Taipei Life

Cassy headed off to the Tienmu restaurant, “Saffron” on Friday night with her book club members and they had a very enjoyable night. For some reason, we hadn’t sampled the charms of this slightly more upmarket (in décor and service) and fancier (food) Indian restaurant, just a hop, skip and jump away from where we live. In fact it is just a minute’s stroll from the cinema we regularly attend. Cass was most impressed with the little touches, from the arrangement of the food on the quality crockery, to the linen serviettes and tablecloths and interesting décor and lighting. The girls had a good night, but Cassy’s delicious mango lassie contrasted with my Carlsberg beer, although both drinks were definitely just right to slake a Friday afternoon thirst brought on by a long hard work week combined with a continuing, unrelenting pall of heat.

After a few beers at Diamond Tony’s with Gurecki and Wal on Friday, I headed out about lunchtime on Saturday to again attack the 1000 steps. Only 1200 metres in length it is the absence of breaks and the gradient of the steps that provide the challenge. The monkey trail at the end is very peaceful, although I did encounter said monkeys in the shock of my life on Tuesday afternoon! I have been trying to do the steps every other day (so far successful…) and intersperse these sessions with some weight work in the gym on the off days. I was running a little late on Tuesday and managed to get to the top of the steps in daylight, but unwisely headed along the trail even though it was getting late. The hours around dawn and dusk tend to find the Formosan macaque come out for food, foraging and lively. I was walking along and happened to catch some movement in the corner of my eye. It was a little baby monkey with an older sibling playing with a branch. Just as I realized what I saw, I looked straight into the eyes of Mum, not more than an arm’s length away, sitting on a fencepost right beside me, all brazen power and grey menace! After nearly calling for the brown corduroy trousers, I hurried on only to get an extra fright as the monkey made a rather threatening grunting sound behind me…suffice to say, I took the long way back down to avoid a repeat episode! Anyway, the steps are proving to be an interesting new venture in more ways than one!

Still attending my Chinese lessons on Monday and Thursday evening (even though I’m really struggling for some intrinsic motivation), I’m having some very busy days at the moment. Luckily Cassy continues to do all the stuff I seem to be incapable of doing on a regular basis, so I can afford to be so decadent with my time. I did, however, have the run of the kitchen this week as my expert advisor gave handy hints from the safety of the lounge room next door: I made an apple cake! I needed to supply a cake for a team mate’s birthday, and was spoilt by a homemade one by the same person last year, so I thought, “How hard can this be?” Famous last words but suffice to say that after all the drama, it ended up being a pretty good one, but I don’t think I’ll be making a habit of it!

We went downtown on Saturday night and endured an enervating throng of commuters in a search for the new Breeze centre at Taipei Main Station. After a fruitless search, through every underground mall and alley in and around the station we gave up (we discovered on the internet when we got home that it was just a few steps away from where we had been; next time), we then decided to brave the madding throng once more and travel further south to the Taipower building station. Here we found the KGB (Kiwi Gourmet Burger), a tiny little restaurant hidden away down and alley. It had magnificent burgers, 100% lean NZ mince for the patties and everything fresh as fresh. We each had the “Kiwi mate” which included egg onion and beetroot (!) and declared it to be as good as the hamburger shop round the corner in Merewether! Mind you, we had to travel an hour to get to it…Still, it is just another thing we can get here now, and did I mention streaming the Bangladesh v Australia cricket game from Darwin on Saturday morning?

Beach today, and the long drive over (and back) was incredibly frustrating with ridiculously cautious drivers hogging the mountain roads and passes (20 km/p/h) which is absolutely infuriating. It is an awful flat spell for us, But Cass and I both enjoyed the swim, even though it wasn’t ultra refreshing: the idea of a large warm bath springs to mind. On the way home we got all sorts of gear at a “buy one, get two free” sale at a clothing store, then spent all those savings on buying some premium Aussie mince at Jason’s! This Taipei Life continues to intrigue…
Photos: Cass and TVs, decorations looking up in central Taipei, band in Taipei station, KGB shots and the beach in full radiant heat.