There's a constant and ongoing threat from mainland China to Taiwan's interests as life plays out here on our small island, just 150 km from the Chinese coast. Rumours of up to 2,000 missiles lined up on the Chinese coast aimed straight at strategic targets in Taiwan abound, and confirmation exists that there are close to 1,000. The latest technology has also been employed, seemingly, to further tighten threatening screws.
Not to be outdone in the apocalyptic scenarios, Taiwan's own natural depths have recently been discovered to contain a massive magma chamber of enormous size, nestled and boiling away just a few kilometres below the surface, and directly below our suburb, Tienmu! We've been well aware of simmering volcanic activity in the area, as the lily fields in Yangminshan National Park rest in the bosom of a gigantic volcanic crater from centuries past. The famous fumaroles continue to belch boiling plumes of gas and spit jets of scalding, sulfuric liquid all over the off side of one of the main peaks: this has been a constant since we've been here. Tatun volcano itself, however, has always been classified as dormant. The aforelinked article seems to point to a much more imminent eruption and catastrophic results for our area....let's hope we get plenty of warning!
On a much lighter note, and conveniently forgetting all these "end of world" scenarios, we enjoyed a most relaxing weekend! Cass had her two grueling parent conference days on Thursday and Friday, so she and Kristin made use of Kristin's rare free Friday evening to have a relaxing catch-up at Sonnentor, one of their favourite restaurants in the foothills of section 7. They had a chance to discuss all manner of things important to the world.
The weather had definitely taken another turn for the wintery in the latter part of the week and the weekend days were no different. I'd been trying to catch bits and pieces of the first Australia/India test match on Thursday and Friday and was really keen to see more on Saturday, especially as the Aussies were performing so well. To our amazement and delight, the Australians absolutely routed the Indian defense and won the match quite comprehensively in just three days! They had not won a match in India since 2004, so it was an outstanding achievement. In between times, we snuck out in the dribbling rain to get some bread for the week from Wendel's and some authentic Italian pizza for our dinner from the amazing Pizza Oggi. We got home a little damp, but pleased that we'd managed to get out for a bit of a promenade!
We visited the Shinkong Mitsukoshi complex to see "Silence" on Sunday afternoon. Scorsese's latest epic was of particular interest to us for a number of reasons. Set in the late 1500s, it deals with the underground group of Christians secretly practicing in Japanese villages and the few Jesuit priests who covertly arrive and minister to them. They suffer the most severe reprisals from the Japanese authorities. It is set in and around modern day Nagasaki, the place I most often visit in Japan. The second peculiarity about this film is that it was shot entirely in Taiwan! The rugged coastlines on the untamed sections of the east and west coasts of the island were perfect facsimiles for ancient Japanese coastlines. We recognized the general areas, with black sand beaches and cliffs soaring skyward, straight from the rocky shorelines. This island is certainly a spectacular beauty, notably highlighted in Scorsese's direction and cinematography. It was alternatively quite dour with a paucity of dialogue and action, then a violent assault. Scenes stretched interminably at times or displayed violence so shocking and unexpected as to shake the sensibilities of even the most hardened movie-goer. After three hours we were emotionally drained, but we both rated the overall experience quite highly.
After a rather bracing tour back home on Blackie the scooter, we were content to turn our heating air-con on, sit back and enjoy a pleasant Sunday evening of home-cooked spaghetti, TV and ugg boots. I didn't take any photos this week, hence the "official" shots above!