March 21, 2007: A, B + C at Lourdes, Dodo's new house

Wow, I’m tired. Early to bed for me! I taped tests this morning with Steve then went to ‘City Super’, a supermarket that sells many foreign goods to get some ingredients for Lourdes. Chocolate cake had been requested and as I didn’t find an interesting (and easy) recipe I decided to go for a cake mix. Off to Lourdes where I enjoyed leftover curry for lunch (YUM!). My fellow volunteer, Gino, was late, so I hung out with the guys. One of them, A, told me that he thinks his partner may have contracted AIDS as they did not always practice safe sex. I asked if his partner had been to see a doctor. No, A answered, as he doesn’t have health insurance. Health insurance is super cheap in Taiwan, around NT600 a month. (Currency converter.) So I said that A’s partner should go register. Well, it turns out that A’s partner has a warrant out for his arrest (I didn’t ask why) and so is worried that if he registers for health insurance he will get arrested. Tricky, eh. So then I suggested that A’s partner just go and pay the full fee (still really, really cheap by world standards) to get tested but use a false name and address when he registers at the doctor’s office. Naturally neither A nor A’s partner have any money. And the last thing: if A’s partner does get tested and is HIV positive, he has said that he will kill himself. And possibly A as well, I’m not sure on that point. What a cheerful conversation.
As I was listening to A’s tale of woe, B popped over to the smoking balcony (A was smoking, not me!!) B had a huge, happy smile on his face and said, ‘I think I’m falling in love!’ I saw a photo of his love-interest and he’s cute (so’s B, he’s one of my favorite guys at Lourdes.)
At 2:00 Gino still hadn’t showed up so we made the cake. I also had a bag of strawberries that my neighbour had given me, so I sliced them into a bowl to be served with the cake. One of the lovely social workers, Sophie, came to chat as I was slicing strawberries. I ranted a bit about one of the guys, C, who has succeeded in irritating me beyond belief since his first day. He alternates between sulky little girl, screechy teenage girl trying to impress and just plain stupid. Any three of these personalities (regardless of gender) irritate the crap out me but to find all three together in C: Grrrr. About three years ago I talked with Sister T about C, her response was terrific: We all know C has a serious lack of interpersonal skills and if we had more resources we’d do intensive counseling with him. Unfortunately, as a charity, our resources are very limited. But if C ever bothers you too much, just leave. Let us know in the office that you’re leaving and then go. It’s not that he consciously tries to irritate me, it happens totally naturally! I have never taken her up on her offer, but it is good to know that I can leave if I want to. I played ‘Big 2’ with some of the guys (including C) which was fun.
After letting the cake cool I cut it into squares and served it with cut up strawberries. Their reactions were very interesting: everyone ate the cake (some people had seconds and thirds!) but they didn’t rave about it. They ALWAYS rave about everything. Conclusion: after a year of making cakes, pies, cookies and biscuits by scratch using the best ingredients I can find, a cake-mix cake did not thrill them! The folks at Lourdes now have more discriminating taste buds! :o)
I went for a massage at 4:30 which lasted about 45 minutes. At the end I fell asleep and slept like the dead until 5:45! When I came out my masseuse told me it was Friday already. Ha, ha, funny lady. :o) It felt really, really good.
Home, fed the beasties, ate the last portion of chicken curry (YUM!) with a Hoegaarten (YUM!) Walked the dogs, got wood shavings, checked out Constance’s latest wood work project and congratulated Sophie on her MASSIVE trophy from abacus class. I put Dodo’s dog house together and put her outside for the night. She is NOT a happy camper. She scratched at the door, whined and barked fro 20 minutes before giving up (for now.) It’s about 20 C out and fairly clear, a good first night out in her new accommodation.
Well. I feel better now. It’s 9:30 so I’ll upload this, check out your blog and then drift off in the arms of Morpheus.

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Feb. 28, 2007: Still working on the floor

Angela and Andy came over to help me (almost) finish my floor. They were fabulous workers and we got lots done. Hopefully I'll finish on Saturday. On my way to bed but here's a couple of photos:


On the white wall you can see the peeling paint and bare patches of concrete. They are because this house was poorly constructed and leaks. The water seeps through the wall causing puddles down the stairs and the paint to bubble and peel on some walls. This all adds to the 'atmosphere' of the house. Though perhaps not in a really positive way. :o)

Feb. 27. 2007: Dance the disco

Busy day today--the Great Wall, then dubbed four cartoons. This is part of what I had to record today--had me in stitches, kept having to stop as I was laughing my head off:

Pizza at Jane's with Jane, Simon and Andy--great fun and delicious! Routed out the remaining nine planks, painted three sticks, swept and mopped the floor in anticipation of tomorrow's floor-laying. Routing away:

Dodo has peed on the new (as yet unvarnished) floor. Cats have peed AND pooped in the routing wood shavings. Amanda has managed to use the toilet EVERY time. Why can't they just go outside? Aaaaarrrrrggghhhh. Ah, well, I shall sand out Dodo's evidence and have swept/mopped the cats leftovers up.
This photo I took Sunday morning while walking the dogs. A-ma gave me a cabbage from her garden as we were heading home. I have titled this photo "A Woman, Her Dogs and A Cabbage."

To bed!

Feb. 24, 2007: Rout it all out!

Well, somewhat to my surprise, I am feeling quite a bit better now. I guess that now the worry of whether LW is in pain and if I am making the right decision or not is over.
After spending an hour or so on 360 I decided to go to Taipei 101 and hang out in Page 1 books for awhile. I went downtairs and heated up some plain macaroni to which I added milk, cream cheese, an egg and some salt. I nuked the lot and then proceeded to thoroughly enjoy this bowl of Comfort Food. I then brewed myself a cup of coffee (enhanced with a healthy splash of Baileys) and called my very good friend, Angela. Her cat, Kitty, who was diagnosed a few months ago with FIV (Feline Immuno Virus or 'cat AIDS') passed away at about three o'clock this morning. So, we were really able to understand how the other was feeling! Here's a photo I took of Kitty while Ang was away:

I looked at the time, looked at the mess on the first floor, looked at the wood that needs to be further routed in order to lay the floor and decided to stay home. I tidied away a lot of clutter then moved the diningroom table and chairs back to the wall. I then began routing.
Rout, rout, rout it all out, these are the grooves that I need to rout out, come on, I'm talking to you, come on!
(Sung to the tune of Shout! by Tears for Fears.)
I've done half the woodpile (25 planks). I plan to do the second half this evening so that I can (with the help of 'willing' friends) finish laying the floor on Wednesday (a public holiday.)

Feb. 22, 2007: Putting in flooring

So, since time is limited I will *briefly* recount...
Wednesday afternoon Simon and I went to Andy's to finish off his floor. The part that is unstained is the bit we did Wednesday, the rest was done over three times (I only helped the first of those three.)

Thursday morning I went up to Simon and Constance's and loaded 81 pieces (220 cm x 15 cm, tongue and groove pine) of wood into their van. A little while later Simon drove the van down just as Andy arrived and we carried the wood into the house. We laid out the 'sticks', discussed the best layout, added two more sticks then started laying the floor. The first 5 or 6 rows went well. I was ecstatic! We then stopped for lunch (it was about 2 pm and I was ravenous.)
Laying out the sticks and thinking:

Back to work and the wood was getting stubborn: The tongues and grooves were not fitting. After banging the wood, thinking many bad words and trying to work out what was going on I went up to ask Constance's advice. She figures that as the wood has been stored outside for 3 to 4 weeks it has probably absorbed some moisture from the air and so has swollen. (Yes, yes, the wood was thoroughly wrapped in many layers of plastic and so was not wet. However, Taiwan is in the tropics and the mountains of Xindian are very humid.)
I grabbed a router and made the groove on a few bits of wood bigger (or groovier?) Andy and I then managed to put together three rows in about 20 minutes! Yea!
Clearly I will have to re-rout the grooves on the remaining pieces of wood (that's about 50 planks. Oh, what fun!)

The third that we finished yesterday got pegged and sanded this afternoon. I will varnish it tomorrow to protect it from muddy paw prints, hair balls and other little souvenirs from my furry friends!

Ok, alarm just went off. I'll add the photos then off to bed.

Assorted Projects (Repost, January 21, 2007)

I've noticed that I have talked about projects I've worked on and always say, "...and I'll post a picture soon." But I seldom do! So, here are some things I worked on in 2006.
1. This is part of the floor I sanded and revarnished this summer. I laid the floor with the expert help of Constance, Simon and Andy. The stove is sitting on a tile base that I put together this November.

2. Here is a series of three photos of the end tables (in fact 'end cabinets') I made for the livingroom. There are two, one of which has been stained and is in situ, the other will (hopefully!) get stained today. That's a disc of sandpaper at the back.



3. This is a shelf and large spoon hanger I made last spring for the kitchen.