At one time or another, everyone gets interrupted while speaking. This is an annoyance that we must put up with in a free society. Sometimes, people cannot hear you and they mistakenly start to speak over you because they didn’t hear you. This, I can understand. But, there is another type of interruption that I simply cannot tolerate.
My very first Taiwanese friend was Mr. Chen Shao Yeou. Mr. Chen worked in a Chinese restaurant in the town where I lived at the time. I met him while working in the restaurant as one of the food preparation chefs.
We lived together in a big house for the workers. This is where I first began to learn Chinese, by associating with speakers of the language in close quarters. Over time I helped quite a few restaurant workers improve their English vocabulary too. One fellow asked me to read the entire contents of his English study book into a boom box cassette recorder so he would have a native speaker reference to listen to. It was nothing more than simply reading columns of words and it took about 30 minutes. Well worth it.
Hui-chen and I been very busy this week hosting an American Customer. We’ve been traveling from Taoyuan down to Taichung. Then we went to Kaohsiung to take a look at a house. Naturally the blogosphere has been just as busy. So, without further adieu, here are my picks for the week:
Photos by MJ Klein
Hui-chen and I have been very busy traveling lately. We’ve been in Kaohsiung (to name one place) and I took some shots from a 12th floor window. It’s been awhile since I posted some city shots and these in particular are interesting because of the altitude. So, here goes:
It seems that nearly every house has some kind of illegal addition to the top floor to create another room. Personally, I prefer the open roof space.
My father was known at “Mr. Fixit” because he could fix just about anything. When my family first moved into our new Florida home in 1959, my father went about building things. First he boxed in the ugly heating oil tank that was hung from the ceiling in the garage. He then made a storage area below it. That wasn’t enough so he built a full length 
counter in the garage, and provided us with a lot of storage space. Then he walled off the garage about ¼ way from the entrance and built himself an electronics workshop. Building things came naturally to my father and I’m happy to say that I have inherited his ability. So when I brought home the discarded remains of a wooden go-kart from down the street, my father went to work on a plan to rebuild it.
My father and I together in 2006 (age 83)
These are my blog picks for the week: (more…)
Photos by MJ Klein Food Photos!
I lit a fire, put on some food and the guests started arriving. Yup, it was another party at Shao-hui’s. Do we ever get tired of them? No way!
Food Photos by MJ Klein. Food by Hui-chen’s mother!
Oh my. I was introduced to yet another heretofore unexplored family tradition, and one based on cooking. Hui-chen’s mother has yet another original recipe up her sleeve that I didn’t know about, and I got to check it out up close and personal.
It starts out with this meat mix, which is similar to dumplings.
Yes, that time of year is upon us again - the season of colds and flu. These maladies are causes by viruses and therefore cannot be successfully treated with antibiotics. But, there are things you can to to reduce the symptoms and feel better while your body rages the war on foreign invaders. Normally I try to avoid using medications as much as possible.
Photos by MJ Klein
T700 on platform 3, Kaohsiung Station
Hui-chen and I went to visit her family this weekend to attend her sister’s engagement party. While we waited at Hsinchu THSR station, I noticed a couple of new shelters in various stages of progress.
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