This past week Steven went to the emergency room twice and a lung specialist once. Unfortunately the two times he went to the emergency room the doctors said “oh you just have a cold” when it turns out that the lung specialist saw pneumonia on the very same lung x-rays. Coincidentally, the very same emergency room staff said I had an enlarged heart when all I had was bronchitis.
When Steven got home and showed me his medicine, I started laughing. I suggested he gets something with codine to help his cough, however they also have cough medicine with opium (the source of codine) in Taiwan. I looked at the brand name of the medicine and get this - it is called “Liquid Brown Mixture (with Opium)”. He asked me why I was laughing, and I said “The name - it is so funny” but he protested because he said it was an accurate name.
You need to remember that this is the same logic that was applied to our pet bunny when he chose the name Brownie - she is brown indeed.
After I got into work and began checking email, I began to hear a lot of fire engines outside. I got up to the window and saw that a home across the street was ablaze and went back to my desk to grab my camera.
It was amazing how fast the building became an inferno and how ineffective the fire department was at putting the fire out. Overall most buildings in Taipei are made of concrete, so this is not an ordinary occurrence because this was obviously a wooden structure.
Two or three weeks ago I was going out with a few co-workers to lunch and I really wanted to go someplace new. We walked down An-He Road past a cafe called Swing (which will have another review later) and found a new place called Bedroom where a cafe named Postop used to be.
We went in and all ordered our sets. Now the menu was a bit eclectic, with some classic Italian dishes and a few East-Asian curries and I opted for the Tomato Basil Chicken pasta set (around ~5.57 USD).
The first dish was a salad, which I offered to one of my co-workers. Next came out a miso-soup, a very un-Italian soup, but it was still good for a miso soup. Last came the pasta, which was really good - surprisingly so. My co-worker who ordered the Salmon in Cream Sauce gave a thumbs up, as did the other co-worker who ordered the Shrimp pasta (although the shrimp were high-maintainence because they were not un-shelled. All-in-all this was a great find that I have already gone back to another two times.
Steven and I tend to order pizzas allot when it is rainy and we don’t go out. When we order them, I don’t really think about how they get here, but it turns out that some poor guy needs to ride a scooter to deliver pizzas. At least there is a plastic compartment to keep the pizzas dry.
Taiwan still amazes me with lucky finds like these. This 5 foot tall stature was outside a small restaurant in a back alley near my home. For some reason the statue is partially clothed, but still showing his three breasts and his junk. He is ready to travel anywhere with his trusty walking stick and a bottle of booze. I therefore believe he is honoring the famous Monchichi Hobo God.
Somehow I think this is Japanese, it’s a bit too perverse for conservative Taiwanese to come up with.
These gel drinks are sold as healthy and refreshing, but seem like a bag of watered down sandwich jelly to me. These were originally popular in Japan, but they finally made it to 7-11 in Taiwan.
I haven’t tried one here, but I did try one when I was in Tokyo. They taste like room-temperature Jello made with too much water.If you are a vegan, I wouldn’t recommend you drink (or is it eat) these, since they are probably made with animal gelatin.
This is small sign posted on a chain link fence near in the high speed rail station. Unfortunately they place this above a metal hand-rail next to the curb where you wait for Taxis. Well at least they can claim that they warned you if you electrocute yourself trying to hold on to the hand rail.
I took this photo at a local 3C (Consumer Products Shop). They sell Apple Products, and fake Apple Products in the display case next to them. This fake iPhone or iPod Touch is about the size of an iPod Classic and is a steal at around ~68 USD.
I saw this bitumen (tar) machine on the way home from visiting the Taipei Story House previously mentioned. To be honest the road construction was so much more interesting than the house and we stayed outside watching the steam roller, paver and tar trucks back up to finish a stretch of road.
The thing that gets me is that this truck is blue on the front but completely black on the back. You can barely make out the license plate numbers under the black tar stalactites. The license plate number is then spray painted on the back, but even that is hard to read.
Last weekend we were looking for new and interesting places to visit and we stumbled upon a website talking about “Taipei Story House”. Steven convinced me that this is the place where Ivy and Owen had to meet, but after going there I didn’t think this was the case. Steven now claims “I’m not so sure honey”, but I am sure it isn’t the place since I showed Ivy the photo and she has never been there.
Well what is the “Taipei Story House”? Well it isn’t anything I expected. I was hoping to see some colonial house with exhibits on historical Taiwan. I was also hoping I could take photo’s inside like you can do at Filoli, but unfortunately you can’t, and I soon found out that you really wouldn’t want to bother.
The only redeemable thing was the fact that they let you listen to your MP3 player, and I was listening to the director / producer podcast for the Season 3 finale of Doctor Who. This was very entertaining and made up for the drab environment.
So how can I describe the Taipei Story House other than saying it is a nice place to listen to a podcast? Well it is a small 4 room museum about buildings that house museums. Now they don’t talk about famous museums like the one at Bilbao, but instead they talk about old buildings that are converted to museums. This is an homage to museums that really shouldn’t be because it is really boring. Sure they talk about great places like the Tate Museum in London, but the articles look like they were pulled down from Wikipedia. I really didn’t learn anything other than there are quite a few gullible people (including myself) who are willing to part with 50 NTD to see a museum on museum buildings.
They had a gift shop that sold totally unrelated items. They also had a nice cement bench that is so hot from baking in the sun you can lose weight from sitting and sweating on it. To top everything off they have an expensive cafe near by, but after sweating for 10 minutes I wasn’t really hungry. Maybe I will go back if the visit to the cafe, but the 50 NTD cover charge is somewhat steep.
This past week Steven went to the emergency room twice and a lung specialist once. Unfortunately the two times he went to the emergency room the doctors said “oh you just have a cold” when it turns out that the lung specialist saw pneumonia on the very same lung x-rays. Coincidentally, the very same emergency room staff said I had an enlarged heart when all I had was bronchitis.
