I'm Cold And This Weather Blows

I thank the Buddha every winter day that I no longer live in Taipei.

It’s been cool here in Jiayi with not much rain so far this winter (knock…wood)

I’m heading up to Taroko and through He Huan Shan for Chinese New Year

Hoping to see some snow up there…Not that I care about the snow so much being Canadian but I love watching the Taiwanese when they see snow

Keep warm and Happy Chinese New Year Forumosa :slight_smile:

Oct and NOv are good “cool down” months from the hot hot (but for me wonderful) summertime. But then the dreary Jan/Feb wet , cold , damp , grey days till mid March. I always loved the sound of Thunder round April to mark the beginning of the Spring !!

Funny that Taiwan is not really cold temperature wise, but you get so roasted with the months of HOT HOT SUMMER, that 8c is like being in Siberia , especially with the cold cold cold , damp damp damp (my leather jacket will mildew in 2 days if not worn) concrete boxes everybody lives in.

I wouldnt mind a month of winter just to remind myself how nice the hot summers are (minus the hated skeeters of summer), but 3 to 4 months is just interminable.

Now if everyone had central heating? Things wouldnt be half as bad.

Winter means sticking your hand out of the thick quilt in the morning and feeling the chill of winter (in your bedroom) and thinking if you can just not get up for the day. Then filling yourself with reserve running into the shower to warm up and then dress for the great outdoors (even if you just want to stay home). Yup, watching tv under blankets OR full winter gear INDOORS is the norm in good ol north Taiwan when the “han liu” comes.

Best thing for the cold is exercise.

& beer.

Just an idea for your next project: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kotatsu :wink:

I don’t find it cold at all. I’ve got all the windows open as usual, and am wearing little more than I do in the summer (just one more light layer on top). I turn one bar of my electric heater on and off when I’m working in my study for long stretches, but don’t need any more heating than that. If the tiled study floor drains out too much heat through my unslippered feet, I lie on the bed and exercise for 20 minutes with a couple of weights, which thoroughly warms me up. I sleep under a sheet and one blanket-thin quilt, and am as warm as toast (sometimes too warm, and need to uncover my bare shoulders and feet). There’s no heating in the bedroom, and the window next to the bed is always open. So what’s all this about it being cold?

luxury…i sleep on a mountain-top in a pool of water…but even that can be a bit toasty, so i carry up some bags of 7/11 ice to cool me down…

Babies!!! :stuck_out_tongue: :laughing: I’m living with a foot of snow outside my door, no sun for days and minus degree weather. I would love LOVE it right now to be back in Taiwan and those cold, rainy winters. I hated them there but they didn’t have half the impact on my depression like Chicago winters do.

. . . . AND another important detail, central heating. The problem is so few of the houses have decent heating. I can handle nipping from a warm home to a warm office, but when nowhere is warm. Yeesh!

HG

Nope :laughing: I don’t have central heating. Oh that would meaning have $$$$. NOT! I don’t even have radiator heating which would do some justice but I have this weird heater that draws way too much electricity and doesn’t heat up anything but my front room and kitchen.

:notworthy:

I take it all back.

HG

and for this week… another cold front on way in

Oh, I just went out to walk the Dog-who-won’t take-a-bath-but-loves-the-snow, and surprise surprise-- 1/2 a foot dumped outside. Ahhh, meditation is gonna come in handy for the next 2 months. :smiley:

The best heating I have ever seen was under the floor hot water or somesuch in S. Korea. It was wonderful! The room stayed toasty, there was always hot watter when needed and not extra heating costs. Plus, in the winter when hanging clothes got you nothing but frozen laundry, you could simply lie them flat on the floor and they’d be dry in about half an hour. And stepping onto that warm floor was sooo nice!

I guess you mean an underfloor heating. They pump hot water around and radiate the heat via copper or plastic pipes under the floor. It’s actually quite nice as you say, the heat is evenly distributed inside the room and the feet stay warm, too. And it doesn’t take away space like a wall-mounted radiator. Definetely something to consider if you build or renovate a place where the weather requires a central heating.

The problem with promoting central heating here is of course cost, not just for puting it in but with the typical poor insulation here it would be very expensive to run. Actually proper insulation itself and doors & windows that seal properly would already help to some extend, I can put a finger between some of the doors and the frame at my apartment (and that’s in a fairly new building) …

Oh yea, that reminds me of those tables in Japan, where you can put a blanket under the top and it heats your legs as you sit under them.

Taipei today and tomorrow - one word - nippy.

The lack of planning that would give us heating and insulation is what makes other countries laugh at our bid to get into the UN. I’m convinced of it. That and we probably sent all the forms in on Hello Kitty paper.

It’s the tenth year in row that I spend CNY in Taiwan and I hate it … it’s cold, noisy, boring, humid … oh wait, I spent one CNY in China … anyways, I hate it and I’m almost at the end of my wit and am getting really depressed …

Every year I start thinking about leaving for the period that it’s cold and CNY but I never got to it …

I basically live in the bedroom because that’s the only room you can heat or cool economically without breaking the bank … the dogs live in the living room :slight_smile:

But I have to say that the time I lived in Baiji in the mountains it was definitely colder as I slept with three bed covers and quilts, 2 pajamas and thermal underwear and gloves, socks and a woolen hat … I was basically dressed during the day as people that go to the North or South pole … or Everest

And I must say that people that can afford a 30,000,000 NT$ apartment in Taipei have heating as I found out yesterday …

I have an ex boss with this setup in Tienmou…I visited him on one of those sub-ten C nights and walking on those heated tiles was nearly religious. His thermo read 24c on one of the most pleasant winter evenings ever spent in Taiwan.

I have hardwood floors, and while still nippy aren’t nearly as bad as tiles. It’s the cold feet I can’t deal with.

Off to Kenting…Enough of this winter shit.

Bye.