This article made me a little teary. Last night was the first meeting of the board of a publication I am involved in. It’s a semi-academic publication and all the others involved are academics of one sort or another. A pleasant bunch, but it definitely ran on university time and the meeting extended for 90 […]
Watery Sunday
The clouds burst around mid-morning and raindrops plummetted down as though from the barrel of a gun. In a climate like Taiwan’s it would be foolish to let that get in the way of an outing so we strolled down to Gongguan for an Israeli lunch at a small restaurant where there was one table […]
New frontrunner
A new frontrunner has emerged: we are now thinking of moving to Tainan in July. The reason for this is largely practical: Taitung doesn’t seem to have an oversupply of pleasant places to stay unless one is in a small surfing village, which itself is difficult to manage without a car. Tainan is also quite […]
Actual weekend
Today is the start of the actual weekend; yesterday’s idle day was a bank holiday for the GF and a day without work for me. In the morning, the four of us went back to Serenity for another excellent meal. I must say, they have the best fried rice I’ve ever had, I would dearly […]
Home in the country
Today the GF and I went to the Lin Family mansion, in the outskirts of the city, in Banqiao. This was once a palatial countryside estate, with views of green hills and forests and fields all around. Now, there are the usual grubby apartment blocks and office buildings creeping up against the walls, with some […]
Eid everywhere
Today was Eid. For once it was Eid everywhere in the world, including in Pakistan where the usual farce around the sighting of the moon reached new heights. The science minister, Fawwad Chaudhry, was previously the information minister in which he characterised himself by a particularly jahil enthusiasm, like a gormless and corrupt Chemical Ali. […]
The sadness of a bad meal
I had a good Spanish lesson this morning, in which I practiced trying to use particular grammatical structures, trying to force them into my brain. It was a tiring lesson, so it must have been working. The GF and I then went off to Serenity, the only restaurant that feels like dining out in the […]
Golden horse
On Saturday we left, just as the crowds arrived. We took our bags and went to I-Thao for lunch, wanting to try indigenous food. What had been a deserted town was now packed, though still far from capacity, as people arrived for the weekend. This was only Taiwanese tourists, as there are none from overseas […]
Other side of the lake
The next morning, after a good breakfast, we got a drop to the Wenwu (civil / military) temple, thinking that Friday would be a good day to go since this was one of the most popular spots and would be sure to be thronged on a weekend, even in this time of coronavirus. For me, […]
Sun Moon Lake
As expected, my plan to stay to myself whilst at Sun Moon Lake failed. On Thursday we left at around lunchtime, taking bento boxes with us to eat on the train. I had Spanish in the morning – a good lesson and I’m enjoying the book – so it was an early start for me, […]