On Friday, we went to a party with a 70s/80s theme for the surprisingly large coterie of teachers at school who turn 40 this year. The "1972ers" have a decade on us of course, but it was interesting to see some of these "young pups" from a decade ago actually turning a reasonable age at last! We're good friends with a number of the 40s, and they included Marcus and Shaun and Nicky (Dan's wife) as well as Michelle L. Shaun had decided that we three Aussies needed to dress up in something rather shocking, so he sourced some early World Series Cricket uniforms at extravagant cost, and had them sent over in time for the bash.

The uniforms were authentic to the stitch, the logo  nostalgically 70s and simple, the collar garish and wide, leaving ample room to unbutton to show off our chains or chest hair. The pants were slightly flared and unashamedly polyester: a match nearby would have caused a flash fire. To top it off we'd all chosen a name to be emblazoned across the back, just like the heroes of yore. We'd chosen quite carefully, not for looks so much, but for personality. Wol became the firebrand Croatian/Australian fast bowler Lenny Pascoe, Shaun the flamboyant sex god who was D.K. Lillee, and I was happy with my choice of the larrikin free spirit hailing from Dungog, Dougy Walters. 

Suffice to say, it was a fantastic fun night, partly due to the fact that my darling wife put in a rare appearance at such a big social event! Cass wasn't overly keen, but she did want to say happy birthday to the two Aussie boys and quite enjoyed her cameo appearance. 

On Saturday, we dined early at Din Tai Feng before braving the Halloween crowds at Miramar and surrounds to see the excellent movie, Killing Them Softly, featuring Australia's own Ben Mendelsohn. His was a stellar performance in a very interesting movie. Brad Pitt was superb and Aussie director Andrew Dominic was craftily exact in his visual treatments. The crowd outside the theatre, however, was a sight to behold. There were literally thousands of ghosts and ghouls, demons, monsters and fantasy characters of all descriptions, shapes, sizes and ages, snaking round the two blocks of the department store complex! They were all lined up to receive some kind of pathetic free gift, but it was remarkable for two main reasons: how calm, patient and composed people were waiting in line for so long, but more importantly, how very weird it was to see all these Taiwanese people dressed up for an American tradition!

Sunday, we finally got the Honda fired up and headed over to check the surf. Tienmu's slightly overcast skies and fine drizzle quickly detiorated into a typical other worldly experience on top of the mountain. One almost expects to see Wuthering Heights materialize from the moors, Heathcliff and Catherine emerging from the haze. Shrouds of mist were hugging the slick blacktop as fog lights blazed, trying in vain to cut a path through the soup. Cloud like entities were whipping across the road and up the mountain grasses. When we arrived at the slightly calmer coastline, the ocean was a steel grey mass of cross and bothered competing currents, tearing and tugging it in every direction. We didn't really choose the best of times to make a long awaited re-visit to the coast! We did have a bit of fun at one of Jinshan 7/11s, where we provided much entertainment to a group of locals, firstly by being non-Chinese, secondly having the ability to be actually driving a car and thirdly having the capability to order and eat some food! 

Photos are of the cricket legends as well as some of the party antics, Halloween strangeness and 7/11 food choices (Cassy just had a banana and a coffee: I ate all the fried stuff!). We're both reading some new books, but I can't remember what they are....

 

I've gone a bit mental in the last week. Suffice to say that my latent desires for all new tech toys has "like, way broken out!" and I now own a 64 gb iPad 3, a new Apple TV and the Samsung Galaxy SIII 32 gb with an extra 32 gb storage...don't ask me what I think I'm going to store on them all!!

I didn't go total Apple because I've come to love my Android HTC and was keen to upgrade on the same platform. The phone is one of the most amazing things I have ever seen and I'm slowly learning how to drive it. The tech guys at school were drooling all over it and one of them had been to an IT professional day last week where the presenter just used the Galaxy to run his whole multi-media presentation....wild!

The iPad is similarly jaw dropping. The new retina display has an intoxicating, vivid screen resolution that is almost beyond comprehension. Coupled with the Apple TV, I can mirror the screen of the iPad onto the new HD TV as well. I'm about to embark on some ISP hiding via VPN, so that we can access HD TV shows from the U.S. via wireless streaming. On the Apple TV, we can directly buy TV and movies from the Australian iTunes store as well.

The iPad is partly to be used as a teaching tool for my little kiddies, so we'll be well served there as Cass and I both have been given the latest and greatest Lenovo tablets to use at work. Along with our stand-alone computer at home as well as an iPod touch and two cameras, we are awash with electronic tools and toys.

My life has been dominated by new toys and getting them set-up and played with. This is partly why this blog is being posted so late, compounded by the fact that we've had to write interim quarterly reports for the kids this week as well.

We did sneak out on the weekend to yet anothet trendy Italian cafe, this time right in our own 'hood, just opened up in the fancy building behind the new SOGO department building. It was all vegatarian and super slick. Once again, we could have been in Italy. The city is really starting to grow some cosmopolitan and avant garde restaurants. MiaCucina had tasty food and a really cool vibe: we'll be back.

Uniqlo, the Japanese super store for all that is both trendy but at the same time very bargainous, was our next stop. Cass and I both bought some super fine Merino jumpers, me with two cardigans (sounds very daggy, but somehow they're not) and she with one crew neck jumper. I also got a fine corduroy shirt, much like the one I had when we first met!

I took a little video on the new phone and uploaded to Youtube of Cass at Miacucina, but you'll just have to take my word for it: it appears to have been lost in cyberspace, so more lessons are needed for me! I should be recovering from my "tech shock" by next week, and promise to be less obsessed.

Oh, by the way, we're off to Poland, Hungary and Germany for Christmas....more soon! Check the video

Taiwan's National Day, the famous "ten ten" usually provides us with a couple of days off, or is at least tacked onto a weekend. This year, the school chose to give us the holiday slap bang in the middle of the week for just a single day. We decided to make the most of it and go hiking up some mountain trails we've not previously visted so we scootered down beyond the night market to enter the park nestled between the Grand Hotel and the highway.

From here we followed our noses through some typically confusing spider web, criss-crossing trails until we reached what resembled the main artery up the ridge line. Along the way we viewed the specatcular Taipei Grand Hotel, a magnificent Chinese style structure which famously had its roof and upper floors burnt in a huge conflagration more than a decade ago. Now fully restored, its majestic kitsch is something to behold. We also burst through to a point on the eastern side where we encountered a different panoramic view of the city. In the foreground was the Keelung River with wide, riverside parks full of fountains and intersecting bike paths. Beyond, the city rose inexorably in stages of brown blocks like a giant hippo emerging slowly from a muddy bank. The needle of Taipei 101 shockingly broke the horizon in the background, always sharp, dominating and dwarfing the rest of the skyline.

We walked and walked past tiny temples and teahouses, quaint entrance pillars announcing a new spot at regular intervals. We decided to turn back after a while, promising to return for a more intensive exploration of the area at a later date. Off for a very enjoyable coffee at the nightmarkets then home for a second "short week".

On Sunday we subwayed down to the Huashan 1914 Creative Park, where we visited the Living Arts Festival with its playful "Chinglish" slogan of "Let's Fun"! It was a fantastic day out in the sun! A double row of stalls out the front housed an eclectic mix of fancy, cute or arty gear and on the forecourt out the front, various shows were being staged. The tap dogs beat a rhythm to the strains of jazz saxophonists and trumpeters to the delight of the crowds lounging on the grass slopes surrounding. As we wandered further into the complex, we saw many of the old warehouses were showing short or impromptu live plays and performances. There were activities for kids and adults alike, balloon bending aficionados perfomed alongside kiddies scribbling on glass graffitti walls while carpets of climbing plants snaked and clung to the concrete fascias of the buildings behind.

As always when people gather in Taipei, there was a palpable feeling of excitement and happiness, partly due to the vast crowds of patient, polite people and partly due to the varied mix of sights and activities. Down an alley between two buildings we found the delightful "Al Cicchetto". The ambiance and decor along with the wine and pasta were sensational...we were transported back to the osteria alleys of Florence and Rome. More shops of tricks and curios caught our eye on the way out, and we enjoyed browsing lots of very cool consumables, somehow escaping with just a tiny purchase of a fridge magnet!

Cass is reading the excellent Jennifer Egan A Visit from the Goon Squad, while I'm attempting to read the near incomprehensible Australian award winner by Peter Temple, Truth. Either I've slowly become brain dead or I've lost my command of the Aussie vernacular or a combination of both. Photos are firstly of our National Day hike and after of the wonderful Huashan Creative Park.

I'm going to give the long-winded diatribe a spell this week, I'm sure to the relief of many. Instead of trawling through a sea of mind-numbing minutia for a couple of nuggets, I'll ditch the prose and hopefully just state the facts. That wasn't the best start though, was it?!

Friday saw the Polish Nation meet at our usual haunt. Wol got dressed in our brand new retro Australian cricket team gear which Shaun ordered for the three of us from Australia. We'll be donning the "yellow pyjamas" in earnest in a few weeks time at a combined 40th birthday party: should be a hoot. The Nation imbibed and entertained a caravan of special guests meaning that it was a rather slow start to Saturday morning.

Cassy's new appliance is working feverishly and very efficiently and she suspects the old washing machine has been failing at its job for a few years! We wandered down to Miramar and saw the bleak but entertaining, End of Watch, before having our semi-regular late lunch-early dinner at the Spice Shop. Tearing ourselves away from the tried and true, we got all new dishes, some of which were highly acceptable.

On the way home, protecting Cassy's new peep toe patent ruby slippers from the squally rain, Wendel's had Cassy's favourite TT on display out front. Inside, the Oktoberfest celebrations were just getting into full cry, the Taiwanese girls in their German beer wench outfits looking decidedly awkward!

Sunday saw a full-on lounge fest from both of us. We sat and watched the Bathurst 1000 live stream beamed onto the TV from 8 a.m. till about 2 p.m. Oh, what slovenly beasts we were! Our only outing for the day was to stroll across the river to do the food shopping for the week, where Cass found some cute banana cases and slicers, and I was bemused by happy face Halloween baby pumpkins!

Teaching Grade 5 this year means a more sophisticated coterie of students: these boys were super cool with their mini rock guitar pens! Soy sauce rules in the supermarket and I'm out!
P.S. the "sparkling chardonnay" mentioned last week was a complete dud!

When our washing machine flashed an error code and cried its high pitched shriek for attention yet one more time, we decided it was time for it to go to that indeterminate white good's graveyard. Where do all those large white goods go to die anyway? Perhaps this is a question for another time. It was late Sunday morning and we were sitting around not doing much. In the space of 5 minutes, I had checked a few words in the dictionary ("washing machine" or xiyigi is not a word I use everyday!), ripped on some shorts and a shirt and made my way to the main road a few minutes away. Directly opposite was yet another brand new electronic store recently opened and playing-card decks of flat screen tellys fanned out before me lining the walls of the gleaming new showroom. Initially discouraged, I was then directed to the second floor, where I spotted the compact machine we needed for our back verandah, told the salesman I wanted it, paid and gave my particulars. I was home not 15 minutes after we decided to get a new machine and it was subsequently delivered at 8 p.m. last night. Not only that, but they took the old one and the packaging away as well!! I love this country!

It made us ruminate on our time here on island. This second washing machine was a bit of a shock, but we figured out we were on our 3rd computer, 3rd television, second toaster oven, second water cooler and at least our 7th upright fan. Fingers crossed for our fridge, which lumbers on with a creak and a groan and our long suffering, hard working split system air-conditioner: a big ticket item that has had a little preventative maintenance, but not a lot. Really though, to be fair, in Taiwanese very unfriendly conditions for appliances, with its saturated sulphur-laden air, we've done pretty well over the last 11 years. Our little Sony stereo, bought new when we moved into Fletcher Street in 1993, somehow keeps on working despite the CD player giving up a few years back. We'll nurse it along for a bit longer yet!

It was a huge weekend for football of both codes as the Grand Finals were played out. I gave out the annual tipping awards at half time of the main game of AFL down at Patio 84 as is becoming tradition. The beer and the tall stories began flowing early and the day is especially brutal considering the time difference between the two countries: we had our first beer before the sun passed the yardarm! Nonetheless, despite a longish afternoon, I arrived home for tea bearing the impressively delectable pizza offerings from a new place in the Shi Dong road called "Part Time Su". All vegetetarian, the pizzas are sensational. We opted to share three small ones, of pesto vegetable, 5 vegetable mix and a hot and spicy variety. Superb!

On Sunday, we again couldn't tear ourselves away from "Eat Burger" for lunch before getting some specialty supplies from the SOGO supermarket close by. Cass bought herself an interesting can of drink: it is "sparkling chardonnay" by the famous Japanese brewing company, Kirin. Surely not champagne in a can for just $1.50?....we'll wait for Cassy's verdict when she tries it next Friday.

The dreaded "hiatus" which has loomed large for a couple of weeks has lowered its cape of despair over all of us this morning. Wal is moping, Brandon is disappointed and I'm in shock: no more football till March?? Bring on the South Africans: that first ball fired in anger from the Gabba for the opening of the cricket series on November 9 just cannot come soon enough!

My prodigious reading output of late continues unabated, as I have now started reading "The Auschwitz Volunteer: Beyond Bravery" a truly shocking and harrowing autobiography. Unfortunately for my darling, Cassy has been reading 100 literary interpretations of "Of Mice and Men" written by her 8th graders: good times! Photos are a bit of a mix from phone and camera. One of my students' parents ordered macaroons from Paul's in Paris and had them flown direct to Taiwan. The box features Swarovski crystals and the macaroons themselves were a taste sensation beyond description. She was adamant that I deserved this generous gift for the improvement she saw in her son: lucky for me, this kid seems to learn by himself! Others are of an excited Cass with her "champagne", a strange bent guitar spotted at "Eat", and a photo wall and busy workers at "Part Time Su".