Kenny G is leaving the house! I attended a rollickin' farewell party for Kenny and Suzanne down at the local basement bar, Green Door, last night. Kenny has been variously part of my Book Club for many years, the bass player in several incarnations of ex-pat bands playing all over Taipei and our occasional visitor at Uli's on his way home from a swim at the local pool! Suzanne is an awesomely talented musician who uses her skills professionally as one of the lower school's music teachers, while singing and playing in pop-up bands all round the place. These guys are a perfect match and one of my friends quipped as we watched them performing last night, "I'll bet they sing and play at the breakfast table as well!"

Kenny is from the deep south of the States, while Suzanne is a French speaking English rose. I've heard the story of their meeting and courtship from Kenny's perspective. He's a famously entertaining raconteur and the story has probably been embellished somewhat, yet, nonetheless, tales of boats on the Seine, mind-altering substances and a fairly determined chase  are all part of it! They're from wildly different parts of the world, very different in age and background, yet their shared passions brought them together. Kenny's retiring and possibly Suzanne is too, but they are definitely moving to England to renovate their newly purchased cottage and get the kids settled in the local schools. Kenny is determined that we catch up sometime in France, and that is probably on the cards too.

Prior to this, Cass and I steeled ourselves for a final assault for this academic year on the formidable stone steps of Tienmu Gudao. I think we both felt the need for the challenge so that we're in good shape for our soon-to-be daily routine of the coastal walk from Merewether to Shepherd's Hill and (occasionally) beyond. The walk "back home" is not really in the same level of difficulty as this one here, but it does take longer!

We sequestered the scooter in a tiny illegal park at the end of a line of cars at the foot of the steps, secured our icy cold water bottles in the boot, and headed off up the mountain. The usual weekend "traffic" was evident and the term, "all the gear, but no idea" regularly sprang to mind. Many of the weekend warriors are fully kitted out in the latest Nike or other sporting brands, legs sheathed in those tight black leggings which are supposed to have some sort of restorative purpose, and armed with mountaineering style walking poles. They have little sport backpacks and the latest sunglasses matching their brand new designer joggers. Sometimes, we even  encounter people resembling Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tensing with hiking boots, rugged pants tucked into knee high socks and what resembles an apiarist's headgear. Despite all the trappings, almost to exclusion, we manage to motor past them on the way up and the way down, partly as they stop at awkward moments and positions on the steps to "take a breather"!

It was another successful assault, yet the cloying heat of approaching summer was palpable. The monkey signs and insignia were everywhere on the ridgeline of course, but mercifully, our strolling simian sidekicks were not! In fact, for a change, there was very little evidence of creatures in the forests, as even the birds seem to have lost their voice. We dodged and weaved between the odd centipede or lizard on the steps but it wasn't till we reached the bottom that we had our first proper encounter: a giant snail was inching its way along the platform with impunity! Cass reckons she mainly goes just to experience the cooling draughts we enjoy at the bottom of the mountain: I retrieve the water bottles from the scooter and we sit and relax on the wooden bleachers at the bottom, all aflush and smug with our achievement!

We've got a few jobs to accomplish in the next few days as we shut up operations here in Taipei for a couple of months. The "girls" need various food and toiletry supplies and we need to clean up our own food and garbage. Flights are confirmed and drivers booked and my new parking arrangements have been made. I have to get some surfboards back home, and get the car settled snugly into its new underground carpark. Unusually this year, I also have to move rooms at work. I need to start packing boxes and arrange for my red couches to be transported as they're like seating gold: I scrounged them over a period of years from the basement furniture storage room! I have a massive supply of teaching materials purely suited to elementary school which are my own, many of them hand made. They're probably not much use for anyone else, so the recycling and garbage bins will be getting a workout too!

We'll be off before the next instalment of the blog is due, so thanks for reading this year and we'll be up and running again in August, hopefully with some tales and photographic evidence of a few Antipodean adventures!

Photos: a blast from the past (recognise someone?!), frozen Japanese beer (!), shots from the steps, a Taiwanese amputee traffic warden and a couple from Kenny's farewell. I've just finished re-reading Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men" and have started Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451" again. What a dedicated teacher I am(!) Cass has read a few since I've updated, but I think her current is Paul Auster's "4 3 2 1"

Best laid plans sometimes come unstuck and despite my last minute planning of addresses in Mandarin, the taxi driver seemed to be totally perplexed. The characters were correct, it was just that the specific address of building, lane and alley was unknown. In dribbling rain and through a foggy windscreen, he just needed to be directed all the way up to the lower slopes of “Section 7”, the leafy and glitzy area of our suburb on the way up to Yangminshan, one street at a time!

Cass and I were on our way up to Shaun and Katie’s place for a party to celebrate the end of his doctoral studies. He’s been at it for a good few years now so felt a sense of sweet relief when it was all done and dusted. He’s just finishing his first year as principal of the middle school as well, so it’s been a big year all round. We’ve had a lot to do with these two over the past 16 years and were pleased to get an invite to help celebrate another milestone. I worked team teaching with Katie for years, Shaun is one of our good Aussie mates who we share a beer with down at Uli’s from time to time and years back we headed down to Tasmania for their wedding. It was a good show and we had fun for a few hours at their place on an otherwise dreary Friday night. We even met another couple from Newcastle with a couple of kids at the school….small world isn’t it?!

We had our Saturday sleep-in interrupted by a mild cacophony, discordant trumpets blaring and drums ‘a beatin’. We’d been warily eyeing off the preparations in our local temple and park for a few weeks as we walked to and from school, but today was the day when things would really “light up”. There was a traffic jam of marching groups on the river road which skirts the pocket park and tennis court just opposite our place. After an initial pile-up, all seemed to get sorted pretty quickly, but as we were to ascertain shortly afterwards, this was the eye of the storm.

We wandered over to do the grocery shopping in the early afternoon only to be amazed at the scenes in the park behind the temple and tennis courts. Stages were being constructed, as well as tables and chairsbeing set up under huge tents for hundreds and hundreds of diners. There were gas bottles linked with snaking hoses to gargantuan cooking pots boiling awayvast quantities of vegetables and unidentified meats. An army of cooks and preparers were bustling under the canvas and seemed slightly bemused at the foreigners in their midst taking photos!

When dusk fell to early evening, however we were amazed when we returned from the cinema. Alien Covenant had nothing on the other-worldly scenes and sounds which greeted us in our little alley. Hordes of ample-stomached and scantily clad young men were chewing betel nut and chugging beers in the little pagoda opposite, with their souped up cars idling in the lane-way making further jams. The procession of floats and tributes flowed and eddied down the river road, all the while accompanied either by the strident traditional wailing or in-congruent beating rhythms of modern doof doof blasting out of strategically located speakers through the park.

The diners were being entertained by a woman shouting at ear-splitting volume into a mic who was extolling various men to get up and dance with her bikini clad partners, who were wandering up and down the table rows shaking ample bosom at various victims (none seemed game to do so at this early stage of the night). Wandering over to the temple proper and past the long lines of waiting deities and their attendants, each float was being welcomed into the courtyard with blasting music and raucous cheers. Dance troupes of young girls performed various set routines on yet another stage gracing the entrance to the temple proper, and each presentation was met with a further firing of crackers and a corresponding release of coloured ticker-tape, which showered down like confetti on the rapturous crowd.

I wandered out and around the back entrance and re-entered our alley for the stroll back home. All the excitement was miraculously over by about 10 p.m. and there was an orderly withdrawal of thousands of delirious worshipers. I just wonder what might have happened at a similar celebration elsewhere in the world: I’m certain it wouldn’t have been as calm as this!

As I mentioned, we did see the latest Alien movie on Saturday night, yet life was putting on its own even more amazing show for us when we returned! We ate a delicious meal at Thai Town with all our favourites and a really lazy day on Sunday, winding down from all the previous night’s excitement. 

Photos: Wal and Annie, me and Wal with the new "doctor", Aussie grapes(!), preparations in the park, cinema posing, Thai Town, temple antics.

Is there any soundtrack harder to erase from one's mind than that of the stage-play, "Oliver"? I'm shouting, "No!"

There's a little ditty They're singing in the city Espeshly when they've been On the gin Or the beer
See what I mean? Try to get that out of your head in a hurry! The trouble was, in fact, quite possibly the genesis of all the mind soundtracks, were precisely because Cass couldn't get on the gin or the beer all week long and all weekend as the makeup artisan par excellence was once again pressed into service for the annual middle school production.


Food, glorious food! Hot sausage and mustard! While we're in the mood, Cold jelly and custard!
Pease pudding and saveloys, What next is the question? Rich gentlemen have it boys,
Indigestion!
Despite the thespian's face artist(!) being banished to her backstage makeup room for hours on end this week, we still managed to feast on hot sausage and mustard (or at least I did!) We got some takeaway fare a few times during the period, but remarkably, Cass insisted on keeping up the cooking routine, partly I suspect because of just that: routine. She finds it quite comforting when she has the time to just potter around the kitchen and prepare the food for the coming few days.


Consider yourself at home. Consider yourself one of the family. We've taken to you so strong.
It's clear we're going to get along.
We had communication with both strands of the family at different points on the weekend and during the week as Mother's Day was celebrated. We'd sent some floral tributes to Valerie and Denise and were relieved to find that both sets arrived without any drama and were well received. It was great to have a chat with the mums and Denise had just enjoyed a super lunch prepared by her daughters and son-in-law which was a real treat as they set it all up at home for her, negating the need for an adventure further afield.


Who will buy my sweet red roses? Two blooms for a penny. Who will buy my sweet red roses?
Two blooms for a penny.
Cass was given her sweet red rose after the Saturday performance, but whether the makeup crew had left theirs behind deliberately or there were just extra left over we don't know. Regardless, Cassy arrived home with a bountiful bunch of red roses for narry a penny as she scooped up all that remained and saved them from a withering fate overnight. She felt like quite the prima donna!

Hang ev'rything! We'd risk life and limb To keep you in the swim Yes, we'd do anything...
Anything?!.......Anything for you.
It was far from this dramatic, but I finally found some time to go and spot some gold on my new gig next year. Current teacher, Lisa, was kind enough to let me sit in on her classes this week. She gave me a good outline of what she currently does with her EAL classes on Grade 8 and Grade 7 then I watched them in action and took part in a couple of activities. It was great to see the theory in practice and start to get a better idea about my new gig. She showered me with lots of extra novels and texts and URLs for programs so I'm going to have a lot of reading and preparation in the next couple of months!

You've got to pick-a-pocket or two You've got to pick-a-pocket or two, boys,
You've got to pick-a-pocket or two. 
I still feel slightly violated myself after being informed I will lose my underground carpark next school year, starting in August. I've been robbed! No, seriously, the fact of the matter is that we've been getting away with our own petty crime for a good decade or more. The system of school parking is meant to be for commuters who commute at least 4 days a week between home and school. We only occasionally use the car on one day of the weekend, so it is taking a valuable park from genuine commuters, many of whom have been on a lengthy waiting list for years. So, fair cop! Trouble is of course, that car parking is at a premium in this glitzy, leafy suburb and the price is correspondingly high. Nonetheless, I think I've found a spot which is pretty cheap, a few blocks away from home: is $2,000 a year cheap? Apparently for here, it is!

One boy, Boy for sale. He's going cheap. Only seven guineas.That -- or thereabouts. 
Not a boy, but two surfboards. Not for sale, but free. The surfboards are a fallout from the loss of the parking as they were stacked behind the car. I offered them on the school exchange this week and it looks like they're already snapped up. I'll keep a couple of favourites, but unfortunately these must go! 

Photos: boards, construction and makeup! 

Now finally, just to be really extremely annoying, cop this!......
Oom-pah-pah! Oom-pah-pah! That's how it goes, Oom-pah-pah! Oom-pah-pah! Ev'ryone knows.
They all suppose what they want to suppose...When they hear...oom-pah-pah!!

A small commotion in our laneway disturbed us from our reverie early on Saturday morning, the chatter of voices and the scratching of brooms along with trolleys being dragged along. A cute Taiwanese tradition is the local community volunteer clean-up group that descends periodically in a whirlwind of frenetic energy, before disappearing just as quickly. They're like a plague of locusts facing a crop of rich, fresh wheat: not a shred is left behind! A slightly sinister by-product is that if they discover anything untoward, like a bag of recyclables left around, or even worse, some errant garbage, they'll sift through the mess until they find some evidence of the dumper. They then confront the neigbourhood criminal with their evidence and castigate them roundly…luckily we’re very good citizens and haven’t received one of these sprays!

We re-visited a fantastic spot down in the south east of the city this weekend. The Songshan Cultural and Creative Park is a beautiful space, an oasis of calm and stylish design in the midst of one of the busiest areas of the city. Right outside its front gate, traffic whizzes along and elevated roadways host even more vehicles going hither and dither. It’s a nostalgic visit for us as, I’ve mentioned previously, the area has morphed into being since we used to visit the Living Mall so many years ago. The park virtually lies in its shadow.

Cobblestoned paths lead the way in past luxuriant stands of tropical palms and plants, weaving their way between temporary stalls and tents displaying all types of crafts and trinkets. The stalls have swollen in number and variety since we last visited. The old tobacco factory has been fully restored and sprawls across acres of land in the form of numerous large warehouses and an enormous double-storied administration block encasing an inner courtyard of paths, plantings and an impressive baroque, cascading fountain in its centre. Cass just loves the main building: it oozes style and space with little nods to art deco styling throughout. We had a great time wandering through later in the day.

First, however, we made a beeline for the new edifice behind the old, the Eslite Spectrum and its basement food court. We hoped that the “Australian Pie Pie” shop would still be there and it was! We tucked into some lavish servings of pies with accompanying mashed potato and vegetables. The slight nod to being in Taiwan was the iced tea that was part of the set, but unsweetened, it was the perfect liquid refreshment. Onwards and upwards, quite literally, the second floor bespoke arts area was great fun to re-visit. We wandered past hand crafted guitar nooks, fixed wheel bikes, glass blowing and pottery and were even invited to make our own silver jewelry in a fully kitted-out workshop!

We didn’t stumble across custom made furniture outlet Ruskasa which was rumoured to be housed within, but never mind, perhaps we’ll find another area to explore when I can locate it somewhere else! Strolling back to the warehouses, we were enticed inside by the earnest invitations of beautiful young hosts hovering near the doorways. Feeling very old and daggy due to the packed warehouses of overdressed, impossibly young and gorgeous uni students, we realized that we’d stumbled into the graduating design class of 2017 from Taipei University. Girls were tottering around in sparkling, gravity defying stilettos with swishing dresses, while the guys were doffing pork pie hats, wearing “ankle-freezer” skinny leg jeans and toting leather shoulder bags.

Oblivious to the old foreign dags in their midst, the youngies fawned over each other and exclaimed and giggled as they took a thousand selfies, so we judiciously exited stage left! We wandered back across to the relative calm of the old administration building to the Taiwan Design Museum and discovered a haven of chic creation and style. We wandered around for ages, exclaiming at the cool designs and innovative products. There was so much stuff I wanted, but in the end we resisted and walked away with just a few good memories.

We raced around as is our usual practice on the rest of the weekend, sourcing food for the week ahead, organizing our lives and relaxing with the strangely and newly attentive girls. After our favourite Maya Pizza refused to open at our preferred time (!), we sourced some from Pino. The main guy there is originally from Pizza Oggi and, judging by the taste and quality of his products, he has taken some of those authentic Italian secrets across with him. We’ll be back!

Photos: A flipped car on the main road when we walked to school earlier in the week….how did this happen?! Clean up crew in the lane-way and shots from the Cultural and Creative Park.