Tram, Planes, Trains and Automobiles

I know somewhere that I have a collection of pictures that will need to be posted at soime point in time of several of us fab young things taking trams around Milan, cabs in Taipei, planes to the Bahamas....sometimes the random automobile would be thrown in the the mix, but rarely.

Packing cars sardine style was really more of a college thing. Since most cities that I traveled too for work had excellent public transportation, I left the car worries to the locals and made sure to always carry some form of train pass, etc to get me from here to everywhere. Los Angeles, of course, was the one exception to that rule, which I think I mentioned before....but even working in other California cities I had the pleasure of being able to use great mass transit....like in San Francisco.

The handful of times I was up there I found myself either being picked up and driven from the airport to my booking or I'd be privy to the joys of BART as opposed to worrying about my Honda Accord and where I was going to park it in that labyrinth of a city, or if my timing belt was going to go out as I drove across the Golden Gate Bridge. Knowing the number of my booker's cell phone and where the client's location was going to be was about all I wanted to have to worry about, some San Francisco auto repair company was definitely not something I wanted to care about.

Now that I live in the burbs and have to drive to get to anything, and I mean anything except for the Krispie Kreme down the street, I really miss those awesome public transportation days....oh yeah, and those plane rides to the Bahamas....good God I had it good....sigh....

Hanging With Taiwanese Rockstars

I have to say that this particular trip to Taipei was the best one yet....but for some reason I didn't keep much written record about it. I have tons of pictures but only 2 journal entries so I really am going to have to rely on the old gray matter to remember what exactly went on. I think I was so busy with work and play that I just had no time to pull out pen and paper and journalize everything...now I wish I had! Let me preface real quick by naming names. Laura and I ended up meeting the rest of the FMI girls who all became fast friends....Taya, Jennifer, and Olivia...there were others that we hung out with from another agency, but these three were our main girls.....partners in living la vida...

One of the things that made this trip so amazing was that one night my friends and I were partying at Room 18 which was a hot new club at Warner Village in Taipei. We had just gotten done working at a fashion show and arrived at the club only to find out that it was full to capacity because DJ Scratch was there and everyone in town wanted to be there. This was a veritable quandry, since I had been so used to VIP treatment and never having to wait for entry to any club....so we sulked as models can do ever so well, until we were approached by a guy named Jeff who introduced himself in perfect English although he was Taiwanese (but born and raised in LA I later found out!) and made the velvet ropes part so that we could get in.

Jeff ended up becoming one of best friends in Taiwan that season. He was California cool but also knew all the ins and outs of being a local in Taipei since his family also lived there part time. Thanks to him, my girls and I got to dine at some of the best restaurants, hang out at the hottest clubs du jour and just have a great time hanging out in general. It also turned out that Jeff was something of a celebrity in Asia. He had been part of a boy band called LA Boyz who were to Asia what the Backstreet Boys were to the States. Pretty much everywhere we went with Jeff, we would get mobbed by young girls with cameras and giggles. It was a trip. We also got to meet his brother Stanley who was also a recording artist and their friends, Jae a music producer and Vanness who is now a megastar in Asia....actually, they all are. They're part of a crew that goes by MACHI.

Crazy thing about meeting Vanness in Taipei is that later we found out that we had both been raised in Santa Monica and went to the same grade school there.....we had played in the playground at the same time but ended up meeting decades later in Taiwan.

So, yeah....this season in Taipei we got to hang out with official rockstars. They treated us like queens, were nothing but gentlemen, sweet, generous, and respectful. One of the best group of guys I've had the pleasure to meet in my life. Along with one of Jeff's friends, Marcus whom we later met because he was crushin' on Jen, they were our entourage and we were theirs. Thanks to them we got to see the city in a whole new light and it was GREAT.