Australian football finals flung themselves into action this weekend and it was a flamboyant and furious start to an exciting fan-fuelled fever! Old mate Shaun decided to host the big Friday night thriller between Hawthorn and Geelong at his place, and I managed to catch the NRL blockbuster on delay later on. He had a house full or raucous supporters and we thoroughly enjoyed our time before, during and after the big event. He was a great host, even supplying pizzas from Tienmu's latest parlour, Pizza Denise(!), to keep the ravenous hordes calm and fed.
Cass and I decided to head over to the cinema precinct on Saturday, after a dearth of interesting films has seen us absent for some time. "Sully" was quite riveting, a testimony to the talented directorship of Clint Eastwood and the always competent Tom Hanks in the lead role. When you know the outcome from an incident that only took a few minutes to transpire, it's a neat trick to keep people engaged for a feature length movie! Afterwards, we scootered through the back alleys to Cassy's seamstress, commonly known as "Lady", but the two evil "step-sisters" were there instead! The lady's two helpers are not very helpful at all and tend to laugh at Cassy right to her face! I witnessed the latest episode as I sat on the scooter looking through the window: maybe everyone in Taiwan is not so nice after all! We're going to head back to have another crack on Monday afternoon.
Afterwards, we stopped at one of the curious stores that seem to sell every manner of goods available. It's kind of like a fully stocked hardware shop with various other quirky trinkets. The shelves are over-flowing with goods and it's quite a trick to find the various sections you need. We staggered out with bags full of dish-washing detergent, over-boots, scrubbing brushes and drink bottles just to name a few. Next stop was Wendel's for the weekly bread shopping, then over for a mid afternoon meal at Din Tai Feng where we enjoyed all our favourite delicacies.
When we headed out from the basement carpark we were greeted by a tropical downpour with sheets of water cascading down the driveways, flooding the drains, and thundering a beat that seemed like it would never end. We promptly U-turned and headed back down to safety and had a cup of coffee at a little cafe inside! We checked the weather upstairs and it looked like clearing, but as soon as we scootered up again, it was again teeming down. We split up, and Cass had her faith restored in the Taiwanese when two ladies sheltered her across the road with their umbrellas and I shed my shoes to brave the ride home. We met up back at home both in various states of saturation, but we'd had a real adventure!
We breakfasted late on Sunday before deciding to challenge the 1,500 steps of Tienmu Gudao in the searing heat of the midday sun...what were we thinking?! Armed with our chilled bottles of water for our reward at the end of the descent of the climb we headed up the mountain. By the time we were finished the first "flight" we were already sodden with perspiration. As we edged ever higher the euphoria of our achievement started to kick in and we spent a little time on the mountain path up top congratulating ourselves! Heading back down is quite blissful as we shimmy down the stairs, listen to the cicadas and birds, drink in the bountiful vistas over the city and look forward to our reward. The cooling draughts at the bottom are the sweetest elixirs of all! A fresh baguette on the way home, then I settled in to watch a footy final, but no sooner did I settle in, than Marcus called and said he was in the area, while taking Logan for his daily constitutional.
We arranged to meet at a local coffee shop that is in Ker Qiang Road and we've been meaning to try for a little while, called King Andre. Don't ask me, I have no idea where they get these names from!
We had a good old chat and little Logan was very cute and well behaved. He's got a little more used to me as I've been exposed to him a bit more lately and I nursed him for a while and played with him without any incident! The two and a half week old Eli is doing much better now and they're trying to get him into a routine of feeding and sleeping. The by product of this pleasant and unexpected afternoon get-together was the coffee: this shop really knows how to brew a great cup, so we'll be back!
Photos: Street art, Din Tai Feng dumplings et al, a black dragonfly(yes, black!), shots from the smoldering, sun-seared stairs, and a blurry Logan and Marcus.