Been up my neck with work lately. All of a sudden, deadlines have started falling on my lap and I’m starting to panic.

Breathe in… breathe out…

At least, I take comfort in the knowledge that these things will pass, I’ll finish up these projects and life will go on.

Anyhow, I apologize for the lack of updates yesterday. I was truly, madly and deeply caught up in work. But for the rundown last weekend… haha, as usual, it’s been a blast!

On Friday, I had an Indian dinner with my friend and we launched into this tirade about Aussie guy.

My friend felt that his anger towards me was justified… anyone who wanted to hold my hand did so because he was proud of being with me, and my rejection to his show of affection was just too big a blow to his ego.

“It’s a Catch-22 for you, Raven. You see, you look Westernized! People see how you dress (sexily), act (boisterously) and talk (with an American accent) and BING! They think you’re very Westernized AND liberal,” my friend said. “Even I who’ve known you for two years have just realized how conservative you actually are (blame it on Pinoy culture). But you can’t blame the man for assuming you’re liberal.”

Sigh, the curse of looking the part but not really acting it…

Anyway, all that aside, Aussie guy is a closed chapter. I texted him last Saturday inviting him to an event, only to get two replies saying nicely yet determinely that he had to study that day and can’t make it.

Oh well… I’ve tried. 🙁

To which Mike shouts repeatedly, “Raven, move on! Guy’s just not that interested… move ON!”

Okay, okay… I get it!

Still, this still sucks. 🙁

Regardless, there are still a couple of nice decent guys in the horizon so I still have hope! Bwahahahaha!

After the lovely dinner, we proceeded to Citizen Cain to have drinks with friends. It was fun — I’ve never laughed so hard lately! 😀

One notable character I’ve met was this British dude named, David.

Interestingly so, we spent the whole night talking about paragliding (he thinks it’s dangerous to do in Taiwan, and got his license in a 3-week trip to Bali instead), his play (set in an Irish pub where he advises us not to watch because it’s not really that interesting), his horoscope (Virgo hence, him being more OC and detail-oriented) and his 7 cats (he forgot to spray his cat).

So funny, I bet we won’t see the last of David yet! 😉

At around 11PM, Ex#2 sent me a text inviting me to Plush: “At Plush. We have a table. Wanna come?“

Hmmm… tough decision there…

Nah, having so much fun at Citizen Cain, so why even bother?

I left the pub around 1AM or so because I had to get up early the next day for some hardcore rock climbing action!

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RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNNNG!!!

It’s 7AM, and I had to drag myself off to bed.

Grumbling on my stupidity of signing up for a super-early rock climbing event at Peitou, I took a shower and then a taxi to Y17.

After I got over my sleepiness though, rock climbing was super-duper FUN!

I took some pictures which I still had to upload later (have yet to find the cable), but it was great! I climbed 6 times, and though my arms were sore afterwards, it was all worth it!

Besides, I met quite a lot of cool people and my list of wallclimbing friends are now increasing!

There’s Steven, who’s from Hongkong and used to climb 3X a week (I asked him yesterday, “Do you have a life?!”. He’s been very patient as he belays me up a couple of walls. There’s also the father-daughter tandem who makes such a great team.

After a whole day of rock climbing, I then rushed home to take another shower for another round of…

Golf in the driving range!!!

I met up with Mark and Sharon and together, we all went to the Hsintien driving range to whack some balls! 🙂

I know, it’s crazy, but hey, golf is really addictive!

There’s just something about perfecting your form and ensuring that your entire body works together to hit a pingpong-sized ball a couple of yards away… it’s like you challenging yourself.

I love it!

And even though I still suck (most of my balls were a mere 20 yards, which is an improvement from my first few times when I couldn’t even hit the ball itself), I still feel great because I can literally feel myself improving!

Haha, gimme a break though, it’s only my 5th time on the range! Give me a few months and see how well I can do!

Though my wrist hurt, it was so much fun that we’ve made plans to make this a weekly event! I just can’t wait for the next one!

But the day ain’t over yet!

They dropped me at the Hsimenting area where I joined some friends for some KTV! As usual, there were silly drinking games and tons of Chinese songs I don’t even know how to sing, but it was fun and made a couple of new friends! I even got to sing an awful rendition of Dido’s “White Flag” and a pretty sexy rendition of Britney Spear’s “Oops… I Did It Again!”

Overall, a pretty productive and relatively wholesome Saturday!

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On Sunday, around 30 of us gathered for brunch at the Cosmopolitan Grill (http://www.cosmo.com.tw/) at Hsimenting, touted as the best Western cuisine in the area.

It was really nice…

The service was terrific, I loved the black caviar and sour cream omelet (NT$280) that I ordered and it was just the right ambience for a relaxing Sunday brunch. This is a picture of what I ordered… yummy!

Prices were also very reasonable at less than NT$300 a set! Now, that’s value for the price!

Other than Carnegies, Herbs and the Shannon, Cosmopolitan Grill is another place I can recommend for brunch in Taipei!

After brunch, we headed north to the Shilin area for another shrimp fishing adventure!

Sigh, what can I say…? Ever since I introduced my friend to shrimp fishing, he’s now an avid shrimp fisherman and I blame myself for his addiction…

Alas, our luck wasn’t so good, and between 8 people, caught a total of 9 prawns!!! 🙁

Frank kisses one of the two prawns he caught that day… not bad for a first-timer! GO FRANK!

Here’s a look at the shrimp fishery… can you believe people spend hours patiently sitting down just to catch prawns?!
Lots of bin-lang eating men in the house! Haha, but at least, the beer’s cheap…

It was pretty pathetic, and at NT$450 an hour with four poles divided between us, that’s over NT$200 a prawn!

Now, that’s expensive!

After some dire shrimp fishing, we then met up with some women and ate dinner at HeMin (Watami) Japanese restaurant and had some hot chocolate at the newly-opened chocolate cafe.

One side note before I continue, the 7 women we met up with were local Taiwanese women, who have somehow spent some time abroad but can’t really speak English well. They were sexy and pretty, but somehow, I wasn’t impressed with their intellectual capabilities… which I have to say is kinda lacking.

Okay, forgive me for being harsh but as we were eating dinner, I heard the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard this year. The conversation went like this:

Taiwanese woman: I don’t know how to swim…

Raven: Why? Taiwan is an island surounded by water! Why don’t you learn how to swim?

Taiwanese woman: Cause I hate getting a tan…

Raven’s jaws drop to the floor, can’t speak for 2 minutes and finally excuses herself to the bathroom because of shock.

Even after three years in Taiwan, people here can still render me speechless.

Forgive me for saying this but, THAT WAS THE DUMBEST THING I’VE EVER HEARD!!!

NOT LEARNING HOW TO SWIM BECAUSE YOU HATE GETTING A TAN?!

DAMN!

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!

Okay, relax Raven… relax…

Breathe in… breathe out…

Okay, so if you ride on a boat and the boat sinks, who’s laughing now?! Swimming is a survival skill, but here, a lot of women don’t like to learn mainly because they hate to tan themselves. And wouldn’t that be a shame in a country that toots the mantra, “White is beautiful.“

*Raven rolls her eyes*

Look, don’t get me wrong…

If you don’t tan yourself because you have super sensitive skin, that’s fine.

If you don’t tan yourself because it’s so hard to get back into your fair skin, that’s fine.

If you don’t tan yourself cause you’re a vampire, that’s fine…

Now look, I’m not asking women to bake themselves to death.

HOWEVER, MY GOD.

If you’re just doing this because you want to follow everybody’s footsteps and want to look beautiful in order to find a rich boyfriend, then excuse me, but I need to barf.

Okay, that was harsh.

But I’m not sorry for it.

Because that’s how I felt… these women are afraid of the sun not because they hate the sun, but instead because they’re conforming to the norm that “white is beautiful” and if they’re not white, guys won’t pursue them.

My gosh, do you have anything else to do than to shop and look for a boyfriend?!

Okay, am thinking too much here… for all I know, they’re actually super nice women who have goals in life.

But looking at those women, I think not. 🙁

I may be wrong, but I seriously doubt it.

Now, let me get off my soapbox before I say anything more that I’d regret.

Anyway, the food at Hemin was great as always (I’ve raved about it in previous entries) but the chocolate cafe still requires a bit of work. Priced like Starbucks, its chocolates are just too milky for my friends’ tastes and they didn’t even finish their drink. Here’s the newly-opened cafe, right behind Timberland in Dunhua area.

Otherwise, it was a very enjoyable Sunday!

Now it’s Tuesday and still tons of work to do! I’ll address why I’m proud of being a snob tomorrow if I can.

C’est la vie you guys!