We switched hotels from the last couple of visits, and the prompt calculations to the nearest pub resulted in "The Flying Beaver" coming up as the best contender.
What a find that was, turned out to be waaaay better than the Foggy Dew, but to be fair, the Dew was about 30 meters away which was nice.
The Flying Beaver is a conversion of a Flying Clubrooms or something like that. There is a dock out the front for the Beavers (yes the planes with floats) to tie up alongside.
I was a nice way to end a day of strenuous work by having a pint
of Red Truck Beer (or whatever else the special was) and a nice meal of Halibat or Salmon or ....er....the Big Kahuna Burger, all while watching Flying Beavers land on the river at sunset. Quite habit forming really.Contrary to popular opinion, I didn't have much time to do anything apart from work while I was there, but this time it was my mission to try to do a tiny bit of shopping. I find clothes (that fit) damn near impossible to find in Taipei, so it's handy to buy those whenever I am in a western country. DVDs are also favorites to hunt out. This time however, the hotel was right across the road from a Rona DIY store, and next to a Costco. On the way to/from the office was another cluster of shops that had a Home Depot and a few other things....so all in all my visits to stores consisted of:
Rona = 3 times.
Home Depot = 2 times.
Costco = 1 time.
The Future Store = 1 time.
5 visits to DIY stores in 5 days. Pretty impressive indeed.
I was thinking about checking out the electrical gadgets at the Future Store, but soon after entering I realised that living in Taiwan likened me to an eskimo going to Jamaica to buy a refrigerator.
DIY shopping was where is was at, so it really became an exercise of what CAN I fit into my check-in luggage.
I had to hold myself back in the end, but what I did leave Vancouver with was a Dremel kit. The new 10.8v 35,000 rpm cordless one. ("Corded performance, Cordless convenience" the box says). I had a "Binford" moment, and decided to get some Dremel accessories (yes they are probably available in Taiwan, but it was nice to be able to read/speak in english) I ended up with the Dremel Workstation, which is a mini drill press thing, fully adjustable for angles & depth....and a Dremel Plunge router. Oh yeah, some router bits too.
I was tempted to buy more, but thought I was getting carried away as it was so left it at that.
Now I have got to find some projects to make use of this stuff - I really could have done with a Dremel when I did the iPod charger project, as it took about an hour just to cut that hole for the rocker switch nicely. I just had a look at the Dremel website. You know you are in North America when they have a Dremel Cordless Pumpkin Carving tool.
So, a good week of therapy for me. It's nice to get away from the craziness of Taiwan now and then and feel like I am 'normal' for a while (but who am I kidding right?)
5 nights. 4 visits to the Flying Beaver, and 1 visit to a place called.....Anton's. :)
Flying Beaver
Red Truck Beer
Rona DIY
Home Depot
Dremel website
Story about a guy who made a boat in his apartment using a Dremel
Anton's Pasta Bar
