Had a sustained day of drinking with Phil n Graham today in town – it felt great to be with all the guys again and was just what I needed. We did the obligatory curry, pub run and of course ended up in life oh life which was sadly much shitter than usual (yes, even more shit).
Cambridge, near The Eagle pub and impending hangover
Myself, Phil, Ewan, Mark and Joanne in formation
Took good advantage of being up early and wandered out to take some photos of the local area while it was still cold and frosty. I had a nice little walk through some of the local woods and thought a photo of a Church would be appropriate, seeing as it’s Christmas ‘n’ all. What blue skies.
St. Andrew’s Church in Histon
I landed after travelling for what felt like days without sleep and obviously took the wise decision to meet the guys in the pub immediately after saying a quick hi to the fridge and to my family.
In The Anchor are: Phil, Omar, Ele, Moi, Karen, Ewan, Rich and Gray made me feel really welcome (except for their game of ‘let’s ignore Jonny’ when I arrived which I can tell you was hilarious!)
I just had a superb video conversation with Mum, Dad and Granny in Taipei airport … wirelessly. I hooked up Skype, MSN and my digi cam and was talking to them from the middle of the check in hall (I am now in the departure lounge and chatting away with my sis now). Amazing.
I took some great screen shots of the conversation with the family:
I am now waiting for my check in gate to open since I am 3 hours early for the flight. Very organised. Typically, I left packing until the last moment and therefore only had a few hours of sleep. This was delayed somewhat by wrapping your presents, which took absolutely ages… and I had my first web conference with my Gran last night!
I am in quite a reflective mood at the moment. An enjoyable place to be. My last couple of months have been quite hard and stressful, but I fell that I have come through them and learnt rather alot from some of the experiences. Certainly, I am harder, and more sure about what sort of person I want to be. Sometimes it takes a big test to prove these things.
Work has been good, which is novel. I am now firing on most cylinders for learning my design software / nightmare ProE. Boy has it been difficult to learn but it is a great feeling when people start asking you questions about how to use it!
So, 6 months. A little more. My Chinese is not as good as I want it to be, my life is a touch unbalanced and there are sure plenty of difficulties, but calmer waters (and a little more moolah) are ahead. Plus, cheap flights have been announced to Singapore, which is super good news.
At 8:00am I will take off for Hong Kong, then wait around for a few hours, fly to Frankfurt, run for the next plane and land in the UK at 8:00pm tonight! I just hope the HK flight takes off on time. Otherwise, I miss out on valuable drinking time with my mates…
Dreaming of England.
The Taiwanese really dig Christmas. I think it gives them an extra excuse to go shopping and certainly to decorate everything with more flashing LEDs. This is the local shop of lights – at any time of the year you will find appropriate lighting systems for Halloween, Chinese New Year, Christmas… or for any family occasion that requires a high degree of fire risk. Observe the restrained point of sale display.
A world of lights
We had a nice wee celebration for Andrew’s birthday in the office today. It gives me a chance to introduce some people, too.
Claire, Andrew, Cesare and Diego in festive mood
The Incredible Fukang works it for the camera
… and Mitch looks after the details (with Debbie in the background)
I have not really written much in the last two weeks. I have found Taipei quite hard in the last fortnight because of work, and because of a that life seems to sway too much between that hard graft and rebellion at the weekend. However, several of the big projects I was working on have now drawn to a close and I can concentrate on Christmas, spending time with my family and reflecting on 6 months. I believe that when I come back in January things will be rather more in focus. Judge for yourself.
Anyway, far be it from me to bring down the festive tone! I have had some very nice nights out recently. On Saturday, I met up with my design friends from several other companies and we enjoyed a boozy sushi session at Jogoya.
Free wine free wine!
After, Gerd took us to a local bar called Cream but it seems that it had become a private members club fronted by a bathroom sales showroom. Undeterred, we headed around the corner to find ‘So Nice’… it wasn’t, so we ended up in the Irish Pub! (first trip to Irish Bar in Taipei – it must surely be a record for a European visitor)
Tanja and I at the Christmas tree near Taipei 101 … from the inside (now you know how it feels)
View up the middle of the tree
If this doesn’t make you want to drink Jaegermeister nothing will…
Taiwanese politics is usually better known internationally for its petty fist fights in parliment, but this week saw the Legislative Yuan voted in (I understand it as the equivalent of the Senate in the US). Michael wrote a much better piece on the subject and spent time taking lots of photos. Therefore, I will point you towards his site instead! Enjoy.
Another week, another fist fight
Electioneering, Taiwan-style
My cat-related theme is continuing this week, it seems. Whilst shopping for blinky techno things I got sidetracked by this bag that someone was carrying … and it had a cat in it (hard to appreciate, I know). They were of course very proud of their little moggy, though I am not sure what the cat thought…
Especially for Bianca…