Christmas Shakes.... and BBQ steaks

We had a great Christmas! Hope you did, too!

This is the first time in five years that I actually got the day off for Christmas. I spent my luxurious day-off relaxing by the ocean and enjoying the warn tropical breezes.... OK. I'm lying.

Actually, I spent the morning cleaning and re-organizing my bedroom and my office.

A couple of my good friends, Marc and Lisa, are returning to South Africa shortly. They have been in Taiwan on-and-off for about 5 years. Lisa has just had enough of teaching and she wants to return home.

On Sunday, Christmas Eve, they held a "buy-our-shit, it's-good-shit" party at their apartment, with just about everything in the house marked with a price on a little yellow post-it note! I bought a couple of nice shelving units, which Susan and I cleaned and assembled that evening (rubber mallet!!)... which all leads me back to how I spent my Christmas morning cleaning and re-organizing all my stuff!

Susan came up and joined me mid-afternoon and we had a great time listening to tunes and shuffling stuff around. It was actually a lot of fun!!

Once that was done... well... okay, it was nowhere near done, but we were done for the day!... I took Susan to a spa for her Christmas present from me: a Thai massage! I decided against having one myself, so I made myself cozy in the lobby drinking ginger tea and reading my book (Lord Loss by Darren Shan). Sue walked into the spa looking stressed out, then about an hour and a half later she wandered noodle-like back into the lobby, glowing!

After her massage we went to have dinner at this cool restaurant. On your table is a a big pot where you make your own soup (hot pot) by choosing what you want to put in it from the all-you-can-eat area. Also on the table is a barbecue pit and you can choose from all kinds of meat, fish, seafood, and vegetables (all-you-can-eat!). The only condition is that there is a 2 hour time limit on how long you can stay! Sue and I arrived at 8 o'clock and stayed until precisely 10! I gave up trying to force more in by 9:30, but Sue was a real trouper! She was still having fun with the barbecue long after I had given up, LOL!


When we got home after dinner we watched "A Christmas Story" (which neither of us had seen). It was a really lovely Christmas!

Then we went back to work on Tuesday... well.. it was only an hour and half, but it was nevertheless work! After work Sue came over to our house again and we made a nice salad and a couple of hamburgers for dinner... as we were cooking, we had a HUGE earthquake! We turned off the gas on the stove, and pretty much stood there dumbstruck! it's been so long since we've had one, and then here comes this DOOZY! The water cooler sounded like a beachfront, and the glasses on the shelves were just clanging like bells on Christmas morning!

We waited a couple of minutes for everything to stop rocking, then we went back to what we were doing... only to be hit by ANOTHER big earthquake! Needless to say, it made for an interesting cooking experience!

(Map taken from Taiwan's Central Weather Bureau website)

The first earthquake was a 4 in Chiayi City, the second was only a 2 here, but they were both above 6 where they originated (Kaohsiung) and they both really rattled.

Of course, once the shaking stopped, we chilled out in front of the TV and watched the new Doctor Who Christmas Special "The Runaway Bride" which was awesome!

So, that was Christmas in Taiwan this year!

Sue and I also got some lovely gifts (our packages from Mom and Dad, as well as from our sister Laurie, arrived safe and sound in time for Christmas! The gifts were awesome!).

Books were pretty big here this year! I bought Susan a book called Night Of The Gargoyles by Eve Bunting and David Weisner. She got me great new schoolbag (mine is starting to fall to pieces).

I bought Pierre a calendar: each date is a tear-away page with a sudoku puzzle on it. I know he'll enjoy it! I also got him a set of three books, collectively known as His Dark Materials by Phillip Pullman (There are three books in the series, The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass). I had read them last year (In fact, I gave them to my dad as a gift last Christmas!).
Pierre gave me a great new Doctor Who 2007 Calendar and the new Adam And The Ants retrospective DVD Stand And Deliver! (Which I highly Recommend!!)

That's it for now! Catch you all later!!! :)

A good day for mail!

Today I got 4 CDs in the mail!!

How exciting is that??

A few weeks ago I organized a CD swap amongst all the members of the Avenue Mailing list, a forum for fans of British pop band Saint Etienne (hence the name of my podcast). Anyone from Avenue was welcome to participate in it if they wanted to. There were quite a few people who got into the spirit of things.

In a nutshell, I collected all the names of the participants well as a list of what artists they like (Avenue members can be pretty diverse in their musical tastes, so I felt this was necessary: turns out I was right, too!). I then forwarded a name and details about musical preferences to each participant so that they could create a mixed CD for someone, and get a mixed CD from someone else in exchange, using the exchange partner's musical tastes as their guideline.

I used Microsoft Excel and entered all the information into a database, then I sorted the whole list by the names of the artists people liked. I tried to then match people by the music they were into at the moment. From the reaction I have had from people so far, the match-ups were pretty successful, so I am pretty pleased!

N-E-WAY... back to why I got 4 CDs in the mail... I participated in the exchange too, and I mailed my CDs off two or three weeks ago (I made 2 CDs, that was the maximum number of times that I allowed people to participate). Last week in the mail I got 1 of the CDs from my exchange partner (the other one still hasn't arrived) but today I got 3 CDs from 2 other participants, who just wanted to say thanks for organizing this! They made an extra copy of the CDs they created, including artwork and graphics, and they sent the extra one to me!

One person went above and beyond what was expected of the Avenue CD Exchange: she created a 2-disc set! Disc one was labeled "HAPPY" and disc two was labeled "SAD"... what a great concept!

In the next couple of weeks I will definitely add some more info about these CDs to my blog, I plan to upload a few of the magnificent CD covers that the talented people from Avenue came up with, and I will include a few track lists from some of the exchange CDs, too!! I think it might be fun to create a podcast or two based on the tracks that were circulated during this CD exchange.

There were several people that I know of who couldn't decide what to cut from their compilations, and made double CDs, LOL!

I can't tell you how good some of these discs are! These were the songs that the music lovers on Avenue wanted to share with each other, and believe me when I tell you these people are really knowledgeable about pop music in many of it's guises; be it indie, underground, dance, or electronic.

The CDs included quite a number of undiscovered gems or forgotten songs that should have been huge (or huge in your own heart, at least!). You'll see what I mean when you get a chance to hear some of them (and since that ain't gonna happen on any radio station anytime soon, watch this space!)

I haven't had much of a chance to fully listen to all the CDs yet (I mean, COME ON! I got a total of 4 CDs full of music that I've never heard! I'll need another day or two!) but I am really impressed by what I have heard, so far!

I consider myself to be a pretty knowledgeable person when it comes to music, but on these 3 CDs that I got from my fellow Avenuers, there were exactly 4 songs that I had ever even heard of... and maybe 7 artists that I recognized.

WOW.

My credit card might get maxed again if I start hearing too much new stuff that I like! ;)

Since not all the participants in the exchange have received their CDs yet, I can't go into any more detail right now, so in the meantime, here is the artwork I used to create my own Avenue exchange CD which I sent out to my exchange partners.

When I was describing the "do"s and "don't"s of the Avenue CD exchange this year, I mentioned that it would be fun to try and make our CDs reflect not only our musical tastes, but ourselves as well. I thought this would be a nice way to bring the folks on Avenue a little closer.

In the spirit of this, I decided that since I live in Taiwan these days, a nice photo from here would be a lovely front cover for my CD. This is a photograph I took at Lotus Pond in the city of Kaohsiung, the second largest city in Taiwan. My sister Sue and I went there this summer and spent a fantastic day strolling along the water front and visiting temples.

Now... where was I?

Oh YES!

I mentioned that I had received 4 CDs in the mail right? So I got the 3 CDs from my fellow Avenuers, and THEN, to top that all off, I also got a CD from a band called Secret Shine whom I really like! Some of you may remember them from their Sarah Records days (circa 1991).

They released a new ep in October of this year, entitled Beyond Sea and Sky, and I had pre-ordered it, but it never came... I wrote an e-mail to Scott Purnell, the guitarist, and he double checked their records and posted it for me last week: it finally arrived today, along with a couple of Secret Shine badges, and a second copy of the new ep for me to give to a friend that I think might enjoy it! i think what I'll do is hold onto it for awhile and maye run a contest to give it away to someone who'd really like it!

So all in all, today was a really good "mail day" for me!

Just another Manic Monday

Well... It's cold.

I am freezing.

It's official.

To top it all off I have a bit of a cold... but at least I got all my errands done despite the weather... lots of running around with my runny nose!

Well. I guess that's really all I wanted to say about today. It's damp and I'm miserable, LOL!

On the plus side, my latest issue of Fantastic Four, Marvel Adventures arrived in the mail today so I had a good laugh between classes! It isn't my favourite comic book, but I like that each issue is self-contained and there are no long story arcs! It's completely goofy, but it's fun to read with my students!

Actually... speaking of reading... I just placed an order for two books from Abesbooks.com
If you have never used their services, I highly recommend them! It is a network of used book sellers from around the world! I have found quite a few out of print books from them at reasonable prices!

The books I bought today were both by Jeff Lindsay. I bought Darkly Dreaming Dexter, and Dearly Devoted Dexter. I couldn't resist! I've been watching the series from Showtime in the US and I'm totally hooked! If you haven't seen it yet, watch for it! It will probably be on DVD soon. It's twisted, dark, and intense... but it is EXCELLENT! Sue and I have been really enjoying it.

Aside from that, I have nothing new to report. It's just another Manic Monday!

Back from Breakfast

OK. So Sue and I had some lovely eggs on toast and then we decided to go out for a spot of shopping. We went to IDÉE to pick up a present for Pierre, then we drove around a bit and went up to the stationary store near our school.
This country has the best stationary stores in the world. Seriously.
I've never been one for browsing around in bookstores looking at papers and pens etc, but I can get lost for hours looking at the stuff they have here. Susan and I needed to buy a few bits and bobs for our students for Christmas, and we just went a little crazy (although still within budget).
I also needed to buy a pencil sharpener for my classroom since my old one broke. I bought this crazy pencil sharpener that looks like a dinosaur. You put the pencil in the mouth and turn the crank at the back. The dinosaurs jaws move up and down as you turn. It's really something. I think my kids will love it, LOL!
Now I am just farting around on the computer for a bit before I head out to dinner. I am meeting Rob and Adel, Sue, and Marc and Lisa for dinner at a new vegetarian restaurant in town )It opened right next door to where Player used to be... it used to be a buffet place where I took my sister Laurie and my father when they came to visit a few years ago).
I am not vegetarian, but Marc is, so it's nice to have somewhere we can all go together. I don't know anything about this restaurant, but the woman who works at the "85 degrees" coffee shop we go to everyday says it's delicious. *SHRUG* She's probably related to the owner, but what the hell, it's worth checking it out at least, LOL!
Vegetarian food in Taiwan is spectacular. For meat-eaters who like their meat, there are options that will make you doubt that your meal is vegetarian. It's unbelievable. The food is flavorful and the options are really diverse. Restaurants back home in Canada could learn a lot from it.
I am a little sad since Marc and Lisa have decided to return to South Africa in about a week or so. They are a couple of people that I really get a kick out of. I quite enjoy their company and it will be sad to see them gone.
One of the things that is a little bit of a drag living overseas, is the fluid nature of the relationships you form. People are constantly coming and going, so it is tough to make really long-lasting fiends. I've known Marc and Lisa for about 5 years now, so this is a big blow. For now, though, I am just going to have a nice meal and enjoy their company while I can.
Since I've got your attention, by the way, might I recommend the latest Avenue Podcast? It is a 30 minute mix of Christmas and Holiday music sure to make you smile. The link is over there in the top right hand corner of the page, but in case it isn't, here is the link to the Avenue Podcast. If you happen to be reading this post sometime later than December 2006, you can always access the older podcasts from the archives, for as long as the Avenue Podcast is still going. There are two Christmas podcasts available as of this writing: December 2005 and December 2006. Personally, I like the 2006 one better.
What is the Avenue Podcast, you wonder?
It is a podcast that I create and share once or twice a month... sometimes more; sometimes less.
This month I went a little crazy and uploaded loads of fun things for you to enjoy. I promise. I'll tell you all about it in my next post, but for right now, it's freezing and my fingers are cold. No more typing for me!!
(Don't let anyone tell you that it's hot all-year-round in tropical countries: it's not! I'm freezing my tits off and the house has no insulation or heating! ARGGH!)

A Blog? Why not.

Well, I already do the Avenue Podcast, why not a blog, too?

More on all that later... right now I'm going downstairs for a lovely breakfast of eggs on toast with my sister! :)

xox
Tom in Taiwan