Lucas kidney ultrasound

Lucas has 'water on the kidneys' which is related to his urinary reflux problem. It's not serious but it needs to be monitored periodically. We went for our scheduled checkup last week and the doc said his kidneys were looking much better. Lucas even seemed to quite enjoy the experience !



Jen-Ai hospital had told us that the severity of reflux on one side was level 4-5 which usually means surgery, but the Chung Shan doctor assured us that it's 'only' 3-4 which has a much lower chance of requiring surgery.

Partial lunar eclipse

A few days ago we had a partial lunar eclipse which I was quite excited about. In the end it was a bit of a let down. I thought that the earth's shadow was going to take a much bigger bite out of the moon than it did.



I am amazed that this shot actually came out. This is what you get with 3x optical zoom and a very steady hand ! The miniscule 'bite' is at the lower right part of the moon in case you were wondering.

Taichung City Gov't Adopts Whisky Slogan

Based on the Chinese meaning I think Mayor Hu is trying to say 'keep moving forward.'

Old photos of Taiwan

Great pictures of Taiwan's yesteryear. I wonder what Internet historians 300 years from now will make of our photoblogs. Thanks Michael for the link.

Bike trail flowers

Like I said, loads of lovely flowers. I'd be bending over some flowers trying to get a shot and I could feel all these eyes gawking at the foreigner as they passed. Some kid yelled out "Frenchman!"



This is where we rented our bikes from. Very cheap. Mine and Jason's bikes came to NT$150. Next up we have a girl on a unicycle who whizzed by at great speed. Then we have a chicken and a lovely red flower - it's that kind of trail. Lastly, a typical road crossing where scooters and cars do not slow down for bikes and bikes only slow down when it's almost too late in many cases. Jocelyn was nearly clobbered by a truck which thankfully stopped in time.

More bike trail pics

Kelly was convinced that there would be battery-powered bikes available as there were in Feng Yuan. Alas, no, so she pushed Lucas in the pushchair while the rest of the gang raced off on their bikes. Jason ended up on the back of Johnny's bike and I kept turning back to see how Kelly and Lucas were doing.

We made it to about the 3km mark and the others got as far as 6km I think. This gave me chance to 'stop and smell the flowers' as it were, and there really were many kinds of flowers along the trail. I spent as much time kneeling next to flowers trying to capture a nice macro shot as I did pedalling along the trail.

 
 

Bike trail trip

Last Sunday we headed out to a bike trail in Tan-dz. It was fun. Overall, I preferred it to the one in Feng Yuan. Lots of rice fields and flowers -just try to ignore the derelict warehouses. One big problem with this trail is that it crosses many roads. The small roads are more dangerous than the main roads because the kids aren't looking out for oncoming scooters and cars. It's better to start this 10km trail at the other side we have since discovered.

 
 

Just testing out the Picasa update

 

You know I think I prefer using the Hello program. It's much faster, although you can't post a title which is a pain. 

Lisa's grandparents

I find old black and white photographs fascinating. Here we have Lisa's grandparents in their wedding garb over half a century ago. Whenever I went to Lisa's house they would always greet me with a polite nod and a smile. It feels a little odd seeing the twenty-something versions of them. What I really want to see though, Lisa, are pictures of your mum and dad when they were in their twenties. I am sure they are highly entertaining !

A shocking banner in the PRC

Found this on Karl's blog (Chewin in the Chung).
If you don't read Chinese, the literal translation is: Hit it out, press it out, 'flow' it out - just don't give birth to it.

banner
By Chaon.

Birding In Taiwan

Birding In Taiwan: " "

Came across this site by accident. Here is an interesting factoid for you that I gleaned from a China Post feature of all places: Taiwan has the second highest number of bird species per square km in the world (Madagascar is number one). Taiwan gets a lot of migratory birds (from Siberia stopping over before heading on down to the Phillipines) but it also has a very high number of endemic species.

Kelly and I always said that when Jason was bigger we'd head out into the hills with the birdwatching group that we joined before he was born. Now we have Lucas so we'll have to push that back a bit. I'll have to make do with the birds in the back garden for the time being. We do get some interesting visitors sometimes. We had a black bulbul once and occasionally we get Himalayan tree pies. From the roof I often see drongos, black-crowned night herons and storks but these are fairly common. Most of the time in the back garden we just get Chinese bulbuls, Japanese wagtails and Japanese white eyes. I can't be 100% sure but I think we may have had a white-browed bush robin one time.

Chocolate fountain

Last week we went to the Splendor Hotel to have 'afternoon tea.' My favourite section was the pasta bar. You point out what kind of pasta you want, what bits and pieces you want to go in it, and the sauce, then they cook it up for you right there. Highly recommended.

Jason camped out next to the chocolate fountain. Perhaps I should have told him what happened to Augustus Gloop in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Chocolate fountain
By Naruwan.

Car stickers

Who would even want these stickers on their car? Beats me.

Car sticker
By Naruwan.

Guitar Camp squat poo poster

This is a poster for guitar camp at Chung Hsing university. I am not sure of the significance of the squatting stick figures. At least it's eye-catching !

Guitar Camp squat poo poster
By Naruwan.

Haircut

Jason gets a NT 90 haircut.

Haircut
By Naruwan.

Black kitten

There are many, many cats in my neighbourhood. Most of them seem to congregate in my back garden at night to defecate, fornicate and screech at one another. And they seem so placid in the daytime - probably worn out.

This kitten isn't going to catch anything unfortunately because just under this particular grate is a wire mesh covering which prevents roaches and rodents from going in and out.

Black kitten waits patiently for its prey to emerge
By Naruwan.

Jason's first day at kindergarten

Jason has started kindergarten at last. At first he was going for the mornings only but after just a few days he was pleading to be able to stay until 4 p.m. His class is supposedly bilingual but of course as with most kindergartens that term means 95% Chinese with the other 5% made up of games like 'hit the English flash card' and singing Ten Little Indians. Still, Jason seems happy to be there and he is proud that he has learned some bopomofo (the Chinese phonetic alphabet used in Taiwan). I believe he'll be able to hit the ground running when he starts at elementary school next year.



Jason loves to do crazy 'smiles' for photos but I asked for 'a nice, normal smile' in this shot. Hmmm, I think I'll stick with crazy next time!

It was twitching

Jason had moved the sofa to retrieve something that had gone underneath and he called me over excitedly to observe some wriggling worm-like creature. I thought it might have been another flatworm or something related to a leech possibly. I scooped it up on the edge of a piece of paper for closer inspection.

Jason then explained that he had in fact whacked a small gecko thinking that it would dash off in time. Well it did indeed dash off but the poor thing left his twitching tail behind. No more tormenting geckos, Jason!

It's one of the things I love about Taiwan

People just dry stuff anywhere they can find a space without fear of it being pilfered or interfered with. My neighbour regularly puts various leaves and grasses out to dry on his car bonnet. I have another pic somewhere in the archives of large black beetles being dried out on a car windscreen.

Out in the countryside you often see edible products being dried right by the roadside. Ugh! Imagining all that dust and pollution it must be exposed to makes me think twice about eating dried local produce. I still eat it anyway half the time. Must be turning Taiwanese.

As an amusing aside, someone in my neighbourhood hangs their embarrassingly large underpants on the metal gate shown here (you can see the edge of it in this picture). I'd take a picture of them but if I were to be spotted taking photos of someone's underpants....no, better not go there.

Black turd sculptures have appeared around the lake...

...at Chung Hsing uni campus. There are four in all (you can see the other two in the background). I'm sure they mean something, or perhaps they are simply aesthetic statements - of what no one is quite sure. Most people are in agreement about one thing though - they look like turds.

You know, even if they looked great, the lake and its surroundings just don't need any sculptures. It's already quite attractive enough. It reminds me of those cakes you see in bakeries here which are overloaded with fruits and decorations that don't belong together. Perhaps the university has too much money and doesn't really know what to do with it.

Heineken green tea

Sounds like a revolting combination but you just never know. I'll try it and report back. Actually we usually go to the tea shop right nextdoor to this one called Original Tea. The prices are slightly higher than at other shops but the teas are really excellent and supposedly all organic.

Bad news: Tesco is leaving Taiwan

Good bye Tesco - it was nice while it lasted:

It seems Tesco only just arrived in Taichung and now they're sodding off. Bastards. Carrefour and Tesco are doing some kind of weird swap deal in which the Carrefour gets Tesco's Taiwan stores and Tesco gets Carrefour's stores in Czech and Slovakia. Kelly is devastated. Jason just hopes they keep the car-trolleys.