Friday night was a good night for the driving range and it was great to get the gang back together again after a few weeks. Wal was back from Shanghai, Gurecki was back from Japan and Lewy joined us as well. Brandon even made a cameo before going home to get his rest before playing a real game the next day. I was in superlative form managing to have a few slices sizzle in front of other patrons’ noses they were that fine and crowned it all off with snapping the head off my 7 iron in a particularly vicious and inaccurate shot! At this rate, I’ll get rid of all these clubs pretty soon as I gifted Lewy my pitching wedge as Gurecki had “mislaid” his the last time we were out there.

Saturday, we tried out a new burger restaurant very close to home, the less than creatively named, “Eat Burger” We got a flier in the mail and it certainly looked the go, so we wandered down to a little lane behind the SOGO complex down the road and found ourselves in a little, spic and span American style diner. There was sauce and mustard on the table, 50s style posters on the wall and the burgers when they arrived were surprisingly delicious: a good find, but we won’t be able to frequent this place too often if we’re going to keep our waistlines in trim. We’d never really had a proper floor by floor wander through the SOGO except in the madding crowds of opening week, so we thought this would be a good chance. It was great fun looking at all the product and we eventually lost all track of time and place in the “Hands Tailung” shop up on the 7th floor. Housing all things Japanese, the range of goods went from the curious to the bizarre and it’s intriguing to find all this stuff that you never knew you needed, but somehow can’t possibly live without! Showing remarkable restraint, we walked out with just a coffee cup with the Italian flag emblazoned and a tiny iPod speaker in the form of a large die (and yes, it works really well).

It was great to meet up again with Leon and Nicole today and spend a little time catching up. They’re Queenslanders here for a weeklong visit, but we know Leon from his time here before. He said it was 7 years ago that he left, and we could hardly believe it. Nicole, his partner was over here for her first visit and she was taking everything in her stride, even surviving a Saturday night straight off the plane in the crowds of the Shilin night market: a real badge of honour, we reckon! They came round mid morning and we had a good catch up, and also talked about some of the harsh realities of living overseas and back home: a refreshing talk to have. I gave them the keys to the scooter in case they want to use it through the week and we tentatively organized to get together for dinner and a couple of beers mid week. Leon also handed over a whole stack of "Rugby League Week"s he'd brought over especially to give me: I'll be able to distract my self for a while reading all those!

Off to Miramar after that, lunch at Auburgine enroute, and before we went in to the flics we ran into our visitors again half way up the cinema building! They had lunch at the teppanyaki shop in Tienmu North, a place Leon remembers well from his time here and were just having a wander…coincidences. We had booked our tickets online earlier, which was just as well, because the huge cinema was just about bursting at the seams. Ironman 2 has only just opened and its big action appeal and fairly limited dialogue is a great match for a public hearing the movie in another language. It was a good fun movie, visually stunning and star studded. It was enjoyable to listen to all the in jokes, joking homage to other superhero franchises and just generally a real sense of fun that seemed to pervade. A curious note was right at the end. Somehow, everyone knew to stay till right at the end of the credits when there was a little fade out teaser to a possible 3rd installment. Normally everyone walks out as soon as the credits role, which often annoys us. How did they know to stay this time?....bizarre!

The weekend weather was sensational, just hovering round the 30 degree mark, but not too humid just yet. We think we might finally be seeing the belated onset of summer. Photos: Great fun outside the SOGO with brave souls taking to the skies in what I sensed was a tentatively tethered balloon! Cass pretty in orange, and the girls using each other as a pillow. I’m reading the thought provoking Nikky Gemmel book, “Why You Are Australian: a letter to my children” and Cass is reading, “The Help” by Kathryn Stockett.

At 4.45 a.m. the streets of Tienmu are very different from their normal hustling, frantic normality. As I scootered up to get the car in the pre dawn gloom there was a slop of Friday night revelers pouring themselves homeward, taxis crawling optimistically along the curb side of streets and a general sense of desolation: Taipei doesn’t do weekend mornings until at least 10 o’clock!

I met Andrew and Dan out at Green Ball before 5, as we’d judged the swell, wind and tide ideal at just this outrageously early hour. It was well worked out. Scrambling down the rock face to get to the jumpoff point in the gloom, the waves had a slight off shore spray and smooth faces. It wasn’t big, but just big enough to be interesting and we all had a great time. I was stoked to get my best 5 or 6 waves since Christmas and it restored my faith a little in what I had assumed were my waning skills. Back home to be greeted by a blinky eyed Cassy who assured me she’d been awake, “For a little while”, a breakfast of champions, then a relaxing morning reading.

After lunch we went to visit a friend of Cassy’s, Rhonda, who was in one of the local hospitals. Cass supplied her with a stack of magazines and stayed and chatted for a while. Cassy could well have saved this woman’s life and I hardly exaggerate. On Thursday night, at her regular book club meeting, Rhonda complained of pains in her calf and Cass asked her to describe them. They were exactly the symptoms that had led to Cass discovering her DVT, and the insistence of all to seek immediate medical help might well have been critical. She was hospitalized on the spot and remains there at least for the next week. Although Cass didn’t want to seem alarmist, she rightly told the others of the remarkable similarities and they acted upon her concerns: very lucky!

Afterwards, we went to the coffee museum down near Shipai station and had a pleasant hour or so chatting over our lovingly roasted ground bean drinks and a piece of cake. As we had lingered a while, we decided to get Spice Shop Indian takeaway on the way home to heat up for tea and subsequently it proved to be quite delicious.

We went to have a brunch at a new place we’d heard of over in Dazhi, near Neihu. The Door is an unreal find and pretty much mirrors the American diner style of café, The Diner, from way downtown. This place is a much more reasonable distance from us, so we’ll definitely be back. It was a pretty lazy day after that, although I did head up the hill to go to an Anzac day footy party, mainly to be there for a little half time presentation to Lewey that I had been worded up about beforehand. After a hit and run mission, and just the one beer, I came back home and Cass and I had a lovely walk along the riverbank where she told me all the news from home. She had been chatting to her Mum and dad and hearing some more about their further adventures in China and Singapore. Back again, I watched some footy, Cass did the grocery shopping and now we’re counting down to one of our least favored aspects of our job: the dreaded professional development day, which we have scheduled for tomorrow. Let’s have the kids any day, please!

My mate Mark has just landed back in Taipei from Japan, where his beloved father-in-law has died quite suddenly. He reckons he has aged a year in just a week, as a result of stress, shock and the burden of Buddhist funeral ceremonies and family support needs. Not a happy time.

Bookwise, I’m just finishing Dark Mirror and Cass is quite intrigued by The Magician’s Assistant. Photos: Cass and the pineapple guy who we often buy produce from in front of Mingde station. Lewey’s party last week, courtesy of Steve, the official photographer. Me at The Door. STOP PRESS: last photo is of Freeway 3 on Sunday arvo, between Taipei and Keelung. This is one of our most frequented roads and we are very shocked at this landslide. Just a couple of weeks ago, we were on this stretch with Chris and Val and we are on it most weekends. Here are some amazing pictures

It was an extremely social weekend, at least in the evenings. The big farewell show for Lewy (or Delbridge Racing, Asia) was on last night and went to the wee small hours. Lewy and Wal and Shaun and I decided to have a few quiet ones on Friday night leading up to the big event and that too turned into quite a celebration! We did do a great trip down the east coast, however and enjoyed some sensational weather and sights and had a surf.

Midweek I had my birthday and was stoked to get so many cards in the mail, along with lots of email messages, electronic cards or messages on facebook. Thanks one and all for your thoughts: even though we’re rock solid over here now after all these years, it’s always nice to know you’re not forgotten and that people think of you from time to time.

I seem to get sucked into the organizing role of various events these days. What started as a voluntary role which I was more than happy to do, in farewelling friends like Ross and then Josh, has become almost my given role. In Lewy’s case, I was really happy to help out a bit as he’ll be greatly missed next year. We’re of a very similar vintage with similar interests (including horseracing), and of a similar political bent, globally, nationally and institutionally. I did a little ground work setting up the venue, getting the invitation done and tracking the rsvps, then making the DVD/slideshow/video.

The night was a spectacular success and we had our fellow book club members, The Craw, Kenny G and Wally H as the major part of live band QvQ, the obligatory visits from the cops to try to close us down due to noise, and the subsequent Mexican stand off as they waited, arms folded, for the band to dare to start playing again! It was pretty hilarious. There were speeches and presentations, and Lewy was kind enough to give me a special print he’d had made up almost 10 years ago of one of the first horses, Drizzle. We’d worked out a great deal with the bar where we could drink Taiwan beer or various cocktails all night for just $NT600, which was pretty cheap. As a result, and throwing in a rocking band and a late finish of 2 am, most people enjoyed a very, very good night.

Our trip down to the east coast started latish in the morning, but we relished the late start and relaxed pace of it all. I was determined to check out Nan Ao’s surf break when I knew there was not much swell around, just to see if it broke at all, and if it did, how. We had a scenic drive down and enjoyed the mountain roads once we’d dropped off the end of the expressway. The vertigo inducing drop-offs were frightening (for me) and the azure colours stunning. The light offshore breeze dusted the surface of the sea to make it picture perfect and we stopped at a few lookouts along the way to drink in the view. Nan Ao was indeed pretty flat, but we’re quite intrigued with this area and wondering why there is no building near the coast. Perhaps, it is just too far away from Taipei to be attractive. Apart from one immense duck farm and a quilt of verdant rice paddies, there is nothing in sight.

Driving back, the beach at Su Ao was pretty but the surf was small and weak. Wushi Harbour on the other hand was strong and bigger, but we were stunned by the swollen crowd: it just always seems packed here. The Taj Mahal (so called for the adjacent mosque) was the choice, and I had a short but pleasant surf there while Cass dozed under a stand of shade trees up on the promenade. An interesting recent development at Taj is a hotel which has sprung up with gleaming white façade and little turrets mirroring its “big brother” next door! In fact the whole rate of development in this area is phenomenal: it’s a far cry from when Ross and I stumbled upon a bucolic backwater after our excruciating mountain drive some seven years ago.

Photos: at the deserted Nan Ao, scenic lookout, koi carp for sale!, me getting a small wave at the Taj.

It’s only when you experience it again that you can recall with any clarity other times it may have happened. I often scoff at literary clichés such as a “fog of pain”, dismissing them as wild exaggerations. After this week, I’m no longer such a naysayer. A week of suffering, at times, the most nauseating bouts of pain and after some dental surgery on Saturday to alleviate it, I can claim to be a fan of all but the most ridiculous descriptions of hurt!

The week started very well, with Taiwan’s Tomb Sweeping Day coinciding with Cassy’s birthday (as it always does on April 5th) and a day off work for all. Cass had already planned and booked her birthday lunch, taking advantage of the day off to have a meal in the middle of the day and also to take advantage of Chris and Val’s last full day in Taipei to celebrate all together.

We took the MRT down and wandered through the forecourt of Shin Kong Mitsukoshi’s twin department stores on our way to the restaurant. The space was just beginning to come alive, lots of street performers just setting up their magic show, yo-yo demonstrations, straw art stalls, sketching, dancing, singing etc. We ate a mighty meal at Cassy’s favourite Macaroni Grill (which has just been voted Taipei’s number one Italian restaurant by readers of Hungry Girl, a favourite blog of ours) and managed to fit in appetizers, main meals and dessert along with wine! Cassy’s plan was to have a lunch/dinner combo and the mid afternoon timeslot allowed us to do just that: we were still full the next morning!

Daniel the driver had been arranged to pick up Chris and Val at 9 a.m. as they were on their way to Beijing. All went without a hitch and we’ve heard from them since, where they have set a hectic pace visiting and/or revisiting many great spots. They have a guide and a driver all to themselves at some points, not planned that way, but the lack of other customers has worked out well for them.

I’d known for a couple of weeks that I would have a wisdom tooth extracted this Saturday. The trouble was that mid-week the tooth next to it that is the real problem started to ache, at first annoyingly and then almost unbearably. By Friday, I was steeling myself for the wave of pain that seemed to come, rather bizarrely, every hour. It only lasted about three minutes, but I needed to stop everything (walk out of the room if I was teaching, which I was a few times!) then wait it out, tensing muscles, sweating profusely and basically wishing the world would end! By the time Cass got me to the dentist on Saturday I didn’t really care what he did as long as it relieved that rolling world of hurt.

This weekend, after my delirium filled taxi ride home which I don’t remember (!), I’ve just been popping pain killers and lying around. I’ve tried not to be too bad a patient but I’m sure it has been tedious for Cassy. Stitches are not due to come out till next Saturday and then I’ll look forward to the root canal treatment for the tooth that has been causing all the problems….joy!

Suffice to say that after Tuesday, we haven’t done much. Photos are of Taipei 101, now the world’s second tallest building behind the Burg in Dubai, Macaroni Grill, and wandering back down our lane after lunch (like Mr. Lee’s razor wire?!) I’m reading Barry Maitland’s Dark Mirror and Cass is reading Outliers. Cass was stoked to hear from all members of my family, Mum and sisters, along with Aunt V, her sister, Thurza and Lois and a few friends now scattered in other parts of the world for her birthday….thanks!

Taroko Gorge beckoned for our visitors on Monday and all 4 of us were up and about early in the morning, Cass and I preparing to return to work and Chris and Val ready to taxi down to Taipei main station.
The trip was a great success and they were lucky to get some great weather for the three days they were there. The train trip down the coast is always scenic, with the ocean on one side for a good chunk of the trip and the mountains on the other. As mentioned last time, they were staying at the newly renovated Silks Place and it really lived up to its hype.

The Silks Place bus picked them up from Hualien station and took them deep into the gorge where the hotel nestles into the gorge at a splitting of two arms of the river. The rooms offer majestic views of the gorge itself, the river continuing to flow around gigantic boulders of stone and marble. The dining areas have been extensively remodeled to incorporate some outdoor dining and decks overlooking newly planted gardens. They enjoyed the all inclusive dining and many of the facilities, including the three giant heated pools in the basement level. During their time, they went on lots of hikes, including a half day 8km hike, the Sha Ka Dang, where the bus dropped them off and picked them up at the end.

On Friday they set off up the MRT line to Danshui and wandered the streets, Chris in search for an elusive hat stall he’d bought a much loved hat from last time, and generally enjoying the sights, sounds and smell of the river on a full tide. They bought some tickets for the short hop across the river to Bali and enjoyed the riverside park there, a place we have only recently explored ourselves. On Friday night Cass and Val visited Joe the Jeweler to pick up Val’s pearl pendant which had just been completed. I was at a school get-together down at Alleycats for an hour or so, so I got some Indian takeaway for all of us as it had just started to rain and our plans to get out for dinner would have been awkward. We washed it down with some Jacob’s Creek red bought at the Ker Qiang Rd 7/11 store: it’s weird buying that here, just around the corner!

Guandu Temple is a magnificent complex of temple buildings built in 1661 and it occupies a site perched on a hill on the bank of the Danshui River with views to the Red Bridge and Bali downriver. We wandered around here for ages enjoying the magnificent granite carvings on nearly every surface we could see. Some of these carvings are so intricate and three dimensional that we wondered how they could ever have been completed. The gardens are pretty and so well cared for but the sights and smells at the “little eats” stalls below were enough to make us seek our lunch elsewhere on that day! Forgoing our adventurous spirit, we ate some fare from the local 7/11 at the little table outside the shop: it was pretty good!

Suitably fortified, we drove through the underpass below the main highway to the other side and sniffed our way to the Tittot museum and display centre. Tittot is a famous Taiwanese glass blower and artist and his workshop is on site as well. We admired the superb examples of glasswork he has gathered from all around the world, and then both Cassy and Val made some small purchases as souvenirs. We made  a stop on the way home at the incredible temple of 1000 statues that we’d visited not so long back after a tip from Mr. Lai, my octogenarian fellow stair walker. It is a hidden gem and Chris and Val couldn’t quite believe the number of stone men but more importantly, “Why?” I certainly couldn’t answer that question! Alleycats pizza for the three while I met up with Wal and Rourkey for a few beers.

Lazy day today after the weather got a bit frowsy again. We all wandered down to the local Carrefour store and Valerie bought a fantastic little Sony camera with great specs and at a real bargain price: electronics seem to deliver so much more bang for the buck than they used to. Cass is going to make her bon curry for tea and I’m looking forward to it: one of the best Japanese inventions ever! Photos are from some adventures on Saturday and the slide show will appear here when I eventually remove it. Cass is reading Malcolm Gladwell’s “Outliers” and I’m reading the shocking but compelling “City Of Thieves” by David Benioff

Wulai is situated deep in the mountainous forests about 40 km south of Taipei City. We ventured there on Monday to check out their famous waterfall and cable car which zips across a steep gorge up to the faded glory of Dreamland theme park on the dizzying heights of the far bank. The trip there was very pleasant, and we were glad we’d decided to go on a week day as the viewing platforms and other infrastructure indicated an uncomfortably swollen crowd attends on the weekend. It was cool and moist and even though our visitors had the very recent memory of Niagara Falls to compare to, not too undersized! The drop was spectacular, the river valley rough and fresh and the Atayal aborigine presence notable in many areas. The cable car provided me in particular some heart shocking moments especially as the ground beneath dropped away and we headed on a crazy angle ever upwards to the far bank. Up top, the theme park was a bit dilapidated, but it was the off season and a very swish hotel/conference centre might be worth a re0visit for some lunch or even an overnight stay. The GPS led us a merry dance on the way home; leading us straight through the heart of the city at peak hour…I think I’ll take my own counsel next time!   For tea, the world famous Din Tai Fung supplied us with steamed dumplings in bamboo cases and tofu and rice and all things nice! A Coldstone Creamery special icecream in waffle cone eaten outside watching the world go by was a fitting dessert.

On Tuesday, the silver bullet picked up the party of Williamson for the drive to the old village of Jiofen and the Gold Ecological Park on the hills in the hinterland of Keelung. As we wound our way up, Jiofen’s houses seemed to be gripping claws into the hillside, jutting out over each other at impossible angles, defying gravity. The steps up to the main road/alley were heart starters and we passed eateries enticing us with views, artisans fashioning product on little ledges and quaint B&Bs touting their charms. The main walking road was filled with tiny shops in the old, preserved buildings selling all manner of product and food. Cass and I had never been there, so all four of us were experiencing the same wonders. The smells were strange, the sounds weird and the sights unusual. Cass chose a restaurant that reflected all of these senses for lunch, some of the meals being more edible than others: I’ll leave it at that! The Gold Ecological Park was equally fascinating. We toured a completely (beam by beam, tile by tile) renovated Japanese house, a house built for the Crown Prince and then descended into the depths of a restored gold mining tunnel resplendent in our hard hats after taking a safety oath in Chinese which meant nothing to any of us! After all that trekking we’d worked up an appetite, so motored straight through to Thai Town at Shinkong Mitsukoshi for tea. After a delicious feast, we were ready to watch an episode of Grand Designs, have a bit more of a chat and head to bed.

A bit of a lay day was in order for Wednesday, so Cassy took Val down to see Joe the Jeweler with Val's new black pearl burning a hole in her pocket! They spent a good while talking tactics with Joe about settings then had an upmarket lunch at the Regent’s Azie café. Chris and I had to get to the mechanics to see about fixing a side mirror I’d snapped off on a parked scooter some days before. We did that, went off to school to try to order and print some train tickets, and then wandered across to Sababa for some Middle Eastern style pitas. On the way home we checked out the big electrical store on Ker Qiang and made a few minor purchases. We weren’t home long before the girls arrived and Joe had worked his magic. Cass cooked up a super big batch of her signature spaghetti bolognaise for tea which was a real treat and we washed it down with some fine Aussie red.

The world wide tour of machines based on designs of Leonardo Da Vinci has hit Taiwan, so we took the MRT down to Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall on Thursday to check it out. Fortuitously we arrived right at the changing of the guard and were nearly run down by the high stepping crisply uniformed ceremonial guards on their way to the upper chamber! There was also a display of beautiful lanterns the entire length of the lower hall and some Chinese calligraphy displays. The main event, however, was fascinating and we marveled at the mind that created such a disparate and brilliant set of designs. We headed back to Taipei main station to get some tickets for Chris and Val’s upcoming trip to Taroko Gorge and decided to eat again at the 2nd floor Breeze Centre food area. We chose a teppanyaki restaurant which did not disappoint: flashing spatulas cut, seared and flipped the great fresh ingredients before depositing them expertly into tiny plates in front of us on the hotplate: these guys are real artists. We were fuelled up on a set of beef, chicken, fish, scallops, asparagus and other veggies along with soups and drinks, before going downstairs to the central hub to buy the return tickets to Hualien. Chris and Val are booked in to the renovated Silks Place at Taroko Gorge for three days this week…it should be an awesome experience! We eventually made our way back to the MRT section of main station, and travelled past Mingde to Qiyan and the Lacoco clothing outlet. This is a cheap clothing superstore, but the stock this time was a little underwhelming. Chris sniffed out some good buys however and was fascinated when the lady whisked his new pants off to alter them on the spot for no extra cost! It had turned freezing by this time, so we headed off to a nice warm apartment.

Wendel’s siren call sounded on Friday morning and we were all showered and ready bright and early to sample the gourmet breakfast. It really is fit for a king and possibly because of our unheralded status in the world, it stuck with us through to tea time! The Williamson clan stayed in and watched some movies, Bright Star and The Reader, while I went off to the golf driving range to hit a few balls with Wal. In the evening we had Cassy’s famous pumpkin soup and the equally famous Hirota Puffs for tea!

Yangminshan’s Buffalo Meadow was the attraction on Saturday and we got up there mid morning courtesy of the silver bullet. The walk is always beautiful but we decided to do just ½ the loop before tackling the highest point to check the 360 degree vista. Even though the Gobi desert sandstorm restricted our vision a little, we were able to spot Taipei 101 through the haze in one direction and Danshui in another. Down the hill and we forked off to a trail leading to a waterfall, supposedly just 1.2 km away. After a very steep descent of at least 2 km we arrived at a beautiful little natural fall, the water fresh and cold, the backdrop dripping with lush growth and mossy rocks. We had a sandwich to fortify ourselves for the trek back up and I have to admit the oldies did extremely well as even our relatively young legs were aching by the time we got back to the carpark! We visited the area around the floral clock on the way back and there were some pretty good floral displays. By this time however, once again the weather had turned for the worse, Cassy’s teeth were chattering and we made a welcome retreat back to the car and back down the hill to home. Scootered off to get some Spice World Indian takeaway, some more Aussie red and we were all a bit drowsy and ready for a sound sleep!

SOGO beckoned thew travelers on Sunday morning as well as the Carrefour store and C&V had a great time checking out all the product and wondering the same thing that we often do, “Who on earth buys all this stuff?”! They too saw a lot of lookers and precious few buyers, but I suppose someone must buy it. They got themselves some lunch and ate it outside on the polished granite seats in the pedestrian boulevard out front. Later in the afternoon, we headed off to Shilin nightmarket, the acclaimed big daddy of all of Taipei’s famous nightmarket culture. It really is quite and extraordinary place and we wandered around as the sun was setting and traders set up: it was still hectic and exciting but not quite at the claustrophobic point it would reach a few short hours later. Both Chris and Val got some groovy sneakers and Cass and Val got some reading glasses for the “eyesight infirm”! They were pretty jazzy, but not over-the-top as you might expect from this area. It’s probably because the clientele of most of the product is not in need of eyesight-adjusting specs at their tender age. We walked through most of the main thoroughfares, gawked at the weird foods yet settled on the far more sensible option of Café Onion up the road. We had a 6 course dinner and Cass and I marveled at the fact that the menu has not changed a bit in the last 8 years! Chris enjoyed his snails and chicken, we other three had the New Zealand fillet, although I’m not quite sure that a “well done steak” should be still bleeding! Our visitors are off to Taroko Gorge for three days on Monday and we’re back to school…sob! Photos are a real mix, but you'll get the idea from the text. The slide show is here when I take it off the site.

GPS set and we set off nice and early to Taoyuan Airport on Saturday morning. Cassy’s parents were due to fly in from Singapore to coincide with the start of our week long Spring break from work and we were headed into virgin territory, trying to navigate the car to and around the monolithic Taipei International Airport.
We looked up the terminal number online and headed that way after negotiating the expressways leading there. The huge underground carpark had to be seen to be believed and we found a spot not too far from the action. We then waited outside the arrival hall with our sign, as Chris and Val were actually expecting our erstwhile driver, Daniel, to be doing the honours. They got a huge surprise and it was great to see the look on their faces when they realised it was us.

Luggage and bodies safely quartered away in the Honda, we made our way back to Tienmu and we’d already had a mini catch-up by the time we got home. We didn’t really feel ready to face the town on Saturday night, so we ordered takeaway Alleycats pizza, which seemed a good choice.

We were all a bit tired, so after an early night and a relatively late start to our Sunday, we were ready to mosey down to the Jade Market in the early afternoon. This gargantuan temple to all things jade and jewelry is rather confronting for menfolk, and I’ve told this story on these pages before. Suffice to say that Chris and I were partly reluctant participants and managed to fall into a despond of boredom in proceedings after about 10 minutes! We relied on having chats about this and that while Cass and Valerie pored over various tables of black pearls, where Val was looking for a colour and size match for the earrings she was wearing to buy a pearl for a pendant. She was eventually successful in her quest after, I must admit, a very short period of checking and deliberation!

On the way of course, we dealt with the excitement of Taipei’s rapid transit system. It really is very slick, and we were sandwiched against a bunch of 10th graders from school whom Cassy and I both had taught over the years. They didn’t realise I was there for a few stops and they were mortified when they spotted us as they had been using some not inappropriate, but rather colourful language about certain things on the way down! When we changed trains and negotiated the swarm of humanity at main station we transited to the eastern Nangang line just for a couple of stops.

The walk to the Jade Market is pleasant on wide boulevards but not terribly inspiring, so I decided to use a little of the time to give my sister Jen a ring. I actually wanted to speak to her daughter Ellen as I had set her a mission which I needed to fulfill at the market, but I hadn’t stressed any urgency, so she hadn’t got around to it yet. It was no problem whatsoever, but it was funny to hear Jen’s voice and long hesitation when I said hello: I think she recognized the voice but took a while to compute as it was kinda weird to hear from me out of the blue like that!

By the time we got back, we were all a bit spent, so again deceided to be home bodies for tea and had some left over pizza and toasted sangas, along with some delicious pineapple that Valerie had bought literally from the “back of a truck” from the little man camped outside the train station.

It’s always a little surreal at first to have visitors in our house over here, but it’s a very pleasant experience: it’s good to see our family members in this our adopted environment and enjoy seeing Taipei through different eyes again! Photos: Cass and Val at “Pho” Vietnamese at Taipei Main Station, looking at pearls at the jade market, dog in a bag (!) and some of the amazing bonsai at the adjacent and just as big Flower market. Cassy is reading a book that Gurecki lent me,Home Game, an accidental guide to fatherhood by Michael Lewis

Well, it was great weekend, but a very weird one! Friday night started for us both enjoying the sunshine on our verandah and a beer or two. Before Cass got home I'd watched the local council guys hard at work cutting the trees away from the electrical wires opposite. In the grand old spirit from childhood when dad would encourage us to give a bottle of beer to the garbos at Christmas, I raced downstairs and gave each of them an ice cold VB! They were slightly flummoxed but were excited to get the "special Australian beer" as I described it to them. They gave me a big smile and wave and toot of the horn as they made their way to their next job! At 9 pm I went off to my book club and thoroughly enjoyed the night: they're a great bunch of blokes. With such a late start we invariably end up in the wee small hours making our goodbyes, so a sleep in was on the cards!

We spent most of Saturday hunkered indoors as the temperature dropped again and a series of rolling thunderstorms swept across the city from mid-morning all through to the night. I went and rescued Cass from the shopping where she was stranded without an umbrella and marooned: she'd have to walk back with the shopping in the teeming rain. She went back in and bought another umbrella on credit card (no minimum charge rubbish here) and we hoisted bags on shoulders, splashed through the puddles in the park and made it back home relatively dry. It was cozy to potter around inside and the highlight was to get to see the opening match of the Knights live as they won their game against all odds, shrugging off a controversial off season and a horrific injury toll. We were stoked!

The AFL season has yet to get under way, so we enjoy a weekend or two at the most before they push the NRL back to its usual timetabling of the Friday game repeated on Saturday morning and one of the Sunday afternoon games on delay. I’ve got a subscription to an English site which allows me to watch full replays of any game I like, but these are not available till at least 24 hours after the game. It’s good, but not half as good as this weekend…we got nearly every game, no matter if it was Channel Nine or Foxtel. Also inside from the rain on Saturday, we caught bits of the Australian one dayer in New Zealand, streaming over the net and beamed onto the TV in the lounge room.

We’ve gone into a cleaning frenzy! All the screen doors have been scrubbed and all the windows cleaned. Ceilings cleaned and shelves freed up, verandahs mopped and door tracks cleaned and oiled. Various other little jobs have been done and the house is spic and span: well, compared to what it was a few days ago anyway! Our big curtains in the lounge room are at the dry cleaners where they recommended we have them washed rather than dry-cleaned: apparently this will be much more effective, but the lady did warn me they may be “smaller”…I hope the shrinkage won’t be that noticeable!

Off to The Spice Shop for a delicious late lunch today and we enjoyed the completely reversed weather. It’s sunny, warm and delightful today….this Taiwanese Spring weather really is quite fickle. People were out and about, partly as they must have been restricted yesterday, and we watched them with great interest. Our first choice, the slightly more upmarket Indian fusion restaurant was closed in the mid-afternoon, so we walked two doors down to the opposition…they must be making too much money to gift these guys all the afternoon trade methinks. We then scootered to Takashimaya and got some supplies from Jason’s marketplace: they had a display of products from Victoria! The obligatory Hirota “puffs” for a decadent dessert later tonight and we were off. Hirota puffs are Japanese in origin, light pastry wrapped around a delicious custard filling which is piped into them…addictive.
Photos are few today: we are lunching at the Spice Shop in the mid afternoon, Takashimaya’s special stand and the Hirota cake display. Cass is reading Night at the Wax Museum (the script for the upcoming school play: she's says it's very bad!)   and I am reading Down River.

Cassy started out the weekend very socially tripping up to her “Bookies” book club on Friday evening. Rhonda served up her signature dish of chicken enchiladas which are always a big hit and they discussed the book of the month, “The White Tiger”. Cass had actually read this ages ago, so she had to do a little prep to remember her points! It was fun evening and she caught up with a bit of goss here and there, especially from those members she doesn’t see that often.

I, too, had a lovely afternoon in the sun having a few beverages with my regular crew. The weather on Friday and Saturday was just sublime: it was hard to be stuck indoors at all. We headed out to the “big brother” which earned its name from a previous incarnation of the little pub, when it was the Soo Woo. Now it goes by some Chinese name which I can never remember, but the table tapping beers are still very enjoyable and the squid balls (don’t think too much about that!) are the best in town.

We really are quite spoiled at the moment. The new SOGO building is a 7-10 minute stroll from our place, quite beautiful with all its polished granite, wide boulevards and grass and trees and lighting and landscaping. Inside is a branch of the world famous Din Tai Fung, Taipei’s premier dumpling and Chinese restaurant. It is really top quality food at a very affordable price. The turnover has to be seen to be believed and it has all the theatre you would expect from a bustling restaurant this famous. The cooks show off their skills behind a huge window in front of house and it si quite mesmerizing to see their skilful kneading, rolling cutting and throwing. We usually end up by getting a Coldstone Creamery icecream in a waffle cone to eat on the wide avenue at street level, taking in the sights and watching the endless parade of people on an awakening Saturday night.

Today the weather snapped back to freezing winter type. It was 28 on Saturday and we were walking around in shorts, yet a day later, out came the long shirts and jackets as the mercury plummeted to about 12 degrees with a strong wind to boot. We had our fairly typical Sunday sleep in and decadently long and lazy brekky, mainly as the surf was small and listless, not tempting us across the mountain at all. We decided to hang around home for a while, and then head over to Neihu to go and get some much needed new stuff. We needed to shop for big kinda awkward things, so we took the car and planned to use the basement parking at some of the stores there. We bypassed the glitzy flash of the Miramar building, drove past the long lines of cars waiting for their car park and instead, went straight to the far less fashionable Carrefour. This store has a branch near us, but a much smaller one. This Neihu branch is spread over many floors and seems to have everything known to man on sale. We got our two new electric fans, 4 new pillows and associated and boring heavy and/or difficult to carry everyday goods to stockpile. I know it’s not even given a second thought back home, but we take advantage of the fact if we have the car with us: it feels quite special!

We squirreled our goods away in the boot then wandered back up and crossed the street to the Miramar. Just below the theatre level there are a number of pretty good restaurants, so we eventually decided to try Gillys. It was French affair, so we both got the set menu and had salad and soup, beautiful versions of both before our mains, mine the German veal and pepper sausages and Cassy the mushroom pasta. We had delicious coffee and a surprising crème brulee at the end. This place was fantastic! The irony is that we had discovered another Gillys restaurant on our big walk last week just a kilometre or so from our place and we were determined to get back and try it out one day.

Back home, the car purred its way back, the GPS guiding us (I knew where I was going, just liked playing with the toy!) and unloaded our stash and back I went to school to deposit the car in its park in the basement. On the way I visited our little neighbourhood car wash and got “Noddy” back to her pristine best. We had a great weekend! Photos are the incomparable Din Tai Fung, the girls snuggling against the cold this morning, Gilly’s chefs’ French diplomas, Cass posing in front of the water feature outside the restaurant and of course our low tech and hi tech friends in the car: I hope Ross notices I have transferred the Hawaiian girl to the new vehicle!