Test two

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Moblogging

Trying to see if I've set this up right.
Sent from a Nokia E66

Boo hoo

Went to donate blood at Taipei city hall in between interviews. I'm terrified of needles, but as long as the process is done in 15 minutes, from poke to finish, I'm usually fine. Well, this time was different. The nurse said my blood vessel collapsed and the blood wasn't quite flowing, so she adjusted the needle. And adjusted it. And adjusted it. And adjusted it so many times I broke into a cold sweat and was wet from head to toe and began to fade so I asked her to stop trying and take the needle out before I completely lost consciousness. Oh, I felt so sick. And disappointed that I didn't fill up the entire 250 cc bag. Oh well. To make it worse, all the needle poking left a big bad bruise reminiscent of the Chen Yunlin protests last November. At least this won't scar. But I don't think I'll be donating blood for a while.

Swine flu false alarm

Right after coming back from Hualien and Taitung Saturday night, I continued on the night shift and started another crazy stretch - 12 days. Ah, I'm used to it.

Tonight was rather busy and exciting.

22h45 received word that a woman and her baby who had come back from the US Tuesday were taken to hospital by ambulance around 22h00 after both came down with a fever. They were suspected to have been infected by the H1N1 virus.
22h55 was on the way to the hospital they were taken to.
23h31 received text msg from Taiwan's Centre for Disease Control announcing an emergency press conference at 00h00.
23h38 received tip from friend at the CDC that we really had better be at the PC (meaning bad news).
23h58 received word that the CDC confirmed that the baby had been indeed infected with the virus, but not the mother. The baby would be the first H1N1 case in Taiwan.
23h59 started reporting live at the hospital, but with almost no information and no video except for me with a surgical mask talking at the camera, outside of the hospital ER entrance
00h39 interviewed the director of the hospital
01h15 wrapped up and headed back to the station to file the report
01h53 received text msg from CDC saying final test results say both patients are negative for H1N1.

I threw away the mask, washed my hands after getting back to the office, but somehow I feel itchy... Both sides of my face, my thighs... I hope it goes away by morning.

So false alarm on the swine flu. Taiwan's still H1N1-free.

Really busy and really exciting day. Handling the situation much better than before. Pat myself on the back.

#1!

That's me feeling a little oxygen-deprived. Next to me are Lily and Zemin, my coworkers.

FTV News turned 12 this week, and to celebrate, the office held a run-up contest. Yours truly placed first within her age group and was also first among all the women. 15 flights of stairs, 2 minutes flat. I haven't been doing any sports these days, but I guess work takes care of exercising. (I can hear Niki nagging at me, "you're a health reporter! you should be doing at least SOME weight bearing exercise!")

I also got another #1 this week. Saturdays, I anchor the 11h00 news, and this past Saturday, our ratings reached #1! The producer was surprised we beat even TVBS. Yay!

So I have two things to celebrate. Oh, there's my birthday too. I turned 30 in March but never really got the chance to do anything. Now I have THREE excuses to get together with friends and drink champagne (or warm water with lemon, haha).

Silly news story with me in the picture

Did you see this picture in the paper yesterday?

This was actually during a press conference held by a Taipei City councilwoman, and she was trying to make a point of how narrow and small the carriages for the new Neihu metro line is. The girl across from me is a reporter from PTS and the two guys in the back are reporters from ETTV and TVBS (boys are always goofing off...).

I actually canned the story and thought the press conference a waste of our time.

She was arguing that it was much smaller than the Muzha line, so more people would have to squeeze into a smaller space, therefore increasing the occurrence of theft and sexual harassment. She was also saying that people would not be able to push baby strollers, wheelchairs and suitcases through the carriage. But the facts are, the Neihu line has a greater capacity than the Muzha line because there are more trains running per hour and the space between the doors on either side of the carriage is actually wider than those on the Muzha line. In addition, there are closed circuit TV cameras inside each carriage. In the area of common sense, when people get on the train and have a baby stroller, wheelchair or suitcase to push, they stay close to the door and wait to get off at their destination station. Near the doors, there are no seats, just a barrier-free area large enough for a wheelchair to be turned around at the very least.

The only point I could agree with her was her request for at least one carriage in each train to be cleared of seats so that strollers, wheelchairs and people with suitcases could have more space in that one car.

Common sense aside, the councilwoman had some of the data from the metro officials on her hands prior to the PC, but perhaps just ignored them. I guess like Michel says, to get exposure, politicians do and say anything to get the press to come, and the criticism and a second chance for them to clear up the "misunderstanding" is a second exposure.

Politicians...

富饗園 Shanghai style restaurant

We did a food story there the other day. Many of the dimsum dishes they have are 1/2 off if you dine in. They hope that you'll come for the 1/2 off dishes and also order the regular-priced ones.

A good place to go if you want similar dimsum and also want to avoid the crazy line at Ding Tai Feng 鼎泰豐. This restaurant is in one of the back alleys of Yongkang Street 永康街. Not sure about the service, but I did enjoy talking with the owner and the chef while we were filming as well, so I would definitely go back there for lunch or dinner sometime.

台北市大安區永康街7巷6號
#6, Alley 7, Yongkang Street
Taipei
+886 2 2322 5688