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.