We met for coffee at my favourite hotel coffee shop. It’s been more than a year since I’ve been there. I used to meet all of my real estate clients there. The Huether Hotel. A long and varied history. Rumour has it that there was a tunnel under the road to the stables across the street that Al Capone used back in the day to smuggle whiskey. In the 70s it was the Kent Hotel with strippers and a businessman’s lunch. Or so it is told. It was the kind of place that a lot of boys and young men were injured with the heavy glass ashtrays they used to have on all the tables that took to the air when fights broke out. Now The Huether Hotel is a stately old building with a coffee shop with high ceilings and exposed brick.
We sat in the window with our feet up on the low radiator ledge. I always sat there when I’m alone working, or when I was waiting for a client to show up. I like to watch the pedestrians walking by. The Hotel is one of the last buildings UpTown before it peters out into a bit of a no man’s land before the university district starts. The students are back in town. Classes start next week.
So, Mike is going to retire and move to Taiwan and he wanted to meet me. We had a nice chat. I don’t know if I will see him again. I hope to, in Taiwan. He will be happy there. Personally I think that Taitung is a poor choice. It’s too remote, too isolated. Mike is from Toronto. I don’t know how you can move from the biggest city in Canada to one of the smallest in Taiwan. But then again, I’m thinking I’d like to live in Hengchun and that’s even more remote.
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