Generators whining, hydraulics wheezing and bucking diggers whinnying, our lane-way was torn to shreds on Friday afternoon and rebuilt within a few hours by a beautifully orchestrated team of professionals operating plant and equipment of a dizzying variety.

The tell tale white spray-painted characters appeared on the bitumen surface mid-week and come Friday afternoon as we made our way home after a long week, the assembled machinery was huffing into life and champing at the bit to get started. Within minutes the first three machines began, quickly joined by another two. I'd never seen such a beautifully synchronized operation of heavy plant: the diggers ducked and weaved under the buckets of the bulldozers, the bitumen lifters buzzed and burrowed along the edges of the tarred surface and the brutish drill-pounders did their hammering and screeching in between and around the others. You can check out the action above (with a slightly miffed Cassy picking her way through to our front door near the end!), or here later on.

 Cass was book-clubbing later in the evening over at the quite wonderful Italian authenticity of "Osteria", Dazhi branch. The Italian chefs again dazzled the group with their offerings, even serving picky eaters selections from off the menu. The big occasion was the unveiling of the very new baby, Garth III, of their newest member, Stacey. She works at the pseudo embassy downtown, so she's been a great addition giving a non-school perspective of all that's happening. Her baby is incredibly cute but just a couple of weeks old, already is mirroring his rather tall parents with long fingers and toes!

On Sunday, we decided to venture down to the quasi-outdoors restaurant and market complex nestled round the back of the old Yuanshan soccer stadium. We started to get a strange sense as we approached the station and nearly everyone on the train looked set to disembark! We shuffled along in the slow moving crowd as the MRT ushers urged all and sundry to take time and take care. Eventually we were disgorged into the Yuanshan Park where there were tens of thousands of people in a crush of strident music, balloon animals, screaming kids and general lantern pandemonium! Oh, no, someone had forgotten to check the calendar and we'd arrived at the epicentre of the Lantern Festival on the middle weekend on an unseasonably fine, warm and sunny day!

The lanterns were pretty cool and, as always, we were astounded at the intricacy of the designs and the painstaking hours of toil that must have been necessary to create them. Nonetheless, we were on a different mission and we had to formulate a plan to edge round the periphery of the main mass of humans to get to our preferred destination. We tracked up through a corridor of least resistance before taking a classic "locals' knowledge" shortcut behind the complex, beside a spurting fountain attended by squealing kiddies as the jets bubbled and burst at random all around them, a manicured park and a little Chinese bridge beside a rocky outcrop, before finally getting to the back entrance of the restaurant area.

We decided to forgo our regular "Three Kings" English pub and try the Argentinian "Gaucho's" instead. We'd eaten an unremarkable meal here previously but wanted another try. As it turned out, we again choose strangely: I'll definitely go for some of their grilled meats next time as, on the way out, the cook invited me into the smoking BBQ area to take a photo and those sizzling steaks looked really scrumptious! Cassy did a slightly better job than me of choosing but I don't know why we ordered spaghetti (Cass) and fried chicken (me) in an unashamedly meat grilling heaven.....oh well, we'll have to try again!

We wandered through the sophisticated bespoke clothing and craftware market area on the way back to the main park. There is an ever increasing, eclectic mix of goods available here, everything from vintage style "Grandma" wear, to trendy hand crafted hats and clothing, to paper models and fixed gear hand-made bikes and seemingly everything in between. Again, we took little detours to avoid the huge press of people and admired the fairy tale lights of the main lantern area from "afar": Cass said it was a far more romantic view like that and I tend to agree....squirmy hordes of kiddies enraptured with colour and movement in enclosed spaces with no chance of a quick escape? Rhetorical! We did, however, dive into either end of the slightly less populated avenue of entries to the lantern competition...various schools and community groups have obviously been doing nothing else for a few months judging by the detail and workmanship in evidence!

Using a little local dexterity again, we sneaked around to the back entrance of the station to escape the stagnant lines of people trying to get onto the upper platforms from the usual and obvious station entrance. Soon whisked away home, we had a pleasant end to the weekend by relaxing with some quality TV to prepare for another busy week ahead (evidenced by the fact I didn't have a spare second to devote to "blog duty" yesterday.

Photos: fancy car with no parking sign, lights and lanterns celebrating the end of Chinese New Year, the lantern festival and Gaucho's. The spectacular shot of the plane skimming above the crowd was taken with me listening to the plane coming from behind, lining up the shot, then Cass calling, "Now!" just before it flew overhead!

We experienced a classic Taiwanese service comedy on Sunday as a clapperboard of "Wovie girls" tried to undo an error made by one of their number as she tried to sell us some movie tickets. Something had happened which caused the ticket printing machine to malfunction and that's where the fun began. Instead of just moving to another register (of which there were many), they had to try to rectify the error at this one, despite the fact that the movie was about to start! After re-trying three times with another girl, a third employee was called in to help. When she failed, the manager was called over. After dismantling the ticket machine, re-assembling the roll of tickets, dropping it and allowing it to unfurl, re-rolling it and starting up, the machine still failed to deliver. Then, instead of simply walking us a few metres to their colleague at the ticket collecting entrance, the manager hand wrote our tickets in every tiny detail! Wow, only in Taiwan!

The "Wovie" movie we eventually saw was quite confronting and disturbing, yet excellent. Spotlight is about the expose by reporters from the Boston Globe of the systematic abuse and cover up of abuse by priests in the greater Boston area. The scale of the cover-up/secret payments was mind-blowing and started a world-wide recognition of this disgraceful practice. At the end of the film was a sobering list of areas throughout the world where similar cases came to light and were prosecuted….Newcastle, Australia was among them.

On Saturday, after brazenly deserting our longtime favourite and going to Burger Ray instead last week, we again visited Eat Burger, tucked down a tiny lane in the shadow of the Zhishan MRT station. We're spoiled for choice on the gourmet burger joints at the moment…which is probably not such a great thing for our waistlines! It was just as tasty and with an enjoyable ambiance as usual. Afterwards, we wandered across to the big Carrefour store to get a few extra food supplies after earlier doing the big weekly shop at Wellcome. In what is a very long awaited change, the supermarket section downstairs has finally opened up a few checkouts at that level. Previously, (and weirdly) you had to do your grocery shopping downstairs, then take your laden trolleys or baskets up to the next floor and wander through the aisles upstairs before getting to the checkouts! It was obviously meant to sell more product, but after more than a decade of inconveniencing the casual food shopper, commonsense has finally prevailed. It was a revelation to be able to just cruise out the bottom floor and be on our way…..small things, eh?!

We've got a couple of very important events coming up in the next month. I'm off to Nagasaki! The week before Spring Break at the end of March, I'm heading off to Nagasaki to catch up with Gurecki. After a few false starts, we've finally worked out a time that will suit all parties. The added bonus for me will be my arrival at quite an auspicious time for the annual cherry blossom viewing in the south of the country. While not at their optimum, there should be some great photo fodder, so expect to be awash in pink come the start of April. The following weekend we'll be welcoming back Cassy's parents for a couple of weeks: it will be interesting to see if they notice any changes since their last visit, which was about 5 years ago. We're planning to do not much at all except to have a good old-fashioned catch-up and a bit of a wander around and drive to re-acquaint them with the sights: I'm pretty sure we'll manage to eat, drink and be merry just a little as well!

Photos are very scarce for some reason today: I think I'd holstered the phone after Chinese New Year and forgot to draw it again! There are some Youbikes, and a few grainy shots of our Eat Burger and Wovie adventures. I'm still reading Barry Maitland while Cass is reading "Euphoria" by Lily King. I've put another video up top, this time of our private viewing of the Austrian imperial furniture collection!

Lolling in an ocean of sunshine and catching nature's wave was our modus operandi during nearly every day of the Chinese New Year holiday. In stark contrast to the stormy seas we usually encounter on the good ship "Gong Shi Fa Tsai" during its treacherous crossing sometime in the month of dank, dark February, this year we were almost becalmed and the weather's pacifying caress led us to enjoy our holiday more than many others that have gone before.

After our initial forays into the far south-eastern mountain trails at Elephant Mountain, on which I briefly reported last week, we were presented with day after day of glorious early spring weather. Our plan was to let nature (or our slightly needy feline companions!) be our alarm clock each day, whereupon we'd take our time over breakfast before deciding on a course of action for the day. Cass had made a batch of her signature lemon butter for the week and had even bought be some loaves of white sliced bread upon which to spread it. Filter coffees, slabs of white toast slathered with generous serves of lemon butter...how decadent! (despite our forays into the wild most days and adequate exercise, we both still put on extra weight this week which came as no surprise....back to the rigorous discipline this week!)

We wandered up to Shilin via the back streets we hadn't trodden for years and after a few false starts with shops closed for the holiday, eventually settled in at 1Bite2Go to enjoy a late lunch/early dinner in their funky warehouse space. We wandered around to get a few different supplies before heading back to Tienmu via the Fulin Bridge. By this time, it was dusk and the evening held similar charms to the day for strolling around.

A day trip to Shifen to visit the waterfalls was a highlight midweek. Taking the newly forged number 2 country byway which sluices down off Highway 1 on the way to the north-eastern coast, we burrowed through an endless tunnel and meandered through mountain switchbacks until finally soaring across an impossibly high, wildly engineered bridge to the Pinxi/Shifen turnoff. The crowd was prodigious and after some bumper shuffling for a while, an entrepreneurial shopkeeper ushered us into his yard for a cheap car-park before we made the trek to the falls. The infrastructure was new and grand with a beautiful wide stairway and boardwalk winding through the forest giving tantalizing glimpses of the waterfall as it thundered away across the valley. We emerged to multi-level viewing decks and steps to yet more platforms. Despite the press of humanity, we still felt the power of the chute and the beauty of the pea green water. After wandering back through the ubiquitous snack food and cheap souvenir stalls, we braved a pulsing and trembling (or was that just me?!) suspension bridge before being disgorged on the 106 country road a kilometre or so from our park.

On Thursday, Cass went out to a long lunch with her friend Lisa, where they supped on the delights presented at the trendy local vegetarian spot de jour, Mia Cuccina, which is housed on the bottom commercial area of some flash apartment blocks behind SOGO and across from Carrefour. I met up with Wal for a few beers later that evening down at Alleycat's Pizza and bar and we had fun in this venue that we don't often frequent.

While Cass was out in the day, I decided to unshackle "Blackie" from her underground stable and let her rip into a bit of mountain mayhem. The CNY traffic jams on Yangminshan started as soon as I started heading up into the mountains from Tienmu, even though I'd taken a lesser known back road. Luckily, the scooter was able to buzz along the inside lane with impunity most of the way and after a few more turns and changes, I was soon on my own heading up to the mountain ridges behind Beitou. Famous for its cherry blossom views in spring, the brutal winter meant that they are yet to bud, although some trees were just starting to get a pink mist enveloping the end of their branches. The views up top were as awe inspiring as usual.On the way back, I checked in to the belching fury of the Beitou fumaroles, all puffed up with power, spitting steam and gurgling super-heated water. With the texta colour neon yellow sulphur, the associated  pungent aroma and its cordoned off "moonscape" look, it's quite the other-worldly experience.

The healthy wash of the holidays lapped over and around us almost an entire work day before we slowly stated to tread water! Now, a day later, I won't say we're drowning, but the memory of floating around in our decadent infinity pool of days off is waning. Photos are of the various adventures and trips, capped off with a final walk up the steps for a mountain trek around the ridge. I've just finished the second in the Lehane trilogy and have started the new Barry Maitland "Belltree" trilogy for a little break. It's called Crucifixion Creek. Cass is reading a dark comedy from Nick Hornby, A Long Way Down. The video up top is of the Shifen Waterfall. Later access here.

Blog and pictures will come later today....sorry, enjoying the holiday too much!!!

Well, somehow it's become Wednesday and I'm still lacking all motivation to "blog up", so this is going to suffice till next Monday! I met up with little Logan on Friday night and since then Cass and I have been eating out, hiking up mountains and generally relaxing in what is a crazily unseasonal warm spell! It's just fantastic: we've been wandering near and far with vague recollections of other Chinese New Year holidays huddled inside with bitter temps and depressing rain.

Elephant Mountain on the far opposite reaches of the city from where we live is the site of most of the photos above: we stumbled upon a local temple doing all the new year burning of fake money and smoldering of incenses before staggering back onto the train with weary legs....those steps were steep!

Check in again on Monday!

From a few photos above you may be deceived into believing that the week and weekend past threw out a few rays and we were able to bathe in the warm glow of the sun to warm our chilled bones: you'd be incorrect! We made the most of the wink of sun on Sunday around the middle of the day to rush out and try to soak it up, stomping up the Tienmu Stairs to the track around the ridgeline up top then back again.

The week has been dreary and cold, only slightly thawing from the previous weekend when 50 people died from cold related illnesses over the frigid two days! Although it seems difficult to believe as the weather was hardly blizzardlike, the fact that people are unused to single digit temperatures and the almost total lack of insulation in tinder block apartments, along with inadequate heating, meant that many poor or infirm people were at risk. In the aftermath of the snow dusting on the mountains in northern and central Taiwan, the temperatures remained low and the humidity high. This made for an energy tapping, nagging numbness; no matter what clothing we wore outside or coverings and heating we employed inside. With a relentless and depressing drizzle, or alternatively, a staccato rain beat, we were quite miserable for an extended period!

Even on Saturday, the rain again threatened and forced us to arm ourselves with brollys for the stroll down to SOGO, the building itself all freshly draped in Chinese New Year finery and lighting, seemingly shrugging off the appalling weather with a spectacular lantern and light show. Din Tai Feng was at its imperious best, wafting dumpling lullabies to us as soon as we entered the shop and purred down to the basement on the escalator! After our drug fix, we felt able to face the shoppers upstairs in Uniqlo for a quick squiz, before again heading to the basement for some specialty food supplies. Armed with such and picking up our ordered bread from Wendel's on the way home, we coseyed in with the girls under blankets, watched some TV, and generally relaxed.

Getting back to our steps walk, you'll probably realize now why we were so keen to get out and take advantage of the sun! The scooter ride up to the foot of the trail was bracing and we were ready for an onslaught on the calves and quads on the steps themselves! Just like push-ups, these steps never seem to get any easier and despite the fact we passed everyone we met on the way up, our time was pretty slow:we were huffing and puffing as we reached the top. We both reported sore legs this morning on our walk to school, so we had quite a workout! The macaques kept to themselves and we saw no evidence of their presence nor heard any telltale rummaging or shrieking. The track along the ridge-line at the top was pretty boggy, and Cass suggested that everyone who came up the steps should have to bring a bag of gravel to spread around up top: I like it! All too soon, in fact before we'd even completed our rapid descent, the sun's brief cameo had fizzled out behind thickening cloud yet again, so we decided that we'd made our best effort to "get some air" and headed back to the relative protection of home once more.

Photos: "The Moop" made an appearance on our tennis court where it stayed, statue-like, for quite some hours: it's a very strange bird! In Taiwan, parking shenanigans never cease to amaze: despite a legal park easy to access just behind him, this guy decided to mount the footpath on the corner and park in the illegal section, all while we enjoyed our Friday night beers at Uli's. Cass posed in front of the Chinese New Year adorned SOGO building, and we took a couple of shots in the brief sunshine on the steps. As threatened, another video is posted up top for your edification!