Thanks to those that helped me try and find a reasonably priced recorder in Taiwan. I ended up going for the Olympus DS-2 as I have this naiive idea that the promises that Dragon Naturally Speaking can transcribe the recordings holds a degree of truth. The DS-2 got highest marks for quality for this purpose. And it makes 128kbps 44.1kHz stereo wma files. Whatever they are.
Anyway, I paid US$110 at B&H Photo plus a whopping US$40 for UPS Express postage, which arrived on the fourth day. Taiwan tax and import duty (which UPS will always pay) was NT$402. So it was quite a bit cheaper than the equivalent Olympus product in Taiwan.
It seems to have survived its tour around the world from China to New York to Anchorage to Taiwan quite nicely. I hear Sky TV is going to show a series about two intrepid consumer electronics products who go around the world from China to Taiwan, the Wrong Way Round, inside a UPS tuk-tuk. Should be good.
Yes, HGC. This is for recording you when you go “the drinks are on me!” or “don’t worry - everything’s going to be all right - I’ve been here before”.
That thing with the nanny was all bunkum, BTW. I had been living in Wexford since 1978. They’re all mad down there anyway so no-one noticed.