The German office had a big goose diner ten days ago. But I figured 1700 NT for something I don’t particularly fancy was a bit too much.
I guess it made sense to do the German Christmas get-together early as it seems most German expats have already left for their Christmas vacation.
Looks like the ECCT is quite active in regards to social events, organizing balls, golfing trips and probably some christmas stuff as well. Not exactly my cup of tea :?
Iris
[quote=“iris”]The German office had a big goose diner ten days ago. But I figured 1700 NT for something I don’t particularly fancy was a bit too much.
I guess it made sense to do the German Christmas get-together early as it seems most German expats have already left for their Christmas vacation.
Looks like the ECCT is quite active in regards to social events, organizing balls, golfing trips and probably some christmas stuff as well. Not exactly my cup of tea :?
Iris[/quote]
Is goose the traditional German alternative to the American-British turkey? But goose or turkey, neither is for vegetarians like me. And NT$1700! It makes even the local 5-star Christmas bashes look cheap! It would need to include a lot of good booze to make that one value for money.
Those ECCT activities do sound rather tailored for the expat-package brigade. Not so much to the taste of we common or garden Seguites.
We used to get goose at Christmas as kids, not turkey. I always thought of turkey as an American tradition that migrated to Britland. Or maybe it was just geese because me and the old man could go out and shoot them.
You don’t remember the old rhyme?
[color=red]Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat,
Please put a penny in the old man’s hat.
If you haven’t got a penny, a ha’penny will do,
If you haven’t got a ha’penny,
God bless you.[/color]
Turkey is not a traditional British Christmas dish. Last year was the first time in my life I ever had turkey for Christmas dinner (at home). We have always had goose. My dad remembers when US soldiers billetted with them during WW2, and they introduced the family to doughnuts, flap-jacks, and hash browns, and the idea of eating turkey. So he had turkey as a young boy when it was unheard of in N Ireland to eat turkey at Christmas. My gran was a great cook, and I used to love going there to get wonderful apple pie, and home made doughnuts.
I suppose turkey caught on because of its novelty and association with America. And I suspect because goose has become so expensive.
We also eat venison at Christmas. Where I live anyone with a shotgun and a pair of tweezers can eat a wide variety of game and rabbits and deer and the like. You don’t even need a gun. I hit a pheasant one day in the car and it made a lovely dinner. (Though I don’t recommend this method of hunting, especially if you have an expensive car)
(Before the bleeding hearts and artists flame me, I don’t agree with shooting animals or birds for “fun”. I would never condone shooting anything you’re not going to eat, nor killing protected species.)
Ah yes, here’s this thread again.
RandyT? Sorry for the delay in following up (Segue went down right after) but my information–that AIT discriminates against Taiwanese women when granting visas–came from my (Taiwanese) significant other. When I checked back with her, and asked her why she thought that, and what type of visa she meant, she couldn’t answer. Her information turned out to be hearsay.
Possibly the rumor originated in some entirely different context (the U.S. embassy in China?), or perhaps it was hastily generalized from one person’s experience. Who knows. In any event, the observation seems to be bogus.
So, please accept my apologies for spreading it.
[quote=“Lama Ding Dong”]Ah yes, here’s this thread again.
RandyT? Sorry for the delay in following up (Segue went down right after) but my information–that AIT discriminates against Taiwanese women when granting visas–came from my (Taiwanese) significant other. When I checked back with her, and asked her why she thought that, and what type of visa she meant, she couldn’t answer. Her information turned out to be hearsay.
Possibly the rumor originated in some entirely different context (the U.S. embassy in China?), or perhaps it was hastily generalized from one person’s experience. Who knows. In any event, the observation seems to be bogus.
So, please accept my apologies for spreading it.[/quote]
By all accounts, it definitely used to be the case that single Taiwanese women were highly likely to be refused a U.S. visa for fear that their main purpose was to hook an American husband and stay. But things have changed, and now it’s the gals in the mainland who have to contend with such negative assumptions.
Did the laird know that you and the pa were poaching his geese?
[quote=“hexuan”]
We also eat venison at Christmas. Where I live anyone with a shotgun and a pair of tweezers can eat a wide variety of game and rabbits and deer and the like. You don’t even need a gun. I hit a pheasant one day in the car and it made a lovely dinner. (Though I don’t recommend this method of hunting, especially if you have an expensive car)[/quote]
Did you let it hang until it was nicely rank? Or wouldn’t your Shanghainese other have been able to stomach that?
Hunting with a car has one clear advantage over hunting with a shotgun: you don’t get lead pellets in every other mouthful (as I remember from my meat-eating days as a kid).
What was the topic again?
Something about not hunting down your country’s representatives unless you are prepared to eat them.
Wildfowling, Omni. We either did it on the foreshore (between high and low water marks is free land in Scotland – anyone can shoot there – yeah, lying in a hole in the mud on a river estuary at low tide in December in the pre-dawn with a gale blowing horizontal sleet is truly the sport of a gentleman!) or on farms in Perthshire on which we paid for the shooting rights.
All my poaching forays were restricted to salmon, although there was that time when me and my mates really needed some lamb for a barbeque, but we won’t go any further into that!
You stand fully acquitted, Sandman. The family escutcheon remains unblotted.
[quote=“Omniloquacious”][quote=“hexuan”]
We also eat venison at Christmas. Where I live anyone with a shotgun and a pair of tweezers can eat a wide variety of game and rabbits and deer and the like. You don’t even need a gun. I hit a pheasant one day in the car and it made a lovely dinner. (Though I don’t recommend this method of hunting, especially if you have an expensive car)[/quote]
Did you let it hang until it was nicely rank? Or wouldn’t your Shanghainese other have been able to stomach that?[/quote]
I’ll tell you something I couldn’t stomach, even as an incurable meat eater and lover of steak tartare. My wife plucked the still-warm bird, lopped its bonce off, bled it, gutted it, and cooked it, and then ate it. If I had even seen all that I would have been off food for a week. She’s made of stronger stuff than I !
I visited the BTCO as my employer had failed to pay me properly for five whole months. I quit, to be told that I now owed them money, and they cancelled my visa in order to force me out of the country before I could really do anything about collecting the salary I felt I was owed.
The BTCO lady cut short her lunch break to call the police on my behalf and find out what happens in these situations - full marks for helpfulness, but not actually much use. When I emailed her, to let her know that I was heading to their office and anticipated being arrested, her response was:
"Thanks for letting me know about your decision. I am not surprised that you decided to take some actions against IACC. However, we are not able to interfere any legal cases here. Hope you can understand. I enclosed some contact details of lawyers and free legal assistance in Taipei. I hope it is helpful with your case.
Can you please give me the full name of IACC? It’s just for our file record. But, please keep us posted about your case. If there are any grounds that we are able to be of help, please do not hesitate to let us know."
Make of that what you will. I’m not going to fight old battles twice.
On the business front, I haven’t had cause to contact the Brits here, but did while I was in Germany a few years back. The initial result was a bit off a brush off, but I persisted and also contacted the Department of Trade and Industry in the UK.
I ended up with a fairly comprehensive fact sheet, which was a good starting point although not wholly accurate. I wrote to correct them, and wound up going out for drinkies several times with the Secretary for Trade - he subsequently referred business to me several times.
I guess it’s all down to guanxi vs official policy. Much as you and I would like to believe that these people are there for us, the truth is that they are mostly there to a) persuade people to buy goods made in our country, and b) to persuade people to go and spend their money in our country.
Helping some poor bugger who hasn’t paid taxes in his home country for ten years is not really part of the game plan and that’s that. Once you start involving yourself in ordinary people’s lives then you quickly become bogged down with all their trivial little problems. FACT: people will almost always ask other people to solve their problems for them if they think they can. Look at all the people who post questions at this site, the answers to which could easily be found with a search through the archives.
Having said that, the US missions abroad do generally seem to have a higher profile and more active policy in supporting their own people. And their are times when a ‘friend’ who knows the score can solve problems in no time that would otherwise consume your life. Rationalisations aside, I’m still of the opinion that ‘our people’ are supposed to be there for us when we need them.