Nestled in a river valley near the foothills to the south of bustling inner city Taipei lies a sleepy, quirky little town bypassed by the second half of the 20th century. Sanxia was once a hub for farm produce from this rich agricultural area, but trucks and freeways have left it to fade slowly from its former glories. Unlike many places in Taiwan, however, it means that its “Old Street” has survived the rush to modernization and is now restored and celebrated as a genuine and unique tourist attraction to curious Taipei day-trippers. We were two of those on Saturday and thoroughly enjoyed a little trip back in time to Japanese days of occupation and simple country living.

Sanxia, Yingge and Wulai are all in this general area and each has its own wow factor. Yingge’s pottery, Wulai’s hot springs and waterfalls and Sanxia’s famous temple and restored old buildings, allowing you to stroll a long street looking much as it would have centuries ago. “They” have done a meticulous job on the buildings and pavements: even the stormwater drains are intricately sculpted and individualized! The old facades have been restored or rebuilt and there is a wide variety of products and artisans on display. We saw old ice making and carving techniques, glass blowing and painting, beautiful traditional clothing and wooden ornaments. We wandered the street for a couple of hours, enjoying all the sights it had to offer.

One building housed a small art gallery which was displaying a young artist’s work of excellent quality: we’re quite regretting not buying something from there. The space itself was so beautiful and had been decorated so carefully. Old trunks and records were placed around the rooms, a Japanese room had been set up and period telephones and objet d’art were scattered pleasingly throughout to create a peaceful authentic air. The other incredible place was the Taiwan master wood carving shop. Here, panels had been carved from solid blocks with inconceivable skill. One piece even had tiny wooden ants crawling over pieces of wood: the intricacy had to be seen to be believed, their legs not only individually carved, but articulated!

It was a long day, but very enjoyable. We found some parking nearby and walked in, getting some coffee and a sandwich to fortify us on the way in. As we made our way to the old streets we saw some energetic Christians dancing and singing on a stage. I was praying that the lord didn’t come down and snatch one or two of the faithful right there and then: the heat just walking was bad enough, but extremely energetic dancing in that heat was really unadvisable! Similarly, at the other end of our day, we ventured onto one of the main town bridges which was lined with stalls to celebrate “Sanxia farm produce festival” selling various farm products, many of unidentifiable nature. At the end of the bridge was yet another stage with a captive audience clapping a whole stack of local dignitaries as they were singled out for a bow. The weirdest thing was a young man who decided to make his way to the back of the stage wearing just a pair of skimpy “budgie smugglers”: surely Tony Abbott’s influence hasn’t spread this far?!

On the way home, we dropped into the new SOGO and the incomparable Din Tai Fung for dinner. We had to wait in line for about 10 minutes, but the short wait always repays itself when we start feasting on those xiaolongbaos. If you don’t know it, check out this review of the Sydney branch…it’s one of Taiwan’s best exports we reckon.

The weekend started for me with Gurecki shouting us at the “big brother” with their famous table tapper beers. It was my birthday present, but I hadn’t called in the coupon till then. We had good fun and also through the week, Cass and I went around to visit tiny new born Seth and parents. He was cute, and as his two older sisters got into a screaming fit that didn’t seem to be solvable, I ended up nursing him for ages as Mum sorted out the disagreement!

Another hot week coming up, so no relief in sight just yet.

Extreme heat this weekend has once again restricted our activities, but I did attend the board party on Friday night. It's a little bit of Groundhog Day each year, with many of the same faces and a few wide eyed newcomers still reeling from their first full week at work in the TAS juggernaut. It's a collective sigh of relief and quite a relaxed and couth atmosphere to have a few well chosen beverages and some fine food. Back to the American Club this year after a couple at the Grand Hotel (no idea why), it was a good show poolside and tended to group the crowd a little more closely, which was perhaps the intention. As usual, I didn't get to talk to a great many people, but as for the ones I did talk to, I enjoyed their company and stories: there are always a couple of doozies come out of the collective "summer" holiday!

Gurecki, Wal and I had a few pre-party beers at Wendel's where we were disappointed not to see the Craw, who was going to come, but got the message too late. He's a friend of ours who should be starting his new job in Florence about now, but has had some frustrating delays, around visas etc. He's due to leave today though. After Wal and I also met up with a few others and had some post party beers at the "new" Pig and Whistle as well, I was decidedly unimaginative in my choices for exercise/entertainment on Saturday! The bar is curiously named some rather long number, something like 8898 or something similar. The irony is that is almost exactly the same interior and exterior as it ever was....weird! When we walked in, all the same people who used to prop up the bar were there as well, with a smattering of the Green Bar boys who I suspect were just checking out the "new" facilities next door. We were joined by Bill from middle school, the new smallish Aqua Boy and the opposite in size and volume, big Ray, who is a larger than life, quite hilarious fellow doing some subbing at the school.

Cass demurred on the chance of the board party: not her scene at all and I think she was more excited about getting home, watching some trashy TV, eating a meal I wouldn't necessarily enjoy and having two spoilt cats lie with her on the lounge in the airconditioning. She and I were both quite exhausted after the first week: we often wonder how we sustain our effort over the year, but we must get "fitter" for it I reckon as the semester rolls on.

We went over to the Neihu Miramar today and watched the film Salt, partly on the recommendation of ABC's David and Margaret, and partly because the time suited! It was a real rollercoaster ride and if you could suspend disbelief over large portions of the action, it was slick and almost believable. Great fun. Afterwards we walked around the baby floor looking for a present for Katie, as she and Shaun have just had their third child, a boy named Seth. Frustrated with all the product, we eventually opted to bypass the baby present and get something for the person who did all the hard work and got Katie some French hand and body cream: a much more sensible solution we thought! We had a late lunch at Gillies to extend our French theme and it was as good as we remembered. Cass got the fish which is unusual for her, and reported it to be delicious. My german sausages were also great.

Our new PVR which works with the set top box has been working overtime too this weekend and recorded the Knights game for us in the wee small hours of Saturday morning as well as the Wets/ Parra game when we were out this morning. A smashing thrashing of the Broncos by the Knights was highly entertaining but also a bit frustrating: they can't make the semis now, but what might they have achieved in this form?

We bought two new helmets for the aging scooter today as ours were finally getting a little "on the nose" after 8 years. They were freebies when we bought the bike second hand all those years ago, so we've done pretty well. For the princely sum of $20, we got two new helmets, reasonably cool and certainly a lot less smelly!
That's it! Photos, just two are Cass at Gillies and me outside with one of Taiwan's quirky cuteness things...Disney characters bolted to number-plates! Cass is reading the infamous Swedish tome, "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" while I'm still on Connelly.

It’s quite amazing what a break away from something can do to confidence levels. With a lot of skills, usually a time away from practice leads to an erosion of ability and confidence, but I’ve often found with languages that it has the opposite effect. The fact is that I probably just forgot how very rudimentary my “skills” really were: but emboldened by a holiday away from Mandarin, I tried that most frightening task of all, the phone conversation! Pretty much without thinking, I rang our local Thai restaurant on a Saturday, hoping for an English speaker. My initial enquiry fell on Chinese ears only so I launched in to a day and time, number of people etc. I needed to change the time to a more suitable one as they were full, agree to a second floor table and tell them how many people were coming before leaving my phone number for confirmation. What an affirming experience: I’m just about to tee up some lessons again for the new year on the back of that confidence booster, after a few months off for a “rest”.

That small triumph followed a day of horror, however! The car’s battery was dead flat and after arranging a mate to help me jump start it I drove it around for an hour before taking the car for its bi-yearly inspection for which it was late. The guy told me I had to pay a fine first, so I was shunted out of line to a holding bay, went and paid and came back. The car wouldn’t start! A friendly punter nearby drove over close so I could use the jumper leads, and then I went back to Tienmu to get a new battery. Fixed, I went back to the inspection, but this time my insurance card was incorrect. More parking, walking down the road to get that renewed, then back round a big block to try again. The guy in the inspection booth viewed me with great trepidation, but after seeing my up-to-date paperwork, we both had a great laugh at my expense and I was on my way. No doubt he’ll be dining out on the “idiotic foreigner” story for years to come!

Work has been a flurry of usual back-to-school activity. Cass was greeted with a couple of bombshells, which she somehow managed to take in her stride, including that as of next year, her Humanities role will become either English or Social Studies. It’s an easy decision for her to make with her extensive English lit training, but it will entail a lot of changes, including perhaps to her teaching partners. She has also found the heat confronting (as have I), with her shoes uncomfortable and our walk to and from school in the cloying heat very annoying sweat-wise!

I have our Open House on Thursday which will entail me reading at least three of the PowerPoint slides in Japanese. These slides have always been translated into Chinese and Korean, but this year we’re trying the Japanese as well. I also need to extrapolate on one of the main points, so I’m frantically polishing my very rusty skills in that language as well! I need to say just that in my short introduction, but also take care to be appropriately formal for such an occasion. So, life is never dull!

As is tradition, the board is hosting the faculty to a stat of year party at the American Club this Friday. This tends to be a rather lavish affair, fully catered with the finest of food and drink and a good opportunity to catch up with all the people you haven’t run across in a corridor here and there around the school after the big break. So, as usual, we’ve hit the ground running at a thousand miles an hour and won’t draw breath for a good stretch yet.

Photos: at lunch in the Italian restaurant in SOGO, Cass outside another restaurant with beautiful bonsai, and Virg takes an unhealthy fascination in licking my newly shaved dome! Books: Cass reading The Other and Dave moving to another Michael Connelly, The Lincoln Lawyer

I was struck by some kind of epiphany on Tuesday night as I flew down Chung Shan Road on the scooter, shirt and sweat flying, dodging cars and obstacles at breakneck speed, on a mission to get us some breakfast goods for the following morning. We really do lead two diametrically opposed lives. I was recalling not 24 hours earlier yelling myself hoarse in the wind and cold as the Knights thrashed Manly, the happy faithful vocal, rugged up and 14,000 strong: I reckon there were that many people I passed in just 4 blocks down to the bread shop!

Please forgive my rusty literary skills as we’re just back from a two month break back home in Newcastle, barely breaking an intellectual sweat and certainly not telling a tale. Our visit was, as always, bitter sweet with time just not long enough to reconnect properly with family and friends, let alone our lifestyle with which we’re becoming increasingly unfamiliar. We were constantly perplexed for weeks at little things that we know all about but had chosen or happened to forget. “Perhaps it’s just old age creeping up!” “ Why is this happening?” “ Doesn’t the garbage come tonight? Oh no, that’s back ‘home’.” I even decided to whizz down to Wendell’s to buy a cake at one point: that was always going to prove a hard task, especially as it’s in Tienmu.

However, apart from our slight emotional frailty and generally discombobulating thought processes, we had a great time. We had lots of quality time with our parents, dining out and visiting galleries and attending parties, but all of course as a backdrop to some good chat sessions. It’s always the highlight of our journey home. Our dear old friends who’ve stuck by us despite our paltry efforts to stay in touch were once again forgiving and delightful. We had a few special times connecting with our nieces and nephews and my sisters and brothers-in-law. Two especially memorable occasions occurred drinking copious amounts of alcohol at various sister’s houses and talking all sorts of old nonsense: perhaps I’m an evil influence! Our delightful, rapidly growing up nieces spent a few days with us and that was a joy, however Cass and I both felt the need for a little rest after they’d returned home: we’re hopeless wimps where any type of ‘in loco parenting’ needs to happen!

Our annual bike trip followed the much vaunted “Tablelands Way”, a road that seems to have been made specifically for a cruising motorcycle. Potential catastrophe struck when our electrical systems started shutting down in the middle of nowhere, but the boys form the bike shop in Bathurst came and rescued us with their truck and trailer. An enforced night then back on the bike: just 200 kilometres down the road, again in the middle of nowhere and the middle of NSW’s coldest snap in 60 years, the same thing happened! We limped into Goulburn and a knowledgeable local bike mechanic identified the prob: a burnt out “stator”, part needing to be shipped from Sydney. Long story slightly shorter, we eventually spent some days in Canberra and just loved our national capital: what better salve than a dose of Aussie national pride at every turn to lift our spirits? The national galleries, the national library, the war memorial, Parliament House all were quite wondrous, but the museum for democracy (old parliament house) was fantastic. Wandering around in the press gallery, the house of reps and the prime minister’s suite, just as they were left was a great experience.

I’m going to try to be slightly less verbose this year, partly to protect my own sanity on a Sunday night and partly to implement some of the things I tell my third graders, namely, stick to a main idea and don’t waffle!! Slide show tells the story in pictures, and stills are just a selection. I’ll try to get into the swing of things a little better next week: wish Cass and me luck as we embark on our first week of meetings and kids (they start on Thursday) and deal with this 36 degree heat: it’s enervating! Cass is reading Home, which she comments is profoundly sad. I'm reading The Brass Verdict: it's fun!