We really had thought that the sapping summer heat was on its way, but it came back with a vengeance this weekend, perhaps in response to the latest typhoon dragging its humidity curtain over the top of the island through the week, leaving behind clear, blue skies, which would have been incongruous with anything less than a good old Taipei baking! Cassy survived a fearful battering over three days and two days on the northern tip before (belatedly in my opinion) her camp was called off on Wednesday, only for her to endure “fun” activities at school on the remaining two days! The best thing for her, of course, was to sleep in her own bed and feel clean and dry.

Friday night for me was up at Gerry’s place for the preliminary final in the AFL and a great crowd gathered for the festivities. Gerry is a die hard Collingwood supporter and despite his bluster and what we thought was mis-placed confidence in his team, the Geelong cats were expected to deal with the Pies pretty easily. As it turned out the game ebbed and flowed, excitement almost turning to panic at times and it wasn’t till the last 10 minutes that the cats stamped their authority on the game. It was a terrific night filled with boisterous, blokey stuff, beer, meat pies and no re-introduction of the infamous pastie that caused all the trouble at grand final day last year…there is, however, still another weekend to get through before the “all clear” can be sounded!

Talk about a lazy Saturday: the surf was shot, so we decided not to do a run out to the coast. Instead we caught up with lots of insidey kind of things, like mindless trawling through the internet, reading papers and books, doing the grocery shopping (Cass) and eventuating in watching some good Aussie TV we had and getting some takeaway Alleycats pizza.

Sunday dawned and we had great intentions to do something a little more productive. One of our good friends is turning 60 next month and Cass was keen to get to the Jade Market and buy some things that she had judged would be just perfect color wise, considering some recent purchases made by said friend. As always the trip down on the MRT provided great entertainment, although I think I was a very poor substitute for “meeting Kathy on the dyke” and having a good jewelry type of outing. As much as I try, I cannot muster more than the vaguest enthusiasm for all the glittering prizes down at this market. The kilometers of aisles seem to generate sparkling wonderment in most females who enter, but I do get bored pretty quickly! I do acknowledge that the reverse happens in electronic stores, so I suppose I can just say that it all adds to the spice of life: imagine if we were all the same?! Cassy was lucky to find exactly what she wanted after a very short period and after I made some obligatory but pathetically feeble attempts at lowering the price, we walked away with our prizes.

As lunchtime was approaching, we decided to go a few stops and get out at Taipei main station, where we wandered down the underground mall for a while before emerging to street level, only to dive down again into the basement of the Shin Kong Mitsukoshi building in the heart of the city. There is a comprehensive underground eat street here and we continued our theme of late of eating Thai food and got another curry set which was cheap and delicious. On the way in, we noticed with interest that the former Sky View entrance was sadly deserted with construction tape barring entry to a dusty corridor. The site of the entrance to the former highest point in the city with view deck was a little sad: we’d taken a number of visitors here and marveled at the view when we first arrived. I suppose it just can’t compete with the slick new Taipei 101, the world’s tallest with the fastest elevators in the world etc etc. The MRT proved it has lost none of its lustre however, as it zipped us home in record time to catch the last of the weekend’s football finals. Photos are of the Jade and gem market, a strange sign on the way, the underground eating area and the ubiquitous promotion girls who lurk around major shopping spots on every weekend.

At one stage on Friday evening I didn’t know where to look. Mick Fanning was slotting into an awesome, yawning barrel at Teahupoo on one TV while diagonally across the room the AFL semi final was just entering the 3rd quarter. To top things off, Gilly was blasting a Freddy Flintoff delivery over the pickets in the Twenty20 match between Australia and England. All I can say is: thank you for modern technology and satellite TV! All this and more in a tiny hole in the wall in Tienmu, sucking shows off the South African satellite feed, ABC Asia Pacific network and the Indian cable: we’re just too spoilt.

We were at the Green Bar to watch some footy and cricket after the end of two moderately tedious PD days. As is an on again/off again tradition at the end of these two days, faculty were invited to have a couple of drinks on the school at the Pig and Whistle. This went on to the Green eventually and then on home. Cass was pretty keen to avoid the crush at the Pig, partly because she just doesn’t like it and partly because she wanted some downtime at home before she heads off to Grade 8 camp this week. This yearly event is not her favorite time of year, but she is always very stoic and takes it in her stride. I’ve been known to whinge long and loud about my one night stay in comparative luxury, so I quite admire her approach! She’ll miss having Kathy around, but this will be partly alleviated by Kristin making a re-appearance this year. She’s been busy packing and getting the requisite supplies together, such as tiny disposable raincoats to put in her backpack: not an item of clothing Cassy normally has to hand!

We had a really good day yesterday. After a long iced latte (I had an iced latte caramel macadamia, whatever that is!) we wandered over to the Mitsukoshi complex in Tienmu to watch a movie. Prior to that I thought I’d whiz downstairs to FNAC, the electronics store to pre-order my iPod Touch. I’m getting the bigger 16 GB model and am really excited about it. I had to pay upfront, and it is due some time in October, the earlier the better for me! Cassy finds this excitement wildly amusing and I suppose it is a little strange, but I’ve held off buying a new iPod for years in the hope that they would bring a wide screen video model out. Not only that, but it is touch screen and has wi-fi internet capability. Obviously, I could go on and on here but in case you’re in the Cassy excitement factor camp, I’ll stop here! If you’re really interested, check this out and you’ll get the idea.
The movie was “The Brave One”, and we went along with only moderate expectations. It turned out to be really compelling, with a couple of star turns from the two leads, Jodie Foster and Terrance Howard. It had real suspense and plausible and genuine character driven scenes complementing the basic vigilante storyline. We’d give it a B for plot and A- for acting. After that we went to the 7th floor to redeem our “prize” for buying something: the FNAC salesman seemed very excited about it. It turned out to be a bit of a fizzer, just a 100NT$ gift voucher, but it did have a hidden bonus: we walked straight past the door of Thai Town restaurant and decided to have an early dinner. This is a very efficient Thai restaurant, certainly not exquisite Thai food, but tasty, fresh and clean. The staff members all seem to speak perfect English which is always a massive bonus! After our Golden Moon Shrimp cakes and green curries, we motored home to catch the end of the AFL footy. After receiving and sending text messages from Josh and Chad in Singapore and Coomba in Hong Kong during the game, we marveled again at our shrinking world in terms of instant communication.
This morning I raced over to catch a bit of some typhoon swell just brushing the north east tip of the island before scurrying up to Japan (the typhoon, not me!), and managed to get some good solid swell in extremely uncrowded conditions (make that just 1: me) I just love it when the waves build and the crowds thin over here…it makes a pleasant change from the usual two foot and “walk on water” clogging crowds we usually experience. I went to Pointies first, but decided not to risk the wrath of the assembled fledgling Taipei lifeguard brigade. They were equipped with life jackets and headgear and seemed very intent on saving themselves and playing with their equipment, so instead of enduring a spirited blast of various whistles ordering me out of the “dangerous” waters, I chose instead to travel 5 minutes down the road to the deserted Rocket.

After a good, but exhausting surf, I was keen to get home to watch the NRL semi, but my plans were partly thwarted by a second group of overly officious officialdom. A couple of policeman stopped traffic at the Starbucks intersection at Yangminshan village for 17 minutes! I was a touch miffed by the time they eventually let us through! Well, Cassy is nearly off to camp as I said, so I’ll have the onerous responsibility of looking after the eating, pooing machine that is Virg’n Mary till Friday. I’m sure I’ll cope….(!) Photos today are a little quirky and on a mini transport theme. A dinosaur clad lad on a scooter caused quite a stir and lots of laughs, an older guy on a motorbike wears yellow Crocs and carries the shopping and an even older guy plies his trade on traditional bike and pointy hat! The next photo is of the super efficient Jinshan lifeguard brigade and the last one of the grade 3 teachers.

Wal and Shaun came round to watch the first semi of the NRL finals on Friday night while we waited for Coobsey to jet in from Hong Kong. Originally due in Tienmu at 7.30, he had missed his flight and now wasn’t expected until about 10. After the game we went down to the Green to wait for him and when he arrived the place was humming along quite nicely. It was an interesting experience for me as I am not drinking anything, because I’m taking some strong antibiotics. The volume rose, the crowd got sillier: it was really very entertaining! Coomba subsequently arrived and we had a great old chat for a few hours till I left him in Wal’s capable (?!) hands for the remainder of the evening.

On Saturday, we toyed with the idea of meeting with him for brunch with a group of others, but decided that we couldn’t make it. Instead, after our usual weekend brekky of toast, coffee, lazing around and reading the Herald clippings from Mum, we decided to venture downtown to a Turkish place we’d found out about. It was pretty hard to find, tucked into a one way lane off the main roads, but it was surely worth it. The food was excellent and we both wolfed down our choices. I had Iranian chicken with salad and Cass had hummus with tahini, falafel and pida. Wow!! This place was fantastic and well worth the hike down. We even figured out after the event that there is an MRT station fairly near, so next time, on the train we go.

Today we decided to head over to the east coast but left our run a little late and the usual good run was marred by a stack of Sunday Freeway Drivers. This Taiwanese phenomenon appears after 10am on any given Sunday and proceeds to block all lanes of an otherwise excellent elevated road and tunnel system. In fact we crawled through 20km of tunnels averaging about 40 km/h! When we were spat out at Toucheng, we took about 15 minutes to go a couple of kilometers to the Wushi Harbour Wall where we planned to spend a few hours surfing, swimming and eating our picnic lunch that Cassy had made. There was some massive festival going on at Wushi Harbour, with great battalions of tour buses making an impenetrable wall up along the carpark. When we eventually spied the surf, we could not believe our eyes. Check pointyhat here for some amazing photos and a video. Looks like our previously underutilized surf haven is now well and truly on the Taipei trendies map. It is just an hours drive from Taipei central now as opposed to about an hour and a half to Jinshan, so I suppose it had to happen.

Anyway, we gave that the flick and went to the nearby “Taj Mahal” where the crowd was not much better. I got a few little waves, but had more success body bashing and we both enjoyed a swim even though the water was pretty warm. Cass sheltered under our brand new umbrella which lasted about 10 minutes before shredding itself in a light zephyr…oh well, can’t expect great things for $4! As we both huddled under the tiny shade footprint we thought we’d be better off saving our lunch for further along the coast. We stopped at a tidal pool area with some walking trails and lots of stalls selling all types of seafood (remember Chris and Val?). As we were just finishing our sandwiches perched on a rather rustic, Flintstonesesque rock outdoor setting, a skinny little waif of a cat came and cried for some food. On the way back we bought what we thought was just one fish to give the cat, but it turned out to be one plateful! The cat was nowhere to be seen, but we dropped off a brace of fat little fish for him to sniff out later.

We’ve had an absolute feast of football this weekend, with every semi of both NRL and AFL being shown on the Australia Network, so we’ve loved every minute. This is set to continue right up till the grand finals, so the weekends in September look pretty full already! Photos today include two at Sababa, one of the robust umbrella (!), a butterfly that Cassy took multiple photos of outside the Toucheng 7/11 and Chiang Kai Chek Concert Hall undergoing major restoration work with an amazing giant picture of it on the outside to hide the scaffolds!

It’s still stinking hot here but we had a touch of relief with a rollicking thunderstorm that came and went in a wild melee before leaving an even greater humidity and stillness. It’s a damp, enervating slough we’re in and we’re wondering when it will end: damn this global warming! Even though our weekend has been uncomfortable weather wise, we’ve managed to assuage the feeling a little with equal doses of culture and cross cultural wonderment, refreshing drinks and comfortingly predictable weekend activities.

We were invited to an art opening on Friday night at a very flash art gallery in Neihu. As the school’s board was throwing a party for the teachers at the American Club later that evening, a bus was arranged to whisk us from school to the gallery then straight onto the party afterwards. It was certainly one of the flashest art openings we’ve been to and one with a twist. The artist was none other than one of our Year 6 students! On these pages a while back I described a fascinating dinner that we attended, hosted by some extremely rich people. These same people have two sons, one of whom I’ve taught and had a fair bit to do with over the years here. Andre has a real and rare artistic talent and his family’s position meant that he was able to enhance his skills with teachers and resources at his disposal. The works were a touch naive, but bold in their use of colour and fresh in style, certainly not conventional or copied. We were really impressed with the scope of the works, Andre painting massive canvases dripping with oils, each subject matter treated just a little differently. It was quite an amazing experience. Cass enjoyed some exquisite champagne from the Koo’s private chateau and vineyard in France and of course the hors d’oeuvres were excellent and served by a bevy of eager attendants. We both really admire this family: they are so lovely and unassuming, and the kids are quite delightful, I imagine a task difficult to achieve when such wealth is available.

Onwards to the board party where a slightly lesser (!) quality of food and drink was available, but a very pleasant night was had by all. The various faculty bands got a chance to impress their captive audience, people drank and chatted and caught up around the pool. Later on in the evening, the tradition of dunking some of the administrators continued, the new boss proving she’s a pretty good sport by “allowing” herself to hit the drink! A good crowd of us went back to the green bar for a few more and so subsequently when Mum rang on Saturday morning, I was still dead to the world, but luckily Cass heard the phone and had a bit of a chat.

The surf has been flat for weeks, so once again that trip was not an option, so we had a pretty quiet day escaping the heat before venturing out to an early dinner at Café Grazie, just over the bridge in Shilin. It’s a great meal there and really good value meaning that the place is always packed solid. Our early start meant we were just able to sneak in and when we left our seat, they were ushering people into our seats before we had even paid the bill. Cassy missed out on her favourite gorgonzola and spinach pizza as they had run out of the ingredients, but managed to find some pretty good substitutes.

Today, we enjoyed getting stuck back into some clippings from the Herald that we received from Mum late last week and finally felt like we back “to normal”. It always takes us a while to fully assimilate back in: it’s an awkward time for us on either end of our big trip, both back in Australia and back here. We went and saw “The Invasion” with Nicole Kidman, but both were inclined to give it a B+ only. Nicole probably pulled it up from a C+ actually as she was really quite mesmerizing, but the plot (based on “The Bodysnatchers”) was fairly predictable. Still, it was a nice diversion for us and a good outing, made even better for Cassy when she made a purchase of, what else, a pair of shoes, on the way out!

Cass and I are both walking to and from school; even in this heat and I’ve enjoyed the experience. I’d got really slack last year and had been going on the scooter, but I still find I can do a bit of boxing and weights in the afternoon as well as do the walk home without getting too exhausted. Cassy has had a few mishaps recently and has been a bit of the walking wounded after taking a spill on her brand new patent leather shoes down the drive, where they were like ice skates and cutting her foot and hurting her knee. She’s a very good healer though and seems to be getting better very quickly. (I’m required to report that the shoes are fine despite a small scrape on the toe of one!)
Photos today are of the art exhibition, the board party and the green bar.