I don’t usually write a blog when we’re on holidays, but I’ll relent this time and just writer a short one, mainly because it was quite bizarre. All year, once a week, a kid in Gerri’s class takes a toy monkey called Cheee Chee home to have an adventure for a week. After the week, the kiddy does an oral presentation, shows some photos and then everyone else in the class writes them a letter in response. We’ve found it’s a great way to get them to speak and to write in correct letter format without getting bored. The culmination of the activity this year was for me to take Chee Chee home and we’ve carted the poor little bugger around for a week!The week started with drizzling mournful rainy weather and managed to maintain this without respite till yesterday afternoon. It was just awful outside, but instead of moping around regretting our decision not to go to Malaysia or Singapore or both, we stayed determined to make the most of the break.
One day I went out and surfed and got some really great waves, Cassy coming along for the ride. I tried another day very early in the morning, but we couldn’t find anything. We stayed home for a couple of dark dank days and watched the entire series of Underbelly, a TV drama from back home that somehow arrived in my computer’s hard drive to be burnt to disc….I didn’t download that thing(!) did I?
Another day saw us brave the conditions to trek way way out of town to the end of the metro line where we transferred to the so called Maokong Gondola. We were expecting a short ride up the mountain on a cable car, but the thing was just awesome! Four kilometers in length, the ride took 20 minutes each way and reached the dizzying heights of the Maokong tea house mountains. Here, where the Taipei citizenry can escape the summer heat and sip all sorts of invigorating teas, lies a quite magical little area, but the trip up is most spectacular. We were suspended about 500 metres above the ground in parts and it was a little frightening and a lot thrilling!
We scootered up the mountain yesterday and had a beautiful day in the sun. On the way back we wandered in and around the gorgeous, peaceful Beitou public library. It is like a giant tree house, rising from the park, all wood and glass and open air abiance. That evening we celebrated Cassy’s birthday in style at “Le Jardin” a French restaurant that supplied us with a fantastic meal and delicious wine. She was absolutely delighted to get birthday greetings from her parents and also my sister Sue…looks like everyone else forgot her: I told her it was probably deliberate, maybe trying to make her forget how old she was!
Lots of other stuff happened, but suffice to say, we’ll both me glad to see the back of Chee Chee….he was quite annoying!