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sipping this hoping the rocket fuel that is soju would help kill the germs scout asleep by candle and tv light the girls were very happy to see their mummy again i brought home this squeaky toy for them within 5 minutes scout rendered the squeaker inoperable miss hazel has officially hit puberty she s in season i had booked her in to get spayed on thursday but i ll have to delay it a month or so now look at the haul of jalapenos i picked this morning i use half a chilli in bolognese and casseroles so with these 12 i have enough for 24 meals there are still at least as many green ones growing so i don t think i ll need to grow any chillies next year i just halve them and pop them in the freezer i also put cloves of garlic and sliced up ginger in there too it saves me so much time and effort i thought i d share what i sent to my kids before i left for taiwan things weren t looking great with the oil being blocked in the straits of hormuz and with diesel fuel being the only way goods are conveyed around australia the price of everything is going to explode i filled my car and stocked up on things before i left and i wanted to give my kids and their partners a heads up ok i ll preface this by saying that i m the one with the zombie apocalypse cupboard in the laundry which meant that when covid hit i was totally prepared we had ample supplies of everything including toilet paper lol and it meant that we were fine as opposed to many others who were not i was looking at what was going on and i prepared accordingly that being said petrol is going to get real scarce real fast those of you who are using cars to get to work top up every 2 or 3 days yes it ll be a pain but a full tank of petrol means that you ll be able to get to work longer than other people will that s absolutely what i would be doing if i were still working at mckinnon if you have access to public transport then use it i don t care if it adds more time to your commute i m thinking that petrol in your car is going to be worth conserving fresh food will go up in price if farmers can t access petrol to drive their machinery keep an eye on what you have and don t let reserves run out before you go to buy more keep a stock of frozen peas etc in the freezer plant some silver beet as an example for fresh greens you all have access to gardens it s a win win situation you ll have greens and if things get dicey in the supermarkets you ll have nutrition if things are fine in the supermarkets you still have fresh organic food for free plus it s so satisfying to pick something you ve grown for dinner but yes keep an eye on your food reserves canned tomatoes and other things you eat that are in cans are worth stockpiling fresh food like onions whole pumpkins and to a lesser extent potatoes last well but of course only if that s what you eat i m thinking of you tom34 and your dislike of onions xx given what we saw in covid stock up on paper products such as toilet paper tampons pads paper towels and tissues no harm in doing this they won t go off and it s best to have a supply at home when people are going mental in the supermarkets ain t nobody got time for that haha i have just topped up my car i said to the guy in the petrol station that i saw that the straits of hormuz are pretty much blocked and that i didn t want to come back from taiwan 2 weeks from now and find that i couldn t top up my half filled petrol tank he grimaced and said that s probably a wise move if anyone tells you to move your superannuation accounts to cash ignore them this situation is not something that you need to change your investments for you have decades for them to recover i m trying to think if there is anything else i m leaving in a couple of days for taiwan also this is a little different because i m not the adult quietly preparing everything in the background and looking after you all while you remain in blissful ignorance of all i ve done you re not kids anymore please don t think i m being a crazy alarmist it s smart to put things in place to protect you and yours a lack of oil will have a huge cascading effect on pretty much everything that goes on i have spent your whole lives well my kids anyway protecting you and looking out for us when things go wrong i d be remiss if i didn t give you all a heads up as to what i think you should be doing now to look after yourselves this evening i stocked up on petrol tomorrow i ll be buying paper products and topping up my tinned goods as well as fresh food for my dog sitter i ll also be buying dog food everything i ve suggested you do is nothing earth shattering but if the shit hits the fan you ll be glad you put these things in place if we remain shit free happy days there s no downside to having a full tank of petrol and enough tampons to last the year love you all please consider what i ve written and make your own decisions just remember that i ve navigated a lot of rough seas in my time and i prefer to be prepared i love you all and i ll see you when i get back mum xxxxxx this morning while scout was sunning herself at the front door i read this blog post from annabelle s blog she lives on a farm in south australia so she is on the ground and can see the impact straight away that a lack of petrol has on our farming communities her blog and the comments from around the world make for sobering reading when i read her definition of the gatekeeper i thought of what i sent to the kids before i went on my holiday and i had to smile definitely a gatekeeper here her blog is well worth a look she and i are of a similar mindset in wanting to be prepared and utilising everything that comes our way she has a lot of very useful tips and ideas before i left i picked a heap of basil and left it to dry on racks in the laundry while i was gone this afternoon i ll pop it into the thermomix and chop it up while i was gone the basil i thought i d entirely picked has resurrected itself and gone gangbusters so i ll pick some more to dry i love the smell of basil i have many seeds for veggie crops so over the next few days i ll clear my veggie beds and see which seeds are viable i ve been slack the last couple of years and just bought seedlings for most crops it s silly when i have the seeds right here and can start off seedlings for some food crops after all i have dog sitters to keep any seedlings going if i m lucky enough to get to go on the holidays i ve booked thanks trump i said that i d show you what i bought for tom34 and soph they love doing jigsaws so i bought them an all black one it ll drive them nuts and yes i also bought a spatula i bought one as a souvenir in north korea back in 2018 and it s looking as if it will break soon i thought it was a good idea to bring its replacement back from another holiday why not i ve just realised it s lunchtime my internal clock is still a bit muddled from living three hours in the past in taiwan so i d better press publish and go and eat enjoy your sunday and have a little think about what you can stockpile it can t hurt and it might help dad joke of the day taiwan day 9 sharp edges and clear sight march 19 2026 frogdancer jones 2 comments today blogless sandy and i parted company she was keen to climb more steps on a hike near taipei 101 the building we visited on the first day here i wasn t enthusiastic but i was going to go with her until mel said that she was going to get new glasses we d had the option to do that in china but we didn t do it i ve always looked on that as a missed opportunity so i ditched blogless sandy and a small group of us set out in search of a clearer world with sharper edges getting new glasses fits nicely into my habit of buying useful souvenirs most shops in taipei don t open until 11am so we dawdled our way to the department store we killed some time at daiso where i bought a squeaky toy for the dogs a hair clip for georgia31 for looking after them a nonstick spatula to replace the one i bought in pyongyang in 2018 and the perfect gift for tom34 and sophie i can t tell you what it is as he may be reading this i ll show you a photo once i give it to them it made me laugh mel being a millennial had googled where to go to get glasses made on the same day so we followed like ducklings i decided that i wanted everyday glasses as well as reading glasses so here i am walking around the shop seeing if the lenses were ok being a frugal person who still likes her reading glasses frames i simply replaced the lenses on those oh see the lanyard my phone is hanging from we were given these when we rode the breezy blue train i ve been thinking about getting one so i was rapt here are my new everyday frames everyone was sharing what they were doing on whatsapp so we shared too we walked back to the hotel and i did what i did in copenhagen i gave myself half a day to rest i read the most amazing book the push by ashley audrain i napped and decided to write this post in 2 days i ll be back home so i wanted to recharge my introvert battery before it all starts again a few things about taiwan i ve forgotten to mention the garbage trucks play music just like our mr whippy trucks do imagine how many disappointed children of australian tourists there must have been over the years their attitude towards the japanese occupation is very different to china and north korea s japan conquered the other two countries and treated them terribly but taiwan was ceded to japan and was considered as fully part of japan for the 50 years that the japanese ruled taiwan they invested heavily in infrastructure the taiwanese seem to regard japanese rule as a mere fact not a mortal insult people here are really open and friendly even though taipei for example is a big city it feels safe and welcoming the pedestrian lights here have that wonderful feature of letting you know how many seconds there are to go before the light changes i wish they d do this in australia it s really handy it s not as bad as in japan but there are not many public bins around we ve learned to be prepared to carry our waste paper etc around with us food is incredibly important here the department stores make more money from their food courts than they do from the actual things that they sell people are constantly snacking i have no idea how they stay so slim this photo was posted in whatsapp with the caption look frogdancer an easy 600 steps to the top i was so glad to be in the glasses shop when that came through what a horrible set of stairs i thought as i was happily trying on different frames later when blogless sandy came back i heard the full horror there was no let up to the steps no flat portions to give people a breather it was 600 steps straight up even she said that if she d known that she probably wouldn t have done it but she did and said the thing that every fool who climbs up a crazy hill says the view was worth it we decided to give the night market a miss on our last night and instead we went down a tiny lane close to our hotel to a place mel told me about she d had beef noodles there the night before and said they were good beef noodles is apparently the most taiwanese thing you can eat so far i d never had it so being our last night it was now or never this was beef shank with flat noodles and it was delicious this bowl cost 120 ntd or 5 aud afterwards my little addict and i went back to the bubble tea place where after counting her coins she was ecstatic to realise that she had enough coins left for another bubble tea tomorrow morning before we leave for the airport dad joke of the day taiwan day 8 sun moon lake march 19 2026 frogdancer jones 2 comments here s a glimpse of sun moon lake through the trees as i was pretending to take a picture while i was fighting for breath on a crazy uphill climb why oh why do i climb things when i m on holidays we were driving back to taipei and this was a beautiful place to stop for a few hours to break the journey sun moon lake is the largest lake in taiwan it s in the mountains in central taiwan and is a huge holiday destination here it s not connected to any other body of water and is 748 metres above sea level the japanese made sun moon lake into a dam and increased the depth of the lake by 3 times the walk to the pagoda goes up 570 metres i was not a happy camper on the way up it was a long walk yes i was grumpy look at the size of this thing not only had i walked up 500 metres i still had to go higher frogdancer called blogless sandy from the top come up no i said but we all knew that i d got my breath back i was always going to climb up but ok the view wasn t bad i was still tired though but look at the mountains behind me those 3 tiny figures on the ground are cindy and a couple from the group that s how tall this pagoda is the lake went around three sides of the pagoda and the mountains encircled us entirely the entire interior of this island is covered with mountains and what mountains they re how mountains should be all straight up and down with fabulous shapes at the top we went down to the town for lunch then we wandered around for an hour or so we sat for a while on the harbour chatting with some of the group some kid probably went to drama school for 4 years to end up doing this boat time we had a little cruise on the lake before we went back on the bus i tell you my feet were looking forward to relaxing but not so fast we stopped off to walk up to another temple bloody hell what was strange about this temple was that the monk who founded it had his remains mainly just his head split in two the japanese took him back to japan when wwii broke out and then after the war they gave half of him back to be buried here in this temple half of him this was back at the dock when we came back down it s probably the monk in happier times mel took this shot looking behind us on the bus as we made our way through the traffic back to taipei this is the last day of the guided tour we have a free day tomorrow before we fly home on friday this man takes his pet pig to the night market every night i tell you what he s a big boy dad joke of the day taiwan day 7 alishan national forest park march 18 2026 frogdancer jones 2 comments these are betel nut trees people here like to chew them also they are used for chinese medicine to aid in digestion they were planted all over the place in the mountains as we saw on our way to the national park the national park is 2 300 metres above sea level michu picchu is 2 400 metres so this will be a little training if i feel breathless while walking around here i ll know to take altitude medication with me to sth america i felt fine and i was racing around the place as nimble as a mountain goat my ears popped three times while we were driving these mountains are high we left the hotel at 8 am and we didn t reach the park until after 10 it was a long drive much of it seemingly straight up the views were spectacular the mountains are so steep so every piece of flat...