glimpse of our neighbour's garden 

le tour

A weekend of diverse experiences could only describe our last weekend here before we jet off next Friday night for a three-week break back home. A plush waiting room, funky styling and gleaming state of the art equipment couldn’t quite get my mind off the incessant high pitched whine of the drill in someone else’s mouth on Friday afternoon. Enroute to Chad and Cathy’s place for an end of semester Christmas get-together I was waiting my turn at “Dr Seattle’s” dentist clinic with the awful prospect of receiving my 2nd root canal treatment when my mouth was still throbbing with pain from the last one. I’ll spare the gory details, but I will be glad when I see him for the last time (I hope!) tomorrow afternoon. Lop-sided mouth pumped with Novocain and armed with a Christmas present for Chad of 2 bottles of Absolut vodka, I traipsed over to Chad and Cathy’s place. As the anesthetic wore off, I couldn’t ask to be in better company. Our team is full of delightful people this year and the Brekke’s house was festooned with lights and dripping with gorgeous decorations for Christmas. They had originally planned to come to Australia for the Christmas break and probably visit us as well, but Cathy has had some difficulties with her pregnancy and they decided to err on the side of safety and stay “Taiwan-side” for the break. We had a resplendent feast that they are renowned for, and good food and wine and company all combined for a very pleasant evening. Cass was there just ahead of me, but she is suffering from a bad cold, so we only stayed for a few hours, especially as my tooth began to ache.

Ross and I teamed up with Bob Penry, our Californian colleague to find some surf on Saturday morning. The Rocket won our approval and we spent a couple of hours getting some fair quality little waves. Bob had a snooze on the beach for a while, sleeping off a few drinks the night before and preparing for the big one as we all did that afternoon: the Tour de Rourke. Shaun is getting married at Christmas in Tasmania (which we’re attending) and this was the bigger than Ben Hur buck’s night. We met at the Pig at 6.30 for a feast and our first drinks. There were about 50 guys! Each of the nine pubs had a tour leader (wearing the leader’s yellow jersey) who made a rule that everyone had to stick to. Over the course of the night, left handed drinking (skull a shot if caught out), avoiding a little toy chicken placed on a shoulder (skull), not pointing except with an elbow (skull) and grabbing another and saying “g’day mate” when a stupid jester’s hat was put on by the leader – (last one: skull) were all in evidence and got many people caught out. (By the way, I’m using “skull” here to indicate downing a drink in one draught: I’m sure the spelling’s not right, but it is appropriate considering what met me when I looked in the mirror on Sunday morning!)

A few pubs in Tienmu hosted the black t-shirt clad crew before a coach transported us down to the “combat zone”, where the festivities picked up a pace. Now well oiled, the throng was getting caught with the chicken and by the time we again boarded the bus to the Brass Monkey, I had taken over the maillot jaune. My rules include doing a conga dance of at least 7 people every time the whistle blew and when the hat went on, people had to hug each other and say, “I love you mate”. This proved to be fairly comical in the middle of an otherwise sedate crowd of drinkers on a Saturday night! We were off to the infamous “Hooters” after that and everyone had to get their bare breast signed by a Hooters girl, but Ross decided the fun was yet to begin. He was tour captain for Saints and Sinners and the rule was that if you dared to put the hat on, you could be mobbed by everyone “stacks on” style. We demolished a 7-11 when someone ran in there to escape a stacking mob and I think we might have been asked to leave the last bar after a few more incidents saw tables and chairs go flying in all directions. The last stop was Carnegie’s nightclub, famous for its encouragement of people to dance on the wide wooden bar. Many of the boys took just this opportunity, but after an hour or so of watching this entertainment, Lewy, Ross and myself got a taxi home. Carl was in great form all night and seems to feature in a lot of the photos. Shaun had a hit list of photos that he needed to get in the night and managed to achieve quite a few. I have a web link to this photo site, but for the sake of the public’s health, I will not include it. If you’re interested, let me know and I’ll refer you to it when I get home next week!
I was amazingly healthy on Sunday, so Cass and I booked some tickets online and went to watch “After the Sunset” at the Tienmu Warner Brothers cinema. We had a light lunch and a cup of coffee beforehand at the McCafe opposite and all in all, had a very lovely day. The weather here is just perfect at the moment: crisp and just a touch of bite in the morning and glorious cool sunny days. I have to be honest though: I’m REALLY looking forward to some of that hot Aussie sun after spending last Christmas in the snows of Prague and Paris…………….can’t wait. Cass has already got our first evening planned: get some hamburgers from the shop round the corner, bottle of wine and watch some cricket from the WACA. Bliss.

reprise of chianka's spazzy garden! 

heat seeking virg

A great malaise has descended upon us here in the last week. Barely able to keep our eyes open at night, we’re wondering what it could possibly be. Surely we’re not getting old?! It seems that a little afternoon nap would be most welcome during the week and yet the pace picks up as the school slowly and inexorably winds down to the end of the semester. I’ve written my reports this week along with testing all the poor little kiddies and written and prepared the letters that need to go home to tell parents of the results. Cass has been finishing off her units and is looking forward to writing her own reports with a sense of overwhelming joy at the looming deadlines (!) Cass attended the middle school “Candlelight” dinner on Friday night, a curious event typified by an array of stunning dress, jaw dropping decoration of the cafeteria where it is held and an incongruously unpalatable meal of basic canteen food. The kids have a wow of a time of course and the teachers fly the flag and it seems to be all over mercifully swiftly. Not so, however, the lower school staff get-together on Friday evening that I attended. Chad, John, Raj and myself had a great time at the Pig and Whistle straight after school, before heading to the principal’s house for the drinks after a few hours. An unseasonable typhoon had struck in the afternoon, so much so that our hosts had to offer me and quite a few others a change of shirt, our own saturated by sheeting torrents of hard driving rain. It was a pretty good night, but after leaving, my ability to know when enough was enough was hugely impaired: to the extent that I then went to the green bar to have yet more beers!

Saturday’s surf was delayed till about 11am and Ross came and picked me up, which was very kind, and we headed off to find some Pillbox waves. It was terribly miserable: the water was cold and muddy, the surf a pale imitation of previous incarnations and the driving rain and off shore winds were not really the tonic my hung over head needed! At least, I felt a little rejuvenated when we got back. Cass tripped off again on Saturday to a surprise hen’s night for Katie, the girl whose wedding we’ll attend in Tasmania in December. They went bowling (!) and afterwards went back to someone’s house for a few drinks, lots to eat and chat. Cass had a very good time and got home just as I was thinking of heading off to bed.

I’ve bought myself some little iPod extras over the weekend, including an “iSkin” which is a form fitting little silicone case for it and one of those tape thingies that will hook up to the iPod in the car. We went to see Bridget Jones2 today and it was the first time we’d been to the brand new Warner Village cinema right here in Tienmu. The theatre and the movie were excellent, although I felt a great sense of déjà vu watching Bridget…..it was a little too close to the original for my liking. Lots of people from school took advantage of free tickets to the opening of yet another slick modern shopping/cinema complex on Friday night in neighboring Neihu, this time with a full on Miramar Imax theatre in it. We’re really getting terribly spoilt for entertainment here now. The Imax is sited right next to Taipei’s answer to the London Eye: a giant slow moving wheel for viewing the city. Hhhmmm, another adventure soon methinks……….
I enjoyed having a messenger chat with my nephew Patrick this afternoon and we were talking about iPods in the main just before we headed off to so some grocery shopping on the scooter. We are both rugged up as winter has finally hit with a vengeance! Cass was huddled in her leather jacket today and I wore my polar fleece and we were still cold. Cass has put the electric blanket on the bed and the cats have begun to re-explore those warm havens to be found either on or near us as the temperature drops. It’s been a long time coming this year, but if today is any indication it could be quite nippy when we get back in January. Well, that’ll do for now, one more next week before I take a break for a while!

iSkin and iTravel hooked up! 

two on board 

shipping coals to Newcastle?

You’d think that 4 days would be enough to re-charge the batteries and be ready to face just three more weeks wouldn’t you? Well the reality is not quite that for me as the piercing early morning cries of Virg’n Mary manage to wake me up at 6.30 am no matter what time I go to bed. For some reason the exact note necessary to wrench me from a deep sleep or a REM moment can be perfectly vocalized by our two little furry companions. Apart from that one small drawback, we’ve had a great 4-day break.

On Thursday, Chad and Cathy decided to lay low this year, so we didn’t head to their place for Thanksgiving lunch. In stead, we had our usual ponderous weekend breakfast, quite decadent for a Thursday I decided (!), and raced down to the Shin Shin for a showing of “Cellular”. It was quite entertaining and it was refreshing to see a bit of new talent on the screen doing a good job, instead of dusting off Brad, Tom (Cruise or Hanks, take your pick) or some other ubiquitous Hollywood hero for another outing. As it was a weekday and early, we finally got in to our favored restaurant, Grazie, down there and enjoyed some wood fired pizzas and good coffee. We’d had many disappointments here, preferring not to queue up to get in on the weekend: it kind of takes all the pleasure away, don’t you think?
We then scootered down to the computer market, where I haggled just a bit and bought myself a new toy: a 20gb iPod! Suffice to say, the remainder of the day (and come to think of it, right up to now, pretty much!) was occupied charging pods, downloading songs, reading instructions etc. Cass, of course, is absolutely over the moon with this purchase and can see how I just HAD to have it and that it is, in fact, a necessity of life. She has willingly embraced all the hi-tech features of the pod and is just as ecstatic with it as I am (oh, I’ve just woken from a pleasant dream I was having). I do think, in all seriousness that Cassy has seen it is a very clever machine although I don’t know if she’s quite the right love in her heart!

Friday morning saw Ross and I attempt the great eastern seaboard run, leaving at 6am to link up with the aforementioned labyrinth of link ramps to expressway 1 before hurtling down there and taking a few fancy shortcuts which we worked out from the map to arrive bright, early and refreshed at the famed east coast beach of Dashi, or Honeymoon Bay. As you can probably guess, it didn’t quite work out the way we had planned! The expressway was great, but we got lost a couple of times finding the shortcut and when we did, the little line on the map didn’t quite match the narrow winding road up an amazingly tall mountain, mist and rain threatening our vision of precipitous cliffs and edges dropping away into murky valleys. After we got through this, we encountered a coast “highway” full of lumbering trucks and road gangs holding up the traffic. However, two hours later we arrived I the tiny town to gat our first glimpse of Dashi waves through heavy sea mist. We admired the local’s determination in always crossing the jagged rocky shoreline to enter the surf and managed to get a few little nicks and knocks on our way out. The swell was pretty solid and big booming lefts were pealing away in front of a little temple before closing out and smashing onto a shoreline of ugly big boulders. We were both a little tentative but managed to get a few waves before some near death experiences with the rocks and a deep chill brought on by our lack of wetsuits saw us call it a day. When we got out, we looked about 400 metres further down the coast to see a familiar sight that was just starting to peek through the lifting haze: is that the bridge and waves and black sandy beach we can see on the web cam? We had been surfing the wrong spot! After all that travel, we just had to go out again in the “real thing” so after stuffing our boards through windows and boot we chugged down the road to the main beach. It was pretty windswept and a howling offshore not only didn’t seem to smooth the water, but succeeded in blinding us with spray with every wave we took off on. After both entering the beginning stages of hypothermia, we decided to call it a day and an even longer drive home dumped us back in Tienmu at 3pm.

Cass went out for lunch to Pizza Rialto with Kristin and her baby on Friday afternoon and they did some minor clothes shopping on the way back. From all reports the company was great, the food delicious and the purchases excellent. Cass even minded a baby for a little while and enjoyed the experience! Ross and I were to meet again on Saturday to go to the Pillbox, which we did and we had a couple of hours of fair quality surf on Saturday afternoon. We arranged to meet later at the Indian round the corner for tea and we had a great dinner and a few beers. Our boss at school, Mark, was also there with his wife and some friends and we got the greatest surprise when we left: he had paid our bill! He really is just an amazing person, it really made our night. Ross and Ains came back for coffee and while Ross and I played with iPods etc, Cass and Ainsley had a good chat. We didn’t get to bed till quite late, so the piercing cries of the kitties were not appreciated this morning. We had a really lazy day today, I was loading more CDs onto the iPod and burning my Seinfeld DVDs and pausing to watch the Aussies whip the Poms in the league and read a few Herald clippings and my book. Using the royal “we” there was a bit of a mistake: Cass spent a lot of time marking papers!
Anyway, I’m falling asleep writing this as you probably are reading…..a bit of a report this one! See you in three weeks!!!

new toy 

sculpted trees 

Beautiful young women in full tizzy wedding gowns, heavily made up, layers of silk and lace and tulle. Their fiancées are similarly attired in white 3-piece suits, the couples flanked by a shutter of photographers and attendants. This might be a typical scene on the weekend in one of many reception centers around town, but totally incongruous on a wind swept rocky inlet just this side of the Damshui River. The Pillbox, our secret surfing spot of sorts, is adjacent to a coastline landfill and a sloshing pig farm, adding to the ambiance a herd of wild goats eats every piece of foliage in sight. It’s hard to describe the associated odours, but suffice to say, when the wind is blowing offshore, the waves look great but only the level of pungency varies the assault on our nostrils.
It is on this beach that we often encounter said betrothed and parties, shyly acknowledging our presence with a smile and a wave. I’m sure the subsequent photos look sublime: the odours not wafting from their snapshot prison and the dull half light from smog and sunset adding to a smoky romanticism suitable to the soon to be wed’s shots. The bride and groom to be frolic in the lapping shore waves for the benefit of the photographer, their finery being muddied and saturated from shin down. I assume it is all dry cleaned again for the big day, which can be weeks away. When the newlyweds arrive at their reception, the practice is to have a full album of “romance shots” for their guests to choose from, hence the pre wedding photo madness.

Ross and I had a surf which he rated as among the “worst five surfs I’ve ever had” on Friday evening. The surf was small, the wind was howling and a cold snap in the wind and water sent our extremities numb in about 15 minutes. We had a slightly better effort today, heading to the Rocket, but spoiled somewhat by the 18 other guys who joined us. Blown out everywhere else, our other spot was invaded by first timers who saw us from the highway as they scoured the coast for rideable spots. It was just too crazy; normally, we have the spot to ourselves and the oft-mentioned Taiwanese surf madness was in full swing by the time we gave up and left them to it. Poor Ross is a bit glum this weekend after the Aussies trumped the NZ netballers, our cricketers smacked the Black Caps and even the Pommies beat them in the league!

Cass and I had an intriguing Saturday afternoon. I had read that Chiang Kai Shek’s summer residence and garden was the 2nd rated spot for tourism in Taipei and, as we hadn’t been, and it was just a short scooter ride from home, I decided that we must check it out. Apart from the very tactile granite insects we found (see photos), to say that it was disappointing is one of the biggest understatements of all time! Cass disagrees with me here: she thinks it was so bizarre that it was actually a bit of a hoot!!
As we wandered through the beautifully cared for gardens we came to realize that all the other Taiwanese parks and gardens we had visited were different versions of the same horrible design and kitsch inspiration, but this was the grand daddy of them all! The electric blue pebbles in the western garden, the ugly bronze statue in a strange little fountain and the aberrant designs of each successive garden were a shock to body and soul. It just could have been so beautiful: instead, hordes of tranquility seeking Taiwanese crowded each pathway through a shocking maze of kitsch splendour. Piped music of James Taylor wafted from the garden’s speakers adding to the overall surreal and ghastly effect. To top it all off, we trekked up what seemed like 5000 steps to view the signposted “Buddha Heart Pavilion”, but when we arrived the view was obscured by trees and the pavilion looked like a World War One air-raid shelter painted white with funny looking Chinese scrolls attached to it. The highlight of the climb was spying a rubbish bin disguised inside a fiberglass “boulder”…maybe it fooled the little kiddies who were shortsighted! Oh well, put that one down to experience!

We’ve got a short week coming up due to Thanksgiving, another slightly mysterious holiday for us, but one which we’re happy to take. I think Chad is going to invite us around on Thursday for lunch, a lovely tradition that they’ve kept with us: amazingly this will be the 4th year that we’ve done this! It’s very generous of them, especially with Cathy pregnant and the “Little Chief” Levi to care of, not to mention that they have family of their own here now: Cathy’s parents Doug and Jerry working at the school and doting on the Little Chief every chance they get. I’m due to give a presentation to the lower school parents this Wednesday and gave a talk to 50 visiting teachers from a local school last week, which I think went very well. Cass is going bowling with her grade 8s this Wednesday and looking forward to our long weekend. Just think, we’ll be home in less than a month!

this tree was quite beautiful 

granite insects were cool 

sunset over tienmu

Our secret spot, the Pillbox delivered some decidedly powerful little waves on Friday afternoon and although the current seemed intent on sweeping us down to the Damshui river mouth, if we stayed on the peak, we could pick up quite a few perfectly shaped, fast left-handers. Saturday proved to be a little more problematic, with the high tide delivering a dead flat pool of surface shimmery yet murky water, not even disturbed by the matrix of jagged rocks that we knew lurked just below the surface. That Pillbox is a bizarre place. Other surfers never disturb us; yet the odd local fisherman will occasionally wander down to throw a line in. The people who we do see very often lately are fully dressed brides and grooms with an entourage of photographers to take their “pre-wedding” snaps: this is great fun for us and a funny story that I’ll keep for another time. Undeterred, we kept going round the coast to Baishawan, where we decided we would stay. Restaurants, just round the bend had an interesting right, but the seven people crowded on the one workable break were a little off-putting. Ross, Carl and I enjoyed an hour or so of good waves before conditions deteriorated to the point that Cassy’s curried egg sangas and Carl’s thermos of tea seemed much more inviting. Picture below sees Carl and Ross relaxing in the car park after the surf.

Even though we fly by most of the scenery, it is often quite beautiful, ugly, amusing or strange, I suppose depending on the mood one is in. Once our traditional lane changing skip and hop through the bottleneck out of Damshui is finished, if we look beyond the chaos on the road to the hills beyond, a quite calming vista can be seen, especially on clear sunny days, which we’ve had all week long. Light and shade on verdant hills are quite pretty and the mountains rise away from the flat coastal strip so sharply that it doesn’t surprise to hear of landslips and slides in typhoon weather. Every now and then when cresting the brow of a hill, you can see glimpses of the same greenery, stretching away to a glistening sea and can often imagine you are somewhere else: the Caribbean, Bali, Queensland perhaps? I might exaggerate a little, but it’s always fun to look beyond the immediate chaos of buzzing scooters, beetle nut influenced blue truck drivers and the car pilots who all follow that most simple of Taiwanese road rules: if it’s not in front of you it doesn’t exist. On the way back on Saturday, I was heartened to see that the latest apartment block development overlooking the Damshui river is going to bring the Opera House over for the residents to view in the near distance. It’s incredible what they can do these days isn’t it?!(See photo below)
The third photo (above) is of a side of Taipei that’s not that famous. I snapped this shot of a beautiful sunset from our verandah at dusk. The buildings in the foreground just don’t look so bad when they have such a backdrop and when they’re shrouded in a dusty half-light. OK, they’re still pretty horrendous, I’ll admit!

Sunday was a very pleasant day for us. As usual we enjoyed a decadently late and delicious breakfast accompanied by our Herald clippings (thanks, as always Mum!) before lazing around and avoiding our “world lifeline” the internet, as we were in a self imposed media blackout to escape the Aus/Great Britain football score, as it would be repeated later. We wandered down to the new premises of Wendel’s bakery and restaurant and had a tasty lunch in plush and comfortable surrounds. The sun was beating in from the south (we’re in the northern hemisphere!) so we sat inside avoiding the heat and enjoying the ambiance of light and freshness it seemed to bring, seemingly cutting a swathe through the usual pall of smog that seems to descend and not lift for days on end at other times. Our lunch was scrumptious and takeaway cakes were just the finish to our afternoon. Shame those Pommies spoiled the party though!! That will do for now; I think I will write about the seaside brides next week, hopefully you’ll find it as amusing as I do!

opera house view?? 

the boys 

kathy, carol, danielle and cassy

We were piloting the car along a 10 lane superhighway way, way up above the Sunday afternoon snarl of Taipei’s inner-city streets, similar transport veins snaked and slewed below and around us and we had no idea how to get off! This was the culmination of an incredibly frustrating search for surf on Sunday that saw us driving for the best part of 5 hours, first on our usual mountain roads to Jinshan before we fought our way northeast on the coastal highway chasing an (elusive) exotic surf. Not satisfied with the ever growing cult crowd which had established itself on the two workable peaks at Jinshan, kamikaze surfers threatening to break the ankles of all who fell anywhere near their erratic novice trajectory on a wave, we headed off for some uncrowded waves. Every beach and cove and rocky inlet we spied signaled a further deterioration in surf size and quality, but on we traveled, hoping against hope that things would improve. We reached the Fulong beach only to discover not only unsurfable tiny slop, but also guards preventing entry to the water, as it was “too dangerous”!
We decided to brave the main expressway back to Taipei and everything went smoothly until we found ourselves hundreds of feet in the air, traveling into downtown Taipei away from our little mountainside suburb, great juggernauts shaking our car as they hurtled by and every exit looking more confusing than the last. We took any exit and eventually corkscrewed our way to ground level before we braved the scooters and cars and ubiquitous traffic lights for a slow crawl home.

Cass and I had a quite different experience in the evening when we decided to walk to a nearby steakhouse for tea. When we neared, it was obvious that Taipei’s latest love affair with Japanese Shabu Shabu had consumed another victim: this time, the “My Home” steak outlet that we had visited many times before. It was early and we were not yet starving, so we retraced our steps to the nearest gleaming MRT station. It always strikes me as so incongruous that the overly hectic, noisy and dirty streets with their cacophony of sound and at times, pungent bouquets wafting up from roadside drains can be replaced in a few short steps with a calm, fastidiously and regularly cleansed train station, with its “Logan’s Run” voiceovers and purring trains, picking the masses up to gently pat them off again a few stops down the line. Of course, upon exiting, the same street sensations come back again, maybe even intensified on the outskirts of the Shilin night market precinct with its associated lights, action and traffic and pedestrian mayhem. We really enjoyed the experience and both commented how long it had been since we’d done just the simple things like this: surely we haven’t become “Taipei blasé”?! Dinner was great at the other branch of My Home Steak and we were full as the last train to Damshui by the time we lumbered back up the street to the train station. Yuan Yuan records provided us with Kill Bill I on DVD for just 329NT$, so we were well pleased. In fact, old eagle eyed Cass had spied a 1000NT$ note gently shooshing in the grate at the end of an escalator at Takashimaya earlier in the day, so after a brief unproductive search for an owner, she pocketed it and this paid for our night out.

As just mentioned, Cassy had spent some time looking at some beautiful things at her leisure, without me pestering her to move on, at Takashimaya earlier on Sunday. She was blown away by the new Jason’s supermarket and I thought shed did really well to make it out of there with just a pack of John West smoked oysters. I never thought I’d see the day when Cassy would be flummoxed by an overly stimulating array of goods in a shop: Taipei must have lowered her expectations! She did, however, manage to get a book for the birthday of her colleague, Kristin’s 1 year old child, which ostensibly at least was the main purpose for her visit, as she is going up for a little birthday afternoon tea tomorrow afternoon.

Cassy’s book club night went very well indeed and although she thought everything tasted like cardboard, I was able to dissuade her of this thought after tasting the mouth-watering Pavlova slice which she had saved for me. Sorry Valerie, it was her best yet and all in a tiny desktop oven! (See photos of the group above and below) All the visitors made many encouraging comments about our unit, most often about the photos we have framed on nearly all the walls now; watch out Sue, you might even get a commission from Taipei from a complete stranger!
In a couple of days, it will be this Blog’s second birthday: I’m so sorry I didn’t start it earlier….I can’t imagine what bizarre reactions I may have had to things 18 months before I started writing about them. Over 100 pages, mostly done when procrastinating about marking, commenting or doing various uni work……..I’d best keep up the good work then!

By the way, for better quality pictures, the photos here can be opened and expanded in another window: double click on photo for first expansion, then wait for expansion icon to appear bottom right of photo and click on this. To return to blog, just hit the "Back" button.

kristin, cassy, carol and danielle 

food fair 

food

That just had to be the mouthwatering scent of a freshly cooked lamb chop I thought as I whirled and spun and dodged and weaved among the hundreds of people at the food fair. I’d already succumbed to a Latin American green curry chicken and bought some English fudge. This was certainly a sight and sound and smell extravaganza in that typical Taipei American School style of bigger is always better. In this case it was just too big and I couldn’t decide what to buy next so I got some Yakisoba and fried chicken from the Japanese stall and some luscious vegetarian pasta made by one of the top hotels from the Italian stall. Just to top it all off I carried away a steaming tub of home made chicken curry and a vegetable one from the Indian section.
The school was hosting its International Food Fair on Saturday and although I’ve previously avoided it, the lure of such fine food made by all these expats was far too tempting.

Little ponies were taking kiddies for rides through the car park and baseball throws and water drops and all the fun of a usual fete or Spring Fair were in evidence. The food, however, was the real star and it was just amazing how much there was. I didn’t get to the Korean, Chinese, Taiwanese, Nepalese, American, Irish, Greek, New Zealand or Scandanavian stalls although I do admit I had a few Swedish meatballs and got a slice of Pavlova for Cass from the Aussie section. It really was something to behold and the whole thing was just as neatly packed away and cleaned up by 6 that night when I returned from a surf. The custodian army at school were obviously all on duty and had scrubbed the school clean again in preparation for some devoted worshippers on Sunday and, of course, the resumption of school again on Monday.

We had a great surf on Wednesday afternoon after school at the Pillbox, some monstrous powerful bruisers pounding the northwest tip of the island. The aftermath of Typhoon Nockten was some seriously powerful and big swell and we enjoyed one of our best days here in Taiwan yet. I was sorry not to get some photos as I forgot to take the camera, as it would rival anything we get back home (discounting the fact that the water was so dirty you couldn’t see your board beneath you when we were sitting waiting: seriously!!). I went out again on Friday and surfed with Ross at Jinshan till it was so dark we couldn’t see the waves coming, again on Saturday afternoon with Carl and once more this morning with Carl and Ross. It was pretty good, but a lot smaller than Big Wednesday and poor Cass was really a bit of a surf widow this week!

We watched the Aussies just beat the Poms in the footy this afternoon before doing a super sized shop up at the top Tienmu Wellcome supermarket. The main reason we got so much is because Cass is hosting the Book Club this Tuesday evening. She’ll be cooking them some curries and a pavlova in her little desktop oven and she’s been scouring the little shops round here for ingredients this week. It’s quite amazing what we take for granted back home: one quick trip to Coles over there is the equivalent of visiting at least 4 different places here and then having to compromise on ingredients or just having an educated guess as the labels are in Chinese! As you can imagine, the house has been scrubbed to within an inch of its life and even the cats have been brushed and manicured. I’m going to do an exit stage left straight up to Carl’s for the evening as I’m afraid the intellectual fervour that will be raging here might be infectious: can’t have that!
Mum has supplied us with great wads of clippings from the Herald recently so we’ve been able to continue our weekend breakfast tradition of coffee, orange juice, raison toast and the paper, just like home. It’s a great start to the two days of the weekend and we often linger over a few articles in the afternoons as well. We’ve been spoiled by a couple of emails from friends back home as well (thanks!) and I was gratified that my histrionics in regard to the election hadn’t alienated too many people: just as well!….it’s my blog and I’ll write what I want!!!
The photos here are all from the food fair and include shots of the inside section only with some dancers on a stage outside. Both car parks were full of food as well!

dance 

computer cat 

computer cat

Mary has taken quite a shine to lying on top of the computer as we work and proceeds to bliss out on the heat to the extent that when she drunkenly hops down, she appears quite floppy and listless for a few minutes (photo above and below). She's had ample opportunity to be up there while I've been tapping away at my assignments this week, now mercifully finished and crafted in the same exacting manner in which most of the others have been created (i.e. shoddily pumped out at great ferocity with no draft and no revision!) I have at least one more course before Christmas and I'm looking for another graduate course at 600 or 700 level from a Uni in the States that I can do then transfer into New York State.

The ESL booklet was finally printed this week and although only 20 pages long, it has been rather a chore and I'm very glad to see it in the hands of parents and teachers as well as the School Board. I had been extolling the magnificence of the product for some months in my monthly report to the Board, so I was very pleased that I could finally issue them with the finished product.

Taiwan has served up a potpourri of natural phenomena over the last few days. While Japan has been smashed and battered by a succession of typhoons and rocked intensely by earthquakes, Taipei has experienced minor versions of the same. At time of writing, Ross, Carl and I have returned from a surf at the Pillbox, where a building typhoon swell shows all indications of unleashing some ferocious winds in the next 24-48 hours. We got some good clean waves at first, but sheeting rain and buffeting winds saw us abandon our efforts after a couple of hours. Cass jumped off the lounge last night hurting her injured ankle a little again when a fair earthquake upset our equilibrium. The apartment swayed and shook for a good 30 seconds, but we always see this as a good thing: better a series of little quakes than a big bertha after a long period of inactivity. Most of the recent typhoons have veered off before making landfall here, but this one looks like hitting about 2 tomorrow afternoon, possibly disrupting home time at school. We'll wait and see; the school usually takes their cue from the Taipei city government and they hold off till the last minute to announce school closures.

We watched the Aussie/Kiwi league test here today and delighted in the Aussie's win, although we wished Ross and Ains were here to make it a little sweeter! ABC Asiapacific continues to entertain us with some great TV, Kath and Kim starts tomorrow and the Melbourne Cup carnival will feature 6 hours of coverage. Unlike at home, this day has no resonance with our colleagues, so Lewy and I just might have a personal day to enjoy the coverage and have just a couple of sensible investment wagers!

I have to mention the photo below. During my conferences this week, this little fellow, all of 8 years old, decided that he needed to dress up for the occasion: his Mum told him he didn't need to, but he insisted on putting on suit and tie and even affected a Taipei American School badge on the lapel. If not quite presidential material, he certainly looks the part!
Thanks to our regular correspondents who sadly appear to be in a dwindling number. If you got an email from Cass in the last day or so you are in this group, so I'll take this opportunity to castigate anyone else reading this and "challenge you" (quote from our past boss, the mustachioed provocateur himself, Alan Green) to let us know you're still alive.

future president of the USA! 

I’ve decided to tap out a blog a little early this week and after venting my frustration last time, I promise I’ll get back to reporting just our events from this little corner of the world…..a safe place as long as the Chinese don’t start raining missiles on us, another story too frightening to contemplate, but one which seems unlikely even though a taxi driver told one of my colleagues that the Chinese would invade before Christmas!!!

Ross and I went for a surf after school on both Wednesday and Friday and again early on Saturday and we had various levels of quality. Wednesday and Friday afternoons were the pick and the Pillbox again provided us with some fair waves at an entertaining size. We can never complain about the crowd however: after getting all the boys from school out there one day in August none have come back, so Ross and I continue to surf our secret spot all by ourselves. It is a bit tricky and has rocks everywhere, but when you know where they are, it’s relatively easy to avoid them. The biggest problem is a strong current that sweeps us away from the main peak, but we’re getting good and strong from all the paddling!

Cass tripped down a tiny step at the front of the school on Monday and sprained her ankle. While gaily waving at a parent she did the wooly whoosh and various people came to her aid before the school nurse set her up with some ice and a wrapped ankle. She had Tuesday and Wednesday off school for some RICE treatment and now, nearly a week later, she is hobbling a little more freely. It was the other ankle from the one she hurt when she fell down our apartment steps last year, so that was good at least.

Ross and Ains had us over to watch the Aussie/ NZ league test on Saturday straight after our surf and it was a chance to eat some great lunch, all exotic goodies courtesy of the new Jason’s supermarket and to meet their new kittens, Abe and Gus. Much to Ross’ horror, the fact that Virg’n Mary were proving such a hit had seen Ains a little keener to get some cats, hence the move. I’m pretty sure he is OK with the decision and seems to have a ball with them. (Abe pictured above) Their new apartment is spacious and lovely and as we sat watching the game, eating our pies and beautiful ham, cheese, gherkins, pickled onion and that rare treat in Taiwan, beetroot (!) we could have been anywhere. We even drank some Carlton Colds!

We had a very lazy Sunday today and after a leisurely brekky reading some clippings from Mum, we watched some episodes of the 2nd series of “Footballer’s Wives” on DVD that we borrowed from another of the Aussies. We then did a super clean of the house and I anally dusted everything in sight before doing the vacuuming, while Cass did the bathrooms. Now I mention it, it’s a very strange phenomenon: I like to live in a clean environment but rarely do much about it between cleans. As soon as I get that duster in my hand I can’t stop till every tiny microbe has been scrubbed out and every surface, no matter how high or unseen is gleaming a happy little smile of dust-free bliss! Very, very strange…………….After that we decided to go out for a nice Sunday lunch, but Fangs was full so we opted for the far less salubrious Mos Burger next door! Best laid plans and all that…

This afternoon, we’ve enjoyed some commentary of the Aus/India cricket test and I’m still listening to it now, so that might explain the rather stilted style of this missive. Every now and then the Indian commentators shout out at great volume before calming down when they realize one of the Australians is not out after all! Cass is grading some memoirs after some marathon marking through the week and I have procrastinated to the extent that I now have a mountain of both school and uni work to do before Friday. I really do work best under pressure; at least that’s what I tell myself when I find ANYTHING to do except what I should be doing!! (like this)

the "auburgino" and "blacky" 

As two of the over a million strong Australian diaspora living and working overseas, the ability of the Australian electorate to be so insular is surprising to us. We sat through the election coverage last night wondering whether world events have any resonance with Australians, or whether they had swallowed hook, line and sinker a sneakily deceptive government campaign of negativity surrounding the home economy and interest rates.

I questioned many things last night. Did it matter at all to Australians that Tasmania’s unique and ancient forests were being wood chipped at an alarming rate to produce pulp for Asia so I can have a box of chocolates wrapped in up to five pieces of fancy paper or use a pair of disposable chopsticks wherever I eat?
Did it matter to Australians that families so desperate to escape tyranny and unspeakable hardship in their own country board unseaworthy boats to risk death coming to our country only to have their children locked up indefinitely behind razor wire?
Did it matter that when I go to an in-service overseas next year or when Carl goes to Jakarta for a soccer trip next Wednesday that we have to book rooms away from the street and eat in our rooms for fear of being blown up? Did it matter that all Australians who travel overseas have a huge target on their heads because the Howard government chose to join a war on a huge lie? Did it matter at all that over 15,000 Iraqis have died in a war that we joined without justification? Did it matter that 100 Australians were blown up in Bali as a direct result of our meddling in other countries domestic business?
Did it matter to Australians that our much-trumpeted “sound economic management” has piggy backed on a huge jump in exporting our finite natural resources to expanding economies like China who are “close friends” with Australia as a result?
And does it matter to any Howard voters now, that the government benefited hugely from a massive preference flow from the “lunatic religious right” FFP who have effectively obliterated the line between church and state, and that religious groups have so brainwashed certain electorates that liberal members (at least two) were elected purely on the support received from church congregations? I see this as a very dangerous precedent.

The thing that most frustrates us is that Australians have chosen to ignore these issues or just don’t care; all for what they perceive will be a couple more dollars in their wallet each week. I wonder how Australians will feel about our strange alliances in the world when terrorists finally target our own soil? I dread to think.

babbling on to the 3rd graders

We had a bit of action here at the weekend when the unit up the street from us provided a very un-Chinese display of emotion. A fellow was coming at all hours of the night and the next day bashing on the door, yelling out for his ex girlfriend as he had been (according to Linda, Mr. Lee's daughter) jilted and the girl had kept a large sum of his money. This resulted in the police being called and amazingly, this picture shows the SECOND time they just let him drive away! He hasn't been back yet, so maybe he got his money, or the shame of his very public emotional outburst got the better of him.

Cass has been away at camp this week and she will be back tomorrow. It's been a long few days without her and I've spent some time putting together the DVD shelves we bought a while ago and stopped only because a strange stigmata began to appear! Either I've been summoned for a higher calling or I overused my scewdriving hand a little: what do you think? While I'm speaking of things divine, this a neat segue to Virg'n Mary who have studiously ignored my attentions for the early part of the week and continue to lie in front of our closed bedroom door. Presumably, they think I have locked Cassy in there for a few days as they crane their necks around and sniff under the door for any sign.

Neither Ross nor I have been for a surf at all this week, partly due to busy work and partly because he has been attentive to Ains who celebrates her 40th birthday today. Carl and Hiroko and Steven were kind to have me for tea on Tuesday night and they twisted my arm again tonight (wasn't too hard!) so I'll have some tea and a chat this evening with them. Cass rang on Tuesday night and is having a predictably exhausting time at camp and has had to sleep at least one night in a tent, which I'm sure you can all imagine would not be her favorite cup of tea!

I've done nothing in regard to my assignments but have been relieved to finally take all photos necessary for our ESL booklet and it is at the printers now. The only trouble is that I may have allowed everyone to spend too much on books and resources this year: the budget might not take the strain of publishing the book! Oh well, they either want it or they don't. The new computer continues to work very well indeed and I have just subscribed to an audio service for the Aust/India test matches for $8 for the whole series. I've already enjoyed the first two days, especially with the Australians going so well.

Grand final night last Sunday was a hoot and everyone turned up and we had a ball. The big screen was stunning on one wall, the sound was through the stereo and we had Aussie beers and meat pies! Honestly, with a room full of Aussie guys (plus Ross, NZ and Penry, USA) we could have been at home, sucking down some Carlton Colds and having pies and sauce. Jason's marketplace even has "Crownies" now, but they are at a real premium; maybe next time!

We've got some emails recently from Mum, Helen, Sue and Thurza, which have been great and also Mum's Newcastle Herald clippings are starting to roll in with regularity, which makes for some excellent breakfasts on the weekend. We received some disturbing news from Fran, however, just yesterday(Cass doesn't know yet). Our friend and colleague, Jo Richardson has died. We were under the impression that she had beaten some cancer, but a new and virulent strain apparently took hold some time back. Jo was the person who employed Cassy all those years ago at Grammar when she was deputy there. It's quite upsetting to hear of yet another death among our close colleagues and friends of many years. On that note, I'll sign off for now.