Yang Mei, Near Hsin Chu

Well with no internet (wireless or cabled), I have decided to use the best backup, Wordpad to blog and when I get back to Taipei, I'll do the good old C&P (that's copy and paste).

Its scorching hot with a blistering 34 degrees C, and we don't have air-conditioning in the main sitting area of the old Lin family house, in Yang Mei, near Hsin Chu. So I have tried to put myself in the only room with air-conditioning as often as I can without offending the in-laws. I mean, I don't mind the heat, as long there is nice servings of cool drinks of some kind. But no, its good serving of hot tea. That's really going to cool me down, not. I was so parched.

On the good side, I have the great opportunity to taste good old Hakka style cooking, courtesy of Grandma Lin. It really resembles my dad's cooking, who is also of Hakka origin. Cuisine-wise, it certainly was nostalgic. But there is a side effect. Hakka cooking tend to involve a lot of soy sauce, and tends to be on the salty side. Well, thats all right, if we had plenty of cool drinks to...oh, wait a minute...hmm.

We walked to the Lin family grave. It was up a on a small hill-side, just viewable from the family where we are staying. It was quite a walk but we got there. We couldn't get near the grave though because the grass has overgrown onto the smal pathway. Though we did managed to climb up on some rocks and took a couple of pictures. Did I mention I was thirsty? I think I must have been to pee twice for the whole day.

Amelie is kind of having fun, seeing a bit of green scenary and all that. There used to be some nice rice paddy fields, but because of the heat of the Summer, its all dried up a little, well not a little, it dried up a lot, with the mud cracking and all. Its hot, and I need a drink. Did I mention I was thirsty? I could really do with a bottle of ice-cold cola right now. "Why don't you just go get some?" you might ask. I'd love to, but considering there is no 7-11 or Family Mart nearby (just fields and green grass) and I don't have a car, it difficult to locate and buy some sweet cold dark nectar they call Coca Cola. Hell, I'd even settle for Fanta. Anything to quench the thirst.

Also, we also caught those moments in which Amelie was dancing, crying and throwing a tantrum all in one shot! Usually when we get the video camera out, she would stop whatever she was doing and start to take an interest in the camera and try to take it away from us.

Chien-yu tried the wireless on Sunday morning and surprisingly, she found something somewhere which we could connect to the internet wirelessly! Obviously the signal is quite weak, and we only managed to get a wireless "b" connection (that's 10Mbps), its better than nothing! How wonderful it is to return to civilisation!

We woke up at 8:30am, an ungodly hour for Sunday morning, but it was difficult to stay asleep with the morning sunshine beaming down on our faces. Amelie was still asleep, which gave me some time to blog. We should be on our way back now to civilisation a little later this afternoon. Not sure whether the father-in-law is taking us anywhere, but it would be a nice surprise if he did. I'll let you know a little later when we get back into Taipei. We'd probably get questioned by the mother-in-law as to how the weekend went, asking the question "did any find Amelie cute?" (I hate it when she asks this question, does it matter? Stupid superficial hag) and whether there is any new gossip on my father-in-laws other wives. Its like we've been sent on a reconnisance mission. Damn!

Surprisingly, her Dad actually took us somewhere! We went to a local temple to do a little praying. I even asked te Gods would life be good for my family with regards to money, and the Gods replied "70% chance of happening". Gee, its University all over again, 70% for a 1st class pass! Though it did make me feel a little better knowing that the Gods ain't messing me around for a laugh...or maybe they are?

Anyway, there was a small park nearby, so we went there to take some picture and take in the scenery. Chien-yu was holding Amelie on the stone fence, looking at the fish in the lake. Amelie was having a lot of fun, saying "Fish! Fish!" out loud (yes she starting to learn more words now!) and pointing at the fish in the lake. After a moment, Chien-yu lifted her off the stone fence when Amelie's shoe came off and fell into the lake. Luckily there were some helpful kids, who found a big stick for me to use. I climbed down to the rocky side and held onto the side of the stone fence, fishing for the fallen shoe. What a spectacle! Luckily we got the shoe back (albeit a little green because of the water in the lake) and continued on our walk around the park. It was rather hot though, so we made our walk as quickly as possible.