I met Mr. Zheng, Maoman’s landlord, at a coffee sh…
I met Mr. Zheng, Maoman’s landlord, at a coffee shop near the Dingxi MRT station in Yonghe last night. It was raining and the streets reflected the neon signs. I found the shop and went upstairs to find the old man sitting at a table drinking coffee. He was well-dressed and quite friendly, but it soon became clear he wasn’t willing to budge on the rent for the apartment. We chatted about Taiwan and politics over dinner and parted amicably. I had nowhere else to go, so I went over to Maoman’s to tell him the bad news.
I arrived at his place just as he was heading out to collect some rent money from a psychotic landlady for a friend who was hiding out in Canada. The old woman went on and on about how noisey, rambunctious foreigners were a menace to society. “The police came and said ‘Admit it; you’re harboring foreigners, aren’t you? Just tell us; we won’t arrest you if you’re honest about it,'” she told us, holding out complex mathmatical computations of the white scourge’s electricity bills for the past several months. Ironically, her shirt bore the English words “Nihilism. Shy. Stupid”, most likely intended as some sort of warning to people considering engaging her in conversation. Maoman was doing his utmost to remain polite, but there seemed to be no end to her ranting, so we excused ourselves and departed on Maoman’s scooter, the woman running along behind us shouting “they were so loud the neighbors were cursing me, and I said don’t blame me….” before we were out of earshot. Close one, that.
After remembering that Dominoes now closes at the impossibly early hour of 9pm (grrr), we took a taxi downtown and stopped at a few restaurants before settling at Amigo on Fuxing N. Rd. The portions had looked small in the menu, so we got nachos, but the meals turned out to be more than enough, and quite delicous as well. Afterwards we continued the Mexican theme by having drinks at Peso before calling it a night. A rather pleasant night, actually. I was a bit disappointed about the apartment, but I have time to find something else, and looking is kind of fun as well. Theoretically I could be getting a new job, a new place to live, and a new computer in the near future. It’s time for a change. Past time, as I’m sure you’re sick of hearing me say.
Quiet again today. I added some pictures of yesterday’s desk battle to the last entry if you want to see Office Turtle Fighting alongside Jango Fett against Attar and the Doh-Dough.
Our holiday starts tomorrow, and Kirk and I still have no idea what we’re going to do, since Kirk’s night school exams just ended last night. Hopefully we’ll be able to get tickets to Green Island and maybe Orchid Island. We’ll see. I would have liked to go somewhere abroad, but it just didn’t work out. I might be going to HK some time next month with Mindcrime, Dean and who knows who else, though.
Three new pictures are now up at the Mirror Project. Go. Frolic.
I just got IM’d by a Taiwanese girl with the interesting handle of “twunclesam” (according to Ernie, the best. IM. name. ever). A sample of our conversation:
poagao: I don’t deal with customers or clients. I would go crazy if I did.
twunclesam: haha~
twunclesam: i did, so i’m gonna crazy
poagao: A distinct possibility.
twunclesam: u’r right.
poagao: How honest of you to admit that. Most insane people pretty much keep it to themselves.
twunclesam: some of them really like you say, but some are good for me
poagao: Ugh.
twunclesam: did you customer wily?
poagao: Did I what?
twunclesam: sorry, did ur cusotmers wily?
poagao: I have no idea what that means, but it doesn’t sound good.
