GOSSIP FROM 2002/2003
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| wednesday 18th sept 2002Back in the UK after nearly three weeks in Malaga. Had a pretty good time, drank too much, didn't really see anything while I was there but met some nice people and feel my spanish has improved. What I want to know is did Nina and Jill really mean what they said on monday night?????? Football tonight Reading against Norwich, we'd better win as I flew back for this!!! thursday 19th septWe lost 2-0... saturday 21st septWent up to Wolves with Nick and Des to see Reading win 1-0 Then it was a dash to Brighton for Simons 40th birthday party. I wore a tight pair of shorts with tears in the back just to liven things up a bit...bit of a chemically enhanced evening... sunday 22nd septWent to London to see Ev Talked about Taiwan and felt the earthquake.... monday 23rd septKew gardens with mega-babe Cathy and her friend. would love to spend more time with them.... Dashed back to Bracknell and then on to a family meal near Reading...good fun .I've had a hectic week, and its back to Taiwan tomorrow tuesday 24th septThe long haul....20 hours of hell wednesday 25th septArrived back in a daze and in a downpour. thursday 26th septHad to teach 4 and a half houurs!!! One way of helping me beat jet lag. Met Susan, she's had an interesting time while I've been away!! Won't mention the guitarist and his girlfriend... friday 27th septNinas birthday.Brought her and jing-i back to Tanshui to open the presents. They like the magic tricks..(so do I!) weekend 27th/28th septSpent all of Saturday playing with the kids then popped into "99's" for a few hours...not bad, met a few interesting sorts... wednesday 9th octoberThe day before my birthday...Spent a few hours in the tapas bar quaffing wine with Skelly and Jenny.Boris,Jess and Shaun then turned up so we went to Carnegies for the wednesday (ladies night) mayhem.We were not disappointed. Crowds of girls outside vomiting after too much free champagne.One girl kept coming up and would snog me with a mouthful of Champers, try to shimmy up and down me but kept falling over... She was seen being carried out later on thursday 10th octoberMy Birthday.Bit of a hangover but managed to rouse myself to beat Shaun at tennis.Got a phone call from Nina during our evening meal out saying she didn't want to see me at the weekend....Natasha does like to hit below the belt saturday 2nd novemberPicked up the kids from their piano class for the second consecutive week....wow!! Bought stuff in the nightmarket and wore the kids out playing games. sunday 3rd novemberWent to the funfair in Taipei (again) and had barrels of larfs spinning them round on the teacups. tuesday 5th novemberStockmarket is turning in my direction!! Maybe I'll have some money to get out of this country and go back to Spain!!! sunday 10th novemberReasonably entertaining weekend.Played tennis for 4 hours with Shaun and finally lost in a tie-break in the dark.In the evening ended up in a bar called Coyote where the staff got onto the bar and did some lairy dancing.One of them was completely wild and danced with a frenzy, the like of which I have never seen before...great!! Unfortunately other entertainment was provided by Jenny's crap band....god they were awful, but it was worth it for me just to see those girls dancing.Shaun meanwhile was not so impressed...... monday 11th novemberLemmy a bit crook wednesday 13th novemberDid a TV commercial for tomato juice. Only got 4,000nt for an afternoons work.Underselling myself or what? Good fun to make though.I was a doctor and had to shake hands with the star before walking off... thursday 14th novemberVet said Lemmy had eaten rat-poison saturday 16th novemberLemmy dead.......... Skelly and I picked up the body and in the pouring rain buried him in the woods where I used to take him for his walks.Work was hampered by the rock hard clay we had to dig into.Poignant moment, Lemmy was almost my best mate in Taiwan. Is finally time to get out of here??? Went to fetch Nina and she didn't even want to come and see me... However, once she was back in Tanshui it was OK. Come sunday she didn't want to go back...Nina didn't believe that Lemmy was dead... saturday 23rd novemberWent to the Red Lions end of season awards dinner.... Boris got the player of the year, 10 years after he last won it! I got drunk and 99's and the Vibe was all a blur... december 2002Decided to leave Taiwan as I was totaly pissed of with the place and booked my ticket for the 19th..... My final weekend with Nina and Jing-i involved buying christmas presents, wrapping them, going for a walk in cannon park as the weather was nice and then finaly packing up their toys to send back to Panchiao. I fely pretty upset and when Natasha came to pick them up it had also hit Nina. Apparently she cried all the way home. I decided to stay another month!! So Christmas day they were back again and in the evening went for a horribly expensive meal in the far-eastern hotel. Christmas is not even a holiday here anymore so it was a bit of a damp squib as most of the money grubbers here didn't take a day off. The weekend came and the kids were back yet again and this time we went to the space museum in Shilin. The 3D cinema was probably the highlight but pushing all the buttons on the various displays kept them entertained. And so to New years eve. Meal in Cosi Cosi to warm up with Shaun and Nina(his bird not my daughter). Then (yawn) the Tavern where I was worried we might have to spend the night. Luckily sense prevailed and we went on to have a raucous night in CARNEGIES The spirit of rock. Our housemate Nick went home about 11pm as there was far to much risk of him having a good time. Anyway needless to say we all got howling drunk...some hot babes (and not so hot Brazilians but I won't go into that)and spent a fortune. january 2003Lost some of my teaching jobs due to my "should I stay or should I go" indecision. So, now I'm staying till the end of March and struggling by on about 17 hours a weeks teaching. Weather has been really crap, cold and miserable most of the time...but not as bad as the UK where they've had blizzards.Got an absolute kicking on the stockmarket when I started gambling on the 10 day trading account and the market decided to plunge due to war in the middle east fears.Damn! Reading didn't win once in January either. winter/spring in Taiwan 2003Ugh!! yes, well I haven't really kept this up to date, but suffice to say that life improved for me, going out was just that little bit more fun and work just that little less tedious than before. april/may/june 2003Best summed up in a letter I sent to my mate Pete:
Yo Dude,
Well the time we have been spending together has increased to 5 days a week of late with the result that I haven't gone to Spain as mentioned and have been getting a little restless...note: I need to get moving after a couple of months idleness...unlike your lard ass!!......I'm supposed to be going back to Taiwan next week as there is a couple of months work for me, I can get my stuff packed as I am planning to move back to the UK for a while and of course will get to see Nina....Oh yes Natasha is now married as I'm sure you know....do you know anything about it..him?
end of June 2003Mad last week in Uk. Went up to north Yorkshire with Gareth and 3 other mates to climb the "3 peaks". A 26 mile walk which I was ill prepared for and failed on the last hill, though the short cut I opted for was nothing of the sort and I got back the same time as everyone else....my knees were completely shot! went back south on the sunday and was supposed to meet Ev on the monday.....her first ever trip to visit me....oh the honour and prestige.....however, she blew me out monday afternoon.... Back up north on tuesday with Cathy to Kendal and Wavy's wedding to the heavily pregnant Zonk(sorry, I mean Brenda!!). Photos to appear soon..... Down south again on the Thursday and back to Taiwan on the Friday, though not before getting a letter from the council to say my old car had been dumped in Farnborough, even though I thought i'd paid 25 squid to get it scrapped....nice little problem to leave nick!! July 2003Straight back to work on Monday morning(july 7th) and a lovely little conondrum involving Cathy to stress me out................
July/August 2003Well, Cathy dumped me as soon as we got back to Taiwan(after a traumatic lunchdate where she said she couldn't make up her mind) and then took off to Bali with her boyfriend....... So, there was still Vivien and Susan to keep me company...plus some additional intrigue with Mr Dave Silver but I won't go into that!! I was working like a dog from 9:30 in the morning to, well, 4:30 in the afternoon which meant masses of free time to do restaurants and pubs.And we did! Skelly, Brett, Shaun and myself were the executives at party central, which was good because I was quite cut up about the Cathy thing and kept seeing her out which didn't help. Anyway, these 2 months were pretty rock n' roll and I was in doubt once more as to whether it was worth returning to the UK.......After all the main reason was because Cathy was going back to London and I thought I might be able to get it back together again....... Extra bit of mayhem on the way home via Thailand with Skelly and Brett...That Pattaya is one crazy place.
Autumn/Winter 2003AS IF!!!!!! Oh my god!! What have I done, I said to myself time and time again... Shaun did warn me. The girl is flighty he said, It has been the greatest rock n' roll period in our time in Taiwan he said....... Ok to sum up. My mate Nick had broken up with his girlfriend and wanted to go to Spain for a change of scenery and I agreed to go too.... But first we had Cathy coming back and giving me the wrong day of her arrival....I was watching Reading v Cardiff when she phoned from the airport!!! I helped her move her stuff the next day and she spent about a week staying at Nick's with me. It all went pear shaped when I had to drive her from Berks to Bermondsey in south London and then to Holloway in the north......got hopelessly lost and completely stressed out. Cathy was not impressed. So, off we went to Spain a few days later and Nick had a great time!! I was still thinking about the young lady back in England and didn't really get into it. Spent a fortune and got myself into debt and when we came back to the UK, Nick got back together with his girlfriend again!! So where has that left me at years end??? Living in Thatcham again after a 3 year absence and cleaning cars for my brother!! Cathy meanwhile, has dumped her boyfriend in Taiwan and is now dating an Australian Investment banker.....well he cetainly sounds like one!!
Went to see "Jerry Springer, the opera" with Loree. It was supposed to be really good and had had rave write ups...........It was crap...lots of swearing and mock opera but a half hour show would have been enough....and they had technical problems during the performance so the curtains came swinging down and left us waiting for another 30 minutes. Remind myself not to see any more musicals.
Man, after such a good year it really has had a crap end.Still working for Paul cleaning cars, but getting frozen outside isn't really my idea of fun....Even Reading, usually a source for great entertainment and copious beer drinking have been appalling. The ale consuption and pre-match banter has still been good but sitting in a freezing stadium watching tedious midfield scrapping has not been any incentive for me to remain in this country..
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