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.