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!)