Saturday Once Again

Last Saturday Craig was down on the second floor for lunch again. He had a good time playing on a computer with Uncle Guapo.


They played a colouring in game on the computer.


After lunch Craig ate plenty of fruit. There's no one on earth who likes to feed other people fruit more than Craig's Taiwanese Grandma.


Craig seemed willing to sit on his Grandma's lap as long as the food kept coming and Grandma was willing to feed him as long as he sat there. Luckily, Craig is pretty skinny, so being over-fed once or twice isn't very likely to hurt him.


In the afternoon Craig's Mum attended a CPR class run by the city government. Craig and his Dad went along but they stayed in the next room. It was full of kids whose mothers were attending the same class.


The class was organized by the city government for the benefit of spouses of Taiwanese people who come from overseas. The vast majority of such people are wives from China, Vietnam and Indonesia etc. and they are generally thought of as being disadvantaged. Craig's Mum doesn't fit that description but she wanted to do the class.

Craig attracted heaps of attention from the university students who were given the job of taking care of the kids. Several of the female students wanted to take him home.


Dinner was also on the second floor. This time Craig's after-dinner fruit was shared with his cousin Yu-chi.


He also settled down for some drawing while the old people had a chance to chat.


There was even time for some fun and games with Soit-Jade and Yu-chi before finally walking upstairs to go home.

Long Hot Summer

This year in Taipei the summer has been very hot. Fortunately, on one recent scorching day, Craig's Mum took Craig up to the house in the hills where Craig's Taiwanese Grandma lives.


Craig's cousins Soit-Jade and Yu-chi also enjoyed some respite from the heat in the wading pool.


Craig is quite chatty these days. He loves to tell people things that they can see with their own two eyes, such as what he might be doing at any particular moment.


He is also mostly happy when he is playing by himself.


You might have noticed how dry Craig and Soit-Jade's hair is in these pictures.


Neither of them likes getting water on their face. So that makes the arrival of a hose pretty exciting.


One other way Craig has cooled off at home during the recent hot spell has been to take an afternoon bath. In his bath, he has recently begun to insist that he have his kangaroo, koala and dingo. (Toys courtesy of Aunty Anne in Canberra.)


Then, one morning Craig was on his way back home after breakfast when the relatives on the ground floor invited him in for a paddle.


The two boys in the pool splashed water around a bit and when one started throwing water at the car parked next to them Craig giggled himself silly.


This was a great way to stay cool on a really hot day.

A Weekly Round-up (incl. an all-new haircut)

Over the past week or so since the last post Craig has become the owner of new floaties. Although he liked the pair he had, because they had Nemo on them, they continually slipped off his arms. The new ones were exceptionally cheap but they are the right size.


One afternoon, while Craig's Dad was at work, Craig received visitors.


All three visitors are second-cousins who live in the same building.


Craig's Mum said it was a lovely trouble-free afternoon. They all got along very well despite the suggestion made by the look on Craig's face in this picture.


While they were playing, a package arrived with a new t-shirt for Craig. He and Craig's Mum now have look-a-like t-shirts. Craig's Dad has a long-sleeved version.


Craig also tried to play half of a duet on Craig's Mum's keyboard.


But, things sounded more musical when he sat and watched.


On Sunday, Craig had a haircut. A lady who lives upstairs saw him on the stairs and she said it made him look more mature. ;>


Craig spent Sunday afternoon at a local park.


He didn't look like one of the locals before the haircut but now he's radically different.

Shangrila Day 2 and the Journey Home

On Sunday morning Craig went for another walk through the farm. This time he spent some time on a swing with his Mum.


And Craig's Mum gave him a push on a smaller swing.


Naturally, there was time to look at the ducks again!


After packing and preparing to check-out, Craig enjoyed a banana before they set out to take the coast road home.


The first stop they made was at a beach with black sand where a surfing competition was in progress.


They finally stopped for lunch at Jin Sha Wan. There's no pictures of that. The next time the camera came out was at Bai Sha Wan where Craig shared a mango smoothie with Craig's Dad.


Then, it was time to get out on the beach for some beach soccer Craig-style.






Every now and then they had to stop kicking the ball so that Craig's Dad could wipe sand off Craig's sweaty hands!! The boy has become a bit of a fusspot about some things.


As usual, Craig's Dad made several attempts to take a picture of the peaceful atmosphere that overtakes the beach just around sunset. One day he will learn that the atmosphere doesn't make its way into still pictures ..... In the meantime, he can always blame the poor camera.

Shangrila Leisure Farming

Craig's Dad kind of wishes this place had a proper English name because it is a nice little hobby farm/tourist trap ...... without being tremendously attractive. Or, at least, it is better than the English name would suggest without actually being very good. Last year, Craig's Mum's university classmates held their once a year reunion at Flying Cow Ranch. This year, Craig was strapped into his car-seat nice and early ready for the drive to Shangrila Leisure Farming.


Upon arrival, almost the first thing Craig found was the duck pond. Craig liked the ducks a lot and spent plenty of time sitting there watching the ducks swim back and forth.


Other kids that belonged to the group brought food for the ducks most of which was eaten by the fish in the pond.


Craig giggled like a mad thing whenever food was thrown into the pond for the animals.


Then, while the other kids played with some interesting looking shoes, Craig kicked a ball with his Dad.


At lunchtime, all the other kids went inside to eat in air-conditioned comfort but Craig's cost-conscious parents ate a boxed lunch outside. Craig didn't mind at all because he could spend more time looking at the ducks.


But it was very, very hot outside, and it seemed a bit anti-social as well, so Craig's Mum and Dad dragged Craig away from the ducks and went into the dining room and had coffee while everyone else finished their lunch.


Through the dining room windows was a lovely view that featured a couple of big, beautiful spiders.


Craig's Mum must be very good looking because Craig and his parents received an upgrade on their room and Craig's Dad can't think of any other reason why that happened. They were put in Shangrila's version of the Presidential Suite and that cannot be a bad thing. The room featured a lovely little swinging seat.


All the other kids came in to play for a while.


It's a shame Craig's Dad's pictures are so blurred because the kids had a really good time on the seat.


Not long later everyone went for an afternoon walk through the farm (perhaps orchard would be a better description) where Craig decided he had to follow the bigger kids across a log-step thingy. That was a very difficult test of Craig's Mum's balance. She did very well.


One reason to praise Craig's Mum performance was the light rain that was falling at the time that made some of the logs a little bit slippery. After getting off the log-thingy, Craig insisted on holding the big umbrella that Craig's Mum had borrowed from the farm. That left Craig's Mum and Dad with one small folding umbrella while Craig demanded that he be allowed to handle the big umbrella himself. Luckily it was only very light rain.


At least Craig made sure that the umbrella didn't blow away.


And, it did come in handy when Craig stopped for a rest.


Craig's Dad thought the first picture he took of Craig lying down wasn't very good so he moved the big ugly chair out of the way and tried to take a second picture from a better angle. Craig then ruined several efforts to take a nicer photo.


The walk through the drizzle continued with the bigger kids trying out another, much more difficult walk.


It was too difficult for Craig to even think about trying.


Back at the duck pond, Craig insisted on sitting next to the ducks even though the rain had become much heavier.


Craig's parents finally convinced Craig to head back to the room and get out of the rain by bribing him with junk food!!!


Craig and Craig's Mum sat inside while Craig's Dad sat on the balcony to listen to watch the thunderstorm that was outside continue to build up.


The clouds cam down really low before the thunder and lightning started. Craig needed a hug or two when the noise was really loud but otherwise he was fine.