One of my great friends and colleagues here at school, Karen, is an accomplished and published poet (3 volumes now) of some renown. Her poetry reading soiree down at local tea shop, Smith and Hsu, late in the week was an interesting and unusual distraction from the regular weekly work grind. Karen has had more of her fair share of tragedy and heartbreak in her life, and while it no doubt provides plenty of fodder for her poetic juices, she's had nearly a decade of quite shattering events. She performed with aplomb and she rose in my esteem yet again: how she copes with the outpouring of such raw emotion and the way she transforms it into soaring verse quite astounds me.

I was delighted to join up with regular mate Wal and visitor, Trev for round two of our catch-up on Friday night down at the re-vamped Uli's. Trev is a unique character and extremely entertaining and full of life. He and Marg taught here for decades before their retirement a few years back. Trev, however, pulled the pin on working life three years before Marg, so had the chance to fill his days with further discoveries in Taipei and immediate surrounds. He did a great job: not only does he know nearly every lane-way and alley in the city but he's sniffed out many golden little "holes-in-the-wall" where you can source cheap and tasty local fare for a tiny outlay. He has also developed rich and varied cultural interests, including bonsai cultivation and playing the erhu! Despite being a decade and a half older than me, he's also got the energy of a much younger man....we get exhausted just listening to him!

The weather turned back a notch on Saturday with an incessant dribbling spit of rain accompanying a surprising cool and biting wind. We pounced on a break in the rain to scamper across the park and river to our little basement supermarket and dashed around to procure the weekly goods. Cass always comments at the end of the week that "someone has managed to eat that fridge-full of food again!" and she's always quite right: it seems impossible when we return laden, that the supplies could run out in such a short period. Cass transforms them into exotic dishes, we eat 'em, and the visit to the supermarket looms all too quickly!

On Sunday, the day was slightly more hospitable to be traveling out and about yet still a niggling wind nipped and worried, so we decided to visit the cinema in the early afternoon after a relaxing morning pottering around the house. Many of the Tienmu citizenry seemed to be like-minded as we only just snuck into the basement car-park at Shinkong Mitsukoshi before the "full" signed blinked a neon warning to incoming traffic. The movie "Get Out" was lauded to us by our online go-to site, Metacritic. It got such an exceptional rating that we felt quite compelled to go and see it, despite it seeming to be outside our usual comfortable genre band. It was a genre-blending, spine-tingling, fingernail-scraping roller-coaster ride, flipping from mystery to humour to drama to terror and back again, time after time! We were quite captivated and found the experience a little draining: we needed to go home, have a little lie down on the lounge, sip a cup of tea and debrief afterwards!

On the home front, we've been inconvenienced by a bit of a first world problem. Taiwanese apartments are invariably supplied by gas hot water via individual little gas heaters that are positioned on our back balconies and just fire up when the water is turned on. Great, energy efficient system all round but ours stopped working on the weekend, necessitating a few days of Japanese style bucket ladling, soaping up, then bucket ladling off. Cass has found it a bit confronting, but I'm quite enjoying the nostalgia trip: I bathed like this for a couple of years in Japan, onsen style! We're expecting a repairman this afternoon, much to someone's relief!

I've finished the amazing Blitzed, and am now reading an authorized history of the SAS. Cass is reading the third in the Ferrante series and really enjoying it. Photos: poetry reading, Trev and some durians!

We thought our local iconic chery blossom treee had reached its peak on Thursday afternoon, then again on Friday morning yet were rewarded yet again this morning as we walked to school. The last blossoms on the top branches had opened and the older ones on the bottom branches were not yet beyond beauty, so we might have spotted it at its maximum appeal. The fascination with these magnificent trees is the fleeting beauty they produce: by this afternoon, it could already be on the wane.

Cass taxied downtown on Friday night to be joined by just three of her trusty book-club gang: Tracey has already moved to Switzerland and Darby got a last minute call-up to take care of her kids as husband was commandeered for a late meeting. They met at a rather strange place for dinner as it seemed to be more of a breakfast/brunch spot and also heavily orientated to tastes not particularly well suited to Cassy's palate, as the name, Pig and Pepper, probably suggests! Nevertheless, everything went well, they had a great time as usual and the desserts were particularly moreish!

I started the Friday, the day of my LV birthday, by taking on my pushup challenge for the sixth year in a row now. I'm always mildly trepidatious, as, although I've done my training assiduously all year, every time I do them, I'm actually setting a new personal record. Anyway, technical difficulties meant the camera failed to record, so I asked Cassy to step in and film on the phone. It's a slightly different angle and goes a little fuzzy, but I'm stoked to report that I did indeed complete the 20 pushups more than my birthday, 75 in total. Now to start training for next year!

In the evening, it was great to have a few beers with Wal down at the re-vamped Uli's along with special guests Trevor, all the way from New Zealand and Annie, who managed an hour away from the kids. I also received a long, chatty phone call from Gurecki while we were at the table, so he managed to catch up with all and sundry as well. We had a great time, and even managed to have a couple of sneaky 7/11 beers at the table before moving on later in the evening.

Cass and I strolled down to the local Din Tai Feng on Saturday to have our peculiar lunch/ dinner date! We've discovered the only way to beat the crowd and therefore the queue and wait on the weekend is to split the difference between lunch and dinner times. As we invariably have a late breakfast, this suits us fine. The fare was exquisite as it always is. The hand sculpted xiao long bao are something of beauty and somehow, the chefs have managed to emulate a fried rice recipe from the 1970s Australian Women's Weekly that my mum used to make. It was my favourite meal then, and I swear this version is exactly the same....spooky!

We did the usual shopping and bread buying trips, but I managed to succumb to a very rare bout of sickness on Sunday. The "Man-Cold" I've got forced me to loll around on the couch watching sport on Sunday and has influenced my day at school today as well. It's amazing how virulent it is: lucky women don't get it, eh?(!!)

Photos: A succession of cherry blossom shots and Din Tai Feng. No birthday shots....I forgot in all the excitement!

The switch has been flicked from a coolish spring to a full blown roasting summer, all in the space of a couple of days. In typical Taiwanese style, we still had the electric blanket taking the edge off the night-time chill last week, yet had the air-conditioner pumping all night last night, as the seasons have clicked over. Friday warmed up a little, Saturday radiated some more, then sweaty t-shirts re-emerged on Sunday when we ventured outdoors. Today we're getting a full-on summer's day, complete with high humidity and energy sapping temperatures in the 30s.

As it is, we'll just get these two months before we head back again to Australia for our summer break, avoiding the brutal onslaught of mid-summer here in Taipei. We're already looking forward to some crisp winter days with a touch of sun just taking the edge off the tiny chill, yet can't believe that our long break has come around so quickly again! Perhaps our lightning visit back home in October gave us a false sense of how long it's been, but it certainly seems to have crept up on us.

Remaining on the weather theme, many of the apricot and cherry blossom trees have bloomed already, a few tardy exceptions still just flushing into bud. One among these sluggish numbers is an iconic tree we pass by on our route to school: Cass mentioned this morning that, "It needs a good pruning", yet I'll promise not to let her loose on it: we'd be chased out of the neighbourhood if we harmed it in any way!

Cass had her "LV" birthday on Wednesday, so we ventured out on a week night(quite rare for us) to celebrate at our local vegetarian jewel, Mia Cuccina. I'm not a great fan of this place, not because of the type or quality of the food, but simply because I came away hungry last time we ate there! Cassy assured me that she'd "help" me order correctly this time so that the same issue didn't repeat itself! We both ordered a five course set, which allowed us to try a few different things we might not have ordered from the regular menu. Cass loved it, I was vaguely impressed, but most importantly, we both wandered home with full bellies!

I mentioned last week that I was reading a Peter Corris book with Cliff Hardy, private detective, as his protagonist. I discovered it is the last in the series and the last book Corris will ever write. He has degenerating eyesight, so has decided to retire from writing. I'll miss this character and feel I've shared a large chunk of my life with him. Since 1980 I've read 42 of his books as well as meeting Corris at a book signing in 1991! I'm already starting to pine for my other favourite, Kinsey Millhone, the detective created by Sue Grafton: her alphabet series is up to "Y"....maybe (I hope!) she'll live on!

Cass had a big catch up with her friend  Kristin, on Friday evening at one of their favourite haunts, Sonnentor, where they had a meal and a glass of wine or two while catching up on all the latest. I managed to watch three games of football from different codes, mostly on delay later in the night while enjoying a few different beers. Taiwan's 23 brewing company is gaining a pretty solid reputation and their beers are good!

We mainly pottered around this weekend, partly recovering from the shock of the weather change. We did the grocery shopping one day before eating at "Eat Burger", and wandered down to the SOGO the next, where Cass made a couple of tiny purchases from Uniqlo. Just a couple of photos of the LV girl this week! There's also a shot of a t-shirt one of my kids was wearing....strange list! I'm reading Blitzed (a gift from Gurecki), which is a real page turner....quite incredible!

What happens when your mate leaves a full bag of rolled oats on the back floor of your car, then leaves it there for a month or more? We dealt with the aftermath of this riddle at the start of our blissful week off for Spring Break, but in the process managed to prep the car for its new life "on the streets" at the end of this academic year.

A writhing carpet of weevils blanketed the car bonnet to boot the last time we took her coast-ward, so we unceremoniously dumped the offending oats, waited for said critters to die a starving death, then resolved to thoroughly clean the car. Into our shed for a fastidious vacuuming and scrubbing, a throw-out of rubbish and accumulated junk, a shiny exterior spruce-up down at the local automatic car wash, and we were ready to hit the road for the north coast.

Incredibly, we'd never ventured to the northern side of Jinshan harbour, so after checking an insipid and uninspiring surf, we cruised through the narrow harbour-side alleys all the way round to the far break-wall, all chunky and imposing with giant tetrapods holding back the might of the open ocean. Glass lantern spheres tinkled in the breeze as they hung from the awnings of prawning boats, while optimistic fishermen dangled a line from rocky outcrops and little jetties. We scrambled up ladders to stroll along the top of the concrete break-wall, at once roasting in the sun in the lee of the giant slabs before being blasted with salt sea laden gusts as the wall fell away to rocks and pods. It was a delightful little outing and set the scene for a decadently relaxing week to come.

For countless days in succession our slightly devious plans were foiled by the most splendid display of fine weather: surely it could be rainy and miserable just once so we could have a guilt free day huddled indoors, adorned by plump cats and edified by bingeworthy TV series? (!) It was not to be, however, so we were forced most brutally onto the whims of this big city of ours!

Cassy's cousin, Ashley, occasionally makes a flying visit to Taipei for business, but his busy schedule usually doesn't allow him much, if any, leisure time. This time, however, he could sneak away for a meal and a catchup and it neatly coincided with our time off. Cass had been recommended Morton's Steakhouse by a colleague so we booked a table for lunch down in XinYi then arranged to meet the big fella at his hotel. It was great to see him! He's an easy guy to talk to and always has an interesting perspective on life; especially for us I suppose as he's at the same age and stage. The meal was quite superb and we washed it down with a smooth Australian shiraz while gazing out upon Taipei 101 and surrounds from the 47th floor of the new Breeze Centre.

Early in the following week, we set out downtown to the Da'an Park area in the south east of the new district. It's an old neighbourhood which used to sit on the outskirts of the established city, yet now finds itself being gentrified and hipsterfied by encroaching hordes of monied young professionals. Along with the crowd comes the associated craft beer bars, trendy cafes and restaurants and uber-cool wandering humans: I suppose not dissimilar to other regenerating spots in cities all over the world.

Anyway, the MRT deigned to insert our creaking bones into this slick pot of liquid cool as we continued on our vague and laconic search for some quality pieces of unusual furniture. We'd picked up some 1950s Danish dining chairs here in Taipei a while back, so we're always keen to check out some more. I'd stumbled across a blog, the post from just two years ago, which indicated some pretty interesting furniture stores around this area. Surely, they'd still be there (!)

Da'an Park is an enormous oasis in the middle of this urban zone. Shorebirds of every description roost by the wetlands lake in the middle, while tracks and paths interconnect through sculptures, plants and huge expanses of lawn, such a rarity in Taipei. Families picnic under groves of trees, lovers drape on one another as they stroll and eccentrics of every description variously pluck, dance, sing and even rollerblade as they enjoy this inner-city verdant jewel. We wandered through the edges on the way to our first destination.

Despite ample pre-planning and on-the-spot GPS checking, the address for our first furniture spot turned out to be a pretty cool little coffee shop! The waitresses couldn't shed any light on a possible new location, so onward in alley wandering for our intrepid duo. Just a few blocks away we discovered our next spot, an alley of flea market shops, but only one was open! Obviously more of a weekend draw-card and possibly not our "cup of tea" as it turned out anyway, we explored further along the famous eat street of Yong Kang. We found a delightful cafe called "Together" and we enjoyed a tasty lunch after sniffing various specialty teas. Re-fuelled, we ventured toward the MRT to head west for a date with another furniture store.

In the shadows of the massive SOGO complex in the Chungshan district lies a cute pedestrian mall that perches atop the trains of the MRT racing underground. As you walk away from the station heading north, the lanes and alleys start peeling off either side, each offering a tantalizing glimpse of clusters of cafes, shops or boutiques hawking their wares via colored neon or quirky signage. Down one of these alleys, round a corner, past a glass cube of a hairdresser's and opposite a monstrous wall mural we found the trendy barn that used to house Ruskasa: used to house being the operative words. A few wood shavings and a saw horse were all that was left.....these Taipei businesses last no longer than the blink of an eye!

We breakfasted at the brand new Il Mercato on Chung Chen Road on yet another buttery morning during the week. The food was exquisite and the coffee impeccably brewed: we later found out that their own blend is hand selected in Spain, roasted in Italy then sent to Taipei to be processed into individual cups of black gold! We devoured delicately crafted croissants and cakes, the almond and marzipan croissant the best Cassy has had since Krakow! We tried to book for her birthday dinner this Wednesday, but when I emailed that there was something amiss with their online booking system I was informed that there was no problem at all: for them, quite the opposite, as it is fully booked for lunch and dinner for the next two months! Looks like we'll need to wait till the hype dies down....

Later that day, we did a mammoth scooter trawl across to MingQuan East Road via the backblocks of Neihu as we were searching for yet another furniture spot, this one a well established market of all sorts of items. We found it and mercifully, given our recent run of false starts, it was still fully operational. It was fun to wander around and check out all the "junk", but if we thought we might luck onto a bargain here, we were sadly mistaken: if anything, the prices seemed to be pretty steep and there was not a whole lot of quality. Cassy, as is her wont, was dreamily hypnotised by shelves of crystal and porcelain, and it took me a while to prise her loose!

Apart from luxuriating in the warm caress of a Goldilocksian spring sun not too hot and not too cold, we watched brilliant live streams of surfing from Margaret River and the start of the AFL season. The NRL featured at the start and the end of each week and the Knights continued to impress with skill and determination and spirit without finding a way to win. Back at work, we're firmly into the 4th quarter of the year and eyeing our summer break.

Photos: cousin Ashley, Jinshan, fading cherry blossom, Taipei city sights along with a 7/11 selfie (I forgot to mention: we bought a half bottle of Moet in a local 7/11 the other day.....now we really could live out of this store!)

Cass reading this and I'm reading the 42nd and LAST Cliff Hardy crime thriller (more on this absolute tragedy later!)