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
Against 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!
After almost one year away, it is fantastic to be back. As a contrast to last year, which felt more like coming up for air, this year I feel much more confident and relaxed to be home. Much has happened in the last year, so I can only guess what is likely to happen in the next twelve months.
Dad gives Mum the lowdown on her present – the new GPS device – on a Boxing Day stroll in the local fields
I’m dreamin’ of a white Christmas
Grandpa works it for the camera
We are family
Weddings in Taiwan share some attributes of their Western counterparts – distant family feigning recognition, uncles and brothers ending up with their shirts hanging out of their trousers, and kids running around chairs until they knock their heads of some piece of well-placed wood.
There are, however, acute differences. The couple usually has their official family wedding several weeks before. There is an elaborate system of ceremonies, particularly focusing on the bride and her family, as far as I can tell. Perhaps I’ll cover that in more depth one day (though I cannot predict exactly how much detail at the moment, if you catch my drift).
The larger affair that I was at had 50 tables populated with every person they have ever met. The idea then is to fill each table with food and booze, leaving only the food remaining at the end. Specifically, it is the primary aim of every person in the room to drink the groom under the table – not difficult when he has to knock back a glass of whiskey at every table. By the end, Ryan had a small crowd of only marginally less drunk minders propping him up and guiding him to the next table, their faces full of joyous expectation, ready for the moment of marital vomit.
I returned home at 3:45pm totally hammered – some sort of new record I think.
My Mother sent me a hilarious package of things which arrived this Friday. Key among the items was a pack of 6 Newmarket sausages which we wanted to send via post to see if they survived the journey. Or, at least, if I survived when I ate them.
They certainly did not smell bad, and there seemed to be a good trick – included in the parcel was a pack of Cadbury’s chocolate. The shape had been maintained, so I can only assume that the temperature during transit never got too high.
The final test of course came in the eating. I had all the ingredients for a full English breakfast, which I woke up George for as I bounced around the apartment cooking. Sausages, Bacon (American Style), Mushrooms (Grilled with Olive oil and Thyme), Beans (HP, sadly), HP Sauce (HP, gladly), Tea (Tetley’s), and Orange Juice.
I am hungry again thinking about it!
It was all fantastic, but the sausages certainly had a certain special additional … bouquet. Half way between lemon and vinegar in the background, they did taste a tiny little bit strange. However, I have had more than my fair share of dodgy kebabs without (many) problems so I ploughed straight through them and enjoyed every last bite.
So, if I am still alive tonight and my gizzards have not fallen into the toilet I’ll make a sausage salad or something tomorrow. Yum.
Smoking stack
The Taipei city council are a resourceful lot. Not only do they build a rubbish incinerator, but they heat a swimming pool from the excess energy. Not content with limiting themselves to mere swimming, they also saw fit to mount a revolving restaurant to the top of the multi-coloured chimney stack.
Thus, when eating here the stench of rubbish and diesel from the legions of trucks complements the sophisticated atmosphere and forceful service.
I also met a couple of new designers – Wouter from Holland and Nik… from London! Yeah, another Brit dude to complement myself, James and Dean. We are catching up with those pesky Germans, finally.
Getting wasted with the boys
Jonny & Marta! (my favourite Polish person)Mattieu staged his second barbecue party, hosting much of the French population on his expansive rooftop overlooking the city to one side and the mountains to the other. My new apartment will feature a similar set-up, with even a little garden!
Last time, Mattieu managed to attract a very large number of attractive girls. This time, the guys clearly got wind of this and turned out in force. If Mattieu were to host another, I am guessing the local girls will learn of the quantity of elligible, single, professional European males and thus the cycle would continue. Sadly, his landlord had other ideas and has banned him from further parties due to the noise – on such a noisy little island this is rather ironic.
One interesting thing I have realised is that the French seem to stick together. And the Germans too, come to that. And then there seems to be in the middle – the lone plucky Brit. I am not sure if this is me, or the fact that I am British, but it is interesting none the less. You can also see that Europeans (including the Brits) tend to stick to other Europeans rather than hang out with Americans and Canadians. It seems I have more in common with people who do not share my mother tongue than those on the other side of the pond.
Why won’t anyone listen to me?!” – Gerd and Marta discuss, while Lars screams for attention
We had another company trip last weekend – this time, only the ID dept. After the previous experience I knew what to expect a little more and to sit back and relax when 6 cars, all armed with allarming levels of GPS, head off in different directions completely lost.
This time, we headed to Miaoli for an afternoon strategy session, a brutal night of drinking and a punishing day of strawberry picking and pottery to rub salt (plus tequila and lime) into a badly wounded head.
At one point in the evening (I am not entirely sure when) the restaurant owners brought out a big wooded bowl full of rice and two large hammers. A harsh lesson was delievered to the poor soft grain, as teams of two pelted the bowl with blows hard enough to vibrate the floor. The resulting pathetic lump of squidge gradually became more and more glutinous until eventually the ref called time and announced humanity winner. I was quite surprised, therefore, that they turned the bowl out into a dish and let the team pull and rip at the rubber-like substance, filling their mouths until it was all gone and we started over again. This is the traditional method for making and consuming ‘Mah Ji’.
Kyle wields the ritual rice torture mallet
The crowd demands blood
Diego delivers the fatal blow
After the ricicide, a trip to the hot springs and running around the river a bit, drinking games brought whetever dignity we had left firmly to its knees. The main game involved a set of 4 dice. I would like to describe the rules, but the only one I cared about at the time was that I always seemed to drink on every round. We rapidly dispatched the beer and began on the Mexcal (Tequila’s rough older brother), and I was surprised to discover the Taiwanese keeping up and staying up much later than usual.
Destruction passes through the local Taiwan Beer population
Hello Nasty
Markus and Michael laugh heartily at one of my many jokes of the evening
I had a quiet weekend (relatively speaking) and saw the Bienniel at the Contemporary Art Museum. I was quite impressed, and I plan to go back to catch the permanent exhibits as well. The building is pretty mental, in a modern Taiwanese mentally modern way. I’ll take some shots and you can judge for yourselves.
On the way home I swung by Shilin night market and took some shots of the food area. It is an amazing place, truly, and at the heart of Taiwanese culture (ie: food) . My favourites tonight inclide this mini shrimp fishing zone. You may have seen my first shrimp fishing effort… if not, go here.
As before, the general idea is to tempt the shrimps with tasty morsels of liver and shrimp babies, then you whip ’em out, ram a stick up their back-side, and burn them alive until cooked well.
Doing a quick zoom in on the background you can see the kid fishing for something a little different … turtles. They each have a paper clip attached to their back (held on with some alarmingly-coloured tape) and the guys ‘fish’ for them with magnets … not quite sure if this is in the spirit of things, or if good old dynamite would be fairer. I will have to ask the guys at work on Monday if people eat the things… after going to Longshan market I know they do quite a bit more.
Ninja Turtles
And a quick one of a lady cooking oysters in a sort of Omelette – quite tasty.
This coffee was so bad it was worth taking a photo. It was completely undrinkable. You can see the Hundreds and Thousands sprinkled on the top, which I have no real problem with. No, it was the white sugar slime that is usually found on top of cheap cakes in the 1970s that was so terrible. But I liked the cup.
Officially the Worst Coffee I Have Ever Had
A fairy keeps watch in the Ximen district
Wufenpu clothes market in the east of the city – an amazing place to shop, since this is where the other night markets buy there goods from