Cassy spent 7 hours doing her commercial shoot on Wednesday straight after school, so she was pretty exhausted afterwards, got home late and didn’t get enough sleep. There was no indication from her agent that my presence would be tolerated, so I drove Cass to the hotel where filming was to take place and just dropped her off. We were both surprised to find out it was an upmarket “love hotel”, a peculiarly Asian phenomenon, where amorous couples can sneak away from the extended family at home (how many typically live) and live in a little fantasy world for a few hours. The suite of rooms was chosen for its opulent settings and backdrops and was dressed to look like a rich person’s home.

Cassy had to do numerous takes of all sorts of shots and actually got quite a sore knee as she had to put shoes on the star of the show at one point from a kneeling position. Apparently the lighting was the main time consumer and she had to remain in various poses for great stretches so they could get the lighting just right. She got chatting to the star of the show between the action and discovered she is a 19 year old Dutch girl who has been working most recently in Hong Kong. She was 181 cm tall and very slim, but told Cass that she needed to lose another 8 kilos if she was to break into the American market, which is what she wants. Hard to believe. Cass also found out that the ad will be televised not only in Taiwan, but throughout the length and breadth of China, so a lot of people will see it! It will take anything from 1 month to 3 months before it airs and I’ll get a copy of it posted on here when it does.

We are both suffering from a mild hangover today and a little slow to get going doing anything. It would be a much worse one if we were drinking normal alcoholic beverages, but we were sipping on $200 a bottle champagne and red wine all night and consumed a lot of it. The big occasion was the annual Thanksgiving dinner put on by the Koo family. The two boys attend our school and each year they host a most lavish party for all the teachers connected with the boys. It has grown from a one table affair to three huge circular tables this year and as usual was quite stunning in its opulence. The wine flowed from carafes tipped by attentive wait staff, of whom there were at least 30. The food was Chinese in style but very high quality, so that even some of the more questionable offerings were delicious. There were many small courses each of a different delicate flavour.

The Koos are really a delightful couple and their kids are too. The great thing about the night is their complete lack of pretension and even a certain vulnerability they exude. It’s just so refreshing, especially from a family who are among the stratospheric rich in the world. One quirky note to the evening is the relatively recent adoption of karaoke as a big draw card. There is a professional hostess who cajoles a few early singers to the microphone, yet after a few hours it is impossible to prise the mikes away from some people! It all gets very very silly and messy but there is a definite fun vibe. We get our marching orders in the nicest possible way at a sensible time and we’re ushered into a waiting fleet of cabs for the trip back to Tienmu from their headquarters in Neihu where we dined and entertained each other.

So, another exciting week here in Taipei. Cassy is going to France with her mum over the Christmas break and I was contemplating what to do at the same time. I had all sorts of options, but in the end I decided the most sensible thing would be to go somewhere that Cassy does not want to go. So, I’m off to India! I fly into New Delhi and will explore from there, the Taj Mahal will be one day trip but I’ll investigate further what else I might want to see/do.

I’m reading the legend Peter Corris, Cliff Hardy adventure called “Deep Water”, while Cass being so busy is still managing to eke out her Franzen treasure. Photos are various shenanigans at the Koo party (quality is bad but I think it sums up the moment quite well!) I also included a fabulous shot of my nephew front and centre at a concert: it's such a great photo, I had to include it...go Pat!

Another journey downtown via the whisper stealth of the Metro Rapid Transit trains, a couple of changes and we were in the very unfamiliar territory of Da-an Park and surrounds. Phone GPS working overtime and Chinese street signs read under duress in a faintly misting rain, we gave up and caught a cab through the labyrinthine back alleys and lanes. Eventually after a lot of head scratching, reversing and block circling, we were disgorged at a rather unprepossessing building, looking remarkably similar to all those around.

Inside and up and up to a third floor landing, a few more clues were emerging to what lay ahead. Stylish exposed brick and track lighting, a giant antique Chinese door on the second landing and a jazzy sign, open door and lounge were visible on the third. We were ushered into yet another stairwell from an almost deserted 3rd floor and emerged into a rather strange world of dapper English gentlemen in butler’s suits, a pout of impossibly willowy western beauties being blow dried and made up by twittering little Taiwanese fancy boys and an entourage of bohemian individuals with flowing and layered clothing looking like it had just been thrown on when they emerged for a late morning breakfast, but had obviously been planned and staged for just that effect.

My beautiful wife has been chosen from a large field to play a role in an upcoming advertisement to be filmed for Left Bank Café, a coffee brand here in Taiwan. We were downtown last week for a casting call and she subsequently landed the role and was down again for final fittings, makeup run throughs and a photo session. She is playing a character based on Meryl Streep’s in “The Devil Wears Prada”. She needs to examine the dress of a young model and be particularly disdainful of her choices and be quite haughty. She then becomes convinced of the young woman’s good taste when she spies her drinking said coffee…quite a hoot!

Cass was ushered into an anteroom where she was fussed over at great length: she had her face makeup done by aforementioned fancy boy and her hair was tizzed and teased as much as one inch long hair can be, before being blown dry. She then tried on a range of outfits that had been custom made for her from last weekend’s measurements. After each fitting, she needed to pose for a bank of photographs in various haughty poses! During all this, my obviously annoying presence was ignored as I sat in someone’s office chair and played with my phone (I’m re-reading Catch 22 on it, so I was well entertained)! The amount of people involved was staggering and this is even before the real shooting begins:  Makeup people, hairdressers and photographers all flounced in and out; all seemingly with opinions on how sets and actors should look. Our English butler was a delightfully accented genuine Englishman (!) who I had a lovely chat with and found out he lived quite near us in Tienmu. The gorgeous young women were polite but seemed quite keen to get in, do their stuff and get out again: I suppose these professionals are quite used to the festive nature of it all and just want to do their job and be done.

The star of the show for me of course was Cassy. She was quite stunning in all her gear and although it had been made for her, in some ways so had the part: it's a gem. The production group was so impressed with her usual look that they have asked her to wear her own shoes, watch and rings for the final shooting and do her makeup as usual “to save time”. The director appraised her at the end and I was glad that someone let me know who he was….I would have asked him to desist staring at my wife up and down in that manner if I hadn’t known!

The final date for shooting is as yet unconfirmed, but it is more than likely going to be this Friday after school. They are shooting some scenes during the day down at Sun Moon Lake and the studio scenes that Cass is involved in are being filmed in the evening down near the Taipei 101 somewhere. She stipulated that this needed to be done after school hours or on the weekend and she had received special dispensation to do it, as we are forbidden to have any other employer under normal circumstances.

I always am, but I was particularly proud of Cassy this weekend. She handled all this strange stuff as if it was an everyday occurrence and managed all the rather difficult acting quite brilliantly. She is quite excited by the whole experience as well, and we can certainly mark this down as yet another bizarre Taipei moment: who could guess that we would still be getting surprised like this after all this time? The rest of the weekend was rather mundane by comparison, so I’ll not even mention it, except to say we ate out at yet another great discovery in the Zhongxiao Dunhua area. Three lanes behind the main road, we discovered a little café with great food called “Free Style” and it enabled me to stare at my film star wife across the table for an hour or two before she scrubbed off all the “muck” when she got home!
Exciting times!

Parent conferences always seem to get our hearts racing a little with trepidation. I really don’t know why: there have been occasions so rare over our careers that have barely approached a bad experience that we could count our total on one hand. However, for some reason, even though the experience is often quite enjoyable, there is always that lingering feeling. I had two days of meeting with parents this Thursday and Friday and the experiences I had were very positive, confirming the reality of a fairly long career of dealing with a disparate group of adults always quite anxious about their child’s progress. Cass will no doubt have similar feelings at the latter end of this week as her conferences kick in then.

Our week was punctuated by things out of our control that induced varying levels of concern. We had great concerns for family members, lesser ones about work, conferences etc and relatively minor ones about a massive typhoon bearing down slowly on the island from a devastating swathe it cut through the Philippines. The latter tapped a drumbeat of incessant rain on us for four days straight and combined with an evil lashing wind, inverting umbrellas and spitting sheets of water at the pitiful pedestrian (often us as we struggled to and from school). To top the week off we attended the memorial service for a colleague who was hit by a car near school, and was in a coma for a week before dying. We didn’t know him well, but had dealings with him during our nine year tenure. He is the ninth colleague of ours at this school who has died since we have been here. Anyway, it was good to put our very minor concerns into real perspective this week: they really are quite tiny and we’re thankful for that.

On Saturday, all the way down town we went in a cab to the back end of Daan Park and beyond. It was an interesting area of the city which we’ve visited rarely and gave us yet another perspective of this seething metropolis. On the way back, we started to walk from the MRT station at the giant downtown SOGO, but I got the direction wrong. As it looked increasingly unlike the spot we were aiming for, I used the new phone’s GPS to indicate exactly where we weren’t! Back in another cab and we decided to check out Papa Gio’s for a very late lunch if it was open. It wasn’t, but Cass had spied a thriving restaurant alley just beyond on a previous visit, so we wandered to find the (as it turned out) funky and superb, Burned Cheese. We had a set meal built around baked lasagna: it was magnificent! We’ll definitely be back to this spot again to try the Indian, Japanese, French, Italian or Japanese and Korean: or maybe just try Burned Cheese again! 

The MRT back to Tienmu always provides some great human theatre and we weren’t disappointed. People watching in these huge numbers always means spotting some classics…there’s a whole other story in that one!

Lazy day today for both of us although we did drag ourselves out to go to different shops to stock up on food for the week. Mercifully the typhoon has now departed, but not before killing twelve people and losing another two dozen: we are pretty well protected here in Taipei from the very worst of these storms: the landslides on the east and west coasts can be quite devastating. 

Photos: Cass in front of the SOGO window, a silly self taken shot, a huge iguana being sold in a local pet shop, a truck advertising “beer” flavoured green tea and a typical “look” in Taipei’s main rapid transit station! As for books, we’re still engrossed in last week’s offerings: Cass is trying to slow down on the Franzen to linger on his genius and I’m trying to read Kosinski quickly to help ameliorate the horror!

As my book club petered out and we made our way home in the wee small hours of Saturday morning from the Red Hut, Cass was tossing and turning in bed , wrestling with what to feed "her girls" next Friday night when she hosts her book club at our place. It was the end of a shortened week for us due to the 4 day weekend before, and yet we managed to feel just as tired as we normally might after just three days working. Why is that?

We traveled to the wood carving village of Sanyi on Monday and we did well to avoid the weekend crowds, which must be horrendous. As it was, we competed with a phalanx of tour buses disgorging elderly day-trippers off at the wood carving museum, but had the main street pretty much to ourselves as we wandered past and through a staggering number of shops selling garish Buddhas to stylish furniture items, every shape, colour, size and quality that you could imagine, but all made and carved from wood sourced locally. The scent of camphor infiltrated the whole street: it was quite wonderful. The museum itself was quite a marvel and we were surprised at the high quality of the building and the exhibitions. Some of the most fascinating were the winners of the wood carving prizes from various years: the wafer thin shapes and intricate designs were hard to fathom and we were convinced at first that some of them could not possibly be made from wood.

We tried a side trip to find the ruins of the railway bridge we saw on our round-island tour, but were thwarted by some road works and less than helpful directions. We did stumble upon an old fashioned railway siding around which a little village has re-invented itself as a minor tourist attraction. It looked like fun, but as we were pretty tired and still a good two hours by expressway away from Taipei, we locked that one away for a subsequent visit. The road back was uneventful and fast, the Honda humming along at the 110 km limit until we hit peak hour just outside Neihu. Wow, I'm glad I don't do that commute every day: it was frustrating to be that close to home and yet an hour or so of traffic jams ahead: we nearly could have abandoned the car and walked home more quickly!

Yesterday, we went to one of our old favourite restaurants, Cafe Onion, for lunch. I actually ordered the strangely promoted "NZ electric burns big rib-eye beefsteak" and it was pretty good: you just have to go with the flow sometimes and have trust!

We went out to lunch again today, this time to the newly opened Pizza Oggi, just round the corner in Dexing East Road up the street from Wendel's. We were greeted warmly but with the caveat that we'd need to wait for 30 minutes for a table unless we'd like to get some takeaway? We debated whether to go off elsewhere but decided to stay and get the takeaway. The pizza was great, if just a touch undercooked probably as they were trying to serve so many people. Cass got a salad as well and reported it to be of such quality that she may even cheat a bit this Friday and get some salads from this place to accompany her main meal which she'll cook.

A little later this afternoon we caught the train down to the Shilin night market to brave the claustrophobia inducing crush of humanity and search out some new shoes for me. I found a pair of good casual Nikes and bought a few cheap T-shirts as well. I've recently cleaned out my shoe cupboard and ditched the falling apart, rundown and broken pairs that I've been wearing for years. My beloved Doc Marten boots even got the flick: but I'm OK with that after I realized they've done sterling service for more than 15 years...I tend to hang onto stuff a little too long!

We've been a little lacklustre this week as we're worried about my baby sister who is going in for a major operation on Tuesday. Good luck Hel, you'll be in our thoughts constantly.

Photos are a mixed bunch: the first few are from Sanyi, including the aboriginal Hakka restaurant we ate at: sensational! Also are Cass at the Onion, the view of my desk at school with feet up, a Pomello tree down the street, the burgeoning crowds at twilight at the night market and Cass posing with a shifty looking character just round the corner from our house! I'm reading the iconic The Painted Bird, by Kosinski.Cass is just starting the long awaited next novel by Franzen, Freedom.

Long weekends are just the best aren’t they? The decadence of getting to Sunday afternoon and deciding to go out again as it’s not a “school night” is tingly good and the day takes on an extra air of excitement. Two more days stretch out ahead of doing as little or as much as we like: I’m really very easily excited!

We’ve packed a fair bit in to our regular weekend already. I went out with Wal and Brandon on Friday, Becky joined us for a while and we had a great time telling various tall stories and true and all reveling in the four days stretching ahead of us. The boys were playing golf off a late start on Saturday, but I had a nice sleep in. We breakfasted out yesterday and ate a very filling big breakfast down at Jakes, eggs Benedict for me and Cass got some kind of Mexican stuff and we shared some pancakes as well! Back home to watch some cricket, with the Aussies taking on India and we watched a fantastic Canadian movie that Dave Millard had lent me, called “One Week”. Bit of reading, bit of fiddling on the computer before we both settled in to a big sleep of about 10 hours….now that felt good!

I was up before Cass today to try to catch the opening to the Bathurst 1000. I just love this race, and although I can’t really sustain my interest for the whole day like I used to be able, the coverage is just sensational. I’m sure I could be fairly accurately psycho analyzed over these comments, but I’ll make ‘em anyway: that guttural V8 sound and those massive, grunting metallic beasts cutting and thrusting up and down that mountain all day? Come on, you’ve got to love it! (?)

Anyway, I did tear myself away from this testosterone fuelled feast to make the trip over the mountain to the coast with Cass. We couldn’t believe, once again, that as soon as we approached within view of the fumaroles at the top of the mountain, a wet blanket of fog dropped on the car from nowhere, an insistent drizzle worried the wipers and a stream of overly cautious drivers switched on their hazard lights, dropped their speed to 20 km per hour and drove as if they were in a funeral cortege. In sight of Jinshan town on the lower reaches of the mountain, the curtain of mist lifted, people sped up a touch and all again in the world was right….it happens nearly every time we go across!

The surf itself was nothing to be exclaimed about, but we went to Cassy’s favourite spot, the cliffs at the far end of Jinshan. Armed with my new phone (which is now also our camera) she had a crash course and managed to take some really great shots, so much better than my initial offerings…this thing is very unforgiving to even a mildly unsteady hand. After the surf, we decided to check out the new (and only) classy looking restaurant on the corner of Highway 2 and the road down from Yangminshan. Called “Victoria”, we were waved into a car park by a valet and a little self consciously, as we were wearing just our “surf day rags” we were ushered to a table in a glass gazebo jutting out the front of the restaurant. We were in for a real treat. The set menu consisting of salad, soup, bread, coffee and dessert along with your choice of main is usually very perfunctory in most Taiwanese restaurants. These were amazing: prawns and fish roe in the salad, toasted parmesan on the bread and Lavazza coffee! The mains themselves were equally impressive: it really was some fine dining. To top it all off, in this very bucolic outpost on the north coast, we were stunned to be asked by the manager about our experience in absolutely perfect English and checking whether it was “authentic” (his word)! Not only this, but the entire bill came to less than NT$1000 (about $30A): stunning.

Not content with our big day out we decided to shoot off to the movies this evening and see the reprise of Gordon Gecko in “Wall Street”. It was slick to look at, but fairly unbelievable characters apart from the evildoer himself, who according to all reports we may not see in any other movies as he is on the way out: a shame, he really carried it. Well, we’re up for another two days of this: we’re looking forward to it. I am reading the intriguing, “Await Your Reply” by Dan Chaon and Cass is reading “The Secret Scripture” by Sebastian Barry. Photos: Cass with lots of cute doggy outfits, Virg, surfing at the cliff and food at Victoria.

Football of all codes has been the dominant factor this and last weekend. No blog entry last week partly because of too much football watching and partly because I lost a bit of impetus, which I haven’t really fully regained, so this entry will be pretty short.

We tried to go to an exhibition at the Taipei Fine Arts gallery last Sunday and set off with high hopes of seeing some rarely travelled works from the Museum of Philadelphia. There were a number of significant works by Manet, Picasso, Miro and more. Unfortunately when we arrived, there was a line up at the ticket office, almost certainly as it was the very last day of the exhibition. Luckily they informed us when we got the window that we would need to queue for nearly three hours to get in! Even though we were keen to see the paintings, we weren’t that keen, so we spent some time wandering around looking at the regular galleries and marveling at the patience of the people in the lines snaking their way all through the building.
Outside, Cass got her portrait “cut” by a very skilful artist using nothing more than some coloured paper and a small pair of scissors: he was amazing! We then spent a little time watching a rock band performing, we didn’t catch their name, but Cassy reckons they are the coolest guys in Taiwan, with their long hair, cool gear and attitude!

AFL grand final last weekend at the Green bar was followed by a mirror image event at the same venue yesterday. It starts at 11.30 Taipei time, so it makes it a very long day and night. We had good fun, and Cass spent a bit of time back home streaming the cricket from Mohali where the Australians are playing the first of two tests against India. So even before the footballs stop bouncing, the cricket is mercifully slotting in to fill the gap in the “hiatus”. Today’s NRL grand final was watched quietly here at home. We usually host a little party, but a few people had other stuff on, and to be truthful, we just couldn’t be bothered: maybe next time.

The weather here might finally be turning a bit and it’s not before time. We’ve had a very long run of super heat and humidity so the clouds and breeze and lower temps today were a welcome relief. The week ahead looks pretty good too, so fingers crossed.

I wasn’t joking about the brevity of this post, so I’m off! Pics: last weekend at the art gallery and a couple of football followers, Cass at Din Tai Fung with a Chinese watercolour and the Taipei Story House.

Cass survived yet another year at the all fun, all activities, all consuming Grade 8 camp. This loathsome task is a chore each year, as any teacher who has been on a camp well knows: there is no down time and the 24/7 nature of the commitment makes it enervating and physically and emotionally taxing. To compound her experience, on the first of her seashore hikes which she leads each year, she rolled one of her ankles quite badly, necessitating ice, elevation, help back to the main camp etc. The privations of the campsite didn’t help, but she had good support from the nurse who regularly strapped and supplied with ice the injured ankle.
I was greeted with a limping tired girl on Friday afternoon, but she got home and did her icing and elevation all weekend, and the result is pretty good this evening.

We managed to escape the approaching lashing teeth of Typhoon Fanapi on Saturday night and went to our traditional post camp restaurant where Cass breathes in the fine dining experience at Wendels, we both order up large and generally wash away the camp for another year. She always relishes the chance to be clean, couth and elegant again: her nails had been busily attended to by her busy team of girls at Takashimaya in the afternoon and the meal was the last restorative measure needed.

The typhoon struck with a vengeance during the night and we awoke a number of times as the cats cried or the vicious squalls pounded and drummed away at our usually very protected windows. It’s always a little nerve-wracking: I lie awake tensely at times, half expecting a giant window blowout and the catastrophe that would follow: it’s never happened, but shaking, rattling and bowing giant windows don’t do much to ease the spirits! This morning the roads were littered with trees debris and the odd awning is askew. The calm that follows the storm is usually very interesting as well: people tentatively poking their way outside, weaving around the rubbish and slowly re-entering the world. I snuck out to get us some sandwiches for lunch and had to bypass a few usual stores as they were still shuttered up.

As is the pattern of recent years, these typhoons do little but seriously inconvenience us on our days off. If it had struck on any other night bar Friday or Saturday, we would certainly have had a “typhoon day” off school. These days are usually the sweetest of holidays: an unexpected and late notice holiday, precipitated by approaching violent weather and heralded by the much anticipated “phone tree” at about 9 p.m. In fact, we did get some calls from colleagues, but only to inform us that the campus was closed on Sunday……so what??!

We’ve had a lazy day today and apart from my brief outside sojourn, we’ve been content, to read, watch T.V. and play with various electronic toys (well, I was…!) while listening to the wind and rain dance in the trees outside. We’ve got a P.D. day on Wednesday, but this will no doubt add to the stress of the week: they seem to be filled with so much busy work these days: we’d much rather just teach our kiddies.
I’m reading a book about watercolors as well as The Other and Cass is still enjoying her The Elegance of the Hedgehog

We’ve had a really low key weekend, mainly because the infamous middle school camp rapidly approaches. Continuing sapping heat has not helped us to get out and about the real de-motivator is Cassy’s appointment with kids and colleagues for 5 days of 24 hour a day “fun”. Even though it is quite bearable when she is there, it is always exhausting. The Grade 8 version of camp is pretty much back-to-basics after a couple of years of resort/hotel type stays away, the Grade 8s get down and dirty and about as rough as this fairly pampered  group could handle. Cass is an old hand at all the activities and leads some very vigorous hikes that the kids have trouble completing, so she tends to get very tired (especially after doing it twice!). Her innovation last year of starting another activity based on Newcastle’s own 24 hour shoot out, where small groups make an in-camera movie using various obligatory props will be a go again. It is a great activity for both the supervisors and the kids and has an added benefit. The instant communication, camera savvy generation can gaze lovingly upon themselves each night as the movies are replayed for the entire assembled throng!

I had Book Club on Friday night and we went to our traditional haunt, The Red Hut. It was good fun, and although our new members didn’t turn up and one was missing, we had the usual rollicking time and plenty of tall and true tales were told and heard. Curbside drinking Taiwan beers from cans till the Hut opens is a tradition all its own and a quirky Taiwan one. Where else do you think you could drink and guffaw in a public park before being moved on rather quickly? Gotta love Taiwan.

We had another of our occasional weekend meals which I’ll call “lundinner” for want of a better word. We’ve found we can enjoy a meal at one of the popular Tienmu restaurants in mid-afternoon without a crowd and getting instant service and not running into a thousand colleagues and students. Off to Takashimaya on the way home to get some cans of Sanitarium Rediburger for the vegetarian brigade (including Cass) on camp. After the food service guy at school couldn’t source the vegi patties, I rang KGB burgers downtown and they assured me they could do it, just needed to ring back with a price. They rang back and said they couldn’t do it at all, so we felt obligated to try to find a replacement. I even eat this stuff, so I reckon it will be fine!

In between footy finals, I ducked out to scale the intimidating 1000 steps of the Tienmu Gu Dao today. I’ve been nursing my chalky knee for a while, and just sticking to the treadmill most days. Let me tell you, despite me reassuring myself that the treadmill on a steep incline and a reasonable speed replicated the stairs….I was WRONG! I was in bad shape by the half way mark and had to slow off my usual pace to make it to the top. A good three minutes slower than usual, I was a lather of sweat and shaky legged by the top. I wandered along the path for a while at the top before heading back down. It was scorching!

Meanwhile, back home, Cass has been researching all the hotels for her trip to France at Christmas. Who knew there were that many options in Nante and Bordeaux, let alone Paris! She has been working very hard, but has narrowed the options down considerably.

I’ve got a new phone, an HTC Wildfire, one of the so-called Iphone 4 “killers” . Made by a Taiwanese company, this thing is red hot. It can do all the iphone can, but has the added feature which I needed of a superb camera. The 5mp camera is great (check the photos today), but playing flash video and using Google’s Android platform makes my iPod Touch even seem a little clunky: I never thought I’d say that! Anyway, as I play with it more through the week I’ll discover heaps more about it…the GPS locator is already freaking me out….sorry, weird tech nerd voices are speaking to me. Check out this link if you’re interested. So, Cass off to camp and I am hoping to be a good carer for Virg’n Mary this week. Photos are various shots from the trail: lots of signs, northern Taipei in a heat/smog haze from ½ way down.