It’s been a while since we entered the cauldron of downtown Taipei city on a Sunday afternoon and we were overwhelmed with the enervating hordes of people and the crush in the MRT stations and trains. It’s not that the situation has changed much, just that we’re not used to it. After Cass had spent the best part of Saturday doing the makeup for a dress rehearsal of the play and I had sat through the first stupefying face-to-face session of my course all day, we were ready to enjoy the change of weather today. We had our usual relaxed weekend breakfast, courtesy of raison toast and our new luxury, Vittoria coffee (we just try not to think how much it costs…about 4 times what it costs at home!!) and Newcastle Herald clippings courtesy of Mum, which arrive with regularity and keep us in the loop of all matters of things, including local news snippets, real estate, books, wine, sport and all sorts of great surprises. The sun was beaming, the wind just doing enough work to refresh rather than annoy and we thought to ourselves; “it looks like Spring has finally sprung”.
Leaving the scooter behind, we thought we’d do an old style MRT trip and we headed for the Taipower station beyond the city center, as we’d never been there. We both remarked how gleaming the stations and trains looked and I was reminded of the news from back home about the graffiti attacks in the city. Is it a peculiar Asian trait we wondered? You have to look very hard to find any graffiti in Japan and it is the same here. Broad inviting canvases would tempt the most timid of Aussie “taggers”, yet there is barely a sign of it here. In fact it is remarkable how much accessible public property is left untouched here. Stations have flat screen TVs dotted along all the platforms and flourishing pot plants and beautifully framed prints along the corridors. I’m sure these wouldn’t last 5 minutes back home. What is the difference? This is a major city, with more than its share of poor and disenfranchised, young and old. It would be anathema for the poorest or least assimilated person to touch these things, let alone other groups. I don’t know what it is.
The Taipower region was fairly unremarkable except for a little restaurant/pub we spied which has a distinct British flavour, right down to such scrumptious offerings as home made beef pies with a beer based gravy, bangers and mash and fish and chips! Fare that could be acquired on any street in Australia no doubt, but that is the point: not many streets in Taipei! A little bit of gold to store away for another time; notwithstanding the half hour train ride to get there! Halfway back to the station we spied some young guys in the middle of the road creating great mirth amongst their friends as they did a grand impersonation of the CKS Memorial Hall guards. Terrific fun was had by all and they seemed quite chuffed that I whipped the camera out to record the moment! We traveled back to the Bade Rd computer market (Mum will remember it’s just beside the mini jade market) and descended to the bowels where a myriad of tiny stalls stack all sorts of goods right to the ceiling in a cramped maze. We bought the Godfather collection at the best price we’d seen so far. I have had my eye on this DVD collection for some time and I’m glad I waited as it was about $500NT less than it has been at other places. Teamed with Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, that completed our purchases and we braved the MRT back to Mingde.
Back home we watched the tremendous Roosters vs Panthers game and wondered how the Knights are going to beat any team this year: they all seem so tough! Sue wrote a terrific email this afternoon and said she saw most of the Canberra game and they seemed right in it till fairly late, so I’m going to hold onto that sliver of hope for the time being.
Dan came with Ross and me to the Pillbox on Friday afternoon after our conferences, so I did get a surf of sorts this weekend. It was freezing then, but the swell was solid and we got some pretty good waves. Dan and I sat forlornly in our classroom on Saturday while Ross ventured out with Brian to the Rocket. Ross said they didn’t get much, so while a little disappointed for them, I was pleased to hear it wasn’t 6 foot and perfect! Adieu.
Technical hitch loading pictures tonight: I’ll try again tomorrow
