It was an interesting experience to have a long weekend sans mon cherie, starting Thursday night and due to welcome her back this evening. Cassy has decided to make every post a winner this year in terms of catching up with her parents as they will be away on a cruise for our usual time back home in June/July. She met them in Singapore when they flew in early to catch another one-way cruise back down to Australia.

I can't report what they have been up to as I've hardly heard a word! Electronic communication has been at a minimum, owing to the hotel where they are staying not offering free wi-fi and Cassy's reluctance to buy it! I have to admit, we're just so used to it being ubiquitous in Asia, that I didn't even think to check when we booked the hotel. I'm pretty sure they planned to spend a lot of time just catching up, whether it be in the room, the lobby, a restaurant or round the pool. I imagine it's been one long talk-fest! I just got a text from Chris saying they'd sent her on the way to the airport via taxi, thanking me for "the lend"(!), so I'll find out soon. Cass plans to visit them in Australia for Spring Break around her birthday time in April as well.

I went out for a few beers as is my usual practice on Friday night with Wal. We didn't have any guest players join us this week, which was a little unusual. I went home relatively early to the mewling protestations of the "girls", as apparently my attempts at pacifying and nurturing them on a Friday night were but a shadow of my attentive partner's. I slept in till all hours on Saturday morning, unperturbed by the wailing tones of the junk collector who, while trawling the lane-ways for trade, regularly wakes us on the weekend mornings with some banshee-like Mandarin drawl.

Some domestic bliss (!) out of the way, I decided to challenge the famous Tienmu Gudao steps ignoring the rather unseasonal heat and making a pretty good time up to the top. Feeling pretty good, I made my way further along and up, eventually turning back when I stumbled on the little river community of stone cottages in the shady overhang of the bamboo forest on the lower reaches of Yangminshan. It was a massive effort in the end, because I didn't really take into account the bookend journey when I needed to walk the half hour there and back: I usually ride my presently out-of commission scooter. Feeling very pleased with myself, I wandered down to SOGO and bought a stack of sushi to feed myself with for dinner. A very "non-Cassy" meal, I was a little adventurous and barely managed to finish it all: a huge feed complete with nori rolls and great slabs of fresh tuna with wasabi on the side. Home to watch the rugby league and cricket tests, both the Aussie sides being extremely disappointing, losing to N.Z. and Pakistan respectively.

On Sunday, I did domestic chores (again !), before watching Insiders and UFC 179 over an extended breakfast. The cats were still steadfastly ignoring my presence and had set up camp amongst the quilts on our bed, so I guessed they'd be happy enough if I flew the coop once more. I decided to head downtown to the end of the newest MRT line Xiangshan, to the eponymous mountain trail. Xiangshan means "Elephant Mountain" in Chinese and it is the site from where all those postcard images of Taipei and Taipei 101 are taken. I'd heard it was quite the climb, so headed out to conquer it!

The journey took about 45 minutes from home by the time I emerged from the gleaming wide mouth of Xiangshan station, exit 2. Another 1/2 hour stroll had me right at the trailhead and the trip up to the peak only took me about 15 minutes. I did, however, pass a LOT of people on the way. My recent forays up the "steps" had obviously got me "step fit", but there were some serious ascents involved on this trail. In fact, I am certain this would be condemned back home: the steps weren't in bad condition, quite the opposite. It's just that they were SO steep! Stones precariously set on angles also afforded just a toe hold on some of the most precipitous sections, and not  a handrail to be seen. I managed to survive the trips both ways without tumbling headlong into the abyss, but imagined the danger at night as hundreds make the trip up to see the sun set, dusk fall and the nightscape twinkle into life.

I was pretty exhausted when I got back into familiar territory, so trained back to Zhishan station where I alighted to get a burger for tea at our beloved "Eat Burger". It was as great as always, and in Cassy's honour, I wandered up to Wendel's to get a slice of banana cake as a Sunday night treat. The girls and I (well, I did as they continued to sleep on the bed!) watched the Aussie get thrashed in the test against Pakistan and I retired early to read more of the beautifully written recent Man Booker prize winner by Richard Flanagan, The Narrow Road to the Deep North.

Back at school today, home in a minute to clean the house, take the garbage and await the return of my darling!

p.s. Oh, and I nearly forgot. In a very mild brush with fame, I was jettisoned onto the road by a crazy pack of screaming Taipeians near the Taipei 101 MRT station as they clambered for a glimpse of Mariah Carey (who performed in town last night). I didn't catch a glimpse, but admired Mariah for seeking out somewhere she is still hip!

There's a well worn gag that if you use the phrase, "I'm not sexist, but....", "I'm not racist, but..." that any words that come after but actually inflame your prejudice, and it's pretty accurate. So, I'm going way out into bigoted territory with this next statement. I'm not ageist, but there's something deeply disturbing at watching multitudes of 80 plus year old men and women pour their bodies into elastine and satin, embellish their outfits with huge fake conical breasts or codpieces, and rhythmically dance down one of Taipei's main throroughfares on a Saturday afternoon to the hypnotic beat of drummer kid troupes!

The air was laden with the heavy musk of burning coconut oil and running makeup, the din from a thousand drummer boys assaulted the ears and the sight of quivering flesh writhing beneath kaleidoscopic coloured feathers and spandex was almost too overwhelming. Where else but Taipei could one be witness to such scenes?!

The Taipei Dream Parade was in full swing in gorgeous autumnal weather with the sun being tempered by a light cooling breeze, and the light stark and Australian in its intensity: all the better to witness the exotic horror wending its way from the Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall staging area, up to Renai Circle before a U-turn to bring it back down to a stage by the southern gate of the city! It's a unique mix of high school drumming groups vying for prizemoney, aboriginal tribes in modified traditional dress and what seemed like dozens of Taipei's famous "samba grannies" groups, alternating in the parade order with a few crazy exotic pirate ships and floats in between. Individuals from the rainbow community were even more outrageously attired and wandered the periphery of the main group posing for photos and handing out strings of beads to someone who caught their eye. Cass had a little dance with one girl who presented her with her string 'o pearls!

We had an absolute ball and I took about a million photos and videos: there's nothing like colour and movement and a pulsing beat to get the photographer's blood boiling over with inspiration. Despite the quite disturbed over exuberance of the police officer stationed near us for crowd control we had an amazing afternoon. We danced and bopped along to the beat, laughed and clapped along with the participants, and generally reveled in this quite beautiful celebration of life and love. We often have the opportunity to see and experience the wonderful hearts of the Taiwanese, but to witness this outpouring of emotion and happiness was something else altogether.

Never ones to miss an opportunity, we took advantage of the blockades to take selfies and photos in the middle of Ren Ai road and the city gate. Normally an eight lane thick traffic choke point, it felt like we were in a zombie apocalypse movie to be able to stand in the middle of the road to take a photo on a weekend afternoon.

Being downtown, we decided to catch a couple of MRTs to Cassy's beloved "Aubergine" restuarant in Dunhua, only to discover it had moved! Starving hungry owing to a neglected lunch, we decided to stay in the vicinity and visit Stonewood Pizza: the name at least looked promising. They had a bizarre set menu where you ordered a couple of selections from the menu, then were offered items from serving trays as the waitresses walked around. No doubt it was great value all-you-can-eat, but we were a bit weirded out and ordered a pizza each. Unfortunately, this was easily the worst pizza we have ever eaten. I was trying to place the taste of the "cheese" and Cass came up with the answer: powdered milk! It was a shame, because we'd had such a great day and we couldn't remember the last time we'd had a poor dining experience in Taipei City.

Putting the "dining" experience behind us, we caught a taxi home to avoid the Saturday night crush on the MRT and settled in to watch the Quiksilver Pro live from Portugal and recall some of the great sensations from yet another exciting day in the gem of Asia, our own Taipei!

Photos are probably self explanatory! Link to Taipei Dream album here and here is the YouTube vid.

After an extended long weekend, one might assume that the trip back to work today would be done in peace and relaxation: fully rested and re-charged, ready to take on the challenges of the upcoming second quarter. The trip was done with some sense of relief, but purely because we were heading in to do a full day's work rather than various combinations of carousing, conversing and conviviality followed by cooking, cleaning and collecting thoughts (I must admit I was doing more of the former set and Cass doing more of the latter during the last five days!)

Marcus and Annie were already married, but the registry office gig was just never going to cut it with the bride's family, no matter how determined Marcus was for it be a tiny event! His dreams of a restaurant meal for just a few close friends blew out into a Taiwanese extravaganza of biblical proportions, 130 friends and family attending the big evening reception at a local dedicated wedding venue, complete with three full dress changes for Annie, buffet dinner, drinks and chats and even a balloon-animal making clown at one stage.

The celebrations started early when the shy bearded fellow himself made a surprise appearance on the Wednesday afternoon. Sworn to secrecy, I was lucky enough to entice Marcus down to Uli's with a minimum of questions, despite the fact that his parents and older brother had just arrived from Australia. To say we had a rip-roaring time is the understatement of the century, attested to by the state of our heads and bodies at school the next day. Gurecki had made the trip to fit in a number of little jobs he needed to do, but the trip from Nagasaki was primarily to catch up "pre-wedding" with our fellow member of the Polish Nation Intellectual Forum. It was wonderful to see him again, if ever so briefly, and it certainly set the scene for what was to come over the following few days.

After struggling through a day of pain on Thursday, Thursday afternoon loomed large, again down to Ulis where Gurecki reprised his role and we were joined by traveller from Singapore, Josh, along with his host for the couple of days, Shaun. I stayed and sipped a couple of beers, before excusing myself to go home and collapse in anticipation of the following day's visitor arrival. We'd said that we'd host Wal's good friend, Morgs, who was travelling from Shanghai, as Marcus had his parents staying at his relatively small unit and couldn't really squeeze anyone else in there. Morgs was "Danieled" from the local Sung Shan airport in fine style and we got him settled in. The cats had to give up their room for the duration so we had a military operation to get them re-housed and the room to be cleaned and transformed into what approximated a guest room. Cass worked a bit of interior decorating magic and it looked very comfortable.

Only a few hours after Morgs arrived we were off to the big day. It really was a triumph for both of them as I don't think it was their first, second or even third choice of ceremony, it really crept up on them. It was Taiwanese style (we walked past Cinderella carriages and around underlit artificial lakes on boardwalks on the way in), but really sweet and nice. Marcus had insisted on a few touches from home, including tubs of ice cold beer surrounding the outside milling areas. One of the big problems was an incessant rain bucketing, necessitating a rushed change to an indoor venue. It too, ended up being perfect, as it forced the two groups (the locals and the foreigners) to really mingle and get together more than they might have done if nature hadn't intervened.

Marcus was keen for us all to get on down to an after party at a KTV venue downtown, so I dropped Cass off and met a big group of people down there till the early hours in the morning. The choice of songs was shocking, the execution abysmal, yet the fun was immense. Every song selected was absolutely murdered: there is some video evidence which I'll keep in case I ever need any blackmail material to use against any of the participants! Shield your eyes, cover your ears and get a tiny taste here if you dare!

Morgsy has just had his second child, so any time away from screaming babies and not needing to get up and attend to them was a bonus. This meant that each morning, he was as keen as us to have a big sleep-in. Upon waking, Cass spun the spatulas and whipped up delicious piles of scrambled eggs on toast to make the hangover cure of champions. As we went out again for lunch on Saturday with Josh, Shaun, Marcus and Morgs (at Jakes), then met for tea at Ulis before moving to Patio 84 on Saturday night/early Sunday morning for one last big hurrah, you can probably sense how we felt come Sunday afternoon!

When we finally farewelled Morgs mid afternoon on Sunday, we were just about completely out, yet managed to rally enough to see the middling "Gone Girl" at the cinema before eating at Chili's. It was great to have a debrief and a catch-up: it's so rare for us to be apart for that length of time, even though we did see each other briefly in between assignments! I'm so grateful to my super wife to be so supportive when she should have been enjoying a lovely relaxing four days off from work: she worked even harder here at home, I think.

Cass and I monstered the "steps" on Monday early arvo, ripping up the 1400 bad boys with a huff and a puff before enjoying the cool and serene ambiance of the mountain-top path amongst the monkeys. After showering off when we got home, we wandered down to Din Tai Feng and had our usual feast. After a little specialty shopping at City Super and the quirky Japanese store, Hands Tailung, we went home to relax, chill out and get prepared for our week back at school. Marcus, old mate, don't ever do this again!!

Photo album link here.

Cassy enjoyed her latest Book Club session out at Chamkar vegetarian restaurant here in Tienmu on Friday night. It's tucked away in a little side alley in the shadows of the dominating architectural piece in the neighbourhood, the Japanese retailer Takashimaya. It has a homely atmosphere, so much so that the group of 6 was contacted earlier in the day for requests of menu item possibilities. Apparently, the French chef was going shopping and wanted to know what they might fancy eating that evening and at what price range! Can't say it wasn't fresh then! They had a pleasant evening discussing the latest book, consuming the aromatic dishes along with a healthy serving of good French red. The French owner/chef has a mirror restaurant in Cambodia's Siam Riep which is similarly well regarded.

Hankering for the exquisite flavour bursts of Din Tai Feng's dumplings and xiaolong bao, we again attempted a foray into the bowels of the Sogo store on Saturday. This time, the store was so crowded that there wasn't a scooter park to be found in the cavernous basement carparks, which didn't augur well for a seat at the restaurant: we motored straight on out of there! Scootering over the Fulin Bridge brought us to another bustling restaurant district, so we managed to squeeze into a booth at 1Bite2Go before it became totally packed. Looks like the autumnal crisp on the wind has encouraged a lot of people out this weekend! Despite the fact that we've become enamoured of their breakfast fare, we gave the big ribeye steaks a crack this time and they were sensational.

Full of steak as well as 1Bite's signature power coffee and armed with some suspiciously awesome looking takeaway cakes for supper, we got back over the bridge to make a bread run to Wendel's. We bought our biblical serve of "five loaves and two fishes" (the "fishes" actually being two"Fruit Village Loaves") for the week ahead, then came home to relax and watch some TV. Later that evening, we feasted upon what turned out to be sublime slices of orange cake and sour cream cheesecake while watching the horrific psych-thriller splatter fest that is the second season of "Hannibal".

I headed up the steps on Sunday morning in a vague attempt to counteract the snacks and few beers I would no doubt consume in the afternoon as we watched the NRL Grand Final. My mates here are all AFL tragics and even though they don't know what they're missing out on, it's hard to drag them in front of an NRL game. Despite this, we usually send out an invite. Stalwart Ange, a Queenslander, dropped around for the match, as did Wal and Annie, at least for the first half. The game was a thriller and a triumph for South Sydney after 43 years in the wilderness. My long and twisted memory of the Super League war leaves me to cheer any ARL team against a Super League team, so I was pleased with the result too (as was Cass).

To my complete bewilderment, I've become something of a plant nerd of late as I watch the fascinating blooming of the cactus pods/flowers in the window box outside my classroom. I dragged the many years abandoned cacti up onto the ledge at the beginning of the school year. Despite total neglect, they have taken it upon themselves to prolifically bloom and flourish at monotonous regularity through the end of summer and now into autumn, with no sign that the cycle will end. I've been amazed at the way the pods split into flowers and the fact that the flowers appear to survive only about 48 hours before withering away. Call me David Braggyborough if you like, but I was very chuffed being able to catch on video said pod breaking and blooming....it happens very quickly, usually when I'm not looking!

Photos: cacti, 1Bite2Go, metal monkey and sign at the steps. The last shot is an homage to necessity being the mother of invention: after we were cruelly denied our Australia Network lifeline last week, I've since increased our internet speed tenfold, got a functioning VPN on the computer, fixed up our beaming apparatus from computer to TV and voila!....ABC iView now streaming ABC News24 whenever we want. Take that Tony Abbott!

Link to cactus bloom slideshow and here is the link to our YouTube video of the flower blooming