Batteries of fireworks screamed incessantly overhead again over the weekend, each sharp shriek strident but mercifully brief. Our place is a haven by a small creek most of the time, but its position is handy for pyrotechnics at festival time, as a postage stamp of open space attracts the local "technicians"! Great cauldrons of fire danced with leaping tongues on the main roads, but even back alleys and balconies had their own little steel buckets of fiery paper money smoking and smouldering. The enveloping cloud from the money wafted artificial and acrid: we're not sure what coating is used on this fake cash, but it can't be healthy!

A week after Chinese New Year and the ghosts and spirits, spectres and ghouls obviously need a little more encouragement to depart for good, at least until next year. Perhaps it's just a great excuse to get some cracker commerce happening and give the latent pyromaniacs in the community a legitimate window to "let off some steam"? It's sometimes weird to take stock and remember where we are: oh yes, we're in Taiwan and the deafening drumbeats, wailing warblers, singing cymbals and ricocheting rockets are all part of life on certain days throughout the year....even if we of the diaspora are trying to watch Surfest streaming on the TV in peace, live from Merewether!

The weekend provided some of that absolutely serene, flukey weather that occurs sometimes in the middle of a period that is traditionally cold and damp. The sun peeked out and decided to stay awhile, warmed us up and swiped a smile across the face of Sunday. Of course it remains as beautiful today, taunting us on a Monday working time. As we strolled to school this morning, the Cultural College precipitously perched on a ridge in the Yangminshan hills was fresh and clear, the clouds tiptoeing behind its sparkling facade. It put a little extra pep in our step.

Cass has parent conferences looming, so the latter part of the week for her will be taxing and exhausting. She's getting prepared for it by cooking multiple pots of delicious foods on Sunday, arranging for me to "cook" on Wednesday (the local take-away food restaurants love me!) and fixating on what I think is the strangest of priorities: what shade of nail polish will she have applied when she gets a manicure on Wednesday evening?! I think it helps take her mind from the impending horror!

I've got various meetings through the week including a team meeting today and a parent workshop on Wednesday afternoon. As annoying as some of these can be, especially the mainly gratuitous meetings where one is imprisoned and tortured, having to listen to questionably qualified, self-serving, blinkered blowhards, we do take great solace from recalling our core role: instructing the delightful students who are in our charge. The beauty of our gig is that when we metaphorically close the door to our classroom, we can revel in the personalities, intelligence and attitudes of this wonderful group of kids....they really do continue to make it all worthwhile. Oh, and they pay us money as well!!


Photos: aforementioned kiddies, a park with old houses and statues near our place, a funny busker at the station, Maya pizza's new offerings. Also pictured is a graduate of the school (the daughter of a colleague) who is planning to open a catering service: Gurecki and I get to sample her wares straight from the oven! Then, burning steel baskets and flushing blossom (who needs to go to Japan!). Last photo is a view of the park opposite our house in Merewether (a Facebook steal): while it would be great to be home for all the fun and excitement of Surfest, I'm glad we don't have to look at that every day!

P.S. Some boy met a very pretty girl 33 years ago today!

We have been absent from the Taipei American School campus since I last wrote and we've done a whole lot of "not too much" in the meantime. What a magnificent bonus we get each year to celebrate the Chinese New Year. This year, the snake uncoils itself from the 12 animal matrix that makes up the Chinese horoscope and we couldn't be happier to help him slither and hiss!

I managed to read 4 Stephen King books that I've had on the back-burner here for ages. He's a prolific writer but deceptively rich in his prose and although the story-lines can be a little predictable, they're perfect page turners for a week when you want some easily devourable, entertaining stories. Cass also immersed herself in books and we were laughing at the strange scenes over the past few days when I was reading a huge hardcover and she was button-pressing the electronic reader: who'd have thought?


I went to my friend, Morgan's apartment for a viewing of the iconic mockumentary, Spinal Tap, on Tuesday afternoon/evening. It was great fun and good to catch up with my teammate on Grade 5, Ben, as well as some guys I hadn't met, Charlie and Jamie. Jamie was a very entertaining raconteur and I enjoyed his company immensely: he's a Brit with a fascinating business/car background and the five of us had some long chats about the state of the world's finances as we sipped some local beers on Morgan's rooftop as the sun went down.

Cass and I roused ourselves from our Van Winkle-like narcolepsy most  days in order to do some essential eating, shopping or just rolling the legs over in a pleasant stroll along the river. We had some tasty dinners out at decadent times, like mid-morning brunches and early evening lunch/dinners. Cass cooked some delicious pots of curry and served up piping hot toast in the mornings with a slathering of one of my precious pots of Peck's Anchovette: heaven!

Yesterday, to try and preclude a fall into despondency with the looming return to work today, we bought ourselves some sandwiches for lunch then motored around various beautiful spots in the Yangminshan National Park just beyond our suburb, Tienmu. We decided not to stay at our first destination because of one cackling loud witch, who seemed enamoured of announcing her every thought in a raucous, rasping screech to all and sundry!

A much more peaceful setting was found just in the shadows of the park's belching fumaroles, as we trekked down the valley to the caldera, where thousands of Calla Lilies were in their most succulent flush. We stopped and ate our little picnic on some rustic benches overlooking one of the lush fields and admired the beauty of their military planting lines and long juicy stems. The hills beyond were stained yellow, green and brown but were notable for the shocking explosions of lolly-pop pink scattered throughout, where cherry blossom tress bursting with buds were breaking through the verdant canvas.

We watched some good Aussie programs over the break, including the movies, The Sapphires and Wish You Were Here and the TV movie, Underground: The Julian Assange Story. We finished off our break last night by starting to watch the series Puberty Blues. How weird it was to remember all the sexist, racist, crazy stuff that used to go on in our era at high school (and how strange it all seems now). Oh well, back to school today and six weeks and counting until Spring Break!

Photos: Wol with big head Chinese fellow at the Nation on Friday night, some foliage over a wire near our apartment, Wendel's brunch and lots of Yangminshan beauty (including the scooter chick with attitude!) Oh, and a classic video here of Taipei Gangnam style.

It's Chinese New Year and I'm going to have a break this week, although I have included a few photos from the last day at school when we were regaled with the exquisite skills of a local professional dragon dancing troupe. I've also included a shot of the first flush of cherry blossoms on the riverside near our place, a tray of sartorially splendid pineapples as well as a dressed up, plump stone dog in the temple opposite.

We've got this week off work and already it is proving to be extremely relaxing, rejuvenating and just, well, ripper!

See you next week and "xin nian kuai le"! Video here.

A pungent punch from putrid drains, cooking oil, hot fat and perhaps even a waft of rats' nests. This was a uniquely Taipei bouquet that used to greet us quite often when passing various alleys and byways in our adopted city, but it's been such a long time since we've experienced same that it was a little jolt from the past when we inhaled that forgotten perfume on the weekend!

Near the exciting and vibrant Shida university and night-market district lie many of the aforementioned tunnel-like alleys, each exuding a polarity of moods, enticing you in with thoughts of magical finds, quirky, cheap products or interesting food but at the same time repelling you with repugnant smells and filthy setups. In the shadow of the curiously by-lined Oldie Goodie nightclub (really, "It is your life of darkness"?!) and beside the Taiwanese potsticker stands and dumpling halls full of formica tabletops and supermarket bought chairs, there are lots of these entrance ways: we hurried past them not feeling at all adventurous this time!

This hub-bub of activity takes place at the top of the stairs from exit 3 of the MRT's Taipower station in downtown Shida district, about a 25 minute journey from our place in Tienmu. We were on our way to one of our long-time favourite places to eat, the cleverly named "KGB", nestled in a tiny lane just off the bustle of Shida Road. We ordered our favourite burgers, Cass with the lentil patty, me with beef, but both oozing Antipodean flair and flavour with pickles, egg, pineapple and beetroot. The Yanks just don't get it.....where's the beetroot??!! We had all the options in the set with soups to start and brownies to finish and felt filled to bursting point before we dropped down into the bowels of the city again, avoided the local "special odours" up top, and made our way home via the incongruously spotless train system.

We had a super quiet weekend this time: maybe our recent exertions are catching up with us a bit. It was exciting for us to welcome back the Insiders/Offsiders teams from the ABC on our own Australia Network on Sunday. Although the internet allows us some pretty extensive and constant connectivity with Australian and even Newcastle news these days, it's shows like these that are great to tune into to get an analysis of that news by some respected journalists. Shows like "Q&A" which is also starting back up, play a similar role for us in keeping our finger ever so gently on the Australian pulse.

Video: Check the boys from Grade 4 in their new fad here or up top! Photos: check the star!, Erdinger, art and cats as well as a shot of "the life of darkness"....ohh!

In many ways it feels like the blink of an eye, but to really transport our minds back to 25 years ago took a bit of an effort on our part. Even stranger was to think that we had celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary five years ago atop the world's tallest building (at that time), Taipei 101: now that time really has gone quickly! This time, hot on the heels of our European trip, we were glad that we'd decided to scuttle plans for a trip to Thailand to celebrate and decided instead to enjoy some home town specialtiies.

We took a personal day from school on Friday enabling us to drive over to Dahzi in the afternoon after work on Thursday last week. The Hotel Grand Victoria is a five star hotel that has morphed into being alongside all the glitz and glamour of the Neihu shopping malls, hotels, high-end apartments, restaurants and the Big Wheel that seems to be essential in any city worth anything these days! Not only is the accommodation first class, but it has recently hosted what is Taipei's first Michelin starred restaurant  La Festa, which is closely affiliated with Italy's La Credenza.

Our room was decadently luxurious and featured Phillipe Starck decor along with a most magnificent bathroom featuring not only expanses of beautiful natural stone and superb fittings, but an amazing toilet that almost needed to have a licence to drive it, with all sorts of automatic lids and heating and various other options that I'll leave to your imagination! The restaurant was sublime and lived up to its reputation. We eschewed the ease of the chef's selected menu, partly because of the foie gras to which we're ideologically opposed, but still managed to cater a classic four course meal for ourselves along with a mouth watering, smooth Italian red. We were able to dine at leisure and were slightly surprised at the restaurant's popularity on a quiet Thursday night: it got fairly packed! The wait staff were suitably coiffed and preened a little, yet cleverly left us alone except when we gave the slightest signal that we needed something, whereupon they descended like an eager flock of seagulls on a hot piece of pasta.

After a wonderful relaxing night under what Cass coined "The Karsten quilt" named in honour of our super goose down quilt in Karsten's apartment in Berlin, we eventually made our way down to breakfast in the same restaurant about half an hour before they closed up. We again stuffed ourselves on an amazing spread of tasty, fresh produce and ordered our eggs and waffles individually. It was such a relaxing way to spend our anniversary and all the more thrilling to drive home and revel in the fact that all our colleagues were beavering away at work!

Since then, we've made up for our days of leisure, being thrust back into the fast lane of newly formed classes (for me) and the revving up of second semester curricula (for both of us). The weekends have been a welcome relief and we've let out a collective sigh that ends abruptly on Monday when it all starts over. Cass and I both had our respective Book Clubs this Friday and as usual, had starkly different experiences! I, along with our ten strong group of men, had the famous beer tappers at Beitou's "Big Brother" , the rustic wooden bar that miraculously survives out on the main road near Beitou station, while Cass dined on al dente vegetarian at the local, classy Mia Cucina with her half a dozen girlfriends. They were disappointed to be "kicked out" at a very early hour: apparently the restaurant has become so popular that a booking now only lasts for two hours in order to accommodate multiple sittings. She and a couple of others wandered around the adjacent SOGO department store for a while afterwards...a beauty of big city living where everything seems to be open at least till 11 p.m.

We went across to the cinema on Sunday to see the incredible "Zero Dark Thirty", which we've been meaning to catch for some time. Wow, what a cinematic experience this was. Even though incredibly different, it had the same tension filled, "edge-of-the-seat" rush as the recent movie Argo. Director Kathryn Bigelow certainly has this modern war genre nailed down fast: A+ from us! Another late lunch/early dinner at The Spice Shop was a relaxing end to another weekend.

I've neglected to update our reading for a while. Cass has finished numerous books and I have read two books about Auschwitz (in the lead up to our visit). Currently, Cass is reading The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes and I am reading (belatedly) our friend Barry Maitland's excellent latest Brock and Kolla adventure, Chelsea Mansions. Photos: a blast from the past (!), me with my first semester group of kids in support class, shots from our anniversary stay, one of Cass before we went to the pictures yesterday and a close up of Cassy's "new" ring. She had her big emerald cut diamond shored up on either side by some triangular cut diamonds in a technical marvel of engineering by Joe, her doting jeweller: It's quite something!

 Our apartment owner, Jacek, was a bit flustered when we arrived about 45 minutes early, so we agreed to give him another 45 minutes to get the apartment sorted. Our first foray into the uncut diamond of Kazimierz, the old Jewish ghetto in Krakow, Poland now enjoying a renaissance as the Bohemian quarter, gave us a tiny insight into the magical world we'd explore for the next five days.

Wandering down past old synagogues and countless images, statues or plaques of ex-Pope JP2, we made it to the shores of the Vistula, the lifeblood of lower Poland and one of its prettiest features. Wandering back, Cass disturbed some birds (first photo above) in the town hall's square: the look on her face I think sums up our excitement in being in our third wildly different European city on our Christmas break.

We checked out our very slick (and warm!) apartment for a while, got settled, then headed off for some lunch before attacking Wavel Hill and Castle. A vast complex of ancient churches and castles on one of the few outcrops of higher land in the city, it was quite stunning architecturally and ornate in decoration, both inside and outside the many buildings. Cass enquired about concerts, particularly by the Polish maestro, Chopin, but didn't get much joy. We toured the church, but were disappointed to find the Royal rooms in the castle across the square were heavily restricted in terms of visitor numbers and were booked out for some days! JP2 again gazed benevolently upon the masses from yet another bronze likeness, but his ubiquitous presence was starting to creep us out a little!

After this we made our first of many trips to the sights and sounds and experiences associated with the main square, an amazingly expansive space in the centre of Krakow city which has been the hub of the community since medieval times. One night we managed to snare the only tiny table inside a restaurant with a majestic view of the square, with slowly clopping horse teams taking tourists in coaches through the cobbled streets. Hordes of youngies gorged on the most visceral looking platters and strings of mysterious meats, and hot beer and wine was sipped and held in gloved hands while bands played, shoppers browsed and bargained, and traders hawked. A cup of coffee turned into a bottle of wine, then a four course meal: we weren't giving up that spot easily!

Highlights of our days were again guiding ourselves through the city and environs via tram. The system was great and we were able to easily negotiate our way far and wide. We always climb the highest points so made our way up the four bell tower at Wavel and conquered the Krakus mound to score a panoramic view of the city from the far southern reaches. We wandered through back streets and marshes, parks and churches, outdoor memorials and museums and galleries. The Oskar Schindler factory was an outstanding museum dedicated to explaining the fate of the Jews who were detained in the area we were staying, Kazimierz. A young Roman Polanski's notes were on show and more horror from the days of the German invasion and occupation of Poland could be witnessed. Another day trip to the Wieliczka Salt Mines where the floors, walls, frescoes and even the chandeliers are made of salt, was quite overwhelming. The statistics, sheer size and sense of claustrophobia cannot be overstated and I must admit that waiting for the lift to return us to the mine-head was rather unnerving! The endless corridors of salt workings stretching for many criss-crossing kilometres (300 km+!), the vast cavernous spaces continually producing salt stalactites, and the wondrous grand cathedral were ethereal and stunning.

One evening, I took Cass to the Bonerowski Palace to enjoy a concert by celebrated young Polish pianist, Weronika Krówka as she played some classic Chopin amongst others, and her performance was so masterful, deft and nuanced that my darling wife was brought to tears. It was pretty special with a real virtuoso at work, sitting in the front row in a 16th century palace in a gorgeous room overlooking the twinkling lights of the Old Square. Another incredible highlight was to visit and explore the newly opened Rynek Underground museum. The whole square was dug up in 2005 and the archeological discoveries were so highly significant that they expanded their plans for the museum five-fold. It now snakes its way under most of the square in a high tech labyrinth of exhibitions that made it the best archaeological/history museum that we've ever visited.

We ate mouthwatering meals and cakes and coffees, a highlight being the massive plates of potato pancakes with goulash sauce for me and the traditional Polish dumplings, pierogi, for Cass at a local backstreet cafe. Our final morning before we were whisked off to yet another airport was to wander around doing a self guided tour of the synagogues in our area before visiting a weekend market where Cass bought some "vintage" local silver earrings and pin.

Krakow is really the forgotten jewel in the crown of Europe. This university city is alive with young, intelligent, vibrant people (many of whom look like super-models: Cassy's words, not mine!) and older folk who have witnessed wartime atrocities, survived, then prospered. Krakow's Kazimierz is comparable to Berlin's Kreuzberg in its slow metamorphosis and all three cities we visited are still coming to terms with various aspects of their political and social pasts. What a trip we had: we'll be recalling many moments for countless years to come and would love to get the chance to revisit any or all of these destinations. This is the album link.

I'll be back to "Taipei Life" next week, and by the way, we celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary in style this week staying in a five star hotel and eating at an Italian, Michelin starred restaurant! More later....