thelostswede

Finally… or something like that…

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So, after many years in the IT industry, most of them as an IT journalist, I’ve gotten around to starting my own site. It’s something I’ve wanted to do many a times before, but I’ve just never gotten around to it.

Some might think that now is a bad time to go and start a new business, but it seems like things have started to slowly improve and either which way, things have gotten to the stage where I’ve run out of options as to what to do.

The website is called mobile+notebook although as you can’t use plus signs, the actual url uses and instead of the plus sign. It will cover all things mobile technology related, although currently you’ll only find news on the site as I’m still working on building up the content on the site. However, as soon as I manage to get my hands on some new, interesting hardware to play with, there will of course be reviews on the site.

Hopefully you’ll like what I’ve done so far, although there’s still much work to be done and as I’m not very much of a coder, there are things that I can’t really do. I’m at least happy with what I’ve managed to put together and if I ever make any money from the site, at least some of that will go towards a better design.

PaPa Gio’

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It’s been a while since I’ve written about any new eateries, but last night we went to PaPa Gio’s and if you like good Italian food, this is a place you must go to.

The place used to be called something else, but changed owners and name a few months back and I was lucky enough to have a friend of mine introduce me to PaPa Gio’s.

The chef is a very charismatic Italian and he cooks fabulous food. We had sauteed mushrooms and carpaccio for starters, both were great and for main course we had the quattro  stagioni pizza and the porcini mushroom risotto. Everything was really tasty and there wasn’t a morsel left after we’d stuffed ourselves.

For dessert I had the creme brulee while my friend and Brenda went for the chef’s special, home made cheese cake. Again, everything was really good.

Surprisingly the food is also very affordable, especially considering the location of the restaurant and the quality of the food.

You can find PaPa Gio’s website here and the restaurant is located no more than 5 minutes walk from Zhongxiao Dunhua MRT station, exit 5.

Update: Well, we’ve been back multiple times since I originally wrote this and a few months back one of the owners left. Since then we feel the quality has dropped of the food and our last visit was anything but a good experience.

Update 2: Sadly this place has closed, but Gorgio has started his own placed called Bottega del Vin which I’ll be writing a separate review on at some point.

Work, work, work…

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Gah, not having a steady job seems to mean more work than ever and for some reason I can’t seem to concentrate on what I’m doing…

Got tons of freelance work on and it’s not really that bad, just a bit mind numbing stuff at times. Not been the most product couple of weeks and I wish I could figure out how to get the “spark” back and get things done.

I’ve almost finished one major project, but I’m having a hard time with the last few bits for some reason.

Also busy working on my own thing which will hopefully kick off within the next too weeks, things are just being a bit slow as I’m waiting for a few things to be done before I can start working on it properly…

Oh well, back to work…

Easy come, easy go…

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Well, I guess it’s not exactly an accurate description of things, but I’m no longer with netbooknews.com…

Still, I’ve got more work on right now than I’ve had in a while and hopefully I’ll also make some money on it all, it’s just that I seem to be sitting around waiting to get paid by a bunch of people/companies that owe me money.

Life’s been a bit rough as of lately, but it seems like things are getting better once again. I guess you never really know what to expect, no matter what you get yourself involved in.

Now I’m working on something on my own on the site as well and hopefully with the help of a few friends, it’s not going to take too long to get it all sorted out. I guess it’s not hard to figure out what it is that I’m working on if you know what I’ve mostly been doing for a living over the past few years. I really should’ve done this years ago, but I guess I just never got around to it.

Tomorrow is “Typhoon holiday” here in Taiwan, as we’re about to be hit by a rather large typhoon up in the northern parts of the island. This means that most local will be haning out in the malls, as I have yet to be here during a typhoon that’s bad enough to close up the malls…

I’ll try to be a bit more of a frequent blogger as well. I know I keep saying this every time after I’ve been absent for a while, but I guess this is just my little personal thing and not something I have that much time to focus on.

Until next time…

Yuma SouthWestern Grill

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Ok, this was supposed to have gone up some time ago, but I’ve been so busy that we in fact have managed to eat a few at Yuma since our first time there. I guess that in itself is a good sign, as we don’t tend to go back to places we don’t like…

We’ve tried all sorts of things ranging from ribs and pasta to starters and Quesadillas. The Fajitas might not be as authentic as the stuff served up by Eddy’s Cantina, but it’s more to my taste. The tortillas seem to be freshly made by Yuma and are at least grilled before being served. I found the Peri-Peri ribs to be a bit on the sour side, but they were way better than the fatty stuff that TGI’s serve up.

The pasta was good too and the cheese Quesadillas are great. Just be aware that both the Quesadillas and Fajita’s come with a side of rice, so you get a pretty big meal, unlike what you get at TGI’s once again. The starters are also good, although a bit more dip sauce wouldn’t go amiss, as it’s not quite enough sauce to go with all of the starters on their sampler platter. Yuma also have a bunch of different sauces to go with your food which is also a bonus.

One oddity is the fact that the coleslaw comes with lingonberry jam, although I think they’ve mixed it up with cranberry sauce, but the two doesn’t taste anything remotely the same.

I suggest you head over to Yuma and have a try yourself, as the food is great. You can find their website here and the location is marked on on the FindIT map.

Update: Sadly this place has closed and On Tap, a UK style pub has taken over the location, although they’ve kept some of the menu items, or at least something fairly similar.