A big concrete slash through high-rise apartment blocks and myriads of little open spaces and parks is the curiously named "Sulphur Creek". Starting as a natural watercourse at the top of Yangminshan National Park, it splashes its way past mountain trails full of weekend hikers, fitted out with all the best gear for such a pursuit, and gurgles its way down past shanties at the foot of the mountain before being tamed into a deep, man-made channel, beside which all manner of people and animals exercise and relax before the day begins in earnest.
Sounds of hands slapping against flesh is not so shocking for us now: men power walk wearing what look like women's tracksuits, sometimes with Walkmans strapped to their waists and bud headphones to drown out the only natural sounds around, striking their bodies in various exotic routines to get the circulation going. Some seem content to clap their hands together at regular intervals while others perform a bizarre dance of fitness studiously avoiding getting in each others way and seemingly oblivious to others gaze. Sometimes at the very last second, when a collision seems unavoidable and the uninitiated brace for contact, they manage to glide past without the slightest touch.
Younger men jog at a leisurely pace, no doubt constricted by their full tracksuits in the 30-degree early morning heat, contorting their faces with the effort, sweating profusely, yet refusing to peel off the layers, the badge of their hobby.
A mixed age group of women, from young office girls to retired grandmothers performs a beautiful, measured and almost hypnotic ballet of Tai Chi to the barely heard strains of Chinese music struggling out of a battered and tinny speakered tape recorder. They don't notice the intrusion of the two foreigners walking by, or pretend not to, although I usually catch one or two stealing a peek at Cassy's clothes or shoes!
Further on, a group of 8 old ladies sit and talk, their assigned positions on two benches never varying, a couple of equally wise dogs relaxing at their feet, as their owners sit and chat, dressed so perfectly, coifed and powdered as if on their way out to dinner.
The "3 wise monkeys", our next landmark, sit on a sculpted wall, sometimes having a beer (!) admiring the sweeping job they have just performed, not just the paths of the park, but the grass as well, which always struggles to grow under the effort of resisting so many feet walking across it each day. Occasionally one of the men will risk a beaming "Good Morning!" to which we always respond in kind, producing a nodding smiling acknowledgement, he so proud to show off his English skills to his mates.
A garishly mosaiced bridge is a pastiche amongst the greenery just further on, with a small amphitheatre facing its multi-coloured arch. A hub of activities for meetings and displays on most weekends, it hosts another band of exercisers in the morning, directed in their minor exertions by a man with thick black rimmed glasses, invariably attired in a form fitting bright yellow tracksuit, almost a parody of Bruce Lee in Way of the Dragon. Their exercise routine is very hard to follow: it seems to involve hitting various parts of the body for a number of repetitions, before moving to another part to begin the process again.
Turning away from the river now, we amble along the footpath of the main artery of Tienmu, dodging scooters lining the footpaths and people who practice the afore mentioned "late sidestep" to avoid collision. Past the framing and mirror shop which now cooks breakfast takeaways as well from a suspiciously dirty looking set of pots, the shopkeepers distracting their customers by keeping up a steady stream of banter at a socially unacceptable volume. Nearly there, the Indian and German dads seem at a loss as to how to control their kids waiting for the European school bus, an unusually spindly-legged boy seemingly oblivious to the traffic as he runs and plays on the verge. We dodge around them and start meeting more people going our way. Cass digs in her bag for her gate pass as I display mine from it's hiding spot in my pocket, the neon yellow shock of lanyard announcing we are from TAS. Cass smiles and says hello to the security guard at the car gate, a daily action that seems to thrill the man; perhaps others just ignore him.
With just a few variations on a theme, this all happens at 7 each morning as we walk to school, before the "real" events of the day have even thought of beginning!

Being completely hoarse in front of a class of 3rd or 5th graders is not an ideal situation to be in. “George’s Marvelous Medicine” just doesn’t have the same pizzazz when read by a horse whisperer and insightful comments at faculty meetings lose a little bit of impact if people can’t hear them.
Of course, this is the result of some raucous cheering and lusty singing during and after the shock win by the Wallabies on the weekend. Just to set the scene...I had been ensconced in the American Club all day Friday discussing matters most serious and so terribly important to the future of the school! My input was somewhat less than spectacular, preferring to sit and listen and learn before committing myself to comment. After just an hour back at school, the 3rd graders started tumbling in to the lobby for the beginning of their sleepover. These kids were a ball bearing in a pinball machine; they were careering off walls and each other, going crazy in their excitement. After an especially chaotic sign in we were back on the buses to take this loud, bouncing mass to the local bowling alley. I digress, but this needs mentioning: you know those big yellow American school buses you see in movies trundling around peaceful smooth streets in suburban USA? Well, of course the school has a fleet of these beasts trying to negotiate the unforgiving roads of Taipei city, their long wheel base sending spine jarring bolts into bodies with every bump on the road. Not the ideal transportation to my recovering bad back!
Bowling hardly needs mentioning except for e few pertinent facts.....have you ever tried to find 140 size 5 shoes or 140 size 8 bowling balls in an alley? Do you think that anyone could speak English or that the kids realized you have to wait for the metal gate to come down on the pins after each bowl? Suffice to say that chaos reigned, toes were crushed under balls too heavy and gates bent from balls delivered too early.
Back to school for movie and bed. An amazingly persistent mozzie kept me awake most of the night, either by buzzing in my ear or as a result of me slapping myself in the head in an unsuccessful attempt to get rid of it. Leaving at 7.30 to meet with Ross, Ains and Cass to head to the beach, we got some fun little waves at the Point. Back to Tienmu, we were booked for lunch at an Italian restaurant before moving to the Green bar for the big game. I had to sleep for a few hours and Cass went off to fly the flag for us before I joined her later.
Of course the Green Bar led to Club 75 (jazz) before our friend Raj enticed us downtown to a cigar and champagne bar which has just opened. We could have paid one month's rent with the bill and this put a bit of a downer on the incredibly lavish décor and relaxed ambiance of the place.
Sunday saw me impersonating Benny the plant on the lounge before we cheered home the Kangaroos that afternoon. They really miss Joey, those kangaroos! Suffice to say, an exhausting time, interspersed with lots of fun.........we just need to recover in time to lend full voice to overcome the all singing, all knowing Pommy contingent next Saturday down at the Green!

Well, I feel pretty slack not writing earlier this week, but we’ve been horrendously busy. Just in case the dreaded SARS virus forces another school closure, the school has bought some online software at great expense, so the little soldiers in the TAS army are now required to add some training to their schedule. This already includes an extra ½ an hour a day to make up for the lost time before we left for our last holiday. So, even though we were luxuriating in our 12 week break back in Merewether, we’re paying for it in kind right now!
Cass had a pretty rough week last week, laid low by the ubiquitous Taipei throat infection and had to have 4 days off work, feeling pretty sick and sorry for herself. She’s back at work now, but finding the day to day grind (as mentioned above) very enervating. We’re planning on taking it easy this week, and of course, this restricted our continuing adventures last weekend!
On Saturday, Ross was sequestered in a classroom doing his Master’s course (I’ve finished. hurrah!), so Carl and I headed to the beach for a surf. The word “flat” is a gross understatement of conditions; although the sun was shining and the wind was light, Carl decided that bigger waves would be lapping the shores of Salamander bay at the time. Still, I was able to play tourist guide a little for Carl regarding the appeals of the north east coast and show him a few secret surfing spots. We had a swim and talked some rubbish, mainly reminiscing about past adventures in Japan and Australia.
On Sunday, Ross and Ains were champing at the bit to get away, so Cass dragged herself along and we headed to Jinshan point. It absolutely teemed with rain over the mountain and water was seeping in along our tension straps which lock the boards onto the roof. Surging storm surf with fat, menacing waves, rips and gullies and a generally very unfriendly aquatic environment greeted us when we arrived. Coupled with a force 10 onshore gale with driving rain, it was almost impossible to believe that less than 24 hours earlier, our fiercest enemy had been a piercing sun necessitating a liberal and regular application of sun cream.
Anyway, of course, Ross and I went out for a bit of “contact” surfing, and proceeded to be thrown around like rag dolls for the next couple of hours. The conditions were so bad that the girls didn’t even get out of the car! Back home to watch the Aussies beat the Poms in the rugby league replay, before the Kiwis displayed some ominous form to book a berth in a semi to play the Aussies next Saturday. The Kiwi contingent is planning a big day at the Green Bar on Saturday....I’m certain they are trying to lure us there just to witness the massacre and have great fun at our expense when the game is over!
A bit humdrum at the moment.....we’re just keeping our heads above water work wise and we’re a bit too tired to do much on the weekends. Still, as always, I’m sure we’ll have some more interesting adventures to report on soon......maybe we’re just easily amused!

A clear “Australian like” sky of deep blue and not even a zephyr of wind greeted us as we woke early on Saturday to make our way to the beach. The lack of wind in Tienmu certainly augured well for a surf of distinction, if we could make it over the hill before the wind got started. Ross and Ains joined us at 7 am and we headed to Jinshan point which had a disappointing slushy swell on a very low tide. We headed through Jinshan town to our secret spot, but it was hardly breaking. After zooming through the tunnel to Green Bay, we decided that this was the spot. The water was crystal clear and glassy and Ross and I had the beach to ourselves. Taking off on some beautifully formed right handers, the only sound was the crash of the wave and the board scything through the water and the occasional sharp slap as the board readjusted to the wave. We had a window of near perfect surf for about an hour, really incredible. Gradually the tide filled a little, the wind changed a notch in intensity and direction and things changed, but we really had an awesome experience. Cass and Ains both went for a swim as well, which is pretty amazing as it is the last month of autumn here now. Cass also waxed lyrically about the quality of the weather, the spot, the conditions....we really had a great time.
Fairly blissed out from our day, the Australian’s performance against the Irish certainly woke us up on Sat evening! After that little heart starter we watched Pirates of the Caribbean” on DVD, which I had bought in Thailand. I know a lot of people liked this movie, but I must admit I wasn’t one of them. It reminded me of Tony Curtis as the “Scarlet Pimpernel”, just with a few more special effects. Cass and I agreed that if the BBC ever made “Hornblower” into a movie, it should clean up, if this film was such a success!
We planned an adventure for Sunday and decided to explore two parts of Taipei city we’d never been to before. The idea was to go from the ridiculous to the sublime, or vice versa, depending on your point of view. We traveled to the far south west corner of the city, at the end of one of the branches of the MRT lines, which seemed very appropriate as we would be visiting a part of town where the workers brought to Taipei to build these lines now live and work. Leaving Nanshi Chiaou station and walking for about 10 minutes, we were surprised to see mountains wrapping around the backs of the buildings, much like our suburb Tienmu. We realized that we’d finally reached the other end of the great Taipei “bowl”, where the itinerant workers from Myanmar and Thailand and India had set up home. We turned down a street to be greeted by Thai and Burmese writing everywhere...you know that curious succession of half circles and squiggles?
A variety of sights and smells and sounds were vying for our attention at the same time. We seemed to be attracting a fair few looks as well, and we did not see another foreigner the whole time we were there; not on the tourist beat! Skinny sweating men with shirts off were hawking their wares at amazing volume, strange sea creatures were laid bare on tables with a makeshift fan doing all the “purifying” needed to keep them fresh! Slabs of unidentified meat hung on wires whilst across the road, the dim sum and dumpling makers moved their goods from bamboo tray to plate, seemingly unaware that a whole different culture was operating just opposite. It was almost as if the road itself was “no man’s land” .....I think we were the only ones to cross it! Spices and curries from all over Thailand and Myanmar were for sale and we bought some red and green curry pastes to try. Cass bought a denim jacket with a picture of a sequined girl applied to its back for just $12; it doesn’t seem to be different from mine that I bought at DJs back home. As we wandered, the market salespeople were offering but not insistent, fresh veges were being sold everywhere in clumps and packs, that mountain dirt still coating them with authenticity. I have waffled on quite terribly here, so I’ll try to be a bit briefer....we’re only half way through the day!!
We spied a little outdoor eatery and after the owner took us out the back to select our dishes we had a prawn curry and rice with chili and cucumber and fish spice on the side all washed down with a lemon tea. Delicious. Back on the train and after changing twice, we arrived in the quite sterile, or so it seemed, banking sector. We scouted around in the back alleys of the Sherwood hotel to spot up market Thai, Japanese, Chinese and western restaurants along with Indian furnishing stores and quaint little bookshops and home made western style cake shops.....worth another visit!
We boldly walked into the Sherwood as if we owned the place and visited Henry’s Bar with its Chesterfield couches and wood paneling before checking the menu at Toscanna, the Italian restaurant. An interesting item was Dom Perignan “free flow” at quite a cost. Does this mean a bottomless glass? If so, we might put our drinking shoes on to give it a try, but no doubt we’ll come out with a wobbly boot!! After soaking up the rarified atmosphere here for a while we walked to Ikea for Cass to buy some place mats and ended up getting a taxi home to give our weary legs a break. Back home, went to the bank, did the shopping and got home just in time to see NZ get a great scare from the Welsh in the rugby, Gordon Bray serenading us in his inimitable style.
A great weekend all round, although we’re a little flat today back at work.....I think we need another weekend to recover.

Just past the nuclear power plant outlet and in the shadows of the Patriot missile battery, all pointed to China, the two intrepid surfers got a rocket ride out into a good 8-10 foot set. Water was rushing into this little inlet and flowing out up past a man made rock wall, the only trouble was that when the rock wall ended, we were out the back in amongst these monsters.
This was how our long weekend began on Thursday morning and after a fair battering, Ross and I joined Cass and Ains in the car for a journey into unexplored territory on the spectacular north east coast of Taiwan. The road followed impossibly sheer cliffs which just seemed to rise as vertically on one side of the road as it dropped away precipitously to rocky shores far below on the other. We drove through Green Bay and onto Keelung, the coastal town and harbour that has cruise ships leaving for Japan and the rest of the South China Sea, an escape route if ever the unthinkable Chinese attack comes! Tracking the coastal road through town and beyond we spied all sorts of interesting coves and points, ripe for further investigation when the surf conditions are right. We turned around at Fulong, a wide, wind swept beach of huge (by Taiwan standards) proportions.
We drove back to Green Bay where we were booked at the Howard Plaza resort, a curious and megalithic hotel, seemingly in the middle of nowhere. Modern, clean and spacious, the rooms were a delightful surprise, a Disneyland style castle holding all the amenities, like gym, indoor pool, restaurants etc and an outdoor area with lagoon size pools and private beach no less!
We were originally told the hotel was booked out, but after some persistence, they agreed to let us book two double rooms. We were scoffing at their claims until 16 coach loads of school kids descended on the place about 7pm! The kids were pretty well behaved and they left again at 6.30 in the morning, only a lot of open empty rooms indicating that they weren't just a figment of our imagination.
Ross and I surfed our private beach for a couple of hours before a magnificent buffet breakfast (pre-paid!) and we had a great time except for a back injury I sustained by free falling about 2 metres onto the rail of my board. We packed up late (check out at midday) and headed to the point at Jinshan. Another Aussie, Clarky, had just arrived and even though I wasn't relishing the prospect of a paddle out in a stormy, rising swell, I felt compelled to show that no Byron clubby was better than a Newcastle boy! Gritting teeth and protecting back muscles as best I could I managed to get out the back and get a few big boomers before my leg rope broke, leading to an interesting body surf over rocks to retrieve my board from the shallows where it survived with just a few scratches.
Suffice to say that this ridiculous act of bravado saw me lying on the lounge most of the remainder of the weekend, alternating deep heat cream with ice packs.
We did venture out on Saturday to see "Kill Bill", the new Tarantino spatter fest, which we both thought was excellent. The generous lashings of Japanese dialogue were only subtitled in Chinese of course, so I did my best to keep Cass informed of the jist of things, even though the visual almost comic book style was fairly self-explanatory!
Sunday saw the lounge-lying kick in and we were treated to 3 games of world cup rugby and Cass took the opportunity to read a bit of her new book, Sue Grafton's "Q is for Quarry" (ordered from Amazon at some unspeakable price!)
I walked around at work today like Quasimodo due to the back and took a little early mark to get the ice pack on to it. We're not too far away from finishing our latest roll of film and we're hoping to get quite a few good photos to post on our other site (stay tuned!)
It's a funny place Taiwan....we reach the point sometimes where we can appreciate all that it has to offer whilst yearning for home, friends and family, yet at other times we're just totally exasperated with some strange thing or other. This weekend was the former; seeing the north east coast and all its rugged beauty, it was hard to imagine a better place to be, especially in the company of your soul mate.

Thailand certainly proved to be a land of incredible contrasts for me. Just back from a week in Ban Chang, which is in the south of the country not that far from Cambodia. The course I attended was a tutor-training course and I now have a qualification to teach this course for the next 5 years. It's called ESL in the Mainstream and as the name suggests, allows us to run a course to teach classroom teachers how to differentiate their programs to be more inclusive of ESL learners. I was very impressed with the Aussie lecturers, as it is sourced from South Australia.
I had two colleagues from my school in my group of 12 and it was a bit of a double-edged sword. As they waffled on and asked questions about minutia, I cringed and hoped the Aussies wouldn't tar me with the same brush. On the contrary, they were very sympathetic to my plight as the ESL head having to deal with those two nutters! I did a fair bit of networking and met the ESL coordinators from Bangkok Patana, Int School Manila, Beijing Int School and Int School Hong Kong and did a bit of comparing notes etc. I was a bit jealous as they all get heaps of time off for their roles...as much as 60% admin, %40 face-to-face!
To alleviate the pain of the day, I certainly took advantage of the lagoon size pool and the beach of the Gulf of Thailand, which lapped just 50 metres from our rooms. No surf of course, but beautiful sunsets and crystal clear waters were very soothing. I met up with some guys on the course and we went into Pattaya city on 3 occasions after class, ostensibly to do some shopping but really to have a few cleansing ales and see the amazing sights and sounds of this beach town about 3 hours south of Bangkok. We met up with some Dutch guys and watched the South Africans annihilate someone at the Copenhagen Bar, a sprinkling of Pommies and Aussies and lots of Thais added to the great atmosphere. I bought some DVDs at amazing prices ($4 Aus), and various rip off soccer shirts and t-shirts.
The streets of Pattaya were quite overwhelming; a cacophony of sound and colour and people. I read that this town has the highest ratio of bars per metre of road anywhere in the world and that it all started as an R&R spot for the American soldiers in Vietnam. However it started, it doesn't seem to have missed a beat yet!
Jet skis whiz along the beach just a few feet from shore with cruise boats touting for business to go to Ko Samet and Ko Samui, both gorgeous islands sitting out in the gulf with fine silicone sand and views of other idyllic islets.
As you can imagine the food was just out of this world......green curries, red curries, sweet and sour fish, along with heaps more exotic fare. On at least 3 nights, we sat at a little local restaurant just up from the hotel, with cane chairs and tables right out on the sand, watched sunsets, drank Singa beer and ate a succession of wonderful dishes till we could barely move. Our Thai friends from the course and some of the longer term expat "Thailanders" selected magnificent feasts for us...we ate whole fish steamed in chilies and garlic, incredible fried rices and Tom Yum soups (which nearly blew my head off..I literally couldn't speak for 10 minutes after eating one of the versions!!) And fresh prawns cooked behind our table on the wok with fish sauces curry, chili and veges.
Of course, I missed my darling terribly, especially as we had only seen each other for a couple of days after Cassy's camp. I've tried not to wax too lyrically about the food up to now as it is definitely Cassy's favorite........unless I can convince her not to read this, I've had it now!!

After all the excitement of the grand final last week, this weekend is a little of an anti-climax... unless you're into the rugby! We had a great time watching the "Pennies" win last Sunday and had quite a crowd of boys round to share in the footy fever. The "big screen" worked well and we even managed English commentary with the aid of the sound from ABC Asia's telecast that we had coming simultaneously through the TV.

David left for Thailand on Tuesday afternoon and I've had a couple of emails from him. He's not too impressed with the work required for the course but he's managed to find a buddy or two, so the "shopping" trips to Pattaya are a bit of an escape for him. They watched some of the rugby (the South Africa game as well as the All-Blacks) with some new Dutch mates at the "Copenhagen Bar" so I guess it's not too tedious for him!

I had a very busy week until Friday evening. I collected 48 memoirs from my classes to be edited in a very detailed fashion. This consumed my every waking (and not-so-awake) moment from Wednesday till 11:20am Friday. Then I had to teach, so the timing of Cathy Funk's (MS principal) "TGIF" (Thank God it's Friday) bash was great for me. I had a pretty good time and the food was delicious - tasty Indian triangles with yogurt dip, artichoke dip, leg ham and mustard bread rolls, little tuna sandwiches, a selection of great cheese, Belgian chocolate clusters... and plenty of beer and wine.

I slept for over 12 hours - must still have been tired from camp - and just lazed around and read most of the day on Saturday. My slothfulness ensured that I missed going to the beach with Ross and Ainsley but... there's always next weekend!

Today I've done the shopping, washing, ironing and typed up the minutes from our team meetings last week (my turn). I plan to write some first quarter reports now (due Monday, October 20) so that next weekend I can relax with David.

Hope we eventually get some cricket on ABC Asia; presumably it's the rugby that's pushing it off the schedule at the moment.

Grand final fever has gripped Taipei as the Chinese locals and ex-pats alike eagerly await the big game which will be broadcast live here at 5pm. Parties are being planned the length and breadth of the island as an unprecedented interest has blossomed in the great game of rugby league almost overnight.
Well, in reality, I'm sure there will be a small crowd of people at the Brass Monkey bar downtown, at Tienmu's own Green Bar and at our place for the big game. We've borrowed a data projector from school as well as a local video player to decode the signal and have tested it out. It throws a picture up on our loungeroom wall, which rivals the size of the biggest screen anywhere! There were many problems along the way.....
Firstly, I discovered that our digital set top box, which decodes the ABC, would not transfer its signal to video (about 4 hours). Then I realized that the Chinese video has no audio outlets meaning we would only get sound from the projector. The local cable channels will load on to the video so I looked up the TV times for the Star Sports channel and found that they too were broadcasting the game live. The only problem possible will be if they don't take the Australian audio and decide to commentate over the top. We can overcome that by streaming the 2GB commentary over the internet in the study in the adjoining room. So we can watch the pre-game stuff at 4.30 on the ABC and then hook the data projector to the Video for the game at 5 on the Star sports channel. Fingers crossed it will all work out!
Another slight problem was what to feed the visitors. We thought of good footy fare: pies (no), sausage rolls (no), frankfurts (no), cabanossi etc (no). We've decided to go and get some cheese, biscuits, chips etc and a couple of buckets of KFC! Beer is, thankfully, no problem.
Cass got back from camp on Friday quite exhausted and glad to be back to our clean house and comfortable bed. She declined the invitation to go to the beach yesterday and I wish I had too. Ainsley stayed in the car marking the whole time and Ross and I attempted to get out the back in a howling gale, supremely messy 5-6 foot swell. It was a real storm surf and we couldn't get out and I came back in after about 1/2 an hour without catching one wave. Ross persevered for a while longer before we packed up and came home. We also went on Friday after school and similarly disappointing surf, but not before we retrieved the car from it's parking spot around the corner only to find the driver's side window smashed! We cleaned out the mess and Mr. Lee, our landlord, took me around to a windscreen/window repair place and negotiated a time (8.30 Sat morning) and a price (just $45 Aust.!) for the replacement. I went round in the morning and we were on our way to the beach in about 20 minutes. The incredible level of service here is something we really miss when we get back home. They would have done it on the spot if we'd wanted that as well.
Work has continued to be very busy and I will need to leave work for my substitute when I leave on Tuesday night for a week in Thailand. I'm attending an ESL Tutor training course, which will give me some sort of certification and a license to train classroom teachers to help them work with an ESL teacher and ESL kids in a team teaching environment. It costs a bomb just for the course (an amazing $2,500 U.S. !!) let alone the airfares and accommodation. My predecessor as ESL head had already received full funding for this trip and this transferred to me when I got my new position. I'm not that keen on going especially as Cass has only just got back, but it's part of the job.
Anyway, we're looking forward to a great game today......many people will know that I was an Easts supporter before Newcastle joined the comp but.....they just keep knocking the Knights out of the semi finals! I'll have mixed feelings today so I'll just enjoy watching the game. Cass will get all her black gear on to support the "Penny" panthers, they're black cats so there's really no choice for her!

I'm writing this on Tuesday, in a small window of opportunity at work. We’re suffering from the 3rd great computer breakdown. The poor old thing might be on its last legs, I think. Sunday morning it loaded up perfectly so we could check the tides and wave prediction before heading to the beach. Sunday evening after the football it just refused to start up except in safe mode. One good thing that has come from it is that I’ve discovered through necessity how to access my email remotely, which means we can use our usual email all year round now, instead of switching to hotmail when we aren’t in Taiwan.
Our weekend was pretty standard, with Ross and I scurrying off to the beach on Friday afternoon and surfing till dark (which is getting earlier and earlier as winter approaches) before heading home. The car is still going really well and does about 200 km each weekend, so let’s hope it continues! Carl and I had a couple of beers on Friday night and were met with the curious sight of the “master” at the Wow wow bar doing some (what we thought were) renovations. He’s a very lackadaisical character and we were shocked at this strange change in work ethic. But worse was to come: he informed us in broken English that the bar will close. Carl and I treasure our times there, mainly because it is a little run-down, certainly not trendy and never seems to have anyone much in it. We had a sneaking suspicion that this might happen one day, for the very reasons I just stated. We often wondered how he made any money and now we know. He didn’t!
We had a bit of a sleep in on sat morning before heading to the “Green Bar” for the AFL grand final. There was a crew of Aussies there and we had a great time, yelling abuse at the ref, the players and sometimes each other! The bar put on a great lunch of Indian curries which we ate with great relish, but it put our plans of an Indian tea out the window. The Board party at the American Club was on Saturday night and we thought that while a stack of people were there, we’d take the opportunity to get to the Indian “Spice Shop” without running into a lot of school people. Anyway, best laid plans and all that. We ended up having a delicious dinner of green onion pancakes bought from our little stall in Ker Chiang Rd, dressing them up with a couple of eggs and Tabasco for the princely sum of $3 (had leftovers the next day as well!)
Sunday was beach day and we were once again in a self imposed media ban as both finals of the footy were to be broadcast in the afternoon. We had a pretty good time, the surf wasn’t great, but fun little waves provided a bit of entertainment. Our little beach igloo is still going great guns, Cass declaring that she just couldn’t come to the beach without it! The sun is still intensely hot; I constantly need to re-apply sunscreen while we’re there. The football was good when we got home and I had mixed feelings about Easts. I followed this Sydney team right until Newcastle joined the comp and feel I should support them now, but I just can’t get past the fact that they’ve knocked the Knights out 4 out of the last 5 years! We’re thinking of having a few people round next week for the grand final which is on our ABC box live.
Cass is away at camp this week and I’m a bit lonely already without her. She’ll be back on Friday, but then I’m going to Thailand for a conference next Tuesday for another week!
Well, this is certainly taking longer than I thought. Work is calling and I’m afraid I’ve raved on with some mind numbing minutia, so I’ll sign off now.

Aching shoulders, bruised ribs and sore arms, as well as bites and small lacerations. No, not the result of a fight or a game of football, but surfing! I've taken the day off the trip to the beach today to get a little chance to recover. Because we make the trip over the mountains (a 2 hour round trip) we think that we should make the most of it, subsequently spending far too much time in the water. It certainly has been enjoyable the last couple of weeks, this weekend again seeing some decent swell and waves, although as mentioned, we've been bitten by some kind of jellyfish and suffered a few little cuts courtesy of some barnacled rocks at low tide.
After a surf till dark on Friday afternoon, we came back to town to go to Cathy's 30th birthday party, where both Cass and I had a great time. We've certainly sussed out who we really want to spend time with here and, as Chad and Cathy are fairly like-minded, the invitees were a great bunch of personalities and nationalities. Chad had organized the party to be held at the "Green Bar" and had asked the owner to pay for the food, as he was bringing in about 50 customers. Sensibly the owner agreed and we had home cooked Thai delights as well. It's the first time Cathy had a big party out since Levi was born a few months ago, so she had a ball.
Ross and I headed out early yesterday for more surf, trying out our new ratchet tie downs to secure the boards. We're no engineers, so it took us far longer than it should have to work out a decent system, but we got there in the end! They worked very well and we think we can do without a rack for a bit longer yet. After surfing ourselves to exhaustion, Ross drove us back (he has his licenses as well now) just in time for me to have some lunch before Cass and I headed down to the Living Mall to see "The Italian Job". What a fantastic movie! I was initially worried that I'd fall asleep. But there was no possibility of that as it was action and intrigue aplenty. We tried to go to one of our favorite restaurants a few train stops down, but "Mr. Fish" has gone! We were pretty disappointed as this was the only fish and chip shop in Taipei as far as we know. Anyway, we had a look at few DVDs without purchasing, than came back home and fried eggs on toast! They were yummy.
Today sees us enjoying a nice lazy Sunday morning, reading some clippings from the Newcastle Herald that Mum sends over, eating raison toast and drinking coffees. We're in a self imposed media ban as we will watch the delayed telecast of the Warriors game here at 1.30 followed straight after by Storm and Bulldogs. It's Carl's birthday on Monday, so we've arranged to go out to tea with his family after the football to celebrate that. He's been flat out lately taking his soccer team (he coaches the senior boys) to Thailand and also round the island here. He doesn't know whether he'll do it next year or not. It's a shame, because he's by a long way the best soccer coach they'll ever see.
Hope things are going well for you at home, thanks for the emails!

Tuesday, yet still my shoulders, neck and back are aching! What a great weekend of surf. After our incredible “Big Friday” afternoon, we headed back to the beach on Saturday, with our usual supplies of esky, food, drinks and sun tent. The swell had decreased, but not by much....it was still very difficult to get out as the typhoon which subsequently devastated Korea was pushing some big storm swells in to the Taiwanese northern coastline.
We saw some suicidal jumps off artificial jetties and breakwaters in an effort to get out the back. One poor guy was lucky to be alive after jumping at a very silly moment and being smashed into the rocks by the next set. They’ve obviously seen other people do this: but a typhoon swell is not the time to try it for the first time!
Ross and I both got out and enjoyed the 2nd best surf we’ve had for a long time. There was a crowd on the point, but not many guys were keen to take off on the sets, so we got a lot of waves.
We took our usual hour to get home and watched some footy, before having a fairly early night. Ross and I headed off again at 6 am Sunday, but the swell had dropped and it was back to normal. We had a bit of a muck around, and then headed home to see the Knights bow out of this year’s comp. I was pretty proud of the way they gutsed it out in the last few weeks and they certainly weren’t disgraced, just a little outclassed on the day. Ross was over the moon with the amazing performance of the Warriors, but even he thinks they’ll probably lose next week; they’re so hot and cold.
I was stoked to hear that Wayne had won his soccer and a little about the celebrations and as always, Mum, Xris and Val, Thurza and Sue have kept us going with some great emails, phone calls, videos or newspaper clippings. These things help to sustain us; they are so very important to us.
We have another professional development day on Friday, so we are looking forward to a 4 day kiddie’s week. By the way, those Tesco sausages were not quite as good as Aussie ones, but I have given them the thumbs up!

Just a short entry today, as we're heading to the beach in about 1/2 an hour. I am so excited! Ross and I left school a little earlier yesterday at 2.30 after a day of unit planning and headed to Jinshan beach to try to catch a bit of the typhoon swell at the top of the island. Our hopes were high for some ridable waves after two ultra-flat weekends in a row. We were greeted by near perfect 5-6 foot left handers peeling off a man made breakwater about 100 metres off shore! We couldn't believe our eyes and rushed to get in the water. Unfortunately there was no natural paddle out area and we battled to get out beyond the bank, which was pounding relentlessly. I managed to get out and enjoyed some of the best surf I've had for a year or more, including Australia! I paddled about 10 metres further out and about the same further inside than the Taiwanese boys and still found it a manageable takeoff. The waves were smooth, big and powerful. Some of the Taiwanese guys were putting on a nice show and I was amazed to see one of them really carving up a wave when I was paddling back out. I discovered when I got out that it was an Aussie from Margaret River, who has promised to get me a copy of a DVD that he and his mates have made of some "secret" spots on the west coast.
Well I have an aching back, neck and arms, but can't wait to get out again this morning to see if that swell is still hanging around. Cass and Ains are coming this morning as well, so we'll have a nice lazy day even if the swell has died. By the way, did I tell you I am excited!!

Two more dead flat days at the beach were not the highlight of the weekend. Cass and Ains came out with Ross and me to the beach yesterday and once again, we set up our little igloo, had our esky (NZ 'chilly bin') and Ross and I tried to tame the massive swell rolling in from the South China Sea. We had lots of fun and the best was the performance of the girls on the boards. Going for their maiden surf was great fun and Cass and Ainsley both got a few great little foamies and enjoyed the sensation of catching a few waves. Much to Ross' horror, Ainsley persevered for a while and managed to stand up on one wave. After his story to her about how hard this surfing caper is, he was a little taken aback!
When the surf was flat today, we were so disgusted that we just turned around and came back without even having a swim. At least we can do something else with our day off after leaving for the beach at 6am. A new Tesco store has opened in Taipei and we plan to head down on the scooter to check it out. A British chain, it is rumoured to have cook in curries, a home brand style of marmite (might mean the end of the eternal carting of Vegemite from Oz if it's any good) and, best of all, freshly made British style sausages! Until you live here for a while, you just can't imagine how very exciting this is!
Anyway, we'll reserve judgment until we check it all out and I'm sure we'll run into half the faculty down there today as everyone is pretty excited. There hasn't been much action on the movie front, so we haven't been to the Living Mall for a while, but our trip to the night market last weekend was good, Cass getting some sunnies and we got that congested hot crush of people feeling again (did I say that was good??)
We've had some great newsy emails from Mum, Thurza and Sue as well as Cassy's Mum and Dad.....if you don't see your name on this list, how about dropping us a line and making our day? We've been stoked to see the Knights going so well without Johnsy, but even our red and blue eyes are not seeing us flying back for the grand final this year. Our ABC Asia Pacific channel just gets better and better as ALL the AFL and NRL semis are being shown all the way through to the respective grand finals. (Please take note my wonderful, reliable video taper, Sue....have a holiday till next season!)
It only took about 1/2 an hour to find a park today after coming back from the beach, pretty good really. This brings me to an interesting 'fact', which I heard the other day. Although it may be urban legend, first hand experience makes me think this is true: There are not enough parks in Taipei to accommodate all the cars here, apparently about 5000 short, so the city relies on a massive number actually being on the road at any one time. Anyway, that car will sit there till next Saturday now and the trusty scooter will be called into service this afternoon, our legs through the week!

We've bought a car! Well, actually we've bought 1/2 a car as we've gone in with our friends from NZ, Ross and Ainsley, to purchase it and share the ongoing costs. We're really excited, as it is a '91 Toyota Corona in very good condition. The car was considered necessary for our 'new' surfing lifestyle on the weekends, as the school van was expensive to rent and very dodgy as well as inducing near car sickness on the winding road up the mountain and down the other side to the coast. We went out mid-week to a car parts warehouse to try to get some roof racks, but they said they couldn't fit them on this model car. We bought some ocky straps and just tied them to the roof, with the straps going around inside. This works very well for our hour long trip to the beach and we'll try to scout some racks out before we head off on any bigger adventures.
Our maiden trip yesterday resulted in dead flat surf, but Cass and Ains came along and were most impressed with the vehicle. We had an esky in the boot with sandwiches and drinks, our little Cancer Council beach igloo and of course the boards on top. We had a great day with all our new tricks! One amazing sight in the flat glassy conditions was 30 odd surfers in the water waiting for waves! Some kind of surf school has been set up and these novices were trying to catch the pathetic little 6 inches of slop available. As we said later: we don't think many will come back after that introduction, which will leave all the more waves for us. We were really lamenting our forgetfulness in not bringing a camera; partly to record our first trip, but mainly to save this most amazing sight, which really had to be seen to be believed.
Today, I drove Ross and Carl over for"boys" surf, leaving at 6 am, only to be greeted by the same lake-like conditions of yesterday. Still we had a loll around in the surprisingly clean water and, as always, a great laugh.
We got back late morning, and as I write this we're looking forward to watching the Knights vs. St George game, which will be on ABC Asiapacific in about 30 minutes. After the football we're planning to take the scooter down to the night market to get Cass some cheapy sunnies for the bike and just have a look around, as we haven't been there since we came back.
Our week at school was busy as usual, but mercifully, my ESL Parent Night seemed to very successful, everyone doing their bit very professionally. I was very nervous doing my first one, but my colleagues assured me later that I didn't appear so and did a "good job". At least they're diplomatic!
Cassy's teaching partner seems to be chilling out a bit and they're beginning to form a good relationship, so that's a load off her mind too.
Of course the really "interesting" part of this whole car ownership deal is the eternal search for a park. We won't be using except it on the weekend so after we take it out we have to drive around for up to a 1/2 hour looking for a park. We've put our name down for a park at work, but it will be about 18 months before we secure one. If you've seen the Seinfeld episodes where they won't go out because they have the perfect park, you'll begin to understand the feeling we have when we get a good one......

We were glad to survive the week with all the classes. It's not quite finally over as we have to complete a couple of assignments online by next Sunday but at least we don't have to sit through any more classes. On Friday night the professor let us out a bit early so as to adjourn the lesson to the "Green Bar" for some liquid refreshment. We both felt like "skipping class" but thought it would be poor form. We ended up quite enjoying ourselves, having a couple of cleansing ales chatting with our classmates. As we had our medical the next morning at 8 am (postponed from the end of last year) we remained fairly circumspect and made it home by about 9:30 pm.
The medical was as much fun as usual - height, weight, blood pressure, wee in a cup and pour it into the tiny test tubes yourself (good test of fine motor skills!!), eye test, chest x-ray, reflex tests (!!), organ check (is your liver in the right place?), and blood taken. A great way to start the day!!
Carl, Ross, Sean, Marcus and myself then went to the beach and though the waves were small, we had a good time (probably aided by the load of crap we were all talking!)
While we were out, poor old Cass did some drudgework like the shopping, cleaning the house and doing the ironing for the week (while watching the Storm v Dragons game on TV.)
We had a quiet night at home last night - satay prawns and "Idiot Box"(new DVD bought at home).
Today we went to the movies to see "Gangs of NY". Usually we get movies here at the same time as Oz, if not earlier, but this one was delayed for some reason. It was long and violent, but we both thoroughly enjoyed it.
We've had some wonderful emails from Cassy's parents, Mum and Sue, including news from Sue about the birth of Matt Gidley's baby just after she arrived home from the delivery! We also received a video from Sue with some "Block" episodes, which we got addicted to back home, Footy show and of course, football. Thanks Bud!
I have to present the ESL Parent Information night on Tuesday and after the inevitable follow up interviews with parents who need clarification I'm hoping my super hectic pace will lessen a little: at least enough to allow me to get to the gym more often. As I write this, I'm listening to the radio (2GB) from home warning of storms, while thunder bursts here and rain buckets down in tropical fashion. Some things are the same everywhere!

This week was up there with the busiest we've ever experienced. My new job has presented many challenges, not the least of which has been my inability to teach one lesson after 5 days of non-stop meetings, both attended and run. Apart from that, letters had to be written, decisions made and books, furniture and even food was ordered. I seem to have quite a sizable budget, which is comforting, but the paperwork to go with it is also rather daunting. The crowning glory was to discover that the class I was supposed to lose to do the job could not be done by anyone else, so I'm doing that as well.
Cass has had her fair share of problems this week as well, as 2 of the 4 people on her team are new, and she has been guiding her most direct partner around the super size of the T.A.S. machine. Cass thinks she will be pretty good to work with, but at the moment is displaying some typical, nervous behaviours of a new teacher. She also seems to be pretty anal, but we're both sure she'll relax a little as the year goes on.
Anyway, to say that we've hit the ground running is an understatement; more like coming from a dead stop to a full sprint in a few days!
Because of our hectic week we took the opportunity not to attend the belated recognition ceremony and the following BBQ and drinks on Friday night.
On Saturday, I had booked the school van and we drove the hour or so over the mountains to Jinshan beach to test out our new boards. Ross, Carl and Shaun (Aussie school psychologist) joined me and we got a nice clean 2-3 foot swell, which gave us plenty of good fun. We had to leave at 12 so we could get home in time for the rugby league (yes!) game featuring the Knights vs. Warriors. When we arrived back in Taiwan we were absolutely delighted to find that ABC Asiapacific had decided to show 2 NRL games each weekend: the Friday night game on Saturday afternoon and the channel 9 Sunday game on Sunday afternoon at 1.30!
Anyway, Ross joined us to watch the Knights beat the Warriors (go Kurt) and then stayed to watch the Australia vs. All Blacks on Chinese cable live. Carl, Hiroko and their boys came round for that as well as Shaun and Marcus (Grade 1 Aussie teacher). We had a great time and Ross felt better as the Kiwis won.
We've had a super lazy Sunday, except for an hour or 2 we spent at school (shock/horror...may have to do this for a while just to get everything done). We watched the NRL game this afternoon and Cass is doing a little more schoolwork before we'll head out in the heat for a little walk down to the local shops.
Cass and I are both getting ready for our Master's course (our last..yeh!) which starts tomorrow........this week looks like being even busier.

Taipei's "wall of heat" was the worst thing about arriving back on Friday evening but Mr. Lee (our downstairs neighbour and landlord) greeting us like long lost children made up for it. The house was in good condition and our earthquake-proofing seemed to have worked, except for one overflowing closet camel, which spilt in Cassy's wardrobe. We've spent the past couple of days shopping, cleaning and preparing for work tomorrow.
What a fantastic holiday we had. 12 weeks of Aussie "winter" was rather spoiling and we're wondering if we can still teach after all that time! We enjoyed walking the "Bather's Way" nearly every day, I surfed and we both watched whales making their way up the coast as we sat and ate breakfast or lunch. Apart from catching up with friends and family, the highlights of our trip came near the end in our bike trip up the coast and down the freezing hinterland and seeing the famous mother and baby whales cavorting close to shore just off Sailor's rock at Merewether beach.
Our bike trip was something of an experience when we got to Tenterfield after crossing the Great Dividing Range from Casino. We were so cold we had to pit stop in a coffee shop for an hour or so. However nothing could prepare us for the town of Glen Innes which that morning had registered their coldest temp of the year at -14 degrees! Anyway, many adventures were had, not the least of which was scraping ice off the bike before we could get going in the mornings.
We've just come back from dinner at our favourite curry restaurant after dropping in at Chad and Cathie's new place (very big, new and impressive) to see their new baby, Levi. He's a very cute boy and settling in well for an 11 week old who has already traveled from Taipei to Colorado then to Minnesota and back to Taipei!
Chad and Cathie presented us with a beautiful rug featuring some of the rock formations in Colorado, which we will eventually hang on a wall here.
Well a great weekend, the Knights flogged the Cowboys and our digital set top box is showing 2 NRL games on ABC Asia pacific each weekend now. In fact we watched the Storm vs. Bulldogs game here at 1.30 (3.30 back in Australia) 1/2 an hour before it screened back home. Things just get better and better!
The only slight spanner in the works is the prospect of attending and running numerous meetings in the next few days and starting my next Master's subject on Friday.....we won't have much time to relax I suspect this week.

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!

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!

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!