A nascent cafe culture in Taipei city is spreading beyond the inner city trend zones. It is nosing its way up through all the major arteries in the city from its birth in the new eastern district about 5 years ago. Our northern suburb of Tienmu has had its own little "enclave de cool" happening for a while, but the vibe from downtown has spread up Chung Shan North road all the way up to the floral park/art gallery district in very short time.

We experienced the Farmer's Market area around the old Yuanshan soccer ground on the weekend, as well as a massive international bonsai exhibition in the new space built inside the cavernous stadium. Beyond the exhibition space is an equally gargantuan semi-outdoor dining and shopping district with established international restaurants with indoor/outdoor seating. They were vying for trade with a phalanx of matchbox style food court booths selling all manner and  taste of goods from shopfronts. Punters could then take their wares to eat at the many table areas dotted in and around the central space.

A three piece Japanese folk rock trio provided some syrupy harmonies in the background as people of all ages wandered the eclectic mix of shops and stalls. There were retro clothes and furniture stores, arts and crafts, leather and wood, high end chic and trendy, industrial junk. There were children's party palaces with resident fairies and princesses, and even a shop selling replica Eames chairs on a tiny scale for very pampered kiddies!

The biggest draw-card for us, however, was the string of cafes with a whole host of different vibes and flavours. We ate at an Argentinian one after passing an English pub, an Italian gelateria and pizza parlour, a Thai restaurant, a Taiwanese beer-house and a "butcher's kitchen" no less! It was great to eat in the semi open air (the place had roof sails soaring way above the crowd to ward off the weather) and do some massive people watching on a weekend afternoon at our leisure. The food was superb...Cassy's spinach ravioli and my lamb chops, the passing parade amusing...a very calm cat on a leash, and the vibe just perfect...we could while away time and enjoy the stellar autumnal weather in the big city!

The bonsai exhibition in the space next door was a tip from Wal. It was hard to believe that it was free, because even though we have only a very limited knowledge of the art, the size and scale of the show had to be seen to be believed. Up to 300 of the most incredible specimens were on show, from the standard cloud clump shapes all the way through to twisted and stained trunks defying gravity with their asymmetrical waterfalling out of the pots! The president of the National Taiwanese Bonsai Society, Wal's friend Jack, insisted that we sign the special attendance book: we did our western signatures sideways in the traditional vertical book meant for Chinese characters!!

After being more than slightly overwhelmed by these magnificent plants, we wandered on the periphery of the Farmer's Market back to the station which sits right on the square itself. The huge vaulted pavilion built for the flower expo last year, is really doing sterling service now for the citizens of the city: even an outdoor cinema now runs each evening. The structure took on an ethereal glow in the sharp, golden vespertide, and we left most satisfied with a gorgeous end to a perfect day.

Earlier on, taking advantage of the re-invigorated scooter and the superb weather, we'd ridden up to Yangminshan and beyond the fumaroles all the way to the ridge line of Mount Datun. We'd discovered a most delightful, gently winding country road some time back, and and wanted to experience it again. It is almost devoid of any other traffic, the sun was shining and the birds were singing, so....why not?!

Motoring through the caldera valley, the temperature dropped a few degrees as we climbed beyond. It made the ride a touch less pleasant, as we'd forgotten what a sharp temperature change there can be up there, and forgotten to bring any jackets. Nonetheless, we enjoyed the blissful ride, found a trail which we'll investigate further on another trip, and arrived home quite exhausted after a few hours astride the "Taiwanese Harley" which offers none of the power, speed, shock-absorbing or comfort of its Australian brother!

All in all, another fantastic weekend! We've got a Thanksgiving long weekend coming up (God Bless America is all we can say!), so we need to spend a little time thinking about our trip to England and getting a new camera to replace our stolen one...it's less than a month away.

Photos: a shot we just received of Cass and Annie at the wedding, Cassy doing some grading at school, shots of the scooter ride up the mountain and eating and viewing at Yuanshan Stadium and environs.

Books: Cassy is reading Loving Frank by Nancy Horan, after devouring the incredible Winton classic Eyrie. Dave has finished the Booker prize winning gem, Narrow Road to the Deep North and is recuperating with the far less grand Lee Child easy reader, Worth Dying For.

This week is super hectic at work, especially for me (usually the boot is on Cassy's foot), so sharp eyed readers may have noted I'm a day late with this posting. I'm also going to be relatively brief and try to keep the verbosity to a bare minimum!

We're in the throes of 1/2 yearly testing this week which demands a lot of one-on-one testing in all the skills areas of speaking, listening, reading and writing. Accompanying that, we have to juggle a few different teacher's schedules and try to preserve times that they feel are sacrosanct where they must have all kids in attendance. Most of them are pretty flexible, but there are a few who have a bit of a god complex. Throw in a visiting math consultant taking up my time and theirs as well as a visiting author (likewise) and you have a very busy, mixed up week.

Adding to the madness, we have an obligatory gig, a "parent reception", at the American Club this evening. Cass did her equivalent night last week and found it to be most tedious. It's a fundraising event only vaguely disguised, so many of the parents have sussed this and tend to stay away. Last week there were more faculty attending than parents and it may well be a similar scenario tonight. Wal and Grande and I will meet at Uli's for a beer before we head down together in a taxi, to avoid the "fun bus" leaving from school with teachers and parents(!)

We had a fun weekend and finally found the Holy Grail! I was more than ready to give up the quest, but Cass insisted in crusading on to find the mysterious and fabled Aubergine restaurant. We had one last address to check, this time in the far north eastern suburb of Neihu. As "Blackie" was literally now firing on all cylinders and the mechanic had managed to stitch together her shaking frame to avoid the death rattles, we hopped on our trusty steed for one last foray into the unknown. With a minimum of fuss (and the help of Google Maps!) we managed to find the address, and most importantly, the restaurant in situ and fully operational. We had an excellent meal with all our favourites and just hope this branch, at least, keeps going strong.

We had a coffee mid week at the funky local haunt, "The Soup" and discussed some of the latest hiring/retirement/moving news from the faculty. There is quite a bit of movement as always at this time of year, and it provides great fodder for gossip and speculation. Never a dull moment around contract signing time! For those who might be interested, we've signaled our clear intention to the administration that we'd like to be offered another contract in December. If this eventuates, which we assume it will, we'll be committed here until at least June, 2016.....time rolls on!

Photos: election signs, The Soup, a beautiful Porsche in our lane, Aubergine at last, a quirky motor scooter and a complaining fat cat!

P.S. We're off to London for Christmas....we've decided we want to relax and speak English and not country hop this time: Good ole England!

 Electioneering is a strange business in Taiwan. The guy in the top photo seems to be threatening the wrath of some kind of blind, bronze warrior ninja Yoda-like god if you don't vote for him. Our vet, Dr. Yang, who found Virg'n Mary originally and who we have returned to often over the years, has decided to run for office and he has emblazoned his building with oversized posters of him looking caring and wonderful to all creatures, animal and human! Posters flap from poles and banners drape from bridges. The streets are buzzing with scooters that carry little billboards around on a trailer advertising some other candidates, along with a blaring loudspeaker endorsement, not forgetting the "catchy" original jingle or song to go with it.

Segue to my own scooter, Blackie, who has been suffering from what was first suspected to be a terminal illness, but now, miraculously, he has been raised from his death bed! After choking and puffing his way through the last 12 months, being increasingly difficult to start, and rattling and wheezing like a bronchial nonagenarian, old Blackie finally gave up the ghost a few weeks back. No matter of gentle coaxing or violent kick-starting was going to spark him back to life. The last time I'd got him started, I treated him to a new battery, spark plugs, an oil change, a new oil filter: the lot, but to no avail. I gave it one last shot and Mr. Lee's daughter and son-in-law helped me push and pull the old fella over to the repair shop on Mingde Road. The miracle mechanic cleaned out many engine parts and took apart the carburetor, but, most mysteriously replaced a vital part known as "the bladder"! The word was written in katakana and I could read it: despite being written in Japanese, the word must have originated in English.....anyway, whatever this bladder is, it's worked a small miracle and we're back on the road for a minimal cost!

To celebrate we went over in the spitting rain to the cinema on Sunday to see the much hyped megaflic, "Interstellar". We were pretty disappointed. Maybe it has something to do with the general theme: despite my rabid interest since I was a little kid in all things to do with spacecraft, the last few space blockbusters have left me wanting more. Is it perhaps that I expect such greatness, that the films can't deliver? Cass and I both agreed that we thought the beginning hour and a half (the film goes nearly three!) preamble needed a good edit down to about 1/2 an hour tops. There were numerous holes in the plot, some so big you could drive a lunar rover through, and Cass even noticed some continuity errors, unforgivable in such a big budget movie. Hokey, jingoistic script, clunky dialogue and wooden acting (especially from old mate, Michael Caine). In the end, we both could only muster a mild "B" for a grade, and if Matt Damon's cameo was cut, it would barely register a "C". Anyway, our two cents worth!

Rewind to Saturday afternoon and we made yet one more ill fated mission to find the ShangriLa of Japanese curry houses, another branch of Cassy's favourite, Aubergine. Thwarted in previous weeks downtown by its sudden disappearance, we looked up the website and found another outlet down south of the city, near Gongguan Station. A 25 minute ride on the peak hour train, spat out near the Shida Road National University, we wandered the block or two to the address. Plonk right where it should have been was the "Ponderosa Steakhouse", not a vegetable, let alone an aubergine to be seen!
Unwilling to venture further, we opted to check out the steakhouse. Australian beef on the menu, we opted for the fillet mignon, finding it mildly peculiar to be asked to pay up front. We realized why when we entered, as an all-you-can-eat buffet stood steaming in the side hall of the restaurant, all plastic plates and tongs and serving forks at ten paces. We served ourselves some hot and cold product from the very diverse selection and had pretty much finished eating before we saw a tiny girl drop the tongs on the floor, pick them up, select some more stuff then decide she didn't want it after all and calmly returned it all, piece by piece, by hand. I knew there was a reason we never went to these places!

Somehow surviving without a case of botulism, we wandered the busy University environs for a while before demurring on the charms of the mid-Saturday night MRT crush to get a cab home. We've realized that the company that runs "Aubergine" must have gone bust, so Cass has resigned herself to finding a new signature Japanese dish or restaurant.

Happy days in Taipei at the moment as the weather has flicked a switch over to autumn temperatures now (only 2 1/2 months late!), and we're enjoying a crisp touch in the morning and cooler evenings without air-cons and fans.

Photos:elections, Cassy with new necklace (pearls and diamonds), meat in the open air on the back of a "Bluey", the Ponderosa, a carpark with just one space left (!) and rain coated on the way back from the cinema.

All of Asia seems to invoke some sort of mysticism and exotic flavour, especially for westerners. Each country, region and city or town has its own unique taste, and to explore around the continent provides an endless palate of possibilities. While Taiwan's rough-shod homey style is offset by high end technology and urban chic in the big cities, other countries have an entirely different ambiance. Japan's aesthetic is soothing, spare and stylish with a deep, well-tapped vein of sophistication. Indonesia bustles and shuffles from dirt to pizazz, vacillating between their pristine surf and zen hinterland with edgy and dangerous cities, while Vietnam's industrious farmers who've moved to the city can't seem to shake their war wounds and make the big leap to first world status. Sri Lanka's penchant for slow moving service and siestas is more akin to a South Pacific idyll yet India's crash of cultures, beliefs and castes in a seething mass of humanity belies its aching beauty. Thailand is a land of smiles and political chaos, curfews and lush countryside, and our nearest neighbour Hong Kong, just keeps on adding glitz to its culture and skyline in stubborn defiance of its reverted Chinese rule. The differences are magnified yet again in Singapore, the sometimes maligned Asian financial hub nestled in the fingernail of Malaysia, as clean as a freshly licked pavlova beater!

Cass went down to said, slick, sanitized spot last long weekend to meet up with her parents before they departed on a cruise through Asia all the way back to Sydney. She travelled on Jetstar there and caught Tiger Air Asia on the way back, taking advantage of the cut-throat Asian budget airlines timetables which suited her travel needs perfectly if she cherry-picked from both of them. Arriving in the early morning Friday, she crashed into her palatial room in the Peninsula and looked forward to their pre-arranged meeting at breakfast later in the morning.

They were stoked to see her of course, and they met up without a hitch before embarking on various touristy highlights for the next couple of days. To highlight the food metaphor, their actual meals and food adventures were as varied as Singapore itself, eating alternatively in hotel high end luxury then basement department store's food-courts and hawker stalls with the same verdict each time: delicious!

During their time together they managed lots of chats and catch-ups while drinking in some of Singapore's latest vistas including the staggering Marina Bay Sands resort which was in their face from the Peninsula's upper floor bars and rooms. On Saturday night, the bay lit up with Singapore's version of Hong Kong's laser light show, while the three sipped their mandatory "Slings".

In the daytime they had the chance to cruise the rivers and canals and bay to check the city from a different perspective. Despite the cloying heat and sapping temperatures, they still managed to get out and about by boat, taxi, lots of walking and even the mass rapid trains to visit places like the Singapore Flyer giant ferris wheel and the amazing Botanic Gardens. When they ventured over to the resort island of Sentosa (where I regularly visited with Wal for the Singapore Open Golf tournament), they shipped Chris off to a relaxing spot while the two girls headed over to the giant and famous Singapore symbol, the "Merlion". They managed to climb all the way up to get yet another perspective of the city from its gaping mouth before collecting Chris and traveling back by cable car to the main island.

Admirable works of world famous art by David Hockney and others beckoned them to the Ritz Carlton, and in the shadows of the Marina Bay were giant structures dedicated to different gardens of the world. Despite the fact that Cass even brought her swimmers for that rarest of events, the swim in the see through hotel pool, it never eventuated as they found themselves totally amused by Singa's charms and attractions, too busy even to take a cooling dip. I'm excited and I only heard all this second hand! Cassy was very impressed by the city and thought we could make a return trip there one day....I'd say that is certainly on the menu!

Our weekend was notably less glamorous and jet-setting, although we did have a dinner out on Saturday night down at Wendel's and wandered across to the Wovie Cinema to see "John Wick" on Sunday afternoon. Cassy was less impressed than me: despite the fact it was an undeniable spaltter-fest, gratuitously violent and quite pointless, I nevertheless felt that it was beautifully filmed and styled...very pleasing to the eye. We're set for a very busy first week of the second quarter here at school this week, so we'll buckle up, duck our heads and see you next week!

Photos: Singas. This is the link to the Singapore slideshow.