BBQ in Taichung

Last weekend, we were invited to Tom's (guy who used to work for Shane, went back to uk to do masters, then came back and stayed at Pascals for a week) new flat for a BBQ.
Nick and I didn't need much more persuasion than a pot of food at the end of the railway rainbow. So over we went... took Nick to Sogo (massive Japanese supermarket) to get some meat and booze: you ever see the father ted episode with 8 priests stuck in a lingerie department... well suffice to say, we didn't find any food. We needn't have worried, Tom had bought in for the 5,000, or 2,000+ me and Nick.
There were about 20 there, mostly Taichung English teachers (I'm yet to meet a westerner who isnt) and a few local friends of Tom's including his ex?girlfriend Sophie.
The BBQ was held on the roof with great illuminated tower blocks filling the skyline.
Now, I've been to plenty a raucous party, and this was not one... i don't remember anyone even laughing paticularly loudly, but at 11:30ish, up comes the local constabulary asking us to disperse. This is quite typically Taiwanese, I've even had it happen at a club in the middle of Changhua... it's not OK to make noise after 10:00. 6am on the other the other hand, that's fine! Turn that Karaoke machine to full and wake all your neighbours. 6 is a respectable time of day! I yer!
Anyways, we (Tom, Sophie, Nick and I)decided as the night was still young that we'd ... go bowling (obviously)
Having had a fair amount of whisky, it wasn't my best ever game... but the highlight was Nick's shoes.
Whereas everyone else in the place had been given purple and green slip ons. Nick's were gold on black, with 'Tiger' emblazoned on the sides. Even the laces were sparkly gold. They were a wonder to behold. so amazing that it seemed wrong to imprison them in a bowling alley for ever, so Mr X (he shall remain nameless) with Tom, Sophie and myself walked out with the shoes in his hand.
At 3 we went to the Sound Garden, but it was empty, with the exception of 3 Armenian girls - who worked as performers at the Amusement Park i visited - and some South African lads (one of which had fallen for our Sam, months back and wanted her number)
So fun night all in all.

Halloween

Now in Taiwan, Halloween is not celebrated as it is in the West. In fact the only thing they can associate with is the odd hollywood flick they've seen... but being an English scool; Shane has a tradition of doing something for the big day... so come that All Hallows Eve; I arrived at school to find that Nick (Art Grad. from NYC) had decorated the building with skulls, bats and other ghoulish images... in the staff room on my desk were 4 bags of sweets (candy for US viewers), a plastic sword and black cloak. I think the TAs had missed the point that its the children who are supposed to dress up.. but keen to receive my pay-cheque at the end of the month, i donned the black cloak borrowed some make-up, bloodied my sword and barged into the classes on my list... most took quite well to the performance (Oscar winning I tell ya), some were a little too scared of the sword to take the sweets (which meant more for me later) but then one class of heroes decided to take on the monster and broke my sword... don't know where there sweets ended up!
The following weekend, we heard there was going to be a Halloween party in Changhua.. so me Kate, Nick and Sam all dressed up as vampires and walked down to Yuan lin station. We got some funny looks and most people gave us a wide bearth... but thankfully we provoked no violence... the gothic scene hasnt kicked off in Taiwan yet.
When we got to the Sportsman Bar, it turned out that it was only a Shane party... I say only, there's now around 40 of us past, present and associates. I met the new teacher, Gemma from Middlesborough, who's gonna be taking over my classes when i go to Thailand and then cover Andre for 2 months. She's cool. Had a "me too" conversation with her; geography grad, speaks French, birthday same week...etc.
Linda was there as well (boss) and she's paid for us all to have a couple of drinks (so generous). At the end of the night there was loads of drinks left over, so it was a free bar. Didn't get back until 5ish... but good night!

November, No sun, no warmth, no...

It is official: November - for the majority of the world - is a bad month for weather.
When in Uganda on the equator, it was a month of cool highlands-style drizzle.
Here in Taiwan I've been looking forward to cooler temperatures since the day I arrived.
Everyday I've cycled to work and had to stand in front of the air con unit for 10 minutes before i could think about teaching... but this week on exactly Nov 1st, the temperature didn't become pleasant: it plummeted!
Apparently the low temp was 20': I disagree! On Wednesday night I woke up shivering and had to wear half my wardrobe to sleep. Yesterday I cycled into work in a woolly jumper, and was still chilly.
Then to top a unpleasantly cool day off: I forgot my keys had to cycle back to work and it started raining - not heavy: just cold highland drizzle - the stuff that soaks ya right through.
After all these months thinking 'I'll be able to go jogging when it cools down a bit' - well now it's cool and I just wanna stay tucked up with a mug of cocoa.

Taichung Jazz Festival

Last weekend, after spending a day shopping and cycling to Changhau looking for Nick, who was cycling round looking for an orchid shop (he hasnt got a phone), we were invited to the Jazz Festival by Sam.
At 8:30ish, Sam, Tim, Nick and I got on the train (only 66p) to Taichung (an hour away). We dint actually know where the venue was but thankfully our TPR for jazz paid off and the guy knew straight away.
We arrived at a small empty park: 'must have finished' said the driver... but then from up the street we could here the boom of bongos. So we followed the noise. I was impressed at how big and full of people the park was. There were big light displays beamed onto surrounding buildings. We caught the end of one Jazz Band playing what i think of as 'aimless jazz' and then saw some young local hearthrob (apparently) sing a few songs to the smitten girls in the audience - think Jamie Cullem without the voice - After that there was a far more funky set played by a purely Taiwanese group... the audience (probably typical of Taiwanese) were quite reserved, but we sang along anyway; Tim tried to see how many he could get to dance with him: result: one toddler!
This weekend, after a week of planning my trip to Thailand in Nov, we decided to make more of our time in Taichung (the No.2 city in Taiwan). So Nick and I took an early train (by early I mean before 3 o'clock) and visited the art museum. There were plenty of wierd and wonderful things to see.
Most of the art in the main room was what I'd call 'freaky art' - the art that makes you feel queezy. There were many pictures of people with distorted faces (all grimacing), a multiimage display of someone's heart with their body superimposed, a colouful collection of rags entitled 'child birth'.
The next gallery was far more up my street: 'the changing urban scene'.
Nick kept taking photographs of everything: we must have got told 'no photo' 7 times in an hour. He used to work in a gallery: he assured me that flash doesnt actually damage the picture, and nobody has ever been thrown out for taking pictures.
From there we walked across town (against the advice of the advice desk lady) to the Sculpture Park. The road was long and traffic ridden, but it helped work up an appetite. The park was lovely: a very mini Central Park. An oasis from the urban jungle around. There was a lake in the middle and as you'd expect: sculptures everywhere.
It was getting dark by this point, so popped into a noodle bar for some nosh. There was a picture board of dishes on the ceiling; sadly the reverse side (what the chef could see) did not match the side I was pointing to. So again in this country of surprises, we got pork dumplings in soup, instead of noodles and chicken. Still very nice.
We met Sam and Tai (her Taiwanese friend with car) at the park and enjoyed a nice night of Jazz.
There were some musicians from Brazil (outstanding) and one guy who obviously wasnt local trying to get everyone to sing along to *****. At one point he had 10 volunteers doing pelvic thrusts in time to the music.
At the end there was a competition. A free CD to anyone who could sum up the Jazz Festival in a short speech.
Nick needed little persuasion. He had to fight his way to the front, but he's an American, they couldnt turn him away. The speech went down very well -cant remember what he said exactly - and he got his CD.
On the way home, we were a little peckish, so Tai took us to the nightmarket in Taichung. It was large block of
stalls selling every type of snack you could think of; we had chicken blood soup, sweet potato balls, baked potato with everything on it, gooseblood rice. Delicious.