So... what's the flavour of the day?

Oh Thank Heaven!

In a post I put up over one and a half years ago (wow, has it been that long since I first came to Taiwan?), I wrote about the over-population of convenient stores in Taiwan. When I moved into the apartment/room I lived in now, the closest convenient store was a staggering 5 mins walk away. Keeping in mind that I live in a fairly quiet neighbourhood housing some 4000 people, that's quite a short distance already. Actually, there are 2 convenient stores about 5 mins away, but in different directions. Both FamilyMarts.

As of this past week, there's a new convenience in town. Just when you thought there was no need for additional convenient stores, a 7-eleven opened up about 3 minutes walk from my place... in the direction of both FamilyMarts. I don't use convenient stores often, but it's nice to have a place so close to home in case I need to pay a bill quickly, or in case I need food during a typhoon. Seriously, that 5 minute walk was killer. 5 minutes, geez.

I've been known to get by very inexpensively on weekdays. I would average my spending to less than 80nt per day for 3 meals, at least from Monday to Thursday. So, here's how that's done... Breakfast is either oatmeal or a musili cereal with a small carton of milk. At lunch, I usually go to a place which lets you pack your own lunchbox. This usually costs me about 40nt. And then I can order a "lunchbox" for dinner through work, free of charge.

How does the food look? Here, I've included some pictures.

1. Sept 9, 2005 lunch - 40nt
2. Dec 14, 2005 lunch - 40nt
3. Dec 14, 2005 dinner - free
4. Dec 16, 2005 dinner - free
5. Dec 21, 2005 lunch - 50nt
6. Dec 21, 2005 dinner - free
7. Dec 27, 2005 dinner - free
8. Dec 28, 2005 lunch - 40nt
9. Dec 29, 2005 lunch - 50nt
10. Dec 29, 2005 dinner - free
11. Dec 30, 2005 lunch - 40nt
12. Dec 30, 2005 dinner - free
13. Jan 4, 2006 dinner - free
14. Jan 5, 2006 dinner - free
15. Jan 9, 2006 dinner - free

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11.
12. 13.
14. 15.

I was at the bank today at lunch, applying for an account. And the guy helping me was calling someone on the phone for help, because he wasn't sure what stuff I needed to fill (perhaps due to me being a foreigner). He asked the person on the other end of the phone whether I should sign my English or Chinese name. And this is what I got out of hearing one side of the conversation (I'm extrapolating the other end's questions and bridging the dialogue based on what I heard).

Other person: "Can he write Chinese?"
Guy helping me: [picks up a sheet where I had signed my Chinese name] "I think it's Chinese."

-- At this point, I looked away, but kept an eye on him in my peripheral. --

Other person: "Is he Caucasian or Chinese?"
Guy helping me: [Keeps looking at me] "Uh... I can't tell."

Please.

It's an UGH morning. Last night, I had a lot of thoughts on my mind -- all good, they were exciting me and keeping me up. But I've come to realize over recent years that if I stay up late, despite getting more and more tired, another emerging force prevents me from getting to sleep... hunger. That was true last night, as by 3am, I had to get up and fill my stomach. I had instant noodles, a little pudding treat, and a glass of orange juice. I finished watching Wayne's World, and was back to sleep around 3:37am. Like I said, UGH morning.

After watching The Apprentice (Season 1) which is now showing here in Taiwan two years after it aired in North America, it reminded me of The Joe Schmo Show. In fact, I posted a blog about how much I liked that show over two years ago. So, I was enticed to look up the show again online. Turns out, and I'm not surprised, there's a Joe Schmo 2 on Spike TV. Nice! But I'll have to wait a while before getting to watch that.

The Joe Schmo Show Season 1 is on DVD now, and I said before that I would buy it if it were available. But I think I'll first see if it could be obtained through "other" means.

Not sure about girls, but guys don't like to poo together.

There're a few issues at hand. One is pooing in the presence of others. One is knowing who's pooing next to you. One is having someone know you're pooing. It's all very complicated, although simple when put together.

Let's review the individual facts:

• When I'm in the washroom on the toilet, I prefer to be alone. When I sit on the Potter, it's my little Chamber of Secrets, if you will. I don't want people to hear my sounds, and I'm not interested in getting involved with anyone else's sounds. It's the proverbial tree falling in the forest... except here, it's just a log.


• Guys avoid confrontation in the washroom. I find that many (my research isn't extensive enough to say "most") guys will time their exits from a stall carefully. For example, when someone else is peeing in the same washroom, they'll wait for that person to leave before flushing and exiting. If someone is pooing in a stall as well, they'll quickly finish up so they can avoid getting made out by a witness. Sometimes its a race between two pooers that finish about the same time to get out quickly.


• Finishing up just as someone comes into the washroom is the worst. Then you have to wait for them to leave before you can. Although sometimes I'll try to finish quickly, leave the stall, wash my hands, and leave before they finish peeing, so they won't have had a chance to see who it was. A drive-by lavatory experience.

Ok, maybe I'm unusual. Then again, maybe not. What about girls? I don't know. Maybe someone will care to comment.

Well, I'm unusual anyway, just for blogging about this.

Happy New Year.

I've been busy at work.
I've been sick with a cold.
So I've been away from blogging.
I'll take a few more days off blogs.
In the meantime, I'll post a blog I wrote before (but haven't posted).

What about my Christmas? Let me tell you about my Christmas.

From late morning to late afternoon, the K clan kids had lunch chez V with our cousins, their significant others, and baby. We feasted on Lawry's 2005 Turkey To-Go Package (which included cranberry sauce, gravy, mashed potatoes,and traditional turkey stuffing), a pumpkin pie, and a tiramisu cake. Let's not forget the After Eight mint chocolates that aren't sold here. After the Secret Santa exchange and some sleeping on the couch, it was off to the Sogo department store to walk around and get some free chopsticks.

Then I went down to the Taipei 101 area with A to walk around and to see a performance, whose poster said "Capoeira Taiwan" which intrigued me. As I road my scooter with A giving directions on the back, I made a left turn coming out of a street and immediately got pulled over. I decided to try my "speak English only" tactic to see if I could get away with it. As he pulled me over, I immediately started speaking in English... and he got mad! He pointed at my face and said loudly in Chinese "講中文! (Speak Chinese!)" I just looked at him blankly and shook my head. He pointed at himself and said "I am Chinese Police. 你講中文! (You, speak Chinese!)" But I was having none of that, as I looked at him shaking my head as my non-Chinese-speaking facade continued. He told me in Chinese that I committed a traffic violation because I made a left turn through double-solid yellow lines, and that he was going give me a ticket. Mind you, he was speaking far too quickly for someone who couldn't speak Chinese to understand. He asked A if she could speak Chinese, but she said nothing. He asked for my license, which I gave him after acting as if not knowing what he meant. He asked me "你是台灣人嗎? (Are you Taiwanese?)", and then answered his own question "喔, 不是. 是 O 開頭的. (Oh, no. [your ID number] starts with O.)" I asked him "So, what did I do wrong?" and he said "I English very little". As he was filling out my ticket, he asked me if I could understand Chinese, and I responded "小小. (small small)", which is grammatically incorrect. And he said "'一點點' 不是'小小' ('a little', not 'small small')". Anyway, he still gave me a 360nt ticket, and at the end of it (which was a very long it, with all the playing around I was doing), he told me "中文要多學一點. (Learn more Chinese)." So, as much fun as it was pretending not to speak Chinese, getting a ticket wasn't much fun at all. In fact, in hindsight, I would have been better off speaking Chinese and saying that I didn't see the double lines because there were so many cars, which was the truth; but I was too focused on making my lack of Chinese understanding look realistic. Anyway, you can't really go back once you start faking that you don't understand. Then you're a liar and you'll probably get another ticket. :P

Moving on... after a stop at Starbucks, we went to Warner Village where they had some street performers to entertain the crowds (and collect money, of course). The performance I went to see turned out to be by a group of street/hip hop dancers that I think I'd seen on TV before. And I saw one guy (Allan) doing a few Capoeira moves, so I asked him where he'd learnt. He told me that once a week, they have an instructor teach them and if I were interested, he could take me there. As we talked, I learned that the instructor was not only from the Capoeira School I trained with (Axe Capoeira) but was also someone I trained with, although I didn't care too much for the guy personally. Allan said he hasn't had much roda (the circle where two people play Capoeira) experience, so he wouldn't play with me, but he said I could freestyle if I wanted. After much internal debate, with willingness and nervousness battling it out, and with A's encouragement, I decided to do it. So, I had my minute of not-quite-fame showing off some Capoeira in front of crowd of Taiwanese. Glad I did it actually! I have Allan contact info, so I'll fire him off an email sometime to drop in on the Axe Capoeira Academy in Taipei.

So, that was my Christmas Day.

Tell me about your day.