TheNHBushman.com

We got our first hot water dispenser for the new apartment. The last place that I lived had a very convenient large filtration/heating/cooling system for the whole building and it worked very well. This machine…. well the water tastes like plastic. If anyone can tell me how to get rid of the plastic taste I would certainly appreciate it. The water bottle on my bicycle tastes better than this machine.

As I mentioned last week, Hui-Chen and I moved into a new apartment, not too far from where we used to live. The new place has a Japanese style tea room. We are still getting settled in the new place (which is taking extra time because of our travel schedule). I need to get a few more things to finish off the room, but for now I wanted to show you what it looks like.

This shot is taken from the living room, looking in the tea room. The tea room is an open area with no door so it doesn’t appear to be so cramped. Its a small space and if it were totally enclosed it would feel a lot smaller than it does. In this shot you can see our 32″ LCD HDTV (hey, we live in Taiwan after all) and the collection of movies. I enjoy watching titles such as “The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly” and “Hang ‘Em High” on a regular basis, and I have quite a few sci-fi titles from the 50’s, as well as Chinese movies, of course.

I plan on adding a cabinet along the bare wall on the left to hold stuff like I did in the old place (old bookcase shown above). I need something that can hold liquor bottles and glasses as this room is also a drinking room.

Peeking over the glass partition directly behind the TV, this is the view of the room. What you don’t see in any of these shots is the nice Roman shade on the large window. I love that window because is spans the entire width of the room.

This is the view you get when you enter the space, with the host’s chair on the right. Even though the style is supposed to be Japanese, you can see that my chairs are definitely Chinese. This is because I’m not Japanese and I don’t find sitting on the floor to be all that comfortable, even with cushions. So, technically I am breaking with tradition. Go ahead, glue my door locks if you don’t like it, but I like how these chairs look. The dark wooden floors and table were already here, so if you don’t like how the light table looks on the dark floor, you can glue my window shut too. Alert viewers will notice the tube running from the tea tray to a receptacle underneath the table.

I have played with the arrangement of this room for several days. The room is only so large, and the table is just big enough to work with, so I have tried to find a layout that works. One of the negating factors is the placement of the electrical outlets. I will never, ever understand the logic of placing an outlet in the middle of a wall, but the vast majority of outlets in Taiwan are waist-high on the wall. Taiwanese just do not care about having wires hung all over the place, where Americans think wires look like shit. In every shot of the table you can see the damn black wire for the water kettle. Its hideous (not to mention ridiculous). I may end up placing the kettle on the floor beside the host’s position. I also think that there is only enough room for 3 people. I tried putting the table in the center of the room, but then again, there is that wire problem. With the table centered, every seat feels cramped because the wall is so close behind. With the table offset, there is a more open feeling to the space, plus there is just enough room on the opposite wall for a thin cabinet. The small light shown in the previous shots will go on top of said future cabinet.

This final shot shows the guest perspective. Come on over and we’ll enjoy some of the best oolong tea in the world, grown right here in Taiwan!

Recently, my friend Michael Turton said: “WOW! That sucks! But be careful with the retaliation. They’ll just keep escalating.”

That’s because no one gets shot here….

The problem is, as time goes on I keep finding more things wrong with my car that this ass-clown has done. What really irks me is that he did these things in broad daylight, in total confidence that absolutely nothing would happen to him. If I do anything to him in return, the entire neighborhood will rat me out because I’m an outsider. My friend Lee, a former Taoyuan police officer suggested that I “let it go” and offered to get me drunk. That is the last thing I need because at the moment, the cold light of reason is the only restraining element preventing me from finding this guy and wrapping my fingers around his neck for 4 minutes. I am, after all, a trained hunter. Humans are the easiest animal to trap because humans are, for the most part, completely oblivious to impending danger. This guy’s stuffed ass could be hanging in my trophy room within 24 hours of the instant that I decide to go after him.

The photo above shows what pissed me off yesterday. I tried to roll the passenger side window down, but it wouldn’t budge because the Parking Lot Bitch glued it shut too. I was able to break the bead and get it to function, but it was not easy, as I was so angry I nearly broke the window.

This guy does not realize that he has awakened a sleeping dragon. Its nearly to the point where I am obligated to kick his ass on the basis of keeping face, alone.

Later my friend Coldglow said: “I know how to get this “bitch”. Tint your windows and get a taser…” I like that one too, but it does require me to spend my time hiding in my own car. If this were New Hampshire it would be considerably easier to handle (because I pack there), but in that case the person would have been more reasonable to begin with.

For those of you wondering what I am going to do, the answer is “nothing.”

It took long enough, but the Google video finally passed their submission process and is available now.

I think I am going to stop blogging on this topic now because I am absolutely positive that something bad will happen to this parking lot owner’s property, and perhaps to himself. Anyone who uses threats and intimidation tactics such as these is bound to have someone retaliate and I wouldn’t want anyone reading my blog to think that this someone is me.

However, if I do notice anything that does happen to him, I will try to get you some photos. Deal?

Hui-Chen and I moved into a new apartment last week. Last night we came home from the airport very late and parked our car in the same spot that we have parked it in since we moved here. This evening when we went to get into our car to drive to the local night market, we found that our car had been vandalized.

On the passenger side, I noticed that someone had hit the car with a blunt instrument and left this dent.

The really bad news is that Hui-Chen discovered that our door locks had been glued and we cannot operate the locks with our key.

Immediately in front of us, this car has handwriting on it. It says “Don’t Park.” Does this sound like some random kid’s prank to you?

After that, I noticed that our car had handwriting on it too. Difficult to read in the dark, it must have been done during the daytime. Look very closely at the large version of this photo and you will just barely see the red marker.

Here we see a failed initial attempt at writing on the hood, which was abandoned in favor of the windshield.

Now, what in the world would someone be writing “Don’t Park” on the car, and then gluing the locks for? Do you think it co-incidence that there is a parking lot immediately adjacent to where we are parking?

We called the police. Even though they concede that there is a connection between the white car and ours having writing on it, they are not going to bother to contact the owner of that car. Nice, huh? Neither did the police check to see if the door locks on the white car are glued. I did. They are. I asked the police if they think its possible that the owner of the parking lot did this. They said it is possible but did not agree with me that its likely. They are however going to call him on the phone tomorrow and they aren’t even going to ask him if he did it. What do you think he would say anyway? (apparently the pussy cops here don’t just ask people if they did something or not - fucking brilliant strategy). I asked them who else would it be? Who would care? I asked the police if they would tow our car away even if its in one of the so-called “red line zones” and they answered that they would not. They also did not see any reason to connect someone calling to tow the cars away with this crime.

The police did agree with me on one thing though: They agreed that someone purposefully fucked with us. A simple note would have done the job, but no, they had to glue our door locks. Nice touch! That earned you an ass-kicking.

The place were we parked does block access to some unused parking spaces that enter directly from the street, in some bizarre manner with locking chains. I would not blame a parking lot owner who had our car towed for blocking the spaces. Someone writing “don’t park” would indicate that the problem is the placement of the vehicles and not some personal (or random) reason for the vandalism. However, nothing can explain why our car was actually hit with something, and the locks glued. Also, I see no logical reason why the criminal should write on the car, if in fact it was the lot owner who wanted us to move our car. No, this person took something based in business and made it personal.

I’ve made a short crime scene video clip that I will amend to this entry after its been “approved” by Google Video. In the meantime, I have a plan to entrap this lot owner if he indeed is the criminal. What he doesn’t know is, he fucked with the wrong guy. I’m not some timid Taiwanese who will just say “oh well, its Taiwan” and give it up. Sorry dude. You made this personal, and now that I live in Taiwan I have to keep face.

After all, you made me miss my favorite night market and also the fried oysters and draft beer that I look forward to every Monday night. You’re mine. Bitch!

Recently in Hong Kong, Hui-Chen spotted this cool traditional style Chinese shirt. Having heard before, that many Chinese think foreigners look stupid in traditional Chinese clothing, I was surpirsed when she suggested that I try it on. “What the hell?” I replied. “Every single Chinese person here is wearing Western clothing, and I’m OK with that.” So, I tried it on and, it fit and she liked it. We beat the price down to almost nothing too.

So, here is shot of me wearing it (plus some new blue jeans, very rare for me). Do you think I look like a mean Chinese boss?

Hui-Chen and I moved this week. Our new place has a Japanese style tea room. Readers of our blog know that I am very happy about this! My trip to Thailand has been delayed for at least 2 weeks, and immediately after I will be in China for a week. This weekend we are going to Hong Kong to hang out. One of the many things that I love about Taiwan is its close proximity to other countries such as Hong Kong. You can be impulsive and just decide to take off for the weekend to at least a dozen Asian destinations. This is exactly what we did!

I will post our photos next week after our new DSL is installed.