American Eagle Turkey Luncheon

Leona contacted Plaza International Hotel and went to pay for a roasted turkey dinner she will pick up fresh and hot on Saturday. It cost 1898NT ($63us) a price I can afford to buy in one night’s work at American Eagle. There will be owners Teddy, Celia, their sons, Jonathan and the big clean-up guy, Zoe and Antonio, foreign teachers Darren, David, and Agya, and perhaps the other Taiwanese desk clerk with the camera; 10 people plus Leona and me. Nicole was regretful that she can’t make it. Everyone is supposed to bring beverages, appetizers, and desserts.

11-30-13 7:09am Sat. (1)

      The corn on the cob is cooked. The apple sauce and potato latkas are ready, so is the pumpkin squash. Leona will make matzo ball soup this morning and perhaps a Caesar salad. I will make stuffing after Jia-Hui’s cousin class at 11:30am while Leona takes the scooter to pick up the turkey and quiche. Then, I will set up the extra table in the dining area. The ten guests are supposed to be arriving after 1:00pm.

 

      I just made the stuffing adding the sautéed Portabella mushrooms and chopped chestnuts. Now only the salad and soup are left to be made by Leona

 

Hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving! Leona and I made a Thanksgiving luncheon for eleven people in my surrogate family this Saturday, my colleagues and bosses' family at the after-school center where I teach twelve hours a week. I made everything but the turkey, a ten-pounder made at a local hotel restaurant. I made potato latkas (for the second time in Taiwan) for Hanukkah which falls on Thanksgiving eve, apple sauce (because you can't find any in Taiwan) matzo ball soup (no one here's ever eaten before!) stuffing (Stove Top I brought from Brooklyn) and Ocean Spray Cranberry jelly; one guest remembered the lines from the can around the circumference. Meanwhile, Renna called from Richmond, VA to light candles and sing Hanukkah prayers with me.Leona had a good time after all!

Golden Horse Awards Show

11-24-13 8:10am Sun. (1) [copied from hand-written journal.]

      The news on TV is about the Golden Horse film awards program. It could have been the Academy Awards except for the Mandarin speaking Asians dominating the stars at the Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall in Taipei showing up in their snazzy cars in front of a sheet of plastic that they do the duck walk down the red carpet in front of the hall. It’s only entertainment so the hundreds of millions of Mandarin-speaking Asian viewers can see the twinkle in their Mandarin-speaking Asian stars’ eyes, an alternate universe to the Caucasian show in English with a token smattering of entertainers not from European dissent. At least, in Taiwan, you can bring your own food and drink into the movie theater with you.

Big Red Motorcycle and Treadmill

Leona and I went to her brother’s house for dinner on the spur of the moment. We brought cake for the kids. While there, he showed us his expensive new two-year-old Kawasaki motorcycle. It’s big and red, and a waste of money. I think of the $5000 AC/DC Pinball Machine Leona wouldn’t buy for my birthday last year. I would have spent as much time playing that as Shih-Dong will riding his motorcycle, and for a lot less money, and it would have looked good in the still-empty indoor patio. Oh wel

11-23-13 3:53am Sat. (1)

      Leona went and bought a treadmill for herself yesterday. I don’t know why she doesn’t just go jogging on the bike path near the Han River or even ride a bicycle. She’s not going to use the treadmill half of the year when it is close to ninety degrees in the enclosed patio. She can use it now until March or April when it will start getting hot. She did go to the gym in Brooklyn almost every weekday to exercise and she’s been complaining that she gets winded climbing stairs and needs more exercise. I will never use the treadmill. I like being in the real world on a bicycle and I like getting out of the condo. The treadmill must be around $2500us. We can afford it and I hope she uses it in the best of health.

 But I am a little jealous still about not having the AC/DC Pinball Machine I saw back in May. I know I don’t need it and I wouldn’t use it more than a few hours a week. I can’t pass judgment on what Leona thinks she needs. But I’m not going to get something I don’t need because I’m jealous or because someone thinks I should have it. For example, Leona has been talking about getting a car. I am not going to buy a car. I don’t want one or need one in Taiwan. On this tiny overcrowded island, where could I go, anyway, that a bus or train couldn’t take me? .I already told her she is doing the driving if we get a car. I’m not driving her around.

Leona used the new treadmill for the first time last evening. She said it was good but has to figure out how to place the laptop in front of her on the stand while she works out. The treadmill is facing the window and the mountains to the east; a nice view. The rug behind between the treadmill and the JVC entertainment center covers the electric wire that’s plugged into the side of the building on the enclosed patio. I’m not going to mention the AC/DC Pinball Machine or Rowe CD jukebox that isn’t out there. The indoor patio could use some more plants. I still see the tiffany style ceiling lights from 1210 Ave Y going up there one day though that is DOA, too. There is still room on the walls for the Matrix movie poster, James Dean, and Laurel and Hardy.
 

Flower Show in the Mountains

11-14-13 7:02am Thurs. (1)

      At 9:30am, Leona’s cousin is picking us up to go up the mountain to a flower show. I would rather go with Leona alone but, apparently, there is no bus and her scooter wouldn’t make the climb with or without me on it. Leona also lacks motivation to do too much beyond the neighborhood. I have to struggle with her whenever I want to leave Taichung.

 

Right now, I’m getting dressed and taking a ride up the Han so I can get back by 9:30 and the trip to the flower show.

Lim It-Hong: The Taiwan Martyr

11-10-13 7:18am Sun. (2)

That typhoon passed south of Taiwan due to northwest winds this time of year. Yesterday, after teaching Leona's seven-year-old niece and her two twin cousins EFL, we got on a train north past Miaoli to visit a fellow malcontent we'd met in 2003. His cafe has had windows broken twice by enemies as he helps locals and youth organize against arbitrary government land seizures. With Leona's help, I made my case for him and his protégées to join the IWW. He has the property right to sit on the fence, which he did. We met the young cultural hero who threw a sneaker at the head of the local corrupt mayor and saw the sneaker itself. The young man is basking in the limelight proud of being sued but lacks content of character or purpose. Leona got riled up in a conversation with a politician who was in the cafe. I guess malcontention is contagious. Today I will ride the bike to Taichung Port to hand out IWW business cards I made, but mostly to enjoy the ride and listen to Hendrix on my iPod.

      Lim It-Hong is now divorced and living in a shabby house in the middle of a field not far from the shore outside Miao-Li. His girlfriend came downstairs after Leona and I arrived around 3pm yesterday. We stayed there until 8pm in his café about fifteen minutes from his home talking with him and Gary, a protégée. I tried to sell them on joining the IWW and gave he and Lim the Taichung radio interview CD’s and the IWW Mandarin introduction. I explained that the immediate benefit of joining the IWW was the structure it would lend to their organization, international outreach and solidarity to their efforts, endurance to their endeavors, and funds to their treasury. It would link them to a international anti-capitalist movement. As typical, no one was willing to commit and Lim didn’t help by saying his efforts were not labor oriented. I said that if the bulldozer drivers who raised the house in Miaoli were union, they wouldn’t have crossed the picket line. He couldn’t disagree. I think he just doesn’t want to dilute his power by sharing it with an outside organization. He wants to have all the glory. He’ll fail if he does so. I hope he reconsiders and joins me in the IWW organizing here, for the sake of the young restless radicals.

 

Anti KMT Demonstration

11-8-13 6:37am Fri. (1)

      Sunday in Taichung at the new baseball stadium, there is going to be a KMT convention. Demonstrations are expected.

11-10-13 9:28pm Sun. (*2)

      I made 100 IWW business cards. I handed out 10 yesterday at Mr. Lim’s café in Miaoli. I have 77 left which means I handed out only 13 at the anti-KMT demo today. It seemed like I handed out more.

      I had a nice day today. I rode to near Taichung Port via Wen-Xin Road and route #12, Taichung Port Road, soon to be renamed ‘Taiwan Road.’ The Dadu mountain in-between Taichung proper and the port is formidable. I had to walk the bike up the incline halfway there and back. Of course, going down the mountain is a breeze.

      I arrived after 1 1/2 hours at a Family Mart and was lucky to meet three of the young men and ladies from Lim’s café the day before. They welcomed me in their car and drove around the blockaded area where the KMT was having a meeting (guarded by 2000 police) to a small area far from the action. Only about 300 people were there, throwing shoes again; that’s what they’ve been reduced to doing as the government chips away at their livelihood to satisfy a Chinese takeover.

The workers in Taiwan are doomed to KMT/CPP corporate/government oppression but it doesn’t mean they can’t still organize informal unions. Like the IWW does, they must fight their boss one workplace at a time, and eventually industry wide, whether in Taiwan or China. In neither place are independent unions legal, not that having legal business unions in the USA has helped workers much, anyway. Mr. Lim It-Hong must realize a boss is a boss from anywhere and stop saying it is urgent that something be done now to stop the inevitable; he could be preparing his protégées for a lifetime of union solidarity organizing and struggle in the workplace instead. The peaceful revolution offensive will happen in the workplace and we defend ourselves when they attack, which they will. 

Finga's Fine Foods

        Finga's Italian Restaurant (17-1, Ching Cheng Rd.; tel. 327-5450) and Finga's Pizza and Pasta (B3-level, B Building, Chung Yo Dept. Store; tel. 226-1670) are providing a full Thanksgiving dinner on November 23 for NT$850 a person. Finga's Fine Foods (7, Ching Cheng Rd., tel. 327-7750) is offering take-away turkey dinners on the same day--call for price. Throughout November and Decembers, Finga's is offering full roasted turkeys (anywhere from about 12 to 18 pounds) for NT$200 per pound, including two pumpkin pies, stuffing and gravy, or a half-turkey with stuffing, gravy and one pie for NT$1,600.

11-18-13

      We went to Finga’s yesterday when we went to the Westside to look and see if we could get a kitten. When I got back from my bike ride, Leona made the suggestion to go. We got on her scooter and went. We went to the park where they had an anti-nuclear rally months ago. There, in a park were some stray animal advocates gifting pets, mostly dogs. There were very few cats and one of them, a three-month-old orange tabby with a white chest, almost became our new pet. We decided to think about it and took a walk to find Finga’s.

      Gilles had mentioned Finga’s a few weeks ago when we went for a ride up the mountain for a snack one Sunday afternoon. Leona and I were on the scooter heading to the Westside when I asked if we would be near Sogo, where Gilles mentioned we’d find Finga’s near. Leona said yes and I thought of going to Finga’s for the pickled beets he’d mentioned and the pumpkin pie I saw advertised on their Facebook for Thanksgiving. Gilles had said they were a restaurant/grocery and I was expecting to find a little supermarket. I called Gilles on my cell phone when we arrived on the Westside and he gave me directions. Amazingly, after a ten minute walk from the park, we found it, a little hole-in-the-wall with a faded round orange awning. Inside there were a few tables, not more than five or six, and a counter behind refrigerated showcases with some cheese and delicatessen items inside. To the left, there were baked goods where we found a delicious rye bread; real rye bread! On the shelf with a few random imported items, we found pickles but no pickled beets. There was Vegemite in case I wanted to sample the Australian favorite and even some boxes of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese. My attention went to a freezer case in the back left corner in which I spied Italian sausage and other sausages, homemade! I then spotted a can of Libby’s pumpkin that I plan on trying to make a pumpkin pie with. Leona spotted a tin of anchovies in oil. I felt like we had hit the jackpot, thanks to Gilles. It was the second time since our trip up the mountain that he’d steered me right, the first one being Palio’s Pizza just up Dong-Shan Road; the best pizza I’ve had since we moved to Taichung. Merci beaucoups Gilles, mon ami.

      For dinner, I made the sausages which were a little spicy, lean, and delicious. I also made an antipasto salad with baby lettuce and greens Leona had gotten along with some Genoa salami, prosciutto, and home style mozzarella, capers and anchovies. I also put some dry meat and cheese on thin slices of Italian bread and baked them with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, real olive oil, not the adulterated shit that’s been exposed in the Taiwan media recently. We also finished the bottle of Chilean red wine

Leona had gotten the day before with the bread. It was a fine dinner I made, and I let Leona know it was her I was making it for. She loved it!

A Cousin's Re-Habbed Condo For Rent

11-6-13
When I got home at 10:30am, I went with Leona in her cousin's car to a tenement slum condo her cousin bought for 1.5 million NT ($50,000us) in a ratty old building. She's fixed up an apartment on the fifth floor walk-up with an illegal apartment built on the roof. Rent is 6,000NT a month ($200us) After washing two enormous and dangerous windows (dangerous because they are two feet off the floor with no bars) I waited until the cousin and Jenny, the woman who brokered our condo, were ready to leave at 3:30.

Chandelier, LED Shower, & Mushroom Mountain Tea Time

The chandelier in the dining area and the sink, toilet, and shower head in the master bedroom were installed yesterday. They all look good with adjustments. We agreed and I changed the bulbs for the chandelier to lower unfrosted brightness. The water for the shower was heated more so there could be more pressure when I mix it with cold water. Leona even relented and we bought a little closet for the master bathroom to store talcum powder, soap, extra toilet paper, after shave lotion, shaving cream, etc. instead of leaving it out all over. She bought a new shelf for inside the shower stall to hold the shampoo, at my request, too.

 

11-3-13 7:02am Sun. (1)

      I had tea time at a mushroom gift shop’s restaurant up in the mountains with Gilles yesterday afternoon. It was a good diversion from what I’ve been doing

Earthquake Again

11-1-13 8:41am Fri. (1) 141-82  

      There was a 6.0 earthquake at 8:02pm yesterday as I sat in room 401 at American Eagle. I barely felt it but the two teenage boys in the class were ready to cut downstairs. I told them not to since I felt the earthquake waning. It was the third +6 earthquake this year. Leona said the ceiling light in the living room and the flat-screen TV on the entertainment center were shaking but nothing fell. Nala ran under the bed and Sweeney-Poo looked alarmed but stood still.

Taiwan Worker Organizing

10-29-13 8:58am Tues. (1)

. I want to be a catalyst and motivator for the IWW organizing in Taiwan but Catta and Yihan are the main ingredients; without their dedication we’re losing a beat. They should be getting Cooloud and Youth Labor to sign up and help organize the union here but they, admittedly so, don’t know much about the IWW themselves. Only Henry’s translation I gave them has guided them. I openly suggested someone translate the Agenda into Mandarin but they didn’t take the request. Maybe Lennon, if he joins, is more mature at 32 years old to take some more responsibility than the 22 year olds. Martin Gross was great, well-committed and responsible, a half hour early. Catta and Yihan were fifteen minutes late and Lennon didn’t show up until an hour later, after Catta text-messaged him.

      At the meeting Yihan agonized over how the IWW could become relevant to workers in Taiwan. He kept talking about the Taiwanese character of conciliation with their employers and acceptance of top-down management. This is not only a Taiwanese impediment to unionizing workplaces. I suggested we take Elizabeth Gurley Flynn’s tact of agitating workers who have been displaced by mismanagement. For example, workers from the Chang Chi Foodstuff Factory Co who made substandard food products will be on furlough and possibly lose their jobs. The IWW could suggest to them that they take over the factory after the owner files for bankruptcy, as he probably will. The same is true of the workers from Chyuan Shun Food Enterprise Co that was found mixing cheaper Vietnamese rice with Taiwanese rice and selling the mixture as domestic rice in August 2013 or Top Pot Bakery’s lies about not using artificial flavorings which will affect workers who could lose their jobs. These workers need agitators and organizers and may be prone to listen to IWW ideas of self-management and organizing. Martin seemed to understand what I was talking about. I also mentioned how Sun Yat-Sen socialist, perhaps anarchist, leanings could be a thread with which to agitate Taiwanese workers and move them from acquiescing to employers sways. At any rate, the IWW has to become known in Taiwan to labor groups and organizations and fellow workers. Martin’s idea of a business card is a good idea. I explained how adding articles and endorsing workers organizations to our blog (www.taIWWan.blogspot.com) and Facebook page (taIWWan ROC) and the main IWW website could be used to put us on the page in the Taiwan labor movement.

 

10-29-13 8:58am Tues. (1)

Tamshui Weekend

10-21-13

      The barbeque with Leona’s cousin’s family is out because her son can’t get a ticket back from college and her aunt’s boyfriend doesn’t want to come. Next Friday, Leona said twelve of her college friends and significant others will have a dinner we’ll join in Taichung.

      Leona made reservations at a hotel in Tam-shui for next Saturday night. I suggested she come up with me to Taipei Saturday and stay overnight before we head back to Taiwan University for the 2pm Wobbly meeting. I don’t want the meeting to be the only reason I’m heading north. Having fun with Leona is much better.

 

10-26-13

I am sitting in the lobby of the See Hotel in Tan-shui with Leona upstairs in the room. We have a nice view of the river and the mangrove and the land across the river where, Leona reminded me, a woman in a coffee shop killed two of her customers out of greed. When I'm finished with this I will go upstairs unless Leona comes down in the meantime. There is breakfast in the hotel which she'll probably want to have before we step out for the day. We now have five hours until the IWW meeting near Tai-Da University in Taipei. It takes under an hour to get there from here. We will probably leave here by twelve so we can have lunch at that Thai restaurant we like.
We got into town at 3pm yesterday and walked from the train station to the hotel. After a brief unromantic rest, we took a minibus to "Old" Street downtown. It was funny because the area where our hotel is like the Rivera with nothing but mangrove and water and mountain in front of the road and MRT train but once you get up the hill to the north a thousand feet away, it is typically shabby Taiwan with motorcycle repair shops and bing-lan stands, and tons of traffic. The "Old" street is kind of nice winding near the shore of the Tan-shui River with old shops and plenty of food and things to buy. We had dinner there at the city's oldest seafood restaurant; fresh steamed fish, shrimp, oh-ah (fried oyster) and an interesting cold vegetable that tasted a little like bamboo shoot. Leona said it was a seasonal plant that grew in stalks along the waterside. I have no idea what it is but it was good.

Bi-Annual Costco Visit

10-16-13

 After we got that done, Leona rode us to Costco to do our bi-annual stocking up. She rode home on the scooter and I packed the things into a taxi and escorted it home. We spent 11857NT ($395us.) Four 42lb. sacks of Scoop Away were 2,156NT ($18us, each) much cheaper than they are at BJ’s in Brooklyn. Kirkland brand Splenda artificial sweetener was 349NT ($11.60us) for 1500 packets. The only disappointment, if you can call it so, is there was there was no more Australian ground beef; only American (753NT -$25us) for 2.337kg (5.15lbs) making it $4.87us a pound. The Energel pens I use to write were 289NT ($9.60us) for twelve; 80 cents each. The Twinings Earl Gray tea bags were 449NT ($15us) for 100. Four bags of Pepperidge Farm cookies were 399NT ($13.30) or $3.32 each. We’re glad they had Portobello mushrooms and Mexican avocados again. Leona was glad they had Bounty paper towels and American sized table napkins.

 

The taxi was 290NT back home. Leona rode the scooter.

The Electrician (or someone like him) Returns with a Bad Ceiling Lamp

9-28-13

After lunch with Leona, the plumber/electrician came with Jenny to install the lamp. I sat outside on the patio and tried to stay out of the way. There has often been disagreement with the technician with me, with Leona usually on the technician’s side, so I don’t like getting involved. But I couldn’t help looking in after they woke me up from a nap with their talking. The ceiling lamp was almost installed, despite a missing crystal and a cockeyed base. When I asked if the provision for a dimmer switch or choice of six-light selector had been included, the plumber/electrician looked surprised; he had forgotten to do so and Leona and Jenny had not reminded him. Then the justifications began; they didn’t need to adapt it, anyway, the light couldn’t use an adapter, anyway, a dimmer switch needed a third wire which we didn’t have, anyway, there wasn’t enough room to install the six wires a switch would need to warrant taking it down and installing an adapter and blah-blah-blah in Taiwanese.

I reminded Leona that we had decided that we would want to adjust the intensity of light for daily use or when we have dinner guests, and then I walked away and returned to the patio after taking an Aleve. After a while, Leona came out and told me they had taken the ceiling light down, not because of the lack of luminosity adjustment but because one of the six light fixtures didn’t work! How’s that for a face-saver?

The electrician/plumber was not to be blamed for forgetting to check the light before he installed it and Leona and Jenny were not wrong for not reminding him; he would be paid for his useless labor, but not by us; by the lamp fixture company whose fault it was that the lamp, made in China, was defective

Leona and I brought the defective ceiling light downstairs to be picked up and returned. It was the last lamp of its kind in the warehouse. We told Jenny to tell the dealer that we would still take it if they could repair the one of six fixtures that doesn’t work. Otherwise, we will have to select another ceiling lamp for the dining area rotunda.

Taichung Airport Bike Ride

9-28-13 8:25pm Sat. (1)

      I took a long bike ride this morning and discovered the Taichung Airport terminal. I took the Han River bike path through Tan-Zih to the Sugar Cane bike path to highway #10 west and rode another 5km-3 mi. up a hill to make a right turn to special route 10 to the airport terminal. I chained the bike to a nearby pole and walked a few minutes into the terminal. It took about 1 hour 10 minutes to get there, about 25 km- 15 miles, the same distance as from Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn to JFK Airport, but one could never ride a bicycle to the JFK airport; it’s too large and there are no bike paths. The Taichung Airport is one terminal building off a simple four lane two-way street, not a limited access highway. Furthermore, I can chain my bike to a pole and I think it will be still there when I get back; no such luck in Queens, NY.

I will ride the bike to the airport next Saturday morning on my way to take a flight to Hong Kong to visit Ariel. The flight leaves at 8:30am so I should get to the terminal by 7am, I think. I’ll have to be on my bike by 6am to go there. I’m not going by bike to the airport to save money though a taxi would cost perhaps 450NT ($15us) and it’s an 18km (11mi) ride from Taichung Train station and it takes 36min, according to Taxi Auto Fare Website, if they don’t rip you off. I think it would be a nice experience; the bike paths are right-of-way and beautiful. Coming home, I’d be riding at 11pm at night. I have to be careful of the dozen parts of the path they scraped and left raw instead of resurfacing them immediately; typical half-assed Taiwan workmanship.

Today I rode almost three hours on the bike! The longest ride I have ever taken, longer than the 26 mile NYC marathon. I did this with a painful left wrist that made it hard to grip the handlebar. I was exhausted but satisfied when I arrived home. I had a slight headache after a while which could have been from heatstroke or from the trouble with the new dining area ceiling light we were having installed.

 

Lap-Top Adapter at Top City Visit

9-29-13

      I got an adapter (1000NT-$33us) at the Apple store to see the laptop on the smart TV’s big screen. Leona was enjoying a Korean TV show when I got home from American Eagle after setting the TV up herself. I rarely watch TV these days, English or Mandarin, but it’s nice to know I can watch re-runs of “Gilligan’s Island” from YouTube on the big screen if I choose to. We got it at Top City on the Westside after having Korean lunch nearby. BTW, Top City didn’t have Italian sausages as we had heard. They do have a good cheese collection; we got some blue cheese for a night of cheese and crackers and wine, maybe this evening. I wish Leona would agree to go to the Westside more often for their restaurants and supermarkets and bakeries.

Jia-Hui's 'strange' Pink Girl Painting

9-25-13 6:35am Wed. (1)

      Jia-Hui doesn’t like the print of the National Art Gallery portrait of Ms Willoughby, the pink girl, and wanted to know why she was ‘pink’ when only a sash of hers was that color. She said the print was spooky and her father, Shih-Dong, agreed that it was ‘strange’ to put a portrait in a bedroom (!) It’s a good thing the print wasn’t in black and white or they’d think it was a funeral photo! No one complained when Leona and I described the gift of a print we were going to give to Jia-Hui for her birthday to embellish her new room, her first room of her own at seven years old; she’s been sleeping between her parents since birth! It’s just a different culture here. Jia-Hui did like the Hello Kitty pop-up card we got for her months ago at the pop-up art exhibit in Taichung. I told Leona to tell Jia-Hui to give the portrait back and we’d give her a different gift but she said her brother already put it up on her wall. I hope she doesn’t get nightmares from it! It was up on the wall in my old room at Mom’s apartment at 864-49 Street for over twenty years. Mom liked it. I brought it to Taiwan thinking Jia-Hui would like it too since it is a portrait of a cute little girl in pink. I hope it grows on her and she gets some western class and culture out of liking it. Her parents have a tendency to neglect their children’s inner needs. Leona and I can help

Le Ble D'Or, Karaoke, Houseware and Typhoon

9-21-13 9:02am Sat. (1)

      Leona and I had dinner last evening at “Le ble d’or” restaurant, the German-style beer house next door to TGI Friday’s on the Westside. I met Jack, Jack’s wife, Boris, Jinny, another of Leona’s college friends whose name I’ve forgotten, and Jenny, the first of her friends I met who was our real estate agent and interior decorator. (Ironically, the beer house was the origin of the beer Teddy gave me and the other teachers as Mid-Autumn Festival gifts Wednesday at American Eagle.) After we drank and ate, Boris drove some of us without scooters to his showroom (he is an interior decorator) on Beitun Road near Wen-Xing Road to sing karaoke. I did a hot version of “Hotel California” along with sweet renditions of “Moonlight Flowers”, “Yesterday” (which went on And on), and some other songs from a short English song list. Everyone had fun singing horrible renditions of Taiwanese and Mandarin songs. Jack got drunk on Heineken beer but I refused any in deference to my two 500 liter mugs earlier and my recent bout with gout. Leona had a wonderful time. We were close enough to walk home the twenty minutes afterwards.

The evening plans were a surprise after a hard sleeping night returning from Taipei. (We had to cancel our plan to join Ellen’s family in a van up to a mountain resort because of the impending typhoon.) At first, I didn’t really want to go but didn’t mention anything. I didn’t ride the bike yesterday I was so tired. I stayed in bed. Later B & Q delivered the items we’d purchased Wednesday evening and I assembled the screw-less Rubbermaid-style Israeli utility cabinet (3000NT-$100us) before we went to have guo-tieh for lunch. After lunch we rode to Shih-Dong’s place to see the ugly bunk bed (with top bed used for storage) that he’d gotten Jia-Hui for her own tiny room; the two boys still share another tiny room in their rapidly-shrinking condo. We went home and I had a two hour nap before we left, by taxi (320NT-$1066us) for the evening party at 5pm.

The typhoon is passing to the south of Taiwan and dumping rain there, in the east, and in the mountains, but here in Taichung, we’ve only had a few drops of rain so far. I’m not going to ride the bike again because of it and to give my left wrist some more rest; it’s still a little sore either from the sprain or the gout. I will assemble the barbeque grill we bought and the little round steel and tile-top patio table. When Leona gets up, I could make breakfast. I think the rain is supposed to get worse later on so maybe I should go to the market for some eat-at-home foods.

Trip to Taipei where taIWWan Begins

9-20-13 8:34am Fri. (1)

      We had a very nice day in Taipei yesterday despite the rain there. When we got off the HSR, we took the Metro to the City Hall station to visit the large bookstore and CD department at Eslite I picked up Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser for 525NT-$17.50 but the other books I wanted evaded me. I also got Ry Cooder’s new “Corridos Famous – Live” for 450NT-$15, Cockney Rejects “Join The Rejects,” a three CD set for 600NT-$20us, and a DVD of “It’s a Wonderful Life,” with Chinese subtitles, for 99NT- $3.33us. I’m awaiting the 50^th Anniversary Edition of the film from New York that I bought on Amazon for $6US. That edition has a booklet and other features, but I wouldn’t have bought it if I had known I could get the copy here in Taipei. At the bookstore, we learned that their branch near Taiwan University had another book I wanted, Becoming “Japanese”; Colonial Taiwan and the Politics of Identity Formation by Leo T.S. Ching for 1015NT-$33.80. At the bookstore, Leona noticed a promotional 20% off if you buy two books so I thought I’d get Anne of Green Gables except I couldn’t remember the author Montgomery’s name. I asked at the info desk and they said the book was out of stock. Learning the author’s name, I looked on the shelves nevertheless and found a copy for 210NT-$7us. With the discount, it made up for the hefty price of the Japan in Taiwan book.

      After we got back from the bookstore in the 101 building area, we took the subway to Taiwan University to have Thai food for lunch and finally meet Catta, Yihan, and Em, two of them Wobblies in good standing. We spent over three hours in Dante coffee shop discussing the IWW. I ended up doing most of the talking as I answered their questions about organizing in Taiwan. They talked about how they had been active pushing for recognition of workers’ rights for workers who seemed to resent their help. I pointed out that we should let the workers come to us who want to organize their work place but we should agitate workers and show solidarity to them in demonstrations. The first step was organizing in our own work places. Yihan, who works in a small crew for a documentary producer, shouldn’t consider him a friend since he is a boss with power to hire, fire, and pay. Yihan should ask for an increase in salary. I was just making a point.

      We touched on all subjects. Someone had asked if I was affiliated with the NYC branch anymore and I explained why I wasn’t; because a job-shop Starbucks Workers “Union” was eating up GMB funds but not sharing any of their own fundraising with the GMB. I explained how Gross was right in organizing his own work place but jumped the gun by filing with the NLRB for recognition before getting a super majority or understanding the nature of stuffing Starbucks would engage in to make the union lose the election. I told my three fellow workers in Taiwan that we shouldn’t look for stardom as Gross had or, in a closer example, Shih Mind-De. Because of the conditions of no government union protection, we had to be clandestine here. I gave the example of Tiger in Chinatown NYC who shunned the limiting UNITE union and got better working conditions for garment workers as a result. Especially when there is apathy from workers and gangster-ism from bosses, we really must let the workers come to us. This means establishing a set time and date each month for a GMB meeting and promoting it on our taIWWan blog at outreach, street actions, and demonstrations. I said I’d be willing to come up to Taipei once a month for the meeting. I will follow up with them on the time and place.

      I gave Catta and Yihan some gifts on behalf of the IWW and lent them the Kerr IWW Anthology I brought from Brooklyn. I gave them my signed copy of Wobblies, the graphic history and will get another singed copy from Tom when I return to Brooklyn next summer. I also gave them a print out of Henry’s 25 page Mandarin (with Taiwanese characteristics, I learned) translation of IWW history and goals and one of three Wobbly pennants I brought. Catta was interested in the Wobbly City I brought as I discussed how David Graeber had come to our GMB meeting in 2005 when he was fired from Yale and now was a good author; we should be that for disgruntled Taiwanese workers. I will copy the newsletter and send it as an attachment to her.

      I also brought up my desire to keep localism as our focus even as we are international. I pointed out how Jacob Zhu of China Tide was a spy for China who came to the Wisteria Tea House talk I did about the IWW and grass-root unionism. He distracting Taiwan University student with his ulterior motive of promoting unification with China even while he was anti-WTO, mainly to be anti-American, not pro-worker. Yihan looked him up on his smart phone and knew who I was referring to. I also showed he and Catta the list of students I’d met ten years ago in Taipei and they recognized at least one former student as still being an activist. We should be aware of the forces that would co-op and distract us from helping local workers improve their work conditions.

      I just sent Tom Keough a copy of my journal account of our “First Taiwan IWW GMB Meeting.”

Flying from Taichung to Hong Kong

9-10-13

Departing Flight Information - Saturday, Sep 28, 2013
Flight 193 1hr 40m, 429 mi		Departs: Taichung Ching Chuang Kang Airport (RMQ) Taichung, Taiwan 8:25 AM			Arrives: Hong Kong Intl Airport (Hong Kong Intl AirportHKG) Hong Kong, Hong Kong 10:05 AM	0 Stops Airbus A320 Economy/Coach
Returning Flight Information - Sunday, Sep 29, 2013
Flight 192 1hr 40m, 429 mi		Departs: Hong Kong Intl Airport (Hong Kong Intl AirportHKG) Hong Kong, Hong Kong 8:45 PM			Arrives: Taichung Ching Chuang Kang Airport (RMQ) Taichung, Taiwan 10:25 PM	0 Stops Airbus A320 Economy/Coach
Flight		+ Hotel $378.63

I’m trying to make a plan to visit Ariel in Hong Kong the weekend of Sept 28-29. It looks like I’ve got a good plan and cost. Now, I have to get Ariel to confirm that it will be a good weekend for me to visit.

My plan is this: Ride my bike to the Taichung Airport Saturday morning, Sept. 28 leaving the house about 6am. I would chain my bike to an undetermined spot and walk to the terminal (I would do a test run before hand one morning.) The flight leaves at 8:45am so I would have to check in no later than say 7am. I’d have two full days to spend with Ariel (and Alice?) in Hong Kong. I could see the sights, a comedy show with him, and go out to dinner. The flight back to Taichung leaves Hong Kong at 8:45pm so I would get back to the airport by 6:30pm or so Sunday. I’d arrive in Taichung at 10:25pm Sunday evening. I’d walk back to my bike and ride it home. I could be back in the house before midnight for a good night’s sleep. The cost to the airport in Taiwan: $0.00, plus I’d get my exercise for the two days. The airport in Taichung is a place I’ve ridden to before; about forty minutes along the Han and Tan-Zih bike trails. It would be faster than the buses which might not even be running at the times I chose.

9-13-13 8:47am Fri. (1)

      I’m trying to see on maps where the Taichung Airport is in relation to the Tan-Zih Bike Path. I best go there in person. The airport entrance seems to be on a route 10Z just before it hits highway #3. There’s a Jung-Shan Road before the interchange on the left that mergers with route 10 near 10Z. I just have to go there in person and see for myself. Today, since it’s already 9am, I’ll go up the Han. Maybe Monday, I’ll try to find as place to park the bicycle at the airport. My flight to Hong Kong is Oct. 5^th.

Pictures on the Walls

9-10-13

While there, Shih-Dong also said we could take back the oil painting a street artist did of the print over Mom’s sofa at 864-49 Street. Leona and her sister had brought it to Tan-Zih along with other furniture I removed from my condo on Min-Sheng East Road in 1989. I had it moved into the Ding-Hao apartment I rented before the kids and I left Taiwan. Leona and her sister then brought it down to Tan-Zih. The other furniture was eaten by termites but the painting survived. After 24 years, I get it back.

 I’d like to put the oil painting of Mom’s print in the dining area, either on the wall along the glass partition or on the wall between the kitchen door and hallway near the tea room, but we have to see the size and condition of the frame; Shih-Dong says it may need replacement. Leona’s not crazy about either idea. The 31”x24” print of Franz Xaver Winterhalter’s “Madame Barbe de Rimsky-Korsakow” (1864) is being framed in a light-gold classic wooden frame (4800NT -$160us) and will go over the vanity-chest in the dining area on the wall to the left of the tea room.

Just yesterday, I framed five prints with glossy white plastic frame and cover. I put Tom Keough’s prints back into the study where I put the when we moved in and I added the sketch of Leona to the room. A photo of Leona and a seven-year-old Amanda taken in Taiwan is on the wall in the living room over the end table with the family photo of the six of us, when Amanda was still an infant, and the two elder Simone and Renna holding their younger siblings Ariel and Amanda. There will be no more wall hangings in the living room, at Leona’s request. I think there is room for a few more little hangings.

There’s one more photo I framed and hung yesterday. It is a photo of Gary Cooper and Ingmar Bergman from a black and white film. I put in the indoor patio over the JVC stereo. I still have lingering dreams of making the indoor patio a den of sorts. We will hang a framed movie promo poster of “Matrix I” there and maybe framed Betty Boop, Laurel and Hardy, and James Dean print. They must be framed and not be taped up as I did at 1210 Ave Y. I’ve grown too mature for tape ups.

There is a linoleum block and print that I brought to Taiwan in the shipped boxes. It is the only art I have really ever done. I did it in Pershing Junior High School 45 years ago. It is a burley motorcyclist on a bike. I could make a new print copy and put that up somewhere, too. That would be fun. There is one more framed photo I’d like to put up somewhere; a colorized copy of a post card of Ebbet’s Field. For now it remains standing inside the book case. There is no sports section in the bookcase; all my baseball books were drenched in sewerage during Hurricane Sandy. I saved the worthless baseball card collections I have for sentimental reasons. One day they will grace the inner shelves of the bookcase, too. There are many shelves for Leona, too. 

My Bout with Gout

9-5-13 11:38am Thurs. (1)

      I had a very difficult night and only slept a few hours. It is all because I twisted my left wrist riding home from American Eagle on the bike yesterday. I think I tried to twist the left handlebar grip back up on the bike before I left with this result. My wrist got swollen and painful and I couldn’t find a position to sleep. So I wouldn’t disturb Leona, I moved into the living room but only slept a few hours. She put some Salonpas on the wrist but that didn’t seem to be helping. In the morning, I took an ice bag and that made it feel better. I did sleep from 7-11am in bed. When I woke up Leona’s cousin was here.

      Leona and her friend are trying to find a martial arts acupuncturist to take a look at my wrist and get some treatment. I can bend my fingers and I am typing this with both hands. I don’t know if this will be happening today. I have to be in American Eagle at 4:30 for two classes. I hope I can ride the bike there.

9-6-13 6:26am Fri. (1)

      Another whacky night of swollen left hand and sleeplessness. I moved into the living room after making love to Leona; I had enough feeling for that. Then I left her sleep instead of staying there tossing and turning with my painful hand. I took two Aleve. Evert time I moved my hand wrong, the pain woke me up. The medicine Leona got from her cousin for me isn’t really helping.

      I was able to ride the bike to American Eagle yesterday by not putting any pressure on the handlebar with my left hand. Teaching kept me busy and helped me forget the discomfort of my left hand. Besides going to teach, I didn’t ride the bike up the Han and I’m not going to do it today, either. I hope I can go back to sleep. At noon, I have a check-up appointment with a urologist at China University Medical Center but I’d really rather see someone there about my hand.

9-6-13 9:44pm Fri. (*2)

      Leona and I spent over five hours at the China University Medical Center seeing two doctors for me. The first appointment was around 11am with a urologist. I went in with none of the information from Dr. Reiser in Brooklyn; I had something else on my mind: my painful wrist. As it is, the urologist wasn’t going to rely on the last urine sample and blood test I did for Dr. Lin, my cardiologist. He said my previous PSA of 4.5 or 5.3 wasn’t too high to warrant worry. I didn’t have any complaints and getting up to pee once or twice a night was okay with him, so we left his office with a referral to give another blood and urine sample and go back to see Dr. Zhou next Friday.

      My second appointment was an emergency appointment around 1pm with an Orthopedic Specialist to see about my swollen left wrist. At the interview, he looked at my reddened swollen wrist and believed it was gout that I had. He gave us a referral to go downstairs and get x-rays and blood tests. My uric acid was ‘7’, a little under the 7.5 considered gout but the bone was not compromised. Conclusion? I had gout. He gave me five prescriptions for painkiller, gout, antibiotic, and stomach protection from the pills themselves; Ultracet Tab, Colchicine 0.5mg., Venalot depot dragees Tab, Voltaren SR 75mg Tab (Diclofenac SR. 75mg Tab), and Lichia Tab.

      The second appointment didn’t let us out until 4:30pm and then we had to go back to the first building for me to give the urine and blood sample for the urologist. We didn’t get back to the scooter until 5:10pm. I had called Kenni at American Eagle at 2pm to give them the heads-up that I may not be able to come in. I called back at 4pm and told Zoe that I wasn’t sure how much longer it was going to take. She said I should come in anyway even if it was later than the 4:30pm class time. When I called back at 5:10pm, she still said I should come in if I was late. I told her I was tired. It would take time to get to the bushiban. I was going home to rest. We went home and I fell out immediately for a few hours, I was so tired. My wrist still hurts and is swollen. I took a gout pill and others and will take a pain killer before I go to sleep.

9-7-13 7:57am Sat. (1)

      My hand is a little less swollen and not much painful anymore. The medicine and nature are working. The pain killer helped me sleep through the night. I hadn’t slept well the previous two nights. Leona woke up before me this morning to feed the cats.

An Evening at Home with Leona and Roast Duck

8-31-13

      It has been raining since Wednesday evening. It’s raining now. I haven’t ridden the bike in three days, unless I count the half hour round-trip to American Eagle yesterday afternoon. Leona and I haven’t left the neighborhood on a scooter since Wednesday, too. Hopefully I can ride the bike later today.

      We had a nice evening at home yesterday. I went out to the shabby stand outside the store front near Family Mart where there are a few roast ducks in a glass case. I bought half a duck for 230NT. The gentleman there roasts the ducks himself in a steel drum out in front of his stand near the curb. Then, he cuts it up, leaving the meat and skin on a plate while cooking the bones in a wok with some sauce and greens. His mother helps pack it in a plastic bag to later make soup. We get flour tortilla and plum sauce to make moo-shu Peking duck. It was delicious! There’s a lot of soup left over.

      At 9pm, I made nachos cheese tortilla chips and opened a bottle of Rioja wine we got at Jason’s. We watched “ Rope,” a Hitchcock film with Jimmy Stewart neither of us had seen before. It was a very nice evening. After the film, I sat outside under the round jut of balconies over our bedroom sliding patio door and watched the rain fall around me. Wished I had a smoke. Leona topped it off with her routine watching of talk shows while I took a shower and went to bed at 11pm. I woke up when Leona came in at 1am after finishing watching the talk shows. Then, I couldn’t get back to sleep until 3am. Finally, I got back to sleep only to wake up at 6am to feed the cats.

      I sent the edited “Brightest Star in Tan-Zih” to replace the last edit in the short story blog. Then, I shared it on Facebook.  

The Entertainment Center

8-31-13

 The entertainment center is mostly empty (except for utility bill drawer) and ready for CD’s and DVD movies. One day, I may bring a turntable and LP’s, too, from Brooklyn. I toyed with the idea of moving the Bose speakers into the side cabinets but I’ll leave them on top for now. The sound is great and the sofa vibrated when I played AC/DC yesterday. I can’t hook the analog sound up to the digital TV.

      I hooked up the Onkyo amp and Bose speakers to the DVD player. We can’t hook up the TV sound to the stereo because we need a digital plug in; the Onkyo is too old and doesn’t have one. Leona doesn’t mind the TV sound from the Sony Smart TV, anyway; she watches the bulk of TV programs. We do get many American TV programs on channels for Asian viewers on cable, mostly from Fox, but I don’t watch TV that often unless it’s a show together. I even stopped watching NBC Nightly News podcasts, mostly because we can’t get the signal from Wi-Fi in the study, but it is okay. It’s only propaganda.

Re-connecting with Lin Yi-Fang

8-28-13

      My re-connection with Lin Yi-Fang is interesting. I absent-mindedly threw his business card away when we were in Brooklyn a month ago and didn’t think I’d be in touch with him again. Then Leona pointed him out to me on a TV news report; he has a café in Miaoli where meeting are held about the illegal bulldozing of property nearby. His store front window was vandalized, the second time since the organizing there began (he may have broken it himself for publicity.) I went looking through the binder with my radical papers and found his personal address and phone numbers. I asked Leona to call him up and she tried; one cell number wasn’t in service and the other home number wasn’t working. I looked him up in Google on-line and found reference to him with phone number. Leona called that number and got through to him. That’s when we talked, like old friends, even though I haven’t seen him since in seven years. He invited me to his café where we would chat and he would introduce me to a local labor leader.

 

Rosh Hashanah 5773

8-27-13 8:11am Tues. (1) 124-77

I wrote back with an article about the changing of the guard: “Energetic Chabad rabbi nourishes Jewish Taipei. Jewish life in Taipei is undergoing a transformation, as Jewish life often does when Chabad envoys become part of the fabric of a community…Taiwan actually had a rabbi before Tabib arrived on the scene. Rabbi Ephraim Einhorn, now 93, had been the spiritual leader of Taiwan’s Jewish community for some 30 years prior to a Chabad presence on the island. Although he was a beloved figure there were fears that a man of his age could not continue to lead prayer services and intercede with authorities for much longer. New, young blood was needed. Accordingly, some of the Taiwan Jews appealed to Avtzon and asked him to send a young couple. The Tabibs were a natural choice.” Einhorn was the rabbi that converted Libby (temporarily), married us in Jewish ceremony, and presided over Ariel’s bris. He also advised me to separate from Libby. Since I will be teaching in Taichung Sept. 4, Rosh Hashanah, I will not be going to a service. I will go on line to hear the shofar blown; there is no ceremony in Taichung that I’ve found yet.

I was told to ‘be patient’ after a relative receieved my second e-mail in four days asking for a response to my new year wishes. I reminded him that I had patiently been awaiting a response from him since last year when I wished him greetings. It was after that I deleted his name and another relative from my e-mail list. That left only Selma on my maternal side of the family. Two other relatives were deleted from my e-mail list a few years before that for ignoring my e-mail. I am in touch with many more Temple relatives than Allen and Zekowsky derivatives.

I got one new year greeting response out of seven or eight that I sent to Jewish friends and relatives; from Ms. Karagash from FDR.

      I just spent fifteen minutes in a virtual synagogue on YouTube, yarmulke on, and celebrated Rosh Hashanah in the study. I said silent prayers for all the people I love and those I must try to understand.

The Saga of the Shipped Boxes

6-30-13

I just ordered a pick up of 10 12"x12"x12" boxes, 50 lbs each by ship to Taichung pick up in from 45-60 days of shipping. They'll come to my house July 9. The cost; $960.00. Much cheaper than sending it by air. It could arrive by the end of August. They will get in touch with me for more details. I paid with a credit card. I just saw 12"x12"x"12 boxes carry ten pounds of books. This is so convenient. I keep thinking it's too good to be true.

Meanwhile, I'm wondering about the $960 I paid on Visa for shipping ten boxes via sea; I don't have a receipt for the contract and the computer says it may be fraud. It seems like a real company but I have a booking form (HS 104008) from them but no e-mail receipt. I was told I would be contacted.

7-3-13 8:45am Wed. (*2)

I called up homeshippers.com to 'confirm' our arrangement. The credit card payment they take the day before they send Fed Ex to com pick the boxes up. I have to be packed by July 8th, by my own choice.

7-9-13

Leona and I went through this elaborate system to print the shipping labels returned a signed receipt. It was elaborate because our printer is connected to the desk-top which has no internet and the laptop which has no printer. Leona copied the attachments from homeshipping.com on a flash drive, uploaded it to the desk top, and printed it out. The attachment was sent, printed, signed, scanned, attached to a flash drive, downloaded in the laptop, and e-mailed back to the shipping agency.

7-10-13 6:16am Wed. (1)

At 3:30pm yesterday, FedEx came and picked up the ten 12"x12"x12" boxes to bring to the ship in New Jersey. It is supposed to arrive in Taichung 45-60 days later. I wonder which will get there first; the ten boxes or the sofa from Germany via China. Both are due by the end of August.

8-10-13

The Port of Taichung authority called yesterday for us to prepare customs documents for the ten boxes on the way here from Brooklyn. Right now they’re on a ship from L.A. somewhere on the Pacific Ocean. Leona said it would be $220us handling fee more.