The grand old ladies have been buried deep in down and cocooned in wool during an extended cold snap here in the last couple of weeks. The cold has gripped Taipei by the throat and shows no sign of lessening her hold at least until next week. Our apartment leaks warmth and radiates dampness from its cold, uninsulated walls, rattling windows seem to tremble in the icy onslaught and our air-conditioner pumps out a steady defense against the arctic invader. At least we now have a proper heater: until the air-conditioner was installed in all its reverse-cycle glory before last winter, we were battling along with a tiny ceramic blow heater!
We joined the two fluffballs in their dotage all weekend, taking advantage of the cozy atmosphere we were able to create indoors while reluctantly and quickly getting any outdoor duties or chores done in record time. We watched lots of cricket with the Twenty 20 games internationally and the Big Bash final both taking place, along with breaking out the latest series of The Crown, which we'd been saving for just such an occasion. The cats have even been spoiled by Cassy to be allowed to linger on our bed in the cold days, hitherto a forbidden zone, where they squirrel between the two quilts and create quite the tropical paradise for themselves through body heat and close proximity!
I mentioned briefly before that I'd damaged my shoulder at camp grasping at an errant kayak, somewhere in the process ripping and tearing all sorts of muscles and tendons. I've been going to a physiotherapist once a week for months now, and although the joint feels free and nimble immediately after his exertions, by the time I go back a week later it's all bound up again, an ancient Chinese maiden's foot. Somehow, I've still managed to keep up my push-up routine, but the injury wakes me up many times each night and really restricts my movement as well as being quite agonizing if I twist or turn the wrong way. Suffice to say, I'm going for another visit today, but may soon need to look at other options.
We're relishing the prospect of Chinese New Year approaching, in fact it looms just over the horizon of next weekend. Some good may come of this current cold spell: CNY is traditionally cold and wet, yet this may prove to be inaccurate this year, as all the long range weather forecasts indicate we may have already experienced the cool and damp....fingers crossed! Regardless, we'll no doubt revel in the closed shops, the paucity of pedestrians and cars, and the general sense of sparse population as the local folk attend various temple and family duties on assigned days throughout the week. Some of the "on-island" stayers have already been tentatively making plans for get-togethers: we've been so busy it will be the first time we've caught up socially since the beginning of the academic year, let alone the calendar one!
That's it! I'm very slowly reading what turns out to be the last Sue Grafton book, Y is for Yesterday, because she's rudely up and died on us before completing the last chapter in the alphabet series. Along with Peter Corris going blind and retiring, it's almost more than I can take! Cass will need to start feeding me more of her Book Club tomes by the look of it. Photos: screen shot of recent weather, a curious winter promotion from KFC, our lonely shopping trolley against a wall of rice, and very pampered cats! Stop press: the last shot was taken on our walk to school, and yes, that is snow on Yangminshan!
Stop Stop Press: (Wednesday morning) see photos above:
TAIPEI (Taiwan News) -- A magnitude 6.0 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien at 11:50 p.m. tonight (Feb. 7) causing dramatic shaking throughout Taiwan, with Hualien suffering the brunt of the quake and at least five major buildings have collapsed, two bridges closed and sections of two highways have been shut off to traffic.
The epicenter of Tuesday's quake was 18.3 northeast of Hualien County hall at a shallow depth of 10 kilometers, according to Central Weather Bureau (CWB) and was the 94th earthquake since a spate of quakes started on Sunday. As this was the biggest of all 94 earthquakes, the CWB believes this was actually the main quake that the previous tremors were building up to, but only time will tell.
Also this.