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?!