Rainy days and Mondays

Global warming? Climate change?

Paaahh, who gives a (rare and endangered, possibly extinct) monkey's bollocks! It's all namby-pamby liberal scare tactics.

Eh, no seriously, if you are reading this and suddenly think I've become a closet fan of the Sarah Palin school of thought, then fear not. I am perfectly aware that the world is on a precipice, and we're currently creating our own eternal environmental doom. Which isn't to say I do very much about it, to be fair. I must confess to being more than a little lax in the recycling department and I have a terrible tendency to leave lights on...

Which is irrelevant, quite frankly, because I'm currently enjoying the thought of having another day off work, thanks to the incoming typhoon. Plus, all mental images of impending environmental apocalypses are currently being blasted away by the lovely gusts of wind that are refreshing the horribly humid air in this God-forsaken place.

Sure, the kitchen ceiling is letting in more than it's fair share of water (it's a tin shack, hastily tacked onto the side of the house - how could it possibly be expected to remain water-proof during a typhoon?) but, that's all part of the fun. 'Cos that's the thing - I do love a good gusty typhoon. It's refreshing, vaguely exciting in a safe kind-of way (unless you happen to be swept away, flooded or buried under a landslide - which clearly isn't so much fun) and makes me have fond visions of being whisked away, Dorothy-style to a magical land... Aaaaaaaaaaah.

Anyhoosies, earlier on tonight I decided to brave the elements and take a little trip to the local 7Eleven. Ostensibly, it was to buy milk, but then I figured I'd make a day trip out of it and got me my iPod, walking shoes, and a nice, sturdy raincoat. I say day trip, because the ordinarily short, 3-min walk does become considerably longer in driving rain that's coming-in horizontally... Still, it's always fun to dodge cars as they drive through the massive lakes that seem to form in the potholes/grooves in the roads here. Because, the thing is, the roads here are terribly uneven, but not exactly pot-holed. It's more that they resemble the surface of a badly-made fruitcake baked by a blind chimpanzee on acid.

So yeah, the trip was fun. I got all the way there (all 200 yards)...picked up a soggy newspaper (why-oh-why do they leave newspapers on stands outside the 7Eleven, knowing that it is going to rain torrentially?) and wandered around looking lost for a while as the steam clouded up my glasses, and then settled on buying milk and horse beans for comfort food. Clearly everyone was in the mood for a little celebration (since the offices and schools are closed tomorrow) because my neighbour was buying masses of beer, snackeries and ice (ice? in this weather?) and looked like he was settling down to a night of much drunkeness. Good choice. Good man. Clearly, he felt flip flops and bermuda shorts complete with string vest makes for ideal typhoon attire (as do most Taiwanese, in fact) but kudos to the chap - what he lacked in style he made up in forward planning. At least if we're without water, he'll still have something to drink... And I'm pretty sure dried squid and horse beans are a balanced diet, too.