TheNHBushman.com

I am leaving this evening for the Kingdom of Thailand. If one would be so inclined to call me from Taiwan, it would be better to use my Thai mobile number to reach me:

+66-4-792-4841

I will be blogging from there as availability permits. See you back in Taiwan soon.

When most people think of Taiwanese woodwook, they think of Sanyi or Dasi. Yesterday Hui-Chen and I went to a place in Shin Fong, a city not generally known for its woodworking kung-fu. This factory and store looks to be 30-some years old.

Taiwan tea culture and wood culture are linked by the utensils created for making tea, such as the cha-pan. We saw an entire area devoted to such tea plates and even a few tables with tea making areas carved into them.

Here we see an entire wall filled with tea plates (and there were a couple shelving units like this). These have been here quite some time and therefore exhibit some of the fungal growth that Taiwan is famous for. This will wash off with no harm done to the woodwork, but it does look pretty crappy when you are shopping for something.

Notice the dragon carved in the center of this one. Pouring water on the surface behind the dragon will cause it to drain out the mouth, literally off the tongue. Most of the tea plates in this place were like this configuration. While the wood itself is very good quality and also quite aromatic, this style isn’t my cup of tea (sorry, I couldn’t resist that).

In this lovely shot of Hui-Chen we see a traditional style curio display (closeup of the opening shot). This kind of display sends me a clear message: I need more teapots!

I don’t see these kind of traditional old-style miniature pieces very often. This type of product sets this place apart from either Sanyi or Dasi, which are not known for these kinds of products.

The number of tables carved from tree trunks was substantial. If you allow your mind to ignore the logistics of trying to get a 2 ton piece of wood into your home, 8 floors high and through a window, you might enjoy the shopping experience for one of these tables because they are really quite impressive.

There is also a ceramics section, and they had some giant items worth seeing.

Input N 24.90438 E 121.098498 into your GPS to get there.

Hui-Chen and I were eating in Jhubei near our home when we decided to go around to the rear of the restaurant to take a closer look at a sign that I spotted from inside the restaurant.

Yes, this is a real sign, photographed with the only camera I had on me at the time - my S700i moble phone.

This is a little test using a Gaim plug-in. I wrote this entry from a chat window in my client.

The first one went back to the store last night. You’ll have to trust me on this one: oolong tea and plastic flavors do not match!

This new machine came with an instruction booklet that described a method of removing the plastic taste using lemon juice. I am going to try this method this evening and see what happens.

This puppy came with more stickers than a rock star’s guitar case. I don’t know what the deal is with Taiwanese and stickers, but they also tape the crap out of everything here. You can’t open a candy bar without cutting tape.

I do like how this one looks, better than the other one. The fit and finish are also better. I just have to peel off all those stupid looking stickers!

Since I haven’t posted a recent cockpit shot of my bicycle with the GPS attached, I offer this photo. It was taken in the same parking lot as the tank photo, with my mobile camera/phone. I’ll get some more shots of the bike and GPS soon because the weather is now finally getting good enough to go riding every day (about time!).

Today, I got an opportunity to confront the owner (hereinafter known as “Cockboy”) of the parking lot whom I suspect is the person that vandalized my car.

Cockboy admitted to writing on both cars, but he flatly refused to admit that he did further damage to the cars. Mind you, we had just returned from Hong Kong at 03:00 and didn’t use the car on until 20:00 of the same day when we discovered the vandalism.

I asked Cockboy to look in my eyes and tell me that he did not glue my locks and windows. He could not - looking at Hui-Chen instead and telling her that his “friends” watch the lot and “take care” of “offending” cars. What a lying fucking bastard! We asked him if he just writes on the cars and his pals take care of them later, but he just squirmed. Let me tell you, this moron actually called me a “dick” in Taiwanese, while sporting some gay looking red dyed excuse for hair. I told him I wish he would act like a man and suffer the consequences for his action, saying he was “lucky” he didn’t live in New Hampshire where I would have just shot is lying ass. It was all lost on him as he has no honor. He is a typical pampered, babied Taiwanese working with Daddy’s money and thinss that nothing bad will ever happen to him because he is smart. He will fuck up, and when he does I will be there to catch him. I will solve this problem myself.

As soon as he admitted to the handwriting, Hui-Chen called the police. The police (hereinafter known as “useless authorities”) said that because there isn’t any hard physical evidence to link this person to the crime, they are powerless. Said useless authorities did not see any connection between the handwriting, gluing and impact damage to the vehicles from blows, even though according to the timeline they were done at the same time by the same person.

While I was arguing with the useless authorities (explaining that I was an investigator in my home country), Cockboy called 2 of his “red mouthed” friends to come by. Out of eyesight of the useless authorities, the Bing-lang Brothers arrived on the other street, and passed him some kind of a note through the fence of his lot, and then proceeded to bring their truck right up to me so they could get a good look at me - I’m positive for the purpose of some kind of retaliation later (hint: bad move guys - trust me on this).

Since last week the white car that was vandalized along with ours has been receiving the brunt of someone’s anger. Cockboy claimed that our car was there “for months” and Hui-Chen, in a fit of anger, the likes of which I have never seen, flatly told Cockboy that we had just moved to the neighborhood and had in fact, parked at the airport while in Hong Kong, and that what he said was total bullshit. While Cockboy resorted to taking trash I just reminded him that I tell the truth, and he is a fucking liar. As if that is justification for vandalizing our car! The fact is, he showed absolutely no concern for our car being vandalized right in front of his parking lot, which might reflect badly on his business. He didn’t ask how extensive the damage was or how much it cost us, like an innocent business owner would have. Its because he already knows. Cockboy did it. I know he did it. He knows he did it but he is a, well, he’s a cockboy, what can I say?

Last weekend, there was a small hole in the upper right hand corner of this rear window. I checked the car yesterday and it was unchanged. I found Cockboy at the scene of the crime today. I walked over to the car and just stood and looked at it saying nothing. He asked me “Is this yours?” to which I replied “Is this yours?” pointing to the place where it was hit. Draw your own conclusions, but why would he ask that question unless the presence of that car meant anything to him.

I noticed that one of the car’s backup sensors was missing, and it was there yesterday.

Of course the useless authorities were not interested in any of this evidence, because I found it myself, they having overlooked it entirely.

The useless authorities did give me one good piece of information though: If no one see it in Taiwan, no crime has been committed. I thanked them for that clarification as I have no intention of letting anyone see me while committing a crime in return.

Riding my bicycle today, I was reminded that you can never know what you will find in Taiwan. I didn’t have my Nikon with me, so you have to deal with this photo taken with my Sony-Ericsson S700i mobile phone. Needless to say, the sight of this monster is considerably more impressive than the photo lets on. This was the last thing that I ever would have expected to see.

Recently our friend Mr. Gan went back to Japan and got some new teapots from the old masters there. Last night I bought one of them. There was also a matching gong-bei so naturally I had to get that too! Matching items are so rare that if you ever find them, you should buy them.

What makes this teapot so unusual is that its 2-toned, and also that the master painstakingly gave it a peened finish, all by hand.

On this side it looks very dark.

Here you can see that its basically 1/4 red color.

Notice the hand peening on the surface. The lid fits very well and this pot pours like a firehose.

I just could not pass up this very unusual gong-bei!

Notice the matching color and peened surface. I’ve never seen a gong-bei with a spout before.

I also got some of the new Taiwan spring tea. This is the best oolong tea that I have yet experienced. It is unbelievable!