So much to do, so little time this week. Year end tasks seem to be piling up for both of us, before we leave for Japan on Sunday. Lots of little jobs need to be done through the week after school, but we both have extra demands of reports and seemingly endless meetings, many of the gratuitous kind!

This week, I need to download a bit of stuff on Kyoto, including train timetables and guidebook kinda stuff that I need refreshed in my mind after more than 20 years away from this beautiful historic city! I remember a lot of things generally, but just want to have a lot of the bus-train-taxi interchange protocols a little clearer. As it is our intention to go as "native" as possible and use some language skills to avoid the big tourist traps and find some hidden gold, it's necessary to do a bit of ground work. We've booked a week's stay at this little house in the amazing Gion district in inner Kyoto and will travel through the city and beyond from this little haven. It will be interesting to see how Cass likes the traditional futon, kotatsu and ofuro amongst other things! Lots of adventures await.

Cass spent the entire week, and the best part of last week after work writing reports: she has to write 100! I spent the entire weekend in a "support" role watching lots of cricket and UFC while researching our trips. We got pizzas for tea on Saturday night and were unable to drag ourselves out at any other time. Cass did have her book club on Friday night as a small reprieve and reported a delightful dinner, good wine and company and a very Christmasy atmosphere at Sherri's place. She's due to host the next event early in the New Year.

We're planning to visit Nara, Hiroshima and Miyajima from Kyoto, so have both got ourselves a Japan Rail Pass for the week. I was tempted to go a little farther afield and get back up to Nagano for a visit, but we'll leave that till next time...we're so close, that we should get back there a few more times yet. Our plan for the second week is altogether different: after a week testing our down jackets in the Japanese winter, we'll be back to Taiwan for our second great round-the-island driving adventure. My other plan this week is to investigate a possible itinerary, or a vague plan at least, as we're just back in Taipei for Christmas Day before we plan on leaving again. We might even hit the expressways on the 25th if we cant find a decent Christmas dinner at one of the restaurants in town: 7/11s or roadside petrol stations for Christmas dinner would certainly be different!

I have to get some emission tests done on my scooter, pay for a new license and also investigate some e-tags for the car before we leave as well, so our week will be busy, busy. Throw in an ESL meeting for me today, a faculty meeting tomorrow and a steering committee dinner out for Cass tomorrow night and we'll be flat out. Lily will come mid-week to get her instructions for cat minding and Daniel the driver will be booked for the trip to the airport. I'll also meet our travel agent Mark on Thursday to pay for our next trip: Thailand for late March/early April!

Photos: Mel and Fe at the rugby last month, Morgan and Cat at Alleycats music night, four people immersed in their digital worlds on the subway (we're in the reflection if you look closely), Gurecki admiring his contract, and a cute backpack heading out of school one day. Not much blog action for a few weeks, but then we'll have both a Japan and a Taiwan report. Happy Christmas! (and by popular request-Valerie!- a short Christmas tree video)

Book Club on Friday afternoon/evening/night was a massive experience. We managed to traverse the length and breadth of the suburb and then the wider city, all in the pursuit of knowledge! Uli's in the afternoon, followed by Michael's place in the evening, complete with his esky full of high alcohol Belgian beer was always going to result in some tall tales and true being shared by all. We shared our books in traditional fashion, called to order by the book slapping, bile spitting Gurecki who rallied us one by one to share what we'd read while simultaneously "encouraging " everyone else to "shut the %&*$ up!"...good times!

Bund 18 on the 6th section of Chung Shan North road was the next stop and we spilled from the cabs in merriment straight into their roadside drinking tables. We were joined shortly thereafter by various other friends and colleagues who had prearranged to meet for a quiet drink, of which they were soon dis-availed as the raucous stein of book-men continued their previous discussions at great volume.

After a long and fruitful stint of intellectual discourse, said stein then headed into cabs for the long trip downtown to the Roxy Rocker, our home away from home in the depths of the south eastern party district of town. We were flabbergasted to be greeted by a phalanx of bullet proof vest wearing policemen, the group of whom were milling around the basement bar and checking ID cards as patrons entered. Our "Alien Registration Cards" seemed to pass this bizarre muster, and shortly the blue strength was again away, no doubt to flex a bit of muscle at a more likely venue for a bust (of whatever kind they were seeking!) We stayed here a long time, while the backroom DJ spun us some faraway tracks from long forgotten vinyl LPs: her dimly lit booth was our destination when we'd edged another piece of black gold from the groaning shelves.

Cass and I decided to brave the Xinyi district on Sunday to do a couple of jobs and just soak up a bit of big city atmosphere: we occasionally don't get motivated to get out amongst it, but we should as the trip never fails to excite and inspire us. The train trip takes about an hour, and the station crowd movements are intense, but you can enjoy that side of things as well. There are always some classic characters to entertain us on the train and the station provides its own theatre. The streets around the stations are a seething morass of people going about all sorts of business and also the people desperate to pry a bit of cash from them one way or another. Be it the made up "statues" in the Mitsukoshi square, the stall holders selling scarfs or kids clothes, the huge contingent of Kimonoed Japanese demonstrating the odori or even the semi-naked Aboriginal man yelling "bonjour" to us as we try to squeeze past his exposed buttocks at the area's major pedestrian crossing (!), it's definitely not for the faint hearted!

We did manage to avoid the man's famous bottom to sneak inside the Bella Vita building. Among some pretty spectacular and glitzy shopping haunts of the eastern district, this one is one of the newest and most glitzy. The foodcourt on the B2 level is known as a "gourmet foodhall" and it certainly delivers some delicious and high class meals. We had some chicken quesidillas for a start followed by fillet Mignon cooked to perfection for our main meals. Suitably fueled, we soldiered on through the weekend hordes to take the elevated footpath to Taipei 101, while enjoying the mad scenes on the mall below. The "New York, New York" building halfway to 101, has been completely gutted and renovated since last year and has been re-opened recently. We didn't enter, but were amazed to see about a further 20 restaurants open here as well as more and more retail madness....people here must be either insatiable or just crazily numerous or perhaps a combination of the two.

We spent a lazy hour or so at Page One bookshop and resisted buying a Kyoto guidebook: it just seemed full of superfluous verbiage (a bit like this blog you're no doubt thinking!). Cass window shopped through the marble lined rows of ridiculous shops, from Prada to Cartier, Gucci to Tiffany's and on and on. We caught the train back one stop to Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall, where we stopped off to buy me a new pair of Doc Martens. I wore them to school today and forgotten the "Docs" great dichotomy: even though they become beautifully molded to your foot and super comfortable over time, the early days as the rock hard leather attacks your insteps and scythes into your ankles is killer!

Home time in the later evening and we'd had a long enervating day. Wouldn't you know that right at this point of the evening, we not only caught the train the wrong way (for the first time ever!) but we then got the go slows as the MRT system slowed all their trains to a crawl when an earthquake hit Hualien, triggering a little  3 scale tremor in Taipei City. Protocols meant that the train crawled along for a fair stint before it ramped up the speed again just as we nearing our stop of Mingde.

Photos are of described scenes (although I think "Waffle Waffle" wanted their poster to read "Satisfying" rather than "Satisfactory"....don't you think?) and I'll post a little video of the inside of Bella Vita's Christmas tree as well. I'm having a little break from Caravaggio this week and reading the thought provoking and entertaining new collection from Michael Lewis, called "Boomerang".

Thanksgiving is a pretty good concept, we reckon. Not two to immerse ourselves in our American brethren's culture or to indulge in their customs and practices, we don't mind when they throw on a 4 day weekend, especially less than a month away from a Christmas holiday. Praise the United States of America! (now there's a phrase you'd bet would never be seen in print in this blog!)

I had some beers with Gurecki on Wednesday evening before Cass and I had a great sleep-in, followed by a decadent brunch of pancakes (for Cass) and everything that could possibly contribute to a massive coronary (for me)! Undeterred by such a load of gunk on board, we then took the car out to the Pillbox to see if there was a slight bump in the ocean. Despite the howling wind, there were indeed a few little waves and I had a great time in this most exclusive venue: even though Ross and I surfed there regularly together years ago and a few others have made an attempt, I've never had to share a wave here with anyone I didn't know...quite amazing considering the crowded surf culture on island these days. On the way in, we jumped for joy and on the way out we marveled at the chameleon-like qualities of a slothful and gigantic pig (both pictured). Maya Pizza for tea and multiple episodes of high quality police drama, Southland, and we were done for the day.

There are many activities in and around Taipei which necessitate planning and timing, mostly to dodge the crowd of humanity, who are also looking to enjoy the same pleasures. One such well-known crowd honey pot is the much vaunted Maokong Gondola. This cable car ride into the tea hills of the Taipei hinterland is swarmed upon during the weekend, so we took advantage of the weekday to make the trip for just the second time since it opened (our short video here). The ride up is fear inducing, adrenalin pumping fun, especially for the height averse amongst us! The unusual north looking vistas of Taipei city and beyond are spectacular and almost mesmeric at times. Taipei 101 rises like a sword raised aloft on a victorious warrior's arm, piercing the sky high above and erupting from the grey mass of concrete in the eastern Xinyi district below. The city is so vast, that despite our own area of Tienmu, Shilin and Beitou nestled beyond a hill and invisible, it still seems to stretch on forever.

We ate at a quaint tea house and restaurant just at the start of the Camphor Tea Trail and enjoyed the views as we ate. Onward to take in an impressive snaking trail of white granite as it wound its way through the tea plantations and gardens to a temple lightly perched on a ridge overlooking the city. As we made our way back, there were curios and plants, waterwheels and ancient farm equipment strategically placed at points along the trail. It was a fantastic day, made all the more exciting by us electing to take one of the new "crystal cars" back down to the base station: crystal, it is as it has a see-through floor! Talk about testing your fears!

On Saturday, we dined mid afternoon at the famous and fantastic Din Tai Fung. After ordering our feast, I got a text from Dave and Toby inviting us out for dinner. It would have been fun, but I explained to him that our double meal replacing load of food was already on its way....maybe next time. The wait staff, as numerous as always, buzzed around busily, throwing a jet of Chinese tea at our cups from what seemed metres away, but never missing a drop! The xiao long bao and various accompaniments arrived with speed and customary steamy freshness...wow, this food is good!

Afterwards, we went up the 4th floor of SOGO to the new store, Uniqlo. This was the same place we're we'd bought a heap of jeans a few weeks back, but we wanted to get some stuff to keep us warm in the Japanese winter. We both bought premium down jackets and I got a flanno and a lambswool jumper as well. once again, we marveled at the prices: if this place set up shop in Australia, I'd give the big department stores about 6 months before they had to shut down. This place is incredible. Quality gear (pure wool, down, silk, cashmere etc), beautiful subtle Japanese style, and a price that needs to be double checked for accuracy every time...it's that cheap. Anyway, as you can see, we're great fans of Uniqlo! We bought some take home Coldstone creamery creations for our supper: probably lucky we restrict ourselves to just one of these treats every now and then: it could get seriously addictive.

Today, we had our traditional slow Sunday start, caught up on even more sleep, lazily slopped around till breakfast, read some clippings, watched Insiders, then decided we'd better try to do something for the day! Cass made up some curried egg sandwiches, we popped them with a cold pack and a couple of cans of drink in a backpack then we went off to cycle to Guandu temple!

Scootering over to the junction of the Keelung and Tamshui rivers, we arrived at one of Taipei's many riverside bicycle renting huts. A quick transaction with no money (although the guy did keep my "Alien Registration Card"...I need that!), and we were off down the bike path to Guandu with a couple of very reasonable pushbikes, nicely maintained, well-geared and very impressive. We had a ball along the way, seeing the city from a completely different viewpoint and we just kept riding onwards...it was such a beautiful day and the wind was at our back and we were free as the mangrove egrets and hawks that wheeled above us. The trail was very popular and all ages and types were spinning away both up and back. The cycleway was dotted with little rest areas and view points along with some entrepreneurial laid back cafes and little bars. It was a very fun trip and we joined the hordes at the Guandu waterfront to eat our little picnic. We ventured a little further to check out the paddle steamer (yes, really!) and the Bali red bridge before heading back home. Into the wind, it was a little different and I have to admit my bum is not used to sitting on a hard narrow seat for a few hours these days: the mind must shut out all those little horrors!

We checked the bikes in, paid the ridiculous fee of $3 per bike, then wandered over to the little marina and sat on their deck admiring the view in the fading afternoon sun. Back home to shower and relax, Papa Poulet best rotisserie chicken in the world for tea and blissing in front of our recently de-boxed electronic Christmas tree for a while before bed.....I think we're actually ready to go back to work tomorrow: if only every weekend was as long as this one!


Slide show here (or up top for a while) features lots of what I discussed, as do the photos. Cass is still on her David Mitchell book and I'm back reading about Caravaggio. See ya!

The Polish Nation Intellectual Forum met on Friday evening to celebrate the annual issuance of large, plain brown envelopes with our name printed on the front as well as the words, "Private and Confidential" emblazoned in fancy print on the bottom corner. Until this envelope is opened, it remains a mystery as to whether the school feels it wants to offer you another contract, or if they wish to thank you for your years of service. As luck would have it, all of us were issued with the former and we celebrated in style, even with a cameo appearance of Cassy for a couple of beers! She regretted this slightly the next day with a mild hangover, and Helen commented on my Facebook posting that she was the rose amongst three thorns: too true.

The insistent and annoying rain had been pattering away all morning on Saturday, but hadn't seemed a deterrent to our activities. As soon as we were showered, dressed and ready to walk out the door for our Saturday adventures, it teemed! We hastily donned the wet weather gear and scootered down to "Eat Burger" for a delicious lunch. Cass had the vegetarian burger today and was pretty impressed with the patty substitute of hot fried mushrooms and cheese. By the time we made it inside the Miramar carpark, Cass's jeans were half soaked and my shoes were squelching foot rotters. Making the best of it, we grabbed some dry tops from the bike's boot, draped our dripping gear over the bike and headed upstairs to see "Moneyball". We bought the tickets first and because we had 30 minutes or so before it started, headed down to FNAC to buy a new phone. Ours seemed to be singing a melody of weird drones and grunts, along with not allowing us to answer incoming calls and not ring out...in other words, it was totally stuffed! That done, we settled in to watch a great movie on a rainy Saturday afternoon. This was a slow burning gem: great performances by all concerned, from Brad Pitt and fellow actors, to scriptwriters and directors. The superb Michael Lewis book had been transformed into a stunning cinematic experience: both Cassy and I anoint this one with a rare "A".

Sunday was lazy times morning, still enjoying our regular newspaper clippings sent by Mum, over our breakfast and coffee. UFC live mid-morning was a real bell-ringer as perhaps the most magnificent fight, at least in recent mixed martial arts times, unfolded between"Shogun" Rua and Dan Henderson. Cass graded a stack of stuff and wasted time on the internet (her words!), while I watched. All buzzed up, we decided to take a trip to the coast, but I soon discovered that the car's battery was again dead flat. I even seconded a colleague who conveniently had just entered the carpark to help me with a jump start, but the battery was so dead that there wasn't any response to the boost. Ah well, there's a job for next week.

Undeterred we hastily re-thought our plans and took the scooter way up into the Yangminshan National Park. We'd been these back roads a few times before, but not for years. The road just seemed to endlessly rise and rise, meandering up the hillside, hugging the ridges. Poor old "Blackie" the scooter has seen better days as he howled in protest at the steep inclines and critical corners. We reached the carpark up the top and investigated the beginnings of some trail-heads: another trip might be in order fairly soon as the map hinted at all sorts of undiscovered trails and points of interest. On the way down we called in to the "Mountaineer's Inn" where we had the place to ourselves apart from the woman owner and her two little kids. We got a coffee each and blissed out in the afternoon sunshine overlooking the suburb of Beitou stretched out far below. The two kids were hilarious. At first, Mum had obviously hushed them away from the customers, but they eventually crept out and proceeded to have great fun and games, just with some dirt and a hose in the garden at the front...simple life. The sun massaged deeply and the coffee seeped and warmed: we were a little sleepy by the time we needed to leave!

Photos: Josh and Kristin's baby Lucy gets a cuddle, "Eat Burger" masterpieces, snakes and wasps, a Chinese style public telephone, a languid afternoon tea and an intriguing road graphic....buffalo carts?! I am reading the newish Halan Coben that I bought at Singas airport called Live Wire and Cassy is reading the David Mitchell novel The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, which I bought for her at New Delhi airport last Christmas!
P.S. The phone wasn't stuffed after all: the new one did exactly the same thing! The telephone company is coming out to look early in the week, but I think they've weaved a bit of magic over the wires, as all seems to be fine again now...anyone want a spare phone?!

Every now and then the last vestiges of the skeletal remains of old Singapore are uncovered like a scuffing shoe in a sandpit reveals a coin, teasing with just a fleeting but exotic taste of what the city must have been like in colonial times. A row of terraces, spruced up and restored, just in the view line of Lewy's slick Singaporean apartment block was one, Alison's staff drinks on Friday night at the Polo Club, jodhpurs-wearing and whip-swishing pony riders wandering through the bar after their practice rounds was another. The hawker stalls on the corners of slick urban suburbs still plying their trade with $1 curries twenty four hours a day, plastic chairs and tables left askew at all angles, mocking the glittering malls housing the usual international burger joints and shops just metres away. I'm sure it's still possible to order a Singapore Sling at Raffles as well, but we didn't venture that far into whimsy!

Wal and I were having our fourth annual tour of the island of Singapore this weekend. Our good friend Josh had his buck's weekend there in 2008 which was an instant classic and which set the scene for the trips that followed. The Singapore Open golf tournament is always the highlight and the added unique attractions of Singaporean nightlife, including the amazing Friday night race meeting at Kranji, along with the after-party at Singapore's famous Orchid Towers have to be experienced to be believed. I think Wal and I were still a little sleep deprived at work today after a solid stint of three days catching up, eating, drinking, reminiscing, joking and generally taking the piss out of old mates for three days straight!!

Our flight out was delayed by about two hours which although painful, did give us the opportunity to listen to an amazing test match in South Africa via some web-streaming Grandstand commentary on my phone. I'm not sure what the mix of Taiwanese, Malaysian and Singaporean travellers thought as we huddled around my phone, raucously cheering at regular intervals and giving each wide eyed looks of amazement as wicket after wicket fell seemingly at the bowler's will. Anyway, a flight on Jetstar and all it's lack of luxury (and leg room!) done, taxi from the airport and we didn't get to Lewy's till 3.30 am.

Up at a reasonable hour on Friday and off to the golf where we had the pleasure of following a stellar trio of Padraig Harrington, Y.E. Yang and Phil Mickleson. Top ranked players produce an awesome athletic spectacle no matter what sport they are playing, and this was no exception. The crack of their shots and the endless rise, rise of the ball as it sailed off down the middle of the fairway was a special experience. Their touch around the greens was freakish: caressing balls up almost hidden slopes, weighting their approaches to take into account all the undulations and height differences in their path. Unfortunately, we were all called in to the clubhouse for a thunderstorm/lightning warning about half way through the round. This gave us an extra experience of rubbing shoulders (quite literally) with a whole quiver of professional golfers and all the other spectators who had been out on the course. Two and a half hours sounds painful, but Sentosa Golf Club has modeled both it's building and services on the aforementioned colonial style, so we had a pleasant (if rather expensive) lunch and a few steins of beer while we waited.

Bus/taxi/subway/walk back to Lewy's gave us a mild experience of his work commute (albeit in reverse) and it was a slick process, not dissimilar to Taipei's urban train wonderland. A quick shower then off we taxied to the other end of the country, closer to the Malaysia border and the Kranji Turf Club. We met up with Jay and Jimmy, Clarky and Chrissy R. along with the new dad, Josh. The next hours were an intoxicating mix of beer, punting, Chinese food and endless talk. It was a fantastic night and we didn't drag ourselves out of there with our pockets hanging forlornly light, until after 11.30pm. 

Clarky had the inspired idea (or so it all seemed to us at the time) of going to the super-exclusive bar under the Hyatt, known as "Brix". Wal put it nicely when he referred to the "angels" who greeted us when we first walked in. After our mega cover charge we were presented with a shot of vodka by stunning models serving trays of drinks in dazzling white skintight mini dresses, all the while drifting in a back-lit sea of wafting dry ice mist. It was so surreal that when you were (quickly!!) ushered into the bar proper, which was in turn very slick, it was a terrible disappointment! We stayed here for what seemed an eternity(you know, angels etc....boom boom tish!) it was onward and upward to the home of half the bars in Singapore housed under one roof, the infamous "Four Floors". Everything very quickly descended into shouted conversations and splintering of groups as the bars were entered and left in quick succession, a hypnotic jungle beat was endured by eardrums and a lightshow , occasionally highlighting groups of writhing creatures on tiny bandstands with or without a pole, attempted to burn out our retinas! As we progressed up through the floors, the damage to the contents of our wallets increased and we broke new records for a "shout", (which had been set last year at the same venue!) until it all got too ridiculous. In the ladyboy bar on the top floor we celebrity spotted all the ladyboys who were trying to imitate the look of their favourite Hollywood star. I have to admit though, that I was most impressed with J. Lo...she was the dead spit!!

Rolling in and out of taxis back to Lewy's, the Saturday was spent very quietly indeed, until we again met up with Jay and Jimmy for some afternoon drinks up on the 14th floor of Lewy's building. Lewy proceeded to have a sickening fall where Wal and I were convinced he'd broken his leg as he fell between a deck and a small pool after slipping. We were mortified till he seemed to recover fairly quickly, but Alison's reaction was priceless: as we related the story, she burst into uncontrollable laughter! After a few "war stories" from Lewy, we once again piled into taxis to make another trip cross-island to Josh and Kristin's place for a BBQ tea.

Tiny, six week old Lucy was the main attraction, and she certainly was very cute. She was a voracious feeder on the night though, which kept Kristin very busy and she wasn't able to spend as much time socialising with us as she might have liked. Josh cooked up a delectable feast of marinated chicken wings, pork rolls wrapped in bacon, sausages and a whole lot of cold stuff(!!). Seroiously though, there were Vietnamese cold spring rolls (delicious!) and all sorts of salads and sides...what a feast!

Josh and Kristin have had some big changes lately, most revolving around the birth of little Lucy. They have moved yet again (this is the third house I have seen them in Singapore), with more room, and also employed a live-in maid to help with all sorts of things. Kristin has decided to take a year off work to care for the baby as the school is very generous in an offer to take leave for a year with a right of return to the job. I got the impression that Josh was dealing with a few less-than-impressive individuals, which makes his professional life difficult at times. Knowing him however, his ebullient spirit and great outlook on life should be able to bulldoze its way through these little roadblocks.

See what happens when something happens on the weekend? I just can't shut up! Sorry for dominating the story here, but Cass reported she had the lowest key weekend ever, but I did hear that slatherings of French blue cheese, a small bottle of bubbly and lots of snuggling with hot, fat, furry ink spots were involved at various stages! Right, this is ridiculous......Braggy, out!