The GF and I returned to the National Palace Museum, using two-for-one tickets we’d purchased a month or so ago when we went to its southern outpost in Chiayi, on the way back from Alishan. Social distancing measures have been imposed in Taiwan, and this mean that only 100 visitors were allowed into the museum […]
Drowning
The Boddhisattva had been given two tickets to the new Paul Chiang exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts. She did not intend to use them so we took them off her. Off we went down to Yuanshan where the museum is located (also the big farmer’s market in the expo centre), stopping first for […]
Treasure hill
I left early in the morning into cold rain and wind as I had an appointment with a hairdresser in Xinyi. This is just on the edge of downtown-y bit with all the malls and megastores, a sixth floor office in an office block turned into a hairdresser’s salon. This sort of setup seems quite […]
Tourism in the time of coronavirus
Yesterday we went to what is normally Taiwan’s busiest tourist site, the mountain village of Jiufen, formerly a declining gold mine site, which took off after a clever marketer realised that it is very similar to the setting of the Studio Ghibli film Spirited Away (or perhaps it did inspire the setting for the film, […]
Last sunny day
Yesterday, Saturday, was the last sunny day, with today and the next few days to be cold and rainy, It was also the first day of this year’s official sakura festival, so we decided to visit Chiang Kai-shek’s old summer home in Yangming park and called an Uber (along the way we saw a man […]
Flashbacks
In around 1995, I and a couple of friends at my posh private girls’ school wrote a play retelling Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. I played Sir Gawain, a friend played the Green Knight, another played King Arthur and a fourth played The Mouse. The Mouse character was added in because we wanted to […]
Young and beautiful
Last night I went to an Auratnaak performance along with a couple of others, one of whom had been involved in the past. It took place in a small room in G-8, the room painted with truck art on the walls. I am rather suspicious about truck art now — that said, I’ve just bought […]
In the clubroom
This morning everyone left, thank heavens, and the house is quiet again. The Gentleman Friend and I went to see a matinee of Blank at the Donmar Warehouse, first stopping at one of these newfangled food courts that seem to have erupted everywhere. Similar to Hutong at Lot 10, or a Singaporean hawker centre, I […]
In centro
Today, Saturday, the GF and I walked over from Laureles to Centro for a spot of tourism. (The GF arrived a few days ago, after my last post). It was not a long walk, maybe about 25 minutes, but along the way it became very different indeed from green, wealthy Laureles. First, walking along the […]
Two gods
A verse by the Punjab poet Ustad Daman, written in honour of General Zia and quoted in a very good article about him in Dawn: mery mulk de do khuda la elah te martial la ik rehnda a arshan utthay duja rehnda farshan uttay Even if you don’t know Punjabi, if you know the first […]