Solar Eclipse Taiwan

This morning we had a Solar Eclipse, we were not in pitch blackness unlike Shanghai, but you could just about see a faint image of the moon.





















Lens dazzle





















Moon

Scooter Slogans

I think this must be the one thing that everybody mentions in there Taiwan blogs, which is the slogans that are printed on the sides of mopeds.

I suppose I could added to the list of photos show ridiculous sentences you see when looking close at the text. But the is just way to many, I already feel Jonny has contributed quite well too this field of images!

Catchy.

But I rather liked this, one with the slogan 'With Fashionable Feeling'. Now I say that's got some shelf presence.

Packaging Conspiracy

This packaging was explained to me, as one of the best food packaging ever design. The idea is that the seaweed is separated by a layer of plastic to protect it from getting damp by the rice, thus allowing you to mass produce rice snacks which are as fresh a possible when you by them.

Step 1 :)

When we were hiking in Yangmingshan and we stopped for a snack lunch, I just happened to open this up completely wrong and started munching away on the rice, thinking the seaweed was just decoration, to every one else amusement they couldn't understand how I had managed not to open it properly.

Step 2 :(

Will this is the result of the 6th one I have been unable to open normally... I even remove the Family Mart sticker on the back, but when ever I pull the two sides the sea weed does not seem to cover the rice and instead it just brakes in half.

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.

Back Into Chinese

I have started to learn Chinese again, as I am finding it frustrating to not know what is been said in the meetings. I now have a privet tutor too visit me at the office after work on Tuesdays, which is much better for me I think.

Her name is Yin-Pei and she was recommended to me by my old MTC teacher Yatang. I have to say so far she has made lessons really easy for me and I am starting to construct sentences which is great, but I am still finding it hard to remember all the words and the correct tone!

I was reading Jonny blog and he was talking about his Chinese lessons and the fact that he was doing 6 hours per week plus extra study. So I think I will be hard pushed to make speedy progress but as long as I can learn the basics I should be fine.

I would love to put extra cash into the lessons but I just don't have the resources to afford it at the moment. I am paying 400 NT per hour and then I pay 200 NT for her to come to the office. It might seem like a lot but I worked out by the time I have taken the bus into town got to a coffee shop and order a drink it would cost me more.

Dragon Fetsival

Today was the start of the Dragon Festival, it was a national holiday in Taiwan but I was in work getting ready for the Monday presentation, no time to recover from jet lag, which was probably a good thing!

My boss had asked me if I would be watching the boat race, I wasn't sure if he was teasing me! I had to be back at the apartment around lunch time as I had my new AC coming which I think I got for a great price delivered and installed for 8,000NT. It's an LG with a remote and not too noisy.

Johnny said he tends to get his room cold, then turns the AC off and goes to sleep. I had wanted to be super local and not have AC at all and just a fan but I soon figured this was not a wise idea!

Jonny is 三十

It was Jonny 30th birthday this weekend and his party bash was pretty good fun too. I got him an awesome book on architecture called Space Craft. I am sure he will enjoy reading it.

Photo to come!

Last evening the birthday crew had decided to meet for dinner on Sunday so we all went to a fantastic Indian restaurant called the Taj, it's definitely in the Top three of great india restaurants I have been too in Taipei so far, but it's not Southall I still think Out of India and Kunming are very good too. It was also nice to chat properly with J's co-workers who all seem like a nice bunch!

The Big Four Zero

Georg had organised a house party for his fortieth birthday at his apartment. I think he was entering a mind-life crisis before we started but, I think he soon over came it.

It was nice to meet every one again who I hadn't seen in a while mainly due to the fact that they have all been couped up in there offices for that last few months working away as designers do.





















Photo by Georg.

Rather annoying someone pinched my grey/blue jacket in the pub after wards. This is my favorite jacket hence why i am writing about it. But I think my farther will be rather pleased that it's finally gone!

Off Road Virgin

For ages I have been meaning to get into cycling. Actually what I really mean is down hill biking!

After speaking to Norbit, over the weekend he convinced me that I should get off my ass and do some serious outdoor activities again. I have to admit I think he is right and it would be a nice way to spend the next 9 months exploring Taiwan before I head home. Norbit use to design the bikes for NOX.

I am hoping when I have some more experience I can go out with Jonny and the rest of the pros. But in the mean time I think I’m going to have to get in shape and fit again to be able to keep up with them all.

But I did manage to get the first bit of bike clothing which is Nylon / Lycra Nike sports top. I just now have to get, Pants, Gloves, Trainers, Helmet, Knee, Elbow and Shin pads + the all important bike, and I am sure the is a lot more I need to add to that list!

Turning Over A New Leaf

Wow I am really not as good as Jonny with this blogging thing! I have really let it slip it’s almost 5 months with out any updates... what a shame, because it’s such a great online reference and diary about what you have been up too while away from home.

But from now on I’m going to make a real effort to post what I’ve been up too. It was my birthday on February 20^th I am 24 years old so it a great time to kick start the blog again.

So many exciting and wonderful things have happened I’ve got a lot of back writing to do! So I am renaming my blog “Taiwan Hustle”

Jonathan Biddle

I met Jonny tonight for a burger and beer at KGB, he has been fantastically helpful since I've been out here, and it's great to have someone else you can grab advice from rather than been up at the crack of dawn to make 12,000 mile phone call back home. We also bummed in to Lance who was in good form!

Formoz Rock Festival

Jonny has asked me along to this rock festival for Saturday evening. I would loved to go and I think it would be probably be quite a cool experience but I’m just a bit cash strapped at the moment.

Testing & Speedo Swimming

Finally after five weeks, I have manage understand the coding of Jonathan's blog, which means I can use his template for my own layout. I've gone though loads of different template styles over the weeks and even though there are still a few glitches, which need ironing out I, recon I am about 85% there.

I don't know a lot about PHP and with out Ahmed, it was a bit of learning curve, I miss not having you around man!

Also I went to a public swimming pool, which was really cool and relaxing. I arrived with Rita about 8.30pm after getting the correct swimming wear, apparently my board shorts weren’t apportate and tight Lycra was the running theme.

I did a couple of lengths in the pool and then end up in a hot tub which had dark brown water, apparently it’s healthy mixture of water & something else it was more like stepping into a big pot of bubbling tea.

Super Original

Jonathan had asked me out to see the Originals play at a bar called The Living Room located in Nanjing, it was rather difficult to find and I spent lots of time walking backwards and forwards in the rain, but completely drenched and 35 minutes later I had arrived.

I am pleased to say that the band was rather good to beginning with, but they had completely lost the plot by 12.

Martyr's Shrine 忠烈祠

While taking the bus to Nihau, which is one of the major business districts in Taipei city I went to visit the Martyr's Shrine 忠烈祠, or at least I think that was the name of this monument.

It wasn’t a planned visit but I happened to see this place though the bus window so on the way back from Nihau I thought I would drop by. I have posted some photograph, which I took below.

Front entrance.

1000 Paving stones.

Taiwan flags.

Sanctuary tower.

Lovely roofs.

The guards.

Garden walkway.

The inner gardens.

Jungle portal

Around the back.

Traditional window patterns.

Also completely randomly when I was sightseeing around Nihau I was on my way to a coffee shop and I could hear this person shouting out my name really loudly a couple of times, but when I turned around I couldn’t see anyone.

As I was walking away I thought I could hear someone shouting my name again, but I though nah I am in Taiwan 12,000 miles away from the UK it must be some crazy Taiwanese person! Low and behold who comes rushing in to the café to say hello Jonathan B.

Town in Town

I actually saw this photograph on Jonathan's blog and it did make me laugh. But when I was on my way to register at MTC I saw the poster and wow it's not hanging down some quite little street, oh yes it's really out there in the center of town and it must be about 15 stories high.

One of the busiest intersections of the city.

But it is common to have engrish sentences in Asia, which don’t really make sense, for example: Friendly mansion.

In context.

Why You Blogging

Jonathan Biddle got me into this blog idea, first I thought of a catchy name then I proceeded to rip off Jonathan layout in terms of text size and colour but not quite getting the background graphics correct, I just couldn’t understand the source code.....Cheers J