Like a good veggie burger, we need a little catch-up here. Get it? Hmmmm.....um, ok. Moving on.
Camera died....laboured over a new one, finally picked it up in Taipei. So far its splendid - Panasonic Lumix FZ100.
So here is some catch-upy stuff....
Christmas/New Year squid being prepared on the grill...skewered, not diced, please.
New Years spent at home, from our balcony we could see the festivities the city put on right down the street. Bands, folks with speeches, and a whack load of fireworks that shook our house. Pretty neat, overall. Then on the Saturday we biked to Taroko Gorge again, hung out in TienShiang for the night, then biked home Sunday. Camera actually died three pictures into that trip, so we have no proof. Just trust us.
Ok, this needs to be a book-length analysis on its own, but ill spare you the details and sum up the bulk of it with "Taiwan publishers like to make weird, sometimes elaborate, school stuff". Rarely can you buy a regular notebook. Nope. You need to get said regular notebook with a English-Chinese mixed statement on it, something along the lines of "Love - it is the dish of a cat that milk spills. You freedom. Cheer!" or "Can you breath when. Make tomorrow Diamond love." ... I could go on. Perfectly improper and wrong English phrases that always deal with love, bling and money. Its horrendous. So, imagine the glee that my fatigued eyes allowed me to see when I came across these notebooks: quirky, yet absolutely funny. The best thing Tofu has given us in decades is none other than...."Tofu Rock!"
East meets west meets...steamed snails on the left, popcorn on the right! A New Years festive treat for all (except, um, those of us who don't really go for the steamed snails...)
New Years eve as seen from our third floor porch. This area is usually empty save for a few cars and a few people hanging out by the fountain. But this night, it swelled to immense proportions. This is the back of the crowd - to the left of this pic the people get thicker and thicker and there is a huge stage worthy of a mega rock show. Good times - people of all ages, listening to music of all genres, together. Nobody hurt, robbed, anything. People deal with crowds here better, somehow....
The last photo....part way along our January 1 2011 journey to Taroko Gorge National Park our camera died. We buried it under the banana trees, said a goodbye and laid a stone on top of it with the words "thanks for being there all these years" on top of it*. Then we continued up through the astoundingly amazingly unbelievably wonderful Taroko Gorge....slowly and peacefully. *Um...the truth is I tried to do everything, save CPR, to get it to work again and didn't let up for the next five days. Finally we gave up, and bought a new child....camera...a new camera. HAPPY NEW YEAR!
