It's got to that time of year again where I'm about to have a little break. We've got five days of work left then we'll be jetting off home again for a couple of months. Friday afternoon will be hectic as we have to stay at school for a recognition ceremony, get home and get all those little loose ends tied up before our driver arrives at 5 pm. We've got another stack of frequent flier points which this time we've used to upgrade to business class for the two long hauls this week and again coming back in early August: luxury in the brand new flat bed Cathay Pacific business...we'll try not to get used to it!

Through the week we had the weirdest morning. Two giant blue birds with a cavalier degree of aggressiveness carried on with squawking shrieks at a very loud volume most of the morning, frightening the cats (the wimps!) and annoying us as we were getting ready to go to work. They eventually settled down a bit but Cass had a most bizarre incident in our lane on the way to work (I was riding the scooter due to my dentist's appointment later) A local street cat pounced like lightning on a myna bird right in front of her and carried the squirming prize into an underground garage. She was just getting over this shock when one of these huge strange griffins swooped down from the overhead wires into the same garage, seemingly to rescue his "brother" from the jaws of the cat!! Cass heard all sorts of noises but wisely didn't hang around to investigate!

The lower school party was on last Friday night up at the traditional haunt of Shann Garden. It was a good night, Gurecki, Lewy and I having a few beers first for the last time at big brother bar at Qiyan (last time for Lewy at least). It went on and on and Wal, and I managed to last and last at a great sequence of bars and pubs. Suffice to say that we needed a big sleep in on Saturday morning!

Today was dreary with rain, but we went out for Cass to spend some gift vouchers up at the Eslite bookstore. She found a couple that matched her vouchers exactly that she needs for book club next year. It was good timing as they only picked the books on Friday night at their last meeting of the year. They went to a Japanese restaurant in a hotel over at Neihu and they all enjoyed the food and ambiance. No doubt we'll be returning there at some stage come the new academic year!

I'm loading my e-reader with books for bringing home, and Cass plans to get to the library soonest. Gurecki and I had yet another article published in the school magazine last week, with yet another pending for first edition next year. The unpublished one is all about e-reading as we are both converts. I'll post a link when I have one. Photos: a few shots Lewy took of our night up at the Mexican restaurant in Damshui for Gurecki's birthday, one of the giant attack birds and Cass in the rain today!

 

I enjoyed the dubious delights of the great outdoors on Thursday and Friday when I attended (for the 9th year in a row I might add!) the Grade 3 camp. A far cry from the bad old days, the unimaginatively named Camp Taiwan has counselors to help run the activities, food which is plentiful and bordering on gourmet and accommodation which while still “under canvas”, certainly negates the camping experience a lot by being under double layers, built on a wooden platform and having rough bunks with foam mattresses….luxury! It nestles in a high valley, a long steep winding road above the coastal village of Wanli on the northern tip of the country. The freeway landslide still has not been resolved so we had a tedious trip out there on the number 1 freeway and some back-tracking through the foothills. The bad old days I refer to had us inviting parents to help, where they were more useless than kids, ferrying great loads of food up the mountain and then cooking and preparing it, as well as living in stinking cramped ant infested rotting cabins…do you get the vibe I’m in?!

The surf has been quite pathetic this week, barely lapping on the shore of the east coast, so it hasn’t been an option. While it might have whipped up a little this morning, the annoying squally wind and rain would have made the trip and the end destination unappealing.

I came home and saw Cass for a while on Friday evening and we watched the Knights capitulate again in the last 10 minutes of their game against the West Tigers: they look the goods for such a long time every week only to fall at the final hurdle. I had agreed to go up to Lewy’s to watch the blockbuster AFL game on Friday night so made it there about 8.30. We had a good time, drank some beers and the group of us enjoyed one of our last get-togethers before another one of our “brethren” flies away to location exotic (in this case, another one to Singapore). We’ll have a night out at the lower school party at Shann Garden next Friday and that could well be it. Oh no, Craw’s and Kenny’s band, QvQ will play downtown on the last Wednesday and we all plan to go to that.

Speaking of the Craw, we attended the wedding reception of Andrew and Sophie this afternoon at the newly re-located French restaurant, Le Jardin, in Tienmu. Craw is a big tall Aussie boy who is an articulate quiet intelligent member of my book club. Sophie is the long term personal assistant to the superintendent. They are both delightful so we couldn’t be happier for them. We gave them an interesting gift of, along with some cash, the three essential guide books we took to Italy with us, which proved to be real winners. We included a card decorated with a hand drawn picture of a church in Florence that we bought there. Guess where they are heading next year? Right, Florence it is! The afternoon was very sophisticated and lovely: the restaurant was just the spot for the smart casual do: they had married, just the two of them, through the week at a registry office and just had 40 or so close friends join them for a quiet celebration this afternoon. Earlier, we were due to set off in the teeming rain but I ventured up to the main road to hail a cab, then directed it around to our front door to pick up “Princess Cassy” resplendent in beautiful silk and delicate Italian shoes!

So with a degree of sadness hanging about us this week with the impending departure of yet more good friends, we’re keeping busy writing reports and doing all that other end-of-year madness that no matter how well you prepare yourself, always seems to creep up and bite you hard late in the peace! Photos today are of Cassy visiting her friend, Kristin’s, two very new and tiny kittens through the week, a shot of my book club mates Gurecki and Grande, Cass with Karen and Paige, each with their short grey “dos”, and me with my surfing mate Dan who is pulling a very strange face!

Cass is reading The View From Castle Rock and I'm reading the Chinese dictionary (on occasions!)

Cass has had one of her busiest times of the year this week when the middle school play eventually got into full swing. Starting with a few previews on Monday it’s been action stations all week. She really has the system down to a fine art now though: although still taxing and draining, Cass has honed the practices of her team of girls and her supply line buying down to a really efficient production. After all these years, she’s seen it all and can anticipate any problems beforehand. One of the big problems this year was the sweatbox conditions in the small makeup room. Filled to capacity with excited, emotionally charged “stars” as well as the crew and with a rapidly approaching Taiwanese summer, it gets very hot, very quickly. Trouble is apparently, that the air-conditioned makes too much noise! Something that needs to be fixed for next year!

Cass arrives home exhausted from the shows, so we’ve been pretty low key this weekend. In a precursor to the weekend, I drove a group of boys up to Danshui on Thursday night to celebrate Gurecki’s birthday. He was keen to eat some good Mexican food, and the best we’ve found is all the way up at the river mouth where Eddie’s Cantina is. We had a great time on the way up and back, a number of the crew surprised at the quality of the car as they hadn’t seen it. They even commented how “adult” it was being driven in a nice vehicle: we’ve become so used to zooming around on scooters or catching cabs here! Anyway, the food was indeed great, the company raucous and entertaining and Lewy, me, Wal and Gurecki had a great night all round.

There was a big golf challenge to be held today, where representatives of each school division were to battle it out in a bragging rights tournament. As a pre-cursor, Wal set up a discussion of tactics/slanging match round of pre-drinks at Diamond Tony’s on Friday night. It’s so expensive there, we were reminded why we don’t visit that often, but it was fun to see the teams going at it. I wonder how that all turned out today?
I made a spur of the moment decision as Cass was walking out the door for the final matinee today, to make a dash for the coast. She anticipated she’d be away about 5 hours, so I thought that sounds about right for a trip out to the surf and back. When I arrived, the surf was a not altogether inspiring 2-3 feet with a slight onshore wind. The beach was deserted however, so I thought I’d make the most of a lack of a crowd and get amongst it. I got a few waves, but had ten times as much fun when I ditched the board and had a good old fashioned body bash. I was just reveling in the easy glide and power of the waves and the refreshing zest to the water: it’s just magically restorative to have a good surf!

On the way to Jinshan today I was taking more particular notice of the landscape and what was making its mark upon it. A sweat of cyclists jostled their way up the steep narrow roads and avoidance action was necessary quite often to avoid these garishly coloured, licra-bathed mini pelotons as they whir away up at walking pace and then glide down at an astonishing speed, almost as if all that pent up frustration as they grinded their way to the top is released with abandon on the way down and down.

I know it’s nearly time to go home for the break when that very Chinese phenomenon, the rice harvest, is imminent. I noted again how really beautiful the paddies are. It’s almost like a giant has left his lunch strewn on the terraced hills; big, plump, startlingly green sandwiches bursting with filling and fresh enough to eat. The colour is so vivid it’s almost artificial. It’s a good match for Yangminshan’s Calla lilies of which I bought a dozen on the way back. They have impossibly long succulent green stems which gradually transform to a cupped white flower: it’s always quite hilarious juggling them on the scooter on the way home, occasionally obscuring vision and threatening to throw themselves off at any moment.

At least four dozen birdwatchers had descended upon a patch of road on the lower slopes, lining both sides of the road with their gaping lenses trained on the elusive bird, not only they, but their cameras swathed in jungle camouflage material, tripods in rows like alien creatures from “War of the Worlds.” In fact, the sight of onlookers gawking at the assembled throng of ornithologists was another attraction all on its own…it was quite comical as the numbers swelled so the road was choked down to just one lane!

No photos yet as the camera is at school and I’m waiting on Lewy to supply me with a few from the other night. Check again tomorrow/Tuesday. Now, got some Calla lilies, me doing a science experiment in class and some of my readers
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Cass has been at the middle school play this weekend as her yearly commitment starts to really ramp up. The dress rehearsal early yesterday morning is a pre-cursor to a preview on Monday morning (in her preparation time for class) and the main event next Friday, Saturday and Sunday. She went down to the Watson’s treasure trove through the week and loaded up with all sorts of makeup ready for her team to decorate the brace of actors who’ll perform. She has a pretty good crew of seventh and eighth graders who know what they’re doing which is a bonus, but she did have some issues with the lack of air conditioning in their stifling little makeup room: apart from anything else the stuff just runs straight off their faces: apparently the air conditioning makes too much noise(!)

We went out to dinner at Din Tai Feng earlier in the week with Leon and Nicole and had a really enjoyable time. We managed to get a few orders mixed up, but that kind of added to the fun and we had a great chat. Nicole is a really lovely young woman: Leon has definitely done very well for himself. We’d lent them the scooter for the week and I think it was already paying dividends: there are just too many places to go that are off the main MRT/bus routes. Leon’s local knowledge has helped a lot too: although there are bigger and glitzier shops, stores and restaurants, he reckons the basic Taipei is still there pretty much the same.
Wal was away on camp (I have that dubious honour in a couple of week’s time: uggh!)this week so I had a relatively  quiet time at work in the latter part of the week. Cass and I are both in that weird time as the end-of-year flurry approaches where we’re pretty much just in a bit of limbo waiting for the frenetic stuff to arrive. I handed out my ESL letters to the kids on Friday, but I have reports to write soon.

Friday night was a farewell for Lewy and Alison along with Yama and Parker who are all off to greener pastures. Yama is off to Doha, L&A off to Singapore as already mentioned and Shane has finally had enough and is heading back to Tasmania. It was a pretty good night all round and was at the Sommelier wine bar tucked under the supermarket on Tien Yu street.

Cass and I went for a big walk along the canal today, arriving home a bit sweaty due to the good pace we set, even thought the temperature had dropped a little today. It was frustrating to see the Knights go down to the Titans in a very close game today….especially as we knew Chris and Val would be sitting there on such a magnificent day nearly topping off Mothers’ Day with a win. Cass had spoken to them on the phone just as they were leaving. I tried to ring my mum today but she was out, but I do know that she received the flowers we sent yesterday, which was great (Belflora, Broadmeadow, shame on you for not having a Mothers’ Day delivery option!)

I went to a very flash dental clinic downtown to get some more work down on my problematic tooth. The opulent lounges in the waiting room and the 10 minute consultation with the fluent English speaking dentist didn’t fill my heart with glee: all I could do was imagine how much it was going to cost! A lot for Taiwan but only a conservative 25% of what it would cost back home, so…..My dentist, Dr. Hsu, was something else: she almost gave me too much information and her regular updates, while meant to be soothing, did little to calm me down! Anyway, I’ll be back for a couple more visits to the Ren Ai road super clinic before this little saga comes to a conclusion.

Leon and Nicole dropped the scooter back in this afternoon and we had another chat: it seems they’ve really enjoyed the week and the scooter was liberating so we’re glad we could make their experience a little better. It will be good to see them again in the New Year when Leon hopes to bring his young son up here to visit his country of birth. Photos: are still in the camera at school, so I’ll post them tomorrow!At Din Tai Feng with Leon and Nicole, with my student Anna and the famous monkey, Chee Chee.

Friday night was a good night for the driving range and it was great to get the gang back together again after a few weeks. Wal was back from Shanghai, Gurecki was back from Japan and Lewy joined us as well. Brandon even made a cameo before going home to get his rest before playing a real game the next day. I was in superlative form managing to have a few slices sizzle in front of other patrons’ noses they were that fine and crowned it all off with snapping the head off my 7 iron in a particularly vicious and inaccurate shot! At this rate, I’ll get rid of all these clubs pretty soon as I gifted Lewy my pitching wedge as Gurecki had “mislaid” his the last time we were out there.

Saturday, we tried out a new burger restaurant very close to home, the less than creatively named, “Eat Burger” We got a flier in the mail and it certainly looked the go, so we wandered down to a little lane behind the SOGO complex down the road and found ourselves in a little, spic and span American style diner. There was sauce and mustard on the table, 50s style posters on the wall and the burgers when they arrived were surprisingly delicious: a good find, but we won’t be able to frequent this place too often if we’re going to keep our waistlines in trim. We’d never really had a proper floor by floor wander through the SOGO except in the madding crowds of opening week, so we thought this would be a good chance. It was great fun looking at all the product and we eventually lost all track of time and place in the “Hands Tailung” shop up on the 7th floor. Housing all things Japanese, the range of goods went from the curious to the bizarre and it’s intriguing to find all this stuff that you never knew you needed, but somehow can’t possibly live without! Showing remarkable restraint, we walked out with just a coffee cup with the Italian flag emblazoned and a tiny iPod speaker in the form of a large die (and yes, it works really well).

It was great to meet up again with Leon and Nicole today and spend a little time catching up. They’re Queenslanders here for a weeklong visit, but we know Leon from his time here before. He said it was 7 years ago that he left, and we could hardly believe it. Nicole, his partner was over here for her first visit and she was taking everything in her stride, even surviving a Saturday night straight off the plane in the crowds of the Shilin night market: a real badge of honour, we reckon! They came round mid morning and we had a good catch up, and also talked about some of the harsh realities of living overseas and back home: a refreshing talk to have. I gave them the keys to the scooter in case they want to use it through the week and we tentatively organized to get together for dinner and a couple of beers mid week. Leon also handed over a whole stack of "Rugby League Week"s he'd brought over especially to give me: I'll be able to distract my self for a while reading all those!

Off to Miramar after that, lunch at Auburgine enroute, and before we went in to the flics we ran into our visitors again half way up the cinema building! They had lunch at the teppanyaki shop in Tienmu North, a place Leon remembers well from his time here and were just having a wander…coincidences. We had booked our tickets online earlier, which was just as well, because the huge cinema was just about bursting at the seams. Ironman 2 has only just opened and its big action appeal and fairly limited dialogue is a great match for a public hearing the movie in another language. It was a good fun movie, visually stunning and star studded. It was enjoyable to listen to all the in jokes, joking homage to other superhero franchises and just generally a real sense of fun that seemed to pervade. A curious note was right at the end. Somehow, everyone knew to stay till right at the end of the credits when there was a little fade out teaser to a possible 3rd installment. Normally everyone walks out as soon as the credits role, which often annoys us. How did they know to stay this time?....bizarre!

The weekend weather was sensational, just hovering round the 30 degree mark, but not too humid just yet. We think we might finally be seeing the belated onset of summer. Photos: Great fun outside the SOGO with brave souls taking to the skies in what I sensed was a tentatively tethered balloon! Cass pretty in orange, and the girls using each other as a pillow. I’m reading the thought provoking Nikky Gemmel book, “Why You Are Australian: a letter to my children” and Cass is reading, “The Help” by Kathryn Stockett.