Month: November 2011

  • Boy Racers

    The football was postponed due to rain at the weekend, the launch of the new BML season delayed for the second time. Without having kicked a ball yet, the new season looks like it will go in to April, instead of March which was originally scheduled.

     

    So as the rains stopped and Sunday morning brought northern Taiwan stunning, clear blue skies, this fat old body of mine needed some exercise, so the mountain bike was checked, the wife and noodle kissed, and off I went.

     

    As usual, I did not know where I was going to go, which route I would take. Recently I have taken the hard route up the mountain several times, but I wanted to go for a little more distance, then head  up the climb, so I took the river route, headed out to Sanchong along the bike route that has been constructed in by the Hsin Bei government, then back along another river that heads south towards Sanxia and Tucheng. I had a favourable wind, and was adding up those km as I got to the Shulin/Banchao border, so I figured I would head over the embankment and make my way towards Hsinchuang and then back to the mountain and begin my ascent.

     

    200 metres after rejoining the main road, I noticed I didn’t have control of the thing, and stopped, seeing that my rear tyre had a massive rip in the side. Carp. So I walked along for a while, hoping to find a main street with a bike shop. Down towards Shulin, I find a market street, so I turn down it, and whereas there were loads of veggie places for me, there was no sign of a bike shop.

     

    After maybe 20 or 30 minutes of walking, I found a major road, but there was no sign of a bike shoip along it, so instead of turning off my chosen route, I went across the road and kept going in the direction of Linkou and Taishan. After all, that was the road that would take me to the mountain, so I carried on. Shortly after that I saw that I was close to the Hsinchuang stadium, and I thought I remembered there was a bike place on the left. There was. And it was open. Cool.

     

    15 minutes later, new inner tube and tyre had been fitted, my wallet was a tad lighter, and off I continued. I headed up across another major intersection where there are loads of cars for sale, resisting the temptation of having a look for a new motor, and carried on in to Taishan. From there it was a nice flat road across to Wugu before the climb up the mountain.

     

    Making it to 150 metres with no problem, then the serious climb began, and it was fairly slow pedalling, the effects of the longer ride along the river taking its toll on my already low stamina levels, but I was enjoying it, and I am not going to turn back on this sort of climb. A couple of assholes decided that this is a good road to race their cars, so they tonked past me, their tyres screeching as they went round the corners, obviously having a fine time. I just thought they were complete morons, but there’s no shortage of those inside Taiwan’s cars.

     

    The very mild November has brought many flowers in to bloom, and there were some beautiful purples and whites along the side of the road, spiders also taking advantage of the fine weather, waiting up in their webs for an unsuspecting insect to fly in, hoping for one last meal before the winter hibernation.

     

    Behind me I could hear people talking, obviously other bikers, and not long after, one of them raced past me, got a ferw metres in front of me, then turned to look back. He then turned back, went down the slope, and five minutes later, all three of them raced past me once more. As soon as they had overtaken me, they stopped for a rest.

     

    I continued up this fine slope, not feeling too bad, the legs pumping away, whilst I was enjoying the exercise, the fresh air and the view of the Taipei basin. Finally I reached the summit, and it was downhill all the way to Bali Wharf. On one segment of the road, if you’re lucky, you can get up to some mega speeds, but as I was tonking down, there was a car blocking my way, and whereas I managed to overtake it, I had had to slow down beforehand, so there was no chance of breaking my record. Thank goodness though that the bike has ceramic brakes!

     

    Finally, at the bottom of the slope I turned right along the river for the final few kilometres to the apartment, where there were smiles from the wife and Noodle waiting for me. After such a nice, three hour trek (excluding the puncture break) that is the sort of welcome home that any man will love.

  • Occupied Flaws

    Yes I know that these protesters are all acting against the uber-capitalism of this world, against the bankers who seem to be making money for themselves even when the corporations are making a loss, needing bail outs from the government which means higher taxes (poor Americans, not used to higher tax!) and more loans putting even more pressure on an already fragile economy, but isn’t it slightly ironic that in this time when the country that brought the world capitalism is heading towards a more socialist phase, one of the most traditionally communist/socialist countries of the world is embracing capitalism with open arms? 

     

    And now, all these people who have been protesting about the over-commercialism of the world, are out on the streets, with their iPhones, their Nike shoes and their Starbucks coffees. And they see absolutely no double standards there. They are the very 99% of the world’s people who have been fueling this fire, yet they need a scapegoat, someone to blame. And why not? Our has become a generation of shifting blame. It’s never my fault. 

     

    Living in a country where there is so much selfishness, it is a far cry to the world I grew up in, where my parents taught me to share (even though I never liked it, it did become appreciated) and think not just about myself, but other people. In Taiwan, parents take their children to school or kindergarten and expect the teacher to instill all these ideals on them, but the child is influenced more by what he/she sees from the parents. It is not solely the teacher’s responsibility to show the children right from wrong, that falls on the parent.

     

    Parents today seem to have become lazy – they ask the child what sort of punishment would befit the crime. They are not even taking responsibility for the actions of their own child, and that is not here in Asia, but around the world. As a parent myself, it is my job, it is my responsibility, it is my duty to be a good example for my son. If he is going to learn to be compassionate towards other people then it is me who has to instill that in to him. Not a teacher at kindergarten or school later. He is no plaything – he is not a toy. He is my son, and if he is good then he needs to be rewarded, if he is bad then he needs to be punished, and learn that being bad has consequences.

     

    Otherwise he will end up like the Manager of the Beijing Airport project who did not know that helping his friends (whilst at the same time taking kick backs) was illegal. This is embracing capitalism to the max.

     

    But those people in the Occupy movement need to focus their attention on the real matter at hand. Which is the bankers. Yes this is sometimes the message coming out of the camps, but it is not really the sole message, and when you send mixed messages, sooner or later you will alienate the people who initially support you. Banks who offer you an investment deal, then bet money on that very investment deal failing, thus making more money than they would have done had it succeeded, are the ones to blame. The very same banks who pay their execs and managers massive bonuses after failing miserably, those are the ones to blame. And correct me if I am wrong, but are they not exactly the same banks which were bailed out with public money not 2 years ago? 

     

    Paid for by public money. Well the public money was borrowed, but someone, some time, has to pay it back. It’s slightly strange too that in an era where the African continent has been discovered for its riches in natural resources, and where all African debt was essentially written off my the colonial superpowers, it is those very superpowers who now find themselves deep in debt. The problem though is that in American politics, those who would have the balls to stand up to all of this would have to put the US in to a major depression before the country could recover. And the world economy relies so much on the US spending money. Especially China. 

     

    It’s a huge political nightmare, and it seems to me that no one knows where to begin in resolving all these issues.

     

    But thankfully, that is not my problem.

  • Call of Nature

    The pressure of the job was taking its toll – the old boss had taken some of his own pressure out on me, and was giving me a hard time for something that, in all truth, I personally had no control over. Having returned from the cold confines that Europe has to offer during the early months of the year, to the cool and rather uncomfortable climate that is Taiwan before spring brings the sunshine and warmth back, I decided to take a sickie.

     

    Joanne, in the final days of her pregnancy, decided that was a great idea and also took a day off work. With Taipei’s Flora Expo in the final few weeks, we decided not to go to the mainstream exhibition area, but instead head out to the mountains where Joanne thought she knew there would be blossoms.

     

    It just so happened that it was close to Shenkung, so we headed in for some food, especially my favourite and staple ma la cho tofu, before jumping back in to the Nissan and heading up the mountain a tad.

     

    My navigator was not completely sure that she knew the way, but I was ok with that. We were relaxing, which was what I needed. It was not raining, but there was a lot of moisture in the air, which made it quite a foggy drive, despite the low altitude. After a relatively short climb, we saw some white blossoms, and then further on some more, mixed in with pinks. We continued driving, Joanne believing that there was more further up the mountain. There wasn’t.

     

    So we turned back, and parked the car where there were several others, some people getting back in to their cars, others just arriving. The air was filled with a light scent of flowers, although Joanne’s sense of smell was perhaps not as keen as mine, as she did not notice.

     

    We took a walk through the low hanging trees, enjoying the beauty of the blooming and colourful flowers, knowing that very soon Lyndon would be arriving. The excitement of being parents added to the pleasure and relaxation we were feeling from this very short sojourn in the bosom of mother nature.

     

    As we drove back down the mountain, and started our way home once more, we smiled. We had seen one of the lesser visited Flora Expo sites, away from the throngs and masses that were happier to visit the all too convenient locations inside Taipei City itself. Somehow the pressure and frustration of the office had been left behind, albeit for a little while.

     

    And the pressure of parenthood was just a couple of weeks away.