Year End - Part 1

As my previous post clearly stated, the month of December has been a busy one. I've hardly had time to do anything, including this blog. Things are finally starting to die down now, so let's back up a bit.

At the beginning of December, Jon visited Taiwan. Many of my friends (you know who you are) talk about coming over and never deliver. Jon mentioned it once last summer and showed up a few months later. What a great surprise. He spent the first part of his trip over in Hualian with Nicki, surfing and seeing the beauty Taiwan has to offer. Near the end of his trip, he came to the West Coast, to see the city life. Turned out to be a perfect weekend too. Faye and the Slacks had two gigs and it was still warm enough (or so we thought) to go surfing up north.
Friday night, I picked Jonny up at the bus station and we went to get some Indian food from one of my favourite restaurants in town, Bollywood. A few hours later, we opened up for a blues band called Boogie Chillin' at a bar called 89K. This picture is taken near the end of our set during a song called Giddy Soldiers. Jon rushed the stage for a picture. I tried my best to make my bass playing look effortless. I managed a smile (but apparently not a look into the camera) and hit a wrong note soon afterwards. I like this shot a lot.

The next day, Faye and the Slacks had a gig at a cafe called Sahara. Nicki flew over from Hualien to meet up with us too. I have a good shot of him playing tambourine but it is a bmp not a jpg and this blogsite won't upload it (man, do I ever sound like a techie geek right now). Anyway, it was an early show. It went well and we then went back to our apartment.

This might be my favourite part of the weekend. We went back to our apartment to have a few drinks and planned to go back to the bar for 11:00pm. But it was just the four of us and we were catching up and looking at pictures and we ended up staying most of the night. It was so great to have two of my oldest and best friends in Taichung with me.

I don't even know where this was taken. I think it is from a Taiwanese bar called the Party Animal. Nicki is still his old, crazy self.

The next day we went up north to a surf spot called Junan. The water was warm enough but it was a cold rainy day. For the west coast, the waves were pretty big (at least for me). I managed to catch a few waves but certainly had my share of wipeouts too. After that we hooked up with the boys in Taipei and had a few beer outside Taipei 101 (world's tallest building). It was nice. Seven of us from Fredericton were there: Joe, Fish, Curnie, Chucky, Nicki, Jon and me (again there's a good picture but this site won't upload it).

Thanks for the visit boys. It was a blast!

Merry Christmas

Merry Xmas, everyone!

It's been a while since I posted anything here. The last month has been crazy. Jonny's been to visit (I will post some pics soon); Lindsay's folks are here; school's been hectic (my third annual student band - Youth in Asia - has been practicing most noon hours and taking up a lot of time); rehearsals three times a week with Faye and the Slacks and Militant Hippi; four gigs in two different weekends; and of course getting all the Christmas shopping done (I just finished at the 7-11, at 1:30AM this Christmas morning). It feels like I haven't sat down in a month. I feel a good night's sleep coming on ... and that's where I'm heading.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Geoff

Believe it or not, this is from a Christmas show we saw tonight. These dancers in very short shorts were the act on right before our student Christmas choir.

Smog Does Have Perks

This was on our drive home from school ealier this week. Fantastic!