flash new telly!
Monday, April 25, 2005
Taiwanese cemetery
This will be rather shorter than my more verbose blogs of late. We have been working at a frenetic pace this week, Cassy with a sub working for three days as her partner was away and I had a slew of meetings and testing. The LCC steers the school into the next 3 years of strategic planning and action and I had the dubious honour of being amongst this group from 7 till 8 one day and 7 till 7.30 the next day. I was still exhausted 2 days later!
Ross and I had an interesting journey to the east coast and found a new and promising surfing spot, riding beautifully peeling waves out from an artificial wall, the monolithic cement “:tetrapots” looming large in our vision before making an acutely timed flick off. We saw some interesting sights on the way, perhaps more on this another time. Two photos I’ve included, one showing the extravagant style of Taiwanese graves and the other the hinterland of the quite pretty Honeymoon Bay at Dashi.
We bit the bullet and bought a wide screen LCD TV this weekend, which now perches proudly in our lounge room. The vivid colours and crisper than crisp picture didn’t allow me to move from the lounge for about 7 hours on Sunday! Let’s hope the novelty wears off before I mould my body shape into the cushions. It includes all the top of the line specs and is quite the technological marvel. 81cm, pixels coming out its ears and so many outlets in the back, I think I could probably even plug the toaster and the coffee pot in there.
Cass got her diamond set in a new ring, so now she sports a “double” engagement ring, which I’ve likened to a car’s headlights coming at you in the dark! No photo, she ‘ll show you when she sees you.
Just home from another “meeting-a-thon” day, I’m ready to put the feet up for a few hours, dazzle myself with the new telly, then collapse into bed ready to do it all again tomorrow. Doesn’t sound like heaps of fun at the moment and it’s not: but at least we feel alive and valued and these next 7 weeks should slide away before we know it.
Sunday, April 17, 2005
speed cat and new phone
Birthdays seem to be one of those difficult times when you live and work overseas, the pang of not being home and around family and friends is fairly intense. After Cassy’s birthday last week, it was mine this week and my friends and colleagues here and friends and family from home alleviated most of those symptoms by sending messages and giving some lovely gifts.
Carl, Hiroko and the boys were astoundingly generous when they presented Cassy and me with a mobile phone for our birthdays! It’s very cute and features all the latest and greatest and we signed up for just a pre-paid plan at first, till we see how much we use it. I’d been humming and haaing for a while about getting one and although Cass said w2e didn’t need one, we’ve both been known to borrow another’s phone to make that vital call or two. We were a bit embarrassed by their generosity, but Carl was quite determined so, in the end, we accepted gratefully. Cassy’s parents and my mum sent lovely cards with gifts of cash, also quite large and always very welcome! My aunty Virginia and family sent cards to us both and many of our family and friends back home sent e-cards and messages and Sue rang us both individually for the big days, as did Mum and Cassy’s parents. My colleague Blair, gave me a 1.25 litre bottle of California’s finest Cab Sav and my 3rd grade team bought a most delicious Swenson’s ice cream cake, which we all shared. All in all, it was a pretty good time.
Cass cooked me my favorite dinner, with a twist, on Thursday night. I absolutely love a recipe Mum used to make, but of course, it is very fiddly to make and very heavy on the waistline. It is crumbed veal with slices of hard-boiled egg and anchovies on top. Veal being a commodity impossible to come by here, Cass performed miracles with thin slices of chicken breast and she scoured Jason’s market to get the anchovies and capers. We washed down this feast with a superb bottle of Penfold's 389 that the parents of one of my kids had given me just the other day. As if this wasn’t enough, Cass had also cooked her famous and mouthwatering banana cake in her little pocket oven, so I was thoroughly spoilt and fed to the point of bursting.
We’ve had a really low-key weekend, yet had a few little outings. Cass enjoyed her first ever pedicure with her Australian friend and colleague Kristin, on Saturday afternoon. She is ecstatic with the results, but I can’t really see much difference! Cass assures me that her feet have been completely transformed, so I’ll take her word for it! I watched the league with Carl and Hiroko and when I returned we went to Big Nose Pasta for their famous snapper with garlic and roasted pumpkin on spaghetti. Earlier in the day, I dropped in to see Chad and Cathy and lent them series 10 of Friends and a couple of other movies. Poor Cathy is still feeding little Ella at 2 hourly intervals and says she feels like a milking machine, so she was pleased to have a little video distraction.
Ross and I rose early to get to the beach before 8 o’clock but the water, while smoothed down free from a ripply surface, those hoped for corduroy lines stretching to the horizon were sadly lacking. The Rocket was more like a paper airplane today and a sailing boat would be more at home than a surfboard. Frustrated and hungry we headed back in mild disgust!
Cass and I had lunch at NY Bagels in the new cinema/department store building today. While quite tasty, I wondered again why they insist on putting a hole in them. All this hot gooey stuff kept falling through the hole! Wouldn’t just a normal bun do the trick?!
We saw “The Interpreter” and found it to be very entertaining, both Nicole and Sean Penn doing sterling service. I’ve always liked Sean Penn and he seems to be growing in stature, a little more gravitas in his performance as he grows away from those “bad boy” roles he always seemed to get.
Talk to you next week!
Sunday, April 10, 2005
virg joined us unbeknown!
Cassy celebrated her birthday this week, so I’m very lazily going to copy part of an email she sent her parents this evening, which describes events very well……….
“I had a wonderful day, what with your phone call the evening before and then Denise and Susan rang (separately) on the Tuesday to wish me well. That evening, David lived up to (and surpassed) his reputation as a fantastic surprise-organiser: we went to the best restaurant in Taipei for an incredible dining experience that included amazing taste sensations as well as very attentive service and superb decor. He told me that I had to be ready at about 6:40 pm and that he was wearing a suit!! That gave me the cue to wear something approximate in formality so I wore my black dress and blue jacket (with newly-cleaned sapphire and diamond earrings -very sparkly). David was smoothly elegant in navy wool suit, charcoal linen shirt and navy silk tie. We were appropriately dressed to enter the Paris 1930 restaurant at The Landis Ritz Hotel downtown. Sumptuous silk-upholstered chairs, art deco sand-blasted glass screens between tables resplendent in white linen napery, Christofle silver, fine white china and crystal glasses greeted us. Our personal attendant, Allen Lee (the Captain of the Landis restaurant), gave us his undivided attention all evening, without intruding upon the intimate atmosphere. We each chose a set menu of seven courses and he reminded us of the exquisite composition/method of cooking of each one, as it arrived at our table. With the white plates providing a suitable canvas, the food comprised an edible work of art that indulged almost all of the senses simultaneously. Washed down with individually selected wines that the sommelier chose especially to complement the food (German riesling, French white burgundy and Italian shiraz) , the meal was a sensory delight. Towards the end of the evening, I was presented with a single long-stemmed rose and piece of birthday cake (with candle!) by the Captain. As I didn't want to spoil the perfection of the meal just consumed, I asked that the cake be packed to take home and we ate it the next day (delicious cheesecake!!). Some of the things we tasted were pigeon breast (from France), artichoke soup, mushroom consommé with broccoli puree, snail ravioli with garlic frog's leg, baked vegetable stack, scallops with balsamic sauce, baked cod with a tomato-based sauce wagyu beef (from Australia), asparagus risotto with curry sauce, lime sorbet sandwiched between coconut cakes and pecan icecream with wafers and toffee spears. Strong coffee and a plate of chocolate truffles completed the feast. David sure knows how to wow a girl!!
Not content with the previous night's shock tactics, David had planned a trip the next day down to Taipei 101, the tallest building in the world (until the Chinese go one better with their new tower). It has only recently opened so that you can go to the observation level on the 89th floor!! There's a bit more of the building above, but the public is only allowed as high as the observation level. We were whisked up in a lift (also the fastest in the world) so that the journey only took 30 seconds - long enough, however, for your ears to pop a couple of times!! It was quite a clear day, by Taipei standards, so the city lay spread before us, extending further than the eye could see - another reminder of the vastness of this metropolis. Slowly, we made our way around the floor, finding familiar landmarks and seeing many that were new to us, or unfamiliar due to the strange perspective of staring at them from such a height that the mountains looked like part of a model layout and the planes flying in near Yuanshan like remote-control toys. Apart from the vista, the other intriguing aspect of our visit was the huge counterweight, meant to stabilise the building in the event of typhoon or earthquake, that is able to be viewed by the public. There are several of these inside the building and usually they are not visible, but part of the appeal of 101 is that you can actually see the 550 tonne weight suspended by incredibly thick wire cables, designed to "swing" up to one and a half metres!!!!
The rest of the week was fairly quiet - reading, playing with Virg'n'Mary (who have discovered how to get on top of the wardrobes in their room, via the ladder propped up next to these cupboards. It's a whole new world for them!!) On Friday night, we had a lovely meal at Bird (Thai restaurant just down the road) with Ross, Ainsley and Ross's parents who were over here during Spring break for their second visit to this country. They had enjoyed the use of the Aubergino (car) and had also experienced great weather for their stay. Ross and Ains took them to some places that they hadn't been to before (sculpture park, pottery village), so we'll benefit too, hopefully, sometime when the surf is flat and the boys can tear themselves away from the beach!
Even though we're not really ready to go back to work (when are you????) we've had a great break and feel as though it was much longer than the week and a half that it encompassed.”
Well, that was the easiest blog I’ve ever written! As Cass said, we had a wonderful, lazy week and had a couple of other adventures as well. We went over to Chad and Cathy’s place on Thursday evening and Cassy had an extensive cuddle with tiny baby Ella (a month old, but only due about now) and we had a few drinks and a chat. I had to leave about 10pm and go to the hospital as I had injured my wrist skateboarding that afternoon (yes, again!) and it was starting to seize up. A hairline fracture of the wrist was found but I didn’t need a cast. After buying a neoprene wrist strapping yesterday, I even attempted a surf this morning, but with limited success! The ice pack has been working overtime and my wife is no doubt wondering when I will retire from these extreme sports!
Monday, April 04, 2005
tunnel entrance
Saigon is a heady mix of stunning sights and insistent noise, the 8 million Vietnamese crammed into this southern city all players in a daily drama of dollar making in energy sapping heat and a general calamity on the streets. We have just returned from a 5 day sojourn to Ho Chi Min City, still called Saigon by locals and visitors alike, a stay punctuated by frenetic shopping, great food and a palpable feeling of something changing for this oft subjugated city.
The Caravelle hotel is a 5 star glittering palace in the center of Saigon’s French colonial heart and our room was expansive, luxurious and looked out upon the Opera House and the slightly faded glory of pre war landmarks made famous in print and on screen. We don’t usually stay in such accommodation, but 4 nights felt right for a little treat. I was vaguely disturbed by the service, which included staff coming in the evening to turn the bed down for us! As you can imagine, every possible facility was on call an included, lagoon size pools and spas, liveried doormen and silk swathed attendants everywhere we turned. The dichotomy of the air-conditioned luxury of the Caravelle and the conference centre’s Sheraton with a marble sheathed reception area the size of a football field and golden staircases sweeping to level upon level of decadence with the sweat laden streets of bustling humanity was quite staggering.
From street hawkers and vendors of any imaginable ware to rickshaw drivers and shoe shiners and beggars with tattered cap in hand, a walk down the street was a combat zone every time. Distressing sights of napalmed and Agent Orange affected street beggars were quite confronting and we often gave money as we walked along. 10,000 Vietnamese dong seemed very acceptable to most of them and 80 cents was just a token from us. Men and women of all shapes and sizes asked us to buy local fruits and coconuts, books and shirts, paintings and flowers and all manner of other goods. We bought a few things from the street: a lovely drawing of bamboo on silk, a Harley welded from nuts and bolts and another fashioned from different types of wood. Cass bought some salad servers made from buffalo horn, some oyster forks carved from shell and some intricately embroidered placemats and serviettes. The people were always happy enough to go on if we pleasantly smiled and declined their offers politely. One night out we were amazed to see a woman running round a corner screaming what seemed like a warning. In the blink of an eye, the whole streetscape changed as paintings and ornaments were whisked away and the police rounded the corner to find nothing but huddles of people sharing a smoke and a chat. Not two minutes later, it was business as usual.
A distinctive French flavour still wafts through the streets of Saigon and colonnaded, narrow, brightly coloured houses rise imperiously above the street, often housing a French or Vietnamese cuisine restaurant. We enjoyed the subtle, light flavours of Vietnamese food many times during our stay, served in beautiful surroundings and with a flair and attention to detail rarely seen. Another great find was a place called “Saigon Underground, with an extensive menu of British food, Mexican, pizza, Indian and nearly everything else! The variety was extensive and delicious; we’ll be able to last a couple of months before we get home now. We had scrumptious baguettes for lunch a couple of times and intensely flavoured, strong coffees whenever the whim took us. We ate at a delightful outdoor café for breakfast a couple of times in the shadow of the Opera House. Pancakes and delicate fruit plates were enjoyed with coffee; with fans blowing the finest of water mists over the diners to cool down a sweating brow! One morning’s breakfast was taken at a patisserie opposite complete with beer swilling French tourists; 9 in the morning was a little early for us!!
The Saigon River wends its way through the city and wafts a cooling afternoon breeze over the city’s seething mass of humanity. The waterway is the blood vessel of the city, bringing the most massive of ships right into the city’s heart. It is a foul looking, deep and fast flowing body of water and it pumps people and goods in and away all day and all night. The hinterland of this lifeline sits beside the over 200 km of the Cu Chi tunnels, a labyrinth of underground tunnels and rooms which held out the might of the American military in the war. We took a tour 60 km away from the city to visit the tunnels. The trip out was fascinating as the city crush eventually evaporated to reveal farmers and water buffalo and riverside humpies from which I half expected to see John Rambo emerge!
The tunnels, although over commercialized to an extent now, did reveal a chilling history of ingenuity and chillingly efficient ways to kill Americans. The tunnels have been widened in part to allow tourists to fit. I squirreled my way down 200 metres of one and the dark was absolute and the claustrophobia close to overwhelming. Even smaller, with the stench of 100s of soldiers and the constant shock of massive bombing raids is impossible to imagine. Some of the traps set for the Americans were extreme; these young men from both sides suffering horrendous deaths for no reason. Old men with fat bellies and dreams of power continue to send young men to their deaths now; hard to contemplate how this can continue to happen.
Shopping was not something we expected to do much of, but as our stay unfolded, we did more and more. We had just turfed out a stack of clothes back here in Taipei, me dispensing with decade old triathlon shirts and Cass culling her wardrobe. We were astounded how cheap things were in Saigon and the cavernous Banh Trangh markets were quite a shopping Mecca. I loaded up on loads of t-shirts and polos for school and Cass got some quite exquisite silk shirts and singlets along with lots of perfume. Cassy also found a tailor to make a replica of her favorite jacket and pants, this time in lined heavy linen. It is nearly impossible to tell if these things are knock offs or just sourced from Vietnamese factories. With my shirts, I suspect the latter and shudder at the markup these goods receive back home. At another market I bought a range of latest movie DVDs and bought the whole 10 series of Friends for hardly more than one series would cost back here. Ross bought all the AbFabs and we bought our single movies together, not replicating any, getting even more bang for our buck when we swap them later on. Cassy also bought some amazing ruby earrings and a loose ½ carat diamond for a future ring design and the while she pored over showcase after showcase I was left to deflect scores of sellers on the street outside!
I did buy a book from one, which I am reading now, written by a North Vietnamese soldier. It is both hauntingly beautiful in parts and shockingly brutal in others, a fine counter balance to the screeds of American commentary on this tragic war. Back in Taipei now, it feels a little less like an exotic Asian city and a little more like home, with all our “things”, the cats and our familiar places. As we sat on at the rooftop bar of our hotel on Saturday night, gazing out on the lights and soaking up the sounds of this quite entrancing city, in the words of Cold Chisel, we could definitely feel “..a Vietnam cold turkey..”, but also a strong desire to explore more of this sometimes sad but always beautiful country.
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