Season's greetings!

Frankie was picked to represent her school in a province wide English competition, and she did not dissappoint. She came in third, behind kids of higher grades.

Therefore, we celebrated by taking her to our favorite hotel restaurant across the street, for some dim sum.... Taiwan does not celebrate X'mas, but this year, X'mas happens to fall on a weekend, therefore, we had a holiday. Frankie was in a school play......

Then we went to a local noodle shop downtown.....

Check out this bowl of noodles.........

Our new house is finally ready after months of interior decorating. We will be moving in just before New year. I'll have all the videos posted soon.

The Asian games

in Guanzhou this year, and I am there with Jimmy.

National anthem of China, just before the gold medal game between China and Korea, women's field hockey. China won in the shootout after tied 0-0 in overtime.

The main stadium.....

The entrance.......

In Dongguan, I'm staying at Dongtien garden, a very nice resort community and the price is right......

Visitors in October

Well, we had a busy October, with my brother Sam and his wife Irene visiting from Canada...

We visited Taroko national park, and by the grace of God, they left the morning on Oct 21, just a few hours before the landslide at Suhua highway which claimed the lives of 26 people......

Then my school mates from forty years ago, sixteen of them arrived and visited for two days

It was our 40th reunion.

Small city, big service.......

In a small town such as Hualien, which is similar in size and population as Victoria, I did not expect anything exceptional in the service and hospitality industry.
I was wrong.

Toyota dealership

Our Toyota dealer is simply awesome, something the Cdn dealers can learn and improve on. Here, they truly treat each customer as if he/she was the only customer.

In Canada, a simple oil change takes a whole day. You drop off the car in the morning, and pick it up in the afternoon. Well, we all know an oil change only takes a few minutes to do, why a whole day? In Hualien, when we book an appointment at 9am, they do the oil change at 9am! We have a coffee in their lounge, read a book, or surf the net, and car is ready in less than an hour, fully washed and touched up with paint, at the cost of an oil change. Now that is customer service.

Parkview Hotel

We've been in Hualien over a year now, but never patronized the Parkview Hotel, Hualien's 5 star resort. That is because local folks always say that it is too expensive. Well, I guess an all you can eat buffet lunch for $10 Cdn is a lot of money for most local folks because a take out lunch is only $2, but for us Canadians, that is a steal!

Also, for $10 Cdn, there is an all you can eat dim sum, served all day. And guess what? It is the best dim sum, unlike the two other hotels we tried before. We have given up hope that we could get some decent Cantonese style food here.......

Not just Cantonese, but Hong Kong style! All these just across from our new house.

Stella Marie Catholic school

In many ways, Frankie's school here in Hualien reminds me much of my old Catholic school in HK. Today, Frankie came in second in English composition, a competition which usually won by kids in higher grades. I guess its a bit of cheating, but when I think about it, being a native English speaker does not necessarily mean that you can write well. And Frankie writes very well, in Chinese also now. She injects some humour into her writing, which really stands out among the Chinese kids, because most Chinese kids write seriously, if not stoically.

Today is sports day at the school, and we attended. Nicely organized, and a beautiful day.

Here the kids sang the school song, and the National anthem......

The whole school works out to music.......

Here is Frankie running her leg of the relay. She is a good runner! What makes the relay special is that everyone in the class runs. Therefore, it is very exciting to watch as the lead changes all the time as some of the faster runners can make up lost ground in a hurry. It is also good for the kids because traditionally, only the best get picked to be in sports. Here, everyone participates.

As soon as the last race was over, it began to rain....lucky.

Clam bake

I love clams, especially the fresh clams here in Hualien.
No sand, easy to cook, no fat, high protein and low cholesterol.

One pound of clams costs about $3 cdn, and I usually buy 2 lbs, which makes a wonderful lunch by itself. I also love observing them while alive, as they are quite active when bathed in sea water, and can stay alive for quite a while before cooking them.

I have not seen this type of clams in Canada, as most clams in Canada are smaller, and usually quite sandy.

There are also local snails, or escargots if you will. But I don't know how to cook them.....

Typhoon Fanapi

9/17
Calm before the storm. Typhoon Fanapi should land in Hualien in 24 hours and we took the break to have a BBQ party......

9/19

Fanapi landed here at 8:40am local time, and the wind speed was 220km an hour. That is the takeoff speed of a 747!

Wind and rain died down considerably after the landing, but continues to be unstable for at least a day or two.........

9/20 The day after

Fanapi has left the island and currently landing at the China southcoast. I took my usual morning jog up to Meilun mountain but the debris was everywhere......quite a destruction. I guess this is the nature's way of recycling.....

Hualien being on the east coast had the strongest wind but little damage overall as the storm moves inland quickly. Most damages occur in the central and southern part of Taiwan as always, as the mountains trap the moisture and produce heavy heavy rainfall even after the storm has passed. I'm looking to play tennis today if the courts are not littered with fallen debris.....

Taiwan's president has mobilized its troops, over 20000 of them to aid during and after the storm. Most of them are in the south where mass flooding is taking place. Here in Hualien, the soldiers have been out cleaning up debris all day, and by late afternoon, it is hardly noticeable that a major storm landed 24 hours ago. My hat off to President Ma..........

Mission impossible: a new challenge

Friend of a friend has heard about my weight loss success, and has asked if he could get some help for his daughter. Ya Ping is 25 years old, and has been fighting obesity most of her life. She currently weighs a whopping 180 lbs, and wants to lose 60 lbs.

Whew!

That is a challenge for sure.

She is a very pretty girl, and upon losing 60 lbs, she could be a model. I hope that prospect is enough to drive her to reach her goal. I am glad to help, offering support along the way....

The fact that she had the courage to wear a bathing suit for our "before" and "after" file, shows great determination and committment. Lets wish her success......