sorry blog for neglecting you

And so I've been back from my trips to taipei and qingdao for four days now. Since returning I've been busy working on my book thing as I have a deadline approaching. Yes, a pretty horrific thought which has been hanging over my head the whole time I was away. But miraculously, I seem to be managing okay!

Finished one chapter out of the three that I need to submit by next monday, so a bit of full throttle action would probably allow me to crank out the rest by Monday afternoon fingers crossed.

So, Taipei was pretty much how I remembered it from when I was last there ten years ago. Pretty dumpy in the main city areas, pretty polluted, and everywhere you turn there seems to be a tyre shop. My hotel room has to be the WORST I ever laid foot on. It had no windows, smelt bad, and there were crumbs on the carpet, every single fucking day! Thank the Lord for protecting me throughout as I did sense the possibility of evil spirits lurking about. Thank you thank you.

We were received by both parties' election campaign teams and visited their headquarters. The KMT election headquarter looked dead and stale and there was hardly any action going on. The DPP's, in contrast, was like some kind of freshman frat party - except that no one there seemed to be under the age of 50. It was all song and dance and chanting and fist waving, with plenty of fluffy toys and caps and key rings and gold coins for sale. They had some pretty cool T-shirts on sale though, which I kinda wanted to buy, but then thought better of it. I don't want to get thrown in jail for whatever for wearing a shirt that says "support Taiwan join UN!" or "Say No to Beijing Olympics!"

We joined the DPP's march on the Sunday before election day, and it was pretty interesting. They built a huge wooden horse which was smoking the whole way. It was supposed to mock MaYingJeou's proposition to strengthen economic ties with the mainland as a Trojan Horse. That Horse was not small and it was only when we got a closer look towards the end of the march that we saw it was being physically PUSHED around by a bunch of poor sods. Fancy that.

Will post pics of said trip tomorrow. Meanwhile, must get back to my cranking.