Skin Art

As if I weren't lacking sleep already, I got hooked on a new (to me) tv show this week.

Miami Ink is in much the style of American Chopper, about a group of 4 tattoo artists. Each episode shows various customers who come into their Miami shop during the week with their requests and ideas.

As expected, many of the tattoos have a personal significance, and it's interesting to hear their stories and the artist's design. Each artist has a specialty, be it portraits, or Japanese style tattoos, and the results are really quite impressive. Very fascinating.

Some of the tattoos I've seen:

• A father, whose 2-year-old daughter has Tay-Sachs disease, got her portrait done on his chest.
  
• A model got a mermaid across the lower back, in memory of her sailor father (who passed away when she was 21).
  
• Two brothers got a Polish eagle together (one on the calf, one on the shoulder) to symbolise their heritage.
  
• A breast cancer survivor had an Alphonse Mucha work done on her arm to celebrate her victory.
  
• Well-known chopper builder Billy Lane (often on The Great Biker Build-Off)! got the traditional "Mom" tattoo on the back of his hand. Now when she sees it, she'll be torn between his tribute to her... and her dislike for the ink.

We get see what goes around in the shop, the tattoo artists' distinct personalities, the team dynamics, and some insight into each of their personal lives.

Great show, but airs after midnight in Taiwan, Tuesday through Saturday.... I am SO so tired.

Drive often?

I must say, I am rather surprised at how many poor drivers there are in Taiwan. I expect that bad traffic conditions would actually hone your driving skills, but that's not what I observe here.

It's amazing how many drivers don't know their own cars. I'm not talking about people who drive once a month, borrowing their parents' car. I'm referring to people who drive every day, some commuting over half an hour to/from work.

The actual driving part is already bad enough, but in comparison, the parking skills - horRENdous. Especially parallel parking. Even with the help of rear bumper radar sensors! One might argue that spaces are smaller in Taiwan, but the starting position and approach angle are wrong altogether. And I've seen equally unimpressive attempts at parallel parking with ample working space.

Sometimes it makes me want to pull the driver out from behind the wheel and park the car myself. Unfortunately, courtesy forces me to suppress my impatience and groan silently to myself. ("Groan silently" - oxymoron?)

Partridge in a Pear Tree

Jeepers, I'm losing it. Literally. I have become noticeably absent-minded lately.

In the past month, I've managed to lose:
- main set of house keys,
- mailbox key,
- my friend's mailbox key,
- backup house keys,
- 1GB SD card and reader,
- 256MB USB key,
- my glasses case and contact lenses (that were inside),
- another set of house keys. (I kid you not.)

WTF. All that's missing now is the partridge.

Anyway, I had to get my landlord to let me in at 8:00 in the morning before I dashed up to Taipei, and upon finding that my keys weren't in my room, I had to bolt to K's to grab the set I'd left with him.

You can bet that on my way to the bus stop, I stopped and had 2 sets of keys cut.

[ Editor's note: And then 2 weeks later, I cut 4 more keys, hid them at work, in my scooter, around my building. I am so NOT getting locked out of my place again. Oh, and turns out I'd left the glasses case and contact lenses at B's place in Taipei. ]

So, whudder you sayin'?

I've put on a little weight since moving here. Given the hours I work and the food choices available, it's not that surprising. It doesn't help that my body doesn't have the I-still-look-like-a-Q-tip-even-though-I-had-2-tubs-of-lard-for-dinner feature built in. Given the options I have, I just try to pick the less greasy items at our company caf (I'm practically vegetarian now), and squeeze a bit of exercise into my schedule.

Well, I'd bought some fruit tea from Bodum the other weekend and was happily brewing up a storm. The fruit tea is a little sour. So, I added a bit of sugar. I ended up adding an entire packet of sugar to that first mug. (But for the record, I take it plain now.) I MSN'ed my coworker about adding a pack of sugar to a mug.

"You will be getting fat because of it," he replied.

"I'm already fat anyway." (Yeah yeah, I've turned into one of those women who constantly complains about being chunky.)

But here's the kick to the head. He then messaged me,
"No. Your butt's a little big, but the rest of you is okay."

UM. OUCH?

[Fast forward one week]

I was working on presentation slides with another coworker. It was getting late and we were wanting to get out of there so we could go for a jog. And then, completely unprovoked, he said to me,

"You seem fatter after 10PM."

....?!?

"I'm sorry. Would you mind REPEATING THAT AGAIN...?"

He didn't dare. Smart choice.

Add to that my maternity dress incident.... *sigh*

Parting Company

I love my glasses. They're Flexon by Marchon - the frames that are ultra-malleable, and in a dark maroon-brown "coffee". Glasses frames that fit my small face nicely are really hard to come by, so these were the perfect find.

That was 5 or 6 years ago.

This morning, I woke early (06:50). My coworker and I were heading up to Taipei for a stroll and a relaxing day in the city. (Planned power outage at the office today, so we couldn't go to work.)

Being half-blind, the first thing I do when I gain consciousness, of course, is reach for my glasses. So I was putting them on, slightly flexing the frames outward to fit them over my face, when I heard and felt a soft <snap!>. To my complete and utter surprise, the left and right halves of my glasses had parted company, right at the center of the nosepiece.

I guess there's an expiry for their malleability. And I guess I should say, I loveD my Flexons. :(

Red hot. Well, red, at least....

Not sure why, but I decided to wear my No.2 red dress today. It's just a cotton dress with a plain cut, but it's... red. All red. I don't wear it often, but when I do, on days such as today, I get numerous comments and smiles (and smirks) from people all around.

"You're soooo red!"
"Wow, you're bright."
"You're so dressed up today; what's the occasion?"

And then of course there's my coworker who walks into my area, takes one look at me, and asks...

"Why are you wearing a maternity dress?"

3849

No, that's not my latest mountain conquest.

It's not my new swim record either.

Nor how much I paid for a new designer purse.

No, that was the odometer reading when I passed my scooter licence test Friday.

So now I am on the streets legally speeding illegally. Whee!

Brand New Year

Happy New Year 2006!

These holidays were rather fun, I'd have to say. The addition of my big brother to our neighbourhood (Taiwan, that is) made all the difference. Now now, don't go booing me for "dissing" my younger brother. Both K and I are in Hsinchu. That, in itself, sucks. Big brother works (and thus lives) in Taipei. What does that mean? A place to go hang out on the weekend, more connection with our Taipei friends.

So anyway, this Christmas, we ordered in roasted turkey from Lawry's (complete with stuffing, mashed potatos, gravy, etc.), did a gift exchange, and had Christmas music playing. I don't care what they think, but Taiwan doesn't know how to celebrate Christmas except commercially. Even with all the glitz and glamour, it just does not feel like Christmas here. So having a "real" Christmas with friends and family was really great.

New Year's - well, we had friends having their wedding photos done at Taipei 101 (how brave!). It was so packed toward the countdown that you could hardly breathe; the only movement you could make was to tilt your head upward to watch the fireworks. The fireworks were only okay (to be fair, though, I'm comparing them to the Celebration of Lights fireworks competition back home). Never doing the countdown at 101 again. But still a fun night.

All in all, a nice holiday. :)

And now the New Year begins.

It all happened so fast...

Before I knew it, my half-jar of citron tea jelly had slipped from my hand and was sitting on the floor, a little less intact than I wanted.

As visions of a hot citrony drink to generate warm fuzzies within my unmotivated self evaporated into the humid winter air, I groaned at the thought of having to clean up the gelatinous mess.

So I spent 10 minutes wiping down the floor with paper towels and looking for shards of glass.

And still no citron tea for me. :'(

HBD!

Happy Birthday, Kev!!

Oh, and Happy Birthday, Sun!

And Happy Birthday, Benny!

And Happy Birthday, Vic!

I think that's all....