Yes, shock horror - I have actually started a new physical activity, which means I now have something else to add to my list of “things I do in Taiwan” (this now joins “going to Subway” … haha)

Some of you might remember that whenever I go on holiday anywhere, I always love to play on the “hoops”. You know the games at the arcade where the aim is just to toss a basketball into a ring. Each basket gets you X points and you just keep throwing until the time runs out.

Well, basketball is very popular here in Taiwan - so I thought I’d give it a go myself. However, up at the park, it soon became obvious that throwing into a hoop that’s a few feet in front of you is very different to trying to get the sucker into a hoop a few feet HIGHER than you… thus my time in the park was spent looking like a bit of an ass… hehe..

However (and not sure if I mentioned this in a previous post) - the other day when exploring our tower block, I actually found a basketball hoop (complete with super small “court”) up on our roof! Now admitedly this was no-where near full on court status (it’s in a little room as it were, with the hoop only being about 5 feet off the ground) - however it’s a start, and a good place for me to practise until I’m ready to go back to the park … hurrah!

I present, our “court”!

Nic, huh? (you don’t have to answer that) - I even went and bought myself a nice new blue ball for the princely sum of £6.50 - taking this seriously me … haha

On another, completely unrelated note - went out to the movies again tonight. Stopped off first at this great Italian Coffee Shop style place called Lavazza which is nicely styled and offers great food (delicious pastas, fantastic quiches and amazing cakes) and also wonderful pots of fruit tea! A whole meal with tea and desert comes to about £4 - bargain! It would be great to call our “couple place” - though sadly Ting-Ying has been there before with boyfriends since ex’d - shame… ah well!

After this, we jumped across the street back to MTV - with the movie of choice this time being “Vacancy” - a horror(?)/thriller set out in a creepy motel - well worth watching I think, so I won’t spoil anything here! When the movie finished I was genuinely happy - even then realised I hadn’t drunk my free tea (which means I must have been properly into the film proceedings!)

A very pleasant day methinks Just need to try and get to bed now, fed up of always sleeping at 5am

Went to MTV last night to watch another movie - we’ve now seen all the major ones in the horror section that we actually recognise, so having to now take gambles on whether one will be good or not.

After searching for a good 20 minutes, finally decided on “Knock Knock“, a supposed Saw type rip off (although this later turned out to be false - just some terrible translating by Ting-Ying!), which from the photos on the back cover, looked like it might be quite good.

How wrong could we be.

As soon as the move started, we wondered if they had actually put the right one on - the camera used to make this “action horror” seemed like it was make in the late 50’s - or at the very best, on one of those massive VHS camcorders from the early 1980’s. It was horrible and grainy, not seeming professional at all.

The first scene was promising though, a girl in tight sweatpants and a really high cut belly top walking around her house - at least there was a hope we would see her naked - however no, she was just murdered off within a few minutes (and it only lasted a second or two - as I missed it due to taking a sip of tea!)

The next scene then started the movie off downhill - we are subjected to watching a group of teens sit around talking in the most wooden way ever possible, you know like how when you try and deliberately act bad ….

Cue then the remaining 80 minutes or so, of the most badly acted movie ever, containing even more pointless moments seemingly just thrown in for the sake of it - rubbish murder scenes and massive continuity errors (group of kids eat at a diner late at night, walk home through a forrest, go running into middle of said forrest when it suddenly becomes daylight again …. I mean, come on!).

Really, this movie was so bad - it was actually hillarious - if they billed it as a comedy horror, I would be giving it almost a 10 star rating!

Anyway, the point of this post wasn’t to complain about a movie, it was to ask a question - and that is just this.

At which point in the lifecycle of a movie is it just too late to stop?

I mean, NO ONE who watching this movie back could have been proud of what they had done and even judging from the second scene, it was obvious the actors were terrible. So why was it made? I can’t believe it would have made enough money back to cover production unless everyone was duped into going to the premiere.

Or maybe I’ve just got my standards set too high - in which case I should go into the movie business myself … lol

At least, seeing as this is Taiwan, it only cost me £1.50 (and 60p for the popcorn) to see it - if I had paid UK cimena prices, I would be demanding my money back that’s for sure!

Quite possibly the greatest thing about Taiwan (aside from the prices) is the “MTV” - not the popular music television channel, nor the name of any channel (despite the deceptive name) - but a private movie theatre.

“What do you mean?” - I hear you say - well my friends, let me explain.

MTV stands for “Movie TV” and is a place where you can go to watch movies in a private room on your own, or with friends.

So basically, it works like this.

1. You go to said place (there are many of them around), where you will find stacks and stacks of DVDs - basically it looks like a huge Blockbuster video store.
2. You choose the movie you would like to see.
3. You go to the desk, give them the movie, £1.50 (per person) and choose your (free) drink (a range of soft drinks, juices, teas and coffees).
4. Be escorted to your own private cinema room, complete with massive “sofa/bed”, projector, massive screen and dolby digital sound system (with massive bass).
5. Sit back, relax and watch your movie, using the intercom should you require anything else during (more drinks, popcorn, noodles etc.)

The rooms come in varying sizes, the smallest fitting about 4/5 people, the largest having multi row beds and allowing around 20 I’d say to see the flick.

To give you a better idea of what I mean, how about I just show you some photos

Perfection - no idiots in front talking, no loud crunching from others eating - and best of all, you can actually lay down and watch the movie in total comfort

I so wish they could bring this to England, but alas, I feel just as with the Japanese karaoke rooms - this just wouldn’t work - too many chav idiots and people with no respect would just ruin it (make it messy, graffiti, steal the projector etc).

Asia certainly has a lot going for it.