Yee haw

Tonight is the Friday night before a four-day weekend, and I must confess that I've had a few drinks. To be fair, I went and filled myself with delicious Indian food first. Still, I'm rather tipsy, and I'm finding myself enjoying the hell out of just listening to the rain pound against the windows. Earlier I sat up on the roof with Martin and Katherine and a beer or two or three, and we watched the clouds hide, reveal, and hide again the Taipei 101, formerly the tallest building in the world, some two or three kilometers away.

The weather here is wonderful: hot and humid during the day, punctuated with thunderstorms and intermittent rain. The water in the air makes breathing like drinking, and I feel so wealthy, so blessed to live in such an opulent atmosphere. This city is huge and sprawling, with a metropolitan population of nearly 7 million. There are many large buildings, and a good few taller than 20 stories, but this place is wider than it is tall, with the obvious exception. Not flat, by any means, not jagged either.

My apartment is the fourth floor of an older building with no elevator, and the stairs keep my legs in shape. Above us is only our roof, half-covered, half-open. Both halves have nice views, though one is distinctly drier and one is better for sword practice. I'll leave it as an exercise to the reader, etc. Sitting on the roof in one of our folding chairs, drinking a beer, I feel as close to my paradise as can be reached.

This is not a port city, per se, but the breezes that blow across our rooftop are sea breezes at heart, and I can feel the traces of balmy salt in their caresses.

Come visit me and see.