I scootered up to Tienmu West Road on Friday evening for my appointment and Allen, with faultless English, quizzed me about the origins of the injury and the subsequent pain and/or movement. After we established a few base parameters he proceeded to knead and manipulate all the muscles in my shoulder to free up the joint. He was careful and patient, but still managed to really get "stuck in". I've got some deep tissue bruising from the work he did, but I hope it will recover before my next session later this week.
We hadn't experienced the gourmet bespoke burgers from Burger Ray for some time, so on Saturday afternoon/evening, we decided it was about time. They were as delicious as ever, probably more so as absence has made the heart grow fonder! One slight flaw in the ordering process was the fact they didn't have any fries on the day! I couldn't quite figure out why, but regardless, thought that this situation just wasn't natural!
I hadn't darkened the doorstep of McDonald's since a late night snack with the groom at Wal's wedding three years ago, so it was a bit weird to zip in there this time on a mission for fries. The 24 hour Maccas on the big intersection in Shilin was on one of my possible routes home, so I braved the crowds and stood in line for my two bags of chips. There were kids everywhere, careening around the ordering area like ten-pin bowling bowls. I have to admire that McDonalds serving culture: despite the chaos and the vast crowd, they were super efficient and got me my product in good time. Despite our misgivings about supporting this multi-national monster, those super fresh fries were super delicious!
Armed with hats and sunscreen and dressed in our daggiest wandering/biking gear, we trained down to Da'an Forest Park on Sunday to get a little Youbikin' done! The wander through the neighbourhood to the train station was pleasant in the dappled sunlight and we even managed to score a seat for part of our trip once we'd boarded and travelled half-way down. After the re-configuring of our local MRT, we can now reach the Xin Yi district of the city without changing trains, and we made the most of it by visiting this Central Park-like oasis in the middle of the new south eastern hub of the city. I've got an improved app that is linked in real-time to all the Youbike stations in Taipei, so we scanned it before disembarking to find the Youbike station most heavily laden with vehicles from which to select.
After disengaging the bikes from their lock stands, we circumnavigated the huge park. We hadn't realized we couldn't actually bike through the park: this was a bit of a bummer, but the ride around was good fun. After the circuit, we docked at a station just opposite the artists' corner and famous flower market so of course, we had to take a peak!
A brace of city blocks under the expressway near Xin Yi Road houses a car-park through the week, but it is transformed each weekend into a flourishing, green and perfumed urban forest. The time and effort to set up and take down these exhibits each week is almost beyond belief: some of the mature trees must need a mini-crane to get them in place and the paintings in the artists' corner must take countless hours to hang. It's always quite mind blowing to witness the scale and enormity of the operation. It never ceases to amaze us how much can be achieved when there is a seething population to support business ventures: even at low margins, all these stallkeepers must turn a profit....otherwise they wouldn't keep coming back.
We ate a snacky lunch before heading back on the train to our little northern suburb haven and two forever sleeping cats! It was a great, relaxing weekend amplified by our little adventure to a seldom visited section of the city and some fun sights along the way. As indicated in photos above, we spied some Taiwan Beer 6 packs being advertised by famous Taiwanese rockers, Mayday. One of my mates here wants us to collect little stickers for him from 7/11: you can see the Star Wars toaster, along with the toast burnt with Star Wars' emblems.....highly desired apparently! Our local river turtles, newly painted mural and shots from Youbiking and the Flower Market. We're both now reading "The Road to Jonestown" by Jeff Guinn....what a trip!
