taipei day 4
written: 10:32 p.m. on Saturday, Jun. 16, 2007

The escapist in me rears her head once more. Not that anyone's surprised, right? But the thing is, I don't know what I want. I don't know why I want the things I seem to want, if I really want them, or if I'm just hanging on to familiarity because it's comfortable. Maybe there's nothing there anymore, just relics of the past that's better left archived and put aside.

Anyway, enough emo rubbish.

I cut my hair today and now it's really thin, the bangs included. The upside is, blow-drying is a lot faster now. The downside is, I was looking forward to having fuller, thicker hair, but the stylist had to go and thin everything down, INCLUDING MY FRINGE. But I do like it though, the new hair. It looks good when tied up and I hardly ever just leave my hair as is nowadays so all is good. The stylist was quite funny, and I had my hair washed by a rather good-looking lad for the first time ever.

Actually I meant to say that I had my hair washed by a guy for the first time ever, not a good-looking guy. I don't remember ever having my hair washed by a guy. The hair-washing was an interesting experience. He shampooed my hair twice, once with normal shampoo, the second time with some scalp treatment thing. He actually asked me if there were any places I would like scratched. Like how awkward was that? Besides, I didn't really know how to tell him the spots on my scalp that were itchy and the mental translation process gets tedious at times I just said, "Mei you."

I went to the salon three minutes away from the apartment, as always. The small talk with th stylist would have been less stress-inducing if I could actually speak Chinese like a proper Chinese person, but I can't, so it was choppy and, yes, stress-inducing. I'm so sad, aren't I? I think I am too.

After the hair-cutting my mom and I headed off to Zongxiao East Road Sector 4, which is one of Taipei's many shopping districts. All I bought was yet another handbag when I really, really need a big bag for school. But the point is, I bought a grand total of ONE item. Can you believe it? In my defence, however, everything halfway decent was fucking expensive. Esprit costs more here than in Singapore, I didn't feel like shopping at Mango 'cause, well, what was the point?, and the nicer-looking stuff all featured four-digit prices.

Besides, it was raining and it was cumbersome carrying an umbrella so we went into Sogo sooner than I would've liked. We had lunch at a reasonably and relatively attas cafe located at Sogo's level 2. I can't remember what it was called though. I had this amazing grilled salmon with rice that was really, really good, and my mom had a baked rice with cream tomato sauce with shrimp and eggplant which was really good too.

What I really dug, though, was my drink. I ordered an iced tea with pudding and I LOVED IT! The pudding tasted damn good and was suitably sweet, and the tea was earl grey! So awesome. Totally.

When we went to the cashier to pay we noticed this crowd of females blocking the entrance, some of whom were holding cameras. I was all, What the hell? My mom asked the cashier what was up, and apparently some Taiwanese idol whatever dude was in the cafe. The cashier said a name I didn't recognise; it was Tang something. I'm guessing it was that Tank dude. But I don't know. Anyway, I was curious, so I went to take a look at the other side of the cafe (the cashier was in the middle, we were on the left and there was no commotion there so he had to be on the right) and I saw some guy with badly-styled long hair that a lot of guys in Taipei are emulating. That obviously had to be him.

I didn't recognise his face either; all that registered was, "Eh, not cute one leh." So yeah. I had a damn good time laughing at the females crowding outside. Haha. But I shouldn't judge, because if it were like Blake Lewis or something, I'd totally throw myself at him. I'd be all, OH MY GOD BLAKE!!!!!!11111!!1!!1ONEONE!!!!! NOSEBLEED FAINT AND DIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Whilst laughing my ass off my mom had to say this: "Don't forget you once queued up for four hours to get Jay Chou's autograph."

Fine, that's true, but at least I've seen the error of my way and will no longer queue up for four hours to get Jay Chou's autograph. Or anyone else's, for that matter.

I think.

Okay, whatever. This idol-chasing thing is dumb lah, seriously. The only person worth chasing in my book? Myself. Thank you very much.

Anyway, I was looking at some Scottish-inspired skirts and when I saw the price (around S$200) I immediately decided to just get the hell out of Sogo. Departmental stores in Taipei are notoriously and disgustingly expensive. I felt DAMN POOR there and yes it was absolutely tragic. And there were really nice clothes too. Sigh.

(Edited to add: I checked. It wasn't Tank. I still have no idea who the dude was.)

Headed to Eslite at Xin Yi after that. Got three DVDs (a couple of Wong Kar-wai including the gay film Happy Together, and Joaquin Phoenix's It's All About Love). Headed to Taipei 101 next where I drooled over the huge range of literature books at PageOne and felt instantly at home. I really, really love PageOne. It's much better than Eslite in my opinion because the range there is unbelievable. I ended up buying Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller and guess what decided the purchase for me? The book's cover. It features a topless female lying on the bed, nipples uncensored. I can't imagine ever seeing a book like this in, like, Borders or Kinokuniya, so what the hell.

Also got Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting 'cause I couldn't remember if I saw it in Singapore, as well as Ginsberg's Howl and Other Poems. The only copy of Howl I ever saw was one with commentary which is useless to me so yep.

We had dinner at some random eatery at Zongxiao East Road. I had a bowl of noodles with sesame sauce. Noodles were good, sauce was okay. Overall it was okay. And also bought a cup of bubble tea and the tea came without sugar (my request) and bubble tea tastes so much better without sugar. I LOVE BUBBLE TEA! I love Taipei.

I'm really super tired today. Was out from like 11 a.m. all the way until 8.30 p.m. and the whole walking around all day long in heels thing is starting to take its toll. The new pair of shoes I bought from Shilin a couple of days ago isn't really wearable 'cause it's actually really tight, so yes, that sucks. Oh well.

The bed here is giving me muscle aches. Sigh.

**

Does anyone actually believe in fate and the whole lofty, abstract concept of The One? Because I need someone to explain the whole thing to me. Because I don't get it.

I still wonder what my life would have been like if I'd never moved to Singapore. And I still wish, sometimes, that I'd never left Taipei.

I miss the way things used to be.

before sunrise // before sunset

Previously:
- - Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2017
I'm moving. - Sunday, Jul. 11, 2010
In all honesty - Tuesday, Jul. 06, 2010
What I want for my birthday... - Sunday, Jul. 04, 2010
On Roger's behalf. - Friday, Jul. 02, 2010