Breaking in my Dream Stoop

Part of street skating is drinking beer on stoops. Someone people might disagree, but they're chi-gwai. After years of semi-antisocial behavior in Taipei, I certainly developed a catalogue of preferred stoops. I've drank beer sitting on curbs, on marble ledges, in front of churches, in alleys, at seven's, on quiet streets, on loud and busy streets, in parks, by handrails, by public toilets, all up and down linsen bei, nearby the house and far far far away from home. I've always been partial to roof stoops, partly for the rhyme, but mostly for the view and the breeze and the superiority I feel over all the people who aren't skating Taipei and drinking beer after on a roof.

A series of personal disasters has made this a bad month, but at least one dream came true: my own personal penthouse roof stoop. For those who don't know, most older buildings in Taiwan have a sort of fungal appartment growth on the top. These places are cheap, because they're illegal (maybe unregulated is the better word) and they're hot in the summer, if they're not properly insulated, which they aren't, because they're not regulated. I'll solve that problem when I get to it. For now, I have a roof top entirely to myself.

Unfortunately, having started a new job, I haven't made time to move all my shit, and I rather romantically decided to move my skateboard last. I haven't had time to skate much, but then I haven't had the heart to either. So I missed the session. IS and the mysterious jumpro went to the bridge, and made their way over here when the lights went out. We hauled a couple of dozen beers up six flights of stairs and to my delight, found out jumpro is someone with whom I can get along. We drank beer and chatted on the roof until we ran out of etoh. Jumpro is flying out for work, and I'm flying out for family shit. IS is doing all the skating. I hope RMJ gets some sessions in while I'm gone. One week in the motherland during the onset of winter is going to suck. It's about 30-40 degrees colder than here.