Sunny Saturday

On a fine sunny Saturday just two days before Christmas, Sean and his Dad set off for another day of fun.

The first place that Sean's Dad wanted to visit was a big toy store. It's a chain store. Sean's Aunty Annette calls it Toys-R-American. I'm sure you know it. When Sean and his Dad arrived, it hadn't open yet and neither of them had eaten breakfast. Luckily, another US-based chain store (as they say in the news) had a store downstairs. So, they went there for breakfast.









As usual, Sean organized some take-away for himself. He filled a little take-away bag with sachets of sugar, stirring sticks and even some plastic cutlery.

After visiting the toy store and choosing a Christmas present for Sean they had lots of time to kill before the next thing that Sean's Dad wanted to do. So, they decided to have a look around in a big furniture store that was also nearby. It's a Swedish one that you've also probably heard of before, too.





Sean had lots of fun playing silly games with the stuff in there.

I'm not sure why he didn't like the footstool shaped like a turtle but he really tried to strangle the life out of it.



Then he started to play balancing games with whatever came to hand. He had a lot of fun even though they were just killing time until Dad's appointment at 2:00pm.














Before they left the furniture store Sean found a corner filled with boxes of soft toys.

He found one little dog toy that he particularly liked. So that became his Christmas present from Dad.

Before they left for Dad's appointment, Sean's Dad tried to teach Sean how to use his camera. It's not difficult but Sean wasn't really interested in taking pictures of his Dad.

The reason for the camera lessons was that Dad had to go and be fitted for a baseball uniform. Not because he is going to play baseball but because he is going to act in a TV commercial featuring the famous Taiwanese baseball player Chien-ming Wang.

Sean was supposed to take pictures of Dad in the uniform but when he and his Dad got to the studio, the production assistants scared him a bit. Sean receives a lot of (unwanted) attention from young women in Taiwan but being an 8-year old he doesn't know what to do or say when two or three 20-year old women are telling him very enthusiastically (a little too enthusiastically even for his father's liking) how handsome he looks. In the end, no pictures were taken because Sean spent all the time hiding under his new soft toy.

Finally, they got on the scooter again and began the long trip up to Guandu Nature Park. When they arrived, Sean put on his full bird-watching regalia. It was quite a sight.











Luckily, he found some birds to look at before he and his Dad went inside to see the movie/lecture. It was his only chance to use the big pair of binoculars that he had carried around all day.


















When he was watching the movie Sean answered all the questions on the little question sheet that had been handed out.

He even turned the sheet over and took notes during the pre-movie lecture. He was extremely serious about preparing himself to answer questions from the lecturer after the movie.

So, it was very disappointing that the lecturer chose to deliberately ignore Sean's raised hand several times and not give him a chance to answer a question and receive a freebie. The lecturer's behaviour was so obvious that an elderly woman sitting two seats over from Sean began giggling and staring at Sean and the lecturer. It was astoundingly rude and I was surprised Sean didn't feel more aggrieved than he did.

Anyway, later on, when Sean and his Dad were still in the bird-watching centre, they went back in to the theatre to watch another short movie about the city government's efforts to clean up the creek that runs into the wetland that is now the nature reserve in front of the bird watching centre. Then they went upstairs to the big observation binocular telescopes to look at the birds from there.







Sean hid his anger about the lecturer well. After he got home he told his mother and she told his Dad how disappointed he'd been about the lecturer's antics.

Dinner was at the same Spanish place that they'd been to two weeks before. But this time the service was very poor. Sean's Dad's dinner came quickly while Sean had to wait half-an-hour for his tiny steak. He had to exist on hot chocolate while he waited because he didn't like the look of his Dad's paella even though his Dad tried to share with him.

He also played with his new toy dog to while away the time.















This time Sean shared dessert with his Dad. Sean was supposed to eat half first. This is what it looked like when he gave it to his Dad to finish.

While his dad was eating that, Sean went and took some pictures with his Dad's camera. The restaurant had some special Christmas decorations.

On the way out he took a picture of the restaurant's name.
















Then, it was back on the scooter for a long, cold ride home.

A Tale of Two Fussball Tables

Back a few months ago, when the weather was really hot, Sean and his Dad had a whole Saturday together. His Dad picked him up in the morning but it was much too hot to do anything outdoors. So, first they went to buy tickets to see a movie. But it was hours until the movie started and neither of them had eaten breakfast yet. Luckily, there was a coffee shop nearby. When they were sitting waiting for their breakfast to arrive Sean's Dad tried to take Sean's picture.

Sean is very good at hiding from his Dad's attempts to take his picture. Putting his face under a jacket is probably his favourite trick.

His Dad finally managed to take a picture when Sean wasn't looking but he wasn't very close to the camera so it's not a great picture.

The movie wasn't very exciting. It was an American cartoon about racing cars. Sean's dad liked the voice of the old racing car but Sean became a bit restless when the cars kept talking to each other and the young boy car couldn't decide if he liked the young girl car or not....... it was a bit dull. (Apart from Paul Newman's voice.)

Then, Sean and his Dad went for a walk through a nearby shopping mall. There was a big toy store on the top floor and Sean found plenty of stuff to play with in there. He liked the Playstation and had some fun with some robot dinosaurs. But, when he and his Dad began to play fussball he really had a very good time. After they had played for almost an hour on the demonstration table in the shop, Sean's Dad (foolishly) thought it would be a good idea to buy one and take it home. Then, they could play at home as much as they liked.

Unfortunately, the table that Sean's Dad bought was no good. In fact, it was a piece of Made in China rubbish. It wasn't the same model as the demonstration table in the shop! The ball wouldn't roll into the middle of the table making it impossible to score a goal!

Pretty soon, Sean became bored and went to watch TV.

Sean wasn't happy. His Dad tried to fix the table but it was hopeless. It had just been made so badly that it was unfixable and that made Sean's Dad unhappy, too.

Sean almost fell alseep on the sofa watching TV. Later, he told his Mum that Dad's place is a bit boring. It was a big let-down after having so much fun on the table in the shop.

So, Sean went home to his Mum's place that night feeling unhappy. The next day, his Dad took the table back to the toy store and exchanged it for another one. He found out that none of the fussball tables for sale in the shop were exactly the same as the display table!

The store had three tables for sale. Two were rubbish and one was slightly nicer and much cheaper! It was cheap because it was small, about half the size of the two rubbish ones. It was made for children and Sean's Dad thought that would be good. So, he took one home.

But, Sean didn't like it. The next time he came to his Dad's home, he played with his Dad on the little table for about 15 minutes and then gave up.

So, now the little table sits in the front room waiting for someone to play..... but no-one ever does.

The End

Sean's Dessert

Last Saturday, Sean had a rare day out with his dad. They went to a bird-sanctuary that is located in a place called Guandu. It's way up in the north of Taipei and Sean lives in the very far south of Taipei. So, it was a long ride on Dad's tiny 125cc motor-scooter. The trip up there took about one and a half hours not including a brief rest stop at a McCafe.

Sean had fun eating french fries from the ordinary McDonalds next door and then he began eating sugar from the sachets meant for people to add to their coffee. He seemed to like that more than the fries.

The reason for the trip to the sanctuary was that the National Geographic channel was showing a special documentary/movie and there was a lecture to be heard immediately afterwards. Sean was very attentive and pleased the lecturer with one of his answers to a question that showed Sean had been watching the documentary carefully. He received a box of souvenir pencils and picture frame as prizes for two correct answers to questions asked by the lecturer.

After that, Sean took his dad upstairs to the second floor where there is a bird-watching deck with some large telescopes. Sean had obviously been there before and he could operate the telescope pretty expertly. He found birds and then showed them to his dad for almost an hour.

Then he wrote down in his notebook all the names of the types of birds he had seen. On a blackboard at the back of the observation deck, someone had written all the names of the birds seen by people that day. That was helpful because some of the Chinese characters for bird names are very complex and Sean couldn't remember how to write them all.

Then, Sean showed his dad a very nice (and quite expensive) Spanish restaurant that is right beside the bird sanctuary. Sean had been there before. The restaurant brews its own beer, "Formosa Bird Beer". The waitress said that it's made to a Belgian recipe and Sean's dad liked it a lot.

Sean was good about finishing the main meal which is a bit different for him. He's normally a very, very fussy eater but he had a small barbecued steak and liked it! Then, he wanted dessert. He looked at the menu and saw "Panna Cotta".

When it arrived it looked really nice. Orange-flavored sauce around the edge and a dollop of cream in the middle. But he didn't like the added bits and ate around them! He's a good boy but when the dessert costs NT$180 and he doesn't go close to finishing it, Dad's patience can be tested.