Holger Nygaard IV

Another great joy arrived in my life on February 5. Holger Nygaard IV. The fourth with that name, and the only name change is that I have decided to add a Swei, IE his mothers surname as his middle name. He was 52.5 cm tall when he arrived, and his weight was 3460 grams. (2+ months on, he's pushing 6500 grams, I think ). He arrived on cue, after a few hours of induced labor.

A nice little boy, who has given his parents many moments of happiness and joy. He's a fairly unassuming chap, he hardly ever cries, he does not suffer from colic, and he is able to sleep for up to 5 hours on a regular basis. He's a happy, curious and smart little boy.

It's not a secret that we are still living with Rebeccas mother the most of the time. She's not feeling too well, and she needs to be looked after. Moreover, she looks after the little one, which is her first grandchild. That makes it easier on Rebecca, which returned to work after 60 days of maternity leave.

In Taiwan, it's quite normal that mothers here don't get much in the way of maternity leave, and yes, it's a bit of a challenge to keep the breastfeeding going. We ended up importing a pump from the US, as the local models are shite. I will spare you for the photos, however it would appear to be working. Now the only challenge is to get Rebecca to use it more than 2 times per day, however it's merely a question of reminding her.

Babycare here in Taiwan is a little bit different from what I am used to. Back home in Denmark, babies sleep outside all year round. Not so here, where babies are kept inside. Not only are they kept inside, they are also wrapped up tightly. The wrapping of babies works well the first weeks, as they tend to calm down when wrapped, however I started to discourage the practice when the little critter turned one month, I think that he needs space to move. I can live with him not being outside that much. The air her in Taiwan is in general dirty and humid, you have centipedes, mosquitoes and snakes - not a place you would want to put your kid outside.

So what do we do with the young man when Rebecca is working? Quite simple, we put him up with a nanny who lives next door. She seems fairly experienced, she's managed to keep him without using diapers (whatever her secret is), and the only mishap was when she added milk powder to the pumped out mother's milk we are suppling her with. It caused the young man a bit of stomachache, however once we discovered that and got it corrected, no worries whatsoever. She's also carrying him a bit around, this week when Rebeccas mother was getting some surgery performed and stayed at the hospital. The nanny decided that it was too dangerous for the little one to stay with daddy alone, so he stayed with the nanny. She took him up to Yangmingshan north of Taipei with some friends, and they seem to have had a nice trip.

One thing I have always wondered about in its banality is that the first months go so fast. Holger has already changed a lot in the some 75 days he has been a part of our lives. The first year of a childs life are the most interesting IMO as they change so fast. As thy get older, the changes become more gradual, until you suddenly feel that time is standing still. It still moves and new challenges pop up, however not much compared to the first months. Holger has gone from sensing very much to becoming a very responsive curious and smiling little boy on what? 2 months. Wonder where he will be in another 2. Isabel's first months is a decade back, and I missed most of Eva's, so it's a journey of discovery for me too.

A great boy, he came on time, has been easier to care for than we thought to be, and he has brought nothing but joy into our lives.

The girls... last weekend.

This weekend we will look after Isabel and Eva as their mother is sick. i always relish having the chance to spend a bit more time with them - always good to be with them. We had them last week too and took them to Taipei - I forgot my camera, so no pics.

We did enjoy a very good lunch at JB's too bad they didn't have a children's menu, however the food was OK. the only issues were that their shepherd's pie came with cheese on top, and the serving of Irish stew was fairly small.

OK, however last Monday, Rebecca tried to capture me cooking, and the girls playing. It went rather well - I suspect that her love for staying behind the camera is mainly motivated by a fear of getting in front of it.

Dad - IE me was busy in the kitchen, making a meatloaf with fried potato patties, not very healthy, however the girls ate a fair bit. Especially Isabel, who is entering her growth spurt, and needs all the nutrition she can get in order to grow up. I like cooking for the girls - it's a great way of making sure that they get to taste something Danish. I also believe that the fact that they are served some home cooked food will make them fonder of their time spent with dad. That they will learn other sexual roles apart from the "dad watching TV, mum in the kitchen" one, might also come in handy when they start looking for partners, hopefully a long time from now.

Eva was happy entertaining herself and Rebecca by trying to get a few pics arranged, where she was together with the teddy bear we rediscovered in the attic.. Very cute. Isabel checking up on homework in the background. The kids get a lot of homework in Taiwanese schools. As long as it's math etc. I am happy, however learning Chinese characters by rote! Not good in my book. I was very unhappy with a school book of Isabel's depicting foreigners as stupid. Taiwan is such a small place who is so dependent on the outside world. Imprinting xenophobia is not the way to go.

While Isabel was polishing up her homework, I was busy n the kitchen, and Rebecca was helping me out with the table etc, Eva busied herself with TV. She prefers Taiwanese or Japanese cartoons, however I try to enforce a "Danish only" rule when it comes to TV watching. She watched, but was a bit unhappy, so she declined to have her picture taken - look at the picture to the right for details.

Isabel was busy with her homework - as usual. Rebecca told me that the amount of homework has decreased since she was a child. I don't remember spending that much time on it when I was at Isabel's age. Oh well. At least she seems to be coping rather well, and she learns a lot.

New car - sort of that is.

As some of you might have heard, my not too trusty Toyota Corolla died a good week ago. Quite a few warning signs actually, since I got it in May 2006, I have spent US$3000 on fixing it, new aircon, head gasket, timing belt, brake system, I rebuilt the somewhat ratty suspension, and I was looking at spending another US$1000 on getting a new automatic gearbox thrown into the damn thing, as the old one was shot. it looked nice, here's a picture.

The car was one Rebecca managed to get off a colleague, who claimed that the car was in great nick, and that it drove really well. We therefore bought it for a mere 300 bucks US.

A few of my gusts here might remember that I was driving a blue Yulon (Nissan) Sentra, which I bought off a used car dealer for a song in 2001. I called it the "blue bomb". It looked like shit, the paint job was peeling, a bit rusty around the edges, and apart from fuel and taxes, I could keep it on the road for US$500 per year. I spend less on it in 5 years (including what I bought it for) than what I wasted on the horrible toyota. There was nothing wrong with it when I scrapped it in May, it would have had to get the steering fixed and that would have been US$300 at the very most. I really miss that old rattly thing. It had 140,000 km on the clock when I bought it, I got another 110,000km out of it. Very cheap and extremely reliable transport indeed.

Well, back when I worked at Primasia, the boss gave me a car to drive, which was very good indeed. Actually the money for the car was taken out of the bonus budget for the research department. People were somewhat unhappy about that - however the car was really nice. Ford Escape 4WD, great ride, roomy and comfy, however very expensive in petrol. It left me with a taste for smooth rides, even though it was not assembled very well by Ford Taiwan. Too bad I could not keep it when I left the old sweatshop.

Ok leaving me with an acute need for transport forced me to look around in a hurry - I checked out 7 Nissan Cefiros (Called Maxima in the rest of the world), and 2 Honda Accords - I ended up going with a white nissan in fairly good nick. Not too expensive. It's a V6 engine, which won a few awards for design back when it was designed. It glides smoothly ahead, not a sound not a rattle comfortable indeed.

There are a few cheap and dodgy Nissans around, Taiwanese second hand car salesmen are a very shady bunch. The lies you get told... amazing. I saw engines ticking and pinking like no tomorow - when remarking on it, they would tell me that it was normal, and a sign of a car in good shape. Also, it's fairly common to adjust the odometer here - say from 260,000km to 60,000 KM. Always look at the gear selector. If it's worn smooth and the car is said to have only 70k km on the clock, walk out. Bait and switch, IE promising a nice car and then show you a heavily beautified lemon was too damn common. I only saw 2 cars I liked, and I bought the second one, after the mechanic had it up on his lift and took it for a spin.

Engine compartment looks OK, the engine is from Japan, the rest of the car is made in Taiwan. It will need a complete change of all fluids, the choker will have to be cleaned, the brake rotors will need to be machined, and all rubber hoses in the engine will have to be replaced - then it should be good for another 50,000km if I am lucky.

Drivers seat is very comfortable and well laid out. The climate control is a work of art. The CD player needs to have its light diodes changed - that should be cheap according to the mechanic.

Lots of luggage space - and all that for a mere 90,000NT.

I hope it lasts longer than the Toyota.

Driving across the central mountain range - December 3, 2006

Rebecca and I decided to take a litle Sunday drive last Sunday - visiting old stomping grounds, checking out future weekend getaways and in general enjoying a nice little day trip away from Yangmei. Very good idea - the weather a little wet and foggy, however not too bad, actually the best possible weather when driving around on a Sunday on Taiwan, as it keeps the hordes of locals at home, thus leading to less congestion on the mountain roads.

Well, my not too trusty Toyota Corolla went "poof" for good a bit more than one week ago, leving me with a rather acute transportation problem. The initial solution was to borrow Rebecca's mothers Yulon Sentra. It looks line something you would buy if your economy did not afford the relative luxury of a bus ticket, however it's in good shape and it did very well indeed.

Rebecca mother's car.

The plan was to drive up from Neiwan in Xinzhu county, visit the Yulao pass, drive on to my favorite camping ground, and then cross over on the almost rebuilt connection road to the North Cross Island Highway. We would then take the highway to Yilan, and double back through the newbuilt Jiang Weishui freeway to Taipei and on back to Yangmei. Simple plan - taking advantage of the flock mentality quite a few locals have when it comes to Sunday drives - everybody go to the same tired old spots and up the same roads, and if you drive on different ones, you might be lucky and avoid the crowds. As it turned out, we were very lucky, right till we hit the freeway, that is.

We set off fairly early - leaving Yangmei at 8:30 - passing through Neiwan before 9 AM meaning that we managed to avoid the crowds usually descending on the Neiwan area on weekends. We had a fairly fast drive up to the Yulao pass (altitude 1421 meters over sea level) - the road was in good shape, the car did well, and the traffic was very light. The Yulao pass is one of my favorite spots in Taiwan. If you look to the west, you can see the flatlands toward Xinzhu and the Taiwan strait, if you look toward the east, you get a great vista over a rather large part of the mountain range.

Showing here:

View toward the west - mountains, flatlands and the sea

View toward Taigang, home of a very nice homestay - it closed 3 years ago - sorely missed. Still a great location for a village.

View toward Milgaw - also called Maliguang in Chinese. My favorite camping spot is down there. The building in the middle of the picture is a school - right behind it is a great trail taking you up to some waterfalls and swimming holes. Great place indeed, I go there at least 5 times per year.

Most locals up in this part of the mountains are Polynesians - their tribe is called Atayal. They mainly live as farmers, day laborers, and off government handouts. The picture above is of a women selling sweet potatoes and cabbage. she's well bundled up - it was not that cold, actually.

Another woman there runs a cafe - Great views of the valley from the window tables. She's selling knives, vinegar, millet wine and honey on the side. I suggested her to install a stove in her cafe - in the winter it can snow up there. She was not too convinced.

We continued toward the north cross island highway - on the way I fell over some recently felled bamboo awaiting transportation down to the flatlands. The bamboo up there is of an excellent quality and a fair bit is exported to Japan. The growing and harvesting of bamboo is a welcome earner for hte locals. Unfortunately bamboo has rather shallow roots, so the increased growing of it has led to some enviromental degradation - in the wake of typhoons landslides are common below the bamboo patches.

A result of this can be seen in the picture to the right - beautiful dam - it looks nice, has a little waterfall, however the reservoir is completely filled up with gravel. Sad. OK a typhoon will take it out one day, and another one will be built.

The road toward the North Cross Island Highway was in fairly good shape. We only encountered a few narrow dirt patches, so we made good progress and reached Baling - the mid point of the highway and where we linked up with it - around noon. Time for lunch - pretty horrible as we choose a restaurant with Chinese fare. When in the mountains, I want to eat their salted spicy pork, bamboo rice, mountain pidgeon, and river shrimp - not fatty cold chicken served with stir-fried cabbage. Well, it was filling, and after finishing the meal, we set off toward the east and Yilan. Baling is the last major settlement before the Lanyang river valley is reached - it was not crowded, and the road toward the east coast was more or less deserted. As usually I had topped the tank off before leaving the flatlands, there are no tanks up on that strech, only 1 hotel and a mountain ranger station, and if you run out of fuel, you are out of luck. Cell phone coverage is good all over the road, so getting stranded is thankfully not an option.

The road goes up from 600 meters altitude at Baling to 1200 meters at the top point. It's a great drive, pine and cedar forests, always damp and very often foggy, does not feel like the Taiwan most know. However, Taiwan is mainly mountains, so most of Taiwan actually looks this way. Nice picture to the left.

...and here's another one.

Mountains and water - at the very top of the road.

Rebecca next to the car - not car sick which is quite unusual for her. Pretty well done, as the road was both rather winding and fairly narrow as well.

On the way down toward the east coast, we managed to encounter my preferred view - the sea of clouds - or more like a box actually, clouds above and below - a bit of a drizzle, and actually rather cold.

I was somewhat tired by the time we reached the Lanyang River valley (Lanyang River is the main river leading to the Yilan plain, which is the biggest alluvial plain on the east coast and the second biggest in Taiwan after the Tainan plains). We therefore decided to stop at a mobile cafe - not a coffee cart - no a lorry with a cafe on the bed. Cool - we had to get in.

Inside it was rather cozy - 6 tables, a small bar desk, 7 tables 20 or so chairs. Lots of windows, and not too woobly. The coffee machine was a gas heated 2 group Carimali by the way. Only draw back was the diesel generator - a bit noisy. Still a great idea - wonder when they get those in Denmark.

After our coffee break, we decided to head back - it was 3PM, and I was worried about teh traffic going back toward the west coast through the Xueshan tunnel. Justifuable so, because we ended up queued up in front of the damn tunnel for 1 hour. The tunnel is a marvel, 13 km long, 4 lane freeway, and the locals drive so slow in it that the control center has taken to broadcast warnings over teh loudspeaker system: "Car with license LC 0099, you are driving too slow please speed up", or "Please remember, you won't get fined if you drive less than 10km/h over the speed limit". The issue is that the speed limit is 70 in the tunnel against 90 on most of the rest of the freeway, you can't overtake in the 13km tunnel, so if you are stuck behind a road hog, you are screwed.

We made it home around 7PM, went to bed early, tired but happy after a great day. I like driving around in the muntains, or hiking in them river-tracing in them, or camping there as well. It has been an ambition of mine to try to make it across the island and back in one day - and I finally did it. 10 hours of driving time only, less than what I tought.