The amazing mathemagician Art Benjamin spun a web of magic around the 4th graders this week with some mental gymnastics that had my pathetic maths brain begging for mercy. Check the link just above for him beating a bank of calculators squaring a random 4 digit number! I'm actually impressed by anyone who seems reasonably comfortable using more than a 3-4-5 triangle (perhaps known as a Pythagorean triple?), so perhaps he wasn't that good after all!

Cass emerged chrysalis-like from her extended week at the provincial backwater of Fulong camp ground, where she imparted her worldy knowledge to the naive grade 8 souls whom she chaperoned. Her tasks included, but were not limited to, hiking a 10km mountain trail, cooking BBQs, making breakfast, editing and rendering dozens of videos for a final showing, dragging out her "peer support" skills to replace set activities on a rainy day and generally being on deck for anything 24/7. I, on the other hand, had the onerous task of ministering to the needs of two lazy cats! Doesn't seem fair does it?

I had booked a table at Wendel's for Cassy's return. This has become something of a tradition for the return from camp. Cass describes it as the perfect cleansing, as the atmosphere, food, ambiance of Wendel's are diametrically opposed to the privations of the Longmen Camp Ground. We order the same decadently delicious and expensive items from the menu each time, although I stupidly gravitated from the melt-in-your-mouth steak to a pan full of German sausages: it was OK, but all a bit too much....see picture above!

During the week, I'd taken my annual leave to indulge in some culinary "delights" of which Cass is less enamoured. I managed to eat Japanese pork cutlets in curry sauce (tonkatsu) twice, and also eat at my traditional Taiwanese/Chinese restaurant just around the corner, with its rudimentary tables and lightning fast service. The food isn't gourmet but I love the atmosphere here and the flashing spatula skills of the stir-fry cooks. There is a big, green plastic-handled bottle opener on the table for your self served beer bottle, and a pack of tissues that I'm sure they get for free from the local petrol station: it's homely! I had a beer and a chat with my mate Michael on Thursday night at another local haunt: he is the school psychologist, so he always has some interesting takes on various personalities and approaches.

We had a very quiet weekend as we tend to after the big camp. Cass is more than happy to potter around and just revel in being back in her comfortable home. The girls suddenly become more needy when she appears as well: after a week of blithely ignoring my presence except to stridently remind me to fill up their food bowls, they emerge as rubbing, smooching, needy cuties who insist on sleeping on or beside Cass as she lies on the lounge, even in this heat!

I forced myself up the 1400 stairs and along the forest trail in the midday heat on Sunday: it was a sweat pumping effort, but worth it up the top, as it was serene and cool. Luckily no monkeys crossed my path today, and I took a few shots of the signs, the precarious trees and the trail. Other photos of food seem self explanatory.

Yet another typhoon, this time with the rather jazzy moniker of "Sanba", danced around the top of Taiwan over the weekend. It produced sheets of rain and whippy, surprising wind gusts of umbrella-flipping intensity. Even though the skies were relatively clear and the precipitation warm and fine, it wasn't pleasant or romantic. It was annoying.

On Friday, in the midst of the worst of the storm, we had our Book Club meeting. Unlike Cassy's far more civilised model, I've mentioned on these pages before that ours tends to favour a model of consuming large quantities of beer, lusty talk and a certain cavalier attitude to decorum and politeness. That said, we weren't prepared to make our way to a new venue up near Guandu this time as most of it was outdoors. We decided on the rather more couth Wendel's Backerei right here in our own backyard, and although the bill for the high-glass, frothy Erdingers was gob-smackingly stratospheric, we all managed to have a great night. In fact I picked up my current book just in the nick of time as I had exhausted my most recent stockpile.

Football again dominated my weekend and I have to admit it's hard being a dedicated fan of two codes. When we eventually get back home for good, I'll probably never watch an entire AFL game again, but at the moment it certainly has me in its thrall. Largely I suspect because of the rampant and energetic support it receives from Wol and Shaun, who not only love the game but really "know" it as well. I think they still delight in teaching me some of the finer nuances of the play as it pans out.

Cass was beavering away at her Onenote document for school at points during the weekend and also started to pack her bag on Saturday. She's off again to the Fulong camp ground for her annual camping adventure with the entire grade 8. Not a massive fan of the 5 day extravaganza, she none-the-less stoically prepares for yet another working week of "fun", with the knowledge that it only comes round once a year. I'm going to scooter down to the 7/11 before we leave for school tomorrow to buy a couple of salads and she has some tubs of yoghurt ready as well. This carrying of some food bare necessities follows her witnessing a rather healthy looking rat scurrying across the camp ground's kitchen floor a few years back: since then, and despite the fact that no-one has been struck down with illness, her policy is not to eat anything unsealed coming out of the kitchen. Fair enough.

We'll make for a comical look tomorrow morning as we'll utilise the scooter to get her suitcase to school. I tend to perch on top of the bag as it sits in the section where my legs normally go and Cass assumes her usual position at the rear. It's quite an amazing vehicle really: all 125cc of raw power (!) accommodating we two as well as a mid-sized suitcase....I can't really see the Harley doing that!

We managed to interrupt our respective viewing and working for a little while on Saturday evening when we strolled down to SOGO's top floor bank of restaurants. "Very Thai" served up some fresher than fresh fare of exquisite taste and quality and our steamed fish in particular was melt-in-your-mouth. Cassy sipped on a Mojito and I lamented the fact that they have removed the VBs from their menu: this was the only place in town I knew that stocked them!!

Photos: Virgy relaxing (yes Thurza, I was photo challenged this week!), don't park here, our rather 50s looking electricity meters, Cass strolling in misting rain and an old man cradling an encased golden buddha as seen through our fake bamboo verandah railing!

I've been quite voraciously reading lately and have finished the superb biography, "The Devil and Sonny Liston" and am now reading "People Who Eat Darkness". Cass is spending most of her reading time doing schoolwork at the moment (boo!), but is still finding some gold in "Sin and Syntax".

I'll give a second hand report on Cassy's Sunday, as my weekend was, although full, largely consumed with watching football of two codes with a rugby game thrown in for good measure.

We started the annual semi-finals footy fest with a trip to Patio 84 (the old Green Bar) where Wol and I met up with Brandon and Shaun and an eclectic mix of other folk to watch the big Friday night showdown of traditional rivals Hawthorn and Collingwood. As luck would have it, the NRL game between Manly and the Bulldogs was being broadcast concurrently on the other big screen, so I was set, except for the fact that I nearly threw my neck out trying to watch both games at the same time. The night lasted beyond the games and an assorted coterie of characters entertained us for many hours.

On Saturday, we reprised our roles at the same venue, before going over to Shaun's place at half-time to continue the viewing. On Sunday, when Cass went on her downtown jaunt, I amused myself by watching yet another two games, this time, the programmers took mercy on me and had the two games only slightly overlapping.

Cassy's colleague's wife was the director of a live dramatic production downtown on Sunday, so she and her long-time friend, Kristin, decided to make a day of it. After some research on the area, it was easy to locate a suitable restaurant just round the corner from the theatre, and they made their way down there via MRT in the shadows of high noon. Taipei continues to sustain a withering summer heat and they managed to escape the bulk of it by staying below ground on the train till quite near their destination. "Chianti" provided a surprisingly fine meal for them and they were impressed to the point to promise a revisit some time in the future. Another interesting attraction was the massive, stand-alone "Hello Kitty" dessert restaurant (jealous Helen?!) next door. Not only did it pay homage to Japan's most resilient and cutest lifestyle icon, but attracted a fine young crowd of all Taipei's cutest and trendiest girls, who flocked in twittering packs of high socks and short skirts in and out of the establishment all afternoon. It was a hustle and bustle that we don't see here in comparatively sleepy Tienmu and the energy of the area got them all set for their afternoon of high art.

It was short few blocks to the "Red Room", where the dramatics were to begin in the mid-afternoon. The first act was less attractive, but the shortened radio play style of Macbeth after interval was more impressive. The talents of the amateur cast were high, especially the young lead (a recent graduate from our school) whose efforts were even more remarkable as he had just 4 days to prepare after being drafted into the role at late notice. There was an array of teachers from school in attendance along with a stack of others, making the small venue rather packed. Its huffing air-conditioner worked overtime to cool the overheated audience and cast, but all in all, the afternoon was declared a success. After some Starbuck's coffee with yet another colleague after the show, they forwent the delights of a packed underground train system to get a taxi home.

We were able to decadently overstay our usual bedtime owing to a later than usual start this morning due to a PD day. To my horror, when we sauntered in 10 minutes before time, I was horrified to see my entire divisional faculty sequestered away in the LS library paying rapt attention to the visiting guru: I'd got the times wrong! Compounding my error, I tried to sneak in quietly through the back door, only to have the alarm shriek in protest, the assembled throng turned as one to bust my stealthy entrance and the speaker said, "Someone, please search that man!" So much for that!

Cass is away at a steering dinner at Eddie's Cantina tonight, so I'm about to indulge in a tea out on the street...at this stage, cuisine unknown! Photos are of Cassy at  a team lunch at a colleague's house, a few final shots of my room before we get moved into new premises soon and a few of the play venue and Hello Kitty. I've just finished "The Drop" and I'm going to try a biography on the great Sonny Liston next. Cass is onto something else, but I'm not sure what: I'll update next week. Adios!

There's a trademark, back alley Taipei situation that's impossible to adequately describe to the uninitiated, yet smacks familiar to those with experience. Darting bodies on an unerring collision course careering toward you, only to employ the most deft avoidance at the last microsecond as you brace for impact. The intense airless heat which seems to suck the very oxygen out of the air in awninged footpaths lined with parked motor scooters still pulsing clouds of engine heat as you pass. The ever-present din of traffic, the slinking, skinny craven dogs and the lightning punch of violent odours from a simmering pot of unidentifiable parts. Shame-free staring from the locals and a strident jabber of hawking traders added to the mix and we're transported to any back street in the city, especially beyond the metal and glass inner city showcase hub.

Our day trip to Fuzhong had dredged up some long forgotten memories of our early days here in Taipei, when a trip to less exotic locales, such as markets and back-streets, engendered lots of stares and whispers. We didn't spot another foreigner all day until we re-joined our local railway line. It's a rare event these days as Taipei increasingly attracts Chinese-learning westerners who can revel in the delights of the big modern city without confronting the day-to-day challenges of big brother across the Taiwan Strait.

Our destination was the Lin family mansion and Gardens, a historical site now jammed in the middle of a bustling satellite suburb to the south-west of the city centre. We changed trains to our usual east west line, but went the other way, spending many minutes between stations as the train hurtled through industrial landscape and tunneled under rivers. We emerged and made our way through the aforementioned back alleys until we found where the mansion and grounds should be...alas, a gleaming new supermarket building of Carrefour had usurped yet another corner of their grounds, so we walked round the back till we eventually stumbled upon the entrance.

Cobblestone paths and courtyards abounded, and ornate carvings supported sweeping roof-lines of tiny clay tiles which had been arranged in painstaking detail by local artisans. The sense of calm was palpable as soon as you entered and the artificial lakes brimming with scurrying Koi and potted bonsai commanding attention at every turn all aided the sense of an oasis in the middle of the city. Apparently at one stage, the home commanded views over chequered ricefields to the soaring mountains now ringing Taipei city. It must have been quite inspiring: now, of course, the planting is strategically placed to eliminate the view of encroaching apartment buildings and shops!

We spent many hours walking around and zenning out before making our way back to the MRT station. Before we boarded however, we made a pit-stop at the "Two Cats" cafe (which seemed appropriate for us!), and sat and took in some street theatre as we sipped on our ice coffees. It was HOT today and it was great to have a break, have a debrief and gather our thoughts before challenging the hordes on the two train trip back home.

I'm reading "The Drop" by Michael Connelly and Cassy is reading, "Sin and Syntax" by Constance Hale (isn't she just the life-long learner!!). Photos are a mixed bunch but are from in and around the Lin family mansion. By the way, the "swastika" is not really a swastika and has been used for thousands of years in Asian temples: the Germans plagiarized it!