Well, that was a very interesting Saturday night!

After a very hard week of feeling festive (for about 10 minutes) and working our respective socks off, me and Phil decided at around 10pm on Saturday that we should head out for a quick can of beer and a game of pool.

Well, the many pool tables were busy, so we were invited to play two local lads called Diwan and Ben. Their English was marginally better than our Chinese, but as is the Taiwanese way, they insisted on paying for everything (i.e. lots of beer). An hour later their friends turned up and we all drove across town in a Honda full of bass bins and techno CDs to a new Radio Bar that played Western tunes! (I've never been so glad to hear Bon-blumming-Jovi!).

Cue lots more beer drinking ("GAMBAY!" or down in one competitions) and a seemingly ever-increasing group of hangers-on. By these point me and Phil were approaching sozzledom at some speed, so we figured it a good idea to arrange a plan for after the Radio Bar, comprising the English theme pub near our apartment and a bit of karaoke singing (I know, I'm embarassed typing this, believe me).

Once our new friends heard this plan, the venue changed to a local KTV joint. KTV (or Karaoke Television) places feature seperate rooms for each group of friends, complete with karaoke set-up, big screen, surround sound etc. And, the rumour seems to be, that many of the bigger KTV places are Mafia hangouts (Yank friend Todd has some experience of this thanks to one dodgy friend).

This place was a little KTV though and seemed okay (i.e. it was open), so in we all piled. Our friend Ben seemed to be getting shouted at in the corridor while he was trying to pay for us all. The next thing we know a very angry Taiwanese man in red top was laying into Ben with some real venom, as were his friends. This went on for a couple more minutes, with Diwan and newly arrived friend Nada trying to help Ben and getting punched in the process.

Luckily, me and Phil were in 'sensible/coward' mode though it was hairy just watching once Ben was a bleeding heap on the floor and his attackers were still trying to break him into little pieces. At this point Phil decided to make a break for our KTV room and get out of the way. He motioned for me to follow (though I was well rooted to the spot by now), and as he tried to slope past the angry mob the red-topped numpty decided to take a swing or two at the foreigner. Phil now has a great black eye to scare his kids with.

Anyhoos, after the ambulance and the fuzz had been and gone, we were told not to worry about anything, more beer was drunk, and I helped the group forget their woes with a screaching version of Loveshack, followed by a more tempered and dare I say it, almost in tune, version of Nowhere Man by the Beatles.

What time I left the place and how I got home, I don't know. How I felt on waking up the next afternoon I certainly do know and it features the letters R-O-U-G-H!