We’ve had a relatively uneventful weekend overall, though we did make it downtown on Saturday afternoon/evening. We thought we’d better start tying up some loose ends for our trip on Thursday, so we’ve been emailing Italian gents who need to meet us at apartments with keys, booking train tickets between cities and figuring out what else we need to take and what we need to arrange to do here before we leave (like get someone to look after the cats!). We’re both slopping around today inside, Cassy valiantly trying to get her reports done and me prevaricating from real jobs by reading lots of newspaper clippings and fiddling on the computer. She’s sitting on the opposite side of the room now doing her computer work as she is using the tablet: she just said that she was enjoying using it…..never thought I’d see the day!I went out with some of the usual subjects for a few beers on Friday: it was great for Lewy and Shaun to join us as well. We had a great time out at the “big brother” Woo So bar at Qiyan and had fun catching the train there. Cass and I decided to have a late lunch/early tea on Saturday at KGB, so we left mid-afternoon to get the train down to Taipower building. The Kiwi gourmet burgers were as delicious as ever and after we filled up on them, we had a bit of a wander down Roosevelt Rd. It’s a fairly uninspiring part of town really out on the main drag: I suspect all the action is in the back streets of Shida as the uni students seek out cheaper eats and entertainments. We weren’t up to exploring the labyrinth, so we headed back to the station.
On a whim, we only went two stops before transferring across then going a further two stops to Ximending, the very hip, cool and happening district in the south of the city centre. The Ximen MRT stop spits you out right slap bang in the middle of the pedestrian square and it’s a bit overwhelming. Thousands of excited young people, gigantic TV screens blaring off the sides of buildings and Vegasesque neon and sound everywhere. We braved the crowd and got swept along. As we got to a crossroads of a few streets a Christmas band was just starting up: they turned out to be horribly woeful, especially the young Taiwanese male singer trying Jason Donavon’s “Last Christmas” in very heavily accented and lisping English….shocking! The girl elves were also quite hilarious as they were obviously supposed to add some glamour to the proceedings but looked so embarrassed and behaved so awkwardly in their skimpy Santa suits that it spoiled the whole effect! A highly sparkly female host then started to extol the virtues of the surrounding stores at a high level of decibels, so we beat a retreat. We did, however, make one purchase along the way. After having tried on various jackets at all manner of trendy shops along the way, we’d just about given up when a jacket at the cheap chain store, Hang Ten, fitted well and was just what I was after. Quilted inside, a bomber style jacket that should go anywhere and be quite warm without being bulky I was chuffed to find it: a bonus was that it was dirt cheap as well! On the way back to the station, a street performer was showing off his pet performing squirrel and insisted that I hold out my hand for the squirrel to stand on it…he twiddled around with the little guy and he sat bolt upright for the photo before the owner took him back…only in Taiwan!
As I mentioned, today has been a very lazy day: the weather is cold and uninviting, a biting wind and cloudy skies have not enticed us away from our warm little cocoon here. That’s it for a while, my Christmas blog break is coming up. We’ll be in Rome on Friday, Florence at Christmas and Venice for New Years. Blog might be back on January 5, I’ll see how tired I am from our arrival back the day before! Photos: Cass trying on some specs in a trick shop at Taipower, the Ximen Christmas comedy and my little squirrel mate!
P.S. I’m re-reading Robert Graves “I, Claudius” to get into the Italian swing this week and came across this great quote: “ public men are in the habit of communicating their recollections, in the hope that elegant writing will eke out meagerness of subject-matter and flattery soften vices.” After reading that, I was tempted to write this week: “had beer, caught train, bought coat, played with squirrel and wrote reports”…….!