Well, things have been pretty interesting here over the past week or so, even if we have been locked up for most of it. We've had Health authorities, delivery people coming to the door in masks; people ringing each day to check that we're well and that we haven't done "the bolt". Spacemen types are being sent to pick up garbage...it's certainly been an eye-opener.
Best news of all is that our colleague does not have SARS after all, which is a huge relief for all concerned. Our schoolboy and his Mum may yet have it.... they are up and down with fever. The most dramatic thing for us is, I suppose, the alarming rate at which the disease seems to be spreading in Taipei city. Taipei now has the very dubious distinction of being on the same "high" transmission rating with WHO as the infamous source city in Guandong province, with cases rising exponentially each day.
We can't wait to get the hell out of here and we've managed to negotiate an early passage home with our bosses. We were supposed to go back to school for two days this Thursday and Friday after an early lifting of quarantine, but we successfully argued that surely we could leave on Thursday evening if all our work was done. Sanity prevailed and we and Carl and a number of other people booked what seems like our 50th flight out in the last few weeks. Our poor long suffering travel agent!
Anyway, we have reports to write, grades to record while we are here at home and cleaning up of rooms to be done when we get back. The best bonus will be not only to escape an increasingly sick city, but also to enjoy 3 more weeks of holiday. 12 weeks back in Merewether might not be too bad!
I won't write here again till early/mid August...I plan to enjoy a semi-literate existence for a while; if it's more taxing than reading a TV or a form guide, I won't be doing it!
Tuesday, May 13, 2003
Friday, May 09, 2003
We're under a 14-day home quarantine as of Wednesday afternoon. We were corralled at the auditorium at school and had to fill in forms stating our home address, personal particulars etc and are awaiting people from the Bureau of Health to ring and check on us. We're not to leave our place under any circumstances. Our garbage will be collected by the Environmental Protection Agency and we have elected not to receive food from the Health Department as it is sourced from a hospital a few blocks away that has many SARS patients. We wish we were dreaming this time but unfortunately, we're not.
It all started with news of a meeting on Wednesday afternoon and we were to tell the kids that all after school sport etc had been cancelled. This is a massive step for our school, so we knew that something major had happened. We subsequently discovered that one of our teachers was listed as a probable SARS patient and we already had a high school boy listed as well. The boy's father has since died, although the boy himself appears to be recovering. We had a staff meeting on Monday, ironically to discuss the SARS issue, at which the teacher was present, so the city Health Department has put a blanket quarantine on all 250 faculty.
School has been closed for the year (end date was to be June 6) but we'll be required to go in and write reports etc for a few days at the end of the quarantine. Carl was thinking quickly and managed to book the last 3 seats for him and us on a flight leaving on May 22 so we'll be back after that. Hiroko and the boys were already booked to go back yesterday and they arrived safely in Australia this morning.
It seems bizarre that it's become so hard to get a flight with airlines flying 1/2 empty planes, but the reality is that when a place like this closes, with 3000 families trying to get out at the same time, and airlines cutting schedules, it's very hard to find a seat.
Our next task, of course, is to stay sane during the quarantine. I'll do some karate each day so I can sleep at night and no doubt we'll watch plenty of DVDs and some football tapes etc. We're so pleased to have our new digital TV feed of ABC Asia pacific as well. I really think we'll be better placed than many to weather this time, although we'll have to come up with a plan to get some more food, milk etc come the second week.
Wish us luck!
It all started with news of a meeting on Wednesday afternoon and we were to tell the kids that all after school sport etc had been cancelled. This is a massive step for our school, so we knew that something major had happened. We subsequently discovered that one of our teachers was listed as a probable SARS patient and we already had a high school boy listed as well. The boy's father has since died, although the boy himself appears to be recovering. We had a staff meeting on Monday, ironically to discuss the SARS issue, at which the teacher was present, so the city Health Department has put a blanket quarantine on all 250 faculty.
School has been closed for the year (end date was to be June 6) but we'll be required to go in and write reports etc for a few days at the end of the quarantine. Carl was thinking quickly and managed to book the last 3 seats for him and us on a flight leaving on May 22 so we'll be back after that. Hiroko and the boys were already booked to go back yesterday and they arrived safely in Australia this morning.
It seems bizarre that it's become so hard to get a flight with airlines flying 1/2 empty planes, but the reality is that when a place like this closes, with 3000 families trying to get out at the same time, and airlines cutting schedules, it's very hard to find a seat.
Our next task, of course, is to stay sane during the quarantine. I'll do some karate each day so I can sleep at night and no doubt we'll watch plenty of DVDs and some football tapes etc. We're so pleased to have our new digital TV feed of ABC Asia pacific as well. I really think we'll be better placed than many to weather this time, although we'll have to come up with a plan to get some more food, milk etc come the second week.
Wish us luck!
Monday, May 05, 2003
I paddled out the back again after getting a nice little left-hander into the beach. The waves were becoming a little more consistent and I'd spent the best part of 4 hours in the water; nothing like good surf to cleanse the soul. I know many of you will be saying.."WAKE HIM UP, HE'S DREAMING!" and it almost seemed like that at times but I've had a surf in TAIWAN!
The reality of the surf is a little less romantic, when you consider the size (very small), quality (messy) location (just off a power station near a man-made concrete breakwater) and beach and water quality (unlike our bathing beach round the point this beach is NOT regularly cleaned and we just ignored bits of rubbish floating by and all over the beach)
However, all negatives aside, another whole world is opening up here in Taiwan. Locals and more experienced surfers of Taiwanese waves say it does get better and on a good day at other north east coast beaches can be just like home. A mate, Ross, was so excited to have his new board and was really keen to have his first surf. As I was in the unenviable position of "the guy with a driver's license" I had to get the school van booked up for the Saturday. Ross' wife and Cass were all set to join us until we discovered that someone had taken all the seats out to cart stuff around! Anyway, the girls were very understanding and sent us off for our inaugural Taiwanese surf (Ross' first ever!) We were in the water for about 5 hours so we certainly made the most of it.
Sunday saw me up at 7 to get to dragon boat race practice on time. Our whole crew was greeted down at the wharf with a big sign of Chinese characters, which a friendly passer-by translated for us. No more practices and no more race day because of SARS. We were devastated, mainly because we were really enjoying it and were looking forward to giving a good account of ourselves come race days. We had a real swish wood fired pizza lunch out on Sunday then some DVD action in the afternoon. We've kind of been warned off more populated areas of town, so thought we'd stay put. We've got more flights booked home now, but the bummer is that they don't leave till 4 days after we break up and come back 3 days early......we're not impressed in missing a week's holiday back home but seem to have little other choice.
The school is at a Level 2 readiness for SARS cases, the first student may have the disease, but he hasn't been on campus for more than a week. We are getting trained in a new software system that the school has bought so we can teach from home if need be and all 3000 students staff and faculty will be issued a digital thermometer this week so we can take our temperature at the gate before we are allowed in....any elevated temps, turn around, go home, and quarantine yourself for 72 hours.... I'm wondering how I can manipulate those things!
The reality of the surf is a little less romantic, when you consider the size (very small), quality (messy) location (just off a power station near a man-made concrete breakwater) and beach and water quality (unlike our bathing beach round the point this beach is NOT regularly cleaned and we just ignored bits of rubbish floating by and all over the beach)
However, all negatives aside, another whole world is opening up here in Taiwan. Locals and more experienced surfers of Taiwanese waves say it does get better and on a good day at other north east coast beaches can be just like home. A mate, Ross, was so excited to have his new board and was really keen to have his first surf. As I was in the unenviable position of "the guy with a driver's license" I had to get the school van booked up for the Saturday. Ross' wife and Cass were all set to join us until we discovered that someone had taken all the seats out to cart stuff around! Anyway, the girls were very understanding and sent us off for our inaugural Taiwanese surf (Ross' first ever!) We were in the water for about 5 hours so we certainly made the most of it.
Sunday saw me up at 7 to get to dragon boat race practice on time. Our whole crew was greeted down at the wharf with a big sign of Chinese characters, which a friendly passer-by translated for us. No more practices and no more race day because of SARS. We were devastated, mainly because we were really enjoying it and were looking forward to giving a good account of ourselves come race days. We had a real swish wood fired pizza lunch out on Sunday then some DVD action in the afternoon. We've kind of been warned off more populated areas of town, so thought we'd stay put. We've got more flights booked home now, but the bummer is that they don't leave till 4 days after we break up and come back 3 days early......we're not impressed in missing a week's holiday back home but seem to have little other choice.
The school is at a Level 2 readiness for SARS cases, the first student may have the disease, but he hasn't been on campus for more than a week. We are getting trained in a new software system that the school has bought so we can teach from home if need be and all 3000 students staff and faculty will be issued a digital thermometer this week so we can take our temperature at the gate before we are allowed in....any elevated temps, turn around, go home, and quarantine yourself for 72 hours.... I'm wondering how I can manipulate those things!
Sunday, April 27, 2003
Cassy's cousin, Ashley left us at about 10am this morning. We got Daniel to pick him up in one of his flash Mercs so he didn't feel too plebian being in scummy Taipei!
We had a good time over the past few days and we think we've shown Ashley a little bit of normal living in Taipei life as opposed to hotel/meeting/restaurant/looking at very ugly part of town mentality. We introduced the poor fellow to variously intoxicated Americans, Aussies and Kiwis on Friday night but spared him the baby shower we were supposed to "bring him along" to on Saturday night.
We ventured to the night market after spending an afternoon exploring the MRT and the flash shopping centre in the newer area of town.
We watched "About Schmidt" on DVD at home last night and I just arrived back in time to say goodbye to Ashley after another early morning session of dragon boat race practice this morning. Even though I do say myself, we're actually getting pretty good! I got a turn sitting at the flag catcher's spot today and these boats are pulling some pretty awesome power at times. The surge from a big effort run of strokes is very strong, and it was also interesting to see how hard our coxswain has to work to keep the thing running straight. He's an amazing teacher...very patient and seems to know how to push us to our limit before easing off (he's an Aussie of course!)
The other potentially very exciting bit of news about Dragon boat Festival is when it is on. We race on the weekend of May 31-June 1, but if we continue to win we might be back for the finals on the following Wednesday. The school is sponsoring our entry so we.....have to have the day off! Now there's some extra incentive, although we suspect it might be like a Taiwanese novice rugby league team coming to Newcastle trying to beat the Knights with just a couple of months training!
Anyway, lazy day today, watched some Knights on tape (thanks Sue!), read some Newcastle Herald in clippings (thanks Mum!) and organized some new keys for our place back home after some scumbag tried to break in the other day (thanks Xris and Val!)
I'm going on an overnight camp with the grade 3s on Thursday-Friday and you can imagine how overjoyed I am at the prospect.......
Our latest flight home has been cancelled and we're trying to book tickets via Japan, Thailand and even Auckland. Wish us luck, but even it means a slow boat away from China we're coming home in June!
We had a good time over the past few days and we think we've shown Ashley a little bit of normal living in Taipei life as opposed to hotel/meeting/restaurant/looking at very ugly part of town mentality. We introduced the poor fellow to variously intoxicated Americans, Aussies and Kiwis on Friday night but spared him the baby shower we were supposed to "bring him along" to on Saturday night.
We ventured to the night market after spending an afternoon exploring the MRT and the flash shopping centre in the newer area of town.
We watched "About Schmidt" on DVD at home last night and I just arrived back in time to say goodbye to Ashley after another early morning session of dragon boat race practice this morning. Even though I do say myself, we're actually getting pretty good! I got a turn sitting at the flag catcher's spot today and these boats are pulling some pretty awesome power at times. The surge from a big effort run of strokes is very strong, and it was also interesting to see how hard our coxswain has to work to keep the thing running straight. He's an amazing teacher...very patient and seems to know how to push us to our limit before easing off (he's an Aussie of course!)
The other potentially very exciting bit of news about Dragon boat Festival is when it is on. We race on the weekend of May 31-June 1, but if we continue to win we might be back for the finals on the following Wednesday. The school is sponsoring our entry so we.....have to have the day off! Now there's some extra incentive, although we suspect it might be like a Taiwanese novice rugby league team coming to Newcastle trying to beat the Knights with just a couple of months training!
Anyway, lazy day today, watched some Knights on tape (thanks Sue!), read some Newcastle Herald in clippings (thanks Mum!) and organized some new keys for our place back home after some scumbag tried to break in the other day (thanks Xris and Val!)
I'm going on an overnight camp with the grade 3s on Thursday-Friday and you can imagine how overjoyed I am at the prospect.......
Our latest flight home has been cancelled and we're trying to book tickets via Japan, Thailand and even Auckland. Wish us luck, but even it means a slow boat away from China we're coming home in June!
Monday, April 21, 2003
We have been pleased to hear that Chris and Val arrived back safely from their HK and China adventure and what a trip they had. With the SARS virus scaring away nearly all the tourists they were treated like royalty and had a ball.
Carl and I had a beer with "the Gurecki" on Friday afternoon before we headed down with Carl's family to meet Cass for tea at a new Indian/Japanese curry house just round the corner from our place (Kari Curry!). It was fantastic, could end up being a favorite of ours...it's sure close enough. I had Cassy's newly arrived golf clubs in tow (!) For those who know us, you'll realise that golf is not a sport that either Cass or I indulge in, but we both have a set of clubs now, courtesy of a factory, which had gone bankrupt, closed down and flogged off all its stock. I wont be so indelicate as to reveal their cost (mainly because I'm not lugging any home for people!!), but they have graphite shafts etc and are rated by far better judges than I as excellent sets.
After a top lazy Saturday morn reading Mum's great newspaper clippings and marveling, amongst other things at Newcastle's spiraling real estate prices we headed off to the Shin Shin cinemas. We'd been there before, but were suitably unimpressed with their '70s fit out, sound and comfort. After a total refit we were very impressed. Big roomy new seats, big screens and great sounds plus a discount for TAS faculty all made this worth a visit...we'll be back!
We stopped at the night market for Cass to get a new watch battery and also bought some delicious Indian takeaway, cooked in front of us at a street stall.
Sunday saw me up at 6am to go Dragon boat racing training! We will compete in six weeks time in the Taipei dragon boat festival, a massive festival here as you can imagine and we're trying to beat the Chinese at their own game. Time will tell how successful we'll be, but if aching muscles today are any indication, we'll be putting in a big effort!!
Home at 10 for brekky and then a trip to the beach on Blacky, carting our chicken sangas (yes Val, Cassy did make them), thermos of ice water, boardies, towels and.....our new pop up beach shelter! As it folds into a large disc and has straps, I strap it on my back, Cass has a backpack and off we go. We stayed at the beach for 4 1/2 hours, unheard of in pre-shade times. As it takes an hour to get to the coast, we don't want to waste the trip. It was great; we read our books (True History of the Kelly Gang for me) had heaps of swims and even dazzled the locals with some more body surfing.
Back to work totally relaxed today, I was secretly pleased to see that my 17 fellow crewmembers were in varying states of distress. Oh well, better get over it soon; 5.30am on Wednesday is our next training time!!
Carl and I had a beer with "the Gurecki" on Friday afternoon before we headed down with Carl's family to meet Cass for tea at a new Indian/Japanese curry house just round the corner from our place (Kari Curry!). It was fantastic, could end up being a favorite of ours...it's sure close enough. I had Cassy's newly arrived golf clubs in tow (!) For those who know us, you'll realise that golf is not a sport that either Cass or I indulge in, but we both have a set of clubs now, courtesy of a factory, which had gone bankrupt, closed down and flogged off all its stock. I wont be so indelicate as to reveal their cost (mainly because I'm not lugging any home for people!!), but they have graphite shafts etc and are rated by far better judges than I as excellent sets.
After a top lazy Saturday morn reading Mum's great newspaper clippings and marveling, amongst other things at Newcastle's spiraling real estate prices we headed off to the Shin Shin cinemas. We'd been there before, but were suitably unimpressed with their '70s fit out, sound and comfort. After a total refit we were very impressed. Big roomy new seats, big screens and great sounds plus a discount for TAS faculty all made this worth a visit...we'll be back!
We stopped at the night market for Cass to get a new watch battery and also bought some delicious Indian takeaway, cooked in front of us at a street stall.
Sunday saw me up at 6am to go Dragon boat racing training! We will compete in six weeks time in the Taipei dragon boat festival, a massive festival here as you can imagine and we're trying to beat the Chinese at their own game. Time will tell how successful we'll be, but if aching muscles today are any indication, we'll be putting in a big effort!!
Home at 10 for brekky and then a trip to the beach on Blacky, carting our chicken sangas (yes Val, Cassy did make them), thermos of ice water, boardies, towels and.....our new pop up beach shelter! As it folds into a large disc and has straps, I strap it on my back, Cass has a backpack and off we go. We stayed at the beach for 4 1/2 hours, unheard of in pre-shade times. As it takes an hour to get to the coast, we don't want to waste the trip. It was great; we read our books (True History of the Kelly Gang for me) had heaps of swims and even dazzled the locals with some more body surfing.
Back to work totally relaxed today, I was secretly pleased to see that my 17 fellow crewmembers were in varying states of distress. Oh well, better get over it soon; 5.30am on Wednesday is our next training time!!
Monday, April 14, 2003
I went to Chad's "baby shower" on Friday night and we had a ball. I helped some of the boys move some ice and chairs around before adjourning to a pub down the road for a few pre-party drinks with Carl, our NZ mate Ross and the "amazing Gurecki" who is a New Yorker who seems to dislike his countrymen intensely and has a tendency to go off in a kind of Seinfeld on speed/Tourette's syndrome fit at regular intervals, especially with a few sherbets on board. With such amusing company, we managed to arrive late at the party in full swing. All men, different ages, nationalities, ideas etc all had one thing in common; they were mates of Chad's, so we ended up having a great time. Suffice to say that Saturday morning probably had many of the participants reaching for the painkillers and the fluids!
On Saturday night, a surfie colleague from the U.S. rang with news of a surfboard stand at a trade show downtown. Cass and I investigated this on Sunday morning and after wandering around looking at sporting goods for an hour and a half (Cass was thrilled as you can imagine!) I walked out having bought a board! It's a 7' 3" thruster with fcs fins which means I can remove them for traveling and a hard bag for the plane....Bali reef breaks, Sumatra or even the Maldives look out! (Cass says "Maldives")
Anyway, it was pretty cheap, as the guy didn't want to take all his display stock back to China. We (the T.A.S. boys) actually bought 6 boards from him yesterday, so we might even try to give them some action here on a weekend or wait for some typhoon swell.
This purchase was funded by Chris and Val who left me some serious birthday cash so...thanks!...you can see it didn't take long to spend.
We ate lunch at the American Tex/Mex restaurant Chilis, which although offering beautiful tastes, made us realize why we usually eat locally. We paid $85 for lunch, no wine!!
I was delighted to get some e-cards and messages from family and friends today. My aunty and uncle timed the sending of a card to perfection when I picked it up today at the post office as well. Thanks to all, although these "in your forties" birthdays are pretty forgettable really!
We've booked some alternative flights home, as the school might not allow us to go through Hong Kong unless SARS gets a bit better. We're more worried about not getting our frequent flyer miles! Just thought I'd add a touch more here as i spoke to Mum for about 20 minutes on the phone just now. It was lovely to have a little chat on my birthday........
On Saturday night, a surfie colleague from the U.S. rang with news of a surfboard stand at a trade show downtown. Cass and I investigated this on Sunday morning and after wandering around looking at sporting goods for an hour and a half (Cass was thrilled as you can imagine!) I walked out having bought a board! It's a 7' 3" thruster with fcs fins which means I can remove them for traveling and a hard bag for the plane....Bali reef breaks, Sumatra or even the Maldives look out! (Cass says "Maldives")
Anyway, it was pretty cheap, as the guy didn't want to take all his display stock back to China. We (the T.A.S. boys) actually bought 6 boards from him yesterday, so we might even try to give them some action here on a weekend or wait for some typhoon swell.
This purchase was funded by Chris and Val who left me some serious birthday cash so...thanks!...you can see it didn't take long to spend.
We ate lunch at the American Tex/Mex restaurant Chilis, which although offering beautiful tastes, made us realize why we usually eat locally. We paid $85 for lunch, no wine!!
I was delighted to get some e-cards and messages from family and friends today. My aunty and uncle timed the sending of a card to perfection when I picked it up today at the post office as well. Thanks to all, although these "in your forties" birthdays are pretty forgettable really!
We've booked some alternative flights home, as the school might not allow us to go through Hong Kong unless SARS gets a bit better. We're more worried about not getting our frequent flyer miles! Just thought I'd add a touch more here as i spoke to Mum for about 20 minutes on the phone just now. It was lovely to have a little chat on my birthday........
Wednesday, April 09, 2003
After our drive on Wednesday we invited the Lochrin family down to our place for drinks which we disposed of very well, after Carl had spent a hot day golfing and we had been around the world. We had a great time having beers on the verandah and Chris and Val were able to catch up with Carl and Hiroko, Steven and Sean. They were able to marvel at how big the boys were getting before we headed off to Ulis for tea. Rainy day Thursday saw us camped in and having a good chat about this and that before Chris and I went out to get the famous Ker Qiang "pizza" This onion patty is flopped and crushed and transferred from bamboo pot to bamboo pot before we bring it home and add egg, cheese and some spicy sauces to the rather bland mix. Delicious(and cheap)! In the afternoon we went on the MRT to Nanking East rd, where Chris and I went to the French electronics and book store FNAC, while Cassy took her Mum to Ikea before we experienced some rush hour MRT (tried to get SARS, but we weren't successful; I've know idea why, because we were sneezed on by about 1000 masked and sniffly people!) Ocean's 11 on DVD for evening.
Rain again on Friday, but a slight break saw us once again up to Yangminshan where we saw the famous flower clock and also saw the very famous Taiwan blue magpie up close!! We walked up to a viewing pavilion as well but the rain and mist spoilt any sweeping vistas on this day. Carl rang and said they were off to Teppanyaki for tea, so we invited ourselves along to that. Chris and Val had enjoyed this style of cooking last time and did so again before the boys (Chris, Carl and I) headed off to the Green Bar for a few cleansing ales. I swung by Chad's place on the way to invite him and Cathy encouraged him to go along (he didn't need much arm twisting) even though she's just a few weeks away from having their first baby.
We had a lot of beers and a lot of laughs, mostly at my expense, especially when all 3 were threatening to go to the fabled and much maligned "Mama's Bar" at 2 in the morning!! Thankfully sanity prevailed and we went home then: Chris was good enough to pretend to his wife and mine that he didn't have a hangover the next day!
On Saturday the 5th Cass had a great birthday and received cards from her Mum and Dad of course, along with my Mum and Sue. Later on in the day, we went to the movies and saw "Chicago", which was very entertaining (even though it's not my favourite type of movie) and then we had dinner in a great Thai restaurant within the Living Mall complex. The whole experience was enlivened, for Chris and Val, by riding on the scooter! Val accompanied me on the way downtown and Chris was my passenger on the way home. Cass went with the other party on each trip on the MRT. Even though it was a relatively quiet weekend, due to "Tombsweeping Day" (!! yes, they really do it!), the ride was quite thrilling for them. (see previous "scooter" entry for an idea!)
We had a wonderful relaxing day in the "Garden of Perfected Benevolence" the next day where we had a picnic lunch and a wander before heading to the crazy excitement of Shilin "night markets". Val bought some good CDs and I managed to buy a "bargain" backpack for $5, only for the zip to fall apart the first time I used it. Sunday night back home reminded me again about the joys of having a car in Taipei. I dropped everyone off before driving around Tienmu for 40 minutes looking for a park. I eventually gave up and parked it illegally at school overnight and walked back home!
Back to school with a partial quarantine on Monday, home for Cass to share a belated birthday drink of champagne with her parents (Moet & Chandon no less!) then out to Fangs Chinese restaurant for a farewell dinner. Chris and Val went off in Daniel's Mercedes limo for the airport at 7 am Monday morning as we headed off to work. It was a great week and we're looking forward to having more good times come June/July.
Rain again on Friday, but a slight break saw us once again up to Yangminshan where we saw the famous flower clock and also saw the very famous Taiwan blue magpie up close!! We walked up to a viewing pavilion as well but the rain and mist spoilt any sweeping vistas on this day. Carl rang and said they were off to Teppanyaki for tea, so we invited ourselves along to that. Chris and Val had enjoyed this style of cooking last time and did so again before the boys (Chris, Carl and I) headed off to the Green Bar for a few cleansing ales. I swung by Chad's place on the way to invite him and Cathy encouraged him to go along (he didn't need much arm twisting) even though she's just a few weeks away from having their first baby.
We had a lot of beers and a lot of laughs, mostly at my expense, especially when all 3 were threatening to go to the fabled and much maligned "Mama's Bar" at 2 in the morning!! Thankfully sanity prevailed and we went home then: Chris was good enough to pretend to his wife and mine that he didn't have a hangover the next day!
On Saturday the 5th Cass had a great birthday and received cards from her Mum and Dad of course, along with my Mum and Sue. Later on in the day, we went to the movies and saw "Chicago", which was very entertaining (even though it's not my favourite type of movie) and then we had dinner in a great Thai restaurant within the Living Mall complex. The whole experience was enlivened, for Chris and Val, by riding on the scooter! Val accompanied me on the way downtown and Chris was my passenger on the way home. Cass went with the other party on each trip on the MRT. Even though it was a relatively quiet weekend, due to "Tombsweeping Day" (!! yes, they really do it!), the ride was quite thrilling for them. (see previous "scooter" entry for an idea!)
We had a wonderful relaxing day in the "Garden of Perfected Benevolence" the next day where we had a picnic lunch and a wander before heading to the crazy excitement of Shilin "night markets". Val bought some good CDs and I managed to buy a "bargain" backpack for $5, only for the zip to fall apart the first time I used it. Sunday night back home reminded me again about the joys of having a car in Taipei. I dropped everyone off before driving around Tienmu for 40 minutes looking for a park. I eventually gave up and parked it illegally at school overnight and walked back home!
Back to school with a partial quarantine on Monday, home for Cass to share a belated birthday drink of champagne with her parents (Moet & Chandon no less!) then out to Fangs Chinese restaurant for a farewell dinner. Chris and Val went off in Daniel's Mercedes limo for the airport at 7 am Monday morning as we headed off to work. It was a great week and we're looking forward to having more good times come June/July.
We've had a great week with Cassy's parents here and have enjoyed our "Spring Break with heaps of fine food, drink, company and adventure!
I won't try to mention everything we did, but rather give a bit of an overview. We gave the "olds" the use of our bedroom and ensuite for their stay, which gave us a chance to check out the famous Ed's Bed, which we bought some time ago...it was pretty good!
We had borrowed a little Laser from some friends here so were able to take Chris and Val a little further afield and really give them a taste of some of the places we've managed to see since we bought our scooter (which will be referred to as "Blackie" from here on!)
Yangminshan was an early target for the car and the steaming fumaroles put on a real volcanic show for the visitors before we went to Buffalo Meadows, enjoying a relaxing walk as well as very close contact with some impressively massive bovines. The camera got a workout and we had a great day. The next day was one of of the finest we've ever experienced in Taiwan, so we headed out towards Baishawan beach and the wonders of the north coast highway. I'd never considered Taiwan as a tourist destination before we came and even before we had our scooter I wasn't really convinced. Blackie has literally expanded our horizons and we were eager to share this feeling with Chris and Val.
The shimendong water formed caves and arch, along with the curious 18 kings temple, where a dog has been deified for trying to save his master from a shipwreck long ago, apparently refusing to budge from the shoreline or eat or drink till his master came back. We went further than ever before along this highway and were thwarted in our efforts to see the beautiful candle island, but we'll try again! Chinshan gave us an excuse to try a back road back over Yangminshan to Tienmu and it was a beautiful drive through lush unspoiled forests, rising over 1000 metres in a very short time. Whew, I've about typed my two fingers out for now....I'm only up to about this time last week, so stay tuned for more!
I won't try to mention everything we did, but rather give a bit of an overview. We gave the "olds" the use of our bedroom and ensuite for their stay, which gave us a chance to check out the famous Ed's Bed, which we bought some time ago...it was pretty good!
We had borrowed a little Laser from some friends here so were able to take Chris and Val a little further afield and really give them a taste of some of the places we've managed to see since we bought our scooter (which will be referred to as "Blackie" from here on!)
Yangminshan was an early target for the car and the steaming fumaroles put on a real volcanic show for the visitors before we went to Buffalo Meadows, enjoying a relaxing walk as well as very close contact with some impressively massive bovines. The camera got a workout and we had a great day. The next day was one of of the finest we've ever experienced in Taiwan, so we headed out towards Baishawan beach and the wonders of the north coast highway. I'd never considered Taiwan as a tourist destination before we came and even before we had our scooter I wasn't really convinced. Blackie has literally expanded our horizons and we were eager to share this feeling with Chris and Val.
The shimendong water formed caves and arch, along with the curious 18 kings temple, where a dog has been deified for trying to save his master from a shipwreck long ago, apparently refusing to budge from the shoreline or eat or drink till his master came back. We went further than ever before along this highway and were thwarted in our efforts to see the beautiful candle island, but we'll try again! Chinshan gave us an excuse to try a back road back over Yangminshan to Tienmu and it was a beautiful drive through lush unspoiled forests, rising over 1000 metres in a very short time. Whew, I've about typed my two fingers out for now....I'm only up to about this time last week, so stay tuned for more!
Sunday, March 30, 2003
....fotojenik.....that's the name to remember. Now my sister Sue is fully set up and ready to go, I thought it was about time I mention her new business to you again. She has a nifty little studio set up and will travel, as they say, to look after any photographic requirements you might have. She's an expert at portraiture, especially kids and has just completed her second wedding shoot. The results are spectacular; interesting and different and at a very reasonable price. She's well worth contacting on (02) 4961 3362 if you're in or around the Newcastle area. She'll even look after your framing.
It's hard to believe that it is the end of March already; school has less than a quarter to go before we're home again. At the moment, I'm trying to ride out a severe head cold after worrying at first that I had contracted the deadly SARS disease (being typically over-dramatic). I need to get well for the arrival of Cassy's parents on Monday who will stay for a week before heading over to China for a while. This will be their second visit.... it can't be too bad here after all. We're both looking forward to their visit of course and Carl Hiroko and the boys will also enjoy seeing them, so we'll organise a few get-togethers. Chad is also threatening to have a drink with Chris.....look out!
I was very concerned to read in the online paper that the majority of Australians now support the war.......we're working with a vast majority of Americans here and even though there are a few red neck flag waving good ole boys and gals, people here are as horrified as we are. Probably best let this topic alone....I'll start ranting.
We've borrowed a little Laser from some friends so we can take Chris and Val up into the mountains and maybe out to the coast (Taiwanese families can fit 4 on a scooter, but I think we might be a bit bigger than most!) so that should be fun.
A whole stack of our colleagues, about 90 all up, have gone to Thailand for a conference and some lazing around on beaches. The strange fascination with working in part of your holiday is explained by the fact that the school pays your airfare, conference fees and accommodation for the length of the conference at a 5 star resort! I'm still trying to come to terms with the professional development funds available here......we used to get excited when we got a trip to Sydney!
More are staying here however, for all sorts of reasons: hosting visitors, staying safe and not traveling with what feels like a target on your head, worries about SARS etc
Anyway, we'll be here and..........loving it! Best to all back home, if you haven't written an email get to it you slackers!
It's hard to believe that it is the end of March already; school has less than a quarter to go before we're home again. At the moment, I'm trying to ride out a severe head cold after worrying at first that I had contracted the deadly SARS disease (being typically over-dramatic). I need to get well for the arrival of Cassy's parents on Monday who will stay for a week before heading over to China for a while. This will be their second visit.... it can't be too bad here after all. We're both looking forward to their visit of course and Carl Hiroko and the boys will also enjoy seeing them, so we'll organise a few get-togethers. Chad is also threatening to have a drink with Chris.....look out!
I was very concerned to read in the online paper that the majority of Australians now support the war.......we're working with a vast majority of Americans here and even though there are a few red neck flag waving good ole boys and gals, people here are as horrified as we are. Probably best let this topic alone....I'll start ranting.
We've borrowed a little Laser from some friends so we can take Chris and Val up into the mountains and maybe out to the coast (Taiwanese families can fit 4 on a scooter, but I think we might be a bit bigger than most!) so that should be fun.
A whole stack of our colleagues, about 90 all up, have gone to Thailand for a conference and some lazing around on beaches. The strange fascination with working in part of your holiday is explained by the fact that the school pays your airfare, conference fees and accommodation for the length of the conference at a 5 star resort! I'm still trying to come to terms with the professional development funds available here......we used to get excited when we got a trip to Sydney!
More are staying here however, for all sorts of reasons: hosting visitors, staying safe and not traveling with what feels like a target on your head, worries about SARS etc
Anyway, we'll be here and..........loving it! Best to all back home, if you haven't written an email get to it you slackers!
Monday, March 24, 2003
We've enjoyed immensely the emails we've received over the past week. Our great correspondents Thurza and our parents were joined by Sue and Ildi, the latter certainly not slowed down by baby Anika.
Cass and I didn't get to bed till about 1 am this morning after a marathon session at the "Brass Monkey". We arrived at 3.30 in the afternoon, in time to secure pretty good seats for the World Cup match, which began at 4. And what a match! The bar was filled with about 2/3 Indians and 1/3 Aussies for the big battle. The Indians were setting up some great chants and adding to the atmosphere with whistles etc. They are a wonderful crowd; we loved being there with them. Some of the more boorish Australians started up some rather strange chants and of course, the ubiquitous "Aussie, Aussie, Aussie" which lacks a lot of imagination and Indian flair, but at least gave the boys something to shout! We were mesmerized by the Australian batting performance and quietly congratulated ourselves on our commitment to the game that saw us witness one of the great innings. Suffice to say, we were a little tired when the alarm went off at its usual pre 6am time, but not disappointed.
The precursor to all this action was of course the first Indian vs. The Rest of the World cricket match, right here at Taipei American School on Saturday night. The Indian dads had been pestering (sledging!) us for some time to have a challenge match and finally we got it together on Saturday. Our team of Aussies, NZ, South Africa and even a Canadian all had a bit of a bash and a bowl. We had a ball! The Indians were a little surprised by our ability I think (even though it was more bash than caress!), as they have been playing regularly in a secret location for some time. We had no equipment but borrowed theirs, even down to the white ball, as it was a "day/nighter".
There were some surreal moments. The one which stands out most vividly is standing at first slip and looking around some time during the Indian innings. The field was lit up and we were applauding our bowler's just delivered ball a la the "real" Australians. Apartment buildings surrounded the ground on all sides and behind them the mass of Yangminshan mountain rose. A white bed sheet flapped from the balcony of a nearby high-rise with the words "Play Cricket, Not War" emblazoned on it for all to see. A fellow teacher who lived there was making a point, which we all appreciated and agreed with.
This message struck home with a vengeance the next morning when our Australian colleague woke to be told his cameraman brother had been the victim of a suicide bomber in Iraq.
"Play Cricket, Not War" made even more sense after that.
Cass and I didn't get to bed till about 1 am this morning after a marathon session at the "Brass Monkey". We arrived at 3.30 in the afternoon, in time to secure pretty good seats for the World Cup match, which began at 4. And what a match! The bar was filled with about 2/3 Indians and 1/3 Aussies for the big battle. The Indians were setting up some great chants and adding to the atmosphere with whistles etc. They are a wonderful crowd; we loved being there with them. Some of the more boorish Australians started up some rather strange chants and of course, the ubiquitous "Aussie, Aussie, Aussie" which lacks a lot of imagination and Indian flair, but at least gave the boys something to shout! We were mesmerized by the Australian batting performance and quietly congratulated ourselves on our commitment to the game that saw us witness one of the great innings. Suffice to say, we were a little tired when the alarm went off at its usual pre 6am time, but not disappointed.
The precursor to all this action was of course the first Indian vs. The Rest of the World cricket match, right here at Taipei American School on Saturday night. The Indian dads had been pestering (sledging!) us for some time to have a challenge match and finally we got it together on Saturday. Our team of Aussies, NZ, South Africa and even a Canadian all had a bit of a bash and a bowl. We had a ball! The Indians were a little surprised by our ability I think (even though it was more bash than caress!), as they have been playing regularly in a secret location for some time. We had no equipment but borrowed theirs, even down to the white ball, as it was a "day/nighter".
There were some surreal moments. The one which stands out most vividly is standing at first slip and looking around some time during the Indian innings. The field was lit up and we were applauding our bowler's just delivered ball a la the "real" Australians. Apartment buildings surrounded the ground on all sides and behind them the mass of Yangminshan mountain rose. A white bed sheet flapped from the balcony of a nearby high-rise with the words "Play Cricket, Not War" emblazoned on it for all to see. A fellow teacher who lived there was making a point, which we all appreciated and agreed with.
This message struck home with a vengeance the next morning when our Australian colleague woke to be told his cameraman brother had been the victim of a suicide bomber in Iraq.
"Play Cricket, Not War" made even more sense after that.
Sunday, March 16, 2003
It was a great night at the cricket downtown and we plan to go again for the semi on Tues and the final next Sun (assuming we make it.... not much doubt)
We've had an amazing weekend as we have taken delivery of a digital set top box for the TV, which adds certain digital channels to our usual 104 channels on cable. We get a number of new ones, but most notably BBC World, TV5 France (in French), DW Germany (in English and German), a Korean channel, a Malaysian channel and a few we already get on cable, but of better quality. The main one is.........ABC (Asia Pacific)!!! It's just unreal; we get news each night at 7, with great local (Aussie) stories and of course, sport for the last 10 minutes. We get old episodes of Water Rats and Blue Heelers (which we never watched back home and are thankful now!) and great current affairs like Focus from SBS, Landline and best of all, Four Corners.
So this weekend we're reveling in our Aussie TV and listening to 2GB footy talk streaming live over the Internet. We're listening to the continuous call team right now, and have just heard the Knights win in a classic come from behind fight. We celebrated by playing and singing the "Playing Hard, Playing Tough" song of the Knights that we've downloaded from the Knight's website... the neighbours must really think we're nuts now, if they didn't before!
Of course, there was a period of about an hour this morning where we were watching the ABC TV with sound muted, listening to 2GB AND reading the latest and greatest clippings that Mum has sent from the Newcastle Herald. In between times I was ringing Carl so we could marvel at the programming on our new TV (he got it too; in fact, found us a much better deal than the original one we had heard about)
So, it's a far cry from days in Japan when I sometimes wondered whether Australia was still actually there. No Internet, email, TV etc..... we're doing pretty well here now in comparison.
We've had an amazing weekend as we have taken delivery of a digital set top box for the TV, which adds certain digital channels to our usual 104 channels on cable. We get a number of new ones, but most notably BBC World, TV5 France (in French), DW Germany (in English and German), a Korean channel, a Malaysian channel and a few we already get on cable, but of better quality. The main one is.........ABC (Asia Pacific)!!! It's just unreal; we get news each night at 7, with great local (Aussie) stories and of course, sport for the last 10 minutes. We get old episodes of Water Rats and Blue Heelers (which we never watched back home and are thankful now!) and great current affairs like Focus from SBS, Landline and best of all, Four Corners.
So this weekend we're reveling in our Aussie TV and listening to 2GB footy talk streaming live over the Internet. We're listening to the continuous call team right now, and have just heard the Knights win in a classic come from behind fight. We celebrated by playing and singing the "Playing Hard, Playing Tough" song of the Knights that we've downloaded from the Knight's website... the neighbours must really think we're nuts now, if they didn't before!
Of course, there was a period of about an hour this morning where we were watching the ABC TV with sound muted, listening to 2GB AND reading the latest and greatest clippings that Mum has sent from the Newcastle Herald. In between times I was ringing Carl so we could marvel at the programming on our new TV (he got it too; in fact, found us a much better deal than the original one we had heard about)
So, it's a far cry from days in Japan when I sometimes wondered whether Australia was still actually there. No Internet, email, TV etc..... we're doing pretty well here now in comparison.
Wednesday, March 12, 2003
Well, mid-week is not a usual time to have fun, but I broke the rules a little last night. We'd received an email at school about the Aussie-NZ cricket game in the super sixes in the World Cup. The oddly named (yet quite apt, considering recent weather) "Brass Monkey" in an unexplored part of town was advertising the game as being on the "big screen". Anyway, after the Aussie innings, about 7.30 our time a bunch of Aussies rang around and 8 of us headed downtown to catch the NZ innings (including one kiwi and two Yanks) What a night. We looked around the bar and commented that we could have been anywhere; everyone was Aussie, Kiwi or Indian. Wickets were cheered or ignored depending on whom you were supporting, beers were drunk and stories shared. The screen was, indeed, BIG and we're looking forward to our semi and hopefully the subsequent final on Sunday week. Brass Monkey, here we come!!
We went up to the fumaroles today with grade 3 on a "field trip" (excursion) and enjoyed some great sights and weather. My darling wife continues to plug away at work and I have promised her she will accompany me next time there is cricket to be watched downtown. She was a touch upset about missing out this time round(!)
We went up to the fumaroles today with grade 3 on a "field trip" (excursion) and enjoyed some great sights and weather. My darling wife continues to plug away at work and I have promised her she will accompany me next time there is cricket to be watched downtown. She was a touch upset about missing out this time round(!)
Sunday, March 09, 2003
This was some sort of psycho cold snap we had this weekend! 10-12 degrees but with some humidity heavy wind as well and that cold just cut through every layer of clothes we had on. I suppose we should be thankful; no doubt this we'll be the last little bit of cold we have as we move steadily into another hot, humid summer.
We've enjoyed reading about Newcastle, family and friends via a great succession of emails from my sister Sue, Cassy's Mum and Dad, my Mum and our friend Thurza. Lois wrote late last week as well and filled us in with some "Grammary" goss. We kicked off the weekend by reading some excellent news clippings that Mum had sent over. It's always a little bit like Christmas to check my mailbox at the school's post office to discover that familiar big white envelope! Mum does a great job picking out some local stuff that we can't get over the internet etc and it helps us feel a bit closer to home. This was especially important for us this week as we officially resigned from our jobs at Newcastle Grammar and felt a bit strange and isolated here. We're comfortable with our decision and incredibly happy with our jobs and life here, but it's certainly the end of an era for us both and it signifies a massive commitment to our plans to work overseas for some time.
We sandwiched "The Hours" last weekend with Shanghai Knights and "Analyze That" this Saturday. I love De Niro and we'd seen the first installment and it was a lot of fun. In fact this one was so much fun, we shocked the local crowd a little by laughing uproariously at regular intervals....they didn't seem to get some of it, I think a lot is probably lost in translation in a comedy.
Anyway, the high brow entertainment out of the way on Saturday, on the way home we bought "The Majestic" and "Panic Room" on video for $5 as a package. Not usually buying videos we couldn't pass by this bargain....something quite mysterious about recent movies so cheap, but they look genuine enough. Well, we came home, watched "The Majestic" and dined on Cassy's delicious "Salmon Supreme" while quaffing a bottle of Rawsons Retreat (not so cheap!!)
Sunday was still bitterly cold and a late breakfast, more clippings, a bit of internet and lazing around saw us ready to eat lunch out! We ate at a German cafe/coffee house near where we live called 'Backerei' and we had a special meal with soup and cake and coffee to accompany Cassy's pesto tagliatelle and my German sausage and sauerkraut.
A slightly less glamorous afternoon followed where we bought a fluoro globe in one store and then caught the MRT a couple of stops to buy a metal blind to replace the (second!) PVC blind that had broken in our bedroom.
Chris and Val are coming to visit us at the end of the month for a week before they make their way over to that really big China across the strait from us........we're really looking forward to seeing them.
We've enjoyed reading about Newcastle, family and friends via a great succession of emails from my sister Sue, Cassy's Mum and Dad, my Mum and our friend Thurza. Lois wrote late last week as well and filled us in with some "Grammary" goss. We kicked off the weekend by reading some excellent news clippings that Mum had sent over. It's always a little bit like Christmas to check my mailbox at the school's post office to discover that familiar big white envelope! Mum does a great job picking out some local stuff that we can't get over the internet etc and it helps us feel a bit closer to home. This was especially important for us this week as we officially resigned from our jobs at Newcastle Grammar and felt a bit strange and isolated here. We're comfortable with our decision and incredibly happy with our jobs and life here, but it's certainly the end of an era for us both and it signifies a massive commitment to our plans to work overseas for some time.
We sandwiched "The Hours" last weekend with Shanghai Knights and "Analyze That" this Saturday. I love De Niro and we'd seen the first installment and it was a lot of fun. In fact this one was so much fun, we shocked the local crowd a little by laughing uproariously at regular intervals....they didn't seem to get some of it, I think a lot is probably lost in translation in a comedy.
Anyway, the high brow entertainment out of the way on Saturday, on the way home we bought "The Majestic" and "Panic Room" on video for $5 as a package. Not usually buying videos we couldn't pass by this bargain....something quite mysterious about recent movies so cheap, but they look genuine enough. Well, we came home, watched "The Majestic" and dined on Cassy's delicious "Salmon Supreme" while quaffing a bottle of Rawsons Retreat (not so cheap!!)
Sunday was still bitterly cold and a late breakfast, more clippings, a bit of internet and lazing around saw us ready to eat lunch out! We ate at a German cafe/coffee house near where we live called 'Backerei' and we had a special meal with soup and cake and coffee to accompany Cassy's pesto tagliatelle and my German sausage and sauerkraut.
A slightly less glamorous afternoon followed where we bought a fluoro globe in one store and then caught the MRT a couple of stops to buy a metal blind to replace the (second!) PVC blind that had broken in our bedroom.
Chris and Val are coming to visit us at the end of the month for a week before they make their way over to that really big China across the strait from us........we're really looking forward to seeing them.
Sunday, March 02, 2003
Framingham masters subject finished on Friday night with an exam. This went OK I think, so to celebrate a little we went up to Section 7 and went to a nice restaurant and ate gourmet pizzas! They were delicious and we wandered back down the road doing a bit of window-shopping along the way. Saturday saw us having a magnificent leisurely brekky of raison toast and coffee while reading all sorts of interesting stuff about Newcastle as Mum had prepared and sent another package of clippings. We read some more this morning but saved a bit for next weekend.
Back to Saturday.....We hopped on the bike and made record time down to the Living Mall to see "The Hours". We both thought it was a fantastic film, but I have to say I'm a little perplexed why Julianne Moore and Meryl Streep have only been nominated as "best supporting". I thought Julianne Moore, in particular, stole the show; her performance was mesmerizing and while "our" Nicole did a very good job, I despair a little that all it takes to be nominated for a "best" award these days seems to be the portrayal of a mentally deficient person. Anyway, enough of that.....Thai restaurant "Bird" sang for our patronage, but we zoomed off across town to a little back alley where "Mr. Fish" lives! 2 pieces of battered fish, chips, vinegar, salt and tartare is a little touch of heaven here in Taipei. After dining we explored some wacky back street life in the south eastern corner of the city, interesting, but a story in itself, so I'll leave that to another time.
We were determined to leave early on Sunday morning to view the cherry blossoms in Yang Min Shan national park. We left to go up the mountain at 10, but it was still early enough to beat most people up there. As we drove around we saw many beautiful cherry blossom trees and I was reminded very much of Japan, even though the trees here were much younger and not as big. We embarked on a walk up a mountain trail and although at the time it seemed rather steep, we persevered for ages, as the track got increasingly steep and dangerous with moss and water making our footholds precarious. We eventually gave up and turned back down, mainly as we were sweating a lot and not really enjoying it. On the way down we thrilled to the close sighting of a Taiwanese squirrel scooting along branches doing his thing. We stopped and watched for 5 minutes and felt our walk was worthwhile.
Cass had made some chicken sandwiches (!) for lunch and we ate them looking at more blossoms. After a quick tour of the visitor's centre we did another little walk to a viewing pagoda where not only could we see all the way down into Taipei city on one side, but we got a true idea of the mountain we were trying to climb on the other. A Monster of sheer (not quite!) walls and endless inclines of frightening proportion. At least we felt a little bit better about wimping out of the whole climb. Home via the "back gate" to escape the by now teeming hordes who had found their way up the mountain (for example, the coach car park which holds 150, was full, many of them double deckers!) The Aussies seem to be kicking some major pommy butt in the cricket right now, which makes us a little sorry we didn't venture to "The Tavern" (The big English hangout downtown) which is showing the game live. We'll go and cheer them on when they're in the "super sixes". That's all for now..thankyou kind folk who have emailed us with a personal message.
Back to Saturday.....We hopped on the bike and made record time down to the Living Mall to see "The Hours". We both thought it was a fantastic film, but I have to say I'm a little perplexed why Julianne Moore and Meryl Streep have only been nominated as "best supporting". I thought Julianne Moore, in particular, stole the show; her performance was mesmerizing and while "our" Nicole did a very good job, I despair a little that all it takes to be nominated for a "best" award these days seems to be the portrayal of a mentally deficient person. Anyway, enough of that.....Thai restaurant "Bird" sang for our patronage, but we zoomed off across town to a little back alley where "Mr. Fish" lives! 2 pieces of battered fish, chips, vinegar, salt and tartare is a little touch of heaven here in Taipei. After dining we explored some wacky back street life in the south eastern corner of the city, interesting, but a story in itself, so I'll leave that to another time.
We were determined to leave early on Sunday morning to view the cherry blossoms in Yang Min Shan national park. We left to go up the mountain at 10, but it was still early enough to beat most people up there. As we drove around we saw many beautiful cherry blossom trees and I was reminded very much of Japan, even though the trees here were much younger and not as big. We embarked on a walk up a mountain trail and although at the time it seemed rather steep, we persevered for ages, as the track got increasingly steep and dangerous with moss and water making our footholds precarious. We eventually gave up and turned back down, mainly as we were sweating a lot and not really enjoying it. On the way down we thrilled to the close sighting of a Taiwanese squirrel scooting along branches doing his thing. We stopped and watched for 5 minutes and felt our walk was worthwhile.
Cass had made some chicken sandwiches (!) for lunch and we ate them looking at more blossoms. After a quick tour of the visitor's centre we did another little walk to a viewing pagoda where not only could we see all the way down into Taipei city on one side, but we got a true idea of the mountain we were trying to climb on the other. A Monster of sheer (not quite!) walls and endless inclines of frightening proportion. At least we felt a little bit better about wimping out of the whole climb. Home via the "back gate" to escape the by now teeming hordes who had found their way up the mountain (for example, the coach car park which holds 150, was full, many of them double deckers!) The Aussies seem to be kicking some major pommy butt in the cricket right now, which makes us a little sorry we didn't venture to "The Tavern" (The big English hangout downtown) which is showing the game live. We'll go and cheer them on when they're in the "super sixes". That's all for now..thankyou kind folk who have emailed us with a personal message.
Tuesday, February 25, 2003
Our past week has been very quiet, Cass again a Framingham "widow" while today another course enters its second week. Our lecturer is insisting on a constant return of work, very hard to cope with when you work all day as well. As he says "If you want to study this way (at night) then you have to put up with the workload" Anyway, it will all be over soon, till next time!
We saw some brain dead entertainment on the weekend, about all we could cope with was Shanghai Knights with Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson. Chan contorted himself in some amazing choreographed martial arts/ dance routines, and it was light and bright and funny. We were glad in a way that "The Hours" doesn't start till today...we'll save that treat till next weekend. Who am I fooling......I loved "Shanghai Knights"!!
Aussie dramas "Dead Letter Office" with 'our' Miranda and "The Interview" were DVD finds on the way back from the cinema. I washed the scooter after talking all about scooters in the last entry, so now it's eminently 'stealable' again! If you're reading this, how about sending us an email?....we can count on the fingers of a three-fingered man our regular correspondents! Duty calls......bye for now.
We saw some brain dead entertainment on the weekend, about all we could cope with was Shanghai Knights with Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson. Chan contorted himself in some amazing choreographed martial arts/ dance routines, and it was light and bright and funny. We were glad in a way that "The Hours" doesn't start till today...we'll save that treat till next weekend. Who am I fooling......I loved "Shanghai Knights"!!
Aussie dramas "Dead Letter Office" with 'our' Miranda and "The Interview" were DVD finds on the way back from the cinema. I washed the scooter after talking all about scooters in the last entry, so now it's eminently 'stealable' again! If you're reading this, how about sending us an email?....we can count on the fingers of a three-fingered man our regular correspondents! Duty calls......bye for now.
Saturday, February 15, 2003
We don't know how we got around before we had our scooter (well actually we do: we caught the train or walked or caught a cab) but it's been a great help to us in finding our way around the city and to places further afield, like the beach and the national parks. But some of the sights we see should be noted, as we've become a little blasé about them. For example, on our way into town today (to see some Matisse paintings......we didn't, but that's another story!) we saw some "normal" scooter sights here in Taipei.
Scooters have a special spot at the front of every intersection and it's not uncommon to have scooters 20 abreast and at least 15 deep at major intersections. When the lights change we all just give our bikes full throttle and sort out our places as we go along. It's very frightening at first......sometimes it still is, when you're in the middle of this pack on a scooter going 70 km which feels like 120! It is usual to see whole families on a scooter: Mum, Dad and a couple of kids, one of the kids usually crouched on the "floor" area between rider and handlebars. We once saw a tiny baby wedged in between kid 2 and Mum and dad making 5 in total!
Today, we saw a girl doing her homework on the back of a scooter, leaning her papers on her boyfriends back as he rode along; dogs riding along are very common, calm as you like in the traffic and noise and general mayhem. The dogs sometimes stand on their hind legs to get a better view! Another terrible distraction is the habit of many girls to wear mini skirts with long boots, but Cass doesn't seem to notice them(!) Of course, even if our bike is going flat out there are always a few boy racers who'll whiz past us in the blink of an eye on an illegally modified bike.
We duck and weave through traffic, inside and outside buses and cabs. We fly along the narrow corridors between the inside lane and parked cars, always wary of drivers opening doors, or taxis that will cut straight across in front of a scooter if they spy a fare.
Anyway, we did arrive home safely again after another trip to town on the scooter. The Matisse, I hear you ask? The line was sooooo long we couldn't bear the thought of the wait, so maybe next time.
Scooters have a special spot at the front of every intersection and it's not uncommon to have scooters 20 abreast and at least 15 deep at major intersections. When the lights change we all just give our bikes full throttle and sort out our places as we go along. It's very frightening at first......sometimes it still is, when you're in the middle of this pack on a scooter going 70 km which feels like 120! It is usual to see whole families on a scooter: Mum, Dad and a couple of kids, one of the kids usually crouched on the "floor" area between rider and handlebars. We once saw a tiny baby wedged in between kid 2 and Mum and dad making 5 in total!
Today, we saw a girl doing her homework on the back of a scooter, leaning her papers on her boyfriends back as he rode along; dogs riding along are very common, calm as you like in the traffic and noise and general mayhem. The dogs sometimes stand on their hind legs to get a better view! Another terrible distraction is the habit of many girls to wear mini skirts with long boots, but Cass doesn't seem to notice them(!) Of course, even if our bike is going flat out there are always a few boy racers who'll whiz past us in the blink of an eye on an illegally modified bike.
We duck and weave through traffic, inside and outside buses and cabs. We fly along the narrow corridors between the inside lane and parked cars, always wary of drivers opening doors, or taxis that will cut straight across in front of a scooter if they spy a fare.
Anyway, we did arrive home safely again after another trip to town on the scooter. The Matisse, I hear you ask? The line was sooooo long we couldn't bear the thought of the wait, so maybe next time.
Saturday, February 08, 2003
We're into the home stretch of our Chinese New Year break now and we've had a good time except for cassy getting sick(see below) Just today we put the bike through its paces up to Yangminshan national park and some parts of the road were so steep that we could have hopped off the bike and walked faster! However, we eventually forced the poor little thing to the top where we enjoyed a nice breather in some open air and nice scenery.
We eked out Mum's clippings package over many breakfasts this holiday and it was great...sometimes the best part of the day. As we haven't been at school since last Thursday, there may well be more awaiting us. I finished the 7th course in my Masters last Wednesday and am "looking forward to" the next one almost back to back to begin on Feb 17 for another two weeks. Many people have gone away here so we haven't seen many people around and most businesses only re-opened today. It's been interesting to finally see Taipei slow down a little. We have plans to go to our favourite Thai restaurant "Bird" tomorrow and I bought a pair of Giorgio Armani jeans the other day;very slick!
Cass continues the letter below.......
We've had a pretty quiet week as I came down with a bit of a stomach bug on Monday and that knocked the stuffing out of me (literally!!!) Nothing serious but I spent a couple of days in bed (reading/sleeping) or on the lounge ( watching dvds or crap tv). The next day I felt ok but it was freezing and raining, so I didn't vary the routine much - just different proportions (not so much sleeping!). David was very good and went to the gym each day and he did the shopping on Blackie, as we were running out of staples (coffee).
Today we went "out for some air" downtown on the MRT to Taipei Main station ( you know the one!). We had a look around and ended up buying the "Mad Max" dvd and Queen's "Jazz" cd : we'd each had a hankering for one of those - you can tell who wanted which one! (although we'll both enjoy the other's choice too!) What we really had to do was to go to the tax office, which is quite near there. I'd had to go there last year to PAY extra tax (!!!) but this time it was to fill in the forms for a REFUND (yay!). It's quite a complicated situation - to do with their tax year being a calendar year and me starting at TAS (where I don't have to pay tax because I teach Middle School, not PRE-school.... you get the idea) . Anyway it all seems to have panned out the way it was supposed to and I'll get LETTER in about THREE or FOUR MONTHS telling me that my refund cheque is there ( in the Taipei tax office) ready to be COLLECTED !!!! Can you believe what an antiquated system it is? David reckons that it's to discourage people from bothering to collect their refunds - they didn't reckon on such a tightarse, did they? I'll fill in a few forms and make a couple of trips downtown for $1100 AUS !!
I was laughing this morning -we didn't have any orange juice for breakfast (Chinese new year the stocks in 7-11 had run out.) BUT we did have oranges! (Linda, Mr. Lee's daughter, from downstairs had brought up some lovely oranges for us for Chinese new year - the colour is symbolic of gold which is supposed to be lucky.) So I squeezed some fresh orange juice and thought of Grandma squeezing fresh juice every day for Grandpa - she could have it! It takes too long (and the oranges are too cumbersome to drag from the supermarket.
We found another great curry place downtown today and next to it was a pasta/pizza place that also looked good so we'll be back there for sure!
We eked out Mum's clippings package over many breakfasts this holiday and it was great...sometimes the best part of the day. As we haven't been at school since last Thursday, there may well be more awaiting us. I finished the 7th course in my Masters last Wednesday and am "looking forward to" the next one almost back to back to begin on Feb 17 for another two weeks. Many people have gone away here so we haven't seen many people around and most businesses only re-opened today. It's been interesting to finally see Taipei slow down a little. We have plans to go to our favourite Thai restaurant "Bird" tomorrow and I bought a pair of Giorgio Armani jeans the other day;very slick!
Cass continues the letter below.......
We've had a pretty quiet week as I came down with a bit of a stomach bug on Monday and that knocked the stuffing out of me (literally!!!) Nothing serious but I spent a couple of days in bed (reading/sleeping) or on the lounge ( watching dvds or crap tv). The next day I felt ok but it was freezing and raining, so I didn't vary the routine much - just different proportions (not so much sleeping!). David was very good and went to the gym each day and he did the shopping on Blackie, as we were running out of staples (coffee).
Today we went "out for some air" downtown on the MRT to Taipei Main station ( you know the one!). We had a look around and ended up buying the "Mad Max" dvd and Queen's "Jazz" cd : we'd each had a hankering for one of those - you can tell who wanted which one! (although we'll both enjoy the other's choice too!) What we really had to do was to go to the tax office, which is quite near there. I'd had to go there last year to PAY extra tax (!!!) but this time it was to fill in the forms for a REFUND (yay!). It's quite a complicated situation - to do with their tax year being a calendar year and me starting at TAS (where I don't have to pay tax because I teach Middle School, not PRE-school.... you get the idea) . Anyway it all seems to have panned out the way it was supposed to and I'll get LETTER in about THREE or FOUR MONTHS telling me that my refund cheque is there ( in the Taipei tax office) ready to be COLLECTED !!!! Can you believe what an antiquated system it is? David reckons that it's to discourage people from bothering to collect their refunds - they didn't reckon on such a tightarse, did they? I'll fill in a few forms and make a couple of trips downtown for $1100 AUS !!
I was laughing this morning -we didn't have any orange juice for breakfast (Chinese new year the stocks in 7-11 had run out.) BUT we did have oranges! (Linda, Mr. Lee's daughter, from downstairs had brought up some lovely oranges for us for Chinese new year - the colour is symbolic of gold which is supposed to be lucky.) So I squeezed some fresh orange juice and thought of Grandma squeezing fresh juice every day for Grandpa - she could have it! It takes too long (and the oranges are too cumbersome to drag from the supermarket.
We found another great curry place downtown today and next to it was a pasta/pizza place that also looked good so we'll be back there for sure!
Sunday, January 26, 2003
My mate from Minnesota, Chad and I did our major presentations for our course on Saturday morning. Much against our own better judgment and to our wives' horror we had more than a few "sherbets" on Friday night. Suffice to say, although the worse for wear, we bumbled through and actually got a very good grade. We have team taught now for 6 months and find we can bounce ideas off each other pretty readily (although a third grade audience is a tad more forgiving than our adult class of colleagues!)
Just a few more days and another course will be finished and Chinese New Year looms large. We have a week off for this local celebration and as it is a time spent with family, many businesses close, at least for a few days. If the weather is poor, at least we have a few DVDs to watch. We've been following our friend, Thurza's Italian adventures very closely through her terrific and informative emails. It has made us yearn a little for Caunes Minervois, as the village she is based in Italy, Barga, sounds VERY similar. She sounds like she's having a fabulous time.
We had a pretty quiet day yesterday as I didn't get home from "class" till after midday, and had expended most of the energy I could muster earlier in the day.
We had a great lazy morning reading each other clips from newspapers that my Mum (thanks Mum!!!) had sent. She sent a great collection, including what "our" kids from the Grammar got into at Uni. It was fun to see how they'd all gone and to pat ourselves on the back for 'teaching them all they know'!!
Our favourite restaurant downtown, "Aubergine" got a workout this afternoon for a very pleasant lunch, then we wandered around the French FNAC shop and wondered at some beautiful books and (of course) bought a couple of DVDs. The scooter zipped its way to the night market on the way back home and I made Cass buy some excellent sunglasses even though she said she didn't want them. I bought 4 pairs of socks for work from a street vendor and now we're home. Hope all are well.........we'll write again when we have something to say......don't forget to email us!
Just a few more days and another course will be finished and Chinese New Year looms large. We have a week off for this local celebration and as it is a time spent with family, many businesses close, at least for a few days. If the weather is poor, at least we have a few DVDs to watch. We've been following our friend, Thurza's Italian adventures very closely through her terrific and informative emails. It has made us yearn a little for Caunes Minervois, as the village she is based in Italy, Barga, sounds VERY similar. She sounds like she's having a fabulous time.
We had a pretty quiet day yesterday as I didn't get home from "class" till after midday, and had expended most of the energy I could muster earlier in the day.
We had a great lazy morning reading each other clips from newspapers that my Mum (thanks Mum!!!) had sent. She sent a great collection, including what "our" kids from the Grammar got into at Uni. It was fun to see how they'd all gone and to pat ourselves on the back for 'teaching them all they know'!!
Our favourite restaurant downtown, "Aubergine" got a workout this afternoon for a very pleasant lunch, then we wandered around the French FNAC shop and wondered at some beautiful books and (of course) bought a couple of DVDs. The scooter zipped its way to the night market on the way back home and I made Cass buy some excellent sunglasses even though she said she didn't want them. I bought 4 pairs of socks for work from a street vendor and now we're home. Hope all are well.........we'll write again when we have something to say......don't forget to email us!
Sunday, January 19, 2003
Last weekend, we took Sean and Steven to see "The Two Towers" on Sunday and had a lovely time with them. We rang up to see if they'd like to come (we took them to the first one and they enjoyed it) and they didn't hesitate to say yes when the idea was floated. They like the movies and it's easy and fun to take them occasionally.
The TV's changed since we went away - no more George Clooney on ER. Channel CM has disappeared into the ether... to be replaced with Animal Planet (one of the Discovery group). This is fine, as I had to stay up till 9 pm to catch a glimpse of George (I only ever made it on Friday nights!) and Animal Planet has the Aussie show Animal Doctor (??I think, something like that; anyway it has Lochie Daddo and some girl with black hair co-hosting it). The show airs at 6pm (can stay awake for this one!) BUT.. it often has emotionally distressing and/or gory scenes, just when you're trying to eat dinner!!! So we're in 2 minds about this - although just hearing some Australian and seeing some "normal" space is quite exciting for us. (by Cassy)
Sunday night sees us at the end of a great and relaxing weekend. We had our usual fairly busy week and Carl and I had a few beers on Friday night at a quiet bar called the 'wow-wow' near our place. It was our 15th wedding anniversary on Thursday and we had planned to go to one of Taipei's fancy restaurants as a special treat. We were so well prepared in fact, that we had bought a book called "Taipei's 100 best international restaurants" and looked through until we found one that really appealed. We chose the Italian one that came in 2nd overall. Anyway Thursday night found us both a little tired so we postponed it till Sat night. The decor was OK but nothing special, the service exceptional and the food first class. The fillet steak with mushroom sauce I had was THE most delicious steak I have ever eaten....this is no exaggeration. After a $70 bottle of wine (one of the cheapest on the menu!) the night certainly was not cheap, but a wonderful experience for us both. It didn't quite match the 10th (Paris), so I'll have to work on something grander for our 20th!!
Sunday, we lazed around and listened to the start of the cricket(3 hours earlier here) before we took off on the scooter for a whiz down to the movies to see "Catch me if you can". I didn't have any great expectations, but Di Caprio was perfectly cast and Tom Hanks worked effortlessly under Spielberg's direction. An excellent fun movie.
I'm starting another Master's subject tomorrow, so I'll be pretty quiet for a couple of weeks. See you!
The TV's changed since we went away - no more George Clooney on ER. Channel CM has disappeared into the ether... to be replaced with Animal Planet (one of the Discovery group). This is fine, as I had to stay up till 9 pm to catch a glimpse of George (I only ever made it on Friday nights!) and Animal Planet has the Aussie show Animal Doctor (??I think, something like that; anyway it has Lochie Daddo and some girl with black hair co-hosting it). The show airs at 6pm (can stay awake for this one!) BUT.. it often has emotionally distressing and/or gory scenes, just when you're trying to eat dinner!!! So we're in 2 minds about this - although just hearing some Australian and seeing some "normal" space is quite exciting for us. (by Cassy)
Sunday night sees us at the end of a great and relaxing weekend. We had our usual fairly busy week and Carl and I had a few beers on Friday night at a quiet bar called the 'wow-wow' near our place. It was our 15th wedding anniversary on Thursday and we had planned to go to one of Taipei's fancy restaurants as a special treat. We were so well prepared in fact, that we had bought a book called "Taipei's 100 best international restaurants" and looked through until we found one that really appealed. We chose the Italian one that came in 2nd overall. Anyway Thursday night found us both a little tired so we postponed it till Sat night. The decor was OK but nothing special, the service exceptional and the food first class. The fillet steak with mushroom sauce I had was THE most delicious steak I have ever eaten....this is no exaggeration. After a $70 bottle of wine (one of the cheapest on the menu!) the night certainly was not cheap, but a wonderful experience for us both. It didn't quite match the 10th (Paris), so I'll have to work on something grander for our 20th!!
Sunday, we lazed around and listened to the start of the cricket(3 hours earlier here) before we took off on the scooter for a whiz down to the movies to see "Catch me if you can". I didn't have any great expectations, but Di Caprio was perfectly cast and Tom Hanks worked effortlessly under Spielberg's direction. An excellent fun movie.
I'm starting another Master's subject tomorrow, so I'll be pretty quiet for a couple of weeks. See you!
Friday, January 10, 2003
First week down in semester 2 and it was a bit tiring after our break.
Sorry about not catching up with everyone during our 2 weeks back home.....the main reason being laid low with a dreaded "plane lurgy"for the whole first week!! Yes, pretty much except Christmas day, we both sat around the house with a box of tissues feeling sorry for ourselves. We got to watch plenty of cricket which was good, but didn't get too much drinking and being merry done at all.
The second week was much better, we managed to get to the beach more than a few times and catch up with family, but it certainly didn't leave a lot of time for much else. We'll see you in June/ July!
Back in Taiwan, we're certainly back in the swing of things and looking forward to a wintery weekend. The temp has dropped quite dramatically here, so much so that we needed to buy a little blowing heater the other day. It's not terribly effective in our large living space but it takes the edge off.
We've missed eating our Chinese noodles and plan to go and eat them quite soon; no doubt a very good idea, as I for one found that someone had snuck into our place while we were away and substituted my roomy pants for these really strange tight ones!! Oh well, we enjoyed our hamburgers, pies and chips for a while.
Will write again after the weekend if we do anything worthwhile mentioning!
Sorry about not catching up with everyone during our 2 weeks back home.....the main reason being laid low with a dreaded "plane lurgy"for the whole first week!! Yes, pretty much except Christmas day, we both sat around the house with a box of tissues feeling sorry for ourselves. We got to watch plenty of cricket which was good, but didn't get too much drinking and being merry done at all.
The second week was much better, we managed to get to the beach more than a few times and catch up with family, but it certainly didn't leave a lot of time for much else. We'll see you in June/ July!
Back in Taiwan, we're certainly back in the swing of things and looking forward to a wintery weekend. The temp has dropped quite dramatically here, so much so that we needed to buy a little blowing heater the other day. It's not terribly effective in our large living space but it takes the edge off.
We've missed eating our Chinese noodles and plan to go and eat them quite soon; no doubt a very good idea, as I for one found that someone had snuck into our place while we were away and substituted my roomy pants for these really strange tight ones!! Oh well, we enjoyed our hamburgers, pies and chips for a while.
Will write again after the weekend if we do anything worthwhile mentioning!
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