Photos by MJ Klein, and anyone else who grabbed my camera!
We had been wanting to do another roof party for some time, but lately we’ve been battling bad weather. All during the week we were watching the weather forecasts to see if the approaching typhoon would veer off and spare us. It did! The party was a “go” for launch!
The clouds looked threatening, almost like they were saying that they weren’t going to give up so easily! But the threat of a storm turned out to be mostly more hot air.
I had been shooting photos in my foyer and had used a funky white balance setting. I forgot to reset the camera back to normal, and this explains the reddish hue, although the setting sun cast a huge red bath on everything so I do kind of like the effect. Hey, there are all these people out there screwing up their photos with Photoshop so if I tell everyone that I just ‘shopped them, then that makes my photos more “artistic” right? So that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
Andre (L), Olivia and Karen were in attendance. I’ll introduce the others in a moment.
The only thing that I don’t like about having roof parties is hauling up all the stuff to the roof. Thank goodness I had plenty of help or else it never would have happened. The cooler is packed with ice and drinks.
This is new father Asish, holding baby Susan. We’d never seen Susan before so it was a real treat having her with us!
The first thing that went on the grill were these pork ribs.
Using the top creates more of that smoky flavor. The ribs turned out very well.
I asked Olivia to take my photo….
She sure is cute!
This is new mom Selina, Ashish’s wife. Selena is holding Susan who has decided to take a little nap.
About this time, the sky began to threaten us with dark clouds.
The air was remarkably clear though and the Taiwan Straight was easily visible from the rooftop.
So far, so good, and the threatening clouds weren’t producing any rain.
Hui-chen attends to the grill while I talk with Selena. Not long after this we began to feel some raindrops.
The cloud formations were incredible!
A few drops did come down, and only enough to make some spots on the umbrellas, but the rain didn’t last and soon the clouds cleared out and the sky became bright and beautiful again.
This is salt pork and some burger buns toasting. The salt pork was incredible as always, but personally I was too stuffed to eat much of it. This is what happens when you lose weight and get accustomed to smaller portions as I have. I had to take a break from eating and come back later.
After awhile we took the umbrellas down to enjoy the sunset.
By looking at the shadows on the building in the background, you can tell how low the sun was. It cast a beautiful red glow on everything.
Hehe!
The day winds down….
We really enjoyed meeting Susan. She is so cute!
I wish I had taken this photo. Its cool because of the multiple lighting elements present. I like the glowing coals in the grill, and also teh street lights. The light was fading fast.
This was the last photo I took of the evening. We turned on the patio lights and lit the torches. Our party would down around 10:00 PM. It was a great ending to a perfect day of relaxing and eating.
The next day Hui-chen and I lazed around in bed for most of the day. We were so relaxed from the day before. We got up in the late afternoon and decided to grill some of the leftovers:
Outside, the neighborhood kids were playing a game of Dodge-Stickball.
I think I’m going to keep this relaxed feeling for several more days!
Thanks for reading!. We look forward to your comments below.
Looks like a great evening. Thanks for the nice pictures of the beautiful sky!
Joe, thanks for dropping by, and thanks for the kind words! we had a great time – a lot better than could be conveyed through photos! take care.
Can’t thank you enough MJ and Hui-chen. time and again we have wonderful memories of partying with you. Thank you so much for the great food and lovely photos 🙂 Glad the rain didn’t come down though. It was wonderful to see Andres and family too. It’s a joy to see Olivia talking and we already can’t wait for our Susan to start talking after watching her. Olivia’s photo of her taking picture of yours is so cute.
You are right about hauling stuff to the rooftop. It’s a pain mostly becuase I’m in a very bad shape 😛 but it was worth it man. I would haul those things 10 times to spend an evening on your rooftop haha.
I took that photo of grill and multiple lighting when Selina was grilling corn and mushrooms. I am surprised how well it turned out given that all I did was just push the button and let D80 do its job. I’m quite impressed with Nikon’s ability in low light. Looking forward to the next weekend already 😉
.-= Ashish´s last blog ..BBQ afternoon in Sanxia =-.
hi Ashish! it was a pleasure and a privilege to have you and your family over for the day. everyone had a lot of fun and we’re glad the weather held out too! thanks for the kind words. we’ll help you get into shape by carrying more stuff up to the roof soon! that photo you took was great! looking forward to getting some more photos in Miaoli next weekend! take care.
very nice pics especially of the stormy clouds, ty.
Dennis, weren’t those storm clouds incredible? i was spellbound by some of those formations and they were constantly changing. it was amazing to see in person and the photos don’t do them justice. thanks for stopping by and leaving us a comment!
Love those skies, and everyone just looks terrific.
Fili, it was a great day. wish you could have joined us! thanks for your comment.
WOW… nice looking cloud formations. Looking at those and I can’t believe that you only got a few raindrops.
Never had salt pork. The pork ribs looks pretty good… but I wonder how they compared to what I had this past weekend 🙂
.-= mike01905´s last blog ..2009 Phantom Gourmet BBQ Beach Party =-.
Mike, the rain bypassed us. we saw the clouds forming but they were quite some distance from us and also moving very quickly. behind them were clear skies so we knew if we could manage to hold out for the present time, it would clear out shortly, and it did.
the salt pork isn’t as salty as the name might imply. it’s seasoned with several spices and just right. we grilled them though, so they are not BBQ’d. however using the cover of the grill creates more smoke and smoke is what flavors food cooked in that manner. so they were grilled about as good as it gets. look for your guest article shortly! thanks Mike.
awesome and relaxing time! it was great to finally meet baby susan. of course, great to see ashish and selina as well. the food was excellent as usual, especially hui-chen’s burgers. despite the brief drizzle, the weather was almost perfect… slight sunshine with a breeze and not too hot. thank you and hui-chen for everything!!!
.-= andre´s last blog ..olivia goes #2 =-.
Andre, it was great having you and your family over again. the weather held up nicely and the food and company couldn’t have been better! Olivia was cute as usual and i got a few nice shots of her. we’re looking forward to the next time! thanks for your comments.
Looks like it was a lot of fun. Definitely more fun than the event S & I had to go to that night.
.-= cfimages´s last blog ..Photo Critique 1 – The Abandoned Car =-.
Craig, you have a standing invitation to join us when you’re not working!
You really have some amazing cloud pics. High vantage points such as these are incredible. We live in a beautiful country! Appreciate you sharing your rooftop experience. The food looks mouth-watering good too.
.-= Sandy H. ´s last blog ..Rarely seen mountains of Neipu= usually covered by clouds =-.
hi Sandy. we had the best situation because the clouds were rolling in and making all those cool formations, yet they were far enough away that we didn’t get rained on. yes we sure do live in a beautiful country. Taiwan is just incredible! hope you can join us someday for one of our parties. thanks for your comments and take care.
MJ looked like a great evening. Great pics as always. When I was the full picture of you I thought straight away that you have lost a few pounds my friend and then you confirmed this as I read on. Great stuff mate. Wish I was closer and could share the good times with you guys. There are a lot of fantaxtic people there in Taiwan.
.-= Brunty´s last blog ..You Know Andrew Biggs? Isaan Thailand =-.
Brunty, you are right – there are lots of fantastic people here in Taiwan, and we’re fortunate to know some of them. you’re going to have to visit us during your next holiday! the good news is that the weather is good enough for a roof party nearly all year around. thanks for your comments and take care.
Which city is it in these picture, MJ? Hsinchu City, North District? Or Taipei City? Or…?
.-= Thoth Harris´s last blog ..Various Photos (Mostly Taken in Hsinchu City) =-.
Thoth, neither. these photos were taken from our home in Hukou. thanks.