Picture a table of Australia supporters, self-described "Socceroos," alternating between tight-fitting rugby jerseys and wide-brimmed hats reminiscent of Indiana Jones as they watch the World Cup at Taipei's Brass Monkey.
Nearby, office workers helped themselves to theater-style seating or the tops of tables, with late-arriving groups of women having to fend for themselves, either standing at the bar or outside where they clutched their cellphones, giving the bar a distinctly Ladies' Night feel.
One girl named "Kelly" (a pseudonym she chose this year because most expats have trouble pronouncing her real name) says she's only "30 percent interested in the game," and mostly interested in the men -- she will cheer for any team from Europe.
She might even be persuaded to cheer for Australia in future after hearing boisterous Socceroo cheers of "Oi, Oi, Oi" as the Australian side raced out to an improbable 3-1 lead in the dying minutes.
The sudden support for Australia was a surprise, as many in the crowd had cheered Japan's lone goal in the first half.
This, of course, could have been the alcohol.
At an earlier World Cup match, an out-of-town businessman bought Kelly five drinks, a plate of calamari and admission to Carnegie's later in the evening.
Her drinking got a little "out of control" because she rarely watches sports events and wasn't sure about what to order.
"Wine is too pretentious for the World Cup, and a beer is too rude -- like a man's drink -- so I had a couple of Cosmopolitans," she said.
Others were consuming buckets of VB, Corona and Heineken, delivered by an efficient service staff, which dispensed dollar notes from waist packs.
One server named Julie said that business has been "big" on weekend nights, potentially disrupting tomorrow's Ladies' Night when a midnight match between England and Trinidad and Tobago will pack the bar.
Kelly doesn't have a favorite team, though she knows enough to predict that games involving England, Australia and Germany attract a large crowd.
Anthony Bery isn't surprised that a lot of women are watching World Cup games.
A native of Gisborne, New Zealand, he says that soccer is mainly a women's sport in his country, or else played by 13 to 17-year-old boys who cannot compete in rugby with Samoans or Maoris.
Regarding this World Cup, Bery says: "I'll be Aussie, I gotta look after them," referring to the All Blacks' bitter rivals in next month's Tri-Nations Rugby Tournament.
His work as a textbook editor taught him that Brass Monkey is an old sailing term for a dimpled brass plate or "monkey" upon which cannonballs are stacked.
When the weather turns cold, the brass contracts, sending cannonballs loose below deck, leading to the lewd nautical phrase, "cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey."
The World Cup has unleashed a similar form of chaos at this particular Brass Monkey.
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