We all met at Ulis and had quite a party, as Jaime managed an amazing feat on the day: he hit a hole-in-one on a par 4 hole! His feat was widely lauded and the golf course awarded him a prize of $20,000 NT (about $600). Apparently this feat has only been achieved by one other golfer at this course, so he was pretty stoked. He gave us lots of news about the rest of the crew that we know in Singapore too, which these days is quite a swollen crowd!
Cass and I decided to go down to the inventively named "Eat Burger" on Saturday early evening and we enjoyed, as always, their delicious, freshly cooked fare. It's a really cool little hangout, and if it wasn't so fattening, we'd be down there a lot more than we already are! Saturday night seems like a weird time for shopping, but this is Taipei, and all the glowing neon from the nearby Sogo department store was tantalizingly inviting to one in our party (guess who?!).
Cass has been keen on sourcing ultra-light weight down "puffy" jacket for ages, eever since she saw both a student and a colleague sporting these very svelte, fashionable and oh-so-warm garments that hail from that ultra-chic style capital, Tokyo. The Uniqlo brand is a chain store over there and has now got branches all around the world, showing off their plain but uber cool clothing. Check it out here. They have just opened a branch on the 4th floor of our Sogo, so we wandered in to have a look.
It was a fascinating place! Lots of very cool stuff and at a pretty amazing price. Cass did find a short version of the parka she wants, but is going to wait till this longer version arrives from Japan. She did find some jeans on a sale table that seemed impossibly priced at just $499 NT (about $15), tried them on, they fitted well so she ot a pair of the blue and black ones. Later on, I found a table of the same priced men’s versions, so I got the blue, black, green and grey ones! We also outfitted ourselves in the special "Heattech" thermal smalls, Cass got some socks and we walked out parting with about $180 for six pairs of quality jeans, two sets of thermals and some socks...now, that's my kind of shopping and we'll definitely be back!
Wandering to Wendel's on the way home to get the weekly bread load was an experience as well. Lusty singing, amplified polka music and a serious din washed up and down the street outside as one of their wildly popular Oktoberfest Saturday nights ramped up into top gear. They were packed in like sardines at long trestle tables and it looked and sounded like lots of fun. It's a curious sight to see Taiwanese girls dressed like German beer wenches and they don't quite have the requisite physical qualities to really pull it off! Anyway, after our eardrums were roundly assaulted, we drifted on home.
Shaun dropped around to catch the end of the rugby league test at our place on Sunday, before we scootered on down to Patio 84 for the big world cup clash between the Aussies and the Kiwis. As the game progressed and the result became more obvious, we grew slightly morose and for some reason the Kiwis didn't seem to want to know about the shellacking we had inflicted upon their rugby league team just a few hours earlier! I despair of our kiwi brothers here in Taipei: they had the perfect opportunity to stay and celebrate a little, give us some gentle (or not so gentle) ribbing about the result and generally enjoy the moment. However, as soon as the game had finished they all very quickly scuttled out....maybe they're worried about the final next week: one last chance to choke! Check a video Michelle took at the final siren at the top of this page or here.
I have conferences Thursday and Friday of this week, so that will be hectic. Cass has a little longer yet before enjoying similar pleasures! Neither of us have much time for reading etc. so I’ll leave our books on hold for a little longer. Photos: puffy down jacket, heattech, pretty bottles at "Eat Burger", Sogo and Oktoberfest fun.