Taipei Life

 

We’ve had a busy week and are expecting a similar one next week as the term hurtles towards semester break. Reports to be written, meetings to attend and normal teaching commitments will have us very ready for a holiday. We’re going to Sumba, to stay at the Nihiwatu resort there. It’s an unusual trip for us as we don’t go for the 5 star luxury as a rule, but this place with its combination of sensational accommodation and food with exclusive access to one of the world’s very best waves was impossible to ignore. We hope it lives up to its rep! We’ll fly into Denpasar on Saturday; spend a day and a night in Kuta, then take a tiny domestic plane for an hour’s flight to Sumba. We just can’t wait to get there.

Dan is going downtown on Tuesday to pick up my board (along with several of his) which has been getting its tail section reshaped and fixed after its heavy beating at Nan Ao. I’ll get to Indonesia not having surfed on it for ages, so I hope I get a day or two of gentler swell to get used to it again.

Cass had a great Saturday night out on the town. On of our colleagues gave us two tickets to a piano recital at the National Concert theatre, I was otherwise engaged, so Cass arranged to go with her friend, Kristin. They booked in for dinner at a Chilean restaurant near the theatre, “Salsa”, and had a superb meal with just the right touch of class without being too stuffy and formal. The pair of pianists was celebrating playing together for 30 years, a remarkable achievement. The concert was held in the outwardly impressive concert hall and the interior design was just as impressive and comfortable. They thoroughly enjoyed the concert by Wille and Yeh, the piano duet seamless and playing music for two pianos by Poulenc, Brahms, Rachmaninov and Bach.

I was also out and about on Saturday night, but at the polar opposite end of the cultural scale! We introduced Taipei to the concept of the Santa Claus pub crawl and had a rollicking good time. Little kiddies on the street were amazed to see the 10 or so Santas walking along and we took the time to talk to them all and sent them all away very excited. The night was a great success and even though we only had a relatively small contingent (mainly because of other end-of-year parties etc), I’m suspecting that if we do it again next year the numbers might swell when word leaks out about the great time we had.

Today we saw the rather forgettable, although it was enjoyable at the time, movie called Law Abiding Citizen: Janie Foxx was very smooth. After, we took advantage of the stellar weather to go for a spin over to Beitou on the scooter, where we checked out a big clothing warehouse. We’re glad we did as though even though it had endless racks of rubbish, it also had some great gems hidden amongst them. We spent very little and came away with two Ralph Lauren jackets, Cassy’s a pure wool tweedy style blazer and mine a plain black jacket with a parka lining. We also bought a fine knit wool jumper and a cotton shirt for me for work…
We’re both looking forward to our Papa Poulet chicken for tea, about now, so I’m finishing! Photos: Cass and Kristin at Salsa, inside the concert hall, Cass in the clothing warehouse and some santas on the loose!