December 25, 2021
December 25th
work and a Thai lunch
Christmas isn't celebrated here and it's another regular Saturday, but only a student named Tony attends my online class at 10:00. Who knows what everyone else is doing today. There are usually five or six.
It's conversation and having only one attendee could impact the dynamics, but thankfully he's a smart young guy and during the 90 minutes we go through various conversation questions and inevitably veer off on tangents.
It's a fact that these classes improve my knowledge and understanding of Taiwan's culture. For example, when I ask Tony to talk about a song he dislikes, he mentions a local singer named Show Luo (羅志祥), who's someone I've never heard, so I type his name into YouTube and, sure enough, a bunch of videos pop up.
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It's clear this good-looking crooner's target audience is young girls, with an array of soft-toned teddy bears piled against a pink backdrop. Or it was.
Tony tells me the guy was outed by his girlfriend this year as a serial philanderer, destroying what had been a lucrative, carefully managed image.
As an explanation to my question, I introduce Middle of the Road's huge hit from the early 70s "Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep". Tony thinks it's a joke. If only. Ten million people bought a copy.
My energy is still low after catching the flu earlier this week. I had to cancel one class as getting off the sofa proved too difficult and my head is still imitating a hollow tree truck and my back feels a bit stiff.
There are only two women for my 45-minute second class, then it's time for lunch. It'll be good to get outside.
The chance of having a Christmas feast here is zilch, so Debbie and I get on the commuter bikes and set off toward a Thai place near the university. It's a cold, overcast day and a chilly wind is blowing strong. Thankfully we've only got a ten-minute ride and we're both wrapped up well. It's just our helmeted heads that feel the cold.
We soon head down a few side streets, then across the ring road and around the edge of the campus. There are just a few students walking around and many of the shops are closed. Most of the clothes shops don't open until gone two o'clock. It only tends to get busy at night.
The Thai place has some empty tables, which is unusual for a Saturday at this time. We sit by the window and the middle-aged waitress recognizes us and wishes us Merry Christmas. My order is a crispy chicken dish and we share stir-fried cabbage and a shrimp pancake. I've never seen any shrimps in these things.
After we wonder about having a coffee and once outside I lead Debbie to a nearby rabbit warren of passages that I explored a short while ago. A small cafe is hidden down there somewhere and it won't be too hard to find it. It'll make a change from Louisa.
It's not as easy as I thought. We have to double back and we end up a bit confused. It's all new to Debbie and she finds it hard to believe a cafe would exist in such a location, what with access so hard and passing traffic being zero. The place must rely on word-of-mouth. There are no signs.
It turns out the place is closed and it's only when I take a snap of Debbie riding along a narrow section of passage that I know we're actually right outside it.
We make our way home along the same side streets and once close to home Debbie suggests having a coffee in a cafe called HWC that we pass, but I decide not to bother. She bought me a bottle of 12-year-old single malt as a Christmas gift and that'll do nicely.
Today's ride: 6 km (4 miles)
Total: 1,072 km (666 miles)
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Happy holidays, and enjoy your Christmas Scotch.
3 years ago
The video of the song's writer Lally Stott singing it is a real gem of naffness...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Swy6k1hDBOQ
The whiskey was nice. Merry Christmas, Greg!
3 years ago