Button moon, the man in the moon ....

It is that time of the year when the moon is ruling over each and every one of us. Now when I was a child I was led to believe that the moon was made of cheese and in some cases cream cheese (that western thing about cheese again). Having been here almost 4 years I am now convinced that the moon is in fact made of cake, to be more specific moon cake, and what a lot of cake there is! My office this week has been over run by moon cake, big cake, small cake, square cake, round cake ... but all with one thing in common the moon.

I am not actually sure what moon cake is made from, it certainly doesn't resemble the surface of the moon and I still don't have much idea what is in the middle of the moon, but I don't think it is a strange yellow colour. I am just going to pop off now and have a google .... ok, a moon cake may contain:

• Filling: 1 pound red azuki beans, water, 3/4 cup lard or oil, 1-3/4 cups sugar, Water
• Shortening Dough: 2 cups flour, 5 tablespoons lard, 10 tablespoons water, 1/4 teaspoon salt

Firstly I note a lack of chocolate , poor me, moon cake is commonly, red bean (not so yum yum), lotus seed paste (hmm interesting), jujube paste (no idea what that is, subject to another google later), five kernel (a mix nuts that sounds respectable), and oh so Taiwanese, mung beans (on a par with red beans). I think over the years I must have tried them all and those with a salty egg yolk in the middle (definitely not convinced about that one), conjuring images of the moon.

Well I have been slowly nibbling away on the assortment of moon cakes here and by far the best was pineapple (not actually a moon cake at all). My taste buds still struggle, even after 3 years of moon cakes, to get accustom to the sweet yet savory taste of the cake.

I have yet to try the Haagen Daaz moon cake, which I assume is in fact ice cream and seems to go against all tradition in so many ways, but now maybe a good time to try ... whilst I am still in search of a traditional chocolate moon cake ....

To go or not to go ...

the long weekend holiday of the 6th to the 10th of October will be upon us soon and with that in mind we are planning a trip to Bangkok. But alas it seems that the people are plotting against us and have decided to implement marshall law in Thailand. But all being well we'll still be off there, I am told there is no reason not to go!

It is now Wednesday and memories of Tokyo are fading away already, I have to keep looking at the photos to remind myself, the joy of digital photography! Speaking of digital photograph, I am struggling to get to grips with the new Samsung NV3, pictures are definitely hit and miss, this maybe down to user error (I am no techno puppy anymore) or the shear complexity of it all. But I am failing to simply point and shoot, and whenever anyone else tries to use it, the same happens to them. I guess I really need to get to the manual and have a damn good read. Thankfully my new Nixon watch (pictured above) functions a lot better and always gives good results when it comes to telling the time, ah the simple things ..... and it matches my glasses, I fear that as I get older I am actually becoming more fashion conscious.

Over the weekend saw three birthday bashes, the first on Friday night with a friend from Singapore, and wow what a night! We definitely had way too much to drink, trying most of the bottle behind the bar and making a large dent in everyone's wallet. Needless to say Saturday was a washout for everyone with the exception of me, for some reason I didn't have a stinking hangover and woke (although very late) feeling generally fit and well. Saturday night was some alfresco beers at Cafe Deliha in Hsimen, drinking beer outside under the stars is quite a pleasant way to pass an evening.

Sunday evening was a quiet birthday dinner of Chinese food, quite yummy, and this was followed up last night with yet more drinks under the stars and a small birthday cake .... I think even after all these birthdays, I am still looking forward to the next one .... who will be next ....

Tokyo and the singing ....

And now I am back! What a week, Tokyo, Tokyo, Tokyo! Firstly I have to say the place has change significantly since I was last there some 16 years ago, and I must say say for the better.

Well the purpose of the trip was to see Madonna's Confession Tour at Tokyo Dome last Wednesday night. What a show .... not a lot to say really, it was fabulous, she was fabulous and there was never too much arm waving. A great mix of both the old and new songs, plenty of dancing and a touch too much politics, but politics aside (her point being well and truly made) the night was great.

the 2 hours seem to fly by and before I knew it, we were all Hung-up and the show ended .... quite a come down after such a fantastic ending.

It was then off to the bars to mix with the other Madonna fans, readily spotable by their big grin and constant humming of one of the many hit tunes! Another late night saw me wake up blurry eyed and fly back to Taipei to sleep once again in my own bed!

Snap happy ....

It is time to say a big goodbye to my Pentax Optio S one of the smallest cameras around, however that is one of the reasons why it had to go. With my ever shaking hands (not alcohol related, I just shake) most of my happy snaps where a little blurred around the edges, so I decided to get something a little more weighty and that had some sort of anti shake gizmo.

After my experience with cell phones I have become a bit of a fan of Samsung (sharp in take of breath by a few of my friends ... Korea isn't so bad you know) liking their solidness, look and feel. Not being any sort of budding David Bailey behind the lens I decided to go for a simple point and shoot. Although as most people know in the world of gadgets the word simple has been set aside and whilst a point and shoot is available there are a thousand and one other things to fiddle and play with, tempting you away from the ever so simple simplicity of it all.

I am now armed with Samsung NV3, 7.2 Megapixel, MP3 and movie player, with built in speakers so you can have tunes on the move. It looks good, it fells goods, and I have still don't have much of an idea how it works. My days of being a techno puppy are numbered as I find I have a tendency to stick to simple and shy away from all those other frilly bits. As for the MP 3 and movie playback function (not supported on my MAC) I am not sure I need them, that's what my ipod is for, is it not? Most people that know me, know I am driven somewhat by shiny new gadgets, but alas I am still at aloss with respect to all these multi function devices. It seems everything you buy today comes with an MP3 player, presently I would need to set aside a good hour or so before any trip to select and update all the music on my various MP3 playing gadgets and I am sure it would be too boring to have the same music on everything electronic.

Now I have dilemma do I fill my camera with music or take my ipod? More gadgets means more chargers, more changers means more adapters, more adapters means more electrical sockets ... and as any traveler knows hotels are not big on providing electrical sockets... oh and I am sharing a room, how many gadgets will he bring, how many chargers? Now I have to take an extension lead ... multi sockets everywhere! Thankfully both my ipod and nv3 will charge from my mac's USB, shame that my cell phone won't (bad bad Samsung). Well I better get back to it, it will take longer to pack my gadgets than my clothes .... mustn't forgot the video camera, the ipod solar charger, PSP and games ..... oh so much to remember .... better get started ....

And it rained .....

and rained and rained. It was the same in Hong Kong as here, nowt but rain. I landed in HK last Wednesday night and it poured, and for the rest of the weekend and once back in Taipei on Sunday it rained even more!

Apart from the rain I had a good time in Hong Kong again, got plenty of work done and sank one too many beers on Friday night with my colleague who has decided to leave HK and return to the UK, best of luck to him.

As usual with my trips to HK is consisted of shopping and more shopping with my usual trip to Marks and Spencer to but some larger than usual clothes, and fill up on Jaffa cakes and salt and vinegar crisps. I am now convinced that Taipei only sells clothes for thin beautiful people, anyone with a hint of a love handle better look elsewhere.

I also took the opportunity to buy a new pair of glasses, as featured above, these are incredibly light weight and are fashioned from Bamboo (which I hope isn't affected by the ever so damp weather we are having). I am still not sure about their look, or more importantly how they look on me, but like all these things I need to get used to my new face! So apart form work and catching up with old friends from the UK that was the weekend.

At present I am doing battle with travel agents and websites to try and find a hotel in Shinjuku for next weeks trip to Tokyo ... all is proving very difficult. Flights are fine, but Shinjuku seems to be ever so popular, I just wonder why, unless of course I am prepared to pay stupid money for the hotel. Well it is nice to have a challenge, a bit disappointed in travel agent, but seems they're having problems as well and are at the mercy of both China Airlines and the local agents. A case of hotels holding out to get a better price, but we'll see, usually success comes with perseverance ... well I better get on and sort it ....

Happy holidays ...

It is that day again, Friday, the end of another week and the start of the weekend. This week I managed to buy nothing but boy o boy did I eat a lot, it seemed to be dinners galore (once I even cook a meal at home). So at the moment the famous 'Paul is on a diet' routine has taken a big nose dive and I am living on processed food, far too much cheese and my weakness for chocolate. Talking of chocolate is made a mistake when scanning the small chocolate shelf in 7-11 and picked up a bar of Meiji 99%, extremely dark chocolate, in fact so dark there is no room for any sugar! Awful, I have been slowly trying to eat when I am drinking a sweet cup of coffee, but after almost a week I still have plenty left.

Today, as people will know by the date, is the start of September and a long line of birthdays (Chinese New Year seems to be a popular time for people to enlarge their family!). The first of which is tomorrow then a series every week upto the end of month. I guess I should attempt to go and get some birthday cards, perhaps the same one for everyone that makes things easier, but we'll see.

Still in the process of planning a happy holiday to Japan towards the end of the month and then away again I hope for the October double ten holiday for a longer than usual weekend. But again I have no idea where to go ... there are so many places, yet I find it almost impossible to actually choose somewhere. My list is growing every longer but that only makes the choice even harder. In order to help me out of this cycle I am now looking for somebody to just tell me where to go and drag me off somewhere warm and lovely.

On the subject of warm and lovely, or cold and wet, I will off back to the UK for a week or so at the beginning of December as my brother (after a long time) has decided to take the plunge and get married, but sadly I will miss Christmas again in the UK, as I don't have enough time to stay until then.

Oh ... next week I think I will be popping over to Hong Kong, a bit of business and a bit of pleasure and some of the other ... shopping shopping! Seems strange lately than I can't find anything to complain about .... blogs with people whinging about something always seem to be more popular, I refuse to comment on the current political situation, but if I recall it is the Lesbian, Gay and Transgender 'festival' in Taipei (City Hall) on the 17th, sadly I am not here then ... hopefully I will still be here this time next year for the next one ..... The photo is how I used to look before the beard ..... should it stay or go .....