We had to go back to work this week, but our visitors were still being entertained by Taipei's many delights. Cass and I had a PD day at school on Monday and we had a pretty boring, low key time and Chris and Val had a bit of a lay day as well, choosing to potter around the neighbourhood and they were there when we arrived home relatively early from school. Cass had organized to take her personal days on Tuesday and Wednesday, so the three were all looking forward to some time together mid-week. We're granted the great luxury of two personal days each year, no questions asked: I'd taken mine the week before to visit Nagasaki on an extended weekend break. Cass had to split her days from the weekend as they were tacked on to an official break, which is one thing they can't be used for.
Come Tuesday, after a decadent "school day" sleep in, Cass took Valerie downtown to the bag shop to pick up a bag for Valerie that had been awaiting a custom-ordered bag strap. Although they didn't need to take much advantage of it, this bag would be included in an offer to bring back whatever they wanted in June. I take back a virtually empty bag each trip so that we can "load up" on the Aussie essentials for another year as we return to Taiwan! They had lots of fun wandering the area,especially the Uniqlo outlet down there again. Chris managed to amuse himself in the local environs, paying a visit to an optometrist"s and trying on a few specs before deciding that they weren't quite his cup of tea.
We were booked in to Ruth's Chris Steak House downtown for Cassy's birthday dinner on Tuesday. We'd stumbled on this place almost by accident when our beloved Macaroni Grill went out of business and we spied the restaurant in the same building. It cooks a superb steak and has just enough notes of fine dining to make it feel special, but not stuffy. Linen tableware, attentive staff and a fine decor and ambiance abound and its always a special little relief to relax and speak English and know it will be understood easily. We ordered up large and all enjoyed our steaks as well as a robust bottle of Penfold's red. It was fun to get a little dressed up, do something special on a "school night" and have a birthday dinner for Cassy with her parents while in Taipei! Cass even got a little bonus cheesecake for her special day, which she promptly had packaged up for later so she could enjoy her bread and butter pudding.
One of the days was earmarked for a return visit to the ceramics and pottery village of Yingge, just south of Taipei proper. It started out as a centre for making clay roof tiles during the Japanese occupation and has variously flourished from that point, always evolving and improving its facilities. Chris and Val loved their last visit there and bought some spectacular hand thrown and decorated plates which we use quite regularly back home: they have big prawns painted on them!
Cass negotiated the monolithic Taipei Main Station and managed to purchase tickets, find the platform and get them whisked away on the local train headed south. When there, they threaded their way down to Old Street, marveling at some of the changes since their last visit. We'd been there more recently, but the tell-tale green construction fences have been pulled down to reveal a gleaming new shopping complex with all manner of swish shops full of tempting products. Valerie and Cass shopped and browsed for hours while Chris took the time to do some people watching on various well situated outdoor seats throughout town! In a nice nod to their previous visit, they somehow found the prawn plate shop and managed to get a couple of little matching side dishes, this time emblazoned with snapping crabs!
On Thursday, Chris and Val, armed with their Easycards, negotiated their way down to the MRT station and all the way up the line to one of their favourite Taipei destinations, Damsui. It's actually a favourite of ours too, but we so rarely get a chance to enjoy it without the madding crowds almost literally nipping at our heels on the weekend. They had a fair sized but manageable crowd and marveled at the opened up boardwalk and improved piers and docks. They saw all the "special and delicious" foods but decided to give the entire octopus on a stick and the thousand year old eggs a miss this time! They wandered the foreshore, admired the scenery and even found their way to some shops that they'd visited on previous visits...good times!
Friday was a bit of a relaxing day after the rigors of the past few caught up a little and when Cass got home from work, they wandered back down to the Sogo forecourt to enjoy the mildly famous Mia Cuccina, serving high quality, tasty vegetarian fare. I met up with the coaches and visitors from various schools who were here for the IASAS tournament. A link to an amazing well conceived and crafted video of the event's highlights is right here. All parties reported the night to be a success!
On our last evening, none of us felt like tripping out and about, especially as the visitors were being picked up by Daniel, our driver, at 4.30 a.m. We decided instead to settle in at home and watch the Christmas special of the sixth and final series of Downton Abbey. As we knew that Chris and Val loved it as much as us, we requested that they not watch it back home before they came. It was really great to watch the series together with all our much loved characters, culminating on the final night with the final show. The treat for dinner was takeaway versions of custom built "Burger Ray" burgers. We all put our orders in and I scootered across to Shilin to pick up the goods. They were magnificent! To top things off for dessert, we shared with the visitors our much loved Japanese dessert, the milk caramel ice cream sandwiches made by Morinaga which we affectionately call "Morries"....they were equally well received. We've just got to find a way to get these imported into Australia!
After our farewells at the crack of dawn on Sunday, Cass and I went back to sleep for a while but since then, we've been a bit discombobulated again: we miss our house guests! We'd just started to get used to them being around when all of a sudden, they'd gone. We got a quick email letting us know they'd survived the journey and were ensconced in their huge and decadently luxurious resort in Phuket...sounds great! We're now back in the groove of another working week...
Photos: Lots from Yingge (pending...), Ruth's Chris birthday, some of my kids cheering at IASAS and Burger Ray selfie. I'm reading a Vladimir Putin biography and Cass is reading Purity by Jonathan Franzen. I also did my birthday pushups!
