Drizzly, dark, damp, depressing, dank and downright disastrous. An alliterative alternative to amplify the all consuming, angry and atrocious, atmospheric anomalies. Hopped up on about 15 cups of coffee, you can see my mind is playing a few tricks on me, none as bad as the weather has played on us this weekend. Whilst previously in these pages I have complained of the cold, this is by far the coldest Taipei we have experienced. Single digit temps combined with searing winds and persistent rain left us with little option but to huddle inside this weekend. The caffeine overload comes from meeting Carl down at Jakes with their bottomless cup of coffee where we spent a leisurely couple of hours, discussing all sorts and feeling that we’d at least “got out for some air”.
Whilst the weather turned particularly nasty this weekend, you guessed it; it didn’t deter us from our surfing run. In fact, just to make sure we were aware of the freezing conditions, we decided to leave on Saturday at 5.30am! Dan, our new IT guy at school offered to drive his van over so Ross and I met him at the school gate at aforementioned ridiculous hour. Dan is a surfer of some accomplishment (read: much better than me!) and rides a short and long board with equal finesse. We arrived at a blown out Jinshan and headed north to Green Bay where we were greeted by some crisp swell, with just a touch of dusting offshore whip on top of the waves as they broke. After a record-breaking change, Dan and Garry, the other two Kiwis, each with a full steamer,
dove into a heart-stopping liquid ice, accompanied by Ross and me with our paper thin spring suits. We managed to get out the back through a quite fierce bank largely due to rapid arm movement in response to the temperature of the water. Garry and Dan, luxuriating in their steamers started to worry about us when, after just 10 minutes, we were shaking with the cold. After 45 minutes, I had to go in after saying to Dan, “wuun mooor furme, aimfreeezin” which he perhaps translated as “One more for me, I’m freezing” although my lips weren’t even working by that stage. The chill was that bad, that even after a 30-minute shower under the “Exfoliator” I was still shivering. Ross and I didn’t even bother ringing each other this morning as we both knew it was beyond madness, as the temperatures had dipped even further overnight.
Cass and I watched “Ned Kelly” on DVD yesterday afternoon, ordered some wardrobes from Carrefour in which to store all our junk and then planned to head to the Indian for tea. In the end, I went and got some Indian takeaway, as it was just too ugly to go out and enjoy it. Apart from the coffee shop interlude (Cass did the shopping), we’ve done little today. Cass was stoked to sneak up on a sleepy Virg and cut some claws this afternoon. While perhaps not very startling news, Virg has struggled with the strength of a tiger when we’ve tried to do this before and we’ve had to abort the attempt in fear of hurting her: long claws on leather lounges and woolen mats are not a good match!
Check a couple of quirky pictures today. Don’t think you can come to Taipei and hang your washing out in the public park like you’re used to at home, OK?
Tiling is not restricted to laundries and kitchens here: most veneers of buildings are tiled and parks get a quite garish, yet strangely aesthetically appealing tiling treatment as well: maybe I’ve just been here too long!
Last, but definitely not least, the curiously benevolent looking, Chinese Charles Manson! This sign adorns a restaurant on the way to the beach and never fails to get Ross and me in stitches. We wonder about the “Manson burgers” or perhaps the “Squeaky Fromme fries” or even the “Massacre shakes” that might be on the menu there!I have to stop this appalling rubbish now…put it down to the caffeine overload; I’m spinning out!!
