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!
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