My Dad Is Here!!!!

Wow, time flies hey? It seems like just yesterday that my dad announced that he was finally going to leave his comfort zone and come visit me. It seemed like it was forever away, and now, he is here. I warned him before he came. Don't hate it for the crowds of people, the insane traffic, or the smoggy air. Those things are part of Taiwan, and if you can hate it for those reasons, you will hate it for sure. Look past those things and see the other side of the country that I have made my home.

His flight was due at 5:30 am Friday morning. That meant that I had to get on the bus to pick him up by 3:15. No sleep, a bit of dozing on the bus, a delayed flight, the family curse of being the last luggage on the carousel and we were on the bus home by 7. The first day was a bit of a blur for both of us. Neither of us had had much sleep and he was jet lagged. We did some walking, some dinner and early bed for him.

The jazz fest started on Saturday so we spent the day meeting up with random friends, and enjoying some music, food and beer. Yesterday we did some more walking and hit the art museum. I have lived here 2.5 years, live a 10 min walk, 3 min drive away from this FREE national art museum, and this was my first visit. Oops!!

I have taken the day off work today so we are hitting the gym right away. I have arranged a VIP membership for him while he is here, so he can join me, or at least run while I do yoga. Good times!

This weekend is the big Halloween party, and more jazz fest, so we are sticking around the city again. The following week I booked Wed, Thurs, Fri off work, so we will head over to the East coast of the island.

All else is good. Ex joined us in the park on Saturday night, it was his birthday, and he wanted to dad. It must be a bit weird for him. When we were in Canada we lived with Dad for a couple months, and Dad really opened up to him as family. I am glad that he made a point to come down and say hello to him! KF and I have been emailing a bit. I have dictated a pretty arms length tone, with long breaks between emails...I dont know what is worse, getting emails with professions of love that will go unfullfilled, or emails with a gaping whole where the love once was. It is not consuming though. I miss him, and had a moment of weakness emailing him when I was drunk (note to self: don't even check emails when I am drunk!! I wouldn't have written an unsolicited one, but he sent me one, so I obliged a reply) I don't think it was too much, I think I controlled myself, but I am pretty sure that I acknowledged that I was controlling myself. Ah well!!

Alright, that is a wee update, nothing too exciting....Off to play with pops!!

The Weekend That Wasn't

So, imagine you work for this company. It is a dodgy, family run thing. Now there are a couple holidays coming up, and this year they happen to fall on a Friday and the following Tuesday. Lots of people have booked the Monday off, so they are kind of clamping down. You need the money anyway. Now imagine that the week before said holiday they decide that they don't want to work the monday either, so they call a holiday. They then realize that they may lose some productivity, so now imagine they tell you that you now have to work the following saturday!!!

Shitty hey? Well NOW imagine that this dodgy family company you work for, isnt a company, but the fucking government!!! Yes, a week before the freakin government calls a holiday, and the whole bloody country has to work the following saturday!! There was not a flight left, leaving this island, even before the 'decree'. Hotels, buses, and trains were booked within the island. A lady I work with was supposed to get married yesterday. She had to change her wedding, honeymoon, everything!!!

To top it off, my evening job decided to ignore the 'decree'. I had to work last monday night, and this saturday!!! Win-Win!! I could just see them sitting in there office the week before..."Hey, we could have a 5 day weekend here....I really don't want to come in for that one day....Hey, let's call a holiday, the peeps will really love us then...Oh, but we will lose a day's worth of money...Ok, well, let's just make every one work next weekend, they don't have lives...Cool!!!!" You would think they were running a dodgy family business rather than a government.....oh, right, they are!!