September 16, 2010
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Nature Break Part I
It's getting late, the night before dragon boat festival, and I'm pulling an all-nighter. No, Joanne was not with me, and no I was not playing the field. Football Manager was on the computer, I had 2 bottles of Volvic, tons of snacks, chocolate, cookies, crisps, the works. With Joanne planning to spend the free day with her family, I was ready to get Exeter in to the top half of the premier league in the first season having been promoted from the Championship.
The opening game against Spurs was going well, taking the lead on 18 minutes, when the phone rings.
"Baby, what are you doing?"
"Not much - playing football manager."
"My dad invited you along tomorrow - you want to come?"
Hmmm.... there goes the plan to play FM until the sun rises.
"Sure," I enthused. After all, getting to know the future outlaws is pretty important, especially if i can't really communicate with them so well. "What time are we meeting?"
"Can you be here at 7.30?"
"Are you having a laugh?"
"Ok, 8."
"Are you having a laugh?"
Apparently she was not. Ok... what shall I wear?
"Smart casual. No shorts." Given that it was going to be a hot one the day after, I was not looking forward to that!
It was half time in the FM game, and City was hanging on to that one-goal margin, the pressure of the opening day home fixture obviously getting to my players. I gave my half time talk, chilling them out, reminding them the pressure was on Spurs, and got the 2nd half underway. The talk worked a treat as Spurs were clearly out of ideas in the second half, and 1-0 the final score, a great result for the Grecians. HAHAHAHA SPURS!
So I saved the game, brushed the teeth, and headed to bed for a few hours. Then realised that I should perhaps set my alarm, and did so. The kittens did not understand this one - first they thought I was going to be up all night, then all of a sudden, I am in bed. Grace jumped on the bed and snuggled in next to me. Ginge jumped on Grace, and the respite was over.
I was woken up way too early, not by the kittens, but by the alarm that I set, so I got up, dreary eyed, went to the espresso machine, made my latte, checked the mails, showered, and got dressed, the effects of the caffeine now starting to kick in. Bus to the MRT, MRT to Qi Zhiang, bus out to Joanne's place, Rob arriving just as Joanne's old man did with his car. Timing was perfect.
The first plan for the day was to head over to the hospice, where Joanne's grandfather was, to say hello to this frail man hanging on to life. I am glad I met him, but sad that it was in such a location. A man who had such a healthy appetite for life reduced to spending his final days in a bed. Joanne told him we were getting married, provoking no reaction whatsoever. After the short visit, we were going to head out to Pinglin, but we were hungry, so I suggested going to Shenkung to see Mr Chen. Joanne's mother had never been to this town, despite it being only 5km from where she lives. Immediately she blamed Joanne's father for not taking her.
After yet another awesome lunch, we piled in to the Explorer and drove the few km to Pinglin via the windy mountain roads. It was hot and humid, and the plan was to go for a hike along the river, which sounded good to me. Except I was not wearing shorts, and I was sweating inside my trousers. Not so pleasant. The path along the river was narrow but not too steep, so the walk was excellent. We saw loads of fish in the crystal clear water, all profiting from the NO FISHING signs posted all over the place, and bugs and butterflies, fungi, flowers, spiders. Awesome. Then we come around a corner and Rob spies a stick insect. Class! Never seen one of those before, well not in the wild anyway, and so I was happy to watch. Joanne's father though is not happy to watch, and picks it up... just leave the damn thing in peace! Jizzus...
We had a good hour of walking up, and then got to the tarmac road that would lead us back to the car, and so we started to head back. After a few minutes a bus came along, so Joanne, and her old girl got in, whilst Rob decided to continue walking, spotting something in the cliff as he said bye bye! A huge snail. Sweet.
Having taken a photo, I continued walking, and one minute later there was Joanne with her parents, the bus needing to go around a corner only before dropping them off.
We decided then to go to another place, so I said on the way can we stop off to buy me some shorts? We headed in to the town, I found a pair that fit and looked relatively decent, and so changed out of my long pants. That's better! We were looking for a coffee shop that her old man knew, but when we found it, it was closed, so we went somewhere else, out close to Rueifang, stopping on the way to take a photo of Taiwan's national bird (which I always thought was the Yuhina) - the Blue Magpie.
With an excellent view of the Taipei 101 AND the ocean around Keelung AND Jiofen, the 2nd destination was simply stunning. We parked the car and walked up to the top of the hill, where we were treated to the clear air of the day, relatively speaking of course, and took photos. Joanne's parents had spotted some flowers on the way up and wanted to take photos on the way down, both of them getting out of the car to take close ups, whilst Joanne and I stayed inside the nice air-conditioned motor.
Now it was getting time for some dinner so we went to one of her old man's favourite places, heading back down the mountain towards Shenkung once more. There was a garden with a pond, and the sound of frogs, so of course I had to go look. Despite being eaten alive by mosquitoes I enjoyed it, mainly because I found one frog/toad in a pot, croaking away (until I saw him) so I got a good snap of him, and went inside to eat. The food was not too bad, but by now Joanne was getting tired, as was I, so we were quite happy when we all headed back to the car and I got dropped off at the MRT station as we all said our goodbyes.
I got home, resumed the FM and lost away to Newcastle.
