Marks & Sammi Wedding

Today my co-worker Mark was getting married to his lovely soon to be wife Sammi. The wedding was in Nehui at the Grace Hill chapel. They had over 300 guest so as weddings go this was a big one and it was all very Taiwan style with a twist of western essence and far to many professional photographers and camera men ready to capture every inch of detail.


















Mark is on the right and I his brother on the left.














Entrance and our wedding was happening on the right hand side, I also think I was the only western at this wedding.


















Sammi and Mark.

I do have to say though it was all nicely organised and ran thoroughly well. This is also my 4th wedding I've been to in Taiwan. So I have not officially been to more wedding in Taiwan than England.














The must have wedding album.














Show time.

We had some fantastic food and we were not bombarded with loads of meals to eat. All though we had the standard never ending speeches while you eat, which is still culturally weird to me. At first I was told to sit on number 8 table by Mark's brother which was pretty close to Mark, I though I would be somewhere in the back!

Unfortunately number 8 suddenly was invaded by a number of Marks senior relatives, I did my bested to speak Chinese, but the conversation went only so far. I suddenly realised I would be sitting here for the next three hours doing not much apart from smiling and eating away. Lucky Samuel who is one of my R&D engineers came to the rescue.


















Even Vera Wang would be impressed!


















The wedding dress really was out of a movie it was so long.


















Honey moon jet setters waiting to leave.

Death by Paint

Today I headed to Nehui for paint balling, it's fair to say it was pretty wet weather when we arrived and we almost didn't have anyone to shoot at as the other Taiwanese teams were not too keen about getting wet and muddy. But then the weather cleared up and we were on for a few actioned packed hours of shooting.

















Do you feel lucky punk!

I had a really mixed team of international guns but mostly made up of French guys, we managed to all get along, sort off. The might of been a few friendly fire incidents!














Jungle gorillas.















I'll take blue thanks you.

I've got to say I had great fun and I think we won most of our matches. The paint balling place is located in Nehui address, not exactly sure how to get there as I was on the back of a scooter taking a lift, but it's probably about a 10 minuet taxi ride from Huzhou MRT station, definitely worth a go especially as it's much cooler now and not so hot too run around.














Stick'em up.

Danshui Cycling

After having a rather lazy start to the day I thought I would try and do some type of activity so my weekend was not a complete blur. I decided that a trip up to Danshui was in order as I had not been there for a while and you can cycle for a few hours and then head off to have a drink along the rivers edge as the sun goes down








Dabshui harbour.

It's a pretty nice cycle route along the rivers edge, and you can rent bikes really easily, in fact I recommend that you get of at a few stop before Danshui it's less crowded on weekends and you can normally find a bike rental shop very close by.













Lobster anyone?

Simply Star Stuck

I was on my way down to Taichung today for the Love & Money 50 years of creative Briton. In a nut shell the British Arts Council get various UK creatives to give presentation about them or there company and to promote Britons creativity.

The talk I was going to had Dick Powell talking about Design and Innovation and various others UK creatives. I knew I had to go too see the Dick Powell speech, maybe I would get the chance to talk to him plus he is one of my favorite designers in fact I think if I could turn out to be like any type of designer it would be him. I really do believed in what he talks about and what his company Seymour Powell stands for.













Entrance to the TDC Taichung, and miniature windmills it is!













Taiwan's new design mark, The Gold Pin.

In order to make the talk I pulled a few night shifts to get my work done and by Wednesday evening things were looking good. Come Thursday morning I was off down to Taichung to represent the design arm of AmTran. When I arrived at the Taichung Design Centre I realised they had a large exhibition on which was a surprise and I didn't really have much time to go around it as it was about 12 when I arrived and the talks started at 1.20pm.














LED lights by Process Design far right.














Slightly more of a student approach in layout I felt.

Feeling peckish I went off to find a restaurant, as I was walking around I saw a slightly colonial looking coffee house so I though I would check it out. As I entered low and be hold, there is Dick Powell, Deyan Sudjic and a few others waiting to have lunch. I though I am on my own so I might as well ask if I can join them for lunch I mean this is one of the cool things about been a foreigner in Taiwan, because you all have one thing in common you're in Taiwan!


I got introduced to everyone and I have to say everybody was really friendly, considering the heavy weights in the design world sitting at the table. They asked me what I was doing out here etc and instead of talking too much about TV design I told them about this company called Inscentinel I use to work for who train honey bees to find explosives though smell so I manage to hold my conversation fairly well.

The creative talks were all interesting in there own way, I also got the chance to talk to Dick and I have to say I was a bit star struck and did not really know what to ask!














The something about the fast train.














On the move.

Action Packed

What a week I've had so far, work has been totally action packed, I had to work last Saturday and Sunday in the office over the Moon Festival. So it feels like it's a Friday today, but it's is Laurence last night out with me in Taipei before he heads back to the UK so it feel like a Friday anyway as were out on the razz tonight.

Tomorrow I am heading down to Taichung for the Love Money Design Talk, I am really looking forward to Dick Powell speach on Innovation in Design can't wait for that. Then over the Sunday I'm going paint balling in Nehiu which should be awesome fun.

Friday I was thinking of doing a bit of home decoration and repainting some walls white again as they have started to go faintly gray.

Train to Fulong

Today I though I would finally visit the beach at Fulong, it's one of the nicest beaches north of Taipei and really easy to get too. I took the train from Taipei Main Station, I think my ticket was about 100NT. The journey is about one and half hours and it's pretty interesting to look out the train window and see how the landscape changes as you leave Taipei. But if you're short on conversation a book or an iPod are recommended. I think the is the option of taking a faster train which gets you there in about an hour.







Fulong in perspective.

It's very easy to know when you have arrived at Fulong practically everybody gets off at that spot. Once you're there it's about a five minuets walk to the beach and you just have to buy a ticket for about 90NT and then you're in.














Slightly overcast but still nice and warm.

The beach was pretty nice and not very crowded when I went, the sand is pretty white and the sea was warm, the is a shallow reef so you can actually walkout quite far. You can surf at Fulong but I think the waves are better for body boarding.

All in all it was a great trip and I well try and visit there again when it starts to get warmer.















Entrance to the beach.














Leaving after watching the sunset.

九份 Jioufen

This weekend I headed with some friends too Jioufen, I have been there before in November 2007 but that was before I was blogging. When I was there last it was blissfully cold then compared to the stifling heat we had today.

Jioufen is located just outside of Taipei it's about an hour and half drive from the city centre, depending on traffic. The are buses which you can take as well, and it's definitely worth a visit as you have amazing views overlooking Taipei city and you can try out all the different tea restaurants, so it's really worth to spend some time going around the town ship.
















Across the bay.

Jioufen is really busy on the weekend what ever the weather so it's worth to try and visit mid week if you can.

















Snowy.

I also found a museum which I missed on my first visit. The artist who ran the mini museum make sculptures in clay of faces he had seen in his dreams or at least that was his story. I thought his are work was slightly odd and not my cup of tea, but it was only 50NT and gave a few good laughs.






















Faces.





















Pulling faces.

It was a long Sunday because afterwards we then drove on too Gongliao I think. Where we went too have some absolutely delouses sea food. By the time I got home I was completely shattered.

Cool rock formation waterfall, which you can see as you're leaving Jioufen, it's not that well displayed in the photo from my mobile but it's is worth a visit.




















I must remember to take my digital camera with me on these outings.

Electric White

Yesterday I went to a hugh rave in the Taipei Exhibtion Centre we all had to ware white and it's was wicked fun. They had some great DJ's and a really nice crowed of people.

I am only writing about it because it's a big event which was held at the Taipei exhibition hall which is located in the exclusive Xingi district. The venue was pretty good fun and I didn't get home until 5am so I am feeling a bit under the weather and tired today. Now will follow a couple of blurrly mobile photos!






















Hail to the DJ.





















The Gathering!

Return to MOCA Taipei

I went back to MOCA this weekend as I met up with some friends who had come up from Kaohsiung and had been spending the weekend in Taipei.

I thought they would find the MOCA interesting because of that amazing installation on the top floor. I enjoyed visiting the exhibition just as much the second time especially for the Hanzi writing.

Pyramid.

Interestingly his Ivan's girl friend Nina told me the correct way of holding the ink brush, it's almost similar to how you hold chop sticks but you use the brush straight and not at an angel.





















Like a pro!

Ivan is also an Industrial Design in Kaohsiung and designs marine equipment for Horizon, which seems like a nice job to have if you liking sailing and living by the sea which I do.

Shilin Night Market

I had a very Taiwanese Saturday and stayed away from all the bright light of Xinyi, which is the party centre of Taipei at the moment. Instead I headed to Shilin night market and spent most of my evening there wondering around looking at all the crazy stuff you can buy!

I end up buying  a nice belt, and trying to avoid buying other stuff which I don't need. It was a fun night and I forgot how much fun the market can be to go around when you have not been to one in a while. This will definitely be a good place to take my mates when they come over sometimes soon.

Cosmopolitant Asian Magazine Fame

Finally after spending just over 1 year in Taiwan I have been featured in magazine, annoying it's not design related! But it was for the Rémy Cointreau party which I had dressed up and went too, rather nicely all four of us had been featured. Georg's and JD were in Men's Style and Norbit and me had landed the slightly less gay Cosmopolitan.





















Lucky bitch issue.





















Page 19.
















Now that what I call impact advertising, look at the cross cultural relations.

X Beyond O - MOCA

Saturday was rather rainy and the weekend was spent at Georg's place with Ash and Jeroen watching The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, which is a great movie, men were men then.

Anyway the rays were out on Sunday, so I was really keen to get out of the apartment and do something, luckyily I checked out Jonny Blog which is my life line sometimes too not having a boring weekend. I have a small circle of friends and when they are booked up, you're kind of on you're own.












Not sure what it means, but the projection shows the stroke order to writing the Hanzi character.





















Trying out my ink brush Calligraphy skills, looks like those MTC lessons are starting to pay off!

The exhibition which I visited had the running theme was Calligraphy - Sign - Space. It was a bit dry to start with but ended amazingly, with a fantastic exhibition space up stairs and I thought the artist for me had really captivated in my eyes what I think the modern china style is.
















Awesome.

They had this vast room completely pitch black with a swimming pool the height of a table which was filled with to the rim with black ink. Running along the pool side was a scroll of white paper complete with brushes to practice you Hanzi calligraphy.
















The humming sound of air conditioners created a rather wonderful sound.

Ray Chen, amazing exhibition space, I have not been able to find much information about him, which is a shame, but I guess I have to keep searching.





















Ray Chen's exhibition in perspective.

Another equally interesting exhibition by Hsueh-Yi-Chien, which Incorporated a white room filled with fluoresce lights. The idea is that you take a Chinese fan and hold it next to the hole so you can see the hidden Hanzi images which are projected.
















Reminded me of the an integration room crossed between staring up at you're office lights the photo has come out quite dark but I think that because of the camera, it was amazingly bright and white!
















Mathias Woo and his interactive projected images.
















I also like the images project on to steel and wood surfaces.

I can also see a new investment been made in the near future to buy an SLR. I think, the Sony T2 is at the end of it's days and the photos just don't make the cut anymore. I have to say I am rather jealous of Jonny crystal clear photos.

Ashley Saturday Soak

Ashley who i haven't seen in a while was having his 25 birthday on the R.O.C and had decided to have a pool party and a BBQ. The BBQ was fantastically good and some seriously yummy burgers were cooked up.





















I was bamboozled while leaving the shower, so had to hide behind the curtain to avoid the camera flashes!

We didn't spend a vast amount of time in the pool, as they were in the process of closing as we were getting ready to swim, but they let us have a half-an hour extra splash around.

Rémy Cointreau

A friend of Georg's had asked us to the Remy opening party for Thursday evening. I am pleased to report that we all had a really good laugh! The dress theme was orange and the four of us all went along waring the tightest orange t-shirts that money could buy with diamonds embroidery on the front to make up a shiny star.





















Spandex-man.

It was such a good night met with a lot of goofing about and it was just fantastic to get all that work pressure and stress out of the system.

Asics & 老師

I have been meaning to get fit again and start doing exercise I also think it's a great way to get rid of stress. I did want to get into mountain biking, but I guess for now buying a pair of trainers is sightly more in my budget at the moment.

George recommend that I get Asics as there about 30% cheaper here than in Europe. I had also researched running shoes when I was state side and the shops assistant told me that Asics were one of the best brand to buy into and thanks to AmTran I had a few SOGO vouchers burning a whole in my pocket to buy them with.

After visiting the shop and been told I was underpronate, from the 3D scan they did of my feet, which was pretty cool. They said I should go for the Gel-Kinsei 2, I did try other trainers but the Kinsei were the most comfortable one's, so I got them.

I have to say they are the most uglyious trainers I have every bought, my metallic gold strips are actually blue I think that's because it's the Asian model.

I also meet my new Chinese teacher we worked out my lesson plan and what I wanted to learn, I have two hours per week every Tuesday.

Disney Rides

I am not really into the roller coaster thing, but I did want to try the log/water ride, but it broke down when I was queuing. I thought the highlight of the day was going on the Star Tours/Wars flight simulator it was so much fun that I went twice and I'm not even a Star Wars boffin and I highly recommend it to anyone.
















Something China Airways could benefit from!

The simulator was a combination of flying though space, with a humorous robot which didn't know how to pilot the ship, it was great!
















Disney is full of these vast man made structures, check out the white mountain in the background

I also thought artistically it was one of the best rides in the park in terms of the specials effects and the animatronics were amazing and just like the film.






















CP30 calling everybody to get of board.





















How our ride looked from the outside.