Thought for the day.

If you cant be kind, at least have the decency to be vague.

You know when you are sitting in a restaurant, chatting with a friend and the waiter comes over to pour drinks, there is always that decision: should you stop talking while they wait on your table or just keep talking?

Usually I stop, but last night I bravely decided to keep going. Telling a friend that I'm looking forward to going back to study this year because my job last year didn't require me to think. With exquisit timing the waiter doubles back to our table with a pained smile on his face and says 'You should trying working here'.

Hee. Job satisfaction issues?

Unbelievable weather.Yesterday was 34 degrees, today it is raining and 17.

I lurve Nokia advertising at the moment, I think they are being used internationally so you've probably seen them. All funky music, interesting graphics and futuristic hairdos. And the best pair of shoes I have evah seen in the opening sequence. Keep an eye out for them. I even have a little dance, or more accurately head bobble, that goes with it. Music like that demands a dance.

Then in a strange piece of synergy my Daily Candy newsletter today promoed them. Apparently they are "The glamour of the Roaring '20s, fused with leading edge technology and a touch of art deco".

The only ad that makes me happy and interested in the product. Well done guys, my consumeristic heart thanks you.

Things I want to remember about Taiwan.

1. When I go to my favourite pasta place, they greet me with 'hao jiu bu jian' if it's been a few weeks between visits. They have good pasta and the best best fruit tea ever.

2. The obsession with dogs, in restuarants, shops, public transport etc Cute little white, fluffy dogs all dressed up in clothes and hair bands.

3. The complete lack of service, particularly in supermarkets. Rude, slow and inefficient. But then again if I was stuck underground and working full time in checkout, I probably would be too.

5. The wonderous beauty that is wandering around Working House or Muji looking at cool stuff. It really is stuff.

6. Cheap sushi.

7. That today is the middle of winter and it's 24 degrees and feels like a perfect spring day.

8. That there are more pregnant women here than I have ever seen in my life.

9. The news, print and TV, is so completely and unashamably tabloid. Scandel, crying politicians, grieving mothers, murders, suicide; it's all in the public interest. Apparently.

10. Pitiful service at banks and cell phone stores. For a country as developed as Taiwan, there is little excuse for inexplicable policies, slow service and active discrimination against foreigners. Bah.