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.