back road back over Yangminshan to Tienmu and it was a beautiful drive through lush unspoiled forests, rising over 1000 metres in a very short time. Whew, I've about typed my two fingers out for now....I'm only up to about this time last week, so stay tuned for more!
I won't try to mention everything we did, but rather give a bit of an overview. We gave the "olds" the use of our bedroom and ensuite for their stay, which gave us a chance to check out the famous Ed's Bed, which we bought some time ago...it was pretty good!
We had borrowed a little Laser from some friends here so were able to take Chris and Val a little further afield and really give them a taste of some of the places we've managed to see since we bought our scooter (which will be referred to as "Blackie" from here on!)
Yangminshan was an early target for the car and the steaming fumaroles put on a real volcanic show for the visitors before we went to Buffalo Meadows, enjoying a relaxing walk as well as very close contact with some impressively massive bovines. The camera got a workout and we had a great day. The next day was one of of the finest we've ever experienced in Taiwan, so we headed out towards Baishawan beach and the wonders of the north coast highway. I'd never considered Taiwan as a tourist destination before we came and even before we had our scooter I wasn't really convinced. Blackie has literally expanded our horizons and we were eager to share this feeling with Chris and Val.
The shimendong water formed caves and arch, along with the curious 18 kings temple, where a dog has been deified for trying to save his master from a shipwreck long ago, apparently refusing to budge from the shoreline or eat or drink till his master came back. We went further than ever before along this highway and were thwarted in our efforts to see the beautiful candle island, but we'll try again! Chinshan gave us an excuse to try a back road back over Yangminshan to Tienmu and it was a beautiful drive through lush unspoiled forests, rising over 1000 metres in a very short time. Whew, I've about typed my two fingers out for now....I'm only up to about this time last week, so stay tuned for more!
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