Frankie turns 11

& growing up fast.....took her to her favorite shabu shabu at Parkview hotel across the street from us..

Ed & Kukui who now live next door came over for birthday cake and tea.....

Beauty and the beast

well, not quite. Met coach Yang's beautiful daughter who is a top Taiwanese player and also a coach to some top local juniors. We got hammered by two teenage girls with killer backhands.....

It was a hot day with temp over 30c, you can see I was soaked after just one set. I played four sets, won two and lost two, not bad. I don't play clay court enough and there are plenty of them in Taiwan, kinda fun slipping and sliding all over the place.

Kaohsiung take two

This weekend I am back to Kaohsiung with my tennis friends attending an ATP professional tournament, and also playing friendly games with some local club players.























stopped at a local restaurant.....

Saw some top players from all over the world, but not inside the world's top 100....still very high calibre tennis.......

we saw the men's single final and double final......

We also played with some local players......and met coach Yang's beautiful daughter, a top local player and also a coach to some top juniors in the city...

Kaohsiung take one

Two weekends ago, I went to the Toastmasters spring conference in Kaohsiung with a few friends.

E da is a newly constructed community, with hospital, schools and university, just outside of the city of Kaohsiung.

The theme, design and color are all similar to the Venetian.

School field trip to Tamsui, Taiwan.

Last week, we went along with Frankie's school field trip to Tamsui (Dansui), because I have never been there.

Tamsui was the gateway to Taiwan and a busy port in the early days for foreigners, and this historic site was an excellent evidence.




All of grade five went with teachers and some parents, a big crowd but well behaved.

It was built by the Spaniards, who lost control to the Dutch and eventually taken over by the English during the Victorian era as evidenced in this video...

Next to this historic site sits a university campus, which has been evolved from the original Oxford college pioneered by the Mackay family.

Later on, we took a short ferry ride across the Tamsui river to Bali, where we visited a museum with the kids.

Visitors from Victoria, Canada.

Dr Pan and family visited Taiwan recently, and we took the kids to 101 tower in Taipei....Grant speaks perfect Mandarin while Preston speaks ok, not bad for a couple of CBCs.....

Ed's 40th!

A little late posting this, it was Ed's 40th birthday.....

We celebrated with fireworks of course.....