No news means no good news...

Life in general

A few of my York mates chatted with/wrote me recently, which really delighted me and reminded me of our good times in York. They asked 'How's life at home?' 'How's Taiwan?' 'How's job-hunting?' and so on and so forth. All's good, all's well, really, although, last month I cried, because our beloved grandmother just passed away. Years ago our paternal grandmother left us, the year I came home from Leeds. This matter made me rethink about what death means to me and reconsider family values, love, etc.

On a slightly different note, let me say life here is just rather different from living in the red house before I came back. Goodbye silence. Goodbye fear of being alone. Most people I know here are busy all the time, but are able to cope with it: their work/family. I need to learn how they manage to do so. I think about swimming, fun, and going on holiday and that sort of things all the time, but at the same time I also really enjoy being served delicious home cooked dinners and provided lots of attention and family love. It just feels real and present.

I am thinking about a song by Suzanne Vega (written in 1982)...

I am sitting in the morning
at the diner on the corner.
I am waiting at the counter
for the man to pour the coffee.
And he fills it only halfway
and before I even argue,
He is looking out the window
at somebody coming in.
'It is always nice to see you' says the man behind the counter.
To the woman who has come in.
She is shaking her umbrella.
And I look the other way,
as they are kissing their hellos.
I'm pretending not to see them,
Instead I pour the milk.
...

Old songs are reliable, I feel so. Some guys I knew used to play the same CDs (like, again and again, but this is of course an exaggeration). Now it does not seem so odd to me any more.

I guess my point there is really that my life at the moment is on a lower key, the way I feel about that Suzanne Vega song. I may sound low but I sing away anyway. Does that make any sense, even?



Our Basics

News reports here in general are less disaster-orientated; by that I meant we took in less about wars, climate change, racial clashes, and the like, than some British media. This is perhaps just one of my pointless observations...

Our convenience stores are amazing. I am not kidding. Yesterday me and my parents went there for coffees... the day before I went there to pick up the books and CDs I ordered online... days ago I paid my credit card there... and I could make photo-copies, top-up my metro pass, download stuff...

My bike is still on its way to come home to me. I've seen so many more cyclists on the streets, in the mountains, by the rivers. Some may say the cities here may not be the best for the health and safety of the cyclists, but we just need more people who try -- try to walk more and drive less. Ride a bike, not a scooter.


Work wise

I had a few chats with friends who are lecturers in humanity fields. They are rather down, and I am wondering what the reasons may be, and what kind of help they might need.

My recent side project is to plan a business, which is going really really slowly. On the weekend I went in a shop to have a glimpse of it -- what's revealed on the owner's blog is quite on the contrary to the atmosphere of the place in reality.


PS.

As for issues on temperatures and degree of humidity, well, well, I have very little happy feelings to share, if you ask me.

And I just missed, again, the music festival in Kenting... will there be a band that will relight my passion as a groupie?