We've now attended our third Taiwanese wedding and I must report that they are remarkably similar to one another, yet remarkably different to what we might consider a "regular" ceremony and reception. Our neighbour and friend "Bessy"invited us to her daughter's wedding reception which we attended this weekend and it was quite an experience.

Firstly, we arrived after quite a rush in a taxi to Neihu, on time, smack on twelve noon, to find the garishly decorated reception area almost deserted. After being ushered with a distinct lack of subtlety to our seats, Bessy introduced us to the few other guests that were around. They subsequently noted that "Taiwanese people don't come till about 30 or 45 minutes after the scheduled start time": lesson number one learned!

We were regaled with high definition, massive sized images of the happy couple projected onto numerous screens around the walls as we waited for any real action to start. These wedding photos are taken many weeks before the main event and usually portray various cute shots from "romantic" locales, such as rowboats on lakes, on the seashore or in dimly lit restaurants. After some electronic intrusion from the professional master of ceremonies, an actual blasted fanfare announced the arrival of the wedding party. Huge double doors swung open to reveal the entry of the party to the accompaniment of strobe lights and a gush of bubbles from a bubble blowing machine. The bridesmaids and partners were followed by the parents of the groom, then Bessy with the groom and Bessy's husband with their daughter, Nicole, the bride. It was all pomp and splendour with an avalanche of silk, taffeta, hairpieces and false eyelashes. The couple then poured the cascading mountain of champagne (which no-one drank) for another photo opportunity, until the fuss slowly died down and the feast began.

We were served so many courses of "special and delicious" food, that I quickly lost count! Cass was served her own vegetarian fare as we were at a "meat" table. Unlike many years ago, I was able to sample all the foods, except perhaps the soup which seemed to be reminiscent of the soup ladled up in "Raiders of the Lost Ark", full of mysterious elements in murky depths, and I'm sure I spotted an eyeball bobbing around in there as well. The one bottle of red wine (for a table of 10!) was supplemented by sickly sweet "juice" although the guy next to me was sculling the vino, necessitating a couple of re-fills.

Halfway through proceedings the groom erupted into a karaoke version of some contemporary Taiwanese love song and paraded through the tables, smiling and waving as he sang, to be joined by much further fanfare, spotlights and bubbles as his new bride re-entered in yet another outfit. Some time after this, the wedding party en masse visited each table in turn, toasting the guests and thanking them for their attendance followed by scurrying still photographers and videographers all with their own paraphernalia.

Another announcement a short time later heralded a mass exit with a great line up of people exiting the venue via taking a photo with the newly wedded couple. The bride was in yet another fantasy style princess dress complete with massive train and she had a basket full of lollies to give to the guests as they posed with them.

Exhausted from all this, we ditched the glad rags when we got home and watched a bit of Twenty20 cricket as an antidote!! We have a slightly truncated week this week and we finish on Thursday afternoon. By the evening we will be flying to Hong Kong, and from there onwards to Frankfurt, then Budapest. With the magic of flying against the various timezones, we'll arrive in Budapest on Friday morning and begin our European Christmas/ New Year white adventure. No blog till at least January 14, a Happy Christmas and New Year to all our family and friends who may be reading.

A short video clip of the wedding appears above. Photos: Lovely Christmas chocolates from one of Cassy's kiddies, stylish mannequins in a new Tienmu cafe, neon reindeer nibbling a well lit pasture, and various wedding shots as described above. I'm reading Michael Connelly's The Black Box at the moment and Cass is reading...?

The "40s" brigade, whom I've mentioned before quite recently, had another event this Saturday when our good friend Shaun celebrated his birthday in some style.

Katie had been organising for some weeks for a surprise gathering at a new cafe downtown on the Saturday after the big day, so we were all sworn to secrecy, yet tasked with producing a photo with an associated sign. The Polish Nation boys decided it was a particularly sombre occasion and posed as such, while Cass and I tried to replicate the look and feel of Katie's original photo while posing in front of the god of martial arts.

Unfortunately (as it turns out), a group of golfers decided to go out and consume a zillion cans of beers while on the course during the day, so they were starting from a very sensitive point at 7.30 that evening! It had been drizzling non-stop through the day, so Shaun, Wol, Brandon, Ivo and others had been consoling themselves with more than a few beers as they made their way round the links.

We arranged to meet Gurecki and Wal to get a taxi downtown to the Maya cafe for the surprise, but Wal already smelt like a brewery and was getting a headache after his long day! In the Saturday night traffic jam combined with the rain, the trip was long and slow but when we eventually got there, and all the other guests arrived, it was easy to start getting in the swing of things with some margaritas and enchiladas.

The guest of honour eventually rolled in, but Aaron's gift of a super-large Margarita was the eventual undoing of the birthday boy. I took a shot at the start and the end of the drink and you can see the difference! We had a great time talking to lots of people who we like but don't get to see so often and thoroughly enjoyed the night.

The weekend was a shocker weather wise and we were glad for the invite otherwise we may well have not left the house at all. It was a wind-whipped dreary time, although we did decadently just lie around in bed for most of Saturday afternoon accompanied by two heavily purring cats and lulled by a gentle tinkling of rain on downstairs' verandah's tin roof.

I spent a good deal of time on Sunday organising our trip. We're making a Sasquatch style carbon footprint over the holiday break with a total of 8 separate flights! We are limited in time and couldn't rely on the Polish and Hungarian railways to get us around Europe within our schedule. As is our habit, were also eschewing regular hotels and I've booked us into apartments in Budapest, Berlin and Krakow we're we'll guide ourselves around what is shaping up to be a cold and snow-filled winter break. Anyway, we'll be in Budapest for Christmas and Krakow for New Year's Eve with Germany in between, so it should be lots of fun! I'm making massive use of the very useful application Evernote which is synching all my notes, comments and clippings between my phone, iPad, work computer and home computer with lightning speed and perfect accuracy.Here's a video of my kiddies doing their thing too.  Peace out!

To any readers out there, my apologies. This blog is rather late and will be more than mildly hobbled by my continuing malaise. I woke up on Saturday morning with that dreaded feeling that I'd been weakened by some bug or other, as yet indeterminate. I'm always the opitimist, so insist for a day or two, that it's "just a cold", but when the body and bone aches begin, the chest gets heavy and the general fatigue makes it hard to keep your eyes open, I usually admit I've been flu-struck. It's not a version of man-flu either: in fact, if I do (rarely) catch anything, I tend to go the whole hog, bypass the cold and head straight to virulent flu land. Anyway, that's my excuse for tardiness, and I'm sticking with it!

Cass has undertaken her usual round of sterilizing anything that I touch or even waft past or look at! It's actually a great technique, because we rarely catch anything that the other has come down with. We both relinquished the chance to get a flu shot again this year, as is our practice, but I might re-consider next year. It's just so rare that one of us gets sick, that it always takes us by surprise and we live in denial for a day or two. We think it must be the antibodies built up over decades of charming kiddies hacking, coughing and spraying rank particles all over us; sometimes, my little charmers give me a full face shot!

We stayed in most of the weekend after both having a full and interesting Friday night with our respective book clubs. The "girls" went to a new vegetarian place in the general neighbourhood and rated it extremely highly, including the nectarous Chilean Shiraz which was consumed with gusto in some quantity! Each course as described by Cass sounded quite delicious: what's wrong with me, have I turned? They discussed their reading material and caught up with all the latest happenings. It's contract time at the moment, so there is plenty of "movement" and intrigue surrounding just who will go or stay. I heard that our old mate from TAS, Coomba, will move from associate principal at Hong Kong to the MS principal's job at The Hague....pretty cool!

My lot traveled down (eventually) to the "Roxy Rocker" to soak up the atmospheric guitar rock of a local group of ex-pats. They were smooth and professional and could play some serious guitar riffs. After that, we retired out the back to spin some of the Rocker's famous vinyl, records lining every wall, floor to ceiling, for punters to browse, select and listen.

With my dread kicking in on Saturday morning we had a very low key weekend, but Cass walked all over the neighbourhood lugging product, first to Wellcome for the shopping, then Carrefour, then Wendel's and finally over to Part Time Su to get some vege pizzas for tea. I was eternally grateful as I don't think I could have even dragged myself onto the scooter on Saturday.

Photos: suited up with a perplexed Virgil ready to go to a parent presentation last night, a crazy class shot of my fifth graders, moon rise over Tienmu, and a taxi driver with every gadget known to man on board: I don't know how he kept his eyes on the road!! As I had a dearth of shots this week, I stole one from the Rocker's site, showing the famous "back room".