My dad's favorite is no longer Yi-Long but XiaoHo 

The Dog that Loves Motorcycles

Yi-Long is my dad's favorite dog. My dad takes Yi-Long everywhere he goes. Before he ignites the scooter, Yi-Long would jump to the foot rest, ready to go. Yi-Long would guard the scooter when my dad goes about his business in a bank or post office.

There came the first-time ever president election a few years ago, political sensitive person like my dad went around Taipei city in detection of possible riot. Of course, Yi-Long went along. When they approached Chen Shiu-ban's campaign center, it was almost sure that Chen's re-elected and people started fireworks on the street to celebrate. Yi-Long was stampeded by the tremendous sound, jumped off the scooter and ran to find a safe place to hide(what a dog, only care about its own safety).

It was chaotic, there were too many people and fireworks, it was almost impossible to find Yi-Long. To make it worse, they were miles away from home (literally). My dad launched all his friends, all my uncles to go around Taipei city on scooters, looking for his favorite dog. However, all the effort was to no avail until midnight. My dad continued his search until 4 am, riding on the scooter and calling out "Yi-Long" in dark and quiet streets.

My dad was sad and tired the next day. As we all thought Yi-Long was gone forever, he walked in the door, completely exhausted and very thirsty. My dad was so pleased to see the dog and tried to pat him on his head, Yi-Long almost bit my dad as if he's saying "Why did you leave me behind"??

Happy Birthday, Frank!

My cousin, Jennifer, was finally old enough to get her own driver liscense on her 18th birthday.

Every one should have a T-shirt like that. 

Once Upon A Time...

There was the most skillful thief, who could go around town and took whatever he liked. He even stole the emperor's most-treasured national seal (every policy would need to have the stamp to be legitimated). The whole palace was deeply horrified, no one knew when the thief is going to take the emperor's head in his sleep. The seal was returned a few days later (maybe no one dare to buy it), nevertheless, the emperor vowed to catch the thief.

More patrol forces and more heavy locks only seem to inspire the super thief's appetite. The emperor's running out of plans and he asked for consultation from the head of his cabinet. He suggested to remove the patrol personel, unbolt the windows, unlock the safe and show the treasure in open air.

The thief was caught in his biggest bewideredness in a few days.

Pony, the Spoiled Spaniel

Our family has a long history of fostering firends' pets. My mom never denies her dislike to any small animals, but the rest of the family always outvote her to make stay whatever a mini pig, a peacock, countless stray dogs and some birds. She gives in to feed/shower/clean them but she never let go her bottom line. Animals would never have a place in human living space, she would beat up those cute little animals ruthlessly if they ever set their feet into the living room. She also has strict rules about their "table" manner. No dogs would dare to dump or put their muddy paws on feeders' lap before the foods are deligated in front of them. That only took a few harsh beatings to make the cute little animals understand "don't mess around with her".

We babysat Grace's dog occasionally, a spaniel whose name is Pony. Grace adores him. For example, she was boiling some meat one day. Kevin walked in the kitchen, only come to great disappointment that the delicious smelling meat was intended for Pony. Pony was very temperamental, he demands attention constantly. When he doesn't get what he wants, he chews on electricity cords, goes on hunger strike or pisses on the person's leg whomever Grace was talking to.

Grace was on business trip few years back and my mom babysat Pony. Pony refused to eat his food because he was angry about Grace's absence. My mom couldn't get him to eat for a day or two, she simply pushed Pony's bowl to A-Chu, who was another stray dog and was always hungry. She let Pony see how much other dogs enjoy his food and couldn't be bother to woo him to eat like Grace did. After another day, Pony gave in and finish his food as soon as the bowl was down.

After a few months, my mom was visiting Grace in her flat. Before they sat down, Grace told my mom that she was trying to feed Pony the whole morning but Pony refused to eat for no reason. And then she was wondering where Pony had gone. Later, they found Pony had just finished his plate on hearing my mom's voice via the intercom.

Little Sewer Rat

On my way home few days ago, I found a small grey fur ball near the bottom of a wall. It was a small rat with tiny tail. It looked very ill indeed. If I were 10 years younger, I would definitely have taken it home. Now, my mind is stuffed with super bug, strange gems and mysterious mold that gets into your brain.

Beer drinking with my brother in San Francisco fishmen's wharf is a happy thing to do. 

What Makes You Happy?

One of my dad's friends one time tried to list the happy things to do in life. He counted, studying is the first on the list, man-passion-woman-love the second (I will elobrate on this later), and drinking the third... He was scratching his head really hard and couldn't come up with any more.

ps. man-passion-woman-love is the direct translation of a Chinese phrase. Being subtle as many other phrases do, I think it is describing the state of being in love.

This is too funny not to post to my blog... 

The Motorcycle Diary

It might seem strange to people that we ride motorcycles in Taipei everywhere. Teenagers, middle-age women or old men are all making their ways through the congested streets to schools, traditional markets or post office.

My parents are in no exception. My mom especially loves to use motorcycle for any short distance travel when we were living in Taipei city. She used to possess a second-hand, very battered motorbike. Everything in it makes noise except the horn. The needle in the speedometer wouldn't move (it can't go fast anyway). When it was idling, it tended to go forward without any human force pressing the accelerator. However, when we really needed to accelerate, the engine died from time to time.

During my annual visit, the greatest event was to go shopping with my mom in the traditional market. She always drove the bike, I sat behind her and threw my arms around her waist. In winter time, my mom shield me from the wind, which made me feel like a small girl again.

The high light is to visit the very delicious rice noodle stall. We would enjoy the hearty noodle soup and some small dishes before shooting to the market. Our theory is, you would like to buy anything when your stomach is empty, although it is not of the best quality.

My brother, Mankit, insisted to take the picture and sent it to our parents. 

What Makes You Worried?

We are constantly worried, worried about losing our jobs, worried about gaining weight, worried about being lonely. Because of these fears, we work 9-5 and try hard to entertain people around us.

Suppose one day we see and understand that we don't really need a lot to live, and, it is possible to live alone and feel OK. Would we be motivated to go to work religiously and to prove ourselves to strangers?

Joey, with no food obssession, didn't look very happy though. 

How to Read Chips

Making good French fries seems to be too much a daunting task for many people yet we got our chips from teenagers who not yet old enough to vote in fastfood chains. But anyhow, I read a very interest book about the science of French fries.

Frying is a way to dehydrate the surface of food. However, when the oil is new, it is sticky and hard to penetrate the moist surface of chips. Remember, oil and water don't mix. That's why you should be ready to throw away the first batch of fried stuff. As the frying process goes on, the oil starts to break down to free fatty acid call polymer and some substance behaves like "soap". The soap-like substance marries the oil and water, thus, the hot oil penetrates the surface and cooks the interior. The moist becomes steam. The steam is trapped inside the less-moist surface and traveling around when an uneasy balance between water and oil is achieved. That's the reason why the inside of a chip is soft and seems like being steamed. Which goes the best with the crunchy, golden brown exterior, yum!

My food obssession comes and goes. I remember I was crazy about duck noodles about 2 years ago and wanted to eat them for every meal. I traveled everywhere for the shred of possibility of good, hearty duck noodles. Strangely, obssession went away after few months. I was then obssessed with Lahore's lamb shish, I even dreamt about it, I begged to go to Lahore everytime we tried to find a place to eat. That went away, too. Same thing happened to chips as well. I really don't know what is driving those craving. If it is chemical imbalance or something else?

I think the best way to eat is to be honest with yourself. Eating is to answer your stomach/hunger/craving, not to your brain. Well, that's why I don't really know what to eat now, I have no cravings and I have to answer to my brain otherwise I have no energy to get out of the bed...

It is the bride's duty to be the most beautiful woman in the world... Peggy in her engagement banquet 

Taiwanese Wedding Banquet

One of my favorite pub talk topics, which makes many of my colleagues want to go to Taiwan because of the occasional striping show on the side of a outdoor banquet (but some show great interest in the puppet show on the other side as well).

It is really difficult to tell you whether Taiwanese are conservative or open. You know, we have woman's undies hanging out in public area, we have the stripping shows in a wedding banquest or outside of a funeral parlor. The transparent road side stalls have almost naked girls selling chewing gums to truck drivers. Strangely, they all look innocent in a way that they don't carry much sexaul implication, the way they stripe is almost comical. I guess it is still awkward to openly display a female body, the only way to less the degree of sexuality is to make fun of it.

Irene's Japanese Clients were one time attracted to wedding banquets like this near the country side, and requested to stayed a bit longer. The lady was about to strip the very important piece of her outfit and her partner came out to sell a sort of drugs as the commercial break. When everone got annoyed that the break is a bit too long and expressed the desire to see a bit more of the half-naked lady, the policemen can to stop her from striping naked. Every one got quite angry, really. Obviously the policemen just know the exact time to intervene.

Enough about the stripping show, we should talk about the foods. The foods are very Taiwanese. They are light, slightly on the sweet side. A lot of soy sauce and mayonaise and garlic... The combination sounds weird, but it is really good with fresh lobster or jelly fish. The foods are cooked at the road side, freshness guaranteed. Most guests are honoured to take the leftover home, plastic bags provided.

My brother was good looking back then... Handsome polar bear! 

Well Organised Carnapping

This is not a story, it really happened to Irene's elder sister. Living in the edge of city center, Irene's home is constantly burgled into because most people leave for work during the day.

Although Irene is very neat and well-dressed all the time, she has been not particular tidy in her own space since her teens. In one of the after-burglar evenings, the police officers went into her room and exclaimed "look what they have done to your room", Irene only kept silent and playing innocent.

Recently, they have experienced carnapping. The car theft takes the car and calls the owner asking for ransom. The amount is calculated carefully that the owner would usually wire the money to an untraceable account to get the car back instead of reporting to police or claiming insurance.

Irene's sister's car was again stolen two weeks after she ransomed her car back. She received a call from the car theft. She said "but I just got my car back two weeks ago". There was a dead silence for a few seconds, the voice asked "which account number did you wire the money to?" She told him the number and heard the keyboard typing sound. "We are really sorry we have made a mistake. You are going to have your car back tomorrow morning".