Batteries of fireworks screamed incessantly overhead again over the weekend, each sharp shriek strident but mercifully brief. Our place is a haven by a small creek most of the time, but its position is handy for pyrotechnics at festival time, as a postage stamp of open space attracts the local "technicians"! Great cauldrons of fire danced with leaping tongues on the main roads, but even back alleys and balconies had their own little steel buckets of fiery paper money smoking and smouldering. The enveloping cloud from the money wafted artificial and acrid: we're not sure what coating is used on this fake cash, but it can't be healthy!

A week after Chinese New Year and the ghosts and spirits, spectres and ghouls obviously need a little more encouragement to depart for good, at least until next year. Perhaps it's just a great excuse to get some cracker commerce happening and give the latent pyromaniacs in the community a legitimate window to "let off some steam"? It's sometimes weird to take stock and remember where we are: oh yes, we're in Taiwan and the deafening drumbeats, wailing warblers, singing cymbals and ricocheting rockets are all part of life on certain days throughout the year....even if we of the diaspora are trying to watch Surfest streaming on the TV in peace, live from Merewether!

The weekend provided some of that absolutely serene, flukey weather that occurs sometimes in the middle of a period that is traditionally cold and damp. The sun peeked out and decided to stay awhile, warmed us up and swiped a smile across the face of Sunday. Of course it remains as beautiful today, taunting us on a Monday working time. As we strolled to school this morning, the Cultural College precipitously perched on a ridge in the Yangminshan hills was fresh and clear, the clouds tiptoeing behind its sparkling facade. It put a little extra pep in our step.

Cass has parent conferences looming, so the latter part of the week for her will be taxing and exhausting. She's getting prepared for it by cooking multiple pots of delicious foods on Sunday, arranging for me to "cook" on Wednesday (the local take-away food restaurants love me!) and fixating on what I think is the strangest of priorities: what shade of nail polish will she have applied when she gets a manicure on Wednesday evening?! I think it helps take her mind from the impending horror!

I've got various meetings through the week including a team meeting today and a parent workshop on Wednesday afternoon. As annoying as some of these can be, especially the mainly gratuitous meetings where one is imprisoned and tortured, having to listen to questionably qualified, self-serving, blinkered blowhards, we do take great solace from recalling our core role: instructing the delightful students who are in our charge. The beauty of our gig is that when we metaphorically close the door to our classroom, we can revel in the personalities, intelligence and attitudes of this wonderful group of kids....they really do continue to make it all worthwhile. Oh, and they pay us money as well!!


Photos: aforementioned kiddies, a park with old houses and statues near our place, a funny busker at the station, Maya pizza's new offerings. Also pictured is a graduate of the school (the daughter of a colleague) who is planning to open a catering service: Gurecki and I get to sample her wares straight from the oven! Then, burning steel baskets and flushing blossom (who needs to go to Japan!). Last photo is a view of the park opposite our house in Merewether (a Facebook steal): while it would be great to be home for all the fun and excitement of Surfest, I'm glad we don't have to look at that every day!

P.S. Some boy met a very pretty girl 33 years ago today!

We have been absent from the Taipei American School campus since I last wrote and we've done a whole lot of "not too much" in the meantime. What a magnificent bonus we get each year to celebrate the Chinese New Year. This year, the snake uncoils itself from the 12 animal matrix that makes up the Chinese horoscope and we couldn't be happier to help him slither and hiss!

I managed to read 4 Stephen King books that I've had on the back-burner here for ages. He's a prolific writer but deceptively rich in his prose and although the story-lines can be a little predictable, they're perfect page turners for a week when you want some easily devourable, entertaining stories. Cass also immersed herself in books and we were laughing at the strange scenes over the past few days when I was reading a huge hardcover and she was button-pressing the electronic reader: who'd have thought?


I went to my friend, Morgan's apartment for a viewing of the iconic mockumentary, Spinal Tap, on Tuesday afternoon/evening. It was great fun and good to catch up with my teammate on Grade 5, Ben, as well as some guys I hadn't met, Charlie and Jamie. Jamie was a very entertaining raconteur and I enjoyed his company immensely: he's a Brit with a fascinating business/car background and the five of us had some long chats about the state of the world's finances as we sipped some local beers on Morgan's rooftop as the sun went down.

Cass and I roused ourselves from our Van Winkle-like narcolepsy most  days in order to do some essential eating, shopping or just rolling the legs over in a pleasant stroll along the river. We had some tasty dinners out at decadent times, like mid-morning brunches and early evening lunch/dinners. Cass cooked some delicious pots of curry and served up piping hot toast in the mornings with a slathering of one of my precious pots of Peck's Anchovette: heaven!

Yesterday, to try and preclude a fall into despondency with the looming return to work today, we bought ourselves some sandwiches for lunch then motored around various beautiful spots in the Yangminshan National Park just beyond our suburb, Tienmu. We decided not to stay at our first destination because of one cackling loud witch, who seemed enamoured of announcing her every thought in a raucous, rasping screech to all and sundry!

A much more peaceful setting was found just in the shadows of the park's belching fumaroles, as we trekked down the valley to the caldera, where thousands of Calla Lilies were in their most succulent flush. We stopped and ate our little picnic on some rustic benches overlooking one of the lush fields and admired the beauty of their military planting lines and long juicy stems. The hills beyond were stained yellow, green and brown but were notable for the shocking explosions of lolly-pop pink scattered throughout, where cherry blossom tress bursting with buds were breaking through the verdant canvas.

We watched some good Aussie programs over the break, including the movies, The Sapphires and Wish You Were Here and the TV movie, Underground: The Julian Assange Story. We finished off our break last night by starting to watch the series Puberty Blues. How weird it was to remember all the sexist, racist, crazy stuff that used to go on in our era at high school (and how strange it all seems now). Oh well, back to school today and six weeks and counting until Spring Break!

Photos: Wol with big head Chinese fellow at the Nation on Friday night, some foliage over a wire near our apartment, Wendel's brunch and lots of Yangminshan beauty (including the scooter chick with attitude!) Oh, and a classic video here of Taipei Gangnam style.

It's Chinese New Year and I'm going to have a break this week, although I have included a few photos from the last day at school when we were regaled with the exquisite skills of a local professional dragon dancing troupe. I've also included a shot of the first flush of cherry blossoms on the riverside near our place, a tray of sartorially splendid pineapples as well as a dressed up, plump stone dog in the temple opposite.

We've got this week off work and already it is proving to be extremely relaxing, rejuvenating and just, well, ripper!

See you next week and "xin nian kuai le"! Video here.

A pungent punch from putrid drains, cooking oil, hot fat and perhaps even a waft of rats' nests. This was a uniquely Taipei bouquet that used to greet us quite often when passing various alleys and byways in our adopted city, but it's been such a long time since we've experienced same that it was a little jolt from the past when we inhaled that forgotten perfume on the weekend!

Near the exciting and vibrant Shida university and night-market district lie many of the aforementioned tunnel-like alleys, each exuding a polarity of moods, enticing you in with thoughts of magical finds, quirky, cheap products or interesting food but at the same time repelling you with repugnant smells and filthy setups. In the shadow of the curiously by-lined Oldie Goodie nightclub (really, "It is your life of darkness"?!) and beside the Taiwanese potsticker stands and dumpling halls full of formica tabletops and supermarket bought chairs, there are lots of these entrance ways: we hurried past them not feeling at all adventurous this time!

This hub-bub of activity takes place at the top of the stairs from exit 3 of the MRT's Taipower station in downtown Shida district, about a 25 minute journey from our place in Tienmu. We were on our way to one of our long-time favourite places to eat, the cleverly named "KGB", nestled in a tiny lane just off the bustle of Shida Road. We ordered our favourite burgers, Cass with the lentil patty, me with beef, but both oozing Antipodean flair and flavour with pickles, egg, pineapple and beetroot. The Yanks just don't get it.....where's the beetroot??!! We had all the options in the set with soups to start and brownies to finish and felt filled to bursting point before we dropped down into the bowels of the city again, avoided the local "special odours" up top, and made our way home via the incongruously spotless train system.

We had a super quiet weekend this time: maybe our recent exertions are catching up with us a bit. It was exciting for us to welcome back the Insiders/Offsiders teams from the ABC on our own Australia Network on Sunday. Although the internet allows us some pretty extensive and constant connectivity with Australian and even Newcastle news these days, it's shows like these that are great to tune into to get an analysis of that news by some respected journalists. Shows like "Q&A" which is also starting back up, play a similar role for us in keeping our finger ever so gently on the Australian pulse.

Video: Check the boys from Grade 4 in their new fad here or up top! Photos: check the star!, Erdinger, art and cats as well as a shot of "the life of darkness"....ohh!