Taipei, the land where anything can happen

29^th Dec 2006 – Show Day

Awoke early today once again to make modifications to my stuff. Ms Bear still wasn’t back by then. So I thought I’ll ask uncle Z out for lunch together before we set off for the venue.

Had a nice simple yet delicious雞腿飯 at the foodcourt neartby and when we stepped out into the open, it was already drizzling very lightly. Stupidly, that day, I rushed out of my room without my pass. Which made me end up walking back again to the hotel to get the pass and return by foot to the venue.


The final rehearsal didn’t last for very long, but I still had many new modifications left undone, plus there were changes to the MMO (this meant I had to re-burn the CD I burnt for Uncle Z just yesterday). The bad news was, the rest of the songs were in my macbook, that was still sleeping in the comfort of my hotel room. Thus, I made a final trip back (by foot again) to the hotel to burn the new CD, before I went for a quick dinner on my own and then back before the standby time at the venue, to make any final last minute changes.

After all the walking around, I was in a state of burn out. The standby waiting time started to draw more of my remaining energy away from me as well. By the time, I got on stage, I think I was in a sort of trance.

Throughout the show, I was literally lagging. My mind told me I had to work faster but still there was a lapse between my brain and my hands. It was frustrating to know the problem but not have the ability to curb it. As the time passed by, my back was aching and my legs too (despite the fact that I was sitting down).

I felt bad sitting there, for not fulfilling my duty to the best that I can. I felt guilty for letting them down. Even though no one can really tell, but to the 2 of them, I just have to say that I’m very sorry. If not for their ability to cover up well, I guess I would have screwed up quite a bit.

When the show ended, I still felt awfully guilty and tried my best to hide from the 2 of them. The probably don’t blame me, but I do blame myself for not being able to focus. What’s more, this would probably be the last show I’ll be doing for this tour. And it so happens to be in a place that I’ve always wanted to work in.

What a disappointment I’ve been.

We all headed for the dinner together but I stuck with KL and the guys. Grabbed only a little to eat and then made my way out with KW and uncle Z (not really wanting to mingle). Not wanting to sleep early once again, KW and I thought we should try our luck at 士林 one more time, since it was Friday and shops didn’t close that early.

At around 1am, we arrived together with D and MM at 士林 and boy were we glad to see shops open. There wasn’t much to shop for… or should I say, even if there was, I didn’t have much mood to shop. In my totally blue state, I was practically just following KW around as she shopped. Think she was wondering why I was so busy sms-ing on my phone as well and not really looking around at the feast of things around us (yeah.. and I think my phone bill this month is gonna be horrible =_=).

By 2am, the illegal stalls that flanked the middle of the road began to deconstruct themselves and wade their way dangerously through the crowd of people. Let me get this clear… they did expect people to get out of their way or suffer the dire consequences of getting crushed by a push cart.

With such a scene going on, and the fact that it was winter.. meaning there was nothing much we could buy there, the 4 of us decided to end the shopping trip.

Hopping onto a cab, we dropped D off at誠品, then MM and I alighted at the hotel, while KW continued on to her friend’s home.

You would think that the story ends when I return to the hotel. Hahah but no…. MM and I turned back onto the streets towards the supermarket (where I bought lots of beverages and stuff for the guys who placed their orders with me before I left for Taipei), before returning to the hotel once again.

Shortly after I reached the room, Ms Bear came back with our Malaysian colleagues XM, ZS and JW. And like me, they bought cup noodles as well ^___^. We are all hungry people…

So 4 bottles of mineral water, 5 bowls of noodles of various flavours, and beverages of all sorts later, the 3 of them left to return to the hostel, leaving behind a whole bunch of straws on the bed haha. Just some basic info on straws in Taipei, when you buy anything at a convenience store, they don’t provide you with a plastic bag, but they do make sure you get a straw with every drink that you purchase. Save the environment? Irony? Or are the straws made of biodegradable plastic?

Ms Bear rushed to finish her work through the night (realize, she’s not sleeping again! You gotta teach me this skill…. haha), as I went to bed at close to 6, to prepare myself for the meeting I had to attend the next day.

30^th Dec 2006 – Its just me and him

Ms Bear woke me up at 11.20am to tell me she got me breakfast (so sweet of her). There were 2 飯糰, 蘋果牛奶, and even暖包 because she knew I was going to battle it out alone at the autograph session on the 31^st.

But.. at a cost =P because she started hinting to me that I should send her off. The hint was that she needed help with her heavy luggage (but gotta clarify for her, its filled with a lot of other stuff that doesn’t belong to her… although quite a bit of beverages belong to her haha).

I changed out of my ‘sleeping attire’ of course, but because her transport was already waiting, I didn’t have much time to bother about my messy hair. So here I went once again with my messy state, a blaring contrast against the posh lobby of well dressed people.

After I waved goodbye to Ms Bear, I started to miss her but it didn’t make me forget the unpresentable state I was in. Quickly, I slid my way towards the elevator and into my room. That was when I truly realized…. that everyone else had also left Taipei. All except…. My boss.

With just the 2 of us left, it was only polite of me to ask him what time he intended to set off for the meeting and if he wanted to lunch together. With his cracky sleepy voice, he asked me what I hadn’t eaten so far in Taipei. In my mind, I wondered truly… what hadn’t I eaten? Haven’t I already eaten too much?

He suggested 滷肉飯, I simply told him I tried it before but couldn’t remember the name of the shop.

How about拉麵?

I’ve eaten that in Singapore, but he insisted that it tastes different there,

so yeah, I said, why not?

But it was not long after we agreed that he called me again to say, we would be having Shabu Shabu, and a free meal as well because someone owed him a treat. That person must be really pounding her chest to have to end up treating 2 people instead haha.

I must say though…. That its truly the best Shabu Shabu I’ve ever had. Even though it’s the first time I’m eating Shabu Shabu… but still, its truly the best steamboat-like thingie I’ve ever had!! Erm… I was too lost in it to remember to take a photo =P. But if I go with any of you to Taipei in future, I promise I’ll take you guys there.

Thanking the sweet lady who gave me a treat without really knowing who I was, but just a free-loader following my boss out to lunch, we set off for the office for our meeting at 3pm.

The meeting went on till past 7pm and we only managed to cover just one topic. From the moment I sat down, I was already starting to feel the effects of the past 3 nights of poor sleep. How hard I fought to stay awake, not just because it was rude to fall asleep in front of 2 bosses, it was a meeting that was giving me very important lessons I wouldn’t be able to gain if I wasn’t in Taipei that day, sitting in that meeting room.

There was a problem with my bladder that day too, because I was just scooting off to toilet every now and then. But it probably did help in waking me up at certain intervals heheh. Close to the end of the meeting however… I knew my eyes were already half closed, but I guess they could by then, forgive me for feeling that tired.

When the meeting ended, I asked for them to provide me clear directions that I could advise any taxi driver if I were to take a cab from the city to our hostel. As my boss also wanted to go by the hostel to pick things up, my Taipei boss gave both of us a lift there and along the way, both of them eagerly ‘debated’ as to who knew the best way to the hostel (men…), and pointed out all the landmarks I had to look for. I felt as though I had 2 fathers at that point in time… But then again, those were really very important and clear directions that helped me go back and forth from the hostel on my own the next day =)

The living room of the 4 room apartment

Handing me his keys, my boss and I then decided to go for dinner together before his next meeting (not involving me), at 9pm. We went to somewhere near his next meeting place, in search of a restaurant he had been to before, to eat… I can’t remember what. And I can’t remember it, because, we never found it. Time was running out, so we quickly made a choice to have Tepanyaki, of which he also claims that Tepanyaki in Taipei tastes different. Hmm….

It didn’t taste that bad, but I gobbled down the hot food really fast, because he ate too fast! Guess he must have been terribly hungry... and it was also because I lost time in between, running out to the convenience store to buy newspapers for him. After stuffing and downing all the not too bad Tepanyaki, we stepped out only to end up sitting down for 燒仙草.

It really did seem to please him to let me try food that I’ve never tried before, because once I made it known to him I didn’t really know what燒仙草 was, he never looked in any other direction except the stall vendor. I added 湯圓 and some other jelly thing to mine, while he added around 4 ingredients to his (how can someone who eats so fast and be such a good eater, be this thin? Heaven is unfair!).

Gotta mention too, that this was the most slow moving stall vendor we have ever met. There we were in front of her feeling completely ignored, while waiting for her to finish packing in complete slow motion, for another customer. Then along came another stall vendor who started talking to her and both of them ignored us for a good 2 minutes before nodding her head to indicate she’ll take our order =_=

Nonetheless, the燒仙草 was excellent! If you are wondering what燒仙草 is, its just hot chin chow, not really in jelly form, but thick soup. There can’t possibly be another dessert better than this, especially in winter. I was so full by the time I tried to finish my entire bowl of燒仙草+湯圓+Jelly (how can you let good food to waste right?).

Done with dinner and dessert, we parted to go shopping on our own and the last time I saw him in Taipei, was on msn later that night/morning haha. But I didn’t send him any message of course =P

I didn’t shop around for too long. I simply targeted a CD store that I didn’t have time to step into up till now, got the mayday album that I would need for the next day (plus the pass that WY needed because she’ll be attending the concert on the 6^th… =(… how I wish I could stay on till the 6^th to catch the concert too).

Back to the hotel I went, to make use of the remaining internet time I had and pack my bag in preparation for my move from hotel to hostel when I awake.