virtualberta

Thursday night I thought I would try a different exercise class. Also, by the time my Taiwanese class was over, I had only one choice: �pop dance� taught by a fellow named Sonic. I could put up with one rather silly dance move involving hopping around on one foot than another, a move that ended with wagging our fingers at our partners and shaking our butts. But what put me over the top was when Sonic put on �Can�t Get You Out of My Mind,� by Kylie Minogue. Apparently, many of the students had learned a dance routine to the song at a previous class. So those of us who didn�t know the routine had to stand aside and watch the performance. This is an exercise class, darn it, not a dance audition! I left to actually get my heart rate up on a treadmill and do some weight training. Ridiculous.

Responding to Angela�s comments on Thursday�s entry, yes, there are times�Taiwan�s small sewage pipes be damned�when paper must be thrown into the toilet. Although if the rationale for the wastebaskets is that Taiwan�s sewage system is not designed to handle the paper volume that American systems are designed to accommodate, one could logically conclude then that the system is especially taxed when, uh, a certain mass that requires the paper to be thrown into the toilet is deposited.

Moving on, Saturday night I went with Flora and John to hear Wall Tiger, a ska band, play at Riverside Caf�. I met Tim, the leader of the band, at Christine and Benicio�s stand-up comedy night last Monday at Witch�s House. Tim mentioned that he was a ska musician. My friend Jim Berry, a PKT Mass Eta chapter brother, was a ska fan, and the former cook at the PKT house was a member of a popular Boston ska band, Babaloo. I�ve always wanted to hear ska, but had not.

Wall Tiger was great! The band�s songs have both Chinese and English lyrics (and even a little Taiwanese thrown in!). One song that I really enjoyed was about a monkey who had his eye on a female monkey. The refrain goes: got no money / got nothing to give / but if you come up to my treehouse / I will share my banana with you. There was another hilarious song entitled, �Beetlenut Girl.� Wall Tiger will come out with it�s first album in July. Their next performance in Taipei is on May 11 at Witch�s House.

Talking with Linda at our Sunday brunch, I found out that Linda is also a fan of ska. Beyond our discussion of music, Linda got Jen and I excited about the prospect of visiting her in Puerto Rico this summer.

There was quite a crowd at United Mix yesterday. Besides our usual group, Patty, James, Mike, and Barbara were there. Andrew walked in with a friend at the same time as Augie arrived to join our group. Later, Jeff stopped by for lunch with another friend.

Afterwards, I went swimming with Wayne, James, and my cousin, Jay. I am compelled to let you all know that Wayne, besides being the proud owner of a very nice BMW, is also an excellent driver.* However, while Wayne was driving me back to Angela�s home and we were enjoying the lovely weather through his sunroof, a bird pooped�and the bird poop fell through the sunroof opening and landed on the center panel! Of course, Wayne just had his car washed that day.

That�s when I realized that car commercials will show images of people driving their convertibles, with the wind blowing through their hair. But these commercials will never show the inherent dangers of driving without a roof�wayward bird poop!

* This message has in no way been paid for by the Fans of Wayne Sun Club. ;-)