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IN THIS ISSUE

• Kate Brookfield carries on her story about Taiwan
• Bill Murphy gives suggestions on how to fry an egg
• Jack Peaker cannot even give away his late wife´s mink coat
• Tom Williamson forwards an account of a bird rescue
• Some children´s toys are expensive
• Bruce Galway, Jean Sterling, and Tom Telfer recommend sites

Kate Brookfield resumes her interrupted story about living in

TAIWAN

We are now entering our third month in Taiwan. I left off after we returned from Hong Kong.

January and February were bleak months weather-wise. It rained every day and the temperature in our apartment, even with the supplementary heater, never got much above 19 degrees Celsius. We also borrowed a dehumidifier and the tank filled with water in a few hours. I had brought mainly summer clothes so I was wearing two pairs of pants, three, maybe four tops, and fortunately I had my Australian Outback waxed jacket with a hood. The rain just rolls off it. I am now on my third umbrella. The first had little pockets for each spoke, but they kept jumping off, making the umbrella useless. The second umbrella I left on a bus. This third one has a silver lining - solar protection, so it will serve for use in the summer. I was thankful I brought my Ecco shoes that have an excellent non-slip sole. There are so many tiled walkways that can be very slippery when wet.

The cold damp air was worst in the morning. I was reminded of my childhood in the north of England as we did not have heating in the bedrooms. First I would stick my nose out from under the covers and then cover up quickly. Slowly, I would emerge and after putting on my glasses, checked the temperature of the room from the digital thermostat on the air-conditioning unit. One morning it was 13 degrees. I made sure my socks and slippers were within arms´ reach as there was no way I could put bare feet on the ceramic tiled floor. I was so thankful that we had instant hot water but again, once in the hot shower, it took an effort to turn off the hot water and get dressed in the cold air.

Both Michael and I developed chest colds and coughs. We sipped the equivalent of Neo Citron and eventually got over-the-counter antibiotics that seemed to clear it up. I was worried we might get pneumonia. Meanwhile the rain kept on coming down. We kept telling ourselves what do you expect, we are in the tropics in the rain forest and on an island. But I did not expect a tropical island to be so cold and damp.

It is not surprising that this bleak time of year is the time for festivals. The New Year Festival is mainly a family occasion and there is not much for the foreign visitor. All the shops close for five days, as do all the public places. I thought we would see dragon dances and that the streets would be decorated as we do in the West for Christmas, but there was nothing. Many people travel at this time to visit their families. Then Michael found on the Internet a meeting of the Comedy Club entitled "For Lonely Foreigners with nothing to do during the Chinese New Year". We fit the description so headed off to find the place.

It was a small basement room packed with ex-pats. Most seemed to be in Taiwan as teachers of English, but there were others here on business or studying at the University. The comedy was very amateurish and corny, but it was a happy crowd of mainly young people.

The first big festival after New Year is the Lantern Festival. We were advised to go to the village of Pinxi (pronounced Pingshee) to see the Festival. Taipei city also had a lantern-lighting festival but we were told that the crowds are suffocating in the city and Pinxi is much better. This village is in the mountain area just north of Taipei and apparently it is famous for its paper lantern festival. When we set off it was not raining in Taipei, I think the first dry day, and we were so happy. We took the public bus and it was great to be out of the city and seeing the Taiwan countryside for the first time. The lush vegetation with pampas grass growing as a weed and palm trees and tree ferns covered with climbing plants like the philodendrons we grow as house plants back home in Canada. Impatiens and azaleas growing wild added splashes of bright colour in the dense foliage.

But when we got to Pinxi it was raining. We could hardly see the top of the mountain for the mist and clouds. We seemed to forget the rain, though, in the excitement of the festival. The village was thronged with people. People were selling paper lanterns all along the roadside. There was no one place for lighting the lanterns so all along the road you could see lanterns being set alight and floating into the sky. The lantern is made of brightly coloured tissue paper with a wire hoop-like frame at the top. When filled with hot air, it is almost five feet in height. The bottom of the wire frame has a wire pocket where a wad of waxed papers is placed. The sellers provide marking pens for people to write their hopes and wishes on the lantern. Once the papers are ignited, the lantern is held as it quickly fills with hot air, and when you feel the time is right, you let go and it soars up into the sky.

Michael and I bought and launched our lantern. We wrote the names of our children and grandchildren on it and "Happy 40th Wedding Anniversary on April 20th", then at the top "WORLD PEACE´". A large crowd gathered round as we held the lantern and they were all smiling. The Taiwanese smile a lot and they love "foreigners" to take part in their festivities. Well, it soared up and then there was a groan: the lantern had got wedged between a telephone pole and the cross bar of a street lamp. I thought it was going to come down in a flame, but it managed to squeeze through the obstruction and then off it went up up and away. Very exciting!

There was a stadium area in a park but we didn´t realize this was where there was a more formal launching of hundreds of lanterns at the same time. We suddenly saw the sky filled with hundreds of lanterns all rising together like a cloud. So we didn´t see how they organized that. We were on the main street which was lined with stalls selling all types of food. One woman was eating something on a stick that looked like a big piece of fried chicken, but on investigation I discovered it was barbecued squid and didn´t fancy it when I saw the squids all laid out ready for roasting.

By this time it was dark and the crowd seemed to be getting thicker and the rain was still pouring down. I believe there was a concert in the stadium, but we were ready for home and made for the bus queue. There were two long lines and we didn´t know the difference, but the outer line seemed to be moving more quickly so I went to stand in it, but a lady indicated that the inner line was the one we should be in. I have never seen such an efficient and quick handling of a crowd. There were rows and rows of buses and lots of men with fluorescent batons directing the crowd. The line we were in was for people who wanted a seat. The bus pulled up and our line entered the bus and when all the seats were taken, the other line was allowed to get on for standing room only. When the bus was filled to capacity, we were off back to Taipei. There was no charge for the bus. Apparently, the city covers the cost as their gift to the people!

We didn´t miss the lantern festival in the city as it lasted for a week. They only send up the paper lanterns on the first night, but there were standing displays. I leave it to my photos to show you Taipei´s Lantern festival.

Please go to my Picasa website to see all the photo albums of our time here.

http://picasaweb.google.com/brookfieldorama/LanternFestival

Also, a Google search for Pinxi or Pingshi Lantern Festival finds some excellent videos and photos of the event. Much better than mine!

CORRESPONDENCE

Bill Murphy replies to Dick Monaghan´s plea for help in last week´s issue: Tell Dick to drop the eggs in the pan upside down. That way they will be cooked on the sunny side first and easier to turn over. Okay, I am NOT blonde, it is just a yoke, but seriously I suggest he do what I do: put a lid on the frypan and don´t worry about turning them over. So Dick, put a lid on it.

Jack Peaker wrote this piece after finding he could not give away his late wife´s mink coat:

FUR COATS - GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN

It is not too many years ago that women wishing to enhance their appearance turned to fur coats for an elegant addition to their wardrobes. Those days are now history as the Animal Rights Movement has engendered guilty feelings for those donning garments made from fur-bearing animals.

Let us not forget those beautiful beaver coats, sometimes worn by men along with a beaver cap;cap) muskrat, mink, racoon, sheared racoon, otter, ermine, rabbit, seal, chinchilla and leopard skins, often worn by the rich and famous as well as Hollywood actresses.

It was felt that owning a high-priced fur coat offered a woman prestige similar to that of owning a Cadillac.

The Animal Rights Activists were successful in bringing to an end an era of elegance that can not be matched by any other garments worn by today´s fashionable women. Some radical activists in Toronto threw paint on the fur coats of women wearing them.

Tom Williamson forwards this story written by Jeff Guidry, who works at the Sarvey Wildlife Center:

FREEDOM, A BALD EAGLE

Freedom and I have been together 10 years this summer. She came in as a baby in 1998 with two broken wings. Her left wing doesn´t open all the way even after surgery - it was broken in four places. She´s my baby.

When Freedom came in she could not stand. Both wings were broken, her left wing in four places. She was emaciated and covered with lice. We made the decision to give her a chance at life, so I took her to the vet´s office. From then on, I was always around her. We had her in a huge dog carrier with the top off, and it was loaded up with shredded newspaper for her to lie on. I used to sit and talk to her, urging her to live, to fight, and she would lie there looking at me with those big brown eyes. We also had to tube feed her for weeks.

This went on for six weeks, and she still couldn´t stand. It got to the point where the decision was made to euthanize her if she couldn´t stand in a week. You know you don´t want to cross that line between torture and rehab, and it looked as if death was winning. She was going to be put down that Friday, and I was supposed to come in on that Thursday afternoon. I didn´t want to go to the center that Thursday, because I couldn´t bear the thought of her being euthanized; but I went anyway, and when I walked in everyone was grinning from ear to ear. I went immediately back to her cage, and there she was, standing on her own, a big beautiful eagle. She was ready to live. I was just about in tears by then. That was a very good day.

We knew she could never fly, so the director asked me to glove train her. I got her used to the glove, and then to jesses, and we started doing education programs for schools in western Washington. We wound up in the newspapers, radio (believe it or not), and some TV. Miracle Pets even did a show about us.

In the spring of 2000, I was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma. I had stage three, which is not good (one major organ plus everywhere), so I wound up doing eight months of chemo. Lost my hair - the whole bit. I missed a lot of work. When I felt well enough, I would go to Sarvey and take Freedom out for walks. Freedom would also come to me in my dreams and help me fight the cancer. This happened time and time again.

Fast forward to November 2000, the day after Thanksgiving, I went in for my last checkup. I was told that if the cancer was not all gone after eight rounds of chemo, then my last option was a stem cell transplant. Anyway, they did the tests, and I had to come back Monday for the results. I went in Monday, and I was told that all the cancer was gone. Yahoo!

The first thing I did was get up to Sarvey and take the big girl out for a walk. It was misty and cold. I went to her flight and jessed her up, and we went out front to the top of the hill. I hadn´t said a word to Freedom, but somehow she knew. She looked at me and wrapped both her wings around me to where I could feel them pressing in on my back (I was engulfed in eagle wings), and she touched my nose with her beak and stared into my eyes, and we just stood there like that for I don´t know how long. That was a magic moment. We have been soul mates ever since she came in. This is a very special bird.

On a side note: I have had people who were sick come up to us when we are out, and Freedom has some kind of hold on them. I once had a guy who was terminal come up to us and I let him hold her. His knees just about buckled and he swore he could feel her power course through his body. I have so many stories like that.

I never forget the honor I have of being so close to such a magnificent spirit as Freedom´s.

Jeff Guidry and Freedom are at Sarvey Wildlife Center http://www.sarveywildlife.org/

For pictures of Jeff and Freedom, go to http://members.shaw.ca/vjsansum/ or http://www.nw-seniorsonline.org/stories.html

DIVORCED BARBIE

One day a father gets out of work and on his way home he suddenly remembers that it´s his daughter´s birthday. He pulls over to a toy shop and asks the salesperson, "How much for one of those Barbies in the display window?"

The salesperson answers, "Which one do you mean, sir? We have: workout Barbie for $19.95, shopping Barbie for $19.95, beach Barbie for $19.95, disco Barbie for $19.95, ballerina Barbie for $19.95, astronaut Barbie for $19.95, skater Barbie for $19.95, and divorced Barbie for $265.95."

The amazed father asks: "It´s what? Why is the divorced Barbie $265.95 and the others only $19.95?"

The annoyed salesperson rolls her eyes, sighs, and answers:

"Sir, divorced Barbie comes with Ken´s car, Ken´s house, Ken´s boat, Ken´s furniture, Ken´s computer, and one of Ken´s friends."

RECOMMENDED SITES

Bruce Galway suggests this site for a video of Nanette Fabray and Sid Caesar arguing to a rendition of Beethoven´s 5th Symphony:

Jean Sterling sends this suggestion for cat lovers:

For those who like trivia questions, Tom Telfer suggests this site. After you open the game, click on a square and choose your answer below. It is tic-tac-toe in a different format:

A true conservationist is a man who knows that the world is not given by his fathers but borrowed from his children - John James Audubon