Using our credit card for every possible available purchase has been, ostensibly, to maximize our frequent flyer miles. Having already cashed in enough points to get one return flight from Hong Kong to Sydney (combined with our usual air miles of course), we’ve seen how it can help a lot. We aren’t the bank’s best customers of course, because we always pay it off in full by the due date. To HSBC this doesn’t seem to matter though, and on sheer volume alone, we have been elevated to VIP status with the bank. Normally I’d worry about a bank thinking I was a VIP, but not when they give you two free tickets to Hong Kong! Yes, they’ve decided in their infinite wisdom, that we are to be rewarded for our spending with a trip. We’ll certainly take advantage of this and plan to go for a few days in our Spring Break, also coinciding with Cassy’s birthday. We were chuffed to get this little bonus during the week.

Cassy has suffered from a bad cold this week so she has been pretty quiet, literally. I’ve had my chest infection linger slowly on so we haven’t been the happiest campers this week. Just today we both started to feel a little better, so we’re looking forward to a better few weeks to come than we’ve just had. We realized this morning, that is was 26 years ago today that a skinny mop head boy and a very pretty girl met at the pre Uni get-to-know-you BBQ and drinks. We spent some time looking through some old photos and stretching our memories to remember some of the stuff we did, the people we knew etc back in those early days. It was a great time and we surprised ourselves a little at how much we did remember: that’s good, no Alzheimer’s yet!

The surf has been pretty average lately (surprise!) but we went out after work on Friday afternoon and again today. It was stormy and wet and windy, but we actually got a few today, which was pretty satisfying. I’m really stoked at the moment as many of my credit hunting friends and colleagues are stuck in at school this weekend and next doing a further SUNY Masters subject. I’ve decided to ditch this one as I think I can get the equivalent points in a different way (i.e. online and working in MY time, not a dictated time) so even though I’ve put it off a little, I’m sure it will work out better in the end.

Chris bought me a speedball at Christmas, Carl brought it back and some of the maintenance boys at school built me a rebound board. Its going great guns and you can work up quite a sweat. Ross and I will be back on the heavy bag as well this week after a couple of weeks off, mainly because of my chest.

The repair on the front tooth I broke off in 1983 finally came unstuck through the week so I have a temporary crown on it till a permanent one is made up. I’ll be back at the dentist’s a few times yet in the next couple of weeks….yuk!

Cassy’s illness meant that she missed her book club on Thursday night, which she was disappointed about, but she read the new Sue Grafton, “S is for Silence” amongst other books, and rated it highly, Kinsey still as engaging a character as ever. We also missed seeing one of Cassy’s colleagues playing guitar in the band, “The Silver Thongs”, formed specially for the night and singing all sorts of Aussie and Kiwi songs at a bar down in Taipei city. They played last night but we were both still a bit sick to make it……See you next time!

Well, I’m delighted to report a much more scintillating activity this week after the mundane, boring, predictable exploits of last week when the best I could muster was what we had watched on TV; ready for it? Appliance shopping!! Yes, it’s true, after plumbing the depths of mediocrity last week, I can top it this week with everyone’s favourite pastime. We’re now proudly in possession of a new automatic kettle and a cheapy version of the coffee machine we have back home. If anyone is still reading this, shame on you; can you not see that I have stooped to the lowest minutia to try to get a story for this week?

There are excuses for this but there are no real reasons. I have been struck down by a toxic flu this week and while dismissing the symptoms earlier in the week as “a bit of a cold”, it degenerated to the point that I was unable to speak from Tuesday pm through to Saturday morning. I croaked at the kiddies on Tuesday but succumbed to the inevitable and took Wednesday off. Not feeling too good and doing my best impersonation of Whispering Ted Lowe, I went to work on Thursday, only to be extremely frustrated and trying to communicate through clicks and gestures! I again stayed home on Friday, as I still couldn’t make a sound. Each night, about 7.30, I can feel the cool night air descend deep into my chest and I start coughing again. I remember having this type of chest infection back when we were in Fletcher Street and we left there over 6 years ago, so it’s been a while since I’ve had this sickness. Thankfully, Cassy has managed not to get this sickness: we don’t need both of us down for the count.

You guessed it however: I did make an ill fated journey to the beach on Saturday morning, got out of breath just paddling out and lolled around in a wind whipped freezing surging surf for ½ an hour or so before giving up. Check pointyhat for all the details of the riders of the storm.

Anyway, gee these appliances are fantastic!! It was cold and wet all weekend and we’ve both read some books this week and over the weekend. I’ve just finished a hard-to-put-down biography of the great Australian surfing enigma of the 70s, Michael Petersen. What an incredible story this was, the most gifted surfer in the world who just seemed to disappear overnight. The story of his drug addictions and struggles with schizophrenia was just mesmerizing. I am also reading a 3rd book by the author Andrew Vachss. This guy writes some riveting crime fiction, his anti-hero Burke a well-drawn and believable tough guy. One of Cassy’s friend’s husbands has lent be a further 3, so I’ll be set for a while! Cass has also been reading lots, as usual, and she has just finished the latest Ian Rankin thriller, Fleshmarket Alley. She’s also spent heaps of quality time with the “girls” this weekend, and as you can see by the photo, Mary is certainly not complaining about the attention!

Look, I really can’t stress strongly enough how wonderful these new appliances are…. we’re excited! (See pathetic and ridiculous staged photo above)
We had a delicious and decadent lunch out at Wendel’s this afternoon and got some cakes for tea. I’m not going to mention all the movies and TV we’ve watched because I realize it’s not the most compelling subject matter. On the other hand, electrical appliances: did I mention th…………..!

The computer is back up and running, so to celebrate, I’ve been downloading all sorts of stuff to keep us entertained. We have the brilliant first series of House, which we’re watching slowly and the movies, Pride and Prejudice, Wolf Creek, Little Fish, Look both Ways and Munich. I’m currently downloading the second series of Lost, or at least all they have shown in America so far.

We watched Munich on TV at home on the weekend, but went out to Warner Village to see the brilliant Johnny Cash biopic, “Walk the Line”. What great fun this movie was and it reminded me a lot of “Ray”, a very similar storyline and life adventure. Cass and I decided to see it early and then go to lunch afterwards and enjoyed some luscious curry in the depths of the Jasper Villa complex. We had a pleasant wander through the Eslite bookstore on the top floor and then picked up the scooter to get home. I’d left poor “Blackie” on Friday night after a few beers at the Green and decided that a taxi home was more responsible.

Work and play has been fairly unremarkable this week. We’ve been homebodies a lot, Cass having some grading to do and me with my omnipresent courses to wade through. Wading seems right, actually it feels more like drowning in thick sucking mud; hard to imagine how I’ll ever get out of it. I need to keep telling myself it will all be over soon and my amazing quest for knowledge and my love of “life long learning” will come to an abrupt, shuddering halt fairly soon. That will be a day for real celebration!

Back to our boring life at the moment, it all seems to be about movies or TV! Munich was a fairly predictable Spielberg story; the Arabs in particular annoyed me, as Spielberg seems too content to just display them as stereotypically, hysterical, maniacal cartoon cutouts. He really needs to get a better balance, as I think this spoiled an otherwise fine movie. I remember the Munich Olympics very well, filling in my ABC Olympics’ book with race results and the great Mark Spitz and our own Shane Gould’s amazing exploits in the pool. Shane was just a few years older than me at the time and I was in awe of her achievements. The horror of the kidnappings and murders was real to me as a 10 year old, so it was interesting to see events dramatized here. We’ve been getting some great light relief from American Idol mid week as a cast of fools performs. They’re down to the top couple of hundred now, so the serious stuff will now begin.

Tune in next time to Dave and Cass’ TV and movie review!
Hopefully, we’ll have something else to talk about by then!
Photos: Sunny small Pillbox, some of my smiling kiddies and a picture just to mess with your heads!

I've removed the video from the main page, apologising for forgetting that not everyone can download these big files in an instant. Future videos will be hosted off site through a hyperlink like this: Virg'n mary video where you can click on the words and it will take you to another site.
By the way, after a major repair job and some new super strength virus software installed last night, our computer is up and running again with thankfully very little damage.

Our Chinese New Year break has been a very relaxing one. Taipei city pretty much shuts down for this week, shops and restaurants closed and just a few supermarkets, convenience stores and places like movie theatres and Starbucks stay open throughout. Most inconveniently, as I mentioned last week, our computer was struck down by some kind of power virus, necessitating all sorts of “old fashioned” entertainment!

Instead of spending hours online doing who knows what, I’ve spent the equivalent time doing all sorts of other things, like reading the clippings Mum regularly sends, reading some great novels I haven’t got around to and doing another 3 courses in my ongoing credit point hunt. Cassy has read books and spent lots of time “homemaking”, doing lots of little jobs around the house that we’ve neglected because of work demands. We came into school (!) much against our usual rules, to watch some one day cricket through the week. Literally hours before the big computer crash, I subscribed to the rest of the cricket series: great timing! As it turns out, we were unable to watch yesterday’s game anyway, owing to some kind of contractual problem with the web site. I don’t know if they’ll resolve it before the finals, but we’ll get a refund if they don’t broadcast.

We took the scooter up some back roads to Yangminshan a couple of days in a row as the smog lifted, the sun came out and it was positively summery. Chinese New Year is usually bitterly cold, but we only had a couple of frigid days. On our mountain trips, we just had light clothes on and really enjoyed winding our way up and up and up a beautiful road with great views over the city. The road ended near the top of one peak and was a dead end, so the traffic was very light. We took some sandwiches and water and found a lovely little spot with a big flat rock to sit on as we gazed out from the sheer drop to the city spread out below. I went surfing with Ross and Carl a few times, but until yesterday, it wasn’t much. We had new boards, so we were keen to give them a good test and it wasn’t until yesterday that we got a good day. As usual, you can check Pointyhat for all the latest surfing news.

I had a few drinks with the usual suspects mid week and we went to Chilis with Ross and Ains and went to the Moroccan restaurant with Carl and Hiroko. We went to see “Syriana” which was quite thought provoking and a little depressing. I’ve downloaded the entire first series of “House” as well, so we’ll have plenty to watch at home. We saw the first few episodes back home in July and loved it, so we can continue the series here.

It’s a fact that we’re never inundated with email, but if you feel the urge to write, we’d hate to miss it! Until the computer is fixed at home please use my last name followed by “d” and then @tas.edu.tw . This should get to us with no problems.
Photos are of our trip to the mountains. The winding mountain road and the view over the city are featured along with a “greenery shot” where we trekked up into the mountains to see where the trail led: nowhere much as it turned out!