The cab driver who was taking me to the interview …
The cab driver who was taking me to the interview seemed to like taking the scenic route, but I managed to get to the Technology Building in time to meet the people I was supposed to meet. They seemed eager about the arrangement, and although the terms and compensation weren’t as good as I had been told, they were still good enough, so when I was offered the job I took it. The office is still being worked on, and since I have to give my present company some time before I leave, I will be starting on the 12th of August. It looks promising. I just hope it works out so that I don’t regret taking the leap.
By a strange coincidence, the 12th is also the day I can move into the Chungking Mansions Taipei room, since the woman who is presently living there has informed her landlord of her plans and has not received any objections. She has arranged for us all to meet there tomorrow after work. Hopefully that will go smoothly as well. The 12th is going to be an interesting day, methinks.
In other news, I went over to Locus and inked my book contract with them today, after which I delivered the finished manuscript for them to start work on. Well, I should say we, since I am going to have to work with them on the translation into Chinese, but still, it’s good to have that weight off my shoulders. Afterwards Peter and I went out to a nearby Italian restaurant, located in the alley behind Dan Ryan’s, for dinner. The food was actually quite good, and the only thing missing was good music. All they played was sickly sweet piano music. It’s alright, but Italian food needs something a bit more Sinatrazzy. After dinner I bade Peter farewell and walked down to the newly opened underground mall that runs along Zhongxiao E. Road from the Zhongxiao-Fuxing Station over to under the Mingyao Dept. Store. It’s quite large, and hosts many interesting shops. Mindcrime, who is officially becoming a Taipei Person (Taipeier? Taipeiese? Taipeian?) tomorrow when he moves up here along with HG Janice, seems to like those underground malls, just because it’s so hot up top these days. We’ll see how long he lasts before he starts bitching about this city. I give him about three minutes.
I saw this site on deadmalls.com the other day, and it looked eerily familiar. I asked my sister about it and it turns out that Cinderalla City was one of our family’s favorite places to go when we lived in Colorado from 1969-1973 or 4. I was so young I don’t remember much more than climbing out of my mother’s station wagon and into my dad’s 1965 Corvair Monza convertible one night in the parking lot of this mall. But when I saw the fountain, I remembered that, too. We all thought it was the biggest mall in the world, and certainly it seemed that way to a 3-year-old Poagao, but now it’s gone.
Anyway, upward and onward! New digs, new gigs…things sure be a-changing round these parts.
