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.