dropping in
We’ve just returned from viewing the new Scorcese biopic on Howard Hughes, “The Aviator”. Cate Blanchett gave a scorching performance and deserves to win the Oscar for it and Di Caprio was more than efficient in the lead role. We’d again booked tickets online, a great service and most efficient, allowing us to waltz past the queuing masses, straight up the elevator and into the theatre. The Tienmu Warner Village complex is quite dazzling and the shops in the new department store are swish, clean and expensive………good just for a look!
The cinema has featured quite highly in our time off, as uncooperative weather with high winds and cold temperatures certainly restricted our beach activities. Cass and Cathy went to see “Closer” on a night mid week while Chad and I “babysat” the little chief, but we managed to drink far too many beers which slowed my activities to a crawl the next day. We also went out for Chad’s birthday on Friday night and again, quite a late night was had by all. It was a great boys night out and we told plenty of tall tales and undoubtedly solved the majority of the world’s problems…if only we could remember the solutions the next day!
Even though the weather has been far from inviting, we still managed to get out to the beach on many days. The hoped for excellent conditions were not forthcoming, although Ross and I got a rare window of reasonable swell and wind on Friday which assuaged our desperate frustration from the preceding days. Of course, if you have been following my most recent tomes, you will be aware that we meant to go in search of a mystery wave out on the north west coast. The conditions never relented to the point where we thought that we might find the break, let alone get some surfable waves. So, alas, that adventure was not taken, but gives us something to look forward to at a later date.
Cass and I have had some interesting dining experiences this week as well. Ironically and to be quite honest I find it comical, we have not found a decent Chinese restaurant round here. Being in “Little China”, this seems doubly bizarre, but the abundance of Taiwanese slop kitchens and evil smelling tofu soup shops far outnumber the places selling Chinese food and amongst this number just a precious few serving Cantonese style Chinese, similar to the Chinese in Australia. There are NO Chinese restaurants exactly like those back home: the Chinese food here is authentic and rather bland and unsalted compared to the Australianized version. The famous Fangs restaurant serves up a pretty good meal, but an establishment creatively(!) named “Beijing Restaurant” has opened just near our place on Chung Shan. Whilst still serving local favorites like shark fin and intestines in all sorts of exotic varieties, they also served up quite a tasty chicken in chili sauce and a steak with green onion…certainly worth another visit or three. Last night we again ventured to the Moroccan restaurant and we quite boringly couldn’t tear ourselves away from our previous orders. The tajine of slow cooked chicken was mouth watering with its subtle blend of herbs and spices, whilst Cassy’s steak was again melting in her mouth. Cass ordered the perfectly cooked calamari and we both had crème brulee for dessert. Ains was the most adventurous of our party and ordered a tajine of couscous with seven vegetables for her main, also with a ¼ slow cooked chicken…I’ll have to try that next time. Carl and Hiroko were set to join us but Carl somehow badly twisted a knee which he’d injured before; rest was needed, especially as he needs to be up and mobile for PE at school tomorrow.
Twice through the week Carl and I have visited a skate park, the first time just the two of us, the second he drove down with the family. What fantastic fun we had! It is a shame however that my nearly 43 year old body is not quite as resilient as when I was a teenager, taking tumbles, bashes and crashes as a necessary part of riding a skateboard with a limited amount of expertise. The day after and especially TWO days after, my hips elbows, knees and pads of my hands ached from the bumps and scrapes and my legs seized up completely if I got up after a period of sitting down. Falling from about eight feet in the air at a great velocity onto solid concrete is not recommended, but I managed to do this on innumerable occasions. Carl was a little more circumspect and subsequently a little (only a little!) less injured than me, but we both declared it to be enormous fun. We even had to climb through a hole in the fence to get in the 2nd time, so youthful memories were certainly amplified. The facility is very well designed and maintained and not a spray of graffiti is to be seen: can you imagine this back home? Steven and Sean had a great time and I thought they were quite fearless for their first time confronting these ramps. There is another facility offering half pipes of low to most frightening heights, which I’ll feature some other time. Photos today are courtesy of Carl and Hiroko’s new digital camera, which they tested out for the first time.Back to work tomorrow…..a slight pall of depression tends to come over me the evening before: today is no different!