Taipei city has breached a critical threshold in the past week or so, passing from those days when you still hesitate to pack the heater away and strip the electric blanket off the bed just in case of a "cold snap" re-appearing for the odd day or so. We've finally hit full blown spring/summer and there's absolutely no going back! The cherry blossom trees heralded the spring in spectacular fashion and the street trees are now also flush with a fresh foliage, an almost impossible green. It feels like some invisible hand has dialled up the colour unnaturally, so real it looks fake. It looks new and clean and bursting with life....wish I did!

We had, literally, a quiet weekend. I have had no voice since Saturday morning, took yesterday off work and stupidly came into work today. I say stupidly, as my comical efforts to teach the little kiddies some gold has fallen rather flat. At one stage this morning, my voice a rasping croak, I had them huddled on the mat staring at me with a tablet on my lap tapping out their instructions as the words appeared on the screen beside me, transferred from the data projector! A good use of technology, perhaps? Desperation, more like it!

Cass has duly sanitized everything in sight and is is our usual habit, we've managed not to cross-infect each other, which is great. We snuck out to wander a little in the Saturday sunshine and grab a bite to eat at our favourite, "Eat Burger". Running into some colleagues I had the perfect excuse for not stopping and chatting: maybe this lurgy does have some benefits after all.

Cass went and did her first of about 4 or 5 different little "shops" for her Book Club hosting duties which are coming up this Friday. Even though the meal is usually simple, it's deceptively simple: the charm lies in the appearance of some beautiful things just thrown together, yet the planning has been meticulous (I can assure you!). Certain foods have to be sourced from the local supermarket, while others come from the SOGO. Another trip is planned for Jason's this afternoon, and I suspect Wellman's specialty store will get a guernsey as well at some point. Cassy even coerced her Mum into sending some Sanitarium Granola from Australia to make the "savoury"! It has also needed to have a trial run which necessitated a batch being cooked up while keeping careful note of timings etc. It all seems like way too much trouble from my perspective. Oh, and did I mention the ongoing "house cleansing"?....don't let me start on that!

We received a package of mainly art gallery "doings" from Mum through the week (which are always of great interest) and I had a good chat to her on the phone when I could still communicate on Friday. Cassy's parents were berthed in Hong Kong on Saturday, before resuming their cruise up to China and beyond. We've cancelled our trip to Shanghai this coming week, and will instead stay in Taiwan for Spring Break: we just didn't want to do travel dance again after our monster carbon footprint in January exhausted us a little! Next week should be good: we can't wait!

Photos: 7/11 Hello Kitty chewing gum, some of the "stimulating" work I have been doing in unit planning lately (!), and one of our beautiful fresh street trees.

What a weekend of diverse activities we had! Friday was the designated time to get together with a bunch of long-lost friends. DJ was flying in from Kobe, Japan, Peter was coming from Hong Kong and Chris was traveling the furthest, all the way from Singapore. Marcus and I demurred on our previously annual Singapore jaunt this year, so we were stoked that our little island was the chosen rendezvous for a catch-up this time. Peter is the new middle school principal at The Hague next year so suggested to the others that this might be a great little farewell to Asia tour for him.

We talked into the wee small hours at Patio 84 on the Friday night before an encore performance at Bund 18 on Saturday, accompanied by the lilting strains of Irish music from other friends, including Kenny G, Suzanne and Ben amongst others. Both Marcus, I and Gurecki did the back up duties, but we were exhausted from the night before. I must admit my appearance on Saturday was little more than a cameo, as I slunk off into the night after just a couple of hours: I was falling asleeep!

Prior to this on Saturday evening, Cass and I went down to Wendel's to have her favourite meal of mouth-watering mushrooms and smoked salmon before a main meal of superbly cooked prime beef with a smooth red wine: just bliss! We were pleased that we'd booked as the restaurant was absolutely packed to the rafters not long into our meal.

When I took the garbage on Saturday evening, I witnessed a funny piece of street theatre. The municipal government decrees that garbage can only be discarded in trucks if it is in the blue bags designated for the purpose and available for sale at all the local convenience stores. I spied a short rotund, "intellectually challenged" guy creeping up to the truck as I was texting a message, fully intent on depositing his unofficial bag of garbage! Next thing he was caught by the garbageman, roundly chastised and helped on his way with a little kick up the bum: everyone, including the victim, was laughing....he nearly got away with it!

We hadn't wandered through the back streets of the Shipai station hinterland for about 10 years. It's mind blowing to think of how long, actually. We set off on a sensational, sunny Sunday with our daggy shorts and hats and "old guy" style walking gear (I don't even try to look vaguely cool any more: I've accepted that whatever attire gets put on my 50 year old frame does not transform me magically into a 30 year old!). Criss-crossing and wiggling through a matrix of back lanes and footpath-negative thoroughfares, we eventually got down to the bustling street markets in the shadows of the overhead MRT lines halfway between Mingde and Shipai stations.

It was a cavalcade of exploding colour with fresh produce dazzling the flint-grey bitumen. Scooters buzzed in and out, but pedestrian traffic was still king as people of all ages wandered and examined and traded. Stall after stall enticed with produce fresh to bursting and Dali-esque canvases were drawn under each overhanging awning: capsicums a sundress yellow, blood red or forest green competed with lush trays of strawberries and succulent bunches of Bok Choi and Taiwanese celery. Glistening fish heads with floating eyes were pyramids in a bed of crushed ice and slabs of filleted tuna starkly ribbed with tiny lines of sinew flashed orange as we walked on by.

As the markets petered out, ubiquitous postage stamp sized hairdressing salons hosted women being shampooed and massaged, while others sat in long rows of alien head hairdryers looking like they'd popped straight off the set of Mad Men. We wandered past darkened bakeries and tiny, one car only car washes. We peered into an apartment that had a Smart car parked in the living room! An open shop, coated in a drift of flour, had an amazing noodle making machine which was oddly Dickensian in appearance: it, in turn, stood within throwing distance of a beautiful "non-smoking" park, the first of its kind we're spied in Taipei. Walking back on another less traveled street, we even stumbled across a tiny home-made caravan and a beautiful market garden nestled just off the main road, barely concealed to passers-by.

Upon our return, we had a snack to tame our growling bellies, before showering and watching the Knights game on our new streaming channel i-Setanta, which has recently procured the rugby league rights for Taiwan. Not as convenient as on the Australia Network, but all games are live and streamed in high quality, so it's worth the very reasonable expense of $15 a month. My darling girl cooked a delicious spaghetti bolognese to round out a wonderful weekend and we watched some Grand Designs as "the girls" draped themselves on Cassy's lap or cocooned themselves in a snuggly rug at her side.

Photos: the visiting men and friends, some of my girls not wanting their photo taken (!), garbage shenanigans, beauty at Wendel's, noodle machine and shop, smoke free park, tiny home made caravan, market garden.

Chung Shan North Road section 6 is not dissimilar to many of Taipei's main arteries, except that there is a nod to an avenue feel with a string of gasping trees along a narrow centre strip and a camp of low rise buildings packed along each side. Wandering up from our lane to get a cab is as easy as appearing: a yellow car with light ablaze on top will screech to a halt within seconds of our arrival. It's necessary to step back from the curb in order to dissuade them: the golden stream of private transport doesn't ebb and flow on this road: it gushes thick and viscous.

Saturday night traffic, however early in the evening, is another problem entirely. Our taxi jigs in between lanes, all of which are terminally clogged with fun-seekers in various vehicles. Gradually, the traffic begins to flow like a freshly unblocked drain as the road expands horizontally and vertically at the Grand Palace. We take one of the high roads, while the east-west artery soars above us in turn, pulsing with cars, trucks, bikes and yet more thousands of people desperately going somewhere else to play. We dip under highways, soar above city roads and weave between overhead railway pylons. Cars silently and patiently salute the authority of the traffic lights which hold back the metal phalanx, until they're unleashed as one to hurtle down another couple of blocks in an unearthly din of engine screams and plumes of dirty scooter exhaust until the process begins all over again.

We were mainly cocooned from the mayhem in the back of the taxi, which exhibited all the trademarks of Taiwan's peculiar brand of hackney. The driver's official ID photo and license, encased in thick plastic sheeting and draped on the back of the driver's seat, always portrays a much younger, darker haired, more enthusiastic version of the same man who is controlling the car. Most gaze at the camera with an optimism about them that they won't be there too long, belied by the graying, wrinkled stooping version of the man on the flip-side of the image. The seats are covered in those strange wooden bead mats, meant to stimulate the buttocks of the long-seated or perhaps encourage a passenger not to stay too long! The seat tops are covered in what at first glance seems a rather dainty lace seat cover, until closer inspection reveals a coarse, plastic replica of the same, often tinged with yellow age at the turned-up edges. Seat satchels display business cards for airport pickups and a tattered sticker featuring what looks suspiciously like a buckled up dog turd warns passengers to belt up or face a $1,500 NT fine. There are fake flowers in a tiny fake water bud vase on the dash, one of those tiny ever-spinning helicopters docked on the front air-conditioning vents and of course, a GPS, iPhone, rear-end camera and TVs both front and back. All in all, it's a world of entertainment!

And we're not even at our destination yet!! We had a sensational repast at one of our favourite restaurants, the exquisite Romano's Macaroni Grill at a very relaxed pace on Saturday night. We enjoyed the food, the wine, the service, the gusto of the table-side opera diva and the overall ambiance immensely, before re-tracing our steps back home through another slew of heaving humanity in the big city.

We had a wonderful weekend all round. I've been remiss in my reporting of our reading for pleasure. Cassy has devoured a brace of books, while I've plodded through a couple more. I'm currently reading Tim Winton's "The Turning"....the guy's effortless prose makes me sick with jealousy! Cassy is on "Please Look After Mom" by Kyung-Sook Shin

Photos: Mary's Hamburgers has closed....tragic: here's a last glimpse of the famous order board. I'm bludging in my office pre-haircut, Cassy is pretty in pink en-route to work, Chee Chee the monkey continues to make friends, another funny sign, and a confronting "selfie" of the happy couple at Macaroni Grill.