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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