So today was a really pleasant day weather wise. I decided yesterday that I wanted to try riding to Sitou if it was nice so I jumped my bike and headed for the mountains. Sitou is meant to be stunningly beautiful, maybe more so than Sun Moon Lake. It is also in the mountains which meant I had to struggle up the mountain on my bike which really isn't ideal for mountain riding. I made it to Lugu which is stunning in itself with spectacular mountainside views of the county. Lugu is about 1/2 way between JhuShan and Sitou and I realised that while I could have made it to Sitou I wouldn't have had any energy left to explore so I gave Sitou up for another day and just enjoyed the little mountainous town of Lugu.
No real luck on the car front but it's ok it's still early days.
I finally got around to baking cookies today. I decided to do anzac cookies though I don't think I've ever made them before. The results were not perfect. They thinned and spread more than I was expecting so the first batch of four (which is all my oven could handle at one time) burnt. After that they got better but the truth is they are still stupidly thin and they don't taste right. I think it is the ingredient substitutes I had to make, the brown sugar that I used didn't taste as I was expecting and using honey instead of golden syrup didn't really work either. Still the kids at school are sure to eat them and once my body's sugar level goes down I'll try a cookie that isn't actually burnt and see how that tastes.
All that aside there isn't a whole lot going on.
I'll get around to posting pictures eventually, I have some from the Halloween thing we did at school and some from today including photos of my poor baking attempts.
But now I'm tired, it's been a long day.
Oh I found a great little spring near by that I could totally swim in. It's at the bottom of the mountains and it runs for ages. I know people fish in there and I saw a frog there as well. Plus I don't have to wear a stupid little cap like I do at the swimming pool. Seriously what is so terrible about letting people have their hair in water....
Anyway I've done the exercise thing and the domestic thing today so now it's time to unwind with a movie or two before going to bed.
Showing posts with label Cycling. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cycling. Show all posts
Monday, December 1, 2008
Sunday, October 12, 2008
More misadventures in and out of JhuShan Town
So once again I decided to forgo the lure of bigger cities to spend this weekend in JhuShan. I got a very romaticized idea of riding into the mountains early Sunday morning to watch the sunrise. The plan was to go to bed early Saturday night and then get up at 2.30 and jump on a bike and start the journey topside. There were a few hitches, firstly the whole going to bed early thing didn't take. I was in bed around 8pm, but after an hour of tossing and turning I decided to get up and muck around for a bit longer. I finally crawled back into bed at 12.30...still early by my standards but cosidering the early start not nearly early enough. The second problem was that I wasn't sure how to get back to the path I discovered last week, however it turns out my navigation skills are better than I thought and I found it quite quickly. I left on schedule and everything was going great actually it was going too good. I got higher a lot faster than I expected although my body cried for rest and quite a few parts of the ascent was done pushing the bike as the gradient was too steep for my sleep deprived body.
I ended up resting in a spot for about 30 minutes. It wasn't a particularly beautiful spot plus it was still very much night so there wasn't much to see anyway. For a while it was quite nice...then my arachnophobia got the better of me and the idea of sitting in a forest type area for another 2 or so hours waiting for the sun to rise became a lot less appealing. I started moving up again but the woods got denser and the street lights became more spaced out. Finally the sighting of a snake made me doubt my ability to stay there for too long and I decided that the sunrise would be just as nice down near my apartment. The descent was a lot quicker than the ascent. Stupidly quick in fact despite the fact I spent half the time using my brakes just to slow down a bit. While the bike was more of a liability on the way up I was glad of it on the way down. After making it back to the main road I enjoyed the quiet of the night and decided to keep exploring (though this time I stuck to flatter roads).
I ended up riding south out of JhuShan and even made it into a different county (Yunlin county) I also got chased by two dogs not once but twice. I spent a good hour or so just riding around. Just after 5 I got back to the 'welcome to JhuShan' sign and decided to stop there to watch the sunrise. Unfortunately the cloud cover was such that there really wasn't much of a sunrise (good thing I didn't stay in the mountains I would have been totally annoyed). I decided to grab some breakfast on my way home. JhuShan started coming alive just before 6am.
After about 30 minutes of watching people start their day I headed to McDonalds in search of a mcmuffin only to be side tracked by their hot cakes. Now normally I am anti-McDs but in Taiwan it is totally different. Firstly there is a lot of oil in most Taiwan food so McD's in not necessarily the uber-unhealthy choice as it is in Australia. Also they have pictures of their food which makes it easy to order food without having to speak chinese. Plus this was my first time in a McDs in Taiwan so I don't feel so bad. Their hot cakes were great and for some reason they serve them with sausage as well....odd but nice seperated. They also gave me an English newspaper to read while I was eating.
So anyway I finally made it back to the apartment and was too wired to sleep so I ended up watching the 2nd US presidential election debate, which put me in a nice coma so I headed to bed for an hours nap.
I had nothing planned for the afternoon so I just grabbed the guitar and was strumming away when my phone went off. It was a number I wasn't familiar with but with nothing to lose I answered it.
It turned out to be the sister of one of my students who is going to be sitting her GEPT next Saturday and was looking for someone to help her practice. As I had nothing better to do I helped her out via phone and then went to meet up...amazingly enough she chose McDs as the meetup lol twice in one day!
The girl was good, her sentence problem is a problem and I have doubts about her ability to pass although hopefully she will get through. I've arranged to meet her as many times this week as possible and we're also gonna use her brother as a gopher to do written work.
I'm excited to have a project outside of school, I hear often of foreign teachers getting approached to do tutoring work but due to the fact I look local I didn't really expect to be given that chance.
So yeah it's been an interesting day.
I ended up resting in a spot for about 30 minutes. It wasn't a particularly beautiful spot plus it was still very much night so there wasn't much to see anyway. For a while it was quite nice...then my arachnophobia got the better of me and the idea of sitting in a forest type area for another 2 or so hours waiting for the sun to rise became a lot less appealing. I started moving up again but the woods got denser and the street lights became more spaced out. Finally the sighting of a snake made me doubt my ability to stay there for too long and I decided that the sunrise would be just as nice down near my apartment. The descent was a lot quicker than the ascent. Stupidly quick in fact despite the fact I spent half the time using my brakes just to slow down a bit. While the bike was more of a liability on the way up I was glad of it on the way down. After making it back to the main road I enjoyed the quiet of the night and decided to keep exploring (though this time I stuck to flatter roads).
I ended up riding south out of JhuShan and even made it into a different county (Yunlin county) I also got chased by two dogs not once but twice. I spent a good hour or so just riding around. Just after 5 I got back to the 'welcome to JhuShan' sign and decided to stop there to watch the sunrise. Unfortunately the cloud cover was such that there really wasn't much of a sunrise (good thing I didn't stay in the mountains I would have been totally annoyed). I decided to grab some breakfast on my way home. JhuShan started coming alive just before 6am.
After about 30 minutes of watching people start their day I headed to McDonalds in search of a mcmuffin only to be side tracked by their hot cakes. Now normally I am anti-McDs but in Taiwan it is totally different. Firstly there is a lot of oil in most Taiwan food so McD's in not necessarily the uber-unhealthy choice as it is in Australia. Also they have pictures of their food which makes it easy to order food without having to speak chinese. Plus this was my first time in a McDs in Taiwan so I don't feel so bad. Their hot cakes were great and for some reason they serve them with sausage as well....odd but nice seperated. They also gave me an English newspaper to read while I was eating.
So anyway I finally made it back to the apartment and was too wired to sleep so I ended up watching the 2nd US presidential election debate, which put me in a nice coma so I headed to bed for an hours nap.
I had nothing planned for the afternoon so I just grabbed the guitar and was strumming away when my phone went off. It was a number I wasn't familiar with but with nothing to lose I answered it.
It turned out to be the sister of one of my students who is going to be sitting her GEPT next Saturday and was looking for someone to help her practice. As I had nothing better to do I helped her out via phone and then went to meet up...amazingly enough she chose McDs as the meetup lol twice in one day!
The girl was good, her sentence problem is a problem and I have doubts about her ability to pass although hopefully she will get through. I've arranged to meet her as many times this week as possible and we're also gonna use her brother as a gopher to do written work.
I'm excited to have a project outside of school, I hear often of foreign teachers getting approached to do tutoring work but due to the fact I look local I didn't really expect to be given that chance.
So yeah it's been an interesting day.
Monday, October 6, 2008
Hijinks in JhuShan
So I ended up spending my weekend in JhuShan however I didn't stay cooped up all day. After spending a good couple of hours catching up on news and stuff Sunday morning I decided I'd had enough of being inside and I wanted to go for a swim. I heard thunder in the distance but as I knew there was no typhoon this week I figured I'd risk it, after all Melbourne has thunderstorms too so it couldn't be that bad...right.
So I went downstairs and there was a few spits, grabbed my bike a few more, made it out the gate it started to drizzle, about 10 metres from there the rain droplets got bigger, by the time I was a block away I my entire front was soaked and as I was passing a long shelter I decided to just stop there and wait it out. Yes I could have just admitted defeat and gone home but dammit I didn't want to. Unfortunate the thunderstorm was still not overhead. So I waited. It seems the Gods were bring the pool to me. Yes the irony wasn't lost on me and at one stage I wondered how crazy I would seem if I just stripped down to my bathing suit and rode around....I fought that urge however.
Next to the shelter I was standing under was a supermarket, unfortunately the shelter didn't go straight to the supermarket leaving a short but significant run needed if I wanted to take shelter in the supermarket instead. I opted to stay with my shelter. The rain got heavier and heavier to the point where it was just a huge blanket of water, the wind was slight at first, just enough to help the droplets form little clusters as they travelled down the street. I took my ipod out at one stage and it just randomly selected some india song by the John Butler Trio. The moment was almost perfect, the beauty and movement of the rain blended perfectly with the stylings of JBT. Then the rain became torrential. The wind picked up and small plants got blown over and the shelter become less sheltering as the wind blew the falling rain somewhat horizontally. My ipod went away as I found myself getting wetter and wetter despite being under shelter.
Eventually the rain slowed down enough for me to escape that shelter and make for a different shelter (this time an electrical/computer store) where I waited out the storm in the warmth and comfort of the store.
After the storm passed my desire to go swimming was just not there. So instead I decided to just ride around exploring non-central JhuShan. I found myself heading towards the mountains. The area was beautiful (I have no pictures because i didn't venture out with my camera that day). I started on an uphill ascent, nothing too steep. After a while my body was hurting, I wasn't expecting to be doing any major riding that day so I didn't bring any water. I decided to head back towards town and try again another day when I was more prepared. Thankfully the ride back was all downhill (although it made me realise if I do go riding there again I'm gonna need a helmet as the downhill speed can get crazy). So then I just travelled around more, I found a cycleway but it was flooded from the recent storm. Then I came across the main street which lead back into central JhuShan. It was quite cool. I think the mountains will make a great day or so riding at least, I can't wait to try them again.
Today I got inspired to do some baking. The inspiration has passed but not before I hit the shops in search of what I needed. The idea I had was Anzac biscuits...simple right. Apparently not so. Trying to find the ingredients was a challenge. While most things are cheaper here than at home there are things that are a lot more expensive. Things such as honey, butter and most of all cheese are just things that you can get (sort of) but the quality and price are well less than desirable. The cheese they have here is the processed cheese slices crap and for that you have to shell out at least $8AUD. Gormet cheese just doesn't exist here. Butter is slightly better although just as expensive.
So after getting most of the ingredients I needed I headed home only to realised I'd forgotten to find the rolled oats. So much for cooking. Not that it matters as the likelihood of me attempting to cook anything tonight was slim to none anyway as it is nightmarket night and after missing out last week due to the typhoon I'm definitely going and getting me a steak tonight.
Ok almost garbage time, gotta run.
So I went downstairs and there was a few spits, grabbed my bike a few more, made it out the gate it started to drizzle, about 10 metres from there the rain droplets got bigger, by the time I was a block away I my entire front was soaked and as I was passing a long shelter I decided to just stop there and wait it out. Yes I could have just admitted defeat and gone home but dammit I didn't want to. Unfortunate the thunderstorm was still not overhead. So I waited. It seems the Gods were bring the pool to me. Yes the irony wasn't lost on me and at one stage I wondered how crazy I would seem if I just stripped down to my bathing suit and rode around....I fought that urge however.
Next to the shelter I was standing under was a supermarket, unfortunately the shelter didn't go straight to the supermarket leaving a short but significant run needed if I wanted to take shelter in the supermarket instead. I opted to stay with my shelter. The rain got heavier and heavier to the point where it was just a huge blanket of water, the wind was slight at first, just enough to help the droplets form little clusters as they travelled down the street. I took my ipod out at one stage and it just randomly selected some india song by the John Butler Trio. The moment was almost perfect, the beauty and movement of the rain blended perfectly with the stylings of JBT. Then the rain became torrential. The wind picked up and small plants got blown over and the shelter become less sheltering as the wind blew the falling rain somewhat horizontally. My ipod went away as I found myself getting wetter and wetter despite being under shelter.
Eventually the rain slowed down enough for me to escape that shelter and make for a different shelter (this time an electrical/computer store) where I waited out the storm in the warmth and comfort of the store.
After the storm passed my desire to go swimming was just not there. So instead I decided to just ride around exploring non-central JhuShan. I found myself heading towards the mountains. The area was beautiful (I have no pictures because i didn't venture out with my camera that day). I started on an uphill ascent, nothing too steep. After a while my body was hurting, I wasn't expecting to be doing any major riding that day so I didn't bring any water. I decided to head back towards town and try again another day when I was more prepared. Thankfully the ride back was all downhill (although it made me realise if I do go riding there again I'm gonna need a helmet as the downhill speed can get crazy). So then I just travelled around more, I found a cycleway but it was flooded from the recent storm. Then I came across the main street which lead back into central JhuShan. It was quite cool. I think the mountains will make a great day or so riding at least, I can't wait to try them again.
Today I got inspired to do some baking. The inspiration has passed but not before I hit the shops in search of what I needed. The idea I had was Anzac biscuits...simple right. Apparently not so. Trying to find the ingredients was a challenge. While most things are cheaper here than at home there are things that are a lot more expensive. Things such as honey, butter and most of all cheese are just things that you can get (sort of) but the quality and price are well less than desirable. The cheese they have here is the processed cheese slices crap and for that you have to shell out at least $8AUD. Gormet cheese just doesn't exist here. Butter is slightly better although just as expensive.
So after getting most of the ingredients I needed I headed home only to realised I'd forgotten to find the rolled oats. So much for cooking. Not that it matters as the likelihood of me attempting to cook anything tonight was slim to none anyway as it is nightmarket night and after missing out last week due to the typhoon I'm definitely going and getting me a steak tonight.
Ok almost garbage time, gotta run.
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