Hong Kong the Second

Sigh, as usual life gets in the way of me getting on top of writing.. here is my trip from Hong Kong, Check back  later to see if I’ve added pictures.. or more pictures anyway.

Another weekend in Hong Kong

How’s about a general update plus details about this weekend?  Since all my other writing projects seem to be living in the land of limbo, actually I’ve written a bunch of stuff, but none of it is done yet.

Anyway, this weekend I ended up going back to Hong Kong for some fun and silliness.  My flight got in late Wednesday night, Gabs and I had a bit of a gossip before heading to bed for the night.  We ended up getting up all early to go out on a junk boat for the day, which had a lot of potential to be fantastically fun.  But unfortunately the people on the boat where kinda douchy, some might suggest that they were that way because they were French ;).  Mostly it just wasn’t very social outside of their own comfort level.

I had brought Gabs a Canada flag towel and we brought it on the boat, and several people made obnoxious comments about it.  Luckily Gabby can hold her own and had no problem telling them off because it was Can

The Greasy Spoon

So this little spot opened up, in my neighborhood and the name intrigued me.  I”ve been meaning to drop by and give it a try for ages, but it’s so close to home that I usually just head home and make something or I go to sushi or Vietnamese because they are just as close and I KNOW they are good.

Anyway on my way home from work today I thought.. oh what the hell.  So I swung by and had dinner.  The overview?  It was fine, nothing super exciting, but decent.  I guess I’m spoiled by KGB and Forkers, any other burgers seem to be lacking.  Cute little place though.   I might go there to have tea and study or something.  I really like the cute little tables and chairs outside.

I got a cheese mushroom burger, it came with a side of fries, a soup
(or a glass of juice… weird but cool) and a nice little surprise at the end.  Some little creamy poofs.  I think the creamy poofs were the best part, not because the food was disappointing, they were just such a delightful surprise!!

I took it as a wonder full excuse… as you can see 😀  to play with my camera and take a few pictures of the place and the food.  Mostly because I’m 5 and I wanted to play.

So would I recommend going there?  If you’re in the neighborhood, sure thing go check it out.  It’s a cute place and it’s worth giving a try and deciding for yourself.  But is it worth going out of your way to find? No, not really.  There are a lots of places that are easier to get to and equally as good that are probably more convenient to where you happen to be.

But if you find yourself near or at Wangfang hospital, it’s on

Xin Hai Road Section 4, #254   辛亥路4段254號        02 2932-9698

They are open from noon to midnight. 🙂

They don’t appear to have their own web page but here is a [link] to a review and some comments about it on another site in Taiwan.

Where have all the bloggers gone??

I use google reader.  And there is nothing it read, even the pro bloggers have been slacking lately.  I know that I sure have been slacking.  So what ‘s my excuse?  Lack of inspiration, nothing to say?  Yeah.. right… have you met me?

Chatty Cathy here always has something to say… so what’s the deal.. It’s not like I’ve been hella busy, or even kinda busy for goodness sakes.  But I have been sick.. I hate being sick.  I’m a freaking Whiny ass biotch when I’m sick and I all I want to do is bitch moan and sniffle about how my nose hurts.. I’m sicky poo poo, I’m getting fat because I can’t go do anything for fear of making the sickies worse… blah blah world’s smallest violin playing just for me.

So what have I been up to since Chinese new year.  Not writing about the trip.. or anything that’s for damn sure.  I used to pull out the laptop and typy typy in bed till I got sleepy and then toss it on the floor, lights out.  I used to write in my happy thoughts Journal every night… I haven’t done it in weeks…  oh it’s on the nights stand by the bed but I’m sick whiny and can think of nothing positive…. no you know what that isn’t even it.  I just don’t care.  I’m sick, lethargic and pissed about it.  I just want to feel better.  I was starting to feel good went for a lovely bike ride and promptly got sick again.. fuck you world!

On a less bitchy note.  I went to games today and not only where Sandy and Tarra there but, Wayne who comes up all the way from TaiJung to play was there too plus this guy I ran into at a restaurant and invited to come play actually showed up too.  So we ended up having a nice little 5-4 some (Sandy leaves early).  Got a good game of Blue moon city and Puerto Rico in… W00T.  And now I look wistfully at my games on the shelf.

In other news, my new roommate is very nice.  Seems like a pretty good, cool guy even though we don’t hang out much (diff work schedules, and I’m a recluse in my room).

Total side note… I hate it when my built-in browser spell checker fails to catch things and lets me publish my blog with my jacked up spellings of words… stupid computers.

Ok I’m done.  Sorry I have been epic fail on the blogging front… I promise to try harder…  I have no idea who the heck reads all this bs I write but there seem to be people actually doing it… 😀 that tickles me.  I honestly assume it’s just mom, sis and a couple of friends from back in the day  (it was a Tuesday, the day that is.. did you know that?) most of the time.

Ok bed time.  No more sickies… I demand it.

Choices!

So I was faced with a choice last Friday.

After work, I stopped at Sababas  on the way to Editing (which is definitely not my favourite thing).  When I got to work, I looked for my phone and realized it was gone.  When I arrived, they told me that had called me and my co worker had answered.  So I called her, and we arranged for her to leave it at the Highlife (like 7 11) near our school for me to pick up later on.

Had a chat with some friends after work, and when I went to get my bike (scooter) I discovered that they had shut it behind some huge locked gate.  And I totally couldn’t get at it, possibly not until

AlleyCats, Very Disapointing

I guess I should have gone in it’s hey day, although I have been once before a year or so ago and my impression from that visit was meh too.  Last time it wasn’t particularly exciting but it wasn’t especially disappointing either.  I remember thinking the pizza was nice, but not really worth all the hype and to be frank.. not worth they money it costs.

It was my friend who actually asked me to remove his real name from my blog (insert eyeroll here) birthday (aka Frostfox) and we all went to dinner at Alleycats.  We went to the original store, which when I said I wasn’t so impressed last year everyone said I had to go to.

Well as far as first (or second) impressions go, they failed.  HORRIBLY.  Best pizza in Taipei?  Really I think I would have preferred Napoli, you know the greasy cheap shit that costs a couple of bucks.

I ordered the Napoletana: Fresh Tomato, Goat Cheese, Anchovies, Olives and Spinach.  I swapped out a couple of ingredients.. (anchovies for Italian sausage), and mmm sounds delish right!

Well, the whole experience was a disaster.  I asked them to separate my bill, I even ordered completely separate from the other people at the table.  And at the end they Just threw my stuff in with the bill, not a big deal but an annoying detail.  And before you dance around about how

Canada D’eh, Canada Day and Everything Between

Photo’s may have to wait but here is me trying to catch up.

See the thing is after the beach party I had to pack and then I had to battle (again) and then go to the airport then plane then in Canada but tired/lazy. Sigh so here I am with many things to catch up on.

The Canada D’eh Beach party was pretty good, it felt like less people this year but really it’s hard to say because it was a pretty large area plus there was a typhoon threatening the north shore so no one knew what the weather would be like.   This year it was in Dan Shui, which was nice because it was only 10-15 minutes from the MRT, downside they had MAD security with drug dogs and stuff.  Not that it hugely mattered to me but they did pilfer my smirnoff ice 😦  (s’ok I went back out to the parking lot later and chugged them… 😀 ).  Ah did I mention I was all kinds of sick and decided to go for dope up on cold meds and drink :P.  Mostly just hung out on the beach, munched on free/cheap promotional foods (thanks McCain’s and That Mexican place), and  drank.  Post all that there was some dancing and a little Colby O’Donis concert.  He was decent but the show was VERY short, and then I decided to head home (you know how it is when sicky and tired).

I worked all day Monday and was kinda running around trying to get some last minute stuff done.   I had tried to be slick with some money stuff with this cheque thing and in the end I decided it wasn’t worth the couple hundred NT I was going to save so I just wired my money home the normal way.  Plus I had to pack some stuff away so my friend Toby could live in my room for the summer.  That worked out quite well, I needed someone to help me cover my rent for the summer and he wanted to try out living somewhere other than where he is.  And if you’re going to test the waters, my room is a pretty awesome place to do it in (My house rocks, I’ll admit it I miss it a little, I miss my computer A LOT).

Gah and like running around trying to get everything done last minute wasn’t enough???  There was one of those big F-ing spiders in my room!!! WHY.. what did I do wrong? 

Balls, I hate The Government sometimes

GRRR I’m going to write the mayors office or something.  They did the same mental thing last year.  All the Holidays in Taiwan follow the lunar calendar, and dude to stroke of ASS almost all but one of the Holidays this year fall on a Saturday or a Sunday.

Now, what happens in these circumstances in every nation with a REASONABLE system in place?  They just give you the preceding Friday or following Monday off, They do it in All the cool Countries damn it.  I thought Taiwan wanted to play with

I don’t like the busy…

I’m just not a fan of being busy, with work or anything it seems.  After this weekend, I’m realizing I just don’t like being too busy.  I had a good time this weekend, but I was really busy and I had a good time.  But at the end of it all I felt sulky that I was so tired and busy.

We had our first race on Thursday, as I mentioned in my last post, and then on Friday we had our second race.  The odds of us drawing such hard teams again were very slim, sigh.. but we ended up racing the team that won the whole thing.  Oh well.  We tried.

You know I can’t even remember what happened after the race on Friday, something though.  We decided to host a BBQ on Sat as we all had to go back to the race area for the closing ceremonies anyway.   I went for a bike ride that morning.. and bloody well fell down like 2 mins from the house.  Was totally my own stupidity and fault, but that didn’t dull the pain.   I was faced with a choice, go home and clean my wounds (but likely be lame and stay there), or just keep going and clean up when I got home.

Yeah me I chose option number two, my logic being the pain is the worst in the first thirty minutes.  Adrenaline cuts the pain, so f%$k  it I should just go.  The only really bad bit was when I stopped in HsinDian for a min and I started to sweat… damn it all to hell that stung like a bitch!!  The little old man that informed me I was bleeding and asked if I was ok was pretty amusing though.

I made a video that I will edit sometime soon, (so I say).  Oh and when I went outside to make  video of my injuries I checked the mail and HOORAY!  My samples have arrived, Nadine is now forgiven.  I was so stoked that  I checked them out all sweaty bleeding and dirty, while Shane was chasing me with antiseptic trying to clean the cuts :P.

After the BBQ, which was awesome btw, we all headed up to the closing ceremonies.  And then to see Terminator (which was fine but nothing compared to Star Trek, which I loved and I’m going to marry

WTF Scary wasp

OMIGOD… so I came in from taking out the garbage and was horrified to find this in my room.. I was a huge was and squealed like a sissy… But I definitely won.. although the chemicals I used are making me dizzy.. so.. maybe I lost a little.. I definitely lost my dignity…

So I made this video and here is a link to the scary wasps and their freakinesshttp://www.vespa-bicolor.net/main/vespid/polistes-gigas.htm

SHUDDER

Crazy Japanese Store in Taipei

Tracey and I went to the Japanese store… t’was amazing amounts of fun !

This is part two .. it’s first because I just modified and moved an older post…

Tiny fun things.. plus every item you’re ever seen for sale on tv!!

And the first half of the trip to the silly store with the

Blah, blah night out and Facebook

Yesterday I did a little shopping at Costco, always fun times, and then decided to go swimming.  After swimming came home and cooked up some yummy lamb and made an odd but good salad.

Purty flowers I got, no connection to the post 😀

I was pretty tired and kinda wanted to have a nap, but it really wasn’t in the cards.  It was my friend Arden’s Birthday party and I had also promised my co-worker I would go out to Luxy with her last night.  Had to do all that primping us girls go before heading out, you know how it is.  😉

Anywho after dolling myself up I went up to Luxy and met Wendy, her guy and a couple of other people outside.  Upside if you get in before 11pm cover is free (which is just the right price as far as I’m concerned).  I had a pretty good time at Luxy had a couple of drinks that the guys were nice enough to get for me (actually full on insist I have .. but same same).  Eventually I decided I needed to head over to Arden’s Party.

I had a heck of a time finding it as it had one of those weird addresses, where the actual place isn’t anywhere near the address.  And then when I did find it, as best as I could tell it was closed, I mean the damn metal gate was more than half closed!  The only thing that tipped me off that it was all a ruse was when Arden popped under the gate and

Stealing ‘Cak’ from the kitchen :D

Chinese New Year ‘vacation’ has begun, and the temperature has dropped 20 degrees in the last 48 hours.  Awesome sauce… 😛

So far I have had Dinner with Tracey and Mike, lunch with the girls, did a little shopping, drooled over some more sexxxy shoes, and had a Chinese Class with Jane.  Where she regaled me with tales of her adventures in Thailand last week with the boys from work. :D.

I came home to find that the pretty gal I share a house with made cake… yum!  Aka cack or cak (old joke from uni).  And I have been stealing it from the kitchen bru ha ha !  Think I’ll go nick another little slice .. tee hee.

That will be all for today.

(ps I’m grumpy)

Chinese Funerals, make it stop!

Damn it all to hell. Someone in my bloody neighborhood died. Now normally. this would just make me feel a little sorry for the people who lost someone dear to them….

But in Taiwan they like to make everyone suffer along with them. They play something that is actually more annoying than an army of bag pipes… with wailing, drums and HORRIFUL (that’s right I said horriful) singing. They like to start it bright and early and it goes on for hours, days and even weeks.

I’ve always wondered why some of them carry on for ages (one was more than a month of all day torture) and this most recent one seemed to be wrapping up after a few hours.

I have a theory…. how long you get to annoy and inconvenience people after your die is directly proportional to how important you were considered to be in life. That dude who’s funeral drove us to the brink of snipers on the

Superman Needs to find a new Home

So I was thinking today.. who the heck even uses phone booths these days.. it’s almost like something that belongs in a museum.   And it’s SO weird…. I mean I remember when cell phones were the size of bricks and hell expensive.  No one had one.. so you used those public phones or phone booths.

Seriously though, outside of airports (and even then not often) when the heck do you see anyone using a pay phone?  Even more elusive than the pay phone… the pay phone that chills in it’s own booth.

This all came up for me because I park really close to this phone booth everyday in the mornings, and while I’ve obviously noticed it before it’s never really grabbed my attention.  Today when I pulled up to work (while trying to pry my frozen fingers off the handlebars) I was totally shocked to see some dude in the booth… using the phone.  Then I did a mental double take, why the hell is that so damn weird?  Dude is just using the phone.  LOL

That’s all 😀

The beast has escaped….. ROAR

Possibly little known fact… I’m a total shoe freak. LOve love love shoes… I have hidden and controlled all these urges/obsession for years. To the point that I had thought the Beast tamed if not defeated.

WRONG clearly it was just napping. All those times I went into stores and was wonderfully practical, clearly I was in and out before it raised its ugly head and fixed its beady little eyes

These are the ones bought initially.

on the ‘pretties’. I’ve been looking at pictures… (I’ll tell you why in a second)

and I swear my heart rate has actually jumped. Feel mildly high right now and it’s taking all my will power to stay put and not hit the shops.

Luckily my title as ‘el Cheapo’ is a nice curbing factor :D. Shoes cost loads of $$$

So this year for Christmas Tracey and Melissa thought it would be a cool idea to get me some funky/nice shoes. Because Tracey remembers the days of the shoe love (pre taming of the beast), and I never spend that much money on my self, and I especially haven’t gotten nice shoes in ages. You know sometimes I worry that

Dining: Bongo’s In Taipei

So we kicked off the year with some laziness and food, which I mentioned I think in my post yesterday (checking checking.. no I did not.. :P).

Bongo’s

(one of the first of this burger places to open in Taipei) {review}

#3, Alley 5, Lane 74, WenZhou St
(02) 2365-6059
Hours: 11:30 am-10 pm
Cash only. Smoking area outside.

I went for a run yesterday 🙂 and after that just shivered in my room until it was time for dinner. Tracey made reservations for Bongo’s and got us a table outside. She did this because she is a mean heartless cow and hates Melissa and I. LOL.. ok, she did it because usually sitting outside is totally

Welcome to 2009

I don’t know what everyone got into for new years this year.

You know, I’ve never been that huge on the crazy new years parties. I grew up in a tiny lame ass town, and was so not one of the cool kids so I wasn’t at those parties. When I went to Uni, I was a competitive boxer so not drinking the year I really would have tore it up. Or I was at my mom’s in Smithers. So I haven’t really been into the new year thing, even when I have gone out it’s been messy and ranged from horrid to some kind of fine.

This year I didn’t want to go out and do the crazy drunken thing so we ended up going to Emma’s house to have a few drinks and watch the fireworks. That was kinda cool because her building is kinda smack dab in the middle of Taipei 101 and

Faux Christmas 2008

So this year I was a little grumpy about Christmas but in the end it was pretty nice, several of the people who forgot to let me know they got my cards, got back to me in the last couple of days 🙂 .

Melissa, Jodie, Arden, Tom and our roommate Adam joined us for dinner last night. Tracey and I managed to get the turkey and dinner all prepared with minimal mishaps and injuries…. besides the potato slicing tragedy of 08.. (which we hilariously misnamed 09 in the video).

As per my usual MO I hadn’t had a shower or in anyway prepared myself for

Last Tuesday in Taipei: Chocoholic

Last week I went out for lunch with Amanda and Rob, we had lunch at Sababas again. MMM I love those Gi Pi pita’s 😀 It was a Tuesday so we all had loads of free time, after lunch we went too look at stuff to buy people for Christmas. No real success there, but while walking down the street I remembered that another time I had been wandering around the area I had found a place called Chocoholic. It looked mucho fun especially as everthing there is chocolate or chocolate based.

I mentioned it, and everyone was like..ooh sounds good. Rob just says, ‘hey let’s go now’ Followed by one of those moments where everyone look at each other and tries to think of reasons that we shouldn’t go. Since it’s a hot chocolate place and

ING Taipei Marathon 2008

This picture is from a year or two ago, except for the shirts it's generally the same every year.

So up at 5 this morning, to get my run on in the 1/2 Marathon. The race started at 7 am, and I was pleasantly surprised to see that it was going to be a warm sunny day. Lemmi tell you I was not looking forward to this race, as a matter of fact I kind of wrote it off. It’s usually cold as BALLZ, and it kills me running it every year. But this year I not only wanted to take my sweatshirt off, I had to! I was so happy that (what might likely be my last ING here) was really pleasant, I love sun.

I didn’t really prepare for it and didn’t really expect that

Dining: Thai Station In Taipei

Yeah, I’m totally loving this lunching thing. Went for lunch with Amanda (prettiest girl in da world … lol since I claimed I said that on my blog and now it’s true!), and Rob at this great little Thai place on the corner of Hsin Yi and Xing Sheng last Thursday.

The name is a little confusing one sign says Thai Discovery, another sign (this is the name I know it as) Thai Station. I need to go back and get the card so I can add it here.

Almost everything on the menu is around 100nt ($3.50 ~ CAD), green curry, shrimp cakes yum yum. It’s pretty simple and basic stuff but everything is delicious and it’s all pretty inexpensive. I actually I forgot about this place, until Rob

Dining: Out of India, Shi Da

So Thursday was a food-a-riffic day… went to dinner with Tracey, Melissa and Jodie at this little Indian place in Shi Da called out of India. Really nice curries and dishes there, nothing terribly fancy but quite tasty. Dishes range from 150-400nt, plus rice and naan. The chick pea dish is 180, and the Lamb Saag is 340, naan’s are around 50nt. I tasted the chickpea one (chickpeas yuck (mealy buggers), but the sauce was delicious!), I nibbled on Jodie’s as well, something with potato’s and cauliflower also really nice and I had the lamb which was delicious.

Out of India is really easy to find, it’s down the alley across from the Watsons on Shi Da Road, in the alley it’s directly across from Evan’s (a burger joint). The address is a little ‘funny’ and somewhat counter intuitive but if you follow my directions it’s pretty easy to find. It’s considered by many to be one of the best Indian places in the

Lunch at Sababas

First I would like to say it sucks my friend Amanda is going home, I mean it all great that she is going home and will get to be with her family for Christmas… but what about me and ladies who lunch? lol I’m just kidding.

In the past couple of month we have been going for lunches and it’s been super fun.. plus then we get to be ladies who lunch! yay!

We usually pop around to places that are kinda central in the city, so she can walk from work. We’ve hit up The Diner, The California Grill, Mykanos, and a few others. Today we went to Sababas. For those who don’t know,

People who can’t answer simple questions are annoying

So I went on my run this afternoon, and on my way back I stopped at the MRT to use the bathroom. It was really weird though the MRT was closed and they were running a ‘free shuttle bus’ in it’s stead. This pricked up my curiosity, so I foolishly thought the best way to find out what was up was to ask some questions. All who have lived here are shaking their heads right now in amazement at how dumb I am.

Why is this stupid you ask? Yeah wait and see.

I tried reading the sign first because I know asking questions here is gernally a painful experience, but the sign just said that the mrt was to be closed on Sat and Sun for the next two months due to testing of the new neihu line.

I thought hey, they can probably answer a couple of easy question. Sigh So I asked if they had a map of the ‘new lines’, and what do they give me .. the current map. So I ask they guy when the new lines will be opening, and he proceeds to explain to me that they aren’t open now…. Seriously… ?? How exactly do you get from “when will the new lines being built open” to ANYthing involving them being open yet. Then he keeps telling me they won’t be

Dining: Saigon Saigon Awesome Vietnamese

So it’s occured to me that I don’t often write about things in Taipei and Taiwan, and as I don’t know how long I’ll be here for (you never know what might happen or come up). It seems like something I should probably get on :).

Today I went to my favourite Vietnamese place, which happens to be down the street from my house, but even if it wasn’t I would go out of my way to go there. It’s super yummy and really cheap. Your average meal runs you from 90-180nt ($3-7) more towards the lower end of that scale. I’ve tried the food at most of the other well known Vietnamese places around town and they are always more expensive, and never anywhere as good as it is at Saigon. So if anyone has a hankering for really amazing food at a price that is perfect, you totally have to come by. Oh, if you do, Call me!!! I’ll totally come with.

Plus they just opened another branch .. somewhere.. near shir lin I think.

The one by my house is near Wang Fang hospital MART station, walk straight out of the station, cross the street and walk past the McDonald’s, take a right in the lane after the 7-11, it’s on the right 2/3’s of the way down the lane.

Phone: 02-2934-8717 02-2934-1177 Mobile: 0932-196-550 Skype: saigon168

Address: Taipei City, Shin Long Road, Section 3, lane 36, alley 14, #2, 1st floor

Web page: http://www.just-eatting.com/

Back to my lunch 😀 Hello Yummy Pho (I should take pictures next time!)

Interesting post script and side bar….. I don’t write anything and my blog gets 36 hits and I do write and 5… lol.. does that mean I should write less?