6.6.10

Rugby at the Brass Monkey in Taipei

Paul, Queenie and Mark
Springbok Supporters

Well the first game of the Springbok's international was on today. A few of us trooped off to the Taipei Brass Monkey to watch the game. We also ran into some old friends and had a thoroughly good time. We also had some dinner there (the chicken pies are always good) and one or two beers.

The game was a good one. Wales went ahead 16-3 in the first 20 minutes. The boks managed to pull it back and get to 31-19 with 12 minutes to play. The Welsh then ran in a try to push the score to 31-24. The boks managed to put over a penalty to push it up to 34-24 and then a bad mistakes by the Boks allowed the Welsh to run in another try to make it 34-31 with three minutes to go. It was a good game. We are glad the Boks won but kudos to the Welsh for keeping the game alive. Anyway, some of the pictures below of those who pitched up.


Doug and Queenie
Doug and Queenie

Hector, Queenie, Andy & Paul
Hector, Queenie, Andy and Paul

Doug, Queenie, Paul, Thomas
Doug, Queenie, Paul and Thomas

Hector, Andy, Queenie, Paul & Doug
The Crowd

Queenie and Paul
Queenie and Paul

Paul and Mark
Paul and Mark

Hector and Andy
Hector and Andy

Hector
Hector

Hecor and Queenie
Hector and Queenie

Hector, Queenie and Andy
Hector, Queenie, Andy

Mark
Mark

We had a great time with everyone. Thanks all for coming out to watch and support the Boks and the Welsh. We had fun. Next week, France! Oh, and by the way, The Brass Monkey is a good place to watch live sports. Two chicken pies and four beers only cost NTD1,038. Not bad for a night out.


Highlights of the game are below. Thanks RugbyDump.


2.6.10

Dinner Tonight - Rib Eye Steak in Taipei

Tonight we had dinner in the The Red Kitchen. I chose to have the rib-eye steak, well done of course. It was really delicious.


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Rib Eye Steak


Queenie chose just to have the salad bar which included chicken pieces, savory biscuits with liver pate, lots of fresh salad, boiled eggs and lots of fruit.


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Some of the Salad


The meal, as always, was delicious. We still highly recommend the food their. You can find them at:

No. 1, Alley 2, Lane 118
Hoping East Road, Section 2
Tel.: (02) 2377-6186


Taipei Africa Week - Love for Africa

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Love for Africa


Last week was Africa Week here in Taipei. Africa Week is apparently a yearly event which is organized I believe by the Taiwan International Cooperation and Development Fund (ICDF) (if I am wrong, please correct me). This event highlights the charitable work done in Africa by multiple organizations and emphasizes the relationships Taiwan has with some of those countries. The weekend events were run at the Hua Shan Art District in Taipei. A few businesses in Taiwan that are run by South Africans and other Africans were invited to put up some stands. There were also many other charitable organizations in attendance that were highlighting the work they do in Africa including Buddhist Organizations, Churches and other charities.


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One of the Taiwanese Charities in Africa


Some of the businesses that were there included Grillmasters, Frankies, and Afriwine. Grillmasters is a BBQ company that specializes in South African Braais, Frankies is a restaurant in Yonghe run by an old colleague of mine at Kojen and Afriwine is a new shop that opened and imports wine from South Africa. There was also a central stage on where a lot of Taiwanese performers were playing African drums and on which a few presentations were given. The Taiwanese government had also flown in a dance troupe from Swaziland. From what we could see, they were pretty good.


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Roelf the Grill Master


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Etienne & Roelf, the grill masters and Paul


Unfortunately the weather played the spoiler. It rained all weekend. According to one of the stand holders, they were very optimistic at the grand opening since Taiwan president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) himself attended. The stand holders were told they could expect at least 10,000 visitors over the weekend but by Sunday afternoon when we visited they said they were lucky if 1,000 people had shown up. All the stand holders we spoke to said they were losing money being there but were hoping the marketing opportunity would help their businesses grow. Those we spoke to thought that although the weather was bad, poor organization and poor marketing were responsible for the low turnout. This may be true. I only heard of the event last week on ICRT and Queenie said she had seen nothing in the Chinese press about the event.


Nevertheless, the main hall had a host of displays highlighting different countries in Africa including Burkino Faso, South Africa, and Nigeria. There were also stands highlighting medical missions to Africa and the health issues faced by Africans including HIV and malaria which afflicts a large portion of the population. There were also presentations by Taiwanese people who had worked in Africa as well as African students in Taiwan who were learning Chinese.


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Main Hall Information Booth

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Highlighting HIV and Malaria

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Swaziland Highlighted

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Nigeria Highlighted

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Traditional African Arts and Crafts


What was good for us is that we got to eat some boerewors (farmer's sausage) rolls at the grillmasters, eat some excellent chicken pies from Frankies and buy some good South African wine from Afriwine. Hopefully next year the marketing and organization is improved, the weather is better and more people attend. This has the makings of a fantastic annual event if the organization can be improved. Until next years, totsiens and sala kahle.

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