video link possible!

I'm so happy! yesterday when i recieved the video clip of charlie brown's march, I couldn't help but tried to upload it as an .AVI file to blogger to try if it can be uploaded. YES it can! So happy!

now... its how to get it to look like the video image... i know otterman and alvin does it well... hmm... must dig further into it. But am happy with the ability to input video clips onto the blog! Super!

This Months' Slogon

abit late... but better than never right?

I find this month's slogan particularly appropriate since its Ad's bday tomorrow. hee...

Charlie Brown March

wanna see a giant form of Charlie Brown floating past you? hee...




charliebrown

MORE Peanuts...

hee... to follow up on the crazy snoopy collection. here's MORE ha ha ha....

these are some items that was bought along the way... by the way kind... and some of them are GIFTS! (so its not just ME that is doing the buying ha ha ha.... I've infected those around me too! ha ha ha....)


this is a nice blue pouch with a zip on the top, it nicely fills up my cables and PDA charger when I travel. Super duper useful! Bought by Ad in Manila for cheep cheep! hee....


I could not resist this pretty little thing when I first saw it. I mean... How can Anyone refuse? it cost S$5.90, genuine from Japan. I saw the big bag version of this in Taipei for about S$50! I could not bear to part with that much $$. So $5.90 for this pretty little thing... its a bargain. :-)




This mug is from US, from Camp Snoopy itself! Its so cool that you can even engrave your name on the mug. It was a gift from a very dear friend who thought of me and my crazy obsession with the Peanuts family. ;)

taipei 10 saving the BEST for the last!

heh... yes, this is definitely the BEST BEST BEST part of the taipei trip.

I finally found this pouch which I've been hunting for the past 3years, I've seen the other comics version of this size/material & type but never snoopy's. Each time I come across the shops selling this range of items, I'll look and look and look. I've hunted in Singapore, JB, KL, Hong Kong, ShenZhen but no such luck. Here in taipei, one the first night out, I got lucky!


after such a long time of hunting it down, I was thrilled to find a matching mirror inside! Its truly a makeup pouch! I'm so happy! my first snoopy purchase in taipei. I was sure I wanted it. Even though it costs abit steeper then I expected, it was 290NT (S$16)... hey, wait a min, similar pouches in singapore sells at around $18, woah, savings! ha ha ha.... cool! On another day, suddenly, this pouch seems to sprout out alll over XiMenDing. Many stalls/shops had this pouch, but were all priced from 390-450NT. *phew* got it cheap!

I din know that there were such a big crowd following the peanuts series in Taipei, they have their own range of snoopy products even! I couldn't resist when I saw this bag... I mean, how can anyone resist???


I tried bargaining for this bag hee.... cos the sales girl told me that it was 390NT (S$20), however, it was the wrong price tag that she saw, the actual price was 550NT (=S$27), a few bucks difference but I express DEEP sadness at the price difference and the shop owner was kind enough to give me a huge discount to cover the difference hee.... *happy*

I looked at the tag on the bag and was brought to this website. My gosh, dun the bags looks simply attractive? I really really want THIS.

but unfortunately, I cannot find it in any of the shops. :( But I'll keep trying using other means heh....

Nonetheless, I found this lovely lovely bag the next day in one of the shops... There was a smaller one as well, but I was afraid that I'll be burning all my travel expenses on Snoopy accessories... *sigh*


Cost me 390NT, in another shop, this bag was priced from 450-600NT! Strange that it would be priced so differently in another shop in the same area! Thankfully, I started out at the lowest shop! Else I would have felt really really really Cheated! ha


Do you know that there is specialty stores that specialises in selling Snoopy items? ONLY Snoopy related products! Super cool right? We stumbled into one on our first night out to the SiLin night market. I recall standing by a glass shelf full of very exquisite items. I stood by the shelf for a good 10mins going:

"Oh My God! What am I going to do?"

I just cannot believe my eyes! There in the shelf, there were so many many many extremely well made, I've seen alot of counterfeit products but this is definitely not one of those and they are so well made, so thoughtful. There was this one padlock with a logo of snoopy engraved on it. Although it was a normal looking padlock, with the engraving, its worth has shot up more than 20 times! I guess, if i'm filthy rich, I'll pay for it too!

So, in the end, I settled for something small and affordable and will definitely remind me of this shop...


Its super cute right? I had to decide between the bronze and the silver one. Both looked great! I got the bronze one instead because it reminded me of the bigger version which I lost almost a decade ago. Lovely!

In this same shop, I found something so superbly exquisite that I was frozen for a good 5mins just staring at it. I cannot believe my eyes that something so so so exquisite was manufactured.... If only I'm filthy rich! ha ha ha


its a complete sewing set! all neatly arranged and printed with my favourite comic strip characters all over them. So cool right? It cost 2500NT (S$130). Way too much $$.

Then there was a cheaper alternative:

going for 1890NT (S$100) which was still way above my budget. Fortunately for that, else I'll have to find space for it in my tight little home heh....

there are millions of snoopy soft toys, charlie browns, lucys, linuses, woodstocks but seldom of the daisy hill puppy family. Here in this amazing shop, they HAVE! And all good things come with a pricy tag, since I cannot afford them, I'll just have to blog about them. :-) Hey "rotiboy" here's Olaf for YOU:



In the Sogo supermarket, they have some snacks with snoopy packaging that I've not seen before:



Even the 7-11 has fantastic stock of snoopy items!

its a lovely suitecase-like box, filled with yummy sugar gum candies and wafer, in different flavours with the different colorful wrapper. In it, it has full color stickers of snoopy in his flying ace outfit traveling to different countries. Cost 300NT (=S$16)



This is yet another irresistable purchase, another snoopy in his flying ace outfit in his favourite plane flying round and round a red tin! Who can say no?


Even the top cover is meaningfully decorated. *happiness*


I was just browsing the 7-11's shelves while waiting for the sales staff to pack our goodies and I found THIS!


I nearly DIED! It was simply too cool to let go. They are soooo super duper CUTE! All in excellent print and color of Snoopy in his varies outfit and destination of Tokyo, Paris, London, Rome, New York. I was too excited to notice that they come in different flavours of lemon, peach and orange mint when I first bought them. Obiviously I bought all 5 due to their pretty packaging of the different destinations! ha ha ha.... cost 43NT (=S$2.25), not too bad for a box of collectible mint. :-)

With this, I conclude my taipei experience. If not for the Snoopy collectible exposure, the street markets and the interesting display of fashionable people, taipei is pretty much the same in many other cities, it has its jams, polluted air, mega shopping malls without character, streets full of walking folks (most of them dressed better than they looked heh....). Nonetheless, its a blessing to be able to experience another city in asia and see how much we differ in social responsiveness to recycling, taking public transport (EVERYONE stands on the right side on any escalator in the train stations) and the numerous individuals who set up their own shops selling their own little nick nacks and yet be able to survive and feed their family.

cheers Taiwan!

taipei 09 views, funnies, cookies & BEST buy!

forgot to show you the view from our room....

yeah, not too bad eh? can see alot of the city. on the far right, that's the Taipei101. world's tallest building. cannot see clearly? okay, one more shot for YOU.


still not clear right? ha ha ha... Of course lah! its the FOG in the city, the air has been blurry since day 1, infact, this day when the photo was taken, its considered pretty good already. At least you can see the tip of Taipei101. On the first day, we cannot even see half its body! On the tourist map, Taipei101 looked as if it was pretty close to our hotel, I thought I could take a leisurely stroll there on my own but was fiercely deterred by the receptionist. Even on the way back from Sogo, Taipei101 looked really close by! But actually, think about it, its the world's tallest building, it has to stand out from anywhere right? Lucky I din attempt to walk there else, I might have fainted in the heat before arriving... ha ha ha....

when was the last time you visited the dentist? Was it as recommended? 6 months ago? does waiting for the dentist to see you give you butterflies in your tummies? Does the dentist chair give you nightmares? well, maybe this will help to eliminate all that butterfly-waiting that you'll ever get....



cool? for those who tend to look funny or have a streak of tear running down the corner of their eyes.... this dental clinic may not be their ideal one. ;)

When I first told "rotiboy" about my taipei trip, she mentioned 太陽餅 (sun biscuits) immediately. The way she talks about it made it sound really really really delicious. So I decided to keep a lookout for it during this trip and perhaps bring back enough to fill her tummy (or shall i say belly?? hee...).

I was in XiMenDing one afternoon and found a old-style bakery shop that sells the 太陽餅! I wasnt sure if it was really really nice as "rotiboy" lamented it to be (since her rotiboy experience din turnout that well... ha ha ha...). So I bought one for myself to try first. Woah, I took a strong liking to it instantly! It has alot of stuffing inside and it tastes YUMMY!


nice packaging too!

a box of 12 individually wrapped costs 200NT (S$10). but I recall rotiboy's version was sold at the airport. True enough, there was another brand found at the airport and it was cheaper! *SIGH* I lagged back 2 boxes from XiMenDing LEH!
Disgrunted with the cheaper option at the airport.... I bought another box! ha ha ha...



and it turns out that the one from XiMenDing was NICER! ha ha ha.....

OOI Rotiboy, u still want your 太陽餅 or not?? they are soon all entering MY belly!! eeks!

for my best buy... it would have to be this pair of boots. Its the turn of the season in taipei, lots of shops are clearing their stock. While it was fashionable and practical to wear boots in winter & spring, it'll be too hot in summer to do so. Hence, the boots are going for rock bottom prices, from 200NT to 600NT (S$10-30), there are tonnes of designs, colors to chose from. PD, if you were here, you'll go crazy! Esp. since you've been asking for a pair of nice boots for the longest time.




super cool eh? can adjust the height of the boots to your heart's desires as its made of soft cloth material. *happy*

taipei 08 cheap deals!

many things here in taipei is super duper affordable, they range from the household items to snacks to clothings to shoes... yes even SHOES!

we found this store that sells 3 items for 100NT (S$5), they range from plastic ware to bottles, combs, mirrors, storage boxes to cookware, aprons etc. Since we started taking multivitamins recently, we've been on the lookout for functional pill boxes. after much searching, we found this:


for 38NT (S$2) you get a functional pill box that has 3 compartment of different sizes. Super duper cool! Was excited!

another munchie that we fell in love with was baked-pork-slices. its super duper crunchy! hee.... too bad it was finished before we could share much....


one of my favourite snack was Wo Hua Guo, but its tough to find those not too salty and yet crunchy in nature. So while trying this one out, I found it to be exactly to my taste!! hence.... i bought almost everything they had on their shelves in my next visit ha ha ha....


there were tonnes of shops selling The Face Shop-like products, facial masks, soap, creams and cheap nail polishes. The cool part of it is..... they often give out samples to attract new customers. So walking in & out of them will give you LOTS of samples! ha ha ha.... strangely enough, they only give samples out to the girls. I guess the men in Taipei are not as vain! ha ha ha....

Oh oh! I must tell you that the products in The Face Shop in taipei is cheaper than in Singaore! *stomp feet* *not fair* their masks go for 50NT (S$2.60) while we have to pay S$3.50 for the same mask!

We've got quite a few best buys in this trip.... the not so good-looking but totally functional sports shoes below are one of them.



Qn: How much would you pay for them?

S$100? (u think I'm siao ah??)

$50? (NO lah....)

S$20? NOPE, still far away!

$10? ha ha ha... not even that much!

only S$8.10 (154NT).

yes.... for 2 pairs of shoes! ha ha ha.... they were having store closing. Ad found a pretty cool jacket in the shop but it was going for 499NT (S$26) and we din buy! I think we should have....

their favourite phrase for having a mad sale is "老板瘋了" (the boss has gone crazy)! its catchy and funny at the same time.

This time of the year, the weather is turning warmer, while many people in the streets are wearing boots, soon, the season for wearing boots will be out. Hence, many of the shops are trying hard to get rid of their excess stocks. The prices are dirt cheap & the variety is lots too! Much more than Singapore & Malaysia... So its definitely a great place to shop for boots, but got to go during the right time. When their season is changing hee... to take advantage for their SALE!


cost us 300NT (S$16). yes, we could not believe that its so cheap either. despite the shoe cabinet bursting to its seems at home, we cannot resist this beauty....

taipei 07 street findings

the streets are full of goodies and interesting new stuff.

for example, the road system is slightly modified from our singapore roads to accommodate the higher number of motorcyclists on their streets. in front of the traffic lights for major junctions, there's a special area designated for the motorbikes, so even the cars cannot use this zone. Clearly, the motorists share their roads in perfect harmony.



in the pockets of spaces between two buildings, small parks are set up to engage the community in small huts for friendly chit-chat or playground for kids. also another great venue to set up an ad-hoc stall to sell anything imaginable.




there were even solar panels to take in the strong light from the sun and to be channelled for other uses.



the high end shops like Valentino, Gucci, etc are found located at the most unsuspecting places/buildings. I was walking towards Sogo from our hotel one afternoon and found lots of these shops lining the walkway. I wonder what's their marketing strategy for chosing this location. Perhaps more privacy from the paparazzis since its less public?

taipei 06 more titbits!

yeah... my engine is UP for writing about our short trip to this asian city. Besides being as caught up in the K-wave as the rest of asia, cute K stars posters were seen everywhere! so here's another one for you steph.... I bet, if u were here, you would stand right next to him hee....


check out how contented he looked.... imagine your back against his? ha ha ha... I'm being so crazy!

was walking along the streets and saw this... took me awhile to figure out what was happening. Initially I thought that they were trying to re-tile the building from an ugly maroon to another ugly maroon.


Took me a while to figure out that they were just shelling the building.
Okay, I'm super dumb here, who can be alert and smart after all that pampering in such a nice hotel? hee....

another cute thing was this double-deck parking lot. imagine a fault with the car lift? would you bear to see your S$100k car get crashed?


we were in XiMenDing (West Gates), outside this sharkfin-like-vermicilli-soup store which only has a counter top, has over 30 people standing around to eat their specialty. Yup, all ages, all sexes, pretty, ugly, strong, weak, standing around just digging their soups into the soupy bowl. Yes, even if they were holding onto many shopping bags, the bags are secondary man!


okay, we're too full from our dumpling meal to try it.... too bad.. next time perhaps, if they were still around hee....

hmm.... XiMenDing has got lots of interesting stuff. I was munching down my dumplings from this shop (yes this is the same soyabean drink shop...) and my hot soup.

noticed the cardboard bowl and sauce dish. Very cute! and very environmentally friendly too!

and I noticed this giant, i mean GIANT snoopy bag! Someone was actually lagging this giant bag around??? So Cool! When I tried to focus my eyes on who it was, guess what? I was in the same resturant as a pair of celebrity twins! ha ha ha... Okay, I'm too chicken to ask for a photograph together, trust me, I was trying to word out the different ways to introduce myself and ask for a photo without having to look stupid. But the truth is, I dun even know their bloody names! Let alone know what they sing???? So how to wrestle for a photo? tell them the truth? That I wan to blog about them? sure cannot wan lah! So I had to stoop low.....


heh.... thank God for technology. otherwise, I wont be able to blog about them right? hee....

We also saw alot of ad-hoc street vendors selling their own stuff, its found anywhere, in every corner. You'll never guess what to expect with each path you take. It changes even with time, as the vendors move on to new road junctions, you can find different stalls selling different items at the same junction. It makes walking on the same path/route more interesting & exciting isnt it? hee....




a crowd formed around the sounds of a guitar & a lady's voice, peeping through, we saw a small-frame japanese lady, totally immersed in her own singing and the ad-hoc concert with a growing audience and instantly, we took a liking to her singing. We heard the whole song through and went forward to drop some change into her open guitar box, then we noticed that she's selling her own album for 100NT (about S$5). As we were wondering to purchase her album or not, she was busy signing autographs for many who come forth to purchase her album, they must have heard her singing for a while. Soon she started her next song, again, she was totally immersed into her own singing, banging her head forward, rocking the guitar back & forth, her voice has so much emotions that we do not need to understand the lyrics to feel her music. Very cool indeed. So we bought her album! hee....

Taipei 05 our lodging....

heh... to use the word lodging seems to be an understatement of Taipei's Shangri-La's Far Eastern Plaza Hotel. Hee... yes... its that luxurious. Now you can understand why I had to scrimp & save to come to taipei? How can anyone... I mean anyone, miss this beautifully furnished place?

so here, I'm going to indulge in a little photo show of our ROOM!!! super! okay, we dun take like professional photos.... so if u r really wondering, might be better for you to just go to their website hee....

in any case... here's the BED!


the bathroom:


oh wait.... this you have to see....

heh... yes there's a tv INSIDE the bathroom! so u can shiok in your bubble bath in the tub while catching up with your news. But for me, it'll b trying to follow the movie on tv while soaking myself hee....

Oh oh... I must admit that having 60 tv channels on the tv is pampering! There's news, variety shows, travel, sports & my favourite MOVIES anytime.... ANYTIME! There's easily over 8 channels of taiwanese variety talk shows that specialises in different stuff like beauty (how to bleach yourself white), entertainment (who is with who) or games (how to dunking the pretty girl in skimpy bathing suit) etc. Its quite entertaining to have such lively conversations throughout the day.

the only thing I truly dun understand is: how can they keep talking so MUCH about the same thing? the conversation can go like that:

What do you want to drink?

White soyabean? Black soyabean?

What is black soyabean?

for black soyabean, black beans are added.

what kind of black beans?

just black beans.

so what are you having?

I dunno?

What about you?

I think I'll have the white soyabean.

why not the black one?

I've tried the black soyabean previously.

How does it tastes like?

just like soya bean drink. just have black look.

oh really? does it taste nice?

just normal.

So what are you drinking?

I'm still not sure.

What about you?

so in the end, how many white & how many black?

okay.... it went on for the next 5mins. just trying to decide white or black soyabean drink to have. Luckily, they ONLY have two drinks. Else, it might take 2yrs!

just needed to share that experience... hee.. *tongue stick out*

right, back to our heavenly lodging.... besides the great bath tub! There's free internet service! hee... yes, all DAY! yahoo!

and breakfast...

and afternoon tea....

and cocktails....

and free gym....

and free yoga classes....

and great heated pool...

okay i'm bragging! sue me! hee.... okay lah, just extremely overjoyed with the facilities and the service that we are getting. So glad that I made it here. n I have to be honest.... there were many many days.... when i really just want to stay IN. ;)

as for how warm they are, here's it:

a nice box of chocs just to sweeten our experience. they taste yummy too!

its a great hotel! everyone! get the chance stay here! *muaks shang*

Taipei 04 Recycling

Its amazing how much efforts is taken into recycling here in this part of the world. Shops do not easily issue out plastic bags even if your purchases are huge! Esp. if they see you already carrying one in your hands, regardless of how its seams are bursting... you may actually be requested to pay for it.

One evening, we went into the 7-11 to make some mega purchases (later i'll tell u what they are hee..... *slurp*) and along with our mega purchases, we bought some drinks and sweets, the lady asked if we needed a bag, so we said YES for the drinks since they are freaking COLD and I'm NOT going to hug them all the way back to the hotel like what I had to do with the 2L bottled water after my fingers ached from trying to find a comfortable way to negotiate around its neck.... so so chilly... *grrrhhh*

The lady whipped out one carry bag which looked totally plain like any other plastic bags that we are so used to in Singapore and she zapped it! There was a barcode at the edge of the bag and it cost us 1NT (=S$0.06). Okay, its not like expensive here.... but still its $$. I guess this barcode zapping experience has made me more aware of saying yes to bags.... and definitely treasure the bag alot more than those stuck in the cupboard back home. Perhaps, we should also do this back home in Singapore, just to jot the folks abit to make them realise the cost of NOT re-cycling.

"THE 1NT BAG"


One evening, we were walking along the streets, we saw a huge gathering of people, all with either green or white plastic bags in their hands, for a while we were wondering what's the fuss.



Then we realised, they were waiting for the recycling trucks! So cool! The folks actually have to clear their own trash! Okay, I totally appreciate our own personal dustbin in the house for the longest time. But this is yet another good measure to ensure that people have little trash as waste, else you'll be lagging your trash down the streets in the freaking cold night waiting for the truck to comeby. So its got its merits... but I doubt it'll be applicable to us in the near future. Even with our own dustbins in our OWN houses, our HDB corridors, left landings are often filled with trash, junk, unwanted furniture. Its unbelievable how uncivic-minded we can get. Recently, one neighbour was moving out and she conveniently littered our lift landing with her unwanted trash, she was "nice" or "smart" enough to separate them out into different piles and put them at different corners to not crowd the corridor? or become a fire hazard?

the nice big yellow truck with a cute music to announce its arrival....


it comes with recycling messages on its sides as well...


The Taiwanese folks are generally pleasent people, polite and helpful, with a strong sense of community living. Even during throwing of their trash, they aid one another along:


Recycling efforts along the streets are evident by their numerous recycling bins found everywhere. You need not walk far to find one of them...


Also, most eateries, especially those with high turnover, uses cardboard and wooden utensils instead of plastic except for the spoons. So I guess, Singapore.... we still have along way to go.... try lah....

okay everyone who's reading this today, go home and find all your empty plastic bottles, tin cans and put them into the green recycling bags and send them for recycling k? good!

Taipei 03

yeah, i'm back to post MORE about our experience here in Taipei hee.... one of the very famous things about Taiwan is their unprohibited availability of sexual materials (one of the stores have XX vcds right at their shop front on one rack where the adjacent rack sells children's cartoon! I can imagine how generous the parents can be... hee.... "sure dear, take your time to browse through which cartoon you want, I'll be right NEXT to you... we'll get one each k?" ha ha ha) & "hairdressing" parlors with special services. Ad told me to keep a lookout for our malay-barber-like-blue-white-red spin lights and they'll reflect these "hairdressing" parlours....

Instead, we found lots of this around... could they be a chain store concept? or they have really cleaned up the main streets off the vices?


more night view of taipei's si ling night market....

the hap-harzard looking signs sticking out at every corner reminds me of HK, unfortunately, the atmosphere is quite different. Here the folks are alot more friendlier, chatting about anything under the sun with their friends right next to strangers even had one gal who disclosed her secret of going to PS in the toilet after she got drunk one night!! Yes and she did it 3 times! If i had listened further, I might even find out what she'll do when she's trying to ditch a guy! hee... too bad, had to change trains.

One observation about the folks here is their orderliness in taking the trains. They have all been educated to follow the rules of stand on the right side of the escalator when using it. In all the train rides & transits, everyone, I mean EVERYONE follow the rules, so if you were standing on the left side, you had better WALK! If only we can do that in Singapore, we only have 4million people, with over 1million of them owning their own transport, another 1million either too old or too young to take the public transport, leaving only about 2million on the trains & buses.... why cant we be more orderly? just on the escalator at least? Even while waiting for the trains, people actually STAND in a QUEUE! no pushing, no scolding, no nudging.... if you asked me, its alot more civilised here!


This escalator ride spans about 3 storeys here of each about 5m height, in our HDB terms it'll be a 5 storey escalator and yet, everyone stands where they are suppose to.... it was such a long ride on the escalator that we had lots of time to take pic of ourselves hee.... in fact, the first 3 shots were not good... the 4th one looks the BEST! (of me lah needless to say, since I'm the photographer, I have the last say in which photo to use hee....) (actually, to appear less "hiao" aka vain, we were trying to prep the camera on my hp for Steph's Rain poster which we saw on the way out... so we do have a "mission" & a PURPOSE for using the camera hee... must test test mah)


There are lots of helmet shops here, lots of colorful helmets graffitied with different cartoon characters. Here you can find lots of Doremon stuff... includiing this one.... sorry for the snip off the top, its a doremon helmet with the cutey heli-like flying blades which the cartoon characters often use to stick on their heads and it will lift them off in the air for a air-ride to any place their desire in the comics. I wonder if this gadget here will set any kid off in thinking that they can fly with that thing after immersing themselves in the comics hee....


I've always heard about how cool their army is here. People cry if they cannot get in. Its something which every citizen holds alot of pride in. check out their publicity poster along the train stations....

it looked so cool, makes me wanna join too! I wonder if that's on Ad's mind...he's been starring at the poster for a LLLLLOOOONNNNNGGGGG time! hmm....

Taipei 02

on transit to Si Ling night market, we saw this.... and we had to we had to take this down for STEPH!

This one is for YOU ;)



oh... not big enough? my hand should not be there to touch his face?... hmm..... let see... how about this?



ha ha ha... yes the K-wave here in taipei is huge! Everywhere got K artiste endorsements, got tonnes of channels on tv showing K drama.... anytime in the day/night!

interesting eh?

okies, more to come later..... i'm goin out to explore now...

Taipei 01

Hey hey!

greetings from Taipei! yes, we've landed in the city of many things.... food, shopping & sights. We've only got a few days, so with no time to lose, we quickly started out on our tour! ;)



the streets looked pretty much the same in another other city, except for the sense of mess, the roads are mostly curvy, so its tough trying to see what's at the end of the road. In addition, its super foggy out here! coming here makes me wanna hug the LTA officials for trying so hard to keep our air pollution index low. Air here is BAD, my nose has been leaking non-stop since touchdown... and hasnt STOPPED! *sigh*

nontheless, nothing will stop us from exploring this city of many interests.

first stop, we took the train to Si Ling Night market, we're hungry for food and started walking along shops and shops selling full of interesting stuff! its like the feast for the shopaholics boy! Now I know why the taiwanese are such fashionable folks, the variety and originality here is unparallel! (or maybe I should say that till I visited Japan hee...) Well, at least here the cloths items are Affordable! You can afford to be fashionable as they go from anything as low as 100NT to 1000NT (divide by 20 is the fastest way..... take away the last digit and divide by 2 hee.... but the actual rate is to divide by 19 so dun get FOOLED!)

so here is the many many many interesting sights that we saw along the way....





I think this is the season of strawberries here. So shiok to see rows and rows of fresh, juicy strawberries lined up with different toppings, waiting to be served. Its abit ex though 100NT, that's S$5 for a titbit.


i liked this arcade, they place the basketball game right next to the big open glass window, so it really attracts alot of attention and ignite the basketballers' desires to go in and try it out! *tempted*


There was this temple that stood out from the many that I've seen by their endless rows of red lanterns. AT 10+pm, its still open with many believers burning joss sticks inside.



you know what's written on most of these lanterns? "peace for the country" 國泰平安. you can sense their strong desires for a stable economy & therefore a peaceful living environment.



after strolling for about an hour, we finally found something that looked interesting... the hotpot resturant! heh.... being the meat eater, Ad ordered BEEF hotpot!
For 90NT (S$4.80), he got beef, hotpot of veggie & stuff & 1 bowl of rice! not too bad eh? its semi-resturant condition, with aircon (actually dun need aircon, cos its COLD here.... 18degC *grrrrh*)


The quick eye Ad spotted that we have to self-serve with the sauces & cultery and they even provide free flow of tea! Got green tea & red tea, but they seems to have a sweet tooth for even the most unsuspecting looking tea.... its bloody SWEET! I could not tell it was tea... all I could taste was SUGAR!


The soup in the hotpot was super salty, but the veggie went great with the spicy sauce hee.... then of course there's always something interesting that Ad will be sporty to try..... does anyone, i mean ANYONE know that is that piece of BLACK thing in the hotpot??

We've Got IT!

yes! after months of negoiations, weeks of paperworks, finally we've got the keys to our new house!

Its adjacent to our current flat and has an extremely original look to it!

Welcome to our new home- OnLine hee....

the view from the corridor, notice the nostalgic gates...


peeking thru the doorway into the living room...


Ta Da... the living space, about 4x3m i think...


another view of the living space, this time showing the entrance to the rooms


the kitchen cabinets (the only few things left behind...)


another view of the kitchen where the sink is...


close up of the stove & sink area, another few remains from previous owner...


the loo & shower room...


the back room, decent enough to fit in bed, wardrobe & study table...


my favourite part of the house, the tiles! check out the marble flooring, exactly like those of my parent's house...


and the mosaic floors which require great workmanship... super nostalgic sia!


so now u know what it means to be super original eh? ha ha ha... its a like a whole apart from our existing place! I still cannot believe that we own this place now. simply amazing! truly blessed!

Lent has started

yes, its the 1st of March and we're early in church.

Lent marks the start of Jesus's suffering for us sinners in the dessert. Its a good time for us to reflect upon what we've and what we could do to make things better.

Cant help but feel the need to take a pic of the church in such beautiful night light.

I could have died on the road today....

yes, I almost did not make it to post this blog. Thank God that He gave me quick reflexes to react to a near death accident on the expressway today.

The cause- reckless driver, a young man in his early twenties.

I was so shaken by the incident that my left leg continued to tremble for the next 20mins....

I told myself that I had to "share" with him what he had done, so I followed his vehicle, which co-incidentally came to my work place as well!. After sharing, I was convinced that he was totally not remorseful nor think that he did anything very serious. Hence, I wrote a letter to the TP to request for their actions.

my letter:

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Dear officer,

I would like to report reckless driving of a young driver of vehicle number SFY8704Y (dark blue Toyota Altis, young male driver in his twenties dressed with a pink polo T-shirt) today at around 9am along PIE going towards Jalan Bahar. My vehicle was travelling in the same direction on lane 2 while vehicle was coming out from a slip road between Toh Guan & Corporation Road. SFY8704Y cut out into lane 3 abruptly while my vehicle was traveling towards that juncture, without any signal lights, SFY8704F drove out towards lane 2 in one motion. The driver has failed to check his blind spot to check for oncoming traffic coming from his right side. A fatal accident almost took place along PIE during peak hour travel due to the reckless driving of this driver. All vehicles travelling on that stretch of PIE was at 80kmh includiing two heavy industrial lorries flanking the Toyota in lane 3. If I had failed to react to his reckless driving by sounding the horn and breaking my car steeply, a minimum of 10 vehicles could have collided, causing serious causalities on a monday peak hour traffic.

The driver failed to show any signs of remorse or sorrow as he sped pass my vehicle after recovering from the incident. While it has caused me to think about how serious it would have been, I doubt the young driver has realised his consequences. Many lives could have been lost, seriously injured and changed forever as a result of his neligance.

Here I write to appeal to the Traffic Police to send a stern warning to the driver of the vehicle SFY8704Y for his reckless driving and lack of good driving ethics to apologise to fellow road users for causing so much distress.

In my ten years of driving in Singapore, the rate of reckless driving has been on the rise, I appeal to the authorities to reveal the testing criterias for a good, responsible driver to be placed on the roads. A character/personality test could be included to increase the awareness of possible reckless tendencies to the new drivers to allow them to be aware that they could be of a higher danger to the other road users. Furthermore, I wholeheartedly agree with setting a higher minimum age limit for taking the driving test as today's incident has showed that young drivers lack the maturity to consider the seriousness of their actions despite repeated public education on safe driving.

I look forward to your response.

Thank you.

Best regards,
Jennifer Kee
driver of XXXXXXXX
mobile no. 9XXXXXXX