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Published: July 27th 2008
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Mother and Dad's Place
It sure is nice in the Gulf Islands! "I'm tired but not sleepy". My clock is messed up!
"It's so cold here!" We even prepared by wearing socks, long pants, and light jackets.
"Get out of the way! You're blocking the escalator!" Western people ride an escalator side-by-side, but Asian people stand one behind the other for the benefit of anyone wanting by. It took a moment to remember that people standing beside their companions were not being inconsiderate.
"$11.95 for a sandwich? I love a server with a sense of humour!" We can believe neither the sky-high prices in Canada, nor the meekness with which people just pay.
We don't have to turn around and smile at people when we hear English spoken. We hope that people are patient when we fumble our money, and try to pay for something with an NTD 50 coin instead of a loonie.
Our journey home started off badly, because we had to pay fines for immigration violations. Last year, if you were going to overstay your visa by a reasonable amount of time (under thirty days), you just had to get the ROC Immigration Officer to stamp your passport. Without warning, they don't do that anymore.
From in Front of the House.
That's Vancouver over there. Our visas expired on Sunday, we weren't leaving until Monday, so we had to pay a fine of NTD 1000 each.
Things went from bad to worse. Next on the agenda was a battle royal with the landlady. We told her that one of the dogs had damaged the living room sofa, so we would pay for it. It was an easy thing to say, because the couch was old and even had a cigarette hole burned in it. She quoted NTD 30,000 (about a thousand Canadian dollars) for a new one! Our friends paid 17,000 Taiwan dollars for a new microfibre couch accented in leather. We only felt obligated to replace used with used, so we gave her NTD 5,000, and the fireworks started. When I took issue with Lao-puo getting called a liar, and with the landlady holding us responsible for her promise to buy her new tenants a new couch, she swung her guns on to me and said I brought shame to my nation! I've never been accused of that, in any dispute. Every language has an expression for my response. French people say "bof", Italians say "canta canta" and English people say "whatever."
It was clear sailing after that. Frank and Annie (from Agape House) arrived with their son Samuel, and we set off for Taipei. The first leg of the journey--from Hualien to Su Ao--has scenery clearly among the most stunning in the world. Turquoise water, vertical cliffs, tunnels, giant ferns, roadside temples--and kamikaze gravel-truck drivers. It was dinner time when we got to Su Ao--and time for a seafood feast. Raw tuna with wasabe and ginger. Cold squid with pepper sauce. Chow fun--the best fried rice in Taiwan. Chow mien--delicious noodles. Battered whole sardines. "Three Cup Chicken" (which with any luck will make its way onto Chinese menus here in Canada. Beer for me and wonderful fruit juice for the others. Less than ten dollars each.
Su Ao to Yilan is freeway, and easy sailing, and Yilan to Taipei is mostly a long tunnel. The last time we drove through the tunnel I wondered at the adequacy of the firefighting equipment--a half dozen little red scooters with extinguishers on the back. It took me a moment to see the sense of it--a truck wouldn't be able to get through the traffic to whichever car was on fire.
We discovered that it was cheaper to simply pay EVA Airlines the excess baggage fees than to ship our stuff home by ocean freight, so we had six big suitcases, carry-ons, and two dogs in one kennel.
EVA is a wonderful airline, and I think it is safe to say that Asian airlines are generally superior to North American carriers. My criteria are the quality of the meals, the generosity with the booze buggy, the civility of the flight crew, and the movies they give you.
The dogs managed the big long ride with no ill effects. I think Lao-puo suffered more on their behalf than the dogs themselves did. We collected our animals and our gear at YVR, and set off across the parking lot for the car rental place. Hertz did us no favours by "upgrading" us to a GMC Yukon--a very comfortable and luxurious thing the size of an aircraft carrier. It took $44 worth of gas to drive the 200 km home to Ladysmith! Why anyone would want a vehicle like that is beyond me--unless it's for business use and the customers end up paying for it.
We had a nice lunch in Victoria with our friends Keith and Cheryl, and collected our car they had been keeping for us. I was afraid one of us would fall asleep going over the Malahat, but we managed to get home safely.
I wired home two and half months' pay just before we left (June, half of July, and my bonus), plus my air fare reimbursement, but we are going through money like "a sailor through drink". I'll be looking for a job in the near future. Even though I'm retired now, I'm just not a golf and bridge kind of guy. If I stay home, I'll just pork up and get on Lao-puo's nerves, and there are so many places we want to go. That costs money. We have never been anywhere to which we would not want to return, and there are many places in Asia we haven't even seen yet. Japan is one such place--I turned down a three month gig in a Japanese university. I want to see Korea, after having taught folk over the Internet for many years. The Philippines beckon me--I guess because of my wonderful Filipino ex-colleagues at Dominican International School in Taipei. Lao-puo has been to the UK and I haven't; I've been to France and she hasn't. I'll see what I can dig up, and hopefully it won't be a matter of asking if people want fries with it.
It's a snap to get really good jobs overseas, but another matter entirely to apply my skill set here in Canada. This is the challenge I'll be facing.
It's good to be home--even though we have to move. There's no way our strata council will let us have three dogs. Our strata council president "has forgotten the Eight Virtues", and the reason why I say that is a long and ugly story with a lot more to it than a couple of Hualien street dogs. I do not enjoy conflict of any kind, but I find avoidable conflict to be particularly distasteful. I am not worried about the outcome of the dispute. Buddhists say "karma is karma", Taoists say "The Gods have long memories", and Christians say "As ye sow ye shall reap". It all means the same thing--for better or for worse we all get what's coming.
For some reason, jet lag is a lot worse coming from Asia than going there, despite the fact that the flight is considerably shorter. We're OK now.
We have now spent a couple of wonderful days with my mother and dad over at Galiano Island. Sort of. Mother has gone downhill a lot more over the last year than we had anticipated. She can't do much anymore, and can't really be left alone. Dad, far from 100% himself, has a diminished ability to look after her. He is most touchingly devoted to her, and the whole situation is very sad. Saint Suzanne, and her flawed sidekick, ride to the rescue.
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