One of the many lovely things about living in tropical Taiwan is visiting the seaside and the smaller Taiwanese islands. In recent months I have been to 小琉球 (Lamoy Island), 澎湖 (Penghu), 馬祖 (Matzu) and 阿朗壹古道 (A-Lan-Yi Trail in Taitung).

Each has it’s own special characteristics and magic, but the most wonderful

Lovely cheesecake is quick and easy to make and it doesn’t require the oven. I was planning to write this years ago but each time I make cheesecake I judge quantities by eye and taste, making the ingredients list uncertain! Anyway, here we go…

Congratulations to 端傑 (Jerry) and 婷讌 (Winnie) who held their wedding celebration today in Taipei. Wish you both peace and happiness always.

As is common for students or singles in Taiwan, my flat doesn’t have a kitchen or any built in cooking facilities. In England this would be the end of the world - eating out on a daily basis would be either prohibitively costly, prohibitively unhealthy or just nasty. Basic home cooking facilities are essential in the UK, but in Taiwan the array and convenience of food options is amazing. Eating a good variety of reasonably healthy, yummy, hot meals “out” is not problematic. That said, there comes a time when you really want a change, without venturing further from home.

Postcards are fun. They’re meant to be an inexpensive way to share a message, moment or experience with friends or family. In the constantly connected world of Facebook, Twitter, et al, it’s much more meaningful to receive something physical, that someone has gone to the trouble of choosing, handwriting the message, remembering your address, finding stamps and a post box, in order to send to you.

In Taiwan, sending postcards is easy and cheap, only 2.5NT$ within the country (about £0.05) or up to 12NT$ for international airmail (~£0.24). Although I send quite a lot of postcards, the cost has never been prohibitive here.

I recently discovered Royal Mail in the UK are, once again, increasing their prices. From March 31st it will cost just less than one whole golden pound to send an international airmail postcard, £0.97 in fact. I know in some European countries the cost is similar, more than 1€. This seemingly huge disparity led to some “back of an envelope” calculations…