Trip to Hsinchu

Craig had a quiet week after returning home from sunny Kenting. On Thursday he went for a long walk with Craig's Mum and Dad. Nothing much happened but Craig did spend some time staring at this doll in a revolving display case.


During the walk Craig stopped to play with bubbles being blown by some kids in the open area around Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall.


On Saturday, Craig was once again packed up into the car seat in Great Aunt From the Fifth-Floor's car and this time he was taken to Hsinchu. Once there, they met with Craig's Mum's friend Yating, her husband and their two little children. The eldest, goes to a school with a very long name, National Experimental High School at Hsinchu Science Park. Craig's Mum's friends thought that it would be a good idea to let the kids play at the school and they were right.


The three kids played very happily in the sand giving the adults plenty of time to chat.


Not far away from the sandpit was a huge jungle gym but Craig only used one slide. Recently Craig has begun playing a new game where he hang by his hands. On this day, for the first time that Craig's Dad can remember, his hands slipped and Craig fell. Luckily he fell on the top of the slide and slid down doing little damage. A quick hug and a kiss-it-better and he was fine.


After playing for what seemed like hours, the kids had a break for snacks.


Then, it was back to the sandpit for more fun.


Craig became very amused by the young girl's game of pretending that cups of sand were cups of food especially when it was meant to be chocolate.


It made Craig giggle for ages.


After his giggling fit, Craig bemused everyone by trying to eat some of the sand when he was given a cup! Perhaps he thought it would truly taste like chocolate.


After spending almost all afternoon in the sandpit and on the slides, not long before sunset, the little party set off for a walk around a nearby lake. It was a lovely setting and Craig had a surprising amount of energy, running all the way around.


There's no pictures of the very nice dinner that Craig's Mum's friends paid for and neither is there a picture of a very, very tired Craig falling asleep almost instantly after being strapped into his car seat for the drive home.

Kenting Again Day 3, Day 4 the Trip Home

Craig started Day 3 by playing a game that has recently become something of a favourite.


He also went to the pool but, sadly, no pictures were taken of that event. After lunch Craig was taken to a shady spot on the beach because the sun was still scorching but he was a bit cranky.


He looked tired but Craig's Dad thinks he is also a little bit spoiled and expects to do something different every day. He became very upset when Craig's Dad and Mum tried to get him to kick a ball around on the sand for the third consecutive day!!


So, Craig's parents decided to do something they should have done earlier. The hotel had cheap bike rentals and Craig was piled aboard this dangerous little contraption.


The front wheel was very wobbly and Craig's Dad had to use the brakes constantly when going downhill to stay at a safe speed but they made it to the next beach south of the hotel. Craig was much happier and even tried to smile for the camera!


The rock in the background of this photo is a local landmark.


The ride seemed to make Craig a lot happier and after dinner he relaxed happily watching videos on one of his mobile phones.


Before the trip home on Day 4, Craig was taken down to the pool one last time. This time he seemed to have more fun than he did when he came with just one parent.


Craig insisted on just chasing his ball around in the shallowest pool to start with but after Craig's Dad put the camera away he moved to the slightly deeper kiddies pool in the background (above).


Later, he even allowed Craig's Dad to hold him in water well out of Craig's depth and for just a few seconds, with Craig's Mum behind and Craig's Dad in front, the boy was left floating by himself. The swimsuit purchased for Craig by Aunty Annette performed admirably. Craig's Dad just needs to make sure the air pressure in the front and back are about equal so Craig will float in an upright position better.


After checking out of the hotel, Craig was popped into his car seat for the long drive home. Unfortunately, they had trouble finding a place to stop for lunch. Craig was very hungry when they finally stopped at about three in the afternoon at the Guanmiao Service Center.


Waiting for lunch needed more patience than Craig could muster.


After Craig had finally been fed, he headed downstairs, to a little basement play area. Craig's Dad was pretty surprised to find such a thing in a freeway rest area but maybe Craig's Dad is easily surprised.


Craig was obviously pretty happy to be out of the car and had a good time on this rocking animal.


And there was plenty of fun on this tiny slide too.


There was a couple of other stops made on the way home but the one Craig liked the most was at the Nantou Service Center.


Craig just played on one slide there but he had a really good time. Once again, being out of the car seemed to be the main attraction.


It's good to see the rest areas have been improved so much recently. It made the drive home much more pleasant for Craig than it would otherwise have been.

Kenting Again Day 2

The second day of the trip did not start early but Craig did get a chance to try out one of his many new swimsuits. This one has 1-inch thick panels of floatation materials front and back and is a bit stiff but it has a brand name so it must be good, eh?


Despite the weather being windy it was very warm and just right for the pool, so long as plenty of sunblock had been applied. Craig was well covered, as was Craig's Mum who had once again borrowed Craig's Dad's spare rashie.


Craig never allowed himself to be put in water deep enough to test the flotation of the swimsuit. He was happiest when he could sit in a couple of inches of water rather than stand and he would get very upset if any water splashed in his face!


After another cheap lunch, Craig was on the beach in the afternoon. Craig's Dad forgot to take more than one picture, everyone was having too much fun. Once again Craig refused to go in the water. He cried loudly when his parents tried to play a game in the water that he loved the last time they were on this beach.


But he was pretty tired right after coming back to the room, and was obviously in need of food.


That meant they spent a little more money than they intended to on dinner because they stopped at the very first place they came to on the main street. At least it had seats with a view.


Craig didn't care about that, he was just happy that the place had Craig's favourite food, chips!


Very soon after arriving back in the room Craig was asleep but not before he insisted on putting on his floaties. He likes them because they have Nemo (yes, the clownfish) on them.


While Craig slept a bird make its home for the night out on the balcony but this was the best picture Craig's Dad could get ..... bit sad really. Plus, it was just a very ordinary looking pigeon.

Why Not Go To Kenting Again?

It's not like Craig and his parents haven't been there before but due to a variety of circumstances, Craig's Dad had a few days off work and what better place to spend a few days off than Kenting!

Transport was provided by Craig's Great Aunt From the Fifth Floor or her car to be more precise. The drive down was punctuated by its first stop at Cingshui Service Area. (I don't make the names up folks and I definitely have no influence over the bad English on the Taiwan Area National Freeway Bureau website. Another description can be found here.) Anyway, Craig likes the slide there and Craig's Dad liked the coffee.


Little did Craig know there was hours of driving to go.


There was a small problem on arrival in Kenting, in that, Craig's Dad had underestimated the travelling time. He had estimated eight hours but they had arrived at the hotel just after midday after a little more than six hours!! Plus, Craig had woken up earlier than expected and rather than try to put him back to sleep, Craig's Mum and Dad had started out on the road at 6:00am, half an hour earlier than the original plan. That left them with plenty of time to kill before they could check into their room at 3:00pm. They spent that time eating a cheap 7-11 lunch and then sitting in the shade on the beach.


This sign appears at the end of the tunnel that takes people from the hotel to the beach. Craig's Dad believes that anyone who can only understand Chinese would not be able to understand its warning.


Eventually the check-in time of 3:00pm rolled around and they could get into the room. Craig was immediately dressed for the beach and he and Craig's Dad headed for the sand while Craig's Mum stayed in the room to rest.


On the beach, Craig resisted all attempts to actually go in the water.


Craig was happy to just while away his time using his favourite plastic rake to put sand into his bucket.


The tiny waves were far too big for Craig to go anywhere near them.


He's very cautious about the ocean.

Craig's Mum Thinks He's Just Like His Dad

One quiet Saturday morning, Craig woke up quite early. On this occasion Craig's Mum had woken up even earlier and had left their flat taking her computer with her so she could do some study.

Craig is quite accustomed to this type of situation and on this particular morning he didn't bother leaving the room to go and look for his Mum. Craig's Dad was right there so there was nothing to worry about. Of course, nothing to worry about does not mean that everything was the way Craig wanted it. He wanted someone to play with but Craig's Dad looked like he was asleep.

In the past, whenever Craig was alone at home with Craig's Mum and she pretended to be asleep, Craig would just poke her or hit her gently with his hand, and sometimes not so gently, as he tried to wake her up but he has never been so brave with Craig's Dad. There have already been many times when Craig's Dad has lay down on the sofa closed his eyes straight away and Craig will be heard saying, “Daddy's sleeping.” No hitting, no poking just a little disappointment in the tone of voice.

But, on this morning Craig did something different. He had crawled over the top of his Dad and woken him up. He had seen Craig's Dad's eyes wide open. But, Craig's Dad closed his eyes quickly pretending he had gone back to sleep however, Craig's Dad was in for a surprise! A few seconds after closing his eyes there was the sound of Craig blowing raspberries with his tongue and the feeling of tiny drops of spit landing on his cheek!!

It was the very first time that Craig has displayed any sort of defiance to his Dad.

Perhaps you had to be there but it was actually quite funny. For some reason, Craig's Mum seemed to think this type of behavior made Craig a similar character to his father! It's not clear what she meant.

Later the same day, Craig and Craig's Dad had been out and about playing in a couple of parks near home but it was a stinking hot day. So, Craig's Mum went out and bought some cold drinks. Craig really liked the mango shaved ice drink that is Craig's Dad's long-time favourite.


After looking a bit cranky and hot when he first arrived home, the cold drink improved Craig's mood very quickly.

The Quiet Life

Craig has been living a quiet life for the past week or so. Back on Thursday (May 7), Craig had brunch at LA Cafe where he ate heaps and then went for a walk around inside.


Since he had so much energy Craig's parents thought it would best for him to work some of it off on a nearby jungle gym.


One day later, Craig spent the afternoon at a park....


playing with his cousin Soit-Jade.


On Saturday Craig was at another park with his two cousins again.


Sometimes Craig like to keep a safe distance between himself and Soit-Jade.


On Sunday morning, Craig was at the park nearest home with Craig's Dad.


But, he must have woken up too early that day because he had a very long nap in the late afternoon while Craig's Dad was at work. Then, he stayed awake until after midnight watching football on the TV with his Dad.


Craig is undergoing toilet training at the moment (again) but nappies are still a necessity. Craig was very happy about going shopping on Monday morning because he had been dreadfully bored at home. He surprised the young woman at the cash register by telling her that the elevator next to the register had been repaired in perfect Mandarin.

Craig: 電梯修好了
Sales clerk: 你的國語好標準

After that little exchange Craig insisted on carrying the bag of nappies home.


He stopped for a rest outside of a Buddhist bookshop that has a tiny fishpond out the front. It's really very cute even if the road noise means it is not as peaceful as one might hope.


It had been a very hot walk so Craig had insisted on buying a drink before returning home. He likes yoghurt.


Craig spent Monday afternoon at a new park that has been built next to a not-yet-opened MRT station on the soon-to-be-opened Neihu line.


It had a sandpit! Craig's Mum said the sand was very clean! That's pretty unusual in Taipei.


On the way home in the car Yu-chi tried on Craig's cap!


Then, Soit-Jade joined in the game! It makes you wonder why they needed to wear a cap inside the car......