A peculiarity that pervades the Asian landscape, be it, Taiwan, Japan, Singapore, Thailand or others, is the massive steel frames and towers covered in netting that dot the areas around big population centres. They are a hundred metres high and hundreds of metres long and are of course that antidote to golf players starved of cheap and accessible courses, the golf driving range. Even though the outer areas of Taipei County do indeed boast some picturesque top class courses, they are very expensive compared to Australia and do entail a longer drive than is usual back home. I am not a golfer and have only ever fudged my way round a course three times in my life (including the infamous Cypress Lakes opening when I managed to get myself on the nightly news hacking my way out of a gully!), so have not entertained the thought of using one of these huge skeletal frames, even though I’ve been quite fascinated by the look of them from afar, a bit like a gigantic insect or a creature from “War of the Worlds” rising from the ground.Suffice to say, we tried some different entertainment on Friday afternoon and I loved every minute! We duly got our huge number of golf balls and proceeded to swat merrily away at them for a few hours before retiring for some refreshments. I used Wal as my tutor and he seemed to give me very good advice as every now and then I’d crack a beauty in the sweet spot and felt well satisfied. Lewy, Wal and Gurecki were all very experienced and I made sure I watched what they did and used their advice. In the end, even though my long game was wayward (to say the least!), I ended up teaming with Lewy against Wal and Gurecki and we won a little chipping game twice in a row: I was pretty satisfied.
Cass went into a bit of a wiping frenzy yesterday and managed to wipe down and clean the big main windows and sliding doors at the front as well as the ceiling and walls of the kitchen. To her great surprise, she managed to find microscopic pieces of potato still all over certain sections of the walls and ceiling! You may remember a microwaved bowl of potatoes exploded in her face a few months ago necessitating a rush to the doctor and some first aid burns treatment. We ended up having a very low key Saturday, apart from Cassy’s exertions, and watched the cricket over the internet, the Wallabies and the All Blacks on TV, and ended up getting Alleycats pizzas and a Greek salad for tea…yum!
Today started off in a similarly relaxed fashion with a dozy morning eating breakfast, reading lots of Herald clippings that Mum sent, patting and playing with the girls and fiddling on the computer. Mid-morning, however, we decided to set off on a stairs mission. I have been regularly doing the 1000 steps during the week (at least 4 times) slowly whittling down my time. I have to take two stairs at a time and semi-jog now to improve my times, but that’s a good thing. Cass and I decided we’d do a slower, but much longer version. Armed with a bottle of water each (as it turned out we could have done with a second one) we braved the 31 degree heat up to the foot of the stairs. Half way up we took a dogleg to the right and met up with another set of stairs. These are the ones I took a month or so back that led up to the very top of the Chinese Cultural College. Even though they are far less crowded (Sunday is not a good d ay to go!!), there is a reason: they are much steeper and more intense and also go a lot way further. Cass did a great job and we were huffing, puffing and sweating buckets by the time we got to the top. Along the way we saw dozens of scared little geckos and lizards rush across our path, including one little mini “dinosaur”! There were lizards with electric blue tails darting here and there and dainty skeletons of dead leaves scattered around. It was really quite scenic, especially every now and then when we’d burst from the forest canopy and get a glimpse of the seething city far, far below: quite surreal. We’ve been a bit pooped since we got back and the option of watching a little cricket and having a light “resting my eyes” type snooze definitely appealed! Photos: on the steps and track, golf driving and Halloween monsters at school on Friday.