MRT musings, take two

alright, so the spectacular post I tapped out on the underground this morning... is lost. neat as this Shozu app is, it does have some drawbacks. no autosave being one. I attempted to tap the 'save' button, but must've hit 'clear' or something.

anyhoo. these things happen.

yesterday was a whirlwind. it started with a simple To-Do list:
• pick up April bus ticket (save NT$400),
• buy black cartridge for printer,
• send postcard to US, get stamps for SA mail,
• change scooter's oil,
• pollish resume,
• contact schools with advertised vacancies for next semester.

I forgot about the speeches for my primary school class at the buxiban. there's a reading and speech contest on my birthday - and 5 of the girls from my TCE class are participating.

I realized that I'd forgotten the speeches as I woke up on the bus to Donggang. then I realized that we'd already passed the town!

the bus dropped me next to the road. I had to walk back! very Indie plottish, I'm sure.

Monday started.

@!!#!

I typed up and lost an entire post just now... AAAAARRRGGH!!!

should I have stayed in bed this morning? we'll find out soon enough, I suppose.

note to self: socks

one should never underestimate the aesthetic value of socks.

(to the lady in the leather tights and mocks: even ugly, mismatched socks would be an improvement when your bare skin looks like a mock-up of the Plague.)

Squirreliciousness

yep - that's a mischievous sparkle in his eye!

he's still on the formula - and BOY does he get excited when he grabs hold!

he still needs some 'encouragement' to empty his bladder (wet earbud substitutes mommy squirrel's licks) - but when he lets go, you can see the relief on his face! haha - i suppose boys will be boys ;0)

mobile snapshots

clearing out the cobwebs in my head also means clearing out the cobwebs in daily life :0)

one of the areas that needed some desperate cleaning was my mobile phone's memory card. here are some of the better shots that were liberated from the old dear:

my first night in Taiwan saw me attending a celebration of some sorts. methinks it was a birthday, or something. this is a shot of the principal of my (then new) school and her family. thank Heavens Ben was there as well! Nobody else really spoke any English. 

i snapped this one for my Dad - who's a land surveyor back in SA. at home, he needs a big 4x4 to get to all the places he needs to work - here in Taiwan, a 50cc scooter seems more than adequate!

PoPo (pronounced Puwo-Puwo, not pawpaw) sleeping like a baby - literally!

a note from one of my students' communication books. it always tickles me when i see my name - but nobody tells me what it says... so yeah - any ideas?

for those of you who can read sheet music, this is the tune for "Hansie Slim", believe it or not! 

i love some of these signs' use of English!

Röyksopp - Happy Up Here

Happy
Up
Here

emerging with bullets

• laughed on the underground yesterday. homos are life savers that way ;0)
• contract ammendments allow for a trip to SA in Aug!
• in SA, BMW drivers are notoriously rude (stereotype warning). here in TW it seems Mercedes Benz attracts the same drivers.
• PoPo (his squirreliciousness) opened his eyes last week, caught a cold, started pooping by himself and got a bigger box.
• sociology wasn't a waste of time.
• Chinese and Afrikaans share more phonetic components than either does with English.
• "Hansie Slim" is based on a traditional Chinese melody (!!)

blockage

it's terribly quiet on here, I know - and I promise to do something about it as soon as I've worked through whatever the emotional blockage is that seems to've wired my trap shut.

file this under "being bipolar" for now. or "lonelyness unexplained".

new adventures in the cyberverse?

www.me2everyone.com/306408

that's the link you should click if you want to own shares in what's hyped to be the "next big thing". apparently.

it's going to be bigger than facebook *gasp*
or myspace (never quite got that one)
AND second life *gasp*
COMBINED!!
*i faint*
(no, not really)

so here's the idea, as far as i get it:
sign up and get shares in said company - for free (ahem)
get extra shares for everyone who signs up on your recommendation (pyramids require sign up fees by definition - so there)
when this brave new world goes online - you (supposedly) start earning on your shares. (by then there will be advertising, trading etc)

the catch?
who knows - probably your soul and 25 thousand raisins.

am i in?
of course - my Mom's there!

(and i'm www.me2everyone.com/306408 - if you didn't get that earlier. click and get us both some shares why don'tcha?)

tie by takeo kikuchi

yesterday, Peter asked me to buy him a tie to go with the shirt he's wearing to a wedding today. sounds simple, right? ha! shows what you know *lol*

i, being the perfectionist-in-denial that i am, turned this request into an expedition.

first, to prepare, i scoured the internet for advice and inspiration; starting at my favorite style-blogs: the sartorialist and man of the cloth. (for mobile inspiration i always have the Style.com app on my iPod touch.)

with my mind flooded with über-stylish images, i packed the shirt and hit the shops. as luck would have it - Kaohsiung Arena (my favorite mall) was celebrating the opening of a new fashion store! not only did this bring all the fashionista/os out into broad daylight - but it also coaxed other stores into offering discounts :0)

after hours of staring, comparing and assimilating of visual information - i had, however, still not found the perfect tie and was bemoaning the fact that i'll have to choose between a bunch of "almost there" contenders.

then it happened - a store that i somehow had missed before revealed itself to me. it was beautiful. dark wooden interior, vintage leather wingback chairs and understated displays that, none the less, pulled me in. and there they were: rows upon rows of one-of-a-kind, hand made ties. i was in Takeo Kikuchi - and it was heaven.

i carefully liberated the shirt from my satchel for the first time and laid it on a counter. the sparkle of approval in the saleslady's eyes sealed the deal - i would buy here, no matter what! with a little broken chinese/english and a lot of gesturing, we managed to find a black jacket similar to the one Peter would be wearing and started "trying on" some beauties. it didn't take long for the winner to pop up: a rich brown, 100% silk tie with deep chocolate and bright azure detail. hand made. one of a kind. perfection.

it came in at about 4 times the budget (what was Peter thinking *lol*), but i happily sacrificed my shoe-budget (i was going to get a pair of converse sneakers, but that could wait) in favor of this masterpiece.

i was so excited to see Peter's reaction when he got home from work, that i nearly piddled when i finally heard his key in the door... "Wow, I love it!!"

he said "love"... *le sigh*

i can die a happy man :0)

on his way to the wedding

meet the baby

meet the younger male who's nonchalantly claimed all attention and affection for himself:



Peter "rescued" this (super adorable) baby red-bellied tree squirrel from a pet store earlier tonight. the fuss. the oohs and the aahs. the strange parenting instincts.

we are enamored :0)

speak softly of love

different people express their affections differently. (in fact, there are lectures doing the rounds on "love languages", i am told.)

some verbalize, some communicate through touch and some express their feelings through gifts. even others, as i've come to realize, cook ;0)

there are dozens of variants, i'm sure.

i, myself, am a gift giver and touch-lover (who's learning to verbalize better). i thank my parents for raising us (me and my beloved sister) in a house filled with "i love yous", hugs, kisses and tickles!

>>home is definitely where i learned what love is!!

i find that knowing my love language, helps me to perceive and appreciate those of others. especially here, where i'm immersed in a whole new culture. knowing that there are differences in how we love - and that this is okay - is a key to happiness, i think.

realizing that the apple of my eye also expresses his affection through food, for example, has saved me from countless unnecessary tears of frustration.

we all need to hear: "i love you" every once in a while.
but are we listening in all the right places?

tickle me this

when do we outgrow tickles?
i don't think i know of one adult who will admit to loving being tickled - while i know many who tickle. thank Heaven for children who love being tickled - or we'd be surrounded by sad people clasping their hands under their armpits!

what brings this on? well, my kids at kindergarten - of course! they love being tickled. in fact, in learning games - they actively seek out the booby traps that involve getting tickled! even being picked up (a stern favorite) takes a second place to being tickled. and boy is it fun!

you see, i'm a tickler. even as a university student - i loved tickling my sister until she threatened to wet herself. (having a beard helped a lot to continue the madness after she'd managed to grab my hands.)

and yes, i will admit that i love being tickled! (my Mom used to give the best tickles - though we would guard and protest oh so wholeheartedly ;0) )

now that i think about it, i suspect our enjoyment of being tickled is dependent on our trust in the tickler. it is, after all, a fairly intimate exercise - both physically and emotionally. obviously you have to allow someone to get real close to you for them to tickle you *duh*
but it's the emotional intimacy that intrigues me. based on recent observations of my students (and fond memories of home); to truly enjoy a good tickle, you have to surrender to it completely. you have to give in and relinquish control for a few seconds. be in the moment - and enjoy with reckless abandon!

maybe that is part of the reason why i love tickling - to experience such complete openness and unconditional trust is a rare thing in modern societies. a very, very beautiful thing to be sure. it's a touch of heaven for the soul.

maybe our response to tickling can be seen as a measure of o our openness to being loved unreservedly?

dilemma

quoting her mom at 1:30
laughed.my.ass.off.

and then there's this one:

recipe: Danbin

Frank J asked, and i thought i'd share what i observed from Peter's culinary crafts.

danbin are basically savory omelet-pancakes.

you will need:

ready-made crepes (i'm sure Woollies has these)

one egg per intended danbin

shredded tuna

grated white cheese

method:

in a hot pan, crack one egg and place a crepe on top almost right away. (looks like a short-cut to an omelet),

flip when the egg has settled (is that how you'd say it?),

spoon some tuna in a line down the middle of the crepe,

add grated cheese,

fold the crepe into itself (one end over the other),

cut into bite-size rolls and

add pepper to taste.

serve hot ;0)

the important thing is that the crepe has to stay soft.

it should NOT turn into a semi-burnt burrito mimic... as mine still do.

love is a midnight snack

... and i mean that literally :0)

growing up, i often heard people say: "the road to a mans heart, is through his stomach". romantically speaking, of course. "directly through the ribcage with a sharp object" only started doing the rounds in my student days. (but that's not what this post is about.)

what inspired the little filing clerk in my head to unearth that jewel of a saying, was this:

Peter spontaneously decided to make me some tuna & cheese danbin for breakfast tomorrow morning (i get up hours before he does),

and he made two extra portions for us to have right away :0P

he isn't one for talking a whole lot about the mushy, emotional stuff - but very few things say "i love you" to me, like a meal specially made for you... after midnight.

am i or am i not the luckiest man alive?
you bet your bottom dollar i am!

previously unmentionables: chicken feet

yup - chicken feet.

good to eat...

rich in collagen.

after posting the *note to remind me to write about some of the food i've encountered recently, Peter came home with 4 of the following packets:

now i don't have a problem with eating chicken feet. in fact, i've actually had chicken feet (processed beyond recognition) before - so i'm not altogether unfamiliar with their taste and texture. and it's not that i'm squeamish or anything... but actually holding one of these little morsels in your hand is a lot different than picking at translucent squares of cooked skin in a fusion restaurant.

so how do you eat one of these?

same way you eat an elephant, i suppose: bit by bit.

start by picking out the toenails - them be nasty little pointy bits of hardness you really don't need crunching around your molars.

now, just open wide and bite!

if you remember that toes are nothing more than small bones neatly lined up for function - you should be fine. the rest is all skin and tendons - which is actually quite tasty, to be honest. the little red flecks of chillies help to give it some... erm... kick?

and for all the doubters out there - here's what remained of my first serving:

i'll be having seconds with Peter when he gets back from work.

toying with templates

just in case you drop in to see... erm... who knows what: DON'T PANIC!

i really am experimenting this time - it's a phase... it'll pass.

pretty soon, my blog will have a brand new face (that works).