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 ....

More of my watches ...

Here are 3 more watches I have that go along with my Pimp, first by Fusion, then 125 and lastly is Scope (perhaps I need another hobby?). If I get really bored I'll start putting up pictures of Astroboy! Visit Tokyoflash for more cool watches.

Hate movies, in love with my Pimp!

I did it, I did it, I actually went to see a movie, wow, and I have to say it was as bad as I remember it being. After 2 hours or so of bum numbing I had no idea what I had just watched let alone the point of the film. Ok being fair the movie was well made and period details were there in abundance, however, it was a Chinese film, The Banquet. I am still trying to work out what the title has to do with the movie and why they couldn't up the frame rate, even the action scenes were in that 'dramatic' slo-mo effect, adding minutes and minutes to whole film. If they ran it at normal speed it could have all been over in an hour. I guess my lack of understanding may have come from forgetting to read the sub-titles and trying to understand what little mandarin I could or my general lack of cultural understanding about what I was actually being shown ... oh well I'll see what I make of my next movie ....

Then the evening began ... Sometimes Taipei throws up some good and exciting surprises. After a Saturday night of too much Stella, Sunday started off quite slowly. Both I and 'K' couldn't muster up enough energy to actual go out and do something productive. So it was decided that an afternoon of shoe shopping in Hsimen was the order of the day. Well Hsimen was as busy as ever, we popped in to the toy shop, but alas no interesting Astro boy themed things, we then went a head and visited shoe shops and more shoe shops, for the life of me I couldn't remember where I bought the pair that my cat decided to eat (a whole other story). Having no luck in the shoe department, I guess my heart wasn't really into it, 'K' suggested we go take a look in the 'watch' building (apparently used to be a popular store until the big fancy malls came along).

As if guided by fate the first shop we stuck our heads into had what I couldn't find in Tokyo ... Pimp. Now Pimp is synonymous with LED watches and tends to lead the way in terms of styling, after seconds, maybe even minutes of thinking, I had chosen my selection. I then left 'K' to do the required negotiations on price, I just had to wait armed with my credit card. After what seemed like an age the price was agreed and payment made. I left a very happy bunny!