Day 20 (?)

I've lost track of which day it is. But I guess the holidays do that to you a lot. I'm lucky I can still remember the date. I just don't know whether it's Monday or Friday. And I don't think I'm the only one with this problem. When it's the holidays, you just seem to lose track of the date. Not that it matters. You just need to remember which day you have to go back to school. Which is the 27th (I fairly sure of this) for those who have seem to forgotten.

Anyways, I just got back from Taiwan. Went there on the 9th, came back on the 12th. The tour was apparently pretty cheap, because we stayed in the Grand Hyatt, which was next to Taipei 101 and is, according to Sandra, "the fanciest hotel in Taipei". So go my parents for choosing the right tour. And it was better than I expected. I mean, they did take us to a few scenic sites but they WERE alright. There was this mountainside village that, if it weren't for the rainy weather that occurs almost everyday, I think the view would be very beautiful. Same thing goes for visiting Taipei 101, which I thought was a must if I was to go to Taipei. The city was smothered by fog and/or pollution so I couldn't see very far. But I found reading about the construction and mechanics of the tower and lift were very interesting. Taipei 101 has the fastest lifts in the world, which goes up the Tower at 1010 metres per minute, which equates to 60km/hr. It even has spoilers attached to the top and bottom of the lift. And I got to see the massive damper ball inside the tower. "Interesting story", the damper ball is made out of 42 plates of metal 12.5cm thick all welded together and it's got 8 hydraulic pistons attached to a bumper ring to prevent it from becoming a wrecking ball and destroying the tower from the inside. Call me an engineering nerd but I reckon this stuff is interesting.

We also went to the National Palace Museum, which holds stuff from China because China decided to store it's national goods in Taiwan because of various wars and the collection has stayed there. The Museum was alright overall but there were a few carvings that were really epic. There was this ivory carving that symbolised a person's life from birth to becoming and adult and death but that wasn't important. What was important was the carving itself because it looked nigh impossible to make. That's what American rocket scientists said when they saw this carving, stating that it could not have been done. The carving in mention is below.
If you'd turn your attention to the ball in the middle, note that it appears to have layers. These are the layers of 17 concentric ivory balls within the Outer ball, making it a set of 18 concentric ivory balls. The American scientists this was impossible to make because after X-Ray-ing the ball, they found no joint lines around the ball where the larger balls would be joined around the smaller balls. This was because the carver formed this magnificent carving from a single block of ivory. He drilled 12 holes into a sphere of ivory and delicately carved away at the inside of the sphere to form a shell. Eighteen times. If you don't know what I mean, then think about it like this. Get a block of wood, drill into it a bit and then from the bottom of the hole, chip at the sides of the hole so that the top layer of wood from which you drill into detaches from the main block of wood. Now do that 18 times so you get 18 layers of wood. If you don't think that's impressive lets see you do it. These guys get locked in a dark room with no light with only a little part of the ivory lighted up so that their eyes focus intently on that singular point. They have to do that for 30 years. If they make a mistake, they die.

On a lighter note, we went to a sulfur spa. Yup. It stank. We were right next to a volcano, and it stank. Real bad. Sulfur is a horrible element. However, the spa was fun. Sort of. Heating up in a 40°C bath and then dunking in a cold water bath. Real fun. Actually, it was rather fun. There was a lot of screaming and yelling and "TANK IT BITCH". It made the 19 degree weather seem warm. Which it is, in Hong Kong. I don't get why all these Hong Kongers are rugging up in down jackets while I walk outside in a hoodie and have to take it off indoors because I'm nearly sweating. At least it's not 40 degree weather like you chaps have to endure in Australia. Too bad. It was better in late December, wasn't it? Like 25 degree weather. Lucky I'm in HK, not stuck inside because it's frickin boiling outside, not stuck inside watching crap like the Hopman Cup. Oops. Did I say that? What I meant was that one of the best highlights of tennis was some guys get hit in the balls trying to return the serve. Lawrence, tell me who it was. This was the same guy who nearly hit a lineswoman in the head but hit her hat off instead. It may not have been the Hopman Cup, I don't know. I wonder who will actually read all that drivel. If you guys reach this sentence, say something in my cbox!