ONE OK ROCK CONCERT

Sanoへ：

今まで、私はONE OK ROCKのライブを見るのは想像以外と思っています。でも君のおかげで、私はONE OK ROCKのコンサートを知ってた、そして見に行きました。あの夜は最高でした。人生で大切な思い出のひとつになりました。自分がとても好きなバンドのパフォーマンスを見られる、心から感謝します。仲間と一緒にこの体験を共にできるのは...良かったね～

マリアより。

sense of protectiveness

Maria says:

monday my colleague's daughter (1 yr old) fell sick and was rushed to kkh but now ok.

it kinda got me thinking

if i had my own kid

and i'm the kind that worry loads.

i think i'll hv panic attacks every other day

-__-

maciam someone cut my flesh

i think i will become godzilla mom

Dil says:

i wonder if you'll be the ultra-protective of the kid

*ultra-protective parent

Maria says:

prob not the senseless kind. but def protective as in like if some kid bully my kid

I'LL BEAT THEM UP

Dil says:

i can so forsee that happening~

i dont know eh.. but i guess kids these days do fall sick easier

Maria says:

ya so u dun come n poke my cow jr. i'll beat u up

Dil says:

"come with uncle susu k? uncle will buy you stufffffff" HAHAHAH

kidding

i'll probably be the play-time uncle

XD

Maria says:

i will show pictures n tell him 'this one, is uncle mt fuji susu. u must ask hiim buy things for u'

XD

Dil says:
ISH!

familiar faces from my past

my lousy stamina during the muay thai training session made me wonder where my energy has gone. hah!  in my younger years (bras basah era), i could run around whole day along playing soccer, rollerblade, block catching etc. now, i can't last long enough before i need to stop and catch my breath. brutal truth of aging. sigh~

then the thinking back of my long-gone younger years, reminded me of my fun-filled days in bras basah: the shouting across blocks, the games, quarrels and laughters, the young girl crushes i've had, tons of messages i received on my pager from weiming ask me to come down to play soccer... now that it's gone and will never return.. i'm just glad that at least, i had those memories before.

then this reminiscing had me stalked Jack's facebook for a while heh I was trying very hard to find old faces and hoping that perhaps.. some of them kept contact with each other. for my secondary school (CHIJ girls) friends, it was a breeze. but somehow, for these bunch of idiots (bras basah boys), IT WAS HARD!

geez!

i managed to only find Alvin cos he is Jack's cousin and i suspect William is Jia Hao but i'm not sure cos i can barely recall his looks... but.. WHERE ARE THE OTHERS!? my goodness. so damn hard to find! worse is the fact that they might have some self-given English names by now?? i know them all by their chinese names! they might not even be on facebook!

and the thing about childhood friends is there features will change over the years. either they look pretty much the same, or they look different (for the better or for the worse). i know i look different from what i used to be in those primary-secondary school years so i was surprised when Jack could recognize me when we bumped into each other again in Tampines about 4 years ago. noteworthy fact is that it did take him several minutes walking next to me while we were heading towards the same direction ahead and all we did was continue to walk and stare at each other with squinty eyes and after what seemed like forever, he asked "Maria...??". i replied him with a grin. he looked the same but i've changed.

i remember bumping into xinxian at bras basah and exchanged phone numbers with him but we barely contacted each other so once again, contact was lost. i'm just not thick skinned enough to keep msging someone randomly. i think partly it was due to low self-esteem.

so for a final count, i have Ivan and Jack in my list. i'm not sure why but i didn't add Alvin. The rest... are lost.. in the haystack. hehz

27th Birthday

Had a great time hanging out with friends prior to my actual birthday. :)

last but not the least, a group shot.

AFAX

Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

I spent (or rather, burnt) my weekend helping out at AFAX.

I don't mind having to work almost 12 hours each day, waking up before the sun is up and not being able to spend time with my husband BUT there were incidents that were undesirable and mostly irritating because of inconsiderate people.

However, I chose to retain the memories of only the good ones and soon, I'll forget about those unhappy moments.

I enjoyed meeting new people, working backstage, smiling and chatting earnestly with some of my fellow colleagues & the freelance production crews, seeing the artistes / famous cosplayers up-front, shaking the hands of Hironobu Kageyama of JAM Project, getting to listen to what Aniki has to say and hearing his earnest replies (which made me felt touched and teary for a very long time until I wanted to rush up and hug the old man), listening to JAM Project & Angela's concert & feel my adrenaline rush up to an ultimate high (saikou desu!), have Aniki grin at me (his mgr is very cute and his name is Ryohei), shaking hands & exchanging name cards with Danny Choo (actually this happened later in the office), Kaname-san giving me his printed cosplay card & wanting to give me a light stick during the concert, my playful elbow jabbing session with Angela + May'n's Japanese translator, Scandal's Japanese translator's surprised but kind compliment about my Japanese being good (when it sucked), getting to know first-hand that Kaname & Alodia are pretty humble and nice people, meeting my own friends there .... these memories are worth keeping.

So unhappy incidents aside, I've had rewarding moments and I guess it's enough.

 I had fun. :)

@ Carlton hotel

JAM PROJECT!

(sigh.. my hp sucks)

'She' who cannot be named.

hehehehehehehehehehe

Aniki anxiously waiting for his turn

KANAME, Me

(Cosplay character: Black Rock Shooter)

Stage

What's left of me.

♥♥ いつも「HAPPY」だよ ♥♥

...って、今そう言う感じをもっていますね。

失ってしまいましたと思った友達は戻返しました。

これから、私たちも一緒だよ！

いつか誰を失うことは欲しくない。

Re-charge

The best way to relax and re-charge yourself with positivity is a good night out with your best buddies.

Ramen Day!

Today... is RAMEN DAY! (self-declared) WOO-HOOO!

hehehehehe

Finally made arrangements with Kelv kor to meet up for dinner tonight @ some restaurant in Robertson Quay. Not too sure where yet but mystery will be revealed later tonight! Too bad Immy not free to join us.

Hope it's a night of good food, good fun and good conversations. it's been a while since i met my friends to catch up and Wilson pointed it out to me yesterday.

"You haven't been hanging out with your friends lately"

Indeed, I haven't. It's not as if I don't have the time. Perhaps it's because others seems more busy than me. lol come to think of it, most of them are on shift work, otherwise doing over-time, and my only teh-peng kaki is now drinking teh from Shanghai instead. The only way we get to keep the communication going is online / sms. Seriously, I can't even remember the last time I had a really long phone conversation with anyone besides Terry!

I wanted to post some random ramen pic googled online but I think I'll save it for a pic of what I'm gonna eat tonight!

Recently I suggested having a group trip with a small group of close friends to Japan (hopefully Tokyo-Kyoto). The usual challenges faced in planning a trip is always finding the right date & time where everyone is available and to sort out the places we wanna go, the budget, etc etc. I REALLY want it to happen!! I mean I've been wanting to have a group trip to Japan with Immy, Kor, Aidil (& of course I'm lugging Mr Ho along) for the loooooooongest time ever and always thought it might've been some wishful thinking of mine.

Then I had a thought one day. Why wishful thinking? Things CAN happen if we put our minds to it. So I decided to ask formally. Enthusiasm is definitely aroused but since it seems far, everyone's initiative is not fueled yet but me being ME - quote & unquote Ching's usual chiding of me being a perfectionist - I'm starting to get very restless and once again jaded about the lack of initiative except from me. I think I have to stop thinking that way but I guess it's my default defense mechanism against getting hurt from disappointment. Past experiences only act to reinforce that conviction and now that it's so deeply set, it's a bit hard to eradicate.

But I've decided to take the dive and trust my friends so.. if I have to nag... I'LL NAG! and they've not seen me in my full prowess attained from work! So BEWARE... lest you initiate my nagging mechanism, I trust you guys will do your homeworks well. *smirk* Yes, it's a threat. :) I bite. Hard. It's painful. You can ask Mr Ho.

xoxo,
MW

prawn fishing

went to Heidi's first mth bday celebration just now. managed to pass Ranna the present and was about to settle down to grab some food and the sms came.

lost my appetite after that.

went back to work after that even though it's a saturday.

found out what went wrong and settled it with SPTL. heng the supervisor on shift is a nice guy.

luckily both JC and gu are around to accompany me too.

it started raining when we were at Ranna's chalet so when we went to get our bike to go to my office, gu forgot to bring along my helmet (left at the chalet) so he had to walk back. i waited @ the shelter but he took 15 mins to go back n forth and by the time he returned, he was all drenched. nonetheless, he was still giving me his smiles and stood by me when i was feeling down. "through thick & thin", he said. my gu is still the best.

anyway, problem arose because of an unfortunate technical glitch, or so to speak. it was nobody's intention to have this happen although i wouldn't say it's a huge prob. but anyway, it got settled so that's that. didn't want to think about it anymore. so what if i got it sorted out? thankless job. sometimes i wonder why i put in so much effort. JC ask me not to blame myself cos not my fault/problem but i can't help it. i always blame myself first whether or not it's my prob.

anyway,
then i went prawn fishing with my colleagues; Kerry & James, JC & Chai Yee, & my gu. James' friend (forgot the name) joined us later. it's my first time trying out prawn fishing and we went to this rather ulu place in pasir ris but surprisingly (to me la), there's quite a lot of people. it's pretty relaxing to fish for prawns cos ur mind is solely focused on the yellow float which tells me whether i've got a prawn on my line. caught 2 big ones and one female one. then... got played by the same prawn 5 times. stupid thing bit my bait several times but escaped each time. SHIT. it's fun because of the crowd i'm with and it's fun to watch people getting excited with their catch. James' friend is pretty enthu too. came with a box of fish hooks and stuff. he could've been our audio guy if not because of his "over-experience" which is kinda ironic. he gave me some advice but still... the prawns are getting away from me!!! RARRR!! he managed to catch one after he took over my fishing rod lah.


waaaaait & wait & wait...


finally!!

this night activity took a load off my mind and my attention was all on the prawns.

we left at about 2+AM in the morning. fished for 2.5hrs (or a little more).

was nearly sabo-ed to bring back the prawns but heng we didn't if not my mom will fry me.

anyway, it's fun. wouldn't mind go prawn fishing again next time. :)

lionel is online (facebook) while i'm writing this entry. we're now sharing our "prawn fishing" experience. it'll be fun to hang out with my cousins to fish for prawns too. he 'onz' me liao but duno when it'll happen cos we all don't have car. =_=" hah.

bridesmaid cards

Guess i'm really good in keeping things under wraps hehehe.

i've been planning for the past month on doing a bridesmaid card for my ladies (inspired by Once Wed) and have been working on it ever since. i DID procrastinate on it for quite awhile but alas, i've gotten it done!

first and foremost, OF COS it can't possibly be a direct replica of what you see on the net. customisation is always needed to make it special. like i've said, i'm inspired by the idea but that's as far as it goes!

found a nice poem from another template website and thought it's pretty cool.

apart from making a card just to satisfy my itchy crafty fingers to diy something or ANYTHING (finding excuses for myself), i wonder what was the point of me doing these cards & why.

then i've realised & decided why.

1) momento that's one of a kind
2) to show how thankful i am
3) i bet they'll be surprised!

i visited POPULAR bookstore and stood at the cards section for ages. good thing i've decided not to bring wilson along or he would've been bored waiting for me to take my pick (as usual!).

since the bridesmaid dresses are gonna be champagne gold in colour, it's an obvious pick for my paper colour.

the $2 cutting board & $2 craft knife from DAISO came in handy.

i was slowly preparing the paper cutouts over the past few weeks - it took me quite a while since i had to make four sets of everything.

i used photoshop to design the look for the cards. worked on it for a few hours and finally, i finalised on something and found good fonts to go with it.

these are test prints. ink smeared a little as the inkjet don't work too well on uneven paper surfaces. i switched to a smoother paper surface later and the result was great.

preview of that paper-cut outs. as you can see, hairstyles are designed to resemble the ladies themselves. i scribbed their names on each of their own cut-outs.

packaging it for the final look. there's not mistake in identifying which card is meant for who cos it's specially made for YOU!

a personal belief: details must be perfected to even the very last bit. the name and address is the first thing ANYONE sees when they receive a letter. if you wanna do a job, u gotta do it right. took me 20 minutes to scribble on the envelopes as i tried to replicate the font used in the cards. then again, using the SAME font for everything is a bit of an over-kill so i kept to a simpler handwriting for the addresses.

baby jacket

baby apple in my knit wear!!!

OMG SO CUTE!!!

mad adorable right!?

MH sent me the pics of her baby girl wrapped up in the knitwear gift i made for her last month. it's deliberately made oversized so that baby can wear it longer but seriously, it's HUGE! but cute! even at 2 mths old, baby apple is tiny.

MJ

was @ fiona's hse when the east side kakis were bz playing MJ.
when they took a break i entertained myself with baby Travis.
cute right? nxt time grow will be rather handsome but a bit bratty la - -" but too cute to resist @ the moment.

had to let gu practise holding babies cos he suck @ it hahahahaha


gu with baby Travis

i'm glad gu didn't 'manage' to knock Trav's head on the mj table altho i think he nearly did a few times when he couldn't control Trav.

i ended up using my knee cap to block the corner of the mj table while having Trav lie stomach dwn on my thighs. he was like swimming on it then kept wiggling and sticking his pampered butt into my stomach. - -"

Surprise of the year!

my lovely colleagues crowded around my desk and gave me one of the best presents i've ever received. XD

I've been warned that something's coming my way altho i have no clue what it was and today was the day to reveal the mysterious package they've gotten for me.

wrapped inside a isetan paper bag was this queer looking pink box.
in fact, when i took it out i was still pretty clueless what it was.
i thought perhaps it was some figurine.
there was this picture on the box so i was 50% sure it's some sort of figurine UNTIL i turned it to the other side and found the word 'fragrance' lol.

so it's a perfume!

and it's the strangest looking thing ever!

what i was later informed, was that this is a line of perfume launched by Gwen Stefani with her Harajuku back up dancers and my figurine was one of the back up dancers with hair like grapes and i thought it looked like 'da chang jing' (jewel in the palace). lolx

but the cuteness of it all grows on me and the more i look at it the more i like it.
the perfume smells like baby powder. i like. haha better than flower scent.



here's a peek at how the whole set would look. =D


Image Source: Layers of Meaning

it fits nicely with my collection. lol
but i placed it there for the photo shoot only.
not as if i'll really leave it there!!!
later give ppl use until no more!

My 25th Birthday

Had a splendid time preparing for my BBQ (rather hectic but it was all worth it) and I'm just glad it turned out fine and the crowd that came was great too. The food was great and many helped prepared some of the stuff and luckily I was sane enough to cut down on the amount of meat we bought this year that we hardly had any leftover (unlike last year!!) ^ ^;

Wilson has been a great help with the buying of groceries and stuff and being the driver of the day on Saturday. He even bought me two cakes! The chalet was sponsored by my lovely east coast kakis and thank god cos it started raining in the afternoon. If i was left to make the decision myself I would've booked just a BBQ pit. O_O

I enjoy preparing food and enjoy feeding people and to see all happy fed faces was my greatest return. a colleague asked me why bother with all the preparation when it's my birthday and i should've left it to others. it's what i like to do i guess. as long as i enjoy doing what i do, that's what counts right? even if some people don't understand that, so long as somebody out there does, it's good enough for me.

it was a little nerve wrecking at first when no one seemed to reply about whether they'll be coming beforehand to help and i did started out with all the food preparation alone and towards the end, help started coming in and although i've pretty much finished up most of the food preparation, the help that came in later did magic afterall haha.

i probably had a bit too much alcohol? all thanks to my lovely colleagues with their crazy rule about me not being the winner = i have to drink. damn. and CL topping up my cup constantly with great amt of liqour.

here's the photos we took:

Album 1

Album 2

Album 3

i was actually very touched on sunday cos gu have been the sweetest thing. i was still a little groggy from the night before and wasn't fully sober so gu had to guide me around but the thing was, he had very sleep as well. probably just an hour or two but he still brought me to AFA cos he knew i wanted to go and even remembered to buy me my fav Mr. Brown coffee when we were at the petrol station. that caught me my surprise but oh well heh! he wasn't feeling too well cos of the lack of sleep but he didn't complain either. just patiently followed me around while we squeezed through the crowd in AFA. altho it was the second day of the event already, it's still damn crowded. to reward my dear, i treated him to MOF haha!

black n white

i'm in a little 'black and white photo' mood lately lol.

ok i shall procastinate no more and blog about my taiwan trip~~

it's been a busy month for me ever since my return that i hardly had any time to even sit back relax and re-think about my experiences in taiwan for that fact that it's my first time overseas and on a plane!

lol

the first thing i had to deal with when i returned to singapore was my homework that's due the following week(s), every alternative week and all the work that has been piling up is killing me.

but ANYWAY! All the gloomy things aside, now it's for me to revisit the memories of Taiwan~!

I'll do a day by day recount. Easier haha.. =DDD

Day 1 (19/05/08)

Gu borrowed his bro's car the night before so that he can send me to the airport. Mom wanted to tag along and I decided to give Karen a lift since she stays in the east side as well and we have a car. Save cab fare.

I spent the previous night packing my suitcase and I finally decided to just bring only a pair of slippers with me while wearing my newly purchased adiddas sneakers hahaha.. other than that, i brought only 3 tshirts with me and a pair of extra jeans. i didn't bring alot of things actually. my luggage was 1/3 filled. the other 2/3 are presents to be brought over for MH. Nagged @ Karen to have her remove more things from her luggage cos she overpacked (after having her recount to me what she's bringing). Grr....

our flight to Taiwan will be from Changi Airport Terminal 1 @ 1pm+. So I pretty much left home around 10am so that I can reach the airport earlier to grab some lunch. We couldn't find T1's carpark so we parked in T2 instead and took the SkyTrain over. Checked in our luggages first before having lunch in Popeye cos Karen said she haven't tried it before (surprised!!!) lol. SiewMei came over to pass me some letters for MH as well as the red packet for her wedding.

Mom was pretty worried about me cos she kept nagging non-stop. Dad was nagging non-stop the night before as well. Gu pretty much just stayed close the whole time haha

I'm surprised that I wasn't too unsettled though I've always thought that I had this phobia for flights. I guess it's not the physically getting up the plane and sitting thro it that gets on my nerve. but anyway, we hung around till it's about time for us to get in. After handing my passport over to have it checked, Karen told me my mom was still at the gate. I thought they've left. Think I was too preoccupied that I forgot they might still be around. Turned around and waved at mom & gu before walking in.

We took JetStar Asia. Frankly, it's damn cramped. haha and having to sit there for hours and hours can be rather... uncomfortable. When the plane started to move, it was a little nerve wrecking and it started to take flight, the rush I felt was like whooooosh; when a rollercoaster shoots up ahead. I'm surprised that i didnt feel sick somehow hahaha thought i would kena motion sickness or something. oh yea, i had the window seat cos karen let me. heehee... she was busy sleeping (cos she chionged CR the night before) and i had fun looking out of the window.


(Click pic to enlarge)

it's fun seeing how the clouds takes shape and even changes form as we move along the sky. they were like candy floss up in the sky and when we're in the clouds, it's a weird feeling.

talk about crash landing. touching down was quite an experience. it was kinda rough.

did i forget to mention that we're travelling free & easy here? lol although it's the first time karen & I been to Taiwan but since I had MH & Khim brief us on the places we can go and the 'how', I planned up a schedule for our 1 week trip & stayed in the hotel Khim recommended. It was very cheap and the service wasn't too bad. the bed was a little to hard for my liking but Karen seemed pretty comfy in it (she K.O.ed pretty quickly). I tossed and turned a lot on the first night.

i got a slight shock when i reached the airport cos they mentioned 'tao yuan international airport' although our itinery states 'chiang kai shek terminal 1'. went to the info counter to verify and realised they merely changed their name. geez.

we took a bus that will bring us to the nearest mrt station from our hotel. i kinda leeched onto another visitor (assuming he is singaporean as well) cos i overheard him askin for tix to the same stop as us @ the tix sales counter heh. in the bus the driver did shout out the stops whenever he reached somewhere but i have no freakin clue what he is saying. so i basically thought to myself that once i see the couple get off, i'll get off. it's kinda amazing how the buildings of taipei's streets are like a fusion of the old and the new. amidst all the old and rundown shophouses you'll suddenly see a really modern and nicely decorated cafe. signs of globalization is so evident as you see familiar brands like Watsons, Starbucks and 7-11 appearing once every other street. it pretty much felt as if 7-11 invaded Taiwan or something. it's everywhere. we got off the bus and was supposed to take the mrt train to our hotel. it's just one stop away. the couple was going to the same stop as well. (i overheard again HOHOHO). so i tagged behind. but we had to get pass the MRT gates, in other words, buy farecard. totally clueless. the couple saw our plight and taught us how to buy ezycard hehe we got to our hotel safe and sound thereafter (thanks for all the landmarks and the maps khim advised us on!! i scribbled it all on a ppr).


finally! in the hotel.
(Click pic to enlarge)

we took sometime to settle down before MH came over to pick us up for dinner heh.


Dinner in 度小月;Du Xiao Yue
(Click pic to enlarge)

We had noodles, bamboo shoots, some sort of fish (i suspect it's eel) and duck liver (i think).
the noodles were... fine. rather bland actually but the prawn was fresh and meatball was huge. the rest of the dishes wasn't that bad =) i liked the bamboo thing. karen enjoyed the duck liver thingy alot.

after dinner we chatted a short while before walking over to meet MH's friends for KTV session!

they had this really cool gadget (pretty huge) that'll light up once it's ur turn (we were on the waiting list).


(Click pic to enlarge)

the experience was a blast and the FOOD, good god. it's gd. they had sweets (gd for throat) and some drink that they named it as 浦大海 (pu da hai) that tasted pretty much like luohan drink that's gd for the throat as well. you basically can just sing and sing and sing thro the night!


(Click pic to enlarge)

good food, good drink, good fun. i'm contented. *grins silly*
the chicken wing damn nice.

the temperature dropped a few degrees at night and when we left the ktv and hit the streets, i was stunned by the cold as the breeze blew and i was shivering though i wore a tshirt and a rather thick jacket. karen and i practically shivered out way back haha gd thing was we had a ride from MH's friend back to our hotel.

we reached our hotel at about 1plus am in the morn. was told by MH to get ready by 10am the nxt day. we're heading to yangmingshan. goodness gracious!! ZZZzzzzzzz..

Day 2 (20/05/08)
i had a tough time falling asleep and by the time i did, i could hear voices outside our hotel door. i guess it's morning already. then i knocked out for awhile more before my alarm rang. i had to whack karen a few times to get her to wake up.

we set off looking for this shop that sells 蛋餅 (dan bing) as recommended by khim for our breakfast. i took quite awhile before realising it's right before my eyes. hah! it's basically like roti prata with egg wrapping ingredients except it's not roti prata of course. i'm using that for comparison.


(Click pic to enlarge)

i love the dan bing man!! (had it twice on separate days)
and it's quite cheap i suppose.
the tea was damn nice too.
i spent about NT70 in total. that's about S$3+.

i liked the small streets behind our hotel.


(Click pic to enlarge)

after we're done eating and making our way back to our hotel to wait for MH, i received a call from her. was told to bring along our slippers...cos we're going to the hot spring later~!!

MH's god bro, Sean, was a sweet and good tempered guy (whom i've never met before either) and he actually took a day off from work to bring us around. i believe... MH must've bullied him into it ahahahahaha but anyway, i'm grateful. seriously. if not for him driving us around, we wouldn't have enjoyed ourselves that much.

we did a lot in day 2 alone it's amazing just thinking about it.

while we drove up towards yangmingshan, MH was recollecting her younger years with Sean, telling us how they used to ride up there with their scooters along with other friends. This place is full of memories for them like a childhood hangout. as i felt like as if i was going back in time with their stories, the window was lowered and the cool breeze blowing in calmed the soul.


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this place, it's huge.

we reached the peak i suppose.

the view was breath-taking.


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we can actually continue walking behind where i stand but from the looks of it. it's as if it plunges down or something. freaky.


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we passed by some sort of a flower garden on our way down.


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there's a grandma selling flowers just outside and there's a couple taking their bridal shots.

moving on from mountain, to pastures.


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we constantly had to avoid cow dung. it's huge. and smelly. can't miss it.
we wanted to see some wild cows? but later we found out they were locked up. -_-

we had enough of the scenery.

time to move on to a livelier place.
this time we drove to 金山 (jin shan).
it's a suburb, village like area.


(Click pic to enlarge)

it was interesting walking down the street and seeing the old shops around.


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we had our lunch there. the noodles & barley drink was fab. i'm not very fond of the dishes frankly speaking. there's bamboo, liver & duck. it didn't taste bad. just not the kind of food i would like to eat. the ice cream was great. cheap too! 3 scoops for NT20. less than a sing dollar.

we moved on to a temple next.
i'm not a very religious person so i felt a little out of place but i did buy a bracelet for my mom.
the temple was right at the top of a mountain so we had to walk up a pretty steep slope.

next stop: beach!


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just in time for sunset.



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we took a break to check out the sunset and found a cafe by the beach to rest. there's alot of cafe by the side of the beach that's designed with a theme in mind. i found it really cool and some of them really looked very good.

we ended up in Villa Sugar.


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this place is rather relaxing. not very cheap though but the food was decent.
i love their waffle and cheesestick. i ordered coffee milkshake while karen had coke float. i didn't finish my drink cos i thought it was a little too thick.


(Click pic to enlarge)

next stop: 淡水 (dan shui)


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there's alot of old nostalgic stalls here selling random things or games stuff or local food. then there was the super tall ice cream and candied tomatoes. the fishball was rather special cos it's hollow in the centre but has soup and minced meat in it. something caught my eye while we were there. UFO catcher machine. I saw 'Chi' soft toy! of course it reminded me of YL. she's been singing the opening song forever and ever. i made two failed attempts. sean then took over and tried to help me catch it. failed the first attempt but after some 'hints' and 'advices' from the staff, he got a better idea on how to catch it and we got it!! hehehehehe

next stop: HOT SPRING!!!!!!!!!!

woo!! MAIN highlight of the day. we went somewhere near yangmingshan & beitou for hot spring. my first time going to one. the weather is freaking cold at night. guess what? we have to be stark naked before entering the hot spring. i'm serious. good god. seeing all the naked women inside was.. kinda traumatic. sean is a guy therefore he has to go to the 'male' pool himself. it's separate from the female. it's sorta like a half open air hot spring. look up and you see the moon. temperature was 41degrees for the water. good gracious. then they dragged me into the sauna. could hardly breathe. then we jumped into the 'cold' spring. then the jacuzzi one.

i was pretty refreshed after the whole experience. all my body aches were gone.

our trip back out to the carpark was kinda.. thrilling. uncle in a cart drove us down was driving like he was in a rush on the super steep and bumpy road where MH and Sean made alot of noise. I felt as if I would fall of anytime soon.

next stop: roadside stalls


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I'm not sure where this is located but MH and Sean drove us out for supper @ the roadsides stalls they've been eating from since young. there, there's around three or four stalls side by side selling different items. we had 甜不辣 (tian bu la), fried smelly tofu, and soy beancurd. it was a treat and quite an experience. the food wasn't too expensive and a trulylocal taste. a rather 'acquired' taste to enjoy eating the fried smelly tofu. i know karen enjoyed herself alot eating it. i barely survived. the tian bu la was quite good especially after eating the ingredients and adding soup to the bowl. there was 豬血糕 (pig blood cake) in the tian bu la. i was pretty hesitant about eating it but MH bullied me into taking a bite. i bravely took a bite and left the remainder back in the bowl. after a couple mins, MH and Sean pretty much concluded that i'm not gonna touch the remainder so they ate it up. the smelly tofu wasn't as stinky as i expected it. maybe cos it's fried. i had steamed once before and they stink big time. i was jumping around before i even started eating but MH bullied me into taking a bite again. after i did i continued jumping around. their soy beancurd was prepared rather differently from those we have in singapore. it's like cheng teng and soy beancurd mix.

tiring day indeed. we visited SO MANY places in just ONE DAY!! it's really amazing that we survived all that. our adventures ended at around 1+am in the morning. headed back to hotel and just K.O.ed.

Day 3 (21/05/08)

three things to accomplish today.

go to:
(1) 九份 (Jiu Fen)
(2) try out bridesmaid gown
(3) go to 西門丁　(Ximending)

to get to 九份 (Jiu Fen), we had to take the MRT train to Taipei Main Station, switch to taking a railway train to Rui Fang, and then take a bus down to Jiu Fen. A rather long and tedious journey that'll take us more than an hour to reach our final destination so I pretty much dedicated a good half of the day to exploring Jiu Fen (including our trip thro and fro).

taking the mrt and then switching to the railway train, purchasing of tickets according to train type and time can be a little confusing if you're unprepared. thank god i had jessie help me find out the timing beforehand and brought a printout along with me. knowing which platform to get on is quite a challenge too.

cos we didn't have much time for breakfast, we bought some food from the underpass and found this japanese sushi shop selling bentos at a good price and the selection was fab! the food looked and tasted great.


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these sushi rolls are huge. like.. a good 10cm each or something. O_O



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we took some time off to go to the cafe located strategically by the side of the hills so that we can have a fantastic scenic view. we kinda procrastinated there for a long time before moving on the check out the old sheng ping cinema and walking down a steep flight of stairs that's decorated with red lanterns throughout the entire stretch.

what was the highlight of the day for me there?

super big abalone mushroooooooooom


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yummy stuff!

next stop: Ximending

this is basically one of the places to go if you wanna shop.

which we did. i walked till my legs are about to break.

no time for photo taking. it's kinda amusing to listen to how the shop assistants greet you constantly in a rather musical tone that kinda makes me feel rather brain-damaged after listening to too much of it. it's as though they're trying to brainwash you. it gets scarier when you hear a whole bunch of them saying it at about the same time. one thing i noticed. whether male or female, they're all very attractive. you see young trendy guys being shop assistants and lelong-ing along the way. what's interesting is to just pay attention and hear what they say. it's as if everything they say made sense. basically, they sound very convincing and confident. even in this job, you can really feel how competitive it is for them. we had a taste of the 'famous' ah zhong mee sua. not too bad i guess. it's just that.. there's no seats. so outside the shop there's just this huge mob of ppl standing (or squatting) and eating mee sua. funny sight. there's quite a few roadside stalls and once the police come patrolling, they'll all grab they mobile stalls and scoot. once the coast is clear, they return. another funny sight.

i was so beat after all the shopping, i think we just went straight back to our hotel to rest thereafter. my feet is killing me.

we're damn tired already actually so we headed back to our hotel. miraculously, we still managed to garner enough strength to go to the 24hr cafe that's right behind our hotel. there's a whole stretch of them. it so happened that there's a club just right under our hotel so you see lotsa chicks dressed up to the nines walking around. the bouncers were super huge (in size and height).


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Karen ordered ALOT. we had nuggets, chicken chop (again!), carrot cake (looks like tofu!) and bubble tea (HUGE!!). i think only the carrot cake was worth ordering. bubble tea too. karen loved her pudding milk tea alot. she even managed to finish the whole cup.

Day 4 (22/05/08)

we decided to wake up later and skip going to zhong zheng memorial hall and all the other touristy places. instead, after waking up later, we headed to 五分埔 (wufengpu). but of course, before that happens, lunch is more important. =D

previously i scribbled down some directions to a burger joint that's pretty near our hotel. so good so far in finding our directions and on our way we went up to DAISO to grab some stuff, and bought a umbrella from a roadside stall. only S$5! and it's super light. somehow, stupid of me, i kept remembering the name of the place we're heading wrongly. at the back of my mind i kept thinking that it's some curry house that i'm going to but it's not? damn! in the end we found the street we're supposed to be in but walking up and down in it we just cant seem to find the restaurant. i decided to ask for directions and guess what? the lady i approached looks at me bewildered and points at the shop right before my eyes that says Mary's Hamburger. i must be blind. what's worse is i even walked by while commenting that this joint looks cool (& crowded) and that we shld drop by some other time. -__-"

the guy who took my order resembles machi bro. lol anyway, what's interesting abt TW i guess, is the fact that the ppl really know how to dress up well and in the shops, most of the retail assistants are very trendy and nice looking especially the guys! (comparing to SG obviously & we have mostly ah bengs)

the food was OK priced and i think we spend only about.. S$7 or so for our meal and the burger was tasty and huge. had a blast eating it. loved the red tea.


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how i wish i can just walk down sg randomly and find such good food. doubt that's possible. not without paying enough to make me cry. sigh. carl's jr is a burger joint, their burger is huge but the price is crazy. heard they recently shrinked the size of their burger. oh well.

back to 五分埔 (wufengpu). hehehehe it's like a taiwan version of bugis village where you can get wholesale bargains and clothes at cheap prices. but of course, quality may be compromised here but you can bargain for cheaper deals with the shop owners. i bought some tshirts here for gu. it started raining soon. rather troublesome to move around cos of the leaky rooftops.

we made our way to mingyao mrt station to meet MH to try out the bridesmaid gown. i wasnt allowed to take photos there. wilson wanted 'sneak previews'. i tried on a few gowns upon request from MH and Karen but pretty much ended up picking the first gown i tried on (and decided previously when i tried). fuss free. didn't even need altering. only prob, it's very tight fit around the ribs and waist area. can hardly breathe. MH took longer to try on her gown. she put on some weight and need alterations. *slap head*

Sean picked Karen up to have a haircut in a salon of a hairstyling friend while i waited for MH. after all the trying, MH's husband came and pick us up. there's ALOT to carry. the boot was filled. After picking Karen up, we were dropped off at Shihlin night market to wander on our own. heh. quite frankly, we pretty lousy cos we don't know how to eat guts or livers or wadever or even the famous cockles omelette. since we weren't that hungry to begin with, we went across the road to the shopping streets instead to walk around. the street just goes on and on and on... and it seems like it's never gonna end!!! after an hour of walking, i believe.. we're still not near the end. so we turned back and went back for the food.


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we ended up trying only the beef steak and XXL chicken chop. the chicken chop was good but rather startling experience. while queuing and chatting with karen, i suddenly realised the shop keeper was next to me, face rather near, eyeballs looking at me, hand with paper bag and he was wearing a cover over his mouth (the kind u see ppl wearing during SARS). anyway, i was supposed to grab one of the paper bags and when it's my turn, open it up for the shop keeper to dump the XXL chicken chop inside. O_O

Day 5 (23/05/08)

today, is the day, i visit my taiwan office. hehehehe to look for some colleagues whom i've been corresponding with but not met in person before.

we took the MRT to a stop near some hospital and walked the rest of the way to the office with the directions khim gave me. it wasn't that difficult to find so everything's pretty cool. we spent some time grabbing some snacks from MOS burger and Karen was eyeing this red bean pie that had mochi inside. she loved it to bits.

Just then i received an sms from Ashley! =DDDD
she'll be meeting us later on. i went up to the office first to say Hi and was shocked when they passed me yet another few bags full of local food to bring back -_- my poor suitcase. till now i still regretted bringing those boxes of food back cos i missed my chance of bringing back more comics and now i feel faint whenever i flip behind to check the price of the comics in TW dollars and learn of how much i could've saved if i did buy from TW. arghghghghgh...

i went out for lunch with my TW colleagues and after lunch we stopped by a shop where i bought alot of accessories haha too cute to resist! it started raining afterwards (thank god i brought brolly) as we tagged along my colleagues snaking throu the unfamiliar streets to find ourselves standing outside a dessert stall. we decided to tarpow some dessert back and it's what i would've described as.. 'action packed' hahaha cos it's so full of a variety of jello stuff but not saying that it tasted bad cos it was good. it's just fun to chew on the different stuff that's inside.

Ashley came along and got us out of the place =D


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it's karen's first time meeting Ash but i think it'll be fine. =D since we had too much to hold, Ash suggested we go back to our hotel to put down some stuff first before headin out again. gd idea. walking around with two big paper bags and a handbag is not doing my back any gd. knowing me well, our next stop is to the Eslite bookstore hehe i was busy checking out on manga illustration books and comics. nearby in the vicinity is the Taipei 101 building and Mitsukoshi shopping malls (there's so damn many of them) and each building is just as huge. after some random photo taking sessions with the buildings, for a tea break, we headed to a bubble tea restaurant of some sort. it's called 'Chun Shui Tang'.


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we were kinda shocked @ the size of the bubble tea -__-"
but it was good. i had oolong milk tea.

we had korean bbq for lunch and even tho we ordered a set for two and had three of us eating, we were stuffed and could not finish our food.


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we walked till i nearly dropped around warner village area and saw a man who had countless golden retrievers sprawled out to perform tricks. since it was raining we were kinda trapped and missed our chance of visiting the ferris wheel. the stuff in the boutiques aint' cheap but there's a particular paris brand of accessories that caught my eye and i felt my heart flutter but... the price was too steep. *whistles*


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Day 6 (24/05/08)

today is the day to wake up super early, slap on tons of make up and take a cab down to the restaurant i'm heading by 11pm. why? cos i'm to be the bridesmaid for MH's wedding lunch reception. =DDD

first (hopefully last) time ever being to be a bridesmaid. not an easy job afterall. became the errand girl of the day. had to do my own hair make up cos bridesmaid no priviledge to be looked after. all attention is on the bride herself lol. i entertained myself by disturbing her nephew.



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the bestman too tall lah. lol
think at least 1.8m and above or something.

the food served was pretty unique in terms of the dishes, ingredients and presentation. yummy stuff but too bad i cant eat too much cos the gown i'm wearing is super tight fitting around the ribs and waist area. can hardly breathe.

when i had the chance to take a seat, i chose to sit between familiar faces haha on my left was ZW (fellow singaporean acquaintance! i'm saved!) and Sean, MH's god brother hahaha Sean was busying introducing the dishes to me.

after the wedding reception, it's about time for me to leave and pick Karen up. MH cried buckets-full of tears. i nearly teared but stopped myself in time cos once i start it's hard to stop. T_T

ashley and vivian shared a cab with me to go pick karen up to walk around the streets near our hotel as a form of showing us around. karen's glasses broke just when about to leave. had to buy some contact lens to remedy the situation.

i'm shocked to see the amount of shops available. it's just endless. i chanced upon an accessory shop that had the kind of designs that caught my eye. it's slightly more expensive but given the looks of it, it's a price i'm more or less willing to pay.

we went to ROSE, which is like HMV or Tower Records where I ran loose and sweeped their shelves clean. Bought a whole bunch of DVDs that I've been eyeing on for the longest time. I've always known that SG won't have them and I had no choice but to grab them only when I'm overseas. The only disappointment is that TW don't carry Josee, the tiger and the fish. I've been looking for this film for the longest time ever. Korea has it but i'm not sure if the subtitles is what I want...*cries*

our next stop is the most anticipated of all stop.
we're going for our 麻辣鍋 (ma-la steamboat)

WOO!

and what's best is this shop is super near my hotel. nxt time i know how to get there myself liao!!! muahahaha and i also found out there's another eslite bookstore outlet near the hotel. muahahaha

karen was hopeless in trying to open the bottled coke. so i opened all her bottles for her. kekeke the ingredients was pretty fresh. i avoided pig blood cake as much as possible but the duck blood was irresitibly good. much as i'm uncomfortable eating such things, it's too good to reject. their corn was super sweet too. can you imagine that their free flow of ice cream is haagen daaz? geez.


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we were so damn full after eating. actually, i find the steamboat not as spicy so i asked wad level of spiciness did we order. unfortunately, it's the one that's least spicy. i would've prefered it spicier but judging the amount of noise karen is making, it's pretty spicy for her hahaha


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crazily packed everything i could into my luggage.


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Final Day 7 (25/05/08)

today is the day we're bound to head back to Singapore but our departure flight is in the evening at around 6+pm. we're supposed to reach SG by 11pm at night. So we basically had a little more time to relax and roam around in the vicinity to make our final purchases and tarpow some donuts before the hotel chauffer us to to airport at 3pm.

we had our lunch in the street just across out hotel. it's a japanese restaurant serves curry dishes and when we entered it wasn't too crowded but soon afterwards it was kinda swarmed with people.


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after lunch we walked to the eslite bookstore that's near us and i bought another two volumes of yinyang master home with me.

next is to get our donuts.

that pretty much concludes our morning and afternoon. the sky was turning overcast, threatening to rain. i texted our final goodbyes to Ash, MH and Sean while looking around for the last time in this trip of ours to Taiwan. it's a good place to visit and although others may comment that it is a waste to spend all 7 days just being in Taipei instead of venturing out to other cities such as Tai Chung or Kao Hsiung, well, no rush i feel. a step at a time. relax and enjoy my everyday sights and sound in the place is good enough. i've spent my 7 days well and eventful, not wasting a single minute on procrastinating. i'm proud to say our itinery was one that others could be envious of (at least karen's friend was hahaha). there's alot of culture shock that may not sit well with me the first time round but now that i think back, it's not that bad either. wilson will enjoy himself the next time we return to TW and by then, i'll be a better guide to show him around.


at the airport. tired beyond description
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off we go back to Singapore~



p.s. landing was way better when we touched down on changi airport.