For a second week running we felt a little bit like Dorothy in Kansas’ tornado alley as another monster typhoon bore down upon us. The wind and rain started on Friday and by Saturday night, the full maelstrom hit the top end of the country, trying to huff, and puff, and blow down everything in its path. Like its little brother Sinlaku before it, Typhoon Jangmi was doing its best to disrupt our lives and put lots of people’s lives in danger in the mountains and near the coast.

Cassy was sick as can be all week and finally succumbed to her dreaded throat infection on Wednesday after trying to soldier on earlier in the week. She ended up having three days off, a highly unusual situation for her, but partly due to the fact that her classes were a lot easier to plan as there is a visiting anti chemical dependency team taking over a fair bit of her time. She still feels a little washed out today, so it was a rather savage brute. She took some solace in her plight with two little furry friends being very friendly in her time of need and managed to read a few books and get lots of sleep with them as constant shadows.

Friday night I brought home some lasagna and salad from Wendel’s Backerei down the street, where Gurecki and I shared a couple of relaxing Erdingers in an enervating heat haze, the clouds and smog sucked away by the approaching typhoon, leaving little protection against a blazing autumnal sun. Home to watch the NRL on Friday night (6pm Taipei time) and then off to bed early for me as I was determined to mine any golden swells that were going to be produced by the approaching big boppa.

Crack of dawn Saturday I made my way to Greenball where I met up with my mate JB, who was hesitant to go out. An American, JB has lived here off and on all his life and his fluent Mandarin is a cause of constant frustration for me: I’d love to have those skills! Anyway, as JB got the good oil from all over the coast, I got the brand new MR spitfire waxed up and ready to go. JB demurred as it was pretty rough and surgey and he only had his longboard, so I went out to join a small but determined local crew. It ended up being a pretty frustrating time, getting a few waves, not really doing them justice, then dinging up the new board on the way in. It’s a very dangerous exit point on the Tetra pod wall, but the boys were all helping: collecting boards for each other and helping each other out of the water. Driving back in the grey squall, I planned my next moves: getting to Brandon’s with beers and KFC after a quick shower in time for the AFL grand final celebrations! I managed to get there on the scooter with a few minutes to spare before kickoff and we had a great day as the game was exciting and the company funny and entertaining. Wal and I and Ivo and Lewy kicked on for a while to the Qiyan WoSoo bar where we ate some dinner and drank a few more beers.

The wind screamed and whistled through the night, the rain came down in torrents and various foreign objects flipped and crashed against each other in the streets outside, a cacophony of sound that intermittently woke the cats who cried, or us directly to sit up startled and wonder what on earth was happening out there. Sunday was definitely a day to hunker down inside, which we did, enjoying lots of reading and TV. We’ve watched the first 4 episodes of the Aussie cop drama “Rush”. It’s really very good: we were disappointed that we didn’t have more to watch. Along with many episodes of the spine chilling “Dexter” which seemed appropriate with the other worldly howls from outside interrupting from time to time, we certainly had our fill!

Excitement on Sunday night when the web site and the phone tree revealed that school had been called off for today, Monday. Hurrah! We were so disappointed to be cooped up all last weekend and half of this one that we felt we deserved it actually. We’ve had a great day today, not really doing much, but taking a few quiet moments to luxuriate in that most decadent of moments: a work day when you don’t have to go to work, it’s all legit and you’re not sick….fantastic!

Typhoon Jangmi has eased as it heads offshore so Dorothy’s red shoes are safe again for now. Photos: tracking typhoons on Sunday, a blurry AFL grand final shot (Sean’s wife Katie just had their second child, Mia, last night…), the “girls” relaxing all over each other (even in this heat!), and the storm surf on Saturday. There is also a shot of Virg writhing in the stinky, sweaty clothes I use to walk up the steps! For some strange reason, both cats find this totally irrestible, especially the hat: weird!

Cassy endured a rather unenviable week after hearing that her camp had been postponed due to the ferocity of typhoon Sinlaku. On Monday, virtually unplanned as they were meant to be away all week, she and her teaching partner Kristin had the pleasure of the new MS principal observing their lesson for 100 minutes! A trifle insensitive to the realities of planning, apparently the lesson was a huge hit anyway, but talk about unneeded pressure! In fact, we both had a pretty tough week after being basically kept indoors for the entire previous weekend.

Monday was a wash out in terms of any outdoor activity, but I managed to maniacally do the “steps” on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday as well as yesterday and today. Today, I went all the way along the trail as well and headed up the road to the cultural college. It has always been rather awe inspiring, perched as it is on the edge of a precipice at the top of the first big peak of Yangminshan, but we never realized the bustling little town it hid just behind. As the trail took me higher, it also took me about a kilometre past the college, so when I reached the top of the mountain I doubled back. There are lots of little streets catering to the students: art supplies shops and coffee and drinks outlets along with heaps of “cheap eats”. The uni crowd tends toward a slightly more adventurous restaurant scene, so even though cheap, I saw lots of curries and pizzas etc. After all these exertions in the blazing midday sun, I was ready for the long traipse home through some more shaded tracks. The monkey trail is really very relaxing and is just high enough up in the mountains to provide a slightly cooler air. That combined with a light breeze on a very sweaty body and clothes and the sound of running water from the various creeks and water course running close to the trail and steps, it’s a very pleasant ambiance.

We went up to Lewy’s on Friday night to watch the AFL semifinal, and he had pulled out all the culinary stops, including making his famous chili prawns which are delicious and supplied great bucket loads of the Colonel’s finest, always a winner!

Saturday was another scorcher and after my steps adventure, I went and picked up some tickets to the movies, we had some Subway for lunch, and then headed up to the cinema. We had pretty high hopes for “Righteous Kill” as it co-starred De Niro and Pacino, two of our all time favourites and two of the best at their craft. It was pretty good entertainment, and those two managed to drag the script up from a B to an A-. They just seem to do things so well, so effortlessly, it really shows up the glaring deficiencies of some other so-called actors and directors these days. On our way out we stocked up on some blanc DVDs at FNAC, along with a fancy arm holder thingy for my ipod Touch: it’s something I’ve been after for ages. I joined Wal and Brandon round the corner at Rourkey’s on Saturday afternoon after the pictures for the other AFL semi before getting home to watch the Melbourne Brisbane NRL semi with Cass. She cooked us up a great dinner and we watched the late news and the football before getting to bed reasonably early.

Cassy woke today with one of her infrequent, but traditionally vicious sore throats, so we abandoned our plans to get to the beach and scout out the remnants of any existing swell from the swell last week. We slept in a little and I tried to find her special antibiotics when I went out, but either chemists were shut or they just didn’t have the goods. After listening to hours of Chinese while walking today (using the fancy new armband) I was in an expansive language mood and found out that the drug didn’t seem to be made in Taiwan and people marveled at this “wonder” drug from Australia (pretty much just because everything on the box was written in English I think!)

I haven’t taken the camera out at all this week or on the weekend (it’s been quite liberating!) so I’ll include just a few from recent times. My 3rd grade team this year, the dreaded (but peaceful!) steps and "our" new racehorse, Dancing Stars! (Yes, true story, but only 1%...more to follow next week)

Typhoon Sinlaku basically kept us indoors from Friday till Monday and we came to work in pouring rain this morning, I got my trousers soaked, while Cass wore thongs and rolled up pants! Even though I tried to get a surf on Sunday morning in the eye of the storm (it lasted about 4 hours as it was moving so slowly), the surf was not really doing it and there were cops everwhere ready to bust the unsuspecting foreign surfer with a $NT50,000 fine.

Mid week I was bowled over again by the generosity of the Taiwanese. I had commented on a little third grade kid's t-shirt the day before (he had on a "HOG" Taiwan chapter shirt) and I told him I loved the shirt as I had a Harley. The next day, the kid came in and presented me with a brand new, collectors edition shirt for staff only from the local Harley franchise out at Neihu! It is very cool and the special bit is it has the Taiwan flag insignia embroidered onto the sleeve.

Friday was kind of fun as we watched some AFL up at Wally's place before venturing down to Hsyin Yi to see the band "QvQ" strut their stuff at Bliss for the last time before it closes down, re-vamps itself, whatever.

Cassy had her camp postponed this week, which is bitter sweet as she now has to go in March. At least she didn't have to deal with the after effects of the typhoon up at Fulong campground: that would have made life terribly miserable.

I've managed to continue doing my steps walking 4 times in the past week and get to my Chinese lessons. I'm really struggling for motivation with the Chinese: maybe I'm getting too old, but things just don't seem to stick language wise, like they used to.

The internet went off some time on Saturday and refused to restore itself for at least 24 hours, but we were thankful that neither the water nor the electricity decided to go out, as it did do for over 80,000 houses in the north here. Suffice to say, we watched lots of footy (4 different codes) and lots of Entourage on DVD (many series worth!). I haven't seen Cass today, as I had a meeting today at the time we usually meet for lunch, another one at 2, then yet another at 2.45 till 4. I'm absolutely spewing because for the first time since April we have some swell hanging around and I could have gone over with Dan, but 4pm is just too late.

OK, rant over, you can tell I'm not in my usual upbeat mood, so I'll keep it short today!!
Photos: Rather lacklustre "eye of the typhoon" surf at Green ball, marauding goats at Pillbox hinterland eating everything not nailed down, the boys at Wal's watching the footy and my little mate presenting me with the Harley shirt and sporting (removable!) Harley tattoo.

Friday afternoon groaned and trembled, then the skies opened up in the most violent tropical downpour after an exceptionally hot and still day. Cassy wondered in her second class of the afternoon whether the weather would clear in time for her to attend the much anticipated Avril Lavigne concert, scheduled for 8 pm that night at the Yuanshan soccer stadium.

I went up to explore some different steps in the afternoon, before catching up with Cass briefly as we went off in different directions for the evening. Cass was going to meet up with Paige, Daisy, Cody and Jade at the train station so they could travel to the concert together and I had an appointment to meet up at Sean’s house to watch the first of the many AFL finals to come this month. As Cassy’s entry lines snaked their way into the stadium I was re-meeting Sean’s dad, who is over here for a week or so. We had a good time watching the AFL and a bit of the NRL after, but Cassy had the best time. Like any good Avril concert goer, she smuggled in some beers (we thought it was accepted practice here, but apparently others were having alcohol confiscated) and the friends enjoyed the build up to the concert from their seats perched high up in the stands, ready for another downpour. It was the same stadium where we had watched Elton John with Ross and Ains years ago, the planes still dropping out of the sky overhead on their approach to the local airport. Avril was quite the spectacular performing little bunny, cute as you like and talented to boot: playing three different instruments and pumping out some immense sounds from her tiny frame. They all had a great time, enjoying the concert and the passing parade, finishing off with a cleansing ale at Alleycats before making their way home.

I was due to make the trek up the hill to Jerry’s section 7 house at midday on Saturday. He always hosts a Collingwood semi (if they make it) and this was quite an extravaganza. I would have gone anyway, but my other duty was to hand over the “winner’s cheque” to the new tipping competition winner, Angela, at half time. In my speech, I noted that the horror of a NRL, league supporting breeze-in from NSW had this year been surpassed by a woman from Queensland taking out the big prize. The only worse scenario was if an American wins, so I pointed out that all the AFL boys should be especially wary of Brandon next year! I resisted the temptation of a beer during the football so I could brave the heat in the early evening and go for a steps climb. I got half way up the 1000 steps, then went searching for the link road to the other set of steps I’d climbed half of on Friday afternoon. I did so, then, even though very foot weary, I was determined to see where they ended up. I ended up climbing from the bus circle all the way up to beyond the cultural college! I trekked about a kilometre down the steep winding road before once again linking up with the very top of the 1000 steps before going back down. Now wonder we slept in till 9 o’clock this morning: I didn’t even stir!

We had a great lazy day today to recover from our various exertions. A late brekky accompanied by Herald clippings, still being sent across often by Mum (thanks Mum!) was just the tonic to start, and then I watched a bit of footy on telly while Cass attended to some of her first big hit of grading for the year. She has been working on a great slab off and on all weekend and continues to do so as I tap out this missive. We ate a mid-afternoon “high tea” at a beautiful new restaurant up at Tienmu East Rd after picking up our booked cinema tickets. It was at a place called “Neverland”, linen serviettes, classy crockery and silver service. The tiny savouries and cakes and biscuits were absolutely scrumptious and the coffee strong and delicious. It was a little slice of decadence for Sunday afternoon, before we went to see the absolutely superb film, “In Bruges”. We don’t often unreservedly recommend a film, but we both do in this case. It might be old or new (Taipei has some strange screening habits: sometimes we have world premieres, while at other times, films can be six months old), but if it’s around, “do yourself a favour” and all that…brilliant!

Photos: the girls at Avril Lavigne, Avril pumping it out, Cassy and Mary, we two before going out on Saturday night (Oh, I forgot to mention that: we ate out at a Takashimaya 12th floor Italian restaurant and had the most amazing gelato for dessert), and Cassy at Neverland.