Day One - Double Take @ Equatorial Hotel's Summer Jazz Series 2006
5:30am: The guitarists alarm clocks wakes him up. He has a live interview @ NTV7studio during their Breakfast Show. He thinks of taking the trains but it's raining (explains why I had a wonderful sleep in!) so he hops on a cab that charges him RM45 to get from Equatorial Hotel @ Jalan Sultan Ismail to Holiday Villa, Glenmarie (to meet Mia Palencia there). Ouch!

9am: They are finally put in front of cameras for the live shoot. I'm just stirring from bed. I have a 10:45am appointment.

11am: Roger comes back to hotel, wife has left (the hotel) for an appointment with her friends.

2pm: Roger has sound check with Mia at Flo so I'm thinking, heck, the man's still busy. So I pop by Mid Valley on my way home and contribute to the Malaysian economy. Store vendors smile when I leave their premise. I smile too. Everyone's happy during the Mega Sale!

6pm: Double Take has a live radio interview with RedFM, meet their old friend, Tim. Tim asks Roger to sing, Roger says noooo thanks. Tim says sing lah*, Roger says "no" some more. (*Not direct quotes) Tim retaliates (power of the press).

Tim asks radio listeners, yo people *, sms to RED if you want to hear Roger sing. Within a couple of minutes, RED receives 100 sms-es, asking Roger to sing. Roger's a nice guy so he complies. He sings. He sings "Would You Like to Play the Guitar or Would You Rather Get a Job" and manages to dis both agent and wife in less than two minutes! He survives though.

See picture of RedFM's monitor (right), receiving sms-es from listeners, asking Roger to sing. I've covered the phone numbers, names and IC numbers because I don't feel like going to court anytime soon. Ya, that's what DJs see when you send in sms-es during their shows. Interesting, eh?

7:30m: I see Roger for the first time today. Been too long, sayang.

9:48pm: Double Take performs. New songs with some old ones thrown in for good measure. People like. This year, a different guest musician joins Double Take every night during the four-day Flo gig. Tonight, it's Kevin Soo on Sax. Soo on Sax. Soo on Sax.

Roger enjoys jamming tonight. He's high from good vibes.

12:55am The gig's ended 20 minutes ago but Roger is still high. He had a wonderful time.

Big yawn...
Yesterday was one of those days that was just right for veg-ing out. You know what I mean? I just felt like doing nothing except sit in front of the idiot box and ... drool. Do nothing. Think about nothing. Just stare.

Things are back on track today though. I've finished packing, I've done my part to pump some new life into Roger's website. I've cleaned the house. Now, I'm bringing this blog up to date. Yeah! I'm BACK!

You see, Roger and I are leaving for Kuala Lumpur again tomorrow. He's planned to spend the first couple of days recording a few more songs with Farid for their new album. Then, he's going to team up with Mia (Palencia) for Double Take's gig at Equatorial Hotel, KL. Four nights of Double Take playing at Flo's, then we're off home again.

This should be a relaxing trip because Equatorial has been so kind as to host our entire stay in KL so we won't be changing hotels - like we did for every night in Taiwan. Makes it so much easier to pack. Plus, the housekeeping ladies @ Equatorial are really nice. During one of our Equatorial visits, Roger's pants button dropped off and disappeared and the ladies mended it for him real quick. (They've got the spare part mah. The spare button. The one from Roger's pants rolled off the corner of the Earth) God bless 'em!

Several things to do before we leave the house:
1/get rid of all perishables; including eggs, ham, bread, flowers, vegetables...

will do that tomorrow. We're leaving at noon. Going to KL with my brother who's going for a business trip. Yeah. Haven't travelled in the same plane with my older brother since ... we were very little. Yeah, yeah! Travelling with my koko again. Yeah!

2/ buy me some books to read onboard the plane, in the airports, in the hotel, while waiting.

My mother-in-law gave me some books she got from her friend's daughter. The books made a detour from the garbage bin and landed on my shelves. I don't mind at all. And what perfect timing, my MIL gave them to me just the other day, God bless her! So, check that off my list...

3/Buy travel essentials, like wet tissues, etc. (Check)

4/ Pay parking tickets. Here in Kota Kinabalu, you pay for parking based on tickets left under your car's blades by these parking attendants. The attendants monitor the amount of time you're parked and punch off corresponding holes in the ticket. Hard work. Esp on a hot day. They have to walk from car to car in the entire area, checking the time, the price... They give you two weeks to pay up, I think. We probably have about three or four of those now.

5/ Send car off to the mechanic. No problems this time, just servicing.

"Mr. X" is now officially "Roger". I figured a pseudonym's quite mysterious, exciting but I can't quite find the Right One, you know? We came up with "The Man", "The Finger" (eeks) ... and several others that I can't put in this blog but nothing was right.

So until we find The Right pseudonym, Roger's going to be "Roger".

Wrapping Up Taiwan
We flew home from Taipei on May 2nd. This tour has been wonderful. For several reasons:

1/ Huang (right, with his family) did a marvelous job organising things. Everything was well planned. He had everything so well planned out, he even had time to bring us sight-seeing! Always on time for appointments, the man not only had to drive us up and down the country throughout the day, he even had to perform during the gigs. With all these organising and driving and worrying about ticket sales, he remained cool and collected. Plus, he knew where all the good food was. Kudos!

2/ Food was brilliant! Between mouthfuls, we took many pictures of the food. I don't think I fit all of them in this blog. But here's an example of hawker fare. I must admit though. I don't know what those are..

3/ The audience here in Taiwan is very, very respectful of artistes. This is quite new to me because I've sat through some of Mr. X's concerts and 99.9% of the time, audience at clubs / concert halls walk right past the stage in the middle of a performance to
(1) pee,
(2) get to the bar,
(3) walk off a leg cramp - I really don't know why they have to walk around in the middle of a 45-minute session and I'm not even refering to the waiters neither,
(4) talk to the person next to them,
(5) talk to the people around them and
(6) talk on the phone some more. Why the obsessive need to talk while listening to a performance, I don't get either.

In Taiwan, they stop talking, they stop smoking (stubbed out the ciggy! right before the gig started. Saw it with my own eyes! Amazing) and everything in their body language suggests that they are listening to the artiste on stage. Full attention. Noone gets up to pee, noone talks, noone whispers, noone needs the help of a cigarette to breathe. They're totally into the music. That was a very refreshing experience for me and just for that, I got to stand up right now and applaud the Taiwanese!

4/ 7-Eleven.
Did you know that Taiwan has the third largest number of 7-Eleven outlets in the world?! Next to U.S.A. and Japan? More than 4,000 outlets.

But if you take into consideration the population of Taiwan, this little island (394 kilometres / 245 miles long, about 6 hours drive from north to south) has the highest "per 7-Eleven" per person in the world! Huang said there's a 7-Eleven at every street corner and he was right.

I've never appreciated the convenience of this 24-hour store until Taiwan. But here in Taiwan, 7-Eleven sells almost everything. And when I say 'everything', I' m talking about food. From (microwave) fresh pastas to curries, from potatoes to sushi. And most of Taiwanese cuisine! And who makes most of the fresh food for 7-Eleven? CHIMEI!

Marvelous, simply marvelous.

April 30, 2006 - Day Eight
Today, they were performing at Chi Mei Corporation in Tainan.

This corporation is ... massive. In point form (to stop me from gushing!), Tainan Corporation:
* is the world's largest maker of ABS resin, stuff used to make everything from golf club heads to Lego, from automotive body parts to kitchen utensils!
* world's biggest producer of large screen LCD TV screens,
* founder Wen Long Shi is listed as the 342nd richest man in the world,
* company owns a museum that showcases many things and owns not one nor measly two original pieces of artwork but ... so many, many, many, (The owner is an art enthusiast)
* I may be wrong but I think Wen also owns a Stradivarious violin because he's a mean violinist too.

Anyway, the corporation hired the boys to perform for their staff only that afternoon. The management were kind enough to give us a guided tour of the museum. I was so awe-struck, I must admit, I couldn't remember much of the details the chap was giving us. So overwhelming!

See the boys backstage (right). This place has very nice concert facilities too.

April 29, 2006 - Day Seven
Today, we were going to go back south to Taichung but before setting off, we had time to squeeze in a too-short visit to the famous Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall in Taipei. It's also the site of the National Theatre and National Concert Hall but we didn't have time to see them. Pity. If we ever head back to Taipei, I would like more time in this hall. So much to see, so little time. Though I DID have time to buy souvenirs. Typical Malaysian tourist.

The boys were performing in Taichung Community Hall today and it was their last public concert. Right after the concert, we drove all the way back south to Tainan for the night.

Enroute, we stopped at the popular Ching Sheui Service Area / Rest Area. This started as a rest stop for tired drivers and passengers, offering coffee-and-toilet break. But the Taiwanese are so intrigued by this beautiful seaside spot, they've turned it into a holiday destination, where families and courting couples come for a quick getaway from the city. We hear the sunset's gorgeous from this spot. All this area offers is food, toilets and a small arcade area. And so many people flock into this place. I mean, it's so popular, it's hard to find a parking space! And this place has a LOT of parking spaces. LOTS. We had to wait for a parking spot. Huang said it's worst on weekends.

Amazing.

I was especially tickled by a signage in the ladies' restroom. So tickled, I ran out and got the camera from Mr. X, ran back in, took a very quick shot of the signage and ran back out real fast. In case people thought I was up to something quite sick.

The sign reads: The service area is free to provide a toilet paper. Please economize dosage.

April 28, 2006 - Day Six
Sixth day already? Time flew. So far, Huang's been an excellent host. He's been religiously on time for all appointments (THANK YOU, GOD!), everything's well-organised. He kept finding all these wonderful eating places. Everything's been flawless.

Then, I had to go twist my ankle.

Coming down to the Riverside Music Cafe, an underground club. Literally. Down in the basement of some building. I was carrying two guitar cases (sometimes, besides reading a book and finding the toilet, I had to do some manual work) down the stairs. Turn the corner and the club's right there in front of you, with a sheer curtain hung delicately over the doorway. "Nice, cozy place," I thought, putting one foot in front of the other, trying to get past the curtain.

Sharp, sharp pain.

Right ankle.

In my head, I'm only saying one word over and over and over again and I can't say it in this blog (nor out loud then) because I don't (and didn't) want to be rude. But it starts with an "F" and sounds and looks like 'tuck'.

I had missed a step. Who the heck puts a curtain right before a step down to a darkened room?

Tuck, tuck, tuck!

I'd post a picture of that ankle but I don't have the prettiest ankles, even without the sprain! Enough about me though.

Good thing both Jacques and Mr. X had a wonderful time jamming during the gig that night (above).

Just so you know, I didn't send the two guitars flying in the air when I tripped and sprained my ankle. I was committed enough to know NEVER under any circumstance let the guitar go in case in emergencies. Hang on to them. So says my boss. Mr. X.

Tuck.

Our First .. - April 28, 2006
I was in bed, watching TV, in our eighth floor hotel room. Mr. X was at the dresser, gleefully making full use of the free WiFi in this Taipei hotel. We had arrived Taipei earlier that afternoon from Nantou and had time to rest before sound check and the gig in the evening at Taipei's Riverside Music Cafe.

The bed began to move. Not too much but enough to feel a little dizzy, you know what I mean?

Mrs. X: Do you feel that?
Mr. X: (turns around slowly, watches me and stands up)

..we stare at each other, speechless.....

Mrs. X: So, er, did you feel that? The shaking?
Mr. X (cautiously): Yes...
Mrs. X: So, er, what do we do now?
Mr. X: ....

We flipped TV channels, just to check if anyone else felt that. Boy, Taiwan has many, many TV channels! Finally, on one of the 100 channels, we spotted a map of Taiwan. On the map, there was a circled area, somewhere northeast of the island. And there were some Chinese characters and the number 6.4. A split second later, a woman reading the news, talking about something totally unrelated.

Now, here's the thing. Neither Mr. X nor I can read Chinese.... But we deduced from that news flash that an earthquake had probably just happened. But the shaking's stopped, and when we looked out of our window, noone was running frantically, traffic was still flowing, no phone call from the operator (do you really think they'd stay back and call every room if a major quake was happening?).

We decided, after 10 minutes of unease, that we could probably stay in the room.

When he picked us up later, Huang confirmed that there had been an earthquake, a "small one". "Run out of the room if you're tossed up and down. Don't need to panic if the quake just shakes you from side to side. That one not dangerous."

Awwwww......Our first earthquake as Mr. and Mrs. X.

Sweet.

p.s. Here I am, waiting for Huang. Very early in the morning. Very, VERY early in the morning

April 27, 2006 - Day Five
We left Tainan at 8am and headed north, towards the famous Taroko National Park with the renowned mountains and fresh air. But the weather wasn't kind, it rained and rained harder still. The chaps decided to abort the excursion because "we won't see anything up there with this weather." Shucks, as Mr. X would say.

We arrived in the cool mountainous region of Nantou (on our way, we saw the stone that marked the geographical centre of Taiwan. THAT was interesting). Tonight, they performed at Nantou University. We stayed in a hotel downtown. View of the hotel.

Taiwan's interesting too because as Huang explained, five years ago, there was a super powerful earthquake that shook the whole island, particularly the little towns around this area we were in. The earthquake was so powerful, it changed the landscape of the mountains. The peaks became more pronounced and left them poor mountains, prematuredly 'bald'. The mountain peaks lost all their vegetation.

Then, it hit me. Earthquake? What earthquake?!

April 26, 2006 - Day Four
I was quite disappointed. We tried the famous smelly tofu. My first. It wasn't smelly. As a matter of fact, it smelt like garlic (accompanying sauce) and I lurve garlic. Mr. X, though, thought it lived up to its name and stopped after the initial tiny bite.

Jacques and Gaby finally relented and tried the smelly tofu, after Huang's tireless 5-year persuasion. After the apprehensive first bite (right), they decided it's not so bad after all. They had more than Mr. X. Huang and I enjoyed every last bite.

Today, they performed at Tainan University. Nice place. Best turnout so far. You got to love the kid in orange shorts!

April 25, 2006 - Day Three
Immediately after Changhua University's gig at 9:30pm yesterday, we drove to Tainan, arriving in Huang's hometown at 11:30pm.

Early this morning, we drove about an hour and twenty minutes down to Kaoshiung. There, Huang, Mr. X and Jacques performed at Kaohsiung Music Center. Very nice place. Sssssswan-ky!

I love this picture of Mr. X, taken during sound check (right). It's my baby ... against the elements. Alone. Apprehensive.

Huang drives up and down the island of Taiwan a lot - mostly for work but also for holidays with his wife and two young sons. He knows most of the best places for food. En route to Kaohsiung, he stopped at this roadside stall and bought two packs of chicken innards. Exactly which part of the chicken, I've yet to ascertain. But it was bloody marvelous! (below)

Jacques and Gaby, who have been to Taiwan four times prior to this visit, knew of this cuisine and had flatly refused to eat it. Their loss, my ultimate gain!

April 24, 2006 - Day Two
A quick stopover at Huang's store first before we bagan the three-and-a-half-hour drive from Taipei down to Changhua.

There were five of us in the van: me, Mr. X, Huang, Jacques Stotzem (Belgian guitarist) and his wife, Gaby.

Now, it wasn't as bad as this picture (left) depicts. All five passengers in the van were seated comfortably. I can't say the same about the luggage though.

There were, in the back of the van: two speakers, two speaker stands, one mixer, cables, mike stands, boxes of CDs, DVDs and posters, my two big luggage (the girl - and her husband - needs stuff for a comfortable ten-day trip, OK?), Gaby's two much smaller bags and Huang's tiny bag. I almost felt bad. But really didn't.

Venue: Changhua University
Once at the university, set-up in the hall was quick and efficient because everyone knew what they were supposed to do. My job was to sit and read a book. And find out where the toilet was.

Spacious hall. Taiwan has very good educational facilities, we found out later.

April 23, 2006 - Day 1
So, we finally arrived at Taipei's Chiang Kai-Shek airport. It's 10:45pm. Short flight, took just three hours and twenty minutes by air from home, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia. Direct flight. Nice. Food on board, could be nicer.

We meet the organiser, Huang Chia Wei, and the rest of the team, who were having dinner. Then, off to the hotel. Our first night in Taiwan.

My sharp eye lets no detail off, say to Mr. X: Not that cold in Taiwan, huh? Maybe we shouldn't have brought our winter wear, huh?

End of day.

Mr. X had this Taiwan tour lined up for April 23 to 30, 2006. He said, come along, Mrs. X. I said, hell, ya!

So, here's an account of his Taiwan tour and my Taiwan holiday. Starting April 23rd. We allocated two extra days for sightseeing. It was our first time in this thriving island nation.

In my own defence, it's not taken me 72 WHOLE days after the Taiwan tour to finally start writing about it. I DID start it. On May 12th. But then, I got as far as Day Two and I procrastinated.

So, here I am, trying to start it off again. Deleting the entire blog and starting afresh with a new look and all.

Let's hope this blog makes it to the end of the seven-day tour. Sheesh.