This week has been pretty uneventful, although we’ve had a few mini dramas, mainly to do with the cats and their ongoing de-sexing saga. We took them back the three times for their anti-biotic shots and they displayed various degrees of discomfort and protest, smart little beggars they are as Cass and I had to shepherd them into their carry boxes in the end as they knew where they were going! They seemed to get a certain wild eyed, terrified sense of adventure from the trip across, the afore mentioned odours, noises and sensations providing a very different environment than the one they are used to. They finally got their stitches out yesterday but Mary has to go on Wednesday and Friday for more anti-biotic shots as her wound hasn’t completely healed. Anyway, what a saga!

I collected two items of certified mail from the local post office the other day and my worst fears were confirmed when I arrived. The only people who use our home address are the car and bike authorities, and as it turns out, the police! Inside the envelopes were crisp colour images of the speeding “Auburgino”, boards attached to roof, caught on a speed camera on the coast road. They are about $100 each, so as is our way, Ross was hit up for half. We’d have no idea who was driving anyway and we both tend to have a rather leaden foot, but we’ll certainly keep an eye out for that trap in the future. The photos were so clear that we can easily identify the spot from local landmarks, so they won’t get us there again at least!

Well, apparently the Olympics were on, is that right? Our mate from Australia, the PE teacher here at school, who you might remember coached our dragon boat team, was the coach of dual silver medal kayaker, Nathan Bagguley. Peter Clark is due back tomorrow after attending the Opening Ceremony and Closing and heaps of events in between. We’ve heard a few stories via email already about breakfasting with Roger Federer and partying with the Poo and Delta along with the strain of keeping his charge up and ready to go in the last few days of the game.
My facetious question at the start of this paragraph is not that far from the truth. If Taipei or China were playing baseball or table tennis, it would be run on at least 5 different channels. As for any swimming or cycling, forget it. It just shows how biased the reporting of the Olympics is. The sports that Australia excels in are just not televised here, much as, I imagine, there is not a whole lot of fencing, ping pong, archery or baseball played at home. I naively used to imagine that everyone was watching the Aussies carve up the pool, but alas, it seems each country celebrates its own little world of sport, to the exclusion of all others. I was really depressed about it all this past two weeks. I really love the excitement and colour of the Olympics and I look forward to it for years. This year was a total non-event, made even more painful when I realized as I read the paper each day, how wonderfully successful the Aussies were.

ESL Parent Night is tonight and I’m writing this between classes to distract myself from it for a while. As usual, it has been an awful time of preparation, a little harder for me this time as I can’t use the excuse of being new at the job (which I was quite prepared to use last year if things went wrong, which thankfully, they didn’t!)
The heat is confronting today, physically assaulting you when you walk out of the air conditioning, draining energy and forcing a dripping perspiration the instant you hit it.
Oh well, not the cheeriest of weeks: I suppose we’ll get over it soon!

The Indian restaurant round the corner has proved to be a real winner. Our dinner last Monday night was absolutely delicious and the menu is extensive and varied, with lots of old favourites and more than a few new dishes to try over time. I went back on Saturday to get some takeaway only to be greeted by a full restaurant, more waiting on benches for takeaway and the Indian gentleman owner acknowledging my “first customer” status with apologies for the wait and more than a slight sheen of perspiration on the brow. Suffice to say, it looks like it may be in for the long haul, despite the appalling record of restaurants here, seeming to disappear overnight. We come back from the big break prepared for a significant change in the shops and eateries landscape and we’re never disappointed.

The week dragged a little at work, with assorted people still mentioning my brief news appearance. I’m in the throes of organizing the ESL parent night which will be held next Tuesday, along with dealing with the usual mind numbing amount of administrivia and countless meetings across all divisions of the school, all the while trying to get to know the new students and parents in my own little teaching world of grade 3. The team seems to be a lot more accepting of my role this year and are quite prepared to “pass” many issues, gratifying in one way, but annoying in another as each decision or meeting erodes the time just a little more. Cassy is absolutely delighted with her new teaching partner, Kristin, an Aussie most recently in Korea. She is delightful to get along with, prepared to follow Cassy’s lead in curriculum work at this stage, yet offering thanks and positive and helpful suggestions.

Virg’n Mary have been unceremoniously de-sexed and the poor little buggers spent the next day at home walking around like the proverbial drunken sailors. We took them in the car in a teeming tropical storm and Mary escaped and clung vertically to a filing cabinet moaning till she was retrieved. It was quite a circus, as the resident kitten at the vets was inquisitive to the point of being painful, checking out what his “sisters” were doing in those funny blue carry boxes, upsetting them all the more. When we picked them up in the afternoon they were both sporting the most curious orange cones on their heads to stop them licking their stitches. After Virg nearly strangled herself trying to remove the cone even when she had the wobbly boot on, we decided it would be wiser to remove them. They’ve been very sleepy, slow and sooky ever since so I think they got a fair whack of the old jungle juice. Talk about service though……for the princely sum of $80 each, they have had the procedure, but also (this afternoon) the first of three antibiotic shots, plus a 5th visit to remove the stitches! We certainly don’t remember any of this carry on with poor dead Eugene, but I suppose, better safe than sorry. The main problem with all this is taking them to the vets each time in their baskets (we normally walk) through all the wonders Taipei has to offer, such as roaming dogs, pouring rain, immovable pedestrians and the ubiquitous non-stop noisy, stinky traffic.

Ross and I had an excellent surf on Friday afternoon after school, small waves but clean and uncrowded. I decided it was best to stay home on Saturday and Sunday with the kitties, but we did venture out yesterday to watch the “Bourne Supremacy” which we both found to be action packed and great entertainment. The day was scorching and heavily humid, quite enervating all round. We sank back into the air conditioning and watched the Sunday NRL game after the seeing the valiant Knights just falter on Saturday. I’ve loaded my Kodak software on the computer and we are enjoying the most magnificent crystal clear screensavers of Newcs at the moment….many of which we snapped on our daily walks on the Bather’s Way. We seem to have a problem with our email at the moment: everything seems fine except we haven’t been able to receive any messages for a week. To all our faithful correspondents who no doubt have hands quivering above the keyboard ready to reply, please hold off sending anything for the moment; I’ll give you a message when we eventually get it all sorted out. Oh. By the way, Stickybeek’s beach webcam is now on the Beach Hotel, giving us an easily accessed, oft updated view just to show us what we’re missing!

What an absolutely crazy first week! Talk about hitting the ground running; we did that and more. The first 3 days were a meeting-a-thon and I was flung straight back into decision making mode, a role I enjoy at work to a certain extent, but avoid like the plague at other times, I’m sure Cassy will attest to that. We had every bit of information possible thrown at us and I’m sure the heads of the 42 brand new teachers were spinning. They seem a great bunch, with a generous sprinkling of Aussies/Kiwis as well, which is always encouraging. They are impossibly young and hideously well qualified: if you don’t have at least one master’s and another special skill, it seems you won’t get in here these days.
First day of kiddies was supposed to be Thursday, but we sent home with dire warnings of the approach of Typhoon Raninem on Wed afternoon. Sure enough, the phone tree and the internet informed us at 6am Thursday that school had been called off.
A great crew of established and new surfers had braved the building Typhoon swell at the Pillbox on Wed arvo, and a special sight it was; 9 foreigners out together on a windswept tiny beach on the northern tip. I’ve been unceremoniously upstaged as the “best” surfer by Dan, a new teacher from NZ who had previously done the long board circuit in NZ. Ah well, my moment in the sun couldn’t last forever!

Thursday afternoon looked like an opportune time to investigate whether the typhoon had whipped up some decent swell. Ross and I went to investigate only to be met by some of the best waves I have ever seen, Taiwan or anywhere else. The wind was howling offshore, the waves were holding, hollowing out and peeling off Jinshan Point at a consistent 8 feet plus! The only trouble was the regular 10-12 foot clean up set and the ferocious inner banks, which looked like making a paddle out very very difficult. After weighing up our options, we, of course, decided to go in. Our plan was to ride the re-forms just past the second inner bank, which were a solid 4-6 foot and clean. We got ready and made our way down to the beach to the collective horror of the huge swell of lookers on the coast road and car park, as not another surfing soul was in sight. After about 10 minutes of getting an absolute hammering, we were on the verge of getting out the back when I noticed two uniformed men onshore waving frantically for us to get out. I called to Ross and we reluctantly made our way in to the coast guard/military men who seemed very angry. Much to our surprise and horror, a TV news cameraman was also there. They indicated that we shouldn’t be going out as the beach was closed and hung around till we packed the car and drove away. Much to our dismay, several teachers informed me that I was mugging insanely for the camera on the local news and saying “We’re very sorry, it’s too big” before they showed the pounding surf behind us and some unidentifiable commentary, I imagine lambasting the insane foreign devils for their ridiculous acts of foolhardiness!

After that excitement, we were disappointed to see the surf back to two foot and onshore for Friday afternoon and even smaller on Saturday when Cass and I along with Ross and Ains met Carl and family at the beach for a lazy few hours. The water is so warm it’s like swimming in a bowl of soup and hardly refreshes at all. Sunday proved to be unbearably hot, so apart from dragging ourselves out for a quick sandwich at the coffee shop round the corner, we stayed in with Virg ‘n Mary in the air conditioning and re-hung a few pictures, did some filing and generally got our apartment back in order after the break.
The other great excitement for us is that not only has a branch of Pizza Hut opened on Chung Shan Nth Rd just around the corner, but also an Indian restaurant has opened on our very own Ker Qiang Rd! They only opened last night and we were the first customers through the door, hoping to get a takeaway menu, but they are not printed yet. After we take the garbage tonight we are going there for tea, but it looks great, is reasonably priced and has an extensive and familiar menu. We’ll wait and see.
Well, we’re well and truly back at it; Newcastle feels a million miles and light years away from us already; the next big event is the poor kitties both getting de-sexed on Friday………..I feel for them!

Spending time back in Newcastle is always so relaxing. To be able to come back to our own place, have our own car and bike, with all our gear just makes life so easy. Many of our colleagues arrived back at work today with various stories of misery and suffering, most brought on by constant traveling and living out of suitcases at Mom’s or cousin Johnny’s. While some lamented their lack of a permanent home and others the ferocity of a chilling summer in Canada or Minnesota, many of our friends had relaxing and interesting breaks, from whale watching to riding motorbikes in Turkey and everything in between, it’s always an exciting time to hear stories of adventures in far off, wondrous places.
Newcastle, it seems, has a dreamy quality all its own if the wistful look in the eyes of many are anything to go by when we tell them of our holiday. Our (nearly) daily walk of 5-6 km along pristine shorelines into historic precincts in Newcastle along the Bather’s Way, watching whales from our dining room while eating breakfast, touching dolphins when sitting quietly and alone waiting for the next wave in crystal clear warm water with a light off shore breeze or even drinking espressos and eating delicious meals in modern, different restaurants at reasonable prices. This is before we tell them about the bike trip!
Newcastle can seem a little pedestrian when living there permanently, but we have done more and more touristy things each year we’ve returned. The art galleries and pubs are always interesting and the wide-open spaces and greenery, while taken for granted, seem to be a very rare commodity in most cities we’ve been to in Asia or Europe. We took a walk along the newly opened boardwalk on the harbour and noted the intensity of the light, the warmth of the northerly aspect and the drop-dead beauty of the water and the vista. We got to the end of our 9 weeks this time and lamented all the things we hadn’t had a chance to do or see, such as going to the vineyards, a trip to the lake, or even to Sugarloaf or Blackbutt.
Taipei doesn’t have any of these things, but life certainly goes into overdrive when we get back. It is physically impossible to totally chill out here, the power and frenetic pace of the city makes Newcastle seem like some of the sleepy little hamlets we rode through in northwest NSW. Of course this is partly due to work and both Cass and I felt like cartoon characters today, you know where they’re held up above the ground wildly spinning their legs only to be dropped to the ground at a frightening sprint. We’re both exhausted this afternoon, but our cats are a comfort (they have become impossibly big over the past couple of months!) and our apartment is a calm oasis in the swirling heat of humid summer Taipei.We’re looking forward to another year of adventure and excitement, daily life here always throws up challenges that have to be dealt with in novel or interesting ways.