:fume: down the alley from my school, which is on FuXing South Rd. sits an old woman and her orange juice stand. She is there everyday without fail and aside from charging 80NT for a bottle of juice, her cart/stand take up 2 scooter parking spots. By the time I rock up at around 20 to 2, parking is next to impossible to find. Every so often there is a spot open a few meters down from her stand and I’ll park there. Today I pulled into a legal parking spot, much like the two she is taking up, and she comes running over barking in Taiwanese, motioning that I can’t park there because she won’t be able to get her orange juice crates out.
So let me get this straight: she is somehow entitled to take up a grand total of 3 coveted LEGAL scooter parking spots and everyone else around her has to either A) schlep to find a spot further away or B) park illegally cause one must go to work as well? Like who does she think she is telling people who work LEGALLY in that neighborhood where they can and can’t park? :loco:
So I parked there anyway and what do I find when I come out of work this evening? My scooter has been moved to an illegal parking spot in front of a fire hydrant thing. :fume:
[quote=“bushibanned”]:fume: down the alley from my school, which is on Fuxing South Rd. sits an old woman and her orange juice stand. She is there everyday without fail and aside from charging 80NT for a bottle of juice, her cart/stand take up 2 scooter parking spots. By the time I rock up at around 20 to 2, parking is next to impossible to find. Every so often there is a spot open a few meters down from her stand and I’ll park there. Today I pulled into a legal parking spot, much like the two she is taking up, and she comes running over barking in Taiwanese, motioning that I can’t park there because she won’t be able to get her orange juice crates out.
So let me get this straight: she is somehow entitled to take up a grand total of 3 coveted LEGAL scooter parking spots and everyone else around her has to either A) schlep to find a spot further away or B) park illegally cause one must go to work as well? Like who does she think she is telling people who work LEGALLY in that neighborhood where they can and can’t park? :loco:
So I parked there anyway and what do I find when I come out of work this evening? My scooter has been moved to an illegal parking spot in front of a fire hydrant thing. :fume:[/quote]
phew! who do you think you are anyway? your are just a wai guo ren, you are not a Taiwanese you have no rights!
Count your self lucky she didn’t spike your tires and dump the scooter sideways in the way of traffic
Yeah, what shifty said. You’ve got a lot of trust in people to blatantly go against what they ask you to do and still leave your scooter in their presence while you leave to go off to work. I’d say you should consider yourself very lucky.
Totally agree with shifty. Be careful. They can trash your bike in the middle of a busy street, broad day light and no one will blink an eye. Including the police.
First, find a different place to park from now on. Then, get your trusty little digital camera and go take pictures of her little orange juice stand set-up. Third, go to the police (I’m sure she’s not a “legal” business, not to mention her illegal “parking”) … if they don’t want to do anything, ask for their badge numbers and to speak with their superiors … and keep on them until they go and ticket the woman. If she’s back again, take more pictures (make sure the date is shown correct in your camera), go back to the police and repeat all of the proceeding steps.
Poor old biddie’s just trying to eke out a crust selling a bit of juice on the sly. For heaven’s sake. She’s obviously tolerated by folks in the area but you got a problem hoofing it to a further scoot park so want to muscle in on her meagre slot and livelihood.
[quote=“Huang Guang Chen”]Poor old biddie’s just trying to eke out a crust selling a bit of juice on the sly. For heaven’s sake. She’s obviously tolerated by folks in the area but you got a problem hoofing it to a further scoot park so want to muscle in on her meagre slot and livelihood.
Jesus, wake up.
HG[/quote]
:bravo: What he said. We’re angry at an old woman who makes her living selling orange juice? Has it occured to those of you who are so enraged that it may be a tad bit inconvient for her to have to make a living in such a manner while most of you enjoy your pick of jobs starting at NT$600 per hour?
[quote=“Huang Guang Chen”]Poor old biddie’s just trying to eke out a crust selling a bit of juice on the sly. For heaven’s sake. She’s obviously tolerated by folks in the area but you got a problem hoofing it to a further scoot park so want to muscle in on her meagre slot and livelihood.
Jesus, wake up.
HG[/quote]
If the women is already occupying two parking places and needs to keep extra spaces clear so she can move in more crates of juice it sounds like she’s doing a little more than selling a bit of juice on the side. The OP has got every right to have a gripe, particularly if the vendor moved his scooter from a legitimate parking space to an illegal parking space. You seem to forget he’s also trying to eke out a crust . He certainly doesn’t deserve your snide little comment at the end.
[quote=“Huang Guang Chen”]Poor old biddie’s just trying to eke out a crust selling a bit of juice on the sly. For heaven’s sake. She’s obviously tolerated by folks in the area but you got a problem hoofing it to a further scoot park so want to muscle in on her meagre slot and livelihood.
Jesus, wake up.HG[/quote]Agree with HG on this.
Also, you are damn lucky you still have a scooter to ride.
You should
a) Do what Little Buddha suggested
and b) go buy a bottle of juice from her and give her a few ‘Pai-says’ and some smiles.
I believe in the rule of law and I find it odious that this woman will put her rights ahead of everyone else’s. She may have it tough, but that doesn’t give her the right to hawk illegally and then disturb other people’s legally parked property for her own convenience. If she wanted Bushi to move his scooter she could have tried to be kind about it.
If I wanted to park there again that day I’d move whatever she put there and put my bike back in the legal spot. And I’d definitely start taking pictures. Whether or not you plan to do something, she’ll feel uncomfortable enough and may reconsider acting so rudely again.
For those people who are telling Bushi to “get a grip”, where exactly is he in the wrong? He had his bike moved to an illegal spot because someone else was acting illegally. Would it make a difference if the person who had moved the scooter was a fat, greasy, tatooed, middle-aged man selling orange juice? Age and social status doesn’t change the law.
I’ll tell you what would make a difference, though: if the woman had hurried over and then asked nicely if he could move his scooter for her so she can run her business. I’d comply with that 100% of the time.
[quote=“sun12”][quote=“Huang Guang Chen”]Poor old biddie’s just trying to eke out a crust selling a bit of juice on the sly. For heaven’s sake. She’s obviously tolerated by folks in the area but you got a problem hoofing it to a further scoot park so want to muscle in on her meagre slot and livelihood.
Jesus, wake up.
HG[/quote]
If the women is already occupying two parking places and needs to keep extra spaces clear so she can move in more crates of juice it sounds like she’s doing a little more than selling a bit of juice on the side. The OP has got every right to have a gripe, particularly if the vendor moved his scooter from a legitimate parking space to an illegal parking space. You seem to forget he’s also trying to eke out a crust . He certainly doesn’t deserve your snide little comment at the end.[/quote]
Exactly. i’m parking there because I have a job to do as well. Her’s it not anymore important that mine and vice versa, and insinuating that I am somehow obligated to let her hog legal parking spots because she is merely trying to make a buck selling orange juice is ridiculous at best.
It’s a matter of principal, really. Why should I, who wants to park legally, be forced to park illegally and risk getting a parking ticket between 600 and 1200 NT a pop when I can park legally in a spot that is being taken by someone who is running a business illegally? I don’t give a hoot how she makes her money. I’m sure she does quite well. But I shouldn’t have to suck up the fact that she is some old Taiwanese woman who has chosen to do what she does for a living. :s
I’m not an asshole to the locals and I never have been. I’m not saying I am entitled to this and that… I am however, as a motorist, entitled to park in a spot designated for motorcycles and not have my bike moved to an illegal parking spot or be hollered at because I am in the way of her crates. She should be working around everyone who is allowed to park there not the other way around.
As I agree with previous posters to follow the law and not making your own, I would like to point one thing out.
Is it really worth all that trouble. So what could happen if pictures are taken, and the police got envolved. The lady might get chased away to a different spot, and 3 or 4 more legal scooter parking spots are available. Concluding from the situation, by the time that the OP gets there, those spots are already taken by other scooter commuters, and the OP has to look for a legal spot elsewhere, and probably has to watch out for his scooter not getting trashed by some old lady or her son in law.
In the end, none of the two parties is helped, just another person more who does not like those damn foreigners.
He’s not, it’s just that some situations require a touch of tango, a little bit of to and fro . . some social grease, some understanding.
HG[/quote]
Indeed, but I would be more inclined to say that she is the one needing to do the greasing considering the situation. Where is her understanding? Seems to me this is just another symptom that is typical of what pretty much all of us find disturbing in “Taiwan culture”.
Think about this, he did something that inconvenienced her a little. She does something that takes away legal parking from people on a daily basis because she wants to increase her profit margin by not paying rent on a store front and then on a personal note moved his bike in front of a frickin fire hydrant where he could easily have gotten a ticket or towed.
What exactly is defendable here? Who is acting entitled? It’s not like Bushi was laying claim to a space especially because he was a foreigner or in a higher income bracket. On the other hand the juice lady was laying claim to a space because… what? She’s a local and makes less money?
I think he’s well in his rights to be irate over his treatment there.
[quote=“Huang Guang Chen”]You do have a current and valid Taiwan motorcycle licence then I take it, and I mean, you are legit at that job you’re darting off to, right?
I’m also sure the old biddy knocked back an offer on your job so she could elect to provide sustenance to Taipei’s Vit C deprived hoi poloi.
Ease up on your sense of entitlement and consider it from afar for awhile.
:s
HG[/quote]
yes, i do. and yes i am entitled to a legal parking spot like other taiwanese.
