"See Me Here" (不见不散) LV520 sound stick

One year ago when in Taiwan I paid a visit to Taoyuan Weekend Flower market. "Weekend" because it is open only on Saturday. It is located between Taoyuan City and Gueishan Township, close to Nankan creek. It is a bit hidden, under a main road that cross the river, but also on a "pedestrian" bridge, that is in fact a scooter lane decorated with vegetable sales tables. The best attraction in the flower market is of course the most wonderful orchids, all colours and sizes.

 This is Nankan creek or river. The flower market is to the right from this view.

The Flower Market is located UNDER this road. On the little bridge you can see vegetable vendors, but the orchids are under the big bridge.

Don Esaias is my faithful travel buddy. One of his soft spots is the exaggerated attraction to flowers. An other one you will learn shortly when we talk about the "See Me Here portable sound system".

Orchids at the Taoyuan Weekend Flower Market.

At this market I met a gentleman who was selling small portable audio systems. Unfortunately I have lost his name card. Probably I threw it  away when cleaning my table. His english was impeccable. Taiwanese military officials and civil servants retire young, around 50 years or so. After that they get another job or are busy with a hobby, like calligraphy or cycling. This guy had cycling as his passion and was selling bicycle equipment, including audio systems for biycles. Yes, that is totally normal in Taiwan. You do listen to music from loudspeakers attached on your bicycle. You often see older gentlemen sitting in the park listening to equally old pocket radio close to their ear. Bicycle audio system is just a more modern variation of that tradition. I bought this red curvy gadget from this vendor and paid, if I remember right, 1 400 new Taiwan dollars (NTD) that is around 35 euros. Battery charger and one Nokia BL-5C rechargeable battery included.

This is See Me Here LV520-iii portable audio system, speaker for smart phone or laptop, it is MP3-player and FM radio, radio-recorder. It looks good and feels smooth and curvy and the sound is BIG and clear.  It works with ordinary Nokia rechargeable battery, recharging through USB, Line-in, AUX and slot for SD memory card for MP3's and for the WAV files that come from the recording function. FM broadcast and microfone input are recorded in WAV format.

I will introduce this baby in more detail.

DSC_0618, a photo by Taiwanfinn on Flickr.

DSC_0615, a photo by Taiwanfinn on Flickr.

Now this machine is in its element outdoors. In Taiwan many people equipe their bicycle with this kind of mobile stereo. It may look weird, but it probably is great fun. I wanted to try. As I don't have a special stereo fixing gear in my bicycle I decided to use cable ties. In the following photo you can see the result.



Don Esaias is enjoying ride while listening to his favourite music. He likes Metal! That is his other soft spot. The loudspeaker is tighty fit on the handle bar and will not fall. Cable ties I bought at Aldi with 2 euros a big bag. It doesn't matter if I cut them after cycling trip and use a new ones next time.




VORSICHT! Beware falling ice! I wouldn't mind falling ice cream after that long uphill.


Blachette telecommunications tower is the king of the landscape. It is on a high hill, 200 meters higher that the river Alzette, where I just came. Don Esaias is tired and deserve some break. But downhill is waiting. Before that we admire farmers harvesting the first grass. It is late May now. I guess they make SILAGE, which is high moisture fodder for the cows and other ruminant cattle. I have to mention that the only Finnish person who won Nobel Prize in chemistry was A.I.Virtanen. He developed a fodder that could be stored for the cattle to eat during the long winter months, a special silage called AIV Fodder.




This is how fresh good smelling tender grass is cut by a harvester. It will be stored in big silos for the later use during winter. Silage must be firmly packed to minimize the oxygen content, or it will spoil.


 

Next I want to show how LV520 portable audio system works while riding.

Here we go, listening to Brahms violin concerto while riding! Wonderful. Recording suffer when the wind blows in the camera microphone. It is very enjoyable. Very few such evenings we have had this May.



Here Don Esaias is enjoying more exotic sounds from Sawt ul Libya al-Hurra, 675 kHz.
Myke Dodge Weiskopf Myke has a wonderful hobby of recording music broadcast on short wave. Recently he traveled to Socotra, a group of islands in the Indian Ocean, belonging to the Republic of Yemen. This is part of one of his recordings that he provided to all who supported him is his trip. He is doing important work for preserving world sound heritage.



But it is metal music that Don Esaias loves:




Something sweeter, Birds singing together with Hllsong Brazil.