The exquisite offerings on canvas, board, hessian and in sculptural form of Joan Miró was our palette of self enlightenment on the weekend. What sights we drank in at the Taipei Natural History Museum. We'd been there a couple of times before, most notably for a wide ranging Picasso retrospective, but this exhibition challenged even that one for the scope and breadth and quality of works on show.

Even after being open for at least two months, the crowd was humming if not actually teeming. A knowledge hungry audience were tethered to their audioguide's direction however, meaning we could sneak in and around the biggest crowds by edging in and out where there wasn't a crowd at any given time. We were able to gain unfettered access to some of these sublime canvases and remain to visually feast till we spied another opening "further down the line". We were particularly fond of the large bold works with a limited colour palette  from a period when Miro had evolved from his earlier colour splashes and refined his choices to a beautiful "Miro blue", mid-tone red, black and white, with the occasional flick of bright yellow. His repeating themes revolving around, women, birds, peasants and stars were always evoked differently and creatively: quite a trick considering his restricted colours and style. One of our favourites was "Young Girl Escaping" which is pictured above in it's home garden in Barcelona.

After drinking our fill of surrealist fare, we realized we needed to tend to our physical needs as well! We found a terrific little Japanese coffee shop tucked away in an alley on the way back to the train station, and even though we  were tempted by their menu, we opted to have only a caramel affogato each. A French/Japanese fusion boulangerie nearby mirrored the cute Gaspard et Lisa crockery in the cafe and supplied us with some bread and cakes to take home for tea....they were delicious!

Prior to our visit, we'd ventured further into the heart of the city to our much-loved KGB for lunch, before wandering the Shida night-market area to source some "decoy" jewellery for the house. We purchased about 4 different pairs of earrings and Cass has placed them in high quality jewellery boxes, just in case we get broken into again: the idea is that they'll go away satisfied with their haul!

We had a great weekend after an eventful week of new classes and new kids, not to mention new colleagues to work and team with. An exclamation point in the middle of the week was the late night telephone tree on Tuesday informing us we needed to stay home on Wednesday due to the approaching swirl of Typhoon Trami: in the end, it blew through with lots of huffing and puffing, but didn't bring the house down!

I didn't post the blog yesterday (sorry loyal readers Helen, Thurza and others!), as I was called away from class yesterday at 2 o'clock and we didn't return until 7 in the evening. Cass had taken a pretty bad tumble when she slipped on some water outside our 4th floor "Fitness Cafe" at school. They came and found me and I arrived to the nurse's office to find her on a bed and unable to put weight on her left leg, after she had crashed awkwardly on her hip area. We took an ambulance to the Chen Hsin hospital nearby and got the royal treatment, a series of x-rays indicating no break or fracture, but her pain and incapacitation pointed to the possibility of a hairline fracture. She was advised to stay off the leg as much as possible for the next few days. 

She is quite incapable of independent movement at this stage, even with crutches, so I have stayed home today to play nurse. We're hoping that she'll slowly improve and I'm going back into the nurse's office later today to get some better crutches (Cassy's are far too short). She is resting relatively comfortably, but is in pain if she needs to move the limb for any reason. So, lots of drama and an ongoing issue I'm sure: we face an interesting time ahead, especially as we live in a third floor, walk-up apartment. I'll keep you posted.

Photos are of happier times this week and weekend, including  "formidable" lineup of Taipei Police scooters!

Oh, and by the way, we are hosting yet another blog now. It is called "Shi" and uses the Chinese character as its heading. "Shi" means "poetry" or "poem" in both Mandarin and Japanese and therefore, is eponymous. It can be found at this link. Both Cassy and I put some poetry on there. I wrote my three this holiday and she wrote her entries in the years before. We'll indicate on here if we put another entry. Here's the link.

Well, we're back online and into the swing of swings (kinda), in regards to work, play and general life here in Taipei. After a week back at school, our holiday is quickly fading to a warm glow of decadent days and nights of doing not much at all!

The usual whirl of seeing and visiting family and friends was delightful yet a little confronting, as it always is. We know and love our Australian folk, but after another 10 months away, it's sometimes difficult to fall straight back into the old vernacular. So much happens to both us and them. that it takes a while to get our "people bearings" and then enjoy the company again. This accompanies the giddy haze of dislocation that envelopes us for a time when we arrive back home: the sights, sounds and general ambiance are just so, well, foreign!

We did, however revel in our surroundings after a week or so. We easily draped ourselves in a cloak of familiarity that comforted us with its warm fabric. We got the paper delivered and spent long lazy mornings reading while gazing at the changing milieu of the ocean as it painted itself a new canvas with each passing hour. We roused ourselves to go on our daily 6 km. walk, along the Bather's Way to mount the summit of King Edward Park after a magnificent coastal vista along the way. We occasionally journeyed onward to the Bogie Hole, before enjoying our "downhill" trek, drinking in the sigh-invoking panoramas all the way back to our much loved unit by the sea. A light lunch (usually toasted sangas for me!), and then we were ready to undertake our task for the day. Would I surf in crystalline waters, or perhaps brave the initial shock and have a swim instead? Would we visit the shops to source some product or other? Would we make the posting of a letter the job for the day? Would we fire up the big, black beast and go for a cruise? Or would we, as we were on holidays, sit and read or snooze and wait for the reverse sunset that we watched to disappearing point over an afternoon cup of tea, the sky a rhapsody of pink and orange fire?

One of the great highlights was one of the best motorbike trips we've ever done. Not particularly long nor particularly spectacular in terms of destination, but stellar weather, wind conditions and quite possibly the best motorcycle enthusiast's roads in Australia, combined to make this trip an especially memorable one. The Coff's hinterland, hidden gems like the Russel Crowe memorabilia-filled Nymboida Coaching Station and the roads around it, the hundreds of rusting railway engines at Dorrigo and the waterfalls cascading at regular intervals along Waterfall Way were highlights. To finish, we motored through Thunderbolt's Way before dropping in on Cassy's sister on the way back home.

Dining out and having coffees with various groups of friends or individuals, dining at fine restaurants with friends and family and enjoying family company at various homes during the two months were other highlights. My sisters all invited us to their homes and entertained us at various points, and we appreciated the way they tweaked their busy family schedules around to accommodate us. We had lots of time to see our parents as well, although in difficult circumstances at the end of our trip. We even had a terrific parent house guest for a couple of weeks! As always, we didn't get to see everyone, or we didn't get to re-visit with people. When we arrive, the time seems to stretch into the distance forever, but the last few weeks go by in the blink of an eye!

We had a less than perfect homecoming to Taipei. Persons unknown had broken into our unit and stolen items, but we were more upset by the sense of violation and the erosion of the safe feelings we've always had in Taipei. The perpetrators were however, not too destructive, and although every single drawer had been rifled and things were strewn everywhere, perhaps even criminals in Taiwan still have an innate sense of orderliness and non destructiveness! Coupled with this, an enormously powerful typhoon uprooted trees opposite, downed power lines and power surged our entire building! Luckily, only our fridge was plugged in, but it was fried, necessitating buying a new one when we got back. That, along with an interminable day at the police station, was not the start to the year we were looking for!

On a brighter note we've again met our new coterie of students and are already delighting in them: what beautiful kids they are...so well-mannered and respectful as well as being genuinely friendly. We reckon we dodged a bullet with the robbery and the power surge: if we were in Taipei, all Cassy's jewellery would be gone and every electrical appliance would be fried! So, let's go for a brand new Taipei year!