Fish heads, fish heads, roly, poly, fish heads

A few weeks back a friend came for a visit to bestow my balcony with some greenery and a grill. Snazzed up balcony + grill = time to barbecue with friends. Since this is Taiwan, I thought I'd offer some seafood options for the make-your-own-kebob shin-dig and I headed to the grocery store to pick up some squid and shrimp.

Now normally at the grocery store as I pass by the meat and fish departments on my way to produce, my eyes are greeted by a variety of fresh fish and seafood. However, on the day I need to buy things, all I can find are fish and fish heads. That's right, fish heads on ice, fish heads on trays wrapped in plastic, big ones, small ones, fish heads, fish heads, fish heads! For about $5 or $6 US, you could be the proud owner of a fish head.

Needless to say, 5 stores later I finally found what I was after and headed home for a fish head free barbecue. Of course as I headed back to the grocery store this week and once again passed through the fish department, I couldn't help but notice they were once again fully stocked with fresh squid and shrimp. Why is it that my endeavors in cooking rarely require a trip to fewer than 3 stores to obtain necessary ingredients? Grrrr...

P.S. While you may fish heads at the super market please note that roly poly fish heads are never seen drinking cappuchino in Italian restraunts with Oriental women.....yeah....

R.F.O.s

Not to be confused with R.O.U.S.s (Rodents of Unusual Size), R.F.O.s are what greet you like a brick wall as you pull up to a red light, go for a jog at the park, step out of the 7-Eleven, or open the door to your apartment. They are the Random Foul Odors that pervade Taiwan, permeating from a drain system nearest you. There's no mistaking an R.F.O. and there's little hiding the cringed face that takes over upon noticing the unpleasant aroma. Waiting to Exhale may be a movie, but waiting to inhale becomes standard practice as the search begins for a pocket of fresh air.

Sleep, Where Art Thou?

Sleep has always been a funny thing for me. It's the thing I hate giving into at night yet hate letting go of in the morning. Whether luxury or necessary evil, sleep is also what I've been living with in short supply lately. For the past few weeks I've been dealing with insomnia, last week being the worst where I averaged 1-3 hours of sleep per day for over a week. Well it's all fun and games until you forget where you're going in traffic.

It didn't help the situation that I'm by nature a night owl and love being awake at night. There's just something very peaceful about being up while the city sleeps and watching the morning light break the night sky can be worth staying up for too. Also, I'm just more productive at night - that's when I'm best able to get things done. And finally, I work so much that if there's something that needs to get done, basically night is the only time for it to happen.

What can start out as annoying, not being able to sleep, can soon feel like I dose on invincibility - feeling super-charged and rarely tired by night or day. But finally the breaking point comes when the ability to function properly during the waking hours becomes impaired and rest becomes imperative. That's where I found myself last weekend - sleep necessary but still unattainable. However, by Sunday the spell of sleeplessness was finally broken and rest has been coming in large doses since then.

After a two month break, I returned to running after work this week, further ensuring my exhaustion and ability to slip into sleep at night. So, gone are my nights of being up until 4:30 or 6:30am, for now at least. I'm slightly sad to part with the night and I hate that I'm too worn out to get much done in the evenings, but sleep can be good too. At my former apartment, scrolled across the side of the fridge was "Sleep is a weapon." Guess someone else needed to be reminded of that too.