deep in some blissful dream...: October 2005

The Shane School Halloween Show!

Last night I played the part of the dutiful girlfriend, and went along to Martin's school's Halloween Show in Changhua. All the teachers from the Changhua school had to put on a production with their students. I was wholly impressed with some of the students' level of English - little 7 year old King Arthur being my favorite!

It was a long night... but the real fun came right at the end, when I got to watch Martin and the other teachers from the Yuanlin school put on a little dance number of their own... hilarious - both the dance moves and the muck-ups!!

Andy starts off the night with a little music.

I can see clearly now the rain has gone...

Martin, Andre and Pascal compare notes for the judging of the Halloween costumes competition.

Little King Arthur (who stole my heart!).

The other broody moment of my evening came when this little chap (Stanley, the son of one of the Changhua teachers) decided he was going to steal the show and wander all over the stage in the middle of some speeches!

I love the big inflatable pumpkins.

Pascal ("the dance instructor") starts them all off.

Jennie dancing with gusto!

Melody busts some moves as Martin blows his nose in the background.

Andre's not quite sure what to do next...

Well, thank goodness that's over!!

Stray cat services!

Last night, as is often the case these days, Martin and I hung around outside his school discussing dinner.

As we were pondering the ever-frustrating question of where to ruminate at 10pm at night, we saw a gorgeous little street kitten trying to fight with the Shane school dustbin for an evening snack.

Martin - not heeding my cries of "let's take him home and love him" - took the more sensible path and quickly popped off to 7/11 to buy 3 tins of tuna... what a happy little kitty he was then :)

He sees me, and waits.

But the delectable rubbish smells overpower him and he gets in there...

Where is the damn food now then?

Ooops, how did I lose my lid?

Yes! Food!

This is one happy (and soon to be fat) cat.

Martin survives acupuncture!

Last week, after spending hours cleaning and mopping our old apartment (a very manly, macho way to go...), Martin managed to pull a muscle in his back rather badly.

Not quite knowing what to do with my incapacitated boyfriend, I phoned my friend Emily whose father is a well-reputed Chinese doctor in the area. She and her family were wonderful in helping us out, especially considering it was on a Sunday!

She picked us up and drove us over to her house in Huatan where her father got straight down to business. Needles came out and body parts were punctured. OW!!!
This carried on each morning for the rest of the week - and now he's healthy and able-bodied once more. Amazing (not that I'd try it!).

He smiles the smile of someone who knows nothing of what's about to happen...

Aaaand... they're in!

Ooooh so painful!

Worse than getting a tattoo? I don't even want to find out!

Emily's cute dog Harry isn't interested... he's seen this too many times.

After 20 minutes of poking, prodding and pushing... they finally come out!

The medicine cabinet. Mostly full of various dried herbs and plant matter... but there were a few surprises for me when I opened drawers to take a peek - crusty dried scorpians, leeches, earth worms etc... - fancy some herbal tea???

Ooops missed one!

Here are some pictures from a rather long time ago that I somehow missed when I was updating my blog the last time round.

It was in August or September I think... a whole bunch of us from Yuanlin and Changhua headed down to Camy's parents house, just south of Kaohsiung, for the weekend. We had a wonderful time there, enjoying lots of driving around on scooters and finding waterfalls (after hours of searching in the pouring rain! - fun honest!).

Rich enjoys his greasy-fried-bbq-duck-meal-thing.

Stu gets up close and personal.

Stu looking cool in his Chinese rice paddy hat.

Arty shot of tree with some town in Ping-tung county in background.

Tom shows us all his party trick.

Jez takes a closer look....

Whooopeeee... crazy waterfall!!

Another cool watery shot.

Tom and I enjoy a little relaxation in the rapids...

Woah... I'm washed away by the mighty wave.

"I can see right up your shorts from here Tom! - what is that???"

Camy and I enjoy the sun trickling through the trees.

Vrooom... vrooom.... look how fast we can go!

The happy gang eating beef noodles.

Monica's so speedy she needs her big fat red helmet for this one.

Andy shows us how its really done.

We fly the flag of victory!

Hong Kong!

2 weeks ago Taiwan had a public holiday on a Monday (10/10), so Martin and I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to pop over to Hong Kong for a long weekend. We'd been meaning to go ever since March, so it was high time we did.

I had a wonderful time - despite having a bit of a tummy bug the first night we were there. We found the city very relaxing and even managed to stay well away from the shops (which is surprisingly easy when you have no money!!!). We spent most of our time just wandering around enjoying the sights and eating lovely food.

One of the best things about it was that everyone spoke English and if you needed a little taste of Britain there was lots to be found - we spent most of our pennies on Mars bars!!!