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It’s a shame really, Marks and Spencer’s, a UK clothes and food retailer opened up three new shops in Taiwan last year, but they’re already about to close them due to poor sales. It looks like they picked the wrong partner, as they went with President Chain Store Corp, the same company runs 7-11 and some other outlets like Starbucks and Cold Stone in Taiwan. Although I can’t say I did a lot of shopping there, it was a good source for decent underwear and the occasional packet of custard creams.

It seems like the products sold weren’t popular enough with the local population and considering some of the pricing as well as the “British style” on a lot of the clothing, it’s not hard to see why M&S didn’t do too well here. Their selection of food was also very limited and again quite expensive and didn’t include anything that didn’t come out of a jar, bottle or a packet. Still, with the poor selection of “Western” shops in Taiwan, M&S will be sorely missed by some of us. It’s a pain to have to go abroad just to get a decent pair of underwear…

The shops will be closed by the end of August, but no specific final opening day has been given. Everything will be sold out at a discount, which is always something, although so far, not everything is on sale.

Well, I’ve added a few bits here and there, although it seems like it’ll take some serious time to get everything I want on here, but I’m sure I’ll sort it out sooner or later. Hopefully there are at least a few useful things on here by now and I’ll try to be adding more stuff on a regular basis. I’m waiting and wanting to write a piece about Flavors, the only Swedish restaurant in Taiwan that I know apart from Ikea, but as they’ve just moved, they haven’t opened up properly as yet, but as soon as I get around to visiting, I’ll do a write-up, especially as they have a new menu now as well as they’re hosting a supper club once a month.

Well, it looks like I’m off to a good start, I’ve managed to figure out most things I needed to figure out to get everything working somewhat like how I want it to be. It’s a little bit tricky to get it all sorted out, but I can live with it for now. WordPress isn’t ideal for my needs, but with the help of Gavin and a lot of plug-ins, it does the job. Anyhow, have a look at the new sections, although only the Places to eat in Taiwan is really up and running and I’ve added a few places with maps and contact details.

Sadly, our crazy neighbour is back, she got let out after two months at the mental hospital and she’s already back harrasing us for no good reason. We got a pin-hole camera installed and we’re now collecting evidence of what she’s up, especially after we had a police man come around telling us that she was intending to sue us. It’s very doubtful that it’ll happen, especially as we haven’t done anything and she can’t prove to a judge that we’ve done any of the crazy things she makes up.

A few of the so called “offences” we’ve commited includes stealing food from her fridge, stealing her mail and pictures from inside her place, messing with her TV (almost on a daily basis), breaking her electrical things, sneaking into her place when she’s not home (it takes her 2 minutes to open her door because of all the locks she has installed) and various other equally insane things. Time will tell what will happen, but we’re not too worried about it and it’s not as if we’re going to loose, since we haven’t done anything in the first place.

Apart from that, not much has happened, we went to San Francisco for a few days as my girlfriend went on a business trip there and I got a cheap flight and stayed with her. It’s been nine years since I was there last and the place has changed and it’s not for the better. Ok, we ended up in down-town, but it was hard to find somewhere decent and affordable to eat, which I can’t remember being an issue last time. Although clothes shopping is still dirt cheap in the US and I got some needed additions to my warderobe. Guess how many pairs of shoes my girlfriend bought…

Well, that’s it for today, but keep checking back for more updates and hopefully my guide to good eating places in Taiwan will come to some use for some of you.

Ok, it looks like the new site design is coming together, simple, yet elegant (or something). I got some help by my friend Gavin, as I really suck at PHP.

I’ve added two new pages, Places to eat in Taiwan and Food related stuff. The idea is to provide a list of good places to eat in Taiwan (mostly Taipei and Taoyuan) and a list of where to find stuff needed for cooking, or at least where you can try finding it.

I was also planning on sticking up a few recipes here if I have time, especially for things I’ve tried to make the old fashined way because they’re not available here in Taiwan or are very expensive and can be done cheaply.

I’m going to try to update the site a lot more regularly as well and maybe it’ll become useful to those looking for things in Taiwan, especially those new to the country. I’m also going to add a few more pictures to the picture gallery, but that’ll take a bit more time. That’s it for now…

Ok, the first pictures in the gallery which I seem to have finally gotten up and running are of Turbo, Rainbow and GuanGuan. All of them are street cats that my girlfriend has picked up at various times. She has had GuanGuan for quite some time, while Turbo was an addition in late May of 2007 (and yes, he’s really fat for a cat that’s just over a year old) and Rainbow was picked up in Feburary this year.