Le dernier rendezvous

The last meeting

I got up at 10:30 and laze around in bed. My aunt told me to get ready and leave for the 飲茶[Yamcha] meeting with all relatives in Taipei arrange by my third aunt's hubby, 李子雄 [li zi xiong]. I called Casey to come over as planned and bring all the squabbles to his place. He'll be the only contact for squabble sales as I left for Japan. I entrust all the squabbles to him without any attachment. He came out of a yellow cab at the mouth of the alley. I rushed down and greeted him and we went back to second floor to get a heavy box of squabbles. I guess it weights more than 60 K. He carries alone coz I still got this post impact of previous accident. I saw him off at the door as my aunt hurried me to leave for the yamcha meeting too.

I hailed a taxi after short walk out the house. The taxi guy drove us down to 中華路[zhonghua rd] near 西門[ximen] where they have this 錢櫃[qian gui] karaoke house. The yamcha restaurant on the 11th floor is called 喜相逢[xi xiang feng], it has an English translation of Double Lucky Restaurant. Not a good translation to my opinion, but I guess perhaps 喜相逢 [xi xiangfeng] is a word puzzle for 囍 [double happiness]. We had a nifty luncheon of cashaw buns, smoked salmon, almond cakes, crab egg tofu, and drunken chicken. All seems enough to make me mouthwater in appetite. We sat there and eat together, me, 李竹美[li zhu mei], 吳惠麗[wu hui li] and her hubby 陳召昌[chen shao chang] and their kids, my three aunts and third aunt's hubby. They keep giving advise about the future and reminisce and the past. We talked about our family and relatives in Jakarta and Hongkong. We talked about their visiting me in Japan in future.

We have 龜苓膏[guilinggao] as dessert then the lunch is over, and we parted with eachother on the lobby hallway downstairs. I bid goodbye with everyone and walked down to the Ximen MRT station.

Words learned today:

1. 探索[tan4suo3] = to explore, to discover
2. 覓食[mi4shi2] , slang = to go out scavenging for food
3. 為狗 [wei4go3], slang = to have lunch meal; 關門為狗[guanmenweigou] = lunchbreak
4. 吃菜[chi1chai4], slang = having a salad

Une autre délai

Another delay

I kept on pushing the girl at EZTravel to send me my airline receipt thru fax yesterday, while multitaskingly skype Motokura-san about my daily report and call Kishimoto-san about my arrival on Sunday. I couldn't get thru to Kishimoto, and Motokura-san helped me get thru to him from local line. A news come banging at me was that I need to put off my light to Sep 1, as they eventually got my Certificate of Eligibility from Japan Immigration Service. I quickly called back to EZtravel and informed them about my flight schedule changes. I got into quite a hassle since my ticket was only effective for July 1 to August 31. If I want to change the schedule for Sep 1, I need to pay for whatever difference in price and settle them at their ticket booth somewhere in 民生東路 [minsheng east rd] . I called Cathay to make sure I can change and eventually had the girl at EZ travel to temporarily change the flight date to Sep 2.

I shall be busy on Monday going to Foreign Affair Police here to explain about my overstay, and to the 交流協会 [kouryuu kyoukai] to apply for Working visa with the Certificate of Eligibility issued from Japan. I need to go to 民生東路 as well to get my new ticket. Once all this done, then, I can be relieved and start packing my stuff and get ready for my maiden flight to Japan. The only thing I heard from my coworker was 好事多磨 [haoshiduomo]--good things went thru many trials.

ax

Avoir eu un Typhoon en Taipei

Got a Typhoon in Taipei

Got a call last night from Fiona refraining me from going to work today. Just what a need, to break loose from work. Got up late this morning at the chitchat of my two aunts. I joined them for a early tea and chatter on about life, past, family, friends, old buddies, trips, and all. Cousin meijie's girl Yinxu is getting better from her fever. My brother John got a fever and is recovering. My cousin Daniel in Jakarta got an car accident and is recovering from head injury. Youngest aunt in Hongkong got into hospital after a long trip back from 廣東[Guangdong]. Andre's wife gonna give birth to a baby boy early September and is worrying one thing or another like fish out of water. My sister Sing acted up again. Unhappy with her work and thinking of going back to the village again. Dad doesn't want her to come back, but she keeps on giving us headache with her overly pampered behaviour. I'm leaving soon this weekend to よこはま[Yokohama]. Me and the world around me are changing at bullet fire speed. I sometimes feel restless. Of course I can use a day off, but it's not as much as work as usual. I still like going back to work and fill my purpose.

Later, I got a call from cousin meijie, asking me to come over to fix her PC. It was some connection problem. They couldn't get online because they've installed wrong program for win2k for a winxp machine. I came over and removed the program and they were safely online again. I was supposed to fix another PC today from last night convoy with Lim. But the girl didn't call this morning to ask me to come and pick up her PC. So I guess it's an annulment for me.

ax

Au cinema pour "I, Robot"

To the theatre for "I, Robot"

I spent saturday and sunday with vicky. We had a splendor of sushii on saturday, and today, we soothed our palate with as you can eat delight from Pizza Hut. Yeah! I had enough rest today. I woke up at around 12:00, and lazed around on the couch watching HBO and Chinese drama. I think Vicky might have woke up earlier. Hey, I woke up this morning with dreams of number. I quickly called Vicky to hit the numbers down into her mobile 0nce I got up. She did as told and we gonna buy lottery on that this week. After a pizzaful of stomach, we walked down CKS memorial hall for sightseeing and the down to Taipei City Hall to see some Hakka celebration of 義民節 [yiminjie], I'm not sure what kind of celebration is that, but it involves the slaughering of 神豬 [shenzhu], so called God's pig. Pig they feed so well and so fat they put to competition every year. The person who has the heaviest pig wins the competition and got all the medals and cash. He then, gives the pig as an offering to God, for peace and prosperity in the country.

From there we walked to Warner's Village and lined up for a ticket. We decided to watch "I, Robot" over "Bourne Supremacy" coz Vicky has almost no recall of the first Bourne she watched.
We got not too good at seat at third row from the the screen. It was a good science fiction movie, good actor, good FX, but left nothing to be remembered once we left theatre.

ax

Un Karaoke avec les nouvel associes

A karaoke night out with the coworkers

For somewhat a short time working together in Taipei, we had sort of a celebration of a new team and a farewell for me the other night. We got off work at 7:00 and walked down Holiday Karaoke near Keelong road across Tonghua nightmarket. I walked with Michelle, Tina, and Yap and we got a nice 包廂 [baoxiang] in 103. The food at the bar was as you can eat. Once I got in, I saw a list of 張菲[zhangfei]'s latest English songs on the monitor, so I just clicked them for a try. Then along came, Smoke gets in your eyes, Strangers in the night, Volare, and so forth. I don't look as old as I sang though. I'm fans of Sinatra, Elvis, and Paul Anka. Hey, I just learned that Sinatra is called 法郎克辛[falangkexin] , I'm not sure I gave you the right Kanji, but that's how it sounds in Chinese.

After we sat for 10 minutes, Fiona entered with the VIP card she borrowed from a friend so we could get a huge discount. Vicky got off work a bit late and joined us a while later, I walked up the pavements to show her in. Tina's hubby, Allen and their kid, Lonlon, also joined us in a bit.
We all had our picked of songs. Only Yap didn't get to sing. I don't know why he want to keep, the stature of the posture. He was humming though, but he's told us prior to coming that he would only be watching instead of singing. Lonlon was a star that night, he repeated おじさんの時計「ojisan no tokei」-Grandfather's clock twice and was really good at memorising the kana displayed on subtitle. I had quite some songs myself struggling with some Taiwanese songs too. I did quite well on 愛情限時信 [aicheng hanshiphoey] and enjoy the clip of Wubai and Wanfang doing somewhat like Indonesian dangdut's act.

We left at 12 sharp, Allan drove his family home, Yap took a cab down back to Fuxin, and we four took a cab back to Vicky's place. The two girls Fiona and Michelle live faraway across 淡水[tamshui], they asked Vicky for a favor to stay over that night and Vicky just gave them a green light. Once I got back at Vicky's place, I fixed myself a Vodka, and relaxed on the couch. I felt a bit sleepy so, I get a shower and turned in earlier. In the interlude of of dreams, I could still heard these girls gigling in the living room for whatever short conversation they had.

ax