Spring has sprung or winter has waned or something like that. The cherry blossoms on the river walk and all around are bursting out of themselves for their brief, beautiful flurry of blossoming, shocking pink. The jackets of the citizenry have lost their puffiness and Mawson’s expeditionary team can no longer be seen head down trudging through the Antarctic conditions on Chung Shan North Road! There is definitely a renewed spring in the step of Taipei’s people this weekend as the mercury rocketed to nearly 30 degrees of full blinding heat after what seems like months of dreary rain and cold.

We each had a very social Friday night. Cass was entertained at one of her book club member’s houses for their monthly meeting and fine food and wine was shared along with checking out the rather impressive new digs. She lives just across the river from us, tucked away down a little alley, but the house is very unusual. It’s more like a town house, spread over three floors and luxurious in appointment and space. A great find, but no doubt it also comes at a premium in rent. I, on the other hand, decided to entertain a crew of guys on the balcony at home for a large portion of the night. Eventually, we had Gurecki, Wal and Shaun there and we took advantage of Cassy’s extended absence to make a nuisance of ourselves till quite late, watched some AFL and cricket then retired to one of the local bars for a few more beers.

I decided that my wispy thinning graying locks had reached my personal level of frustration this weekend and razored them all off. When I find myself contemplating buying a brush, it is definitely time for a change! That combined with the change in the weather seemed like just the two signs necessary to have my semi-annual hair-shave. Cass got hers cut last week, so I’ve actually been sporting the longer style for a little while.

We’ve had a decadent weekend relaxing and eating and perambulating in the restorative beams! Jakes for a late breakfast on Saturday and even though we had to endure some twittering schoolgirls (from our school!) at the table next to us, we ate a big long meal of all that really bad stuff, like eggs and pancakes all washed down with lots of coffee and juice. I was in such a good mood I even decided to go with Cass to do the food shopping. She was willing to let me come along “this time”, but I don’t think I’m going to get a regular invite: this is some sacrosanct private time I’ve interrupted by the looks! The walk through the park and across the quaint little Chinese bridge is whimsical, and the chatter of the old men mixed with the clatter of the tiny tiles as they play mahjong on the picnic tables is comforting. So many people were just out enjoying the sunshine: it was if everyone had emerged crawling and blinking from the damp chrysalis of their apartments after an endless succession of gloomy depressing weekends.

Gurecki was wifeless for the weekend as Himiko had gone to Japan for some family business, so we arranged to meet at the cinema to see the long awaited “True Grit” on Sunday morning. We all three are fans of the Coen brothers as directors, but Gurecki especially so. We’ve had many a long discussion about the merits of the whole quiver of movies strapped to their collective moniker, but this was really eagerly anticipated. It proved to actually be even better than our expectations, the script taut and incisive and the settings, scenery and costumes authentic and truly gritty! After farewelling the shy, bearded fellow we scootered to a little hole in the wall café we’d heard a rumour about and had a brunchy lunch in a beautifully decorated light splashed restaurant called “Brunch House”. We did a little cavorting in a park on the way back home, before settling in for a really relaxed afternoon and evening.

The rain is predicted to return tomorrow, but the sun continues to shine today as we’re imprisoned here in the big red brick institution. We have a visiting “guru” here this week to instruct us in the latest and greatest English language learning techniques, so a few after school meetings mean I’m desperate to get to the gym this afternoon. By the way, we met 31 years ago today…how old does that make you feel?!!! I’m reading some more Harlan Coben while Cass finishes off the millennium series. Photos: The bursting blossoms, Cass pretty in the pink, some interesting cereal flavour choices at the local supermarket, a shot of 500 million riders on the MRT last year (now, Newcastle, do you really think you need a light rail system for your ridership?!), haircut, lazy cats and park cavorting!

After just a few cleansing ales on the verandah on Friday afternoon, I farewelled Gurecki and Dave M to greet Cass arriving back from a late stay at school, where she had been getting things in order for the coming week. We decided to go down early to sample the sensational authentic Italian pizzas at Pizzeria Oggi, trying to sneak in without a reservation before the Friday night hordes descended. We managed to snare the last two spots at the end of the bar and enjoyed our pizzas and salads washed down with some bottomless glasses of San Pellegrino sparkling. After we got back home, we were both hit with a wave of fatigue so strong that we went to bed possibly at the earliest hour ever! A long, hard working week for Cass had caught up with her as her teaching partner, Kristin, was in the United States for the week at a conference and she had been doing double duty, tending to the substitute teacher’s needs as well as looking after her own affairs. I had no such excellent excuse….I was just tired!

A huge paintball skirmish was planned for the Saturday afternoon, but a dreary drumming of rain just wouldn’t relent all morning until a critical point was reached and the day reluctantly called off. As a stack of guys had made arrangements to be free in the afternoon, alternative events were proposed, including a visit to Hooters downtown (!), but none came to fruition in the end. Wal and I arranged to meet up with Dave at the Soo Who bar in the evening as we were keen to head downtown to the “Roxy Rocker”, a bar Dave had heard about from his wife’s work colleagues. We had a couple of drinks in Tienmu and watched some ice hockey on TV before getting a cab down to this hidden little gem.

A non-descript shop front and some grubby stairs leading down to the basement level of the building on Heping East Road, did nothing to prepare us for the music heaven we encountered inside. The bar had a huge motif of Led Zeppelin’s Houses of the Holy album cover across one wall, dimmed down lights and comfy seats, all with a DJs station surrounded by thousands of compact discs in racks. The music was pumping and the vibe was cool, but just behind the bar was the real treasure. A soundproof room held lounges and chairs, coffee tables and computers for free internet and a bohemian looking girl working a double record playing setup. Two walls of the room were dedicated to the bar’s collection of over 10,000 vinyl LPs! They are randomly sorted so it is just a question of how long you wish to search. You simply find an album and track, hand it to the girl and she’ll spin you up some sweet memories. The largely 70s and 80s albums are complemented by some from the 60s and 90s as well, but it was just like finding a little Nirvana. We lapped up the atmosphere and made plans to investigate the possibility of a future Book Club meeting here in this back room: fantastic prospect!

Dave’s Canadian friends who we met at Rocker were keen to move on after a while, so we reluctantly tore ourselves away to head to another newish establishment not too far away and in the shadow of the iconic Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall. The tiny bar of “Revolver” had an altogether different, but no less cool vibe, with a busy bar downstairs and a feverish DJ working the tiny room upstairs. It was a great little find as well and we hadn’t seen so many foreigners crowded into the one venue in quite some time.

Cass and I caught the MRT down to Taipei Main Station today and ate at the Breeze Center’s Teppanyaki restaurant. The flashing spatulas of the chefs always provide some dinner entertainment, zinging metallic pings as the meat and vegetables are flipped, seared and sizzled: the food was so mouth-wateringly delicious!

The rain continued its steady beat, so we stayed cocooned in the underground and made our way a few blocks up the road through the underground shopping malls of Chungshan station. We emerged to dash just a half block to the Museum of Contemporary Art, where we were keen to catch the latest exhibition, this time by some young Taiwanese photographers. As always, it was quirky, thought provoking and most of all, great fun! It was a pretty small show, but there were some really different works on show here (see photos above). Another interesting touch was the scrawled descriptions and signing of the artist below the photos, directly on the wall: some graffiti inspired layout that worked well.

Photos: I took the kids to the aboriginal museum midweek, the kindergarten next door was built like a fairytale castle....wouldn't the kids love going to this school?! Also pizza, Roxy Rocker albums, teppanyaki, Museum of Contemporary Art quirkiness!

In most Asian countries, it’s pretty easy to find some quirky English signs. What gets me is why people in charge of writing these signs wouldn’t get some help from native speakers before they go to all that trouble. Perhaps it’s good enough that they made some sort of effort to inform the ignorant foreigner of hazards to look out for, or protocols to observe. If you cast your eyes to the photos above, you’ll see some pretty clear evidence of this in some of these photos.

The “excretion of pet” photo is my favourite. Not only has the dog got a gleeful, malevolent smile leering out after breaking the rule which he obviously didn’t read, but he has somehow managed to style his droppings into a perfect soft serve, worthy of a McDonald’s sundae machine. Also he has a curiously symmetrically perfect “x” forming what I imagine is his rectum (or is it his belly button?). I mean, I’ve heard of a crusty star, but this is ridiculous.

The shot of “electrocuting or poisoning” of fish is actually OK in terms of English. The issue here is actually the need to post a sign like this at all. In a country like Taiwan where nearly every single small law is flaunted and broken at every opportunity, it’s a little frightening that there is a need for this sign. I imagine that people are probably quite regularly throwing plugged in toasters into waterways then scooping out the electrocuted fish corpses, or alternatively pouring battery acid into the streams to knock out a few hundred of our piscine friends. Seriously, some fishermen we’ve seen here seem more than capable of these types of stunts to bring home some fish and chips for tea!

The sign without any writing seems odd on a number of levels. The international “cross out” sign obviously means “don’t” do something, but I’m wondering why some of these activities need a sign. The first one seems to depict a man riding a floorless homemade train. Is the problem the homemade aspect, the lack of a floor (with possibility of leg amputation), the use of a train of any description, or all three? What about the second one: Come on there can’t be any problem wearing a conical hat and planting what appears to be marihuana seedlings can there? Is the problem with the plant, the hat or both? The other two are fine: I can well imagine the need to warn one armed golfers or ice hockey players not to play, and of course you cannot build robust fires with just three sticks, everyone knows that!

Often we see products being sold with the classic Taiwanese plea of “buy one, free one”. We’re both quite keen to do our bit environmentally, saving the planet etc. but I don’t really know why a can of baked beans qualifies for this offer. Are there shelves of baked bean cans imprisoned somewhere, perhaps mistreated dreadfully, kept beyond their use-by dates, stripped of their paper labels and tortured, beaten, possibly dented and even punctured?! Just in case, we’re always keen to stock up on these items when we see them. Who knows, that one act of kindness might just be enough to save one can out there. Funnily enough, our bill always seems a little less on these humanitarian buying spree days as well…must be just a coincidence.

Can you honestly say your life is fulfilled without buying the latest product, “Love Pu Pu Cheek (pink)”? A new vending machine at the movies (of all places) was selling this. I’m not sure what you think it is, I don’t know what it is either and I’ll just leave it to our imaginations I think.

Now, that’s just about my best ever in terms of talking about absolutely nothing. Apart from looking at signs, we ate out at the Spice Shop, went to the movies to see the surprisingly good “The Mechanic”, wandered around, rode the motor scooter, did some other stuff! Books: Cass has moved to the third Stieg, “The Girl who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest” and I’ve succumbed and am reading my last precious and saved up Peter Corris, Torn Apart.

The Chinese New Year usually brings some frowsy weather with it to Taiwan, but as we’ve had a surfeit of cold and rain this month along with a dearth of sunshine, we were pleasantly surprised to find that the week was cool and crisp, some sunnier days, and hardly a drop of rain fell. It was a relief after what we had decided was one of the worst starts to a year we had experienced here, our opinion backed up by the latest official news that January was the coldest in 40 years.

Cassy’s cooking frenzy last weekend was a bonus for us all week, as we slept in nearly every day and had a long lazy breakfast with big slabs of piping hot English toast slathered with a generous helping of both butter and Cassy’s famous lemon butter…..wow! Chunky chicken soup was almost a solid meal and steaming bowls of same accompanied by hot buttered toast was a common lunch or dinner as well.

Our days were a meandering affair of reading, napping, viewing and occasionally some walking to try to assuage some guilt from all that lying around not doing terribly much at all! It was a decadent spoiling week and we both lapped it up. Strangely, even after our Christmas break, we were both quite exhausted when last Friday rolled around. We’ve experienced a similar feeling before at Chinese New Year: our Christmas breaks are full of travel and wonder, and even though exciting, they don’t usually give us a break to wind down after a long first semester. CNY is the panacea for that lingering need for total rest.

We ventured over to the coast earlier in the week, but my vague plan to get some surf was thwarted by a very uncooperative ocean and wind. Nonetheless, I dragged Cass from one spot to another till we had exhausted the gamut of breaks up north, ever chasing that elusive wave. I’ve done the same thing so many times before I should know by now: if one spot is below par, you can bet your life the others will be similar or even worse! The drive over and back was pleasant though and we managed to avoid the traffic jams and chaos so often found on the roads at this time of year as families return to home towns, or married women bring their families back to home turf. The traffic is so bad at times during this period that cars are banned from freeways unless they are carrying at least three passengers!

Most days we went for a walk either “up” or “down” the canals. One of our “down” walks ended up with us marching out some great distances and we found ourselves strolling down the Keelung River heading towards the Grand Palace. The shared bike/pedestrian paths in Taipei are quite superb and a real credit to the local government. I mean, let’s be honest: the city is a seething mass of cars and buses and trains belching out plumes of carbon monoxide to the extent that the city appears to be nestled in a blanket of smog when viewed from up on the mountain. Somehow, the powers have secured enough riverside land and funding to provide a wide ranging network of brilliantly maintained paths that slice along riverbanks, leap over creeks and streams and sidestep built structures. They’re well signposted and show a side of Taipei that is far removed from the hirdy girdy of the freeways and byways, a linear oasis by the river. We even spotted some relatively big boats moored at a little marina near the confluence of the Damshui and Keelung rivers: a little bizarre!

I managed to have various beer drinking sessions with a variety of different friend groups during the week as well which was good fun, but another factor that probably slowed us down some mornings! We had some visitors to watch the cricket on Wednesday and Gurecki came round on Friday to enjoy the sunshine on our verandah. Yesterday, Wal and I managed to convert a session watching the UFC at the Green Bar into one last hurrah for the holidays, milking every last minute from the break!

We’ve both read a lot as well, although even as Cass enjoys the second in the Millennium series, I think I’ve been turned off using similes for life by the otherwise entertaining writing of Harlan Coben. There are at least two on every page! Here’s a quote to show the abrasive regularity of said figure of speech: “He looked, however, like a beatnik trapped in a bad acid trip. Retro, Norm had explained earlier, was cresting, and he was catching the wave by wearing a psychedelic poncho, fatigue pants, love beads, and an earring with a dangling peace sign. Groovy, man. His black-to-gray beard was unruly enough to nest beetle larvae, his hair newly curled like something out of a bad production of Godspell.”  They are good similes, there are just way too many of them!

Anyway, Jo (Cassy’s agent!) has posted some photos on her facebook page that she took during the ad production. Cass reckons people will be sick to death of this theme, but I’m not, so too bad! Other photos are of a walk we did doing some river tracing in Yangminshan (I forgot to write about that!), and the bike path marina.

Now relaxing on a Sunday night and already being castigated for the lateness of this blog posting (Helen!!), I’m really getting into the swing of this Chinese New Year holiday. Cass has been busily scurrying around most of the day doing all sorts of “holiday cooking”, like batches of lemon butter and getting the makings of chicken soup ready. The weather is typical Taiwanese CNY weather, cold and slightly miserable, the humidity allowing the cold to seep inexorably through your whole body. The only solution is to have a hot shower, sit in front of a heater or under a blanket. We did all three and it worked just fine!

During the week, we had another great Taiwanese experience: a traditional local wedding to attend. We both were locked away in meetings till 5 p.m., so barely had time to get home and changed before braving the peak hour traffic for a ride downtown to the “Amazing House”, which is actually the name of the wedding venue! The trip itself was a hoot as we had to trust the taxi driver’s little idiosyncrasies in taking various shortcuts to get there…I reckon I knew a better way, but I trusted the expert.

Our landlord of some nine years, Mr. Lee, lives on the second floor of our apartment block, directly below us. For the majority of that time, and especially before my still rudimentary Chinese skills improved, we dealt almost exclusively with his older daughter, Linda, whenever little issues arose. She would often turn up unannounced at the most inconvenient of times and settle in to talk at great length about nothing much at all. These days, mercifully, I am usually able to converse with Mr. Lee directly and cut out these extra sessions of English language practice! Linda, did however, help us a lot over the years, so we were quite delighted to accept her invitation to the wedding party.

Party it was, as Linda and her husband Jim had been married on the very auspicious date of 01.01.2011 in a registry office somewhere we suspect. The wedding party was the extravaganza afterwards. Our first task was to ascertain how much money we should put inside the traditional “red envelope”, the wedding present of cash that is the norm here. After consulting various local friends and colleagues and getting different answers (!), we decided to go with the luckiest numbers (very important apparently!), avoid any numbers that sounded like the word “death” (four), and basically go big. We thought we couldn’t lose. Next, what to wear? There were no directions on dress, so Cass dressed “mid formal” and I just decided to wear what I usually wear to work. Ended up being a good choice…we were in the mid range I reckon.

Upon arrival, Mr. Lee was very excited to see us and we were ushered back to an anteroom where Linda and Jim and close family were having photos taken. We both felt a little embarrassed until Mr. Lee led us to a table and left us alone! The hall was decorated quite sumptuously and satin and bows and flowers were the order of the day. A slide show of shots featuring Linda and Jim was on high rotation a couple of giant screens and they were classic. As is the fashion here, the bride and groom get most of their wedding shots taken pre-wedding in various romantic locations and in various formal and informal outfits. We were treated to shots against railway cars, dangling bare feet in water and cuddling of teddy bears along with a couple of rather strange ones with faux snow in the background…Taiwan?!

The reception itself was also full of wonder for us. The bride and groom entered through a gaudy flowery arch to various English pop songs all about love, some of them slightly weird and inappropriate! They had various choreographed roles to perform, all announced and commentated upon by the MC who was a paid employee of the reception hall. There were no speeches, but a succession of delicious expensive Chinese courses was served at regular intervals. Cass was fascinated how they all arrived at once, fresh and piping hot, for over 200 people: it was a mighty feat! There was orange juice and some rather rough red wine, which became more palatable after the third glass I discovered! The people at our table, in fact every other table as well, were all Chinese and spoke just Chinese. We were a very strange curiosity!

Instead of throwing a bouquet, Linda invited all the single women on stage to take part in a particularly strange ceremony where they seemed to grab hold of a streamer and she grabbed the other ends. We couldn’t figure out if it was the last or the first to break the streamer, but one twitterpated young woman was dutifully nominated as the next probability to become married. Very soon after this, the wedding entourage did a quick circuit of the room, stopping at each table to toast and be photographed and filmed. When the MC did her chatter at the end of this it was time to go! We got a quick shot in front of the arch with the happy couple, were given a very large box of “Gorgeous Romance” wedding cookies (yes, really!) and away we taxied home.

Great fun, but not as good as this decadent week ahead is shaping up to be….

I got a taste of the colour and spectacle of the approaching Chinese New year when we took the kids way downtown to the puppet theatre mid-week. An early arrival meant a stroll down the dockside streets and alleys near the old trading port on the Danshui River, which used to be the bustling hub of Taipei City at the turn of the century. The area is now more famous for its iconic fabric market and also the fact that Dihua Street transforms itself into a sea of brightly coloured traditional foods and sweets as the Chinese New Year approaches. All sorts of wonderful edibles can be found here, along with all sorts of very mysterious packages: it’s probably better to be a little more adventurous, but I can’t bring myself to sample foods that look like they’ve been made as mutant, viral dog biscuits to be fed to a subjugated nation under a victor’s control. Oh, and the smells….well, enough said!

The theater is housed within a very old restored building with hints of the Japanese occupation, in its carved stonework and finials. Inside the house has been kept pretty much intact as well and I was in fear of the lives of our little kiddies as they traversed the narrowest, steepest stone staircases, all devoid of handrails and with potential head splitting falls just a bump away. I let my breath out audibly each time they successfully negotiated another floor! The puppets were actually really interesting, showcasing puppets from around the world but particularly Asia, including a Vietnamese water puppet tank on the rooftop.

Cass and I both had our respective Book Clubs on Friday night and once again they proved to be rather different experiences. Mine starts at about 9 o’clock, by which time Cassy’s is nearly winding up! The fare at ours is a lot of Taiwanese liquid gold in the shape of the tasty and originally named, “Taiwan Beer” (so much of which was drunk that we drank the bar dry and had to switch to another type!), yet Cassy’s consists of various home cooked delicacies perhaps accompanied by a couple of glasses of wine or champagne. As surprising as it may seem however, we do indeed both talk about books, and the boy’s version takes away recommended tomes presented by our fellow members: therefore, I’ve always got something new and different to read!

I’m suffering from an acute attack of laryngitis which came on about halfway through Friday night and I’m still restricted to a whisper now. I find it very frustrating! Partly because of this and the accompanying cold or flu or whatever brought it on, we haven’t felt much like venturing out this weekend, but instead have read a lot and watched all sorts of sport on TV. The Australian Open tennis has been providing great entertainment as has the cricket which is on right now.

Cass and I are both really looking forward to our Chinese New Year break next week: its only 3 weeks after Christmas holidays, but they already seem a long time ago! Photos: Puppet theatre and surrounds and a couple of shots at Wendels for our 23^rd wedding anniversary. Books: Cass is reading the Rankin that I bought in Delhi (The Complaints) and I’m diving into the Stieg Larsson trilogy with the first on my e-reader, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.