ten

Time’s up! James left this morning, after ten lovely days together. Hard to believe it was 10 months ago that MSF carried him off… I just bought my ticket to fly to France in a couple of weeks, which means I will have spent almost 9 months here in Taiwan. How did that happen?

I hope that this time I will get round to posting about some of our adventures here in Taiwan. I wish I had blogged about last summer, when we were in Europe, but this time around we only had a short time together and I definitely wasn’t going to waste any time writing on the internet. However we took lots of pictures and that should help motivate me!

Anyway. I feel so lucky that James did get to come to Taiwan, and at a time when work allowed for me to take the entire time off. Ten days was the perfect duration for us to go exploring and hiking, but also to be lazy and have downtime not doing anything. I hate it when I have a holiday but feel like I’ve not had time to relax, or on the contrary, feel like I’ve not achieved anything! We went river tracing in Wulai and in Hualien, climbed up Elephant, Tiger and Jade Mountains, scootered around Taroko Gorge as well as through the mountains in Rueisuei and up Highway 11 along my beloved East Coast.

We also ate and drank far too much LOTS.

We had 45 minutes to order, eat and drink our way through 6 dishes and 3 long-necks of Taiwan beer before running for the last express train back to Taipei from Hualien. This photo commemorates our glorious, drunken, sunburnt, rain-soaked and exhausted victory.

drugs

clutching my new best friend, Lidocaine Eugenol (I call him Eugene for short)

Today is the fifth day of my post-wisdom tooth extraction agony. I woke at 4:47am, and complained to whoever would listen about how much pain I was in despite all the painkillers and ice. My dearest Rebecca, who is only months away from graduating as a witch naturopath, gave me a brief list of things that might accelerate my healing — after all, James will be here in 3 days and I still can’t smile or talk. Eventually 8:30 rolled around and I headed down to the chemist.

Everyone there wanted to talk long and hard, and ask many many questions about every aspect of my life — hardly any of it relevant to my purchases. Trying not to glare, and doing my best to explain that speaking caused me a LOT of pain, I eventually managed to gather up the zinc, vitamin C, vitamin A, and calcium supplements in dosages that would actually be of use. But when I asked for oil of cloves, I was met with blank stares. I said I’d be back soon, and set off to find some elsewhere.

You would think that in a country so big on herbal medecine, the link between oil of cloves and toothache would have been established a long time ago. But every chemist I asked for 丁香油 looked dumbfounded. Eventually I resigned myself to returning to my original chemist (who is a sweetheart, if somewhat inquisitive). When I got there, he leapt upon me with excitement, showing me a bottle he had dug out of god knows where. Primary ingredient, lidocaine hydrochloride; secondary ingredient, eugenol (aka the active ingredient in clove oil). He was so pleased with himself that it would have been cruel not to buy it — but trust me, I was in so much pain at that point I would have taken just the lidocaine.

And to consolidate my love for this chemist (who already has my heart, because they stock Yaz at 585NT a pack, instead of 650NT as it is everywhere else), when it was time to pay, they totally saved my zinc-deficient butt. I had heard 165NT for a bottle of zinc, but it was in fact 650NT. I went even paler than I already am, and he kindly offered to sell them to me per pill instead of per bottle. So I was able to buy 21 tablets for 105NT instead. Isn’t that kind?

Anyway, I came home and took all my pills: Yaz, ibuprofen, paracetemol, antibiotics, zinc, calcium+vitamin tablets (strawberry-flavoured; very tasty), and a partridge in a pear tree, washed down with so much live yoghurt. Then I busted out the lidocaine drops at last… the instructions say for use by dentists only, which is fantastic as that basically translates as “this will actually work”. Now half my mouth is numb and I am almost at peace, until the next time I try to use my jaws for something crazy like eating, speaking or smiling.

bananas

Listen to me! Run, don’t walk, run to your nearest banana, cut it into coins, place them on a plate, and pop them in the freezer. Do that first, then come back and read the rest. You’ll thank me.

Ok, we done? now go get some Malteasers, put them in the freezer too, and read on about how following my consumption of an entire pint of Häagen Dazs ice cream yesterday, today I was hoping to find a slightly healthier (not to mention more affordable) option.

But this doesn’t taste healthier. It tastes positively sinful. I don’t know how it can taste so good when it simply involves blending a frozen banana and then throwing in whatever you fancy. I like little crunchy biscuity bits and shards of frozen chocolate in my ice cream, so a handful of Malteasers was the perfect option. Admittedly the Malteasers make it slightly less healthy than if it was something like carob chips, but Malteasers are the bomb, specially frozen, specially smashed up in frozen banana bliss. Cocoa powder would probably turn it into chocolate fudge ice cream.

Ok, anyway, it’ll take about an hour for those banana coins to freeze, so I’ll let you dream about them for now.

Instructions: put frozen banana coins (or chunks, if you are not in a hurry for them to freeze, and also have a powerful food processor instead of a crappy cheap blender) in the blender. Pulse until they are in tiny little chunks. Throw in whatever you’re throwing in. Pulse some more. Taste. Realise this is like some kind of banana fudge paradise. Scrape into a ball and put in a bowl, using your fingers in a greedy attempt to access any remainders. If you’re really classy, possibly unscrew the blades so as to lick them clean of this amazing-tasting concoction. Obviously I would never do this.

By the way, one banana = one serve of ice-cream. So if you are sharing this with someone else, go ahead and freeze two bananas. Or you know, if you are greedy recovering from wisdom teeth extraction like me, and can justify living off ice-cream. That said, my jaw still hurts like misery and I need to make sure I blend everything a bit longer for the second batch (of course there is a second batch. I’m just writing this to pass the time until the bananas have frozen). Only an hour and 23 minutes till the next round of painkillers! yay.

bumpy

oh my ouch

Living off ice chips and protein shakes…

wiser

Today I gleefully skipped to the dentist for my third wisdom tooth extraction. Oh ignorance is indeed bliss!

This tooth, as you can see, was chunkier than the last one, and partially covered by bone. So the dentist bust out his little hammer and hammered away for what felt like decades. Still, apart from the obvious discomfort that having ones jaw hammered incurs, the anaesthetic kept me clueless as to what lay in store for me later.

Feast your eyes upon my terrible teeth. Yes, TWO root canals and several fillings…

Eventually, after about an hour of fighting, the dentist pulled it out and sewed my gum shut. I watched what little I could see with interest, made several jokes (in Chinese with half my face numb and a mouth full of blood… what a show-off) and claimed my chunky tooth (which I would show you, except I feel too weak to hunt it down in my handbag).

The bill, at three times the amount I had paid last time, left me stunned and tearful, so I made the most of my Zhengda location and hunted Catherine down for a hug and a pep talk. Unfortunately our group grew and there were more people to talk to and as I was still numb, I chatted for a good 45 minutes before suddenly starting to feel crap as the anaesthetic wore off. I stumbled away to a bus, and then luckily grabbed a Priority seat where I sat, growing increasingly nauseous and dizzy. I had to change buses in order to get home, and by the time I reached the house I was shaking and starting to cry. THIS IS NOT WHAT I HAD IN MIND!

I texted David to say I wouldn’t be coming into work after all, and then lay down… the pain increased exponentially and despite the ice clutched to my face and the numerous painkillers, I was soon bawling in pain, sounding no doubt similar to a cow in childbirth. None of this was conducive to feeling better, however, and after gathering support and advice from friends on Facebook, I settled down to watch the excellent Wild Food with Ray Mears which has been so far distracting me fairly well. I originally only downloaded it to boost my ratios at thebox.bz but it has been my saving today, to be honest.

There is, however, a silver lining to this. Yes, it is my mission to find one in everything! and that silver lining is my chocolate-banana-coconut protein shake. I would have photographed it for you but I eated it. I needed to find something that would be cold, easy to swallow with ice held to my face, and sufficiently nutritious and filling to serve as dinner for the night. Oh and no dairy!

half a cup of tinned coconut milk
+ 1 banana
+ 20ml of pea protein isolate powder
+ 1 tablespoon of cocoa powder
+ lots of ice
= an amazing mug full of deliciousness, to be eaten very slowly and carefully with a little plastic spoon

It was a really nice treat and I feel much happier for it. As long as I don’t lose the ice. Ice is my best friend right now…

a day of many dogs

My housemate Diva often asks me if I want to go for a hike in the mountains with her, and for once I decided to ignore my injuries and get out there — the weather was perfect, and the construction works outside my window were most definitely NOT conducive to a peaceful, happy afternoon.

Before our hike, we lunched on mini-pancakes, made by Diva:

Delicious!

Then we set off. Many sweeping views and dazzling greens…

This beautiful pair of butterflies were such stunning colours, although photographing them sort of impossible. But I tried!

Good old Taipei 101 on the horizon as usual. Diva snapped this picture of me and I think it’s really nice — second time in one day that my camera has done well by me!

We had lots of encounters with dogs (and a couple of cats). At one point we were walking through a vaguely farmed bit of mountain and suddenly a huge black dog came after us, barking and dragging a chain behind it. Diva and I had the same reflex — both turned towards him and began yelling, stamping and waving our arms. My heart was in my mouth for a couple of seconds but then when Diva through her water bottle at him and our torrent of abuse got louder, he beat a shamefaced retreat. Exciting!

No picture of that dog, but here are a few of the others I encountered on the hike:

Temple Dog

Table Dog

Celebrity Dog (apparently his owner is a Malaysian pop singer or something? Let me know if you recognise him)

Temple kitties

Temple Cats, the standoff

I have to admit the hike was not great for my knees. There were a lot of steep steps both up and down, and I had to resort to going down them backwards after a while, which looked ri-di-cu-lous. But it was good to spend a couple of hours outside in the most perfect weather! Thanks Diva!

marketing

I am trying really hard to budget and only buy groceries once a week — the market down the street from us is open every morning and so I go there to buy my fruit and vegetables. The people on the market are so lovely to me, especially at the fruit stall which I try to always go to. The lady there lets me fiddle around choosing the fruit I want, and the younger guy always gives me a discount whilst the older man will always sneak an extra apple or two into my bag as I leave. And they nearly always give me some fruit to go, which is adorable of them and gives me an opportunity to eat something different, as I rarely buy anything outside of my established shopping list (which goes 7 apples, 7 bananas, ONE MILLION FRESH PINEAPPLES!!!!!).

Today I was packing everything into my shopping bag when the lady and the young guy simultaneously handed me slices of freshly cut melon (which is really difficult to handle when you are struggling with a big canvas bag full of sweet potatoes and apples, plus your handbag, plus your purse — I need more hands!). I polished off the little slice of cantaloupe straight away, paused to readjust all my shopping, and bit into the huge juicy yellow watermelon. It was so amazingly delicious and messy, it brightened my happy morning even more! So I took a picture for us.

Then as I had my camera out, I captured the stall of dreams aka Pineapple Land:

I had to swing by the supermarket to pick up my dry goods (oats, eggs, tofu, popping corn, bread; I could probably get all of these on the market but sometimes the hygiene leaves me a little unconvinced). I also wanted to pick up some almonds (desperate for protein and fat as usual), and when I saw these it was difficult to resist:

Wasabi is one of my favourite flavours of just about anything, and is the ONLY reason I ever eat sushi.

However, resist I did, as they would probably not taste great mixed with oats in the morning, and instead returned to the market where I had spied a stall full of dried fruit and nuts. I wanted my nuts unadulterated by salt or spices, and found a bag of walnuts, almonds and cashews which was a biiiiit more expensive than I wanted to spend, but they tasted so fresh and amazing in the end it was worth it. As I left the stall I picked up a raisin from the samples dish, and it was so plump and flavourful I ended turning around and going back for some to take home… consider me hooked, that stall is dangerous!

afternoon happenings

Today I finished the first of the three workbooks I am researching and setting up on InDesign. It’s taken a month to get this far, but I’m hoping that the other two books will go a lot faster, now that I have all my templates flowing nicely and that David and I have worked out a system. It will have to go a lot faster, as we only have a month left to finish them, anyway!

I skipped down to the print shop to get a proof copy printed and ring-bound. I was pretty pleased with the results — until I realised I had neglected to [insert long and tedious explanation of rookie printing error which no1curr about]. Nonetheless, I’m happy with what I’ve achieved.

I had half an hour between dropping the files off and picking up the final product, which I spent drinking a delicious cappuccino and reading these two articles in the newspaper, about the suicide rates in the Taiwanese army.

Coffee and the paper — normally a simple indulgence, but coffee is actually a nutritional supplement for me, as the whole milk in it gives me precious grams of fat and protein which I struggle to get on a daily basis. And the paper being in Chinese, is a much needed opportunity to stimulate the much-neglected Mandarin-speaking and -reading parts of my brain! I was pleased and surprised at how easily I could read this article actually — probably 75% character recognition rate?

Walking back to the office I was amused by the juxtaposition of the World Trade Centre (in pink), Taipei 101, and a garden shack made of rubbish. Sometimes I forget that Taiwan is still a developing country. I stand corrected, Taiwan is officially classified DEVELOPED. Well done Taiwan!

But there are upsides to developing countries! Like stumbling across a field of doglets taking a nap. Well I’m sure the presence of stray dogs everywhere isn’t exactly a great thing, but they are very cute.

Do you know what? It’s Friday, and I am pleased to say this week I managed to do yoga on 4 of the 5 mornings before work, as well as keep my overall costs — groceries, travel, necessities — under 600NT (that’s 20 dollars, in case you were wondering). Score and score. I’ve found that the best way to do my yoga is to drag my mat out to the living-room and practice whilst looking out onto the greenery outside, and to kick off my practice with some chanting. The chanting in Sanskrit probably makes me sound like a lunatic to my housemates but it does really work at settling my mind so I am fully concentrated on what I’m doing.

This is the opening chant I always use, but I think my version of it sounds much nicer and more soothing. Maybe I’ll record my own version…

thwarted

The rain and the sunshine have been alternating with equal intensity this week. Either it’s baking hot, or diluvian (3 days later and my shoes are still not dry after getting caught out). But one thing you can be sure of here in Taiwan, come rain or shine: those bastard, bastard mosquitos are out to get you. 

So tonight, despite the rain thundering outside my open window and bringing some much-needed refreshment to my stuffy room, well tonight just like every night, I’m hanging out in here:

Looks almost romantic, doesn’t it? And despite the darkness, from the inside all that white netting acts as a great diffuser! And so, with the latest few episodes of Answer Me This ready to play on my iPad, I settled down with my cross-stitch.

Unfortunately, there’s a bit of an issue — the shadows from the netting combined with the pixellated pattern and the Aida fabric make it nigh on impossible to see what I’m doing. My eyes were watering within seconds…

My plan, thwarted…

over and over

Today marks exactly a year since I left Australia, only weeks after being graced with Permanent Residency. Crazy to think that I spent most of that last year in Taiwan, when my plans involved so many OTHER places — not that I am complaining, as I have had a good time here, and still squeezed in visits to more than 10 countries anyway. Now it’s almost the end of April, and trust me, I am very eager to start May. April has been a crappy month, which is why there haven’t been many updates.

Fortunately it hasn’t been a completely BAD month, there have been highlights, and I am glad to see how much I have developed as a person over these 4 weeks of ridiculousness. But I have struggled to find anything worth blogging about, as I don’t seem to have been doing many THINGS for me recently. I miss exercise (the backlash from last Sunday’s gym session was no fun) and I am hopelessly poor at the moment so I am avoiding socialising or even leaving the house/office if I can avoid it. Apart from watching series upon series of TV shows (Weeds, Breaking Bad, Community, Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia) I have done very little outside of work.

So, I am trying to make a plan and stick to it. I have about 6 weeks before I head off to France for the summer (instead of Hong Kong — change of plan) and in that time I need to achieve more than just watching TV shows and working. So far all I’ve come up with is yoga and finishing my cross-stitch project, but if anyone can suggest FREE and LOW IMPACT activities that will not aggravate my shin/knee injuries, and will not involve screen-time, I’m all ears…

Random picture of my little brother from last summer, to cheer us all up.