Sunday, November 26, 2006
girls relax
I mused some time ago that if the cricket was broadcast here, I just might not go back home. I will change my mind and state that we will still come home at some stage, but the virtually unthinkable has happened: we watched the first Ashes test ball by ball live over this long weekend.
Having ramped up the computer’s speed and memory and replacing the video card and sound card, I had made some great strides towards this momentous event some time back. I also had a huge external hard drive to which I transferred nearly everything, allowing the internal hard drive to function as well as possible for streaming.
We subscribed to an English site which broadcasts all sorts of sport over the internet on a pay per view system. To watch this test we had to buy it for $30 U.S. on credit card. It seems steep when you’re used to getting it all for free, but in a country that just has no access to these broadcasts, we thought it was a pretty good price for so many hours of entertainment.
Cass was riveted to the lounge for most of the 4 days play as was I except I dashed to the beach before dawn one day and in the lunch break on another to maximize the time we had to watch it! The dawn dash was just fantastic: I got wave after wave of fairly good quality, the best part being the lack of any other person at all. It was quite blissful out there and very "UnTaiwanese" I suppose as it was so calm and peaceful. Anyway, back to the cricket. Shaun and Lewy dropped in to watch a session or two as did Wal and Tina. Carl subscribed as well and he and Hiroko and the boys enjoyed it immensely. It was just what we needed after a very long semester with only one other very short break. We did manage to get out of the house at some stages (!) and enjoyed some great meals and fantastic autumn weather. It’s usually starting to get a little cool by now, yet Cassy is lamenting the fact that she can’t break out her winter wardrobe just yet, as the temperatures are just perfect during the day, with a hint of a chilly breeze when the sun goes down the only indication that winter is approaching. I’m sure we’ll just start getting used to the cool when we hop on the plane to come back to a scorching Aussie summer: not that we’re complaining!
We both had a wonderful long weekend for Thanksgiving, it was so relaxing. Our friends from Hobart, Shaun and Katie, whose wedding we attended 2 Christmases ago, had their first baby yesterday. They are doing well, but Shaun looks just a little shell shocked: he’d been sitting on our lounge watching the cricket on Thursday, blissfully unaware of events about to unfold and was a father the next morning after a whirlwind labour and mad taxi dash to the hospital. It makes us tired just thinking about it!! Photos: The “Rocket” just after dawn, a crowd at the rocket the next day, and the girls relaxing.
I mused some time ago that if the cricket was broadcast here, I just might not go back home. I will change my mind and state that we will still come home at some stage, but the virtually unthinkable has happened: we watched the first Ashes test ball by ball live over this long weekend.
Having ramped up the computer’s speed and memory and replacing the video card and sound card, I had made some great strides towards this momentous event some time back. I also had a huge external hard drive to which I transferred nearly everything, allowing the internal hard drive to function as well as possible for streaming.
We subscribed to an English site which broadcasts all sorts of sport over the internet on a pay per view system. To watch this test we had to buy it for $30 U.S. on credit card. It seems steep when you’re used to getting it all for free, but in a country that just has no access to these broadcasts, we thought it was a pretty good price for so many hours of entertainment.
Cass was riveted to the lounge for most of the 4 days play as was I except I dashed to the beach before dawn one day and in the lunch break on another to maximize the time we had to watch it! The dawn dash was just fantastic: I got wave after wave of fairly good quality, the best part being the lack of any other person at all. It was quite blissful out there and very "UnTaiwanese" I suppose as it was so calm and peaceful. Anyway, back to the cricket. Shaun and Lewy dropped in to watch a session or two as did Wal and Tina. Carl subscribed as well and he and Hiroko and the boys enjoyed it immensely. It was just what we needed after a very long semester with only one other very short break. We did manage to get out of the house at some stages (!) and enjoyed some great meals and fantastic autumn weather. It’s usually starting to get a little cool by now, yet Cassy is lamenting the fact that she can’t break out her winter wardrobe just yet, as the temperatures are just perfect during the day, with a hint of a chilly breeze when the sun goes down the only indication that winter is approaching. I’m sure we’ll just start getting used to the cool when we hop on the plane to come back to a scorching Aussie summer: not that we’re complaining!
We both had a wonderful long weekend for Thanksgiving, it was so relaxing. Our friends from Hobart, Shaun and Katie, whose wedding we attended 2 Christmases ago, had their first baby yesterday. They are doing well, but Shaun looks just a little shell shocked: he’d been sitting on our lounge watching the cricket on Thursday, blissfully unaware of events about to unfold and was a father the next morning after a whirlwind labour and mad taxi dash to the hospital. It makes us tired just thinking about it!! Photos: The “Rocket” just after dawn, a crowd at the rocket the next day, and the girls relaxing.
Sunday, November 19, 2006
field day
The Model United Nations Convention held here at school this week thwarted my attempts to hit the bag this Friday. As the representative for the Congo shared the concerns of his country about multinational oil companies’ exploitation, the staccato sounds of bashing the bag or the speed ball probably wouldn’t have gone down too well! I went into the weight room for a while instead, before joining a few of the boys for a beer at Diamond Tony’s. We had a great afternoon out on the terrace looking down the hill towards school as the sun went down, but I went home pretty early as Cass and I were booked for an important task the next day. Cass had gone with Kathy down to the bag shop to pick up some goods which looked fantastic, after spending the day in professional development, the highlight of which was a lunch at Chili’s!
Saturday, we were booked up to do one of the tri-annual ESL admissions tests. Even though we’ve had over a hundred applicants in the past and this time just a dozen, I made an executive decision, and decided we needed two people on deck to proctor the exam. It’s just not safe to have one person: if someone, teacher or student falls ill etc. what could be done? Anyway, I’ll claim our daily rate of pay (for each of us) as we then graded and sorted the exams. It took all morning for the exam and a time afterwards to grade so we felt pretty tired at the end of it. Casino Royale, the latest Bond extravaganza beckoned later in the afternoon, so we bought our usual seats and scootered over to Miramar. It was superb! I’m ranking this the best Bond film ever. Not only did it have the most exciting of Big Bold Bond stunt scenes, but Bond himself was slightly vulnerable and as Cass pointed out, the women in the film slightly more than just two dimensional babes. Model and computer generation skills added to an amazing climactic scene which had to be seen to be believed…great fun! We had dinner at Aubergine then headed home and had an early night, only to get up again at 11pm in time to watch the Aussies smack the Poms in the delayed rugby league test.
After a late night due to the footy and a very busy Saturday, we were pretty tired this morning. We’d planned to head to the coast if there was any surf at all, but the webcams showed a beautiful sunny day, no wind and only a six inch swell. Knowing this, we luxuriated in a long, relaxed breakfast and then both had a good read of our books, Ian McEuan’s “Saturday” for me and P.D.James’ “The Lighthouse” for Cassy which are both clever and captivating. I fell asleep on the lounge for a little while after that (!) before we decided to go over to the National Palace Museum. The National Palace has been going through a long and costly renovation and though the façade looks exactly the same, the interior is a gleaming new, stylish interior of muted colour and gorgeous marble. The gift shop alone is worth the visit, items ranging from the kitsch (pens and mouse mats decorated with pictures of Chinese treasures) through to the stupendous (beautiful centuries old C’hing dynasty pottery pieces at premium prices). A Starbucks snacky lunch was relaxing, and we even picked up a little bottle of caramel sauce to add some pizzazz to our Thanksgiving treats!
Short week this week as we will truly give thanks to working in an American school: Thanksgiving gives us a 4 day weekend starting on Thursday. We’ve ordered an apple pie and a blueberry pie from food services, bought a 5 day pass to the internet rights to the 1st Ashes test which starts 7am Taiwan time on Thursday! (We really hope we get an uninterrupted feed…fingers crossed) There will be some of the Aussie boys here at that early hour, hopefully to see Glenn McGrath bowl that first ball of another Ashes summer: it will be surreal watching it from here, raisin toast and coffee early in the morning but, oh, so sweet!
Photos: Dave on field day with three of his enthusiastic third graders! Two shots of Cassy at the National Palace Museum and another of all 4 of us with Cassy’s orchid!
The Model United Nations Convention held here at school this week thwarted my attempts to hit the bag this Friday. As the representative for the Congo shared the concerns of his country about multinational oil companies’ exploitation, the staccato sounds of bashing the bag or the speed ball probably wouldn’t have gone down too well! I went into the weight room for a while instead, before joining a few of the boys for a beer at Diamond Tony’s. We had a great afternoon out on the terrace looking down the hill towards school as the sun went down, but I went home pretty early as Cass and I were booked for an important task the next day. Cass had gone with Kathy down to the bag shop to pick up some goods which looked fantastic, after spending the day in professional development, the highlight of which was a lunch at Chili’s!
Saturday, we were booked up to do one of the tri-annual ESL admissions tests. Even though we’ve had over a hundred applicants in the past and this time just a dozen, I made an executive decision, and decided we needed two people on deck to proctor the exam. It’s just not safe to have one person: if someone, teacher or student falls ill etc. what could be done? Anyway, I’ll claim our daily rate of pay (for each of us) as we then graded and sorted the exams. It took all morning for the exam and a time afterwards to grade so we felt pretty tired at the end of it. Casino Royale, the latest Bond extravaganza beckoned later in the afternoon, so we bought our usual seats and scootered over to Miramar. It was superb! I’m ranking this the best Bond film ever. Not only did it have the most exciting of Big Bold Bond stunt scenes, but Bond himself was slightly vulnerable and as Cass pointed out, the women in the film slightly more than just two dimensional babes. Model and computer generation skills added to an amazing climactic scene which had to be seen to be believed…great fun! We had dinner at Aubergine then headed home and had an early night, only to get up again at 11pm in time to watch the Aussies smack the Poms in the delayed rugby league test.
After a late night due to the footy and a very busy Saturday, we were pretty tired this morning. We’d planned to head to the coast if there was any surf at all, but the webcams showed a beautiful sunny day, no wind and only a six inch swell. Knowing this, we luxuriated in a long, relaxed breakfast and then both had a good read of our books, Ian McEuan’s “Saturday” for me and P.D.James’ “The Lighthouse” for Cassy which are both clever and captivating. I fell asleep on the lounge for a little while after that (!) before we decided to go over to the National Palace Museum. The National Palace has been going through a long and costly renovation and though the façade looks exactly the same, the interior is a gleaming new, stylish interior of muted colour and gorgeous marble. The gift shop alone is worth the visit, items ranging from the kitsch (pens and mouse mats decorated with pictures of Chinese treasures) through to the stupendous (beautiful centuries old C’hing dynasty pottery pieces at premium prices). A Starbucks snacky lunch was relaxing, and we even picked up a little bottle of caramel sauce to add some pizzazz to our Thanksgiving treats!
Short week this week as we will truly give thanks to working in an American school: Thanksgiving gives us a 4 day weekend starting on Thursday. We’ve ordered an apple pie and a blueberry pie from food services, bought a 5 day pass to the internet rights to the 1st Ashes test which starts 7am Taiwan time on Thursday! (We really hope we get an uninterrupted feed…fingers crossed) There will be some of the Aussie boys here at that early hour, hopefully to see Glenn McGrath bowl that first ball of another Ashes summer: it will be surreal watching it from here, raisin toast and coffee early in the morning but, oh, so sweet!
Photos: Dave on field day with three of his enthusiastic third graders! Two shots of Cassy at the National Palace Museum and another of all 4 of us with Cassy’s orchid!
Sunday, November 12, 2006
Not another Tienmu restaurant biting the dust! We went out on Friday evening ready to taste the Thai delights available at the Orchid and the Elephant on Tienmu East Rd. only to find the ominous red sign with black characters drawn asking for a new tenant. Why, we asked ourselves? This was great authentic Thai food served in beautiful clean and tasteful surrounds: it always seemed packed and popular. Well, I suppose we hadn’t been for a few months either. Taipei residents are so spoiled for choice in eating establishments and very, very unforgiving for those that charge what they feel is a premium. The poor restaurateurs must have such a low margin, I don’t know why anyone gets into it. Anyway, we went off to “Bird”, but the sign was off and no-one seemed home so we scootered off to the west to find the “heard of, but never been to” Thai Town. Bad move! We couldn’t find it in the maelstrom of Friday night traffic so made our way back to ye ole faithful Café India, where we enjoyed an absolutely mouth watering array of Indian delicacies.
Saturday’s lazy morning passed pleasantly as we fired up the coffee maker and ate raison toast and pancakes while enjoying lots of news from home via Herald clippings which we’re still receiving with great glee on a regular basis from Mum. Cass had arranged with her friend Kathy to visit the megalithic Taipei Jade Market (which Mum would also remember!) to have a look for some items. She went and saw her sapphire man, Kumar, but was disappointed in his lack of wares and lack of prospects for any more under a reasonable price. They also went to the adjoining flower market which is modeled after the jade market and is on the same gargantuan scale. How individual stallholders make a go of it is perplexing to say the least: perhaps they used to be restaurateurs! Cass arrived home with no gems (unusual!), but with an exquisite orchid instead, which we’ll try to keep alive as long as possible, neither one of us claiming to have anything remotely resembling a green thumb! I went off with Carl at midday to find the elusive expressway route to Wanli. We threaded our way through some traffic mayhem at Neihu before seamlessly sluicing onto the number 1 expressway north. From here, we went through the tollgates before transferring to expressway 3 and then exited at Wanli. “Backdoor Benny” style, we then traveled the last few Ks of the mountain road to the sea and popped up at Green Bay. Hurrah, we’d done it! We had a surf at the Rocket, not much good, but we managed to attract quite a crowd unfortunately. On the way home we missed the Neihu turnoff and experienced a few nervous moments in the guts of Taipei, but we made it out alive!
Sunday was almost a déjà vu of Saturday. The same lazy brekky followed by various plans, which all ended up being shelved as the sun came out again. We decided to take the mountain road to the activity centre at Jinshan. It was big and wild and even though we were expecting nice warm weather and had optimistically brought the beach umbrella, it was a little chilly and overcast. We ended up at the Rocket after checking Green Bay. It was pretty big and wild, but I went out by myself, safe in the knowledge that Carl was just a few minutes behind us. It proved to be really big and wild, but thoroughly enjoyable and I managed to get a fair few good waves. The best thing is, I just love the crowds here: when it gets above about 4 foot on the set, most of the local boys just don’t want to know!
We had a great weekend, topped off by finally finding the last few episodes of Australian Idol on an unexplored torrent site. I’ve dutifully downloaded same and we’ll have our Sunday dinner watching them, just as if we were at home. This overseas life is not all hardship(!) Photos: Cass with goods, Dave on a Rocket wave, Dave’s new fish and Cassy not too sure about Dave’s lovely new “hair”!
Wednesday, November 08, 2006
Writing this blog each week can become, well, tedious. For that reason and that alone, I gave it a miss this Sunday/Monday and said….”no, not this week”. See how long I lasted?! That said, and unlike previous times when I’ve said this will be a short one, then gone on to wax lyrically about the minutia of our lives, this one will be short!
We’re in a pretty cruisy zone here at the moment, both very fit and healthy and enjoying the change of weather. I’ve started walking to school each day again with Cass and I hit the bag and do some focus pads with either Josh or Wal (or both) most afternoons. I’d got into a very bad habit of riding the scooter to school, but we both really enjoy the walk: it clears the head both ways, in the morning from a good snooze and in the afternoon/evening, gives us a chance to dissect the happenings of the day and plan what we’ll do next whether it be socially or professionally.
The surf has been pretty crappy even by Taiwan standards lately, which you can probably tell looking at what I’m posting on Pointyhat. I’m putting all sorts of rubbish up there, much of which has but a very tenuous link with surfing!
We paid for a live stream of the Champion’s Trophy final in cricket the other day and it was very disappointing. We got a much interrupted feed unlike the week prior, when you could have been forgiven for thinking we back home in Australia watching the Aussies strut their stuff. We’ve already paid for the first two tests against the Poms, so we hope we have much better luck with the feed.
Anyway, that’s about it. Photos sparse as well, so how about Dave “hard at work” in the office, and directing traffic on the upper field on grade 3's field day.
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