Nothing today! I'm taking a mini break. Crappy rainy weather all weekend and we didn't do much. See you next week.

 On such a densely packed island, not everything can run as loosely and perhaps as efficiently as we're used to back home. I've made mention of Taiwan's garbage disposal system here on the blog before, but a recent video I watched re-ignited my interest in this unique system. Basically, garbage does not touch the ground. As trucks can't squeeze themselves down all the tiny lanes and alleys, it is incumbent upon residents to get their bags to the truck. There are a mind boggling array of options and we have to sort the garbage into edible scraps (which go to feed pigs), general refuse (for the special paid-for blue garbage bags) and then recycling of all different sorts, which is free. Some days, the Styrofoam is taken, on others it might be glass or plastic and yet others it is the turn of cans and paper or "flat plastic". I can tell you it took a lot of getting used to!! It is a classic "user pays" scheme, and as only the non-recyclable trash is paid for (in the nominated district garbage bags you can buy at the local 7/11), there is very little left to throw in the garbage truck as most people seem to really resent having to pay to throw things away. Enforced recycling seems to work really well. Anyway, check out this video and short article: it captures the feel of this bizarre practice really well.

There is always something weird happening here, but often, we don't stop to note it, photograph or video, just because we are so used to it. On our way home on Thursday, we were just walking past the local temple where they were practicing their puppet show from the garishly coloured puppet van. Normally we wouldn't give it a second glance, but I stopped and asked Cass, "Would we ever see anything like this at home?!" We both agreed we wouldn't, so the other video up top is of this strange practice. Check Cass standing over to the side as I pan around. Puppets like this are so popular here, they even have their own dedicated cable TV channel...I'm not kidding!

Cass had her book club on Friday night and I went on the Tienmu pub crawl. I can report a rollicking good time from the pub crawl and Cass had an equally great experience at the book club. In fact, her host for the night actually made it to just the third pub we stopped at: indicating how very late we were already running! Cass had her customary chicken enchiladas and a delicious cheesecake and the girls all had a great time. I had a chance to catch up with a few people I don't normally catch up with, which was interesting. Tommy A is off to Tanzania at the end of the year for a new assignment, so it was interesting to hear what he knew of the place already.

Suffice to say we had a relatively quiet Saturday, although Cass managed to walk herself to a near standstill, first doing her river walk circuit at high pace, then going off to the supermarket and returning with bags laden. She followed this up with a trip to Wendels and the new SOGO, so by the end of all that she was pretty exhausted.

I managed to keep the lounge warm watching an amazing array of NRL games and we both watched the Aussies get thrashed by Pakistan in the world cup cricket. We've actually moved form a shocking situation where Australa Network had been outbid for the NRL rights and were not showing any at all this season, to a point where we'll get better coverage here than back home! A revamped NRL HD streaming site now shows nearly every game live and every game on a few hours delay, on demand. Because we have a lightning fast internet connection and no download, upload, or streaming limits, we can remotely beam the picture and sound across to the next room for as long as we like.  I watched the entire Foxtel Super Saturday program, 3 games in a row, all live, including the Knight's great win. I'm not sure if Cass thinks this is a good thing or not. She commented that, "we can watch NRL every day of the week now, can't we?" to which I enthusiastically agreed! Maybe the novelty will wear off soon...

Today Cass had to negotiate a mountain of marking so I took the opportunity to venture up the hill to the Tienmu GuDao walking trail ("the steps"!). It was hot and sunny, so the trip up was sweat inducing. The trail up top is in dappled light and shade and a few degrees cooler than below. I decided to do the top path, then drop down and down on some precipitous paths to a little oasis we had first seen many years ago. The waterfall and pool at the bottom of the valley is hard to get to, yet apart from the few irrigation pipes spoiling a perfect picture, it is very peaceful and beautiful. The water is clear, but traces of sulphur have stained the rocks and set off a kaleidoscope of rusty colours in and around the stream which contrast so starkly with the verdant canopy drooping over the top. I fell on my bum a couple of times on the way down and up as the moisture on the path had made the steep path quite mossy and treacherous. Eventually, I made it back up. only to then have to head down the stairs to get the scooter back home.

This week is shaping up as a real test of patience: I have conferences for two days followed by three days of professional development workshops and meetings. Cass also needs to endure these three PD days at a slightly more casual pace but we'll both need to brace ourselves! Photos: puppet theatre, stairs, paths, foliage and waterfalls, along with a tiny shrine I found beside one of the narrow paths hugging the side of the steep hillside.(Photos and video taken with phone only)

Yesterday, Cass had an incredibly “fun” time with her girlfriends. To be honest, the description of the day sounds very similar to one of my worst nightmares, but each to their own, I suppose! Her book club mates had decided to have a decadent lunch down in Taipei city and follow up in some kind of “chick nirvana”, a bag shop: as I say….

They arranged to meet up at Zhishan MRT station and after a few false starts because of multiple entrances, they were on their way. Cass was in charge of the directions and was slightly trepidatious about the whole deal, but she steered the group through a few different stops and changes and they ended up in perfect time at Papa Gio’s down at Dunhua. They lingered over their choices and shared a bottle of rose along with various salads and pastas and fish. It all sounded very classy, but I think I would have been choosing wildly different dishes from the menu!

After a long lunch, they made their way to Cassy’s secret bag shop that they had all been keen to visit since Cassy’s description of an “Aladdin’s Cave” of beautifully crafted, genuine leather bags, all bearing an uncanny resemblance to stratospherically priced bags of noted designers in the swanky malls virtually shadowing this little shop. Tucked in behind the giant SOGO store at Zhongshan MRT, the shop did not disappoint its enthusiastic crowd. I was amazed how long they could spend down there: hours! All the girls ordered or bought at least one bag, some of them bought two. From reports, the whole day was a wild success and they plan to meet up for lunch again soon, perhaps trying a different after lunch activity like the jade market. I’m actually loving this: it saves me another trip to this area that can hold my interest for about 10 minutes, yet I think Cass would be happy there for about 10 hours!!

Today, the sun streamed in and woke us from a slumber earlyish and we thought it would be a perfect day to get down to Yuanshan Park and the Taipei Fine Arts museum. On our previous trips to Paris, we’ve never missed an opportunity to visit the amazing Musee Marmottan, nestled in a nondescript Parisian suburb. The house holds a priceless treasure trove of the most exquisite Monet paintings and its bottom circular room definitely IS a place I could spend 10 hours. Well, suffice to say that if you visited the Marmottan anytime between now and the beginning of June, you’d be bitterly disappointed: there are 32 of the most magnificent Monet paintings in the world hanging on the walls of Taipei FAM, just three train stops from our front door!! We wandered through Yuanshan Park with thousands of Taipei’s citizens as they marveled over the Taipei International Floral Exhibition in the spring sunshine. Eventually we were directed to a shuttle bus, as the art museum is actually within the floral festivals grounds, and you need to be ushered into the grounds in a group. In we went and after paying the ridiculously small fee (less that $10), we wandered into a Monet wonderland. They had certainly raided the very best of the paintings too: giant waterlillies studies, the bridge at Giverny in all different lights, agapanthus and iris, the Seine in dappled light and a beautiful piece we had never seen borrowed from the Scottish national Gallery and yet another from a private collection. The bulk however, was from the Marmottan and it was both surreal and unreal to view them again in our own backyard. I’d say a return visit or two is definitely on the cards.

Blissing out from both the sunshine and our art fix, we enjoyed a cup of coffee in the sun splashed courtyard before training home. We decided to use Cassy’s gift vouchers for Chili’s for a very late lunch/early dinner and scootered across to the Shinkong Mitsukoshi building. A window seat to watch the world go by, a pretty girl for a date and some great tasting food….what else could anyone want? We whiled away a couple of hours before getting home to blog duties et al.

Oh, I nearly forgot! I spent a big chunk of Friday night down at Roxy Rocker with my book club mates. Not a lot of books were shown (in fact, none!) but we enjoyed some icy beers, great company and classic, classic music spun up on twin turntables and rockin’ all night….what a blast! Words can’t really do this justice but the pictures can. My phone camera is not great in such low light, so the old fashioned theme of the slide show actually enhances the shots and captures the feel of the night pretty well. You can check the slide show here with a few awful shenanigans up top! Cass is reading "Her Fearful Symmetry" and I'm still on the Harlan Coben

We had a pretty tough week this week. Visiting "expert" meant that we had to endure at least three long drawn out after school meetings as well as some laborious sessions in school time. All this was quite mentally draining, both from being "up with people" and restraining ourselves from saying all the politically incorrect things we might have been thinking!

Din Tai Feng was a very pleasant antidote to all the week's worries on Saturday and we went along in the late afternoon, supposedly to avoid the lunch crowd and to miss the great Saturday hordes that line up from early evening. We did a pretty good job of the timing and we were whisked into a booth with a minimum of fuss. The food here is just sublime: it never disappoints and we often comment that it would be a huge hit in Australia. There is a branch in Sydney and I'd be interested to know business is: we reckon we're reasonably discerning diners and it certainly ticks all our boxes at a very good price.

The weather was again favourable to outdoor activity on Sunday, so I decided to brave the 1000 steps once again. I've had a long layoff because one of my knees flared up again from the up and down movement, so I've been using the treadmill at the school gym as an alternative. I've been setting it on maximum incline and walking as fast as is humanly possible without breaking into a jog. It gets the sweat flowing quite nicely and has been a good, alternative aerobic workout. Anyway, I managed to make it up and back without any major complications so I was pretty relieved. Cass did her river walk circuit at the same time, so before lunch we were all exercised, washed and feeling quite self satisfied!

The monkeys at the top of the steps and along the trail a bit are supposed to be at their most active at dawn and dusk, but today they gave me quite a fright. A whole extended family decided to break from the foliage just as I walked along the upper path and as luck would have it, there was no-one else around. Their bodies are huge and muscular and they are an intimidating sight. The family decided to amble across the path and leap into the trees opposite, but not before big daddy gave me the most awful teeth bared snarl and spit. I literally froze to the spot! When they were safely tree bound I snapped off a shot very tentatively, a half second from running for my life (or at least that is what it felt like at the time!!)

This afternoon we joined a very packed cinema auditorium to watch "The King's Speech". It's recent success at the Oscars guaranteed a large crowd, but this was amazing. We were in the biggest cinema and we were in the 4th row as every other seat was taken. The movie itself was a magnificent triumph for all concerned and although Colin Firth was superb, we couldn't help feeling a little sorry for Geoffrey Rush: surely he stole the show?!

Well, I'm a little ill motivated to write great screeds today, so perhaps mercifully for you the reader, I'll finish here. I've posted a short video and some photos of a most bizarre piece of Taipei street theatre I witnessed yesterday...your guess is as good as mine (especially the bashing of the backs with the cane)!! The other photos are the menacing shadow of two monkeys in a tree and the deceptively cute sign of same monkeys!

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.