Countdown From Vienna Garden

Well, in typical Clark fashion, the last two weeks in our apartment at Vienna Garden was jam packed with friends and fun...

On Tuesday, May 25 the Torch Church Mother's Group came over for one last farewell feast at our place. I love these women... they have been so loving, accepting and generous to us in these three years we've been at Torch Church. Though many of us can't really communicate deeply with words, we can convey our hearts with smiles and hugs... this was a morning with lots of both and a few tears too.

Enze Jie and Shirley - oh, you've got to love their smiles!!!

and of course Helena loves Taiwanese ah-yi's because they let her play with their stuff... their pretty stuff that mama doesn't let her play with... their purse stuff that mama doesn't actually carry around...

I will miss these ladies and this group... they have demonstrated that God's love transcends culture and language!

Thursday, May 27- was the Playgroup Farewell at our place (see other entry)

Saturday, May 29 - Tony was feeling the crunch to keep working on his theology assignments so the kids and I met up with some friends for a play at Happy Bear and a delicious dim sum lunch... poor ole Tony missed out!

Lily and Cynthia

Gerald and Hannah almost hiding out in the ball pit...

I don't know if Hunter landed on Helena's head, but these kids have really loved tumbling at Happy Bear and the perks of playing in the playground! We'll have to see about getting a trampoline once we get settled in NZ!

Sunday, May 30 - after a great (almos)t last service at church and a birthday party for Michael, we headed over to the Residence for Tony's NZCIO farewell...

Though she battled through a back surgery, Sandra made it through her language study and was also getting ready to move on...

Tony has learned a lot working with Michelle and we've enjoyed her family's hospitality.

So after a full weekend of socializing and packing/planning, Tony went back to work on Monday and we continued to enjoy the remainder of our time in our community. Tuesday, June 1 - Hunter's final photo shoot with Annie (see April and May - Good Times in Taipei). 

Wednesday, June 2 - our long time friend Julie came over to introduce us to dear sweet Charlotte... Helena is getting a bit better with babies, but still - we're always very watchful! It was so nice to meet her and say farewell one-on-one for a bit.

After a bunch of packing, etc... Cynthia came over for a last hoorah with Hilo! It was also our last meal at our favorite dumpling shop... boy, we'll miss those (and Hilo too)!

Thursday, June 3 - the big move/pack (see "Out to Sea")...

On Saturday, June 5, after an action-packed week with all the move stuff (not to mention Tony's work), we had the chance to actually go out - the two of us - with hundreds of other Aussies and Kiwi's for a riverboat dinner cruise! It was a blast to be out of the house together... with some other folks we haven't had a chance to hang out with for a while.

And what a treat - Suzanne and I got to hang out WITHOUT KIDS!!! Phew... in reality, it was still too loud to really hear each other, but at least we didn't have to holler "Stop" "Come back here!" "Get off your sister"...

My neighbor and friend Reema is about to relocate to another country too, but she hadn't ever been on the MRT!!! Well, I wasn't going to let her leave Taipei without experiencing some that aspect of it... so on Monday, June 7 when Ashee got out of school we met at Taipei City Hall Station and rode on two MRT trains to our destination - lunch at TGIFriday's! As Ashee descended on the escalator onto the MRT platform she kept looking around saying "it's just so beautiful, mommy"... I was wondering why we hadn't done this before... but it was fun. I hope they settle in well in their new city - I'll miss them.

Then this was it... Tuesday, June 8 - Tony's last day at work - our last day in our apartment at 92 Song Gao Road! We met up with Suzanne and Michael for a play at the Mitsukoshi playground... I have really appreciated these guys - I will miss our spontaneous and planned play dates.

We also stopped by our market to say good-bye and get our last fill of good fruit. The market ladies are so generous they gave Helena a new hat (thankfully, not this one... you'll notice her bright pink Doremon cap in other entries and they gave me one too!!! Wow - really they are so generous!)

And then... we met up at Tony's work in the evening for the very last farewell at his office... then came home to finalize our stuff before moving out of our beloved apartment. We honestly weren't really thinking straight when we kept out so much of our guff from the ship... all this stuff had to fit into Anna's place and somehow has to get to NZ via airfreight... YIKES! Farewell, Vienna... we've enjoyed living here so much!

April and May - Good Times in Taipei

Although we had to keep some time set aside for Tony's theology paper he was working on, the weeks/weekends leading up to our leaving became very full with social visits, good food and of course, good-byes...

We had seen Andy, Celia and Benny shortly before he turned one... but we met up for the last time for a spontaneous Chili's dinner 3 April... Benny is such a cutie!

 "House-warming Party"

 

 Wayne and Ivy and Yichi go way back to our roots in Taipei... Tony went to ICLP w/Wayne, Ivy was my first Chinese teacher at the Chinese Cultural University... we each hit it off and eventually the two of them really hit it off and got married earlier in the year while we were away in NZ (thus no post of their special wedding banquet). Well, they had recently moved into their own place so we brought them a little memento of the Clarks - one of the plants that we had in our home during the Christmas party when they met!!! Odd house-warming gift, but we thought it appropriate. We had fun catching up and the kids had fun at the park and though we thought this was the final farewell, Tony ended up seeing Wayne's chiropractor and I spent some time with Ivy's Chinese Medicine doctor so we managed to squeeze in a couple more visits! And Yichi came over another time for a farewell hug with the kids! Thanks you guys for making helping us out at the beginning and end of our experience in Taipei - we've appreciated your friendship.

Happy Birthday, Hannah!

On May 12th, Little Hannah Lee had her 1st birthday at My Kid's Island... what a fun way to spend a rainy Saturday!!! What a precious girl and special friends...

I joined a club!!!

Let me set the scene - occasionally over the past few years we'd be passing by the Neo 19 building and we'd see a bunch of people dressed in workout clothes - stretching and doing aerobics outside the Nike shop. Well, thanks to Tone Tone I discovered that it was the Nike Running Club and since I was looking for something to do in the evenings while Tony was studying, I decided to join!!!

The Club met Tuesday and Thursday nights at 8pm to stretch (with a trainer) then we'd be let loose on the streets of Taipei to run around Sun Yat Sen - 2 times = 5km, 3 times = 7km... they were pretty loose measurements but it was better for me than just sipping lattes in a cafe somewhere for my much desired 'alone time' (all the moms know what I'm talking about too). Thankfully I managed to squeeze in my 8th run between the other activities and rainy nights... and was given a "Run Taipei" t-shirt... it was a well-earned shirt and I loved this whole experience!

On 20 May my friend Margriet and Lara met us for a quick catch up while her husband was on a business trip to Taipei. Hunter is just a couple weeks older than Lara, but if he was standing up straight you could see they're about the same size! Margriet is expecting their 2nd so she was pretty brave to come out in the heat, but I guess living in Singapore keeps your blood pretty thin as well!

Mom's Night Out

Later that evening, a bunch of my playgroup ladies met together for the first time as just that - "ladies"... FINALLY - uninterrupted conversations and a whole meal to ourselves!!! I've known some of these ladies since about the time Hunter was born, and yet this was such a special evening to actually just be out and about as friends. We were all pretty thrilled just to be out that the average food and service was mostly overlooked in our giddiness of being girls.

"Weekend Away"

We had been planning a trip away with Richard and Marlin for quite a while - like a Penghu revival - only Hunter ended up with a fever and both kids were not that well. So instead of a weekend away, we spent all of Saturday May 22nd together from morning til evening just taking it easy and enjoying each other's company in familiar places. These are truly dear friends and we will miss them so much.

"Happy Birthday, Dear Michael"

 Wow - it's birthday season... we enjoyed celebrating Michael's 3rd on a lovely Sunday afternoon... Hunter always is keen for games and cake, though you'd find it hard to tell the way he and Lorelai were glued to the TV.

 "Hunter's Finale"

 As if there wasn't enough to do sorting, inventorizing, packing - I managed to take a few hours out of the necessary to do one last frivolous modelling job for Hunter. I'm glad we did... he ROCKED! He was so into it and so very cute!! (I hope I remember to ask the agent to send the catalogue). The best part was that our good friend Annie got to come along and spend the afternoon with us. She's an excellent photographer so it was interesting for her to see the photographer's equipment and eye... after the photo shoot she took the kids to the park to play for a while so I could do some things around the house (this was like 2 days before the movers came)... what a blessing! We all had so much fun together!

Tag Team

No, I'm not talking about oversized men squeezed into spandex jumping 'off the top ropes' or pulling each other's hair (though there probably were a few of the former)... I'm talking about the Super Supai running event in Taipei City on May 2nd!!! Tony was able to secure a spot in the 9km while I only managed to register for the 3km fun run... so he got up and out of the house early for his 6am start and I got the kids up and out to meet him before my 7.30 start - TAG TEAM!!! It was a beautiful morning and the kids had a blast being outside surrounded by thousands of 'runners'.

Tony got his heart-rate into the 'maximum intensity' level in the 9km and finished in his best time (in a long time)... he actually came in 135th (out of thousands - I'm not exaggerating)... well done, Tony!

Hunter was inpired by his baba...

We LOVE this city!!!

A few others from our "Flash" team made it out for the fun run too... which of course made it even more, well, FUN!

WuKong & pre-high heart-rate Tony

 

So here I am... at the start of my 3km run... these people really know how to make a fun run fun... there were people out there in jeans and street shoes, carrying their kids or handbags, dogs on leashes - you name it, we probably saw it... I, on the other hand, needed to get some exercise out of the venture, so I stepped up my pace and ran the familiar Ren Ai Road (where I've walked w/the kids in the stroller many a trip to the PCC) in just 13minutes (which was fairly quick for my standards)...

and wait, who's this eager beaver on the sidelines??? Hunter was just waiting for me to come down to the end because he was raring to get out there too...

He's got a pretty good pace going (don't say anything about my shoulders up in my ears - I know I need to fix my running style soon... I'm not sure why my shoulders are so tense)... Hunter was sooooo excited that he got to run in the race - I let him collect his sports towel and tea and then we stood in line for our share of the free Super Supau sports drink on tap. He was just so proud of himself! What a little champ!

Justin and his faithful cheerleader Jessica were also there again... it's been fun having other friends to do this stuff with.

And, after all this, we managed to make it to church on time!!!

A Few Slower Days

Day Five - Wednesday, March 24
After two days of go, go, go... the kids and I needed some time to re-group near home... so after Tony and I returned from our 2 hour morning bike ride, we sent Dad and Lynne on their way to look at some memorials during the day while we just hung out at home napping, doing laundry and perhaps playing in the park... though it's all a whirlwind now! Of course we couldn't let a whole day go by without some kind of tourist attraction, so that evening we all went over to the Shilin Night Market.

Dad's always good for those sweet little sausages (truth be known, so am I).

Granny Lynne's truly a good granny... she brought her grandkids' shoe sizes out with her to see if she could find shoes to fit... unfortunately the price wasn't right so no shoes... but she managed to find something for everyone on her list at some stage!

After eating our share of street food and touching all sorts of things we didn't buy, we headed home on the MRT for another 'way-past-bedtime' night.

Hunter 'won' this little toy during his time at the arcade in the market... he loved it!!! And as you'd guess, one week later it's already broken and in the bin... well, that's one less thing to pack!

And morning and another late evening were the fifth day!




Day Six - Thursday, March 25
Dad and Lynne spent a big part of the day on their own... looking at shops, drinking coffee, eating cake... basically enjoying a holiday! They even went to a concert that night - "The Seven Last Words of Christ' which my friend Vicky was performing in... what a fun "date night" for them! The rest of us had a nice morning with Stephen and Felicity in the swimming pool... and an evening where they actually went to bed at the 'normal' time!!!
And morning and evening were the sixth day.


Day Seven - Friday, March 26
This day started with our regular healthy breakfast and a trip to the Core Pacific Living Mall for our regularly scheduled tumbling class!!! This was fun for these guys to see part of our 'real' life and Hunter was especially excited to have Tony there to see him do his thing! (more on tumbling class at another time)

Part of our 'regular routine' is a stop at the potty before class starts... Grandad and Granny Lynne took advantage of the moment for a cuddle with Mei Mei.

Here's Hunter and his classmates finishing up for the day by balancing against the wall... it's all pretty fun to watch... and even more fun for them to do!

That's the spirit, Granny Lynne!

After lunch, Hunter, Tony & Dad headed off for a very special afternoon - Hunter's FIRST MOVIE!!! A showing of Thomas and Friends at the Vie Show!!! He especially enjoyed the popcorn and really liked the movie once the previews were over (what kind of theatre plays PG13 previews at a G rated film? Tony had to cover Hunter's eyes during "Clash of the Titans"- that made me angry... I guess next time we take the kids to a movie (whenever that will be?) we'll go a bit late so as to avoid the potential violence, etc.) The kicker was that the movie was in Chinese with Chinese subtitles - so Hunter was fine with it since for all he knows Thomas only speaks Chinese (his dvd is in chinese), Tony was fine because well, his Chinese is good, but Grandad had a heck of a time watching a kid's flick in a foreign language... what good sport!!! Anyway - Hunter loved the overall experience and still tells me about the popcorn everytime we pass the theatre.




Later that evening, we met up with Anna, Sharon, Felicity & Janet at Din Tai Feng - a restaurant 'famous' for its delicious dumplings... with good reason!


We all enjoyed our feast... and since we had enjoyed such a 'local' dinner, we decided to stop for a 'local' dessert - shaved ice with tapioca balls, sweet potato/taro starch balls, green beans (not the stringy kind you're thinking about), fruit and a bit of sweetened condensed milk... very different... but Dad and Lynne were brave enough to try a bit - minus the beans! Of course when Tony and Janet rocked up with frozen yogurt their eyes lit up (as did Helena's) to something a bit more familiar (and sweet!).

After dinner and dessert, we sent the boys home with the kids and Lynne and I headed out on a mini-shopping spree with the girls! Janet knows her way around the shops and Felicity knows her way around a bargain - so we were in good hands! We had a fun time and Lynne especially thought it was such fun going shopping at 10pm - remember, she's from the South Island... it's even slower and quieter down there than Wellington! Boy are we going to miss this city!!!


And morning, afternoon and late night shopping were the seventh day!