Nothing today! I'm taking a mini break. Crappy rainy weather all weekend and we didn't do much. See you next week.

 On such a densely packed island, not everything can run as loosely and perhaps as efficiently as we're used to back home. I've made mention of Taiwan's garbage disposal system here on the blog before, but a recent video I watched re-ignited my interest in this unique system. Basically, garbage does not touch the ground. As trucks can't squeeze themselves down all the tiny lanes and alleys, it is incumbent upon residents to get their bags to the truck. There are a mind boggling array of options and we have to sort the garbage into edible scraps (which go to feed pigs), general refuse (for the special paid-for blue garbage bags) and then recycling of all different sorts, which is free. Some days, the Styrofoam is taken, on others it might be glass or plastic and yet others it is the turn of cans and paper or "flat plastic". I can tell you it took a lot of getting used to!! It is a classic "user pays" scheme, and as only the non-recyclable trash is paid for (in the nominated district garbage bags you can buy at the local 7/11), there is very little left to throw in the garbage truck as most people seem to really resent having to pay to throw things away. Enforced recycling seems to work really well. Anyway, check out this video and short article: it captures the feel of this bizarre practice really well.

There is always something weird happening here, but often, we don't stop to note it, photograph or video, just because we are so used to it. On our way home on Thursday, we were just walking past the local temple where they were practicing their puppet show from the garishly coloured puppet van. Normally we wouldn't give it a second glance, but I stopped and asked Cass, "Would we ever see anything like this at home?!" We both agreed we wouldn't, so the other video up top is of this strange practice. Check Cass standing over to the side as I pan around. Puppets like this are so popular here, they even have their own dedicated cable TV channel...I'm not kidding!

Cass had her book club on Friday night and I went on the Tienmu pub crawl. I can report a rollicking good time from the pub crawl and Cass had an equally great experience at the book club. In fact, her host for the night actually made it to just the third pub we stopped at: indicating how very late we were already running! Cass had her customary chicken enchiladas and a delicious cheesecake and the girls all had a great time. I had a chance to catch up with a few people I don't normally catch up with, which was interesting. Tommy A is off to Tanzania at the end of the year for a new assignment, so it was interesting to hear what he knew of the place already.

Suffice to say we had a relatively quiet Saturday, although Cass managed to walk herself to a near standstill, first doing her river walk circuit at high pace, then going off to the supermarket and returning with bags laden. She followed this up with a trip to Wendels and the new SOGO, so by the end of all that she was pretty exhausted.

I managed to keep the lounge warm watching an amazing array of NRL games and we both watched the Aussies get thrashed by Pakistan in the world cup cricket. We've actually moved form a shocking situation where Australa Network had been outbid for the NRL rights and were not showing any at all this season, to a point where we'll get better coverage here than back home! A revamped NRL HD streaming site now shows nearly every game live and every game on a few hours delay, on demand. Because we have a lightning fast internet connection and no download, upload, or streaming limits, we can remotely beam the picture and sound across to the next room for as long as we like.  I watched the entire Foxtel Super Saturday program, 3 games in a row, all live, including the Knight's great win. I'm not sure if Cass thinks this is a good thing or not. She commented that, "we can watch NRL every day of the week now, can't we?" to which I enthusiastically agreed! Maybe the novelty will wear off soon...

Today Cass had to negotiate a mountain of marking so I took the opportunity to venture up the hill to the Tienmu GuDao walking trail ("the steps"!). It was hot and sunny, so the trip up was sweat inducing. The trail up top is in dappled light and shade and a few degrees cooler than below. I decided to do the top path, then drop down and down on some precipitous paths to a little oasis we had first seen many years ago. The waterfall and pool at the bottom of the valley is hard to get to, yet apart from the few irrigation pipes spoiling a perfect picture, it is very peaceful and beautiful. The water is clear, but traces of sulphur have stained the rocks and set off a kaleidoscope of rusty colours in and around the stream which contrast so starkly with the verdant canopy drooping over the top. I fell on my bum a couple of times on the way down and up as the moisture on the path had made the steep path quite mossy and treacherous. Eventually, I made it back up. only to then have to head down the stairs to get the scooter back home.

This week is shaping up as a real test of patience: I have conferences for two days followed by three days of professional development workshops and meetings. Cass also needs to endure these three PD days at a slightly more casual pace but we'll both need to brace ourselves! Photos: puppet theatre, stairs, paths, foliage and waterfalls, along with a tiny shrine I found beside one of the narrow paths hugging the side of the steep hillside.(Photos and video taken with phone only)

Yesterday, Cass had an incredibly “fun” time with her girlfriends. To be honest, the description of the day sounds very similar to one of my worst nightmares, but each to their own, I suppose! Her book club mates had decided to have a decadent lunch down in Taipei city and follow up in some kind of “chick nirvana”, a bag shop: as I say….

They arranged to meet up at Zhishan MRT station and after a few false starts because of multiple entrances, they were on their way. Cass was in charge of the directions and was slightly trepidatious about the whole deal, but she steered the group through a few different stops and changes and they ended up in perfect time at Papa Gio’s down at Dunhua. They lingered over their choices and shared a bottle of rose along with various salads and pastas and fish. It all sounded very classy, but I think I would have been choosing wildly different dishes from the menu!

After a long lunch, they made their way to Cassy’s secret bag shop that they had all been keen to visit since Cassy’s description of an “Aladdin’s Cave” of beautifully crafted, genuine leather bags, all bearing an uncanny resemblance to stratospherically priced bags of noted designers in the swanky malls virtually shadowing this little shop. Tucked in behind the giant SOGO store at Zhongshan MRT, the shop did not disappoint its enthusiastic crowd. I was amazed how long they could spend down there: hours! All the girls ordered or bought at least one bag, some of them bought two. From reports, the whole day was a wild success and they plan to meet up for lunch again soon, perhaps trying a different after lunch activity like the jade market. I’m actually loving this: it saves me another trip to this area that can hold my interest for about 10 minutes, yet I think Cass would be happy there for about 10 hours!!

Today, the sun streamed in and woke us from a slumber earlyish and we thought it would be a perfect day to get down to Yuanshan Park and the Taipei Fine Arts museum. On our previous trips to Paris, we’ve never missed an opportunity to visit the amazing Musee Marmottan, nestled in a nondescript Parisian suburb. The house holds a priceless treasure trove of the most exquisite Monet paintings and its bottom circular room definitely IS a place I could spend 10 hours. Well, suffice to say that if you visited the Marmottan anytime between now and the beginning of June, you’d be bitterly disappointed: there are 32 of the most magnificent Monet paintings in the world hanging on the walls of Taipei FAM, just three train stops from our front door!! We wandered through Yuanshan Park with thousands of Taipei’s citizens as they marveled over the Taipei International Floral Exhibition in the spring sunshine. Eventually we were directed to a shuttle bus, as the art museum is actually within the floral festivals grounds, and you need to be ushered into the grounds in a group. In we went and after paying the ridiculously small fee (less that $10), we wandered into a Monet wonderland. They had certainly raided the very best of the paintings too: giant waterlillies studies, the bridge at Giverny in all different lights, agapanthus and iris, the Seine in dappled light and a beautiful piece we had never seen borrowed from the Scottish national Gallery and yet another from a private collection. The bulk however, was from the Marmottan and it was both surreal and unreal to view them again in our own backyard. I’d say a return visit or two is definitely on the cards.

Blissing out from both the sunshine and our art fix, we enjoyed a cup of coffee in the sun splashed courtyard before training home. We decided to use Cassy’s gift vouchers for Chili’s for a very late lunch/early dinner and scootered across to the Shinkong Mitsukoshi building. A window seat to watch the world go by, a pretty girl for a date and some great tasting food….what else could anyone want? We whiled away a couple of hours before getting home to blog duties et al.

Oh, I nearly forgot! I spent a big chunk of Friday night down at Roxy Rocker with my book club mates. Not a lot of books were shown (in fact, none!) but we enjoyed some icy beers, great company and classic, classic music spun up on twin turntables and rockin’ all night….what a blast! Words can’t really do this justice but the pictures can. My phone camera is not great in such low light, so the old fashioned theme of the slide show actually enhances the shots and captures the feel of the night pretty well. You can check the slide show here with a few awful shenanigans up top! Cass is reading "Her Fearful Symmetry" and I'm still on the Harlan Coben

We had a pretty tough week this week. Visiting "expert" meant that we had to endure at least three long drawn out after school meetings as well as some laborious sessions in school time. All this was quite mentally draining, both from being "up with people" and restraining ourselves from saying all the politically incorrect things we might have been thinking!

Din Tai Feng was a very pleasant antidote to all the week's worries on Saturday and we went along in the late afternoon, supposedly to avoid the lunch crowd and to miss the great Saturday hordes that line up from early evening. We did a pretty good job of the timing and we were whisked into a booth with a minimum of fuss. The food here is just sublime: it never disappoints and we often comment that it would be a huge hit in Australia. There is a branch in Sydney and I'd be interested to know business is: we reckon we're reasonably discerning diners and it certainly ticks all our boxes at a very good price.

The weather was again favourable to outdoor activity on Sunday, so I decided to brave the 1000 steps once again. I've had a long layoff because one of my knees flared up again from the up and down movement, so I've been using the treadmill at the school gym as an alternative. I've been setting it on maximum incline and walking as fast as is humanly possible without breaking into a jog. It gets the sweat flowing quite nicely and has been a good, alternative aerobic workout. Anyway, I managed to make it up and back without any major complications so I was pretty relieved. Cass did her river walk circuit at the same time, so before lunch we were all exercised, washed and feeling quite self satisfied!

The monkeys at the top of the steps and along the trail a bit are supposed to be at their most active at dawn and dusk, but today they gave me quite a fright. A whole extended family decided to break from the foliage just as I walked along the upper path and as luck would have it, there was no-one else around. Their bodies are huge and muscular and they are an intimidating sight. The family decided to amble across the path and leap into the trees opposite, but not before big daddy gave me the most awful teeth bared snarl and spit. I literally froze to the spot! When they were safely tree bound I snapped off a shot very tentatively, a half second from running for my life (or at least that is what it felt like at the time!!)

This afternoon we joined a very packed cinema auditorium to watch "The King's Speech". It's recent success at the Oscars guaranteed a large crowd, but this was amazing. We were in the biggest cinema and we were in the 4th row as every other seat was taken. The movie itself was a magnificent triumph for all concerned and although Colin Firth was superb, we couldn't help feeling a little sorry for Geoffrey Rush: surely he stole the show?!

Well, I'm a little ill motivated to write great screeds today, so perhaps mercifully for you the reader, I'll finish here. I've posted a short video and some photos of a most bizarre piece of Taipei street theatre I witnessed yesterday...your guess is as good as mine (especially the bashing of the backs with the cane)!! The other photos are the menacing shadow of two monkeys in a tree and the deceptively cute sign of same monkeys!