Taipei is in the throes of a looming presidential election and various candidates are jockeying for position in the two major parties. It's causing more of a wave than usual this time as the stakes are rising by the day with the Hong Kong uprising uppermost in politicians' minds as well as warnings from China that any possible moves to independence from Taiwan would be regarded as "disastrous". This is pretty strong rhetoric from the world's greatest emerging superpower, but people here are either naive or fiercely brave.

There are many local rallies about independence and there is a groundswell of support for such ideals among a significant proportion of the population. The elections tend to be on a knife's edge, however, meaning that the population is pretty much evenly split on the idea. China's sabre rattling at the very mention of independence worries us, but the pro-independence cabal here seem oblivious to the threat! I just hope that whoever prevails in a few months holds the steady line and confirms the "one country, two systems" ideology in order to avoid "disaster"!

We enjoyed long spells of cricket over the weekend. The first test of the summer from the Gabba is an institution and one which the Australians almost always win. This test was no different: the crack of willow on leather inspires and delights us at this time of year and we relished the chance to enjoy sessions in the sun, thunder in with ball in hand and dissect the field to find the boundary with a flourish of the bat!

We ducked away from the game to do various chores we reserve for the weekend away from the hectic pace of the working week. Carrefour was buzzing as usual, but we managed to flit in and out fairly quickly with our great haul of groceries. We always seem to be carting away bags laden with goods while others are zipping in and out with just a few purchases! We just do one big shop a week while many locals go nearly every day for their immediate needs: it's quite a different shopping culture!

The V8 Supercars were also on this weekend so we tuned in for a while on Sunday to get a glimpse of Newcastle by drone and helicopter as the cars hammered round the city street circuit. The city looked fantastic: who wouldn't want to live there?(!) At one stage we were flirting with the idea of a lightning visit home as we'd purchased tickets to the Kiss concert. Luckily we'd pulled the pin on that idea a while back and hadn't bought plane tickets or made arrangements: imagine the disappointment if we had!

It's a short working week for us, mercifully. The mighty United States of America has decreed it's a weekend for giving thanks, so we'll gratefully accept the long weekend and celebrate Thanksgiving in our own way. A perk for working at an American institution!

Photos: the kids joined a worldwide movement in a "Dance for Kindness", we were issued with new contracts, and Cass jokingly posed with her daily whiteboard schedule! We also got our rail pass from "DB" addressed to Herr Braggett!

We almost literally stumbled upon a new restaurant on Saturday evening after wandering down an alley at the rear of the local cinema complex. Previously housing a very uninspiring antique shop, the Greek Taverna Mussaka was a surprising and welcome sight. We'd been heading towards The Spice Shop to confirm that their online presence had in fact been correct in saying they were all booked up, when we spied this new gem.

We wandered in and were warmly welcomed and ushered to a table. The place was brightly decorated in Greek island blue and white and it seemed like a real "Mum and Pop" show. Somehow, Mum dealt with the steadily filling restaurant and Pop kept churning out the dishes. He emerged a little later in the evening to chat to a few couples they obviously knew. Cass had stuffed tomatoes and I had fetta sprinkled lamb chops just melting off the bone! Some plump and massive goldfish were lolling around in a fish-tank behind me and Cass was fascinated with them, as well as the strange dotted black fish who was puckering up to the tank's front wall. The food and ambiance was great and the "set" inclusions of soup, bread and piping hot, strong coffee just made the experience even better.

We'd been at a session of "Terminator: Dark Fate", the latest in the long running Terminator series. I'm a massive fan of the early movies, especially Terminator 2 when it first came out. This was supposed to be a reboot of the original story-line although to me it fell a little flat. The presence of original megastars, Linda Hamilton and big Arnie dragged it up to an acceptable level: we both couldn't fault the action sequences even though the dialogue fell a little flat and glib at times.

I reprised my mild heroics of last week and challenged the steps again this Sunday. The weather was suitably similar, although choosing to go at the height of the midday sun was not ideal, as the overhead rays pierced through the canopy at more regular intervals. The macaques again stayed their distance and the steps again proved no less steep nor unrelenting! The biggest difference is that on the lower flights the trickling of water has stopped due to a lack of rain and runoff. The upper stream still cascades beside the track and gurgles through the pipes: I'm not sure where it goes after the mid-way point! The water provides a metronomic note to pace oneself by: without it, I plodded (at least that's my excuse!)

On Friday night a couple of strange vehicles were spotted on the bustling streets of the wider city. We spied a ute of sorts, looking a bit retro and very interesting: a far cry from the ubiquitous cookie-cutter modern saloons purring the streets. Uber Eats is big business here as in most other places in the world and the ride of choice is a Kymco or Yamaha motor-scooter, so who would have guessed a Harley would be used?! This Sportster model would need multiple thousand deliveries to recoup the outlay to buy it....the mind boggles!

Cass spent Friday night with a meeting of her Book Club. She only needed to stroll across a few alleys as Lisa was hosting and she's only recently moved to a new place near us. Her daughter Atlas kept the ladies entertained with her confident and articulate sassiness and boldly took Cass by the hand to show her all sorts of exciting things! They had a delicious meal and bookish chats along with at least a little gossip about the comings and goings at work.

Photos: Taipei vehicles at night, Greek dining and the steps.

Just around the corner from our alley, a postage stamp plot, a veritable sliver of land, is all that this canny developer must have spied in travels down Lane 10 Ker Qiang Road one day. A long neglected "block" of land next door to where Shaun and Katie used to live is being transformed, quite magically, into some style of house or apartment. It was paved over a few years ago and some cars parked there end to end as parking adjacent to each other was impossible due to the width, which I estimate to be about 12 feet. When the structure is eventually built I'd love to get a look inside: what tricks and trends will need to be achieved to make this a liveable space?! (see photo up top)

The weather here this weekend hit its zenith: cloudless skies, mild temperatures and just a zephyr to wipe away a sheen of perspiration if one was strolling away from the trees in full sun for a stretch. It was so delightful in the daylight hours, with just a hint of coolness when the sun retreated for the day. We went and did our grocery shopping in the flush of a blooming Saturday early afternoon, before strolling down to the SOGO to visit our favourite Thai restaurant for our usual combined lunch and dinner.

This combined meal has two benefits. The first and most obvious is that we only need to cater for one meal versus two, but the other benefit is that we are so ravenously hungry by the time we eat it that anything tastes wonderful! The latter is an added bonus sometimes, but not necessary at this Thai restaurant: the fresh food steaming from the wok is just sublime and we marvel at it each and every time. The eggplant is so vibrantly crimson it looks artificial and the shrimp pancakes are melt in your mouth. We usually combine these with beef and cashews and a traditional green curry chicken: a feast for Thai kings!

I conquered the thousand(s) of steps on Tienmu Gudao on Sunday while Cass struggled with the website for the German train giant, Deutsche Bahn! Cass was keen to explore a few train pass options for our upcoming trip after an informative chat with our friend Ange, who'd done some German train traveling a couple of years ago. We'd already managed to book, but not pay for, some return tickets from Frankfurt to Munich, so we wondered if we could include these bookings under the umbrella of a rail pass. I left Cass to sort out the intricacies while I challenged myself after a long lay-off.

The monkeys were foraging softly, and despite the tell-tale crack of branches from a swinging simian somewhere far away in the forest, they spared me any further heartache. I climbed methodically and cautiously, conscious that my shoes were untested on the surface of the steps and also my heart hadn't been sped up like this for a little while! I'd blown out two pairs of well used shoes at camp and was using a back-up pair. They performed quite admirably yet my heart slightly less so: I was huffing and puffing with a beating heart at various checkpoints all the way to the top!

The stroll around the ridge-line at the top of the steps is always rewarding, but especially so today. The air was fresh, the sun dappling through the canopy, and the warm-down along the path was actually quite exhilarating as the trail winds its way around the mountain with occasional and fleeting views of the valley life far, far below. My shoes held up well and the cooling draught of water at the bottom made it a short excursion to savour.

Cass did indeed sort out the rather confusing DB website and we subsequently purchased a four day (flexi: non consecutive days) pass for some major journeys we might take and no doubt, we'll navigate around the system on a few shorter trips as well over the period. The world continues to be our oyster: we're well aware of this and grateful for everything we have.

An onslaught of needy parents is not a sight any teacher craves. On Thursday and Friday we were subjected to just this scenario as 100s of kids and parents entered the upper gymnasium like ants to a mound, swarming and settling then swarming again and again.

Sometimes they are needy, but mostly also delightful, respectful and thankful. The newest breed of parent in our environment is seeking the wellness of their child as well as academic success and it's a difficult blend to achieve, a real juggling act. We promote academic rigour, yet we are also cognisant of their mental health needs. The parents sometimes need guidance on these issues along with how to simply improve their overall English grade.

So along with the intricacies of the themes and techniques evident in Fahrenheit 451, we counsel on reading choices and sleep recommendations with everything in-between! Cassy and I had 70 odd and 90 odd respectively to deal with over two gargantuan days. Miraculously, our voices held out and our sanity survived by a gossamer thread: we were certainly grateful when the last party of parents and kids departed at 4 p.m.on Friday afternoon!

What better antidote than a meal at the famous and wonderful Din Tai Feng on Saturday? We thought none better, so we shopped a little at Uniqlo and Cassy's light weight down jacket in tow, we eased down to the basement for our date with dumplings, rice and tea. Satiated, we emerged into a glorious autumn day and wandered home. On the way we amplified my theme of last week: Cass got some clothing, we bought German banana cake, I queried my phone bill and we bought some furniture all in the 10 minute stroll home!

These establishments are all crowded into our tiny yet bustling neighbourhood, as mentioned previously. The Macro Maison furniture store got some more of our custom as we ordered two more wooden "shapes", these two meant to fit inside some we'd already bought, in a kind of table nest style. Cass had the light-bulb moment a while back: it really makes great sense as we can use the same footprint for the tables but get twice as much use. The guy offered us a discount and a lovely gift as we drank tea and waited to sign the forms.

Cass had ordered a replacement watch band (jazzy blue alligator leather) a couple of months ago and Scott from Cartier texted that it had, indeed, just arrived from France. We needed to travel down and across to the XinYi district (famous for Taipei 101) to get to the store so we did just that on Sunday morning. It's a different world down there at the best of times, especially at night, but it was interesting to see it in a more relaxed state. Although still busy and exciting, the later street performers, buskers and dancers hadn't started yet which aided a much more peaceful ambiance. It's just crazy (and a bit sick) to see how many "brand names" are vying for customer attention here: there are three Cartier shops within 2 minutes walk as just one small example.

We did our bit to support the luxury market economy then wandered back via some basement electronic stores where they were selling original vinyl LPs for about $20 each. I wish my record collection didn't sink in the "Pasha Bulker" flood....I could have made a fortune! Food trucks have been set up along tree lined avenues bringing a new funky feel to the pedestrian boulevards around 101. This city never rests on its laurels: there's always something new and exciting popping up.

Enervated from too much product and sensory overload we enjoyed a lazy afternoon after jettisoning home via the subway and a 7/11 to source our "Moris" for tea. Ready for another week of action but, mercifully, no more parent conferences!

Photos: Aussie steak at the supermarket, window cleaners, furniture shopping (wooden shapes at far left) and various shots "downtown". Record video up top for now.