Phil had departed the previous night with local dog-killer Eddie for Sunday morning worship in Taichung.

Clare and Todd this morning set off in borrowed car for a small traditional town the name of which I instantly forgot.

Meanwhile, I listened to some new CDs, ate lunch, and then headed out into the ever-increasing heat with the aim of getting public transport to Tainan, 90 minutes south of Huwei.

As my student Cecilia visits her mother in Tainan each Sunday, I was assured a lift back to Huwei later that evening, so off I set, a packpack-sporting adventurer looking to learn. My plan whilst in Tainan? To buy some sheet music and sax cleaner (and who knows, maybe even more CDs?).

In highly typical fashion, the day's first real challenge led to my first premium botch. Although I wowed the cashier at the bus stop with my amazing Chinese by fluently requesting a ticket, I didn't request one to correct town, but instead ended up in the nearest city of Tou-lio.

After getting off the bus, I had a confusing few minutes trying to work out how to find anything resembling a city centre and indeed a train station. I was just in the process of resolving that if need be I'd lay down right there on the ground, sleep until the next morning, then try again when I felt more energetic, when some knowledgeable Yanks happened along and soon enough I was in the train station revising my ticket-buying technique!

Tainan, again, was great, with Cecilia playing the perfect Taiwanese host. She showed me the best shops (though no sax cleaner today), and bought me dinner - Japanese curry.

An interesting point to note: the Japanese curry houses in Taiwan apparently claim that their curry style comes from the UK. Now I guess the UK style of nosh comes in fact from Pakistan and India via the folks that moved to England a while back. So, I was eating a S.Asian / English / Japanese / Taiwanese authentic chicken curry. Balls to the origins anyway, it was mighty tasty.

So, I spent copious amounts of pennies on more CDs and decent winter clothes for my eventual return to the UK. This little spree took place in 'Mitsokoshi' - a huge Japanese department store with end-of-Winter-sales throughout. Think Rackhams, only bigger, cheaper, and with less snooty staff. Cecilia had seemingly spent just about every Sunday for the last ten years on its various floors honing the art of spending and feeling good about it, so I was far from lost.

Roll on next weekend. It's a national holiday here on Friday (Peace Day, which came about yrs ago when a big war ended. I'm not sure which one though, I'll try to find out...). This means we're all planning to do the usual Sunday domestic stuff & gubbins on Friday, then on Saturday after work Todd is kindly borrowing a car to drive us down to Kenting at the Southern-most tip of Taiwan. This means Saturday night spent camping on the beach and all day Sunday lounging around on the white sands and swimming in the sea. I absolutely can't wait!