Tidying up
The Water Curtain Cave is mostly tidied up, except for the bathroom, which is full of bags of stuff I’ve accumulated over the years and will probably need to throw out. I spent all day Sunday cleaning, sorting, unpacking, etc. I went through a bunch of old floppy disks full of old porn, ancient links and journals to remind me just how desperate the 90s seemed to me at the time.
Now all the place needs is curtains, which I’m going to get on Friday, and rugs, which are at the cleaners. With the new paint and posters up, it’s back to being the comfy little cave I remember.
On Saturday night I met up with denizens of the Little Bear Village at a hotpot place behind Sogo, located in a U-shaped building I’d walked past every day going to and from work when I lived in the Sogo Locker. There was a good turnout, 20 or so bears and cubs of varying descriptions. I’ve lost weight recently and thought they might not let me in, but it seems I’m still ok, at least just hairy enough to get me in the door. A lot of meat was eaten and spirited discussions held, and afterwards I rode on the back of a scooter to Base, a karaoke bear club off Zhongshan North Road near the Combat Zone. My ride’s owner, btw, was Porco, aka “Snowball” because he likes to wear white.
The place filled up quickly after we arrived, but I had to catch a cab over to The Source to meet with Joe, Marty and Micheal at 11:30, as Marty wanted to introduce me to some movie industry friends of his. The taxi driver was a maniac; I was left standing on the steps of the Central Bank 15 minutes early, so I sat in one of the building’s alcoves and ate a chocolate bar while watching the traffic on Roosevelt Road. A large rat startled me before I remembered that I don’t really mind rats as much as cockroaches.
Eventually I crossed the road and found Marty and Joe in the bar, as well as my fellow Bitanian Greg. The movie people were sitting outside chatting with some folks from the Berlin Film Festival, but after they were done Marty introduced me to them, including Eric, whose English is near perfect. I’d brought a copy of Clay Soldiers along and gave it to them as well as my card. It turned out that they had read my book.
Michael showed up, and I spent the rest of the night talking with him and everyone else, before taking a walk down Roosevelt with Michael before catching a cab home. I think I also caught a chill, because my throat started to hurt the next day, and now I’ve come down with a cold, the first one I’ve had, it seems, in years.
Yesterday I sold my last L-series lens, a Canon 24-105 f/4L IS USM, and picked up a Sigma 17-70 f/2.8-4.5 DC macro for about a third of the Canon’s resale price, as I just wasn’t using the Canon that much since it wasn’t wide enough to use as a walkaround lens on the cropped frame 20D, and I doubt I’ll be rolling in enough dough to justify spending NT$75,000 on a 5D body any time soon. Even a brand-new 40D is about half the cost of a 5D. Also, I like doing macro shots, so the Sigma makes more sense for me. We’ll see if it works out.
The solid grey weather of last week, ever since I moved, has now broken into bright, sunny days. The sunlight on my face feels good.
