Chinese New Year in Taiwan?

We bought tickets months ago. We didn't think it through.

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Moments of the Week (Feb 5-11)

• What were we thinking when we booked a trip to Taiwan for CNY? Prices are double, stores are closed, and trains are sold out. And, we are trying to make it around the whole country in 10 days? This is not a holiday.

• All is not lost. Thanks to Family Marts, 7-Elevens, and dozens of boba shops, we didn’t starve this weekend.

• F got whatever bug J was carrying, and you can see the fatigue in their eyes. As of Saturday, L has it too, and said her legs stopped working.

• Who has the best flag game? America and Turkey are over the top in count (USA shorts anyone?) and size (bigger is better). Taiwan and Germany are on the other end of the spectrum. While walking around Taipei’s government buildings, J mischievously asks, “Where are the China flags?”

• M reads the reviews for our hotel and “bedbugs” is in at least 10. She freaks out, inspects the beds and then warns us, “Don’t expose any skin” while sleeping. We should have walked out after seeing the self-check-in kiosk and free condoms in the lobby. We stayed three nights.

• Before there was Bieber’s “Love Yourself”, The Limousine’s “Bedbugs” was my go to running track.

I’m Writing a Memoir

In elementary, I was given error-filled sentences to correct. Seeing my editor’s changes brings me back. No matter how often I review a paragraph, she finds ways to simplify, cut the crap and get to the point.

Other than writing more, what is your advice for becoming better?

You get what you pay for. I hired a formatter/designer for my book’s and although I was pleased with the initial draft, it has been back and forth every day with small corrections; a double-spaced title here or inconsistent fonts there. These are the changes I expected to be addressed proactively. That's the difference between someone mediocre and great. I think we got most of it.

Before designing a cover I wish...

I knew what I wanted. Instead, it has been a lot of designs that don't work. To avoid problems like me, a designer should aggressively push their client for guidance. Here are a few of the early misses… not all are bad.

On The Move

Run With Me on Strava - 48.97 mi, 1,844 ft

The China Coast Marathon results were finally posted.  I got 4th overall and 2nd for my age group. The suffering was worth it.

Group Runs:

• Tuesday - Headland Hill Repeats

• Thursday - The Capes 5K Tempo

Three solid Tapei runs on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday–all along the river bank.

HK race season runs from October to April. I have 3 races in the next 8 weeks. King of the Hill Sai Kung (Feb 24) & Hong Kong (Apr 14), and Lantau 70 (March 16).

I’ll be in recovery mode all the time. Slow and easy miles… but, there were two occasions this week when my competitive side took over. The first was on Thursday, during a tempo run, when I got lured in to keep pace. The second was on Saturday. A runner zoomed by and I planned on keeping my distance until I found myself closing the gap and then pushing past when he slowed. All resulted in negative splits. My knee is now acting up. Ugh.