I succeeded in putting myself in partial isolation today, at least until dinner when the Woodland Creature and the Boddhisattva returned home early so I made food for them as well (or at least for the Boddhisattva; the Woodland Creature decided to order in). Luckily the break was enough that I was fairly cheerful during dinner, though I shall go back into hiding from tomorrow. Afterwards we finished up the second season of the Wire. Very glad that it’s standing up to my memory of it.
Some hitches in our flatmates’ plans to stay in Taiwan: one of them needs to leave the country to renew a visa but with flights etc limited has been relying on the government’s two blanket extensions. Rumour has it there will be no more extensions, and other routes are somewhat blocked by government offices having shut down in various countries. Tricky business, and the uncertainty affects us directly as we are not sure if we will stay in Taipei throughout our time here.
The day was spent in the Songshan area, strolling through a remarkable series of parks set between apartment buildings, with a swimming pool, exercise areas, a lovely basketball court overhung with banyan roots, green spaces, a small amphitheatre and an eco-park with a stream and a wetland, all in a strip about 1.5km long and maybe 200 metres wide. (My estimates are probably completely off). We had coffee here as well and admired the clientele which were much more Chelsea than the more studentish folks around our part of Da’an, near Shida. We also purchased two small Japanese-made plates, wooden and coated in lacquer. Ridiculously expensive, of course, and also ridiculously beautiful. They will be our plates for bits of chocolate when watching stuff in the evenings.