Well, it's that time of the year again when we are super busy, full of mixed feelings and ticking off a seemingly endless list of jobs. We're in that mad last week of trying to shut our lives down over here for a couple of months in order to enjoy our holiday at home, while still trying to get work done at school.It's always bitter sweet for us, and it becomes more so each year. While really keen to get home and see family and friends and enjoy the laid back lifestyle of good old Newy, we increasingly miss the hustle and bustle and taipeiness of our adopted home. We don't enjoy this mad rush to get things shut down, pay bills, anticipate bills, send money home, leave enough money here, organise the cats to be fed and looked after, worry about the cats etc etc. There are so many things to do that when we do eventually get home, we feel like we've been hit by a truck for at least a few days!
We're leaving on the Saturday morning for the first time ever this year. Usually, we're on the first plane out, but circumstances have changed our plans a little this year. We're attending our good friend, Coombsy's wedding in Hong Kong en route to Australia on Saturday night. We're going to fly in at noon on Saturday, get settled, attend the wedding and have a great night with Coombsy and Karen as well as Wal, Rourkey, Gurecki and Cory (from here) before staying overnight at a hotel overlooking the bay and then onward to Australia late on Sunday night. We're looking forward to it, but it adds another slight twist and we'll have to have wedding clothes as well as haul our big bags through Honkas unless we can convince cathay to check them right through to Sydney, which at the moment they're reticent to do as it is a layover of more than 24 hours.
So, anyway, this will be the last blog entry for a while until we return in early August. We're going to enjoy our "new" unit, well at least the carpet is brand new and we'll be interested to see it and our back room shutters for the first time. We're going to get a new big bazooka TV as well so we'll hardly be able to tear ourselves away to see our family, friends, local eateries and enjoy our walks up the hill, daily surfs and perhaps hitting the heavy bag down at Tuffn'up. We also plan to fit in some long hauls on the Harley over a week or so of touring as well as a week in Queenstown and Dunedin visiting Ross and Ains and hardening up our very weak Aussie/Taipei summery constitutions in the sub Artic temperatures over there! (that's for you, Ross!)
As you can see, we'll be pretty well occupied and in between times, we plan to sit back, relax, cook steaks and snags on the barbie, drink cups of tea looking at storms rolling in over the ocean, watch some puffing and breaching whales out to sea over breakfast and just soak up the relaxed pace of the town and chill out. See you Monday!
Photos: our place is a way away from taipei 101 but in the same teeming city, traffic and signage, and potato on a stick!