PS: Cafe is one of my saviours. A cool, laid back place where I have met many of my friends, and where I know I can go where people know my name (cue theme tune from Cheers). There seems to be a high percentage of creative types, marketing dudes, designers and musicians here, and I have spent many hours here studying Chinese, drinking coffee / beer and chatting to the owners – Jared and John from New Zealand.
Cheers to PS
I haven’t really said too much about the new office location. Over Chinese New Year we shifted from the sticks of Shilin to the bright lights of Keelung and Jhongxiao. Downtown baby!
The investment in the new place is impressive, easily putting it on par with many European offices. The office is small (we seem to have instantly filled the place), but has impressive detailing and intelligent use of space. Energetic, and a professional step up in the world.
The down side is certainly that I had to cancel Chinese study with Michael in Tienmu. We had a good six month run of continued study together with the school near my old work, and more or less on his way home. It was a very pleasant way to stay in touch. The shift to the new downtown school on An He Road (and now six hours a week, up from four) is good, but I do miss a language study partner.
The shift in geographic focus is having some interesting side effects. I am cooking far less at home, now I am in such easy proximity of my friends, and all the bars. And in general I am spending less time at the apartment – not that I was ever at home much anyway. So, I need to be more careful about my sleep patterns, which remain pretty eratic.
I’ll put a bunch more photos up when the professional shots come back from the developers, but for now here is a shot from the recent grey days of Taipei early spring… now replaced with glorious sunshine and outdoor beers!
101 at lunch
Awesome photos from Anke & Lars as they see China and India. Awesome!
They said jump
The ubiquitous Blue Van is a Taiwan icon.
Adidas, with their recent boutique store opening in Jhongxiao Dunhua have decorated one in a way surely only possible on this one Pacific island. Great fun.
My Adidas
Box Fresh
After almost zero publicity, myself and my friends discovered that The Prodigy were playing Taipei. Rather an unusual location too – in the national soccer stadium – so I was interested to go and check it out based on the olde Chinese arcitecture.
It was definitely worth it, and was as crazy as a Tuesday night out could be in Taipei. Usually, I would not think of going to see them live, but the VIP passes were free (thanks to Charlotte’s connections) and there was a nice bunch of people going along. One of the most special things was, as a result of the location next to the airport every few minutes a plane would fly over head – totally awesome at a large rock and roll concert!
Firestarter
Nelson comes well prepared – and no he is not a tiny man, those beer cans are HUGE!
The sun really does shine out of Danny’s ass
Rich looks guilty
The group, after we persuaded a security guard to allow us to hang around more after the show – basicallt because he was so happy about taking a photo of us! And you can see the stage set up in preparation for the huge 50 Cent concert at the weekend.
I have a love/hate relationship with Taipei 101 – the world’s tallest and most over-decorated building. On the one hand I like the fact that it is unashamedly Asian and Chinese in style, but frankly I think that is no excuse for the heavy handed detailing and curious lack of height perspective as a result of the inverted ‘bamboo’ sections – which somebody pointed out look rather like a pile of Chinese food take-out boxes with some chop sticks stuck in the top. Perceptive.
The one thing I do quite like about it, however, is the way the authorities use the faces of the building to communicate with the world beyond. Major events like New Year’s Eve or Valentines Day become decorated in lighting down the side. It rather opens a conversation, I suppose, with the city.
In Love with 101
As a post-script to this entry, I heard an interesting story about Taipei 101. The French free-climber that scales all the major buildings in the world without the aid of satefy equipment, arrived in Taipei to attempt 101. He, very reasonably, asked that if the building could be cleaned before the event – grease and dirt build up is obviously a hazard. The response was nagative. He then asked if it was possible to clean a small strip up the side, and was met with the same answer. It turns out that the building is simply not cleaned! Sadly, I think this sums up the attitude towards the built environment in Taiwan.
Rich, Nick and I stepped out for a micro road trip away from the big smoke. We spotted a couple of nice things on the way that are worthy of a quick post.
Prohibited: ‘yes’ if you need to ask
Cool mini-temple roof near Mucha – tea capitol of Taiwan
If Sydney was a city of personal trainers, Melbourne was one giant café – a place clearly designed by a comittee of switched on 27 year olds. Most people work in bars, are grafitti artists or jazz musicians. I am not completely positive how anyone actually makes a living, but the place is marvellous as a result … Like looking at Britain through a 35 degree celsius lens.
The original reason for coming out to Melbourne was to see Beto – a great friend I met while learning to dive in Guatemala at the Iguana Perdida hostel. It was really amazing to see him – and always amusing when you meet people again after seeing them while travelling. Always neater and less tanned… in most cases. Beto, however, was exactly the same. And exactly as amazing!
Contrasting the tourist profile of Sydney, in Melbourne I took pleasure in floating along in the social current. Beto seems to know anyone that thinks they are anyone, especially in the music business, and this meant that I had four days of free entry to the town’s best bars and clubs, and by the end seemed to be cultivating my own friendship circle. It was that frantic. And a real pleasure to get some self-generating urban culture flavours.
Similar to my last trip to Hing Kong, I also seemed to have hook ups with people from all over the world, drafted from different stages of my life. Joannie – one of my old friends from Glasgow, her friend Fiona, Grace – gf of Nick here in Taipei, plus Nelson and Christina from Taipei were all around. It was quite strange but very natural to hook up with Joannie and Fiona. The vibe in Melbourne is very similar to Glasgow, and I seemed to slip into the old routine quite quickly of sitting outside enjoying the sun… the difference was, well, about twenty degrees celsius.
Note to self. Move to Melbourne.
Bird Strike
De rigeur Havaiianas
Beach huts, Aussie style
Rollin’ – the great outdoors really is just that in Australia
Spooky!
Suzie, Beto, a very drunk Jean Pierre and me, narrowly avoiding aesphyxiation (spelling????!)
Grace and I dodge the camera
7-11 – comfort zone
Click for a bigger viewAgainst several self-imposed raised odds of not making it to Australia, here I am … G’day!
Sydney is fantastic, and justifiably feels proud of itself, but without being smug. The cityscape is ever changing, giving you chance glances of the Sydney Harbour bridge through vintage Ned Kelley tenaments and crystalline high rises. The Opera House is simply EPIC and takes your breath away in its form and thoughtful detailing. And the food mixes masculline meat pies with white wine and oysters – a theme that defines the city somewhat.
It’s certainly very ‘Californian’ – everyone looks like they are a personal trainer, or at least running during lunch break. You can understand why they are so blinking good at sport!
I’m hanging out with Richard and Claerwen – Rich was a colleague from the Web-Imps days of 1999 – and I am feeling pretty blessed again that I was able to meet up with several more friends from Taipei and Canada in the evening.
I’m impressed with Sydney. Another city has been added to the list of those that I would love to live in or raise a family – which is exactly what Richard and Claerwen chose to do.
Brunch of Champions – oysters and white wine at the fish market kicked off the day nicely
Approaching Sydney Harbour Bridge on the ferry – Keep Clear
Engineering Details
Approaching the Opera House on foot, and about 500 Mb of photo opportunities
In the middle of being blown away… I was surprised how fantastic the building was, especially as it is so old
Exploring…
Infinity
Internal details, lifted straight from NASA
The Max Power ‘Utes’ were just fantastic. Deeply cool, and unforgivably crass at the same time
Cheers to Sydney!