The big freeze has continued in Taipei this week, a slight lull coming just in time for the weekend. Dramas aplenty yesterday as Ross was ensconced in a cell like classroom at school doing his Framingham course, no doubt doodling pictures of stick men surfers riding impossibly perfect waves while listening to his lecturer drone on and on. This was not the drama though. Carl was due to pick me up in the new car to make the trip to the beach for the boy’s inaugural surf. He rang as I waited to tell me his battery was flat. I entertained thoughts of getting some jumper leads down at the Carrefour only to realize it was far too early. Carl went to school to hunt some down, I zoomed up on the scooter, met him with the borrowed leads then came back to get our car to do the charging. I couldn’t believe the key turning in the ignition to NO response whatsoever. Ours was flat as a pancake as well! Carl got a colleague to charge his car and came round to charge ours, whereupon we set out for the coast very late. We took both cars in the end to make sure they got a good run. The arctic conditions of the past week or two must have had something to do with it, or else it was just the freakiest of coincidences.
Suffice to say, we got to the beach and enjoyed some nice 3-4 foot right handers, breaking on a shallow bank, Sean and Steven getting plenty of quality time on a few foamies and nearly making it up a few times on their first day: an impressive debut.
Cass and I made an ill fated attempt to find the Chocolate War on DVD down at Asiaworld (yes, it actually is called that!) after a hectic scooter ride downtown in the mid weekend traffic. We had some curry out for tea and a quiet night at home with kitties, but not before buying an oven, ostensibly for all manner of cooking, but really to heat my new found pies. It’s an interesting contraption, quite large enough to bake things and grill others, the Chinese substitute for a wall oven. Anyway, we’re yet to christen it, but it looks quite impressive on our kitchen bench!
Surf again on Sunday, but alas, for Ross in particular, the surf was not offering much in the way of size. It was however, a glorious day: one of those rare ones in Taipei where the air is crisp, a zephyr of wind saw the sun just sneaking out to have a peep every now and then and a perfect temperature. We’re expecting another cold snap this week and ironically, even though we’ve had plenty of rain in the last few weeks, the northern parts of the island will go into water restrictions soon. Apparently the problem is the terrible inefficiency of the dams and the pipes, with 80% of water leaking from pipes on the way to the taps!
Virg’n Mary continue to delight us with their antics, but we’re hoping their affections for us continue after we take them back to the vet for some shots this afternoon. Carl and I are seriously considering buying some short boards to get a bit more zip in the water: a great idea in theory, but perhaps not when our shoulders begin screaming from the extra paddling effort. With this in mind, I’ve started lifting weights again regularly (well, just started again today!) after a long lay-off. That combined with a bit of karate should help shouldn’t it? (!)
Cass got her throat infection on the weekend, but was able to immediately identify and hit it straight away with some antibiotics we’d brought from home for just such an eventuality and she’s feeling pretty good, all things considered. School continues to throw up its fair share of challenges, but somehow, we’re never as stressed as we were back home. The worst day here probably equates to an average one there and we wonder if it perhaps is our new attitude and renewed enthusiasm for our teaching that is the difference. I think we’re just enjoying life!
