Poagao's Journal

Absolutely Not Your Monkey

Jan 16 2009

In between

I met an old college friend, Xiao Bing, for a lunch of beef noodles in an alley off Chongqing South Road earlier today. The cold temperatures of the last week had relented to the sunshine, and Taipei seemed somehow cleaner for it. Fewer people out on the streets, walking more quickly because of the cold, hands in pockets less likely to discard trash, perhaps.

Xiao Bing works for the post office and has for the past 17 years or so. He told me that they had used stick-on posters that read “Taiwan Post” on their little green trucks when the DPP changed the name from Chunghua Post, as they knew it would probably be changed back soon. I told him that I had finally sold the motorcycle I bought from him so many years ago, and he didn’t believe that it was still working after all this time. The motorcycle, like our friendship, is about 20 years old, and I remember when he got it, brand-new. He was too short to ride it properly and sold it to me. “Xiao Bing” means “Little Soldier” -the nickname resulting from the fact that his gun was nearly as tall as he was when he did his army service. His son, in junior high school, is already taller than he is.

I’m feeling somewhat in between things these days; I’ve come down off the movie thing, I think, but I haven’t quite set things up for the next stage, whatever it turns out to be. I’ve got some new trappings, a new camera, possibly a new computer around the corner, but nothing seems set. As for what’s next: Working more on photography, rewriting my book, more video projects (much smaller, of course)…beyond that it’s hard to say. It might be simply because this is the strange time in between Christmas and the Chinese New Year holidays, the transitory nature of which I’ve only managed to exascerbate by planning two long vacations on either end. After I return, perhaps I’ll feel more ready to start into this new year and all that it holds.

posted by Poagao at 5:42 am  

2 Comments »

  1. Where are you going on your next trip?

    Comment by Your Sis — January 16, 2009 @ 9:15 am

  2. Spain, mostly, and three days in Paris.

    Comment by Poagao — January 16, 2009 @ 10:16 am

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