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!