A couple of Californian laid back dudes, two Aussies and two Kiwis stood around in the beach car park after a great relaxing surf, drinking ice cold VBs and having a few jokes, drinking a few more well into the dark. The six had traded boards and tested out each other’s new boards, from mini mals to fun ‘fish” and got some decent little lefts and rights on a stormy peak. Probably not that unusual a scene, but Friday night on the northern tip of Taiwan had not seen that before, I reckon. Bob had picked up a carton of VB at Jason’s marketplace down at the 101 and had borrowed an esky (NZ:chilly bin, U.S.:cooler), filled with ice and put them in to chill on the way over the mountains.
We followed this up with a few more beers, tall tales and a game or two of pool before Ross and I called it a night around midnight, a couple of the others no doubt tripped the light fantastic on the bar down at trendy nightclub Carnegies till well after that.
We struggled up at 7, a little headsore and saw on the cam that Jinshan was dead flat yet again. I phoned Ross and we agreed to give it a miss and try again on Sunday. Cass was champing at the bit to get downtown to pick up her earrings, so we had a lazy breakfast, read some clippings from the Herald (thanks Mum, of course!) and scootered down in a quite terrible blazing sun. Joe had done a superb job with Cassy’s earrings and the sapphires looked even bigger when teamed with some quite substantial diamonds in a white gold setting, the remainder of the setting in yellow gold. They are really quite spectacular, so Cass was very excited. When we got home, I had a bit of a snooze before we settled down to watch the delayed telecast of the Knights/Broncos game. We’d been in a self-imposed media blackout and we glad we had been. What a game! What incredible ticker displayed by those Knights! We were so impressed and managed a few war dances around the lounge room, especially when Danny scored and Kurt Gidley’s wobbly horror just scraped over the crossbar. After all that excitement we lazed around a bit more before heading off to Kari Curry for tea.
Ross and I headed off to Jinshan bright and early on Sunday morning promising to meet Carl and family out there. In the sweltering conditions we were glad we’d had the air-con fixed a few days before, a story in itself. We had scouted out a tiny mechanics’ workshop, with space for just one car in the back lanes behind Mingde road and were flabbergasted when the guy could speak some English! I mean, how many mechanics, or many others for that point could speak and understand enough Mandarin to be understood back in Australia?! He did a great job giving a tune, changed the plugs, changed oil, re-compressed the air-con and fixed some new wiper blades, all for a very reasonable cost.
When we arrived at the beach, it resembled a glistening lake, complete with lolling surfers content to just soak up some sun and refresh in the water, as waves were certainly not in evidence. We didn’t even get the boards off the car, had a quick body surf and then were stunned to see the “surfers” making a merry dash for shore. No, not a shark, but a large floating infestation of baby jellyfish, which had given everyone a good old stinging.
We contemplated going to the new Tienmu Warner Brothers cinema in the afternoon, but by this time the sun was beating with such intensity, we couldn’t bear the thought and there didn’t seem to be much on offer. I took Cass over to the supermarket on the bike and we loaded up with great bags of kitty litter and other supplies. It’s amazing what changes have occurred just in the few years we have been here. In the local supermarket, which doesn’t cater for foreigners at all, we buy Australian rice (bit like shipping coal to Newcs!), Aussie oatmeal and corn, Golden Roughs and Kit Kats and the latest, wine in a can! Aussie of course, the 250 ml cans give just enough for a glass of wine each at dinner. We sampled one yesterday and declared it to be just the ticket, a pleasant quaffing wine, either Chardonnay or Cabernet Shiraz, all at a very reasonable price.
Enough said about the 3rd grade camp, which I went to on Thursday and Friday and school is heating up for the end-of-year boilover. We both have reports to write soon and I am attending the Learning Community Council all day on Thursday, supposedly to steer the school in the right direction for the upcoming academic year (I’ll have some help!!)
I’m also determined to get my 15 assignments done for my latest study over the next two weeks, so that should be, well, very frustrating and time consuming. Virg’n Mary the double headed furry mother of god continue to entertain with their antics and have quite taken to the GCSU. It will all be over for another year soon!
