I am not sure which is grosser. Was is it the time I watched a colleague who sat across from me, back during my newspaper days, scrape his front teeth with his nails, inspect the gunk, then eat it? Or was it today when I watched the businessman in the taxi cab next to mine continually pluck hairs out of his nose and eat it? Not really sure.
…try this list of the 25 most baffling toys from around the world. (Thanks to P. for this.)
P.S. Happy Holidays to All!
(Photo of “Kinglenic” brand athlete’s foot medicine, complete with feet screaming in pain. Thanks to Big Bad Ela for the tip.)
This morning while walking my dog we were nearly hit by this giant SUV as it turned the corner. It stopped right in front of us and then just stayed there. The driver seemed to be fixated on his side mirror as I waited for my dog to finish her business and I cleaned it up. Was he looking at me? What was he doing?
I proceeded to walk her down the other side of the street when the doorman from my building yelled at me from across the street to tell me he had a dog bag for me to put my dog’s waste in. I held up the paper I had already used and said thanks. When I came back to the building, the doorman informed me that the guy in the fancy gray SUV is a spy for the local government, looking to see if anyone dumps any garbage on the street. He told me to be careful with dog waste and to not let this guy catch me throwing anything on the ground. Apparently the doorman has had run-ins with this plainclothes pollution police officer, since the guy claims to be looking out for litterbugs but throws his own cigarette butts on the ground. I am all for less litter, but driving around in an SUV and spying?
We used to think we would never be able to afford designer clothes, but that was until we spotted this Pierre Cardin scooter raincoat. Sure, at NT$35 (US$1.08) it did cost a bit more than the ordinary, convenience store type raincoats manufactured for the plebian crowd, but style isn’t cheap, folks.
It seems I’ve received a failing blog review and death wish (”Time to Slash the Kid”) from TrippinTV, a site I must say I never heard of until now. The site seems to be a video-version of Forumosa. The Taipei Kid was called “crap” and full of “retarded” articles.
From the review:
The Taipei Kid is one of those blogs that disgusts me simply because of its…incredibly trite writing style, lack of detail, poor use of pics and worst of all its “nutless” ability to actually say what it really means when its hacking on someone else!
Frankly, I am surprised “bitchy” and “shallow” wasn’t mentioned. Anyway, um, thanks for the free publicity I guess. Yes, we know this blog isn’t quite the same as its previous version, as a friend recently mentioned, but having a puppy that’s been in and out of surgery all summer and being freed from the chains of grad school has sort of changed my focus to other areas.
1. Wow it has changed a lot.
2. It is nice being able to speak Chinese around town and do things without having to go through the whole “Wow, you’re Chinese is really good, how long have you been in Taiwan?” ritual eight times a day.
3. The touts in the tourist areas are really annoying–near Bali levels.
4. I’ll probably get smacked for this, but the restaurants seem to have better food.
5. TV here is really boring–no wonder they pirate DVDs so much.
6. I don’t like ending up with counterfeit cash.
7. The pollution here makes Taipei looks like Switzerland (they really need to re-think how they measure progress here).
8. Nice cheap spas.
9. Why doesn’t Taipei have H&M?
10. They might not have freedom of the press or democracy, but hey–they can choose from 10 different types of toothpaste at the store!
I finally had it. I finally had DinTaiFung. I was in the area (the area being Yangkang) during the rare moment when there was only like a two-minute wait. I know that everyone else and their mother has been there, but I wanted to go when the time was right, when it was my moment.
It was good, but it all tastes so familiar–the same kind of stuff you’ve had on every street and stall, although this time presented in a cleaner environment with food literally made more on the scientific side (it is all perfectly measured and cooked in what looks more like a clean room than a kitchen) as opposed to a little pinch of that or a handful of this. The food looked like it belonged in a cookbook. Even the sliced scallions floated ever so perfectly in the bowl. The way the wait staff kindly hustles you in and out of the place reminds me of Mrs. Wilkes’ Dining Room. You sort of have a “does not compute” moment, though, when you take in the taste of everything and look for, and are not able to find, a large blaring TV set hanging on the wall somewhere.
I saw a huge catfight at the travel agency the other day. Two travel agents–one younger, one older. The older one was perturbed at being bombarded with questions from the younger one. The younger one went postal. It got so bad these guys had to come break it up. Some really unprofessional stuff. Lots of shouts from bystanders along the lines of, “Cut it out–we have guests here!”. Meanwhile, I was being motioned to by the lady at the front desk not to poke my head out of the VIP room I was in to see what the hell was going on. Travel agencies might cost a bit more than buying your tickets online, but the entertainment value seems to be worth it.
It turns out that the obnoxious group of foreigners that we saw slobbering on and groping innocent female patrons at that bar on Friday (you know, the one you can dance on) and nearly starting quite a few fights and generally making everyone feel sick, were visiting guests, that’s right, visiting guests of that Government Info Orifice. Nice.