We’ve had a very uneventful week here in Taipei, Cass and I both feel a little jaded after our recent exertions and have mark timed through to the weekend, where we also had a very, very relaxed time. Our big adventure was to finally get out to the coast again after about 3 weeks of poor weather, being too busy or having no surf.Cassy wound up her annual stint on the middle school play last weekend and as usual, it was a production bigger than Ben Hur, the “stars” receiving floral tributes bigger than themselves and everyone in a massive frenzy of self-congratulation. It is a great triumph each year and some of the performances wrought from shy and self conscious little 6th, 7th, and 8th graders are nothing short of unbelievable, but I do wonder why they have to be sooo “over the top”….must be the American influence methinks! Anyway, Cassy was most pleased with her crew of makeup girls and she had glowing reports (what else?!), so all’s well in the world of make-believe. She was able to relax a little this weekend instead of rushing off to nightly performances and matinees.
I suffered my first real bout of jet lag this week. Even though I did exactly what you’re supposed to do, and adjusted back to my current time zone and sleep patterns, I was unable to shake it. I had the day off on Thursday and sleep all night and right through until 1.30 in the afternoon! We’ve managed to avoid this common problem on any of our other trips across time zones, but not this time: I hope it’s not a sign of age! This phenomenon has very much disrupted my week, plus the enormous backlog of work I had to deal with after a week away. Dealing with emails and meetings with parents took an inordinate amount of time this week and I didn’t seem to have the time or the energy to do the 2 things I wanted to do: exercise and study Mandarin. I’ve made a vow to begin afresh tomorrow for the start of a new working week.
We enjoyed a glorious day out on the coast today and went over to the beach at about 7.30am. Carl was on his way independently and we met up at the Rocket after he reported that the break in town at Jinshan was too small. The Rocket was far too full so we went back down to one of our old favorites, the “cliff”, nestled right next to the outlet from the nuclear power plant (the water’s always warm and comfortable!!). Cass perched under a “pointy hat” high on the cliff and read her book, surveyed the scene, and took a few photos and videos of the vague attempts at surfing in the water. For a view through her lens, check pointyhat here. Carl and I managed a couple of hours in the water and I even managed to sit through most of the football this afternoon without nodding off!
I’ve included some more Aberdeen shots today: beautiful streets and parks, subtle business signage in the main street and some banners of local tribute bands. I even managed to take one shot at a plenary session at the conference: very boring, just to prove I did, indeed, attend! Right at the top however, something purely and peculiarly Taiwanese: Cassy received this as a free gift at the supermarket and yes, it is designed to give you a bigger and more prominent nose…strangely enough, I promise I won’t be trying it!!