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!