15.07.2006 or "Insert daft subtitle here"

Last night I investigated the local pub across from us. It is advertised as being a foreigner bar although there were more locals than foreigners. In indulged in some Fosters, the first western beer I had sampled in a while since in Japan it was always Asahi and Kirin and here its usually Gold label Taiwan beer. Beer like most things here are quite cheap. I chatted to some of the locals and read the horrible Expat magazine which looks to have been written by complete morons. Towards the end of the evening I was ushered upstairs to watch some American guy play guitar and sing, there weren’t many people up there so he was taking requests. I got him to play some Radiohead although he didn’t know the words so I occasionally had to shout them out to him. I must have been up there for a while because when I got up to leave, my legs were not half as stable as they used to be. I plodded back home.

I woke up and my head felt like a sack of rocks. I tried to figure out why I was feeling ill having not spent much money on drinks. I then stopped trying to figure that out and concentrated on getting better, the solution, lemon tea, blendy and plain toast. I sat myself down to watch two films, well, one and a half because the first, The Grudge, the one with Buffy, was so crap I turned it off half way through. So then I watched Takeshis' which was great. As a movie it was so solid and entertaining. I often question whether Kitano is as great as I think he is and what the actual appeal of his films are. I guess as a protagonist, Takeshi is just so lovable, like a child given free reign to do things which are simultaneously shocking and creative. His films have a great sense of humor which never effects the compelling nature of the stories. I think his eye for artistic shot construction makes every scene much greater than the generic imagery of the Yakuza genre for example. I just loved this film from start to finish. It was so great to see so many Office Kitano actors coming back and still fantastic after all these years. I want to watch it again and again, and so I will, and so should you too.

So anyway we went out for some Yakiniku at a pretty cool place about a ten minute walk from here. My stomach was still a little off but cup after cup of coke seemed to sooth the beast. I ate various types of meat and we also tried to roast marshmallows over the grill but it didn’t seem to work very well.

Tomorrow we are off to the south of Taiwan for a bit of a scenery change. The weather is still a bit rubbish on account of the Typhoon but maybe we will get some luck and we can check out the beach without being too soaked by the sideways rain which has been persisting it down over here. Anyway because of this, I might not be able to put out a blog tomorrow. You will have to do something else with the 4 minutes it usually takes to read this stuff. May I offer up some suggestions...
You could read an entirely random persons blog by clicking at the top and choosing next blog, sometimes that is good for a cheap laugh. You could try to think of ten things which rhyme with blog and then make a little song with all of those words. Although be sure to record it and send it to me so I can play it to the kids at school. Or you could just sit still, close your eyes and go to your happy place for a while, remember to take big deep breaths and breathe in the good energy and push out the bad. If any of the above activities work out well for you, don’t get too carried away and forget to come back.

Until next time,

P.S, You could also try and think me up some signing off patter, I never know how to end these things, cheers.