Another Saturday and Sunday completely bereft of any form of exercise for me feeling sluggish and lazy, the surf on the north coast barely lapping the shore, the sun in Tienmu searing the back of our retinas, piercing down from unusually clear blue skies and an enervating blanket of heat weighs heavy over the city. On Friday night we had a few beers at Diamond Tony’s but even eschewed our well loved spot on the outdoor patio looking down the hill for a spot inside in the air-conditioning: it was just too hot.Saturday, bright and bursting with heat from very early in the morning, saw us with thoughts of staying indoors. After watching the footy replay mid-morning however, we decided to get the car out of the basement car park at school, where it has sat patiently for weeks waiting for the swell to beckon us over the hill. Necessary shopping, not swell, was our motivation and we went and did a big car run to Carrefour where we stocked up on cat litter for the break and Coke Lights for the summer heat (I know it looks pretty weird, but this is what happens when you don’t have a car at beck and call every day!). Now that should keep us going for a while!
While we had the car out and about I went and got it washed at the local automatic car wash, only for the little, wizened up “old” man who runs it to point out a sign that it would be closing soon. In my broken Chinese and both of us gesticulating for meaning, I ascertained that the school had bought his car wash and he was happy with the price and that he could retire at 47 (I think I must have got that bit wrong: the guy’s 60 in the shade!). Anyway after that little bit of theatre, Cass and I headed off to Miramar at Neihu to have a late lunch at TGIFs and go to a movie. The Miramar at Neihu, even though much further away has massive screens, so tends to be more suitable for action spectaculars in particular. We went and saw Nicholas Cage’s new movie “Next” and found it to be quite amazing. The premise seems similar to movies like Memento, Run Lola Run and a recent one with Denzel that I can’t remember the name of, but the acting from Cage and Julianne Moore along with a tight script kept this one humming along. Roll on the sequel!
Before the movie we had a late lunch at Thank God It’s Friday’s (TGI Fridays), an American chain, specializing in Tex-Mex fare. It was really good and Cassy’s double stack quesadillas and my Wicked Chicken were served fairly efficiently and in perfect time to have a nice lazy meal then drift straight over to the pictures. On the way back to the car (which we had parked in a timed spot on the street) we decided to venture in to the weirdest looking building in Neihu, sitting opposite our car park. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the camera, because it is near impossible to describe, but suffice to say that it is something like the creature from the Alien movies snaking its way over a 4 storey building. Inside, the strange theme continues and aboriginal fishing boats adorn an artificial lake in the middle of one floor. It is inspired by ancient Taiwanese aboriginal design and is a restaurant serving a kind of Taiwanese-Aboriginal-Traditional Chinese fusion…not really our cup of tea!
We’ve been hunkered inside today with the air-conditioner on and curtains drawn. I went out at lunch to get us something to eat and felt physically assaulted by the time I got back! Luckily, we’d used the Auburgino well yesterday and even did our regular Wellcome shopping on the way back from Neihu, so there wasn’t any need to venture out. As you can imagine, prospects of the last week and a half at school in this heat are not terribly attractive!
Photos: forgetful me missed some great shots yesterday, so we photographed the girls when we got home on a mountain of Coke and cat litter. The other photo points out that we certainly still don’t have everything over here just yet: the water dispenser is necessary because we can’t drink the water from the tap and it delivers hot, room temp and cold. The little oven next to it is not a microwave oven but the convection oven itself, from which Cassy produces pavs and cakes indistinguishable from “normal” ones.