NEW LAPTOP: NEW HOPE...

This is a blog entry that I made a few months ago in July, but never got around to posting....

This weekend I stayed in Taipei (at the Work Inn nr. Taipei Main Station - see photos below) for the sole purpose of spending my hard earned cash on clothes that will allow me to better tolerate the sweltering heat and humidity in Taiwan; 35C temperature and over 85% humidity doesn't not forgive easily. Air conditioning has been critical to my survival for the last 2 months. But it's somewhat hard to find clothes that will fit my tall frame. Most places only stock small sizes... BUT... wait... there is an H&M in Taipei... so my money is good here afterall!

Here are some half-hearted attempts at photographs of the hostel I stayed at on Saturday night. I booked a private single room... It was great - I'm afraid the photos don't really do it justice.

In addition to the clothing, I made an unplanned purchase during my trip - a new laptop.

Previously I have mentioned the waning efficiency of my 6 year-old Sony laptop. It is the technology equivalent of a trusty old, arthritic, pet labrador - my dearest companion - we have seen some tough times (i.e.: written a PhD thesis together). But there comes a time when you have to put an end to the suffering... that time has come for my buddy... my pal... my compadre.

Here's a pic of a cool looking department store, which was adjacent to the departments store I made my purchase in:

I haggled and got a great deal from one of the vendors in a neighbouring department store. It is basically like nothing I've seen in the UK. Spanning across more than 5 storeys (only encountered the first 4 on my visit, it is a large scale indoor market really. If you're from Birmingham/UK, think Birmingham's Oasis market, crossed with CurrysPCWorld. It's crammed full of market stall style shops and serious gadget and gaming customers. But far from feeling out of my depth in a hostile sales environment, I found the store owners to be very receptive, and willing to try out their English too.

Miniscular in size and paper weight in comparison to my old chum, my new laptop consistently takes less than 30 minutes to boot-up when I switch it on. Now I can load the blog editor in my web browser... Heck, I can open Microsoft Office Suite. That said, this little laptop is not cut out for the wix editor too well either... I might be changing my platform for my blog soon. I will get the word out if things change.

So this is my first blog post in a while. It's not an update on my travel experiences, per se. Rather, it is confirmation that I am now back online, and will soon be able to start posting some blog posts about my adventures out here!

#shopping #taipei #GongyuanRd #computer