HNY 2005

Happy New Year 2005!

I think this has been the quietest New Year celebration for me ever. Oddly enough, that doesn't bother me much. Rather like how the lack of Christmas atmosphere here didn't bother me.

Yesterday, I managed to join our company event last minute: the company booked two theatres of Ocean's Twelve for employees for one showing this week and a matinee next weekend. The movie was only okay; even had I watched the first film, I don't think it would have added much.

I got home shortly before midnight, where I missed most of the countdown in favour of Harry Potter: The Chamber of Secrets. Just as Ginny Weasley was kidnapped, I decided my old tired body really needed sleep, and that was that. :)

Friendly Faces, Part 1

There was a window seat that I was eyeing when I found out that we could apply to move desks. It had a window with a deep knee-high ledge, making the cubicle larger than the standard desk size. The seat faced the walkway (unlike mine: my back is to the walkway). I would be able to document quietly (removed from all the SQC folks testing mobile phone ring tones) and in whatever yoga position that wasn't particularly flattering in dress shirt and slacks. And I'd be able to MSN or to doze off undetected.

Anyway, all that is moot, because when I asked my manager about it, he had already appointed the desks to the new employees reporting the following week. :(

As I was delivering my status report on Monday, the 2 new employees were led into the meeting. One male, one female. When I returned to my seat behind them, I decided that the guy looked kind of familiar. Right. How many people do I know in Taiwan! Pshaw. Probably the "white people" perspective: Chinese people all look the same.

Back at my desk, I finally placed from where he looked familiar, and minutes later, my manager confirmed by leading the new folks around to my desk and announcing, "N, you have a compatriot!"

Get this: he's a coworker from my former company!! What are the chances?! Turns out he came to Taiwan with his then-pregnant wife in Feb, and just changed jobs into my company, my business unit, my department... my team! Holy guacamole!

I didn't know him that well back then, but I've been giddy all week.

All the excitement has only been heightened by meeting someone else, too, but that's for another time....

Out of commission

Yesterday, the GND didn't show up to work again. She's in hospital with an infection, so she's out for the entire week. :(

My manager reiterated that if we wanted to buy a car (which he highly recommended), we could talk to him about financing. Apparently Hsinchu is an unlucky place for scooter riders. He even said that if the company couldn't make some kind of an arrangement, he would personally help us out.

Wined and... sort of dined.

Every month, the company funds the department with 500NT per employee for a get-together. Normally the department organises a monthly dinner, but they've been so busy of late that the funds have just been accumulating.

Finally, a week ago, after the semi-annual performance review dust had settled, our department went to a high-end restaurant and enjoyed a shark fin set meal at 1980NT per person. Keep in mind that here, you can get dinner for 50 - 150NT, and a good set meal for 400NT or less.

Dinner had 5 courses. We started with a light salad - nothing special.

Then was the crowning glory - a bowl of real shark fin soup - tasty, but again, nothing special, especially coming from Vancouver. The taste and texture of the shark fin remind me of vermicelli (<- nothing special).

We had a choice of sea urchin or prawn as an ante-pasto. I'm glad that, when we made our selections in advance, I didn't choose what I hadn't known was urchin, because I didn't think much of it when I'd tried it a couple weeks before.

My choice for a main course was lamb. What I got was 4 little lamb ribs. It was good, but again, nothing I haven't had.

Overall, it was a rather disappointing dinner. The food was okay, but take into the consideration the price, and there's no way I'm going back there again. I have friends who cook up a better meal. And they invite me over for free. ;) Consensus among coworkers was that dinner just wasn't worth the 1980NT ticket price.

Happily we weren't the ones footing the bill.

The only redeeming part was the wine. Of which I didn't get the name. But it was a very nice red wine - smooth texture, not tanic in the least. Since the dinner "theme" was of a celebratory nature (someone's engagement), there was plenty of toasting. Very nice wine. A-, I'd say.

C+ for everything else.

Except for the price. That gets an F.

One for the road

When I came in to work on Monday, it was just another week at work. It wasn't until lunchtime that someone told me the Girl Next Door had been in a scooter accident the Friday before. I'd seen the huge splotches of iodine and medicine all over her legs, but not paying attention, I'd thought they were actually just decorative tights.

She wore a skirt on Monday because the friction from pants against the wounds was too painful. She was taking itty bitty baby steps to get anywhere to avoid any pressure on her legs. She even had to get 3 stitches on her chin, despite wearing a motorcycle helmet (full visor), which is beyond the requirement traffic laws impose here. You could pretty much wear anything that resembles a helmet.

Yesterday she didn't come to work at all because apparently her legs had swollen up. Poor gal.

During a conversation with another coworker, my manager expressed concern about the GND and me (he knows I'm looking at getting a scooter). He even offered that if we wanted to buy a car and needed some help financing one, he could make arrangements with the company to have funds advanced to us.

But I'm still getting a scooter.

HBK!

It's a little late in the day :(, but...

Happy Birthday, Kev! :)

A little means a lot.

Sometimes, it's the little things that inspire you.

On our way up to Taipei last Friday night, the coach was full as usual, and not wanting to wait for the next bus meant that my brother and I resigned to standing in the aisle for the 1.5-hour ride. Thankfully, it was nowhere near as crowded as our ride 2 weeks prior, and the highway wasn't a huge traffic jam.

At the mid-point town, a few seats opened up, and tired after a week's work, I scrambled for a seat near me, and hoped my brother would be able to find another one.

And that's when I noticed an old man a few feet back, still standing in the aisle. Stricken with guilt, I stood up again and offered him my seat.

"No no, it's okay; I'm getting off in a bit. You go ahead. But thank you."

I sunk back into the seat. I felt a little guilty thinking that, "Yay, I get to keep my seat! I offered, he declined, so it all works out!" That's terrible, N; you can't offer, half hoping they'll decline! Tsk tsk.

But that wasn't what made me glad to do it. A couple of stops later, the old man gathered up his belongings. And as he headed toward the front to get off, he turned to me and thanked me again for offering my seat.

It's the little things.

Canadian, eh?

I had always been under the impression that there were advantages to being a Canadian abroad, mainly in that there was a strong prejudice against Americans. I didn't really have anything to support the claim, just little tidbits I'd heard here and there; and whenever I was in Europe and asked people I knew about it, they'd never heard of any such thing.

But apparently the Americans seem to agree that it's "better to be Canadian" when you're travelling: one company is capitalising on that fact and helping their citizens travel in peace.

The Girl Next Door

Yesterday we added a new gal to our SQC group. She is drop-dead gorgeous. She's full-Taiwanese, but she looks mixed: she has nice eyes that are set back and a more prominent brow ridge (unlike the Asian eyes that are flat with the face).

Unfortunately she sits right next to me. Dangit! Now I have to put more effort into my appearance so I don't look like a hag next to her!

HaHHAhAHhah...

She's pretty nice, though. :)