New Year Festivities
New Year’s festivities this year were held at David’s place in Muzha. The theme was Hawaiian, and David, Robyn and Paige had decorated their two apartments in an appropriate style. Slim, Chris and I took a cab over, Slim hauling several pineapples as his gift. I had no contribution, so we stopped by KFC on the way over so I could pick up a bucket o’ grease. Apparently picking up a bucket o’ grease is a very popular new year’s tradition, as there were approximately 300 other people wanting to do just that.
Grass skirts were handed out, but I felt there’s no point in wearing one if you’re compromising by wearing anything underneath it, so I settled for the obligatory lei. I actually don’t own any Hawaiian clothing and had to wear my Australian Aborigine shirt instead. Sandman came adorned with a coconut bra and several ukuleles. I busied myself during part of the festivities taking artsy close-up shots of the ukes.
It was a very small party. The Taipei Kid showed up, and some people I didn’t know. Sandman had brought curry and rottis from Athula, and there were many very tasty dishes on hand. Later on Robyn and Paige brought out a chocolate cake shaped like (and very nearly the size of) a volcano.
We gathered on the rooftop just before midnight, where we could just see the tip of Taipei 101. The fireworks that we could see were impressive, even at that distance, but a horrible smell made lingering there an unpopular option.
With so many ukuleles around, plus my pocket trumpet and a washtub bass, music was inevitable. We played old songs, new songs, improvised and read sheet music. I played softly lest the neighbors complain, but the fireworks going off all over the city made it less urgent a task than it normally would have been. It was well into the morning by the time we left, but fireworks were still going off over Bitan when I went to bed at 4am.
2007 feels like an oddly green, unexpected year to me, probably because I haven’t really put much thought into what it’s going to be like. 2006 ended on a low note for me; I hope for better this year. I’m going to have to make some changes, changes that I’ll most likely hate, but they have to be made anyway. I need to get into better shape. I’d like to take a nice long vacation, preferably to Europe. I also would like to see Paradigm X in a theater by the end of the year, and pick up an English-language publisher for Counting Mantou. I guess I might as well ask for a pony and Malcolm Jamal-Warner’s hand in marriage as well.
Politically, I expect the KMT to take a public-relations beating as the DPP bangs the 2/28 drums for the incident’s 60th anniversary. If the pan-greens relent on the issue of cross-strait exchanges, thus spurring the economy, things could look pretty rosy for them come 2008. Both Su and Hsieh, either of which has a shot in the next election, are generally seen as more pragmatic on cross-strait relations than Chen.
