I'm back!

Despite the derision of my previous post some three years ago, I've decided to rejoin the blogosphere; not because I believe that I have something that others need to hear but more because writing fulfills a need in me and helps me to relax and process the things I encounter. The act of publishing something - regardless of how many people will read it - gives one a certain sense of achievement and removes one from the realm of the critic to that of the potentially criticized. It is far more courageous.

Off to the Typhoon Coast

We set off on Saturday on the train to the North East coast of Taiwan to go and do some camping near the ocean. We hopped off the train after a three hour journey, all told, and found our way to what has been labelled as the best organised campsite in Taiwan. When we arrived, I soon started thinking that it might be one of the best organised campsites in the world. Each plot has a wooden deck. There are a number of communal ablution facilities, a pool, roller-rink, convenenience store, sheltered eating area with cooking utensils as well as kayaks, windsurfing equipment and bicycles for the bike track for hire.

We pretty much arrived, walked the short way from the town of Fulong to the campsite, paid our money and ran to the beach. We were greeted by a lake, with a very big estuary area. The beach is pretty much a sandbar that can only be reached by a bridge over the river. The swimming area was cordoned off with small buoys and what is more the beach was closed unceremoniously by the overweight, betelnut chewing, middle-aged lifeguards at 5 sharp. This prompted a mass exodus from the beach. We checked out some sand sculptures before we joined the stampede to the town.

That night we were kept awake by a school camp, with irritating pop music playing and we were later woken at 2am no less by the first wave of rain heralding the coming typhoon. In fact, we had had warning of this earlier, when, just after throwing up our hammocks, the rain showered down, leaving us scrabbling at knots and eventually giving up and getting soaked. We discoveredwhy our tents were cheap incidentally...not very waterproof.

The next day, after a few pitiful hours of sleep, we missioned off down the coast in search of a better beach and better waves. The train pretty much hugged the coastline, which let us see how the waves were shaping. We've always doubted Taiwan having any swell, but thanks to the coming typhoon, there was heavy storm-generated swell, mostly breaking on jagged, shallow rocks.

We eventually settled on a sandier beach and despite our enthusiasm to catch waves, we were repulsed by a wall of foam and a strong sidewash. Adam caught the only wave of the day, getting a fleeting barrel as the waves formed up cooperatively for him, before closing out and smashing him into the sand. Lucky bugger.

We later befriended some locals with a surf shack on the beach, who made us waffles (a

t a price) and lent Adam a 6 foot surfboard which allowed him to paddle desperately and get tossed about the waves for a while, without catching wave. Unlucky bugger.

We got quite severely burned by the sun, but the mission was well-worth it as we managed to get in some time in the ocean, before the coastal police closed all beaches in anticipation the typhoon. The shouted through a loudhailer and used their siren from the comfort of their air-conditioned car to get the attention of some errant and stubborn  beginner surfers who eventually left the 

water. Very funny indeed.

Skip forward 4 hours later, after packing up our tents and catching a packed train back to Taipei, before we slept for an hour or so on the bus back to our home town Hsinchu. 

On the way back from Taipei on the bus, we learnt that our area was to have a typhoon day, which has meant we have spent today at home eating and watching movies. The typhoon has been a bit of a damp squib. The day has been mostly overcast but distinctly non-rainy and non-windy. The rain has just started up this evening, but it's nothing too awe-inspiring. Work again tomorrow, I suppose. It has been an awesome lazy day. 

Big-headed alien spawn

Well, today I had to observe a kindergarten class for the age group that I'm going to be teaching come next week Friday. The kids are 2 and 3 years old and have barely learnt any Chinese and I will be programming their little brains with English. It looks like I will be singing a lot to get them to do anything. It's going to be like the Matt musical. Those of you who know my character know that this is not in keeping with it. But it will be an excellent learning experience. I might have to wipe a but or two, encourage some children to eat and watch others throw up all over the place. It's going to be a riot! But I'll be getting lots of hugs from big-headed kids who will melt my cold heart.

In other news I watched the new Batman on Friday night and was really blown away. My friend here says he read a review which said the it was "made by god". I don't know if I'd go so far as to say that, but it will take a lot of beating for my favourite movie of the 2008, even though we are only half way through this year.

Typhoon Day please!

We might be getting a typhoon day - a day where you are not required to go to work because of extreme weather conditions - today. If you follow this link to Wunderground - a forecasting site - you can see flash animation and tracking charts of the typhoon's activity. Typhoon days are awesome. We had two last year and we got to stay home, watch movies and read books and eat pancakes. Genevieve has started a tradition I think of making pancakes when the weather is miserable outside. Silly woman to set such a precedent she will have to maintain.

Above are the covers of some albums I've been listening to lately. The new Shai Hulud, Have Heart and H2O albums are killer. I've also surprisingly been getting into Alkaline Trio, a fact which will please some of my friends. 

*As I type this post, the typhoon has intensified outside. Things are looking promising!

**11:05am Typhoon Kalmaegi has been downgraded to a tropical storm.

Batman+Lego=Totally awesome

Well, Gen and I had a fairly quiet weekend at home. I played some football at the Tsing Hua University with some Vietnamese guys on Saturday and we went to church where their was an adult baptismal service on Sunday. It was really encouraging to hear the testimonies of those being baptised.

On Sunday, we also went for a walk around our neighbourhood in search of a water gun, preferably a Supersoaker for Gen to use for a Kindergarten fun day/ water fight this Thursday. We ended up going into a toy shop, where I discovered this awesome cache of Lego. My attention was particularly drawn to the Batman Lego. If we had had the money for it on us at the time I would almost certainly have bought it.

Batman Lego combines two obsessions, one recent and one from childhood. I don't think I'll ever be too old for Lego and seeing so much of it on offer, I got to thinking about how much fun I used to have building it up. I was particularly interested in the knight series when I was younger. Now to my more recent obsession: Batman. Ever since reading my first Batman comic, Frank Miller's "Dark Knight" and watching the most recent movie, I have been interested in Batman. He is not a lame superhero as he is intelligent, not relying on some experiment-gone-wrong, toxic spill, or nuclear explosion for his powers.

Therefore Batman+Lego=Totally awesome. I might be scraping together some cash to buy the Batmobile some time soon!

Incidentally, I have also downloaded some digital comics and a digital comic reader, so I have been reading through all the classic Batman tales in readiness for the forthcoming movie which screens in Taiwan on July 17. You can rotate the images and turn the Macbook on its side to read the comics, so that it is almost like reading the actual book and is fairly similar in format. 

Up on the Roof

This is view at night from the top of our apartment block. In one direction is a night market and temple and in the other direction is the city hall. The second picture shows the light trail left by a police car. We have a cop shop 400m down the road from our front door and a double-feature cinema just over the road. R20 gets you two movies.

Filthy Creatures

We drove up into the mountains on our scooters today and spent some time walking up the boulder-strewn river, swimming in the deeper pools, sliding off rocks and jumping off waterfalls. We also happened across some pretty interesting insects. There are two pictures here. One is of a butterfly and some bees which were inexplicably drawn to my slop, where I can only hazard to guess that they were harvesting my toe-jam for honey. Sies! Someone might actually eat that. The other picture is what I like to call "poo with wings", a hideous thumb-sized bug. Fortunately this creature was dead. I hope it didn't reproduce. It's just too ugly.