Pudding & Shadow - Flower Market Cats

As I have mentioned before, last year we adopted to precious cats: Pudding and Shadow. Instead of inundating this blog with their pictures and posts about their antics, I went ahead and created a Facebook page called: Pudding & Shadow - Flower Market Cats. People who like cats can follow them. there The page shows pictures of them with inspirational quotes to help encourage people in their lives. An example of one of the pictures is below.

Would be great if you could become their FB fans by clicking on this link: Pudding & Shadow - Flower Market Cats.

Thanks so much for your support. It is much appreciated.

Views of Taipei

I know I haven't updated my blog in a long time. Should get back to it this year I think. Not sure how often I will post but will try to do more. Anyway, just wanted to share a couple of views of Taipei taken over the past six months. I have just been experimenting with panorama shots and I got some lovely ones from the top of Elephant Mountain.

View from Elephant Mountain


Further Along the Trail



View from Yangmingshan



View from my Rooftop



Dusk from Culture University



Night View from Maokong

Taipei is an awesome city - I really do love living here.
Happy 2014 all

Our Beautiful Cats

We adopted a new cat Shadow, on the right of the picture. Pudding is on the left. I love these cats. They are so beautiful. And Pudding (seen below) is one of the best natured cats I have ever known. Happy to be with them. They are both boys. Pudding is now 5 months old and Shadow is now 3 months old. Getting big fast!

Riding the (Insane) Toucheng (頭城) Loop - 165 km

This time I definitely bit off more than I could chew! Riding to Toucheng and back would have been fine if I didn't take the Yilan First Highway (宜1). If I had just ridden straight to Fulong (福隆) on Road 2 and then turned left through Gongliao (貢寮) I would have been fine. However, I decided to do the loop through the mountains and I can honestly say, this was my toughest day on the bike yet. For me it was a monster ride and I think I still need to train more to do it effectively. I left home at 5:30 am and only got back at 8:00 pm: 14.5 hours out on the road is too long. Still, I am proud that I got to the end and now I know how tough this one is. Also, it is a beautiful ride! You first ride to Pinglin(坪林), then Toucheng (頭城), then along the coast to Daxi (大溪), over the mountains to Shuangxi (雙溪) and then through the (lower) mountains to Shenkeng (深坑) and home. It is a beautiful ride but a tough one and you need to be fit and have stamina to get through it.

Turtle Island, Toucheng (頭城)

Cycling to the Shihmen Reservoir (石門水庫) - 116 km

The Shihmen Reservoir (石門水庫) (Wikipedia page) is located in Taoyuan (桃園) and I was told is a decent destination for a day's ride. I have never been there before so when I was recently invited by a Church friend, Ming, to ride with him and another mate, David, to the Shihmen Reservoir (石門水庫), I agreed. Ming had previously invited me to ride there with him but we could never really find a compatible time. Ming and David typically ride a "straight-line" there and back route but I dislike those and prefer riding in loops so I can explore more. I suggested a route I had seen on Strava. Happily they agreed. The route proved to be an awesome adventure with a few decent climbs and a prolonged ride next to the reservoir. It was a great day out and riding around the reservoir is certainly a great thing to do and should be a part of anyone's riding itinerary in Northern Taiwan.

Shihmen Reservoir (石門水庫).

Another Sunset

I previously posted a picture of a Beautiful Sunset in Taipei. On Friday I saw the sun going down again and it was so beautiful. I charged onto the rooftop of my apartment building to take a picture. The beautiful sunset is shown below. Absolutely stunning!

Cycling the Pingling (坪林) Lasso - 109 km

This was the ride I meant to do when I went on my ride to nowhere. I didn't quite do the planned route, but I still did what I set out to achieve, four big climbs in and around the mountains of Pingling (坪林). The last climb nearly destroyed me and I had to walk the final 2 km up the mountain, but it was still a great day out on the bike riding through the mountains, hills and tea fields of Pingling (坪林). I call it the Pingling Lasso because of the shape of the route as reflected in the map below. The scenery up there is stunning and I was so happy to be out there, in the sun, breathing the fresh air, sweating and working hard. It was a great ride. If you like cycling mountains, this is certainly a ride you should consider. You won't regret it! You can modify the ride to your liking, but certainly the ride to Pingling  (坪林) through the tea fields is well worth the effort (even if a little tough).

On a Quintessential Chinese Screen - Temple Gate, Tea and Bicycle

Ta-An Forest Park (大安森林公園)

Ta-An Forest Park (大安森林公園) is probably the nicest park in Taipei. I have always been fortunate to live close to this beautiful park. However, now that the new MRT is nearly done, I fear on the weekends it will become even MORE overcrowded (if that is possible). Still, it is a great place to walk around and chill out in on the weekend. We have had many a good time there.

Saturday Lunch

My niece and nephew came to visit Pudding on Saturday. They didn't want to go out and leave the cat so we prepared food by ourselves. This was what we came up with. Pretty healthy I think. Sashimi, tomatoes, mushrooms, cucumbers and scrambled eggs. I think it was a pretty healthy meal. And good for me as these type of meals are helping me to maintain my 15 kg weight loss, meals like this and aggressive exercise programs. The kids were amazing (considering my nephew is 5 and niece is 10) and they even helped do the washing and cleaning up afterwards. The plated food is shown below.

Saturday Lunch

Ride to Nowhere - Two Big Climbs - 97 km

Today's ride didn't turn out as intended! Instead of doing the ride I had planned I went a different way. At some point I started to feel I was in the middle of a Talking Heads song on a Road to Nowhere. That of course happened after I drifted off course a few times. Before that though I felt I was riding through a Chinese painting and towards the end of the second major climb I  felt I was in the middle of Vangelis' Heaven and Hell since half of that album is as painful to the ears as the lactic acid burn in my muscles, but the views were heavenly. Even though the ride lost its objective somewhere along the way, it was still a good 97 km grunt with 1,250 m of climbing. It was a great ride to nowhere. Loved being out there in the mountains.

Mountain Clouds

Pudding - An Introduction

Five and a half years ago we had to say good bye to our precious and most beloved cat Mimi. We were devastated. She had polycystic kidney disease and diabetes. We kept her alive with insulin injections and regular runs to the hospital as long as we could but eventually there was nothing that could be done and we put her down. Well, this past weekend, we decided to adopt a new cat from the Chienkuo Flower Market (建國花市). Queenie's mom named him Pudding. I am sure from time to time we will be posting pictures of Pudding on our blog so just thought we would introduce him now.

Pudding is, at the time of adoption on 1 June, 2013 two months old. He is cute but of course very nervous and unsure of his new environment. We are looking forward to years of joy and fun with our new cat.Pictures of Pudding are below

Riding in the Mountains of Wulai (烏來) - 130 km

Cycling to Wulai (烏來), from Taipei (台北), is a regular route for me. It combines beautiful scenery with some nice, not too devastating climbs, and some good flats, with the promised reward of almond milk at the end of the trip. Yesterday (29 May 2013) I decided to do the Wulai (烏來) fork (my own name). The first road on the fork, that goes to the Tong Hou (桶后), trail is truly a ride along God's own road! Easily the MOST BEAUTIFUL road I have cycled on in Taiwan. Straight through the mountains with magnificent views of the river and vegetation and very little traffic. A tremendous reward for such great and challenging effort. The second road that goes past the famous Wulai (烏來) waterfall goes all the way up to the small village of Fushan (福山). This road is not as impressive as the first, but it is still stunning. It is well worth the effort and both roads are highly recommended!

Beautiful River Road on the way to Fushan (福山)