Taipei Living

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16th October 2007.

This post is more a note for myself to read 5 years from now and have a good laugh at some of the adventures/misadventures in Taipei...

Tuesday - was going to be yet another day....
The wake up alarm goes off at 5:45 AM and after snoozing it for 3 times I finally crawl out of bed at 6 AM for yet another action packed day.

The usual chores of getting kids out of bed ..Tanya is seen off at her bus stop by 6: 55....I got greeted by an American neighbour who moves her house today to another part of the city...so we said our usual Goodbyes and we will meet soon ....also a message to pass to another neighbour from New Zealand....who I would meet 15 minutes later....when I put Riona to bus at 7:20...

Both the kids to school I realised that Sedj still in bed.(as he was working very late)I thought I might as well go to Gym ...so quickly changed and off to gym for a half hour workout....and came back only to take a shower and leave for a movie...

Well that was my first venture into a multiplex/theatre in Taipei...

I am not a movie person...and I rarely watch ...may be a frequency of one in six months.....

But this was a movie I had heard some ladies discussing its a "must see" and even Sedj (who is more a movie watcher than I ..he can easily watch a movie a day if he had the time...)had mentioned that we must see it...I said "Lets go for it on a week day when kids are at school"anyways he had to take off that day as I needed him to do some babysitiing in the evening.

Trust me I just thought it was another "Hollywood movie" till about 3 days ago Sedj told its a Chinese movie done by A Taiwanese Director.

So much so is my movie knowledge...so in a scale 0 to 10 I would be competing at 0.

The movie we were going to watch is Lust ,Caution

So having heard only the English name I could not figure out it was a Chinese movie...

So we set out...at 9 AM...to Down town to catch the movie in time at 10:25 AM.
We took along some passes we had...and the English newspaper with show times and movie reviews....

The traffic is very heavy in the morning and to find parking and figure out how to exchange our passes and where to go...typically any movie place would have over 10 movies running at the same time...and most signboards for anything would be in Chinese.

so we exchanged at our tickets....the counter guy asked us we wanted pop corn and we said yes..what we didnt know we were handed over a hotdog, a drink and a big box of popcorn each and we had to pay for only the popcorn and hence the question? ...So balancing all of them we were seated in an absolutely empty hall...by about 10:22 AM so we said " just in time"...



By 10 :30 ..we were wondering...whats wrong the movie had not started..so I dug out the tickets which had some details like hall number , seat number,...show time as 10:40 ( which I noticed then) and something saying "KINGDO" as usual all else in Chinese...so I said lets go and check with the guy at entrance...with the newspaper we have "are we at the right place?"...the newspapers gives the movie name in English and Chinese always...

so in two minutes..here we figure out we are siting in the wrong hall and apparently the "Kingdo" is for a movie : Kingdom Falls"...so basically the guy at the counter just assumed we won't watch a Chinese movie and hence gave us an English movie ticket.

anyways as usual Taiwanese are extremely considerate to foreigners knowing I guess our inability in their language we were quickly shifted to a hall where the movies was running so finally 8 minutes late at 10 : 33 we were watching the movie....we had no arguments /scuffle...I think they just realised they didnt understand and they even gave us the same seat numbers moving some viewers who were already seated..I guess its easier to explain to them in Chinese than to us...

So thank God we got to see the right movie!

It was a 3 hr movie....a different kind than usual I have never watched a Chinese movie...and thank God it had English Subtitles.

So after the movie we headed home just to pick up some things and Sedj can download his email for the rest of the day's action. So from say 8:45 to 1:45 - all we got to do was watch a movie...I thought that was too much time to "just watch a movie"

We reached school by about 2 ...and juggled with having pizzas while we get the car to a parking space...

We had an appointment at 2:35 with Tanya's teacher to watch avideo clipping we missed on another occassion...

Its amazing how a 7 year old can introduce herself in a typcial American accent!

" I love horse back riding....I swim breast stroke and back stoke...I love to keep a hamster and my mom wont let me since she thinks it tough to look after"That was her Introduction to all her Class Parents for the open house.

Mind you ...she has never done any horse back riding ( so it must be just fashionable to say) and swimming she does ( thats a message for me dont try to tell me to do free style and butter fly strokes) and hamster...( again I think its just the peer pressure as most of her classmates have pets so you need to sound cool)

Then we peeped into Riona "JAZZ" class to find out she decided not to dance that day...so I had to go in give her usual "motherly threats" " if you dont dance then you get to watch TV" and in a second she is joining the group to dance...

Then I exchanged library books so I get some books for Riona to practise reading and bought tickets for High School Play"Once upon a Mattress".

So by 3:30 grabbed the two kids Tanya from her singing class and left her with Sedj and rushed to take Riona to her Kumon class- its a 15 minute activity but the walking up and down takes another 20 minutes...

so finally I was back at the swimming pool at 4:15 as I was an assigned Timekeeper for the Swim Meet...so took over from S( he substituted me for 10 mins) and packed the kids home with him...


Its amazing how even 7 t 8 year olds compete in swimming for 100 mts and 200 mts...so was out of my duty by 6:15 PM...by the way this was the reason Sedj took off today so that I can prevent two tired kids hanging out with me 3 hrs at a swimming pool...

I got home to make dinner for them..mind you made "Appams for Sedj and Dosa for Tanya".and I can relieve Sedj to go for his Squash match....

While Tanya had her shower and did her homework and was in bed.by 8:30..Riona had a good nap while I was out time keeping so I still had the challenge to keeo her occupied....

So she decides I read her a book....so did couple of small books...then she says by 9 PM...I want to play Games...thats one thing I always guilty I have not managed to teach Riona enough..of these indoor games.so I said lets play....so I just said let me just play with her so the dishes still to do..and the laundry we decied to play draughts....I am going to give it a good try this time..so I said to myself..so we played a full game of draughts as I tried to make her understand...then once we were done with that she decided we play scrabble,

a photo of scrabble game




One Day in Taipei
so we played another game of scrabble...though by then I could feel I am really getting tired....I still made a few words in an effort to make her understand....and at 10 pm she is still wide awake...and full of energy and says I am hungry...so I decided to give in to her and gave her some chips to eat...while I did my Laundry and dishes....mind you I left the house early morning...

By 11 PM I am telling ( or screaming) her " go to sleep "mama is tired" ...and we went to bed....


What a day!

So I thought its good to write I spent each day say for a week...so I really need to find some time for myself....

So here I am on Wednesday morning 5 AM blogging so that I do keep that promise to myself..to log a week of my life in Taipei.

Having done over 100 posts I want to make it 200 this year...as life unfolds!