Jonathan Biddle – Made in Taiwan

Tag: Nightlife

  • Birthday Boy

    I celebrated my birthday this week in quiet style. I was hoping to have a proper session next week when everyone is back from travels and mountains. It was strange celebrating the day miles away from home, and away from old friends and family. I made the big mistake of keeping it a bit quiet and I ended up feeling pretty silly – several friends would have really wanted to surprise me with something or other. Still – you live and you learn.

    I also just got back from another fantastic ride up Yang Ming Shan. The conditions were terrible, with the weather making a rather unwelcome return to winter, but the terrain did a terrific job of transfmorming into something different. Very slippery, I had several minor comic spills, but always managed to get my feet down when the front wheel washed out. Still, happy to build up my confidence. I maintain that my new pedals made a big difference!


    Luckily for me, the celebration dinner for my birthday fell on the same night as the Red Dot design award celebration dinner. The result? Plenty of free booze and food. Result!


    Diego devours a fish

    The story of a British Industrial Designer in Taiwan…

  • Party Time

    Here are some pics of the party…. lots of scooters, not quite enough beer (midnight run to 7-11 required) but plenty of food… and awoken by 30 keen Taiwanese who set up their breakfast sets next to our tents. Okay, we admit – camping and fires were not allowed, and that was exactly what we did!



    We are drunk – we take no responsibility for our creative ideas



    Anke, Tanja and Michael – clearly entertained by one of my jokes



    Michael & Louisa



    Tanja’s head provided light, heat and warmth for the whole gang

    The story of a British Industrial Designer in Taiwan…

  • Work Buddies

    Some photos taken a while back with an on-loan Motorola camera phone with 1.3 Megapixels. I should note that it has a ‘Disco Mode’ with multiple colour flashing LEDs. At first I dismissed this as a meaningless blinky function… but after a couple of hours (and beers) I fell deeply in love with this essential feature. Welcome to 2004.

    Lorenzo Scazziga of Switzerland:

    Michael Held of Germany:

    Markus Wiezoch of Germany:

    The story of a British Industrial Designer in Taiwan…

  • Weekend Drinking

    Well, I more or less managed to fill the entire weekend with drinking, or recovering from drinking. On friday I went out with the guys from the office and met Francoise – an industrial designer for an MP3 player company – and Dean – a freelance British industrial designer. Had a fun night and stumbled home, after calling all my friends in the UK on my mobile… $$$

    Saturday was mainly spent feeling a bit dog awful, but I did manage to get the rest of my images up for this blog, which is good. It is actually a really nice thing that I enjoy having now – it makes me realise I am over here and doing it! Now I am in the swing of everyday life it is easy to forget that I am doing something unusual and adventurous.

    Also, I had, quite simply, the BEST sashimi of my life in the afternoon, and in a restauraunt really near my house too – which I had to be pleased with! Some sparks of Chinese language meant I was able to communicate to a limited extent with the family who owned it, and even the ‘Lau Ban’ (Boss) who was splendidly gruff and Japanese. The food was prepared entirely by hand to the Chef’s specifications – no menu – freshly cut and prepared, and laid out on the table in front of you. Rather different than the Yo Sushi! belts I am used to in London.

    I met up with the guys in the evening, and had a pleasant house party at Zoe and Louisa’s … and went to the nastiest meat market Club in Taipei – Carnegies. Fat American men and young Taiwanese girls. And us. Dancing on the bar. Ahem.

    Sunday was spent more or less cruising around Ximen. I met up with Lorenzo and had a few beers with him at a nice Belgian bar.

    The story of a British Industrial Designer in Taiwan…

  • Fulong Beach Festival

    Had a weekend at a music festival on the west of the island. Saw some good music – the best of which was the 5678s – they provided music for Kill Bill.

    The funny thing was the beach itself. The Taiwanese are petrified of swimming, and avoid it at all costs. It is not surprising to find life guards that cannot even swim themselves. Therefore, their main job is to keep everyone out of the dangerous, deadly water… except this beach had the safest bathing area I had ever seen. Check out the whistle blowers:

    And the incredible danger I am putting myself in here – very deep waters:

    This is a photo of us blending in… Markus, Michael, me and Anke:

    And finally – an image of a guy just rocking out on the big screens of the concert:

    The story of a British Industrial Designer in Taiwan…

  • Saturday Fun. Sunday Pain.

    Friday after work went and had a steak in the foreign quarter with a few team members. It was a real experience to dine in Taiwan but using a knife and fork. Did not feel natural! Still, the steak was good and it was amusing to go to a pan-european/usa/australian restaurant to experience ‘the west.’

    On Saturday I went and saw a pretty cool flat in a great location, interesting interior design (mezzanine level, sunken bedroom… sliding panels!) but sadly someone beat me to the deposit on Sunday so the search continues. Met a local girl with Michael who wanted to talk English so we went to a hotpot restaurant and set fire to lots of food and overcookd the rest. Not impressive!

    On Saturday we went to The Wall club again to check some local live music talent (100% hit rate of saturday nights at the place!) and it was good. Met some Taiwanese designers and some more local Taiwan staffers and people in advertising. Somehow we ended up at a club called Roxy 99s and it was drinking destruction. Not good at all. Even worse the next day, with one of the worst over hangs I have ever experienced – and somehow waking in a hotel room made it much, much worse.

    However, Michael had just got hold of a scooter for the first time so we rode of the hangover by accelerating off down the motorway… it’s just that we did not know the protocols of turning (there are none) so we just kept straight until we found a restaurant where we ate! Local hotpots, where you make your own stew on the table are delicious and cheap, and always busy.

    After, I met up with Anke and Lars (Anke I work with and Lars is her designer boyf) and a few other people at a Thai restaurant downtown. I was not with it in any way, so went the wrong way down the undergrouns system and overshot the exit I wanted… and then exited and walked down the wrong street. However, Anke scooped me up and I ate dinner again… some of the best food I have ever had. Need to go here again, and more importantly Thailand!

    And on the way home overshot my MRT stop. Great.

    The story of a British Industrial Designer in Taiwan…

  • Mildly Drunk

    i have spent today waliking around the markets… i tell you … mad… just totally intense. and much more so than you would think

    also, you would be right in thinking that yes i am a little drunk. okay. i admit it. i have been having fun with two of the designers from the department. all i have done today is eat and drink. still getting used to the money. sometimes things are so cheap and sometimes so expensive. an obvious statement, but when I eat a meal for 330 NT$ then buy a beer for 250 NT$ it makes you re-evaluate.

    plus. a few points of listening to old boys playing mah jong under the bridge. going to the night market and being blown away. … and apparently melting the kettle in my room as it for some reason does not switch off…?

    ate sushi. oh my god. mmm

    and i have to say that in general this is a really nice place. spent a good few hours walking around and the people are friendly. much more affluent than i expected.

    okay:

    woke up to a small tremor in bed – yes an earthquake. apparently normal. whoa, i went.

    then went walking around. they kill a chicken for you at the market, then put it in a de-featheriser. then put it in a bag. 30 seconds. mad.

    went to club after seeing a chinese rock band. They have an emerging sub-culture here that will be quite interesting to see develop. You begin to see skater kids and tattoos and attitude.

    The story of a British Industrial Designer in Taiwan…