Printing - Woodcut

My friend Jon is a very talented artist that I have the pleasure of knowing. Tonight I happened to pop by his place as he was beginning the printing of a newly finished piece, so I stayed awhile to lend a hand.

It is tough work and I didn't do that much compared to the other three (including Jon) as it was more a three man job.

It is done by rolling incredibly thick ink on, placing the paper on top and then rubbing it hard with a wooden spoon. I make it sound much easier than it actually is. You have to be really careful not to punch through the paper or make sure the paper doesn't migrate.

Here are a couple of pictures for you to enjoy. At this point only the top half was being worked on. It was a long process of checking for missed spots, rolling more ink on and rubbing again. Stop, repeat. Over and over.

I helped once before but each time I help my appreciation for their patience increases.

At this point in the pictures it is about three hours work with 3-4 people working on it at the same time.

Roaring 20's Murder Mystery

This Monday just gone (27th) it was my friend Elisa's birthday. To celebrate she organised a murder mystery party.

It was awesome! I made a dress from some fabric I had been using as a curtain. Alas, a curtain it shall never be again. It was worth it though.

The evening was spent by trying to avoid blackmailers. I was a congressman's wife. I was being taken for all the fake dollars I had until I managed to purchase a murder weapon and off my blackmailer. Haha!

I must admit I was growing tired of being bombarded by demands of money and so it was quite satisfying to off that character. I shall post any pictures that I can pinch from people.

Mongolian and beer house

I went with a few friends to a Mongolian restaurant a few weeks ago. I abandoned the vegetarian train for sone delicious lamb. We ate in our own yurt style room. Not over the top, it was the usual gimmicky thing you'd find in Taiwan but I had a great time.

Afterwards we headed to a beer house, well a place that sold terrible beer but the company was agreeable.

In their food menu they had an ethnic food section, I was particularly entertained by garlic bread being listed as one of the options. Hahahahaha.

Random Graffiti

I met my good friend Sue for Sunday brunch and we had a wander around afterwards. Here are a couple of pics of graffiti I found.

I love the monkey :-)

Nigel Kennedy

About a month prior to the concert my spectacular friend Tanya was excited about a violinist booked to play in Taichung. Having never been to a concert before I signed myself up, then I searched him out on YouTube.

Wow. On the Sunday (feb 12th) we saw him play. It was truly breathtaking. I can't think of many other things I would rather do on a Sunday evening.

Chinese New Year

Not having that much money this year put a stop to me galavanting around the island or doing much. However, I still had a wonderful week! I painted a lot, sat around in cafes and walked quite a bit.

It was lovely to relax and enjoy my alone time. We had a full week off this year....so lots of time to be social and selfish with time :-)

The pictures are of sculpture in the park that is a stone throw away from my apartment, and the art museum :-D

The Fort of Blacketiness

I had a blanket fort between new year and Chinese new year. It was a blast. I kept it up for a week or so and camped out in my living room :-)

I encouraged folks to bring blankets, so the fort could expand as more friends arrived. They were also told to bring comfortable clothes. Everyone had a great time!

I want to set up a permanent fort in my spare bedroom. Haha, let's see how long it takes me to get around to that.

Christmas

As I said, after my accident I was in need of family tlc. It was worth the long trip to spend some time with my family. I love you all, I just wish it could have been a longer trip.

xxx

BBQ and Hotpot

A work social was held at a BBQ place, with me not eating meat, it was not a pleasant dining experience.

They had soup but the vegetarian option was quite simply plain. That is unusual for Taiwan, their soups are mostly delicious. This showed me that this particular BBQ place was great at handing you the flesh of a dead animal but not a bowl of soup. Sigh. I was hungry when I arrived and when I left. never mind. The company was good.

It was a shame that the foreigners were on one table and local staff on the next one.

Outside there was a dog wearing the lenseless glasses that are so popular here. I couldn't help but take a picture. Hau ke ai (so cute).

Then us foreigners went to the Hagendaaz restaurant. Yep, an ice cream restaurant. It seems a bit ridiculous to me. But take a look at the pic, that's why they were all snotty in there.
The lady seemed like she wasn't impressed with the scruffy weiguoren (foreigners).

The Poo Restaurant

My good friend Sue whom I work with has started a tradition of us foreigners (who work together) to spend time together outside of work. This mostly involves food :-)

Here is one place named the poo place, or better description, the toilet restaurant.

All your food (my baked rice dish not very tasty) is served in ceramic bath tubs or toilets. Haha! We only went for the novelty, not the quality of food.

The tables and chairs are bath tubs and toilets, a strange yet entertaining lunch :-)

Not Much of Nothing

As the title suggests I didn't do much in the way of anything for the next couple of months. That being the rest of September and October.

I wasn't fully healed until the end of Oct into Nov.

By that time I was feeling sorry for myself and wanted a trip home. Thanks to the way tax works for foreigners here...we get taxed 18% for 6 months, then the rate drops to 6%. we get a tax rebate the following tax year.

I got that tax money and debated buying a ticket home for Christmas. Then I turned up at the travel agents and bought one. Huzzah! That put me in an awesome mood.

I already had the time booked off work as I was meant to be going to Vietnam and Cambodia with a friend, but neither of us did any planning and it fell by the wayside.

The next month was spent saving money and trying to find Christmas gifts :-)

Trip of doom

Not only was I injured on the Taroko trip but also my bro Andrew suffered too. He didn't even make it to the gorge.

His knee caved in. He was in an accident a year or so ago where both legs were broken. I think this must be linked in some way.

Brave man, not one word in complaint!

Taroko Gorge

It was a stunning place but not one to be taken lightly. If you go and you drive a scooter you will need:

• A kick ass med kit, paracetomol will not do. Take stronger painkillers just in case.

• A fully charged cell phone, with credit. My first evening I got lost and had no credit to call my group. Oops.

• A good torch (flashlight)

• Sturdy shoes for driving. A decent pair of Reef sandals saved my ankle when I crashed. Wearing flip flops will tear your foot up.

• Warm clothes, if you are staying in the gorge it gets dark and chilly quickly.

• A camera, tis a beautiful place!

Whenever you see a gas station stop to top up as you never know when the next one will be along.

Enjoy the views, it is a truly stunning place but rockslides are a very real danger.

Jen-Ai Hospital: Taichung/Tali

Here is the information for Jen-Ai Hospital. An easy web search will result in the same, but for someone that has been there I would highly recommend sending an email to Mark Chan (his email is included here) and so I post this.

I first sent an email, Mark replied almost straight away. He sent me an appointment request form (a link is on the main English website). He is Taiwanese but studied in America. His English is flawless. He is also an approachable man who is more than happy to help you.

In this form you can detail your injury and what kind of doctor you would like to see, surgery, gynaecology etc.

Mark then replies with a date and possible times for you to choose from. I was to go to Jen-Ai in Tali (better known to foreigners as Dali) but it is not very far from the edge of Taichung. In fact, find Linsen road leading off Wuquan road (not far from TaichungGang) and follow Linsen all the way out of Taichung. The hospital is on that road (which of course changes names but you know not to turn).

As it was my first time going to their hospital Mark met me upon my arrival, took me to see the doctor and stayed with me. He did not attend the consultation.
He walked me through the whole process. Which was a relief, I was injured, still in pain and didn't have to navigate the hospital by myself with crutches.

I have only good things to say.
I was prescribed extremely strong painkillers and antibiotics. It was the first time that pain killers worked. Sleep was oh so sweet!


http://site.jah.org.tw/english/english.asp

Jen-Ai Hospital
Taichung Branch: 36 Liu Chuan E. Rd., Sec. 3, Taichung, Taiwan; Tel: 04-2225-5450

Tali Branch: 483 Dong Rong Rd., Tali, Taichung, Taiwan; Tel: 04-2481-9900

e-mail to: mchan@mail.jah.org.tw

Scooter crash in Taroko Gorge

Hello folks,
It has been quite a while since my last post. A lot has happened since then. My Kindy class graduated, I moved into my own apartment, I went on an awesome trip to the East of Taiwan and I flew home for Christmas.

I was very lucky to have been with awesome people when I crashed. I was cleaned up, given pain killers and cared for.

My criticism is for the health services in Taiwan. Always get a second or even third opinion. When I managed to get to a hospital they x-rayed my foot and chest etc. I was checked to make sure nothing was broken and then cleaned up. All good.

The woman, trained in what she does told me to clean my foot, her words 'deep wound' with only saline solution and then apply anti bacterial cream. I couldn't make out if she was a doctor or nurse. She was wearing scrubs and was teaching the interns. Her English was brilliant, so it wasn't a language problem. Needless to say my foot got infected.

I visited another doctor for treatment over the course of the first to second week. He pulled off the huge scab which made me curse a lot. Oops. And he gave me lots of meds as well as injections. Nothing was working to help the INFECTION in my foot. I was in agony. And I had to work. I was only given one week off.

I have to admit that even after this long time I am still angry about it, the instructions from the first hospital.

That was until I put out a screech of help on Facebook and was given the details of Mark, at Ren Ai hospital in Taichung.

Foreigners, if you get sick, go there.
I'll post more details in a separate post relating to the hospital and services for foreigners.

For all of those crazy enough to drive scooters in Taiwan, like me, be safe.