Excellent photo from Gerd of life as a scooter rider
Tag: Weather
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Zhong He Camping
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Taifun
Well I made it back in one piece. One final last night in Bangkok was pleasant, and I spent the evening in the company of some great English medical students that really reminded me of some of my times back home. I have to say, most of the Brits I met abroad have been either dull or total idiots. These were smart, funny and witty and I was able to sharpen my humour blades!
Of course, the flight yesterday was slightly hung over, and the slight anxiety of re-entering the country between jobs made me wonder how my visa would work out. I was told to enter on a tourist entry, and it all worked out fine. Getting back to my apartment was nice – even if it is slightly strange and more like a hotel – so I popped out to meet the guys in Wendels for a beer … and at that point it was announced it was another Typhoon holiday! Fantastic! My first day at work and I am on holiday. Cannae complain. It did make me think though, that if I had been caught in Bankok I would now be enjoying a couple of gratis days in a 5 star hotel.
So, overall, I liked Thailand. It was all too short, and perhaps the parts I saw were too touristy / back packy but overall it looks like a place worthy of more exploration.
For now, I need to sort some apartment things out, and eventually I will install internet in my place. For now, I am in a gaming cafe surrounded by people playing role-playing games. Worth talking about that some other time…
For now, another day off work.
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Typhoon Holiday!
This was the typhoon’s position yesterday – it is hard to appreciate from this picture, but it sharply veers from its course as it hits the Taiwanese coast.
The position today – you can see how the ‘pond ripple’ potential future position of the typhoon have become less broad.
Relaxing here in my local coffee shop, it is hard to imagine that one of the most violent typhoons in recent years has just hit the island. Yesterday, on its collision course with Taipei, Typhoon Haitung veered off course down the coast and hit land in Hualian. As a result, although we all got the day off work today (yay!) the weather is very pleasant. Indeed, Anke, Lars, Tanja and Michael have just arrived to enjoy some coffee and shelter from the warm sunshine outside.Update:
Found a decent photo of the Typhoon’s indecisive path now… the first ‘loop’ in 35 years. Okay, I made that up – but it is the first time a Typhoon’s path has changed like that in ages and ages and ages.
For some previous Typhoon coverage, check these posts out: -
Rain, Rain Go Away…
3 weeks of constant rain is getting everyone down at the moment – especially as our office has no heating. It’s funny, I lived in Scotland for four years, but somehow the cold combined with the humidity means nothing ever quite dries properly. Still, it makes a great excuse for excursions to hot springs. In the past week, I have made sure to pay my local spa a visit in XinPeitou and yesterday went down the coast the JhaoSi with Anke and Lars for a decent session, and language exchange with 7 year olds, fascinated by my hairy arms.
Rain in Ximen
Warmth in XinPeitou -
Typhoony
Lorenzo and I had crept out for a sneaky Sunday night pint (if they served them in pint glasses) and we got the call from Markus that a Typhoon was heading for the island and that work was cancelled. Obviously, this was goood news so we continued to drink until we kind of hung out on a street corner watching things get blown around and seeing scooter drivers crashing. Things like that. Anyway, took some photos.
It’s raining, it’s pouring
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Rain rain rain
Well,
Taipei certainly knows how to deliver water. Another typhoon is playing silly buggers off in the Pacific which of course means.. rain for us. Last night, after drinking with my Swiss buddy Lorenzo, I took a taxi home and the water in the road reached the top of the car’s wheels. It was crazy – especially when inebriated. (see lorenzo below)
Last week was a good week at work. Got my groove on in several areas and generally felt happy with my work… however, these four days of success were brought back down to earth with a bang when I began learning Pro Engineer software – the toughest software known to man. Next week may be frustrating!
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Breakfast & Typhoon
Had a great breakfast with Anke, Lars, Tanja and Mickey…. Typhoon is great because we are off work for two days!
Take a look below at the satellite image of the Typhoon…. at this precise moment it is exactly above Taipei, and all is quiet and serene outside. The only thing we can be sure of is that it will get noisy and windy again in the coming hours.
… just came back from a nice walk, and actually the eye of the storm produced a nice amount of sun – just enough to celebrate our day off.
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And then it rained
Two typhoons playing silly buggers in the pacific mean RAIN for Taiwan. Let me just point out some things here. The UK is a rainy island in the north Atlantic. Taiwan is a rainy island in the north Pacific. Yes, it has a baeutiful sub-tropical climate, but I tell you, when I was walking around today looking for a place to live all I could think of was Glasgow…
And this is all I have been doing for the last 5 days… looking up at buildings trying to see these signs… the symbols on the left are the key. They mean “you don’t have a flat and we do! ha hah!”
If you can imagine a funny looking white guy completely drenched looking up in the air taking completely random photos and then coming along the other side of the street doing the same thing – well that’s me. Great ambassador!
