Here's a random sampling of what we've been up to this summer: Beach parties, weddings, road trips, making music, family visits, dinner gatherings, night market outings and more. A nice way to spend this last season of ours in Taiwan :-)
Last Saturday Studio Classroom celebrated our 45th anniversary. We held a big rally at Taipei's World Trade Center Auditorium, and invited a few thousand people. It was a fun show. 
Jamaican/American piano genius Huntley Brown hammers out a calypso tune
Hazel and Larry perform a magic trick 
Angus and Zorina deliver another song 
Song "Oh Happy Day" -- some of the Studio Classroom teachers came out to do the backup vocals, and also a little rap. That's me, second from the right
...and the crowd goes wild ;-)
The following week we had our annual ORTV retreat, out at Green Bay on the northeast coast of Taiwan. A nice time of rest and reflection. Here Heavenly Melody serenade
Doris and the rest of the audience listen to another speaker 
It was fun being in the band and make music for the introduction of each session. My treat to play alongside Angus and Solomon and Steve. Thanks also to Bob for lending me his red Stratocaster while mine was getting a tune-up! 
Hanging out with Dale Wine. Dale has family living in Calgary, of all places. Maybe our next meeting place will be there
Vance and Marci and their daughter Mikayla are friends of ours. Often Marci and Vivian will get together so Mikayla and Fiona can play. They also have a blog: frypics.blogspot.com, which happens to have some photos of Fiona and Vivian on it!
Recently all of us went out to the RaoHe Night Market for some snacks and entertainment. Gareth and Vance rode their bikes to get there
Stopping for some Pakistani meat wraps... mmmm
Shan zhu rou -- wild boar! One of these days I will stop here and order a plate 
I don't know what this is called, but it's a very old Chinese beauty treatment. The ladies have their faces powdered with flour, then a thread is used to extract hairs and make the skin look prettier 
The symbol of the RaoHe Night Market: A night owl. This makes me think of Studio Classroom's own owl logo :-) 
About a week later we all took a trip to the Fins Taipei aquarium in ShiLin. Since Fiona is such a big fan of fish, we thought she would enjoy the outing 
Lots of colorful tropical fish on display, plus anemones and other creatures
Cool jellyfish
Don't know what this thing is -- some kind of crustacean
A placid-looking octopus regards us from his home
Cowfish snacking on algae on top of another sea plant
'Tis the season to be jolly! Here's how we spent Christmas this year
At this year's annual ORTV Christmas rally. The theme was "Christmas and You"
Another annual tradition: The HOP Christmas Party at Pastor Kirt's house. We played the unwrap the present game, and had a white elephant gift exchange 
Christmas Eve was on Sunday this year, so there was a service at the House of Praise. The HOP has moved to a new location now, in the nearby district of Neihu. The Huguang Church has welcomed the HOP to join with them in this nice new building
Cute kids sing in the Christmas program
Pastor Kirt and Meilan share the message
Lunch was served on the patio afterward. Lily and Jenny smile for the camera
Benjamin and Nicholas
Christmas Day: After opening our presents at home in the morning, we popped over to Steve and Angus's house in the afternoon for a meal and some Christmas celebrating. Andrea, Melissa and Marci share the joy. Melissa flew in from London to visit before traveling to Bangkok
Angus, Gareth, Leo, Vance, Beth and Melissa
Vivian and Fiona find themselves caught between two love birds...
Fiona and Mikayla knock out a duet on the piano
Last Friday was Nya's last night with us at Friday night live. She leaves for a job with Club Med in Indonesia next week. 
On the road again! Back to the east coast, this time on two wheels. Gareth and Vivian and Fiona and several work friends arranged a fun overnight holiday to one of our favorite Taiwan destinations
Rolling on the east coast nightway, enjoying the Pacific Ocean view, the cool breezes and the craggy terrain
One of the day's destinations: Long Dong (the Dragon Hole). Gareth looks north toward Bitoujiao (Nose Head Cape)
Easyriders from left: Liz and Phil, Gareth, Steve, Matt, James, Rachel, Angus (front). Daniel's not in the photograph because he's behind the camera. Thanks for these pics, Daniel :-)
More Long Dong scenes... we hoped to go cliff-jumping here, which I have done before, but the water was too choppy that day. Later on we got our water fix by swimming down at Fulong Beach
Funky geological features here on the east coast
Steve takes a breather on the rocks as the surf continues to pound
On the great wall (sort of): Angus and Gareth wave
After checking out the Gold Waterfall, it's time to saddle up and get on the road again
Looking back on the Bitoujiao lighthouse trail
Vivian and Fiona are here too! They drove along in the car to meet with us later. On the first evening we all stayed in a little B&B in Jinguashi (Gold Melon Stone) mining town
On the drive back home, we took the long route over Yangming Mountain. The sun casts wonderful sheets of twilight over the sleepy hilltops
...and here's a little video of our road trip adventures (part 1)
(part 2)
