Christmas Cosco: buy 20 get 10 free!

This weekend has been a collection of pre-Christmas shopping and chilling.
On Friday exhausted from the post xmas show week and chopping a bit of my finger off while cooking on thursday; Nick, Paz, Sam and i had some noodles at our usual and went to the cinema to see the late showing of Deja Vu with Denzel Washingotn in; wasn't bad... but by the end i was half asleep.
On Saturday; was planning to get up and go for a cycle (as i have the past 2 weeks) but the weather was cold and drizzley. Before i knew; it was time to go for lunch on Linda in Taichung. It was a way of saying thankyou for getting your clothes off at the xmas show: we were worried she'd want us to do it again. She took us to a proper indian curry house... we were all festivally plump by the end of it. Steve (her husband) had videoed the show and was going to give the staff a copy; but thanks to our routine; she's confident that she can sell them to parents.
As we were in the big city; we thought we might as well do a spot of shopping: popped into Nova and found myself flicking through laptop magazines comparing prices. very tempted to get an apple... watch this space.
We then went into Sogo (huge department store) where we all had a look for pressies for our secret Santa (to be revealed at Stu's house on xmas day); before working our way back home. Traffic in Taichung is crap; you can never simply 'pop in and out'. By the time we got back; we were late for Ross and Rea's xmas party (Changhua teachers). Nick, Katie and I took the train after a brief shower... and followed the route i remember taking after getting lost on the way back last time. It was a cool party; everyone was there. They had 3 types of cheese. grapes, cake and doritos by the bowl full: started to feel like xmas. I would have stayed longer, but knowing that the next day was the bi-anual trip to Cosco; i made my way back to the station; the last train pulled into Yuanlin at haf 2; I did the best i could to ride home without collapsing with hypothermia.
Woke at 8:30 this morning; downed a coffee and hitched a lift with Pascal into Changhua. We were using the two school 4x4s. Gemma, Sharne, Yarni and Stu were waiting for us with TAs Tina, Tracy, Sammy and friend.
Assuming that we would meet up at the other end; i went with the TAs. That was my first mistake of the day.
Sadly the two Coscos in East Taiwan are both 3 hours away from Changhua. After tossing a coin, we decided on going south to Kaoshung. Yarni knew the way so we would follow their car. Things started well, i was fed an egg and bacon pancake with soup. We were chatting about weather, the xmas show, xmas in general, when suddenly we weren't following Pascal anymore. We pulled up on the side of a road into the city. Turned out they'd stopped at some toilets a while back. Another ten minutes past. I asked if we all knew where the shop was. The TAs said 'yes'. So i suggested meeting at the shop rather than hanging around on the busy road. That was my second mistake. An hour past going round in circles lost in Kaoshung. By the time we arrived and parked... the teachers were almost finished and ready to head home. If there's one thing I've learnt out here it's that Taiwanese are hopeless at giving (and following for that matter) directions. It seemed pointless asking the others to wait while we shopped so they made their way home. The shop by the look of it, could have been any Cosco back in the UK. But walking round there were two things that made the experience 'more Taiwanese'. Firstly, like at home - when mother goes to get the shopping she takes the kids with her. Well here when mother gets the shopping she takes the kids, her parents, her sister and her kids and they all like to stop and talk mid-isle. Now the second thing is that the trolleys are bigger than Tesco's trolleys (for bulk buy), but the isles aren't! And on top of that, the back wheels are locked making manoeuvring round the aforementioned obstacles impossible for even the most experience trolley drivers - like myself.
Before long i'd stocked up on enough tuna, pasta and sauces to last me my contract. What i wanted to buy was some fruit and veg; but i didn't think i could get through 20 carrots before they went off... that would take some planning; carrot soup day one, carrot cake, day two, salad and grated carrot day three, a roast with carrots day 4 and i've still got 12 left! I did buy a giant tub of peanut butter and a huge box of porridge... bought to last, but the way im eating, i wouldn't give either longer than a month.
I was also tempted to stock up on meats but with the likelihood of getting lost on the way back being high, i decided to pass. Amazingly we didn't have any problems getting home, the TAs dropped me back at the house, which was nice, and before long I was drifting off to Shrek 2.