Birthday visit to Tainan
For as long as humans have chosen their own mates, they've been terrible at it. Absolutely abysmal. Romeo should never have fallen in love with Juliet. Tristan should never have been with Isolde. Paris's love for Helen doomed his entire civilization. Lancelot and Guinevere were never meant to be together. Cyrano and Roxane, another pair of star-crossed lovers. And Oedipus... well... he was REALLY bad at picking a wife.
Still, with so many centuries of bad lover choices, it was inevitable that the pendulum would swing the other way eventually. In fact, with so many bad choices accumulating negative energy, the pendulum wouldn't really swing as much as zoom. Therefore, I believe all of this culminated in me ending up with Juliet, the rightest of right choices, the bestest of best girlfriends. Ever.
On September 27, Juliet and I first met up in Kaohsiung. We had a lunch appointment with Professor Yu Yo-Shan, back from NSYSU. Professor Yu is a vegetarian, so we went to a really nice vegetarian restaurant, where I had these huge mushrooms that were basically like a steak meal. Very tasty and filling. I could go for vegetarianism.
Afterwards, we headed back to Tainan, where I got my photo taken at a photo shop. I needed to get my picture taken because I'm applying for a new passport. I need a new passport to go abroad. To places such as Thailand. The photo guy insisted I take my glasses off. I said I usually keep my glasses on. He said I can take them off when I'm going through Immigration in Thailand. So if anyone reads a news story about a fat guy accidentally knocking over a whole bunch of people in Bangkok Airport because he couldn't see, it's me.
After the photos, we had dinner at a sort-of-traditional Taiwanese noodle place. We didn't eat a lot because were were both quite stuffed from lunch. We also had some traditional bean tofu dessert thingy. And then after that, we browsed a department store, and discussed the relative merits of light colors, dark colors, horizontal stripes, vertical stripes, and bras. We also got a really nice and sporty top for Juliet.
That night, back at my hotel in Tainan, I accidentally switched the air conditioning to the coldest possible setting, making it a remarkably chilly night. I think I dreamt I was back in Bristol. As a result of the chill (or, possibly, the dream) I felt kinda sick all throughout the next day, the 28th.
On the 28th of September, we went to Juliet's house in the morning and sat around doing nothing, which is an important part of our visits. We don't see each other very often, so when we do it's nice to just sit there and luxuriate in one another's company. Afterwards, we went to the department store where Juliet's mother works, and had bagels for lunch. In the afternoon, we watched The Proposal, starring Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds. Both of whom are hot. Seriously, Ryan Reynolds is so awesome, I'll bet he just went up to Scarlett Johansson and said, "Hi, I'm Ryan Reynolds," and she went, "Oooo, marry me!"
We also played a bit of the basketball game at the arcade in the department store, and I managed to rack up an unprecedented high score. Maybe wooziness helps with your shooting.
In the evening, we went to the Confucius Temple in Tainan, and had dinner at the night market. Due to my wooziness, we postponed our plan to go KTVing and delivered me back to the hotel relatively early in the evening, where I went to bed early like a good boy. After downing about a gallon of water first, though, because fluids are important when nursing a cold.
Apparently the water worked very well, because I woke up on the morning of the 29th completely cured (apart from a minor stomach upset, but it wasn't a big deal). 28 years ago, on September 29, I came to the decision that my mother's uterus just wasn't a suitable environment for future development and growth, and decided to pursue other living arrangements. Juliet got me a t-shirt for my birthday, which was actually exactly what I wanted, since I've been meaning to replace all my old and manky t-shirts with new ones. I wore the t-shirt on my birthday, and Juliet wore the sporty top we'd bought two days ago. We went to Kaohsiung, because Juliet had gotten tickets for a video game exhibition.
I'm going to say that again. Juliet took me to a video game exhibition on my birthday. Her pure awesomeness simply cannot be expressed with mere words.
The Game On exhibition was at the Kaohsiung Museum of Science and Technology, and showcased the development of video games over the course of history. It started out with Pong, Pac-Man, Space Invaders and Asteroids, and moved on to games such as Dig-Dug, Raiden, Street Fighter etc. All of the games were playable, so we spent hours just wandering through the exhibition, trying out everything we could. There weren't a lot of people there that day (it was a weekday) so there were practically no lines. I could show off my knowledge of the video game industry by explaining the history of each game and how it was significant. I also had the opportunity to show Juliet some of my old favorites, such as Half-Life 2, Virtua Fighter, Virtual On, Tomb Raider, Pokemon, etc. We played several fighting games, and Juliet managed to consistently beat me despite having never played a fighting game before. This girl's got talent.
We also took a turn on the Dance Dance Revolution game, which showed us we're not as manually dexterous as we might have hoped. The Guitar Hero game also proved we're not quite as musically talented as we might have thought. Oh, and we wanted to take a turn on the Wii but we couldn't since there was this one girl hogging it. There was also one memorable video game table tennis match, which I think was rigged because I kept hitting the net.
I'm just gonna say it again. Juliet took me to a video game exhibition for my birthday. We spent an afternoon playing classic video games together. :D
The Science and Technology Museum also had an exhibition, a free one, on public health and safety. We got to learn about various dangerous industries, and how to protect ourselves and our health. There was also a machine that measured our weight and body fat percentage. Juliet's healthy, I'm not.
After the Game On exhibition, we saw an IMAX 3-d movie on ancient Egyptian mummies and pharaohs, during which I learned that it's actually quite easy to doze off even in 3-d movie theaters.
In the evening, we returned to Tainan and went KTVing. Having exhausted my repertoire of songs on my previous visits, I tried singing some songs I wasn't completely sure about, and managed to screw up most of them. Imagine me trying to sing Mickey, or It Wasn't Me by Shaggy, or Wind Beneath my Wings. Juliet's a great singer though, and helped me through some of the songs.
On the 30th, we headed to a travel agency in the morning, to deal with our passports and Thai visas and travel arrangements to Bangkok. We thought about joining a package tour, but I wasn't sure if it's a good idea. Still not sure, to be honest.
For lunch, Juliet's family took us to a Japanese restaurant, at which we all ordered the same thing, completely unplanned. I suppose there's a good reason for that though, it was quite a tasty meal. We all managed to stuff ourselves silly. After lunch, Juliet had to pick something up at her old cram school, and I was disappointed I didn't get to go in and see what her old boss looked like. After that, we drove to a local fish market, where we had a walk and bought a box of squid for me to bring back. And then we went to the High Speed Rail station, where we sat in a coffee shop and just chatted until it was time for me to leave. A nice outing with the family, you know?
This trip is the longest I've ever stayed in Tainan visiting Juliet. But, of course, it's never long enough. Eternity itself would be too short a time to spend with such a wonderful woman.
Still, with so many centuries of bad lover choices, it was inevitable that the pendulum would swing the other way eventually. In fact, with so many bad choices accumulating negative energy, the pendulum wouldn't really swing as much as zoom. Therefore, I believe all of this culminated in me ending up with Juliet, the rightest of right choices, the bestest of best girlfriends. Ever.
On September 27, Juliet and I first met up in Kaohsiung. We had a lunch appointment with Professor Yu Yo-Shan, back from NSYSU. Professor Yu is a vegetarian, so we went to a really nice vegetarian restaurant, where I had these huge mushrooms that were basically like a steak meal. Very tasty and filling. I could go for vegetarianism.
Afterwards, we headed back to Tainan, where I got my photo taken at a photo shop. I needed to get my picture taken because I'm applying for a new passport. I need a new passport to go abroad. To places such as Thailand. The photo guy insisted I take my glasses off. I said I usually keep my glasses on. He said I can take them off when I'm going through Immigration in Thailand. So if anyone reads a news story about a fat guy accidentally knocking over a whole bunch of people in Bangkok Airport because he couldn't see, it's me.
After the photos, we had dinner at a sort-of-traditional Taiwanese noodle place. We didn't eat a lot because were were both quite stuffed from lunch. We also had some traditional bean tofu dessert thingy. And then after that, we browsed a department store, and discussed the relative merits of light colors, dark colors, horizontal stripes, vertical stripes, and bras. We also got a really nice and sporty top for Juliet.
That night, back at my hotel in Tainan, I accidentally switched the air conditioning to the coldest possible setting, making it a remarkably chilly night. I think I dreamt I was back in Bristol. As a result of the chill (or, possibly, the dream) I felt kinda sick all throughout the next day, the 28th.
On the 28th of September, we went to Juliet's house in the morning and sat around doing nothing, which is an important part of our visits. We don't see each other very often, so when we do it's nice to just sit there and luxuriate in one another's company. Afterwards, we went to the department store where Juliet's mother works, and had bagels for lunch. In the afternoon, we watched The Proposal, starring Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds. Both of whom are hot. Seriously, Ryan Reynolds is so awesome, I'll bet he just went up to Scarlett Johansson and said, "Hi, I'm Ryan Reynolds," and she went, "Oooo, marry me!"
We also played a bit of the basketball game at the arcade in the department store, and I managed to rack up an unprecedented high score. Maybe wooziness helps with your shooting.
In the evening, we went to the Confucius Temple in Tainan, and had dinner at the night market. Due to my wooziness, we postponed our plan to go KTVing and delivered me back to the hotel relatively early in the evening, where I went to bed early like a good boy. After downing about a gallon of water first, though, because fluids are important when nursing a cold.
Apparently the water worked very well, because I woke up on the morning of the 29th completely cured (apart from a minor stomach upset, but it wasn't a big deal). 28 years ago, on September 29, I came to the decision that my mother's uterus just wasn't a suitable environment for future development and growth, and decided to pursue other living arrangements. Juliet got me a t-shirt for my birthday, which was actually exactly what I wanted, since I've been meaning to replace all my old and manky t-shirts with new ones. I wore the t-shirt on my birthday, and Juliet wore the sporty top we'd bought two days ago. We went to Kaohsiung, because Juliet had gotten tickets for a video game exhibition.
I'm going to say that again. Juliet took me to a video game exhibition on my birthday. Her pure awesomeness simply cannot be expressed with mere words.
The Game On exhibition was at the Kaohsiung Museum of Science and Technology, and showcased the development of video games over the course of history. It started out with Pong, Pac-Man, Space Invaders and Asteroids, and moved on to games such as Dig-Dug, Raiden, Street Fighter etc. All of the games were playable, so we spent hours just wandering through the exhibition, trying out everything we could. There weren't a lot of people there that day (it was a weekday) so there were practically no lines. I could show off my knowledge of the video game industry by explaining the history of each game and how it was significant. I also had the opportunity to show Juliet some of my old favorites, such as Half-Life 2, Virtua Fighter, Virtual On, Tomb Raider, Pokemon, etc. We played several fighting games, and Juliet managed to consistently beat me despite having never played a fighting game before. This girl's got talent.
We also took a turn on the Dance Dance Revolution game, which showed us we're not as manually dexterous as we might have hoped. The Guitar Hero game also proved we're not quite as musically talented as we might have thought. Oh, and we wanted to take a turn on the Wii but we couldn't since there was this one girl hogging it. There was also one memorable video game table tennis match, which I think was rigged because I kept hitting the net.
I'm just gonna say it again. Juliet took me to a video game exhibition for my birthday. We spent an afternoon playing classic video games together. :D
The Science and Technology Museum also had an exhibition, a free one, on public health and safety. We got to learn about various dangerous industries, and how to protect ourselves and our health. There was also a machine that measured our weight and body fat percentage. Juliet's healthy, I'm not.
After the Game On exhibition, we saw an IMAX 3-d movie on ancient Egyptian mummies and pharaohs, during which I learned that it's actually quite easy to doze off even in 3-d movie theaters.
In the evening, we returned to Tainan and went KTVing. Having exhausted my repertoire of songs on my previous visits, I tried singing some songs I wasn't completely sure about, and managed to screw up most of them. Imagine me trying to sing Mickey, or It Wasn't Me by Shaggy, or Wind Beneath my Wings. Juliet's a great singer though, and helped me through some of the songs.
On the 30th, we headed to a travel agency in the morning, to deal with our passports and Thai visas and travel arrangements to Bangkok. We thought about joining a package tour, but I wasn't sure if it's a good idea. Still not sure, to be honest.
For lunch, Juliet's family took us to a Japanese restaurant, at which we all ordered the same thing, completely unplanned. I suppose there's a good reason for that though, it was quite a tasty meal. We all managed to stuff ourselves silly. After lunch, Juliet had to pick something up at her old cram school, and I was disappointed I didn't get to go in and see what her old boss looked like. After that, we drove to a local fish market, where we had a walk and bought a box of squid for me to bring back. And then we went to the High Speed Rail station, where we sat in a coffee shop and just chatted until it was time for me to leave. A nice outing with the family, you know?
This trip is the longest I've ever stayed in Tainan visiting Juliet. But, of course, it's never long enough. Eternity itself would be too short a time to spend with such a wonderful woman.