A remarkable success this morning. It was a working day for both of us but first we went to a restaurant we had heard of – not a restaurant but someone’s house where they cook and serve in their living room. We arrived and no one spoke English and the cook came out of the […]
New town
Here we are in Kaohsiung. It was a hassle to get here as we both had our suitcases as well as a large ikea bag filled with assorted kitchen goods and comforts of life, which nearly broke my shoulder off when I took a turn carrying it. We are staying in a most astonishing Airbnb. […]
Dumpling day
Today was the dragon boat festival so we had rice dumplings in memory of the old poet who was thrown into the river for speaking up against corruption and the people of the town scattered rice dumplings into the water so the fish would not eat his body. Annoyingly, when the Boddhisattva brought the dumplings, […]
New identity
A friend, contemplating the stock markets: I hereby dissociate myself from humanity. I am going to self-identify as a coronavirus.
Ring of fire
What a triumphant day today was, the day of the eclipse. This was an annular eclipse, on the day of the solstice, with a long but very narrow band of totality which happened to pass through Chiayi, the town from which went to Alishan a couple of months ago. Though knowing of course that the […]
Flash of irritation
Today is a day when my nerves are always a bit raw, though less so this year than in previous years. Felt a flash of irritation when I saw someone has posted on Facebook the most irritating circumlocution for “died” that I’ve seen in a while: “Today is the day when xxx moved to a […]
Protest in the park
This morning, the GF and I went to 228 Park to join the Black Lives Matter protest there. It was a curious affair. Every foreigner in Taiwan (excluding migrant workers) seemed to be there – the crowd was about 90% non-Taiwanese, and I suspect many of those who appeared Taiwanese were Americans of Taiwanese origin. […]
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 […]
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. […]