Taipei blues: Busy with life

You wake up. It's another day. What is it? Monday again? Thursday? Does it matter? You need few minutes to really wake up. Your eyes are puffy, full of crusties. You wanna sleep! You dig your head in the pillow and cry inside: Why? Why? Why again... but you can't do anything. Or you don't wanna do anything. You crawl out of bed and try walking. You're a combination of a drunkard and an infant. You nearly slam your head in the doorway, ding dong, right left... are you a bell? Moron. Next time don't drink sleep. Finally you're at that bathroom sink, your hands on the sink supporting your whole body [Should I brush teeth or go back to bed?]. You brush your teeth. Back to bedroom, where are the pants? Oh, the pants. Here. The socks? Where are the socks, stocks, stockings? I mean sockings. Here. Now fully awake, you take a look out of window: Damn, pissy weather again. Nice. Walking to the station, your brain is empty, your back hurts a little. Sleeping well... well, that must be someone else's victory today. You're pisstrated. At the station you don't notice anyone, although there are tons of people just like you. Some have slippers inserted in their bums like tokens. No, not literally. Waiting for the train, checking your watch nervously [You will be late to work, mate!]. Light starts blinking, bla bla bla, train's coming. You enter the intestines on wheels and sit down. You're awake, you think, but actually you're sleeping. Wake up, office, come home, sleep, wake up, office, come home, sleep, wake up, office, come home, sex, sleep, wake up, office, come home, sleep, wake up, office, come home, sleep... Don't you realize? You have the Taipei blues!

A Taipei tale over coffee

What would you do, if it happened to you?

Imagine you sit in a café somewhere in Taipei. You just bought your latte and you're sitting at a small table for two, sipping your coffee, waiting for your girlfriend. She's late and you're alone, so you take a good look around. The place is nice, has a certain small town charm. The smell of freshly made coffee makes you day dream..., but not for long. Your thoughts are interrupted by the two noisy Japanese girls behind you, who chat so loudly, that everyone seems to be a bit annoyed by them. But then the noise slowly fades away again, you lose yourself in your thoughts. And suddenly you notice something you haven't noticed before. A girl, most likely in her mid twenties, sits across, on other side of the café near the main window. Her hair is long, falling. She's totally immersed in a note book, where she's earnestly writing something. You realize that she's laid eyes on you. She's carefully ogling you, her looks are brief and hard to notice. Most of the time she seems to be lost in her notes. You think: What is she writing so eagerly? Is she a student? A writer? A poet? She glances over again, then corrects her hair and returns to her notes. Time seems to stand still for few moments, you think about what can she possibly be noting and why is she looking at you so often. Do I look weird? Is it, because I am not a local? All kinds of things run through your mind and you look at her again and think: She's not bad, but she's not the kind of woman I would notice in the pool of beautiful women of Taipei. But the way she corrects her long falling hair fascinates you... and then you notice, that she's getting ready to leave. She's standing up and grabbing her things, putting her notebook and pen in her bag. Then she stops for a while and you don't know what's on her mind. But the to your surprise, she starts approaching you. You take a sip of your nearly finished latte, your pulse increases and you think: OMG, is she coming to me? Was I that obvious? What is she... and then she's already there at your table, too shy too look into your eyes, but still brave enough to leave a small folded piece of paper on your table. She leaves without a glance and without a word. You unfold the paper and you see something like this:

給我打電話*
0921097634

What would you do?

[*the Chinese says "give me a call"]

The Kiss

You stood there, waiting. Finally I saw you. Wow. Is that really who you are? I could not believe it. The silhouette of your body in front of the city lights was just so breath-taking and surreal, I thought I was dreaming. Maybe I was. You waved. How could you? It wouldn't be necessary. I spotted you among them, I knew that nobody else would wear that amazing dress you put on just for me. Your long hair was swept by the warm breeze of that temperate night and it made the image of you unforgettably perfect. I lost sight of everything around myself, all the noisy people around me, the cab drivers driving at my pace, shouting something that just didn't make sense to me in that split second I was drawn to you.

And there it was: The moment.

I stopped two meters in front of you, the marvellous silhouette of an angel turned into a gorgeous woman with radiant eyes and a smile that was only meant for me. A smile so honest and pure, it made me feel that everything was right in that moment. I needed to look into your glowing eyes, before we touched. Your embrace felt safe, comfortable. Your lovely head on my chest and your arms wrapped around me felt like the world can stop any minute. My world did. Basking in each other's presence, our eyes met again and I knew it was the right moment to kiss you. My hand went from caressing your hair to gently touching your chin, lifting it slowly. The moment froze. We looked each other in the eyes again, deeply: Goose bumps. I leant toward you, our noses touched tenderly, our lips were almost there. I tilted my head and pulled you closer to me. Our lips brushed, then touched: Explosion. Adrenaline. My heart pounding so hard, I could feel it in my fingertips. It was a soft kiss, yet a long one. It felt like we want to make it last forever. As soon as we became more and more comfortable with each other, we closed our eyes and while the soft kissing sounds were inaudible to passers-by, we felt like we're invisible, too. We were hungry for more. Your lips were so tender, so inviting, I just could not imagine ever letting go or stop coming back. We became silly and our kiss turned into kisses which turned into smiles and relaxing laughs. That was when you said:"You're not a bad kisser". And you smiled almost cheekily. "You're not bad yourself either", I replied and winked. Then I took your sweet little hand, intertwined my fingers with yours and we walked off into the city lights.

It was the next morning when I realized that all our clothes, that were shattered around the room, and especially your panties, that were hanging on the door knob, looked suspiciously like we didn't...

Emptiness

Empty. Lost in memories of the past. Anxious to look ahead. Trapped in the present. What should I do? I decide to stand up, open the front door and leave. It's dark. Forest all around me. I keep walking. The road is empty. And long. The more I walk, the better I get. The road is now my meaning of life. My goal is to keep going aimlessly. I don't want to reach anywhere. I don't want to go back or even look back. I can make a stop. In that moment the world stops for me. I realize we're all on the same track. I just hate myself for being able to understand this useless life. Some sleep, eat, work, eat, sleep and repeat that every day. But they're happy! I try to find sense in everything I'm doing, seeing, feeling. It's tiring. It's wearing me out. And you are far! I'm alone and lonely. The more you distant yourself from me, the more real I get. I'm realizing that everything we built up is just a cover for nothing. Our curtains are veiling a wall, not a window. And in the end, I'll end up alone again. As I always were. Memories are sweet, but they will get bittersweet later. I'll be still walking down the same road as always. Only this time I really won't turn back. I may appear sober, but I'm highly emotional. Crushed. But I have to keep walking. I'm walking. I can't stop, I have no control.

And then he stopped.

An interesting encounter

To be continued... maybe... :)

Too late and too early

Nü Ying (女英) was waiting for me at the hotel bar. It was 8pm on Orchard road. Hot as usual. She was much more earlier there, while I came a bit late. When we kissed, she pulled me closer and whispered in my ear: "I missed you. Where have you been?" I blushed a little and couldn't tell her I overslept. So I started mumbling and hesitating with the answer while trying to figure out an excuse that wouldn't make me look like I'm not taking her seriously enough. So I almost stuttered when I said: "I... I... I had a bad headache and I... I had to take a minute and a... I misplaced my keys..." She smiled, looked deeply into my eyes, put her index finger on my lips and said: "Shhh... don't speak." She pouted her lips, pressed them against mine and there we were, kissing for like half a minute. When she released it, she laughed out loud and said: "Will you promise me you won't come late anymore?" I replied "yes, yes" reassuringly. "But I have one more request", she added to my surprise. "We're going to go upstairs now, to the room and promise me one more thing - this time don't come early." I blushed again, but nodded silently, grabbed her by the hand and we left. I was always on time after that.