Ah Q Tea House

This where my wife and I often go to breakfast on Sunday morning, because it's quiet, quaint and quid-wise. Breakfast costs just 99 NT dollars, which is about 1.5 GBP. This is also the place where my wife and I had one of our first meals after we arrived back in Taiwan.

The building is made of timber and was constructed during the period of Japanese occupation. But as with many old and interesting buildings in Taiwan it's destined to be destroyed, and fall victim to Taiwan's obsession with "modernity". You can see the decor has a lot of character and has a mini-rain forest in the centre; cool! You can see from the calender that Ah Q has been around since at least 1994; big shame to see it go!

Lin Family Home

Today we went to visit a local historic site. For me it's a big shame that more of Taiwan isn't like this. You can see some of the general housing behind in one of the pictures. Still, at least some of the buildings are left behind to remind us of a more romantic period in Taiwan's history.

To the hills

Today we went up into the mountains to breathe some fresh air and take some pictures. I took some with my shitty little pocket camera, but they can give you an idea. Actually the mountain areas stand in stark contrast to city-side Taichung which is crowded, messy and polluted. The mountains tend to be quiet, tidy and clean...nice!

Jalopy gets fixed

Our car getting a blown tyre sorted...

We've been driving this old baby for a year now, and it's done us very well actually. Apart from the occasional problems and the smoke from the tail pipe, overall it's been a very good little car.

No place like home

Just a few pictures of home to give you an idea of what our living room and balcony look like at least.

Another unpaid holiday

I think that it's taken me a year to get used to the idea that when you're asked to take a day-off in Taiwan that means you ain't gonna get paid! Although that's not strictly true because I did get a few days thrown in as a token gesture over the Chinese New Year.

Yesterday was Tomb Sweeping Day, and we drove out to mum's grave to deliver some flowers and say "hi".

There is very long hill on the road out of Taichung and the car could barely make it as the engine is old and tired. But we hope to keep the car running until we leave Taiwan sometime in March next year. Well at least that's the plan.