I thought one of the first things I'd do once I got back to Taiwan is get back to the gym, but a week and a half later I still haven't. Tomorrow will mark four weeks I haven't been to the gym, but I'll try to go by tomorrow.

Granted I caught a head cold the day after I got back, but that cleared by mid-week last week, and physically I'm go for activity. I've been in a slump in addition to a sleep slump since flying to New Jersey.

I hardly slept at all on the flight to New Jersey, and immediately upon arrival my sleep pattern has been pretty constant to this day; that is, going to sleep between 1 and 3 a.m., sleeping roughly between 4 or 5 hours, and then crashing out for a nap later in the day or evening. It's not enough sleep, but I'm alright.

I guess motivation in general has been low. Slump. I'm in danger of alcoholism overwhelming. I'm in danger of becoming totally unmotivated and comfortable doing nothing. Which, as I recall, wasn't that bad as long as I don't get restless in it. I've even felt some possible relapses in my appetite. Not being able to eat is not something I want to go back to.

And now for something completely different, after almost 9 years in Taiwan, I'm pretty jaded about any ridiculousness here. I thought I'd seen it all. But something I'd never experienced was to buy something and find the item not in the box.

Yesterday I went to the supposed premier music store in Taiwan, ATB, and bought a Korg PX5D multifex unit. I had already scoped it out at another store and saw that the price was at least NT$8,000, so when I was quoted NT$7,500 at ATB, I went for it.

It's a weird feeling buying something and opening up the box and finding the item not there. I knew where it was. At the store, I had perused the box and noticed the actual unit sitting on the shelf, basically making it a display unit. That's when and where I asked about the price, got the quote and took the box believing a new unit was in the box based on the heft of the box (thick user's manual). And mind you the store people looked like they didn't give two shits whether I was interested in buying the unit or not.

So basically, someone had removed the unit from the box, left it on the shelf and still had the box displayed for purchase and no one at the store was responsible for putting two and two together and making sure if they sold the item, the item would be in the box.

I was as livid as I could get, which is not very livid (mindfulness practice), considering I was considering how livid I should act when I went back to the store. I ended up taking the civil, non-confrontational approach, but was fairly direct about it, that I wanted my money back.

The consumer experience of buying something and then finding the item bought absent = I'm not buying it from this store. To one of the store worker's credit, he looked reasonably horrified that this happened. He knew it was bad. Not to the store's credit, none of the other workers seemed at all interested that this happened and that they were losing a sale.

Anyway, I went to the other store which was selling the unit for NT$8,800 on the price tag and told them ATB was selling it for NT$7,500, just hoping they would match the price, and they gave a further discount at NT$7,300. I haggled without even knowing it. A seasoned haggler could've gotten it down to at least NT$7,000. I am not that seasoned haggler.

Needless to say, ATB is no longer the go-to place for music items for me. The store from which I ended up buying the item was Player Music Instruments, near exit 3 of the Chiang-Kai Shek Memorial MRT station.