How exciting it is! Holidays are on again, and this Spring Break couldn’t have come at a better time. We both endured some rather mind numbing “professional development” last 3 days of this week so were looking forward to relaxing this weekend and also through this week which we have off. We feel a touch isolated, as heaps of people we associate with here are jetting off island. Both Gurecki and Wal are heading independently to Japan, Gurecki on a school trip with Himiko and Wal on a fact finding mission in Fukuoka before his summer school stint in Tokyo in June. My surfing partner Dan has taken his family for a bit of an east coast camping adventure and promises to ring if the surf is “cranking” so I can make a mad dash down there: so far, no!

Anyway, we’ll find lots of amusing activities to do, and we’ve already braved the holiday Jade market yesterday. This labyrinth of jewelry, jade and other precious stones is located under a major expressway drop off ramp. I’ve written about it before, but it never ceases to amaze and surprise. There are many hundreds of tiny individual stalls (or tables really) set up in endless lines stretching all the way to another, as huge, flower market on the other side under the up ramp! We were after a half carat sapphire to be set in Cassy’s engagement ring setting to give to my niece who is turning 13 soon. We had given her older sister Cassy's 9 carat gold necklace and bracelet for her 13th, so Cass was keen to continue the “tradition”. Cass had the diamond from her engagement remodeled last year, but the ring and setting are just too good to be sitting around, hence the idea.

It was the first time I’d been to the market since my Chinese had reached a rudimentary level of understanding and it was great to use it and have it understood. “We want to buy a half carat mid blue sapphire”, and “Do you have any smaller ones?’, “a slightly larger one?” and all the associated cost asking and understanding Chinese went very well, even though I’m sure we could have got our message across with no language help! It’s a comfortable feeling not getting frustrated by basic language problems anymore. (Let me stress: BASIC!!) We ended up finding a really beautiful mid blue sapphire just the right size, so after Joe the jeweler sets and cleans it, it should be fantastic.

On the way home, we passed by one of the ubiquitous local eateries, but not only do they use the bones and all the animal products in their broth, but they display the bones as well! A bit further on, we stopped in and bought a new “stimulating” game for Virg n Mary, which of course, they have studiously ignored since we set it up when we got home! However, when in the pet shop, we spied a very curious thing out the back. Dogs were getting manicured and shampooed while others were being blow dried in giant pet dryers. They looked like they loved every minute of it actually….

Today, we ate breakfast and read our clippings courtesy of Mum, and enjoyed the piquant flavours of Cassy’s real home made lemon butter. She made up a big batch last night so we’ll be having lots of that through the break. Cass was on a bit of a cooking frenzy yesterday actually, as she also made a very tasty fruit cake: looks like I’ll have to do double time on those stairs! After our brunch, I wandered down to meet Wal at one of our local coffee shops and spent a couple of hours teaching him “Everything you really need to know as well as all the essential phrases of Japanese in just two hours”! He was a good student, but it was classic to translate some of the stuff into Chinese first before the English as it gave him a better idea of the structure and why the word order is set up that way. His knowledge of Chinese really made him a quick study.

Back in time to watch most of the Knights v Bunnies with smoked salmon takeaway sangas in hand. Cassy is grading some perspective poems while I’m doing this, I think in sympathy: we reckon it’s cruel and unusual punishment to be using the keyboard for any kind of typing/work in the holidays. We’re both reading offerings from that genius wordsmith Lionel Shriver at the moment, me with “Birthday” and Cass with “Kevin”. Photos: Cass with dem old bones, dogs in dryers, Virg with tongue out, Dave with new Sansa (which arrived on Wednesday) and our sapphire salesman at the jade market.

We were both very social Friday evening. I had a few beers at Wendel’s and Cass went to Alleycats where the MS staff was having a post camp celebration. It had turned into a rather more sombre gathering due to the death early in the week of a much loved and respected colleague, yet another death amongst the teaching ranks here. It has certainly been a terrible couple of years in this regard and we’re really hoping that this time we’ll gain some respite. In fact, even though it was shocking and sad, we’re getting so used to the emotions from these kinds of bombshells that we’re becoming slightly, just slightly, less devastated by them. I don't think this is a good thing...

On a brighter note, we had an exceptional day in the sun today and were “kissed” a little by the sun in return! The coast turned on one of those most beautiful, Australianesque Indian summer days today, the sun in a clear bright sky and the water fanned by a light offshore breeze. The slight drawback was that although the offshore had blown all the shore hugging sea board rubbish out to deeper water, the crystalline effect was marred by the beach flotsam blowing in! We can’t win… The shorelines here are just constantly littered with rubbish, admittedly mainly fairly harmless fishing trawler losses, like floats and nets, but occasionally more sinister and unidentifiable material! Suffice to say, that the water was very clear today, but slightly spoiled by the blow-ins.

This is a rather strange phenomenon: people back in Australia would never contemplate getting in at such a “dirty” beach, yet we’ve become very much acclimatized, and actually rarely notice it anymore. Just another way we are way spoilt back home.

The surf was pretty small, but it was a great bodysurfing wave and even though a little brisk at first, the water was very refreshing. Cass got in for a while after bobbing up and down near the shoreline for ages, just getting used to the idea!

On the way back home, we stopped at a 7/11 to get some food and came across one of Taiwan’s strange, but fairly common sights. As posted on these pages before, the bride getting photos taken before the big day is fairly common, and she was quite happy to pose for us as we went past the entrance of the convenience store in the car.

A little further on, just past the main corner from Jinshan heading up to Yangminshan again, we finally stopped and got out to have a closer look at our favourite sculpture. The massive powerful rhino has been there for years and years, and I’ve been a huge fan since I first noticed its construction. Up close, it is indeed a palpably strong representation of the beast. There is a Chinesey looking bridge just behind and a remarkably clear water river: as Cass pointed out, it looks like it has just coursed down from the mountains, with very little interference, so has remained clear and clean.

We’re feeling very relaxed this evening and looking forward to just two days with kids, then a further 3 PD days as the annual EARCOS conference is on. We’ve previously gone off to these, notably in Vietnam and Bangkok, but Kota Kinabalu seemed just a little too “contained” for us this year! Photos: body surfing, bridge and river, posing girl and a powerful smooth stone and steel rhino!

The week started quite eventfully for us, which is rather unusual, as the weekdays at school roll around with great regularity and similarity, a necessary by-product of a school system, where routines seem to be set and Pavlovian responses expected at all times to schedules and “bell times”! Cass was due to go off to MS camp, but as I mentioned last week, she was feeling very unfit. The sickness just got worse and her weakness didn’t improve, so she resolved to do her best at resting on Monday with the plan we would drive up to Fulong early on Tuesday morning.

Cass did feel just a little better on Tuesday, so we drove up. The trip there was relatively uneventful, sluicing along freeways and diving off at the coast to follow the ocean road all the way to Fulong. Hitting the nuclear power plant at peak hour was an experience as in and around the area was teeming with hard hat wearing, betel nut chewing workers, all of whom looked like they hadn’t had a shower for 2 weeks! Maybe they were just knocking off after a double? Anyway, Cass was safely deposited into the welcoming arms of the Grade 8 camp support faculty and I turned and headed for Tienmu about 7.45 am. Hhhmmm…about one hour to get there and about 2 and a half to get back! It was kind of wild to experience driving in rush hour in such a big city. The drop off ramp at Tiding Interchange at Neihu had a line up of about 1 kilometre and cops controlling the turn. Once off the freeway, things got even worse: all I can say is I’m often thankful that the “auborgino’s” paintwork is less than pristine, as I charge straight into gaps with the sure realization that my car is worse than everyone else’s and surely (?) they’ll stop…

Cass did survive the week, but didn’t fully recover till about now and she still has a niggling cough. While she was away, I did my annual purging of unwanted stuff and massive cleanup campaign. Little stuff that builds up was my target and I took all the books from my bedside table (27 of them!) and transported them into the study. Then I realized that I’d have to rearrange all those books, so I undertook a big sort out and cleaned up the whole bookshelf. I then got rid of all the accumulated rubbish, old cardboard boxes that the cats played in, and gave the house a thorough clean so Cass wouldn’t feel the need when she got home. She was able to have a very relaxing weekend because of that, so the plan worked!

We went on the MRT to Fushing South to visit Pie Boy for a late lunch, where we ran into Aaron and Rachel (Cass worked with her at Tiger Tot’s years ago) and their kids, just as they were leaving. After a very tasty lunch (pictured) and loading up with a bit of takeaway, we went to the computer market area. I was after a SanDisk “Sansa Clip”, for an extra MP3 player to augment my iPod Touch. I wanted something tiny and practical to read some Chinese to me as I do the steps and the trails (and maybe some music too!), and had researched them a fair bit and this one was the go. Well, I could have been knocked down with a feather when no one had one! This is Taiwan….come on, please! They had everything else known to man, but I figured out that Taiwan based makers were dominating and SanDisk is made in China…that cross strait war continues on a different front! Even though the tech wizardry was impressive, I had my heart set on this little player, so in a definite case of “shipping coals to Newcastle”, I went and bought one online: to be delivered soon!

We had a very relaxed day today and slipped into our Sunday zone of sleeping in and having a leisurely brekky reading Herald clippings supplied by Mum, eating raison toast and drinking coffee…great! We wandered down the road to have some foccacia (new for around here) at a place creatively named “Bread and Soup” for a late lunch. It was good and Cass bought a black silk ¾ sleeve top at a shop on the way home. It had another interesting name: “Skin Joy”! Home to watch the slick South Sydney Rabbitohs beat the Roosters, Cass went and did some grocery shopping and I wrote this. Have you noticed we are adding a pic of what books we’re reading now? KP, thanks for the email, I followed your suggestion! I have also put a list of my 3 (yes, 3!) other blogs, which should update automatically. Photos: New re-vamped bookshelf, Pie Boy feast and “Bread and Soup”.

I decided half way up the steps today to take the dogleg to the right and walk along the ridge line of orchards and massive stand alone granite houses, all a strange mix of neo Chinese architecture (kind of over-the top and kitsch, with elements of minimalist Japanese design which is very cool: a strange mix) until I dipped down again to join the steps leading up to the South African embassy perched right at the very top near the Cultural College. This is the steepest and most demanding section of all the steps walks, but it is always very spare in traffic and today, I had it all to myself going up and then coming back down. When I reached the top of the steepest section I was greeted by an amazing sight, in one of the few times that I didn’t have my camera handy! A car was perched precariously on a 45 degree angle facing down the incredibly steep slope, showing its underbelly to be and caught on an impossibly frail looking fruit tree. I had more than a double take thinking the accident might have only just happened, but there was no one in the car and all was quiet. I just found it hard to believe that the car was left there without being secured: I expected at any minute to hear the crack of a trembling branch and see the car go careering down through the bush and into the houses below. I wonder if those residents knew the car was there??

The walk was a long and intense one for me as it was about my only exercise this weekend. I decided not to seek the stormy surf out and just did the walk then a little bit of grocery shopping this afternoon. Cassy is a poor pitiful creature at the moment, having been struck down again by sickness, this time a totally different yet doubly virulent variety. She is as weak as a kitten and sensibly has made the call not to go to work tomorrow. Normally an easy call in her condition, but not so this week as the middle school camps are on. They are very hectic and involve lots of activities and walking large distances. I’m going to drive her up to Fulong on Tuesday morning before breakfast if she feels vaguely recovered, and then she will need to do “light duties” only if she can manage it.

Yesterday was a loathsome day of incessant rain and cold temperatures, the wind adding an annoying whip to the mix of conditions. We needed to struggle out and get to the doctor. These are the times when I regret not having a car in the garage, able to get sick people to the doctor etc. We have really got used to a very different lifestyle than the one we enjoy at home. Anyway, Cass saw Dr. Tseng, assured him that she wasn’t suffering from any other ailments that he could test her for, and then we received the strange little packets of pills to be taken 4 times a day. He’s a crack up this guy. One time when Cass went to see him, he had my chart in front of him and was asking her some very strange questions! We did enjoy a quiet time in the evening and really enjoyed watching the Aussies fight back against the South Africans in the second cricket test. I commented to Cass that we’re actually enjoying more cricket than we would at home at the moment. Our warp speed internet connection with no download limits (gotta love Taiwan!) provides us with a steady stream for virtually any sporting event in the world that is being streamed.

The weekend began with me attending a gathering of people that I don’t normally associate with. One of our teaching couples recently had a terrible time medically when the woman had a very bad cancer scare. While now back from a long and painful treatment regime in the States and slowly recovering, I did write to them a few times, just about what was happening at school and socially amongst my peer group. I included a few anecdotes from the classes I taught and didn’t neglect to keep them up to speed with all the political machinations of the school! To cut a long story short, Friday’s little cocktail party was to say thanks to all the people who helped them get through the ordeal, and I felt quite proud to have been nominated as one of them. I enjoyed a few drinks, some lovely nibblies, had a good chat with a few people I don’t often see and generally marveled at the new apartment they have moved into. It must cost a bomb, but it is very cool! Cass sensibly decided not to spread her awful sickness around, especially on the recuperating Joyce, so stayed at home to rest.

Well, all in all, I’m very pleased that Cassy has decided to not go tomorrow: she’s shuffling around in a much weakened state indeed. I didn’t take the camera with me at all this weekend, so I’ll include yet another shot of the girls taken yesterday as they have commandeered the blue fluffy blanket. Also, one of some kiddies at the lantern festival and more of our river walk last weekend.

As you can tell from the photos above, our weekend was full of opposites! Beautiful natural surroundings, plants growing wild and lush in the mountains while we strolled along a fast rushing stream and hiking up and down small hills and steeper slopes as we moved in and away from the river all the way up Yangminshan.Our Saturday was spent partly in pursuit of mountain trekking trails and we found lots of little offshoot paths from the one I had investigated a few weeks ago. The Macaque monkeys were not making their presence felt which I was thankful for, because I’d like Cass to accompany me every now and then if she feels like it. I’m petrified of our simian friends: that low guttural growl can actually turn into quite aggressive behavior if they’re intimidated in any way (like looking at them!), so I don’t think she’d be really keen on that. Truth be known, she’d probably be far braver than I am: I’ve never been real big on the “communing with animals in their natural habitat” bit!

Anyway, I digress as usual. We had a wonderful hike along the river and exhausted ourselves really. Cass was particularly vulnerable as she had spent the past two days being very up with people, contending with an insistent push of parents in the quarter conferences. It’s quite exhausting trying to explain to some people, in the nicest possible way, that little Johnnie’s intellectual ability is a direct result of mummy and daddy combining all their very best DNA to make a new human. Can’t be done actually, just thought of, and that creates frustration of its own!

Sunday was a real blast as I left late morning to meet Wol, Ivo and Gurecki on the MRT system at various stops along the way to Taipei Main and then transfer to the high speed rail to Hsinchu. This train is an absolute phenomenon, Taiwan’s answer to the French TGV and Japan’s shinkansen. It reached 256km per hour while we were on our way to Hsinchu, and te whole trip took just 31 minutes! Apparently it tops out over 300 km/p/h on the way down to Kaohsiung. The train ride was exciting, but after a taxi ride into the main part of town, we were in for even more. I had become aware of a mixed martial arts event about a month back through a really bizarre set of degrees of separation. Long story short: ex-student on Facebook posts photo of BJJ in Taiwan- I check photo-go to website given there- MMA tournament advertised- I buy tickets! To make it even more amazing, said ex-student lives in Hong Kong and was just visiting Taipei for the weekend.

Anyway, we were stoked to get there. There was a band playing, beautiful ring girls prancing and a standard of fighter that was very high in most of the 8 bouts on the card. It was in our preferred “octagon” and followed the basic rules of the UFC which we follow closely all the time; watch all the tournaments on video etc etc. There was a large crowd in and the venue provided excellent viewing of proceedings from nearly every seat. We drank a few beers, yelled out a lot and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves! It was a long day though and we didn’t get back to the high speed rail station in time for our booked train. Luckily, the “idiotic foreigner” act I pulled worked well on the ticket girl and she replaced our tickets with no charge for the next train. (Come to think of it, the idiotic foreigner thing wasn’t really an act!) Check out all the fun right here, or you could check yet another of my blogs, FIST, for the full story.

So, late home Sunday evening and watching cricket last evening (go the Aussies) means that I’m writing this afternoon as I wait to attend the dreaded dentist. “Dr Seattle” as we call him has an extremely strange chair side manner, but I think he’s quite a good dentist. He just doesn’t like to overuse the anesthetic however: I literally leapt from the chair once when he hit a nerve and he looked quizzically at me and asked, “Can you feel that?”!
Photos from the sublime to the ridiculous: meditative nature to all out combat!

This week's post will be a little late. I'm heading to Hsinchu on the high speed rail in an hour and won't be back till late this evening. Maybe tomorrow night?