First there was nothing

There really is very little separating relative calm from infernos of spending in this country and I've felt the kindling building up for a while now. Having two instant gratification-type personalities in a place full of temptations and endless monopoly money is what people in the metaphor business would call "bushfire conditions". As always, the spark ignited just as we had declared we were going to be sensible; I think I'm finally starting to understand why we love it here.

It started a week or so ago when we found ourselves looking around for "cheap" flights - Lisa's visa bell rings at the end of July and we need to make a mad dash across the sea and back before they'll give her a tourist visa. After a significant pow-wow that started in Hong Kong and ended up somewhere in the Philippines, we decided that we should use the opportunity to go somewhere closeby that we wouldn't normally go; after rifling through a few inexplicably expensive options we settled on Taiwan. We decided not to rush in though - there was plenty of time before the end of July to make an informed decision. 12 hours later it was booked and paid for. Accommodation took a bit longer - I think it was a solid 24 hours before I had the credit card out again.

Fortunately I think we made the right decisions. Everyone I've spoken to has said Taipei was gorgeous - endless shopping centres, markets and dim sum stalls, all completely unspoiled by beaches or hiking trails. Learning well from a ghastly "hostel" experience in Korea several years ago, I've officially hung up my backpack and decided to splash out on hotels. The words "steam bath" and "jacuzzi" may have come up as well; I'm fairly confident that our bathroom alone will be bigger than some of the YMCAs I've stayed at.

Right, we said at this point, that's it now. All that expensive stuff for the apartment can wait until later in the year. Like that dining table with matching chairs and bench. And that lovely metal-topped kitchen counter with the separate drawers for the recycling bin. And that rug that would match everything beautifully. All with free delivery and assembly. Yes, just on credit thanks.

I think we both knew it was going to happen - we went out on Saturday "just to have a look" and found a nice but eye-wateringly expensive dining setting which kind of put a high water mark in our brains - anything cheaper than that was going to be a bargain. You should have seen how much we saved. As we walked out stuffing receipts into our pockets, Lisa pointed out that we're just going to have to repeat the whole process when we get home. She didn't sound very unhappy about that.

Shoes in UFO catchers: the new sensible

It sounds strange after all that, but the week was relatively sensible otherwise. Lisa has finally cracked the codex that is home delivery of groceries which hopefully means no more farmer's walks up the hill with bags of shopping. We've been clearing the decks for our first delivery, using up the last of what's in the freezer and hoping that it actually shows up as planned. This has resulted in some interesting meals - an attempt at Pad Thai on Friday night ended up better described as "salty glue with prawns" - but fortunately they were nice for the most part.

Turkish eggs - better than salty glue with prawns

We headed out to a local bar to wash the taste out and met a Japanese guy called "Tommy" who said he had been to China 500 times; clearly we need to go out for beers more often. I don't think that'll be a problem though - spending is thirsty work.