Italia

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I recently went on holiday to Italy. Here is some photographic evidence.

Delicious pizza

Um... jumping

Inside Napoleon's house on the Island of Elba

Massa Marittima

Roccatederighi

My shadow, complete with cartoon-like hair

Ancient Rome

Things I miss about Taiwan - Part 1

Just indulging in a little nostalgia about living in Taiwan. These are some of the things I miss about it:

Being able to hop on a cheap, clean and spacious train and go on holiday somewhere totally amazing and different from anywhere I'd ever been and at a fraction of the price of a weekend away in the UK.

STATIONERY SHOPS. Could literally spend hours in them. My favourites were the one in Ximending on three floors (near the costume/Halloween shop), the one in Jhunan near the station which had two floors and sold DPI magazine (possibly my favourite magazine ever) and the massive one in Hsinchu with the yellow front (near the station and Eslite). Oh and Eslite itself of course. Never been in a chain bookshop with such a good atmosphere.

Hanging out with my friends in strange new places, shopping and going for meals in magical areas that we stumbled upon and which were sometimes hard to find again.

DJing at Idioteque. Thanks to Gary and Kester for the opportunity. I loved it and met loads of cool people through it. Also had a lot of fun doing a short-lived club night with Natalie shortly before I left. The one at Vicious Circle was awesome.

Buying clothes. They were so good and cheap, and for me they were generally a better fit than clothes in the UK - even if I was a different size there and felt large despite being a UK 8-10. I bought a pair of jeans there that were a great fit and officially a size 'large'! And don't even ask me about shoes... But I still have plenty of T-shirts, dresses, a playsuit and several other favourite items bought in the shops and markets of Jhunan, Hsinchu, Taipei, Kaohsiung etc.

Anyway, there are more things I miss but I will save them for another time. In the meantime, here are some of my pictures.

Temple in Jhunan

Jhunan beach

My balcony after a typhoon - mother and baby elephant sculpture separated

At Window on China model village/amusement park

Kaohsiung

Just before dawn, Alishan

Magical place names in the Alishan area

Picture at top of post: Near the train station at Neiwan

Crocodile Tear

Okay, so I finally had some time to draw a quick picture. I should probably have spent more time on it, but oh well...

I started a new job recently and it's taking up a lot of my time, but I am enjoying it so far. In other news: Italy was amazing. We went to Rome one day, the Isle of Elba another day and spent a lot of time just hanging out in tiny medieval hilltop villages in Tuscany.

I saw an incredibly tame fox cub last night outside an art installation in Brighton. It was very cute, though I didn't go and shake its paw as too many people were crowding round taking photos of it.

Tomorrow I'm going to the cinema to see two films: Gainsbourg and Inception. I hope it's not a nice day as I'll be spending it all indoors staring at the big screen.