Categories
in taiwan

to the library!

what is a person to do, when work needs to be done but an airbnb with a table is practically impossible to find? cafés in taipei can be super nice to work from, but they are also quite expensive for everyday use. so the logical solution is to look for a library! :) we stayed next to the normal university in taipei, and their library was perfect for a few hours of focused work: quiet, air conditioned (sometimes too much), with good internet and plugs everywhere. 

in hualien, i shared a table at the library with a grandpa that alternated between watching something on his ipad and dozing in place — not even the noise of the periodical fighter jets above us would wake him up! and kaohsiung’s central library was lovely too, modern and well-equipped, with a brilliant shop (as if it were a museum)… and a vending machine to pick up or drop library books at a central metro station!

libraries really are a big comfort space for me — how brilliant is it that every town has this safe, cozy place where you can just read or do your thing… and for free! they really made me wish i could properly read chinese so i could pick up some books while there. maybe by the time we next visit, i’ll be able to pick something to read from the kid’s section…

Categories
foooood weeknotes

weeknotes, 1/23

– what a difference a week makes! last week, there were no flowers anywhere, and this week, as if in tune to the movements of a silent maestro, the almond blossoms are here! still shy, still only starting to peek, but they’re here, and it makes me so happy. i know spring is still very far away, but this feels like a prelude, some hope on the horizon.

– the whole week, we’ve been trying to (finally!!) book some flights to taiwan, only to be foiled by my credit card company. researching and booking flights is already something the boy and i both dislike, but these recent hiccups (and watching the prices increase daily while we wait) make the whole ordeal extra frustrating. we’ve been waiting for this trip for years now, and i just want to get the flights booked, so that we can finally start making more concrete plans.

– i slapped some stamps on this box of portuguese smarties that i randomly found at the supermarket, and sent it to my cousin francisco this week. they arrived 2 days later and he was over the moon! :D now i have to try and find more, to send to my other small cousins. even after 70 million postcards, the postal service still feels like magic!

– i finished listening to joan didion’s audiobook, “the year of magical thinking“, which is about the year after her husband passed away. it’s a stream of consciousness, the kind of things that go through one’s head when a beloved person suddenly disappears — the giving oneself to grief and mourning and the irrationality of it. it’s hard, and heavy, and a bit clinical… but also frank and cathartic.

– we’ve still going strong on potatoes and this week we’ve experimented with a couple of recipes from this bbc list. the hasselback roast potatoes and the domino dauphinoise were clear winners!

Categories
just life

2021 books

looking at my goodreads, these were the 14 books i made my way through last year:

some themes definitely pop out — there’s a bit of china stuff, some productivity or time-management, the green brothers new books… and some trashy stuff too that i made my way through as well, in a time when i was just craving distraction. not featured are the many, many fanfics i read in the wee hours of the morning, when i couldn’t sleep.

my trusty old kindle still does the job, and most of these were read on it. a couple were audiobooks, and the get together book was a hardcover freebie from stripe. i’ve just finished the first book of 2022 (meet me at the museum), and i hope this “new year reading energy” lasts for a bit!

Categories
photography

phone-sex stories

phone-sex is theather. an artificial passion play in real-time, directed by a skilled verbal fantasist, with only one possible conclusion.

phone sex book

a photo book of phone-sex workers at home, along with their stories, by phillip toledano.

Categories
in china

say what?

a piece of chinglish hidden on today’s chinese lesson. can you see it? :P

say again?