"I would rather be a chicken's head!"

Not a big running track, but this track at the nearby Wenzao Ursuline College of Languages has a good surface and is completely surrounded by buildings so one doesn't hear the sound of cars. So far I haven't seen people use it (the summer vacation is very hot after all), but I do hope to try out my running shoes here as it gets cooler. I will need to bike home (5 minutes) to have a shower, as I haven't seen those outside showers like we had in Hawaii.

There is a well-known saying in Chinese that states "I’d rather be the head of the chicken rather than the tail of the ox." When I first came to Taiwan, I had not had much work experience before (as in the U.K.), but what particularly surprised me was that most people who gave me name cards had the title of "President" or something similar. Of course, a few might have been big powerful bosses, but the vast majority were "one-man bands" or else very small businesses with just a few family members as employees. However, it was these "small businesspeople" who had a huge part to play in Taiwan's phenomenal economic success story.

The Library at the Wenzao Ursuline College of Languages is less than five minutes by bike from my home. This is a great place to work at in the mornings, although one is never sure of being let in as they limit the number of outsiders who can use it on any given day. However, the library is full of books in French, German, Spanish and Japanese, if only I had the time to read them. If I cannot get in, I can usually bike to the Golden Lion Lake reading room (see below) in at most ten minutes.

When I finished college in England, I did not have a clear idea of what I wanted to do as a career, and at the time the only options were to be an employee of any firm that would employ me. Hopefully, the firm I joined would help me further my career, but invariably the firms I joined were at most stepping stones to an uncertain future and were usually quite slippery, meaning that I did not easily make it from one stone to the next.

The Golden Lion Lake, five minutes by bike from my home. This is the view from the bridge I ride across to go to the reading room where I often work late afternoons.

Even in Taiwan, after going back to school for a few years to study Chinese, I looked for a job that would give me a steady paycheck, and while I had some nice working environments (like well a air-conditioned office, and even a plush carpet in one case), I was generally in one of two situations. The first was where I had a steady, not-too-demanding job, but where it was not really possible to save much money or advance my career. The second was where I had a very demanding and challenging job with quite good pay, where I was able to save, but I had little security for the future as I never knew quite what would happen next.

The Golden Lion Lake reading room. This air-conditioned public reading room is open six days a week from about 8:30 am to 7:45 pm. A place I often go to from 5 pm until it closes (when there are few people). I can spread my work out on the table.

I guess that, apart from issues like job fulfillment, pay, career development, etc., I have never been a good team player. In most group activities, whether in paid or voluntary work, I have always tended to be at the far back of the orchestra, and in such situations I have felt frustrated, unable to follow my dreams and have felt my life has been wasted.

Burning paper money to appease the spirits during ghost month. This is so much part of the traditional Taiwanese culture here, that these kinds of fires are being seen all over the place.

So for the time being, I am "doing my own thing" as regards work, supporting my family and preparing for the future. I strategize and make plans on my own, and I mostly work on my own. I am not trying to further the cause of any organization, save my own reputation. I am, however, seeking to pursue excellence in what I do. In fact the work I do is little understood, perhaps not surprisingly since it involves the Chinese language, but I am convinced that if I can keep pace with the new developments constantly taking place, I am confident that as a chicken's head as opposed to an ox's tail, I can still continue to find my way in this increasingly integrated but at times unsteady world.

Tables laid out for an offering during the ghost month outside a temple next to the Golden Lion Lake.

I continue to swim regularly, although with both children now in full-time education, I am currently unable to devote as much time to sports as I would like, and work is often a higher priority. Hopefully, my swimming will not slow down too much before I have the chance to visit Hawai'i again.

Recap on the Last Two Months

It is over two months since my last blog post. I have recently been posting to Twitter, mostly so that I can write to myself and see what the few people I have been following are up to, maybe unknown to them. Anyway, I am thankful for the few friends who do follow me on Twitter (there is a link on the right), and no doubt they sometimes see my postings.

The main reason I have not posted on this blog is because I have been very busy. There just does not seem to be time to post things, and I sometimes feel bad about posting things, especially if it distracts me from my work. My swimming has been affected, too. While I still swim about 10 km per week, I often swim slowly and seldom feel out of breath, meaning that I go too easy.

A few months ago, our younger son was accepted to study at a college in Chicago (see the previous posting) and soon after that I thought we could just about afford it. Then our elder son attended a UK universities exhibition in our home town in Taiwan and was subsequently accepted by a university in South-East England to start an honors degree program this September. James has often tended to be a last-minute person, and this was no exception. We received the university offer for him only in June.

While this is of course good news, it has put added pressure on me. It's a bit like trying to ride the waves. If you can stay on the board, then it's great, but if the waves overwhelm you, then you sink! I am not one to consider borrowing money (even if it were an option), and so each day I have to be very disciplined with my work (fortunately I don't lack it), to make sure I am doing everything possible to make our children's university dreams a reality.

On this posting I attach a few pictures taken in recent weeks and months to serve as a reminder of some of the more interesting things I have seen or done in an otherwise busy life.

Kaohsiung (in south Taiwan) hosted the 2009 World Games and we attended the opening ceremony with 50,000 other people. This is only a few miles from our home. The wooden canoe is a traditional hand-carved boat used by the Yami indigenous tribe living on Orchid Island off the east coast of Taiwan.

A fisherwoman casts her net into Kaohsiung harbor. In the distance is the tallest building in southern Taiwan (85 storeys). The image is not very sharp as it was late in the day.

View from our rooftop. Not very exciting - naphtha crackers, a congested overpass, and some hills in the distance. Part of life in a big city.

Sunset over Cheng Ching Lake in Kaohsiung. Our home is about one mile behind the building sticking up to the left of the setting sun (the incinerator shown in other pictures below). I see this lake each morning on my way to the pool.

Not the moon, but rather the sun during a partial solar eclipse on July 22 about 9:30 a.m. Taken through 4 pairs of sunglasses on the roof of our house. A little hit and miss!

The gabage incinerator which is a major landmark in our immediate area seen behind a rice field. If you click on the image you will see that is carries an ad for the World Games.

A sign along the bike trail that goes along one side of Cheng Ching Lake, with the words being backlit by the setting sun.

Jocelyn standing with her bike next to two mascots of the Kaohsiung World Games. This was taken near the Love Pier by Kaohsiung Harbor, a place that we can bike to mostly along designated riverside bike routes.

The new wetlands park a few hundred meters from our house. The garbage incinerator is in the opposite direction to our house.
Not sure what these things are, maybe some kind of eggs. At least they have an important part to play in maintaining the ecosystem in these wetlands, something that has been neglected for too long.

Bananas, just yards away from the pink eggs. Grown privately on public land.

A excellent local jazz band performing on a stage set up by the river along which we ride our bikes. Well worth stopping to listen.

Jocelyn and me in our cycling gear on the sea wall having just arrived too late to watch the sunset over the ocean next to Kaohsiung's National Sun Yat-Sen University.

We are not doing anything special this summer, just spending time with the boys mostly at home as they get ready for the adventure of their lives. Hopefully, as time passes and more work gets done, there will be a little time to relax later.

Living the American Dream - in the U.S.!

On the way to the U.S. (Don't worry, the cards have either expired or are samples used as fridge magnets!)

Many of us have grown up dreaming of living the American Dream, including myself. As a teenager, I used to regularly play golf with a couple of American friends who were living with their families in England because their fathers worked with U.S. organizations based in London. At university when studying economics, I found that much of the economics literature was written by Americans, and while I at times dreamed of one day going there to live, it all seemed a little beyond my reach.

For our younger son, Morrison, the dream may be a little easier to realize than it was for me, since I did not first set foot in the United States until I was nearly 40. Morrison visited the U.S. for a few months when he was four, and then in 5th grade when he was 10 went there where he graduated from Kahakai Elementary School, Kailua-Kona, Hawai'i, and spent in total almost 8 years of his life in Hawai'i.

Morrison on a beach in Taitung, East Taiwan (photo taken by his brother James)

At the end of our time in Hawai'i, Morrison still had one more year of high school, and upon our return to Taiwan, things looked a little uncertain. Life was also a little hard for Morrison at that time, as he had to leave all his good friends in Hawai'i and complete his high-school studies by correspondence. Having been home schooled for almost all of his teenage years, would he be accepted into a U.S. college? There were also other things like SAT scores that he had to concern himself about. I myself had not paid much attention to these issues and even wondered if he could take these tests on Taiwan.

Morrison on Mount Alishan, Central/Southern Taiwan (photo taken by his mother)

When Morrison attended a small cooperative school in Hawai'i at around the age of 12, the teachers looked at each child and chose a character trait to describe what it was that each child had that caused him or her to excel. For Morrison, the character trait was "Determination". During the last two years in Taiwan, Morrison was certainly determined. In spite of a very laid back life in Hawai'i during his mid-teen years when his school performance was very so-so (homeschooling often seemed to be "no schooling"), Morrison's grades improved year by year and, even in subjects he found difficult, he managed to complete his assignments on time and get good grades. To prepare for the SAT test, he bought a large book full of practice tests and would sit in the local library for three hours at a time doing practice tests. While his written English (understandably) may have left a little to be desired, his Math scores got higher and higher.

Morrison applied to three U.S. colleges and was accepted by all of them. After careful deliberation, Morrison settled on Elmhurst College in Illinois where he will read for a B.A. in International Business starting this fall. Last week Morrison went to the American Institute in Taiwan to be interviewed for his student visa and now he has that, the next step will be to book a flight to Chicago some time in August.

Elmhurst College - Langhorst Football Field (Courtesy of the National Athletic Testing System)

Studying in the U.S. is not cheap, even though Morrison fortunately was able to secure a more generous scholarship than I had expected, given our circumstances. However, as a parent, I am confident that the money that I invest in Morrison over these next few years will be well worth it, as I know from being around him all these years that he is very careful with money, and he is also someone who can be entrusted with other people's money. In Hawai'i, a few of his friends for certain periods of time actually left some of their savings with him for safekeeping, to make sure that the money would otherwise not be spent when they were saving up for things like relatively expensive overseas trips.

Elmhurst College, Illinois, established in 1871 as a seminary, and today offering a liberal arts education. About 10 miles from Wheaton College and about 40 minutes from the middle of Chicago.

Of course, just going to America does not guarantee success, and one can be successful in all kinds of places, particularly in Taiwan as I in a small way have discovered for myself. However, as anyone who has lived in the U.S. for a length of time will realize, the United States is a land of opportunity, a land that treats people with due respect, regardless of their ethnicity, color or religious beliefs, a land which values the liberty of the individual, and a land in which one can easily make a lot of friends.

As for me, the U.S. is a country that I feel I can be a part of without being one of its citizens (which I might well be if the process was a little easier!). During my eight years there, I could relate to what was going on, from the 9-11 tragedy, to Katrina, to the sporadic campus shootings, as well as to the more successful events like the return to earth of the space shuttle or the inauguration of the nation's first black president, Barack Obama. However, I am also European, and have lived much of my life (and continue to live) in Taiwan, and so I guess I will visit the U.S. for relatively short trips from now on. I hope that the next few years that Morrison spends in the U.S. attending college will be enjoyable and will help prepare him for whatever lies ahead, wherever that may be.

Morrison doing what he enjoys - skateboarding - somewhere in Southern Taiwan (photo taken by his brother or one of those with him at the time!)

Biking for Health and Pleasure

What does one need to enjoy biking on a regular basis? Well, a bicycle, I guess, but also a nice environment that is easily accessible from home in which to ride, relatively safe and uncongested roads, as well as dry and not too cold weather. In Niaosong, Kaohsiung county, it is possible to enjoy riding in this way. It takes less than 15 minutes to cycle from our home to this point on the edge of Cheng Ching Lake. In what follows, Jocelyn and I will show you that biking can be a rewarding and healthful experience.

If you are not too familiar with a bike course, a map is helpful and if you don't like carrying a map with you, one etched in stone by the roadside is just as good. This map describes the bike course around Cheng Ching Lake. One loop is a little under five miles. The red lines refer to an exclusive lane for bikes. This unfortunately does not extend the whole way round, but at least it's a start.

Since the bike course goes round a large lake, for about one-third of the ride (mostly downhill in this direction), one can see the lake to the right. Air temperatures close to large expanses of water like this are a few degrees lower, and the view is certainly good for the eyes.

When riding here it is not necessary to wear a face mask, although there are parts of the course, as well as parts of the ride to and from home, where one has to interact with quite a lot of traffic during rush hours. While this is part of the price that has to be paid for living in a big city, at least the contact with dust and internal combustion engines can be kept to a minimum.

To make the ride more pleasant, it is important to have good equipment. A bell is important as occasionally people are so taken in by the scenery that they fail to keep their eyes focused on what lies ahead of them, including oncoming cyclists.

The seat on the bicycle should be designed with the rider in mind, like this one was.

It is necessary to carry water on any bike ride, and the bike should have a bottle cage to allow a water bottle to remain firmly in place (as shown elsewhere), and accessed while on the move.

Bikes no longer come in "one size fits all". It is necessary to find the perfect fit for you. Giant bicycles in Taiwan have come up with a bicycle that is "women specific" and this particular model is designed for the smaller rider. This frame is made of aluminum.

With a good set of gears (in this case Shimano SLX), there are few hills (barring parts of Kaloko Drive in Kona, Hawaii) that one should not be able to ride.

Front suspension will make for a smooth ride when the going gets rough. Disc brakes appear to be the 'in thing", although I find the traditional types of brakes are just as good.

A mirror is a good investment, and saves one having to constantly turn one's head.

Lights are of course important at night, and a lubrication system built into the bicycle should keep the cables in good order.

A speedometer/odometer provides much valuable information on any ride.

About one kilometer into the ride, one passes three pavilions and one can also get a good view of the Grand Hotel on the other side of the lake.

The three pavilions area is an excellent place for watching the sunset. as the sun comes down on the opposite side of the lake as one looks out.

The Grand Hotel from a distance.

A bike helmet should be worn at all times even in warm weather. This one fits well (and is not cheap!) and has good air vents. Its white color is also less likely to absorb the heat.

Here one can see that the bike path is separated from the road by something resembling a 4"x4" piece of wood. The only criticism that could be leveled against the path is that is gets somewhat narrower than this in places, which might encourage some people to just ride on the road instead, which can of course be done, too.

As one turns at the bottom of the lake one sees a huge expanse of water. From this point on, one has to share the road with the other vehicles for about half a mile, but then after that there are more bike paths.

The Grand Hotel is a very famous piece of architecture in Kaohsiung and well worth a visit. After passing the hotel there are more rolling hills and relatively little traffic except in the height of the rush hour.

If one keeps following the route depicted on the map, one will eventually get back to where one started. Since this point where I (pictured) am standing is very close to the swimming pool, I not only biked today, but also swam about one mile in the pool, too. Not a bad workout. Maybe I could add in a short run as well.

A Different Mother's Day

This year, the day before Mother's Day, I found these roses at the local market. Before I gave them to my wife, Jocelyn, I took this photo of them as a souvenir.

Sometimes holidays give rise to conflicts of schedules, and being very busy these days, I am always a little apprehensive about participating in organized activities, for fear of falling even further behind schedule. Besides, on Saturday night the streets were packed with people going out to eat for Mother's Day, and I immediately imagined myself waiting at the entrance of some crowded restaurant on a noisy and traffic-congested street for more than an hour before we could get served.

So I heaved a sigh of relief when my family members suggested we go for a bicycle ride as a family on Mother's Day late in the afternoon when it would be a good time to take a break from the busyness of life, anyway. The idea was to more or less follow the river which runs only a few hundred yards from our house all the way until it hits the ocean at the other end of the city. In recent years, the local government has expended much effort in constructing bike paths, and it is more or less possible to ride on these paths for miles, usually next to a river (or a lake if one goes in the direction of where I swim in the mornings), with only minimal interaction with motorized transport.
We did not leave home until about 5:30 p.m., and after one or two detours (like where we were on the "wrong" side of the river and there were repairs being made to the bike path), we soon found that the otherwise bright and sunny day was quickly coming to an end. At this point looking down the river we were about two-thirds of the way to our destination (had we gone directly there).

We stopped close to where the Love River meets the ocean to take a few photos and decide on where we were going to eat. Like many of our trips, little had been planned. I kind of like things that way, i.e., a bit more spontaneous.

With less and less light, my little camera was becoming less capable of getting a clear shot, and fortunately James had his new camera with him, a Canon with a 30 mm F 1.4 lens, for those in the know.

As we waited there, the lights on buildings started to come on. I could still get a few reasonably good shots on my camera, because there was still quite a bit of daylight left.

However, without a a bigger and better camera, the above shot would not have been possible. I took it, although James set it up manually first. I should have brought a tripod.

In this picture we can see the four bikes we rode. Only mine on the far left, is a "real" bicycle. Even with gear on it and its much larger size, it still weighs a couple of kilos less than Jocelyn's bicycle. Maybe it is time to find Jocelyn a "real" bike.

After these pictures, we rode about another kilometer to the Fishermen's Wharf in Kaohsiung, which as its name implies is part of the port of Kaohsiung. (This was taken with my "little" camera, which was possible because the lights were very bright.) To get there were rode down a street full of small stores with names in various Asian languages, no doubt to serve the many foreigners who work on the boats.

This was the view (also taken with my camera) that we had as we ate a nutritious meal in an oceanside restaurant. However, instead of getting on one of these boats, we together rode (for about one hour) the 11 kilometers we needed to travel to get home, most of which was along the river and the nice bike paths built for this purpose.