April 23, 2012: The Hunt For A Fridge

One day last week I had to meet a client for a case. She asked me to get to the studio early so that we could edit the script before recording. I showed up at 9:30, as instructed in the email she sent me, only to find that she had changed the time to 10 am and forgotten to tell me. Oh well, whatever. I had brought my lunch from home  and asked if I could pop it in the fridge. 

They didn't have a fridge. Can you believe it? I returned back to my couch and contemplated my lunch: tandoori chicken on a bed of stir-fried cabbage. I had cooked the cabbage that morning and then put the cold, left-over chicken directly on top, knowing that it would go into a fridge once I got to the studio.
But they didn't have a fridge. Can you believe it? I considered the options: If I couldn't refrigerate the food there was no way I was going to eat it at lunch time, not wanting to risk food poisoning. I could throw it out, but that seemed a shame since it was going to be quite tasty and a waste of food. Plus, I would then have to find another diet-friendly lunch and eat it before my next job that afternoon.

They didn't have a fridge. I couldn't believe it. I decided to have a wander outside to see if I couldn't find a mom & pop corner store that would let me borrow a corner of their fridge for a couple of hours. As I was walking down the road I passed a small salon with two or three women in it. They called out a cheerful 'hello', to which I of course answered with a 'good morning', but I was preoccupied with my search for a fridge. A few more doors down I realised that there was no mom & pop store in sight. As I headed back towards the studio I thought, 'What the heck?' and dropped into the hair salon. Immediately they asked if I didn't live the next lane over, on the third floor? 

"Ah, no, I live in Xindian. I'm here to do some work at the studio." I explained. "And I was wondering if I could put my lunch in your fridge for a couple of hours? They don't have a fridge...and it's chicken, I don't want to waste it." My voice faltered slightly at the end as they were staring at me as if I truly were an 'alien.'
The owner seemingly shook herself out of a trance, stepped forward and took my lunch. "They don't have a fridge? Such a big place, and no fridge?" 

I shook my head sadly, "No, no fridge. Thank you so much for looking after my lunch! I'll be back in a couple of hours."

And off I went, back to the studio and the IRRITATING CLIENT FROM HELL. But that's another story that I can not be bothered to tell.

At 12:15 I walked back over to the salon and was given my (chilled) lunch. I thanked them all with real gratitude in my heart. As I turned around and walked towards the MRT I heard the proprietor say, "Ai~YO!!" A general-use expression used to express surprise to fear to annoyance to anger to disbelief to amazement. From her tone of voice I would say it was a nice combination disbelief and amazement. I laughed quietly to myself and thought, "Ai~yo, I love Taiwan and the Taiwanese."