Saturday, and the weather turned out to be still OK, so we decided to go ahead with our planned gathering for at Hank's home on the mountains, Yang Min Shan. Gathering for what? Well its was just a gathering of close friends from work to wish David a sucessful journey to Seattle to continue up his academic ladder. He will be leaving in a couple of weeks time, and we would all miss his cheerful face and sunshine personality! Remember David, don't forget us donkeys at LSC!
The journey to Hanks place (for Chien-yu, Amelie and I) started out at the intersection of Ren-Ai Road and Guang Fu South Road. We waited in the 3pm sun for Gavin and Alex to pick us up. On time Gavin arrived and we got into the car and off we went to get the drinks for the barbeque gathering. We went to a local Carrefour when we surprisingly bumped into the other group of friends who were in charge of getting the food! There we met David (star of the show), Vincent, Mary and Vanessa. From there we set out for Beitou MRT station, where we are meeting the rest of the party. We was running a little late, so Gavin tried out a couple of shortcuts, and we got there before anyone did.
We then made a couple of calls to check where everyone was and discovered that Max and Jack were in a nearby McDonalds enjoying ice-cream to cool themselves in the humid heat. Clever boys indeed! A few moments later, Vincent arrived with Mary, Vanessa and David. But we were still missing Eri (who had the Playstation2) and Penny. I think they were lost, but eventually found the meeting place. From there, we made a call to Hank to let him know we are on our way and told him to start the fire up.
It was quite a journey. Gavin's car lead the way since he had a navigator to Hank's home. We went up high into the mountains, twisting and turning. It took a little while and I started to think that for Hank to travel to work everyday from his home to Nankang Software Park. I think it would at least take two hours every day in the morning to get there! Anyway, after missing a turn, we eventually go there to his little mansion on the mountain side. His house was big, and beautifully decorated with traidional Taiwanese and Thai ornaments. Hank alrady got the fire going, so we started to get the food cooking. The girls went to the kitchen to prepare the hot-pot.
Mary and Vanessa (with Gavin) worked really hard on the hot-pots while the guys were outside barbequing the meat and generally nattered. The girls did a wonderful job with the hot-pot, with a really good salmon fish soup. It was brilliant! All my thanks to Mary and Vanessa, they really made it work!
Amelie had a good time going up and down the steps outside. She was shy as usual, but she got her bearings a little later on into the evening. Chien-yu also enjoyed the food and the general surroudings, with the cleaner air and cooler temperatures. There were a lot of insects, but they didn't really bother us that much. The only bad thing was that Amelie fell with a cold a little later on in the evening and was rather sticky to her mother. Luckily we brought a fleece blanket to keep her warm.
For me, apart from the food, I was really looking forward to the Playstation2 session with the boys. As we went to Hank's second living room (yes, he has two living rooms) to set the machine up, Eri then realised that he had forgotten to bring the audio/video cable. Dammit! And I brought all my games and controllers too for a group battle on Keroro or something!
As the evening progressed, Hank suggested that we should go and take in the night scenary. We all thought, this was a great idea (since this was were we were going to present the cake to David and all). So we all hopped into the cars and followed Hank's SLK (yes he has an SLK too) on a thirty minute journey up more mountain roads, twisting and turning all the way to the top of Yang Min Shan. The journey was worth it, and the scene was fantastic, and I couldn't resist taken a couple of night pictures using the tripod (I'm glad I brought it with me!).
There we presented the cake to David, wishing all the best with a couple of sparklers to light up the dark mountain-side. It was a great evening, and we enjoyed it very much. I think Amelie was impressed with the scenary too, and got curious about the sparklers too! Maybe when she's a little older!
Just want to say thanks to the drivers, Gavin, Vincent and Eri who made it possible to actually get to Hank's home, and to Mary and Vanessa, who prepared the good food for the cavemen sitting outside chatting (that includes me!) and of course Hank for letting us use his great home.
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