A Long Name

Aussie animals are not much understood in Taiwan. So, it's a good thing that various friends and relatives have supplied toy animals to help Craig and Graham become acquainted with the native fauna Down Under.

However, if you were only two and a half years old, and Mandarin was very much your first language, you might have trouble pronouncing something as long as "kookaburra". Nevertheless, Graham gave it a good go.

Playing With Cousins

Once upon a time, there was a beautiful warm winter's day in Taipei. By chance, an outing had been planned for Craig and Graham. They began at a brand new park next to a new residential area not far from, but not very near, home.

The park had slides ....... and not much else.

Craig insisted on sliding with Graham. No individual sliding was permitted.

So they soon moved on to the house in the hills where their cousins Soit-Jade and Yu-chi live. The weather was too beautiful to stay inside so everyone headed for a tiny park at the bottom of the street.

There ensued a fearsome soccer game.

The pace was so hot that soon only children were playing while adults sat aside.

At times, Craig didn't concentrate on the game.

So, Mum took his place temporarily.

There was a brief attempt to throw the soccer ball through a basketball hoop.....

without success.

The "park" is actually just a slab of concrete about the size of half a basketball court, with a few stone chairs and tables just out of shot. It's not impressive but the size of some of the houses in the little community is worthy of mention. There's some people living very comfortably in there.

The soccer game re-started with Craig and Yu-chi taking on Soit-Jade.

The battle between the two bigger kids was contested with plenty of the right spirit.

However, Graham was not impressed by any of the goings-on and lay down in the middle of the pitch.

After lunch at the big house the kids were taken to a riverside park far from home. It's directly across the Keelung River from Wudu Railway Station.

The steel slides were very warm to touch but the kids didin't seem to mind.

It was very warm out in the sun and Craig looked quite strange with his hood pulled up.

This swing didn't move a lot but the kids still liked it.

There was a variety of games to play.

Craig also did some climbing.

The temperature had continued to rise throughout the day. The kids needed to drink plenty of water.

Then the soccer started again with the same two against one arrangement. This photo shows Craig not tracking back to defend.

He's much better with the ball at his feet.

But, Soit-Jade was almost always up to the task of defending her goal.

Graham surprised his Mum by trying to climb over the "goal". The ball had gone out of play for a moment, as can be seen in the background.

This phot shows the ball rebounding off Yu-chi's post while Craig pays no attention to helping his teammate defend, again.

Uncle Guapo then arrived.

At the same time, an elderly gentleman began flying a kite. It looked really lovely against the uninterrupted blue sky.

There was junk food to share in Uncle Guapo's car.

Before more soccer was played at a park right across from Nangang Railway Station.

Graham had decided a late afternoon nap was needed.

He woke up to join in some brief sight seeing in Nangang Station.

There is a rather odd piece of public art in a small plaza up on top of the station. The kids liked it, for about 5 minutes.

Aunty Suprana & Uncle Dean Visit

Imagine cutting short a trip to the beautiful beaches of Thailand just so you could visit bleak, dreary mid-winter Taipei. Despite being in just exactly that predicament, Aunty Suprana and Uncle Dean seemed quite happy during a recent whirlwind tour.

Just going for a post-brunch walk was fun.

Craig and Graham were happy to tag along, so long as there were waffles and ice cream.

Food for the boys gave the sisters a chance to engage in some girls talk.

One evening was set aside for a buffet dinner with the wider family. Craig, Graham and the visitors travelled by MRT.

At dinner Graham was very quick to forget about the visitors so he could sit on the lap of his favourite aunt, Aunty Jessie (aka Yu-fang).

Craig almost certainly prefers Aunty Suprana but he loves ice cream even more. The buffet had plenty of really nice ice cream in half a dozen flavours. There was a lot for a boy to do before the visitors flew away the next morning.

Update:
Some photos were found on Mum's phone that were too good to leave off the blog.

During a long walk, a stop was made next to a fountain outside of a housing development for rich people. Graham posed for a photo with Aunty Suprana.

 While Dad and Uncle Dean had a chat. This is the only decent photo of Uncle Dean from the visit.

Craig then needed to get into the action but he put his hand in front of his face for the first photo.

 So, a second photo was taken to keep everyone happy.

Craig's First Swimming Lesson

Most posts on this blog are somewhat time-delayed. They often appear days after the events depicted have occurred. For a change we have something that happened earlier today--Craig's first proper swimming lesson.

The lesson was one-on-one with a very experienced coach for one hour.

The coach had a large variety of little games to play to help Craig learn to breathe, how to kick and use his arms. Future lessons will take place once a week.

P.S. The first two photos were taken with the flash turned off so as to not disturb the lesson. However, the colours looked so strange that a third photo with the flash turned on was taken and the colours in it look much more like the real thing.  :D

Climbing and Receiving Attention

Craig received a little wooden train set from Ikea a few months back. He plays with it occasionally but he tends to build a track with decorations and then leave it on the floor in the play room until one of his parents packs it up. This was one of his more elaborate creations.

On Saturday afternoons Craig can now normally be found up a tree.

It's the same tree every time so he's quite good at finding a comfortable spot to observe the world from a different perspective.

The staff at this place love the boys.

There's always some special attention for the two little blokes especially from the female members of staff.

Craig and Graham get looked after very well.

Graham gets to play freely with things like wind chimes that other kids are told to be careful with.

And, he is looked after by someone wherever he goes. He doesn't seem to mind at all either.

Playing by himself at a nearby park is not as much fun.

On a recent Saturday, after dessert at a fast food store next to the park Craig and Graham started climbing around in the tiny play area. He tends to do climb higher than the local kids.

One mum of another child in the play area was visibly shocked by how fast Craig climbed onto the little roof.

The woman said that Craig could climb so well because he's a "foreigner"! Craig's Dad needed to exercise a bit of self-control. He didn't ask what she would think if she knew he was born in Taipei to a Taiwanese mum.

Craig and Graham didn't care about any of that nonsense. They were too busy having fun.