One Sour Apple

361 The Much delayed return to blogging

2008-08-06T01:10:00.003+08:00

However, be warned, I'm not entirely sure how long this will last.

It has been bought to my attention that I haven't posted pics of my vacation yet. Well, to be honest, I only downloaded them onto my computer 3 days ago, and I have been home for about a month. This is the Kat timetable we keep to here, and to say that it might be a little....lax...would be something of an understatement.

But that's all part of the charm, right? Right?!

It had better be. I know where you all live, remember that.

Anyway, without further ado, I give you....

Pics From Thailand 2008

Yep, yep, guess who this is? For those who haven't had the 'fun' of meeting her, this is Esther. This is in the Hotel restaurant downstairs, on our first day. The unlucky bread she's threatening...well let us just say he didn't last long, and damn did he taste good.
Every meal we were given a bread basket to begin, and we asked to pick our choice of bread. It was kind of nifty.

This was my lunch. Num num, smoked salmon, tuna and roasted pepper on pita. With capers. I luvs my capers....

Our hotel from the sea facing side. The day was, alas, cloudy and overcast. But we didn't really care, reveling in the fact we were on vacation, with no work, for a week or more, and were going to lay on beach for hours and do nothing.

Ah, glorious NOTHING....

And yes, within a few hours, Kat was bored. Well, I should also mention that I had managed to finish reading my book by this stage, and had neglected to bring more than that one. Silly me. However, I had bought my camera, of which I had just worked out how to do black and white photographs on, so I spent a happy few hours playing with that.

Many people have noticed, I tend not to be in these photos, nor that they have people in them. To be honest, I don't like being in them, and would much rather take pictures of things that interest me. So while I will have a few pics of Es running around doing crazy things, most of my pics are of random scenery that caught my eye. (There would be pics of hot guys, however our hotel was sadly lacking in that department. And yes, we we much distraught over that fact too.)

Above is such an example, I was experimenting with the tree, the water and my camera putting things into black and white. While other people see said tree and water, I see this and remember the heat, the humidity, the wind, the coulds and the ants that crawled everywhere on the deckchairs. My photos are as much about triggering my memory of things as they are for showing people what happened.

Blogbox 360

2008-05-29T16:23:00.002+08:00

Yeah, couldn't help that. If nothing else, I managed to amuse myself with that, so my sitting down and writing hasn't been a total loss.

Bored at work again, with homework marked already and another hour and a half before my class. And the added insult of the music I want to listen to NOT being on my iPod. I really must get around to putting the rest of my music onto my computer. Then finally get an external drive that might last more than a month. That will be novel.

Managed to survive my birthday again this year, by the simple trick of 'not telling anyone'. As it was, those in the know (3 people) didn't make tooo much of a fuss, so it wasn't all bad. It's just that having a birthday on Sunday, after working all Saturday and Sunday, and then having people bouncy and chirpily saying "All right! Let's go out to celebrate your birthday!" was something akin to..horrific. Especially after having the kids I did that weekend.

But survive I did, and thus moved on we have....just in time to start forgetting how old I am again! Bonus.

Plans are in the works to organise Summer Vacation, and where the trip will be this year...and it's looking like a beach in Thailand again. This time Esther will be there too, so in theory I won't get as bored as I did last time. We shall see, I guess.

And I am loosing the Ant War. I believe it may be time to put more money into my weapons budget this quarter, and upgrade my arsenal. I may have lost the computer desk territory this week, but I have by no means lost the war yet. I will not go down without a fight!

359 The Saga of Fanbox

2008-05-11T12:42:00.003+08:00

Yet another example of how my bad memory comes back to bite me in the ass.

Every so often of of my friends signs up for some social networking site, and sends me an invite. 4 years ago was no exception, as an invite to something called "Fanbox" came through from someone (it has now been identified as Sarah), and I signed up. Hell, I even posted a picture on the thing.

Then I forgot it existed, not hard since only three friends were on the darned thing.

Then, while playing WoW last month, a friend asked me what I was doing in my profile picture. What? I asked, baffled? The profile pic on Fanbox he said, and I came to a halt.

I was absolutely SURE I had never heard of Fanbox before, in fact I haven't signed up for anything of the networking kind since Facebook, and even that is on it's way out of my life.

Anyway, curiousity reared it's ugly head, and I went to look.

Low and behold, it was my site. There was some awful picture of me (it had been the best at the time, I now remember THAT, but it was still awful. Some of us just aren't meant to be in front of a camera...), and I was mortified.

I spent the next day at work before classes trying to remember what email I had used for it, and then the password. Me. Remembering something from 4 years ago. When I have enough problems remembering passwords and crap that I regularly USE....

Took me 5 hours, but I got in. It said, strangely enough, that there was no pic. Whaa..? Brushing it off, I shut it down and went home.

Only to find, checking the site again, that it was ANOTHER account I had started (I aparently started 2. Go figure. 1 was not enough for some reason?), and that it had a different email.

I almost screamed in frustration. After all the damned effort it had taken to close down the first account, then there was another one? And it wasn't just me. While working to get into the site, and talking to Kaz, we worked out SHE was still in the system too. She remembered her password and email within 5 mins though, curse people with good memory. A pox on you all!

Another hour of effort, and I managed to close that account down too. But Goddaaaaamn....

Moral of the story is that my memory stinks, I should NOT be allowed to put photos of myself on the net, and that people should NOT SEND ME SOCIAL NETWORK SITE INVITATIONS.

Oh, and Sarah? Dude, you're still signed up on the site. Might want to do something about it...

358 Tuesday.

2008-04-08T16:10:00.002+08:00

Yes, another Tuesday rolls around, another day of boredom at work.

And also, this time, a day of .... medicine highs.

I saw this Tuesday in from the beginning, seeing the clock at 12am until 7am when I finally got to sleep. And the reason for this lack of sleep?

No, it wasn't gaming (that only lasted until 3am, so I'm safe there), but because Monday was "a nice day".

Because of the "nice day" I cleaned my room, changed my sheets, did washing, and (this is the cruncher here) opened my windows to air out my room.

Oh, I should have known better, silly, silly me.

By 8pm, I was coughing already - asthma had kicked in for the approaching summer. By the time I finished gaming, I was already having trouble breathing, and I was sitting up straight. Sleeping? Lying down??

Well, let us just say I got to sleep at 7 cos I finally re-arranged my pillows to try and sleep sitting upright. Must have worked, or I was so damned exhausted, cos fall asleep I finally did.

As such, looking and feeling like the walking dead (hence the term ZOMBIE on my msn for a while) I finally bit the bullet and headed to the doctors, something I have been putting off for months. I have known this was building up, that I would have to get another inhaler for summer, but...well..I just didn't expect it to be this soon.

Going to the doctor was an exciting mission all in itself, as per usual on the island in the middle of nowhere that is Kinmen.

My former doctor had closed down a few months back, hence part of my reluctance to go to the doctors. That and this doctors-are-for-wimps! mentality I got from an over-priced medical system in NZ.

Anyway, we (Me and my wheels/flatmate/personal chauffer that is Esther) made it to a doctors clinic, only to find .... they didn't have inhalers. So they directed us to another clinic...but they directed Esther, who doesn't do so flash with directions, real-life and virtual. Que in a phone call back to our school receptionist (Eva, who snubbed us last Sunday at the staff dinner, so we must remember to snub her back), and discovered a new clinic.

This new clinic, while looking nice (wood theme, very..calming), needs to learn a little thing called "customer service", as we were basically ignored until we put ourselves right in the faces of the receptionists. Into the doctors room, to find ... the doctor was somewhat ... intimidated of me, since I was so very obviously not from Taiwan.

Anyway, after "negotiating" with him about the fact I didn't have national health insurance, and no, I didn't care that the price was "high" (still cheap compared to NZ), I ended up with a spiffy new inhaler, medicine for the next three days while I wait for the inhaler to work, and 5 minutes sitting in front of a humidifier, which only seemed to make me cough more. Go figure.

I have to go back in three days to have a check up to see that things are going OK. Three days, cos this time my inhaler is a preventative one, and it contains steroids. No better time than the present to see if I have an allergic reaction to steroids as well as penicillin, right??

As such, I am now on a medicine high, and things are a little .... buzzy. I think I have a headache, but it hasn't quite registered enough for me to take painkillers. I'm ... in the stage of not really caring.

Welcome to my next three days. Makes for ... interesting times, no?

357 Depression and caramel popcorn

2008-03-19T13:39:00.002+08:00

This fine afternoons title comes from the roaring snit I was in yesterday after none, and I mean NONE, of my students did their homework. They had an entire week, and they never even attempted what they were asked to finish.

Part of the problem is that this class has become somewhat ... infamous for doing this. The other teacher just laughs it off.

I fume in the darkness, but no more!

They were told, at great volume and in perfect hearing distance of a pile of adults shamelessly listening in, that they were right bloody awful, they were wasting their parents money, and if they fail the listening test next week, I was making them re-do level 10 again, since I was going to refuse to teach them anymore.

Yes, that listening test was part of why I was so angry. They have known, for close to three weeks, that we have had tests coming up ... and none of them studied.

They all failed the test, and I only marked the first of 4 pages.

Furiousangrymadfuriousangrymadfuriousangrymadmadmadmadmadmadmadmaaaaaaad

In other news, I now have caramel popcorn. I have since discovered that this is a wonderful way of making me cheer up.

I also found out, to my amazement, that getting furiously angry to the point of inarticulate rage kills colds. My cold is kind of fading now, must be ... scared of me? Go figure.

The top things I'd do if I was an Evil Overlord:
#4 Shooting is not too good for my enemies.

356 Procrastination of the best kind

2008-03-12T13:57:00.002+08:00

Yup yup, this is Procrastination Weekly returning for yet another update.

(I am privately enormously pleased and proud of myself that I remembered how to spell that)

The putting off in question this fine afternoon of work - well, work, basically. I probably do have things I should get ready for my classes today. IN fact, I'm SURE I have things that need to be done, but having just partaken in my new addiction (Wow, I can spell that too, getting good!) of bubble milk tea with pudding (Mmmmmm, pudding....), I must confess I am feeling somewhat ... lax ... in organising things today.

Also the classes are evil today, and looking at what needs to be done is just going to depress me sooner than I need to be, so putting it off is a good thing anyway. If only for my mental health (or what is left of it, anyway, after more than 3 years of teaching)

In private life, I have ... posted things. Yes, for most people this is a minor event, but when one tends to forget things as often as I do, coupled with the all-famous Procrastination, simple things like posting parcels becomes a major event.

People can expect parcels in a week. There are more that need to be done, but I kind of .. forgot to bring them to work. Meh, it's Wednesday today anyway, so I wouldn't have ever gotten a chance to post them anyway, so no big loss.

....I think that's all for today/this week/this month (leaving options open in case I don't post for a while, hahaha)

355 Yes, I still exist

2008-03-06T15:31:00.002+08:00

But, having been trying to type essays written by my supposedly top-level students, I'm not sure how long that will be, as I am feeling more and more compelled to just keel over and DIE as I try and transcribe what they wrote.

Try being the operative word there, they TRIED. Not very much either, by the looks of things, and I'm only on the second of 10. You would think that after 5-6 years of English classes they would have grasped basics of English grammar. That they would know how to use a dictionary. That they would be able to, Heaven forbid, ASK FOR HELP.

I can now happily put all your misconceptions to rest. It's official. THEY CAN'T.

Now picture me and Esther trying to explain to the parents that their kids all suck and should really do their homework more than 5 mins before class is due to start.

So yeah, in case you haven't realised yet, I am thus sitting at work right now, and am trying courageously to distract myself from the horror of my children's writing. Hence the blog update after so very, very long. WoW is my Master, and demands all my spare time, but that may (MAY, nothing set in stone here I want to add) change once I hit the highest level, 70, in about three to four days. Then a couple days wandering around, debating trying another character, before deciding I'm bored and heading away from the computer to try another activity.

Like poster making, since I need to design one for Esther now, since last Tuesday and WoW Maintinence Day had me produce a very spiffy poster for my door. How I am going to work out Heaven and Hell as she asked, no idea, but until then I am basking happily in the glow that I pulled off fire and ice for my door successfully.

Wish me luck, I'm about to dive back into the sinking pit of oblivion called idiots-who-forget-basic-grammar again.

354 December roundup

2007-12-27T14:40:00.000+08:00

Another Christmas has thus come and gone, another Christmas of things planned, but ending up something different, but still fairly good. Best laid plans always seem go go amiss during battle, and apparently the Christmas season is a time of war, because everything goes screwy.

Despite everything that happened, I still got what I wanted out of Chrsitmas, which was to spend it with friends. So Mornay, Corne and Suzet, despite the downfall of the original Chrsitmas plans, it was still a good day. Even if I didn't drink anything. But then, I rarely do anyway, so no big loss THERE.

It was nicely mentioned to me that I have officially taken a place in Mornay's Life Stories, with a starring role in the NY Bagel episode. Oh lucky me.

Back at work again, and back to the daily grind, although it doesn't really feel as though there was much of a break. Probably because I ended up doing the same thing that I normally do inTaipei, with the same people, going to the same places. Not that this is a bad thing in any way, since it includes good food, good friends and A BOOKSTORE, but not feeling quite as refreshed as vacations to a different place leave me.

Note to self : Vacation in another place next time.

Mornay will be pleased to know that I have finally started writing stories again, after a 6 month break (I blame Esther and her anime, and Nick for the World of Warcraft thing), and Ed will be happy to know I'm using the gift he got me for Christmas too.

Nothing much else to mention, except I am starting to organise my books into groups. Groups of "Can be sent now" to "I love these books, they stay until the end!" Packing and moving is a pain in the butt, no matter than I'm just heading home to NZ. It's still moving, since I've been here for 4 years, there is alot of junk here now, I've settled in. Sigh...

Things I would do if I was an Evil Overlord, #9

I will not include a self-destruct mechanism unless absolutely necessary. If it is necessary, it will not be a large red button labelled "Danger: Do Not Push". The big red button marked "Do Not Push" will instead trigger a spray of bullets on anyone stupid enough to disregard it. Similarly, the ON/OFF switch will not clearly be labelled as such.

253 Boredom update for November

2007-11-22T15:34:00.000+08:00

It's not that I don't want to keep people up to date with my life, it's more that I have nothing to keep people up to date with.

I live a most boring life.

Not that I'm complaining much at the moment - Esther (otherwise known as the Insidious Evil) has lent me a pile of her anime, and I am gradually working my way through them, copying as I go. Gods above, she has PILES of them. Should keep me busy for a while...

Managed to organise Christmas Day off this year, so I'll be in Taipei again this year for that. Something to look forward to, if nothing else. I anticipate much spending in the bookstore and much eating. Yay...

That's .... kind of all I have to mention.

Oh, except Megan and Simon have had their baby now, a healthy little girl, so congrats to both of them.

352 Yet another Tuesday

2007-11-06T16:12:00.000+08:00

...And back at work with not so much to do until six o'clock and my class. Wish me luck with that, because we are nearing the end of the level and thus the tests, and their grammar stinks. As does their spelling, and writing and....

Their ability at Uno is fantastic, though.

My life is still boring, playing lots of WoW and sleeping. Weather has turned cold here now, rain and drizzle for the past three days and no sign of it letting up. Onto hot drinks at work now, and a jacket every day for going home.

Two weeks after twisting my ankle it's still sore, but I have most of the use back - walking properly again, yay me. If it continues to hurt when I go up stairs, then I'm taking a trip to the doctor next week. Sigh....

Otherwise, nothing much to report, unless you want news about my World of Warcraft stuff. Should be going to Taipei next Monday, once I get flights organised. Otherwise .... boring life.

351 Let this be my lesson

2007-10-23T16:54:00.000+08:00

I got up early (well, for me, anyway) intending to do all those things I had put off doing on Monday. I had my shower, washed the dishes, bought in the washing (from last weekend, pretty sure it was dry after a week hanging on the line, but you never know...), and was about to do a new load of washing (which would also in all probibility hang out for another week, once I actually got around to hanging it out...) when my foot slipped and...

Twisted ankle.

Moral of the story? I should not get up early to do housework.

Anyway, that was only the start of our adventures for the day. There was then a phone call to work to say 'I'm going to the doctor, will be late'. Was told to go to the hospital (in another town, 15 mins away by scooter, assuming I could find my way there, cos Esther sure as hell couldn't), which I turned down and opted to go to a clinic in Jin Cheng.

Clinic was closed.

Off to the hospital we went. 15 min ride on the scooter take on a whole new perspective when you also take into the account that Esther decided to wear her spiffy healed boots today, which need to be worn with a skirt. Only skirt that looked good with said boots was a short one.

There was much snickering as her skirt flew up. About the only reason there was no road accident was the lack of traffic to see it.

Making it to the hospital (yay road signs to Shan Wai! Once in the town I could remember where to go, I just needed to get to the town first...), we went in (hobbled) and discovered that there were no more doctors in the GP section, and wouldn't be until evening. (Time was 2 o'clock, go figure) so we had to go to the ER.

Hobble, hobble, hobble....
Wheelchair soon provided. Along with an immediate appointment for an x-ray. And Esther, in her two inch heals had to be wheelchair pushing person....down the ramp. Sadly, she didn't get hurt, and is still officially able to teach, but oh well.

X-ray showed nothing, foot was bandaged up, and we were back off to work again. With a brief stop for food, we were only ... two hours late to work.

At least this time I have a medical reciept to explain our absence.

I now have to spend the next two days off my foot, keep walking to minimum, as well as standing. Looks like I'll be teaching downstairs for the next two days, since I really don't want to negotiate all the damn stairs to the third floor...

350 Still alive....sort of

2007-10-12T23:35:00.000+08:00

Well, this is a messgae to everyone that yes, I am still alive. And while WoW has to take it's share of blame for the lack of contact I've had with the internet, as well as House,MD there has been a new contender on the stage of recent.

Sickness.

I went to Taipei this last Monday - well, I went to Kaoshung first, then took the high speed train to Taipei, and spent until Wednesday there.

Monday morning (an awful, awful morning flight, it was awful, just incase you didn't realise) Esther (my companion in crime and fellow Kinmen-inmate) and I took the first flight out of Kinmen for Kaoshung. I then got to meet her father and family, (nice people, they just wanted to spend more time with her ladyship, who in turn didn't want to spend time with them...) and was introduced to Dream Mall.

Inside Dream Mall, after checking the movie times, we wandered off to a store called ... something I currently can't remember ...where everything was 39 dollars. (That's about 60 cents for people in NZ). Much fun was had there, before we headed off to.... the roof. Why the roof you ask?

Dream Mall had a ferris wheel on the top! Funfunfun! And the bonus about it was because it was raining, there was no line for it. Bad point was ... it was RAINING.

...still fun though. Despite the Hello Kitty theme.

After the ferris wheel excitement, we went back to the Movies and watched Residant Evil 3. With sweet popcorn. And comfy seats. NZ seriously needs to do an overhaul of the movie theaters, I swear...

Then I was taken back to the 39 dollar store, because, and I quote "You didn't see all of it". Uh, I spent enough money there not seeing the rest of it, and she dragged me BACK???

A chunk of money later, we left, went to a 'famous street market' which was still setting up when we arrived, promting us to wander into a hairdressers and thus get haircuts (and the head and shoulder massage that goes with it in every hairdresser in Taiwan) while we waited. Hair done, we wandered back out, and I was introduced to fried ice-cream (pretty good too). Then back to Esther's family's place, whereupon I talked to the family, while she packed her stuff to bring back to Kinmen. I have since been accused of 'deflecting' things onto Esther, and 'making her seem bad'. Dude, the only thing I had in common with those people was you, what else was I to talk about? THE WEATHER???

Onto the HSR (High Speed Rail), into Taipei, and annoying Ed, Adele and Mornay as per usual.

Was then eaten to death by a mosquito over night.

Tuesday dawned bright and early. I rolled over and went back to sleep until lunchtime. Went to Chillies for lunch with Esther and Mornay, and Esther's cousin. Esther's cousin, sneaky bastard, had to leave for a meeting before the rest of us, and paid for our meals without us realising until too late (ie, twenty minutes later when we left).

Mornay and Esther then went and had great fun in the Marks and Spencer store (It must be noted that I would have had more fun if there had been clothing there that I actually LIKED...), before heading to Page One ... where I left with a grand total of four books. They aren't stocking the books I like anymore aparently.

Everyone then piked on me, citing 'tiredness' from an 'exciting shopping trip' (TWO stores. That was it. They weren't even that bloody big...)

I managed to entertain myself with ... the internet, and web comics. Day in Taipei, and what am I reduced to? Surfing the internet, something I can do in KINMEN.

Evening, after making it to the DVD store (and finding Bones season one), we were escorted out to dinner by Suzete, to Salt and Bread, a Russian restaurant. Then to the Maro Polo Lounge for drinks, then the Hyatt for more drinks...

Whereupon I was accused of being 'unhappy' and 'strange' for not dancing nor smiling. I have a tendancy to sober up fast (usually just as everyone else is getting trashed, I'm getting clear headed again. I go through it fast), and when that hits, my mind clicks faster....leading to faster bursts of boredom, as my attention span shortens. I'm not a happy, chirpy person anyway, and I have to be in a seriously strange mood to actually dance or smile when there are lots of people around.

Explaining that to a bunch of people who are all the opposite to that? While they are steadily getting sloshed?

Exercise in futility.

Went home, slept, while they all headed off to another two bars.

Morning dawned, taxi was summoned to the airport .... whereupon we discovered that all flights were delayed. For up to three hours. While this was annoying for the fact we didn't need to have got up so damned early, we also figured we may be able to get out of the first class we had to teach when we returned to Kinmen.

No such hope. The kids were told to, and I kid you not, wait in the classrooms for half an hour, while waiting for us to get there.

And get there we did, while both of us were in the middle of a full-blown cold. Esther was throwing up, I was fevered and fading in and out, but we still had to teach.

On a National Holiday, no less. Yes, yet again, we had to WORK, while the rest of Taiwan had a day off. Where is the justice in that? Sick and National Holiday.

...we survived, narrowly, putting in a brilliant picture of the walking dead, getting much sympathy (albiet not from the kids, nor enough to send us home, but still...).

Friday, we're still sick, and facing a weekend of Hell. Why did I pick this job again?

348 Will wonders ever cease?

2007-09-21T14:34:00.001+08:00

Yep, that's right. Two blogs in two days. Astounding, I know.

(Aparently Esther is amazed as well.)

Reason being I'm at work, with some downtime before class. Home....if I'm at the computer there, I'm playing games, so this may be the only way I blog for a while.

Well, if I remember, that is....

Speaking of home, we got a coffee table today. A very cool coffee table indeed. It has a glass top, and under that is a hollowed out space where we intend to put sand, and make a zen garden. Anticipate pictures when we finally get around to it....

And we finally went up to three people in occupancy this week. Yes, Iris is now back from vacation, and has moved in too. In one month I have gone from no people to two and two hamsters. Still adjusting to that.

Prolly will be for a while too......

347 Introducing the Hamsters

2007-09-20T15:24:00.000+08:00

Taken me a while, but I finally got around to blogging again. Refer to blog 346 for more details on that.

Anyway, the hamsters....

We bought two hamsters about two weeks ago. Buying the hamsters was the easy part, naming them was difficult for a while ... naming them afer ourselves, our WoW characters, random names .... difficult times indeed.

We got two females because a) we didn't want them multiplying (ie, breeding) and b) we didn't want them fighting. We were told that two females was less likely to fight.

They were fighting within minutes. Little hamster with big hamster attitude beating up the wimpy hamster.

Home, and taking them out of the cage resulted in their official names - Little Evil (L.E or Ellie) for the LHwBHA, and Poor Baby (p.B or Phoebe) for the wimpy one.

Ellie has a bad tendance to ... bite. And she draws blood, the little demon. Definatly Little Evil. Phoebe has only just got used to us, and started to come out of her little house .... but only for sunflower seeds. She's a fast one, and runs the second you try to pick her up. She's one side of the cage once second, the other a fraction of a second later... maybe we need to rename her speedy.

Pictures are coming, they need to be pulled from a camera that isn't mine.

346 How WoW has destroyed my life

2007-09-10T01:39:00.000+08:00

...not that I'm complaining about it right now. Well, not yet anyway...

Washing is not being done as often as it used to. So clothing has started to become those lost items that were once stuffed to the back of the cupboards. Good 1, bad 1.
Washing is not being put out as soon as it is washed. The last load of washing was almost dry when I finally got around to putting it out... Bad 1.
Washing is not being folded and or put away. Pile on the sofa right now, actually. Easy to sort through, fun to sit on, annoying to move. Good 2, Bad 1.
Cooking is not being done as often as before. Not as many dishes being made. Good 1, bad 1.
Dishes not being washed as often. Ties in with number 4, since can't be bothered washing things in order to make more. Since I hate doing dishes anyway, not a big problem. Good 1, bad 1.
Getting fatter since eating junk food while playing (see points 4 and 5). Bad 1.
Blog not being updated as often. Cuts down on people hearing and getting bored of my WoW talk, but also cuts down on other news. Good 1, bad 1.
Msn, emails not being replied to as often. Same reasons as number 7. Good 1, bad 1.
Both 7 and 8 have another side effect of people thinking I'm ignoring them. Friends getting lonley without my presence in their lives. Getting bitchy emails about it, but refer back to 7 about that. Bad 1. (Good is that I'm making new friends in the game, right?)
Sleeping time shortened to about 7 to 8 hours a day. Very Bad 1.
For all the time I put into the game, not leveling as fast as I think I should be. Stupid Horde, killing me while I'm questing!

Since I promised Kaz an update, here we go. Sitting in Taipei right now, having done one of those snap 'going to Taipei' decisions. Tomorrow, assuming I remember, I'll do a blog about my adoption of two little hamsters.

345 Super typhoon, super disapointment

2007-08-19T18:31:00.000+08:00

There was a Super typhoon hitting Taiwan this weekend. Friday, as the skies stared to darken, and winds ominiously started howling, children were called and classes cancelled for Saturday.

In anticipation of the typhoon, Esther was shipped out to my house to stay, since her house had a) no fridge, and thus no food, b) a tin roof, making even the faintest rain sound like a full-on storm, c) was on the 6th floor, gathering an unobstucted view of aforementioned storm, and d) no other people staying there, since the music teachers had been told to stay in Taipei.

Shopping for food was conducted upon Friday night, joined, it appeared, by every other person in Kinmen.

Proceed - Gaming. Wow level 23-25.

Still waiting for the typhoon on Saturday, we spent the entire day in games, getting excited as rain started, only to slouch off disapointed as it slackened off again a few minutes later. News reports then said it would hit Kinmen on the Sunday.

Gaming. Wow level 25-27.

Phone call to work on Saturday evening told us work on Sunday. Saturday had been decalared a typhoon day nationwide, despite the severe lack of typhoon on Kinmen.

Sunday morning we recieved another phone call - Sunday was another official typhoon day for Kinmen.

Still waiting for the typhoon. Hell, even some wind, that might be typhoon-ish would be a welcome sight. SO far we have had two days off work for the threat of a typhoon which hasn't given us much at all. The typhoon that missed us last week gave us more of a show, and that was never even near us, nor was it a Super typhoon.

We do, however, like the two days off work thing. That's good. More than good. We might get to level 30 this weekend. Level 30 in two weeks. Not bad, no?

345 Explanations

2007-08-10T15:48:00.000+08:00

My blogging has taken something of a drop in the past two weeks, but there is actually a good reason for that.

I've been distracted by both games and the new teacher.

We now have another teacher at the school, who is a Taiwanese-Canadian (she lived in Canada for close to 16 years) and is more Canadian than Taiwanese.

As such, she speaks perfect English, and actually understands things. Now that is novel.

Somehow, I'm not entirely sure how actually, I have managed to get her addicted to World of Warcraft. Yep, that game that I myself am still iffy about albiet addicted as well.

She's moving into my apartment in a few weeks, getting rather sick and tired of the 85 stairs where she is now (she counts it as 170 stairs, up and down. I never wanted to contemplate that many...), so the last week has been wandering around organising furniture, air conditioning and transportation. We also managed to get a wireless network going in my apartment. Yeah! My phone doesn't work anymore, but it's a work in progress, and I will try to deal with that on...Monday.

Gaming has ended up taking over much of my evenings. Evenings and early mornings. I blame Nick, for introducing me to World of Warcraft, and also Esther (the new teacher) for getting addicted and thus pulling me in more.

Grr to you, I say, grrr.

343 Uh...hi? Is thing thing on...?

2007-07-29T12:31:00.000+08:00

Actually a couple of things to report this time, as opposed to nothing. It's not that my life has suddenly become exciting (it hasn't, trust me) it's just been so long since I last wrote here that things have happened.

Mental note to self - leave posts for a few weeks, that way will have something to talk about.

Big news is that I got my nice new copy of Harry Potter and teh Deathly Hallows on Thurdsay night. Mornay had bought it the previous Saturday (opening day), mailed it on Tuesday, and it got to me just as I was about to leave work on Thursday. For once, marking homework gave me good luck - I was late enough to still be at work when the post dude turned up.

Home, read the book, hibernated until finished, and I discovered to my great delight that my two theories I had come up with after reading book 6 were, in actuality, true. I was most impressed with myself.

Also managed to get a couple of hours into World of Warcraft too, after reading the book twice. Twas a truly accomplished day, if you ignore the fact I ended up going to bed at 2 am.

WoW is also fast becomming an addiction, for all I still have a few qualms about the game. I like having a story to go with it, and WoW doesn't have so much of that. I will keep going until I get my characters up to top levels though, if only to see what all the spells are.

Nothing much else to say, except that we are onto blooming number two of the flowers that hate me, and I have thus spent all morning blowing my nose and sneezing for no aparent reason.

Joy.

342 Electricty outs are not conductive to gameplay

2007-07-19T21:54:00.000+08:00

Finally got myself into World of Warcraft. Anyone who has been reading this blog for a while may remember my previous attempts at setting up an account (see blog post June 23 2006 for more details)

Well, Monday, I recieved an e-,ail from Nick mentioning WoW, and I remembered that I had promised to finally get off my lazy (and decidedly wary-but-for-a-good-reason) ass, and play.

Yeah. Well...that was Monday.

I didn't actually get any play-time until Wednesday.

There were that many downloads, patches, you name it. PLUS a re-install, which didn't work, turns out there were problems with Vista (just keeps coming back to HAUNT me), and you had to open stuff as an administrator, ya ya ya (open as admin is basically another chance for the asswipe security to go "Are you sure?". Needless to say, I'm not a big fan of it...)

Then, fnally settling in for some pain in the butt however needed leveling (killing things until I go up another level or ten), then we get ... blackouts. Two, to be precise, in the space of twenty minutes. Right, I may add, when I HAD FINALLY RE-DISCOVERED THE FREAKING MINE I NEEDED FOR A QUEST.

So much for game time tonight. I'm off to sulk and read a book at power cuts that take out my air condidtioning.

Grrr...

341 I is back!

2007-07-09T00:27:00.000+08:00

OK, ! have finally made it back from my week in Thailand. So, to make things easier, I'll have a brief recap of the week, then more detail to follow. It means you can just read the brief section, and skip the detail if you don't have time, 'cos damn is it going to be a whopper.

Tuesday (day 1) - Got lost.

Wednesday (day 2) - Got sunburned.

Thursday (day 3) - Was bored.

Friday (day 4) - Bought new books, read new books.

Saturday (day 5) - Got sunburned again.

Sunday (day 6) - Traveled home again.

...Ok, read on if you dare...

Tuesday (day 1).

Got up, made it to the bus station, caught the bus, on the way .... traffic. Two broken down cars, in two different places. Ended up being a full half hour longer than the bus ride normally takes. Oh joy.

Check-in counter....the other freaking side of the airport. I kid you not, it was counter 2A, and the bus stops at counter 24B. A full ten minute walk to the other side, got checked in. Was thinking that things were going ok, turned out they could send my bags straight to the island, no picking them up in Bangkok, going through customs, and checking them in again. Yay, I thought.

Things went fine until I hit Bangkok airport. The place is huge, metal and glass, and very badly signed. Transfer desk this way .... except there are three International ones, and two domestic, and the signs don't tell you what is what, either. Nor are there any maps.

Oh, and the domestic transfer desk I needed? OTHER SIDE OF THE AIRPORT. This time a full 20 minute walk, and that was with those neat travelator thingies.

Thankfully, Bangkok Airways made up for it. Well, they made up for it after yet again I had to suffer from the serious lack of cohesive signs, and managed to stumble across the immigration desk I had to go through.

Bangkok Airway call themselves Asia's boutique airline, and it makes sense. The service is great, and they have an attention to detail that the larger airlines lack outside First Class. They have a fleet of smaller planes (seat about 100-200 people, no more), and each one has a distinctive paint job - one that reflects themes from each of their destinations. Very cool. Anyway, best meal of the day was on this hour long flight.

Arrived at the airport, and it's all open air. Samui Airport is owned, operated and built by Bangkok Airways, and they made it very ... traditional. Think mud huts and gardens.

Into a taxi, only to find that my taxi driver missed the turnoff to my hotel, not once but twice (good side to this was I got a good view of the main souvineer-tourist-shooping street. Twice.), into the hotel to find....it was the wrong one. Same business, different location.

Mother of all that is holy. And this on my first day?

The hotel was nice, and very calmly shipped me off to my actual hotel free of charge in a minivan.

Once at the real hotel, I was shown to my little bungalow (have pictures, will post tomorrow), whereupon I changed, collapsed, slept for a bit, then bounced out to have a bit of a look at the beach.

Ah, glory be.

Wandering down the beach, sun starting to go down, I stopped at a very nice restaurant for dinner, on the beachside. An Italian restaurant (take note of this, it becomes important later). The food was fantastic, beautifully set out, and to make Mornay proud, I even had a cocktail.

Wandering back to my bungalow again....only to discover that things look different in the dark...and let's just say...overshot my hotel, had to ask for directions, twice. Ended up being about two hours of wandering, plus dinner.

Collapsed in bed, discovered lighting in bungalow bloody sucked, and was not good for reading in the slightest, went to sleep.

Wednesday (day 2).

Awoke with a most painful pair of legs, having walked far too much the day before. Accomplishment of the day was making it to breakfast (yes, I actually made it!), before wandering off to the beach again, sitting down and reading a while, wandering back around lunchtime..sunburned. Crud.

Off to the main street, where all the food places were, stopped at a small cafe, and decided that being in Thailand, I should eat Thai food, especially after ending up with Italian the night before. Ordered Green curry, it arrived and ... peas and beans. Oh, and cucumber too. Went off the Thai food thing right there and then.

Wandered along the street a bit, found the bookstores (important later), glanced in some stores, back to the hotel, read a bit, before wandering out and stopping for dinner at ... another Italian restaurant. Back to my bungalow again, sleep.

Thursday (day 3).

Up for breakfast, noting that since lighting was bad in my bungalow, I was going to have to get my reading time in the morning, rather than night. Not happy, but figured it could be worse.

It got worse just after lunch (and another Italian restaurant) when I finished the last of the books I had bought with me. Now what was I going to do?

Thought "I'm female", so I went shopping.

I want one thing straight. I hate haggling. Really despise it. So what were all the stores, except the restaurants and bookstores like? Have to haggle. NO prices, whatsoever.

Was in a decidedly snotty mood by the time I got back to my bungalow, dumped my stuff, and went out for dinner again (yet another Italian resturant...noticing a trend here?).

Friday (day 4).

Breakfast again, met up with the housekeeping staff for the third time (every time they want to clean, I'm in my bungalow. Every freaking time. Go figure...), wandered straight off to the bookstore.

Magazine and new book in tow, ate at (yes, sorry guys) another Italian resturant. Finished those, so had to go and buy more. Went shopping and did the souvineer thing, graduslly getting the hang of this haggling thing (although it still put me in a snotty mood), back to my bungalow. Tried putting things away, only to doscover I had officially bought TOO MUCH STUFF and now needed ANOTHER SUITCASE to take it all home.

Oh, and to make matters worse, my iPod headphones died too, meaning I had to go buy some headphones too, as well as a new suitcase.

New suitcase (packed), new headphones (yey!), old suitcase (packed), new magazine (yey!), off to dinner again (I really don't have to tell you where I went again, do I?), back to my bungalow, sleep again.

Saturday (day 5).

Breakfast, met the cleaning ladies yet again, off to the beach....where I fell asleep, got sunburned again, and then had to hide from the sun for the rest of the day. Books - all read. Bags - all packed. Second last Italian resturant to try- lunch. Last Italian resturant to try - dinner. Bed, sleep.

Sunday (day 6).

Pain. Sunburned shoulders make for lots of pain when you have to carry bags on them. Pain...Airport ok, to Bangkok ok. Then things went to shite.

Remember I mentioned those transfer desks, and lack of suficient signs? Goddamn did that bite my ass. A full hour wandering around, from one side of the airport to the other, second floor to fourth. Asking people wher to go, only to have them point me in the wrong direction, anywhere just to get me out of their way. Of all the airports I have ever been to, Bangkok has to be the most unhelpful, confusing, and frustraing one so far. If I never have to see it again, I will lead a happy life, I feel that strongly about it. Finally, finally find the transfer desk (two info desks and numerous people later), off to the gate. Uncomfortable seats, nothing to do...for an hour.

Onto the plane, and discover, to my horror, that there are no individual tv's. What sort of backwards plane was I flying? This is not right! Not right at all, I say!

Added to which the music channels bloody sucked too.

At Taipei, (Oh thank GOD), remembered that I'd put my ARC in my checked baggage (...ooops, sorry Immigration dude), and that there were no Landing forms anywhere.

Harrased the staff, got a few forms (damned if I'm going through THAT again), waited ten minutes to get through the Immigration checkpoint. Good thing about it taking so long was that my luggage was already waiting for me, so I was moving fast...

But not fast enough to make the next bus, damnit! Ok, second bus, into Taipei, at the apartment at long last...wide awake, so checked all those emails I'd missed, and all those web comics too. Wrote this monster of a blog.

Off to bed now.

340 Pessamisim is FUN

2007-07-01T12:32:00.000+08:00

Kind of a stange statement there, but after the last few posts, it actually makes sense.

Coming up with bad stuff happening, and looking at the bad side of things is actually quite enjoyable - thinking outside the box, so to speak.

Besides, being snarky, sarcastic and negative is something I do very well, so why not?

Sitting here at work, and am on the final stretch before vacation. The last day. Only four more classes, and then freedom, glorious freedom.

Freedom to play with my brand spanking new camera.... after I catch up on sleep, that is. Hayfever has been interupting my sleep, so I've been getting more and more run-down.

Looked a fright this morning, I did, and who was asked to say hello at the Open Class this morning?

Ugh.

339 Flowers are EVIL

2007-06-30T21:07:00.000+08:00

Yes, you heard me right. The Air conditioner of DOOM yesterday, and now the flowers of Evil.

I have good reasoning on this one though. It's called 'Hayfever'.

Needless to say, something today is blooming, and it's kicked me one shocker of a hit. My nose is running constantly, which in turn makes teaching fun, because I have to keep pausing to blow my nose.

My head is clear, no other signs of sickness, except the running nose.

So phffft to you flowers, and your stupid time for blooming and making me sick. Why you couldn't wait another two freaking days, when I wasn't even on the damn island, I have no idea, but whatever the reason, I am far from impressed about it.

I shall stomp on you every time I have the chance now.

338 The Air Conditioner of DOOM

2007-06-29T21:02:00.000+08:00

I think the title to this blog kind of says it all. Being officially Summer now, temperatures here in Taiwan are now 30 degrees celcius, day and night.

Naturally, my A/C died.

One was not impressed. One was also not able to sleep.

One is very tired now.

That thing goes bonkers on me tonight, and I swear to all that is Holy, I will make sure it is the last thing it EVER does....

Well, once I get back from my vacation, anyway.

337 Disrespect

2007-06-22T21:18:00.000+08:00

The big meeting of our school last Sunday was, as usual, mostly in Chinese, and so I didn't understand most of it. Hell, I have yet to find any real point to me actually being there.

But I was informed today that while at the meeting, right in front of me, in Chinese, my boss said that he wasn't going to extend my contract, and that they would be getting a new teacher.

Well.

To be honest, I wasn't planning on staying for another year anyway. Things have been settling in my head, and I have finally decided that I'm waiting for life yet again, when I should be doing something about it. Teaching is NOT what I want to do with my life, and it's about time I did something else.

So I really don't care so much that the boss is planning to get another teacher.

The disrespect of saying it at the table, in front of me, in Chinese though - that is my current gripe. I am not stupid, and nor am I a pushover.

There will be an accounting for this.

336 Attempt number One

2007-06-18T21:25:00.000+08:00

At coming up with something to put here. Nothing really jumping out at me, besides the usual story-gibberish, which is pretty much of no interest to all besides Mornay (and occasionally other if I get off my lazy ass and WRITE something).

In my astoundingly exciting life today I ...

Got up!

Washed the dishes!

Played PS2!

Put rubbish out!

Yeah.... pretty much nothing. That vacation isn't coming fast enough...

With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.

335 Lessons in pain

2007-06-15T16:00:00.000+08:00

Welcome to my Friday. Once every six month or so, unfortunatly, my body decides to go completly funky and throws a spanner in my normal life. This spanner is usually in the form of an extra-bad first day of my time of the month.

First level of Hell - no sleep.

Second level of Hell - not able to keep food down.

Third level of Hell - pills no longer working.

Fourth level of Hell - back-up pills not working. (Yes, I even have back-up pills)

Fifth level of Hell - Then suffering through everyones remedies for solving the pain problem (hint - Ginger tea tastes something MOST foul)

I believe the sixth level of Hell may involve something along the lines of trying to teach. And ginger tea still tastes foul, and is still isn't working.

Argh!

334 Rain has redeemed itself

2007-06-10T19:44:00.000+08:00

Yep, that's right, I have found a moment when rain redeems itself in my eyes.

I don't suffer from hayfever when it's rainy.

Don't get me wrong, I still don't like rain (correction - I don't like being out in the rain where I can get wet), but this past spell of four days of intermittent rain has resulted in a severe lack of hayfever for me.

It's so nice not to blow my nose every five minutes. In 30 degree weather, with 80% humidity. I'm pretty sure it looks strange, because it sure as anything feels strange to have a box of tissues as your constant companion ... when you spend all day in air-conditioned goodness.

My complaints have been heard by my parents, who very nicely sent me some hayfever medicine from NZ. Only one problem with that - it was a box of TEN. Ten. Ten tablets, of which I'm supposed to take one every 24 hours for relief from hayfever symptoms. That is, if no rainy days pop up, ten days of no hayfever.

Wooo. Ten whole days. Watch me bounce for joy at that huge number.

Think I'm going to need more than that, at a guess.

333 Good sign or bad sign?

2007-06-06T21:48:00.000+08:00

I finally came up with a name for bike number three. It's now official, bike number three is called "Vee" (because V3).

However, I also, at the same time, worked out a name for bike number four .... which I haven't got, or need yet, still being in possession of bike number three.

Not sure if this is a sign from the powers above (or below, depends who's taking interest this turn around) or from my subconscious telling me that I've had this bike for a while now, maybe I need to upgrade again?

Judging my the squeeking brakes, SOMETHING needs to be done, but that could be as easy as take it to the bike shop to have a check-up. Which might be a good idea anyway, since I'm pretty sure I need the tyres pumped up again.

Sadly, as with most things in my life of recent, that requires time. And even more sadly, I have precious little of that left for errands such as 'bike-fixing'. My week now consists of this ...

Tuesday - Mark homework from weekend, plan everything for the next week, do photocopying, organise games, practice piano, have piano lesson, teach one class, teach after school class.

Wednesday - Teach four classes straight. (equates to 6 hours of standing and talking with nary a break)

Thursday - Mark homework from Wednesday, teach two classes straight (3 hours standing and talking) and teach after school class. Practice piano if time.

Friday - Mark homework from Thursday, teach two classes straight (3 hours standing and talking) and teach after school class. Practice piano if time.

Saturday - Teach five classes. Collapse from exhaustion. (1.5 hours in morning, 6 hours straight in evening, lunch only ever about ten minutes)

Sunday - Teach another five classes. Die from exhaustion. (1.5 hours in morning, 6 hours straight in evening, lunch only ever about ten minutes)

Monday - Catch up on sleep from hellish weekend. Gain use of voice back again.

Repeat Tues-Mon again.

The boss and Eva are now trying to re-arrange my scedule so that it won't be so painful. However, their best idea so far is to combine classes. Both the Chinese teachers and I are protesting that one. The bigger the classes, the more time we need to teach them. If the class is big enough, we either fall behind scedule, and have to get the parents to pay for another month of lessons, or we have half the class failing. Because I have no time to spend on the slipping kids, I have classes back to back. And I'm not the only one either.

No solutions as of yet. Just many, many hours of work for me.

Sigh.

All this work, and yet I'm still putting on weight. Makes no sense whatsoever.

332 Happy Birthday Sarah!

2007-06-02T20:05:00.000+08:00

See, I am so nice I even put it in the title!

Figured that since it was your birthday, and you updated before me I had better do something more than a casual mention at the end of the blog like I do for most people.

I know, I know. My generosity astounds even me.

Apart from it being Sarah's birthday, today is an auspicious day because I actually made it home before the sun went down! Yes, I actually witnessed light on the horizon as I biked home today. The good side to Summer is that I'll actually get to see sun in the late evening again. Ah, 'tis the simple things in life ....

331 Summer one, Kat 0

2007-06-01T19:50:00.000+08:00

Summer has reared out of it's beautiful mask and bitten me on the ass. Yep, that's right, it's hayfever time.

Oh joy of joys.

Beautiful days, sunny warm, warm winds, everything I like about Summer infact. With the added bonus of being stricken with hayfever. I look constantly tired, my nose is always running, I have a growing aversion to light, and if I'm outside for any particular length of time (ten minutes) I come down with a stuffy, floaty head. Yeah, don't need medicine to get me hazed up any more.

Unfortunatly for me, my bike ride, formerly something of great pleasure (in spite of the whole exercise thing, even) has turned into a problem, since it takes me ten minutes to get to work. And it only takes ten minutes outside for me to get hazed up ....

Looks like I'm off to the doctor this coming week, or there won't be any activity, work or leasure related, at all.

330 Eerie

2007-05-25T22:01:00.000+08:00

After many 'discussions' with Mornay (read - arguments) about what is a soup, today I experienced the other side of his argument.

Mornay doesn't call anything remotly see-through a soup. Only stuff thick enough to have eating impliments stand up straight, unaided is called soup in his eyes.See-through is something better left unnamed for this blog, such is his hatred if it.

I call it clear soup, thick soup, and chowder. All are still soup, just different kinds. Soup is soup.

Tina, nice unassuming always pleasant Tina, has proven herself today as Mornay's arch-enemy in the world of soup classification.

I was grocery shopping today, with Tina, and we were buying vegetables. Well, I was buying pumpkin and potatoes, she was buying alot more than that. We were talking about food, and what we were cooking, and I mentioned I was making soup with the pumpkin.

This garnered me a totally blank look from Tina. You put pumpkin in soup, she asks. Well duh, pumpkin soup is called that because it has pumpkin in, right? I explained, mentioning the mashing of pumpkin and potato, mixing together and boiling together with other additives. "But it's not clear?"

Yes Mornay, here is my birthday present to you. An arch enemy for you to argue with about soup to your hearts content - Tina.

Happy Birthday dude.

329 Gots me a tenant

2007-05-24T21:18:00.000+08:00

One, to be precise. It was originally anticipated that I would be getting four, however that number has thankfully been whittled down to one via a process called 'running the gauntlet'. Last one standing got the room with air conditioning...

Well, actually the girls just talked to themselves and decided too many people for the sole room of air conditioned goodness. So on Monday, I get Iris to sign the contract (for the room, her soul and other such goodies) and then she moves in next month.

I may or may not be kidding about the soul part. I'll leave that up to you.

Her parents are paying for this, so she didn't have to worry about saving so much money and being squashed in with lots of other people.

My responsibilities now include finally paying the water bill (must work out where to pay that sucker, it's getting rather important), setting up a LAN (god help me) and stop leaving stuff lying all over the house .... no, scrap the last one. Don't think that's going to be changing any time soon.

Kind of yay

2007-05-21T00:14:00.000+08:00

And so begins the first blog from my nice, brand spanking new computer. Things aren't quite as simple as just transfer stuff from the old computer to the new however.

Nope, every new computer now comes with Windows Vista.

I am verging on something very near hatred for the operating system called Windows Vista. Let me elaborate...

Things began fine, until I started installing programs. Then all of a sudden, the lovely over active firewall and security devices decided "This is potentially harmful, so we're not going to let you click on this. At all. Nope, you have to use the keyboard, and presh Enter if you want to do that. Oh, and we aren't going to tell you this either. Nope, we're going to watch you get more and more frustrated. Have fun! Remeember, this is all to protect you!"

Needless to say, I was far from impressed about this turn of events.

Then, we had the fun of Norton Antivirus. Norton is pre-packaged with the computer, and comes with a 90 day free trial. Which is fine and dandy, except I have other virus protectors I'd much rather have. So I download it, instal it (And dear god was that painful with the whole can't click thing) and then uninstall Norton.

Which was literally embedded within the computer files. It took close to twenty minutes to uninstall the damn programe. And then, as if that wasn't enough, Windows security center doesn't like my version of virus protection (not a big company that pays them money, you see) and keeps trying to tell me (ahem, warn me) that I need to check my virus protection as it may (may, note that, may) not be running.

Finally get things running, and we have the iTunes problem. Not supported for vista. Nope, turns out I can still install the newest version, there are bugs being worked on, and things are still working fine. Well, kind of fine.

Transferring things from old computer to new?

Again, painful. Working out how to get iTunes to recognise all the music in the external hard-drive now.

Oh joy of joys.

Vista does look good though, I will say that. We just have those little niggling problems like with security to deal with.

Wish me luck. Lots of good good luck. Am going to need it.

327 Sunday likes to up the ante.

2007-05-13T20:08:00.000+08:00

Yep, as if my Saturday wasn't bad enough, my Sunday decides to be one step worse.

Saturday was the not-joy of two oral tests, which when mixed with big classes and back-to-back classes, meant things ran late yesterday. First class ok, 1-2:30. Second class, 15 students, oral test...15 minutes over, 2:30-4:15. Which meant the third class ended up being 4:15 to 5:45. The last class, also an oral test with 16 students (and right loud, annoying, misbehaving ones too) ended up going home at ...7:30. With 5 minutes enforced silence (I stood there with a stopwatch counting out 5 minutes of silence) before they were finally allowed to leave.

I then went downstairs, put everything away, re-stocked my Break Book (collections of mazes, word finds, sudoku etc. for the kids to do at break other than run around in circles screaming. A good idea, but it needs frequent re-stocking. A little too good an idea aparently), ate dinner, and headed home about 8:30. Was in bed by 11pm, knowing I had to do it all agin on Sunday.

Yeah. Sunday. Well, things started with.... a phone call.

Which woke me up.
Stumbled to the phone, answered it.
"Hello?"
"Kathy? This is Win"
I knew this, I recognise his voice. But why was he calling? And on my home phone no less?
"Where are you?"
Well, duh! Home phone means I'm at home.
"Your class started ten minutes ago..."

At this point I finally woke up enough to realise that I had managed to sleep through my alarm (Has never happened before in my life) and was thus late for class. Dashing around the house, finding things, getting dressed, heading to work.

Half an hour late, so have to catch up that half hour. Easy, right? Nope, little bastards complained the entire time, muttered about buses (although I let those who had buses go earlier so they could catch said buses), and generally made my life a living hell until I finally snapped and made everyone do diction from their text books to make them a) shut up, b) get the hint I was pissed and c) look as though they were doing work for the camera and thus parents.

Even late, I'm good when it comes to dealing with classes. Little assholes.

Of course, it meant I missed lunch, and then I missed dinner because I was marking the homework I normally mark at lunchtime. Joy of joys. Plus the fun of trying to explain to the Boss why I was late, when I don't understand it myself - Normally, I know I have to get up in the morning, so I naturally wake up before my alarm. And then the alarm is a fail-safe if I don't do that.

Well, it was a fail-safe. Looks like I need a new alarm clock, one that's much, much louder. Maybe one of a foghorm variety?

Desn't help that this is also the first day of that time of month, which may account for my sudden lack of patience when it comes to that level ten in the morning....but then again, they're usually right little assholes, so it's about time I snapped.

Argh!

Off to find food, I am STARVING.

326 Somewhat surreal...

2007-05-10T20:33:00.000+08:00

...The phone call I recieved last night, that is.

11 o'clock last night, sitting down for some immerse-self-in-PS2-and-forget-what-the-time-is gaming, I recieve a phone call.

On my cell phone.

Now this is somewhat unusual for a start, because hardly anyone calls me on my cell phone. Hell, hardly anyone calls me, period. My mother and Kaz are the usual people who do, and they use the home phone. If Tina calls, she uses my home phone too, knowing my schedule as she does (ie, home phone after eight, cell phone during day)

So this late night phone call? Unexpected to say the least. Anticipating the glory (note to unaware - scarcasm there) of yet another phone call from someone who only speaks Chinese and keeps asking 'way? way?' (means Hello in Chinese) endlessly even when I say 'I don't understand Chinese' in Chinese, my inital thought was why hurry to get that?

Hell, let it ring, and miss it, even better!

Was greeted upon answering the phone with a very loud "Happy Birthday".

Mornay.

"Eighteenth dude"

"Really? Oh shit."

Turns out there are a great number of birthdays in May,and he forgot when mine was amongst all those multitudes (It's OK Mornay, I realise I'm not loved. No, don't worry, I can deal with this. Sob) Something about May produces alot of birthdays. Or, to be more precise, something about September that makes parents get it on to produce children. Who knows? It's scary whatever the reason - there are 6 people in my close family with birthdays in May, and there are more in the extended family....

The effort was appreciated though, and since I know you read this blog often enough, I can say this knowing you'll get the message. At least, as we discussed, he called in the evening. When he initally remembered 'Must call Kat' it was a 8 in the morning. I swear to God, anyone that calls me in the morning is NOT what I would call a friend. Nor family I will admit to. If Mornay had called me at that unGod-like hour of the morning, I would have gone over to Taipei, caused him much bodily pain and suffering, and then returned to Kinmen before classes at 1 o'clock.

Maybe with a quick side trip to Page One while I was there, but still, main purpose would be violent physical pain visited upon evil person who dared wake me.

And so the blog update about the phone call has ended. It was just too funny a situation not to share, and since my life is teh muchly boring, I need something to say. Kaz is beating me for updates this month I think, and that's a scary thought. (Even more scary would be Sarah beating me, but like that's ever going to happen, lazy ass that she is, and the fact she leaves Turkey to return home to NZ in like a week or two)

325 Right bloody typical

2007-05-04T21:12:00.000+08:00

My favorite food on Kinmen is a curry and potato dish that Auntie makes. Well, I found out something a interesting the other night, sitting down and eating dinner with the boss and Emily.

It isn't from Kinmen.

Yes, that's right, my favorite food on Kinmen isn't actually from Kinmen. In fact, you can't find it in Kinmen.

That's because the curry is actually from Myanmar.

The boss is actually originally from Myanmar, and immigrated to Taiwan in his early twenties, married in Kinmen and has since stayed. He taught Auntie how to make the curry, imported some, and now our school is the only place on the Island that you can find curry from Myanmar. Go figure.

And by 'import' I mean his family still living there bring curry with them when they visit.

Looks like I may have to go visiting there this Summer Vacation if I want my own stash of the darn stuff.

Argh!

324 Sarah is a lying b**ch

2007-04-30T18:21:00.000+08:00

"I've got back into blogger, and will be updating later today."

Yeah, my ass you will.

Mind you, this is also the person who didn't realise gmail was part of google. Don't ask, I'm still trying to work that one out myself.

In other news, my life is the usual boredom that life on Kinmen seems to breed. Looking at rain for two months, according to the weather department here in Taiwan (oh freaking JOY), and so far that has translated into my Monday being rain-sun-rain-sun-rain-sun-repeat.

Off to find something to do.

323 Stupid Wind

2007-04-27T20:48:00.000+08:00

Beautiful day today, and what do I then get to bike home in?

Bloody wind.

Not nice warm wind either, which I don't mind. No, of course it's wind of the cold variety. Which means earache, which in turn means mother-freakin headache.

Otherwise, life is still the nice boring same. Researching new TV shows to download (Ed has managed, via a computer programme, to corrupt my soul, cursing me to an eternity of ... well.... slow internet because I'm so busy downloading stuff. Curse you Ed, curse yoooooooou...), watching them when they finally (Finally!) download, playing email-tag with Kaz (about 8 emails and counting over the course of five days so far) all on one particular subject.

Also had a mother-freaking-HUGE email from Sarah, who mentioned that Blogger is going funny for her in Turkey, so there won't be any new qupdates until she works that out. Given that the site is written in Turkish, a language she doesn't understand, may hinder her progress somewhat.

Otherwise ... writing more drama scripts, another version of Snow White (this time without a Prince, 'cos none of the boys in that class are going to get within six feet of the girls without full plate-mail body armour, let alone even pretend to kiss one of them), and somewho I have to also come up with Little Red Riding Hood ... with thirteen people. Wish me luck. Snow White is, alas, the easier of the two options.

Good news about the dramas is that the boss recently invested in two spotlights. Yes, we now have huge spotlights to play with. Makes putting on a performance that much more fun for the director (me) because now I have to factor in the kids, props, costumes, music and now spotlights.

And I have two of these puppies next month, probably within a week of each other.

Joy.

322 The break is kind of over before it began

2007-04-25T20:51:00.000+08:00

Yeah, back to normal internet speed again now, finished downloading all of The Dresden Files so far available. Now I get to wait for the next episode, then download that...

I officially turned the corner into spring-summer on Tuesday, with the advent of actually turning on my a/c in order to sleep. Yes, I actually turned the bugger on. Not for more than twenty minutes, but still ...

Speaking of a/c, I have run into a most baffling thing here in Taiwan. Could someone please explain to me why people here on Kinmen have the a/c on in their cars IN THE MIDDLE OF WINTER? Surely the heater would be a more intelligant option?

One of the mysteries of the world.

321 A brief ... pause

2007-04-20T23:19:00.000+08:00

Well, in my regular (cough) blogging anyway.

I have thus been introduced into the wonderful world of Torrent downloading. I can get all those tv shows that I've been wanting to watch, but had to do without, either because of my lack of TV, lack of cable or lack of being in the right damn country. And best thing is it's all on my computer, so I can watch it when I feel like, none of this have to be home in time thing.

Unfortunatly, with my village's lack of population goes a lack of cables installed by the telecom company, which in turn restricts the speed available for the residants. Combined this with my torrent downloading, and it means my internet has become somewhat ... sluggish.

And it will remain that way until I finished downloading the Dresden Files, and then Heroes. As such, blogging will be sparse, because I really can't be bothered waiting five minutes for every damn screen to load.

Any complaints, send them to Ed. He was the one who showed me this stuff.

320 It has gone!

2007-04-19T16:29:00.000+08:00

Lo and behold, my tooth is now gone!

Yeah, went to the dentist and now the tooth is gone. It's a tooth that has needed removal for over two years now, it's only recently started annoying me to the point I actually did something about it.

As we speak, it's absense is causing me pain. I'm hoping that will vanish in a few days, and then I will no longer have to worry about pain from that tooth again, unless the dentist decides to keep my tooth, and then use it in a voodoo spell. The dentist seems like a pretty nice dude though, so I don't think I have anything to worry about from him.

The receptionist however, is something else entirely ....

The whole process was startlingly fast too, compared to the last episode. Five minutes tops, including the injections and x-ray. Go figure.

Everyone, upon hearing that my tooth had come out, immediatly figured I was going to be unable to do anything for the rest of the day.

I was bored out of my brain after twenty minutes of feeling sorry for myself, and finding stuff to do to take my mind off the pain (pain meds took four hours to work. Four!) became my primary mission. I now have a tree for the upcoming dramas my classes are producing. Another two or three more of those puppies, and we have the makings of a forest. Not entirely sure what I'm going to do for a house or cottage, but I'll work on it. Figured out the field of grass already.

Now on meds for pain, inflamation and antibiotics. Lovely things. Make my head go funny, make my memory worse, if that's at all possible, and causes me to sleep though my alarm to get up and go to work....lovely things, like I mentioned.

Anyway, will go back to reading my books now. Went to Taipei on Monday/Tuesday as my mother and Kaz discovered too late, and as a result now have lots of new books to read. Ah, new books....

I shall live to knock thy brains out.

Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.
- Napoleon Bonaparte

319 A day of not-quites

2007-04-15T19:49:00.000+08:00

A day of not-quites describes my Saturday rather well...

Recieved a phone call at 12 o'clock, but making it in time to pick up up?

Not quite. Cellphone was at the other end of the house, and I was damn lucky to hear it through the door as it was.

Finish painting my nails before Tina arrived to pick me up?

Not quite. I was about to put the final coat on as she arrived. Had to wave at her to wait while I finished.

Have a dentist appointment?

Not quite. The dentist's office was open, but they were only doing false teeth all day, and unless I wanted an appointment for making false teeth.... uh, no.

Have a painless tooth day?

Not quite. Ended up eating some of the marshmellow Easter eggs my mother sent me for Easter. Those things are killers on the tooth. But damn they tasted good...

Remember to buy everything I needed at the supermarket?

Not quite. I forgot to get another clear-file for my PS2 stuff (it clutters up my living room, I have that much. All for one game. It may help to know that the game is in Japanese, a language that I am now getting better at understanding.)

Remember all the details needed to send money to NZ?

Not quite. Needed the bank's address according to the form, something I don't know. Eventually dude said it was fine to leave that blank.

Remember my mother's new address?

Not quite. Hell, I still have problems remembering my own phone number. (I have two, cell and home. Two! My own personal hell would be someone forcing me to remember numbers...) My parents moved house, to somewhere I have never seen, with a new phone number, for the first time in my life.

Cook dinner before 10pm?

Not quite. I ended up playing PS2, and almost forgot to cook dinner all together. Dinner was made about 11 o'clock.

Get to bed before midnight?

Not quite. Again, the playing of PS2 kind of mucked that up. Kept wondering what the time was, and forgot that I still had my watch on (I normally take it off as soon as I get into the house)

Added to all of this, with the weather warming up again, I have the beginnings of allergy problems, my asthma plays up, and to top it all off, I get sick. Began on Saturday, still around on Sunday.

Teaching takes on a new level of pain when your voice cuts out halfway through yelling at kids to be quiet and pay attention.

However, I survived the Hell that is my Sunday Teaching Marathon for yet another week. And then to top it all off, dinner was the Chicken and Potato Curry that Auntie makes. Goddamn I love that stuff, despite my general hatred of curry.

The fact I didn't have to put my earmuffs and gloves on to ride home, it was that warm, probably tops the day off nicely. Started hellish (I lost my keys this morning), ended great.

Speaking of great, I have a boss to go deal to in FF12 right now. Laters!

[Thou art] a dull and muddy-mettled rascal.

318 Why?

2007-04-14T12:36:00.000+08:00

My day off, and I have rounded up a few questions to ask the world on this supposed day of rest.

Why does it have to be today I get a tooth pulled out?

Why do I have to work tomorrow?

Why can't I sleep all day?

Why does it have to be sunny and birds chirping?

Why, on this well earned day off, do I have to be sick???

Woke up at 7:30 this morning unable to speak. Since then, I have managed to regain a little of my speaking power, but it's still mostly gone. I can't blame it on teaching, because I only get the teaching sore throat after the weekend (and it's Saturday today, and a day off to boot, so haven't even started the teaching marathon), which leaves me with ... sickness.

Sickness would also explain the headache and sore eyes, however my mother-freaking allergies would also explain that (and the hard-to-breathe thing too late at night). I have the feeling what I have managed to get a hold of is a crazy mixture of sickness, allergies and asthma.

Joy.

Mental note to self - go to doctor and get a new inhaler. Preferably before Summer.

Thou errant unchin-snouted whey-face!
Yes, Nicholas, this one is for you. Down in Dunedin, but can't find even five minutes to go see Kaz? Shame on you.

317 Sun again!

2007-04-12T13:29:00.000+08:00

Yes, we had sun again here on Kinmen, which was a welcome surprise for me. Two days in a row now we have had sun. It's a little strange, since we have had rain-sun-rain-sun-rain-rain etc for the last month odd.

Not that I'm complaining about the sun though, far from it. Let it continue! Unlike Mornay, who hates the sun and the heat with a passion unparelelled in Taiwan (which he somehow manages to blame on Taiwan, the people and everyone who doesn't seem to care; people who have no control over the fact it is a semi-tropical climate), I am most happy to see the heat and sun that is (hopefully) going to banish the cold and chills of winter.

I am a creature of the Summer, it appears. (At least until there is snow around, and then I am a creature of the snow ... provided there is a fire I can sit in front of to warm up after being in said snow.)

My new A.R.C (Alien Resident Certificate for the unaware) is now officially finished, and the good news is that I didn't have to leave the country this year! Previous years have resulted in me having to leave, for a number of days, overstaying for another number of days, but this year we managed to get it done without that little hassle.

No, this time instead of being forced to leave the country, we just had to fill out numerous forms and papers. Living in the land of technology, and what do we have? A government that functions on paperwork. Putting things into computers? Nah, we write everything on paper, copy it all multiple times, fill out more forms, put a number into the computer (but that's all), and then print more forms to be signed and filled out.

Oh, and then you get your new visa, which consisted of a date stamp on the back of the old one with a new visa number.

Oh gosh golly gee! Fifteen peices of paper for a mother-freaking date stamp?

Trying to remember that it was so much more hassle to have to leave the country. Hard to when faced with all the paperwork required for staying here.

Oh, and my waterheater still isn't fixed. Stopped trusting Brenda to help, asked the boss instead. Maybe he'll get someone to fix it for me.

This year would be welcome.

The insults just keep getting better.

[Thou] blunt monster with uncounted heads!

Thy bones are marrowless, thy blood is cold.

316 The threshold is weakening!

2007-04-11T20:44:00.000+08:00

Between Spring and Summer, I'm meaning. Yesterday was tipping down with rain, misrable, windy, you name it, everything bar snow and ice we freakin had. (and I biked in it)

Today was beautiful, sunny, hot, no wind, no cloud.

Go figure.

Otherwise, apart from the welcome arrival of a parcel from my mother today (Easter eggs! Yayayayayayayay!), my life is back to the boring work-sleep-play ps2-repeat cycle again.

Oh, and no hot water still, because Brenda forgot to call the dude.

Taking that into account, I now hurl this at Brenda....

The most infectious pestilence upon thee!
Really having fun with these Shakespere insults now. I get a new one every time I refresh the page!

315 Stupid bloody rain

2007-04-10T20:26:00.000+08:00

Yes, as you may have guessed, 'tis raining today. Naturally, I have to bike in it. Luckily it wasn't heavy (no, I'm expecting that tomorrow, when I'm extra tired after four classes), and nor was it a cold night, but still...rain.

Added trials ensue in my household, with the blowing of the waterheater fuse yesterday, leaving me with power in my house (a welcome change from the other recent fuse incidents) but no hot water. I know what's wrong, I watched it happen from a safe distance.

The wires heated up from too much current running through them (some idiot electrician installed fuses for 110V on a 220V line. Go figure. Even I know better than that), and with a big boom last night (like I said, watched from a safe distance) it finally heated up, set on-fire (I kid you not, there were FLAMES) and burnt the wire out entirely.

Cue the abrupt stoppage of my water heating up. Also cue the lack of a shower for a day or so, while I arrange for someone to fix said problem. Brenda is arranging someone to come and fix it tomorrow morning, so hopefully I'll be able to have a shower before I head off to work tomorrow. Otherwise ... well, I don't want to contemplate the other options right now. They may involve my electric jug and a basin.

Argh.

To add insult to injury, I'm now having 'problems' with my subscription to The Economist. Well, to be more precise, the on-line service. My dad likes the magazine, so as a gift this year, I signed up for the magazine, me having more free money and it being cheaper in Taiwan than New Zealand. I send the print copies to him, and I figured I'd just sign me up for the on-line version, since that is free with the paid print subscription.

They mucked up the labels. Nowhere on the package I get is my customer number, which in turn mucks up the validation system for getting the on-line magazine and extras as are entitled to me because I've forked out all that money for the years print subscription.

Needless to say, I am neither happy nor impressed about this situation.

Double argh.

Shakespere insult of the day! (Directed at the idiot electrician who screwed up my wiring)
Thou cullionly rampallian joithead!

314 Oh woe is me!

2007-04-06T20:39:00.000+08:00

It rained again today.

I woke up thinking that today was going to be my day. That I would begin the first day of the rest of my life.

And then it rained.

Why must you hate me world? Why?

Why can't I get further into this emo thing before I crack up laughing and almost pee myself? I think it's pretty safe to say that the emo status isn't something that will be added to my status bar any time soon, if this is anything to go by.

Darn, eh?

Actually, I wasn't lying about the rain, and while I get pissy about rain when I have to be out in it for any reason, that doesn't mean I get all weepy and depressed about it. So no, you can all put those phones down, there is no need to ring me up and reassure me that the world isn't out to get me (Because I already know it is, and I have PLANS). Nope, if life gives me rain, I give the world Grumpiness.

Because, why not? I may as well get some enjoyment out of this grand prank called "Making-it-rain-only-when-Kat-bikes-home".

It rained on my day off yesterday too, but that was fine since I never left the house.

And now, for a new bonus, we have a new addition to the blog!
Days since Sarah last posted : 16
Blogs Kat has posted since then : 7
Blogs Kaz has posted since then : 4
Hint of the day - Sarah, update your damn blog.

And now for something else...

Quote of the day.
Try as hard as we may for perfection, the net result of our labors is an amazing variety of imperfectness. We are surprised at our own versatility in being able to fail in so many different ways.
Samuel McChord Crothers.

313 My tooth hates me.

2007-04-03T21:31:00.000+08:00

Or, to be more precise, it hates me having a relaxing day off. Yesterday, it was painful. Yesterday being my day off, and after 10 classes at the weekend (15 hours, with two 6 hour blocks in there) it was my well deserved day of rest.

Tooth? Hurting. Always hurting. Never letting up, even while I'm trying to sleep.

Today, and back at work for the beginning of yet another hellish week, the tooth is .. yeah? Tooth? Anybody home there?

Not impressed. At the very least, the tooth could play up while I'm working and give me an excuse for being in a shitty mood. But nooooo.

Although I did discover that if I eat candy, it dosen't hurt. Go figure. Definatly one of my teeth, no doubt about it.

On the topic of teeth, I still snicker every time I read Kaz's post title "The day of doom has arrived..." Look at it this way, my friend. After the root canal is finished, your tooth won't hurt anymore.

You just have to get through the root canal itself first. Mwa ha ha! (Although, to be honest, and having gone through one myself, it's not as bad as people make out. There are painkilling injections to stop the pain, and so you never actually feel anything. So why do people moan about it so much? Worry about the Wisdom teeth thing. Ironically, guess what I have taken out next visit to the dentist....)

312 Rain on washing day stinks.

2007-04-02T22:11:00.000+08:00

Monday is usually washing day for me. Naturally, today it wasn't sunny. No, we had a severe freakin' thunderstorm.

On the day I want to do washing.

Bloody Murphy's Law.

My resulting decision? Wash the balcony. Figured since it was already wet, may as well do it properly.

Two words for you all.

Cold Feet.

Not liking this cold feet thing.

311 Such is life ... Fog and a lack of newspapers.

2007-03-31T22:05:00.000+08:00

Almost April (well, tomorrow is April first anyway) and so we are thus heading straight into the full on month of fog and severe lack of sun.

So far, this has translated into no plane being able to fly this weekend in particular. Normally I would only notice this if I was intending on travelling to Taipei, but it has bridged out in recent days. The signs now include a lack of mail (I'm supposed to get The Economist every Saturday, which I then send to my father. It's his Christmas present from last year, since it's cheaper in Taiwan than NZ), and also a lack of newspapers.

The seven-11 people saw me walk in the store, and abrupty shook their heads at me. They see me every day, bar Monday, and know perfectly well I buy a newspaper, drink and occasionally chocolate. That they notice me and let me know about the lack of paper is either a sign of friendly store staff or that I am too-regular a customer.

It could also be a mixture of both, but I may have to start venturing further in my daily search for lunch, other than seven-11 and bakery. The downside to this is people who don't know me, and if I start varying my food, and thus ignore my bakery, then I won't get freebies as I presently do from the bakery.

I do like that bakery.

I also noticed that we didn't get the full load of piano teachers today, another sign that the planes weren't flying. It meant I was actually able to practice piano today, instead of not. Kind of cool.

The thing that baffles me about this, and ends up forcing my reliance on watching for these signs is that the fog is only ever on the edges of the island. The airport happens to be located on the coast, so it's under a full blanket of cloud, while I'm at work in the heat (warmer than 25 degrees today!) looking at sun. Looking at sun, and wondering where my newspaper is.

Damnit, I need my cartoons!

310 There was a point to this ... once.

2007-03-27T23:31:00.000+08:00

I really did have something to say for this blog.

however, being me, it has vanished into the blank empty space that is affectionatly called "memory".

Memory is something I tend to have problems with. New version is on backorder, and the present one keeps re-setting, and changing the criteria without warning.

Grrr.

News-wise, I have a new fridge now. Was delivered yesterday, and I now have an actual freezer that WORKS. And a fridge with a light, so if I go and open it at night, I now get blinded and fall backwards out the kitchen door.

Fantastic. The new "loose-weight" function operates properly, as you can guess. Trouble with that is there is currently nothing in the fridge for me to eat and gain weight on.

Sigh. I need to go shopping. Again...

309 It has arrived!

2007-03-23T21:34:00.000+08:00

The parcel from Sarah is the topic of mention this post. She posted my gift on the 22nd of February this year, but until today, it still hadn't arrived. We were actually just gearing up to do a little investigation about its whereabouts, but it turns out we needn't have worried.

Needn't have worried, because it turned up today, in all its glory.

This is a gift that requires photgraphic evidence of its coolness, so here we go...

This is the box as it arrived, minus the yellow packing stuff wrapped around it. By the looks of things, it had gone through customs in Turkey and then Taiwan.

Inside the box (wrapped at the time, I took these pictures at home after it has already been opened) in the bottom was this small wrapped parcel. Yeah, most of that huge-ass box had been empty space.

In that small parcel were a couple of gifts, first of which was a papyrus picture of a cat. Yay for me, and yay for Baast (the Egyptian cat goddess that this represents).

Also in the parcel was a small knife, was beginning to understand just why it took so long to get to me. This must have been looking somewhat suspect going through x-rays at customs, both for leaving Turkey and getting into Taiwan.

But this is what probably clinched it in terms of both coolness, and do-we-allow-it-in-the-country. I have a sword now! YES! There is a God, and he hates the world, 'cos he let me have a weapon of (not so massive) destruction!

Damn Sarah, when you said it was a cool present, I wasn't expecting something like this! Of course, now having received such a present (aparently its my Xmas and birthday presents combined) I have the fun of trying to come up with a gift in return that makes up for, and expresses my thankfulness about the coolness of the gift.

Argh! Headache! Headache!

308 She's onto me...

2007-03-22T21:46:00.000+08:00

Sarah, I mean. She's onto my nefarious plan to scare the world and all that inhabit it via smiling in photos. Understanding that most people would freeze in horror and loose their grip on reality, I purposly went ahead and posted photos of me smiling on the internet, where the general internet-reading public could see them.

Until that darned girl cottoned on, that it.

Well, actually, it dosen't really bother me that much, since being such an evil being, I already have other plans in motion to secure the destruction of the world. Why just have one evil plan when you can have many? And the bonus is, if they all work, then there are multiple ways to watch everything fall to pieces, rather than just one!

Beats being bored.

In other news, and on the World-destruction topic, I noticed that the movie trailer for Day Watch (DNEVNOI DOZOR) is now out. Day Watch is the second in a trilogy, and comes after Night Watch (The final one is Dawn Watch). Not sure if there is a translation in English yet, when I looked last it still only had the Russian version, but there is hope. It's a Science Fiction trilogy set in Russia, and as Mornay will attest too, damn good it is too.

Yay for yet another movie coming up this year! Harry Potter 5 and now this. Booya!

307 Figured I'd finally post some photos.

2007-03-18T20:16:00.000+08:00

Well, photos from my trip to China, anyway. And so here we go...

Photo number one is Brenda, me and Ling (left to right) waiting in the airport at Xiamen, ready to catch a flight to Hangzhou. This was us smiling despite the fact we had woken up at 4:30am in order to get to the damn airport...

Photo number two is an example for those who doubt that I am crazy. Yes, those are my new earmuffs, and yes, I wear them in public where people can see me. The photo is of Me and Brenda in Hangzhou, when I and Ling were feeling like crap having been afflicted with food poisioning from lunch. Famous restaurant my ass...

Photo number three is of the famous bikes in Hangzhou. Taken while actually moving (involved alot of wobbling and almost running over people too, I might add), this is me and Ling, along with a number of random people. Those bikes were the best way to have a look around the Lake, and the whole city is laid out with biking lanes too, to make it easier for tourists.

Photo number four is me and Ling again, this time at the Temple of (some dude I can't remember). Aparently behind us is a famous pond of fish, but you couldn't really see much apart from murky, slime filled water - and the occasional glimmer of orange as a fish moved through the sludge-like water.
Photo number five, and yet more proof that I am crazy. As if the earmuffs weren't embarrasing enough (to those around me), I also have my hat! Me and Ling, happy as always, still in Hangzhou. Despite what the pictures show, we were actually happy most of the time, just not in the photos.
And so the photos finish there, 'cos it's taken for-freakin-ever just to upload these five, and I'm damned if I want to do more. Maybe tomorrow...

306 And so we are back to the wind...

2007-03-17T20:13:00.000+08:00

..Well, I say we, but mean I.

Kinmen is back into windy season again, and given that I have just recently started biking places again, this has become something of a hindrance to me and my method of transportation.

I say hindrance, because I am never, never, NEVER biking with the wind at my back. I am always biking into it. Mornings, the wind goes in a North direction, when I have to bike South. And in the evenings, it goes in a South direction whereas I bike North.

It bloody stinks. There is no other way to put it.

Good thing (if it can be called good) is that I'm doing more exercise because of this, but still...things had better warm up soon, this wind thing isn't amusing when it's cold.

305 No power sucks ass

2007-03-12T20:40:00.000+08:00

My fuses have been playing assholes of recent (as in the last five days) and this eventually resulted in tonight having no power. Well, that's kind of not true, since I still had power in the 220V circuits, but not the 110V - and the 110V runs my lights, and power sockets. Which in turn means my computer, my heaters, my stereo....

And this all went bonkers just as it started getting dark. Just as I was cooking dinner, as it happens. And also just after it had cut out twice while I was talking to Kaz this afternoon. Since my phone is a cordless variety, it needs power to work - and with that damn circuit blowing ....

I ended up trying to read by candlelight, while waiting for someone to come fix my problem (Because enough was enough, and I rang someone for help).

Turns out it was my waterheater circuit doing all the problems, so now that has been by-passed and everything else is thus working. Unfortunatly, it appears that my waterheater now isn't, but I guess I shall just have to deal with that ... later.

As in tomorrow kind of later. Right now, I'm going to go and curl up in my livingroom, with a book and read by not-candlelight, while sitting in front of a heater.

304 Me's sick'd

2007-03-07T12:44:00.000+08:00

I knew I was getting sick when I left for Taipei on Sunday. Monday it got a little bit worse, by Tuesday it has hit as a full-blown head cold, and now here we are on Wednesday with me huddled in blankets, alternating from chilly to hot.

Curse the cold fever and chills.

I was a pathetic enough sight yesterday that I was sent home to rest, and didn't have to work. Unfortunatly, waking up today, I'm in the clear-head-through-glass stage. Which is never helpful, especially when I'm facing four classes straight today.

The idea was to take yesterday off so I would be fine today. Ya, like that's happened. I'm sitting here trying to remember if I've forgotten enything I had to do, since anything not right infront of me is forgotten in the cold-fuzz I'm in. It takes twice as long as normal to do anything physical, be that getting dressed or getting a drink. Did I mention I have sore ears and joints too?

Wish me luck with today. Going to need it.

303 Vee!

2007-03-03T14:52:00.000+08:00

I now officially have another bike. Yes, I am now onto Version 3 (or V3, Vee; named already too) which looks identical to Version 2 (Unnamed) except it has orange pegs rather than black.

And with today being a bright, beautiful sunny day here on Kinmen, it was brilliant to bike home on my brand new bike that had no squeeking brakes.

Because Wednesday was officially a day off in the schools, it means that they have to go to school today to catch up, which in turn leaves me with no classes until 5-30pm.

Woo yeah! I would like it more if I wasn't the only person teaching tonight, but still, I have just gone from 5 classes to 1. I can deal with that.

Not that I got to sleep in as much as I wished though. No, we had our Annual School Banquet today at lunch, since we didn't have one before New Year. Good thing was they actually had food that wasn't fish this time, and I was out and about on a day off so I could go and buy me a new bike.

Hehehe, I have a new bike.

302 The unexpected

2007-03-01T23:30:00.000+08:00

And so my life has taken a somewhat unexpected turn. I am living in Taiwan, teaching English at a cram school.

And what does this now involve?

Writing scripts. Yes, every class level seven and over (which means 7 of my 13 classes) now have to do a performance. As such, after working out what we are doing, and who is playing each role, I now have to write the damn scripts.

I finished one today, thankfully, but I'm in the middle of Cinderella right now and tomorrow I get another one to write for my level 12, and God Only Knows what they are going to do. Given the kids in that class, I'm expecting something painfully difficult. Then again, given their level, I may just tell them to write it.

Unfortunatly, doing that means we will never get it written in time to do the performance this level. It would be more of a finish-level-14 project, and level 14 is something they don't finish until NEXT YEAR. So it's going to be me writing it, adding to the fun.

So far I have written a version of Little Red Riding Hood (Grandma has a machine gun, it'll be very fun) and Cinderella. (Well, half of Cinderella). Writing the script is only the beginning of the fun though - we get to practice the plays, I get to be director (mwa ha ha!), we get to make the props and costumes ... and I get to play a part in Cinderella (it was insisted that both teachers, Vinco and I, be involved. As such, we are The Evil Step-mother and Guard, respectively)

In getting me to write the scripts, the kids thought they were getting the easy way out. What it really means is that now they have to deal with my version of the stories - which, as you can imagine, means dry humour and smart-ass comments. I lean to comedy more than drama. I always wondered what would happen with an idiot Fairy Godmother in Cinderella, and we now officially have one.

I'm actually kind of warming up to the script writing thing. I just have to remember to write down the stage directions as I go, given that I'm the director as well.

Wish me luck

301 Back to a T-shirt!

2007-02-26T18:02:00.000+08:00

Yes, it is officially warm enough again (OK, I can say that now, and it's going to turn bloody awful COLD just to spite me, knowing my luck) to wear a t-shirt again. Yay for Spring. Well, I still have to have a jacket on over top, but still. T-shirt weather is a good thing for me.

T-shirt was a good thing since I wandered off to the Hospital for my obligated Health Check, needed for my new ARC. Have been through this numerous times now, so I know what to do and where to go. Hour later, was finished with height, weight, blood pressure, pulse (yes, aparently I still have a pulse and am thus technically 'alive', body temp notwithstanding), body temperature, chest x-ray and blood tests. I have to go back tomorrow to get the results of the blood tests, but otherwise, everything else is done.

Best part about this little mission was that despite it being conducted by my boss, it took place in the afternoon, leaving me with a sleep-in. Normally, visits like this take place in the morning, Win being a morning person. As it happens, he was at the hospital all morning anyway, for other things. First day open again after the offical New Year Vacation, it was busy this morning, and being there at 7:30 am, he got a number (81!!!), went back to his family, then returned a bit later, only to wait, and wait, and wait ... he finally left there at 1:30 pm. At which point he called me, caught me in the middle of lunch, and so decided to wait a bit, and eat lunch himself, before picking me up and ferrying me off to the hospital.

Note to self - hospital in afternoon better than morning. Morning is busy.

Interesting fact for the day - This year, the Tibetan New Year, and Chinese New Year occured on the same day. This only happens every 60 years, I found out. Also what only happens every 60 years is the Year of the Golden Pig, in the Chinese Zodiac. So not just the year of the pig this year, it's the year of the golden pig.

Just thought you all needed to know that.

300 Vacation day seven - Shanghai to Xiamen to Kinmen

2007-02-25T17:26:00.000+08:00

And so the final day of vacation loomed at 6am. Up, dressed and off to the airport to fly to Xiamen ... only to have a very unpleasent 'Airport Experience'. We managed to get through checkin, customs, baggage check and x-ray all ok. It was lining up for boarding that things went screwy.

We were waiting for the line to go down, so that we wouldn't have to stand in line for ages, as you do. Line went down, so we wandered over, and lined up, looking at less than 5 people ahead of us. Of course, that was when the airport authorities decided to stop us boarding (we were getting onto buses to be ferried to our plane, no boarding tunnel for us), and board TWO ENTIRE OTHER FLIGHTS BEFORE US. Yes, they boarded two entire other flights before they finally got around to letting us get on our plane, almost as if it was an afterthought.

Plus the flight had no snacks and surly attendants. Bloody sucky, if you ask me.

Anyway, finally into Xiamen again, and we left our bags at the Port (some nice lady behind the counter agreed to look after them for us) since it was just before 10am, and our boat wasn't until 4pm. Once that was done, we headed off to get food.

After food, we stopped at the bank because Ling and Brenda wanted to open a bank account. Took a number, filled out the forms, sat down to wait, and ...

...an hour later we finally got to a counter. Ok, banking on a Sunday was novel, don't get me wrong. Waiting that long wasn't. Hell, I should have opened an account, just for the hell of it, having waited that friggen long.

Having finally escaped the bank, we headed over to the little Xiamen island, Gu Lang Yu. This island was worth the waiting, it was really cool. Once the site of all the rich people in Xiamen, and all the trade offices of various countries, it was a mix of western architecture and tradional Chinese. Some was restored, some wasn't, but it was still cool. All the streets were long and winding, paved and narrow. There are no cars or scooters on the island, and the whole place has to be navigated by foot. It had a sort of old world silence about it, very relaxed.

In the middle of a nice sunny day, it was fantastic.

Unfortunatly the stairs and hills weren't fantastic to my poor knee, which decided to play painful everytime I went downhill. Which was something of a problem, since the entire island was effectivly a rock poking above the sea, and all the houses were on terraces. Paved roads went up and down, meandering paths and stairs went the same way, including up and down sheer freakin cliffs.

We managed to find an awesome coffe shop in the middle of all this though. In a restored building, up a winding staircase, we found the coffe shop and settled in to have a drink. The menus were handwritten, there was a couple of books for comments, and the entire place was decorated in a quirky miminalist fashion. They fit everything in with the old architecture, and there were piles of books everywhere for anyone to just pick up and read. (Unfortunatly, unless I wanted to read Philosophy, there wasn't anything in English)

After the wandering came to an end, we went shopping - Brenda is the 'Bag-person', Ling is the 'Shoe-person' - we came to this description in Shanghai. The small island is the location for all those label knockoffs that the European world hates China for. Sadly for Brenda, they were more expensive and of older style than Shanghai - turns out they BUY from Shanghai. Decided we should have done more shopping in Shanghai.

Well, I say we, but I'm really meaning the other two. Take me shopping for shoes, and clothes, I can usually manage to keep my attention on matters, and stay involved, assuming it doesn't go on for too long. Bags? Find me a seat, I'm going to sleep. Sadly for me, the entire trip, people in shops saw me, thought foreigner, and immediatly started offering me ... bags. I don't care if it's Gucci, L.V, Chanel, whatever. I DON'T LIKE BAGS.

So I have issues. Deal with it.

Shopping finished, we dropped into KFC for our snack on the boat (Ling and I were hungry. Brenda, we noticed, was NEVER hungry at the same time we were. It was one of those crazy things), before boarding the boat and heading back to Kinmen. There was a little bit of wave action on the way back, and abruptly everyone started feeling sick. Me? Huh, what's wrong with everyone? I don't get travel-sick, turns out these two girls from Kinmen do. Go figure. Not like there was much movement on the boat anyway, it was like going over a pothole or two on a gravel road.

Aparently, that's translated as 'rough' for everyone else bar me. Tina's in-laws were on the same boat, I found out later, and they called it 'rough'.

Wimps.

Home, we passed through customs, was reminded that a) I don't function well when I've had to get up early in the morning, and b) that I need to remember how to write my address in Chinese. Faster than I already do.

Home was a welcome sight, and in the middle of unpacking, after logging back onto the computer, was immediatly called by Kaz who had been involved in a hit-and-run, as a victim this time. (Hey, it's Kaz. She can be vicious sometimes, you learn not to cross her, hehehe)

Calling my boss to check in and say I was back, I was then reminded that I needed to go to the Hospital and get a health check. Oh freakin JOY...

299 Vacation day six : Shanghai

2007-02-24T20:32:00.000+08:00

Day six began with a surprise for me. We were moving to another hotel. Why, you may ask? I have no idea. Decision was made before we even left Kinmen, but did anyone bother to tell me?

No, of course not.

At the new hotel by lunchtime, although hotel is a loose term - it's more like a homestay, 8 floors up in a guarded building of a locked down complex. It's actually pretty cool, and I wouldn't have minded staying here rather than the swanky hotel. But moving was painful, since we had to lug bags around. Argh.

After lunch, we wandered off to do the official shopping thing, in one of the market streets. Anyone who has been to the Old Electronics Alley in Taipei would be right at home - but on a larger scale. There were markets with 5 floors, and multiple markets. They sold all kinds of clothes, and accessories.

Including, lucky for me, small suitcases, since I have managed to buy enough souvineers for people that I no longer have room in my suitcases. I had full bags to begin with, so I didn't have to buy much in order to have too much.

While heading off for food, I managed to catch a kid with his hand in Ling's bag Luckily, there wasn't any money, it had all been stolen the night before. Little brat had the gall to try and look innocent about it, but after last night, Ling was having none of it. She yelled at the kid, who gave her the finger and called her a number of unflattering names, before turning to me and swearing at me in English, for catching him.

Bite me, you little bastard. Learn to steal without being caught.

After finding a bookstore that had (que the heavenly choir) English books!, we wandered off to find dinner ... just as it started to rain. Deciding that we needed to get out of the rain, and find a bathroom pronto, we decided to head to KFC.

Naturally, there wasn't one for ages. Never one when you need it, and always too many when you don't. Grrr.

After dinner, and the two women who sat in the bathroom and must have READ ENTIRE BOOKS IN THERE, THEY TOOK THAT LONG (I'm not kidding, it wasn't until some woman bashed on the door in anger that they got out), got onto the bus, and headed back to the hotel/homestay again.

298 Vacation day five: Shanghai

2007-02-23T10:18:00.000+08:00

Day five was officially my 'lazy day'. While the other two went out and saw stuff, I stayed back at the hotel and was lazy. Aound lunchtime, I got up and went for a wander, and found a very cool little sandwich place run by an Italian dude. Good sandwich, and the Italian dude was pretty cute too.

Then wandered into a small park nearby, wrote some of my new story (Sarah will be happy about this) in the sun, then back to the hotel again.

Was soon wandering again, this time in search of something to drink, and found a nearby coffee shop with what has to be THE BEST hot chocolate ever.

Waited until Brenda and Ling came back, then we all wandered off to have dinner. While sitting down and eating in the Thai restaurant, another person told Ling that the dude sitting behind her had just stolen her wallet. Little bastard had went through the pockets on her jacket while we ate, and then ran.

We were unable to catch him, and Ling lost a reasonable amount of money, and the key to the apartment in Xiamen, but otherwise she was fine. No missing passport or creditcard. But still, memories of Shanghai? Robbed in a bloody restaurant.

297 Vacation day four : Hangzhou to Shanghai

2007-02-22T10:17:00.000+08:00

Day four began with a mission - get train tickets to Shanghai. Not just any tickets, but the express train. At the train station (which was a constantly moving mass of people, gah), we discovered that the only tickets left were for 9pm. Too late for us aparently, and so Brenda and Ling started talking to this local woman nearby, as they tried to work out what to do (I was standing to one side, dozing. It was still morning at this point, and I rarely wake up properly before 12). Thanks to her help, we ended up with our tickets on the 6 o'clock train. Yeah!

Off to Wulin Square after that, although what for I'm not sure (nothing interesting to see or take a picture of for me, anyway), went to KFC for my lunch. KFC have reached saturation point in China - they are EVERYWHERE. It was atually kind of strange to see McDonalds, after all those KFC places.

After lunch, we headed off down the 'Fashonable Woman's Garment Road' (Lots of fashion stores), and finally found a Foreign Language Bookstore - which still had no interesting books.

Back to the West Lake, and this time looking for tea and souvineers. Got silk at a small store near the lake, then sat down on the lakeside to enjoy some local tea. Everything we originally wanted was sold out though, including coffee for Brenda, so we finally found something in stock and drank that.

For over two hours, we sat there in the warm sunlight and drank tea and played cards. It was a clear day, unlike the previous ones, so I was happy - you could actually see everything. Brenda and Ling were unhappy, as were the other tourists, because they aparently like the misty days - it was 'more scenic'. Go figure.

We eventually left the Lake, and headed back to the hotel after making a few stops for snacks to have on the train, drinks to have on the train, and tea for my souvineers. Then, we hit the hotel for the last time, and fought over the bathroom (too much tea for all of us). Then we looked at our watches. 5:25pm. Train was 5:56pm.

Running ensued. We managed to find a taxi, had a very speedy taxi ride and made it to the train station in time to get on the train. We were in time enough that we didn't have to line up or wait anywhere, which was kind of cool.

On the train, we discovered that the seats could swivel around to face the opposite direction, which was neat. Train ride was an hour and 50 minutes to Shanghai.

Shanghai train station had a huge-ass line at the taxi stand, but faced with Brenda's idea of taking the Subway, a wait of ten minutes was nothing. After Brenda shaming some woman into getting back in line (she was trying to jump the line, something alot of Chinese people do in China I've noticed so far), we got into our taxi, got to the hotel (swanky place too), dumped our bags, and headed out for food.

Nearby was a big mall, so we ate in the food court at the bottom, then headed back to the hotel and sleep.

296 Vacation day three : Hangzhou

2007-02-21T10:16:00.000+08:00

Dat three began at a much nicer hour of 7:30, despite it still being painful for me. Brenda and Ling, both being morning people, got up for breakfast. It took them, much to my horror and disgust, over an hour to get ready for brakfast and finally leave so I could have a few minutes extra sleep.

They were back soon after 9am, and we all wandered off to do the touring thing again.

We hired some bikes, checked out a bookstore (which was bloody awful, by the way, no English books at ALL), then started wandering around the West Lake. Once Ling and Brenda worked out what way we were going - they changed their minds alot to begin with.

Lunch was on Solitary Hill, the only natural island in the West Lake. Then back onto the bikes,and sightseeing our way through the various temples and tombs along the way. We wandered over two artifical causeways, bridges and all, covered with thousands of people (literally thousands, I'm not kidding. It was a sea of people the entire time), and eventually made it, by late afternoon, at the Liu Feng Pagoda. If it wasn't for Ling deciding she didn't want to go up because 'it was only built in 2000', we would have gone. Turns out it had been burnt down in the 1920's, and had recently been rebuilt, but still. It would have been a fantastic view that we all missed out on. Snacks at the Pagoda restaurant, then back onto the bikes, and heading for the Jade Emperor Hill.

After a long, long bike ride and still no end in sight, we stopped at the China Silk Museum, which was nearby, and wandered in. We were then thrown out again after ten minutes, because it was closing. At 4:30pm. One thing about Hangzhou - everything closes early (5-5:30pm), even the nightmarkets (9:30pm). Back to the bikes, started to head to the Wansong Academy, but it closed at 5pm, and we would have been left with ten minutes again, so we turned around and went back down the hill.

We stopped at the Orioles singing in the wind Park, before getting take-out from a famous restaurant and heading back to the hotel. We would have sat in the restaurant, if it wasn't for the no-seats-too-busy-hundreds-of-people thing.

295 Vacation day two : Xiamen to Hangzhou

2007-02-20T12:00:00.000+08:00

Day two began most oniminously. At 4:45am, I heard Brenda moving around, so I woke up. Turns out I had slept through my alarm. Something about lack oof sleep and that early in the morning, everything was a little eriee, and I remember watching the mini coackroach for a few minutes before I woke up enough to stand on it. I was dressed and packed before Ling even got up. We were soon moving down the stairs with our bags, looking for a taxi.

It was raining too, must not forget that. Rain and dark, at 5am in the morning.

A strangly silent taxi ride later, we made it to the airport to discover that we needn't have got up so damned early after all. The staff, bar the odd security guard, weren't even there. We had to sit and wait for them. I must admit though, it was kind of cool to watch the soldiers who worked at customs to all walk in, double-file, and marching.

Onto the plane, we discovered the blinding sun above the clouds, and the other two girls promtly went to sleep. Lucky people can sleep while travelling.

I can't, argh, no matter how tired I may be.

In the airport, having suffered though a mediocre airline 'snack' and unsmiling air-staff, Ling and I played Hide'n Seek with Brenda for a while, trailing her though the aiport until she eventually spotted us following her. Then onto the bus to head to Hangzhou, and our hotel.

Hanzhou airport is about 50 minutes out of the city, and the climate was cool (7-12 degrees C) but dry. There was also alot of mist (important on day four). The houses on the edges of the city were tall and thin, with small shrines on top, or one of two kinds of decorative antenna. They all had decorative roofs, and as we got further into the city, there was alot of interesting architecture. They like to make their buildings look good on the outside as well as in.

The roads were rough though, and definatly not good for writing.

After checking into the hotel, I had a shower then we all trooped off to the West Lake in the search for food. After a few photos of the misty lake, we went to the Paradise restaurant to eat. I was promptly yelled at by Ling for not choosing the local foods - I was hungry, and let's face it, I eat Chinese food every day, it was novel to see something else. I ended up with Thai soup, so ha!

Something in what the three of us shared (four dishes in all) managed to get both Ling and I sick in less than an hour. Brenda, however, was fine, and sat there muttering about her 'strong stomach'. Not sure if it was the soup, the prawns, the fish or the vegetables, but it killed us.

Naturally, by this stage we were in the middle of a boat tour on the lake, going from island to island, temple to temple (and then bathroom to bathroom). We gave up at 2 o'clock, and went back to the hotel for a 'nap'. Said nap lasted until 7:30pm. We all got up again, hungry, and then wandered off for food, found a famous noodle place nearby. Yet again, without asking me, my Chinese friends ordered me the non-spicy version of food. Yet again, I yelled at them for doing so. Yet again, I reminded them that yes, I can eat spicy food. Yes, I like spicy food. And yes, I was getting pissed at all these friends who forgot at every damn restaurant and ordered me the non-spicy stuff.

Then, I was dragged protesting out the door and back down to the lake again, to see it at night. In the dark. And the cold. About the only difference was that photos were harder to take, and there were fractionally less people than during the day. After an hour or so of freezing to death, we went back to the hotel and slept.

294 Vacation day one - Xiamen

2007-02-19T12:00:00.000+08:00

Day one began at 2:45 pm, as I was picked up from my house by Brenda and Ling. We made it to the Boat Terminal, discovered that Brenda had forgotten the spare battery for her camera, and sent her middle sister back home to get it while we checked in. Checking in, the person behind the counter at first refused to issue me with a ticket, because I didn't have a special Kinmen passport, that lets the bearer have entry into China. Problem with me having one? It needs a Taiwan passport too. In case no-one noticed, I'm from New Zealand.
Brenda, having already been all over the damn island asking about what stuff I needed to get a vias and entry into Xiamen, got to yell at the person, who eventually gave me the ticket, and we were through to the boat.

The boat was like a luxury bus, but on water. Comfortable seats, irritating music that someone thinks is soothing for passengers, the usual.

Off the boat in Xiamen, and on with the jackets. It was cold, with a wind. Grr. We also started calling Brenda and Ling's aunt, to see if we could meet up and get the key to the place we were staying, since we didn't want to lug our bags around.

We had to lug the bags aound. Their aunt didn't get hold of us until late, by which time we had exhausted all possibilities with bags in tow. After dumping our bags, we hit the buses, and went to a nearby mall, where Ling bought bunny slippers, and I got a pair of earmuffs. Then, after another busride and Ling's awful attempts at night photography in a moving bus (the bus driver was irritated by the flash, and Ling couldn't get the camera straight), we ended up at a Foot Massage parlour for dinner.

Xiamen is famous for the foot massages, and so I was treated to the full experience. We ended up getting the 90 minute deal, for all three of us, which involved foot, leg, shoulder, back and arm massages. Food and drink was free, and cooked on site, which was very cool - you wanted something, you ordered it and it arrived in minutes, no questions. We were settled into a private room, with our own TV and everything.
Ling managed to throw her new chopsticks into her boots, and had to ask for new ones. Talented.

After the massage, we stumbled back to the apartment we were staying in, and tried to get some sleep. Due to money-saving measures, Brenda in all her exhalted wisdom, booksed us flights to Hanzhou at 7:05am. We had to be there 90 minutes earlier. It took half an hour to get to the airport. All of this equated to getting up at 4:30am....

293 Yet again I sit here

2007-02-18T16:03:00.000+08:00

...And wonder what to do with my time. This vacation thing is driving me insane, not to mention killing my eyes from either a) watching too many DVD's, b) surfing the net too much, c) reading too much or (and this is my favourite and the most likley) d) a combination of all the above.

One day I can deal with. More than one day? Painful, especially when I have no-where to go. I spend six days a week working, and one day sleeping, then to suddenly have all these days with nothing...the change of pace is driving me bonkers.

The trip to China just isn't coming soon enough. And it's tomorrow, grrrr...

292 I is teh smart!

2007-02-17T22:39:00.000+08:00

I is also teh bored.

(By the way, intentional misspelling there of 'the'. Internet slang, along with intentional bad grammar. I teach it enough, I am fully aware of the use and misuse of the be verb, trust me.)

Teh smart is because not only did I put up my New Year decorations on time, but I also insured that a stray wind (or typhoon, whatever happens) will not be able to rip it down. Nope, not piddly tape for me!

I covered the 'lucky couplets' (couplets of poetry, etc) with the same clear, sticky plastic covering that I put on all my books. Everyone else in my village may have decorations that last a week, but mine will last much longer. Mwa ha ha!

Teh bored because I have reached day three of my vacation. Day three has resulted in me getting sick of sleeping in (only so much you can do of that before you start getting tired of sleeping. Ironic, but there you go), sick of reading, sick of re-arranging my furniture and kitchen, and has finally resulted in me mopping my floors.

You know I'm bored when I mop the damn floors.

Hell, I even swept the balcony. Now that only happens all of, if we're lucky, once a year.

291 Changed my mind again.

2007-02-09T20:47:00.000+08:00

Got bored of the boredom diaries after only one day. Gosh, what a shock, huh?

Into the Final Countdown towards Winter Vacation now - only one more Saturday, Sunday Tuesday and Wednesday then I'm officially ON VACATION for eleven glorious kid-free days. Ah, such joy...

Plans are to go to China this time around, however that is still all dependant upon my visa. More importantly, if it is approved, though there isn't really any reason for it not to be. Assuming the visa is ok (I'll know next Tuesday), I go to Xiamen then to Gwangzhou to Shanghai to Xiamen and back to Kinmen. All in seven days. With three other girls. Will be a riot of laughs, if nothing else, because it's Brenda and Ling that I'll be travelling with.

If I can get a flight back to Kinmen from Taipei next weekend, I'll be going to Taipei too, for three days, but things aren't looking too promising on that count, given that I would be travelling on New Years Day itself - and all flights are fully booked so far. I'm hoping for someone to cancel and let me change the flight, but ... we shall see. No big hopes on that one.

Until then, life is boredom and dullness. What a change from the normal, huh?

290 Notice anything different?

2007-02-08T21:00:00.000+08:00

You may just notice a slight change of things.

Figured that since everyone is always hammering on about how my life is so damn boring (read - I'm not in the mood to make my everyday existence seem interesting right now), I finally just decided to go along with the whole boring theme.

Let's see, what did I do today, and in the other days since my last post?

Worked. Read books. Watched DVD's. Listened to misic. More work.

Somewhere in there are also brief moments of eating, sleeping, cooking, cleaning and catching taxi's (still no bike).

Congratulations, you are now up to date with my life.

289 Not just cucumbers...

2007-02-03T20:32:00.000+08:00

...that contaminate other foods. Nope.

I have, through meticulous testing and trialing, discovered another vegetable that contaminates all around it with it's particular(ly bad) flavour.

Green beans.

As such, that now makes two foods on the official "Contaminator List."
1 Cucumber.
2 Green Beans.

Needless to say, upon ones astounding discovery, one was far from impressed and lost ones appitite. Meaning one is now hungry and has to make food at home ... which is easier than usual, due to one making a big pot of soup yesterday, and all one has to do is heat it up.

Ah, the joy of unknowing fore-thought.

Speaking of which, I should go and eat some now.

288 Nothing to lots in one month.

2007-01-29T13:05:00.000+08:00

Yeah, remember this?

Well, now it's this.

I'm now, thanks to Tina and her new sofa, in the middle of a problem of organising things. Since Tina bought a new sofa set, she no longer needs the old one (3 seater, 2 seater and chair) and since her mother lives on the 5th floor of a house with narrow stairs, I was the lucky recipient of the old ones.

Less than a month after I got my own one anyway.

Argh!

287 If it looks like cucumber...

2007-01-27T20:25:00.000+08:00

Then it in all probablity is cucumber. Normally, I give things a try, because vegetables here are different, and cooked different (gee, different country, what a shock, huh?), but this is one of those universal things that never changes.

Cucumbers are evil, and must be destroyed at all costs before they contaminate the rest of the world's edible food. I say contaminate, because when you eat something that has been near the damn stuff, it also ends up tasting like cucumber. Cucumber in the salad? Congratulations, you have just condemned the other vegetables (I include tomatoes in vegetables here, despite being technically a fruit) to tasting like cucumber.

You may have guessed, I'm not too fond on cucumber.

And guess what we had for dinner tonight? Cucumber and chicken. It even ruined the chicken. The damn stuff has reached a new low (or high, depends on your point of view I guess. My view is low.)

286 Candlelight .... teaching?

2007-01-23T20:12:00.000+08:00

Yeah, that's right. Sitting (well, technically standing, but I'm sure you get the point) down for my class, and in the middle of teaching a catch-up lesson (Between being sick and tests at school, I haven't taught this class for three weeks. I have catch-up to do) the power went out.

Leaving me with a class of shrieking kids.

Much yelling later, and the class mercifully quiet (well, as quiet as this class ever gets anyway) we settled in for games, since what we needed to do was writing, and that was too difficult with only the emergency light in the class.

Yeah, we had to teach by emergency light. No going home for us, more's the pity.

Just as we are about to go home, as in we were writing the communication book for me to sign before they left, the battery in the emergency light gave out and I have shrieking kids again.

I gave up and let them shriek, all the way down the stairs and out the door, as I asked Eva to call me a taxi and waited for it to arrive.

Then the power came back on.

As the taxi arrived. And food came downstairs in the form of Auntie, holding dinner.

Argh. Sucky Tuesday.

285 Aparently I need a new hobby.

2007-01-22T20:04:00.000+08:00

According to Kaz, anyway. Either a new hobby or a boyfriend. My life is too boring for her, and she has officially lodged a complaint with the Kat's Life Society about the severe lack of news and 'interesting stuff' happening in it.

Gosh, I know it's boring. Hell, if anyone should know, I would, living it and all.

Since getting a boyfriend is out of the question (living where I am, and being as fantastically social as I am (please note the scarcasm there) are neither conductive nor helpful in changing that situation), it's aparently up to me to find a new hobby.

Trouble with that is that all hobbies that involve me sitting on my ass and doing nothing much are already in my list of hobbies. Only ones left are the active ones, which are out of the freakin question, being active and all.

Besides which, even if I had another hobby or (miracle that it may be) a boyfriend, whatever makes her think I'm going to have much more to tell her? Especially if I'm in a no-talky mood?

A conundrum indeed.

284 And it happened again.

2007-01-18T21:54:00.000+08:00

Yeap, bike number two has gone missing.

And yes, I DID lock it up this time, and it still went missing. Not that I'm minding at this particular point in time, what with the weather being so damned crappy. Quite honestly, taxi is a much nicer alternative. But still, Un-named (I never even got around to naming this bike, more grrr) has gone missing, and I'm anticipating getting pissed off about it in the weeks to come.

Just ... not right now. Freezing.

The cold, actually, has alot to do with why I haven't updated too. It's cold in my study. Hence I don't sit there very long. And thus the blog suffers.

People (namely Kaz) are just going to have to suffer, or call me (not like they don't know the damn number or anything. Plus there is always skype or emails) if they want to know the boring day to day details that make up my boring existance on this little island of boredom called 'Kinmen'.

283 Graduation congratulations...

2007-01-10T20:37:00.000+08:00

...albiet very late congratulations, considering Tiffany graduated something like an entire month ago.

But anyway, my good ol' friend Tiffany has graduated from her Master of Business degree programme (or something along those lines, I forget the exact wording. I know it's something to do with business and it was a Masters degree.)

Big congrats dude, and hope you find that awesome job you're hoping of. And if you don't well, maybe that almost-awesome job will be yours instead.

282 Oh, the ENVY...

2007-01-09T13:31:00.000+08:00

Sitting at my computer yesterday, and what do I recieve? An email from Megan, one of my old friends from school. What got me so riled up however, had nothing to do with her (she's nice, very cool, never had anything against her, until NOW) , was what she attached to the email. Photos.

Evil, EVIL photos. Let me show you...

See? See that? She was in ROME. Little bugger made it to Rome. What did I study at Uni? Have I ever made it there to see it with my own two eyes? And does she have to look so damn happy about that fact?

Nooooo. Course not.

Argh. Since I know everyone is asking, that fantastically beautiful woman on the left is Megan, and the joker on the right is .... whatshisnameagaintheaustraliandude...Simon. They're working in England at the moment, and are gradually making their way around Europe on various tours and weekend holidays.

Including that evil trip to Italy, grrr.

I'll go back to being sick again now I've had my little rant.

281 WAYN ?

2007-01-06T20:43:00.000+08:00

The saga began with an e-mail from Sarah.

She had run across a new website, called WAYN (Where Are You Now?) a networking site to meet new people, and stay in contact with old ones. One of the many in the world, and yet another one that a collection of us signed up for.

I began having misgivings about the stage I started getting weekly updates saying 'Your profile is only 42% complete'. Curious, as 42% isn't really that much, I investigated. And discovered that the remaining 58% I needed to complete were in effect private details that would let any asshole on the planet know where I lived, what I did in my spare time, with who and how to best annoy me.

Needless to say, the profile remained at a paltry, (but acceptable considering the alternatives), 42% complete.

Then the e-mails about 'You have two unread messages from Sarah!' started arriving (intersperced with the profile uncomplete ones, but like I said, I was happy with that state of affairs and just deleted them). Ignoring the niggling thought that if Sarah really wanted to get hold of me, she'd use my proper e-mail address, like she normally does, instead of this (getting rather annoying) site, I went and checked.

No messages. Thinking it a fluke, I shrugged it off.

The next day, I got another message about it. And then another, and another... It was about this time I remembered that when I first signed up, it had said the same thing - one of those two messages was saying "hi" from Sarah, the other was a "Please add me to your address book".

The damn site was going through Sarah's contacts and e-mailing them about the site repeatedly, despite the fact some of us were already signed up. Using the exact same e-mail address.

I deleted my account then and there. With the feeling of a great weight and trial lifted from my shoulders, I got on with my life.

And until I got the message today of "You have two unread messages from Mornay!", I had completely forgotten, minus a niggling irritation, about the entire fiasco.

So WAYN?
I have officially decided that it stands for Where Are You Now So We Can Best Annoy You? or WAYNSWCBAY. Yes, it's more to say and type, but surely it's closer to the truth, is it not?

280 Happy New Year to all

2007-01-01T20:45:00.000+08:00

And I hope your New Year was as leasurely as mine was. Yep, that's right, while the world around me was out celebrating and welcoming in the New Year, I was...

Sleeping.
It was actually pretty good, and nicely relaxing. Must remember to do it again next year. Highly recomended.

New Years Day, however, was an auspicious day for me, because I finally got ... a couch! Yes, you heard (or read, to be more precise, but let's not get pedantic) me correctly, I now have a couch!

Muchly happy. I can curl up on my couch and read at night now, which is great for winter.

279 Layers

2006-12-30T20:04:00.000+08:00

Biking home required on my half two layers of gloves, two jackets on top of the two tops I was already wearing, and a wooly hat over my iPod earphones.

Despite looking like an animated snowman in the land of no snow, I wasn't cold when I got home.

Haven't felt that in a long while, I must admit.

278 Christmas in Taipei - year three

2006-12-26T19:11:00.000+08:00

And so another Christmas rolls up, and goes away. Missing family, and yet not so much after hearing the chaos of the Foster family house in Dunedin. And seeing a bit too, when the video worked.

Presents involved alot of books (gee, what a surprise huh?), both for others and for me. Ed was extremely generous and got me a ... bar of soap.

Not just a normal bar of soap - oh no, this is soap not even found in Taiwan.

I was told a few minutes later to open the soap, where I found a gift voucher for Page One. Ed had opened the soap box and hidden the voucher inside. He did the same for Mornay, but hiding the voucher in a pack of cigarettes.

There is going to be revenge. I just haven't worked out what yet. I have time...

As for dinner, this year, with the visit of Suzet's parents, the five South Africans and the token foreigner (ie, me) went out for Christmas dinner at the Hyatt Hotel Taipei. Ed was, and still is, wonderfully sick, and is feeling like crap - just in time for Christmas, but the rest of us wandered off to dinner.

Swanky place.

Corne, Mornay, Suzet and her parents and I got to sit down for a 6 or 7 course meal, over the course of four hours. Well worth the price, it was good. We were also the last people in the restaurant, the turned off the fountain as a hint to get rid of us, we think. Hint bloody hint.

And I got stuffing, even if I didn't get my trifle. Better than nothing I guess.

277 Clinically Insane

2006-12-21T21:42:00.000+08:00

Was thinking to myself today, as I locked up my bike wearing gloves, just why I bothered to lock the damn thing at all. I realise that it was the lack of bike lockage that resulted in Clunk going so (not) tragically missing, but it dawned at the same time that one would have to be clinically insane to be riding a bike in the weather as it is.

Most days are between 10 and 15 degrees now, and the wind makes things even colder. So who, apart from myself (and yes, I do occasionally count myself as part of the insane grouping in this world, let's face it, I'm not exactly normal in any way), would in their right mind bike in the cold weather?

Biking requires, on my half, jacket, gloves, hat, and iPod. On particularly cold nights, two jackets and hats. To the extent I look like an animated snowman, riding a bike.

In a country where there is no snow.

Sigh.

276 Finally got off ones lazy ass!

2006-12-20T21:33:00.000+08:00

My acomplishment for the day has been to post my Christmas cards. Yes, that means a grand total of eight people will be recieving their Christmas cards from me sometime after Christmas. Hey, at least I sent them, right?

Everyone else will get a Christmas card/Kat-update letter sometime in the new Year. Likewise actual presents will be sent after Xmas itself, mostly due to the fact that I need to go to Taipei to buy most of this stuff, and I won't be there until Sunday (and thus one day before Xmas .... cuts down on posting time a tad, no?)

Still awaiting book one of my Christmas present from Mum and Dad - I ordered a trilogy of books from Amazon, and while numbers two and three arrived last Friday, number one is still in transit somewhere ... and it was only shipped a day after the others, so I am hoping it just got caught in the Xmas rush, and will still be arriving, as opposed to not arriving and being lost. Not much point in reading books two and three if I don't have book one to read first, grrrr.

275 The status of blogging

2006-12-17T18:32:00.000+08:00

I come up with possible blog posts at least three times a day, as I'm sitting down thinking, or something happens that inspires me to come up with the first paragraph or so.

And yet, I never remember them. If I bothered to write things down on paper so I remembered (ask Kaz about my 'memory' - it consists of a series of post-it notes stuck to my computer desk), then my blog would be somewhat more interesting and updated more often.

Alas, poor memory and lazyness have conspired to do me in.

Aw, shucks, huh?

Turns out our resident hummingbird is living inside my school, zipping from the first floor to the third as it wishes (dive-bombing the shrieking kids on the stairs) , and keeping warm that way. Smart little dude, 'cos it was SOOOOOO much warmer inside than out.

Did I mention I don't like being cold?

Only a week to go before I head to Taipei for Xmas, and damn is it getting appealing, what with all the damn homework I've been having to mark. Marking homework has to be one of the most sucky parts of being a teacher, I swear.

Giving homework is just fine though, and is one of the best parts - you get to see the look of horror on the kids faces as you give them anything from one to (yesterday's) five pages...

Also from yesterday, I found a very thoughtful blog post, via one of the webcomics that I read. Titled 'Two phrases that destroyed American culture', it has a number of implications that spread further than just American culture. It's more about general politeness towards others, and it makes some very good, albiet sadly true, points. I highly reccomend checking it out.

274 All is right with the world again...

2006-12-16T20:20:00.000+08:00

As far as my students go, anyway. My little trouble maker Michael was chased down the stairs by a pack of girls bent on vengence and he had to hide behind me to escape. He huddled in corners and near me until I eventually made the girls sit down and leave him alone.

But damn was it funny until then.

And yeah, I'll admit to letting it carry on longer than he probably liked, just to get a bit of my vengence back for being a right little pain in the behind.

I'm told Kinmen is in for a cold snap in the next few days, and I can belive it - I spent most of the day wearing my jacket. The down filled one. What's so depressing is that I can still fondly remember wearing t-shirts until a month ago.

Sniff.

273 Cold shock

2006-12-15T20:14:00.000+08:00

I could hardly believe my eyes today, when I saw... a hummingbird. Yes, that's right, Kinmen has hummingbirds, something I didn't know. Plain reddish-brown feathers, and small, but it was definatly a hummingbird.

In Winter.

The startlement of seeing such a tropical dwelling bird takes on a whole new level when you realise that the temperature for the evening was 10 degrees C, and was expected to go lower as the night progessed. Not taking the wind chill factor into account, either.

And this bird was happily eating nectar right outside my school.

Yes, I cursed the fact I didn't have my camera, but I was also cursing the fact it was damn cold and I was freezing my butt off. Cold won that round...

272 Still here

2006-12-13T20:58:00.000+08:00

Although as bored and boring as per usual.

Keep thinking I have a cold only for it to vanish a day later. Not sure if I should be happy or sad about this state of affairs - happy that there is no cold after all, or annoyed that I appear to be gearing up for a really long, protracted sickness?

Still deciding, but am leaning towards the annoyed.

Wrote a grand total of Three Christmas cards today, bringing my total for this year to a whopping... three. Yeah, must go find and buy some more at some point. But three people wil get cards around Christmas time, the others, well, they'll be late if I remember to do them, and they won't be there at all if I forget. Usual Kat-Xmas stuff.

Piano is actually starting to get better. Oh I moan and complain as much as I can (have a reputation to uphold) but am learning things fater than I anticipated. Must be gearing up for the supreme lack of piano that will occur over the coldest winter months, as my fingers die of the cold. Some animals go into hibernation, my piano-playing ability goes into hibernation. Go figure.

Oh, and Sarah? Getting sick and tired of reading about your Exam day. Post something else, huh?

271 ...ugh sick again...

2006-12-09T20:01:00.000+08:00

Yelling too much at the kids has resulted in a very sore throat for me. Head is starting to fuzz up, and I greatly suspect that by this time tomorrow, me wills be muchly sick.

Ugh.

270 The cock crows at ... dawn?

2006-12-08T21:47:00.000+08:00

Well, traditionally anyway. And yes, technically I have to admit that the rooster living in my village does crow at dawn, and does very well at it, waking up all who are sleeping.

It must be noted however, that I was somewhat surprised to discover that this 'globilization' thing happening has extended to more than just business and people. It has also, would you believe it, extended into the World Chicken Community (or W.C.C for those not already in the know).

Yes, that's right. My village rooster crows at dawn in New Zealand time. Which would be fine, if I were living in New Zealand. Last I checked (looked out the window just then to make sure) I was living in Taiwan.

Little bugger likes to go mad with the crowing at 1 am Taiwan time. Unfortunatly for me, that usually about the time I turn my music off, and begin to settle in to sleep. Well, that's how my schedule used to go. Now it's more like 2 am before I start that, because of our W.C.C member expressing the different time-zones for all of those who wanted to know, and regretfully, all those who didn't.

OK, so being a NZer, I may be slightly amused at the fact he crows according to NZ time. But the fact of the matter is he interupts my sleeping. I don't like my sleeping interupted, and tend to reserve some of my most vicious tortures for those who dare.

Chicken soup is too good for this transgression. I'm thinking more along the lines of live B.B.Q at present...

269 Wind is teh EVIL

2006-12-07T20:25:00.000+08:00

Hated it last year, still hating it now.

Makes biking harder, especially since I need to get more air in the tyres, and I'm too lazy to bike all the way over the other side of town (an entire two minutes away) and get the damn things pumped up.

Welcome to the ever-lazy World of Kat (otherwise known as WoK)

My parents have sucessfully finished moving house, and are now throughly hating the fact that they have to re-orginise all their junk in the new house. Aparently they are living in the Realm of Boxes, and two of the four bedrooms are so full of boxes it's hard to move in there. My mother mentioned that she's starting to unpack the books though, so she must be settling in.

They finally picked up my cat and bought her to the new house too. They neglected to shut her in the wash-house on the last day of moving, because Mum felt so sorry for her - Baby was darting from room to room and getting ever so panicked, so Mum thought she'd be better off outside. They didn't see her at all on the last day, and ended up waiting for two weeks for her to be sighted again, so they could go and get her. But as of today, I have the news that Baby is back in the family fold again, having just endured an hour and a half in a car sitting on Mum's lap the whole way. Aparently she was just so happy to have her family back again that the trauma of the car ride was negligible.

Awww, I miss my Baby now...

268* Roasting dem marshmellows...

2006-12-02T20:55:00.000+08:00

Came home to a beautiful pot of pork bone soup with vegetables today. Fantastic, considering it has turned mighty chilly here of recent.

Well, evenings are anyway.

Mornings and midday are usually pretty warm, with actual sun and everything. Trouble with things though is the darned wind. And damn is that wind cold. Looking as though I'm going to have to dig out my hat for biking home soon, probably within the next week. Realised this as I have reached the point where if the wind is too strong and cold, I get a taxi instead.

Life at work has been engaged of recent in trying to explain roasting marshmellows over a fire. It;s synonomous with camping for me, and most of NZ, but not here. I have the hardest time trying to explain it to people like Vinco, and even more difficulty explaining it to Tina who just looks at me with this supreme look of un-comprehension on her face.

Wish me luck on this particular mission. Have the feeling I'm going to need it when it comes to Tina.

267 Responsibility has a shelf life of a week

2006-12-01T15:15:00.000+08:00

My mother would be proud. For the first time in a very (very, very, very) long time, my kitchen actually looks as though it is inhabited by a responsibly eating human being.

I have FRUIT and VEGETABLES.

Not expecting them to last long in any way, but they are there for up to a week (shelf life, as I have been told). Presently am enjoying the fact that I have fresh pineapple, guava and wax apple to snack on.

Should get everyone at work off my back, since I have been accused of eating wrong after they finally realised (After more than two months of observing the habit) I eat bread for lunch every day. Well, duh! Of course I eat bread every day. The bakery is close to work, and since I go there four or five times a week, I now get freebies every visit. Hell, the owners son likes to sit there and talk to me in Chinese, and even greets me from across the street. (He's about 2 years old for the record)

I was happy to notice small butternut pumkins in the supermarket yesterday, so am anticipating going home and making myself some nice pork-bone soup with steamed pumpkin.

At 11-30 at night, which has turned into my dinner time. My meal hours have taken a bit of a shift since I only start work at 1 most days...

266 Into the mists of time we travel...

2006-11-30T15:47:00.000+08:00

And so yet another week has passed into the hazy and murky time that we limited beings call 'the past'.

And yet another week of Kat doing, uh, what was it again? Uh...DID I do anything? Not ... really....

So, yet another week of Kat-boredom. Which usually translates to working, eating (at work), rummaging through my kitchen trying to find some (non-existant) food, and watching DVD's or reading books.

Things in other peoples lives are going well though. Kaz made it back to Dunedin OK, and is settling back into NZ life again, and NZ food in her parents kitchen. She hates the housework, and is struggling to find her balance with her mother, but I have the feeling that things will settle better after a week in Australia and a tour of the theme parks thereof. She leaves on Saturday for a week in Aussie. Lucky girl, she gets to be WARM.

Rachel has now officially taken up Kaz's old job in Korea, and has managed to get lost on her second day already! Congratulations dude! Oh, by the way, I have a couple of CD's for you too, will send them soon enough.

As things are getting colder, am starting to realise that my speedy advances in piano may come to a grinding halt with the onset of what can be termed as 'cold fingers'. My mothers long thin fingers translates, in Kinmen anyway, to cold fingers as I also have her bad circulation in those aforementioned fingers. Playing piano when your fingers are frozen little blocks of ice takes on an entirely new meaning akin to painful. Painful to hear a song you know you could play a week before when your fingers were warm, but can now only manage to bungle.

So looking forward to winter. Why haven't people here ever heard of HEATING????

265 Stoooopid damn rain

2006-11-22T20:57:00.000+08:00

Yeah, my life since the last post has been rain, rain and more rain, with a brief break of sun in Taipei, followed by more damn rain.

Welcome to autumn in Kinmen.

Needless to say, one is FAR from impressed about one's present situation, weather-wise.

Far, far from impressed.

Good news is that I'm getting well aquainted with taxi drivers again, not being willing to bike in aforementioned rain, but that isn't having such a nice impact on my book-budget.

Mind you, my book budget took a hammering when I went to Taipei as per usual anyway, so not like I'm going to notice for a while. Did get a bunch of Xmas prezzies for people, so now Sarah, Kaz, Nick, and Ed are all officially finished. Now I just have to get Mornay (since I forgot while I was in Page One, was distracted as I found books for ME), Mum, Dad and Adele...although I'm pretty sure I have Adele sorted. Or will do before I head back to visit them all for Xmas.

I was thinking that my nice shiny new iPod would be my Xmas present to myself, but looking at the number of DVD's sitting on my computer desk, I may have to rethink that and say a new freakin bookcase would be a nicer idea. Better yet, make that two bookcases, since I have no room left for my books in the living room, let alone DVD's.

I may have been buying a number of books......

264 Not our fault

2006-11-14T21:05:00.000+08:00

Yes, Sarah, talking to you here. It is neither the fault of myself nor Kaz that you never learned to budget well enough to survive until the next payday. Lord knows you should have had enough practice during University, or that being around Kaz you should have picked SOMETHING up (She is the budget-master, after all).

Nope, this one is all your own damn fault.

We still want those presents though. Not above that, however annoyed we are at you trying to place your problems on our shoulders.

Otherwise, feeling much sympathy for you about your bat-eared harpy of a flatmate, and the balding-fuckwit that goes along with her. If anything violent happens, remember you have a place to hide here in Taiwan if you need.

And for Gods sake, hide the bodies well enough that you can escape the country first?!

263 Performance anxiety.

2006-11-13T16:44:00.000+08:00

Despite what the title suggests for this post, I did have a good day today. Slept until two or three (after being woken at 9am by some stranger who just kept saying hello in Chinese, now matter how often I mentioned I don't speak Chinese, and in Chinese too), had a nice 30 minutes shower, and then had a nice chat to my parents.

As some may know, my parents are finally moving (We have moved once in my life, when I was 17. This makes the second time they have moved since they got married over 26 years ago), and have found a house! Well, Dad quit his job at last (His boss gives new meaning to the words childish bully, good for a man in his 30-40s, really), and they have been looking for a new place to live...with the accumulated junk of two kids, and 26 years of marrige. And the dogs (Dad has three working dogs, none of them small, and he's damned if he's leaving his beloved dogs behind or having them put down, just for a house). And 'Mum's' cat (in quotes, because my mother HATES cats, and yet she stole my cat from me, and refers to Baby as her cat now).

Trouble has ensued, however, because in looking for a house, they have run into a 'no pets' policy across the board. We shall ignore that the dogs are not inside dogs, and stay out. And that the cat is housetrained too (Ironically I trained her well, but failed to train my subsequent cat Gambit and his brother Toffy), until the news today, my parents still hadn't found a house.

They have now found a four bedroom place, with a garden so Dad can have his vegetable garden again and be resonably self-sufficent. Mum hates the bathroom, and the kitchen isn't anything flash, but she said it'll do.

Of course, now they have this big house (first move we went from big house with 18 years of junk, into a small house), my brother has finally come up with the comment "I'm moving out, going to find a job". Normally this would be a great day, with much celebration. Not in the middle of moving. He has decided to stay and help with the move though, so all is not lost.

Performace anxiety comes from a direct quote of my father. He mentioned that in order to stay reasonably self sufficient, he's going to have to go fishing lots, and hunting too, to supplement the larder. While I cracked up laughing at this (he LOVES fishing, used to bunk school to go fishing, and that was his special trips for my brother and I while we lived at home) he mentioned now he has performance anxiety, because there can be no failed missions anymore, he has to bring home the goods for Mum to cook.

I still cracked up laughing, albiet for different reasons.

262 The Age of Nothingness..

2006-11-10T20:36:00.000+08:00

Well, nothing big happening in my life, anyway. Sarah has NO MONEY so will not be going to Rome with me for Xmas. Kat hasn't got enough money to go to Turkey to see her (It costs less to go to Rome than it does to Turkey. Where did that happen? Turkey is closer, but it costs more? WTF?)

As such, things have resulted in Kat spending Xmas in Taipei for four days (I got a couple days off instead of a week, approved instantly) annoying Ed, Adele and Mornay.

Kaz has only 15 days left in Korea before she goes home. Will be strange to not see her online all the time.

Umm...not sure what other news there is. Prolly cos there isn't any other news.

Laters!

261 Celebrations!

2006-11-07T21:00:00.000+08:00

It's about freaking time, but when I try to play Greensleeves on the piano now, it actually sounds like Greensleeves, rather than just a bunch of random keys.

We shall neglect to mention how long this has taken to occur. Some things are better left in mystery.

Unfortunatly, this being the Northern Hemisphere and all, things are cooling down as we are moving towards winter again. Cure those seasons. Still think of Christmas and Dec-Jan as hot-summer-time, not cold-and-freezing-time.

Will be resorting to actually wearing long sleeves for riding home at night, it has gotten chilly enough. Grrrr.

Still, no having to ride through snow, so I'm grateful for that at least. If nothing else, snow would encourage me to get a scooter at long last, but Taiwan? Kinmen? SNOW? Not going to be seeing that for a few years, even with the global weather patters changing as they are.

Ever since I started putting my computer into sleep-mode when I'm not using it (I used to just leave it on), all in an effort to try and stop possible overheating, it has meant that my blog has thus suffered. But you're all just going to have to deal with it. I'll blog when I get either a) bored, b) inspired or c) bored and inspired. (Inspired can be taken to mean people have been bugging me, or just a creative urge. It's a wide-ranging description)