Good times with the Owain McLacey

Owain was the first room mate I had in Taiwan.  He was from Cardiff/Scotland and he liked football which was a good omen.  When he first came to look at the apartment he liked the contents of my man fridge.  He also liked what he seen and decided he wanted to move in.  Straight away we got on like a house on fire.  It was like he was destined to come and check out the apartment, and more so look in the all important man fridge.  I still believe the man fridge was the main selling point for Mr.  Lacey.

Owain

Lacey

We would sometimes just hang out on the roof during the week having beers, and man chats about important things, to totally irrelevant things.  It was good fun hanging out on the roof after work drinking a Taiwan beer and watching the city go by.  We would mainly chat about football and our respective clubs positions and what we thought would happen at the weekends.  We would take up the music when it was hot and just sit up there for ages chilling out chatting.  I remember Owain wouldn't go near to the edge, or look because of his fear of heights, but I was always fascinated with going to the edge and looking down to see what people were up to and how small they looked!!

Hanging out on the roof.

We went to places together in Taipei especially on a Saturday, sometimes we would go to a random MRT stop and have a look around like I have already said or other times we would swimming, or just for a walk or for food.  It was good having someone to go swimming, running and to watch the football with.  Even when I would go to 7/11 he would come with me and we would always come back with some beers for the night ha.


The last place I think we went together was Chaing Kai Shek Memorial hall, and I went on his farewell night out which ended quite funny to be honest.  We were going to have a wild night out, but we ended sitting in some tea place, drinking beers and having something to eat.  Then we must of spent an hour looking for the pool room that Josh knew about.  After that we were moaning how we can't really play games.  Well Owain was especially moaning about it more than me, so Josh told us he knew of an internet cafe where we could go and play games and its really cheap.  Plus he said it is open for 24 hours, so in we went Josh got us started and spoke to the women for us then away we went to kick each others ass.....or so we thought.  We didn't manage to play 1 game in an hour because the place were we went had no codes for the electronic arts games.  We had to sign up for them ourselves but that didn't happen.  The one game we did manage to get on we didn't know how to play it at all because it was all in Chinese.  It looked a bit like Age of Empires and I think both me and Owain got killed by what was supposed to be our so called food!!!

At Chaing Kai Shek Memorial Hall.

One of the main good things about living with Owain was we didn't have to set up any rules or schedules we just cleaned up when we needed too, and we normally just mucked in together and got it all done quick sharp so we could go somewhere together on a weekend.  


We decided somewhere to go during the week, most of the time I would just randomly pick an MRT station and ask Owain if he wanted to come with me, but he would normally just say yes and we would hang out together all day.  One of the best days, or should I say the more memorable MRT stops we went to was Neihu park or something like that.  When we got there it seemed totally dull and nothing there to do as we got  there too late to go on any of the hiking trails.....due to the previous nights football night.  (Actually most football nights ended up being football weekends.

Hanging out at Taipei 101.

Then when we were walking down the hill, we heard loads of banging and commotion coming towards us.  I was wondering what the hell it was.  Then we seen what was coming up the hill.  Some big impressive street parade, with people all dressed up in different, weird and fascinating costumes.  I told Owain I really wanted to follow it and get some good snaps, problem was we were on the wrong side of the road.  There was like a little barrier in the middle, and traffic flying in different directions.  Owain decided to just peg it across like a man possed and a scooter nearly smacked right into him, I was more sensible and I waited for a bigger gap knowing I run so slow, the scooter would of knocked me on my arse!

First lines of the parade we seen coming up the hill.

We took loads of pictures and had a fun time pissing about, attempting to chat to the entrants and find out what the parade was about.  It seemed we got to the bottom of it eventually, it was some thing for the elections here in Taiwan.  They were supporting one of the candidates so were having a parade to drum up support for this woman trying to get elected for that area I guess.  I don't really know who she was, or if she was famous or not but it was good seeing the parade I can tell you that, especially when the reason we went there was to go on the hiking trails but we couldn't be arsed when we got there and it seemed like we would of got lost if it turned dark and didn't want to risk it.  This was a good backup though even though it was completely unplanned.

Us wei guo ren (foreigners) enjoying the parade.

I vaguely remember having one of the best nights out on the piss with Owain and Josh, I cannot remember much from the night.  I remember we went to a place called PA soul, and being shocked that they qued up in a line for their drinks instead of just piling to the bar.  I only realised this because I piled straight to the bar first, thinking this is simple then I turned around and had about 30 stares looking right at me.  The stare that says there is a line mister, and you have just pushed right to the front you prick!  I was well shocked.  So of I trudged like a defeated wannabe drunk to the back of the line, with droopy eyes thinking this is going to take bloody ages.  Actually it didn't take that long and I got my drink pretty quickly.  I really enjoyed it at PAsoul one of the rooms plays awesome music which doesn't happen so often here in Taipei, and I have been there once more with Anders since Owain left and I enjoyed it again, all because the music was really good inside unlike other places who think there music is cool but its poppy shit.  


I think Owain left with Vivian that night, and I took a taxi back my home, I got of at Xiemen MRT and walked the opposite way from my home because I knew I wanted something from Carrefour but could not remember what for the life of me.  I just thought I would walk there anyway and I might remember, then when I got there I didn't remember so I just walked into Carrefour and walked around looking at things trying to think what I wanted.  Then I decided this is not working I should just come home and sleep because the sun is coming up....then I left Carrefour with everything I went in with, and came out with nothing new or nothing I wanted.  Ha there the joys of a good night when things like that happens.


This set the start of the now famous 'football night.'  Me and Owain would have both our laptops on watching different games, and we would either have a game on the TV, or a game on the TV through the computer.  (Talking about the TV, Owain banged on about getting a TV for weeks since he moved in because I just had a little crappy one, anyway one day I came home from work and Owain had bought a big plasma screen TV) I still have in the apartment to this day so I have to thank Owain for that, it really improved our football night experience.

Football night in full swing.

Football nights have never been the same since Owain moved out, Jen has tried to embrace them and take an interest which was really nice of her, and the next room mate said he was interested but clearly knew nothing about it.  The new room mate doesn't even know what the sport is, and he would probably just tell me how sexy the men in shorts were anyway.  Football nights are still going strong, but its just not the same without watching with Owain, and being surrounded by beer cans.  I still remember the night the guard came in and told us that we had left our door open by accident.  Me and Owain nearly shit ourself.....I must say Owain didn't move like and I was up like a shot seeing what the hell was going down with someone walking into our apartment.


We even google translated someone came to tell us the door was open, and the guard pretty much gestured it was him.  That night was mental though we were up all night drinking and playing on football manager.


I just remembered about when we went out to watch the Newcastle Sunderland derby, and we battered them 5-1 that was amazing, there were about 6 of us stuck in a corner of the bar supporting Newcastle going mental.  The other side of the bar at the brass monkey was all Liverpool fans and they were wondering what the hell was going on.  Then we went and watched a bit of the Bolton Liverpool game, and I remember Owain getting his arse out to moon Fernando Torres and the Liverpool fans, and me blagging a free beer by telling the promotion girls I support Liverpool.  Ha good times that night like.

After one of our football nights out.

Hopefully some day Mr.  Lacey will make it back to Taipei for a nice jolly holiday at some point in the future and we could hang out some more.  Good times were had hanging out with each other on the weekends and it was good watching footy and doing stuff like running and swimming together.  


It really has never been the same with the new flat mates, it even got to a new low this weekend just gone when I couldn't watch the match because of downloading.  I was totally pissed off, it was just stop, start, stop start.  I never had any of that shit with Owain, as football night took all priotry on the weekends.....not no more though.......there are more pressing matters on the new room mates mind.........anyway if he does the same next week I will tell him more forcefully because I won't let him ruin mine and Owains football night tradition that was started while we lived together.  Not a chance in hell.  


How did I nearly forget about the night we got drunk watching the football and we then decided it would be a great idea to stick the huge Lionel Messi poster to the wall with super strength sticky tape.  The next day Jen came around and got angry with us saying why the hell did you stick the poster to the wall with tape!  We then said it wont be a problem he will just come off like a good friend.  The problem was Jen was right and he really didn't.  It ripped paper of the wall, and then we ended up going to B and Q to try and get some paint to fix the wall.  We thought we had decided on the best colour to match the wall.  I dropped off the paint with Owain then I went to meet Jen, Owain called me up saying.....I tried to pain the wall, but the colour doesn't match.  Even though the colour didn't match he painted it anyway, and to this day it is still not fixed.  I will have to sort it out eventually but I have time to sort it out.  We still have Messi up covering the wall.  Owain can claim it as his lasting legacy in the apartment.  My new room mate has no clue who he is, and all his little boyfriends keep asking him who it is he says, and he says I dont know ha.

Our football night companion.

I feel like screaming BRING BACK MCLACEY AND SAVE MY FOOTBALL NIGHTS!!!!!

Me and Owain on a night out.