TAIWAN - Week Three

On Sunday, we met Diego and his girlfriend Rema for lunch at the Green Olive (the same place we had lunch last Sunday). As we were walking down the laneway to the restaurant, I noticed a church - not too common in Tainan. Tammy says it's probably for the students, since we were very close to the university.

 

 

 

The food was great again! Nikki slept but woke up in time to watch her Mommy finish her spaghetti. It was hilarious - as Tammy would lift the fork to her mouth, Nikki's eyes followed every movement and you could almost see her salivating!!! Tammy was laughing so hard, she could hardly finish!

So good, I almost forgot to take a picture!

Bern sharing salad and conversation with Diego

Rema (she's from Mongolia) and Diego

Peaceful sleep

No losing weight this trip!

She's awake....

Watching every bite from the plate to Mommy's mouth!

LOL!!!!

THE RUBBER DUCKY CAPER!

Our Taiwan adventure continued when Tammy mentioned that we might be interested in going to Kaohsiung (about 40 miles away - where the airport is) to see the world-famous giant Rubber Ducky! I'd never heard of it but apparently it's been all over the world and we were excited to see it in Kaohsiung Harbor. Well, some of us were excited!

Artist Florentijn Hofman views the Duck as a lovable global ambassador. "The Rubber Duck knows no frontiers, it doesn't discriminate people and doesn't have a political connotation. The friendly, floating Rubber Duck has healing properties: it can relieve mondial tensions as well as define them. The rubber duck is soft, friendly and suitable for all ages!"

We didn't get close enough to find out about its "healing properties", but it sure was fun to look at. Nikki slept through the entire trip! But, we took pictures for her!

This picture courtesy of Google

This picture courtesy of Google

Some of our pictures:

On the long walk from the parking lot to the harbor.

...and there it was!

No room in the bathtub for that rubber ducky!



You were there!!

Of course, there were vendors everywhere selling Rubber Ducky souveniers of every shape and size. I couldn't help but try to capture some of it with my camera.

Tammy made reservations for supper at the Outback Steakhouse, and after cooling off in a very high-end department store for awhile, we walked and walked and walked back to the bridge across the river to the restaurant and were looking forward to a wonderful steak dinner.

Bern and I ordered the New York strip steak dinner and Brent and Tammy had Filet Mignon (we should have had that, too). Our steaks tasted good but there was so much fat and gristle that Bern couldn't eat his at all. I plowed my way through mine as best I could. Brent and Tammy were upset because they wanted to treat us to an expensive meal. Everything else was good and they didn't charge us for Bern's steak.

Getting out of the city to go back to Tainan was a nightmare! I think everybody in Taiwan visited the Rubber Ducky that day! Plus, there were several accidents on the highway, so it took us quite a long time to get home. We had to keep texting James to tell him we were on our way - we had planned to Skype around 10:00, but didn't even get home until 11:00! We were so tired from all the walking we'd done that we weren't very good company, I'm afraid. But, Brent and Nikki entertained them with dancing and singing!

Nikki, who had slept the entire day and evening, was raring to go! After Nikki's nice warm bubble bath, Brent spread out a blanket on the floor, and Nikki started CRAWLING!!!! Everything finally worked together and she took off! We could hardly believe our eyes! Then, she just sat up and stayed up! Clever girl!

 

I took a video of this momentous event, but the file is too big to upload here.

Brent took Monday and Tuesday off work. When Tammy got home after work Monday afternoon, Brent and Diego went over to Costco and came back with fresh California peaches. We, and Diego thought it would be a wonderful idea to make him a peach pie for his birthday next week instead of making a cake. The peaches were a little still a little firm, so we let them ripen for a couple of days. We had a quiet couple of days - we needed it after all the walking we did on Sunday - and just enjoyed time with Brent, Tammy and Nikki. Here are some more pictures of Nikki and her newfound skills - she can get herself into a sitting position and has started pulling herself up on anything that's in her way!

She's playing on the beautiful quilt made by my friend, Shirley.

The quilt depicts Canadian holidays and events - it's so pretty!

On Monday, we went out for supper at a little pizza place, and, determined to get a good steak, ordered steak instead of pizza! It was more of a sandwich sized steak, but good. The place was really nice, and one of the co-owners is a guy from England who played soccer with Brent.

On Tuesday night, my wonderful daughter-in-law cooked another awesome meal for us - don't worry, I'm getting the recipes. This one was shrimp wraps and fried rice. She cuts the shrimp in small pieces and cooks them with diced potato, onion, lots of pepper and uses lettuce leaves as wrapping - it was so, so good! She also made fried rice from scratch. She's good!

On Wednesday, Tammy and I made a peach pie for Diego's birthday next week. We were planning to freeze it, but it looked so good that Tammy said there was no way we weren't eating it - and got Dad behind her (which didn't take much persuading!) Before she had a chance to tell Brent our decision, he phoned to say he was picking up ice cream on the way home from work to eat with the pie!! Great minds and all that, huh? I made supper - thinly sliced chicken breast strips cooked with onions and peppers - on sandwich buns with sliced tomatoes and lettuce. Simple, but good.

Tammy posted the following on facebook: "Time flies. Nikki is 6 months old! She has great achievements this week. She can sit up on her own, crawl forward and stand up when holding onto furniture."

Too cute for words!!!

Thursday, I had to make another pie! This one went right into the freezer for Diego's birthday. Bern made spaghetti sauce for supper - he didn't have all his usual ingredients - of course, but it turned out really good anyway.

Tammy told us that her sister, brother-in-law, little nephew and her mother are coming down from Taipei next Friday to see us - they also want to see the Rubber Ducky. Baby Evan and Nikki had fun together the last time they were together - they're much bigger and more mobile now, though, so we'll see! They will all stay here overnight - mother and sister will sleep on a rollout mattress in Brent's man cave and brother-in-law will sleep on the couch. It's only for one night, so I'm sure we'll be fine.

Friday morning, Brent had a class (one person) from 8:30-10:30. Nikki slept through almost the whole thing, but got up with a happy smile on her face, as usual. We had a quiet day. Brent home in the morning, Tammy in the afternoon. She made us another awesome supper: chicken, roasted potatoes, mushrooms and corn-on-the-cob. Spicy and good!

I'm going to post this now because it looks like today is going to be a busy one. Students in and out - Tammy's got one this morning at 9:30 and Brent's got three students coming in at noon - the three that were here for the pie making lesson last week. Today, he wants Bern and me to play Scrabble with them, so they will get more comfortable speaking in English while engaged in another activity. He's a very good teacher. Then, later on tonight Brent and Tammy are having some friends over to play board games - should be fun. Not everybody speaks English, so it's kind of challenging.

Anyway, we have one more week here. Can hardly believe how fast the time has gone. Every time I pick up the baby, I'm holding her closer and kissing her more because I won't see her again for some time. But, enough of that....celebrate the half-full glass, right?