IBM and AMD are in cahoots! There, I said it. It is in all the papers today. Jeremy has pretty much stopped going to work. I think he’ll go in on Monday, but then after that, people are leaving! I told the nanny, I never knew much she needs the gig, but she seemed to take it in stride. I also to Kiko at the gym and we also told the bun making people. Vince is starting to be tough to take care of at home. He always wants to be outside playing with kids. We spent the evening in the ball room, we did cartwheels and flipping and rolling. Just great!
So today I told the realtors that we are moving from Taiwan. Ms. Liu was also very frazzled today as she was dealing with lots and lots of phone calls.
Today, I spent an hour downstairs in the lobby and I brought over Vincie’s walker from the realtor’s. He had a ball. We talked with Olivia’s mom, with Susan and Zephen and whoever just stopped by :). We are also planning our trip to Tokyo and Hong Kong.
So we got the big announcement today about our future AMD plans. As it is all top secret, I will not reveal it here until it is “official”. Today, Jeremy came home early because he’s ill again. There is a wave of colds going around Hsinchu. We went to the Hsinchu Hospital to get Vince’s green thumb looked at by a dermatologist. She took one swipe of it with a blade and all this green goop came out and gave us a prescription for antibiotics and some topical cream. She also gave us some ointment for Vince’s drool rash around his mouth.
Today we came back to Hsin-Chu, officially ending our long vacation. I (Jeremy) have been at work only 2 out of the last 6 weeks, so it has been a long break. My Father and Brother are headed back to the states, my Mother left for Ghana to build a middle school a few days ago. The day was not too eventful. We took Vince to see the doctor because he has a wierd green thing in his thumb. It looks like a cross between a splinter and a wart, but it is bright green. Anyway, the Doctor told us to see a dematologist at the Hosital and gave us a referal. But the most exciting part of the day was parking our car near the Doctors office. We saw evidence that the enforcement of illegal parking has picked up (chalk licence plate numbers and phone numbers left when cars are towed) and so drove around the neighboorhood looking for legal parking. We found this huge tall narrow building with six large mechanical doors on the front and signage indicatimg you could park there. We figured out it was an automated mechanical parking garage, and after talking with a nearby attendant, we drove up, the door opened, we droved the car into two little slots, and following the directions of a chinese computer voice, we got out of the car and walked out of the building. The door closed behind us, and once we had entered the licence plate in the computer, the car was turned sideways, and lifted high into the air, and put on a shelf with a bunch of other cars. It seems that they can stack the cars 20 high on either side of the narrow building. With 6 doors in a row, this amounts to 120 cars parked in the space it would normally take to park 18 cars. It only cost us 20NT (60 cents) for having the car there about 40 minutes, making it the most economical amusement we have had in some time. I want one for our house, but I guess since we don’t have 180 cars it would be a waste.
On Friday, we arranged for snacks on the bus that was going to head from Hsinchu to Taipei for Bob’s concert. The bus we rented was a new 2003 bus, run by Mr. Ding on the 9th floor of our apartment building. It had airplane-style seats, karaoke and was a double decker. We got to the Taipei University for the Arts and milled around for a while. When it was clear that Vince was going to be fussy, they led us to the control room on top of the auditorium. Vince was even too noisy there, so we left to find another room. The weather was so cold and the lobby of the auditorium was outside, but we did manage to find a VIP room with heat. There, Jeremy and I alternated taking care of Vince and there were lots of people around to help with him. We stayed until quite late and I went back to the apt with Ben and Bob and Jeremy went back to Hsinchu with the busload of people. The next day, Jeremy drove up and we went to Ding Tai Fung, then to the silk market, then a nap and then the Shilin night market. The next day, Sunday, Bob and Ben went to the National Palace museum and we had a quiet day at home. Vince is eating a lot and sleeping a lot. We noticed that he has quite a large splinter in his thumb, it’s a little weird looking with a green sort of discoloration. So we went to a Taipei doctor. It was pretty impressive how mobbed the place was. But we had an appt and made it in and out of there in less than 30 minutes. Had dinner with Lan-gou, a friend of Bob’s and had the most wonderful ramen-type noodles. So chewy. Then we went to Bob a loos again for ice cream. During the weekend we also saw My Fair Lady and Roman Holiday!
Thursday, January 2, 2003 On Tuesday, we drove to Taipei with the cello and Ben, Katherine and Bob took the train in and saw the sights. We walked around with Vincie and had a dinner of noodles in a buffet place and had ice cream at Bob-a-loo’s. I went to bed early. Ben partied with a New Zealand ex-pat lady. The next day, New Year’s Day, we went to see the furniture place and bought two stools, Jeremy’s parents bought a dining room table, then we had a delicious seafood lunch. Then we went to see and old-style mansion that they had moved from the middle of Taipei. It was really quite beautiful, large with lots of courtyards. Then we went to have Yunan food with Charlotte’s friend Angela. Today we dropped Katherine off at the airport so she’s on her way to Ghana and then drove back to Hsinchu.
So today we drove home from Tainan to Hsinchu. We saw an old Dutch fort and a beautiful temple in Tainan, the temples are the most beautiful there! Then we had a tortuous trip home. Vincie had pretty much had it for this car trip. He fussed and fussed on the way home, we finally had to turn the car seat to rear facing and I had to entertain him all the way from Taichung home. As soon as he got home, he delighted in hanging out the Ms. Liu, Mr. Hong. He hadn’t eaten any solids for days but as soon as Ms. Liu gave him a huge wafer cracker, he promptly ate it with a huge grin on his face and asked for another. Ha!
My Uncle Mike and his family
On Thursday, we left Hsinchu and visited Tai Chung and as the Natural History Museum’s orchid garden. They also had very large fish in their aquarium. Then we drove to Jay-yi where Bob gave a talk about his career in philosophy and music. We checked into their guest house and had dinner at the campus steak house. Jeremy spoke to a gentleman who went to school in Iowa and served in the Taiwan military for 25 years and is a specialist on things which do not exist. The next day we drove to Kenting, on the way we stopped at Kaoshioung. It was raining so we didn’t stop for long, but we did eat at Uncle Bob’s. In Kenting, we checked into the Youth Activity Center and it was really, really cool. All these swallow tail buildings in the traditional chinese buildings. On Saturday we ate breakfast in the canteen and saw my uncle! Mom’s brother and wife and their youngest child. It was really nice. We toured the aquarium together and saw the fire pits (where they sold roasted eggs) and one of the gates around the town. That evening was really long, Vincent had been having a low fever and the effort to get him to sleep was titanic. Today we drove to Tainan. We saw a parade, young girls, free tea and walked around to the Confucius Temple. The weather was beautiful.