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Played my last game of ice hockey last night. It was a good one, we won 5-4 and I was a +/- 0, though they did score one while I was on and we were 2-men down. I don’t feel so bad about that. I did have my best chance to score of the season as well, with the puck between the goalie’s legs and about 5 seconds to score I managed 3 whacks at it and it came to nothing. The goalie laughed at me. This gives me 0 goals and 0 assists for the season. The refs gave me a pity assist about half way through the season, but I didn’t deserve it. Still, it was a blast playing in Div 1.

Warren will post a comment soon I promise, but right now his focus is on getting the restaurant open. I'm sure he'll mention his frustrations and experiences, it's been quite a challenge but a great learning experience for his career and for life in general. Tomorrow Warren's best friend Steve and his girlfriend Nicole will be here to visit us from Korea. They are teaching English in Busan and are taking a little break and coming to Taipei. We are excited to have our first guests; we are hoping that many more of you will come visit us during our two years here. On Monday I went to observe a few classes being taught at the school where they offered me a job, to see if I was interested, before signing the one-year contract. It's what they call a "cram" school, which means that the students have gone to school all day in a Taiwanese school and then they go to a night English school. Because they are only in English school twice a week for 2 hours each time, they really do cram their brains with English grammar. I observed two classes and met the staff. Everyone was nice, the programs and the books were good and the kids seemed pretty interested in learning. I thought it would be an easy enough job, no planning, lessons are all there, etc. But that night I didn't sleep. I kept tossing and turning, thinking about the upcoming year teaching there, not making very much money. With all my teaching experience I thought maybe I was cutting myself short. I suppose I kind of rushed into it. So I decided not to take it. Yesterday I started my internet search again. International Schools only have openings for substitute teaching right now, as they do most of their hiring in the winter, spring. However, I sent my resume to a few good looking opportunities for higher paying jobs that have hours that are more similar to what I'm used to. I've got two interviews this week. I will let you know what happens. Keep your fingers crossed for me. That's it for today. Bye and thanks to all those who replied in the comments. We love hearing from you. The pictures should now open properly since we paid a small fee to have more storage space. Love, Sandra

Also, a quick reminder, my band and I will be throwing a first and final gig this Friday after work, we’re hoping everyone in the city will attend. So we’re asking everybody to meet at Dix Brewpub (800 block Beatty St) for a pint after work, then around 6ish we’ll wander across the street to my old work for the big show. I’d recommend that you bring a beer or two for consumption during the music as there won’t be anywhere to buy it when inside the building.

Thanks to everyone who came out on Saturday. I had an absolute blast, and I reckon I can remember at least 85% of the evening. After those Irish car bombs it’s a miracle I have any functioning brain cells. I’d post pics, but that’ll have to wait as we don’t seem to have the cable for our camera here with us.

 

Please post your pics in the comments or email them to me! Remember to keep it family friendly!

For those of you that don’t know, Blondie and I bought a property together a couple of years ago. One of the outstanding issues with the property was an underground oil tank. In the Lower Mainland, each municipality will have its own regulations on exactly what needs to get done — but basically, they DO need to be dealt with if they are out of commission.

We knew that there was a risk that we’d have to budget for, but we chose to wait a little while before initiating the process (there were expenses and time and effort in the first year related to interior renovations and miscellaneous costs of getting house stuff).

We started the process of extracting the thing a few months ago. The oil tank was removed and unfortunately, the soil turned out to be contaminated. So in addition to removing the tank, we needed to get all the contaminated dirt hauled out. Unfortunately, the contaminated dirt lay underneath our deck. So, the deck needed to come down.

Prior to the deck coming down, we needed to move the gas line, as it lay directly underneath the deck.

That has now been taken care of, so we’re now onto the big show.

Here’s the deck before

I’ll update this article with photos as they come in. The photos will be stored in my gallery at The Big Dig, Slanty Edition (2006)

Update
Well, the work has started — excavation complete but will not be fully filled until tomorrow. Please don’t come visit us in the backyard.
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Hi everyone, Last night we checked out our neighborhood night market, it was very fun. We walked along the river, crossed on the pedestrian bridge and got there in 25 minutes. On the way we saw two rats, one huge cockroach and a tiny pet pig tied up to a post outside a convenience store. After that I was all freaked out, watching carefully not to step on anything and I had nightmares about bugs all night. First we checked out the temple. It was a peaceful place with people praying, ornate carvings, important-looking statues and a lot of incense burning. Then we went into the crowded market. It felt like being in a carnival like the stampede or the PNE. The main attraction is definitely the food. There are stalls and stalls of soups, chicken, beef, pork, fruit juices, drinkable jellies, sticky buns with different fillings, fish cakes, noodle dishes and much more. Unfortunately I have now encountered the famous "stinky tofu" that Warren described eating when he first came to Taiwan for his interview. I could smell it from a mile away. It's truly a revolting stench. Large pieces of tofu float in a brown and red bloody broth and it smells like a sewer. Apparently it's delicious, that's why the Taiwanese girl insisted that Warren try it, "you'll love it" she said. NOT! I'll take his word for it. The rest of the market is full of cheap clothes, gadgets, jewelry, games and music. It was a cultural experience and we will come back often I'm sure.

Hello family and friends, Here we are, learning how to manage our first blog webpage. Hope it's not too amateur, I'm sure we'll improve it as we learn more tricks. We have been here almost 3 weeks! We are definitely feeling more established and comfortable in our new home. Our shipment should be here in 3 weeks or so but in the meantime we have everything we need. I (Sandra) have found a job as of 3 days ago. I will be teaching at an English Institute for kids called HESS, it's the most reputable one in the country. My hours are 4:30-8:30 every day of the week and saturday mornings (not sure the hours yet). This leaves me some time during the day to learn mandarin, see Warren (yay!) and maybe do some yoga or some kind of exercise. I start work this week after a couple of days observing and training. Warren has been busy working but has managed to still enjoy some of what Taipei has to offer. We've explored by foot, buses and subways. Tonight we are checking out the night market in our neighbourhood, we want to walk there and see how long it takes us. We've enjoyed just watching people in general. Watching the customs, observing behaviours, seeing the fashions, especially the women, wearing the latest styles and very short shorts and mini skirts. The city is like one giant shopping mall. My favourite is the food vendors outside, especially the fresh fruit ones. They sell cut up fruit or make it into juice. There's guava, delicious mangoes, oranges, pinneaple and all kinds of other fruits i don't recognize. We went to see our first movie. We saw Superman and we entered an empty movie theatre, so we picked seats in the centre. Then it got full and a couple interrupted our conversation to tell us that we had taken their seats. (not in so many words but more with them pointing to a seat number on their tickets) Oh.... sorry, so we moved and found our seats in the right aisle. Little mistakes like that are now a common part of our lives. On the bus I rang the bell to get off at the next stop and the busdriver started yelling at me from accross the bus, I had to respond in English "I don't understand!" and then he opened the door and dropped me off in the middle of the road, with oncoming scooters. Scary!! Warren and I have woken up to 3 beetles in our bathtub (3 separate times) that probably crawled up the drain. We saw a tiny gecko two days ago in the hallway. There are mini ants that hang out in our kitchen, waiting for us to take out anything sweet. They love our cereal, they get right in the box. We must purchase some plastic containers for them. Also on rainy days when we are walking around our neighbourhood, there are tons of snails. I saw about 15 of them once, in the same corner of the sidewalk. Poor Warren stepped on one recently and crunch, a bit unsettling. Well for today this is it. I posted some pictures , check out our album. I suggest that you click on each picture until it gets to its full size, it allows the details to be much clearer and to see the expressions on people's faces more. Enjoy and send us replies!

So today is my last day at work. 5 and a half years, and what to show for it? Some money in the bank and a few good references. Not too shabby really. Last night for my going away we played Halo 2 and drank beers. If that’s not good times I don’t know what is. The only thing I’m taking from my desk is my zen garden and some of Dale’s photos that I stupidly forgot to ship. I’d like to take my extra video card, but I believe in most countries that’s called Theft Under $5000, or something along those lines.
If anybody knows somebody that needs some freelance work done in Ireland, heavy lifting or whatever, you let me know. I find myself now without any income. But to be honest I think I’m going to be astonishly lazy for the next few weeks.