December 22nd

December 22, 2022

sunny but cool

The weather has been pretty grim for a while: rain persisted not days, but over a week, and a cold front hovered that dropped the temperature down to single digits. We've had the electric blanket on each night. However, this week has seen an improvement and I've cycled into town a few times, and with having no class or chores to do today, it's really the first proper chance to go for a spin.

It'll be nothing too adventurous - just an hour's ride to Longtan and a visit to a coffee shop. The clock says it's gone 9:30 when I leave and cycle away from home with a fleece jacket on and my small camera bag hanging from my right shoulder. There's a clear blue sky above and not much wind.

My wheels roll nicely and I wonder how long my fleece will stay on. The sun is out and colours are sharp and a few minutes from home the old homes that have some murals painted on them look tempting, so I pause and snap a few shots and take off the jacket and stuff it into my handlbar-bag to make it look like it's nine months pregnant.

My wheels roll nicely because the tyres are pumped hard, something that I did the other day in anticipation of a ride which never happened.

There's no much else to make me stop before getting to Longtan. The fields are bare and muddy. The rice has all been harvested. It's winter.

The town is busy near the market area. The roads are always like this as Longtan is built around an intersection of two main routes and there's no real bypass.

It's hard to recall the last time I explored Longtan's traditional market, so I put my face mask on and lock the bike up outside the main post office on the other side of teh street, then venture into the labyrinth that's crowded with shoppers to see if there's anything worth buying. There's a familiar mixture of veg, cheap clothing and meat.

There used to be one stall that sold brand-name gear at low prices, but that sadly disappeared a few years ago. I spot a women inspecting a shirt that looks decent but not wanting to seem eager, I walk past her then double back after she's decided to not buy it and returned it to the rail. It's a bold, blue and beige checked shirt that seems to be made of thick cotton. The labels have been cut off, so it's likely a branded one, but it looks too small for me. Anyway, as it's just NT$100, I decide to buy it for someone. There's a larger Diesel one that could be real or a knockoff that might fit me, but I've too many shirts. What I could do with is a coffee.

Louisa Coffee is a only minute away and once there it's nice there are not many people in and I get a table near the window and sit and read a novel that I've brought with me in preparation.

Longtan market - I bought a shirt for NT$100 (=US$3)

Time goes by. Maybe it's 40 minutes. It's unclear.

A clothing shop called NET is close by and it's always worth a look . I know they have pyjama bottoms for women and Debbie needs a stocking-filler and I'm in luck, as there are some on sale and there's a further 50 percent off if two are bought, so I get a second pair for my daughter. Her birthday is in March.

A scrap dealer is just across the nearby junction and it's worth visiting to see if any old metal window grills have been taken in. The son sees me and tells me there was one last month, but as it was 'broken' he didn't bother getting in touch. Fair enough. 'Broken' likely means it'd rusted away.

I cycle around a few adjacent side streets and get a bit confused and end up coming out on the west side of the town centre and make my way around a large pond. There's a long footbridge across it and I almost ride over just for the heck of it, but opt to stay on this side and follow the winding path, knowing it'll take me to where I usually ride on town's south side .

Once there, a narrow route goes beside paddies that are now fallow. A few sunflowers are growing, looking like remnants from last year, and I set up my tripod nearby and take a self-timed shot then decide it's time for a bite to eat. It must be gone noon, but my Casio has a blank screen. The battery seems to have died.

Roughly five minutes later I'm at a small diner that reminds me of a Portakabin that's effciently run by a Chinese woman and her husband. They make decent dumplings. I get 10 for about US$2 and they hit the spot.

The cafe marks the homeward leg of my loop and my fleece jacket stays in the barbag. It just feels cool in the shade, but there's very little of it. I have a long-sleeved top on.

The sun is on a tiled wall I spotted a while ago and I take a snap of it. My guess it was done in the 1970s. The image looks like Scotland to me.

In the nieghborhood is a small temple. Debbie and I walk by some nights and the wall of it has lots of red bits of paper, showing those who donated money for its renovation. The old pieces at the top have faded to off-white and it's something I've wanted to take a snap of before the whole lot gets binned, so I veer that way home. The sun is in the right place.

It's gone 1:30 when I arrive home and Debbie has gone to work. A 24-inch computer monitor that she ordered just yesterday has arrived and she's hooked it up and left an A4-sized 'Happy Christmas' note on it. The old one had gone dodgy, with a milky area making Photoshop hard to use. The elongated image on this one is not what I want, so I Google how to change the setting. It's easy to do.

Today's ride: 27 km (17 miles)
Total: 2,025 km (1,258 miles)

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