A weekend with Auntie ....

Auntie Stella, Stella Artois to be exact. It was one of those weekends that saw me spend more time in a bar than actually at home with my feet up. Friday was one of those strange nights that saw me go out for no particular reason, other than I fancied beer. Although it was nice to catch up friends of old and the new ones. We decided to head off to Dalida in Hsimen for some European Alfresco drinking, and being of a European theme I decided to make in roads in to the cold Stella (French I do believe).

That decision seemed to dominate the theme for the rest of the weekend. Saturday night my dearest friend 'J' decided to celebrate his coming birthday and we headed off to the beer bar in the now not so new Eslite book store near city hall MRT. Well ... well ... I have not been there before and I probably won't make much of an effort to go there again! Whilst the company was as excellent ever, the bar cum restaurant was frankly bizarre. Offering a German style this and that, but mainly the food, it was some what disappointing, with fairly average food and one of the strangest atmospheres I have experienced in Taiwan.

We were greeted by the sound of an odd looking fellow dressed in typical Spanish costume (not sure what happened to the German theme), singing out of tune many popular crooning songs, and boy oh boy could he croon, thankfully he did take a break. However when his crooning finally ceased we had the onslaught of Taiwan youth, laughing loudly in that child like way they do and the high pitched voices of the young girl, never have my ears suffered so much punishment in space of 90 minutes! But at least the beer was cold and wet and tasted quite good. So if you fancy a night like this, you know where to go ....

After my ever so interesting dinner we headed off again to Dalida for yet more alfresco drinking and thankfully a big absence of high pitched girls, there are some benefits of drinking in bar only frequented by men with deep husky voices, how pleasant it all was. We continued to then celebrate 'J's birthday with photos galore and very nice baskets of fried chicken .....

Despite these two late (ish) nights I failed to sleep in very late on either Saturday and Sunday morning so was a little zombie like through out the day time. Still in a zombie state I got a call from a friend who was in town from Hong Kong, who had heard of Taipei's new alfresco drinking area and convinced me, with out two much arm twisting, to go once more for a glass Stella. A pleasant Sunday night was had by the both us, oh and again more of that fried chicken. All in all the quiet weekend that I thought I longed for last Thursday once again didn't materialise, but what did appear in its place was thoroughly enjoyable and you never know, next weekend might be different, but for some strange reason i am not sure it will be ....

Remember, rember ....

The fifth of November, as the song goes, and I forgot! This weekend seemed to be pretty much like the rest mainly consisting of drinking too much. Which may be the reason I forgot all about Guy Fawkes night (Bonfire Night). In summary the night consists of celebrating the failed attempt by Guy Fawkes to kill the King (Charles I) and blow up the houses parliament. To this day we celebrate by building big fires (Bonfires) and burning an effigy of Guy Fawkes, strange but true, accompanying this we usually have fireworks as well. This day being the only day in the UK where you can legally use fireworks and keep them in you home.

Contrasting this 'ceremony' I attend my third wedding party on Saturday night, and had a thoroughly nice time. Weddings in Taiwan never cease to amaze me, from having the wedding parties months before you are even married, and having the photos taken before that! The eevr changing dresses of the bride during the dinner (so designed to prevent them actually eating at the dinner). Finally I think I understand the whole hóng bāo (red envelope) thing and can now estimate how much the required offering should be to ensure a box of biscuits!

In a nutshell that was my weekend .... somewhat busy without actually achieving a great deal, although I did manage to resist the temptation to buy the new cute Ipod shuffle, but maybe I won't be able to overcome that temptation for long .... we'll see ... oh and I still need a bloody pair of shoes, let the challenge begin once more.

Happy Halloween ...

Another weekend has flown by and I must admit this one was a little more drunken than the last few ones. My current project here in Taiwan has started its wind down process and people are gradually leaving to either return home or explore pastures new. Last Friday saw yet another one of my colleagues celebrating his imminent departure, and to that end we decided an evening in Carnegie's was the order of the day. To be honest I had gone with intention of leaving at what could be considered a reasonable hour ... but, and isn't there always a but ... that didn't happen. 'K' called me and decided to come down and aid in the celebrations so I stayed a little longer than anticipated and not being a cola and Evian fan had one too many pints of Boddingtons. On leaving the bar the night sort of fell apart, which for poor 'K' saw him struggle to get me home. However with the help of a stranger on the street and finally assistance from 'J' (who has experience of this situation) I finally found a place to sleep in the middle of the living room floor, what a sorry state of affairs.

When I finally managed to wake up on Saturday morning are drag my arse out of bed (having earlier woken thinking WTF am I doing asleep here) the realisation of the escapes of the night before began to return, inevitably followed by embarrassment (oh no not again!). Having got over that, it was time to head off to Hsimen with 'K', 'J' and 'M' (they usually come together) and Mr 'M' and hit the costume shops as tonight was the Halloween party in bar Fresh.

As can be seen in the photo I did actually manage to find something I could squeeze into, and what a fetching little red number it was, that perfectly accentuated both my boobs and my bum. So around 10:30pm I threw on my outfit and a bit of lippy (doubling up as rouge as well to get that rosy cheeked look or is it a drunken look?) and headed off to the street to get a Taxi.

Whilst hanging around on the corner like a lady of the night I was accosted by a young Taiwanese couple who thought I was so funny they had to have a photo taken with me, and in true Taiwan tradition they did of course happen to have a camera with them! After this i was bundled in to Taxi and whisked away. Throughout the trip the Taxi driver, whilst appearing not to want to, kept glancing in his review mirror. I think there was a great deal of confusion, was this a bloke in a short red dress, or in fact had his experience with foreign woman mislead him and in fact there are women out there with a goatee beard and a voice deeper than Marge Simpson. I can only speculate about what he was thinking but I am sure there were many minutes spent in the Taxi man beer bar debating the issue.

After the night of gin and tonic, several compliments and lots of squeezes I some how realised that it seems I look sexier in an ill fitting, cheap red dress with overly red cheeks than I do in my coordinated Marks & Spencer outfits with my young looking silky smooth skin ... so as to my future as man ... I really don't know, perhaps there is something else I need to ponder, but some how I don't think it is going to become a habit .... let the next party begin!

Big feet, small inches ....

Firstly on looking for an image to support this topic I found this picture, if anyone actually knows what it means i would appreciate a response, isn't it funny the things people said in the good old days. Well it made me chuckle, and glad that men's underwear design had moved on a little in the following years.

Last week having had my massage and a good scrub down, I noticed, with some embarrassment, that my shoes are in a bit of a state. So Sunday i decided to go on another shopping mission and buy a pair of comfy shoes for work. As they are for work i want smart, but casual, nothing overly formal. So off we set, firstly a quick trip to AsiaWorld, avoiding Toys R Us as more toys I don't need. After a good wander we drew a blank ... and then another, and then another.

I have never considered myself to have big feet 10 to 11 (UK size) is not uncommon in the UK, however here in Taiwan seems I have not just big feet, but huge feet! I eventually realised that no matter how hard I tried the largest shoes stocked my nearly all shoe stores (a 9) would not go on (this Cinderella was definitely not going to the ball!). So in the end I had to give up, I will have to wait for my trip to Blighty in December to pick-up a pair ... sigh sigh another thing on the ever growing list of things to do.

Yesterday i managed to find the energy to go swimming, like riding a bike people say you never forget how to do it, however, when i set off swimming i realised i had forgotten. My usual escapades in a pool are having paddle and short dips nothing serious. Once I tried to actually swim lengths, efficiently, I realised that I had forgotten how to do the things i had been taught, most importantly breathing. I think after last nights swim i actually gained weight after drinking large amounts of pool water (no so yummy, but on a par with cheap beer).

I am going to try and stick with it and hopefully regain my composure, I will gliding through the water like a Walrus soon, I hope .... ah another hope, that list is getting longer as well ....

Work, work and work ....

that's how the week has been, mainly concerned with work. The weekend came and went and was pretty much back to normal, drink, eat, drink, shop. Memories of all my recent trips are fading as things get back to basics.

More problems at my home in the UK as the central heating boiler has packed up and the temperatures have dipped. There are no plumbers to found anywhere as the rest of the UK also turn on their boilers for the first time after the summer and realise that theirs has also given up, oh and the blinkin' phone doesn't work either. So I am guessing that my trip back to UK in December won't be all fun!

There are some strange shenanigans with my bank account with somebody, somewhere taking money out and then putting it back! All seems shifty to me, anyway I will do battle with bank and see if I can resolve the issue and hopefully regain my losses.

Sadly my attempt to go swimming at the gym has been slightly hampered, firstly by drinking too much over the weekend, swimming with a hangover is definitely no fun, and secondly they closed it for a few days to do some maintenance / cleaning work ... sigh, sigh .. guess I am going to stay fat a little longer. I will reveal my weight again soon for those with an interest, although as can be seen for the picture of me drinking a healthy banana shake, I am not getting much thinner. Hopefully I'll get refocused soon .... until then I'll just have to keep on working!

That holiday feeling ....

They come and they go, short vacations, and another one has gone by. The mid-autumn festival and national day long weekend vacation saw me, 'K' and 'J' head off for what was 4 night 3 day vacation to Bangkok for what can be best describe as shopping, food, shopping, food, shopping, food and drink. This trip saw my (and 'K's) first experience of Babylon Barracks. I opted for a larger room that caters more for 'couples' as opposed to the other rooms which cater more for those with a more singular lifestyle. All in all I was quite impressed with the hotel and the sauna facilities and have no real crticism, service was as impeccable as ever and the staff friendly and helpful.

Whilst I was there I did part take of 2 massages, one body oil thing and one whole body salt scrub. I have never been much in to massages however with age I guess my tastes have changed and I thoroughly enjoyed them. After the salt scrub my skin was as soft as a furry peach (even though a peach has a bit more fur than I do), sadly, against my expectations the salt didn't dissolve any of my fat and I had to have a quick dip in the pool to get rid of that.

Speaking of pools, I actually made to the gym the other and managed to swim a good few lengths (10 I think) although I did have to take some long breaks in between to catch my breath and attempt to slow down my heart beat! I will go again and see if I can some small improvement s in my performance, who knows I may actually get to enjoy it ....

So today is Friday, the end of another week, this week I was lucky enough to get to relive the UK experience by paying large amounts of money for a new passport. It is scandalous that they can charge you nearly 7,000NT$ for a passport and not even deliver it to your door. Memories of rip-off Britain come flooding back, oh and my head was too small so need to have a new photo, rules are rules and the British government loves its rules!

Right time to prepare for the weekend ....

Freedom, what is it ......

It was interesting to read recently that Taiwan had received top rankings in terms of political freedom and a couple of other things. All of which I find highly aplaudable, however ... there is always but ...

I have now been living in my home of Taipei now for nigh on 4 years and as those that know me, am not in a rush to leave, and what amazes me is how the the city hampers my freedom to safely walk around. I guess we all view freedom is different ways, but sometimes the freedom to do simple things are the ones that we find the most difficult to do with out. What amazes me is how much freedom is given to road users over of those of the pedestrian (namely me).

I often wonder what goes on in heads of city planners. From leaving my home in the morning to arriving (safely) home at night I gasp at what goes on around me. The struggle to walk along the pavement because of scooters parked erratically along the pavement, not to mention those who see the pavement as a short cut to the congested roads. To the crossing of any road where it is a competition with the road users trying to beat red lights or making quick right turns to get across first.

The use of the running green man at first amused me when I came to Taiwan, now I realise it is a serious piece of safety advice, it is a road crossing, you must run! But then I read that Taipei City government had decided that we pedestrians had too much time to cross the roads and decreased most of the crossing times in favour of the road user! What they needed to do was delay the permitting of right turns until the majority of pedestrians had made it across, but I guess reducing the time makes that little green mans legs go faster and hence ours!

Those days of meandering down wide boulevards and pavements are gone, as you are required to remain vigilant in case of errant pavement driving scooters and day dreaming cyclists (not to mention women armed with leathal umbrellas).

My thoughts on this were all brought together last night when on the bus home, yes I became a road user, and the bus struggled to get down the narrow streets due to illegally parked or waiting cars or people who had chosen to walk along the road (particularly those with wheelchair's) because of the scooters and vendors on the pavement.

Perhaps if I owned a scooter or a car I would would think differently ... but I hope not ... things may change one day, I hope, and we will be given back our walking freedom and space ....