Gee, thanks guys. 

I went to the doctor for a health examination (in order to renew my contract for a year) and saw this beaut while I was waiting. 

This was taken on Thursday last week before the previous 4 photos (sorry about the chronology here). To celebrate the impending Chinese new year, one of the school branches I teach at had a 'hot pot' for lunch which all the foreign teachers were invited to. In the foreground are 2 Tawainese foods, the very non-Kosher pigsblood and rice (which I don't like), and a type of spinich, found in many dishes (which I do like). In the background are Irene and Amy, two of the friendly Taiwanese ladies who work with us foreigners. 

I was messing around with the menu when I discovered that this set-up is quite an interesting composition. My friend, Dave S is illuminated by my camerea's powerful flash, bursting through my misplaced finger (hence the red color)! It was lucky that the pictures in the glossy menu were arranged so nicely. 

Speaking of tea-houses/restaurants, I just came back from a tasty meal of stirr fried beef had to celebrate a friend's birthday. Here's a picture of one of my friends in attendance there, DA (because I honestly cant spell her name!). Nothing remarkable here, but I thought the light looked good. 

Come get some tasty sanks from this great teahouse. It's weird how a restaurant will spend literally millions of dollars on decor and architecture, but when it comes to written English in the menus, on the walls etc, no-one seems to give a rip whether or not it's even remotely correct! My sense of humour for these kind of mistakes is waning... I'm starting to get the impression that English isn't very highly regarded in Taiwan. That's a shame when you're an English teacher :( 

I was thinking of doing a 'colourful Taiwan' theme series. Not sure If I will, but anyway here's colourful Taiwan #1. This was a patchwork of fabric covers over some empty ground. Presumably this ground will be the site of ANOTHER apartment building in the future, but the reason for the covers escapes me! Please cpmment if you think you can enlighten me! This pic was auto corrected in the new Picassa 2, which, by the way is an incredible piece of software, probably the best there is for organising digital photos. Get it free from www.picasa.com 

This is a Chinese Temple I visited a few days ago. Like most temples, it's very ornate. 

Now here's a funny pic. This is my good friend Rob Sparrow and my other good friend Irene Hsu. Well, to be correct, it's Irene's hair, on Rob's head. 

Friends and I visited the world's second largest internet cafe the other night. It has over 600 computers and costs a mere 70NT for 3 hours. An added bonus is that one gets free drinks. 

This is a wall poster of the 35 symbols of the Mandarin phonetic system. The first four sound like "buh puh muh fuh".

The annual Hess Speech and Writing Competition, held in Taipei last weekend was quite a grand affair (and that was only the semi-finals!) 

It's nearly Chinese New Year, which means the red lanterns are out in full force. 

Lost in translation... I hope. Really, there needs to be more attention paid to the quality of printed English in Taiwan! The original is 'Duke' of course.