Earthquake Hits Taipei

I don’t know any details, but I was working on some posts when the building started shaking. It lasted for about 10 or 15 seconds. I forgot to count. It was around 2AM. It can’t have been a large one, since no alarms were heard.

I woke up this morning after having slept about 5 hours. I was pretty tired. Since I do my writing at night, at around midnight, I can’t seem to be able to wake up early enough so that I can get some training done before work. That would be the ideal situation, getting up at 6AM, working out until 7:30AM and then heading to work. I was so tired that I took a 1-hour nap. I woke up alert and refreshed. I knew that I’d be working until 8PM.

At around 5PM, I wanted to get something to eat but ended up at the grocery store to buy some meat and spaghetti. I ate quickly and left for Sanchong.

I finished teaching tonight at 8PM. I was subbing in Sanchong and realized that the breaks on Old Nancy were really bad. I brought her in for a tune-up. That ate up the hour that I had planned on using to train. It would have been my first nightly training session on the bike. Still, we had some funky typhoon weather, so I wasn’t too bothered at having missed the chance to work out today. It’s supposed to be my rest day. Since I finish working tomorrow at 4:30 PM, I can be on my bike at 4:45, meaning that I’ll be able to do at least 65 km.

What’s annoying is that the mechanic just tightened the breaks. I wanted new ones since Old Nancy doesn’t seem to break as fast as usual. This makes me unsure of her and apprehensive about going 90 kph on crowded streets. I’ll drop by the mechanic tomorrow again.

Yoda, The Computer Cat

Yoda as a kitten last year

I discovered that Yoda is the culprit.

She is responsible for switching off my computer. It’s happened a few times and my desktop is always on. It turns out that she played with the cables a bit. I have to admit that we have a cable mess between the sofas.

I gave Spike a well needed bath and played with them a bit while I relaxed on the sofa. I haven’t updated my reading series since I arrived in Taiwan. June was a slow month, but I’ve started reading heavily again in July. I’ll post updates today.

Almost Caught Up Blogging Backlog

It’s my first morning off in a while and I finally managed to almost catch up on my blogging backlog. With freelancing, working and training, there isn’t much time left at the end of the day. I’ve got to manage time more efficiently. It’s TGIF and tonight, I’m going to be off.

Someone mentioned a music festival, though I don’t plan on going. I’ll probably go running and biking instead.

Bikes in Taiwan

I met a restaurant owner that I hadn’t seen in about a year and we talked about bikes. He’s also interested in buying a new bike and we are going to shop around. We are going to try and find resellers instead of just distributors so that we can get even better deals.

I was actually thinking about going to the Giant factory and asking if you can purchase bikes there. In Canada and the US, factories have sales of sorts, from discarded samples to old stock. I guess that could be true in Taiwan as well, though I am not sure. My friend has got a Taiwanese wife, so she is going to investigate this initially for us. Also, my friend speaks good Mandarin. We are meeting up next week to go around a few shops to see how far we can deal them down. We have already got a base -20% rebate on the Taiwanese MSRP. We want even more off.

TGIF My Daily Routine in Taiwan

Today is Friday and I have the morning off. This schedule will be mine for the whole month of July, so that’s pretty sweet. I’ve kind of dropped into a routine that fits me well. I usually get up at 7:30AM, feed the pets, do some paperwork, drink tea, and read a few feeds before heading out to walk the dog at around 8AM. Right after, I hit the shower and go to work. I arrive at work shortly before 9AM and get a free lunch there, which I’ve ingested at around 11:50AM. I don’t do breakfasts.

I come home for a midday break and take it easy, tying up some loose odds and ends. I spend some time with the pets before going back to work in the afternoon at a different school. For the month of July, I finish at around 4:30PM, which is early. Last week, I finished at 6:15PM. Last Monday, I finished at 9PM.

I expect to get more subbing gigs to fill the evenings, but I don’t want to do too much. For the last few days, after a few hours at home of relaxing and reading, I have taken naps. Since I’m still a bit injured, I figure that I need the rest. This would be the optimal time for me to go out for a nice long bike ride. On Tuesday, I tested it out, but it wasn’t meant to be. My left knee’s scab kind of interferes with the motion of riding a bike. Also, since I post my articles at around midnight local time, I tend to go to bed later than I should.

After the nap, I wake up and walk the dog once again. Spend some more time with the pets and start reading feeds earnestly. I get into a groove and write my articles, usually stopping by midnight or 1AM. I relax for an hour and hit the hay.

Post-Crash Bike Service

After my crash last Sunday, which required a trip in an ambulance and the hospital, I didn’t notice much as I was out cold, I thought that my bike was fine. I was given 3 different pills to swallow for a day or so, so I didn’t take my bike out yesterday. I still went to work and had a 12 hour day, subbing at the end of my long shift for two hours in Sanchong because I had time.

I had fun grossing the wife out with my wounds. It also worked well on my Kindergarten kids. I came home in all of these bandages, which hurt like hell when I took them off the next day. I wanted the wounds to be in the air so that they would heal faster. A day later and I can say that progress has been made. I’ve had to wear shorts so that my pants don’t rub on my knees. My wounds look better and I was feeling OK today, good enough to try and take the bike out.

I took it out at around 7PM. I noticed quickly that something was wrong. The front wheel was hobbling and the rear derailleur was shifting without being asked to. A quick drop into my favorite Giant shop and my service was started and finished for free, even though my bike wasn’t purchased in Taiwan or at their shop, I guess they feel responsible to repair it, as it is a Giant Anthem. It turns out that one of the spokes of the front wheel was popped out. The rear derailleur needed adjustment and the rear disc brake wheel needed to be straigntened.

I spent some time explaining my accident and oogling the road bikes. There is one bike that I like, but I know I won’t get it. The frame is made out of titanium and I firmly believe in carbon fiber for road bikes. Still, I’d like to have a second road bike frame, once I get a TCR Advanced SL 0 in order to mount my spare parts.

It took a few minutes and  I was set. No fees charged.

When I arrived home, I spent time examining the SRAM XO shifters. I realized that they can shift down multiple gears at a time when fully compressed. I hadn’t realized it until now, it had never been an issue. I tend to touch shift, so I never went all the way. From my tests, it seems like the rear derailleur can downshift three gears at a time. That’s cool!

A Day of Firsts

Well, Sunday marked a day of firsts.

It was the first time I was in an ambulance, the first time in my adult life that I lost consciousness, the first time in 9 years that I got stitches. It was also my first bicycle accident.

I remember fidgeting with my watch on my bike. That’s the last thing I remember because I must have crashed a few moments later. Thank goodness for helmets. To be honest, I don’t really like wearing helmets and I have at times thought about not wearing one. Thank God that I just wore it, day in and day out, without any complaints.

I woke up in the hospital or the ambulance. I was asking if I was in Taiwan. I couldn’t remember if I was an ESL teacher. At least, I knew my name, but I didn’t know what happened. I have three cuts on the left side of my face with a few stitches, I don’t know how many, and I have abrasions on both arms and knees. Thoughtfully, the paramedics brought my bike with me to the hospital and it was fine.

I recalled my own cell phone number and my home number after I woke up and my wife was on the way. I was discharged as soon as my wife arrived at around 3PM. I had left the house at around 11:30AM. From my guess, I had my accident at about 12:30PM. The exact memories of what happened are a bit foggy, but I guess that I need to buy a bicycle computer. That would have probably avoided the fall. My watch wasn’t fixed on the handlebars, but on my wrist.

It’s the day after and my wife got me a whole bunch of treats yesterday. It felt like Christmas. I told her jokingly that I should get injured more often. Nope, I don’t want to fall down again. Ah well, with my using the bike this much, as much as I used it back when I was 15-17 when I was seriously training, it was bound to happen. New bikes are lighter, stiffer and have new technologies in them that take a while to get used to. I think I was distracted and then fell down. The good news is that I’ll be getting a new helmet this week and that I’m fine. The Scott jersey that I was wearing was a bit torn up on the shoulder, but I can still wear it. Still, I’m totally miffed at having torn that. It was a birthday present from my wife.

Joe’s Twig-gate

So there I was, minding my own business and teaching a buxiban class. It’s a “homework” class for grade school students, and I’ve got kids from 3rd to 6th grade in the same classroom. This means that some of the kids can get easily bored. They are of too different levels in my opinion and the class should be split.

After having told Joe to stop playing with his toys for the 4th time, I told him to give me his little twig. This happened right after I confiscated a blown up rip-off Rubik’s cube. He didn’t want to hand it over, even when the Chinese teacher confronted him. He hid it behind his bag and said he didnt have anything. I looked around on the floor and found his little twig. He took it up and tried to put it in his pencil case. I told him to hand it over. He didn’t comply and threw it in my general direction. I took it in my pocket and took his pencil case from his desk and put it on mine. By this time, he was bawling. I guess that he’s about 10. He was making a big deal and most probably saying bad words about me. I talked to him in English. I didn’t swear, but told him that I didn’t care. He should have handed it over. I didn’t care that other teacher might indulge him. He was totally freaking out and the teacher had to take him outside. Before she did, while he was crying loudly, I resumed class and spoke over his attention-seeking.

A few moments later, I broke the twig in small pieces. During break time, I threw it out. I noticed that when Joe came back into class, he was looking all over the place for his twig. He even checked out the garbage. Towards the end of class, he started crying again. He couldn’t find it. I told him that I had destroyed it and that he shouldn’t have played with it in class. Too bad so sad. If he would have just handed it over, I would have probably just put it on Teacher Kay’s desk, but no, he had to make a giant deal about it.

Later, Kay tried to explain that it was a special twig. I wanted to know more, was there a religious significance, was it valuable or a shoot of some sort? No, she said, it was just a twig. She apologized for him and I said not to worry, I’d seen plenty worse in my time. From what she said, I understood that she didn’t understand why Joe was so enamored with the twig.

ADHD Howey

I’ve got this exhausting ADHD kid in my K1 class named Howey. He can’t help himself from talking very loudly at every opportunity. I first scolded him slightly for always interrupting before I knew of his condition. Now, I just tend to ignore him. This seems to settle him after a while.

Actually, he’s more funny than exhausting. There is this constant stream of words coming out of his mouth. Sometimes, you engage him and it leads to even funnier places. It’s my first full week of teaching kids again in almost a year. I have naturally caught a cold. It was to be expected. I teach 45 different kids from the ages of 4 to 12.

Out of India Restaurant Shida Market

I was invited out to an Indian restaurant last night. It’s called Out of India and located in the Shida market area, not far from NTNU on Shida Rd. First off, service was barely passable. The waitresses were busy, but there was no excuse for serving our entrées in the middle of the meal.

The dishes were tasty, but not tasty enough. A bit bland to be honest. They all tasted alike and none of them were spiced enough. The restaurant was also very hot. The had switched down their bigger AC and I was getting hot towards the end of the meal. I don’t know why, but I felt sick after I finished eating. It might have been the fact that I had a headache before which I got from riding in the sun that afternoon, but I don’t know. I almost felt like puking, and that’s never a good sign.

Anyway, I don’t recommend this restaurant.