Weekly Post

Back in Taipei, after a few weeks in Perth and brief stays in HK, Sydney, Brisbane and SG

Hello hello,

I was traveling for a whole month away from my family. Mostly in Australia.  Finally made it back to Taipei last week.  And it’s so great to be back.

Great to be spending time with my wife and kids, eating delicious home-cooked meals, putting my daughters to bed, cycling through drizzling rain, returning to my serviced-office.

The day after I returned to Taipei, I was visited by my friend Kelley, who I actually met in Taipei 31 years ago, and was now visiting from Hong Kong with her daughter.  We enjoyed some famous beef noodles, Taiwan style ice milk-tea, and cycled around the city.  She remarked on the magic of Taipei’s small alleys; the fun of peering into ramshackle apartments to see hanging laundry, and the relaxed pace of this city.  I agreed.  Taipei does often feel like a sleepy city of 10 million, and that’s meant as a compliment.

Spending a month in Australia away from family was way too long, but my spirits were kept up by great colleagues and the exciting challenge of helping to unlock a complicated corporate situation. 

I was mostly in Perth, where I stayed at the Ocean Beach Hotel (OBH), in the beach-side suburb of Cottesloe.  The five story and decidedly 2-star OBH is painted a faded egg-yellow that only for a brief sunset moment once-a-day glows resplendent.  The single elevator rattles and screeches as it moves up or down.  The sole person at the front desk, usually Cornelius, acknowledges with a smile that it should be replaced, but at least gets serviced once a month.  

My room windows have a little mechanical crank that I turn just enough to let in the sea-weed infused breeze and the sound of waves breaking onto the beach across the street. My recipe for blissful sleep.  The rooms are kept clean by a cheerful crew of 3 early morning Filipinas. If they haven’t woken you up with their chatter as they march up and down the hallway, they’ll do so as they barge into your room (no chains or bolt-locks on these hollow planks) to tell you (regardless of your condition) they’ll just change the towels. 

I’m usually up at 6 and go barefoot to the beach at around 6:50, the time of sun-rise. Early mornings are chilly, at around 9C (48F), and the sand is colder.  The soles of my feet get numb as I do my 20 minute barefoot jog up and down the beach. This is the conditioning I need to then go plunging into the waves, joining a small tribe of regulars.  About 20 meters into the water there’s usually a thick mess of not-yet washed-up seaweed.  On days when the surf is rough, I get tangled up in it and half of it seems to somehow get into my fluorescent-green swim shorts.  One person told me sharks like to lurk in it.  Another that they’re attracted to contrasting colors.  I make it through the other side of this vegetable muck and do a few dolphin-dives into the crystal clear sea, coming out to spray saltwater out of my mouth like a 5-year old - sparks of joy.  I like the sting of the sea in my eyes and imagine the good stuff that comes from getting it into my sinuses.

My month in Australia allowed me to read-up (mostly in the Australian Financial Review) on a few of the current national obsessions.  In [brackets] I’ve written my take on each of these issues.

• Skyrocketing home rentals [no politicians actually care.  The easy fix is to fast-track the re-permitting of commercial real estate into residential.  This isn’t even being debated]

• Runaway inflation. [Australian Central Bank deserves a lot of blame. They’re stuck protecting the banking oligopoly of which they seem to be a Panamanian subsidiary]

• Deep worries about a slowdown in China. [a fully merited concern.  Just as Australia was the best way to invest in a rising China for the last 30 years, Australia may offer the same opportunity if you want to place bets on a slowing China]

• Paranoia about PRC political, economic and military encroachment. [Australia should be more worried about the social and political fragility of some of its pacific neighbors, and about global warming.  Australia’s foreign policy seems to be excessively dictated by the U.S.]

• High vacancies in the commercial office building sector (though no one dares call it ‘distress’)  [this is not looking good, and banks are probably becoming very good at ‘extend and pretend’]

• The Australian dollar getting smashed [Australian’s can thank their Central Bank for this]

• The Prime Minister losing support on a referendum to grant aboriginal Australians extraordinary political representation as acknowledgement of systematic mistreatment and neglect [it’s clear that something radical needs to be done to help, but I don’t know enough about this referendum]

I’d like to be writing at least one essay a week, but for now I’m just trying to crawl, with at least this - a weekly newsletter.  Here’s to week #1.

Best wishes,

Stefan