I experienced yet another of those glorious Taiwan moments today. After setting aside the morning in spring break to get some stuff done with the car, I ambled through the neighbourhood towards school with the intent of paying my road tax as well as getting the car hauled over the pits for its bi-annual inspection

The tax payment was just a formality at the local 7/11, before I got the car out of the school's basement carpark to drive over to Beitou. There's a brace of car check points in a backstreet over there, with little baton wielding men inviting the driver in to their checking station. It relieves the huge Taipei Motor checking department a little if they can farm out some of the work to these independent stations. They always greet me with a huge smile and then take the car through its paces, testing all sorts of standards, including emissions tests and brake tests. At the end, the guy told me the car had passed but that both handbrake and rear brakes were borderline and probably wouldn't pass in six months time if left unchecked. Thanking him, I drove straight back across town to my regular mechanic and told him the news.

He got the car straight in and onto the hoist, sat me down with a cup of green tea and got to work. After about 15 minutes, I heard the pop and whine of the hoist disengaging and he drove the car around the front again for me to depart. When I asked how much it would be, he waved me away! I protested strongly and tried to force some money on him, but he insisted that it was "their fault" as he hadn't thought to check the brakes last time I was in to get a lock changed. I was left flabbergasted yet again at the incredible generous spirit that Taiwanese people exhibit almost without exception. I got a haircut later and told this wondrous story to Bessy, and she said that this was exactly what should have happened and she'd be disappointed with anything less....amazing!

We had a rollicking great time spending the vast part of the day and into the early evening at Patio 84 to watch the Aussies win the World Cup cricket final on Sunday. Three of us dragged out and dusted off our replica 70s era uniforms for the day and although the Kiwi contingent were a little chagrined at their countrymen and their timid collapse, the day was terrific fun all round. I had a very quiet Monday after all that!

I'm not a massive fan of the bachelor life I've re-discovered, and can't wait for Cass to get home from her trip already. Luckily the weather has been spectacular, so I've distracted myself with that, a few little jobs and looking after the cats who continue to steadfastly ignore my entreaties and spend the vast majority of their time in bed watching me warily....the little buggers!

I'm going to head up the mountain tomorrow afternoon with Wal and do a little bit of gentlemen farming on his bonsai plot. The forecast is for roasting temps once again, so we're going to head up mid-afternoon to avoid the worst of the heat. I'm going to take my prized John Lennon signature to the framers in the morning to be teamed with the single of "Imagine" that I stumbled across (actually Cass spied it!) in a vinyl record bin in Brick Lane, London. I'm hoping it will turn out really well, with the famous Apple logo in the centre of the iconic record setting off the great man's moniker.

Photos: I've been eating out a bit, one spectacular seat I had looking out over the suburb to the mountains beyond with my ramen and gyoza. Shots of the festivities and our local sakura tree just keeps getting blooming better!

We've got a rather strange week coming up as there are just two days with kids before a three day professional development block. The yearly EARCOS conference is on, and although the school pays our registration costs, we still need to get there. It's usually an attractive offer and we've been to Thailand a few times and also Vietnam as the conference backs onto Spring Break, where you can make the most of the airfare and extend the stay into a genuine holiday. We weren't overly keen this year for a number of reasons, primarily because it is on at Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia at a resort which is described as "family friendly": we didn't really fancy sharing the resort pool with screaming faculty kids and others! The other reason we weren't keen this year is that Cassy is heading back to Australia for the week following, and it just seemed like too much back-to-back traveling. After looking at the "in-house" program that will substitute, however, we're both regretting our decision!

Another reason we're going to have an unusual week is a visitation by the travelling Lewy and Alison. They've been down in Singapore for the last 5 years now and with their Spring Break falling in the week preceding ours, they decided to come north and catch up with old friends. I attended a tiny party on Saturday night where Rock and Lewy and Wally H. all talked a lot, drank a lot and generally made the world a better place at Wally's house and garden. Molly and Alison went out to catch up with others and on their return, we spent even longer discussing all and sundry. Suffice to say, it was a pretty slow start to Sunday for me! We'll be heading to Patio 84 on Tuesday night for another evening, then possibly somewhere else again to watch the Cricket World Cup semifinal on Thursday....pheww!

Cass has been doing a little preparation for her trip home and partly in response to that, we did a monster shop on Saturday to leave the fridge groaning under the weight of a lot of produce. We've only got a boutique fridge anyway, just big enough to cater to the weekly needs of both of us, yet getting a bit extra to negate the need to shop in the week Cass gets back, really stretched the limits of its capacity! Fortuitously, the supermarket is actually closing down for a makeover in that week anyway, so it was lucky we made the decision to stock up. After loading down the scooter with the regular groceries, we motored through to Wendel's for more than a baker's dozen, raided Carrefour for mince and cheese, then picked up our pre-ordered gourmet pizza at Oggi for an authentic Italian flavour explosion later at home.

The weather has turned nasty again this morning and it looks like we'll have the squelchy boot on for a few days, dodging the downfalls on our 20 minute perambulating morning and afternoon commute. All this seems to be in defiance of the most bounteous burst of blossom from the riverside sakura trees over the last few days: the beauty passed so quickly! Other photos are of a patient, waiting squadron of Youbikes and Cassy with a neighbourhood buy, sell, swap and hire noticeboard. My kids continue to get amazing opportunities with using the 3D printers, this time a personal bust, and the supermarket announces its makeover. Stop Press: Lewy just sent me a couple of others: the other night with the boys and him in my office with Circus Jesus.

My irrepressible monkey, Chee Chee, has somehow survived to be hosting yet another coterie of eager students this year. One day in the cycle, a kid returns with stories full of wonder, the adventures seemingly becoming more fantastical with each home stay. He has been taught any number of musical instruments, visited a handful of countries and mystified parents with his ghost-like nocturnal movements. I was expecting an ephemeral fad, yet eight years later the battered simian keeps on giving...he even has his own Facebook page now!

We cruised Uniqlo on the weekend and Cass picked up a pair of pants for work and I got a couple of T-shirts. We discovered that they take the pants up for free and they would be ready in about 90 minutes, so we took advantage of being in the building by visiting the Thai restaurant up on the top floor. There's something about Thai food, especially when you're particularly hungry, and it's particularly fresh, that just can't be beaten. Even though we weren't sure we were ready to eat, the first few mouthfuls made us quite ravenous! It was a real treat.

The days were just sensational on the weekend and we reveled in our strolls in the wide open spaces. For some reason we gravitated to the big areas around the SOGO on both days and had a meal at our favourite "Eat Burger" on the other day. The madness of Chinese New Year has slowly dissipated and even the local crew seemed to be heaving a sigh of relief at the lack of exploding crackers, beating drums and wailing music disturbing the pleasant ambiance of the park and square behind the big department store.

I've got parent conferences coming up later this week so I have to do some extra preparation for them, although my marathon haul of grading a couple of weeks ago has made a big dent in that work. We have Lewy and Alison visiting Taipei next week, so there are a number of social events happening, many of which we'll be involved in: a possible dinner and at least two nights out having a few drinks are on the agenda.

Cass is starting to make a few preparations for her trip back home at the end of next week. She's going back for the week of Spring Break to see her parents, as they'll be off cruising when we normally get to see them in June/July. I'm tasked with staying home and looking after the cats!

Not much more to report! Photos: Din Tai Feng for a midweek dinner (those prawn dumplings really are artworks, aren't they?), Chee Chee holds his audience enthralled, VeryThai restaurant, lots of gels for the feet, and a surprise cupcake from a student....a nice way to start the day! Cass is reading "The Bone Clocks" by David Mitchell and I'm reading a massive biography on Robert De Niro sent to me from Japan by my mate, Gurecki.

Youbiking on a sunny afternoon? We contemplated visiting the movies and eating out, but decided instead to take advantage of the perfect spring weather and get out and amongst it. We'd left our decision a little late, so we consulted the interactive bike station map to make sure there would be a bike available for us at our chosen destination. We are approximately in the centre of a triangle of stations and luckily the one nearest the river had the most available bikes. We headed down to the side entrance of Jishan Station to mount up.

After finding a couple of suitable steeds and adjusting saddles and heights, we weaved our way through a maze of streets to the river paths. Our easy access road was blocked by a giant new building project and another elevated road under construction! It's amazing how quickly this infrastructure gets built here: we'd only gone down this very road a few short months ago and no obstruction was evident! A quick detour to the 7/11 for a drink and a takeaway picnic lunch, a false start on a couple of alleys and paths and we found our way down riverside.

The bikeways were teeming with cyclists, joggers, strolling groups and hopeful fishermen. After a short spell of riding and finding a deserted and tiny isthmus jutting out into the confluence of two rivers pathside, we decided to take a little break and have our mini picnic; a salad for Cass and a sandwich for me. The marina opposite is an oddity here: we've only seen one other in our time on-island. The action on the far bank seemed to be mainly coffee drinking and boat admiring rather than any serious boating!

With a deceptively feathery tailwind, we started out for the city proper passing fields of baseballers all kitted out and playing/practicing, soccer kiddies battling it out on riverside pitches and hoards of family and friends in gigantic lines of concrete bleachers built along the entire length of the combined playing arenas. We passed by quaint temples with incongruous pop music blaring forth and tiny pontoons and wooden bridges over river inlets where dragon boats were moored, looking quite forlorn in their off-season. Onwards past the legal graffitti wall, under the feng shui nightmare of intertwining overhead freeways near the Grand Hotel and out along the Neihu riverside embankment wall.

We decided to go even further along to the main Dazhi suspension bridge, which we crossed at vertigo inducing heights before dropping down to the riverside park on the far bank. Somehow, the tailwind zephyr had morphed into a fierce beast, dulling our progress, changing our gears and generally making life quite a chore. Nevermind, the beauty of the Youbike system is that you can drop the bikes back at any station that has a free park! After winding our way around the Art Museum, we crossed over into Yuanshan Park where the annual Lantern Festival is in full swing.
We were quite a sight negotiating our way through the blissful crowds, an added complication that their eyes were trained skywarsd on various kitsch renditions of goats and Disney characters fashioned into behemoth lanterns. Many didn't know how close they came to being totally Youbiked!

Eventually, we made our way out beyond the station to the bike stand and deposited our rides back for a bit of pocket change wiped off our Easy Cards. Same card in hand, we strolled over to the MRT station and got the train four stops home. We watched an entertaining cricket match as the Aussies beat a very galant Sri Lanka, and Cass, to her horror, ended up cooking another weekend meal! We've earmarked a day through the week as an "eat-out" for this most unusual and unsettling turn of events!
Photos: Dave's neglected mountain of grading successfully conquered through the week, cats relaxing in their default positions, shots of the bikepath and riverside sights.

Taipei's metamorphosis as a cutting edge culinary hub continues unabated it seems. In recent years we have seen three Michelin starred establishments take up residence in the city and many others must be knocking on the polished Gaellic doorknocker about now. International celebrity chefs now vie to make Taipei their stopover of choice in Asia and the atmospheric, chaotic fare of the night markets is now not the only food that people are raving about along with the iconic Din Tai Feng. Another delectable morsel from this tale is that the prices for these treats are more than reasonable: if they charged a premium, they'd very quickly have a dearth of custom, Michelin star or no!

Not quite in the lofty heights of these establishments, but still indicative of a quantum shift in the food paradigm of the city, the slick tea house of Smith and Hsu was our destination for a spot of English high tea over the weekend. We'd often thought to pop in to the secret depths of this beautifully presented restaurant on Chung Shan North Road just a couple of blocks from our place, and one which we pass on a regular basis. Somehow we'd never be at the right time or mindset, having just eaten, be about to eat somewhere else, or not ready to face the complexities of ordering the high tea in a foreign language(my lazy!)

The huge, full length, wooden door whispers open to reveal some designer lighting and sleek ceramics and a bustling wait staff quite eager to please. We were ushered upstairs, as the main floor and basement were already full of chatting, relaxing groups. We were immediately presented with a tray of a dizzying variety of teas encased in tiny glass bottles, labeled on top with a number and type. We got the idea that these were for sniffing, so we did the olfactories on a number that took our fancy. Selecting our two pots of tea (I got caramel black!) and our special cakes, we waited for the tea and goodies. The scones were about the best I've ever eaten: I'm not a fan of that faint, metallic aftertaste in a regular scone, but somehow, these avoided that completely. They were moist yet crumbly and the clotted cream and homemade jams in strawberry and lemon were scrumptious. The smoked salmon, beef and duck boutique sandwiches were an entree to the scones and slices of heavy cheesecake and lemon meringue pie. All this was topped off with signature design Smith and Hsu cookies in the shape of an "S", an "&" and an "H"!

It was a wonderful way to while away the afternoon and was the highlight of an otherwise, fairly uneventful weekend! The Chinese New Year fireworks are spluttering out yet we're expecting a last final fling of cacophonous action in the next few days. There was sport a-plenty to distract us on the weekend, the Aussies losing a thriller against the Kiwis in World Cup cricket, the UFC putting on a great slugfest and HD streaming of the start of the surfing season from Snapper Rocks in Queensland.
Photos: Uli's beer from Friday night, street cleaners still use the best brooms in the business made from tree branches and the various bits and bobs from Smith&Hsu.