Well, it’s Chinese New Year time again and even though you’d think we’d be used to it by now, something always surprises us anew. We’re used to the incessant small incendiary devices being exploded at all hours of the day and night, some sounding like they’re just outside our window, the explosive force shaking us from our slumber.We’re used to the curious customs that we seem increasingly to be taking on board, quite bizarrely, as we don’t have any belief system to back these behaviours up. For example, I’ve found myself hesitating to use scissors (cuts bad luck away) yesterday and today. I’ve also found myself not cleaning up stuff and taking it easy, but I can’t really tell if this is for Chinese New Year or just my usual built-in laziness!
We’re also used to the bone chilling cold, although it seems especially intense this year. It has only just dipped into single figures, yet just feels so much colder than the Italian winter temps we just experienced. How could this be? Apart from the high humidity, which makes it feel so much colder, it may also be a stubborn refusal by the locals to acknowledge that a cold (albeit fairly brief) winter actually does exist in Taiwan. The apartments are made to stay cool and don’t retain heat, the only heaters we can get are little blowy heaters, and people just pretend it isn’t really happening!
The one surprise we got this year was enjoying, to a certain extent, our third Chinese New Year family dinner. We received this very special invitation to join one of our neighbour’s families for this family only feast. Bessy cuts Cassy’s hair in her little back alley salon and she was keen for us to join them. We dragged ourselves out last evening (hence the slightly late blog) and made our way over with a bottle of Australian red and a little Murano glass picture frame from Venice as our small gifts. Bessy’s young adult kids, Eric and Nicole were good English speakers, but we found ourselves in quite a surreal situation at times, language wise. Abe was Eric’s Japanese friend, so I found my self speaking to him in Japanese, then translating bits (only little bits!) into Chinese for Bessy’s husband and his elderly Mum and then into English for Cass and the kids. It certainly kept me on my toes! Abe was a very interesting young artist currently staying as an artist in residence at Taipei Artists’ village. He showed us his portfolio with photos of his super sized wooden sculptures, many of which are self portraits of his representations of his childhood. The elongated limbs prompted me to tell him about Cassy’s dad’s long arms (so Chris reckons!) and he thought this was terrifically funny for some reason, but he could also have just drunk a lot of beer.
The “special and delicious” foods presented to us at Mr. Lee’s place a few years ago were actually a little less special and a little more delicious than we remembered, and we didn’t have any trouble selecting some items to fill us up, while remembering to leave the fish (another tradition) and trying to serve everyone else, even though we were the guests (yet another). After a while sitting around drinking Oolong tea and hearing about Bessy’s husband’s love for a Taiwanese style of Tai Chi, which he practices at some length every day, we wandered off down the lane home feeling extremely “local”!
Somehow, I managed to drag myself out of bed to tend to my annoyingly insistent alarm at 5 am on Saturday morning. This was an unusually heroic feat I’ve decided, as it was bitterly cold and also just a few short hours after I’d gone to bed. A group of us had celebrated the coming of our Chinese New Year break under the light and warmth of the space heaters at Wendel’s, our Erdingers somehow reducing us to a hypnotic state as we gazed into their amber depths… (or more likely, just like Abe, we’d drunk too much beer!). Anyway, the alarm signified a call to drive east for surf. I got to the coast after going through the 13 km tunnel and along various expressways, just as the light arrived and we ended up getting some really fantastic waves at the “Taj Mahal”, as we call it, a spot just up from Wushi Harbour. It was great to have a surf and a chat and some shared waves with Tobes, Danno, Andrew and Gary.
I managed to do the steps today after watching the Aussies struggle big time in the cricket one dayer and Cass exercised by ripping into a big clean of the house (against all sorts of Chinese New Year rules, I might add… “I’m not Chinese!” she said). Cassy has also continued a growing tradition we have here at CNY: she has cooked a massive pot of Mum’s famous chicken soup…best ever I reckon, after sampling some for lunch. Not resting there, she has also made a big batch of lemon butter which we’re slathering over fresh hot white toast in the frosty mornings: this holiday is already fantastic! Lots of book reading and TV series watching has been done and more of the same is planned, along with some surfing, steps, cinemas and restaurants as the week progresses. Photos: a rare visit to my lap by Virgil (there’s a lot to be said for this cold weather!), the surfer boys, Cass with all the family at our CNY dinner.