So. Tie. Yurd.

Every day is a packed blur that I can't even remember what I did this morning aside from having a very hard time pulling myself out of bed. This trip has been the first time that I/we haven't tagged along with my mother here and there like illiterate ducklings. We're still illiterate but can finally find our way around unsupervised, and at least have some sense of direction --I asked Mom once whether grandma's house or auntie's house is eastern Taipei, western, southern...? and she had utterly no idea. She can't find her way out of a paper bag, even the same paper bag she's lived in for 30 years.

The funeral was yesterday. My uncle, the new patriarch of the family, delivered a lovely speech after Mass that we were all in tears. After the burial the entire family had lunch together at a nearby restaurant. About 50 of us in somber black attire streamed in on a wedding banquet being held at the same time. I'm sure they loved that.

It turned out that knitting store I visited the other day with the hideous prices was Filatura di Crosa. Just so you know.

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Filed Under: Life | Travel | Taipei

Knitting little, eating lots

While I continue to make minimal progress on the Apricot Jacket (henceforth AJ), I am making huge progress on the eating.

Last night my cousin Paul took us out for a Japanese bbq dinner. We cooked thin strips of sirloin, pork, fish, clams, vegetables on small grills perched atop a ceramic pot of coals. By far the most expensive meal we've had here, but who cares because we didn't pay, heh. Oh on the way there we walked by Chiang Kai Chek's great-grandson walking his dog. Ooo the closest I've ever gotten to a dictator sighting!

Advertisement: Getting around Taipei is a breeze with mass transit. This "easycard" transit pass is one of several issued with my uncle's name printed on the front. He's apparently famous around here. I saw him on the news the other day, after having just seen him in his pj's.

Today after buying our usual pastries from the shop next door, we headed to, um, Starbucks to eat them over coffee. I know, I know. This city is littered with all sorts of cafes fitted into every nook and cranny imaginable and we picked Starbucks. The problem was that the nook and cranny cafes we've visited were serving up exotic coffees doused with weird syrup or powdered milk (??) or ten feet of foam that there was no coffee flavor to be had. Apparently it's too little to ask for a simple cup of no-frills coffee, because everytime I do I'm barraged with 20 Questions - do you want froth, do you want bubbles, we can add chocolate syrup, do you want sprinkles, only $5 extra for blah blah blah and flah flah flah...Gah!

I also decided to refuse patronizing coffee shops with blatant Starbucks-rip-off logos. And man are there plenty of those. It drives me absolutely crazy. This city comes up with the most creative concoctions of eats like shaved ice drenched in cream and fruit, or topioca balls swimming in tea, or meat sausage nestled in another sausage of rice, and they can't for the LIFE of them come up with their own damn marketing campaign.

Today we went with my cousins to Danshui, a small harbor I guess with a boardwalk of various street food. We spent the whole afternoon eating this and that. Then we came back to the city and had shaved ice, and picked up a couple of scallion pancakes on the way home.

Duck with green-tea flavored gelatinous goo sprinkled with sesame, and (can't see it well here) cannibalistic Chinese sausage within a rice sausage.

Strawberry and mango shaved ice.

Thanks Blossom for the yarn shop tip - what color line is the MRT stop on? Hopefully I'll find the time between the eating and the family stuff to make the trip. I left the States in such a hurry that I didn't even bring appropriate funeral attire. Truthfully I just don't have anything appropriate. Why is everything sleeveless? And suddenly so frilly and so colorful? No doubt my Grandfather would frown in disapproval.

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Filed Under: Life | Travel | Taipei

La la la, can't think of a title

Errrrgh! I want to throttle the instructions for the Apricot Jacket. I don't know what's up, but this is the fourth Rebecca pattern I've followed and having by far the most trouble with it. The textual instructions are pretty much useless. I should instead carry the back piece with me and use that as a visual guide - the front is really just the back in two parts - but it's too bulky carrying that all over the city. I've started and restarted the pattern for the front panel so many times that the yarn has started to become frayed.

Also the finishing instructions say to sew "front bands" together and to the neck edge. Uh, what bands...?

My mom and I visited a yarn store yesterday, giving ourselves plenty of time to browse/buy before a dinner engagement later in the evening. It turned out we browsed for all of 2 minutes. The prices ranged from $700 NT to $2000 NT ($20 to $60 USD) per ball. I think we must have asked the owner about one hundred times if the prices was per unit or per bag. FOURTY DOLLARS FOR A SINGLE BALL OF WOOL. They were mostly Anny Blatts and Bouton d'Or and other French imports. What's the big hooha? I don't get how anybody, no matter how irresponsible with money, could stand paying $400 to knit a plain ole wool sweater.

So yesterday Duck and I spent part of the day at Taipei 101. I wanted to go up on the observatory deck but it's been cloudy and foggy and unseasonably cold. We spent the morning eating pastries til we turned green, then walked around, then had lunch, then had dessert. For dinner we ate sushi again (an obscene amount that I think I'm actually scared of sushi now), then spent some time with my grandmother playing mah-jong.

We're staying with my cousin at what I like to call the Kennedy Compound: Uncle and Aunt #1 along with my cousin Paul and wife live on floor 2. Other cousin Francis and wife with 2 kids live on floor 3. Grandmother and Uncle #2 live on floor 6. We're staying with Francis. The kids (aged 1 and 3) stare at Duck like he's from outer space. Yaya, the eldest, won't call him when she sees him, but she apparently talks about Uncle Duck all the time when we're out. She's warming up though. Today she was willing to get close enough to take a picture with Uncle Duck!

I appreciate the kind comments left in the previous post! Til next time...

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Filed Under: Life | Rebecca 27 | Apricot Jacket | Travel | Taipei

Postcard from Taipei

Here's what I got going on with the Apricot Jacket. I gotta say, the instructions for this are really confusing. Glad I didn't start off with this as my first sweater project. I would've given up on knitting altogether.

Bunny feet on Jacket

I'm knitting this on size 6/4.25mm needles to obtain a much smaller gauge. I like 'em tight. I've also shortened the length 4 cm and plan on doing the same for the sleeves.

So I am here unexpectedly again in Taipei. When the Pope passed away last Saturday, he took my grandfather with him, mercifully ending years and years of suffering a slow and painful death. None of us can be too sad about him finally being at peace. It was so hard for me to see him so broken and bed-ridden and tied with a mess of feeding tubes and whatever else. He spent over 10 years like that, never speaking and wholly unable to do anything on his own, but breathe, sleep, and blink. Several times he was on the brink, and each time he was pulled back in.

Duck and I set up a living will a couple of years ago to ensure we'd never have our low threshold of pain tested in such a way. If either of us so much as develops a chronic rash, that's it dude. You have my leave to pull the plug.

I love Taipei but need to stop coming here for the purpose of mourning. Fourth time in as many years, third time since Jan 2004. However it's always great seeing family again, and of course it's great to do ALL THE EATING.

So we're here about a week. Brought the Apricot Jacket but doubt I'll find any time to knit. Also I left some knitting materials on the plane - a small bag of crochet hooks, stitch markers, a beloved tape measure and grrrrrr.

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Filed Under: Life | Rebecca 27 | Apricot Jacket | Travel | Taipei