Monday, October 31, 2005
scary!
There are a great many things I don’t understand about Americans. I never quite get their sports, although the attraction of ice hockey (more of a Canadian game really) is obvious to all who know my love of watching a good biffo. The way nearly everything is sunny and bright, even when it is palpably not, the proclivity to assemble and “have a conversation” in the most outrageously loud voices and the strange preferences and combinations they order on sandwiches (the ordering of which could be an English test for the average second language learner). Nothing, however, comes close Halloween.
I suppose if an alien life form took a good hard look at Christmas, they would note some pretty bizarre practices as well, but that can wait for another time. The celebration of all things witchy with kids is very, very creepy. Those ghouls and goblins and other scary entities that haunt the subconscious mind of your average kid, are actively, outrageously and shamelessly celebrated on this day. Even though it has been explained to be innumerable times by very patient people, “Oh shucks, Dave, didn’t I explain this to you last year buddy? Never mind, it all started when….”, I still can’t embrace the concept. The even more frightening sight of grown men and women pouring themselves into witches outfits bought at the local two dollar shop and made for the rather more svelte Taiwanese and the strange desire for people to look like the most ridiculous image they could possibly conjure up, defies belief. I really do not need to see mature gentlemen dressed as Tweedledum and Tweedledee or adults raising their arms up in a pathetic imitation of scariness, covered in a white sheet and moaning “wooooooo!”. I will however, condone the return next year of those lovely young mothers of the Kindy kiddies who thought it might be appropriate to wear micro mini skirts, long black boots and very revealing black tank tops: perhaps this could be encouraged?
Much against my better judgment I was convinced to be “part of the team” and wear a basketball uniform with my six colleagues on the 3rd grade. It could have been a whole lot worse: the original version called for gigantic fake afros, headbands and long socks, but mercifully, these items could not be found on time. I love the photo here of the Pirate and the Punk: I was chuffed to see a couple of the girls breaking the mould of the pretty princess type and getting original. The pirate is one of my favourite kids this year, a real spark about her.
Cass had a pretty scary time on Thursday and Friday as well, seeing and conferencing with lots of parents. In the main, everything went very well and some of the parents were very complimentary and grateful for all the work she does. She even got some comments about her lengthy and timely feedback, one of those necessary evils of teaching that is rarely acknowledged, but cool when it is. The creepy stuff was when she had parents sitting across from her looking like a brewing storm, so severely disappointed that the kid is getting just an “A” and not an “A+”! These are the people who are really scary so maybe we should just send them into the parade as themselves: they freak me more than some moron with a sheet over his head!
Ross and I had one of our very worst surfs ever on Saturday, probably in the top ten worst surfs in Taiwan and that’s setting a pretty low standard. The sea was a cauldron of rips and currents, rain lashed our faces as we waited, sets dumped on our heads and we were generally quite miserable. Later that day, it was sad to farewell Raj, a good friend over the years here, as he heads to China to run his family business. My colleague on 3rd grade, John, organized a golf day (which I didn’t attend) and then a get together at the green bar. He arranged for April to cater and she produced the most sensational food, it really was restaurant quality. Raj brushed back a tear or two when watching a very moving PowerPoint one of the guys had put together and he flew out this morning.
We saw “The Constant Gardener” on Sunday and were quite overwhelmed by the poverty and hopelessness of many of the Kenyan people. It really was a masterpiece and I can’t quite bring myself to be flippant again about Halloween as I remember this film.One thing though: if you want to see really frightening, truly creepy and total evil, the companies depicted in this film would be a good place to start.
There are a great many things I don’t understand about Americans. I never quite get their sports, although the attraction of ice hockey (more of a Canadian game really) is obvious to all who know my love of watching a good biffo. The way nearly everything is sunny and bright, even when it is palpably not, the proclivity to assemble and “have a conversation” in the most outrageously loud voices and the strange preferences and combinations they order on sandwiches (the ordering of which could be an English test for the average second language learner). Nothing, however, comes close Halloween.
I suppose if an alien life form took a good hard look at Christmas, they would note some pretty bizarre practices as well, but that can wait for another time. The celebration of all things witchy with kids is very, very creepy. Those ghouls and goblins and other scary entities that haunt the subconscious mind of your average kid, are actively, outrageously and shamelessly celebrated on this day. Even though it has been explained to be innumerable times by very patient people, “Oh shucks, Dave, didn’t I explain this to you last year buddy? Never mind, it all started when….”, I still can’t embrace the concept. The even more frightening sight of grown men and women pouring themselves into witches outfits bought at the local two dollar shop and made for the rather more svelte Taiwanese and the strange desire for people to look like the most ridiculous image they could possibly conjure up, defies belief. I really do not need to see mature gentlemen dressed as Tweedledum and Tweedledee or adults raising their arms up in a pathetic imitation of scariness, covered in a white sheet and moaning “wooooooo!”. I will however, condone the return next year of those lovely young mothers of the Kindy kiddies who thought it might be appropriate to wear micro mini skirts, long black boots and very revealing black tank tops: perhaps this could be encouraged?
Much against my better judgment I was convinced to be “part of the team” and wear a basketball uniform with my six colleagues on the 3rd grade. It could have been a whole lot worse: the original version called for gigantic fake afros, headbands and long socks, but mercifully, these items could not be found on time. I love the photo here of the Pirate and the Punk: I was chuffed to see a couple of the girls breaking the mould of the pretty princess type and getting original. The pirate is one of my favourite kids this year, a real spark about her.
Cass had a pretty scary time on Thursday and Friday as well, seeing and conferencing with lots of parents. In the main, everything went very well and some of the parents were very complimentary and grateful for all the work she does. She even got some comments about her lengthy and timely feedback, one of those necessary evils of teaching that is rarely acknowledged, but cool when it is. The creepy stuff was when she had parents sitting across from her looking like a brewing storm, so severely disappointed that the kid is getting just an “A” and not an “A+”! These are the people who are really scary so maybe we should just send them into the parade as themselves: they freak me more than some moron with a sheet over his head!
Ross and I had one of our very worst surfs ever on Saturday, probably in the top ten worst surfs in Taiwan and that’s setting a pretty low standard. The sea was a cauldron of rips and currents, rain lashed our faces as we waited, sets dumped on our heads and we were generally quite miserable. Later that day, it was sad to farewell Raj, a good friend over the years here, as he heads to China to run his family business. My colleague on 3rd grade, John, organized a golf day (which I didn’t attend) and then a get together at the green bar. He arranged for April to cater and she produced the most sensational food, it really was restaurant quality. Raj brushed back a tear or two when watching a very moving PowerPoint one of the guys had put together and he flew out this morning.
We saw “The Constant Gardener” on Sunday and were quite overwhelmed by the poverty and hopelessness of many of the Kenyan people. It really was a masterpiece and I can’t quite bring myself to be flippant again about Halloween as I remember this film.One thing though: if you want to see really frightening, truly creepy and total evil, the companies depicted in this film would be a good place to start.
Monday, October 24, 2005
pilly on fire
I stopped off on the way home on Friday evening to order some pizzas, arranging for them to be delivered at 6.30pm, about ½ time in the football. This was a real decadence, because unlike the relatively cheap option this is at home, here in Taipei, 2 pizzas delivered costs about $45! As it happened, there was an offer on so it worked out to be about ½ price, so that was a little bonus. Cass and I settled in to watch the re-match of Australia and NZ in the rugby league test and were thoroughly entertained by the whole game. The pizzas dutifully arrived and the pizza boy zoomed off with his special hot box on the back of his scooter.
We were both exceptionally tired on Friday: I had been conferencing with parents for 2 days straight and Cassy had worked a very solid week. Cass has the delights of two days of conferences later this week. As, dare I say it, “veteran” teachers, the parent conference certainly doesn’t hold any fear and trepidation for us like they used to in our early teaching days. Our parents tend to be quite overawed sometimes, and certainly younger than we are. Age and experience is a huge factor here in Asia and the younger teachers tend to cop a lot more parental flak than the older ones which is quite ironic in a way, as I’m sure the youngies are bringing a touch more enthusiasm and newer ideas to the classroom than we are. Anyway, we’ll take it…there have to be some advantages to being a senior member of your profession! The profusion of young blood here, flushed out every few years as the young and adventurous educator looks to different exotic locales and more seek to come here, is quite invigorating in a way. While I’m sure we’d be drifting towards the cynical back home, I’m sure the fresh excitement of some of our colleagues rubs off to a certain extent. While I won’t volunteer for every committee and action group going, we’ll usually get pulled along with some group or initiative or other.
Saturday’s surf was a surging, wind-lashed slop of a thing, the Pillbox, for a very rare occasion, completely failing us. As the annual food fair was also on Saturday, I was unable to park the car back in the underground garage, so I had arranged with Cass that we would take the car to Carrefour, the local big supermarket with an underground car park, to get some heavy and bulky stuff. What a joke eh?! Just when you start believing that life is really pretty simple, you remember that to drive a car to the shopping and get it home is a luxury! Usually of course, shopping means lugging great bags of stuff from the supermarket, through the mahjong park, across the river and through the park home. Anyway, we dutifully loaded up on every conceivable heavy non-perishable item in sight, so we are now able to drink 100 cans of diet coke, stack our closets full of closet camels, wash our clothes for the next 10 years and Virg’n Mary can crap in about 10 tonnes of cat litter! It was great fun! We managed to find a park straight opposite the apartment which was a rare treat, so I decided to wait until Sunday to take it back.
That worked out very well as a matter of fact. Just after I’d gorged down numerous pieces of raisin toast, the phone rang with Carl asking if I wanted to go and look at the surf. I agreed to pick him up in 10 minutes and we did the trek across to Jinshan, Rocket et al. The most notable part of the trip was to emerge from the Green Bay tunnels to find 37 guys out at a very weak looking break, most fully kitted up in full suits. The weather has got a touch chilly here lately, but really!
We were very frustrated and returned without even getting wet. This was fortuitous in a way as I was still able to make a luncheon date with Cassy. We went to the Moroccan restaurant and ate a superb meal, which I won’t describe, because I’m sure the description is elsewhere on these pages. Suffice to say, we had a magnificent meal and full as the last bus, we returned to watch Australia beat the Irish in a hybrid international rules AFL type game and it was very entertaining.
You have read of wedding photos on the beach here before, often taken before the big day, with brides dragging their dresses through the shallows and mud. I took this picture as we emerged from a surf one afternoon. The fire is a giant pile of fake money, burnt for good luck by the happy couple. Part of the wedding party can be seen in the background and the fire is lit against the famous Pillbox from which we named our secret surf spot.Other photos are action from 3rd grade community games and the sad sight of all the boys out at Green Bay with no waves.
I stopped off on the way home on Friday evening to order some pizzas, arranging for them to be delivered at 6.30pm, about ½ time in the football. This was a real decadence, because unlike the relatively cheap option this is at home, here in Taipei, 2 pizzas delivered costs about $45! As it happened, there was an offer on so it worked out to be about ½ price, so that was a little bonus. Cass and I settled in to watch the re-match of Australia and NZ in the rugby league test and were thoroughly entertained by the whole game. The pizzas dutifully arrived and the pizza boy zoomed off with his special hot box on the back of his scooter.
We were both exceptionally tired on Friday: I had been conferencing with parents for 2 days straight and Cassy had worked a very solid week. Cass has the delights of two days of conferences later this week. As, dare I say it, “veteran” teachers, the parent conference certainly doesn’t hold any fear and trepidation for us like they used to in our early teaching days. Our parents tend to be quite overawed sometimes, and certainly younger than we are. Age and experience is a huge factor here in Asia and the younger teachers tend to cop a lot more parental flak than the older ones which is quite ironic in a way, as I’m sure the youngies are bringing a touch more enthusiasm and newer ideas to the classroom than we are. Anyway, we’ll take it…there have to be some advantages to being a senior member of your profession! The profusion of young blood here, flushed out every few years as the young and adventurous educator looks to different exotic locales and more seek to come here, is quite invigorating in a way. While I’m sure we’d be drifting towards the cynical back home, I’m sure the fresh excitement of some of our colleagues rubs off to a certain extent. While I won’t volunteer for every committee and action group going, we’ll usually get pulled along with some group or initiative or other.
Saturday’s surf was a surging, wind-lashed slop of a thing, the Pillbox, for a very rare occasion, completely failing us. As the annual food fair was also on Saturday, I was unable to park the car back in the underground garage, so I had arranged with Cass that we would take the car to Carrefour, the local big supermarket with an underground car park, to get some heavy and bulky stuff. What a joke eh?! Just when you start believing that life is really pretty simple, you remember that to drive a car to the shopping and get it home is a luxury! Usually of course, shopping means lugging great bags of stuff from the supermarket, through the mahjong park, across the river and through the park home. Anyway, we dutifully loaded up on every conceivable heavy non-perishable item in sight, so we are now able to drink 100 cans of diet coke, stack our closets full of closet camels, wash our clothes for the next 10 years and Virg’n Mary can crap in about 10 tonnes of cat litter! It was great fun! We managed to find a park straight opposite the apartment which was a rare treat, so I decided to wait until Sunday to take it back.
That worked out very well as a matter of fact. Just after I’d gorged down numerous pieces of raisin toast, the phone rang with Carl asking if I wanted to go and look at the surf. I agreed to pick him up in 10 minutes and we did the trek across to Jinshan, Rocket et al. The most notable part of the trip was to emerge from the Green Bay tunnels to find 37 guys out at a very weak looking break, most fully kitted up in full suits. The weather has got a touch chilly here lately, but really!
We were very frustrated and returned without even getting wet. This was fortuitous in a way as I was still able to make a luncheon date with Cassy. We went to the Moroccan restaurant and ate a superb meal, which I won’t describe, because I’m sure the description is elsewhere on these pages. Suffice to say, we had a magnificent meal and full as the last bus, we returned to watch Australia beat the Irish in a hybrid international rules AFL type game and it was very entertaining.
You have read of wedding photos on the beach here before, often taken before the big day, with brides dragging their dresses through the shallows and mud. I took this picture as we emerged from a surf one afternoon. The fire is a giant pile of fake money, burnt for good luck by the happy couple. Part of the wedding party can be seen in the background and the fire is lit against the famous Pillbox from which we named our secret surf spot.Other photos are action from 3rd grade community games and the sad sight of all the boys out at Green Bay with no waves.
Monday, October 17, 2005
Dave, Ross and Carl enjoyed their surf
I took delivery of six ominously thick bundles of materials from San Diego University today for the next installment in the great credit point hunt. These six bundles are, as I write, staring reprovingly at me from their distinctive perch on the top of the filing cabinet just beside my computer desk here. They are really being quite rude…just a minute.
Ah, back again, I’ve removed them from sight for now: how dare they accuse me of procrastination…I must write this blog weekly! It what seems now like one of my worst decisions in recent memory, I decided to apply for 6 subjects at once, to be completed in 3 months, to give me the motivation necessary to complete them. Rationale: if I’d already paid for them I’d do them. The logic is probably quite sound actually, considering what a miser meany I am!
Cass and I have decided not to go home at Christmas this year but rather, to laze around at some resorty kind of place in the Asia Pacific region. I was quite keen to combine this with a surf, but many places don’t quite meet BOTH our requirements. Cassy needs some kind of suitable accommodation (I still argue that a yacht cruising around the Mentawais meets this criteria, but I was outvoted!) and I’m OK, but would still like some surf, which is tough in this region at Christmas. We thought we’d struck some gold when we secured the last 2 remaining spots at a real surfer’s paradise, The Caroline Islands, in Micronesia. The accommodation just met Cassy’s passing grade and the surf was drop dead perfect, December and January pumping at 10’ plus and offshore perfection. I’d go out on the boat each day to the reef and Cass would relax and read and explore the island. Perfect? Yes, BUT, we found out it would cost us $5,000 in airfares and take 2 ½ days to get there and back! We would be shuffled up to Korea first, then to Guam and then Palau and finally Pohnpei, our destination. The reason for the price and the hassle is, as our travel agent explained, that it is not “a popular place for Taiwanese”. Thank God they like Australia!
Anyway, after getting all depressed about missing my dream surf holiday, we’re currently investigating alternatives. We’re keen to check the west coast of Sri Lanka perhaps, or even a less well-known area of Bali (i.e. One where the possibility of getting bombed is remote to zero). Our fall back is a resort in Thailand with a side trip to Kanchanaburi near the bridge on the river Kwai and the home of the Tiger temple. We haven’t got anything organized yet, so we might still come home!
Cass is madly marking memoirs and then putting these grades into her first quarter reports. Yes, the first quarter is just ending. She has been running her usual “Rocktober” this month for the kids much to their bemusement I gather. She either shows a clip of a song from our DVD music collection, or plays a song on CD as the kids come into class each day. She gives them a little explanation about the band etc afterwards. Lots of Aussie gold for their education is essential of course. Most of the kids don’t quite know how to take it all; they’re quite anal little bunnies!
I have “portfolio activity-based conferences” with my little kiddies coming up this week (sounds pretty fancy doesn’t it? I’m sure the majority of the Chinese parents just want to know how their kid is going by talking to the teacher!) So the teachers I work with are madly stuffing everything in sight into these special folders. It’s mind numbingly boring to tell the truth, but it will all be over soon.
We had the usual suspects here to watch the Australia/NZ test here on Saturday night and Ross was all excited when the Kiwis won (see photo) We’d had a pretty good surf earlier that day with Carl and Tobes, so we were pretty happy with ourselves. The Pointyhat has some pretty fancy animation graphics happening so make sure you check it out here. Cass and I saw "Four Brothers" on Sunday, not too bad, certainly a step up from when Charles Bronson used to murder about 20 people for looking sideways at him. We had some pretty good cheesecakes and coffees just before we went in as well!
I get into a bit of a panic when I don’t do this blog on time each week (which is not very often…who did I say was anal?!) but I shouldn’t worry too much. My mum and Cassy’s parents both wrote emails today saying they’d just read the blog and had enjoyed this and that…it was last week’s!! I’m off to have a sedative and pretend I don’t feel the piercing, guilt provoking stares of six paper bundles of pure evil behind me as I tip toe out of the room…
I took delivery of six ominously thick bundles of materials from San Diego University today for the next installment in the great credit point hunt. These six bundles are, as I write, staring reprovingly at me from their distinctive perch on the top of the filing cabinet just beside my computer desk here. They are really being quite rude…just a minute.
Ah, back again, I’ve removed them from sight for now: how dare they accuse me of procrastination…I must write this blog weekly! It what seems now like one of my worst decisions in recent memory, I decided to apply for 6 subjects at once, to be completed in 3 months, to give me the motivation necessary to complete them. Rationale: if I’d already paid for them I’d do them. The logic is probably quite sound actually, considering what a miser meany I am!
Cass and I have decided not to go home at Christmas this year but rather, to laze around at some resorty kind of place in the Asia Pacific region. I was quite keen to combine this with a surf, but many places don’t quite meet BOTH our requirements. Cassy needs some kind of suitable accommodation (I still argue that a yacht cruising around the Mentawais meets this criteria, but I was outvoted!) and I’m OK, but would still like some surf, which is tough in this region at Christmas. We thought we’d struck some gold when we secured the last 2 remaining spots at a real surfer’s paradise, The Caroline Islands, in Micronesia. The accommodation just met Cassy’s passing grade and the surf was drop dead perfect, December and January pumping at 10’ plus and offshore perfection. I’d go out on the boat each day to the reef and Cass would relax and read and explore the island. Perfect? Yes, BUT, we found out it would cost us $5,000 in airfares and take 2 ½ days to get there and back! We would be shuffled up to Korea first, then to Guam and then Palau and finally Pohnpei, our destination. The reason for the price and the hassle is, as our travel agent explained, that it is not “a popular place for Taiwanese”. Thank God they like Australia!
Anyway, after getting all depressed about missing my dream surf holiday, we’re currently investigating alternatives. We’re keen to check the west coast of Sri Lanka perhaps, or even a less well-known area of Bali (i.e. One where the possibility of getting bombed is remote to zero). Our fall back is a resort in Thailand with a side trip to Kanchanaburi near the bridge on the river Kwai and the home of the Tiger temple. We haven’t got anything organized yet, so we might still come home!
Cass is madly marking memoirs and then putting these grades into her first quarter reports. Yes, the first quarter is just ending. She has been running her usual “Rocktober” this month for the kids much to their bemusement I gather. She either shows a clip of a song from our DVD music collection, or plays a song on CD as the kids come into class each day. She gives them a little explanation about the band etc afterwards. Lots of Aussie gold for their education is essential of course. Most of the kids don’t quite know how to take it all; they’re quite anal little bunnies!
I have “portfolio activity-based conferences” with my little kiddies coming up this week (sounds pretty fancy doesn’t it? I’m sure the majority of the Chinese parents just want to know how their kid is going by talking to the teacher!) So the teachers I work with are madly stuffing everything in sight into these special folders. It’s mind numbingly boring to tell the truth, but it will all be over soon.
We had the usual suspects here to watch the Australia/NZ test here on Saturday night and Ross was all excited when the Kiwis won (see photo) We’d had a pretty good surf earlier that day with Carl and Tobes, so we were pretty happy with ourselves. The Pointyhat has some pretty fancy animation graphics happening so make sure you check it out here. Cass and I saw "Four Brothers" on Sunday, not too bad, certainly a step up from when Charles Bronson used to murder about 20 people for looking sideways at him. We had some pretty good cheesecakes and coffees just before we went in as well!
I get into a bit of a panic when I don’t do this blog on time each week (which is not very often…who did I say was anal?!) but I shouldn’t worry too much. My mum and Cassy’s parents both wrote emails today saying they’d just read the blog and had enjoyed this and that…it was last week’s!! I’m off to have a sedative and pretend I don’t feel the piercing, guilt provoking stares of six paper bundles of pure evil behind me as I tip toe out of the room…
Monday, October 10, 2005
Chili girl!
There’s a method in my madness of writing something for this blog each week. I’ve discovered to my horror that I can’t remember anything that happened more than one week before. I should have written last Sunday, but the day started with a surf and continued as Cass and I hosted a grand final party here at our place. We had a small core of die-hard fans. Ross and Lewy and Gurecki enjoyed the game and Wolly and Coombsy arrived later as they were held up downtown by “black hair and black eyes” as Coombsy texted it. Not content to leave that be, we had to adjourn to the “golden triangle” of the Green Bar, the One over the Road and back to the Pig. Never let anyone convince you that this is a good thing on a “school night”. The next few days were very quiet indeed; that last beer I had at the Pig was definitely off.
School muddled along through the week, great excitement for the 3rd grade with their community day on Thursday, but I wondered again how these PE teachers do it: the searing heat just about killed me and I was only out in it for a few hours.
We have just enjoyed the most relaxing 4-day break, long awaited and much needed. Unlike home, we follow the American system of two semesters in the year. This allows us to have a break at Christmas and our big “summer” break, but also means that we work quite intensively from August through to December. This is our one long weekend and many of our colleagues have flown off island to Hong Kong, Japan, Philippines, Thailand, and Singapore etc. Much to our great disappointment, Chad and Cathy flew to Singapore to interview for jobs there next year…we don’t want them to go!
The days off started with Cass and me eating lunch on Friday at Chili’s in the Warner complex. This is an American burger, steak restaurant that has mouth-watering meals at staggeringly steep prices! We give in to a little slice of such decadence on holidays from time to time and it was great. Later that day, we went to see “Flightplan” with Jody Foster. It was pretty good, but personally, I thought she trotted out the old “Panic Room” persona and even the gorgeous Aussie Kate Beaghan couldn’t save it from a little step above mediocrity. Still, we love the Internet booking method. We book from home and always select these two seats off to the side with expansive legroom with an aisle beside. It’s just like our own little lounge room!
Surfing has taken a fair bit of time, along with the driving to get there. We’ve made a few wrong calls in terms of spots, necessitating a lot of driving. Yesterday we ended up surfing a spot that is normally just 30-40 minutes away, but we tried others first, meaning we drove for nearly 3 hours just to get there. We’ve had some success with the waves over the past few days and I’ve been a little more diligent in keeping up the pointy hat entries. It just takes a jiffy, writing some inanities to describe the latest surf and bunging a few photos on. You can always check it out here. My wonder sister, Helen, also known as Miss Ebay Australia, managed to get my new camera into my hands over here and it takes a pretty mean shot too, as evidenced by latest pictures here and on Pointy Hat. I know you will be devastated that the file photos of Virg’n Mary will stop, but new ones of the “girls” will feature again soon!!
Cass and I had a bit of an adventure last night. We were all set to walk around the corner to the Indian, but I suggested we try to find a restaurant whose website I’d stumbled upon a few weeks ago. It’s called “Alleycats” and the site gave a little hint as to its wares. It was secreted away a few blocks behind the side entrance to Chiang Kai Chek Memorial Hall, so we got off the MRT there and went exploring. It seemed to be equidistant between 3 different MRT lines and stations, so it was a bit hard to find, but very worthwhile. It was a humming, lively little place in a basement and the smells were fantastic, the conversation lively (with a small bar serving draft beer attached). A foreign guy owns and runs it and it serves all sorts of calzones and pizzas, all stone oven and wood fired of course. What a rare treat here in Taipei. Cass and I had a great chat while we downed a few glasses of tasty Hoegaarden beer on tap and waited forever for our pizza. Neither of us had any lunch so we were a bit light headed by the time the mouth-watering pizzas arrived. To top it off the owner presented us with some complimentary “jet fuel” digestives. We hurtled out into the night feeling like we’d been on a jet and I amazed myself by finding my way back to the train station!
Today has been one of those deliciously lazy days: slept in late, had pancakes and real coffees for breakfast, lingered for hours over very interesting Herald clippings that Mum had sent us. We had a late lunch then watched “The Dish” on DVD and now I’m writing this. All is well in the world……..
There’s a method in my madness of writing something for this blog each week. I’ve discovered to my horror that I can’t remember anything that happened more than one week before. I should have written last Sunday, but the day started with a surf and continued as Cass and I hosted a grand final party here at our place. We had a small core of die-hard fans. Ross and Lewy and Gurecki enjoyed the game and Wolly and Coombsy arrived later as they were held up downtown by “black hair and black eyes” as Coombsy texted it. Not content to leave that be, we had to adjourn to the “golden triangle” of the Green Bar, the One over the Road and back to the Pig. Never let anyone convince you that this is a good thing on a “school night”. The next few days were very quiet indeed; that last beer I had at the Pig was definitely off.
School muddled along through the week, great excitement for the 3rd grade with their community day on Thursday, but I wondered again how these PE teachers do it: the searing heat just about killed me and I was only out in it for a few hours.
We have just enjoyed the most relaxing 4-day break, long awaited and much needed. Unlike home, we follow the American system of two semesters in the year. This allows us to have a break at Christmas and our big “summer” break, but also means that we work quite intensively from August through to December. This is our one long weekend and many of our colleagues have flown off island to Hong Kong, Japan, Philippines, Thailand, and Singapore etc. Much to our great disappointment, Chad and Cathy flew to Singapore to interview for jobs there next year…we don’t want them to go!
The days off started with Cass and me eating lunch on Friday at Chili’s in the Warner complex. This is an American burger, steak restaurant that has mouth-watering meals at staggeringly steep prices! We give in to a little slice of such decadence on holidays from time to time and it was great. Later that day, we went to see “Flightplan” with Jody Foster. It was pretty good, but personally, I thought she trotted out the old “Panic Room” persona and even the gorgeous Aussie Kate Beaghan couldn’t save it from a little step above mediocrity. Still, we love the Internet booking method. We book from home and always select these two seats off to the side with expansive legroom with an aisle beside. It’s just like our own little lounge room!
Surfing has taken a fair bit of time, along with the driving to get there. We’ve made a few wrong calls in terms of spots, necessitating a lot of driving. Yesterday we ended up surfing a spot that is normally just 30-40 minutes away, but we tried others first, meaning we drove for nearly 3 hours just to get there. We’ve had some success with the waves over the past few days and I’ve been a little more diligent in keeping up the pointy hat entries. It just takes a jiffy, writing some inanities to describe the latest surf and bunging a few photos on. You can always check it out here. My wonder sister, Helen, also known as Miss Ebay Australia, managed to get my new camera into my hands over here and it takes a pretty mean shot too, as evidenced by latest pictures here and on Pointy Hat. I know you will be devastated that the file photos of Virg’n Mary will stop, but new ones of the “girls” will feature again soon!!
Cass and I had a bit of an adventure last night. We were all set to walk around the corner to the Indian, but I suggested we try to find a restaurant whose website I’d stumbled upon a few weeks ago. It’s called “Alleycats” and the site gave a little hint as to its wares. It was secreted away a few blocks behind the side entrance to Chiang Kai Chek Memorial Hall, so we got off the MRT there and went exploring. It seemed to be equidistant between 3 different MRT lines and stations, so it was a bit hard to find, but very worthwhile. It was a humming, lively little place in a basement and the smells were fantastic, the conversation lively (with a small bar serving draft beer attached). A foreign guy owns and runs it and it serves all sorts of calzones and pizzas, all stone oven and wood fired of course. What a rare treat here in Taipei. Cass and I had a great chat while we downed a few glasses of tasty Hoegaarden beer on tap and waited forever for our pizza. Neither of us had any lunch so we were a bit light headed by the time the mouth-watering pizzas arrived. To top it off the owner presented us with some complimentary “jet fuel” digestives. We hurtled out into the night feeling like we’d been on a jet and I amazed myself by finding my way back to the train station!
Today has been one of those deliciously lazy days: slept in late, had pancakes and real coffees for breakfast, lingered for hours over very interesting Herald clippings that Mum had sent us. We had a late lunch then watched “The Dish” on DVD and now I’m writing this. All is well in the world……..
Sunday, September 25, 2005
arty cats
The working week started on Monday with a professional development day, which meant that meetings with colleagues and brain draining activities like marking and filing and organizing and planning took the place of equally tiring, but the heaps more entertaining option of teaching kids. The rest of the week for both Cass and me was pretty stock standard, but we ended the week with a bit of a celebration.
The board of the school hosts a party at the American Club each year, ostensibly to thank the teachers for their contribution. Amongst many others, unfortunately, we didn’t feel in the mood, as the board’s attitude to money spending has meant that my contract is not being honoured and I am not being compensated in money or time as to the terms of my contract and other people have separate, yet related, issues. We took the opportunity of the thinning out of the faculty ranks to go to a restaurant, Pizza Realto, which features delicious wood fired pizzas, yet is usually overrun with other teachers. We invited Carl and Hiroko and took along a bottle of Veuve Cliquot that we bought at Sydney Airport on the way back across. We wanted to celebrate the sale of our unit at Horizons and also toast Carl’s birthday from the day before. Our pizzas were very tasty and the champagne was superb.
Ross and I got some good waves at the rocket on Saturday and I was stoked to do a tail slide back down the face of a wave for the first time, before spinning the board back around and continuing. Who said you can’t teach an old surfer new tricks?! One fascinating cultural experience we crawled past in the car was the tail end of a coastal duathlon. The run-bike-run concept had been well subscribed; the explosion in biking popularity here recently has been nothing short of amazing. The most amazing thing was the standard of equipment that all competitors had. The most ordinary athletes in terms of speed, ability and endurance still had the very latest, hi-tech, very expensive, top of the line bikes and other gear. I never had gear of the equivalent standard, even when I was quite obsessive about my competition a decade or so ago!
On the way back we called into Coombsy’s place, as he was hosting the AFL grand final get together. There was a great group of guys there and we screamed and yelled and did all the usual stuff as we enjoyed a grand final, which was much more of a contest than in recent years.
Cass and I saw Cinderella Man this morning sandwiched between the Cinderella stories of this year’s NRL preliminary finals. Who would have guessed that the Tigers and the Cowboys would fight this year’s decider?
Russell Crowe did a very good job in this film. It is a bit formulaic and predictable along the “Rocky” lines of such boxing/underdog/hardship movies, but it bore the distinctive imprimatur of Ron Howard and subsequently was very polished. I found the fight scenes quite dramatic and especially interesting, considering my recent flirtation with boxing training, which continues most days after school.
Cass goes off to camp tomorrow and won’t return until next Friday. Neither of us enjoys this time of year and she is madly preparing and packing right now.My sister Helen has done some remarkable work for me this past couple of weeks. My stolen camera needed replacing, but I needed the exact model for use with the underwater housing. Of course, a newer model has replaced it, so I asked Helen to seek one on Ebay. After a few false starts she scored a beauty that I’ll receive soon. Here was an Aussie buying a camera in America and shipping it to a third party in Taiwan, the Aussie in Taiwan electronically sending the money to Australia so that it could be sent to the U.S. Phew! Some newer ones should replace the photos from the vault soon. Cats feature today, one with Cassy, and one where I have tried some artistic brushstroke techniques on them with some photo software….. doesn’t really work, but it’s different!
The working week started on Monday with a professional development day, which meant that meetings with colleagues and brain draining activities like marking and filing and organizing and planning took the place of equally tiring, but the heaps more entertaining option of teaching kids. The rest of the week for both Cass and me was pretty stock standard, but we ended the week with a bit of a celebration.
The board of the school hosts a party at the American Club each year, ostensibly to thank the teachers for their contribution. Amongst many others, unfortunately, we didn’t feel in the mood, as the board’s attitude to money spending has meant that my contract is not being honoured and I am not being compensated in money or time as to the terms of my contract and other people have separate, yet related, issues. We took the opportunity of the thinning out of the faculty ranks to go to a restaurant, Pizza Realto, which features delicious wood fired pizzas, yet is usually overrun with other teachers. We invited Carl and Hiroko and took along a bottle of Veuve Cliquot that we bought at Sydney Airport on the way back across. We wanted to celebrate the sale of our unit at Horizons and also toast Carl’s birthday from the day before. Our pizzas were very tasty and the champagne was superb.
Ross and I got some good waves at the rocket on Saturday and I was stoked to do a tail slide back down the face of a wave for the first time, before spinning the board back around and continuing. Who said you can’t teach an old surfer new tricks?! One fascinating cultural experience we crawled past in the car was the tail end of a coastal duathlon. The run-bike-run concept had been well subscribed; the explosion in biking popularity here recently has been nothing short of amazing. The most amazing thing was the standard of equipment that all competitors had. The most ordinary athletes in terms of speed, ability and endurance still had the very latest, hi-tech, very expensive, top of the line bikes and other gear. I never had gear of the equivalent standard, even when I was quite obsessive about my competition a decade or so ago!
On the way back we called into Coombsy’s place, as he was hosting the AFL grand final get together. There was a great group of guys there and we screamed and yelled and did all the usual stuff as we enjoyed a grand final, which was much more of a contest than in recent years.
Cass and I saw Cinderella Man this morning sandwiched between the Cinderella stories of this year’s NRL preliminary finals. Who would have guessed that the Tigers and the Cowboys would fight this year’s decider?
Russell Crowe did a very good job in this film. It is a bit formulaic and predictable along the “Rocky” lines of such boxing/underdog/hardship movies, but it bore the distinctive imprimatur of Ron Howard and subsequently was very polished. I found the fight scenes quite dramatic and especially interesting, considering my recent flirtation with boxing training, which continues most days after school.
Cass goes off to camp tomorrow and won’t return until next Friday. Neither of us enjoys this time of year and she is madly preparing and packing right now.My sister Helen has done some remarkable work for me this past couple of weeks. My stolen camera needed replacing, but I needed the exact model for use with the underwater housing. Of course, a newer model has replaced it, so I asked Helen to seek one on Ebay. After a few false starts she scored a beauty that I’ll receive soon. Here was an Aussie buying a camera in America and shipping it to a third party in Taiwan, the Aussie in Taiwan electronically sending the money to Australia so that it could be sent to the U.S. Phew! Some newer ones should replace the photos from the vault soon. Cats feature today, one with Cassy, and one where I have tried some artistic brushstroke techniques on them with some photo software….. doesn’t really work, but it’s different!
Sunday, September 18, 2005
lewy's horse has some success
I've had some vicarious pleasure this week as Lewy's horse, Drizzle, followed its maiden win with a solid second on Friday afternoon. We were like a 1940's family huddled around the radio, this time sitting around the computer as it beamed a live call from the back blocks of some Victorian cow paddock all the way into Lewy's classroom in Taipei.
Ross and I paid a few bills for the car this week and celebrated our new carpark by paying a re-issued speeding fine...just pay $1700NT and you get not one but two colour pictures of your car doing illegal things (in this case speeding!)
The week has been hotter than hot and we've again spent most of it cloistered indoors near some artificial cooling machines. We've hopped from school to home and hardly ventured anywhere in between...it's just been shockingly oppressive. We enjoyed the footy this weekend, had some takeaway pizza on Saturday night and Ross and I drove over the mountain to be greeted by flat conditions at the beach before turning around and coming straight back.
The air has taken on an amazing, very un-Taiwanese quality this week. Almost as if you've put a pair of prescription glasses on, the world has come into sharp relief. Some strange, climactic force has sucked away all the pollutant haze and Taipei has suddenly become a searing bright sunfilled canvas. It's very reminiscient of home and quite disconcerting...I don't really want to see our cityscape so clearly, thanks all the same! No doubt, the gloom will descend again soon and everything will return to normal.
Not much to report this week: we're both working hard, hiding from the heat and enjoying our lot. Adios!
I've had some vicarious pleasure this week as Lewy's horse, Drizzle, followed its maiden win with a solid second on Friday afternoon. We were like a 1940's family huddled around the radio, this time sitting around the computer as it beamed a live call from the back blocks of some Victorian cow paddock all the way into Lewy's classroom in Taipei.
Ross and I paid a few bills for the car this week and celebrated our new carpark by paying a re-issued speeding fine...just pay $1700NT and you get not one but two colour pictures of your car doing illegal things (in this case speeding!)
The week has been hotter than hot and we've again spent most of it cloistered indoors near some artificial cooling machines. We've hopped from school to home and hardly ventured anywhere in between...it's just been shockingly oppressive. We enjoyed the footy this weekend, had some takeaway pizza on Saturday night and Ross and I drove over the mountain to be greeted by flat conditions at the beach before turning around and coming straight back.
The air has taken on an amazing, very un-Taiwanese quality this week. Almost as if you've put a pair of prescription glasses on, the world has come into sharp relief. Some strange, climactic force has sucked away all the pollutant haze and Taipei has suddenly become a searing bright sunfilled canvas. It's very reminiscient of home and quite disconcerting...I don't really want to see our cityscape so clearly, thanks all the same! No doubt, the gloom will descend again soon and everything will return to normal.
Not much to report this week: we're both working hard, hiding from the heat and enjoying our lot. Adios!
Sunday, September 11, 2005
Pillbox two days before the "incident"
The feelings of anger and invasion of privacy after a robbery are no different wherever you are. We’ve had stuff taken in Australia and had all our stuff stolen in France one New Year’s Eve and those same feelings came flooding back to us mid week. Ross and I had just enjoyed perhaps the best surf we’d had for months at the Pillbox, straight after work on Wednesday. I’d been in two minds about going out, because the 3rd grade Open House was on that evening, starting at 7pm. I had a niggling feeling that we should leave in plenty of time to get back, just in case there were more horrendous traffic jams than usual (you have to budget for being stationary for at least 15 minutes of an hour trip!).
Great long lines of swell greeted Ross and me, puffing offshore breezes and of course, being the Pillbox, our “secret” place, no one in the water. The day was bright and clear and at least 3 sets of wedding couples in full regalia had come to the shoreline with their photographers to get their pre-wedding shots. I’ve mentioned this strange phenomenon before: photos before the day, in full dress, often dragging dresses over rocks and dirt, and sitting in the shallows to get that perfect romantic shot in the weakening afternoon sun.
We walked past the wedding parties and paddled out enjoying quite a magical afternoon. We both got a succession of fantastic waves and commented that except for the water quality, it was almost as if we’d been dropped off by a yacht charter somewhere in Indonesia to enjoy perfect waves with no crowds.
Our euphoria was short-lived however. I came in first to be greeted by a smashed out passenger window and all our things stolen. They even stole our clothes! We were upset about that as well as we had good clothes on as we’d come straight from school. Curiously, they left our shoes and socks, possible because they’d be too big for anyone. We walked around the area in the vain hope they’d dumped the stuff they couldn’t use, but we didn’t find anything. They stole our wallets and we both had lots of cash. We had the usual full quiver of credit and cash cards and other things that you have in wallets that are hard to replace. The big items taken were Ross’ good watch, his phone and my new camera. They took both of Ross’ bags but left my ratty beach bag, which had a secret pocket containing my phone. This was the only thing of value that they didn’t steal.
We drove home just in our wet board shorts and on the way, we got Cass and Ainsley to begin the card canceling process. I continued that when I got home and just before racing off to my parent night, I asked Cass to tell Mr. Lee to change the locks, as my address was in the wallet too! I had to wait at home till 11 am the next day when the locksmith came, secretly hoping that I might hear a key in the lock and be able to nab the perpetrator. That would have been very satisfying!
I’ll get a re-issued credit card tomorrow and a cash card mid-week, but I’m really spewing about the camera. I didn’t take the underwater housing out that day, so it’s still sitting here forlornly at home! I would love to replace it with the same model, which the housing is custom built for. It took such great photos the one time I got to use it; it would be a shame to never get it wet again. The rest of the week was a bit of a blur of police stations and getting the window fixed on the car and remembering all the things that were in my wallet or bag as I missed them through the week. The cops were pretty silly really and no help at all, insisting that we had to go out to the Damshui station to report the theft and get the car dusted for prints; we decided to cut our losses and get the window fixed instead, especially as another typhoon was on its way.
Two shining bright moments came this week to lift the gloom of the robbery: firstly we got our long awaited car park in the school parking basement after being on the waiting list for 2 years and secondly, we got word that our investment property at Horizon’s had finally sold. The news of settlement was treated with scant regard until we saw the money in our bank account, which we did on Thursday. What an amazing ordeal this had been: over the last 4 years the thing had contracts prepared on it no less that 4 times, various other offers were made and withdrawn, the company first refused to pay the rent and then after years of delays went belly up owing us and everyone else. It was a very painful period for us, a very unprofitable period and a period we’re very, very glad to put behind us. Enough said!
Anyway after an eventful week, we’re both glad that it was only property that was taken and that no one was hurt and I’ve been quite Zen like in my approach to the whole matter. I don’t know if I’m turning soft, but I hope that the person who took all our gear actually needed it: I’d be disappointed to imagine some tosser just doing it for fun, more philosophical about things if someone felt they had to do this sort of thing to survive. Unlike home, there are a lot of people here in just such a predicament.Photos will be from the vault for a while…I have plenty that I’ve taken lately which I transferred to the computer.
The feelings of anger and invasion of privacy after a robbery are no different wherever you are. We’ve had stuff taken in Australia and had all our stuff stolen in France one New Year’s Eve and those same feelings came flooding back to us mid week. Ross and I had just enjoyed perhaps the best surf we’d had for months at the Pillbox, straight after work on Wednesday. I’d been in two minds about going out, because the 3rd grade Open House was on that evening, starting at 7pm. I had a niggling feeling that we should leave in plenty of time to get back, just in case there were more horrendous traffic jams than usual (you have to budget for being stationary for at least 15 minutes of an hour trip!).
Great long lines of swell greeted Ross and me, puffing offshore breezes and of course, being the Pillbox, our “secret” place, no one in the water. The day was bright and clear and at least 3 sets of wedding couples in full regalia had come to the shoreline with their photographers to get their pre-wedding shots. I’ve mentioned this strange phenomenon before: photos before the day, in full dress, often dragging dresses over rocks and dirt, and sitting in the shallows to get that perfect romantic shot in the weakening afternoon sun.
We walked past the wedding parties and paddled out enjoying quite a magical afternoon. We both got a succession of fantastic waves and commented that except for the water quality, it was almost as if we’d been dropped off by a yacht charter somewhere in Indonesia to enjoy perfect waves with no crowds.
Our euphoria was short-lived however. I came in first to be greeted by a smashed out passenger window and all our things stolen. They even stole our clothes! We were upset about that as well as we had good clothes on as we’d come straight from school. Curiously, they left our shoes and socks, possible because they’d be too big for anyone. We walked around the area in the vain hope they’d dumped the stuff they couldn’t use, but we didn’t find anything. They stole our wallets and we both had lots of cash. We had the usual full quiver of credit and cash cards and other things that you have in wallets that are hard to replace. The big items taken were Ross’ good watch, his phone and my new camera. They took both of Ross’ bags but left my ratty beach bag, which had a secret pocket containing my phone. This was the only thing of value that they didn’t steal.
We drove home just in our wet board shorts and on the way, we got Cass and Ainsley to begin the card canceling process. I continued that when I got home and just before racing off to my parent night, I asked Cass to tell Mr. Lee to change the locks, as my address was in the wallet too! I had to wait at home till 11 am the next day when the locksmith came, secretly hoping that I might hear a key in the lock and be able to nab the perpetrator. That would have been very satisfying!
I’ll get a re-issued credit card tomorrow and a cash card mid-week, but I’m really spewing about the camera. I didn’t take the underwater housing out that day, so it’s still sitting here forlornly at home! I would love to replace it with the same model, which the housing is custom built for. It took such great photos the one time I got to use it; it would be a shame to never get it wet again. The rest of the week was a bit of a blur of police stations and getting the window fixed on the car and remembering all the things that were in my wallet or bag as I missed them through the week. The cops were pretty silly really and no help at all, insisting that we had to go out to the Damshui station to report the theft and get the car dusted for prints; we decided to cut our losses and get the window fixed instead, especially as another typhoon was on its way.
Two shining bright moments came this week to lift the gloom of the robbery: firstly we got our long awaited car park in the school parking basement after being on the waiting list for 2 years and secondly, we got word that our investment property at Horizon’s had finally sold. The news of settlement was treated with scant regard until we saw the money in our bank account, which we did on Thursday. What an amazing ordeal this had been: over the last 4 years the thing had contracts prepared on it no less that 4 times, various other offers were made and withdrawn, the company first refused to pay the rent and then after years of delays went belly up owing us and everyone else. It was a very painful period for us, a very unprofitable period and a period we’re very, very glad to put behind us. Enough said!
Anyway after an eventful week, we’re both glad that it was only property that was taken and that no one was hurt and I’ve been quite Zen like in my approach to the whole matter. I don’t know if I’m turning soft, but I hope that the person who took all our gear actually needed it: I’d be disappointed to imagine some tosser just doing it for fun, more philosophical about things if someone felt they had to do this sort of thing to survive. Unlike home, there are a lot of people here in just such a predicament.Photos will be from the vault for a while…I have plenty that I’ve taken lately which I transferred to the computer.
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