Brilliant. Two weekends ago, when I returned to Hsinchu, I realized I had left my keys in Taipei. This left me in the rain until my sister could pick me up from my bus stop. So, with the spare apartment key I left with her, I had a place to stay, but was Scooterless In Hsinchu because, as it turns out, my spare scooter key was in the a locked drawer -- whose key, of course, was also in Taipei -- and whose spare key... was... in the drawer itself (of course).

So, I got my brother to courier my keys to me a couple days later, and I went to pick up my scooter from where I left it (in a parking lot). Low and behold, when I get there, I find that my scooter isn't. I knew it was towed and not stolen because that parking lot has recently been repainted with parking stalls and cleaned up. The way I had parked, squished in with other scooters in car stalls, would have been fine over the weekend, but not fine over the weekdays I left it there keyless. So, I had to walk in 30 degree weather to the Science Park Administration office, just a short 5 minutes, to find out where they would have towed my scooter. Then, I remembered I needed my scooter registration -- so I had to walk home first. In the meantime, I called my sister to pick me up to take me to the tow lot.

20 minutes later, she picked me up and with the map I got from the Science Park Administration office, we were on our way to the tow lot. On the road, something flashes by me, and I didn't immediately clue in. About 30 seconds later, I say "WAS THAT THE MAP?!" Sure enough, it was indeed the map. I had some idea of where the place was, but it still took 15 minutes to get somewhere only 5 minutes away.

The cost of towing was $250nt (about $10 cad), and the parking fine was $600. Wasn't a good day for me.