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.