The Two Faces of January

There is not much time to recover from Christmas and New Year, when its birthday season for me and my daughter.

Birthdays are always an adventure with my daughter. For her 1st we had an aquarium party in Denver and her 2nd was a butterfly party at the butterfly pavilion (also in Denver).  I would have to go through photo albums to recall birthday number 3 and 4.





In Tainan for her 5th, we had a little pottery making party. For her 7th, we had pinata and pizza in the park, and for her 9th, here in Yilan we had a little rock climbing party. (For her 6th and 8th it was finals, so she just brought in treats to her classmates).

A coworker told me about the nearby climbing wall, just a 10 minute drive outside Yilan City, so I thought we could invite her friends there for a climbing activity party.

We bought a cheesecake at Carrefoure and she wanted to decorate it with gum drops and Skittles, which we did with a homemade green frosting.  She wanted pink party hair, so I hit the local Poya bought some pink hair spray and painted her braids.

Gumdrops and Skittles Cheesecake

The Climbing wall is at YOY 歪仔歪攀岩館. The kids enjoyed the climbing wall, but mostly they preferred to wrestle on the thick mats.  For men and children its 100NT to enter even if you are not climbing, women are free. I of course tried to climb. Going up is easy, but coming down, yikes, I'm such a wuss.

We also went to Z's favorite restaurant "Tasty's" for her 9th and for my 40th. Yes I just turned the big four oh my goodness, I can't believe I'm 40 when I feel eternally 25.  My travel buddy Bruno from Italy (we met in Sumatra a few years ago and just kept in touch) returned to Taiwan for another island tour, stopping in Yilan for a few nights. So he joined us for my Tasty's birthday dinner.

Tasty's might think we are scamming them the exra birthday attention haha, twice within the space of 2 weeks, and we were there for our friend AJ's birthday in November. I think that's enough Tasty's for me for the next year.

My Aquarian cup continues to overflow; my Yilan friends took us out for a Japanese hot pot  birthday dinner  at Shabu Shabu. Z got a my little pony which she played with her friend.

Full of hot pot and birthday bliss

As turning 40 is kind of a big deal, I decided to make a special weekend celebration. I took 2 days off and on my birthday flew back to Borneo for 4 days of bliss and adventure...

A Mellow Weekend in Tainan

I had a nice weekend. Sat morning met some old friends at the Mr Potato breakfast shop by my house and met a businessman about a potential investment (no decisions or money exchanged, will explain in another blog.) Morning market shopping w/ Z, my language exchange canceled, skyped home-- a typical Saturday. That evening an acquaintance, my friend's friend and also the parent of one of my former students was having the grand opening of her high end furniture store.  She and her husband are this designer duo and quite successful.

Elven, fairy-like dinnerware.

Saturday night was so cultured, everyone was so sophisticated, well dressed high earners. Grace introduced me to the two Italian gentlemen who were promoting their furniture, leather sofas, filled with down feathers, comfortable and classy.  They were of course impeccably dressed with well tailored suits, tall, very tall, my age, maybe a couple years older The taller and slighter older one was from Pisa, the other and closest to me was from Florence. We talked travel, Berlusconi,  global economics, Taiwan, the food in Korea (they just came from Seoul). I enjoyed their conversation, all that was missing was some Chianti and candle light.

The entertainment was also classy, artsy. Jennifer Johan Wang and her husband Li Zhengfan 李正帆  with their band Indylegonza. He is a very successful, popular sing writer and obviously very in love with his wife, as he played keyboards (among many other instruments some of which I have never seen before) he only had eyes for her. She mostly grow up in SanFran and was very friendly and down to earth, very beautiful face that no mohawk could hide with an exquisite voice. She kindly invited me to her mountain home in Taipei.

Sunday by contrast was lackadaisical. Church in the morning, lunch at a favorite place, a bodyrock workout (Bust it Out), a nap and then headed to the beach around 4. Arrived two minutes later. I brought marshmallows and some wine. The other expat dudes were there with their dogs. A fire was made for the kids to roast marshmallows and for a BBQ. Z was getting grouchy/testy around 7 or so and I had to diplomatically use my wiles to get her to come back home with me. It was mild, no wind, no cold, the fire was perfect. I was in leggings and a sweatshirt/vest, about as beachy unkempt as could be and the polar opposite of last night's high end bash. I appreciate both worlds, 'tho I could easily be a beach bum the rest of my days.

All in all a thoroughly enjoyable, mellow weekend in Tainan.