Rain that pounded us awake as it drilled into the tin roof below our bedroom window last night had eased to just a steady beat this morning and through the afternoon. A very pleasant rhythm, a soothing one that accompanied quite a significant drop in temperature and what a great start to our holiday….no, really, it was exactly what we needed to kick off our spring break: a guilt free day of total decadence and laziness, and that’s exactly what we had!

Lots of people had already flown off to KL for the EARCOS conferences, but we’d stayed behind this year for a few reasons. I had to get the ESL section on the school website up and running and I had three days, with the help of the shy bearded fellow (my mate, Gurecki), to get it from just a lonesome lifeless button, to a real resource and one that would impress these auditors coming in at the start of next week. We had great success, which you can check out here. Check all the links off this one too; if it has to do with ESL, we wrote it. On here, the main page also gives links to the two articles we have recently written as well, the first here and the other here. There are also other links, like one to yet another of my blogs (the third!) this time for my Grade 3 kiddies parents. After all this self promotion, if you’re still reading, you’re more patient than I would be!!

Gurecki was off to Japan for the break accompanying his wife and a hiragana of students (coined collective noun!) round Tokyo and Kyoto. Wal had jetted off on Friday afternoon to catch up with Coombsy and go to some rugby 7s with him in Hong Kong and Sean and a bunch of others were in KL and then heading to Terry and Cheryl’s wedding in Singapore straight after. The attractions of all these destinations tantalized us on and off for a while, but I just had to get a lot of work done and neither of us was really keen to travel: we have a few “Taiwan” adventures we’re keen to try in the next week or so.

A Friday of drinking some Carlsberg beer at another Wo Soo bar up the line past Qiyan station relatively early in the afternoon felt quite decadent, and Mark and I enjoyed basking not only in the sun on the wooden deck outside, but also in that glow of self satisfaction that occurs after some pretty full on work that finishes with a tangible result. I went straight from there to Alleycats pizzas before bringing some takeaway home and the rain was just starting as I hopped out of the taxi. We had a great night in eating pizza and watching TV.

Saturday was just a massive day. After a late brekky and watching a brilliant and valiant Knights go down to the Eels from 9.30 till 11.30 (Friday night game is on here on Saturday mornings), we had great plans for a downtown adventure. Put on hold while Cass did some shopping and we both had a little afternoon snooze (!) we eventually made our way down to Zhongsiao Dunhua station to find “Forkers” a restaurant rumoured to have 40 varieties of burgers, including an elusive “Australian” one complete with egg and beetroot! We eventually found the place, but there were people everywhere, waiting in queues and waiting for a phone call…I told the relieved host that we’d try another time. We wandered around the fascinating back streets here then back on the train to Taipei City Hall and the very newly opened branch of “Outback Steakhouse”. An American chain, but obviously Aussie in flavour, both in cuisine and décor, this place was a very wonderful surprise. The new Hsin Yi branch had aboriginal paintings, other “Aussie” stuff around: we felt quite at home! Cass had her mind set on a burger after we’d tried to get in at Forkers, so sampled the “Mad Max Burger” and I had one of the very best, most tender and flavoursome fillet steaks I’ve ever had…it was a fantastic success and we’ll be back for sure. Stopping off at the night market to pick up Cassy’s fixed watch was a mistake, because once we hit the moving throng at that hour, there was no way out. Eventually, an hour later, we were almost literally spat out the end of this sea of humanity. Finally home and off to bed, we realized why we had such aching legs: we only stopped once in 5 hours!

Today has been just a wonderful day. Cass’s home made lemon butter was slathered over pieces of steaming white toast this morning and most of the day, a pot of bubbling chicken soup has had things added to it bit by bit until a tiny tasting proved it to be exactly like Mum’s famous Christmas Day soup….Cassy has outdone herself this time! All the while the rain drummed on, a background note of calm that hopefully sets the tone for an enjoyable week to come.

Photos: a dawn surf run on Thursday morning by 7 of the guys, Hsin Yi night shots. (Please don't be alarmed by the presence of the strangely life-like toy monkey, Chee Chee...all will be revealed next week!)

The darkened auditorium was a seething, pulsing adrenalin filled cauldron. The sounds were muted coming up to the doors, but upon opening the second of the soundproof doors, the noise was a physical assault. Three huge banks of adolescents were taking it in turns to scream and sing and yell their hearts out to the primal beat of drums and cheer leaders. They thumped up and down in one spot, moving the floor of the auditorium, creating a mini quake, no mean feat as the school is built to withstand a severe real one. The middle school spirit week final assembly was under way!

I had finished my parent conferences and decided to wander up to the other end of the school to see the famous teachers’ dance of which Cassy was a part. I got there a little too early and the decibel hit I took was a big one. My ears were still ringing from the cheers when the “girls” took the stage. White T-shirts with “Soulja Girl” emblazoned across the front, rappers’ white peak hats, baggy blue jeans and huge white-framed sunnies, they looked great as an assembled throng. Not to mention white letters on the sunnies and lots of big gold bling, though Cassy tried to lurk up the back, I could pick her out very easily and, all bias aside, she “shook it out” far better than most of the others: I don’t know why she was trying to hide. It was a big hit with the kids and I think Cassy quite surprised herself.

I have had the unenviable task of both testing Kinder kids and meeting with my own students parents this week. The first two days of the week involved me withdrawing Kinder kiddies one by one for the annual screening tests to decide whether they need ESL support next year. Everyone thinks it is a great job, the kids being “so cute” and all. Let me tell you, the kids are very cute and it is quite enjoyable, but after the 20th kid does the same 25 minute one on one session, with me asking the same mindless questions about the same black and white infants pictures…the cuteness starts to wear off! I don’t know whether it was partly psychosomatic, but I lost my voice to laryngitis on Tuesday afternoon, so had to have the day off on Wednesday.

On Thursday and Friday, I was due to meet with all the parents at the student led conferences. They all went quite well as I wrote out some stuff for both Gerri and Wal to say on my behalf, urged them to use liberal amounts of inclusive personal pronouns (such as “we think…”, “our approach is to…”) and generally forced some whispered wisdom for them to take away. My biggest fear was that they would insist on another individual conference as well due to the non-vocal state of my communication, but mercifully, I think I’ve avoided that!

My biggest disappointment has been that for the first time since August I’ve actually been quite sick as well: the laryngitis was a symptom of an underlying flu and the lack of a voice right through this weekend and the aching joints meant I had to pull out of what would have been a really fun Saturday and night. One of the guys, Terry, will be married in Singapore in July, and his “bucks’ night” started with a paintball session over at Neihu and then a bus trip to various bars downtown that night. I was very disappointed to miss it, but glad that I made the “mature” decision as even doing nothing all weekend has been exhausting!

Cass and I have watched lots of TV, lots of football and even watched “No Country for Old Men” on DVD. We just love those Coen brothers’ films and the last couple has been a bit of a letdown, so it was great to see them back to fine form. What a compelling ride the film was…in fact it was quite a bookend to the weekend as it directly contrasted to the cacophony I experienced in the auditorium on Friday afternoon: the silence was almost palpable in the film and somehow kept us both right on the edge of our seats throughout…wonderful cinema.

Cassy has seemed to be floating around the house in various domestic roles all weekend…she never seemed to stop: maybe it’s just that I was around the whole time to see it all. When I see this, I immediately react and say we should get some help. Cassy’s philosophy is always the same however: she wants to get some beautiful things from time to time and puts all the funds that she “saves” towards just such projects: it’s very laudable, but it looks quite exhausting!

Fantastic news on the election front yesterday. Ma Ying Jeou, the popular ex Taipei mayor has won the presdiential election. China's sabres, while not completely silenced, have stopped rattling as loud, and now there is real hope that the 350 plus missiles aimed at Taipei might be dismantled and the economy will lift and cross straits relations generally will improve.
Photos: some file shots, a soulja boy and Ma Ying Jeou...hoorah!

Lifestyles of the rich and famous Taiwan style? I had a glimpse, just a glimpse, on Friday night. Dave is a science teacher here in the high school and also an avid fan of the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship). Wal and I are the number 1 and number 2 fans and with Dave not far behind, he’d been threatening to have us around for a “fight night” for many months and we finally all got our act together to make it happen. I do all the torrenting of the fights, burn them on DVDs and then we pass them around. As you can imagine, none of our wives or girlfriends are massive fans (!), so it’s great to be able to dedicate a night.

Dave’s wife is a minor celebrity here in Taiwan. She has been in the public eye for decades, starring on soapies and talk shows and the like, and often draws lots of whispers behind hands when we’re out together. Bi Bi and Dave have just bought a fantastic apartment/house in a fairly exclusive little enclave out towards Wugu (where I got famously lost once!) and are fairly protective of their privacy as you can imagine, so we felt quite honoured to get the invite. The house is brand new and on 6 different levels, so it is certainly very different! The main area where we watched the DVD was quite amazing; with soaring vaulted ceilings in place of what could have been a mezzanine. It’s a little slice of decadent planning that works incredibly well. The whole place is fitted out brilliantly, and even though each level is relatively small, there are lots of clever design ideas and storage solutions. There’s even a little rooftop deck for relaxing or meals al fresco…the whole place was just amazing. Dave pointed out various celebrities’ houses on the way out: Wal and I felt quite out of place!

After that excitement on Friday and a very late night courtesy of 6 straight hours of UFC viewing (!), we decided to have a fairly low key Saturday. The surf was almost non-existent, although Dan texted me from the east coast with news that there was a small wave, but not worth the battle with the weekend drivers. On Saturday night I geared up for ordering our first home delivered meal in Chinese. I practiced what I wanted to say and had asked for takeaway then home delivery and started to order when the woman suddenly switched to the most perfect English! Even though it was then very quick and easy, I felt a little cheated…I wish these people would let me practice. The only trouble is that they all want to practice any English they have as well. Oh well, I can’t be too disappointed: there are many opportunities where absolutely no English will be known or spoken. The Chinese food was really delicious. Apparently an apprentice from Taipei’s most famous and exclusive Chinese restaurant has left the fold and started up a little restaurant just down a few blocks from here. There are often lines of people outside, but the home delivery caper is a real beauty…just like the Happy Inn back home (kind of!)

On Sunday, we motored down to the cinema to see “Cassandra’s Dream” a Woody Allen film starring Ewan McGregor and Colin Farrell. It was a little frustrating as both leads were quite wooden, almost farcically so at times and it felt as if they were on stage in a play. Allen’s films can have an air of live theatre about them and this one improved as the story evolved. The plot was excellent and we quite enjoyed it in the end. I must say it was the polar opposite of the last film I saw, John Rambo, and that can only be good!
We went down to FNAC and I came away relatively unscathed, wallet wise, with just two CD/DVD cases. I’m always rather impressed with my self control in places like this as I actually would like to buy nearly everything in the shop. Cassy made the very astute observation that I was always safe taking her to that shop: she wants to buy nothing in there at all! Home to watch the football: mercifully, the NRL competition has started almost straight on the back of the cricket season: too much sport is never quite enough!

Interestingly, as we have been watching “So you think you can dance Australia” over the week nights courtesy of more downloading, Cassy has been embroiled in the real thing. She has arrived home late from school a couple of times lately after dancing sessions with her female middle school colleagues, at first quite frustrated and later rather elated with learning all the moves. They are doing a song, “Soulja Boy”, changing it to “Gal” of course. I got a private showing of the dance and it’s pretty cool! She has some bling, a white t-shirt with appropriate Soulja Gal logo, a white peak cap and fancy white rimmed sunnies…..pretty cool! Cass is in the background here now saying, “That will give everyone who knows me a good laugh!”, but the show is on Friday, so all the excitement will be over then.
Photos: reprise from last week…Guandu temple, Tittot art museum, a brass band outside Danshui station and a rather amusing sign up “on the dyke” (Kathy that reference is for you!)

We headed over the mountain Saturday in search of surf. Without any great expectations, the cliff proved to be a pleasant surprise with some little 2 foot, clean swells pushing through. As always, in most of the “off the trendy section” beaches, there was a decent wave and an almost non-existent crowd. I braved the still chilly water and had a great little surf under clear blue sunny skies. Cass perched on top of the cliff in one of the little old chairs left from a summer outdoor restaurant venture enjoying the sun and ocean view while reading her House and Garden magazine….bliss for both of us! After eating our takeaway sandwiches in the sun on the cliff top, we decided to take advantage of the weather and head around to Yeliou to check out the famous rock formations. Unfortunately, a gorgeous day proves to be a draw card for more than just us, so we decided to give the rocks a miss until a calmer crowd was in evidence (maybe Spring Break). We negotiated the freeway home and managed one section with the road sluicing through what seemed like about 20 different overpasses, underpasses, flyovers and ramps…it was pretty wild! As we had the car, we did a “semi-civilised” shop where we actually loaded the car up with groceries and drove them home…how novel! We rang up and ordered some Chili’s–to-go for tea and I went and got it on the scooter. Rambo IV was on the menu for me to watch après meal, so Cassy demurred and waded through a good chunk of her latest book. I think I might have finally outgrown the adolescent boy within: I read a review of this movie which described it as “death porn” and I think this is a perfect description…it is without any redeeming features whatsoever.

Our Sunday adventure was excellent. After our usual lazy and long breakfast and relax, we eventually got motivated to head out and continue to enjoy the superb early Spring weather. Wal and Tina had been to Guandu temple a couple of weeks back and Wal highly recommended it so on to the MRT we hopped to drop off at Guandu station just before the red bridge. A little laneway festooned with traditional red lanterns guided us the kilometre or two to the temple. It was just awesome! Levels of intricately carved temple were full of praying locals, burning incense and nodding and bowing at various effigies. The temple actually had 10 anterooms spread over about 4 levels and a visit to each seemed to be required to garner all the good luck there was to offer. Along with the incense, great wads of fake money were being burned. This fake money thing is quite classic: people hand over real cash to various cashiers around the grounds who give the punters huge sheaves of the fake stuff. They then proceed to feed a huge four storey carved oven with the stuff. I was surprised that someone hadn’t thought to throw a pizza or two in there as well: they’re usually fairly ingenious at these things and the rest of the temple food left a fair bit to be desired including the stinky dofu and the baskets of pickled eggs. I’ve always wondered why they didn’t just cut out the middle man and feed the real money into the burners: surely the gods aren’t dumb enough to think they’re putting real stuff in? Maybe they just get a bigger thrill because it burns longer. Anyway, my irreverence seemed matched by many of the people there: they seemed to find the whole caper wildly amusing, even cracking each other up with their histrionics in front of various deities. The view from the top of the temple grounds was quite spectacular. One way takes in the Guandu wetlands and park while the other direction has the most magnificent view of the arched red bridge and a paddle steamer moored at Guandu wharf on the wide and still Danshui River.

We arrived back at the station a little leg weary, but determined to find the Tittot crystal glass museum nearby. We tracked through a few streets but couldn’t find it so I endeavoured to ask for directions. My teacher would have been proud: I managed to ask for the “special and quite famous glass museum” and its whereabouts. The Chinese worked well, but the big guy at the betel nut stand was either “off his nut” on his own product, or just completely unaware of what was in his own neighbourhood! Luckily, his female colleague knew immediately what we were after and directed us just around the corner.

The museum was a sparkling showcase for crystal art at its very finest. Tittot is a famous Taiwanese crystal artist and the museum featured some of his work, but the most astounding works were by a succession of Czech and Japanese. There were incredible art works from all over the world, some of the smaller works for sale at outrageously high prices, the larger pieces obviously priceless parts of the main collection. I managed to sneak a photo or two even though I don’t think it was allowed! Not only did it have the most superb artworks, it also had a section where you can make your own stuff through traditional glass blowing, and/or decorate and paint them. It looks great and I’d love to go back and give that a try sometime.

To top the day off we discovered a brilliant little Mexican food stall in the old street at Danshui after reading of it in a blog that morning. The most delicious fresh and authentic burritos and quesadillas we’ve had….in the middle of a Taiwanese tourist village?...wild! We feasted on Ed Gonzale’s fare down on the waterfront for a very late lunch/early tea, got some Dunkin Donuts to take home on the train for supper and we were done!
Photos: a bizarre shot of me with hair down and Virgy’s tongue hanging out (!), temple shots, the crystal museum, pickled eggs by the thousands and Eddyburrito!

We’ve managed to reverse our slothful trends of the past few weeks this weekend, so much so, that we managed to exhaust ourselves necessitating a long sleep in this morning! Determined to make the most of the slightly improving weather conditions (i.e. not glacial strength wind with driving rain, but something slightly better!) and with the knowledge that we might be tempted to stay in for long periods on Sunday to watch the first one day cricket final, we made the most of Friday and Saturday.

Cass had two days of mind numbing parental conferences on Thursday and Friday and was subsequently very much looking forward to a couple of refreshments on Friday afternoon and evening. One of her colleagues was celebrating his “15th” birthday ( a leap year baby of 60 real years) with some drinks and nibblies at Sommelier, one of the local wine shops. It was a great pre-cursor to her monthly book club outing and she went to Charlene’s place later to meet the gang. I’m never sure how much book talk ever happens at these shows as quite a lot of gossip is drip fed to me over the next few days as Cass remembers it! Seems a shame really, as Cassy does take her critical role very seriously, even taking notes on the assigned novels as she reads them…far too serious for my liking! Anyway, the wine and nibblies and company at the party were very enjoyable and the meal (which is the responsibility of the hostess) afterwards at the book club was extremely tasty…I even scored a bit of leftover salmon pasta the next day.

While Cass was at Sommelier, I was having a couple of Carlsbergs at Diamond Tony’s with Gurecki. Afterwards, I went round to Shaun and Katie’s place with my offering of a bucket of the Colonel’s finest bird, and managed to sneak a fair whack of their delicious Chinese. Shaun has promised to copy me the menu of this new restaurant just down the road with one of Taipei’s most famous chefs at the helm. Only trouble might be the exclusive Chinese speaking staff, so the Chinese will get a workout when I order the home delivery. I think I’ll be OK though: the water ordering has been going well lately in Chinese, as has the rudimentary conversations with telemarketers when they ring in the evening: the added bonus is that the same company never rings twice: no doubt they immediately black ban the psycho foreigner who insists in engaging them in meaningless conversation!

We had a few “jobs” to do on Saturday, so we headed downtown early afternoon on the MRT. We changed trains a couple of times, eventually finding our way to the cavernous surprise of the basement duty free shop, Ever Rich. We were investigating some duty free prices for a watch for a friend back home and we managed to get a few different prices and have a wander around this wonderland occupying almost a whole city block underground! Cassy was pleased to try on her long beloved Cartier gold and leather strap “Tank” watch….could this be her next beautiful item to save up for? Watch this space.
After this we wandered a fair distance across near the domestic airport to a tiny little restaurant which we had read a good review for. “Woolloomooloo” (yes that’s right, the same as the Sydney harbourside suburb). Cool as you like, the laid back sparsely decorated minimalist style uber chic café was a little oasis. We settled in at one of the tables, a blackboard menu one of the few decorations. There were English magos and books everywhere and the owner/cook/waiter was Jimmy, who lived in Melbourne for 20 years. His Taiwanese Aussie accent was very cool and the menu, although limited, was just like any number of ultra cool little cafes in Macleay Street Potts Point and Woolloomooloo itself that we try to visit whenever we get a chance. It didn’t take long for Cassy’s Eggs Benedict, but my anchovy pizza took about an hour and 15 minutes! It didn’t matter: we kicked back, read a movie book, had a good chat and luxuriated in the relaxed vibe. The pizza, when it did arrive (apparently, Jimmy had to make everything from scratch, including the dough base!) was one of the best I’ve ever eaten, even out pointing our new local favourite, Alleycats. Thoroughly chilled out by our afternoon/ evening, we headed back onto the trains for a super Saturday night of mayhem at the Shilin night market!

This blog is getting very long……..Anyway, suffice to say that we eventually fought our way through two mega busy train stations and were deposited at the night market. I wanted to get a kind of shoulder bag thingy for school after mine fell apart last week, some blank DVDs and Cassy wanted some huge, white framed sunglasses for some skit the women teachers need to perform at a divisional assembly (more about that when it happens). Of course, we managed to get all that stuff very easily, but the crowd (see photo) is something beyond description. From the moment you leave the train station until the moment you get back there, the scenes are chaotic, hot, claustrophobic, annoying, crushing, but still extremely fun and always exciting! We hadn’t been here for years right in the thick of the Saturday night action, so it was a real thrill!

Sunday, we were exhausted! Got up late, read lots of Mum’s Herald clippings (still a great lifeline, thanks Mum), then settled in to watch the one dayer. Photos: Cassy and David and a little friend (bottom right) celebrate the 28th anniversary of their meeting, the very long escalators at the transfer to the Mucha line, a row of police scooters (yes, scooters: scary eh?!) and the madding crowd at the Shilin night market.