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!)

Despite my misgivings about teaching primary age students some 16 years ago, I'm really going to miss these little kids next year! My old friends occasionally throw back my famous quote to me, "If I ever teach primary kids, take a gun and shoot me"! I really did feel like that after so long teaching high school. Now, of course, I can't imagine a time or a place where I'll ever teach 18 year olds  again.

As the reality of my move to the middle school's Grade Eight really settles in for me, my thoughts are turning to just how cute these current kiddies are. They're just so full of the fervour for learning, that it carries you along with it. Every day, without exception, their enthusiasm is quite inspiring for me to go that little bit harder or to really make sure I'm doing them a good service. Apart from that, they often just crack me up!

This feeling won't disappear next year, but that love of learning might be just hidden a little further under a few layers of teenage angst or self-consciousness. Cass assures me that her kids are unlike our Year 8 charges in Newcastle, which is rather heartening, because some of them left a little to be desired!

As for the weekend, too much sport was never enough! The Quiksilver Pro was on from Snapper Rocks, streaming seamlessly in high definition on Apple TV from the early morning both days. We interrupted this viewing pleasure to follow the courageous Knights, also in high definition on a different app on Saturday, as they fell to a narrow defeat after a highly entertaining game. Then it was time for the 3rd cricket test in India, this time in low definition, which stood as a pertinent metaphor for the dreary progress of the Aussies and the stoic defence of the Indians. While this was streaming on the TV via the main computer, I had the rest of the Super Saturday rugby league games beaming out from the iPad. It was, in fact, too much of a good thing....I got a headache from too much screen time and a backache from too much sitting!

We were out and about, thank goodness, on the rest of the weekend. Our shopping trip always amuses, as we walk by the tennis courts, through the small park and across the river before another small temple park, past the mahjong players and through to Mingde Road and the supermarket in the basement of a large building across the street. Lugging supplies back over the same route, we noticed that the blossoms are just bursting forth a little more: Spring has sprung!

Din Tai Feng in the SOGO complex beckoned for xiao long bao, rice and tea. Some "specialty" shopping in the basement, then across to Wendel's for the week's bread loaves plus some delicious treats in the form of strawberry and rasberry rolls....rolled up sponge cakes with lashings of fresh cream! We watched yet another Oscar winning movie, the hauntingly beautiful and touching "Moonlight". It was magnificent; so perfectly paced and nuanced.

Photos: some of the kids I'll miss, along with my various monkey hosts, Chee Chee, Boris and CoCo, and friends. Wendel's sits quite decadently in a low rise complex with garden surrounds as developers must be salivating for a chance to throw up a skyscraper in such a sought after location. Our favourite toothpaste over here is only just scraping by in the politically correct stakes. Originally "Darkie", they've been forced to change their name (changing just one letter), but somehow have managed to persist with the outrageous photo of the black and white minstrel promoting shiny, dazzling white teeth. Finally a screen shot of the Quiky Pro from the Gold Coast.

Cassy's monthly book club dinner was held at the impressive and perennially fully booked "Osteria by Angie" over in the Dahzi region near the Neihu mega-complex. The rain pelted down as she made her way up to the school meeting point to be driven over by Darby with the group, and continued to beat a steady rhythm as they dined and then eventually left. It was a fitting sad and dreary metaphor for their feelings, as Stacey, their newest recruit a few years back, was attending her last meeting with them. She is embarking on a brand new adventure with husband and newish baby, as they move to Switzerland next month for a new posting. She is their only non-school member and they loved having her different perspective and fresh ideas to give them an alternative view on literature and life!

We took the advantage of getting a photo as I was slightly dolled up for parent conferences on Friday (Cass always looks this good!). We're given two full school days to schedule conferences with parents to discuss students' progress, a far cry from the days at Grammar when we used to drag ourselves in for a full evening or two after a hard day's work. The parents are, almost without exception, so delightful, caring and respectful. They appreciate our efforts and tell us so. If there are concerns, they listen; then we plan a framework for remediation together, with only the best interests of the student/child at heart. It's a tiring couple of days, but it can be quite satisfying as well!

We whizzed around patisseries and supermarkets on Saturday to get the weekly supplies and got some takeaway for dinner. We danced and leaped around the lounge-room in the early afternoon as the Newcastle Knights registered their first win in nearly a year, and in just the second round of the new competition! What an exciting time! I'd donned my 10 year anniversary Knight's jumper to watch the first game, so after changing jerseys to the special edition jumper of 2009, I'm actually laying claim to this win. I'll wear it again next week and you can see whether it actually works, or not.

We watched two movies on the weekend: "Jackie" was a poignant character study of an often misunderstood woman, and Natalie Portman did a superb job in the title role. It was fairly slow moving and elegantly wrought; also, I suppose, not dissimilar to Jackie herself! The Australian/U.S. co-production of "Lion" was just so beautifully imagined. At times, joyous and funny and at others so heart-wrenching and sad. What an amazing story....the truth can be stranger than fiction. Teeming crowds, dirt, crime and chaos in the cities along with simple lives of poverty in village slums were starkly juxtaposed with the "lucky country's" big suburban blocks, clear waters and abundance of just about everything.

We hummed and haaed, then eventually made the decision to challenge ourselves once again on the 1,500 steps of the Tienmu Gudao. Scootering up through the bus circle at section seven, then upwards to the little carpark at "base camp" of the steps was a delight in the shining spring light. We powered up the first section and starting working up quite a sweat, passing all and sundry, many of whom, in a slightly annoying fashion(!), were standing and resting in most awkward positions blocking the path upward!

We nearly staggered over a blissfully sleeping cat on the steep corkscrew section 3/4 of the way up, it seemingly oblivious to the possibility of being torn limb from limb by some wandering Macaque. The monkeys cross the steps in this very spot, so the cat was either brave or stupid! When we reached the summit of the climb we wandered the whole length of the ridge-line trail, eventually resting on a bench where we watched a couple of beautifully camouflaged lizards kiss and freeze!

The three evenings and two days of the weekend were a blissful release from a rather hectic week: the sun shone, the breeze whispered, various screens flickered and entertained, and our food was ample and delicious. We're lucky to have our lives. Photos: in Dave's classroom, shots from the steps, book club.

"...of droughts and flooding rains" can equally apply to Taiwan as Australia these days! Hard baked grounds and looming water restrictions have been alleviated by some biblical dumps of rain overnight, to add to the regular showers we've been having for the past week or so. Despite it being awkward to negotiate, especially on our daily walking commute to school, it's good to know that the spectre of water shortages has disappeared, for now at least.

The first flush of spring is also in evidence in the parks and gardens around the city. Tiny blossoms are bursting from buds on the apricot and cherry blossom trees lining the riverside walks and dotting the local parks. Photographers snap these minuscule puffs of powdery beauty with gigantic DSLR lenses, prowling and circling the trees to find just the right angle for their shot. As we wandered through the park to do the food shopping, the older, park-loitering gentlemen seem to be slightly more subdued as the regular mahjong games take place beneath the burgeoning blossoms: the regular rowdy exclaims are muted, and the constant clack of tiles is the only sound to disturb the pretty petals.

We don't often make the trek down to Shilin on foot, but decided to do just that on a delightful Sunday afternoon. Eschewing the practicalities of the MRT and the scooter, we decided to take advantage of the glorious sunshine and mild temperatures to enjoy a slice of the neighborhood's ambiance. We weren't the only ones! There were gaggles of schoolgirls giggling their way to noodle houses, and throngs of people buzzing in and out of the Jishan MRT station when we passed. Kiddies were riding their mini-scooters along the tiled promenades of the station, screaming with delight. There were groups of oldies sharing a meal at the tables in the 7/11 and couples and families You-biking all over the place: along pathways, footpaths and bridges, while people danced and played on the river banks as traffic whizzed above them.

There was a large bank of electric battery pods for scooters to make use of in the spacious scooter park under the MRT. These scooters are reasonably popular in Taiwan, but haven't really taken off for a couple of reasons. Firstly, there is no subsidy, so subsequently they are dearer than petrol-powered ones and secondly, they are so deathly quiet that people step in front of them causing accidents on a regular basis! Even so, this battery exchange system is a forward thinking service.

We were shocked to see even more development across the river towards the Shilin district: how much more growth can this city sustain?! One slick looking building was clad in bright orange tiles, however: Cass commented that those things would really date! We took a few backstreets closer to our destination and spied all sorts of interesting tea houses and dessert bars in the shadows of the overhead railway tracks in the approach to Shilin station...maybe another time!

Burger Ray's has an interesting ordering system. There is a window facing the footpath where you order your food, and after ordering and payment, you're given a drink cup and ushered inside. Once in, you can find a space among the shared long tables or by the long bar on one wall, help yourself to a drink, then wait till your order is called. The custom hamburgers arrive in a metal basket with the top bun displaced and then you can load up your burger with various salad options and sauces from the shared salad bar. The outside ordering obviously attracts a crowd, and the inside loading of toppings allows you to personalize your meal: both very clever ideas!

We enjoyed the usual excellent food and the decor and vibe: there are a lot of young people who go there and the music, the pulse and the energy all feel quite uplifting. Afterwards, we re-traced our steps, pausing on the bridge to spy a group of "Moops", who were alternatively quite happily extracting long, juicy worms from the soil to gobble or posing in a familiar statuesque stillness by the water's edge! We passed a funny little dumpling museum which we'd never seen before with examples of ubiquitous cute creatures representing the product. As we wandered, we also passed a joinery shop shut for the weekend, but with a lethal looking bench-saw exposed for any passer-by to rip themselves to shreds on if they so desired: imagine the "OH and S" issues back in Australia!!


Photos: Blossoms budding and shopping bags being transported back through the park. The remainder are sights from our Shilin stroll.