Tuesday, December 20, 2005
go the red
Wresting ourselves from a very cosy apartment was not easy on Sunday as the temperature waxed and waned between single and double figures. There was a wind snapping away outside as well as a depressing drizzle stopping and starting with annoying regularity. Despite all this, we’d been cooped up for a couple of days and needed to get out and stretch the legs. We decided to do an old fashioned walking tour of a few local haunts and eventually wander down through some markets before coming home a different way.
Going down the back roads near home, we’ve learned when to hold our nose and when to avert our eyes, almost to the point where it’s become automatic. I decided I was going to get “back to basics” and take another good hard look at our everyday surroundings. The market alley ½ way to the night market in the shadows of the buildings beside the Damshui river is an at times alluring and at times revolting sensory mix. We wandered into the surrounding streets after a leisurely stroll from home down the new raised river path, under the subway, through car parks and over the new bridge. The world transformed about 100 metres down a side street on the southern side of the river. Hawkers bellowed and cawed, touting their vegetables straight from the back of the tiny ubiquitous blue trucks that transport all goods around the city streets. The soil of the Yangminshan hills still clung to the roots of some of the produce and as we advanced further into the labyrinth of stalls, the fresh seafood began to appear. Huge, plump prawns writhed in fresh water and the fish lay on an angle on a bed of ice, just for show really as the fish had only just stopped twitching. The seafood just oozed freshness: the colours were vivid and alive, the red of the Chinese New Year much sought after. Most of the shoppers were dressed in red of some sort, the produce had a reddish tinge and even the foreign women wandering through the stalls had red clothes on!
The police nudging their way through the throng on their scooters were the only discordant note: one wondered why they even bothered; this Taiwanese crowd was not prone to violent outbursts. Perhaps they were there to quell the savage rush that came at intervals when wild entreaties to the crowd about super special bargains enticed a sea of shoppers to flock to their stall. The stall itself was sometimes little more than a rudimentary cart being pushed slowly down the centre of the alley, causing great crowds to build up around it, the humanity forcing people through the little gaps left around it.
Then chickens in cages were standing and squawking beside a table where a man plucked their feathers and skinned their recently departed brothers. You could select your bird from the cage if you could handle the killing process. The end result, packaged neatly just two tables along was strangely unlike the real thing: best not to dwell on this for too long especially if you’re about to eat!!
Further along, men and women and the tiniest of children implored the crowd, bellowing their heart felt belief in their amazing product. Shoelaces and baby clothes, fat reducing tights and “fashion” skirts compete for space amongst sweet cakes and red bean dough cakes, fried trotters and shell fish, nuts of all kinds and peculiar local lollies.
A dose of the real Taipei was just the tonic before we depart for another adventure later this week: off to the south west coast of Sri Lanka, to surf, to relax, to look, to see, to wonder. We just can’t wait!
Wresting ourselves from a very cosy apartment was not easy on Sunday as the temperature waxed and waned between single and double figures. There was a wind snapping away outside as well as a depressing drizzle stopping and starting with annoying regularity. Despite all this, we’d been cooped up for a couple of days and needed to get out and stretch the legs. We decided to do an old fashioned walking tour of a few local haunts and eventually wander down through some markets before coming home a different way.
Going down the back roads near home, we’ve learned when to hold our nose and when to avert our eyes, almost to the point where it’s become automatic. I decided I was going to get “back to basics” and take another good hard look at our everyday surroundings. The market alley ½ way to the night market in the shadows of the buildings beside the Damshui river is an at times alluring and at times revolting sensory mix. We wandered into the surrounding streets after a leisurely stroll from home down the new raised river path, under the subway, through car parks and over the new bridge. The world transformed about 100 metres down a side street on the southern side of the river. Hawkers bellowed and cawed, touting their vegetables straight from the back of the tiny ubiquitous blue trucks that transport all goods around the city streets. The soil of the Yangminshan hills still clung to the roots of some of the produce and as we advanced further into the labyrinth of stalls, the fresh seafood began to appear. Huge, plump prawns writhed in fresh water and the fish lay on an angle on a bed of ice, just for show really as the fish had only just stopped twitching. The seafood just oozed freshness: the colours were vivid and alive, the red of the Chinese New Year much sought after. Most of the shoppers were dressed in red of some sort, the produce had a reddish tinge and even the foreign women wandering through the stalls had red clothes on!
The police nudging their way through the throng on their scooters were the only discordant note: one wondered why they even bothered; this Taiwanese crowd was not prone to violent outbursts. Perhaps they were there to quell the savage rush that came at intervals when wild entreaties to the crowd about super special bargains enticed a sea of shoppers to flock to their stall. The stall itself was sometimes little more than a rudimentary cart being pushed slowly down the centre of the alley, causing great crowds to build up around it, the humanity forcing people through the little gaps left around it.
Then chickens in cages were standing and squawking beside a table where a man plucked their feathers and skinned their recently departed brothers. You could select your bird from the cage if you could handle the killing process. The end result, packaged neatly just two tables along was strangely unlike the real thing: best not to dwell on this for too long especially if you’re about to eat!!
Further along, men and women and the tiniest of children implored the crowd, bellowing their heart felt belief in their amazing product. Shoelaces and baby clothes, fat reducing tights and “fashion” skirts compete for space amongst sweet cakes and red bean dough cakes, fried trotters and shell fish, nuts of all kinds and peculiar local lollies.
A dose of the real Taipei was just the tonic before we depart for another adventure later this week: off to the south west coast of Sri Lanka, to surf, to relax, to look, to see, to wonder. We just can’t wait!
Thursday, December 15, 2005
Happy Christmas!
Got ½ a computer back and we’re back online! This blog did not meet its regular Sunday/Monday deadline for a number of reasons, prime amongst them was that we were flat out like lizards drinking writing reports and marking papers etc and also that our computer was off line. In these past few days I wonder how I ever survived in Japan: pre-internet, few letters, fewer papers, no English on the TV, the shops, the street. I suppose that’s why I can still babble away in Japanese and why we can barely put two words together in Chinese! Different times, different need, different necessities. Anyway, as per usual, I digress into an abyss of mindless verbiage (see?!).
The amusingly named Dick, who we quite unkindly labeled with the last name “Head” after leaving us in the lurch, is a computer expert here in Tienmu who does house calls. The added bonus is that he speaks English. Much to my delight (Cass is barely interested in the whole deal at best!) he had agreed to come around to make a few modifications to our computer. I have a grand plan of subscribing to a new service that will stream cricket over the net! This service, ironically, originates from America, but allows subscribers to pay to view selected series, tours etc. I want to watch the one dayers in the New Year.
Warning: Ridiculous, unnecessary tech talk following: skip if you have a life.
I wanted to give the computer every chance to stream successfully so decided to ramp up a few things. We have increased our cable upload/download speed to 3M/640, which is psycho fast, but we needed a new motherboard, which would allow the stream. I also needed to free up hard disc space, so wanted a new 160 gb external hard drive to supplement the 80 gb we already have and move things like the capacity heavy iTunes and the like to the external space. This will free up the internal to maximum capacity. I also sought to increase the RAM up to a gig. The last component is a WiFi setup between the computer in one room and the new TV in the other and beams the stream from the computer to the big new TV. Dick managed all this, but only after arriving hours late 3 times and leaving us computerless for days on end. He now has to come back to change by video card, as the graphics were a bit poor on the remote stream to the TV: this will happen on Monday.
Luddites now please rejoin us! After all that, I still don’t know whether this will work, but it’s a plan and I have high hopes. We’ve barely had a chance to think about our trip, but we’ve booked a driver to get to the airport and everything’s booked and paid for over there, so we’re kinda ready. I’m hoping that we’ll be able to catch a bit of cricket over there, knowing the Sri Lankans’ love for the game, I really hope so, as the Boxing Day and New Year tests are such favourites of ours. Those who know us best will recall we even went to the cricket on our honeymoon!
I received my results from San Diego for my three latest courses today and was delighted to pass considering the awful mush I sent away to them. Accompanying these results were a card from Ildi and Simon and another from Wal and Thurza. What a buzz to get these cards over here!. It’s just so much more of a thrill than when we’re home for some reason. We also received a card and family letter from my aunt and uncle, Virginia and Jeff. I have just sat back on the lounge and read the entire goings on in their family over the last year. I love those Christmas family letters!! Cassy’s Mum and Dad rang last night and had a good chat and also rang last weekend. My mum also rang last night and said she too had sent a card and letter, so we’ll look forward to that. As Cassy always says at this time of year, “Oh good, I’ll find out what I’ve done this year, Denise always remembers something I don’t!”. We’ve also received emails recently from Sue and one just today from Helen, which I quickly read, but will read and savour again in a few minutes.
I took a few photos years back of my room, here are the updated versions. Also, we took a really quick Christmas photo when we got home this afternnon: Virg'n Mary are suitably unimpressed!
Please accept this as our Happy Christmas and Prosperous and Happy New Year to you from us. We are sad in some ways not to be coming home, but we hope Sri Lanka will provide enough distractions for us to forget about the Chrissy family, friends, cricket, food, drink and the general being merry till we get home again for a while in June.
Got ½ a computer back and we’re back online! This blog did not meet its regular Sunday/Monday deadline for a number of reasons, prime amongst them was that we were flat out like lizards drinking writing reports and marking papers etc and also that our computer was off line. In these past few days I wonder how I ever survived in Japan: pre-internet, few letters, fewer papers, no English on the TV, the shops, the street. I suppose that’s why I can still babble away in Japanese and why we can barely put two words together in Chinese! Different times, different need, different necessities. Anyway, as per usual, I digress into an abyss of mindless verbiage (see?!).
The amusingly named Dick, who we quite unkindly labeled with the last name “Head” after leaving us in the lurch, is a computer expert here in Tienmu who does house calls. The added bonus is that he speaks English. Much to my delight (Cass is barely interested in the whole deal at best!) he had agreed to come around to make a few modifications to our computer. I have a grand plan of subscribing to a new service that will stream cricket over the net! This service, ironically, originates from America, but allows subscribers to pay to view selected series, tours etc. I want to watch the one dayers in the New Year.
Warning: Ridiculous, unnecessary tech talk following: skip if you have a life.
I wanted to give the computer every chance to stream successfully so decided to ramp up a few things. We have increased our cable upload/download speed to 3M/640, which is psycho fast, but we needed a new motherboard, which would allow the stream. I also needed to free up hard disc space, so wanted a new 160 gb external hard drive to supplement the 80 gb we already have and move things like the capacity heavy iTunes and the like to the external space. This will free up the internal to maximum capacity. I also sought to increase the RAM up to a gig. The last component is a WiFi setup between the computer in one room and the new TV in the other and beams the stream from the computer to the big new TV. Dick managed all this, but only after arriving hours late 3 times and leaving us computerless for days on end. He now has to come back to change by video card, as the graphics were a bit poor on the remote stream to the TV: this will happen on Monday.
Luddites now please rejoin us! After all that, I still don’t know whether this will work, but it’s a plan and I have high hopes. We’ve barely had a chance to think about our trip, but we’ve booked a driver to get to the airport and everything’s booked and paid for over there, so we’re kinda ready. I’m hoping that we’ll be able to catch a bit of cricket over there, knowing the Sri Lankans’ love for the game, I really hope so, as the Boxing Day and New Year tests are such favourites of ours. Those who know us best will recall we even went to the cricket on our honeymoon!
I received my results from San Diego for my three latest courses today and was delighted to pass considering the awful mush I sent away to them. Accompanying these results were a card from Ildi and Simon and another from Wal and Thurza. What a buzz to get these cards over here!. It’s just so much more of a thrill than when we’re home for some reason. We also received a card and family letter from my aunt and uncle, Virginia and Jeff. I have just sat back on the lounge and read the entire goings on in their family over the last year. I love those Christmas family letters!! Cassy’s Mum and Dad rang last night and had a good chat and also rang last weekend. My mum also rang last night and said she too had sent a card and letter, so we’ll look forward to that. As Cassy always says at this time of year, “Oh good, I’ll find out what I’ve done this year, Denise always remembers something I don’t!”. We’ve also received emails recently from Sue and one just today from Helen, which I quickly read, but will read and savour again in a few minutes.
I took a few photos years back of my room, here are the updated versions. Also, we took a really quick Christmas photo when we got home this afternnon: Virg'n Mary are suitably unimpressed!
Please accept this as our Happy Christmas and Prosperous and Happy New Year to you from us. We are sad in some ways not to be coming home, but we hope Sri Lanka will provide enough distractions for us to forget about the Chrissy family, friends, cricket, food, drink and the general being merry till we get home again for a while in June.
Sunday, December 04, 2005
Hikkaduwa
Temperatures dipped this weekend and the forecast for the early part of the week is hovering just above single figures. The surf has promised a lot, but not really delivered and the Pointy Hat site has been full of peripheral surfing activities until today when I wrote of a stormy surf I had with Ross. We do, however, have our first clothing run! One of the boys has taken on a T-shirt design and order, which is great and I’ve designed another logo which Ross and I have organized to put along the stringers of the new boards we ordered this week. We’re very excited about these new boards, they’re 5’ 10” fish, wide and thick and very short, which should be just the trick for the prevailing surf conditions here. Even though the air temperatures have dropped, I still haven’t christened the infamous “Fireskin” wetsuit. My new steamer has become the source of a lot of jokes, as I’ve built it up to be the best thing ever to hit the water, Carl actually very unkindly referring to it as the “Foreskin”! (They’re just jealous of the fact that I’ll be able to stay out in all these artic type days ahead!!)
We’ve been busy again this week, with me trying to read articles and post responses online in an online forum for one of my courses and mark tests that my kiddies have done and write reports. Progress: articles…not bad, reports…pathetic! Cass has had a social whirl, but not really of her choosing, dining out on Thursday and Friday night. She met with her colleagues involved in the middle school play on Thursday at Pizza Rialto and got all dressed up to attend the romantically named “Candlelight Dinner” at school on Friday. The parents serve the teachers at this do and it gives the kiddies a chance to doll themselves up with every piece of finery money can buy. The food tends to be a little less than excellent and it is more of a duty thing than anything else. Cass and I had a decadent lunch out at the Moroccan restaurant on Saturday, having 4 courses and coffees! The sad thing is that the owners and operators are moving to Canada in February, so we’ll lose one of the few top class restaurants in the area. They are starting to sell off some goods, so we bought a tiny version of the Tajine oven as a decoration.
We are going to Sri Lanka at Christmas and hope it will be a great adventure. We’ll be based on the south west coast at Hikkaduwa, a village that has grown in the past few years owing to the fact that it has some world class surf right off shore. This was exactly the sort of place we were looking for: somewhere with a decent standard of accommodation and also a great surf nearby. I have bought some coral reef booties and the main reefs are just a paddle out from shore. Our hotel, the Amaya Reef, is situated right on the main point and in fact, the bar house is situated right out on the isthmus, with a great view of the peeling waves. The shoreline is dotted with all sorts of great little eateries and it is just a short drive to the town of Galle, which is famous for its shopping(!). We’re not sure what else we’ll do, but with 14 nights there, we’re sure to have a relaxing, interesting time.
Photos today are a strange mix: I'm wearing my protest bandana with Virg, little Camryn helped put up the Christmas tree, the police swooped on an apartment in the street that had some trouble last year: seemd a bit of overkill if you ask me! Finally a shot taken from the internet of one of the informal beach restaurants at the "A-frame" in Hikkaduwa..looks good!
Temperatures dipped this weekend and the forecast for the early part of the week is hovering just above single figures. The surf has promised a lot, but not really delivered and the Pointy Hat site has been full of peripheral surfing activities until today when I wrote of a stormy surf I had with Ross. We do, however, have our first clothing run! One of the boys has taken on a T-shirt design and order, which is great and I’ve designed another logo which Ross and I have organized to put along the stringers of the new boards we ordered this week. We’re very excited about these new boards, they’re 5’ 10” fish, wide and thick and very short, which should be just the trick for the prevailing surf conditions here. Even though the air temperatures have dropped, I still haven’t christened the infamous “Fireskin” wetsuit. My new steamer has become the source of a lot of jokes, as I’ve built it up to be the best thing ever to hit the water, Carl actually very unkindly referring to it as the “Foreskin”! (They’re just jealous of the fact that I’ll be able to stay out in all these artic type days ahead!!)
We’ve been busy again this week, with me trying to read articles and post responses online in an online forum for one of my courses and mark tests that my kiddies have done and write reports. Progress: articles…not bad, reports…pathetic! Cass has had a social whirl, but not really of her choosing, dining out on Thursday and Friday night. She met with her colleagues involved in the middle school play on Thursday at Pizza Rialto and got all dressed up to attend the romantically named “Candlelight Dinner” at school on Friday. The parents serve the teachers at this do and it gives the kiddies a chance to doll themselves up with every piece of finery money can buy. The food tends to be a little less than excellent and it is more of a duty thing than anything else. Cass and I had a decadent lunch out at the Moroccan restaurant on Saturday, having 4 courses and coffees! The sad thing is that the owners and operators are moving to Canada in February, so we’ll lose one of the few top class restaurants in the area. They are starting to sell off some goods, so we bought a tiny version of the Tajine oven as a decoration.
We are going to Sri Lanka at Christmas and hope it will be a great adventure. We’ll be based on the south west coast at Hikkaduwa, a village that has grown in the past few years owing to the fact that it has some world class surf right off shore. This was exactly the sort of place we were looking for: somewhere with a decent standard of accommodation and also a great surf nearby. I have bought some coral reef booties and the main reefs are just a paddle out from shore. Our hotel, the Amaya Reef, is situated right on the main point and in fact, the bar house is situated right out on the isthmus, with a great view of the peeling waves. The shoreline is dotted with all sorts of great little eateries and it is just a short drive to the town of Galle, which is famous for its shopping(!). We’re not sure what else we’ll do, but with 14 nights there, we’re sure to have a relaxing, interesting time.
Photos today are a strange mix: I'm wearing my protest bandana with Virg, little Camryn helped put up the Christmas tree, the police swooped on an apartment in the street that had some trouble last year: seemd a bit of overkill if you ask me! Finally a shot taken from the internet of one of the informal beach restaurants at the "A-frame" in Hikkaduwa..looks good!
Sunday, November 27, 2005
aubergine
Hoping that a picture does indeed paint a thousand words, I intend to be unusually brief with the text and perhaps a little more generous than usual with the pictures for two reasons. The first reason is that I have plenty of photos of events we’ve enjoyed this week, the second being that I have far too many words to type for various assignments to spend much time here!
We started our 4 day Thanksgiving break with a surf of unremarkable quality at a windswept Shalun beach and followed that with far too many beers at the Green bar later, still decked out in footy jumpers and tracky daks. The tracky daks enabled me to unwisely attempt my Harry High Pants routine, usually reserved for the sanctity of my own home and to Cassy’s absolute horror, so one can imagine how frightening this public display was!!
Recovery Thursday ended at Chad and Cathy’s place for a traditional Thanksgiving dinner. We have been delighted to accept their invitation each year we’ve been here and this 5th invitation will be the last as they move on next year (although Cathy seems pretty convinced we’ll go to Singapore to join them for dinner next year). The dinner party then went on to see Harry Potter; we demurred, which was wise as we were both quite sleepy when we got back.
Ross and I went for a surf Friday morning and were very disappointed in the sloppy fare served up; we went out but found it far from satisfying. Subway derivative, the curiously named “Subber” for lunch (seems Taiwan makes only the most rudimentary attempt at skirting trademark laws!) and then multiple episodes of Lost on DVD.
Saturday walk down the Shi Dong, Cass to Takashimaya to get boots fixed, me to Chad and Cathy’s to pick up forgotten camera. Walked up Chung Chen, had a good long talk to Rachel and Aaron, mainly about Sri Lanka, then onwards to find some lunch. It’s probably been there the whole time, but in the bowels of the Jasper Villa complex (which we’d never previously visited) we found one of our favorite restaurants, the Japanese Aubergine curry restaurant. We used to ride the scooter downtown to visit another outlet! Harry Potter, which dominated nearly every screen this weekend in Taipei had bumped the movie we wanted to see so we ambled on back. On the way, we joined a protest to save the baseball stadium from development (ironically, a new school!) and donned protest headbands, signed petitions and shouted Chinese slogans…great fun!!
On the way home we had a cup of tea at a new cat lover’s café, Genki Cat, on the Chung Shan Rd. Cats roamed around, above, below and ON all the tables as we dined. There were only two other customers, so the nine cats were very attentive!
Sunday has been very lazy for me, although Kristin and little Cameron paid a visit and I got Cameron to help me “put up” our Christmas tree, very early, but it gave us something to entertain her with. Cass and Kristin and Cameron had a tasty lunch on the deck at Wendels backerie while I stayed home and watched the Kiwis demolish the Aussies in the league test. Enjoy the photos!
Hoping that a picture does indeed paint a thousand words, I intend to be unusually brief with the text and perhaps a little more generous than usual with the pictures for two reasons. The first reason is that I have plenty of photos of events we’ve enjoyed this week, the second being that I have far too many words to type for various assignments to spend much time here!
We started our 4 day Thanksgiving break with a surf of unremarkable quality at a windswept Shalun beach and followed that with far too many beers at the Green bar later, still decked out in footy jumpers and tracky daks. The tracky daks enabled me to unwisely attempt my Harry High Pants routine, usually reserved for the sanctity of my own home and to Cassy’s absolute horror, so one can imagine how frightening this public display was!!
Recovery Thursday ended at Chad and Cathy’s place for a traditional Thanksgiving dinner. We have been delighted to accept their invitation each year we’ve been here and this 5th invitation will be the last as they move on next year (although Cathy seems pretty convinced we’ll go to Singapore to join them for dinner next year). The dinner party then went on to see Harry Potter; we demurred, which was wise as we were both quite sleepy when we got back.
Ross and I went for a surf Friday morning and were very disappointed in the sloppy fare served up; we went out but found it far from satisfying. Subway derivative, the curiously named “Subber” for lunch (seems Taiwan makes only the most rudimentary attempt at skirting trademark laws!) and then multiple episodes of Lost on DVD.
Saturday walk down the Shi Dong, Cass to Takashimaya to get boots fixed, me to Chad and Cathy’s to pick up forgotten camera. Walked up Chung Chen, had a good long talk to Rachel and Aaron, mainly about Sri Lanka, then onwards to find some lunch. It’s probably been there the whole time, but in the bowels of the Jasper Villa complex (which we’d never previously visited) we found one of our favorite restaurants, the Japanese Aubergine curry restaurant. We used to ride the scooter downtown to visit another outlet! Harry Potter, which dominated nearly every screen this weekend in Taipei had bumped the movie we wanted to see so we ambled on back. On the way, we joined a protest to save the baseball stadium from development (ironically, a new school!) and donned protest headbands, signed petitions and shouted Chinese slogans…great fun!!
On the way home we had a cup of tea at a new cat lover’s café, Genki Cat, on the Chung Shan Rd. Cats roamed around, above, below and ON all the tables as we dined. There were only two other customers, so the nine cats were very attentive!
Sunday has been very lazy for me, although Kristin and little Cameron paid a visit and I got Cameron to help me “put up” our Christmas tree, very early, but it gave us something to entertain her with. Cass and Kristin and Cameron had a tasty lunch on the deck at Wendels backerie while I stayed home and watched the Kiwis demolish the Aussies in the league test. Enjoy the photos!
Sunday, November 20, 2005
Don Quixote under the freeway!
Our minds have been over occupied of late with things that could be, and have been at times, quite depressing. The seemingly relentless march of bird flu in Asia has lots of us very worried and actions taken by the school have done little to ease our concern. There is a protocol in place, which appears to be very conservative indeed, and the school will only close if citizens are dropping like flies downtown. We are very frustrated with this attitude, which seems to put faculty last in a list of priorities. We often wonder why they bothered to buy, implement and train everyone in the use of the remote online classroom if it is not to be used. Cass has begun to stockpile food (as we have been advised to do) in the event of a quarantine situation arising. More likely, in my opinion, is that we will have to break contract and flee the country if human to human strains appear: better to look after number 1 in these situations. The whole country is devoid of Tamiflu it seems, but we have each got a full course of another drug that seems to have some good effects on battling this flu strain. We need to get Virg’n Mary microchipped for any possible return home and we’ll do that this week. We think we’ve done all that seems necessary at this time and will continue to monitor and make our own decisions if other’s decisions are unpalatable to us.
Although it seems impossible to believe, the powers at school have also decided to muck around with our pay and benefits. Although we don’t have any firm details, the rumours of “restructuring” seem accurate and this is the time of year it will happen as contracts are prepared for signing just after Christmas. We’ll wait and reserve judgement, but talk about worrying and destabilizing times: not what we’re used to at all and it’s just rotten timing coming on the back of all the external worries.
Nevertheless, we’re managing to forget about this stuff pretty much in our day to day work and life, trying to focus on the positives that we have, of which there are always many to think of. Cass has managed to read two books this week, devouring them with great relish, mainly because the writing has been so sophisticated, succinct and crisp. They were Daniel Lehane’s “Prayers for Rain” (also wrote “Mystic River”) and Siri Hustvedt’s “What I Loved”. I also read the Lehane and found it very hard to put down and beautifully written. I’ve started reading the new Inspector Rebus tome called “Fleshmarket Alley”; Ian Rankin is another author who takes the time to build a plot and suspense while not treating his audience with contempt. It’s interesting to note that some of the most successful contemporary literature is quite dumbed down to appeal to as wide an audience as possible. Cass and I both deal with the lexile level of literature to ascertain whether books are right for the levels of the kids we’re teaching, whether they be at grade level, above or below. The immensely successful, popular and dynamic books of Dan Brown for example, are only measuring at a low Year 8 lexile level while the Harry Potter juggernauts should be comprehended at a higher level than this, say high year 8 or early year 9! Some of my Year 3 kiddies are struggling away with Harry and many adults are reading Brown books all around the world…just interesting, I think!
That last little bit of delirious rambling is due to the fact that I have just returned from yet another course, this time in leadership. The 4 principals at the school under the banner of the State University of New York ran it and yes, you guessed it, I’d signed up to get the credit points! From 8 till 5 on Saturday and 8 till 12.30 today is just the beginning: the online component and final project look quite frightening in terms of time commitment. I should have realized; 4 principals teaching a course would almost certainly have to try to outdo one another!
Two last thoughts: this blog passed its 3rd anniversary this week and 171 pages and 84,000 words later, it's still going. I always knew I was full of it, but not quite that full!
Thanksgiving this week…. remember my recent rant about non-comprehension of our American cousins? It’s still true, but I say “God Bless America” if they’re going to give me two days off at the end of this week!!!
Our minds have been over occupied of late with things that could be, and have been at times, quite depressing. The seemingly relentless march of bird flu in Asia has lots of us very worried and actions taken by the school have done little to ease our concern. There is a protocol in place, which appears to be very conservative indeed, and the school will only close if citizens are dropping like flies downtown. We are very frustrated with this attitude, which seems to put faculty last in a list of priorities. We often wonder why they bothered to buy, implement and train everyone in the use of the remote online classroom if it is not to be used. Cass has begun to stockpile food (as we have been advised to do) in the event of a quarantine situation arising. More likely, in my opinion, is that we will have to break contract and flee the country if human to human strains appear: better to look after number 1 in these situations. The whole country is devoid of Tamiflu it seems, but we have each got a full course of another drug that seems to have some good effects on battling this flu strain. We need to get Virg’n Mary microchipped for any possible return home and we’ll do that this week. We think we’ve done all that seems necessary at this time and will continue to monitor and make our own decisions if other’s decisions are unpalatable to us.
Although it seems impossible to believe, the powers at school have also decided to muck around with our pay and benefits. Although we don’t have any firm details, the rumours of “restructuring” seem accurate and this is the time of year it will happen as contracts are prepared for signing just after Christmas. We’ll wait and reserve judgement, but talk about worrying and destabilizing times: not what we’re used to at all and it’s just rotten timing coming on the back of all the external worries.
Nevertheless, we’re managing to forget about this stuff pretty much in our day to day work and life, trying to focus on the positives that we have, of which there are always many to think of. Cass has managed to read two books this week, devouring them with great relish, mainly because the writing has been so sophisticated, succinct and crisp. They were Daniel Lehane’s “Prayers for Rain” (also wrote “Mystic River”) and Siri Hustvedt’s “What I Loved”. I also read the Lehane and found it very hard to put down and beautifully written. I’ve started reading the new Inspector Rebus tome called “Fleshmarket Alley”; Ian Rankin is another author who takes the time to build a plot and suspense while not treating his audience with contempt. It’s interesting to note that some of the most successful contemporary literature is quite dumbed down to appeal to as wide an audience as possible. Cass and I both deal with the lexile level of literature to ascertain whether books are right for the levels of the kids we’re teaching, whether they be at grade level, above or below. The immensely successful, popular and dynamic books of Dan Brown for example, are only measuring at a low Year 8 lexile level while the Harry Potter juggernauts should be comprehended at a higher level than this, say high year 8 or early year 9! Some of my Year 3 kiddies are struggling away with Harry and many adults are reading Brown books all around the world…just interesting, I think!
That last little bit of delirious rambling is due to the fact that I have just returned from yet another course, this time in leadership. The 4 principals at the school under the banner of the State University of New York ran it and yes, you guessed it, I’d signed up to get the credit points! From 8 till 5 on Saturday and 8 till 12.30 today is just the beginning: the online component and final project look quite frightening in terms of time commitment. I should have realized; 4 principals teaching a course would almost certainly have to try to outdo one another!
Two last thoughts: this blog passed its 3rd anniversary this week and 171 pages and 84,000 words later, it's still going. I always knew I was full of it, but not quite that full!
Thanksgiving this week…. remember my recent rant about non-comprehension of our American cousins? It’s still true, but I say “God Bless America” if they’re going to give me two days off at the end of this week!!!
Monday, November 14, 2005
chad and dave
I was quite cloudy in my thoughts and slow in movement on Friday this week, head pounding, my mouth feeling like it had been scoured with a steelo pad. I didn’t take my own (recent) advice and had ventured to the Green Bar on a school night and was paying the price. The night started innocently enough as Chad and Cathy had invited us to dinner and a movie, which we were very keen to go to as they had a babysitter booked and ready. Chili’s had our patronage once again on Thursday night and we dined out on some delicious morsels and had a robust discussion about lots of stuff, mostly gossiping about school stuff and people, as well as plans for Christmas. We saw the quite delightful and subtle comedy, “Pride” with Uma Thurman and Meryl Streep. The trouble started of course when Chad and I decided to have a couple of beers after chaperoning the girls home. The 10.30 deadline came and went, many more hours later and just a few revolutions of the hour hand before “get up” time we decided to move on out. Great night, but very fuzzy day!
Ross went to Hong Kong with the rugby team, so Carl and I headed over early Saturday for a surf. A couple of the boys had gone over at 5 am and we got the call as we headed down the far side of the mountain of full tides and lack of swell. We were in a surreal world at that point, the fog thick as soup, hanging heavy on the winding mountain road, defying the bright sunny day we’d left behind in Tienmu. Arriving back relatively early, I told Cass we were going on an adventure downtown for lunch, by car no less. Our destination was the Frying Scotsman, a fish and chip shop in the shadows of the world’s tallest building, the Taipei 101. So what, Dave?! Well, we don’t have a fish and chip shop here, not since the ill fated “Mr. Fish closed its doors a couple of years ago and negotiating Taipei weekend traffic is not for the faint hearted. An enterprising Scotty has transported the entire contents of a Scottish “Chippee” to Taipei and set up shop. The pies and mushy peas were good, but the chips were simply divine. Big fingers of potato deep-fried and smothered in vinegar and salt…heaven!
After feasting on this rare delight we wandered into the World Trade Centre next door. I wanted to see if Alex, my surfboard supplier was open, but his door was shut and locked and the lights were off. We stopped to admire some Harley patches in the place next door and interrupted the owner chowing down on the Taiwanese equivalent of fish and chips, some foul smelling soup with unidentifiable animal parts floating and bobbing and threatening to jump out alive at any moment! We had a chat and he presented us with a couple of Harley patches when he heard we were owners and told us he was the exclusive supplier to Harley in the world. Who’d have thought we’d stumble across this tiny little outlet with the BIG contract in the back offices of this huge exhibition hall?…I have patches made right in his little factory!
Not content to stop there, and much against Cassy’s better judgement, we waltzed past the guards and entered the trade hall, where thousands of exhibitors had set up to promote their wares to prospective retail buyers from all over the world. I was most interested in the mushroom tonic, which was good for the liver, the electronically cleansed water from a miracle machine and the various other medical marvels. Much to Cassy’s horror, I engaged in conversation with and tried the products of anyone who spoke to us: I’m sure the fellow with the acupuncture inspired massage sandals was sure I would order thousands of pairs!
Cassy was spiriting me away as fast as possible, but led us straight into another exhibition hall, this time for weddings; I just took a few photos of the “hideously” dressed models.Onwards to “New York New York” a department store of funky attire, where I bought the most conservative pair of shoes they stocked: still pretty funky I thought! After taking the sky bridge into the gorgeously decadent world of the Taipei 101 mall (remember Mum?..Tiffanys et al are all open now!) We wandered slowly through the marble walks and avenues, past a mind boggling array of crass consumer goods, a slice of life far removed from the everyday, then back to the Frying Scotsman for some take away pies: down to earth with a thud! I’ve got lots more to rave about today, but this entry is getting far too verbose: I’ll write a bit more next week.
STOP PRESS: My sister Sue is pregnant! Congratulations Sue and Neal: I've just had to put my heart back in the chest cavity from where it jumped but Cass and I are both stoked with your news. Sue rang us just an hour ago, berated me for not getting this blog out on time yesterday (sorry!) than floored us with the big news. Whatever next!!
I was quite cloudy in my thoughts and slow in movement on Friday this week, head pounding, my mouth feeling like it had been scoured with a steelo pad. I didn’t take my own (recent) advice and had ventured to the Green Bar on a school night and was paying the price. The night started innocently enough as Chad and Cathy had invited us to dinner and a movie, which we were very keen to go to as they had a babysitter booked and ready. Chili’s had our patronage once again on Thursday night and we dined out on some delicious morsels and had a robust discussion about lots of stuff, mostly gossiping about school stuff and people, as well as plans for Christmas. We saw the quite delightful and subtle comedy, “Pride” with Uma Thurman and Meryl Streep. The trouble started of course when Chad and I decided to have a couple of beers after chaperoning the girls home. The 10.30 deadline came and went, many more hours later and just a few revolutions of the hour hand before “get up” time we decided to move on out. Great night, but very fuzzy day!
Ross went to Hong Kong with the rugby team, so Carl and I headed over early Saturday for a surf. A couple of the boys had gone over at 5 am and we got the call as we headed down the far side of the mountain of full tides and lack of swell. We were in a surreal world at that point, the fog thick as soup, hanging heavy on the winding mountain road, defying the bright sunny day we’d left behind in Tienmu. Arriving back relatively early, I told Cass we were going on an adventure downtown for lunch, by car no less. Our destination was the Frying Scotsman, a fish and chip shop in the shadows of the world’s tallest building, the Taipei 101. So what, Dave?! Well, we don’t have a fish and chip shop here, not since the ill fated “Mr. Fish closed its doors a couple of years ago and negotiating Taipei weekend traffic is not for the faint hearted. An enterprising Scotty has transported the entire contents of a Scottish “Chippee” to Taipei and set up shop. The pies and mushy peas were good, but the chips were simply divine. Big fingers of potato deep-fried and smothered in vinegar and salt…heaven!
After feasting on this rare delight we wandered into the World Trade Centre next door. I wanted to see if Alex, my surfboard supplier was open, but his door was shut and locked and the lights were off. We stopped to admire some Harley patches in the place next door and interrupted the owner chowing down on the Taiwanese equivalent of fish and chips, some foul smelling soup with unidentifiable animal parts floating and bobbing and threatening to jump out alive at any moment! We had a chat and he presented us with a couple of Harley patches when he heard we were owners and told us he was the exclusive supplier to Harley in the world. Who’d have thought we’d stumble across this tiny little outlet with the BIG contract in the back offices of this huge exhibition hall?…I have patches made right in his little factory!
Not content to stop there, and much against Cassy’s better judgement, we waltzed past the guards and entered the trade hall, where thousands of exhibitors had set up to promote their wares to prospective retail buyers from all over the world. I was most interested in the mushroom tonic, which was good for the liver, the electronically cleansed water from a miracle machine and the various other medical marvels. Much to Cassy’s horror, I engaged in conversation with and tried the products of anyone who spoke to us: I’m sure the fellow with the acupuncture inspired massage sandals was sure I would order thousands of pairs!
Cassy was spiriting me away as fast as possible, but led us straight into another exhibition hall, this time for weddings; I just took a few photos of the “hideously” dressed models.Onwards to “New York New York” a department store of funky attire, where I bought the most conservative pair of shoes they stocked: still pretty funky I thought! After taking the sky bridge into the gorgeously decadent world of the Taipei 101 mall (remember Mum?..Tiffanys et al are all open now!) We wandered slowly through the marble walks and avenues, past a mind boggling array of crass consumer goods, a slice of life far removed from the everyday, then back to the Frying Scotsman for some take away pies: down to earth with a thud! I’ve got lots more to rave about today, but this entry is getting far too verbose: I’ll write a bit more next week.
STOP PRESS: My sister Sue is pregnant! Congratulations Sue and Neal: I've just had to put my heart back in the chest cavity from where it jumped but Cass and I are both stoked with your news. Sue rang us just an hour ago, berated me for not getting this blog out on time yesterday (sorry!) than floored us with the big news. Whatever next!!
Sunday, November 06, 2005
pies!
I asked Cassy what we’d done this weekend and she gave me precious little! Don’t get me wrong; it’s been a really great weekend, one of those in which you can luxuriate in doing not a lot at all. We did the “usual” things, which are to get up relatively late (at least later than our 6 am weekday getup!) and eat a nice breakfast of raison toast or pancakes with real coffee. To accompany these taste sensations we always linger long over some Herald clippings which Mum continues to send with regularity; a wonderful distraction for us. Mum selects just the right mix of things that interest both of us and it has really become an essential way to keep up with the “Newcastle” world, as opposed to the Australian world which is serviced quite adequately by various online newspapers.
The surf provided not even the slightest distraction this weekend, which is rare, as it was flatter than flat. Carl went for a drive over just in case, but reported a gathering of sleek skinned “otters” lolling around in a six-inch swell at Jinshan. The fact that the waves were pathetically small was not the most surprising aspect of his journey: the boys all had full suits on in a 30-degree heat and were 47 in number! I took the opportunity to visit the weight room at school on both Saturday and Sunday to do some weights and skip, all part of the continuing boxing training I started when I was back home in June (see photos). I also go nearly every day after classes at 2.30 for an hour or so and the room is deserted then as it is in these photos! You can see that the room is fully equipped: we’re really very lucky.
Cass and I had another pizza night on Friday and also wallowed in a little Aussie televisual nostalgia. When is the last time you saw some “Kingswood Country”? If you answered, “This weekend”, then you’re just like us! I bought a box set on DVD online and it has just arrived. The show is so politically incorrect it’s hard to imagine how it was ever considered acceptable, but we were rolling around laughing, partly through the boom boom one liners from Ted Bullpit and partly at the shockingly bad production, settings, acting etc. It’s fantastic!
We went for a little walk today after watching the Australian/ Great Britain test on TV and wandered down the Shi Dong Rd, where we haven’t been for ages. Ostensibly to go and put a CD in for some photo prints, it seems we can never return home without some sort of purchase (usually food!) We eventually made it to Jason’s in the Takashimaya Department store and bought a few little extras. We were stoked to find that the Villi’s pies and pasties have made their long-awaited return (see photo) and we’ll do a run mid-week to get a few (we were walking today and thought they might de-frost before we got home).
The “girls” were at their lazy, luxuriating best this weekend, no doubt taking their cue from our equally lazy mood. Mary “meows” at the camera as Virg looks on nonchalantly in the other photo. I’ve managed to avoid doing even a skerrick of work on my study pile, which I’m quite proud of (!) and Cass has not had any grading to do either. We’ve got a couple of weeks left before I do an all weekend course (eight hours on both Saturday and Sunday) as a precursor to some more online work and a final project. Joy of joys, just more work in the quest for extra credit points. The rather shocking realization for my colleagues will be when this seemingly insatiable search for knowledge comes to an abrupt screeching halt the day the magical 40 credit point mark is reached!
I asked Cassy what we’d done this weekend and she gave me precious little! Don’t get me wrong; it’s been a really great weekend, one of those in which you can luxuriate in doing not a lot at all. We did the “usual” things, which are to get up relatively late (at least later than our 6 am weekday getup!) and eat a nice breakfast of raison toast or pancakes with real coffee. To accompany these taste sensations we always linger long over some Herald clippings which Mum continues to send with regularity; a wonderful distraction for us. Mum selects just the right mix of things that interest both of us and it has really become an essential way to keep up with the “Newcastle” world, as opposed to the Australian world which is serviced quite adequately by various online newspapers.
The surf provided not even the slightest distraction this weekend, which is rare, as it was flatter than flat. Carl went for a drive over just in case, but reported a gathering of sleek skinned “otters” lolling around in a six-inch swell at Jinshan. The fact that the waves were pathetically small was not the most surprising aspect of his journey: the boys all had full suits on in a 30-degree heat and were 47 in number! I took the opportunity to visit the weight room at school on both Saturday and Sunday to do some weights and skip, all part of the continuing boxing training I started when I was back home in June (see photos). I also go nearly every day after classes at 2.30 for an hour or so and the room is deserted then as it is in these photos! You can see that the room is fully equipped: we’re really very lucky.
Cass and I had another pizza night on Friday and also wallowed in a little Aussie televisual nostalgia. When is the last time you saw some “Kingswood Country”? If you answered, “This weekend”, then you’re just like us! I bought a box set on DVD online and it has just arrived. The show is so politically incorrect it’s hard to imagine how it was ever considered acceptable, but we were rolling around laughing, partly through the boom boom one liners from Ted Bullpit and partly at the shockingly bad production, settings, acting etc. It’s fantastic!
We went for a little walk today after watching the Australian/ Great Britain test on TV and wandered down the Shi Dong Rd, where we haven’t been for ages. Ostensibly to go and put a CD in for some photo prints, it seems we can never return home without some sort of purchase (usually food!) We eventually made it to Jason’s in the Takashimaya Department store and bought a few little extras. We were stoked to find that the Villi’s pies and pasties have made their long-awaited return (see photo) and we’ll do a run mid-week to get a few (we were walking today and thought they might de-frost before we got home).
The “girls” were at their lazy, luxuriating best this weekend, no doubt taking their cue from our equally lazy mood. Mary “meows” at the camera as Virg looks on nonchalantly in the other photo. I’ve managed to avoid doing even a skerrick of work on my study pile, which I’m quite proud of (!) and Cass has not had any grading to do either. We’ve got a couple of weeks left before I do an all weekend course (eight hours on both Saturday and Sunday) as a precursor to some more online work and a final project. Joy of joys, just more work in the quest for extra credit points. The rather shocking realization for my colleagues will be when this seemingly insatiable search for knowledge comes to an abrupt screeching halt the day the magical 40 credit point mark is reached!
Monday, October 31, 2005
scary!
There are a great many things I don’t understand about Americans. I never quite get their sports, although the attraction of ice hockey (more of a Canadian game really) is obvious to all who know my love of watching a good biffo. The way nearly everything is sunny and bright, even when it is palpably not, the proclivity to assemble and “have a conversation” in the most outrageously loud voices and the strange preferences and combinations they order on sandwiches (the ordering of which could be an English test for the average second language learner). Nothing, however, comes close Halloween.
I suppose if an alien life form took a good hard look at Christmas, they would note some pretty bizarre practices as well, but that can wait for another time. The celebration of all things witchy with kids is very, very creepy. Those ghouls and goblins and other scary entities that haunt the subconscious mind of your average kid, are actively, outrageously and shamelessly celebrated on this day. Even though it has been explained to be innumerable times by very patient people, “Oh shucks, Dave, didn’t I explain this to you last year buddy? Never mind, it all started when….”, I still can’t embrace the concept. The even more frightening sight of grown men and women pouring themselves into witches outfits bought at the local two dollar shop and made for the rather more svelte Taiwanese and the strange desire for people to look like the most ridiculous image they could possibly conjure up, defies belief. I really do not need to see mature gentlemen dressed as Tweedledum and Tweedledee or adults raising their arms up in a pathetic imitation of scariness, covered in a white sheet and moaning “wooooooo!”. I will however, condone the return next year of those lovely young mothers of the Kindy kiddies who thought it might be appropriate to wear micro mini skirts, long black boots and very revealing black tank tops: perhaps this could be encouraged?
Much against my better judgment I was convinced to be “part of the team” and wear a basketball uniform with my six colleagues on the 3rd grade. It could have been a whole lot worse: the original version called for gigantic fake afros, headbands and long socks, but mercifully, these items could not be found on time. I love the photo here of the Pirate and the Punk: I was chuffed to see a couple of the girls breaking the mould of the pretty princess type and getting original. The pirate is one of my favourite kids this year, a real spark about her.
Cass had a pretty scary time on Thursday and Friday as well, seeing and conferencing with lots of parents. In the main, everything went very well and some of the parents were very complimentary and grateful for all the work she does. She even got some comments about her lengthy and timely feedback, one of those necessary evils of teaching that is rarely acknowledged, but cool when it is. The creepy stuff was when she had parents sitting across from her looking like a brewing storm, so severely disappointed that the kid is getting just an “A” and not an “A+”! These are the people who are really scary so maybe we should just send them into the parade as themselves: they freak me more than some moron with a sheet over his head!
Ross and I had one of our very worst surfs ever on Saturday, probably in the top ten worst surfs in Taiwan and that’s setting a pretty low standard. The sea was a cauldron of rips and currents, rain lashed our faces as we waited, sets dumped on our heads and we were generally quite miserable. Later that day, it was sad to farewell Raj, a good friend over the years here, as he heads to China to run his family business. My colleague on 3rd grade, John, organized a golf day (which I didn’t attend) and then a get together at the green bar. He arranged for April to cater and she produced the most sensational food, it really was restaurant quality. Raj brushed back a tear or two when watching a very moving PowerPoint one of the guys had put together and he flew out this morning.
We saw “The Constant Gardener” on Sunday and were quite overwhelmed by the poverty and hopelessness of many of the Kenyan people. It really was a masterpiece and I can’t quite bring myself to be flippant again about Halloween as I remember this film.One thing though: if you want to see really frightening, truly creepy and total evil, the companies depicted in this film would be a good place to start.
There are a great many things I don’t understand about Americans. I never quite get their sports, although the attraction of ice hockey (more of a Canadian game really) is obvious to all who know my love of watching a good biffo. The way nearly everything is sunny and bright, even when it is palpably not, the proclivity to assemble and “have a conversation” in the most outrageously loud voices and the strange preferences and combinations they order on sandwiches (the ordering of which could be an English test for the average second language learner). Nothing, however, comes close Halloween.
I suppose if an alien life form took a good hard look at Christmas, they would note some pretty bizarre practices as well, but that can wait for another time. The celebration of all things witchy with kids is very, very creepy. Those ghouls and goblins and other scary entities that haunt the subconscious mind of your average kid, are actively, outrageously and shamelessly celebrated on this day. Even though it has been explained to be innumerable times by very patient people, “Oh shucks, Dave, didn’t I explain this to you last year buddy? Never mind, it all started when….”, I still can’t embrace the concept. The even more frightening sight of grown men and women pouring themselves into witches outfits bought at the local two dollar shop and made for the rather more svelte Taiwanese and the strange desire for people to look like the most ridiculous image they could possibly conjure up, defies belief. I really do not need to see mature gentlemen dressed as Tweedledum and Tweedledee or adults raising their arms up in a pathetic imitation of scariness, covered in a white sheet and moaning “wooooooo!”. I will however, condone the return next year of those lovely young mothers of the Kindy kiddies who thought it might be appropriate to wear micro mini skirts, long black boots and very revealing black tank tops: perhaps this could be encouraged?
Much against my better judgment I was convinced to be “part of the team” and wear a basketball uniform with my six colleagues on the 3rd grade. It could have been a whole lot worse: the original version called for gigantic fake afros, headbands and long socks, but mercifully, these items could not be found on time. I love the photo here of the Pirate and the Punk: I was chuffed to see a couple of the girls breaking the mould of the pretty princess type and getting original. The pirate is one of my favourite kids this year, a real spark about her.
Cass had a pretty scary time on Thursday and Friday as well, seeing and conferencing with lots of parents. In the main, everything went very well and some of the parents were very complimentary and grateful for all the work she does. She even got some comments about her lengthy and timely feedback, one of those necessary evils of teaching that is rarely acknowledged, but cool when it is. The creepy stuff was when she had parents sitting across from her looking like a brewing storm, so severely disappointed that the kid is getting just an “A” and not an “A+”! These are the people who are really scary so maybe we should just send them into the parade as themselves: they freak me more than some moron with a sheet over his head!
Ross and I had one of our very worst surfs ever on Saturday, probably in the top ten worst surfs in Taiwan and that’s setting a pretty low standard. The sea was a cauldron of rips and currents, rain lashed our faces as we waited, sets dumped on our heads and we were generally quite miserable. Later that day, it was sad to farewell Raj, a good friend over the years here, as he heads to China to run his family business. My colleague on 3rd grade, John, organized a golf day (which I didn’t attend) and then a get together at the green bar. He arranged for April to cater and she produced the most sensational food, it really was restaurant quality. Raj brushed back a tear or two when watching a very moving PowerPoint one of the guys had put together and he flew out this morning.
We saw “The Constant Gardener” on Sunday and were quite overwhelmed by the poverty and hopelessness of many of the Kenyan people. It really was a masterpiece and I can’t quite bring myself to be flippant again about Halloween as I remember this film.One thing though: if you want to see really frightening, truly creepy and total evil, the companies depicted in this film would be a good place to start.
Monday, October 24, 2005
pilly on fire
I stopped off on the way home on Friday evening to order some pizzas, arranging for them to be delivered at 6.30pm, about ½ time in the football. This was a real decadence, because unlike the relatively cheap option this is at home, here in Taipei, 2 pizzas delivered costs about $45! As it happened, there was an offer on so it worked out to be about ½ price, so that was a little bonus. Cass and I settled in to watch the re-match of Australia and NZ in the rugby league test and were thoroughly entertained by the whole game. The pizzas dutifully arrived and the pizza boy zoomed off with his special hot box on the back of his scooter.
We were both exceptionally tired on Friday: I had been conferencing with parents for 2 days straight and Cassy had worked a very solid week. Cass has the delights of two days of conferences later this week. As, dare I say it, “veteran” teachers, the parent conference certainly doesn’t hold any fear and trepidation for us like they used to in our early teaching days. Our parents tend to be quite overawed sometimes, and certainly younger than we are. Age and experience is a huge factor here in Asia and the younger teachers tend to cop a lot more parental flak than the older ones which is quite ironic in a way, as I’m sure the youngies are bringing a touch more enthusiasm and newer ideas to the classroom than we are. Anyway, we’ll take it…there have to be some advantages to being a senior member of your profession! The profusion of young blood here, flushed out every few years as the young and adventurous educator looks to different exotic locales and more seek to come here, is quite invigorating in a way. While I’m sure we’d be drifting towards the cynical back home, I’m sure the fresh excitement of some of our colleagues rubs off to a certain extent. While I won’t volunteer for every committee and action group going, we’ll usually get pulled along with some group or initiative or other.
Saturday’s surf was a surging, wind-lashed slop of a thing, the Pillbox, for a very rare occasion, completely failing us. As the annual food fair was also on Saturday, I was unable to park the car back in the underground garage, so I had arranged with Cass that we would take the car to Carrefour, the local big supermarket with an underground car park, to get some heavy and bulky stuff. What a joke eh?! Just when you start believing that life is really pretty simple, you remember that to drive a car to the shopping and get it home is a luxury! Usually of course, shopping means lugging great bags of stuff from the supermarket, through the mahjong park, across the river and through the park home. Anyway, we dutifully loaded up on every conceivable heavy non-perishable item in sight, so we are now able to drink 100 cans of diet coke, stack our closets full of closet camels, wash our clothes for the next 10 years and Virg’n Mary can crap in about 10 tonnes of cat litter! It was great fun! We managed to find a park straight opposite the apartment which was a rare treat, so I decided to wait until Sunday to take it back.
That worked out very well as a matter of fact. Just after I’d gorged down numerous pieces of raisin toast, the phone rang with Carl asking if I wanted to go and look at the surf. I agreed to pick him up in 10 minutes and we did the trek across to Jinshan, Rocket et al. The most notable part of the trip was to emerge from the Green Bay tunnels to find 37 guys out at a very weak looking break, most fully kitted up in full suits. The weather has got a touch chilly here lately, but really!
We were very frustrated and returned without even getting wet. This was fortuitous in a way as I was still able to make a luncheon date with Cassy. We went to the Moroccan restaurant and ate a superb meal, which I won’t describe, because I’m sure the description is elsewhere on these pages. Suffice to say, we had a magnificent meal and full as the last bus, we returned to watch Australia beat the Irish in a hybrid international rules AFL type game and it was very entertaining.
You have read of wedding photos on the beach here before, often taken before the big day, with brides dragging their dresses through the shallows and mud. I took this picture as we emerged from a surf one afternoon. The fire is a giant pile of fake money, burnt for good luck by the happy couple. Part of the wedding party can be seen in the background and the fire is lit against the famous Pillbox from which we named our secret surf spot.Other photos are action from 3rd grade community games and the sad sight of all the boys out at Green Bay with no waves.
I stopped off on the way home on Friday evening to order some pizzas, arranging for them to be delivered at 6.30pm, about ½ time in the football. This was a real decadence, because unlike the relatively cheap option this is at home, here in Taipei, 2 pizzas delivered costs about $45! As it happened, there was an offer on so it worked out to be about ½ price, so that was a little bonus. Cass and I settled in to watch the re-match of Australia and NZ in the rugby league test and were thoroughly entertained by the whole game. The pizzas dutifully arrived and the pizza boy zoomed off with his special hot box on the back of his scooter.
We were both exceptionally tired on Friday: I had been conferencing with parents for 2 days straight and Cassy had worked a very solid week. Cass has the delights of two days of conferences later this week. As, dare I say it, “veteran” teachers, the parent conference certainly doesn’t hold any fear and trepidation for us like they used to in our early teaching days. Our parents tend to be quite overawed sometimes, and certainly younger than we are. Age and experience is a huge factor here in Asia and the younger teachers tend to cop a lot more parental flak than the older ones which is quite ironic in a way, as I’m sure the youngies are bringing a touch more enthusiasm and newer ideas to the classroom than we are. Anyway, we’ll take it…there have to be some advantages to being a senior member of your profession! The profusion of young blood here, flushed out every few years as the young and adventurous educator looks to different exotic locales and more seek to come here, is quite invigorating in a way. While I’m sure we’d be drifting towards the cynical back home, I’m sure the fresh excitement of some of our colleagues rubs off to a certain extent. While I won’t volunteer for every committee and action group going, we’ll usually get pulled along with some group or initiative or other.
Saturday’s surf was a surging, wind-lashed slop of a thing, the Pillbox, for a very rare occasion, completely failing us. As the annual food fair was also on Saturday, I was unable to park the car back in the underground garage, so I had arranged with Cass that we would take the car to Carrefour, the local big supermarket with an underground car park, to get some heavy and bulky stuff. What a joke eh?! Just when you start believing that life is really pretty simple, you remember that to drive a car to the shopping and get it home is a luxury! Usually of course, shopping means lugging great bags of stuff from the supermarket, through the mahjong park, across the river and through the park home. Anyway, we dutifully loaded up on every conceivable heavy non-perishable item in sight, so we are now able to drink 100 cans of diet coke, stack our closets full of closet camels, wash our clothes for the next 10 years and Virg’n Mary can crap in about 10 tonnes of cat litter! It was great fun! We managed to find a park straight opposite the apartment which was a rare treat, so I decided to wait until Sunday to take it back.
That worked out very well as a matter of fact. Just after I’d gorged down numerous pieces of raisin toast, the phone rang with Carl asking if I wanted to go and look at the surf. I agreed to pick him up in 10 minutes and we did the trek across to Jinshan, Rocket et al. The most notable part of the trip was to emerge from the Green Bay tunnels to find 37 guys out at a very weak looking break, most fully kitted up in full suits. The weather has got a touch chilly here lately, but really!
We were very frustrated and returned without even getting wet. This was fortuitous in a way as I was still able to make a luncheon date with Cassy. We went to the Moroccan restaurant and ate a superb meal, which I won’t describe, because I’m sure the description is elsewhere on these pages. Suffice to say, we had a magnificent meal and full as the last bus, we returned to watch Australia beat the Irish in a hybrid international rules AFL type game and it was very entertaining.
You have read of wedding photos on the beach here before, often taken before the big day, with brides dragging their dresses through the shallows and mud. I took this picture as we emerged from a surf one afternoon. The fire is a giant pile of fake money, burnt for good luck by the happy couple. Part of the wedding party can be seen in the background and the fire is lit against the famous Pillbox from which we named our secret surf spot.Other photos are action from 3rd grade community games and the sad sight of all the boys out at Green Bay with no waves.
Monday, October 17, 2005
Dave, Ross and Carl enjoyed their surf
I took delivery of six ominously thick bundles of materials from San Diego University today for the next installment in the great credit point hunt. These six bundles are, as I write, staring reprovingly at me from their distinctive perch on the top of the filing cabinet just beside my computer desk here. They are really being quite rude…just a minute.
Ah, back again, I’ve removed them from sight for now: how dare they accuse me of procrastination…I must write this blog weekly! It what seems now like one of my worst decisions in recent memory, I decided to apply for 6 subjects at once, to be completed in 3 months, to give me the motivation necessary to complete them. Rationale: if I’d already paid for them I’d do them. The logic is probably quite sound actually, considering what a miser meany I am!
Cass and I have decided not to go home at Christmas this year but rather, to laze around at some resorty kind of place in the Asia Pacific region. I was quite keen to combine this with a surf, but many places don’t quite meet BOTH our requirements. Cassy needs some kind of suitable accommodation (I still argue that a yacht cruising around the Mentawais meets this criteria, but I was outvoted!) and I’m OK, but would still like some surf, which is tough in this region at Christmas. We thought we’d struck some gold when we secured the last 2 remaining spots at a real surfer’s paradise, The Caroline Islands, in Micronesia. The accommodation just met Cassy’s passing grade and the surf was drop dead perfect, December and January pumping at 10’ plus and offshore perfection. I’d go out on the boat each day to the reef and Cass would relax and read and explore the island. Perfect? Yes, BUT, we found out it would cost us $5,000 in airfares and take 2 ½ days to get there and back! We would be shuffled up to Korea first, then to Guam and then Palau and finally Pohnpei, our destination. The reason for the price and the hassle is, as our travel agent explained, that it is not “a popular place for Taiwanese”. Thank God they like Australia!
Anyway, after getting all depressed about missing my dream surf holiday, we’re currently investigating alternatives. We’re keen to check the west coast of Sri Lanka perhaps, or even a less well-known area of Bali (i.e. One where the possibility of getting bombed is remote to zero). Our fall back is a resort in Thailand with a side trip to Kanchanaburi near the bridge on the river Kwai and the home of the Tiger temple. We haven’t got anything organized yet, so we might still come home!
Cass is madly marking memoirs and then putting these grades into her first quarter reports. Yes, the first quarter is just ending. She has been running her usual “Rocktober” this month for the kids much to their bemusement I gather. She either shows a clip of a song from our DVD music collection, or plays a song on CD as the kids come into class each day. She gives them a little explanation about the band etc afterwards. Lots of Aussie gold for their education is essential of course. Most of the kids don’t quite know how to take it all; they’re quite anal little bunnies!
I have “portfolio activity-based conferences” with my little kiddies coming up this week (sounds pretty fancy doesn’t it? I’m sure the majority of the Chinese parents just want to know how their kid is going by talking to the teacher!) So the teachers I work with are madly stuffing everything in sight into these special folders. It’s mind numbingly boring to tell the truth, but it will all be over soon.
We had the usual suspects here to watch the Australia/NZ test here on Saturday night and Ross was all excited when the Kiwis won (see photo) We’d had a pretty good surf earlier that day with Carl and Tobes, so we were pretty happy with ourselves. The Pointyhat has some pretty fancy animation graphics happening so make sure you check it out here. Cass and I saw "Four Brothers" on Sunday, not too bad, certainly a step up from when Charles Bronson used to murder about 20 people for looking sideways at him. We had some pretty good cheesecakes and coffees just before we went in as well!
I get into a bit of a panic when I don’t do this blog on time each week (which is not very often…who did I say was anal?!) but I shouldn’t worry too much. My mum and Cassy’s parents both wrote emails today saying they’d just read the blog and had enjoyed this and that…it was last week’s!! I’m off to have a sedative and pretend I don’t feel the piercing, guilt provoking stares of six paper bundles of pure evil behind me as I tip toe out of the room…
I took delivery of six ominously thick bundles of materials from San Diego University today for the next installment in the great credit point hunt. These six bundles are, as I write, staring reprovingly at me from their distinctive perch on the top of the filing cabinet just beside my computer desk here. They are really being quite rude…just a minute.
Ah, back again, I’ve removed them from sight for now: how dare they accuse me of procrastination…I must write this blog weekly! It what seems now like one of my worst decisions in recent memory, I decided to apply for 6 subjects at once, to be completed in 3 months, to give me the motivation necessary to complete them. Rationale: if I’d already paid for them I’d do them. The logic is probably quite sound actually, considering what a miser meany I am!
Cass and I have decided not to go home at Christmas this year but rather, to laze around at some resorty kind of place in the Asia Pacific region. I was quite keen to combine this with a surf, but many places don’t quite meet BOTH our requirements. Cassy needs some kind of suitable accommodation (I still argue that a yacht cruising around the Mentawais meets this criteria, but I was outvoted!) and I’m OK, but would still like some surf, which is tough in this region at Christmas. We thought we’d struck some gold when we secured the last 2 remaining spots at a real surfer’s paradise, The Caroline Islands, in Micronesia. The accommodation just met Cassy’s passing grade and the surf was drop dead perfect, December and January pumping at 10’ plus and offshore perfection. I’d go out on the boat each day to the reef and Cass would relax and read and explore the island. Perfect? Yes, BUT, we found out it would cost us $5,000 in airfares and take 2 ½ days to get there and back! We would be shuffled up to Korea first, then to Guam and then Palau and finally Pohnpei, our destination. The reason for the price and the hassle is, as our travel agent explained, that it is not “a popular place for Taiwanese”. Thank God they like Australia!
Anyway, after getting all depressed about missing my dream surf holiday, we’re currently investigating alternatives. We’re keen to check the west coast of Sri Lanka perhaps, or even a less well-known area of Bali (i.e. One where the possibility of getting bombed is remote to zero). Our fall back is a resort in Thailand with a side trip to Kanchanaburi near the bridge on the river Kwai and the home of the Tiger temple. We haven’t got anything organized yet, so we might still come home!
Cass is madly marking memoirs and then putting these grades into her first quarter reports. Yes, the first quarter is just ending. She has been running her usual “Rocktober” this month for the kids much to their bemusement I gather. She either shows a clip of a song from our DVD music collection, or plays a song on CD as the kids come into class each day. She gives them a little explanation about the band etc afterwards. Lots of Aussie gold for their education is essential of course. Most of the kids don’t quite know how to take it all; they’re quite anal little bunnies!
I have “portfolio activity-based conferences” with my little kiddies coming up this week (sounds pretty fancy doesn’t it? I’m sure the majority of the Chinese parents just want to know how their kid is going by talking to the teacher!) So the teachers I work with are madly stuffing everything in sight into these special folders. It’s mind numbingly boring to tell the truth, but it will all be over soon.
We had the usual suspects here to watch the Australia/NZ test here on Saturday night and Ross was all excited when the Kiwis won (see photo) We’d had a pretty good surf earlier that day with Carl and Tobes, so we were pretty happy with ourselves. The Pointyhat has some pretty fancy animation graphics happening so make sure you check it out here. Cass and I saw "Four Brothers" on Sunday, not too bad, certainly a step up from when Charles Bronson used to murder about 20 people for looking sideways at him. We had some pretty good cheesecakes and coffees just before we went in as well!
I get into a bit of a panic when I don’t do this blog on time each week (which is not very often…who did I say was anal?!) but I shouldn’t worry too much. My mum and Cassy’s parents both wrote emails today saying they’d just read the blog and had enjoyed this and that…it was last week’s!! I’m off to have a sedative and pretend I don’t feel the piercing, guilt provoking stares of six paper bundles of pure evil behind me as I tip toe out of the room…
Monday, October 10, 2005
Chili girl!
There’s a method in my madness of writing something for this blog each week. I’ve discovered to my horror that I can’t remember anything that happened more than one week before. I should have written last Sunday, but the day started with a surf and continued as Cass and I hosted a grand final party here at our place. We had a small core of die-hard fans. Ross and Lewy and Gurecki enjoyed the game and Wolly and Coombsy arrived later as they were held up downtown by “black hair and black eyes” as Coombsy texted it. Not content to leave that be, we had to adjourn to the “golden triangle” of the Green Bar, the One over the Road and back to the Pig. Never let anyone convince you that this is a good thing on a “school night”. The next few days were very quiet indeed; that last beer I had at the Pig was definitely off.
School muddled along through the week, great excitement for the 3rd grade with their community day on Thursday, but I wondered again how these PE teachers do it: the searing heat just about killed me and I was only out in it for a few hours.
We have just enjoyed the most relaxing 4-day break, long awaited and much needed. Unlike home, we follow the American system of two semesters in the year. This allows us to have a break at Christmas and our big “summer” break, but also means that we work quite intensively from August through to December. This is our one long weekend and many of our colleagues have flown off island to Hong Kong, Japan, Philippines, Thailand, and Singapore etc. Much to our great disappointment, Chad and Cathy flew to Singapore to interview for jobs there next year…we don’t want them to go!
The days off started with Cass and me eating lunch on Friday at Chili’s in the Warner complex. This is an American burger, steak restaurant that has mouth-watering meals at staggeringly steep prices! We give in to a little slice of such decadence on holidays from time to time and it was great. Later that day, we went to see “Flightplan” with Jody Foster. It was pretty good, but personally, I thought she trotted out the old “Panic Room” persona and even the gorgeous Aussie Kate Beaghan couldn’t save it from a little step above mediocrity. Still, we love the Internet booking method. We book from home and always select these two seats off to the side with expansive legroom with an aisle beside. It’s just like our own little lounge room!
Surfing has taken a fair bit of time, along with the driving to get there. We’ve made a few wrong calls in terms of spots, necessitating a lot of driving. Yesterday we ended up surfing a spot that is normally just 30-40 minutes away, but we tried others first, meaning we drove for nearly 3 hours just to get there. We’ve had some success with the waves over the past few days and I’ve been a little more diligent in keeping up the pointy hat entries. It just takes a jiffy, writing some inanities to describe the latest surf and bunging a few photos on. You can always check it out here. My wonder sister, Helen, also known as Miss Ebay Australia, managed to get my new camera into my hands over here and it takes a pretty mean shot too, as evidenced by latest pictures here and on Pointy Hat. I know you will be devastated that the file photos of Virg’n Mary will stop, but new ones of the “girls” will feature again soon!!
Cass and I had a bit of an adventure last night. We were all set to walk around the corner to the Indian, but I suggested we try to find a restaurant whose website I’d stumbled upon a few weeks ago. It’s called “Alleycats” and the site gave a little hint as to its wares. It was secreted away a few blocks behind the side entrance to Chiang Kai Chek Memorial Hall, so we got off the MRT there and went exploring. It seemed to be equidistant between 3 different MRT lines and stations, so it was a bit hard to find, but very worthwhile. It was a humming, lively little place in a basement and the smells were fantastic, the conversation lively (with a small bar serving draft beer attached). A foreign guy owns and runs it and it serves all sorts of calzones and pizzas, all stone oven and wood fired of course. What a rare treat here in Taipei. Cass and I had a great chat while we downed a few glasses of tasty Hoegaarden beer on tap and waited forever for our pizza. Neither of us had any lunch so we were a bit light headed by the time the mouth-watering pizzas arrived. To top it off the owner presented us with some complimentary “jet fuel” digestives. We hurtled out into the night feeling like we’d been on a jet and I amazed myself by finding my way back to the train station!
Today has been one of those deliciously lazy days: slept in late, had pancakes and real coffees for breakfast, lingered for hours over very interesting Herald clippings that Mum had sent us. We had a late lunch then watched “The Dish” on DVD and now I’m writing this. All is well in the world……..
There’s a method in my madness of writing something for this blog each week. I’ve discovered to my horror that I can’t remember anything that happened more than one week before. I should have written last Sunday, but the day started with a surf and continued as Cass and I hosted a grand final party here at our place. We had a small core of die-hard fans. Ross and Lewy and Gurecki enjoyed the game and Wolly and Coombsy arrived later as they were held up downtown by “black hair and black eyes” as Coombsy texted it. Not content to leave that be, we had to adjourn to the “golden triangle” of the Green Bar, the One over the Road and back to the Pig. Never let anyone convince you that this is a good thing on a “school night”. The next few days were very quiet indeed; that last beer I had at the Pig was definitely off.
School muddled along through the week, great excitement for the 3rd grade with their community day on Thursday, but I wondered again how these PE teachers do it: the searing heat just about killed me and I was only out in it for a few hours.
We have just enjoyed the most relaxing 4-day break, long awaited and much needed. Unlike home, we follow the American system of two semesters in the year. This allows us to have a break at Christmas and our big “summer” break, but also means that we work quite intensively from August through to December. This is our one long weekend and many of our colleagues have flown off island to Hong Kong, Japan, Philippines, Thailand, and Singapore etc. Much to our great disappointment, Chad and Cathy flew to Singapore to interview for jobs there next year…we don’t want them to go!
The days off started with Cass and me eating lunch on Friday at Chili’s in the Warner complex. This is an American burger, steak restaurant that has mouth-watering meals at staggeringly steep prices! We give in to a little slice of such decadence on holidays from time to time and it was great. Later that day, we went to see “Flightplan” with Jody Foster. It was pretty good, but personally, I thought she trotted out the old “Panic Room” persona and even the gorgeous Aussie Kate Beaghan couldn’t save it from a little step above mediocrity. Still, we love the Internet booking method. We book from home and always select these two seats off to the side with expansive legroom with an aisle beside. It’s just like our own little lounge room!
Surfing has taken a fair bit of time, along with the driving to get there. We’ve made a few wrong calls in terms of spots, necessitating a lot of driving. Yesterday we ended up surfing a spot that is normally just 30-40 minutes away, but we tried others first, meaning we drove for nearly 3 hours just to get there. We’ve had some success with the waves over the past few days and I’ve been a little more diligent in keeping up the pointy hat entries. It just takes a jiffy, writing some inanities to describe the latest surf and bunging a few photos on. You can always check it out here. My wonder sister, Helen, also known as Miss Ebay Australia, managed to get my new camera into my hands over here and it takes a pretty mean shot too, as evidenced by latest pictures here and on Pointy Hat. I know you will be devastated that the file photos of Virg’n Mary will stop, but new ones of the “girls” will feature again soon!!
Cass and I had a bit of an adventure last night. We were all set to walk around the corner to the Indian, but I suggested we try to find a restaurant whose website I’d stumbled upon a few weeks ago. It’s called “Alleycats” and the site gave a little hint as to its wares. It was secreted away a few blocks behind the side entrance to Chiang Kai Chek Memorial Hall, so we got off the MRT there and went exploring. It seemed to be equidistant between 3 different MRT lines and stations, so it was a bit hard to find, but very worthwhile. It was a humming, lively little place in a basement and the smells were fantastic, the conversation lively (with a small bar serving draft beer attached). A foreign guy owns and runs it and it serves all sorts of calzones and pizzas, all stone oven and wood fired of course. What a rare treat here in Taipei. Cass and I had a great chat while we downed a few glasses of tasty Hoegaarden beer on tap and waited forever for our pizza. Neither of us had any lunch so we were a bit light headed by the time the mouth-watering pizzas arrived. To top it off the owner presented us with some complimentary “jet fuel” digestives. We hurtled out into the night feeling like we’d been on a jet and I amazed myself by finding my way back to the train station!
Today has been one of those deliciously lazy days: slept in late, had pancakes and real coffees for breakfast, lingered for hours over very interesting Herald clippings that Mum had sent us. We had a late lunch then watched “The Dish” on DVD and now I’m writing this. All is well in the world……..
Sunday, September 25, 2005
arty cats
The working week started on Monday with a professional development day, which meant that meetings with colleagues and brain draining activities like marking and filing and organizing and planning took the place of equally tiring, but the heaps more entertaining option of teaching kids. The rest of the week for both Cass and me was pretty stock standard, but we ended the week with a bit of a celebration.
The board of the school hosts a party at the American Club each year, ostensibly to thank the teachers for their contribution. Amongst many others, unfortunately, we didn’t feel in the mood, as the board’s attitude to money spending has meant that my contract is not being honoured and I am not being compensated in money or time as to the terms of my contract and other people have separate, yet related, issues. We took the opportunity of the thinning out of the faculty ranks to go to a restaurant, Pizza Realto, which features delicious wood fired pizzas, yet is usually overrun with other teachers. We invited Carl and Hiroko and took along a bottle of Veuve Cliquot that we bought at Sydney Airport on the way back across. We wanted to celebrate the sale of our unit at Horizons and also toast Carl’s birthday from the day before. Our pizzas were very tasty and the champagne was superb.
Ross and I got some good waves at the rocket on Saturday and I was stoked to do a tail slide back down the face of a wave for the first time, before spinning the board back around and continuing. Who said you can’t teach an old surfer new tricks?! One fascinating cultural experience we crawled past in the car was the tail end of a coastal duathlon. The run-bike-run concept had been well subscribed; the explosion in biking popularity here recently has been nothing short of amazing. The most amazing thing was the standard of equipment that all competitors had. The most ordinary athletes in terms of speed, ability and endurance still had the very latest, hi-tech, very expensive, top of the line bikes and other gear. I never had gear of the equivalent standard, even when I was quite obsessive about my competition a decade or so ago!
On the way back we called into Coombsy’s place, as he was hosting the AFL grand final get together. There was a great group of guys there and we screamed and yelled and did all the usual stuff as we enjoyed a grand final, which was much more of a contest than in recent years.
Cass and I saw Cinderella Man this morning sandwiched between the Cinderella stories of this year’s NRL preliminary finals. Who would have guessed that the Tigers and the Cowboys would fight this year’s decider?
Russell Crowe did a very good job in this film. It is a bit formulaic and predictable along the “Rocky” lines of such boxing/underdog/hardship movies, but it bore the distinctive imprimatur of Ron Howard and subsequently was very polished. I found the fight scenes quite dramatic and especially interesting, considering my recent flirtation with boxing training, which continues most days after school.
Cass goes off to camp tomorrow and won’t return until next Friday. Neither of us enjoys this time of year and she is madly preparing and packing right now.My sister Helen has done some remarkable work for me this past couple of weeks. My stolen camera needed replacing, but I needed the exact model for use with the underwater housing. Of course, a newer model has replaced it, so I asked Helen to seek one on Ebay. After a few false starts she scored a beauty that I’ll receive soon. Here was an Aussie buying a camera in America and shipping it to a third party in Taiwan, the Aussie in Taiwan electronically sending the money to Australia so that it could be sent to the U.S. Phew! Some newer ones should replace the photos from the vault soon. Cats feature today, one with Cassy, and one where I have tried some artistic brushstroke techniques on them with some photo software….. doesn’t really work, but it’s different!
The working week started on Monday with a professional development day, which meant that meetings with colleagues and brain draining activities like marking and filing and organizing and planning took the place of equally tiring, but the heaps more entertaining option of teaching kids. The rest of the week for both Cass and me was pretty stock standard, but we ended the week with a bit of a celebration.
The board of the school hosts a party at the American Club each year, ostensibly to thank the teachers for their contribution. Amongst many others, unfortunately, we didn’t feel in the mood, as the board’s attitude to money spending has meant that my contract is not being honoured and I am not being compensated in money or time as to the terms of my contract and other people have separate, yet related, issues. We took the opportunity of the thinning out of the faculty ranks to go to a restaurant, Pizza Realto, which features delicious wood fired pizzas, yet is usually overrun with other teachers. We invited Carl and Hiroko and took along a bottle of Veuve Cliquot that we bought at Sydney Airport on the way back across. We wanted to celebrate the sale of our unit at Horizons and also toast Carl’s birthday from the day before. Our pizzas were very tasty and the champagne was superb.
Ross and I got some good waves at the rocket on Saturday and I was stoked to do a tail slide back down the face of a wave for the first time, before spinning the board back around and continuing. Who said you can’t teach an old surfer new tricks?! One fascinating cultural experience we crawled past in the car was the tail end of a coastal duathlon. The run-bike-run concept had been well subscribed; the explosion in biking popularity here recently has been nothing short of amazing. The most amazing thing was the standard of equipment that all competitors had. The most ordinary athletes in terms of speed, ability and endurance still had the very latest, hi-tech, very expensive, top of the line bikes and other gear. I never had gear of the equivalent standard, even when I was quite obsessive about my competition a decade or so ago!
On the way back we called into Coombsy’s place, as he was hosting the AFL grand final get together. There was a great group of guys there and we screamed and yelled and did all the usual stuff as we enjoyed a grand final, which was much more of a contest than in recent years.
Cass and I saw Cinderella Man this morning sandwiched between the Cinderella stories of this year’s NRL preliminary finals. Who would have guessed that the Tigers and the Cowboys would fight this year’s decider?
Russell Crowe did a very good job in this film. It is a bit formulaic and predictable along the “Rocky” lines of such boxing/underdog/hardship movies, but it bore the distinctive imprimatur of Ron Howard and subsequently was very polished. I found the fight scenes quite dramatic and especially interesting, considering my recent flirtation with boxing training, which continues most days after school.
Cass goes off to camp tomorrow and won’t return until next Friday. Neither of us enjoys this time of year and she is madly preparing and packing right now.My sister Helen has done some remarkable work for me this past couple of weeks. My stolen camera needed replacing, but I needed the exact model for use with the underwater housing. Of course, a newer model has replaced it, so I asked Helen to seek one on Ebay. After a few false starts she scored a beauty that I’ll receive soon. Here was an Aussie buying a camera in America and shipping it to a third party in Taiwan, the Aussie in Taiwan electronically sending the money to Australia so that it could be sent to the U.S. Phew! Some newer ones should replace the photos from the vault soon. Cats feature today, one with Cassy, and one where I have tried some artistic brushstroke techniques on them with some photo software….. doesn’t really work, but it’s different!
Sunday, September 18, 2005
lewy's horse has some success
I've had some vicarious pleasure this week as Lewy's horse, Drizzle, followed its maiden win with a solid second on Friday afternoon. We were like a 1940's family huddled around the radio, this time sitting around the computer as it beamed a live call from the back blocks of some Victorian cow paddock all the way into Lewy's classroom in Taipei.
Ross and I paid a few bills for the car this week and celebrated our new carpark by paying a re-issued speeding fine...just pay $1700NT and you get not one but two colour pictures of your car doing illegal things (in this case speeding!)
The week has been hotter than hot and we've again spent most of it cloistered indoors near some artificial cooling machines. We've hopped from school to home and hardly ventured anywhere in between...it's just been shockingly oppressive. We enjoyed the footy this weekend, had some takeaway pizza on Saturday night and Ross and I drove over the mountain to be greeted by flat conditions at the beach before turning around and coming straight back.
The air has taken on an amazing, very un-Taiwanese quality this week. Almost as if you've put a pair of prescription glasses on, the world has come into sharp relief. Some strange, climactic force has sucked away all the pollutant haze and Taipei has suddenly become a searing bright sunfilled canvas. It's very reminiscient of home and quite disconcerting...I don't really want to see our cityscape so clearly, thanks all the same! No doubt, the gloom will descend again soon and everything will return to normal.
Not much to report this week: we're both working hard, hiding from the heat and enjoying our lot. Adios!
I've had some vicarious pleasure this week as Lewy's horse, Drizzle, followed its maiden win with a solid second on Friday afternoon. We were like a 1940's family huddled around the radio, this time sitting around the computer as it beamed a live call from the back blocks of some Victorian cow paddock all the way into Lewy's classroom in Taipei.
Ross and I paid a few bills for the car this week and celebrated our new carpark by paying a re-issued speeding fine...just pay $1700NT and you get not one but two colour pictures of your car doing illegal things (in this case speeding!)
The week has been hotter than hot and we've again spent most of it cloistered indoors near some artificial cooling machines. We've hopped from school to home and hardly ventured anywhere in between...it's just been shockingly oppressive. We enjoyed the footy this weekend, had some takeaway pizza on Saturday night and Ross and I drove over the mountain to be greeted by flat conditions at the beach before turning around and coming straight back.
The air has taken on an amazing, very un-Taiwanese quality this week. Almost as if you've put a pair of prescription glasses on, the world has come into sharp relief. Some strange, climactic force has sucked away all the pollutant haze and Taipei has suddenly become a searing bright sunfilled canvas. It's very reminiscient of home and quite disconcerting...I don't really want to see our cityscape so clearly, thanks all the same! No doubt, the gloom will descend again soon and everything will return to normal.
Not much to report this week: we're both working hard, hiding from the heat and enjoying our lot. Adios!
Sunday, September 11, 2005
Pillbox two days before the "incident"
The feelings of anger and invasion of privacy after a robbery are no different wherever you are. We’ve had stuff taken in Australia and had all our stuff stolen in France one New Year’s Eve and those same feelings came flooding back to us mid week. Ross and I had just enjoyed perhaps the best surf we’d had for months at the Pillbox, straight after work on Wednesday. I’d been in two minds about going out, because the 3rd grade Open House was on that evening, starting at 7pm. I had a niggling feeling that we should leave in plenty of time to get back, just in case there were more horrendous traffic jams than usual (you have to budget for being stationary for at least 15 minutes of an hour trip!).
Great long lines of swell greeted Ross and me, puffing offshore breezes and of course, being the Pillbox, our “secret” place, no one in the water. The day was bright and clear and at least 3 sets of wedding couples in full regalia had come to the shoreline with their photographers to get their pre-wedding shots. I’ve mentioned this strange phenomenon before: photos before the day, in full dress, often dragging dresses over rocks and dirt, and sitting in the shallows to get that perfect romantic shot in the weakening afternoon sun.
We walked past the wedding parties and paddled out enjoying quite a magical afternoon. We both got a succession of fantastic waves and commented that except for the water quality, it was almost as if we’d been dropped off by a yacht charter somewhere in Indonesia to enjoy perfect waves with no crowds.
Our euphoria was short-lived however. I came in first to be greeted by a smashed out passenger window and all our things stolen. They even stole our clothes! We were upset about that as well as we had good clothes on as we’d come straight from school. Curiously, they left our shoes and socks, possible because they’d be too big for anyone. We walked around the area in the vain hope they’d dumped the stuff they couldn’t use, but we didn’t find anything. They stole our wallets and we both had lots of cash. We had the usual full quiver of credit and cash cards and other things that you have in wallets that are hard to replace. The big items taken were Ross’ good watch, his phone and my new camera. They took both of Ross’ bags but left my ratty beach bag, which had a secret pocket containing my phone. This was the only thing of value that they didn’t steal.
We drove home just in our wet board shorts and on the way, we got Cass and Ainsley to begin the card canceling process. I continued that when I got home and just before racing off to my parent night, I asked Cass to tell Mr. Lee to change the locks, as my address was in the wallet too! I had to wait at home till 11 am the next day when the locksmith came, secretly hoping that I might hear a key in the lock and be able to nab the perpetrator. That would have been very satisfying!
I’ll get a re-issued credit card tomorrow and a cash card mid-week, but I’m really spewing about the camera. I didn’t take the underwater housing out that day, so it’s still sitting here forlornly at home! I would love to replace it with the same model, which the housing is custom built for. It took such great photos the one time I got to use it; it would be a shame to never get it wet again. The rest of the week was a bit of a blur of police stations and getting the window fixed on the car and remembering all the things that were in my wallet or bag as I missed them through the week. The cops were pretty silly really and no help at all, insisting that we had to go out to the Damshui station to report the theft and get the car dusted for prints; we decided to cut our losses and get the window fixed instead, especially as another typhoon was on its way.
Two shining bright moments came this week to lift the gloom of the robbery: firstly we got our long awaited car park in the school parking basement after being on the waiting list for 2 years and secondly, we got word that our investment property at Horizon’s had finally sold. The news of settlement was treated with scant regard until we saw the money in our bank account, which we did on Thursday. What an amazing ordeal this had been: over the last 4 years the thing had contracts prepared on it no less that 4 times, various other offers were made and withdrawn, the company first refused to pay the rent and then after years of delays went belly up owing us and everyone else. It was a very painful period for us, a very unprofitable period and a period we’re very, very glad to put behind us. Enough said!
Anyway after an eventful week, we’re both glad that it was only property that was taken and that no one was hurt and I’ve been quite Zen like in my approach to the whole matter. I don’t know if I’m turning soft, but I hope that the person who took all our gear actually needed it: I’d be disappointed to imagine some tosser just doing it for fun, more philosophical about things if someone felt they had to do this sort of thing to survive. Unlike home, there are a lot of people here in just such a predicament.Photos will be from the vault for a while…I have plenty that I’ve taken lately which I transferred to the computer.
The feelings of anger and invasion of privacy after a robbery are no different wherever you are. We’ve had stuff taken in Australia and had all our stuff stolen in France one New Year’s Eve and those same feelings came flooding back to us mid week. Ross and I had just enjoyed perhaps the best surf we’d had for months at the Pillbox, straight after work on Wednesday. I’d been in two minds about going out, because the 3rd grade Open House was on that evening, starting at 7pm. I had a niggling feeling that we should leave in plenty of time to get back, just in case there were more horrendous traffic jams than usual (you have to budget for being stationary for at least 15 minutes of an hour trip!).
Great long lines of swell greeted Ross and me, puffing offshore breezes and of course, being the Pillbox, our “secret” place, no one in the water. The day was bright and clear and at least 3 sets of wedding couples in full regalia had come to the shoreline with their photographers to get their pre-wedding shots. I’ve mentioned this strange phenomenon before: photos before the day, in full dress, often dragging dresses over rocks and dirt, and sitting in the shallows to get that perfect romantic shot in the weakening afternoon sun.
We walked past the wedding parties and paddled out enjoying quite a magical afternoon. We both got a succession of fantastic waves and commented that except for the water quality, it was almost as if we’d been dropped off by a yacht charter somewhere in Indonesia to enjoy perfect waves with no crowds.
Our euphoria was short-lived however. I came in first to be greeted by a smashed out passenger window and all our things stolen. They even stole our clothes! We were upset about that as well as we had good clothes on as we’d come straight from school. Curiously, they left our shoes and socks, possible because they’d be too big for anyone. We walked around the area in the vain hope they’d dumped the stuff they couldn’t use, but we didn’t find anything. They stole our wallets and we both had lots of cash. We had the usual full quiver of credit and cash cards and other things that you have in wallets that are hard to replace. The big items taken were Ross’ good watch, his phone and my new camera. They took both of Ross’ bags but left my ratty beach bag, which had a secret pocket containing my phone. This was the only thing of value that they didn’t steal.
We drove home just in our wet board shorts and on the way, we got Cass and Ainsley to begin the card canceling process. I continued that when I got home and just before racing off to my parent night, I asked Cass to tell Mr. Lee to change the locks, as my address was in the wallet too! I had to wait at home till 11 am the next day when the locksmith came, secretly hoping that I might hear a key in the lock and be able to nab the perpetrator. That would have been very satisfying!
I’ll get a re-issued credit card tomorrow and a cash card mid-week, but I’m really spewing about the camera. I didn’t take the underwater housing out that day, so it’s still sitting here forlornly at home! I would love to replace it with the same model, which the housing is custom built for. It took such great photos the one time I got to use it; it would be a shame to never get it wet again. The rest of the week was a bit of a blur of police stations and getting the window fixed on the car and remembering all the things that were in my wallet or bag as I missed them through the week. The cops were pretty silly really and no help at all, insisting that we had to go out to the Damshui station to report the theft and get the car dusted for prints; we decided to cut our losses and get the window fixed instead, especially as another typhoon was on its way.
Two shining bright moments came this week to lift the gloom of the robbery: firstly we got our long awaited car park in the school parking basement after being on the waiting list for 2 years and secondly, we got word that our investment property at Horizon’s had finally sold. The news of settlement was treated with scant regard until we saw the money in our bank account, which we did on Thursday. What an amazing ordeal this had been: over the last 4 years the thing had contracts prepared on it no less that 4 times, various other offers were made and withdrawn, the company first refused to pay the rent and then after years of delays went belly up owing us and everyone else. It was a very painful period for us, a very unprofitable period and a period we’re very, very glad to put behind us. Enough said!
Anyway after an eventful week, we’re both glad that it was only property that was taken and that no one was hurt and I’ve been quite Zen like in my approach to the whole matter. I don’t know if I’m turning soft, but I hope that the person who took all our gear actually needed it: I’d be disappointed to imagine some tosser just doing it for fun, more philosophical about things if someone felt they had to do this sort of thing to survive. Unlike home, there are a lot of people here in just such a predicament.Photos will be from the vault for a while…I have plenty that I’ve taken lately which I transferred to the computer.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)