Friday, November 18, 2005
It's five in the afternoon but it feels like eight. Burdened pewter clouds carpet the skies, luminated by skyscrapers and city lights. Couples link arms, hold hands and pull each other close for warmth against icy winds that sweep through red bricked streets. In the parks that dot the central, lovers snuggle up on park benches, stealing kisses in the dark. On a street corner an old woman sells candy from a scratched plastic tray. A rusty brown cardigan that must have once been red provides little protection from the cold for her. Wrinkled hands jiggle the tray hopefully, head bowed low, eyes fixed on her shoes avoiding contact. she sways side to side whispering secret things to herself as she plies her trade. Strays dogs roam the streets, friendly but wary of any strangers. Too often has supposed kindness ended in a harsh beating for them. Me? I checked into a seedy hotel.
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That's right i can't resist anymore i've decided the revive my blog. Given that i don't have my laptop yet despite my recent trip to taipei (My overseas daily overdraft credit wasn't high enough). I've decided to use the good ol' fashioned 10 yuan coin to make it happen.
For those of you who don't already know i'm in taiwan now. Serving a one year overseas posting for my NS liability. I was originally sent to a camp near the south but as of now i'm in Hu Kou to support one of frames for december. For those of you who didn't catch that, join the army. The last frame just ended last week so for now i get 4 days off seeing as how my weekends where shortened whilst they were here.
From the first paragraph you might have guessed, i've just been on a trip to taipei to engage in one of my favourite sports; shopping! Some of you out there might not consider shopping a sport. Most respectly i must call you a git. Of course it's a sport! Think about it, bargain hunting, the thrill of the chase, one shop to another, bargaining, comparing shop prices, split second timing, clock work schedules, escalator dashes, synchronised shopping, tag team shopping. It's a mental game too, the outsmarting of shopkeepers, the waiting game, the coy words, classic moves and fits of fury.
Rather than say soccer which seems to me to be just an excuse for grown ups of the same gender to touch each other. Have you ever seen what happens when a person scores a goal? Most of the team ends up on top of that one person. Of course some say it's all in the excitement of scoring a goal. Or so we think. Seeing as how we never get to see what goes on in their heads, for all we know this could be going on:
Person who scores goal: "Yea! They're going to touch me!"
Team members nearby: "Yea! We get to touch him!"
Team members faraway: " !@#$% coach i TOLD him i didn't want to be defender..."
(Also note how grumpy every other player looks while no one is scoring goals)
Need I mention what happens when a player falls down for the slightest reason (e.g. an air molecule or sweat drop from an opposing players crashes into them).
Person after a near death air molecule collision : " Oh my! I'm dying! Ah, ah! I can see a tunnel! It's getting cold! Tell Laura I love her! Ah ah! It's coming! The baby's coming!"
But I digress. So i've been to taipei with some of my camp people who were kind enough to show me around the place. And it is a lovely place, plenty of sight seeing to be done, loads of shopping and excellent food. The Macdonalds here have horrible service I waited a total of 30mins for 1 big mac and that was WITHOUT a queue. But that was towards the end of the day and i really didn't have the energy to raise hell.
So this is what i did in taipei:
1. I window shopped
1.1 I bought a nice new wallet
1.2 I bought loads of anime gasphon
1.3 I bought a traditional chinese seal with my name on it
1.4 I bought 4 magic hot/cold bags (very cool), one of which was spoilt
1.5 I bought Christmas presents for this year's list
2. I watched Harry Potter and the goblet of fire
2.1 I love Emma Watson
2.2 Daniel whazzit-name 's acting has improved... ... marginally
2.3 I hated the directing though i can't expect them to film the thing true to the book
2.4 Taipei has great cinema seats
3. I ate the most lip smacking mee suah
3.1 There are no oysters
3.2 It's mostly all pork
3.3 They add those thin shavings of pork like those in tacopachi
3.4 Yum
3.5 It's so good that people are willing to eat standing up (there are no chairs)
3.6 It's SGD$1.50 a pop
4. I had Malah Hot pot for dinner
4.1 I don't like malah hot pot
Oh yes if you've noted I mentioned a christmas list. I've been looking out christmas presents for christmas already. This year's theme is: " You impress me". Which has little to do with how close i am to the person so long they've impressed me. Which differs from previous year's theme most of which featured my closer friends. Of course there are some close friends include mongst there but still there are a number of people i would never consider in my christmas list e.g. Matthew. Yup, I'll have the list soon enough and more on my taipei trip. Stuff on that seedy hotel, train stations, donuts, how no one in taipei seems to know how to spell the word "video".
In abit
Jon.P
-
That's right i can't resist anymore i've decided the revive my blog. Given that i don't have my laptop yet despite my recent trip to taipei (My overseas daily overdraft credit wasn't high enough). I've decided to use the good ol' fashioned 10 yuan coin to make it happen.
For those of you who don't already know i'm in taiwan now. Serving a one year overseas posting for my NS liability. I was originally sent to a camp near the south but as of now i'm in Hu Kou to support one of frames for december. For those of you who didn't catch that, join the army. The last frame just ended last week so for now i get 4 days off seeing as how my weekends where shortened whilst they were here.
From the first paragraph you might have guessed, i've just been on a trip to taipei to engage in one of my favourite sports; shopping! Some of you out there might not consider shopping a sport. Most respectly i must call you a git. Of course it's a sport! Think about it, bargain hunting, the thrill of the chase, one shop to another, bargaining, comparing shop prices, split second timing, clock work schedules, escalator dashes, synchronised shopping, tag team shopping. It's a mental game too, the outsmarting of shopkeepers, the waiting game, the coy words, classic moves and fits of fury.
Rather than say soccer which seems to me to be just an excuse for grown ups of the same gender to touch each other. Have you ever seen what happens when a person scores a goal? Most of the team ends up on top of that one person. Of course some say it's all in the excitement of scoring a goal. Or so we think. Seeing as how we never get to see what goes on in their heads, for all we know this could be going on:
Person who scores goal: "Yea! They're going to touch me!"
Team members nearby: "Yea! We get to touch him!"
Team members faraway: " !@#$% coach i TOLD him i didn't want to be defender..."
(Also note how grumpy every other player looks while no one is scoring goals)
Need I mention what happens when a player falls down for the slightest reason (e.g. an air molecule or sweat drop from an opposing players crashes into them).
Person after a near death air molecule collision : " Oh my! I'm dying! Ah, ah! I can see a tunnel! It's getting cold! Tell Laura I love her! Ah ah! It's coming! The baby's coming!"
But I digress. So i've been to taipei with some of my camp people who were kind enough to show me around the place. And it is a lovely place, plenty of sight seeing to be done, loads of shopping and excellent food. The Macdonalds here have horrible service I waited a total of 30mins for 1 big mac and that was WITHOUT a queue. But that was towards the end of the day and i really didn't have the energy to raise hell.
So this is what i did in taipei:
1. I window shopped
1.1 I bought a nice new wallet
1.2 I bought loads of anime gasphon
1.3 I bought a traditional chinese seal with my name on it
1.4 I bought 4 magic hot/cold bags (very cool), one of which was spoilt
1.5 I bought Christmas presents for this year's list
2. I watched Harry Potter and the goblet of fire
2.1 I love Emma Watson
2.2 Daniel whazzit-name 's acting has improved... ... marginally
2.3 I hated the directing though i can't expect them to film the thing true to the book
2.4 Taipei has great cinema seats
3. I ate the most lip smacking mee suah
3.1 There are no oysters
3.2 It's mostly all pork
3.3 They add those thin shavings of pork like those in tacopachi
3.4 Yum
3.5 It's so good that people are willing to eat standing up (there are no chairs)
3.6 It's SGD$1.50 a pop
4. I had Malah Hot pot for dinner
4.1 I don't like malah hot pot
Oh yes if you've noted I mentioned a christmas list. I've been looking out christmas presents for christmas already. This year's theme is: " You impress me". Which has little to do with how close i am to the person so long they've impressed me. Which differs from previous year's theme most of which featured my closer friends. Of course there are some close friends include mongst there but still there are a number of people i would never consider in my christmas list e.g. Matthew. Yup, I'll have the list soon enough and more on my taipei trip. Stuff on that seedy hotel, train stations, donuts, how no one in taipei seems to know how to spell the word "video".
In abit
Jon.P
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