Gift for Aline

My colleague who became a very good friend of mine, is leaving the school. I have made these for her. I wanted to pass her personally but she couldn't make it at that time. So I met her husband and passed them to him. Luckily I didn't pass to her personally. Because, she msg me and told me I made her cry. If I were with her, I would have cried too. And it would be embarrassing to cry in public. I just hate crying in front of others.

Aline really loved it. I will really miss her around.

Wooden board from Daiso. Some of the decor stuff were bought in Taiwan.

Mini Art Stand from Daiso (from Taiwan)

She can choose to hang up or put onto the mini art stand.

A mini scrap book that has a photograph of us on every page. And my words describing our 3-year journey.

The photo board and the scrap book.

Finally... THE LETTER

The ICA letter arrived today. My citizenship application has been approved! I have 8 months to renounce my Msia citizenship and take the Oath for Sg citizenship. I foresee more paperwork and waiting.

姨妈

Her condition has worsen. She cannot walk now. She has lost her appetite. She is so fragile now.

My aunt was diagnosed with fourth stage lung cancer suddenly about half-year ago. She wasn't a smoker. Nobody in the family smoked too. Doctors said it was probably due to prolonged exposure to cooking fumes. Chemo made her lose her hair and weight. Following that, her hearing ability gradually deteriorated. Doctors gave her half a year.

I remembered one year ago, she was still very energetic and loud. And when we went over to her house in Kluang, she cooked our favourite chicken rice with her special dip sauce. She is a very good cook.

My mum is going to accompany and take care of her next week. I hope she can persevere and live through CNY.

Till then, it will be hard to control my tears.

Trip to KL

Back from Taiwan, and up next was to Chiew Yee Jie Jie's house in Damansara! This is my first time taking the coach to KL on my own. I woke up at 630 am, and found out my family already left the house at 5 am and were already on their way to Ipoh. I quickly washed up, and took a cab down to Novena Square. Bought coffee and sandwich to eat.

It was quite good, as I get to spend some time with myself on the coach, thinking about things and listening to Dvorak's American for string quartet to draw in bowings, fingerings and dynamics. This piece was to be performed at CHIJMES on 24th Dec when I get back to SG. I wanted to watch movie, but there was something wrong with my tv. Customs were smooth. The coach didn't speed, and I reached 1-U five and a half hours later. Chiew Yee jie jie and Cheryl were already waiting for me. It was really great to see both of them again after we bid farewell at Taipei.

It was duck spaggetti from Delicious restaurant. Very nice indeed, though I thought they could have cooked their spaggetti in the same way as how TCC does it. But the duck was the specialty. It was really filling even after I gave half of the whole dish to Chiew Yee jie jie.

Then met up with YQ for Storm Warriors movie at the old wing. The movie had lotsa computer graphics, but the story was so-so only. It was a long-awaited film (11 years later), with much anticipation but disappointment. After movie, we went to Rose Garden at the basement for food. The decoration was really nice, with a touch of Taiwan's tea house feel. They have a white christmas tree with GREEN decorations beside a white baby grand piano.

Chiew Yee jie jie called, and bid farewell to YQ. Went to 记得食 for food AGAIN. I only ate a bit of everything. SO full loh. But their siew mai, carrot cake and laksa were really FANTASTIC.

Day 2:

Dim sum for brunch! Then to The Curve to shop. Bought Cheryl a baby doll whose hair can change colour when in contact with warm water. She named it "Dreamy", and I gave her a Chinese name, "小柔". In the afternoon, I practice piano and violin with Cheryl. Then we had cheese crabs, 生虾生面 and 拉拉米粉 for dinner. After dinner, it was Cheryl's Yamaha JMC class. She had to perform a few piano pieces which we already practised in the afternoon. I sat inside the room with her. The room was exactly the same at the Yamaha in SG. One of the girls inside the class was SOOOO distracting. I think I would have lost my patience if I were the teacher.

Day 3:
Practiced violin with Cheryl in the morning cos' she would be having her recital at 2 pm. The recital was quite well organised. We left for USJ at about 3 pm. Yeah... it was a surprise to see Kang Jie and parents in the house there too. After transferring Jiale's Taiwan photos to my phone (simply love phone nowadays that act as a hard-disk too!), we left for Sunway Pyramid!

Firstly, early dinner first! All of us were hungry. So we went to have Japanese food at Sushi Zanmai. Chiew Yee jie jie and I split the bill. Then it was to FOREVER 21! I think Jiale and I stayed there for more than an hour, trying on clothes and taking lotsa pictures. So fun. If only Carey was around...... are you reading this?

Then we also bought from Kitschen and Nicci. Bought a total of 9 pieces in this entire trip. Even more than I bought in Taiwan, and more than I spent too. Just nice... the RM$1000 I brought was enough to stop me from buying more. We had "dai chao" for late dinner at USJ. Reached back to Damansara at 1030 pm. Cheryl had finally memorised the lyrics to Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer and Santa Claus is Coming to Town, and also danced the chorus of Nobody Nobody. HAHA! Felt accomplished! Cheryl can remember all the reindeers' names!!

Day 4:

Last day already. Went to have chilli ban mee. Regretted mixing in the egg. It ended up very thick and dry. I still prefer the soupy ban mee in USJ. Went back to the house to pack and change. Cheryl kept requesting and pestering me to play with her in the car, probably didn't want me to go back. I hate to leave too. But no choice. I have to work the next day. Till next time we meet!

Jammed at Tuas for an hour. Took six and half hours to reach SG. Lucky got YQ to chat with me throughout the journey, till the lady beside us told us to SHUT UP! Hope my holidays come quickly again.

Can work not come?

Day 7: Taipei

It's finally the day that we didn't want it to come. Did last minute shopping around the vicinity and found out more shops there!! Like a 5-storey bookshop! And our 太阳饼 was delivered to our hotel. Click here for 太阳饼 link.

Took our luggage, crossed the road to 国光客运, a big bus terminal, with different bus routes to many tourist attractions in Taiwan. Bought the bus ticket, NT$125. You can actually board the bus anytime you want, if there are vacancies. You needn't follow strictly to the printed time. The bus had two luggage storage. Before you board the bus, you have to tell the driver if you're alighting at Terminal 1 or 2. Then he will tell you which storage you use. Cos' when the bus arrives at the airport Terminal, he will only open one storage for the passengers to collect their luggage. How smart!

Bought Loewe Aire perfume, a set of Ferragamo miniature perfume and a Kenzo deodorant at the DFS. HAHA! Felt so happy buying all these.

On China Airlines, Jiehui, Meihui and I wanted to buy the Longchamp bag, but each aircraft only carried one. =( So Jiehui got it.

Back to Singapore at about 9 pm. Hot and humid again. Grrrr....

Missed all my cousins already!!

Day 6: Taipei

Woke up and prepared ourselves for buffet lunch at 马辣顶级麻辣鸳鸯火锅!! The seafood was really fresh and had a vast variety of food items. Best of all, there were 8 Hagen Dazs and 8 Movenpick ice-cream to choose from. Eat ALL you can!!! However you are only given 2 hours. We all left the place with an ice-cream cone in our hands, stuff with as much ice-cream as possible. HAHA! Click here for food review.

Then it was free-and-easy for all today. Shop all you want wherever you want. Dinner was at Modern Toilet Restaurant. Don't know if it was the environment that didn't give us appetite, or the food was really bad. Anyway, we also took some photographs inside.

Pack for the night. HAHA! Meihui had to buy an extra bag to pack all her new inventories. She didn't bring an extra bag too. OMG.

The cousins had fun inside the room. We went out to buy beer, instant noodles and chips to party inside the room. Hadn't had so much cousins' fun in a LOOOOOOOOOOOONG while!!

Day 5: Taipei

Had Macdonalds for breakfast before depositing our luggage a Keyman’s Hotel 怀宁旅店. We then headed to Longshan Temple. It was sunny that day.

Then to Ximending, where Jiale would go "WAAAAAAHH!!". Shopping for all the cute stuff starts here! Wanted to have lunch at 马辣顶级麻辣鸳鸯火锅, but was too crowded. So we made reservations to come back the next day. We settled at a Japanese restaurant for lunch, where I had a mouthful of uni sashimi... yummy! The Jap food was surprisingly not expensive at all! That was Chiew Yee jie jie's treat for me. ^^

3 pm, and it was time to gather to proceed to the next destination - Hello Kitty Sweets Restaurant!! We were super mad inside, snapping photos at almost every corner. Click for food review.

If there wasn't a need to rush for time, we would have stayed there for dinner. We proceeded to Miramar where 换换爱 was filmed. The big ferris wheel and the departmental store? Recall? And the bridge where 童嘉蒂 and 霍彥 met? And when 霍彥 threw money at her face?

Then finally the last destination of the day - Shilin night market. The whole place changed since my last visit in 2005. We followed the map and went rightwards, and couldn't find the night market. Little did we know, it had shifted to the left-side of the subway station. The 雞排 was bad. Not crispy at all. And the place has turned into a Changi-village style. No more small carts. The cleanliness is still bad, otherwise, worse.

My legs have finally protested on Day 5. My leg muscles ached like mad. This was also the only night I slept with Meihui and Jiehui. Meihui gave me two pieces of salon pas, and aunt also gave me some oilment to rub-on. Poor legs. We had been walking from morning till night everyday.

Day 4: Yilan --> Taipei

Breakfast was whipped up by 黄大哥 and his mum. It wasn't as yummy as what we had at Rose Garden 民宿. But nonetheless, still palatable.

Our train was at 10:08 am. In less than 2 hours, we arrived at Taipei Railway Station, back to the same place we were 3 days ago. It was a little difficult to get across the road with our luggages. We had to find escalators. Luckily there were escalators. I didn't want the nightmares in Korea to start all over again!

We checked into the Taipei Key Mall Traveler Hostel on the 22nd Floor of K-Mall. As the word already described, it was really a HOSTEL. My cousins were saying our accommodations got worse as each day passed. There weren't many pictures of the rooms online, so I have to post some pictures to help people who are considering to stay here.

The last two pictures show a triple room. Looks better.

Some positive comments about the hostel:

1. Friendly staff, who helped us changed rooms when it was a miscommunication.

2. Took photos of us for remembrance and emailed them to me when I got back to SG.

3. Two computers with internet access, wi-fi at the breakfast area.

Some negative comments about the hostel:

1. The 6-persons room was a bit cram and the attached-toilet was small.

2. No towels provided. No foot mat to dry your feet after bathe.

3. The building is eerie and dangerous. Quiet, high-up and dark. You may get robbed at night. Don't have a secured feeling.

4. The drinking water ran out, and refill was not done in-time.

5. Breakfast area was on different levels with our rooms.

6. Rooms were office-converted. Different rooms look a bit different.

7. Furniture was not sufficient and impractical.

8. Cost is comparable to the hotels we found a street away.

9. Blanket is a bit dirty. We didn't use the blankets. We wore our jackets that night.

10. Mattresses also varied. The one I slept on was thin, and I felt the wood underneath. Woke up with backaches. There were thick ones. Depends on your luck!

Haha. Anyway, we left our things in the room and went out for lunch at 九豐記牛肉麵 which was just a few streets down the road. The restaurant was crowded with the lunch-time crowd. But the beef noodles were really tasty, but left us all thirsty much later cos' of the amount of MSG. Click here for the food link.

We headed to Taipei 101 after lunch, cos' the weather was quite good. We didn't want to risk going there if it should rain. So we re-arranged our itinerary. Bought the observatory tickets and queued for about half and hour just to get into the lift. It was a Saturday.

Then we headed to the 五分埔, the largest clothing market in Taipei. It was another night market. Very very squeezy and stuffy there. Most of the clothes are long-sleeved, so it was inappropriate to buy back to our SUNNY island. The clothing market leads to 饶河夜市. Less food here, but JH said the okonomiyaki was good there.

So tired, we took a cab back to the hostel. Amber and Cheryl fell asleep in the cab. Cab there is pretty cheap too. But can't remember how much was the fare. 4 adults and 2 kids in a cab. ^^

After Chiew Yee jie jie suggested to look for another hotel nearby to shift cos' she couldn't really tahan the run-down place, Peichun, Jiale and I went out to source for one. After asking a few, this Keyman’s Hotel 怀宁旅店, just down the road, seemed and was good! The price was also good. My mum was saying, the extra amount of money we paid was for security. So we paid for two nights' of accommodation. Jiale and her mum paid for another two extra days for their extended days. Yeah, we're moving to a better place tomorrow night. Just bear with it tonight!

Day 3: Hualian --> Yilan

Tasty breakfast to set us off for the day. We took a group picture with 刘小姐 and thanked her for her hospitality. 潘导 then sent us to Hualian Railway station. Off to Luodong we go!

Luodong seemed pretty backwards. Dull buildings and rice paddy fields. A very quiet town. The owner of 糖果屋 was there to pick us up. He wasn't as friendly as 潘导. Being a young man, probably in his early thirties, he said we could call him as "黄大哥". :S But he was nice enough to make two trips to fetch us to 糖果屋 and sent us to Luodong Railway station the next day. We negotiated for him to drive us to three locations in Luodong for a fee of NT$2500. It's for the convenience. Taking taxi would cost about the same, but the bad thing is we had to call taxi everytime we want. It's not a flag-and-take taxi system in Luodong.

Firstly, we went to 三星蔥博物館, which 黄大哥 hasn't even heard of. We wanted to take our lunch at 田妈妈葱蒜美食馆. But it is only opened from 11 am to 2 pm and 5 pm to 9 pm! Sigh, so we didn't get to eat all the spring onion dishes. =( We could only tour the mini museum that had many spring onions food products.

I bought the spring onion ice-cream, NT$20, which we were so excited about. New taste mah... one spoon of it, and I didn't eat it again. Haha, Cheryl quite liked it though! Click here for food link of Spring Onion museum.

We finally got a piece of 洋葱饼 from a push-cart outside the museum to satisfy our cravings. It was quite good despite it being oily.

Next up was our visit to 国立傅统艺术中心. It's like a place where they imitated the old buildings and shops of olden Taiwan. There, you can find some handicrafts and hand-made stuff, which I thought was pretty. And you won't be able to find them elsewhere in Taiwan.

Finally, it was dinner time. 黄大哥 took us to our third location - 羅東夜市. I mentioned above that Luodong was a quiet place. But here, at Luodong night market, it was bustling with people, food and... RAIN! The food was pretty good here. We started out with deep-fried maize with flavour coatings. Yummy! The rain was a bit irritating, otherwise the experience would have been better! Click for food link.

Done for the day!! REST REST REST!

Day 2: Hualian

We woke up at about 7 am. Breakfast is at 8 am, and we are to set off for our day tour at 9 am. Breakfast was unexpectedly good!! The owner made the food herself with the help of her employees. She even created a set for the children! We finished every bit of it!

Full of energy to chiong whole day! We greeted our 潘导 and packed ourselves into his van. We visited 太魯閣峽谷,燕子口,九曲洞,慈母橋 and 天祥山腳下的河段. The scenery was fantastic and Meihui took many photos. The best thing was, she didn't bring her camera charger, and that was the last official day she took the 2 kg baby out. We applauded her. Lunch was at 天祥, where we ate stinky toufu in "ma la" and deep-fried style. It wasn't as stinky as I thought. But when they cooled down, the taste was a little hard to swallow. We also ordered some other dishes, and lunch was NT$92 per person. Click for food link.

Dinner was at 3番2次 (原住民 风味餐厅) which cost us NT$2500 in all. Some really special dishes which we never tasted before. I thought it was quite a good experience. Click here for food link.

Time passed by really quickly, and we were back to Rose Garden again. We put down our things, and walked out to shop again. HAHA. Then, we ate Mochi (NT$10 each). I had the peanut filling one. It is quite huge and it was really really delicious. It's freshly made. JH had the ice-cream mochi, and was quite bland. This was also the only night that I had bubble tea, NT$30.

Day 1: SG --> Taoyuan Airport --> Hualian

An introduction to the party of 10 people who went Taiwan:

1. Jiehui - my first three months JC classmate, and NTU coursemate as well as my hostel roommate from Yr 2 to 4.
2. Meihui - knew her since Primary 5. My best buddy in Secondary school. Then she went into the same JC as Jiehui.
3. My mum
4. My paternal aunt
5. My paternal aunt's daughter - a Yr 2 NTU student
6. My Cousin - Chiew Yee Jie Jie
7. My Cousin - Pei Chun Jie Jie.
8. Chiew Yee Jie Jie's daughter - Cheryl (5 yrs old)
9. Pei Chun Jie Jie's daugther - Amber (5 yrs old)
10. Myself - highly distressed civil servant on limited holiday period

Our detailed itinerary can be found here: Click
Comments on food and their locations can only be found in my food blog.

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Our flight was at 10:25 am. Dad sent Mum and I there. The wait had been long! I had wanted to travel overseas during June, but there were so many things happening that trips were cancelled. Upon boarded the plane, the feeling of anticipation was heightened.

We reached Taoyuan airport a little 10 minutes late. Chiew Yee jie jie they all had already arrived half an hour earlier than their prescribed timing. They were sitting on the chairs just outside the belt. I was so happy to see all of my relatives! We then proceeded to buy bus tickets to Taipei Railway station so that we can go Hualian. The different bus companies were shouting quite loudly to us to choose them. In the end, we took 大有巴士 (Airbus) cos' the bus was departing soon. The two little kids do not have to pay for the bus.

The bus journey was slightly less than an hour and we reached Taipei Railway station. JH and I went to buy train tickets to Hualian, Hualian to Luodong and Luodong to Taipei - 3 sets of train tickets. Luckily there were still tickets. ^^ The ticketing lady was very polite and helpful. Since there were still an hour for the train, we went level 2 to have our dinner. Taipei Railway station was big and there were many stalls. It houses three 7-11, donut shop, bakeries, ice-cream, food court, etc. We were so excited about one bakery named "Milkhouses" which sells a variety of creative bread. Despite photography was restricted, we managed to snap a few pictures. Click for food link.

It was a long journey and we reached Hualian 3 hours later... Cheryl and Amber were having lotsa fun inside the cabin, without catching a wink. They didn't have to pay for the tickets, but it also meant they didn't have seats. The train was packed and hence they had to share seats with us.

Our tour guide, 潘导, was already waiting for us outside the station. I called Rose Garden 民宿 at Taipei Railway station and arranged the timing. He was a very friendly man. He helped us with our luggage onto his Volkswagen van. He drove round Hualian city to tell us where are the nice food and the shops around our 民宿. It was a short ride of 10 minutes before we reached the 民宿.

We were greeted by a narrow staircase in between 7-11 and an eatery shop. Luckily there were people to help us carry our luggage upstairs. We checked-in, and we were all amazed by the room cleanliness and decorations. We simply love the place!

After unpacking for a little bit, we left the 民宿 to walk around the vicinity for FOOD. We ate 鹅 at 鹅肉先生 (NT$200 for half goose), cockles (NT$150), 小笼包 (NT$5 for one)，水蒸包 (NT$50 for 10)，炸鸡排，贡丸。。。before heading back. Click for food link.

I took a nice hot shower after this very long day. Settled the accounts from everyone that night before the night's rest.

Setting out on a HIGH note!

Goodbye Singapore!! I'm going to have my long-awaited holidays!! I will try to be online there. My flight is gonna be early. Need to reach the airport at 830am. The flight is at 1025am. ^^

*Will be back to Singapore on the night of 15th Dec.
*BBM and Google latitude will be turned off. No more tracking of me on Earth.
*Phone and SMS accessible! On roaming! You can still SMS me!

Meanwhile, take care, my friends!! Will miss u guys!

Looking for this book

Been looking high and low for this particular book. Reserved it at Kino before, but forgot to go collect. In the end, the book was let to others. Going to get this one day.

As a follow-up to the popular Propless Games® resource book, Allan Lee has compiled another collection of 101 icebreakers, deinhibitisers, energisers, brain teasers, lateral-thinking activities and team-building games. The unique feature of these games is that they can be conducted using simple or minimum props. Designed to provide hours of fun and learning, the book is a great resource for facilitators, trainers, camp organisers, teachers and student leaders to jazz up their workshops, camps and events.

Features of the book include:·

• Step-by-step instructions for each game.
• Variations on numerous games.·
• ‘Note to the Facilitator’ to highlight unique learning points that can be derived from the games.
• Precise printouts that can be photocopied from the pages (or downloaded from the website).
• Illustrations to help you understand how the games are played.

Available at:

Singapore: Kinokuniya, Times, Page One @ VIVO, Big Bookshop, Harris Bookstore and Republic Polytechnic Booklink.
Overseas: Kinokuniya (KLCC), MPH (Midvalley).
Distributed by Marketasia (www.marketasia.com.sg).

Taiwan's Itinerary

The itinerary is considered FINALISED! Ready to be printed!! I will print extra copies for my friends and relatives (with maps)!

Time to go shop for a nice jacket!!! Time to dig out a nice suitcase!!!

I saw this Hideo Wakamatsu suitcase with Sakura flowers prints at Plaza Singapura a few days ago. It was damn damn damn nice!! And the price was $400++~~~~ for a medium piece!!!!! OMG!!!

Going to play in a sextet on 24th Dec. Some extra bucks, but it also means I can only go to my Christmas' party much much later. =(