Today was just about the best day, weather wise, one could possibly request. Soaring blue skies with those white clumpy cotton bud clouds just peeking into the corner and just enough breeze would waft in every now and then to take the edge off the slow cooking sun. Out on the coast it was just so amazing. I swam out from the far end of Green Bay beach into a surprisingly crisp yet equally blue ocean and lay about 100 metres offshore “starfishin” floating, only my face above water being spun slowly round in the current watching those little clouds move back and forth. Swimming back, everything seemed in such sharp relief and so clean. It’s one of those moments that you know will linger in the memory for a time to come. As I emerged from the water after bodysurfing a little shooter in to shore, two parasailors dropped down on the sand, the second one botching his landing a little and came perilously close to a watching Cassy, who had been blissing out in the sun sitting on the concrete wall by the road! The sail got wrapped around a few street signs, but all was well, and the little drama just added to our lovely little sojourn in the sun. The surf was below par, but it allowed us a really great relaxing time at the beach this morning and into the afternoon. It’s still supposed to be winter!!

We went to see “Valkyrie” at the movies yesterday and were very impressed. Tom Cruise might be a complete nutter as a person, but he can act. The support cast was a galaxy of stars and each did a sterling job. We quickly got used to the “Germans” speaking English, and the whole story was quite compelling. It was relatively early after we left the flics, so we scootered down to Alleycats pizza to dine in as we thought we’d avoid the “school crowd”. We did fairly well, as only one other colleague couple wandered in. The food was its usual top taste and we reveled in a large serve of crappy TV before retiring!

My phone finally died a natural death on Friday. The last straw for me was missing about the 3rd relatively important text, as the phone was developing a mind of its own and deciding to switch itself off and on at weird and irregular intervals. The new one is not very jazzy as I was too tight to pay too much, but it has a camera and other stuff, most of which I can’t use because I’m on a prepaid plan, but it does the trick. The iPod Touch is still my go-to machine for internet etc as well as music, so this little guy, who can do all that, will just be able to chill out and perform some basic functions!

Cass had her book club meeting on Friday night at Charlene’s and all went well, the books, food and refreshment more than palatable and the company friendly and entertaining. My company was similar and I joined up with a few guys I don’t normally get together with, but we had a great time. The photo was taken at the “Indian” beer house, which is just a cheap Chinese restaurant with cheapish beer that I famously took Cass to dinner at on our anniversary 7 years ago. I had not done my usual research and I mistook the Indian beer sign for an Indian restaurant! Oh well, I know most have been better than that one!

Photos today: Cass on the phone to her parents when we got home from school, me ready to “do the steps”. Me in tie (very rare for me these days), today on the cliff, and the boys at the “Indian”.

Cass had to take a couple of days off this week, partly because she felt so bad and partly because she couldn’t utter more than a very strained whisper. She really copped this bug with both barrels, and she’s only just feeling a little better today and her voice is still a little croaky.

It was another Friday night of reminiscing when Peter Coombs lobbed back into town and we all caught up at the Green Bar. It was also a very strange feeling for us, as we hadn’t been to the Green Bar two weeks running for many years. “Coomba” had arrived from Hong Kong with his girlfriend Karen for the weekend and was keen to catch up with a few people. Wal set it all up for people to meet at a certain time and quite a good crowd showed up, a few just dropping in to say “hi” and a few more settling in to hear all the latest, including the fact that Peter did the Hong Kong marathon last Sunday! Apparently he was hearing the approaching footsteps of his 40th birthday quite loudly, and decided if he was going to do it, it had better be now. We all had a great laugh at his expense watching the video of him crossing the line: he couldn’t get out of a “Cliffy Young shuffle” as his legs had all but seized up at the 30 km mark. Karen was a very interesting person and very enjoyable company: we could all see the attraction. Cass reckons it was like bringing the girl home to meet the parents, getting the Taipei boys to meet her!

I managed to get an extra stairs session in today and was walking solidly for about 2 hours. I investigated right to the end of the monkey trail then went beyond, tracking the river ever upwards through very peaceful little home gardens and rustic little cottages dotting the path at irregular intervals. The rush of the water was ever present and even though it was quite a warm day, seemed to have a cooling effect as well. In the end, the path rose to the back road to Yangminshan, almost up to the Starbucks and 7/11 there….that’s a long walk! While I was doing that, Cass went for a little recovery walk to Takashimaya (which pretty much exhausted her in her weakened state) and got some hand cream, some delicious smoked salmon and horseradish mustard sandwiches for lunch and had a general look around at the beautiful things.

We watched the movie “Milk” this weekend as well and thoroughly enjoyed it. I’m a real fan of Sean Penn, and although I’m more used to seeing him do the tough guy, he was great in this as well. He nearly lost me a few years back with that awful, “I am Sam”, but I’m glad I gave him another chance!

I asked Cass if she wanted me to write anything more and she reminded me of a few things. She was keen that everyone knows that she manicured the cats with my help…one in particular is very resistant: you’d think we were trying to amputate her front legs! She also reminded me of the dinner we had down at Wendel’s on Friday night before we went out. It was great as usual and the food was excellent along with slick service and classy décor.

We’ve had a great weekend, it’s good to have Cass “alive” again and we’re looking forward to sitting down to watch the big Twenty 20 game between the Aussies and the Kiwis right now! Photos: one Cathy sent me of last Friday night with me and Cathy, Chad and Shaun. Also, me and 3 of my Grade 3 ESL boys at the lantern festival on Wednesday and a few more lanterns and marching guards. (Cassy refused to let me photograph her this week: apparently she didn’t look her best!)

This had to be one of the most low key weekends we’ve had for a very long time. Although I got out and about on Friday night to welcome Chad and Cathy back for the night and Cass and I went to Beitou for dinner on Saturday, we didn’t do much else of anything. It was actually a very relaxing weekend because of that, but Cass unfortunately succumbed to a very sore throat and associated sickness on Saturday night, so hasn’t been really able to do much of anything today.

Chad was coaching the girl’s team from his Singapore school and our school was hosting the IASAS tournament for basketball this year, so we were able to meet up. Cathy arrived late on Thursday night as well, so after a few of us watched one of his games on Friday afternoon, we all headed down to our old traditional haunt, the Green Bar. Lots of folk drifted in through the night, so we had a great time and although there weren’t heaps of opportunities to catch up one-on-one, I managed to corner each of them for a little while, so was able to find out what they’ve been up to. Ironically, the main thing I chatted to Chad about was my trip to Singapore not long ago, and Josh’s buck’s night!

On Saturday night, it was rumoured to be all happening again, but perhaps with an even greater ferocity, so I wisely mumbled something about staying in touch, but didn’t pursue it any further! Cass was keen to get up to Beitou on the train on Saturday night, which we did, to enjoy a very delicious steak and accompaniments at the Royal Host up there. The New Zealand beef is a fine very thick cut and is probably the best steak we’ve had over here. It is consistently good, so whenever we get a real hankering for a slab of beef, we know we’ll not be disappointed at the “Royally”. Even though we only go about 5 stops, it always feels like we’ve really gone “out”, but it is far more leisurely on a Saturday night to head north to Damshui, rather than south to the cauldron of a weekend night downtown!

Sunday, Cass has really succumbed to her illness and we have just spent the day lying on the lounge and watching the one day cricket, which, as I write is in an innings break, the Aussies finally looking like breaking their longish losing streak. We’ve also been reading about the horrific bushfires and loss of life and terrible injuries and realizing that we’re very lucky. I’ve been a bit introspective for some time over here worrying about how much money we’ve lost/ are continuing to lose on the share market etc. but things like this put it all back in perspective. It’s been great to hear from both Cassy’s parents and my Mum on the phone this weekend, or through the week: hearing about what they’ve been helps to keep us feeling a bit Aussie and not too separated from reality over here!

I’ve just returned from the supermarket after going to pick up a few things Cass couldn’t get yesterday: chicken and mince, nothing exotic! Just when you think Taipei has actually got everything you need, a shelf of no chicken and no mince certainly brings you back down to earth. The shopping still takes Cass only about 20 minutes…there aren’t 5 million product choices like there are back home. Well, it seems Cass will soldier in to work tomorrow to set things up, but I’m hoping she’ll take a couple of days off after that to rest up. That’s it! As I say, an unusually quiet time for us…. Photos: Dinner at the Royal Host, Beitou.

Apart from watching the slow, agonizing and inexorable slide of the world’s greatest cricket team into at least the 3rd or 4th best, we did lots of other stuff this week. A week traditionally known for its cold and wet conditions, this week of enforced consumer holidaying, otherwise known as Chinese New Year, was remarkable for both the fine weather it turned ion and the increasing number of bigger establishments that stayed open, at least some of the time.

Cass accompanied me out to the coast on both Tuesday and Wednesday as I surfed Green Ball on the north east and Pointies on the north respectively. Both times I met up with Dan and Cass had a great chat with Nicky while the kids roamed free! It’s great surfing with Dan: he has a real energy and excitement that brings out the best in me surfing wise, as I have to admit, since Ross left, I’ve never really recovered! It also helped that the surf was excellent on both days, helped by some generous and powerful swell. To check more of the Green Ball day, have a look at this link, and I even made a slide show of the Wednesday at Pointies, which you can see here.

As the week moved along, we luxuriated in our ability to stay up late and sleep in even later! No alarms and timetables lead to us very quickly re-adjusting our body clocks. We know we’ll have to pay for this tomorrow when the alarm goes off at 6 am again, but we’re living for the moment! Lemon butter for brekky, chicken soup for lunch and even apple cake with amaretto cream for tea…wow! How well we ate, all home cooked and delicious!

I wandered up to the gym on Thursday to hit the heavy bag and lift some weights and met Wal up there for a solid two hour session. The couple of cleansing ales turned into a couple more, but I still managed to bring home the KFC for dinner, so all was not lost. Cass and I went to the movies yesterday to watch the superb “Flashbacks of a Fool”. Whoever named this movie deserves to be shot, as I imagine many moviegoers would miss it just because of the very strange and unimaginative name. It was, however, first class, Daniel Craig and all the cast just mesmerizing. We ate out at Cassy’s favourite “Aubergine” beforehand, Cass giving her Florentine red leather jacket and Venetian glass heart a first outing.

Earlier in the day we trekked up behind the Veteran’s Hospital, through the tunnel and up the trail into the mountains beyond. The trail and steps were characterized by some rare for Taipei and rather beautiful sandstone formations and the track stretched up and farther up till we reached a pinnacle of sorts. Backtracking through another path eventually to a large popular temple, we continued yet farther, winding our way behind the temple and way down into the Beitou hinterland. Eventually disgorged from our mini wilderness in the back of Qiyan, we eventually made our way down to the station, where we MRTed back to Mingde and home.

Today, we had breakfast out at Jakes, meeting up with Wally’s mum and brother and Tina. We had a laugh and a half with them: Wal’s mum is certainly a larger than life character, a real crack-up! I think he was pleased to share the wear a little: sounded like she could talk the hind leg off a dog. We wandered down to Rourkey’s from there in a pristine sunshiney morning, just perfect weather. After that I went down to pick up the photos we’d finally selected to be printed, all 935 of them! Amazingly, this was only a “selection”, believe it or not. There are certainly some drawbacks from taking this camera around every week to take pictures for this very blog! Admittedly, we had left it rather a while: about 3 years. Cass has vowed never to let it get like this again. I’m not really fussed: I reckon if we have the electronic version, we don’t need the hard copies, but Cass is a real “hard copy woman”.

All in all, an absolutely brilliant break for us both, just what we needed after our fantastic, but very enervating romp through Italy just a few weeks ago. Photos: wilderness in the city, surf, Aubergine, cats and photos. Check the links for more surfing stuff if you’re keen.