Visiting Opus 88 in Taipei

 

One of the first visits we booked in Taipei was to see Kelly from Opus 88, and it’s been one of my favourite things we’ve done so far. It was a good omen for our trip to start off so early with this marvellous day.

 

 

Kelly was such a gracious host, picking us up at our hotel and bringing us over to her factory and offices. While Jon and Kelly’s dad, Michael, chatted about pens and the history of Opus 88 and their pen manufacturing journey, Kelly brought the kids out to 7/11 for cold drinks and some treats, and me and the baby tried to sit on the meeting before having to be kicked out into the laneway for making strange noises and trying to gobble up all the cut fruit.

 

 

And then we got a little tour of where they assemble and polish and paint pens. I feel super lucky that we caught them when we did, as the building they’re currently in is going to go under development soon, and Opus 88 will be moving to a new location. Kelly showed us the back room where she used to nap and watch her son when he was a baby and it really brought back memories of 906 Dundas West and Caleb when he was just a tot and I was napping him in the storage room with all bottles of ink teetering around me. (My set-up was slightly more rustic than Kelly’s.)

 

 

And we even got a sneak peek at something new! Jon’s brought it home with him.

 

 

 

Before dinner, Kelly brought the kids out to a claw arcade, where you use the claw to drop down and catch some prizes. I’ve heard of a few in Toronto, but these are super popular here in Taiwan, and you can find big and small ones all over.

 

Caleb had the time of his life, and was generous enough to dole out his winnings with the rest of us.

 

 

The kids had a blast, and here is a picture of Auntie Kelly explaining to Naomi how to fit more stuffed animals into her bag.

 

 

Caleb turned out to be very good at this claw thing, and he ended up with too many stuffed animals for our luggage, given that we needed to reserve room for stationery, so finally I banned him from getting any more toys, and he had to try his hand at more useful things like snacks and toilet paper.

 

 

Afterwards, Kelly took us out for Peking Duck, so basically a really excellent day. I didn’t get any photos of the dinner, but it was probably the best dinner we’ve had in Taipei. Stinky tofu and Taiwan Beer and roast duck and air conditioning and pretty great company. We were going to try and find mango shaved ice afterwards, in this hot and heavy mango season, but Naomi was fading fast from the jet lag and we had to call it a day. Me and the kids are still in Taipei for a little while longer, so we might try to call Auntie Kelly up for the mango ice.

 

What a gift and a privilege it is to be able to travel in this way, meeting with these people whose pens we’ve held in our hands but whom we’ve never met in person, to let them show us their city and share a meal.