Sunday, October 24, 2010






Parent conferences always seem to get our hearts racing a little with trepidation. I really don’t know why: there have been occasions so rare over our careers that have barely approached a bad experience that we could count our total on one hand. However, for some reason, even though the experience is often quite enjoyable, there is always that lingering feeling. I had two days of meeting with parents this Thursday and Friday and the experiences I had were very positive, confirming the reality of a fairly long career of dealing with a disparate group of adults always quite anxious about their child’s progress. Cass will no doubt have similar feelings at the latter end of this week as her conferences kick in then.

Our week was punctuated by things out of our control that induced varying levels of concern. We had great concerns for family members, lesser ones about work, conferences etc and relatively minor ones about a massive typhoon bearing down slowly on the island from a devastating swathe it cut through the Philippines. The latter tapped a drumbeat of incessant rain on us for four days straight and combined with an evil lashing wind, inverting umbrellas and spitting sheets of water at the pitiful pedestrian (often us as we struggled to and from school). To top the week off we attended the memorial service for a colleague who was hit by a car near school, and was in a coma for a week before dying. We didn’t know him well, but had dealings with him during our nine year tenure. He is the ninth colleague of ours at this school who has died since we have been here. Anyway, it was good to put our very minor concerns into real perspective this week: they really are quite tiny and we’re thankful for that.

On Saturday, all the way down town we went in a cab to the back end of Daan Park and beyond. It was an interesting area of the city which we’ve visited rarely and gave us yet another perspective of this seething metropolis. On the way back, we started to walk from the MRT station at the giant downtown SOGO, but I got the direction wrong. As it looked increasingly unlike the spot we were aiming for, I used the new phone’s GPS to indicate exactly where we weren’t! Back in another cab and we decided to check out Papa Gio’s for a very late lunch if it was open. It wasn’t, but Cass had spied a thriving restaurant alley just beyond on a previous visit, so we wandered to find the (as it turned out) funky and superb, Burned Cheese. We had a set meal built around baked lasagna: it was magnificent! We’ll definitely be back to this spot again to try the Indian, Japanese, French, Italian or Japanese and Korean: or maybe just try Burned Cheese again! 

The MRT back to Tienmu always provides some great human theatre and we weren’t disappointed. People watching in these huge numbers always means spotting some classics…there’s a whole other story in that one!

Lazy day today for both of us although we did drag ourselves out to go to different shops to stock up on food for the week. Mercifully the typhoon has now departed, but not before killing twelve people and losing another two dozen: we are pretty well protected here in Taipei from the very worst of these storms: the landslides on the east and west coasts can be quite devastating. 

Photos: Cass in front of the SOGO window, a silly self taken shot, a huge iguana being sold in a local pet shop, a truck advertising “beer” flavoured green tea and a typical “look” in Taipei’s main rapid transit station! As for books, we’re still engrossed in last week’s offerings: Cass is trying to slow down on the Franzen to linger on his genius and I’m trying to read Kosinski quickly to help ameliorate the horror!

Sunday, October 17, 2010










As my book club petered out and we made our way home in the wee small hours of Saturday morning from the Red Hut, Cass was tossing and turning in bed , wrestling with what to feed "her girls" next Friday night when she hosts her book club at our place. It was the end of a shortened week for us due to the 4 day weekend before, and yet we managed to feel just as tired as we normally might after just three days working. Why is that?

We traveled to the wood carving village of Sanyi on Monday and we did well to avoid the weekend crowds, which must be horrendous. As it was, we competed with a phalanx of tour buses disgorging elderly day-trippers off at the wood carving museum, but had the main street pretty much to ourselves as we wandered past and through a staggering number of shops selling garish Buddhas to stylish furniture items, every shape, colour, size and quality that you could imagine, but all made and carved from wood sourced locally. The scent of camphor infiltrated the whole street: it was quite wonderful. The museum itself was quite a marvel and we were surprised at the high quality of the building and the exhibitions. Some of the most fascinating were the winners of the wood carving prizes from various years: the wafer thin shapes and intricate designs were hard to fathom and we were convinced at first that some of them could not possibly be made from wood.

We tried a side trip to find the ruins of the railway bridge we saw on our round-island tour, but were thwarted by some road works and less than helpful directions. We did stumble upon an old fashioned railway siding around which a little village has re-invented itself as a minor tourist attraction. It looked like fun, but as we were pretty tired and still a good two hours by expressway away from Taipei, we locked that one away for a subsequent visit. The road back was uneventful and fast, the Honda humming along at the 110 km limit until we hit peak hour just outside Neihu. Wow, I'm glad I don't do that commute every day: it was frustrating to be that close to home and yet an hour or so of traffic jams ahead: we nearly could have abandoned the car and walked home more quickly!

Yesterday, we went to one of our old favourite restaurants, Cafe Onion, for lunch. I actually ordered the strangely promoted "NZ electric burns big rib-eye beefsteak" and it was pretty good: you just have to go with the flow sometimes and have trust!

We went out to lunch again today, this time to the newly opened Pizza Oggi, just round the corner in Dexing East Road up the street from Wendel's. We were greeted warmly but with the caveat that we'd need to wait for 30 minutes for a table unless we'd like to get some takeaway? We debated whether to go off elsewhere but decided to stay and get the takeaway. The pizza was great, if just a touch undercooked probably as they were trying to serve so many people. Cass got a salad as well and reported it to be of such quality that she may even cheat a bit this Friday and get some salads from this place to accompany her main meal which she'll cook.

A little later this afternoon we caught the train down to the Shilin night market to brave the claustrophobia inducing crush of humanity and search out some new shoes for me. I found a pair of good casual Nikes and bought a few cheap T-shirts as well. I've recently cleaned out my shoe cupboard and ditched the falling apart, rundown and broken pairs that I've been wearing for years. My beloved Doc Marten boots even got the flick: but I'm OK with that after I realized they've done sterling service for more than 15 years...I tend to hang onto stuff a little too long!

We've been a little lacklustre this week as we're worried about my baby sister who is going in for a major operation on Tuesday. Good luck Hel, you'll be in our thoughts constantly.

Photos are a mixed bunch: the first few are from Sanyi, including the aboriginal Hakka restaurant we ate at: sensational! Also are Cass at the Onion, the view of my desk at school with feet up, a Pomello tree down the street, the burgeoning crowds at twilight at the night market and Cass posing with a shifty looking character just round the corner from our house! I'm reading the iconic The Painted Bird, by Kosinski.Cass is just starting the long awaited next novel by Franzen, Freedom.

Sunday, October 10, 2010






Long weekends are just the best aren’t they? The decadence of getting to Sunday afternoon and deciding to go out again as it’s not a “school night” is tingly good and the day takes on an extra air of excitement. Two more days stretch out ahead of doing as little or as much as we like: I’m really very easily excited!

We’ve packed a fair bit in to our regular weekend already. I went out with Wal and Brandon on Friday, Becky joined us for a while and we had a great time telling various tall stories and true and all reveling in the four days stretching ahead of us. The boys were playing golf off a late start on Saturday, but I had a nice sleep in. We breakfasted out yesterday and ate a very filling big breakfast down at Jakes, eggs Benedict for me and Cass got some kind of Mexican stuff and we shared some pancakes as well! Back home to watch some cricket, with the Aussies taking on India and we watched a fantastic Canadian movie that Dave Millard had lent me, called “One Week”. Bit of reading, bit of fiddling on the computer before we both settled in to a big sleep of about 10 hours….now that felt good!

I was up before Cass today to try to catch the opening to the Bathurst 1000. I just love this race, and although I can’t really sustain my interest for the whole day like I used to be able, the coverage is just sensational. I’m sure I could be fairly accurately psycho analyzed over these comments, but I’ll make ‘em anyway: that guttural V8 sound and those massive, grunting metallic beasts cutting and thrusting up and down that mountain all day? Come on, you’ve got to love it! (?)

Anyway, I did tear myself away from this testosterone fuelled feast to make the trip over the mountain to the coast with Cass. We couldn’t believe, once again, that as soon as we approached within view of the fumaroles at the top of the mountain, a wet blanket of fog dropped on the car from nowhere, an insistent drizzle worried the wipers and a stream of overly cautious drivers switched on their hazard lights, dropped their speed to 20 km per hour and drove as if they were in a funeral cortege. In sight of Jinshan town on the lower reaches of the mountain, the curtain of mist lifted, people sped up a touch and all again in the world was right….it happens nearly every time we go across!

The surf itself was nothing to be exclaimed about, but we went to Cassy’s favourite spot, the cliffs at the far end of Jinshan. Armed with my new phone (which is now also our camera) she had a crash course and managed to take some really great shots, so much better than my initial offerings…this thing is very unforgiving to even a mildly unsteady hand. After the surf, we decided to check out the new (and only) classy looking restaurant on the corner of Highway 2 and the road down from Yangminshan. Called “Victoria”, we were waved into a car park by a valet and a little self consciously, as we were wearing just our “surf day rags” we were ushered to a table in a glass gazebo jutting out the front of the restaurant. We were in for a real treat. The set menu consisting of salad, soup, bread, coffee and dessert along with your choice of main is usually very perfunctory in most Taiwanese restaurants. These were amazing: prawns and fish roe in the salad, toasted parmesan on the bread and Lavazza coffee! The mains themselves were equally impressive: it really was some fine dining. To top it all off, in this very bucolic outpost on the north coast, we were stunned to be asked by the manager about our experience in absolutely perfect English and checking whether it was “authentic” (his word)! Not only this, but the entire bill came to less than NT$1000 (about $30A): stunning.

Not content with our big day out we decided to shoot off to the movies this evening and see the reprise of Gordon Gecko in “Wall Street”. It was slick to look at, but fairly unbelievable characters apart from the evildoer himself, who according to all reports we may not see in any other movies as he is on the way out: a shame, he really carried it. Well, we’re up for another two days of this: we’re looking forward to it. I am reading the intriguing, “Await Your Reply” by Dan Chaon and Cass is reading “The Secret Scripture” by Sebastian Barry. Photos: Cass with lots of cute doggy outfits, Virg, surfing at the cliff and food at Victoria.

Sunday, October 03, 2010





Football of all codes has been the dominant factor this and last weekend. No blog entry last week partly because of too much football watching and partly because I lost a bit of impetus, which I haven’t really fully regained, so this entry will be pretty short.

We tried to go to an exhibition at the Taipei Fine Arts gallery last Sunday and set off with high hopes of seeing some rarely travelled works from the Museum of Philadelphia. There were a number of significant works by Manet, Picasso, Miro and more. Unfortunately when we arrived, there was a line up at the ticket office, almost certainly as it was the very last day of the exhibition. Luckily they informed us when we got the window that we would need to queue for nearly three hours to get in! Even though we were keen to see the paintings, we weren’t that keen, so we spent some time wandering around looking at the regular galleries and marveling at the patience of the people in the lines snaking their way all through the building.
Outside, Cass got her portrait “cut” by a very skilful artist using nothing more than some coloured paper and a small pair of scissors: he was amazing! We then spent a little time watching a rock band performing, we didn’t catch their name, but Cassy reckons they are the coolest guys in Taiwan, with their long hair, cool gear and attitude!

AFL grand final last weekend at the Green bar was followed by a mirror image event at the same venue yesterday. It starts at 11.30 Taipei time, so it makes it a very long day and night. We had good fun, and Cass spent a bit of time back home streaming the cricket from Mohali where the Australians are playing the first of two tests against India. So even before the footballs stop bouncing, the cricket is mercifully slotting in to fill the gap in the “hiatus”. Today’s NRL grand final was watched quietly here at home. We usually host a little party, but a few people had other stuff on, and to be truthful, we just couldn’t be bothered: maybe next time.

The weather here might finally be turning a bit and it’s not before time. We’ve had a very long run of super heat and humidity so the clouds and breeze and lower temps today were a welcome relief. The week ahead looks pretty good too, so fingers crossed.

I wasn’t joking about the brevity of this post, so I’m off! Pics: last weekend at the art gallery and a couple of football followers, Cass at Din Tai Fung with a Chinese watercolour and the Taipei Story House.