Taipei Life

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.