The Friday letter · No. 03

The week before the holiday

Friday, September 18, 2026 · From the Taipei desk

Next Friday is Mid-Autumn. Monday is Teacher’s Day. This is the week you do the clinic, book the train, buy the fruit, and answer the balcony text.

01 · Living
A clinic before Thursday
The four-day weekend is not when you want a throat. Neighborhood clinics close. The big hospitals run a holiday list. Go now.
02 · Culture
Say yes to the balcony
The invitation will be casual, late, and easy to decline. Don’t. Fruit, something that can sit on tile, and showing up is the whole custom.
03 · Travel
Do not go east on the 24th
The TRA to Yilan and Hualien on Thursday night is a punishment, not a holiday. Book the HSR now, or wait until October.
04 · Business
The mooncake box on the desk
It will arrive on Wednesday. You do not have to eat it. You do have to know what it is for.
- Mid-Autumn
- Work

This week in Taiwan History

21 September 1999 — the night they still call 921

Monday is twenty-seven years later. It is why people still ask how old a building is, and why some of us keep a bag by the door.

Until Friday.