Newcastle United vs Sunderland AFC. More Taiwan pics.
Saturday, April 19th, 20081330GMT tomorrow afternoon will see the World’s greatest sporting event taking place at St James Park, Newcastle upon Tyne, England. Conditions have to be perfect for this to transpire. This nail-biting, edge-of-your-seat phenomenom occurs only twice a year if both parties are in the same division. Fortunately, this is currently the case. Accordingly, we all have the opportunity to witness this spectacle in a mere 24hrs.
What are you talking about? I’m talking about the eagerly awaited North-East football derby: Newcastle Utd vs Sunderland AFC. Almost 53000 people will witness this encounter inside the stadium. Millions more throughout the region and across the globe live on TV. Millions that is except me! The powers that be in Taiwan would rather watch Yulan vs Taiwan Beer at basketball followed by a replay of the NY Yankees vs Baltimore Orioles at baseball. A f*cking replay? I have just checked the TV schedules online. Is this BIG time bollicks or what? It is difficult to find the words to describe my disappointment.
I have had it up to here (pointing to my head) with shitty American sports. Who wants to watch a load of 7ft black blokes bouncing a big ball around? Basketbullshit tsschh! Baseball? What’s that? We have baseball in England except we call it rounders and only girls play it. I am really missing footbaal man! My loss will feel particularly acute tomorrow as I try to find online commentary when I could be in ANY other SE Asian country watching this with a beer!
Enough moaning - Haway the Toon!
Meanwhile, we’ve had another day out:
Aye, it’s a canny big bell like. I don’t know why she is doing a Jaws impression? She reminds me of a gameshow girl showing off prizes. This is Tucheng Temple not far from our house.
Zi Ting doing her crab impression. Or is she trying to make an equalateral triangle but her hands have like magnetic charges?
A little beach near Tainan city. Can you see how the water reached her knees about 10s before? Haha, pretty funny. She wasn’t expecting that! The two fingers are explaining how she has two wet legs - I think. Or maybe it is simply the standard Taiwan photo pose.
Look Steve, a horse! Champion! I can’t get the Black Beauty theme tune out of my head - and Alan Partridge tidying up his room to it! Apparantly there is a typhoon somewhere off Taiwan hence the clouds. Can you see all the bamboo washed up in the background?
Zi Ting at YanMingShan flower park near Taipei (at about 1255 I reckon).
A nice close up of some beautiful orchids.
现在在这里有很多花 = A lot of flowers here at this time of year. In ‘easier’ simplified Chinese characters.
Thanks to Newton, any knowledgeable engineer should be able to calculate all the forces at work here.
What are you doing sweetheart? I keep telling you to stop kissing rocks.
Zi Ting and her mate Louise posing in front of the mushroom shaped rocks near Taipei.
Ready to go. Outside the house in Cigu. These sunglasses give me fly-vision.
Which comes in handy when watching this puppet show. Very psychedelic. I was thinking, instead of drinking that magic mushroom milkshake in Laos, I should have saved it for here! The accompanying music sounded like someone trying to wash a cat while dropping bricks on a tin roof.
I was jealous of Zi Ting’s bell pic so I wanted one too.
This was a wooden lion or dog next to the bell. Like everything here, the detail is incredible on this sculpture. The bell appears to be a focal point for reasons that remain a mystery to me. Like many other things here.
I fancy some of this wallpaper for my next house.
A bridge over troubled waters? This moat surrounds the temple.
Praying for a trophy next season.
You can see a couple of golden Bhuddas through the smoke of the joss sticks.
This is as close as I’ve ever been to a deity. It’s a pretty surreal place. The atmosphere, the smell of joss sticks, the hushed calm and the contemplative ambience leave you a little spellbound.
Trying to get an impression of scale while Zi Ting was in the toilet.
Creasing up with laughter at Zi Ting’s crack.
The very front of the temple. The stone carving is exquisite. These things must take an awful lot of money and time to build.
Wahey! A gorilla supping a pint of beer! What is it with Taiwan and gorillas?
A Taiwanese institution. The betel nut beauties. These lasses sell betel nuts from neon-lit roadside glass cabinets. This lass here is very modestly dressed as many of her counterparts wear bikinis and boots with 6 inch soles. I have only seen this in Taiwan! Nowhere else in the World seems to do it. I love it but it must cause traffic accidents.
A little later. One more to give you an idea. These things are everywhere man! So many sexy lasses too!
It looks like a one-woman disco.
Five days until I hit the Philippines again! This time last year I had just arrived at Hoa’s Place on China beach next to Marble mountain in Vietnam.
Zaijian
The ...