We’ve had a relatively uneventful weekend overall, though we did make it downtown on Saturday afternoon/evening. We thought we’d better start tying up some loose ends for our trip on Thursday, so we’ve been emailing Italian gents who need to meet us at apartments with keys, booking train tickets between cities and figuring out what else we need to take and what we need to arrange to do here before we leave (like get someone to look after the cats!). We’re both slopping around today inside, Cassy valiantly trying to get her reports done and me prevaricating from real jobs by reading lots of newspaper clippings and fiddling on the computer. She’s sitting on the opposite side of the room now doing her computer work as she is using the tablet: she just said that she was enjoying using it…..never thought I’d see the day!

I went out with some of the usual subjects for a few beers on Friday: it was great for Lewy and Shaun to join us as well. We had a great time out at the “big brother” Woo So bar at Qiyan and had fun catching the train there. Cass and I decided to have a late lunch/early tea on Saturday at KGB, so we left mid-afternoon to get the train down to Taipower building. The Kiwi gourmet burgers were as delicious as ever and after we filled up on them, we had a bit of a wander down Roosevelt Rd. It’s a fairly uninspiring part of town really out on the main drag: I suspect all the action is in the back streets of Shida as the uni students seek out cheaper eats and entertainments. We weren’t up to exploring the labyrinth, so we headed back to the station.

On a whim, we only went two stops before transferring across then going a further two stops to Ximending, the very hip, cool and happening district in the south of the city centre. The Ximen MRT stop spits you out right slap bang in the middle of the pedestrian square and it’s a bit overwhelming. Thousands of excited young people, gigantic TV screens blaring off the sides of buildings and Vegasesque neon and sound everywhere. We braved the crowd and got swept along. As we got to a crossroads of a few streets a Christmas band was just starting up: they turned out to be horribly woeful, especially the young Taiwanese male singer trying Jason Donavon’s “Last Christmas” in very heavily accented and lisping English….shocking! The girl elves were also quite hilarious as they were obviously supposed to add some glamour to the proceedings but looked so embarrassed and behaved so awkwardly in their skimpy Santa suits that it spoiled the whole effect! A highly sparkly female host then started to extol the virtues of the surrounding stores at a high level of decibels, so we beat a retreat. We did, however, make one purchase along the way. After having tried on various jackets at all manner of trendy shops along the way, we’d just about given up when a jacket at the cheap chain store, Hang Ten, fitted well and was just what I was after. Quilted inside, a bomber style jacket that should go anywhere and be quite warm without being bulky I was chuffed to find it: a bonus was that it was dirt cheap as well! On the way back to the station, a street performer was showing off his pet performing squirrel and insisted that I hold out my hand for the squirrel to stand on it…he twiddled around with the little guy and he sat bolt upright for the photo before the owner took him back…only in Taiwan!

As I mentioned, today has been a very lazy day: the weather is cold and uninviting, a biting wind and cloudy skies have not enticed us away from our warm little cocoon here. That’s it for a while, my Christmas blog break is coming up. We’ll be in Rome on Friday, Florence at Christmas and Venice for New Years. Blog might be back on January 5, I’ll see how tired I am from our arrival back the day before! Photos: Cass trying on some specs in a trick shop at Taipower, the Ximen Christmas comedy and my little squirrel mate!

P.S. I’m re-reading Robert Graves “I, Claudius” to get into the Italian swing this week and came across this great quote: “ public men are in the habit of communicating their recollections, in the hope that elegant writing will eke out meagerness of subject-matter and flattery soften vices.” After reading that, I was tempted to write this week: “had beer, caught train, bought coat, played with squirrel and wrote reports”…….!

Thai Town on Tienmu West Road was a buzz of activity when Wal and I arrived at 7.15 Friday night. I’d just experienced a hair raising double from the top of the hill where we were both at the lower school Christmas drinks. Wal had given a white knuckle ride down to meet with Cass and a select group of others where we were to eventually surprise Sean for his 36th birthday. Katie had organized the whole thing over the last week or two and somehow we’d managed to keep it all hush hush.

We had a great little party and it was relaxing to drink and eat and chat with like minded folk. We’re definitely the elder citizens of this little group, with Sean and Wal the next oldest. Katie herself is still in her 20s so some of the other friends were similarly young. We do love hanging out with them though: we commented later that it probably keeps us pretty fresh and avoiding becoming jaded old teachers! Afterwards, we retired to the Red Hut and had a few quiet drinks before wandering off to our respective homes. The Red Hut’s major claim to fame is having a spectacular built in fish tank in both the men’s and women’s toilet. One wall is dedicated to a wonderful underwater fantasy, with hundreds of fish and other items of interest.

I got up way too early and ventured out to the coast. I met up with Dan and Nicky and the kids and we inspected every possible surf spot right from Jinshan to Damsui. As is often the case, we ended up chasing an elusive surf: lots of places were nearly surfable, but not quite. I actually needed Ross back with me on Saturday…I know he would have convinced me to go out somewhere! Anyway, as it turned out, I eventually got home nearly 4 hours later, quite exhausted and ready to eat a very late breakfast with my only recently arisen wife (!) I spoke to Josh and Kristen on the phone from Singapore later in the morning and they had some great job news which will see them stay in Singapore for a few more years at least. Saturday night we stayed in and Cassy cooked us up some magnificent spaghetti Bolognese…..one of my favorites, so all was right with the world.

Sunday was another magnificent day weather wise and after sleeping in a touch to make up for my lack of sleep the previous night, we proceeded to read vast quantities of Herald clippings from Mum before venturing out. We were just going to walk down the canal, but decided to extend the walk down to the night market area. Along the way, we enjoyed the beautiful sunshine and fresh air and eventually ended up at a little café we like down there, Orange. I had some vegetable lasagna and Cass had a Caesar salad and grapefruit juice….all delicious. It was so relaxing sitting up on the 2nd floor with a view of the mountains on such a clear day.

After lunch we ventured further down to the real action, and even though it was only mid afternoon, the crowd was already starting to swell. I was on a mission to get a few little things for our trip and we spotted another few things along the way. We got a hippish kinda scarf for me at some trendy kid’s joint then managed to spot some shoelaces, both normal and long. My boots have been crying out for some! Later on we spied a makeup mirror for poor old blind Cass (!) which magnifies on one side and a woolen hat for me. It’s one of those Andy Capp type things, but before recoiling in horror, let me explain that it is a plain colour (green) and I can wear it front ways or back. It’s become a necessity with these flowing locks I can tell you! Anyway, today was even better as Brandon brought in a lightweight jacket he’d bought on the cheap in Beijing which just might do the trick as a take anywhere jacket instead of my big bulky wool coat. I’ll test it out a little round here before I decide.

Cass is good, but continuing to grade great doorsteps of papers: those guys have to seriously look at their curriculum and their marking commitments in my opinion. We’re both quite tired today after our marathon walking efforts yesterday and a hard day at work. Bring on Christmas break! Photos; a shocking reminder of the Pasha Bulker when I spied a ship aground on the north coast. Cass in front of Dogs and cats café, the inside of Orange, strangely themed Taipei restaurant and the classic “stinky” dofu!! Finally, an entertaining sight whenever we wander down to Shilin: outside the church great lines of women ply their trade as "facial" specialists. They use an amazingly dexterous hand in wielding a string which seems to get rid of blackheads etc. Pedicures and manicures are on offer on the busy street as well!

Thanksgiving is a strange holiday concept for us, but one which we’ve embraced wholeheartedly as it gives us a very relaxing 4 day weekend after what has been an extremely enervating first semester. We had a few plans of attack for the break, but nothing solidly booked in, rather just sit back, relax and see what came up.

I went to the huge Thanksgiving turkey feast at school then proceeded to miss every exit strategy placed before me to get home, finding myself out way too late and “enjoying” way too many drinks. It was an interesting crew at school and a chance to catch up with people known and liked for ages, but whom we don’t often see. Cassy eschewed the various delights at school to spend a bit of quality time at home relaxing with the thought of days stretching out before her with precious little to do after a very hard recent bout of grading.

We’d been planning to explore the northern tip of the island, right out beyond the cape and around from the Green Bay tunnel. Little Yeliou is a moderate tourist attraction but we’ve been discouraged from visiting on many past occasions because of the phalanx of huge tourist busses that pulls up with great regularity at the car park, disgorging all manner of tourists, most of them Asian, but with suspiciously mainland accents, as well as Koreans and Japanese. The attraction is a whole set of curiously weathered rocks which have been named (some highly imaginatively!) after various objects, people etc. The big symbol of the place is the Queens Head, and it does indeed bear a striking resemblance to an ancient Egyptian queen. We enjoyed viewing the weathered rocks, but took more pleasure in hiking up and up, outwards to the tip of the cape. On the way, we encountered a coterie of hushed ornithologists from Japan, who whispered to us as we rudely interrupted their reverie that they were laying in wait for a visiting Japanese shore bird. Their camera equipment with gaping lenses covered in camouflage material was a sight to behold. The tip of the cape allowed a 360 degree view of the northern coast, a beautiful spot and one we were stoked to finally visit sans the overwhelming crowds. Having worked up an appetite through our climbing it was back to the row of fish restaurants, touts extolling the virtues of each on the road outside. The fish tanks adorning the outside were chock full of plump sea life, so we knew that at least the food would be fresh! We were ushered inside one and proceeded to order from the “ a le Certe” menu a delicious whole sweet and sour fresh fish, some green vegetable, fried rice etc, all imbued with the most amazing servings of garlic: lucky we both had it! It was a real feast and a real little gem: who’d have thought it? Our trip out and back via expressways and back roads is always an adventure of itself and so it proved again. We had a great day!

Saturday dawned to an electronic dancing beat coming from my mobile. Dan was ready for action, so I headed off to a rendezvous at school in record time. He drove us up over the mountain to Pointies, our self proclaimed spot at Jinshan. As we arrived, Tobes and Gary were just getting out and we’d missed the best of the conditions, even though it was still yawn inducingly early. We checked out another couple of spots before drifting back, only to spend the next few hours, much to our surprise, enjoying a pretty interesting little left hander that dropped down onto a fast breaking bank. Dan and I had a good chat and a catch up on the way over and back so it was a pretty successful and entertaining trip all round.

Cass and I had resolved to climb the steps before breakfast on Sunday morning, so we duly roused ourselves, convinced ourselves that it was a good idea to head off on a freezing early morning on the scooter rather than heading back to bed, and off we sped. The steps, according to my new “buddy”, the octogenarian Mr. Lai who climbs the steps each afternoon (very slowly!), actually consist of 1400 steps at irregular intervals covering a distance of 1.2 km. The distance feels like it is a vertical distance at some points as you rise further and further up into the low reaches of the mist on Yangminshan. I raced off to meet my times then waited at the top for Cassy’s arrival. After a quick breather at the top we headed back down, but not before witnessing a great gathering of oldies who were gathered at the top ready to move on down the monkey trail. The aforementioned Mr. Lai had told me of a mysterious temple on an offshoot path about halfway down the mountain which I investigated last week and promised to share with Cass. We got halfway down, took the poorly signposted path and after about 10 minutes arrived at a most bizarre and wondrous site. More than 200 life size stone sculptures of monks were lined up on different levels in and around the temple! The monks are all unique, their facial expressions, body positions and emotions all mixed and varied. We wandered around for ages marveling at the craftsmanship, as each monk has been carved from a massive block of stone to the most intricate design imaginable. It was quite surreal to be perched on the side of a steep mountain amongst these silent sentinels. The irony was that the temple itself was little more than a large glorified tin shed: they’d obviously decided to use whatever resources they had in pursuit of stone sculpture quantity and quality: Mr. Lai said that they’re not finished yet, but plan to carve more than 400!

Later that morning we scootered across to the Neihu Miramar precinct. I’d booked some tickets online to the big IMAX theatre out there to see a movie called Eagle Eye. While not meant to be any cinematic gem, it was filled with action scenes, car chases, lots of explosions and generally all sorts of good stuff for a 20 metre wide 8 stories high screen! Prior to having our retinas burnt out in there, we went off to TGI Friday’s a Tex Mex family style restaurant that we’ve enjoyed eating at before. The fare was still good, and I tried valiantly to catch a shot of one of the waiters peak caps which read in big bold black on white letters, “We fuck the fakeshit!”. The poor guy was probably wondering why I kept pointing the camera in his direction, but he wouldn’t keep still! We just laughed and laughed as he served family groups, little kiddies, oldies etc with no-one blinking an eye!
The movie turned out to be fantastic, way low on believability but way high on thrills and spills and on the way out we even paused to try on a little bit of product as I am searching for a warm, yet compact jacket to wear to Italy later in the month.

All in all, a fantastic break, much needed, much appreciated and quite rapidly fading into a beautiful memory as school ramps up again this week!

HHmmmmmm! Australians just don’t lose rugby league world cups do they?? We watched in amazement as the Australians imploded in the world cup final Saturday afternoon Taipei time and the Kiwis had a well deserved victory. We took some solace the next day when we watched the Aussies mop up the New Zealand tail to take a win in the 1st cricket tests, but this was actually the natural order of things. I’ll say again, Aussie rugby league teams just don’t lose world cups (at least not since 1975 anyway!). This was a rather hard to swallow entrée to a great night out we had at Wendel’s backerie on Saturday night. We were late for our reservation as the nail biting league game went on, but we eventually made it down to a dining room full of atmosphere, a buzz of conversation, and eclectic group of citizenry enjoying their big Saturday dinner and we enjoyed soaking up all the sights and sounds.

Our perfectly cooked large steaks arrived with exquisite sides of baked onion and a subtly flavoured potato stack, along with mushrooms stuffed with a julienned concoction of vegetables. We each had a generous glass of Shiraz and enjoyed some home made German bread along the way. As Thanksgiving is fast approaching, their turkey feasts were being advertised widely. A table of about 20 Germans of all ages, young and old had the pleasure of watching the biggest turkey we had ever seen being carved at their table. This caused a great stir amongst the local contingent, many of whom recorded the whole show on video phones! I suppose this is still a fairly exotic event for the Taiwanese, as even though very cosmopolitan in their food choices, the whole Thanksgiving thing tends to be left to certain establishments well known for catering to American tastes. We left via the adjoining cake shop and each had a plum custard slice to take away, although its enormous proportions allowed us to keep ½ aside for dessert tonight as well!

This morning we had the strange sensation of watching a Brisbane test over breakfast (we’re 3 hours behind), then preceded to do our usual of reading Herald clippings of great interest (thanks Mum, but what is going on in Newcastle and that omnipresent debate about cutting the rail line?: make a decision please!!) before making a late decision to get out to the coast. It was just a magnificent day weather wise today: a perfect temperature, clear blue skies and sun of a lesser than laser like intensity for once. A mild cooling breeze finalized the package, and we had a great drive through the mountains to the coast. I must add that we had one of those “only in Taiwan” moments on the way. We were short of petrol and needed to fill up before we ventured over the mountain so we backtracked a way to get to the station I usually just get scooter petrol from. After we filled up, the guy asked if we wanted anything. I asked for water (they have a quaint custom of giving you a couple of bottles of water or a pack of tissues if you fill the tank) Anyway, he asked that I open the boot and placed a box of 18 bottles in there! The very fact that driveway service is the norm here and not the exception, then the gifts, then the guy who stops the traffic for you on your way out is quite wonderful.

The surf was small but a good quality and the crowd was quite small for once (especially on the top coast) so as I enjoyed the surf, Cass enjoyed taking in the spectacular scenery from the top of the cliff. To the south west the Candle Islands rise from the ocean catching beautiful bands of light as the afternoon wears on and to the north east, the cliffs of Little Yeliou drop off into the water allowing the waves to surge and splash plumes of white water into the air at intervals. It’s a very calming spot and Cassy’s choice of spot to sit if I am out in the surf.

We were both shocked and saddened to hear the news that my good friend Wayne’s father had died suddenly on Friday. He was an eccentric and hugely likeable character and was certainly always larger than life. I had the opportunity to speak with Wayne on the phone Friday, from whom I heard all the details. Very sad news for the family and friends: We’ve had quite enough of this kind of news lately…

Tuesday lunchtime and still feeling extremely wishy washy….what happened on this long weekend? Plenty! Wal and I buzzed off from school right on the bell and Truckie whisked us off to get our evening flight to Singapore on Thursday. The flight was pretty pain free and I watched a few videos on my iPod, Wal slept, all good. Josh was a champion and was there to greet us in his little car, and then when we got to his apartment we managed to stay up for a couple of hours chatting, having the first of many beers for the trip!

On Friday, off to eat roti Pradas for breakfast at a local haunt, cup of coffee, then off to the golf, The Singapore Open. I’m no great fan of golf: my personal attempts have been rather lame and I haven’t felt the need to spectate in the past, but I have to admit, this was a pretty awesome experience. Mickelson, Els and Scott to name just a few were very impressive. World class sportsmen doing their thing, right up close is an incredible experience. As it was a working day, the crowds at the golf were way down, enabling us to get up close and personal. Mid afternoon we retired back to the football sized pool and got into some very competitive super velocity tennis ball throwing!

Friday night we arranged to go over the other side of town to Chad’s place. Cathy and kids were there, Cathy was all dolled up ready to go out to a ball and we had a few beers with Chad and caught up with all the happenings. They have a great set-up there, a beautiful big plush apartment with huge pool and other amenities. Chad arranged to meet us at the races later, so we raced off to make sure we met up with the rest of the group. Off to Kranji Race Club for Singapore’s famous night races, we opted for the air-conditioned upper deck of the grandstand and split our betting duties up accordingly. I got a winner first up paying $8 for a win (we had $20 on it) so that set us up for a great start. After a lot of winning and losing, we ended up with a $50 profit for the night, probably about even when you take into account our food and beverage bill…wonderful result. Wal and I met a further bevy of Josh’s Singapore mates and we also met up with Morgs, a mate of Wal’s from Melbourne who is currently working in Bangkok and flew over to enjoy the festivities. After the last race we went back to one of Chad’s favorite bars and enjoyed a big Erdinger that he bought at god knows what cost, then bid him good night. Kristin, Josh’s fiancée, came to pick us up, and we travelled back in the early morning through Singapore’s magnificently tidy and clean suburbs and streets.

Saturday, after sumptuous coffee shop brekky, it was back to the golf. One of Josh’s friends had sourced some passes, so 14 of us got in for free instead of paying the $50 entry! Sun not yet over the yardarm, we had the first of what would turn out to be many beers that day and night. The crowd was up around the 14,000 mark today so we didn’t get nearly as close to the famous players, with a few very funny exceptions! Josh had a few challenges to perform, including singing the Australian national anthem at one hole, holding up a purloined quiet sign at another and commandeering a golf cart at yet another. He accomplished all set tasks with a minimum of fuss: quite some feat in Singapore’s strictly regulated society, as at some points I was almost certain we would be arrested at worst, escorted from the course at least. In full caddie’s kit he escorted one of the world’s leading players, Simon Dyson, to the toilet, managing to get him past the queue, and held up a “shut up” sign behind Ernie Els as he took a shot! Our group managed to cheer on a succession of Aussie pros as they walked off down various fairways and we had a ball.

We went straight from the golf to Harry’s bar down at Boat Quay. Here the festivities continued and more challenges for the “back nine” were accepted and completed, including convincing complete strangers that he was a “ladyboy” and the obligatory singing with the band. This fun went on and on for many hours and Wal and I enjoyed getting to know many of Josh’s mates. One of the most interesting characters was a short red-headed guy known as the “ginger ninja”: what a hoot he turned out to be later on a pole at a pole dancing bar!
Eventually a call for taxis, and no buck’s night would be complete without at least a bit of shady action at a strip bar or something similar. Orchard Towers, colloquially known as the “four floors of whores”(!) fitted the bill for the organizers: Four floors of lots of different bars and dance clubs in one building, very famous for the proliferation of afore mentioned “ladyboys”. Chad was leading the way, and managed to get us in to all manner of exclusive entry and lived up to his “King of Singapore” reputation by not only getting us in, but also having the outrageous cover charges waived at most places….nice work Big Chad!! We had an absolute ball, and Josh continued to perform challenges and enjoy his night. As people slowly drifted away, we found ourselves a smallish group again ready for sleep, so hailed a cab and made it back to Josh’s place.
There were way too many moments to record here, but suffice to say that Wal and I got limited sleep, had copious amounts of alcohol and talked and socialized non-stop for three days and nights! This was an extremely enjoyable, but also extremely enervating long weekend and I only feel vaguely recovered today. Oh, and P.S. Man, that Singapore is expensive!! Photos are a selection of golf, races, bars etc!

Our walk to and from work each day is always a nice time of the day and it’s interesting what you see and hear along the way. It takes us about 15 minutes to get there at a good clip, and about 20 or more if we amble along. From Tai Chi in the park, scooters on the footpath (!) and the “enchanted forest” on the Chung North footpath, with beautiful shade trees adorned with their own decorations, kind of a living tinsel of dangling tendrils giving it an other worldly feel. One of the sights we see many mornings is a set of twin girls walking to the local primary school. We have seen them walking for many, many years now, and they are getting quite big (maybe 3rd or 4th grade). They have always been such a cute sight and we can gauge their mood with the world, but more particularly themselves very easily. The best barometer is their proximity to one another. When everything is right in the world they are walking along holding hands, joking and giggling, laughing and talking. But on occasions, there is a falling out and they walk along with terribly glum expressions about 50 metres apart!! Even though they seem very upset with one another, they still keep each other in sight: it really is “so cute”! I managed to snap a shot of them in the distance which I zoomed in on …this was a good day! Cassy modeled for the shot in the foreground so I didn’t look like some weird foreign creep taking photos of school kids!

We’ve had an extremely relaxing weekend: or should that read, “extremely lazy”! On Saturday, we did venture out before the rain set in. Dan had texted me a surf report which basically said, “Stay in bed” which I took literally for an hour or two. Eventually we roused ourselves and had a decadently late breakfast at the flash French restaurant on Chung Cheng Rd, “Le Jardin”. We both really enjoyed the fine fare, including exquisitely cooked omelets, eggs, toast with home made jams, fresh juices and coffee etc etc. We then wandered over to the Shin Kong Mitsukoshi to see the latest James Bond installment. Although jam packed with all the usuals, I think we were both slightly disappointed as it didn’t quite live up to the last one, which we thought was probably the best ever. Daniel Craig still does a fantastic job however: tough as well as suave, but he can still deliver a few funny one-liners!

The rain started to seep down from mid Saturday onwards and has not let up since. Today we spent the afternoon watching the cricket while every few overs, Cassy would get up and add some extra ingredient to a bubbling pot of chicken soup. She is preparing for next Friday when her book club group is due for their monthly meeting, Cassy hosting this one. Speaking of next Friday, I’ll be at the races in Singapore Friday night!! Wal and I are catching a flight on Thursday after school and going to Singapore for a long weekend. We’ve got stacks of stuff lined up to do, but we are going really to attend Josh’s buck’s night on Saturday. Some of his mates down there have got it all organized, I just hope we’ll make it back on the plane to Taipei on Sunday afternoon….more on this next week (and I guarantee you the blog will be late: keep an eye out on Monday or Tuesday I’d suggest!)
Photos: Studying some Chinese, one of the golf group from last week, Cass being my model on the way to school with the twins in the background, and a zoomed in shot of the twins.

A peculiarity that pervades the Asian landscape, be it, Taiwan, Japan, Singapore, Thailand or others, is the massive steel frames and towers covered in netting that dot the areas around big population centres. They are a hundred metres high and hundreds of metres long and are of course that antidote to golf players starved of cheap and accessible courses, the golf driving range. Even though the outer areas of Taipei County do indeed boast some picturesque top class courses, they are very expensive compared to Australia and do entail a longer drive than is usual back home. I am not a golfer and have only ever fudged my way round a course three times in my life (including the infamous Cypress Lakes opening when I managed to get myself on the nightly news hacking my way out of a gully!), so have not entertained the thought of using one of these huge skeletal frames, even though I’ve been quite fascinated by the look of them from afar, a bit like a gigantic insect or a creature from “War of the Worlds” rising from the ground.

Suffice to say, we tried some different entertainment on Friday afternoon and I loved every minute! We duly got our huge number of golf balls and proceeded to swat merrily away at them for a few hours before retiring for some refreshments. I used Wal as my tutor and he seemed to give me very good advice as every now and then I’d crack a beauty in the sweet spot and felt well satisfied. Lewy, Wal and Gurecki were all very experienced and I made sure I watched what they did and used their advice. In the end, even though my long game was wayward (to say the least!), I ended up teaming with Lewy against Wal and Gurecki and we won a little chipping game twice in a row: I was pretty satisfied.

Cass went into a bit of a wiping frenzy yesterday and managed to wipe down and clean the big main windows and sliding doors at the front as well as the ceiling and walls of the kitchen. To her great surprise, she managed to find microscopic pieces of potato still all over certain sections of the walls and ceiling! You may remember a microwaved bowl of potatoes exploded in her face a few months ago necessitating a rush to the doctor and some first aid burns treatment. We ended up having a very low key Saturday, apart from Cassy’s exertions, and watched the cricket over the internet, the Wallabies and the All Blacks on TV, and ended up getting Alleycats pizzas and a Greek salad for tea…yum!

Today started off in a similarly relaxed fashion with a dozy morning eating breakfast, reading lots of Herald clippings that Mum sent, patting and playing with the girls and fiddling on the computer. Mid-morning, however, we decided to set off on a stairs mission. I have been regularly doing the 1000 steps during the week (at least 4 times) slowly whittling down my time. I have to take two stairs at a time and semi-jog now to improve my times, but that’s a good thing. Cass and I decided we’d do a slower, but much longer version. Armed with a bottle of water each (as it turned out we could have done with a second one) we braved the 31 degree heat up to the foot of the stairs. Half way up we took a dogleg to the right and met up with another set of stairs. These are the ones I took a month or so back that led up to the very top of the Chinese Cultural College. Even though they are far less crowded (Sunday is not a good d ay to go!!), there is a reason: they are much steeper and more intense and also go a lot way further. Cass did a great job and we were huffing, puffing and sweating buckets by the time we got to the top. Along the way we saw dozens of scared little geckos and lizards rush across our path, including one little mini “dinosaur”! There were lizards with electric blue tails darting here and there and dainty skeletons of dead leaves scattered around. It was really quite scenic, especially every now and then when we’d burst from the forest canopy and get a glimpse of the seething city far, far below: quite surreal. We’ve been a bit pooped since we got back and the option of watching a little cricket and having a light “resting my eyes” type snooze definitely appealed! Photos: on the steps and track, golf driving and Halloween monsters at school on Friday.

Cassy finished her parent conferences on Friday and set a new record – 47 interviews (only one no-show). What was especially demanding was that she saw 32 lots on Thursday – was a bit of a veggie on Friday… All pretty good but the usual sprinkling of complete nuts: the kid is getting an A but they ask, “What can he/she do to improve?” or (her other favourite) a completely brain-dead kid is getting a B by dint of sheer hard slog, and they aren’t happy with that!!!! She felt like saying to them: “Do the words gene and pool mean anything to you????”
No grading for Cassy this weekend so she was really looking forward to a relaxing time. Friday evening began with her treat to watch the French channel (tv5): “Questions pour un champion” game show; and later, 2 episodes of “Les Bleus’ (a cop show about a group of rookie cops – very soapie but beautiful French and perfect fodder for a Friday night she reckons.) I went and had a few ales with the usual suspects, Sean dropped in as well but couldn’t stay long as he was hosting Katie’s parents who are here for a new baby visitation.

After a good sleep in on Saturday, we tripped off to the beach. It was great just walking across the road to the car (but that convenience came back to bite us on Sunday) and we headed off on a particularly beautiful morning. As we wound our way up the Yangminshan mountain road, the air was clear, sun shone and a dusting of cloud just drifted across the top of the peaks. Sometimes this indicates foul weather on the other side, but Wuthering Heights scenes quickly cleared up as we dropped down the mountain on the other side. We met up with Dan and family at Jinshan and I had an unreal surf! My new board is still all dinged up and unfixed (slack me!), but the newish fish worked really well on some strong 3-4 foot groundswell. Dan and I each got some real beauties and we managed to wear ourselves out over a couple of hours of quite solid wave action. Cass enjoyed chatting to Nicky on the shoreline and watching their two little kids cavorting around. They have a very relaxed and unusual parenting style which we’ve always found really refreshing: the kids get a few bumps and bruises, but they learn by experience and are very robust now, even though they’re still quite young. After a hearty 7-11 meal of dumplings for me (I think I really am turning a little Chinese) and a salmon “onigiri” for Cass (is she turning Japanese?!) we got back to Tienmu, found a park on the river road and got home. Later on Saturday evening, we had a pleasant meal at the Royal Host (New Zealand steak!) and had a wander down to the Eslite to look for an Italian phrasebook for Cass to study before Christmas. They didn’t have much, so we resolved to head downtown on Sunday.

Another sleep in (that surfing really tires you out!) and then I headed off up the stairs in some stifling heat. It was a massive effort to keep up my pretty sharp pace today and I was totally soaked and dripping with sweat by the time I got back. Showered and ready, we headed off to the car to drive downtown, thinking we’d increase our carbon footprint a touch today and abandon the MRT for the car. The battery was dead flat!! Saturday’s winding mountain road dictates that lights are on, but I’d forgotten to turn them off. The worst part about this is how I’ll jump start the car: plenty of car folk can help, but they’ll block a one way road, and the leads might not reach if we park side –by-side…..have to figure that out tomorrow.

The trip downtown was very successful. The MRT was relatively calm for a Sunday, the crush bearable and Taipei 101 is always exciting. Having just lost its mantle as the world’s tallest building to some gross Dubai monstrosity; it is still very slick and impressive. We had Turkish at Doner Kebab for lunch then scoured Page One bookshop for our Italy stuff. We eventually struggled out weighed down with guides for Rome, Florence and Venice as well as a cute little phrasebook. No excuses now! Home to watch the Aussies and Kiwis in the World Cup via streaming internet beamed onto the TV and audio and we feel we’ve had an exceptionally full (and mildly exhausting!) weekend. Photos: Cass with store window bizarre Christmas reindeer! Strange wine signs, Cassy sneaking in and out of Cartier at 101)!!, books in Page One, me holding a menu at the Royal Host, and Cassy avoiding a photo at same venue!