The school here quite generously gifts us a couple of days to meet with parents and kids to discuss progress...long gone are the days of teaching all day then having to front up to parents all night in a crowded hall. We have 20 minutes scheduled with each family and a portfolio of their work, whereupon we discuss, assess and point out next steps they need to take: all very civilized! We were commenting the other day how relaxed we are going in to these conferences in recent times: but then again, after 30 years in the game, we should be! So, all of Thursday and Friday was taken up with these interviews for me and Cassy has her conferences next Thursday and Friday. She has a different experience, not quite as civilized, where she'll meet with parents for 10 minutes or so and all the teachers are set up in one of the gymnasiums: she has 85 sets of parents with kids!

We went and saw the rather curious "The Walk" on Saturday over at Shinkong Mitsukoshi. It was quite remarkable for the CGI employed and the tension was ramped up in the latter part, but it came across as quite hokey with a dreadful script: it was almost like one of those sanitized kid's movies, yet this wasn't the audience it was aimed at. Anyway, as I said, curious.

Back home early in the afternoon, we thought we might be able to sneak into the ever popular Din Tai Feng without the usual 20-30 minute wait. Sure enough, after a pleasant stroll through the forecourt, we found the basement only humming rather than roaring, and the line non-existent: perfect! It was a taste sensation as usual and we again marveled at the exquisitely crafted dumplings and perfectly flavoured accompaniments. Flavour Field bread for the morrow and a trip to Wendel's negated, we deviated to check out a new Thai restaurant's menu before wandering home to enjoy a quiet evening.

The "1,000" steps are just a nice round number for a name, but I actually made a semi-accurate count for real on Sunday morning. There are approximately 1485 steps in the steps proper and a further 20 or so before you arrive at the mountain trail round the ridgeline, so I'm going to assume about 1,500 each way. So for a total of 3,000 steps and a travel time of under 30 minutes, that's about 100 steps a minute....not a bad pace! I usually take a breather by walking at a crisp clip round the mountain trail for 5-10 minutes to get my breath back after the long haul up the mountain, but even so, that's not too bad. No monkeys today, but I heard some rummaging by reasonably large animals in the bamboo stand about halfway down, as well as spotting Taiwan's answer to the Aussie Blue Tongue Lizard: the blue tail lizard!

On the way home, I got a salad for Cass and  roast beef roll for me from Lutetia, a French coffee shop/cafe in the neighbourhood. Cedric, the owner, either has awesome skills or is employing some great cooks: everything from there is exquisite, including the quiche which we're having tomorrow night. Cass has fun speaking French with his cute little son at times on the way home from work!

We went to Carrefour to continue the French theme and stocked up on the shopping for the week. Cass wanted to cook some spaghetti Bolognese and needed some mince: this is far too exotic to be found in our local supermarket, so we decided we'd do the whole shop elsewhere. We found some tomato puree from Italy in tetra paks so that was another minor thrill!

Photos: Wal's prolific output saw all these guys get their first cook in the school's electric kiln: now back for glazing before another hotter bake. My twins at conference time...I have no hope telling them apart! Funky Taiwan bubble milk tea as well as scenes from the steps: including a giant mushroom growing from a tree and the electric blue lizard tail! Finally, a small Vegemite at Carrefour, a rare sight, but an expensive one...about $15 Australian!

The paths snaked their way up the mountainside village with serious intent, paved and signposted and out of character with the generally crumbling buildings and very humble, tiny cottages dotting the hillside. There were telltale paw-prints embedded in the concrete at regular intervals, directing the visiting curious through the maze of mountain walkways. The most spectacular vision was not the layers of mountain on the far side of the train tracks shrouded in blue mist, nor the cubist train bridge, but rather the delightful presence of hundreds of cats of all sizes, shapes and colours who imperiously sat, nudged and meowed their way in and among everything in sight!

We'd taken a circuitous route to Houtong Cat Village, a tiny community perched on a mountainside in the former gold mining hills near Jioufen on the northern coast. After being devastated by the loss of mining for both gold and coal, many of the residents moved away, young people moved to the city and the town gradually fell into disrepair. A kind resident of the town started to feed a pride of stray cats who grew and reproduced and other townsfolk also became feeders. Eventually this became a focus, visitors flocked and businesses all cashed in on the cat fever. Everything here has a cat theme, be it roadside food stalls, souvenir shops, even restaurants and cafes. Could it be true....everyone's a winner?!

The route to get there was noteworthy. After butting our way through Sunday traffic to the freeway, we found Freeway One choked with traffic trying to negotiate through the feng shui nightmare of spaghetti looped roads near the Grand Palace Hotel. Once beyond, the traffic freed up a bit, and we traveled north-east for a spell onto the 62. Here we passed the infamous spot where a landslide annihilated 13 cars a few years back, traveled through tunnels and overpasses until we exited down the ramp to Ruifamg.

Ruifang is notable for being a small country town on the riverside, which may have once been quite charming, but currently suffers from excessive traffic in impossibly narrow streets and nondescript buildings featuring ugly roller-doors, festooned with knotted electrical cables and bolted-on neon signs. Once escaped from the claustrophobic confines of Ruifang, the road narrowed and meandered through lush hills, hugging the river on one side and in the shadow of precipitous cliffs on the other. Truck sized boulders stood proudly in the riverbed and the water rushed and spilled over and around them, while we writhed our way further up into the mountain wilds. Eventually, we emerged from the ambrosial landscape and crossed a one-way bridge over to park near Houtong Station before setting off across the railway bridge for the village proper.

It was a very special time and the cats were everywhere you looked! So calm and approachable, they meowed to be patted and didn't seem to mind the incessant misting rain nor the crowds of people fawning over them. They tolerated the little kiddies and walked and sat on every surface. We wandered and patted and spied and photographed till we eventually took advantage of one of the new businesses and had delicious coffee and waffles in a reclaimed stone house. It, incongruously, had a resident dog, who had eyes for our waffles and annoyingly breathed hot, doggy breath on my exposed leg during the meal!

As you can imagine, Cassy voted this the highlight of the weekend, although we had been out and about on Saturday as well, visiting the Shinkong Mitsukoshi for a meal at Chili's then a viewing of "Bridge of Spies" with Tom Hanks. It was really entertaining and we loved spotting some of the spots in East Berlin, perhaps around the area we stayed in Kreuzberg....it looked just as cold anyway!

Photos: cats galore!

Well, what a fillip it was for the mind and body to luxuriate in a four day weekend. Taiwan's national 10/10 holiday and America's Columbus Day combined to give us this refreshing oasis in a semester one desert, completely devoid of breaks or holidays. We not only caught up with body and soul in terms of sleep-ins and lazy house time, but got out among the population and flora in both city and country during our time off.

Cass had her regular book club gathering on Thursday night, but this was a bigger affair than the usual for her as she had hosting duties. After a gargantuan and, at some times, torturous lead-up involving the visitation of multiple markets multiple times to source all the special ingredients, the evening of course went off brilliantly. Cassy tweaked a special recipe from her Italian American friend Robin of a creamy smoked salmon pasta dish for main, accompanied by crisp German style sourdough, sparkling waters and champagne and wine from Australia, along with various other accompaniments such as nuts, cheeses and guacamole. Her signature pavlova rounded out the meal and all were left well satisfied. It also forced us to do our annual spring clean, the house left sparkling and fresh and bereft of clutter.

We whizzed across to the Shin Kong Mitsukoshi complex on Friday and watched "The Martian" starring Matt Damon. It was a triumphal celebration of all things scientific and nerdy and managed to tread that sometimes awkward line between cheesy and funny/quirky quite deftly. There was some pathos, some cheer, some heartbreak and inevitable triumph, but it was an interesting and entertaining few hours. We capped the day off with a late (for us) dinner at the twin tower in the complex at the top floor Thai Town and supped on all our favourites.

We gorged on the end of our latest TV series Bloodline on Saturday, before I went up the Tienmu Gudao steps, dodging a monkey troop on my way back down as they foraged and guffawed in the bamboo forest just off the path: always a little unsettling! When I returned, Cass and I went down to Sogo to get some supplies and stroll in the plazas in the crisp early Autumnal temperatures and clear evening light.

Sunday morning started with our tradition of waiting till the ABC's Insider program is posted online whereupon we sit down to watch enjoying a lateish breakfast. We'd decided to get on down to the eclectic, dare I say, bohemian indoor/outdoor arts hub of Huashan 1914 Creative Park to check out an extended section that had always been there but we'd never discovered! Two MRT sections later, we were spat from the underground to a bustling section of the south-eastern end of town. A hop and a skip away is an amazing sprawling complex of reclaimed warehouses and Japanese era red brick, low rise barns that have been converted into an extremely interesting mix of art galleries, restaurants and cafes with the occasional pop-up shop selling all sorts of cute and arty wares.

After a wander around our favourites we scouted further afield to a verdant inner city pasture with kids flying kites and families picnicking in the cool Autumn breezes. A wander through the park, spying the elevated roadways just a few metres away and the city hum droning in the background, we escaped back into the creative park to art spaces with unique (and sometimes quite weird!) offerings, coffee spots and our destination restaurant, "VVG Thinking". What a space this proved to be! Every detail of the interior has been artistically styled and preened, lounges and traditional seating strategically placed and thought-provoking art lined the bare brick walls. The food was superb and we had appetizers, mains and cake and coffee to finish. After a metaphoric sigh of contentment, we again braved the hectic spaces of the Taipei underground to wend our way home.

On Monday, I had great hopes of cracking some surf on the northern coast, but the huffing gusts of wind on our side of the mountain didn't augur well, nor did the meteorological forecasts on various websites. Nonetheless, we loaded the car with surf paraphernalia and back-up walking gear to take the super highways out to Damsui and beyond. Baishawan was a wind whipped mess, Green Ball was flat. and the various northern rock shelves didn't appeal, so we kept going round on the coastal highway all the way to faithful Jinshan. Not to be outdone, it too was a sloppy soup. Plan B kicked into action and we headed to the mountainous promontory poking from the Jinshan harbour calm.

To our amazement, we realized we'd never ventured out from this trailhead, likely as we'd always been distracted by the "search for surf" on other occasions. The carpark and trailhead were well maintained and educational maps and signs abounded so we struck out for the tip. What a revelation to find incredible panoramic views and beautiful rock formations as we got further out towards the tip. A little gate warned us not to venture further in typhoons and dangerous seas, but we continued through and beyond as it was an idyllic day and conditions. The twin candlestick islands were quite spectacular closeup and our wander round the eroded sandstone and coastal detritus was lots of fun.
We went home "a different way" as is always my desire, and wondered at the landslides ripping great sections of the mountain from their moorings as well as the burgeoning pink mountain grasses just coming into season. Taking advantage of the civilised car transport (!) we even managed a supermarket run to finish back near home before the car was cloistered in her little house in the school's basement carpark for another stint.

What a long weekend! Photos are fairly self-explanatory I hope and a slide show is on top for a while as well as a link below for the long term. See ya!

  Here's the link to the 10/10 holiday album.

Well, the hiatus is upon us. What on earth could we possibly do now that football finals have finished in both codes? Will the Rugby World Cup step up and fill the void? When does the cricket start?

Saturday started before the sun passed the yardarm and we settled in, as is tradition, at Patio 84 to watch the 2015 incarnation of the AFL Grand Final. We had quite a few punters later on in the day, but the hardcore (pictured above) were there very early on. As usual, it was a long day, the highlight for me being the presentation of the tipping winners at halftime. Somehow, many years ago, this job fell to me by default, and its been kinda fun to run it and end up presenting the winners with thier cash.

I'd won the comp last year for the second time, but this year languished in a lowly 12th position. Our great mate Shaun managed not only to get his first placing, but his first win and was very happy with his results. A crew of us managed to wring every last piece of emotion from the day by extending our stay far beyond the last kick and I imagine all sorts of problems were solved!

Cass and I huddled around her laptop to watch the entralling contest played out the following day in the NRL Grand Final. We should have realized we were in for something special when Cold Chisel wound back the clock and played a boutique set of vintage quality, far outshading the AFL pre-game entertainment the day before. I think it always helps the NRL that they play in the evening...the light shows are just so much more spectacular.

The game itself was mesmerising: these were really two superior teams, deserving of their spots in the top game. We felt a little twinge of "what-ifs" when realizing that the supercoach, Bennett, had managed to drag this Broncos outfit into the big game in just one year. I wonder who accepts the blame for his three year tenure at the Knights?  Regardless of this tiny niggle, we loved the back and forth fortunes of each team and the final minutes were just impossibly scripted by the footballing gods. I said to Cass with a couple of minutes remaining that the only way the Cowboys could win would be to do a "Joey Johns- Darren Albert from 1997". So, of course they did just that!

We watched all the aftermath, the postmortems and the interviews with great delight, partly as we re-experienced the euphoria we felt when Darren scored that try right in front of us all those years ago (and to think we were initially a little bit disappointed with our seats down near the tryline when we first arrived!) A great day of football watching and a wonderful advertisement for the game: it was so much more entertaining than the game the day before.

We're super busy at work at the moment, hence the late posting, the brevity of the script and the paucity of visual aids! I'll try to do a better job next week....