Category: travel

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the sleepless workdrink blur

Loosey Goosey.

Last full day in Taiwan dawned rainy and gray again.

I set the alarm for 6am, which turned out to be about an hour earlier than I really needed to roust and ready myself.  For some reason though, instead of going back to bed I grabbed my book and read for a while in Pat’s living room.  I should have gone back to bed; the previous night’s soirée didn’t wrap up with me on the doorstep until fairly late.  OK… not Taiwan-late, by any means, but US-late for sure.  Anyway, sleep is rare commodity in Asia… I’ll take what I can get.

The driver comes by the apartment tomorrow ’round 8am to take me to the airport.  The thing about doing the Asia-to-America route is that you effectively go back in time over the course of the seemingly infinitely-long air trip.  Not this time for me, as United took away the direct Taipei-to-San Francisco flight and you have to make a stopover in Tokyo.  It’s OK; I know the terminal there and there’s a place that has some good curry noodles with this spicy pork.  The wireless elusive, but there’s a payphone I can call Sharaun from and the chairs are three-long before a divider bar so you can do a full kicked-back relax mode.

When I called Sharaun on the walk to work this morning, she let Keaton answer the phone with a huge, “Hi Daddy!!”  Oh, such a heartwarming phrase!  Almost brings a tear to the eye when you hear it!  My conversation was mostly with her instead of Sharaun, which was fine by me by far.  She was watching Dora, and wondered what I was doing (“Walking to work in the rain,” I said).  She was also excited that I’d be home soon (although my feeling of “soon” when applied to leaving is a little skewed compared to their feeling of “soon” when applied to my arrival), and told me she’d come with Mommy to get me at the airport.  Nonetheless, it was good to talk to both of them.

I know I have three paragraphs here and precious little actually said, at least that I’ve not said already this week, but I think I’m satisfied.

Talk to you next week back in the good old US-of-A.  Goodnight.

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cisterns, stanchions, & meade

Rivulets.Hey there…  guess what?  I actually had some time today to both do work and write a little bit.  Meetings at work were productive again, just didn’t last all day.  It’s better that way.

Let’s write some blog.

Sitting now in Henry’s Bar, Taipei Taiwan.  Haven’t been here in years but the place hasn’t changed a lick.  Even the same people working here.  It was a cloudy sometimes-rainy day today, but the weather stayed cool enough that walking around outside on the way to and from lunch (which, by the by, was delicious) was pleasant.  Walking around Taipei offers one something of the same kind of “big city” feel that traipsing around Manhattan would – the people, the traffic, the buildings looming on every side – it’s a very metropolitan experience and I enjoy it; makes me feel “grown up” and full of business (nod to Pat’s similar thoughts here).

Over the past few months Sharaun and I have done a fair bit of solo traveling. Her to Florida a couple times for a friend’s wedding, me to Oregon, China, and Taiwan. During these times apart we’ve sort of developed a habit of sending each other pictures via cellphone – well, the one at home with Keaton sends pictures to the traveler, at least. Overseas this week, I’ve really enjoyed getting pictures of Sharaun and Keaton from back home. And, even though they make a bit more pointed my missing my family, I find myself going back and looking at them on my phone at various points during the day. In fact, this week’s volley from Sharaun was good enough that I wanted to share. Here, then, are the pictures Sharaun and Keaton sent along to make my time away feel not so far way. Enjoy.

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Well that’s about it for today methinks.  Not much more time, not much more I haven’t already mentioned.

Goodnight.

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CEO of the ROC

Resurrected.

Ni hao internet.

Somehow it feels like I’ve been over here for more than a week already.  Touched down in Taipei yesterday evening after the short two hour direct flight from Shanghai.  The direct flight is relatively new, whereas previously you’d have to stop in Hong Kong.  “One country, two systems,” or somesuch.  Here in the ROC, I’m staying at Pat & Cynthia’s place.  It’s brand new, plush, more than comfortably sized and quite well-appointed.  Found my way back to the place alone last night when they turned in for the night about an hour earlier than I did; wandering the once-familiar streets of Taipei again.

The week’s activities are a tad less work-centric than the time in Shanghai – at least I hope so.  Meetings blocking out the mornings today and tomorrow (which is like yesterday and today, or something, for the US readers… it’s confusing),  but the afternoons and evenings are fairly open.  Rough plans have been sketched out: karaoke; shopping for some cheap computer hardware (need a webcam to Skype with family back in Florida – Keaton wants to video-chat with her cousin Hobson); many dinners and lunches consisting of delicious foodstuffs.  Y’know, the standard Taiwan stuff.

This morning on the walk to work we stopped at a little roadside eatery for a “local breakfast.”  Having come from the $30 hotel buffet in Shanghai, the sub-100NT tab was quite a difference.  And the food was, arguably, better than the Shanghai Hilton fare.  I like all the walking in this city… and I’ve written about it somewhere before (I’ll just link to the blog’s entire “Taiwan” category here, rather than try to find the exact entries).  This morning the weather was particularly mild, bright, and clear (even moreso compared to the dingy particulate-laden Shanghai ozone) and, being the first one awake in the house, I stepped out onto Pat and Cynthia’s little patio and just street-gazed for a while.

Goodnight folks.  Until the next day in Asia.  Love you.

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busy streets & busy days

Hack hack hack

Hi from the other side of the Earth, internet.  I miss my family.  Sharaun e-mails me pictures and it makes me miss them more.

Shanghai is pretty much like I remember it.  Even though it’s been quite a while since I’ve been here, it looks roughly the same – although the seemingly never-ending construction and population influx means things look even more crowded and dense, if possible.  I swear it seems like this city sprawls as much as it crowds, both growing outward and becoming thicker inside.  The streets teem with people; people walking, riding bikes, scooters, cars, trucks, buses – all of it a quivering ball of loosely organized chaos.  The people are as hospitable as ever, and the food is always delicious.

On the plane over I started feeling some sinus & respiratory discomfort – as I often do when flying, the tight space and recycled air, perhaps – but it’s gotten worse since being here and is annoying.  I have a sporadic cough and my nose is stuffed up.  Nothing major, no fever or anything, more like allergies or a reaction to the rough air and tight spaces.  Makes for a scratchy voice and sniffles though, and the occasional swimming head.  A guy at the hotel had some generic Wal Mart cold medicine he carried over from the states, so I popped one of those this morning in hopes the decongestant component will offer a little relief later today.  Either way, I’ll maintain.

I took some iPhone pictures throughout the first couple days (funny how, the more often you’ve been somewhere, you tend to be less and less picture crazy).  They’re not the highest quality images, but I had some time this morning so I uploaded a few for your enjoyment.  Check them out below:

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Tomorrow I’ll work a half-day and then take the short flight to Taiwan to finish out the week there.  I canceled the hotel and will be staying with friends while in town, so am excited to spend some time at their new place and bumming around the city with them.

And there’s been work too.  In fact, the work I’ve ended up doing has proven really valuable to me.  Likely this tells me that I should get out here more often.  I’ve been cloistered in a room with the same five other managers now for going on sixteen hours but the output from our sessions makes me proud.  I guess sometimes there’s no real substitute for locking yourselves up and hammering on problems until you end up with a solution.

In summary, then: China is busy; went shopping and ate crazy Asian food; worked hard.

Goodnight.

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UAL to PRC

Sweetcase.Friday and, wow internet…

…I think I actually hit all five days this week.  First time in a long time and it was a busy week, too.  Good on me, I suppose.  By the time you read this, I’ll likely be on a plane somewhere over the vast Pacific.  I’m still waiting for the day when the trip to Asia take as long as the trip to Florida and the trip to Florida takes as long as the trip to Oregon (the trip to Oregon, I suppose then, would be near instantaneous).  Point being – flying to Shanghai takes too long.  Especially when the direct flight is all booked and you have to take the crappy layover version through Tokyo.  But anyway, let’s move on.

OK well, maybe not move on too terribly much… since I’m going to talk about flying still.  For the morrow, I’ve think I’ve got stuff ready.  I’ll be bringing the current book I’m reading (book freakin’ ten of this massive fantasy epic I’ve been trying to get through off and on for ten years now), as well as the next one in the series.  Book twelve just came out and I think I have to wait another couple years before the two final volumes are published.  This means that I’ll have been working to get through the story for near fifteen years.  That’s a long time to read a “book,” even it’s over 10,000 total pages.  Additionally, I’ve got my laptop, my iPod, and my iPhone.  With these things, I feel well-equipped for the long flight.  Since I got the business class upgrade, I’ll at least be able to lay flat to sleep and plug in to a real AC outlet to keep my tech running.  So, I think it’s sorted.

We went out for dinner tonight, used a coupon.  Just a little family thing before I split town.  Got there early, got back early, and was all packed before 8pm.  Not bad, actually… and was able to spend the rest of the night (after coming here to write this last paragraph) hanging out on the couch with Sharaun watching TV.  Yup, just wasting away in front of the tube.  And now it’s time to hit the sack.

Goodnight and I’ll talk to you next week from the People’s Republic of China.

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we’d smoke anything

Smoke 'em if ya got 'em.Well internet, I thought I’d drop in after the week absence Mexico so lovingly provided us.

Yes, we’re back… and yes, I’m back to work.  Confined once again in my tiny shoulder-height grey box, staring at my monitor, typing, and talking on the phone.  It’s a far cry from the routine we’d fallen so easily into last week on vacation.

For reference, that routine went exactly like this: Wake up at 8am, get Keaton and Sharaun up.  Change into swimsuits and lube up with the sunblock.  Meet our co-vacationing friends for breakfast at 9am.  Poolside by 10am at the latest.  Bloody Mary or Malibu and pineapple to start the day.  Swim; read; lounge.  More drinks.  Lunch around 1pm.  Swim; read; lounge, drinks.  Back to the hotel to shower and change around 6pm.  Meet for dinner at 7pm; switch to martinis.  In bed by 11pm to do it all again tomorrow.

Blissful; it was blissful.  But being back is OK too.  We got home at past midnight on Saturday (OK Sunday), and I spent Sunday putting up all the Halloween decorations.  Got everything up too, but things need the usual tweaking and yearly repairs.  Coffin guy needs a new head, time has disintegrated the plastic near entirely.  The ceiling dropper’s rope broke from friction  and strain again, so I have to replace that once more.  The ghost needs to be re-tied at better heights so her motion is more natural, and the witch’s dress needs a new pinning to keep it in place.  But, over the years I’ve streamlined the setup so much (with permanently installed hooks, platforms, and ties) that everything went up easily.  So easily, in fact, that I’m thinking of trying to finish off an old prop concept I started and never finished…

Today at work Buffalo Springfield’s “I Am A Child” shuffled up on the iPod. Any time I hear Buffalo Springfield, I get mega-nostalgic. For whatever reason, the part of the past when I bought their greatest hits record, back in middle school, is indelibly burned into my brain. I write a lot about how certain music melds with memory for me, forever linking a song or album or sound to some event – and Buffalo Springfield is one of the strongest of those associations. I have the clearest memories of sitting in my room back in Florida listening to that album over and over. One memory in particular is actually strange enough to share.

Before I was exposed to marijuana, I was already fascinated with the concept of smoking something to “get high.” After all, practically every 60s musical and cultural icon I idolized as a teen glamorized the experience… how could I be expected to not want to try it? At one point, I can remember hearing, somehow, that cloves could get you high. This led to Kyle and I rolling up and smoking cloves, yes… plain old dried clove, whole and un-ground from the spice rack, and nearly coughing to death as we tried in vain to catch a buzz. Ditto with the recipe for “banandine” we got from the Anarchist Cookbook. Try as we might, we couldn’t seem to figure it out.  But really… try we did.  I mean, we’d pretty much smoke anything.

I remember one afternoon, while listening to the Buffalo Springfield album that spurred this whole ramble, actually smoking and inhaling some spent firecrackers I had in my room. Over the years I’ve wondered where I would even get such an idea… I used to be obsessed with fireworks (well, fire and fireworks in general, really).  I used to ride my bike around the neighborhood early on the morning of July 5th, collecting the burned shells of the previous nights fountains and bottle rockets and roman candles.  Not only did I love the labels and packaging, but I loved the burned-out smell of the things.  Maybe that’s what made me decide to try and “smoke” one.  Buffalo Springfield in the background, bedroom window open, and I’m sitting there “smoking” a used ladyfinger.

Goodnight.

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last day in mexico

Hi Internet.

Finally bothered to check for an open router near the condo side of the resort.

Found one.

Trip has been amazing, but it’s more fun doing nothing than blogging so I’m just here to say hello. And, goodbye.

See ya next week.