There I am, just about to get to sleep after fending off jet lag for two nights, and an earthquake comes along and wakes me up. How inconvenient!
6.3 on the Richter scale according the the USGS.
Hualien really gets it bad every time! Luckily, I was asleep for the two after shocks…
The phrase ‘long time no see’ is one of the rare exceptions where it seems that English has absorbed a little piece of Chinese. In this case, the grammar. The sentence structure of 好久不見 (hao 3 jiu4 bu4 jian4) is quite unlike anything else in the English language, and it has been posited that it actually came from China, although other people think it came from native Indians in North America.
Anyway, why am I writing this? I have been locked up indoors for two days, hiding from Typhoon Jangmi, slowly going crazy… and I decided to get back on the Chinese study horse, after a rest of a month or two. Need to work out some nice ways to get some decent study back in my programme, and the blog was the best approach – so, once again, I present Chinese Burn. Let’s see if I can keep it up a bit better this time.
A map, showing the relative boredom levels of people stuck inside.
On its way to Japan – take me with you!
Markus, clearly pulling the wool over the eyes of his client in Seattle, chose the best weekend of live music on the island to return for a few days of business. It kicked off in fine style with an impromptu photo session with insane just-graduated Masters students in one of the local “Re Chao” restaurants, and ended with a ballistic scooter ride through Typhoon rain to return Markus back to his hotel.
In between? Another great Formoz Festival, underlined by 1976 in the final, main stage headliner slot – totally wonderful, since they were the first band I got into when I first landed here those four years ago. Is it really four years?
They, or rather the weather, got their timing perfect, with showers arriving on queue to launch the crowd into raucous displays of solidarity, under umbrellas and spot lights. My phone has only just recently switched back on, in fact, after it drank too much. Much like me, in fact. A super night – come back more often, Markus, and bring Michwel next time!
Not very impressed by local microbrewery slops
I managed to flex some contacts and blagged my way into the event for free, claiming I was a journalist for Taipei Times (it’s true!), which I feel bad about and all – well, a bit. I did manage to get chucked off stage by security, though, which makes me feel cool and smooth.
Blurry night
1976 rule the roost
Clearly abusing my photography pass, I capture Markus back in his natural environment.
Antagonising the security staff, who were clearly not as enthused by the music as the crowd.
And the afterparty – held at one of the old cabaret clubs in Ximending, and just the coolest, coolest venue in Taipei. The crowd boogied their butts off to the grooves of Public Radio and the best dub band I have heard in years.
Well, it’s been raining for about two weeks now, and I tentatively opened the Taiwan Weather Bureau site to check for the upcoming weekend, and was met with a blank stare of more rain. Fantastic. Except for Friday, where it seems we simply have slightly less rain. For some reason, my memory has blanked any similar periods of such weather, but checking back through the ‘Weather‘ tags I see I am wrong, and indeed Taiwan has endured similarly mind-numbingly dull periods of atmospheric activity.
If you ask me, someone should do something like this. It’s effecting my mood, and I spend most of last week nursing a cold, which was inflated to epic proportions by the stress at the end of the week and another car crash of a WeiYa. I think I can cling on though – this time next week I will be in Thailand caressing Margaritas and raising a glass / middle finger to Taiwan. It can’t come too soon.
Not so much a weather report, as just coloring in.
It was supposed to be the biggest Typhoon in a year, and apart from some plant pots being blown over I am rather disappointed. I say disappointed, and that is probably because I have picked up, somewhat, on the excitement of the locals to having a big Typhoon hit the island; “it’s going to be a big one!”.
It’s probably what I needed though – to be locked inside all day with a pile of DVDs. Clearly, Domino’s Pizza has far more accurate meteorological data than the government, because when we called up we had absolutely no problem ordering. I then bravely stepped out into the light drizzle lashing down and fought my way through the desolate streets, to the busy Dominos, picking up some more drinks and crisps on the way.
In all seriousness, I think it hit the centre/south of the island, so we in leafy Taipei were spared. It looks like China is battening down the hatched though, as even the mighty BBC is reporting it. You can check the news here: “South China bracing for typhoon”
Time to crack another Heineken.
That was a close one!
I am in great need of a weekend, so it is a bit galling to have the largest Typhoon in a year careering towards the island. Typhoon Sepat, damn you!
Still, we have a pile of DVDs, biscuits flown in from the UK, and loads of cheese, so we should survive. Still a little annoying when we have had great weather this week!
It has been raining non stop for about one and a half weeks now. Not ‘shower’. None of your English ‘drizzles’. And ‘precipitation’ seems a bit polite for what we are getting here. No, this is angry rain that seems to bounce when it hits the ground ensuring that everything gets wet, no matter what you wear. It’s depressing, and wearing constantly damp clothes really gets you down.
Still, when the sun does eventually come out we can be sure that the humidity will go through the roof and I will begin complaining about the inability to breathe instead. Luckily, I suppose, there is little chance of that problem next week – just check the seven-day forecast!
Michael Fish would be proud…
After returning (finally!) from Taidong, I thought I’d quickly check the Central Weather Bureau’s web site to check out any geeky stats for what we had just experienced on Green Island and our return passage there.
So, some cool maps for your pleasure.
Satellite image from yesterday at 14:00
Radar map from yesterday too (or at least the most colourful map I could find)
Precipitation right now – the dark red splodge on the south-east coast of the island is where we just came from…
Taiwan – a small rainy island in the north Pacific – has some similarities to the UK – a small rainy island in the north Atlantic.
In the UK, April brings with it that marvellously mischevious weather where it is impossible to guess the required clothing from ten minutes to the next. Taiwan displays a similar phenomenon, but the time period is rather two days.
The result is 48 hours of unbroken torrential downpour. I swear the droplets strike with a force that cannot be explained by gravity alone and seem able to bounce upon hitting the ground, rendering any wet weather gear useless fairly quickly.
The following 48 hours’ sunshine brings with it astonishing levels of humidity, the likes of which can only be repeated by sitting in a swimming pool without any clothes on. To clarify, you are going to sweat.
Taiwanese taxi drivers and convenience store owners enjoy displaying The Awesome Power of Air Conditioning the moment you enter their icy world. To clarify, you are going to shivering.
Postscript:
I just returned home after riding through a particularly vigorous downfall and even though I was wearing the standard-issue kagool I obviously got soaked. I quickly ran out of my apartment and hung up my trousers to drip dry, and heard the ominous sound of a door clicking shut that only sounds like that when you are standing in your underpants.
A couple of moments of quiet reflection later, and I ran across the mini garden (socks now soaked) and down to the landlord downstairs. Thankfully, the entire family was in so they could all see the crazy wet white guy standing in his underpants, rain water especially gathering around my crotch I later realised.
A hard week at work, and all I could really do was laugh!
The humidity has arrived.
There is no escape.
… but a fantastic, brilliant mountin bike ride took me to a peak covered in clouds … and it was so cold we were shivering. The weather systems in Taipei are very strange. Indeed, we spent ten minutes shaking over our coffees and marvelling at the clouds forming over our heads as the cool air of the sea hit the bowl of soup – Taipei.
And an epic, awesome, brilliant descent – a perfect way to spend a bank holiday afternoon!