Thursday’s night out

Tonight I pick up my daughter Catriona from school, make her some dumplings, head out with her in her pink ballet tutu, pick up my son Camren, drop off Catriona at dance class and head off with Camren to enjoy the wicked sites of this crazy Hsinchu town.
It used to be that a night out with the boys meant heading to a bar to listen to some old crooner, drinking some kind of stale pale ale, and heading home realizing that you were going to feel like crap in the morning. These days I substitute the old boys with my son and hit the juice bar at the top of Sogo where we gulp down all too sweet watermelon juice.
An evening out like this used to be far easier when we lived downtown. Then we used to walk everywhere. Somehow during the planning of our move to the wilds of Siangshan we neglected to take into consideration just how long it takes to drive to the city center. I leave here at 530 and arrive at Catriona’s dance class an hour later. In Taiwan that’s a journey.
Tonight in addition to heading to the juice bar, where they actually prepare our order before we arrive – like Cheers*, we will check out the Cars toys which are reputed to be on sale, head to Eslite for a brief look at books, throw rocks in the ‘canal around’, listen to either the natives from Central America play muzak or to the out of tune garage bands playing at the circle, watch the kids practice their dance routines, feed some stray dogs, refuel with an ice cream, practice our numbers while we pick up Catriona. A far more entertaining Thursday night.
*There is an old bar called Cheers off Kuang Fu rd. near Tsing Hua University.


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