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!
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