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Happy New Year everyone.  Thanks for tuning to a long overdue blog update. 

The first news is that I am starting a new job as the Restaurant Chef for a restaurant in the ACC (The American Club in China, Taipei Chapter).  The club is undergoing massive renovations of their food and beverage outlets, with new kitchens and new restaurants.  I will be the chef for their biggest restaurant called Zigi's, which is  meditteranean themed with an open kitchen.  The Executive Chef of the ACC used to be the Executive Sous Chef for the Savoy Hotel in London.  It's a very well established club in Taipei having been there for over 50 years and is much better run than the last place I was working so I have a little more faith in my job security.  I will be starting my job on Jan. 22 for a two year contract - sorry guys it's keeping us in Taiwan a little longer than originally planned.

   Another new development is that we've moved.  We're now living in a very cool neighborhood with lots of great shopping and restaurants.  The new pad is a large rooftop apartment with two patios.  We're very happy with our new home.  There is a beautiful view of the nearby mountains.

one of our patios

a nearby park - a river is right behind it

the view from our apartment

 a ginger bread making party in our new place with some of our South African and Canadian friends....

and some of our Taiwanese friends

For Christmas some of Sandra's family came to visit us.  Sandra's Uncle Arturo lives in southern Taiwan where he is a Jesuit missionary, Aunt Ligia from Toronto, and her son, Ivan, and his wife, Kate who live in Malaysia.  We spent three days in Taipei with them showing them the city, then Arturo drove us in the parish van down to Tainan where we enjoyed a catholic mass in chinese on christmas eve.   

Chen Kai Shek Memorial Park, Dec. 22

on the steps of Chang Kai Shek Memmorial Hall - Sandra, Me, Ivan, Kate, and Arturo

Christmas Eve at Arturo's parish

 Christmas Day we went to an amazing Buddhist University. 

Christmas Day exploring the Buddist University

Ivan and Kate surrounded by a few of the 10,000 Buddha statues

The next two days Sandra's uncle drove us all around southern Taiwan, taking us to an aboriginal park, and for a very traditional Taiwanese meal in the country side.  It was a very different way to spend christmas and we all loved it.

Aboriginal dancers

the ladies really enjoyed this show - men in loin cloths throwing canoes in the air. 

an aboriginal village

Taiwanese instructions on what to do if your car is stopped on the train tracks

We took the train back to Taipei - Taiwan has a great network of trains all over the island so it is easy to get just about anywhere by train.

On New Year's Eve we joined the 300,000 people who flocked to see the fireworks shoot off of the tallest building in the world - Taipei 101.  Luckily one of our friends lives on the top floor of an apartment very close to 101 and there was a big party of the roof. 

New Years Eve with the bright city behind us

The first moments of 2007

Having had family here for Christmas was a rare treat and we're feeling a little sad and homesick since they left.  On the whole we're adjusting quite well to life in Taiwan though.   We're over the initial culture shock, and we're taking chinese classes which will help alot.  

Well that's about it for now, sorry for being so lazy and not updating the page for so long.  Keep in touch everyone and please give us some news about what's going on with you.  We wish you all the best in 2007

Love Warren and Sandra

Well the latest kid popped out at 6:20 this morning. Markus McDiarmid was 9 lbs 2 oz and I was surprised it only took 20 minutes for SlantyWife to push him out considering how big he was. We got home at noon and I have put some quick pics together. Now we are in survival sleep mode. The rest of the images can be found at my pbase account in this folder.

We all know that there are quite a few situations in medicine that get people’s goat. Abortion, euthanasia & end of life directives, P vs P delivery of health care, and giving needles and/or drugs to addicts are only some of the most emotional. Many of these issues have even came up in dinner conversations back at the old anti-slanty on Wednesday night get-togethers. However, I never even thought of this situation occuring even though I have had to take several courses on medico-legal-ethics for my degree (tangentially very interesting since they were taught by former judges and practising bioethicists). Incredible ramifications and of course, no right answer any way you look at it. After reading, I am inclined to think that it is the right thing to do, but then I think wow, that is such a slippery slope.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year one and all! I’m now into day 2 of my hangover, so the jury’s still out on what 2007 is going to be like.

Also, for you doubters out there, Wolf has indeed arrived, and has been drinking like a champion. There must be something in the water here. Whiskey maybe.

I’ll post something introspective later.  Maybe.  But for now, hope you’ve tied one on (if appropriate) and are recovering adequately.

PS: Slanty has been down a lot lately.  (Heh, nothing new there.)  I’m looking into it.  We’ve been slammed by comment spam, and I think its related.  Wonder if some bots picked up on the SlantyBard’s post on Slashdot and followed him home…

PPS: If you have hardware that you’re looking to get rid of, Slanty could use anything 1 gigahertz and up as new hardware.