Jonathan Biddle – Made in Taiwan

Month: October 2006

  • God Squad

    Tonight is the night of several large Halloween parties in Taipei. I put some thought and consideration into my costume and I have decided to go as a Mormon missionary – a plague of religious righteousness that has hit Taipei straight out of Salt Lake City. As if lifted from a David Lynch movie, they appear from the middle of nowhere, squeaky clean and cookie cuttered out, passing out leaflets to unsuspecting locals. I find the whole activity sick.

    Hence, I am dressing up as a blood-sucking Mormon missionary tonight! – the basis of my little anecdote;

    I went shopping today for vampire teeth and blood to have pouring from my mouth. Sadly, none of the costume stores had anything suitable, so I went to the local pharmacy chain, Watsons. I announced to the cosmetics girl that I was looking for ‘blood red lip stick’, at which she relayed my request to the entire shop – “THERE IS A TALL MALE FOREIGNER LOOKING FOR BRIGHT RED LIP STICK.” I walked out with some deep rouge lippy and bright, shiny lip gloss (and even redder cheeks). I’ll see what the results are like soon when I get ready!


    This is what I am after tonight – wholesome, blood sucking goodness (image courtesy of Flickr)


    Update:
    I easily looked scary enough without the blood … and we managed to create less of a costume and more of a disguise.


    The God squad


    Ludvig the Bible Basher


    I had been looking for him all night

    The story of a British Industrial Designer in Taiwan…

  • New Camera

    Last night I bought a new Camera.

    I have been yearning for a camera with more manual control so I can have a bit more fun creatively. My little Canon Ixy is great, and I can take it everywhere but I do miss taking time to compose photographs. I do still have my venerable Olympus OM10 SLR from the 1970s, and I would continue using it, were it not for the hassle and price of film processing. I looked at quite a lot of digital SLRs, but they were both huge and I always had the feeling that the technology was much smarter than me. I wanted something compact and with proper manual controls – so I opted for a second-hand Panasonic Lumix LC1. You can read about it here, should you be so inclined.

    Incidentally, the photo below is taken with the web-cam built into my new MacBook. I kind of overlooked this gimmick, but it has been really great. I had a fantastic full screen video chat with Dad last night, and the software Photo Booth is hilarious fun and great for taking ad-hoc photos on the fly.

    Anyway, I had a nice walk through Taipei today. The weather is just perfect at the moment. Cool and breezy, lowish humidity and clear skies. The folks back home will hate to hear me writing this but we are still walking around in t-shirts. Indeed, the first time I wore a thin jacket was this week. This will change in the next few weeks as Autumn and Winter catches up with us.

    On the way I enjoyed taking plenty of photos and I am looking forward to playing with it more. The manual focus is not all it could be, but it has been lovely to really have full control over aperture and exposure.


    In my room last night playing with the exposure


    Walking past the Taiwan Tobacco & Liquor Corporation today … I saw this rather charming sign … not to self: visit the Taiwan Beer Bar …


    I love coming across old Japanese colonial buildings. It is an architectural heritage that Taiwan more or less ignores, even as the country scrabbles to find and define its national identity. I have this hope that one day these dwellings will become as desirable as a loft in the Docklands of London, but I think there is some way to go yet.


    Sticker near Main Station … the mood has changed in the last few weeks as people seem to have lost their interest in trying to depose Chen.


    On my way to Ximen


    Sushi Express has turned into a safety net for me … and I love the way I never eat too much. Just pay for each mouth full


    Local old lads discussing gambling


    And some feet further along the same street

    The story of a British Industrial Designer in Taiwan…

  • Kokuyo

    I just won the ‘Special’ prize in the Kokuyo design award 2006!

    It’s a Japanese design prize … more details when I know them.

    Kokuyo 2006

    The story of a British Industrial Designer in Taiwan…

  • Salad

    I just had the best salad i have eaten in about 2 years. I was laughing it tasted so good.

    I hate myself for it, but I even took a photo.

    Now it’s time to read again for the next few hours.


    Salad – the food of Kings

    The story of a British Industrial Designer in Taiwan…

  • Beached

    And so it begins.

    Wake up, walk to the cafe, eat, read, have a beer, read, sun bathe, snack, read, walk to a different position, read, have a beer, return to your room, shower, go out, have a beer, read, eat, have a beer, read, study some chinese, read, have a beer, walk up and down the beach, have a beer, return to room, read, sleep.

    Repeat.


    It’s a tough life


    The view up…


    Macro beach – the softest sand I have ever squeezed between my tootsies


    Paying people to carry me around the island – “harder!”


    The English Patient


    Evening entertainment


    Leaving on the trike – ‘God Speed!’ (I always wondered if that was an actual speed … “Light Speed…. Warp Speed… no…. GOD SPEED!”)

    The story of a British Industrial Designer in Taiwan…

  • Manila

    I arrived yesterday in Manila – capital of the Philippines. It has a pretty shaky reputation as a city, and these fears were well-founded, with endless rows of homeless people scavenging away an existence, laptop dancing bars and smog generating buses.

    However, perhaps as a result of its Spanish colonisation days, and certainly because of my time spent in the Americas with fond memories, it really reminded me Mexico and Guatemala. I was certainly a project for local taxi drivers to rip off, call girls to attract and I spent much of the time dancing from kerb to street – avoiding said girls, their horrifically aged and overweight Western partners or jumping out of the way of the Jeepneys (Asian version of Guatemalan Chicken Buses, based on old G.I. issued Jeeps).

    But through all this, the place has a real robust charm. The colonial heart of the city is attractive(I especially appreciated the golf course outside the city walls, which is probably the only reason it is not shanty town or hotel complex), the people are friendly and inquisitive and the place has the makings of becoming successful, though I assume corruption will keep any real progress at bay for some time to come.

    And now? I am sitting on a beach on Boracay. I have a broken wrist, so I can’t dive, eat properly, or do any other activities of any excitement. But this is perhaps just what I need. I have a pile of books to worm through, and there are plenty of interesting looking people walking by as I nosh on a rather good Greek Salad. 9 days of doing nowt. Could be the first and last time in a while!


    Colonial relics – the rather handsome centre to the city called ‘Intramuros’


    The historic city walls / local golf course – I am not sure the Kind of Spain had this in mind

    The story of a British Industrial Designer in Taiwan…

  • Broken Wrist

    Jonny had a crash. Wrist broken. Rather sad, since I am supposed to be diving next week, and my new bike arrives this Thursday.

    And sitting in the hospital yesterday, I really felt a long way from home!

    🙁

    The story of a British Industrial Designer in Taiwan…