My Celebrity Look-alikes

My cool celebrity look-alike collage from MyHeritage.com. Get one for yourself.

What I'm listening to and watching and stuff

I just got me a whole bunch of new music from Olivier and I can't stop listening to Indochine. They've from France and have been around since 1981. They sound a bit like Joy Division and The Cure. And I understand every 4th or 5th word or so.

Blockbuster has finally got the second season of Desperate Housewives and I watched the first 4 episodes on Sunday. I love Edie, she's such a ho.

I just finished reading "Inconceivable" by Ben Elton which was left over from my fluffy vacation reading. Apparently they made a movie out of it called "Maybe Baby" or something. Anyway. It was ok. I hate it when book critics rage about a novel being "uproariously funny!!! Laugh out loud hilarious!!" It sets the bar too high. But I guess "clever and mildly amusing" doesn't sell paperbacks.

I saw "Dream Girls" a couple of weeks ago and it's worth seeing for Eddie Murphy. I also recently saw pirated versions of "The Pursuit of Happiness" and "The Departed". Sometimes I can't believe how easy it is to see movies now. I remember when driving into Stephenville to watch "Splash!" was one of the highlights of the year.

Besides that, I'm looking for a new Chinese Tutor as mine bailed because she's teaching at a university and is too busy for little ol' me. We have a 4 day weekend April 4th - 8th and I'm trying to figure out what to do.

Hopefully I will get a new camera soon and have photos to post once again.

Bridget

My First Bra....

....bought in Taiwan that is. I finally summoned up my patience and ventured out to find a bra that would fit me here in tiny person land. I have been living here for almost 4 years and have not even bothered trying to see if they have my size, besides a quick glance here and there in a mall and never finding anything bigger than a b-cup. Or anything that is not padded. But I just wanted a new one. Something pretty.... So I went to The Easy Shop. Yes, that's its name. It's a very popular lingerie chain here in Taiwan.



According to Easy Shop standards, I am a size E. I cannot believe it. E for "enormous, compared to our standards! Ha!" Or E for "English Teacher boobs."

In the dressing rooms, there are little buzzers you can press to summon the salesladies. I didn't press it, but the salesgirl came in anyway and showed me how I could make the bra fit better by putting her hand inside the bra (from the side, under my armpit) and shoving my boob and any excess flesh into the cup. "See? Fit much better."

Oh well, I guess it's better than ordering online.

Bridget

More tunnel pics

Here's a few more shots of the tunnels.


Here's Olivier going to explore. I was scared I would get stuck so I didn't go.

Tourists underground.


Guns and prices.

My blog will look stupid temporarily because Blogspot are a bunch of tools.

I'm starting to get really annoyed with blogspot. First the whole "we're going Beta!" and forcing me to change the email address I sign in with. Then for awhile everytime I signed in from home it would all appear in Chinese so I had to dick around with that. Now, all I wanted to do was to change one little thing on my template and then it forces me to upgrade to the NEW template changer thingy (giving me no other option) and then fucks up everything. The headers are gone from my links. Where's my goddamn Picasa web albums? Now I have to redo the whole bastardly thing again.

I know it's not a big deal, but you know, it's like when you mop the floor and then someone walks across it with muddy shoes. It only takes a second to sweep it up, but you'd think they'd be more careful. Why do the internets try to constantly fix things that aren't broken? And it's late and I'm tired and I don't want to be on my computer anymore. Grrrrrrr......

tired and annoyed,

Bridget

Cu Chi Tunnels, post 1

Here's some more pictures from the Viet Nam trip.

The Cu Chi Tunnels were an elaborate system of tunnels built outside of Saigon and took some 25 years to build, initially started by the Viet Minh. The soil in the Cu Chi area is red earth and was ideal for creating tunnels during the war against the French. The VC took over the old tunnels, made new extensions and created this extremely organized network for basing attacks.

If you ever go to Saigon, definitely go on the Cu Chi tour. Our tour guide was this crazy guy who worked as an information officer for the Americans and after the war he was thrown in jail for 4 years. He was very outspoken and interesting. We have a couple of short films of him talking, I'll try to upload them here later (when I figure out how to do that!)

Another thing about the Cu Chi tour is that if you want, you can pay a dollar (US) a bullet and go fire off Russian AK-47s, 30-60 machine guns and many, many other guns from the war in the firing range. So while you're walking around the jungle looking at the tunnels you can hear gunfire off in the distance.

Check out the "klipping armpit" trap and then the kind of childlike illusration of such traps in use! Eeesh.





Here's Olivier in the destroyed American tank.

More photos

Olivier just gave me some more of our vacation photos, so I'll add them here over the next while.

I got a chance to meet up with my friend Nic for breakfast in Saigon, he and Meghan moved to Saigon in August - they were my neighbours here on Soho Street for awhile.


Here I am obviously saying something amazing and unfrigging believable.

New blogs and cold weather

Holy crap, it's March 6th! Time is having it's way with me. There are less than 4 months left in the school year, I can't believe it.

Today it is cold and wet. I know I shouldn't complain about the weather as there's no snow here and on Sunday I was hiking in the mountains in shorts and sandals, but riding a scooter in the cold rain really sucks. My fingers are still cold and I've been here for an hour. Maybe I have a circulation problem.

I've added links to two new blogs from friends in the sidebar, fabulous Newfoundland women who are off running around the world! Rhonda Matthews in currently working in Afghanistan and Julia Rogers (formerly Thompson, Strawberry from Hatcher!) who is a bridge officer on an offshore vessel. Such exciting lives! I'm jealous.

Must go, peas out.

Bridget

New web album chock full of new vaykay photos

I've got all the new photos in the new Picasa web album in me task bar. Checkit.

First day back at work today and I was pleasantly surprised to find my Christmas presents from Liz and Pat on my desk! It was Christmas in late February. I don't know if it's Canada Post or a lack of Taiwanese postal workers that can read English, but my mail has been really pokey lately.

My brother sent me his new album which I am currently listening to for the 2nd time and a plethora of music from Newfoundland with detailed descriptions and all organised in a cd case. Patrick rocks! I showed it to my fellow Newfoundland coworker April (townie), who knows many of the musicians personally and she was all homesick. And Liz sent me more CDs and a cool starfish which many kindergarten students were intrigued with and Smarties, which have already been inhaled. Yay Chinese New Year presents, yay!!!

yay music and photos and chocolate. Whoo hoo!

Bridget

vacation summary so far - mostly up, one big down....

Thought I'd jot down some of the highlights and the one big dark point of our trip so far....

I met up with Olivier in Ko Tao, Thailand on Feb. 4th and we stayed in a little bungalow on Sairi Beach for about 5-6 days. We swam in the ocean every day and it was very relaxing. We didn't do much sightseeing - one day we rented scooters and drove around to the various beaches, but mainly it was very lazy - just what I needed! I took some pictures with my lovely Canon 512 Powershot.

After Ko Tao, we took a boat and a bus to Krabi and stayed on Hat Ton Sai. The Krabi province is very beautiful, tall limestone cliffs that end in white sand beaches. We swam a lot and rented sea kayaks and paddled around. I took lots of pictures.

We flew from Krabi to Bangkok for a shopping day before heading to Saigon. I was very excited about coming back to Vietnam, I was here in Hanoi a couple of years ago and I was looking forward to seeing the south. And taking lots of pictures with my fancy camera. But, and this is the low part, on our first day walking around Saigon, I was coming out of a temple with my camera in my hand and I was "motorcycle robbed" or however you call it. A girl riding on the back of a motorcycle snatched it out of my hands and it was gone. Took 2 seconds. Needless to say I was very upset and very, very pissed off. Still am a bit, have occasional fantasy where I relive the moment and I picture myself reaching out as they drive off and I grab her by the hair....she had the really bad brassy dye job that a lot of Asian girls get when they try to make their hair lighter...anyway, I won't go into the details of my hostile revenge fantasy.

Besides that, the holiday has still been good. I've been trying not to let it taint my opinion of Vietnam, although I do feel myself feeling quite mistrustful. Olivier has been great and lots of fun to travel with. He took some pictures with his camera so I'll still have some mementos. We went out to Mui Ne, a beach area with fantastic sand dunes and it was really beautiful. We leave to go back to Taiwan on the 23rd and it's back to work on the 26th. Hope everyone is well, will post pictures (the ones that aren't gone forever!! Sob!) soon.

Bridget

In Saigon

We got into Ho Chi Minh yesterday evening and today is New Year's Day, so everything is very colourful (and there's probably not a lot open). We're here until the 23rd and hoping to make a day trip out to the Chi Cu Tunnels and a tour of the Mekong Delta. My friends Nic and Meg (there are pictures of them here back in August, I believe) moved out here in the summer and I'm hoping to see them on the 20th - right now they're in Laos and heading up to the North on the 21st to meet Meg's folks.

The place we're staying gives us an hour of free internet access each day and I've finally been able to get onto blogger which has been a right bitch lately and not co-operative in most of the cheap internet cafes I tried in Thailand.

Anyway, I will post more trip details with pictures when we return to Taiwan!

Bridget

Alive and in a warm place.

I tried to post here last week, but my computer wasn't being co-operative, and then blogger itself wasn't being co-operative. So anyway, I've been in Thailand since Saturday, Feb. 3rd and Olivier and I are currently relaxing on the island of Koh Tao. I was here before to do my scuba training, but that ended up taking up most of my time, so it's really great to be here now and just laze around on the beach and drink coconut shakes and Singha. Tomorrow we're planning on heading for Krabi and then Saigon on the 16th. Or around there. I think. Not a lot of planning on this vacation.

Will write again soon. Have important lounging to do.

Muhammad Ali's Birthday

Wednesday was Muhammad Ali's birthday and the BBC news website compiled this list of famous Ali quotes. I like "I'm so mean I make medicine sick" the best.


ON BEING THE GREATEST
I'm not the greatest; I'm the double greatest. Not only do I knock 'em out, I pick the round.

It's just a job. Grass grows, birds fly, waves pound the sand. I beat people up.

Floats like a butterfly, sting like a bee, his hands can't hit what his eyes can't see.
Before the 1974 fight against George Foreman

I done wrestled with an alligator, I done tussled with a whale; handcuffed lightning, thrown thunder in jail; only last week, I murdered a rock, injured a stone, hospitalised a brick; I'm so mean I make medicine sick.
Again, before the 1974 Foreman fight

I'm so fast that last night I turned off the light switch in my hotel room and got into bed before the room was dark.
Yet more '74 pre-fight build-up ahead of facing Foreman

The fight is won or lost far away from witnesses - behind the lines, in the gym, and out there on the road, long before I dance under those lights.

Superman don't need no seatbelt.

When you can whip any man in the world, you never know peace.

I'm the best. I just haven't played yet.
On playing golf

ON BOXING

Boxing is a lot of white men watching two black men beat each other up.

Champions aren't made in gyms, champions are made from something they have deep inside them - a desire, a dream, a vision. They have to have last-minute stamina, they have to be a little faster, they have to have the skill and the will. But the will must be stronger than the skill.

Only the nose knows where the nose goes when the doors close.

I never thought of losing, but now that it's happened, the only thing is to do it right. That's my obligation to all the people who believe in me. We all have to take defeats in life.
After losing to Ken Norton, 31 March 1973

ON RACE, RELIGION AND LIFE
I am America. I am the part you won't recognise. But get used to me. Black, confident, cocky; my name, not yours; my religion, not yours; my goals, my own; get used to me.

Cassius Clay is a slave name. I didn't choose it and I don't want it. I am Muhammad Ali, a free name - it means beloved of God - and I insist people use it when people speak to me and of me.
Announcing his conversion to the Muslim faith after first Sonny Liston fight

"What's my name, fool? What's my name?"
To Ernie Terrell during their 1967 fight - Terrell had refused to call him Muhammad Ali

I know I got it made while the masses of black people are catchin' hell, but as long as they ain't free, I ain't free.

Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go 10,000 miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on brown people while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs?

I got nothing against no Viet Cong. No Vietnamese ever called me a 'nigger'.

Nobody has to tell me that this is a serious business. I'm not fighting one man. I'm fighting a lot of men, showing a lot of 'em, here is one man they couldn't defeat, couldn't conquer. My mission is to bring freedom to 30m black people.
Before his fight against Jerry Quarry in 1970.

A man who views the world the same at 50 as he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life.

What's really hurting me - the name Islam is involved, and Muslim is involved and causing trouble and starting hate and violence. Islam is not a killer religion, Islam means peace. I couldn't just sit home and watch people label Muslims as the reason for this problem.
21 September 2001, in the aftermath of the World Trade Center attacks

ALI vs FRAZIER

Frazier is so ugly that he should donate his face to the US Bureau of Wildlife.
Ali

It will be a killer, and a chiller, and a thriller, when I get the gorilla in Manila
Ali, before the "Thrilla in Manila" against Frazier

Joe Frazier is so ugly that when he cries, the tears turn around and go down the back of his head.
Ali

I always bring out the best in men I fight, but Joe Frazier, I'll tell the world right now, brings out the best in me. I'm gonna tell ya, that's one helluva man, and God bless him.
Ali, after the "Thrilla in Manila"

I said a lot of things in the heat of the moment that I shouldn't have said. Called him names I shouldn't have called him. I apologise for that. I'm sorry. It was all meant to promote the fight. Ali

The Butterfly and me have been through some ups and downs and there have been lots of emotions, many of them bad. But I have forgiven him. I had to. You cannot hold out for ever. There were bruises in my heart because of the words he used. I spent years dreaming about him and wanting to hurt him. But you have got to throw that stick out of the window. Do not forget that we needed each other, to produce some of the greatest fights of all time.
Frazier in reflective mood.

ON OTHER OPPONENTS

Hey Floyd - I seen you! Someday I'm gonna whup you! Don't you forget, I am the greatest!
To then-world heavyweight champion Floyd Patterson during the 1960 Olympic Games

Why, Chump, I bet you scare yourself to death just starin' in the mirror. You ugly bear! You ain't never fought nobody but tramps and has beens. You call yourself a world champion? You're too old and slow to be champion!
To Sonny Liston before their fight on 25 February 1964

I shook up the world! I shook up the world!
After beating Liston

That all you got George?
To Foreman late in the Rumble in the Jungle in Zaire on 30 October 1974

Sunday pre-sunset

Sunday walk

Cool sky with typical Taiwanese building and lots of wires.

Sunday, January 14th

Went for a walk to Donghi University with Olivier and we had some great clouds.

I'm a pokey blogger.

My God....it's already almost 2 weeks into 2007! I think one of my new year's resolutions was to keep up with my blog....

School is busy with parent/teacher conferences coming up and Chinese New Year. Turns out I'm not going to Iowa now for the hiring. Bummer. The school closes for 2 weeks for Chinese New Year and I'm taking the week off before it. I'm heading to Thailand to lie on a beach and do nothing for a while, then run around a bit and eventually get to Saigon, which is where we eventually leave from. I say "run around a bit" because I really don't know what I'm doing between Thailand and Viet Nam! Hopefully get to Laos and reunite with my friends Nic and Meg who moved to Saigon in August.

Right now I'm reading "The End of the Affair" by Graham Greene. I've been on both a Graham Greene and a Ian McKweon kick for the past few months, I read "The Power and the Glory" (Graham Greene) this summer and "Enduring Love" (Ian McKweon). I've also rented the first season of "Carnivale" which is great! So creepy! And I recently downloaded the new Dashboard Confessional album, which is ok when I'm in the mood for "bite your fist" emo music. I also like The Gossip and am listening to "Standing in the Way of Control" a lot (recommended by the previously mentioned Meg!)

One of my other big resolutions of 2007 is to save money and kick the retail habit that I have picked up over the past year. Some environments are bad to live in if you have a certain habit to give up - living next to George Street would be bad for an alcoholic, living in Little Italy in Toronto is bad if you're trying to lose weight (it was very hard for me being surrounded by Italian bakeries and pizza places). Since I've paid off my loans, I seem to have picked up the Asian shopping disease and it's very hard to shake. Especially since Taichung is one of the biggest shoe producing cities around.....I have 2 pairs of Crocs, one pair of Reeboks, one pair of Birkenstocks, one pair of Converse sneakers, a pair of purple sequined opened toed heels and I can count at least 6 pairs of dressy sandals off the top of my head which I can maybe wear for 3 months out of the year back in Canada....anyway, it's got to stop!

Will pass on progress later.

Bridget

Christmas Eve at Tiger City

Christmas lights and palm trees.

Christmas Eve at Tiger City

Olivier, dazzled by the lights, apparently, by the Christmassy carousal.

Christmas Eve at Tiger City

Olivier's class were singing carols at Tiger City, a local shopping mall and it was packed! Check out this huge pink fuzzy teddy bear! I want one.