Electioneering is a strange business in Taiwan. The guy in the top photo seems to be threatening the wrath of some kind of blind, bronze warrior ninja Yoda-like god if you don't vote for him. Our vet, Dr. Yang, who found Virg'n Mary originally and who we have returned to often over the years, has decided to run for office and he has emblazoned his building with oversized posters of him looking caring and wonderful to all creatures, animal and human! Posters flap from poles and banners drape from bridges. The streets are buzzing with scooters that carry little billboards around on a trailer advertising some other candidates, along with a blaring loudspeaker endorsement, not forgetting the "catchy" original jingle or song to go with it.

Segue to my own scooter, Blackie, who has been suffering from what was first suspected to be a terminal illness, but now, miraculously, he has been raised from his death bed! After choking and puffing his way through the last 12 months, being increasingly difficult to start, and rattling and wheezing like a bronchial nonagenarian, old Blackie finally gave up the ghost a few weeks back. No matter of gentle coaxing or violent kick-starting was going to spark him back to life. The last time I'd got him started, I treated him to a new battery, spark plugs, an oil change, a new oil filter: the lot, but to no avail. I gave it one last shot and Mr. Lee's daughter and son-in-law helped me push and pull the old fella over to the repair shop on Mingde Road. The miracle mechanic cleaned out many engine parts and took apart the carburetor, but, most mysteriously replaced a vital part known as "the bladder"! The word was written in katakana and I could read it: despite being written in Japanese, the word must have originated in English.....anyway, whatever this bladder is, it's worked a small miracle and we're back on the road for a minimal cost!

To celebrate we went over in the spitting rain to the cinema on Sunday to see the much hyped megaflic, "Interstellar". We were pretty disappointed. Maybe it has something to do with the general theme: despite my rabid interest since I was a little kid in all things to do with spacecraft, the last few space blockbusters have left me wanting more. Is it perhaps that I expect such greatness, that the films can't deliver? Cass and I both agreed that we thought the beginning hour and a half (the film goes nearly three!) preamble needed a good edit down to about 1/2 an hour tops. There were numerous holes in the plot, some so big you could drive a lunar rover through, and Cass even noticed some continuity errors, unforgivable in such a big budget movie. Hokey, jingoistic script, clunky dialogue and wooden acting (especially from old mate, Michael Caine). In the end, we both could only muster a mild "B" for a grade, and if Matt Damon's cameo was cut, it would barely register a "C". Anyway, our two cents worth!

Rewind to Saturday afternoon and we made yet one more ill fated mission to find the ShangriLa of Japanese curry houses, another branch of Cassy's favourite, Aubergine. Thwarted in previous weeks downtown by its sudden disappearance, we looked up the website and found another outlet down south of the city, near Gongguan Station. A 25 minute ride on the peak hour train, spat out near the Shida Road National University, we wandered the block or two to the address. Plonk right where it should have been was the "Ponderosa Steakhouse", not a vegetable, let alone an aubergine to be seen!
Unwilling to venture further, we opted to check out the steakhouse. Australian beef on the menu, we opted for the fillet mignon, finding it mildly peculiar to be asked to pay up front. We realized why when we entered, as an all-you-can-eat buffet stood steaming in the side hall of the restaurant, all plastic plates and tongs and serving forks at ten paces. We served ourselves some hot and cold product from the very diverse selection and had pretty much finished eating before we saw a tiny girl drop the tongs on the floor, pick them up, select some more stuff then decide she didn't want it after all and calmly returned it all, piece by piece, by hand. I knew there was a reason we never went to these places!

Somehow surviving without a case of botulism, we wandered the busy University environs for a while before demurring on the charms of the mid-Saturday night MRT crush to get a cab home. We've realized that the company that runs "Aubergine" must have gone bust, so Cass has resigned herself to finding a new signature Japanese dish or restaurant.

Happy days in Taipei at the moment as the weather has flicked a switch over to autumn temperatures now (only 2 1/2 months late!), and we're enjoying a crisp touch in the morning and cooler evenings without air-cons and fans.

Photos:elections, Cassy with new necklace (pearls and diamonds), meat in the open air on the back of a "Bluey", the Ponderosa, a carpark with just one space left (!) and rain coated on the way back from the cinema.

All of Asia seems to invoke some sort of mysticism and exotic flavour, especially for westerners. Each country, region and city or town has its own unique taste, and to explore around the continent provides an endless palate of possibilities. While Taiwan's rough-shod homey style is offset by high end technology and urban chic in the big cities, other countries have an entirely different ambiance. Japan's aesthetic is soothing, spare and stylish with a deep, well-tapped vein of sophistication. Indonesia bustles and shuffles from dirt to pizazz, vacillating between their pristine surf and zen hinterland with edgy and dangerous cities, while Vietnam's industrious farmers who've moved to the city can't seem to shake their war wounds and make the big leap to first world status. Sri Lanka's penchant for slow moving service and siestas is more akin to a South Pacific idyll yet India's crash of cultures, beliefs and castes in a seething mass of humanity belies its aching beauty. Thailand is a land of smiles and political chaos, curfews and lush countryside, and our nearest neighbour Hong Kong, just keeps on adding glitz to its culture and skyline in stubborn defiance of its reverted Chinese rule. The differences are magnified yet again in Singapore, the sometimes maligned Asian financial hub nestled in the fingernail of Malaysia, as clean as a freshly licked pavlova beater!

Cass went down to said, slick, sanitized spot last long weekend to meet up with her parents before they departed on a cruise through Asia all the way back to Sydney. She travelled on Jetstar there and caught Tiger Air Asia on the way back, taking advantage of the cut-throat Asian budget airlines timetables which suited her travel needs perfectly if she cherry-picked from both of them. Arriving in the early morning Friday, she crashed into her palatial room in the Peninsula and looked forward to their pre-arranged meeting at breakfast later in the morning.

They were stoked to see her of course, and they met up without a hitch before embarking on various touristy highlights for the next couple of days. To highlight the food metaphor, their actual meals and food adventures were as varied as Singapore itself, eating alternatively in hotel high end luxury then basement department store's food-courts and hawker stalls with the same verdict each time: delicious!

During their time together they managed lots of chats and catch-ups while drinking in some of Singapore's latest vistas including the staggering Marina Bay Sands resort which was in their face from the Peninsula's upper floor bars and rooms. On Saturday night, the bay lit up with Singapore's version of Hong Kong's laser light show, while the three sipped their mandatory "Slings".

In the daytime they had the chance to cruise the rivers and canals and bay to check the city from a different perspective. Despite the cloying heat and sapping temperatures, they still managed to get out and about by boat, taxi, lots of walking and even the mass rapid trains to visit places like the Singapore Flyer giant ferris wheel and the amazing Botanic Gardens. When they ventured over to the resort island of Sentosa (where I regularly visited with Wal for the Singapore Open Golf tournament), they shipped Chris off to a relaxing spot while the two girls headed over to the giant and famous Singapore symbol, the "Merlion". They managed to climb all the way up to get yet another perspective of the city from its gaping mouth before collecting Chris and traveling back by cable car to the main island.

Admirable works of world famous art by David Hockney and others beckoned them to the Ritz Carlton, and in the shadows of the Marina Bay were giant structures dedicated to different gardens of the world. Despite the fact that Cass even brought her swimmers for that rarest of events, the swim in the see through hotel pool, it never eventuated as they found themselves totally amused by Singa's charms and attractions, too busy even to take a cooling dip. I'm excited and I only heard all this second hand! Cassy was very impressed by the city and thought we could make a return trip there one day....I'd say that is certainly on the menu!

Our weekend was notably less glamorous and jet-setting, although we did have a dinner out on Saturday night down at Wendel's and wandered across to the Wovie Cinema to see "John Wick" on Sunday afternoon. Cassy was less impressed than me: despite the fact it was an undeniable spaltter-fest, gratuitously violent and quite pointless, I nevertheless felt that it was beautifully filmed and styled...very pleasing to the eye. We're set for a very busy first week of the second quarter here at school this week, so we'll buckle up, duck our heads and see you next week!

Photos: Singas. This is the link to the Singapore slideshow.

It was an interesting experience to have a long weekend sans mon cherie, starting Thursday night and due to welcome her back this evening. Cassy has decided to make every post a winner this year in terms of catching up with her parents as they will be away on a cruise for our usual time back home in June/July. She met them in Singapore when they flew in early to catch another one-way cruise back down to Australia.

I can't report what they have been up to as I've hardly heard a word! Electronic communication has been at a minimum, owing to the hotel where they are staying not offering free wi-fi and Cassy's reluctance to buy it! I have to admit, we're just so used to it being ubiquitous in Asia, that I didn't even think to check when we booked the hotel. I'm pretty sure they planned to spend a lot of time just catching up, whether it be in the room, the lobby, a restaurant or round the pool. I imagine it's been one long talk-fest! I just got a text from Chris saying they'd sent her on the way to the airport via taxi, thanking me for "the lend"(!), so I'll find out soon. Cass plans to visit them in Australia for Spring Break around her birthday time in April as well.

I went out for a few beers as is my usual practice on Friday night with Wal. We didn't have any guest players join us this week, which was a little unusual. I went home relatively early to the mewling protestations of the "girls", as apparently my attempts at pacifying and nurturing them on a Friday night were but a shadow of my attentive partner's. I slept in till all hours on Saturday morning, unperturbed by the wailing tones of the junk collector who, while trawling the lane-ways for trade, regularly wakes us on the weekend mornings with some banshee-like Mandarin drawl.

Some domestic bliss (!) out of the way, I decided to challenge the famous Tienmu Gudao steps ignoring the rather unseasonal heat and making a pretty good time up to the top. Feeling pretty good, I made my way further along and up, eventually turning back when I stumbled on the little river community of stone cottages in the shady overhang of the bamboo forest on the lower reaches of Yangminshan. It was a massive effort in the end, because I didn't really take into account the bookend journey when I needed to walk the half hour there and back: I usually ride my presently out-of commission scooter. Feeling very pleased with myself, I wandered down to SOGO and bought a stack of sushi to feed myself with for dinner. A very "non-Cassy" meal, I was a little adventurous and barely managed to finish it all: a huge feed complete with nori rolls and great slabs of fresh tuna with wasabi on the side. Home to watch the rugby league and cricket tests, both the Aussie sides being extremely disappointing, losing to N.Z. and Pakistan respectively.

On Sunday, I did domestic chores (again !), before watching Insiders and UFC 179 over an extended breakfast. The cats were still steadfastly ignoring my presence and had set up camp amongst the quilts on our bed, so I guessed they'd be happy enough if I flew the coop once more. I decided to head downtown to the end of the newest MRT line Xiangshan, to the eponymous mountain trail. Xiangshan means "Elephant Mountain" in Chinese and it is the site from where all those postcard images of Taipei and Taipei 101 are taken. I'd heard it was quite the climb, so headed out to conquer it!

The journey took about 45 minutes from home by the time I emerged from the gleaming wide mouth of Xiangshan station, exit 2. Another 1/2 hour stroll had me right at the trailhead and the trip up to the peak only took me about 15 minutes. I did, however, pass a LOT of people on the way. My recent forays up the "steps" had obviously got me "step fit", but there were some serious ascents involved on this trail. In fact, I am certain this would be condemned back home: the steps weren't in bad condition, quite the opposite. It's just that they were SO steep! Stones precariously set on angles also afforded just a toe hold on some of the most precipitous sections, and not  a handrail to be seen. I managed to survive the trips both ways without tumbling headlong into the abyss, but imagined the danger at night as hundreds make the trip up to see the sun set, dusk fall and the nightscape twinkle into life.

I was pretty exhausted when I got back into familiar territory, so trained back to Zhishan station where I alighted to get a burger for tea at our beloved "Eat Burger". It was as great as always, and in Cassy's honour, I wandered up to Wendel's to get a slice of banana cake as a Sunday night treat. The girls and I (well, I did as they continued to sleep on the bed!) watched the Aussie get thrashed in the test against Pakistan and I retired early to read more of the beautifully written recent Man Booker prize winner by Richard Flanagan, The Narrow Road to the Deep North.

Back at school today, home in a minute to clean the house, take the garbage and await the return of my darling!

p.s. Oh, and I nearly forgot. In a very mild brush with fame, I was jettisoned onto the road by a crazy pack of screaming Taipeians near the Taipei 101 MRT station as they clambered for a glimpse of Mariah Carey (who performed in town last night). I didn't catch a glimpse, but admired Mariah for seeking out somewhere she is still hip!

There's a well worn gag that if you use the phrase, "I'm not sexist, but....", "I'm not racist, but..." that any words that come after but actually inflame your prejudice, and it's pretty accurate. So, I'm going way out into bigoted territory with this next statement. I'm not ageist, but there's something deeply disturbing at watching multitudes of 80 plus year old men and women pour their bodies into elastine and satin, embellish their outfits with huge fake conical breasts or codpieces, and rhythmically dance down one of Taipei's main throroughfares on a Saturday afternoon to the hypnotic beat of drummer kid troupes!

The air was laden with the heavy musk of burning coconut oil and running makeup, the din from a thousand drummer boys assaulted the ears and the sight of quivering flesh writhing beneath kaleidoscopic coloured feathers and spandex was almost too overwhelming. Where else but Taipei could one be witness to such scenes?!

The Taipei Dream Parade was in full swing in gorgeous autumnal weather with the sun being tempered by a light cooling breeze, and the light stark and Australian in its intensity: all the better to witness the exotic horror wending its way from the Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall staging area, up to Renai Circle before a U-turn to bring it back down to a stage by the southern gate of the city! It's a unique mix of high school drumming groups vying for prizemoney, aboriginal tribes in modified traditional dress and what seemed like dozens of Taipei's famous "samba grannies" groups, alternating in the parade order with a few crazy exotic pirate ships and floats in between. Individuals from the rainbow community were even more outrageously attired and wandered the periphery of the main group posing for photos and handing out strings of beads to someone who caught their eye. Cass had a little dance with one girl who presented her with her string 'o pearls!

We had an absolute ball and I took about a million photos and videos: there's nothing like colour and movement and a pulsing beat to get the photographer's blood boiling over with inspiration. Despite the quite disturbed over exuberance of the police officer stationed near us for crowd control we had an amazing afternoon. We danced and bopped along to the beat, laughed and clapped along with the participants, and generally reveled in this quite beautiful celebration of life and love. We often have the opportunity to see and experience the wonderful hearts of the Taiwanese, but to witness this outpouring of emotion and happiness was something else altogether.

Never ones to miss an opportunity, we took advantage of the blockades to take selfies and photos in the middle of Ren Ai road and the city gate. Normally an eight lane thick traffic choke point, it felt like we were in a zombie apocalypse movie to be able to stand in the middle of the road to take a photo on a weekend afternoon.

Being downtown, we decided to catch a couple of MRTs to Cassy's beloved "Aubergine" restuarant in Dunhua, only to discover it had moved! Starving hungry owing to a neglected lunch, we decided to stay in the vicinity and visit Stonewood Pizza: the name at least looked promising. They had a bizarre set menu where you ordered a couple of selections from the menu, then were offered items from serving trays as the waitresses walked around. No doubt it was great value all-you-can-eat, but we were a bit weirded out and ordered a pizza each. Unfortunately, this was easily the worst pizza we have ever eaten. I was trying to place the taste of the "cheese" and Cass came up with the answer: powdered milk! It was a shame, because we'd had such a great day and we couldn't remember the last time we'd had a poor dining experience in Taipei City.

Putting the "dining" experience behind us, we caught a taxi home to avoid the Saturday night crush on the MRT and settled in to watch the Quiksilver Pro live from Portugal and recall some of the great sensations from yet another exciting day in the gem of Asia, our own Taipei!

Photos are probably self explanatory! Link to Taipei Dream album here and here is the YouTube vid.