A catastrophic relapse into misanthropy yesterday afternoon, after a very pleasant morning — work finished early, a good Chinese lesson, a pleasant cup of coffee and conversation with the GF. I returned, remarking on what a good mood I was in, to find that one of the others had locked the front door from the […]
A partial recovery
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 […]
More people
After moaning yesterday about too much sociability, today was even worse: the GF and I both felt we had been in hiding too much and so we made a plan with our flatmates to go for a stroll and visit the national museum (not the National Palace Museum) and then meet our linguist friend for […]
More rarified
A slightly more rarified dinner than usual as it was a celebration day and we went to one of the small, expensive and experimental places for dinner last night. It was a nice dinner, and less blighted by the various dietary restrictions than usual. At the end was a souffle, which made me wish that […]
A simple pair
We were a simple pair at our Chinese lessons. It must have nearly driven the teacher mad. My most unfortunate moment came when we were practicing sentences and she asked us ‘what is your teacher’s name?’ and we had no idea. After staring at each other wildly for a few minutes I said “Liu”, trying […]
An ozzy brunch
The four of us decided to go for brunch today. This is a meal that enrages me more often than not as it is all too often over-priced, mediocre in flavour, more interested in Instagrammable plating or catching trends than quality food. Plus, the sight of hollandaise sauce from a packet, or a baked-from-frozen croissant, […]
More distancing
Yesterday morning the GF and I walked westwards, through the Botanical Gardens which were small, but free and very pleasant. I do like tropical botanical gardens, the wild lushness combined with being well-kept. The streets were quite quiet, late morning on a Sunday, and Easter I suppose, though there were few indications of that despite […]
The only way to visit a museum
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 […]
Relieved sigh
Our visas have come through, phew. It always seemed likely they would, and really, given the global lockdowns where could we go, but it’s still a relief. After our Chinese lesson this morning we went straight to the Bureau of Consular Affairs to collect our passports. There was about a 10 minute wait, then we […]
Brief return to a colder clime
Today we had our second social engagement of the week. We returned to Yangmingshan, albeit a different part of it: a very curious part indeed. This was US officer housing upto the 1970s, and the hillsides here are dotted with prefab American houses, like a little suburb in the hills. It was a windy, rainy […]