Sorry sir, you need more beer

Posted by Lester Madden under General, Travel

I  went to a bar tonight with a friend from Realillusion. As I went to pay the waiter said “sorry sir there is a cover charge of TB 700” and I hadn’t spend enough to cover it.

Normally you think okay, fleece me and give him some extra cash, however he asked “would you like TB 700 of beer to take away”.

Bonus, 2 bottles of Taiwan beer back to the hotel.

Is drinking at 6pm a bad thing?

Posted by Lester Madden under General

Is it wise to drink beer at 6pm in the evening? Let me add some context to that.

I went to bed last night at 2am and got up this afternoon at 3pm (I’m jetlagged ok). I had to rush to a 4pm meeting that lasted until 6pm when we went for dinner and beers.

Does that count as having 4 beers, a Thai curry, roast fish, soup, lamb ribs, satay chicken  and a whole bunch of other stuff for breakfast, or was it dinner?

Either way its 2am again and I am as bright as a button.  Trouble is I have an 11am meeting so need to get some sleep. Is it wise to start drinking beer at 2am?  Humm lets not go there.

Made in Taiwan

Posted by Lester Madden under General, Travel

Just arrived in Taipei and am completely knackered. The journey was long, seems like it was weeks ago that I left home. I left in darkness, arrived in Hong Kong in darkness and arrived in Taipei in the dark. When I arrived at Taipei airport I had a scary moment. I went to take some cash out the ATM so I could get a taxi to the hotel. As Taiwanese Dollars are not something you get at the travel exchange at Heathrow I though you can’t go wrong with an ATM. I put my card in the ATM machine and waited, and waited, and waited. After about 45 seconds I started to get a little worried, the machine still said insert card. After 2 minutes I was really worried that it stole my only means of payment. Eventually just as panic was about to set in it said enter your pin. Phew. I tried to take out 100,000 Taiwanese dollars, nope, insufficient funds, I tried 20,000 same problem. Now I thought I was really screwed with no money to get to the hotel.

As I turned around a guy came up to me and said “you want taxi? No problem I give you taxi, you pay at hotel”. Getting into a strangers car is never a good idea but he gave me a limousine hire card and look legit. Besides in my wallet all I had was: 3,000 Japanese Yen, 50 Czech whatever’s, £6.21 and 5 Tesco’s computers for schools vouchers. I was hardly a robbers dream. He took me to the taxi rank and indeed he called a limo over, no boring taxi for me. I expected the guy not to speak English, that’s why I printed out the address of the hotel. The only trouble was the driver didn’t read English, but at least we got to the hotel, somehow. At that point I was too tired to really care. I would have quiet happy slept the night in the back of the car.

Not seen anything of the city yet, the guys at PChome are taking me out to shops in a few hours. Perhaps having problems with the cash machine will turn out to be a blessing.

This cat is going to be trouble

Posted by Lester Madden under General

Laying in bed on Sunday morning after drinking my way though a couple of bottles of wine with the missus on Saturday night I heard her scream from the kitchen. Not thinking much of it, putting it down to a spider on the wall or another of life’s little emergencies that can wait for a few hours. That was until the screaming continued.

Chicken for all

Posted by Lester Madden under General

I lived in the county for about 3 years. Other than cows, sheep and the occasional rabbit I didn’t see any other wild animal.

I’ve moved back to London a few months back and am now inundated with wild life. We have a family of foxes that visit the garden each night so I have taken to feeding them as it stops them digging open the bins and scattering the contents over the street.

When I buy the shopping I pick up a few extras pieces of chicken for them. I don’t mind feeding them, but I hate it when just crap all over the garden in return.

I just looked out the window and saw a hedgehog try to drag a chicken wing off into the garden. So I have another mouth to feed.

8 fish, 4 cats, 3 foxes and a hedgehog, no wonder I’m broke.

A place to visit

Posted by Lester Madden under Travel

Its been a while since I got excited about a business trip. Over the last 10 years I feel like I have been pretty much every where in Europe and the US.  The only places I really want to visit is Taiwan, Hong Kong and China.

I like gadgets and since everything seems to be made in Taiwan I have always wanted to go there. As luck has it I have a pending trip to Taipei in a few weeks time.  If I am lucky I also get to go to Beijing for a meeting and if I am creative with the flights I get to spend a weekend in Hong Kong. All my dream destinations in one swoop.

The only thing I have to do is avoid going out until 5am on the day I am meant to be shopping. How hard can that be?