Sunday, August 27, 2006
Cass at Chili's
A parade of gleaming, purring Porsche motorcars, in the main, the latest and greatest models, glided up the Jinshan-Yangminshan mountain road as we neared the bottom of the hill heading the other way. We counted a dozen, then another dozen then a few more stragglers including a brand new 911 painted hot pink! Everyone here seems to have to be in some kind of club or another: if it’s not cars, it’s bikes, Harleys, BMWs, Ducatis. The gear has to be seen to be believed…we’ve taken many years to reach the point where we feel properly equipped for our bike trips: the locals here sport the very best of literally everything, straight away!
It certainly makes for some interesting viewing as we negotiate the winding road over the mountain to the beach as we did this morning at 7.30.
Yesterday, we had a pleasant lazy morning eating pancakes for brekky while reading the 1st installment of Herald clippings from Mum, which arrived mid-week. Having caught up with some Newcastle news, we watched the delayed telecast of Friday night footy and I fielded a few text and phone messages from the boys. Josh was keen to have a box after the league and so we arranged to meet in at school at 12.30. I had a pleasant surprise when I arrived to find that Wal and Shaun were joining us. We only had three sets of gloves, so we set up a little circuit on the bag, the focus pads and the speedball with someone taking the focus gloves. The air-con was not on and we were a lather of sweat very quickly. It was a great workout and we had a great laugh as well as gasping for air between the 2-minute rounds! After that, we all left feeling very proud of ourselves (especially since the previous two Saturdays had been spent recovering from the Friday night). We made plans to head to the beach the next morning if there was any action.
Cass did a much less pleasant task while I was away and headed over in the late morning heat to the Wellcome to do the grocery shopping. We were both glad to get back home to the air-conditioning and decided to head out later to an early tea at Chili’s. We had a beautiful meal as usual and were surprised by a TV station doing a “Vox-Pop” outside the cinema entrance below. Mercifully, we didn’t run into too many people we knew( a constant danger at Chili’s!) and headed home with a detour to the 101 warehouse where I bought a couple of T-shirts. I’m a complete sucker for these ‘Buy one get one free’ deals and even succumbed to the less generous ‘Buy two, get one free’ offer that was on!!
We marveled at the succulent greenery dripping across the road in the mountains as we drove through the national park this morning: it’s such a contrast to back home where the dust bowl drought areas we rode through on our recent trip stand in stark contrast. The conditions are ripe for rich and lush growth: plants seem super-sized and robust; they vary in type as you move down the slopes and amaze you with the density of their cover. I like to distract myself by looking at the plants: if I concentrate too much on the unbelievably bad driving (slooooww and incompetent!) that we witness, I’d get far too stressed.
The end goal, the beach, was flat as a table, but the sun was beating down and the water was relatively clear and blue. Cass and I had a very enjoyable swim and loll around before Wal and Josh turned up. Josh brought a tennis ball, so all sorts of action followed till we all gave up exhausted! We paid our $10NT (about 50 cents) each to get the top of the tap from the shop so we could use the water near the car park to wash our feet…. lesson here: don’t take for granted the free taps, showers etc back home, let alone get me started on the bubblers!!
We’ve had a good week and a great weekend: Cass says we need to get back to work to have a rest!
A parade of gleaming, purring Porsche motorcars, in the main, the latest and greatest models, glided up the Jinshan-Yangminshan mountain road as we neared the bottom of the hill heading the other way. We counted a dozen, then another dozen then a few more stragglers including a brand new 911 painted hot pink! Everyone here seems to have to be in some kind of club or another: if it’s not cars, it’s bikes, Harleys, BMWs, Ducatis. The gear has to be seen to be believed…we’ve taken many years to reach the point where we feel properly equipped for our bike trips: the locals here sport the very best of literally everything, straight away!
It certainly makes for some interesting viewing as we negotiate the winding road over the mountain to the beach as we did this morning at 7.30.
Yesterday, we had a pleasant lazy morning eating pancakes for brekky while reading the 1st installment of Herald clippings from Mum, which arrived mid-week. Having caught up with some Newcastle news, we watched the delayed telecast of Friday night footy and I fielded a few text and phone messages from the boys. Josh was keen to have a box after the league and so we arranged to meet in at school at 12.30. I had a pleasant surprise when I arrived to find that Wal and Shaun were joining us. We only had three sets of gloves, so we set up a little circuit on the bag, the focus pads and the speedball with someone taking the focus gloves. The air-con was not on and we were a lather of sweat very quickly. It was a great workout and we had a great laugh as well as gasping for air between the 2-minute rounds! After that, we all left feeling very proud of ourselves (especially since the previous two Saturdays had been spent recovering from the Friday night). We made plans to head to the beach the next morning if there was any action.
Cass did a much less pleasant task while I was away and headed over in the late morning heat to the Wellcome to do the grocery shopping. We were both glad to get back home to the air-conditioning and decided to head out later to an early tea at Chili’s. We had a beautiful meal as usual and were surprised by a TV station doing a “Vox-Pop” outside the cinema entrance below. Mercifully, we didn’t run into too many people we knew( a constant danger at Chili’s!) and headed home with a detour to the 101 warehouse where I bought a couple of T-shirts. I’m a complete sucker for these ‘Buy one get one free’ deals and even succumbed to the less generous ‘Buy two, get one free’ offer that was on!!
We marveled at the succulent greenery dripping across the road in the mountains as we drove through the national park this morning: it’s such a contrast to back home where the dust bowl drought areas we rode through on our recent trip stand in stark contrast. The conditions are ripe for rich and lush growth: plants seem super-sized and robust; they vary in type as you move down the slopes and amaze you with the density of their cover. I like to distract myself by looking at the plants: if I concentrate too much on the unbelievably bad driving (slooooww and incompetent!) that we witness, I’d get far too stressed.
The end goal, the beach, was flat as a table, but the sun was beating down and the water was relatively clear and blue. Cass and I had a very enjoyable swim and loll around before Wal and Josh turned up. Josh brought a tennis ball, so all sorts of action followed till we all gave up exhausted! We paid our $10NT (about 50 cents) each to get the top of the tap from the shop so we could use the water near the car park to wash our feet…. lesson here: don’t take for granted the free taps, showers etc back home, let alone get me started on the bubblers!!
We’ve had a good week and a great weekend: Cass says we need to get back to work to have a rest!
Monday, August 21, 2006
josh and dave
Never a dull moment is to be had here in Taipei, especially in the flurry of early semester meetings, mainly of the informative type, with various constituent groups. The ubiquitous “Hopes and Dreams” conferences in the Lower School over two afternoons were followed the next night by the middle school ESL night and the next night by the lower school ESL night and the next day (all day) by the LCC. Phew! To top that all off, I ended up naming a new bar in the world’s tallest building on Friday night after all this, so it was certainly a week to remember.
The MS night was pretty good for me as I just wandered around being seen and overseeing our new teacher on grade 8 who is working out really well. She was an academic, so we were a bit worried about her kiddy skills coming in, but she’s just wonderful. My other new teacher is an older gent with loads of experience working part time in the high school and he is also very impressive. I ran the Lower School night as usual and it seemed to go really well, except for the drama of no air conditioning!! This is normally not a great problem, but with 35 degree heat and a confined space filled with 150 people, it was uncomfortable to say the least. The LCC (Learning Community Council) is a group of representatives from all areas of the school who meet semi-regularly (several times a year) to map a course for the school, write the strategic plan and make action steps for its implementation. We had a very nice lunch at a flash hotel downtown, so that helped break up a pretty full-on day.
Got a call from Josh at the end of the day, as I was on the bus coming back, informing me that if we could come up with a name for the new Diamond Tony’s bar, to be located in the world’s tallest building on the 85thy floor, we could drink free beers all night. John, Wally, Josh and Gurecki were there when I arrived and Carl joined us later on. Several names had been suggested by the boys and discarded by Tony, and he had similar distaste for my “Bijou”, Sky 85”, “Cockpit”(!) and others. Finally, he liked my suggestion of “Panorama”, with a suggestion of the panoramic view, along with a name identifiable to both foreigners and Chinese. So, we got the free German beer on tap all night! Not only did we have a great party to celebrate, but we were invited to opening night by Tony…should be a great show in early November.
In Ross’ absence, Josh has been keen to do a bit of boxing training. This has been great, as it is very hard to keep motivated if you’re doing it by yourself all the time. The only trouble is that a 44 year old body has to work a tad harder than a 28 year old one…anyway, should keep me on my toes.
We have heard from Ross and Chad and they’re both doing well in vastly different environments, the word on Coomba is also all positive. Don’t know about Bobby P…he’s always been a bit of a mystery, even when he was here!
Cass came out to the beach on Sunday and soaked up a few beams before we came home, went out to lunch at Aubergine and then watched lots of torrented Australian Idol on TV in our cool cocoon away from the fierce summer heat. Surf news and pics on pointyhat
We’re both doing very well, if being extremely busy. Photos: Girls wolf down their weekend treats, Josh and Dave at Jinshan 2 and the “free beer” boys late on Friday night!
Never a dull moment is to be had here in Taipei, especially in the flurry of early semester meetings, mainly of the informative type, with various constituent groups. The ubiquitous “Hopes and Dreams” conferences in the Lower School over two afternoons were followed the next night by the middle school ESL night and the next night by the lower school ESL night and the next day (all day) by the LCC. Phew! To top that all off, I ended up naming a new bar in the world’s tallest building on Friday night after all this, so it was certainly a week to remember.
The MS night was pretty good for me as I just wandered around being seen and overseeing our new teacher on grade 8 who is working out really well. She was an academic, so we were a bit worried about her kiddy skills coming in, but she’s just wonderful. My other new teacher is an older gent with loads of experience working part time in the high school and he is also very impressive. I ran the Lower School night as usual and it seemed to go really well, except for the drama of no air conditioning!! This is normally not a great problem, but with 35 degree heat and a confined space filled with 150 people, it was uncomfortable to say the least. The LCC (Learning Community Council) is a group of representatives from all areas of the school who meet semi-regularly (several times a year) to map a course for the school, write the strategic plan and make action steps for its implementation. We had a very nice lunch at a flash hotel downtown, so that helped break up a pretty full-on day.
Got a call from Josh at the end of the day, as I was on the bus coming back, informing me that if we could come up with a name for the new Diamond Tony’s bar, to be located in the world’s tallest building on the 85thy floor, we could drink free beers all night. John, Wally, Josh and Gurecki were there when I arrived and Carl joined us later on. Several names had been suggested by the boys and discarded by Tony, and he had similar distaste for my “Bijou”, Sky 85”, “Cockpit”(!) and others. Finally, he liked my suggestion of “Panorama”, with a suggestion of the panoramic view, along with a name identifiable to both foreigners and Chinese. So, we got the free German beer on tap all night! Not only did we have a great party to celebrate, but we were invited to opening night by Tony…should be a great show in early November.
In Ross’ absence, Josh has been keen to do a bit of boxing training. This has been great, as it is very hard to keep motivated if you’re doing it by yourself all the time. The only trouble is that a 44 year old body has to work a tad harder than a 28 year old one…anyway, should keep me on my toes.
We have heard from Ross and Chad and they’re both doing well in vastly different environments, the word on Coomba is also all positive. Don’t know about Bobby P…he’s always been a bit of a mystery, even when he was here!
Cass came out to the beach on Sunday and soaked up a few beams before we came home, went out to lunch at Aubergine and then watched lots of torrented Australian Idol on TV in our cool cocoon away from the fierce summer heat. Surf news and pics on pointyhat
We’re both doing very well, if being extremely busy. Photos: Girls wolf down their weekend treats, Josh and Dave at Jinshan 2 and the “free beer” boys late on Friday night!
Sunday, August 13, 2006
country roads
It’s 36 degrees and dripping with high humidity. The air conditioner is working day and night and a trip outdoors ensures a soaking of perspiration and a need for a big cool drink. We’re back In Taipei after 2 months at home and we(I!) have got mixed feelings about the whole deal.
One of the biggest differences for me is that everywhere I turn, I miss a familiar face, every activity I do or plan doesn’t quite seem the same and the world is a very different place. It’s just that so many people who we knew well left at the end of last year, that it has changed the dynamic of the place quite dramatically, for us anyway. Taipei itself hasn’t changed of course: that familiar strange mix of exotic Asian and quirky old Chinese is mixed up all across the fabric of the city. That’s one thing that does feel familiar: the city’s pace, noise, sights and smells all remain and we’ve taken a lot of comfort in that. I think Cass is a little less troubled by the changing school population than me because even though she misses people, she still has her reliable colleague and friend, Kristin, working with her each day. I won’t go on about this, suffice to say, the transient population working in an international school means that sometimes, there is a major adjustment needed to be made.
I’m sure I write something similar each year when we get back, but I need to say it again, partly so I don’t forget it. If you live in Australia, if you live in Newcastle, you live in a very, very special place. Many people who live there know they do: but the ones who don’t should be compelled to travel to some other places in the world. I’m quite certain the appreciation factor would rise very, very quickly when they got back: some regular writers to the Herald’s editor would be the 1st I’d send!
We had one of the best bike trips ever this trip as we journeyed down the south coast, hopped across mountain ranges back and forth and traveled on some of the most magnificent bike friendly roads you can imagine. I can easily conjure up clear images of smooth roads meandering away into verdant valleys and then winding way, way up into another mountain. The crisp views needed to be shielded behind our sunglasses; it was sometimes almost too much to take in. The secret to our success was in not setting destinations, but instead, being content to follow every “tourist route” we saw. We bought new boots this trip to complement the suits we bought last year, so even the rain was held at bay.
Our unit was just too much this year. The old house went down and we watched as the park opposite underwent various transformations, all the while being able to look beyond to the amazing view that opened up. We bought the unit with this goal in mind of course, and we were prepared to wait for many more years, so this is a real bonus for us. Our daily 6 km walks along the shore on the Bather’s Way, up the hill and down to the Bogey Hole and back were such a pleasure: the few days of rain really disappointed us if we couldn’t get out to do it. The walk back down the hill towards Bar Beach is so exhilarating that we felt the need to comment on it each day and we always got an extra spring in our step as we admired the great sweep of coastline stretching all the way to Norah Head.
I had some good surfs and the “Pointyhat” logo on the fish drew a couple of questions from the Merewether boys! Our party was also great fun: we always enjoy so much the fact that our old friends still turn up to say g’day after all these years away. Even though it had been 2 years since our last big party it felt like yesterday. Cass and I enjoyed a number of dinners out, either at restaurants or at people’s house and every one of these nights was magnificent: our clothes are certainly a little tighter since we got back!!
Family get-togethers were wonderful chances to hear what had happened over the past year and we enjoyed seeing how much all the kids had grown and what was happening with sisters and partners. Sue’s little baby, Duncan, born just before we left, had a few struggles when we were home but I’m glad to report that he is healthy and happy now.
Our parents were pleased to see us too and we had plenty of time to catch up, but as usual, never enough. The balancing act is, as always, how to see everyone, yet still take time out to have that all important relaxing time, in this our one big holiday of the year. I think we may have erred a little too heavily on the relaxation side this year, but noone else is on holidays at this time, and their busy lives don’t go on hold just because we turn up!
Virg’n Mary are so happy to see us, the Chinese are not rattling their sabers right at this moment and we live in an exciting place in the world……now, if those friends would just come back…………..!
It’s 36 degrees and dripping with high humidity. The air conditioner is working day and night and a trip outdoors ensures a soaking of perspiration and a need for a big cool drink. We’re back In Taipei after 2 months at home and we(I!) have got mixed feelings about the whole deal.
One of the biggest differences for me is that everywhere I turn, I miss a familiar face, every activity I do or plan doesn’t quite seem the same and the world is a very different place. It’s just that so many people who we knew well left at the end of last year, that it has changed the dynamic of the place quite dramatically, for us anyway. Taipei itself hasn’t changed of course: that familiar strange mix of exotic Asian and quirky old Chinese is mixed up all across the fabric of the city. That’s one thing that does feel familiar: the city’s pace, noise, sights and smells all remain and we’ve taken a lot of comfort in that. I think Cass is a little less troubled by the changing school population than me because even though she misses people, she still has her reliable colleague and friend, Kristin, working with her each day. I won’t go on about this, suffice to say, the transient population working in an international school means that sometimes, there is a major adjustment needed to be made.
I’m sure I write something similar each year when we get back, but I need to say it again, partly so I don’t forget it. If you live in Australia, if you live in Newcastle, you live in a very, very special place. Many people who live there know they do: but the ones who don’t should be compelled to travel to some other places in the world. I’m quite certain the appreciation factor would rise very, very quickly when they got back: some regular writers to the Herald’s editor would be the 1st I’d send!
We had one of the best bike trips ever this trip as we journeyed down the south coast, hopped across mountain ranges back and forth and traveled on some of the most magnificent bike friendly roads you can imagine. I can easily conjure up clear images of smooth roads meandering away into verdant valleys and then winding way, way up into another mountain. The crisp views needed to be shielded behind our sunglasses; it was sometimes almost too much to take in. The secret to our success was in not setting destinations, but instead, being content to follow every “tourist route” we saw. We bought new boots this trip to complement the suits we bought last year, so even the rain was held at bay.
Our unit was just too much this year. The old house went down and we watched as the park opposite underwent various transformations, all the while being able to look beyond to the amazing view that opened up. We bought the unit with this goal in mind of course, and we were prepared to wait for many more years, so this is a real bonus for us. Our daily 6 km walks along the shore on the Bather’s Way, up the hill and down to the Bogey Hole and back were such a pleasure: the few days of rain really disappointed us if we couldn’t get out to do it. The walk back down the hill towards Bar Beach is so exhilarating that we felt the need to comment on it each day and we always got an extra spring in our step as we admired the great sweep of coastline stretching all the way to Norah Head.
I had some good surfs and the “Pointyhat” logo on the fish drew a couple of questions from the Merewether boys! Our party was also great fun: we always enjoy so much the fact that our old friends still turn up to say g’day after all these years away. Even though it had been 2 years since our last big party it felt like yesterday. Cass and I enjoyed a number of dinners out, either at restaurants or at people’s house and every one of these nights was magnificent: our clothes are certainly a little tighter since we got back!!
Family get-togethers were wonderful chances to hear what had happened over the past year and we enjoyed seeing how much all the kids had grown and what was happening with sisters and partners. Sue’s little baby, Duncan, born just before we left, had a few struggles when we were home but I’m glad to report that he is healthy and happy now.
Our parents were pleased to see us too and we had plenty of time to catch up, but as usual, never enough. The balancing act is, as always, how to see everyone, yet still take time out to have that all important relaxing time, in this our one big holiday of the year. I think we may have erred a little too heavily on the relaxation side this year, but noone else is on holidays at this time, and their busy lives don’t go on hold just because we turn up!
Virg’n Mary are so happy to see us, the Chinese are not rattling their sabers right at this moment and we live in an exciting place in the world……now, if those friends would just come back…………..!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)