Season's greetings from Hualien!

December is a hectic month here in Hualien, as we attend X'mas parties, Birthday parties, concerts, recitals, and many dinners in between.
Here are some videos from some of our activities:

President Richard singing...

Kukui singing...

Martina, music professor at Dunghwa university...

the party girls...

more party girls...

party girls continue....

Celebrating two birthdays: mine and Vivian, who is English professor at TCU, we were born on the same day, different years of course. After dinner, we had cakes at EK's house, our next door neighbour.

Toastmasters at TCU

Recently, we (Hualien Toastmasters) were invited by Tsu Chi University to host a presentation on Toastmasters for their faculty and students. It was well received, thanks to all the help I got from fellow Toastmasters. We were invited back to do a live demo meeting and that went very well also, although I personally missed it due to my travels.
HTC is also invited to be relocated to TCU which is awesome as our club is expanding with many young students showing interests.

Here are some pictures from the presentation at TCU:

the event......

the host.....

the beautiful (our VPE Gabi)......

the venue......

the supporting crew of HTC....

Ed & Kukui from Las Vegas chatting with students....

our president Richard Lee (2nd from left) & Pomelo (1st left) & Frankie (3rd from left)

October fest

Here are some videos depicting life in Hualien during October, sorry, no beer.

Lala is growing up quickly, she is now seven months old, and very familiar with her surroundings. She is 90% toilet trained, meaning that she can hold her excretions overnight and during the day. We take her outside in the morning and in the evening where she lets it go, and no more mess inside the house. Good job lala!

Sometimes I take her to the beach which is only 5 minutes from our house, and she loves it. She is a good runner and I can hardly keep up.....

In this video, she demonstrates how she conducts her business in the wild......

Lala loves the beach but is afraid of the water. The waves scare her. Animal instinct I guess.....

And speaking of waste, Taiwan has a great trash collecting system. Five nights a week, a garbage truck comes to the house and picks up garbage and kitchen waste which goes to feed the pigs. Twice in a week, the recycling truck comes along and picks up all recyclables. In Canada, we store our garbage in our house and the pick up is once a week or twice a week in some neighbourhoods. The first time I heard the garbage truck, I thought it was an ice cream vendor! I said to Frankie, lets get some ice cream, then found out the recorded serenade was broadcasted from the truck to alert the neighbourhood of garbage time.

A new 5 star hotel opened in Hualien recently, and serves very good dim sum. Here we were checking out the spa and outdoor pool on a windy day. All you can eat dim sum is about $12US per person, which is excellent comparing to prices in Canada.

Although eating out is reasonable, Frankie and I love the food at guess where? yes, 7/11! In Taiwan, 7/11 has almost everything, including hot lunch and dinners. I had "ma por tofu" with rice and Frankie had fishballs soup, and the bill comes to $3US. Spend like a pauper and dine like a prince!

A weekend in Yuli

Yuli is about two hours drive from Hualien city, a very pretty small town which we visited last weekend with friends.

Yuli is known for its hot springs.......but the next two videos show an underground spring which is a cool spring. The water is so clear and clean, it is potable.

We also visited a beautiful waterfall.....

What is a trip without a feast? Never in Taiwan. We had a great lunch at a local restaurant...

On the way back, we stopped at a beach hotel and had afternoon tea. A typhoon is brushing past the east coast and we sure feel its velocity...

So much more to explore on this island of paradise! Until next time.......

Beacon Hill tennis gang

Its been a glorious two months in Victoria, and awesome tennis at the hill, Beacon hill that is. I started playing at BH in 1979, but played very little from 1986 to 2009, due to various reasons. Unfortunately, I left Victoria in July 2009, and only returned the following summer and played a bit. Now, two years later, I played almost everyday and made a lot of new friends. But, its time to leave, I will cherish the warm memories of such fine folks in Victoria. Looking forward to seeing you all next summer.
Here are some photos taken by Steve, which I downloaded from the BH facebook webpage. 

more Canadian summer.......

Canada day at a local neighbourhood block party......

Frankie picked these blueberries from a local farm.....

the farm

on the road again, visiting up island. Vancouver island is about the size of Formosa, but with only 1% of the population!

First stop is Chemainus, a quaint little logging town with rich history of Canadian past...

known for its beautiful murals depicting scenes from yesteryears...

parents, don't leave your kids by themselves!!!

Frankie in front of the B&B we stay at.

enchanted garden is the name.

Frankie petting a pussy cat in the veranda.

a happy camper!

more scenes at the murals...

with temperature warming up to 28C, its time to head for the beach, Parksville has a spectacular beach with miles of fine sand at low tide.....

Frankie and I checking out the tidal pool.

miles and miles of sandy beaches...

Frankie digging clams with her bare hands.

one clam at the time....

within minutes, we have enough clams for a small lunch.

speaking of lunch, some people eat to live, we live to eat.....

and drink.....

yum yum.....however, we miss the food in Taiwan. I miss the fresh fruits and veggies, the daily morning visits to the local market, the boys nite out and karaoke, the foot massages, the daily tennis.....

after lunch, we went to an amusement park nearby, with Frankie at the helm of a bumpa boat equipped with a squirt gun.

nice park for the whole family.

and a lone spectator.

evening with friends after dinner.

Next day, we went to Cumberland, a small mining town with a rich past. At one time, it had the largest Chinese population north of San Francisco. Robert Dunsmuir, a Scottish coal baron hired thousands of Chinese coolies to work in the mines; yes, cheap labour. Picture above was taken at the KMT headquarter in Cumberland. Notice it says "CNL" which stands for Chinese National league. In the 1920s, KMT was known as CNL due to the fact that it was the only political party in China, before Mao's uprising with his Communist party in the 1930s.

The facade of CNL now sits in front of the museum.

some artifacts left behind by the bygone era....

One last stop is Mt Washington, a winter wonderland but also open during the summer for biking and hiking. We took the chair lift up to the top of the mountain at about 5000 feet elavation, and what a spectacular view! Its been thirty years since I skiied at these mountains, brings back a lot of memories.....

still some snow left from the winter......

Well, leaving for Taiwan in three days, I do miss the heat, friends, tennis, morning hikes and workouts....