Week of October 18th, 2013

Kind of an unusual week socially.  I was contacted by two "friends of friends" that just moved to Taipei that asked to meet to have me tell them what I know about Taipei, so had a couple of lunches with mini-tours of the neighborhood.  Couple of nice fellas.  One whose wife is here working for 3M with a couple kids at the American school.  The other is an old college Deadhead friend's friend and we have high hopes for him.  Is really into music and is also a big baseball fan.  He also has a couple kids at the American school and he and his wife both work for the State Department.  I even talked him into helping me out at the Food Fair next weekend.

The big PTA fundraiser in the Fall is the Food Fair held at the school and it is a pretty good scene.  Being an international school, there is a wide variety of cultures in the school community and therefore are a lot of food options represented...all the bright stars one would want; Thai, Indian, Italian and Mexican.  You also get those cuisines that are like brown dwarfs...stars that had insufficient mass to ignite...like German and Russian.  Last year, I stood behind a grill and cooked dogs in searing heat for the "American" booth for 4 hours.  Not a good time, but I volunteered to help out with whatever this year cause it seemed like the right thing to do.  Was asked if I could run the drinks booth and said sure.  Was great actually, cause all you sell is water and Coke products and it's a piece of cake.  What they sprung on me this week is they are going to increase the number of drink booths at the fair from 1 to 3, so now have gone from a small business owner to running a chain restaurant...envision something like Pollos Hermanos.  So have had to scramble to find volunteers to help fill the booths for 5 hours, plan set-up and such, which has cut into my MLB playoff watching enjoyment a bit (currently, Dodgers down 3-2 going back to STL.)  The most frustrating part is that the organizer is one of the types that likes to think through everything out loud...so annoying.  I appreciate that she is also a volunteer and that it's a huge job, but the position needs someone that is more authoritative.  Am happy to help, just tell me what you want and save me the inner workings of your mental process.  I don't dare say anything though or they'll have me running the show next year. 

Last Saturday, was invited to go out with some folks to sample one of the $100 plate restaurants downtown.  Pretty simple concept...minimally decorated beer hall that serves a variety of food dishes that cost $100 (US$3.50) along with a choice of fresh fish that they steam whole (costs a bit more than $100).  Along the back wall are huge beer fridges where you go grab your own bottles (NT80/US$2.80 for a 750ml bottle) and just eat and booze the night away.  In our party (of 9) was an executive chef at a local fancy hotel, and he selected the fish.  You can kind of see the fish offerings in this photo.

That photo makes the place look pretty classy actually...good colors.  Took this with my new phone, and HTC One, which I totally love.  Decided to move away from the iBrands due to the crappy battery life and into the Android.  Thought that getting a Samsung was cliché and the new HTC (a Taiwanese company) was getting great reviews.  Time will tell if the lifespan is any better, but so far, the functionality is excellent and it is a dream ergonomically.

We had some adventurous food orderers who chose some "treats" like steamed pork bellies, spicy fried cuttlefish, and BBQ squid along with some more familiar offerings like eggplant and tofu.  The familiar things were good while I was mixed on the stuff outside of my comfort zone, but that is the fun of it, no?  We all agreed to go with Taiwan Beer, which I've grown way to fond of.  The 9 of us drank 43 bottles...just over two crates.

I didn't take that photo...someone with an iPhone did...and have the same damn rotating issue with it.  Another reason I am happy to have changed brands.   The next day, we all agreed that we should have stopped at 40 bottles.  Cannot remember the last time I've had such a raging hangover. 

A highlight of the night was the balloon animal guy that came in and was gifted in the art of making erotic balloon art.  Was too lit to remember to take snaps of the penis hat.  But I was coherent enough to get a picture of the highlight of the evening (for me anyway)...the Taiwan Beer Girl.

Check out that two handed simultaneous pour.  The glasses were the little shot glass kind, so this is harder than it looks.  And she did not spill a single drop.  Add in the TW Beer cheer leading outfit, her (unusual for a Chinese) dimples, and more than my share of 43 bottles of beer, and I felt like I had found a future mother for my children (should that need unexpectedly arise of course).

Finally for this week, have to share some recent conversations with Carolyn (now age 10).  She has a friend that she's been pretty tight with so far, and I asked her the other day if she wanted to invite her for a sleepover.  She said that she hasn't been getting along great with her recently as this friend is getting into boys.  Carolyn was feeling pressured by this girl to find a boy that she "liked".  It was a nice moment that she still feels comfortable talking about this stuff with me, and hearing that her attitude was that she feels too young for that kind of thing.  A couple days later, Care volunteers that she told this friend that there was a boy she kinda/sorta liked and that this friend immediately started "liking" this boy too.  I have heard of this proclivity amongst some females, but the fact it is rearing its ugly head at 10 years old really grossed me out.  So far, I like her attitude towards the whole situation but really fear for the peer pressure she is going to face for the next what...decade.  Longer?  I pray that we are instilling the right mind set that will allow her to cope with it successfully, but am open to any tips those of you with older daughters might want to share.  The other morning, am on Skype with my buddy talking football when Paul wakes up and kinda joins the conversation.  My buddy asks Paul (now age 14) if there are girls he likes and he says no.  I say, what about that girl so and so I see you hanging around with sometimes, she looks cute, and Paul replies "yeah, but she is always depressed" and so is keeping his distance.  So far so good with that one.