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.