Over the weekend, I’ve met a handful of interesting individuals. That’s how life is, it surprises you when you least expect it.

Last Friday, when my best gal friend and I thought that Barcode couldn’t get any more boring and were on our way down to call it a night, we surprisingly bumped into one of the most gregarious guys I’ve ever met. He was so active and so everywhere that I whispered to best gal friend, “Geez, do you think he has ADD (attention deficit disorder)?”

Mind you, I meant this in a good way — the man was so full of life, and so friendly, you wondered which happy pill he was in. Now I understood what some acquaintances felt about me. Happiness is so rare nowadays, to be bathed in it made you unique.

ADD-guy pulled us back to Barcode for our second wind of the evening. We didn’t have any more dangerous Mojitos, but we did manage to meet a few good men.

There was FOB-Guy, who has returned to Taiwan for the usual family reasons. He’s been here for 3 weeks now and is wondering whether Taiwan is a good or bad thing. He is at present, kinda job-hunting as his career prospects remain bleak though his employer assured him that a job waited for him if ever he comes back.

Truth be told, I am often perplexed to see ABCs come back to Taiwan. “Why come back?” I asked. “Compensation’s way better back in the Valley, the air’s cleaner, quality of living is better… why come back?”

FOB-Guy ranted out a list of seemingly-meaningless answers like family issues, going back to his roots, etc. till he blurted out the truth, “I’m here looking for a ‘tai-tai’ (wife).”

Oooooh.

“Why are Taiwanese women so different though?” I curiously asked. From what I knew, the Bay Area were full of well-educated, pretty Chinese babes. So why come back to Taiwan where there were a lot more teeny-boppers wearing the latest tutus of weird Japanese fashion, who can’t even speak good English?

“Chinese in the Bay area are usually spoiled brats,” FOB-Guy explained. “There are people from Hong Kong, China but not a lot from Taiwan. Of course, you find someone you share lots in common with… and most of the time, they’re people with international backgrounds who are from Taiwan.”

Ah, so I get it. FOB-Guy is looking for a woman with international experience having lived in the Bay Area for example, and currently lives in Taiwan… like him. I look around and see a lot of women like that. They’re all around him, sipping Martinis at Barcode… why cannot he see?

The other guy I met is taking his MBA at National Taiwan University. Ironically, Top-Climber wanted to hook me up with him before till he fell off the earth due to some girlfriend issues… and BAM! I get introduced MBA-Guy at Barcode.

Scary how small the world is…

It didn’t take long to realize how many mutual pals we had, and within minutes, MBA-Guy and I were chit-chatting away about human philosophy, business theories and life in and out of Taiwan.

Soon after, ADD-Guy hauled us down to Room 18 for some dancing, but for some other reason, the plan failed and finally, the party was down to myself, MBA-Guy, Best Gal Friend and FOB-Guy. So where else can four people go at 3AM?

NY Bagels!

So there we were, yakking away over bagels and breakfast, doing a semi-therapy session that ended with MBA-Guy spewing some feel-good stuff about FOB-Guy, causing the latter to almost have tears in his eyes. “It’s been awhile since I’ve had this deep conversation with anyone before,” he murmured. “Wow… this evening is like wow.”

That’s the special thing about Taipei — it surprises you.

You come out in the evening expecting nothing significant to happen save for the Bartender getting your drinks right, and for some reason, you manage to bump into some of the more interesting characters you’ve met for a long time.

Yay Taipei.

Oh, and Friday was spent at Riverside where I listened to one of the best instrumental sounds in my stay in Taipei. I think the title was “Fusion Music” or something. Gotta find the DM, but seriously, it was pretty good.

Just the sort of cultural exposure you’d expect from Taiwan.

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As for Saturday, wow — that’s just one marathon day of fun and excitement, starting with my good friend JC’s nuptials to his girlfriend of three years.

JC has always been a character, an intellectual pal you can always exchange philosophies with. I remembered when he was in between relationships (another way to say when one is single), we talked about what he wanted in a woman.

“Raven, I usually have a few tests for my woman,” he started to explain. “On our first date, usually, I bring her to my favorite niu rou mien (beef noodles) place. If she is all gungho about it, then it’s time for the second test.”

It seems that JC has an issue with women who are only after his money. His idea on how to filter out these women is to bring them to the dingiest place he knows of, that serves the best beef noodles his side of Taiwan.

“So how did she (his now-wife) fare?” I asked him after they first got together.

“Well, she thought that the beef noodles were werid, but I felt that we deserved a second date after she suggested Dong Qu Fen Yen (popular Chinese dessert place).”

Ah, good things come to women whose noses are not so high up in the air.

As for his second test, he usually brings them to Eslite Dunhua. He lets them go, and then sees which section they’ll gravitate towards.

“You know you wouldn’t want to date them if they move towards the Self-Help section,” he chuckled. “Usually would love it if a woman has alternative preference for histories and the arts.”

That’s JC for you — a man who knew what he wanted in a woman and after a few hiccups, married the woman who passed all his filtering tests. Congrats to them both!

In the evening though, went to Danshui for a private BBQ, and then to Roxy 99 for some all-night dancing.

Btw, has anybody been to 9% (the club beside 99)?

When my friend and I got to the Shida area at around 11pm, we were surprised to see people pouring towards 9%. Good looking people too. However, I often go for the tried-and-tested and chose to continue on to 99 instead. T’was a good choice as I had a lot of fun dancing to the beat of Jimi Hendrix, Marilyn Mason, Linkin Park, Britney Spears, etc.

Still, let me know if 9% is fun — would love to give it a go sometime.

Anyway, enough rambling about the weekend. All I can say is, it was a lot of fun, and am not making too much sense right now. Okay, gotta go and shower. Sorry for disappearing — June’s a pretty hectic month for me. July’s here so expecting life to be a lot better.

Behave and have a great week!