Taiwan Trip Day 1 Singapore - Kaohsiung

This is going to be the start of around 15 posts of my trip to Taiwan. I realised that if I blog an entry a day, I am going to take half a month to blog down everything that had happened during the trip. *Starts to sweat* Going to be tedious! But I believe that this is a project that is worth my time!

Ok, Day 1. Flight to Taoyuan Airport from Singapore.

Whole family came and sent us off. Luggage weighed at around 15kg. *Phew* I thought I was going to exceed. =P

The flight was smooth! I came to hate flying after the flight from Kuala Lumpur. Turbulences really freak me out. During the flight to Taoyuan, there were little turbulences and the ones that happened were minor. =)

Managed to touch down at around 430pm. I was just telling PX that I was afraid my luggage would disintegrate under the weight when my luggage handle broke! I was trying to heave my luggage into the feeder bus to Taoyuan High Speed Rail (HSRT) when there was a really loud crack and the handle came off in my hand! Super unlucky!





We kept laughing about it and PX called me a jinx. =P

Had MOS Burger for dinner before our ride. Had so much time to spare that we camwhored quite a bit at the platform.

Finally! The super fast ride from Taoyuan to Zuoying Station.


We reached Zuoying at around 11pm. Had to rush to take the MRT to our hotel coz we didn't know what time the MRT closes.



But we had to wait for half an hour for the MRT to arrive!! It was really unexpected! We still had to change trains at the Formosa Boulevard station. In the end, when we reached that station, the MRT had closed. We had to take a cab. Luckily, the ride was quite cheap.

Finally, we reached our Kaohsiung Hotel - Kaohsiung Toong Mao Evergreen Hotel.




Our real Taiwan adventure started the next day. =)

*Things that amaze/surprise/shock/disturb me*

~The highspeed rail really travels at a super fast speed! I could feel some pressure in my ears when it started moving

~Taipei turned dark at around 6pm

~A route may looked like a short distance on a map but it actually covers a great distance

~辣椒酱 is called 辣酱

~The staff actually mixed the milk and the tea in a shaker for the Ice Milk Tea in MOS Burger

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Flying Off

Jetting off to Taiwan tomorrow! I have soooo many worries right now..

-worried about our luggage weight. (It has exceeded the limit just now. Did some repacking and it should be fine. Now.)

-worried about not enough clothes to wear

-worried about the Minsu we are staying in

-worried about overspending

-worried about the transportation

-worried about Taipei's accommodation

-worried about delays in flights or train rides

-worried about turbulence

-worried about earthquakes

-worried about my parents

-worried about my online shopping which has yet to arrive

-worried about the overdue library book sitting innocently in the corner

-worried about conflicts

Soooo many things to worry about. I am a born worrier.

I must enjoy my holiday!!! =P

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Their Individual Way of Showing They Care

My Dad gave me $1000 to spend on the trip.


My Mum placed a box of bird nest on my table and told me to drink 1 bottle each night before my trip. She said that all the shopping I was doing the past few days was too tiring. She does not want me to fall sick before my trip.


I heart them to bits. =)



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Planning Taiwan

Phew.. Spent two days sitting down with Peixuan planning our trip. It is finalised FINALLY!! YEAH! And I am so EXCITED looking at our programmes!

3D2N in Kenting - Windsurfing, paragliding, sea activities, bike trips, etc. Staying in 2 places.

4D3N in Kaohsiung - Chichin Island, Meinong Hakka cultural village, Liu Ho nightmarket, Love river, etc. Staying in two different rooms.

2D1N in Alishan - Trekking with our personal tour guide in the cold cold weather. Staying on the mountain.

4D3N in Hualien - White-water rafting, whale watching, hot springs, etc. Staying in 1 place.

5D4N in Taipei - Exploring the different MRT stops.


SHIOKNESS!! I can predict we are going to have an exciting and awesome time! Hmm... And I can foresee some running after trains/transport while hauling our lugguage too. *Keeping my fingers crossed* =P


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To Win or Not To Win

Finally, my semester has ended and I am officially free! But I have spent two nights at home without going out. Boredom has settled in rather quickly. Still, I would choose these over doing assignments or preparing for exams. =P

Recently, I saw this piece of news that a man had won the lottery in the States. He is now a millionaire.

It sets me thinking.. How come the people who won so much money never stay as millionaires? Their names are not in the world's richest. They do not appear in Forbes Magazine. We never heard of their achievements after winning so much money.

Imagine having millions as capital for business. The person can practically deal with any business he/she wants. Hotels, F&B, Entertainment, Media, etc. With that huge capital, the person ought to succeed in one way or another!

I guess what happened with the money is that the winners spent them all away. The millionaires who stay as millionaires are the ones who have acquired the discipline, wisdom and determination as they start from scratch and work their way up. When the huge windfall suddenly dropped into their laps, these winners simply lack the discipline, skills and wisdom to make their money grow. Thus, they never stay as millionaires.

So, it's good that we do not win lottery right? Coz it must have sucked to go back to our poor ways after living as millionaires. =P


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Mag's and Gwen's Birthday At Paulaner!

A quick entry before hitting my books!


We celebrated Gwen's and Maggie's birthday at Paulaner this year. I've only been to Paulaner for drinks and didn't know they serve food on the second floor. Heck! I didn't even know they have a second floor. Haha!




I love their pork knuckles! The meat is so tender, it doesn't taste like pork! I think it was one of the best roast pork knuckles I've ever tasted!

Pictures taken with Ba Jie. She is a girl who seldom take offense at my teasing (though I'm careful not to go overboard). Good sport! And she is rather quick on her feet too! We could throw punches back and forth all night. Haha!

The two birthday girls! I can't believe I have known them for 5 years already! They were my first colleagues!

Happy Birthday to YOU!

I love the lightings!



Let's meet up soon to go clubbing!

P.S. I love my camera and the pictures taken!

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Epitome of Murphy's Law

I am a true epitome of Murphy's Law.

"Things that will go wrong, will go wrong."


I had two project deadlines yesterday - a reflections and a written report. The reflections was done two weeks ago, which I must say, was most unusual for me. The written report was completed yesterday at 1pm, which I must say, was very typical of me.

The report's deadline was at 5.30pm. So I thought I got plenty of time to print out both my report and reflections and sashayed slowly to school.

That was when Murphy's Law acted.

My printer was spoilt halfway through printing. The last few pages it spewed looked like they were written in Morse code. Spent some time trying to fix it but failed. Spent more time cursing and swearing.

Panic set in. I smsed my cousin-in-law and asked her whether I could go to her house next door to print my assignments. She replied ok and I hopped over. Plugged in the printer's USB and waited. Result: My laptop could not auto install the printer.

Panic started mounting. I asked my dad to send me to school. Reached school at 3pm.

Long queue in the Computer Lab. Got my computer after 10 minutes and started printing.

Heart beat slower and stomach started growling. The production of adrenaline slowly stopped. Saw my friend and let her used my computer.

"Do you know that the reflection's deadline was at 12 noon?" WTH!! Adrenaline exploded throughout my body! I thought it was at 5.30pm, similar to the report's deadline! I quickly packed my things, apologised to my friend and rushed to hand in both report and reflections.


Tell me, am I the epitome of Murphy's Law or what.


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Braces Diary

Dear Teeth,


This month, the ortho decided that it is time to close the gaps. He introduced the rubber chain which was white in colour. It is a bad colour choice because the rubber chain now is currently neon green. The cause of this colour change? Thai green curry.

Picture taken when the rubber chain was still white in colour.


After the visit to the ortho, you were pretty sore. It reminded me of the time when I had the separators in. It was horrible. At one point, I took nearly an hour to finish my fish bun. Luckily, you are somewhat back to normal now. =)




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The Bride-to-be's Birthday

We celebrated our first-girl-to-get-married's birthday on Saturday. It was held at her house again after a one year hiatus.


At first, we thought of hitting the clubs after her birthday dinner. But it was cancelled in the end. By the way, I never knew that clubbing is such a excellent incentive for me. I managed to finish my reflection essay two weeks before it was due because I wanted to go clubbing without feeling guilty. Hmm.. Maybe I should ask my friends out to club whenever assignments are due soon. =P


Anyway, we had fun playing Mahjong!

Birdie and I were shocked that they were still at 南风 when we reached at 630pm as they started playing at 430pm. All due to .... Ah Bun. Haha!






Our scrumptious dinner!

The birthday cake from Bakerzin. It was sooo much better than the brownie cake from Polar, according to the rest.

Our pictures with the birthday girl!

Here's the first time I introduce Jaw's fiance in my blog. He is going to be part of our one big family soon!

I can still remember the day when Jaws first introduced him to us. Let me dig up the photo then...




Our young and youthful faces! This brings back a lot of memories... (5 years ago, when we were 19) =)

Compare then and now! Haha! Reality check. Bleagh...





Our portraits done by Xiao Pang. Somehow, I couldn't decide whether I like the pictures or not. They seemed to compliment and insult us at the same time. 高招. Haha!




Lastly, I wanna end off with ...



.... Happy Birthday girl! I am so excited about your wedding! =D

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Not My Cup Of Tea

A little episode to nicely sum up how I feel about marriage now:

Mum: That time 姨丈 (who is a medium) predicted that you will get married by the age of either 25 or 28.

My reply?



Me: Must be shotgun.

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Smses That Irritate Me

I have to urge to blog about the smses that irritate the hell out of me. Whenever I see these type of smses, I can feel my blood pressure rising, my heart starts pumping faster and anger slowly creeps in. Deciding that blogging about it would make me feel better, I am going to list down those irritating smses starting with the most annoying one.

1) Chain smses

I don't know how many times I have said this but I am going to repeat it again. I HATE CHAIN SMSES AND EMAILS!!!!!!!! Chain smses/emails are those that CURSE AT YOU if you did not pass them on! WHICH TRUE FRIEND WOULD WANT TO CURSE ANY FRIEND????

And the ironic thing is that the "curses" usually are attached to heartwarming and touching friendship smses/emails. The sms/email would start of with, "you are such a good friend and I appreciate you so much." The next moment, "you better pass it on or I'll curse you!"

Usually, these kind of smses/emails are sent from people who want to save their asses from what they believe to be real curses. Let me tell those people this, if you send me those smses/emails because you do not wish to be cursed by the fake friends who sent them, you will still GET CURSED. BY ME. Too bad, never think of the repercussions, do you?




2) SMSes with so-called "Psychology Questions"

These smses usually goes like this:

From the sender: "Do you see me as a...
a) ...Rabbit
b)...Dragon
c)...Pig"

When I first received such smses, I really thought seriously before answering. But the replies ALWAYS PISS ME OFF! The replies are always way-off about how I feel about the sender! And so, I detest these smses!

Seriously, if you REALLY want to know how I feel about you, ASK ME! Don't beat around the bush and seek comfort in all these flimsy and unreliable analysis. Someone told me before that the answers reflect how I feel subconsciously. If that is true, UNLESS YOU GET KNOCKED DOWN BY A CAR OR GOT STRUCK BY LIGHTNING, I DOUBT THE FEELINGS IN MY "SUBCONSCIOUS LEVEL" WOULD EVER SURFACE!

*Breathe
So on to number 3..



3) Stupid Questions

These are sms questions that the sender can answer himself/herself using common sense. Just received one such question which made me want to blog this entry. I was sms-chatting with this person about my Taiwan trip.

Sender of stupid question (SSQ): So are you going to hitch hike?

Me: Of coz not. Both of us are girls. Anyway, don't think we are as poor as that.

SSQ: Haha.. But you said backpacking ma. So I tot you hitchhike your way around.

I said something that has an underlying meaning of "don't be stupid" and that we will save money on lodgings.

Then... STUPID QUESTION ALERT!

SSQ: How to save on it??

DUH!!!(x100000)

See! Stupid question!! I guess I don't need to explain more to you, right? (Unless you are SSQ himself)

Anyway, my reply was "Stay in cheaper places." Waste my sms...



Ok, these are the 3 top irritating smses in my list. I am quite confident that most of you would agree with my sentiments, right? Well, unless you are someone who had sent similar smses before.... =P


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The Perfect One

What do you look for in the perfect one?





I have found him. Why is he perfect?


He doesn't come easy. I only made him mine after much thinking, weighing, whining and hair-pulling.


I have lived through a period of anguish, deciding.


I felt ecstatic when he becomes mine. All anguish were gone.


I dreamt of him.


Although he is not the best-looking one around, his superb and endearing qualities made up for the average looks.


That said, his appearance is good enough for me.


He has a clear mind and acts without hesitation.


He is able to make my world turns into whatever colour I fancy.


He is observant of little details.


He makes me want to take good care of him .






Let me introduce my new love.

Canon S90!

A semi-pro camera which takes clear vivid pictures with a super fast shutter-speed, has colour swapping function and an unbeatable macro mode. Tell me, what's not to love about him?

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Taiwan Trip!

Yea!!

I have booked my air tickets! Have booked myself and Pei Xuan on a flight to Taiwan on the 10th of May. Coming back on the 25th! Woohoo!! Two whole weeks in Taiwan! =)



Any must-go places? =P


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24th Birthday!!

I had a great time celebrating my birthday this year!! A lot of feasting, drinking and singing were done. Happy! I had a way better time than celebrating the chinese new year. Nothing happened much during new year except that I went to work part time as a car cleaner on the eve.


Anyway, back to my birthday celebrations! The first celebration was with Maggie, Gwen and Ba Jie at Brewerkz!





They bought me the coolest eyeliner I ever seen! And I am so in love with it. =)

We spent 5 long hours, sitting in Brewerkz, talking about everything under the sun, or rather, moon. From ghost stories, to insects and cats phobia, to Ba Jie's investments, to us opening a mani and pedi salon together. Come to think of it, girls are rather formidable creatures, eh? =P

The second celebration was with my Enemies loves! Birdie was not in town this time round. You missed the treat, girl! We went to the Scarlet Hotel for lunch!

Our food! Potions were too small. Bleagh...

Celebrated with Huli this time round. So we shared the birthday cake!




I like this picture because I looked slim! Haha! I know it's illusion lar..

Cam-whoring time!

I love them! (Birdie, see, you are always on our mind!)

Third celebration with our Secondary School girls at La Villa! We can always trust Wan Lin to bring us to a place with good ambience and food!

Our food! I just realised that we never took photos of the desserts! My favourite panna cotta....







The sweet girls whom I have know for 11 years! And I have known Sherlyn for 13 years!

After the dinner, Wan Lin and me felt like clubbing but the other were not that keen. In the end, we went sing K! Haha! Our favourite activity!


On my actual day, I celebrated my birthday with my family. It was a nice simple affair at a Teochew restaurant after visiting the temple (coz it was the last day of the lunar new year).


On the 4th of March, my NIE clique celebrated my birthday for me at Catherine's house! She has a KTV system at her place and gamely suggested cooking for us!



Her KTV system is super cool! We had the whole block as our audience. Haha!

Chef Cat and her super spicy but delicious spahgetti!

Mahjong time after it was getting too late to blast the block!

Pictures taken and designed using a cool app in iPhone! Oh my.. I want an iPhone!



I want to end off by thanking my friends who spent time, money and effort celebrating my birthday with me! I feel very blessed and loved during occasions like this! It makes growing old worth it (at least for that day). Haha! *Hugs*

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I Don't Know What I'm Doing..

I wish I can fall effortlessly in love. But it seems that everytime, I have to make an effort to fall in love because I feel that there shouldn't be unreciprocated love in the world. And I just can't do it. I can't force myself to like someone. I can't force myself to think of someone. I can't force myself when I don't even know what I want.

Others enjoy the process but I keep having this sinking, dull feeling in me. What am I doing??? This feeling really sucks.





And now I regretted telling my mum what happened. It seems that she is willing for me to date any Tom, Dick or Harry that comes along.


Why can't I meet the RIGHT PERSON????



(P.S. Dear friends, this is a secret.)
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Being Rebels Again!

Finally completed the project which I was whining and complaining about in my previous two posts. So it was time to have some fun!

We hit Rebel again. I love Rebel to pieces! It is waaaaaaaaaaaaay better than Butter Factory which was packed full of people acting ATAS. The music they played sucks and there are always queues to the toilet. *Thumbs down*

This time round, there were six of us. For the first time! Too bad Birdie is in the States (she must be having loads of fun), otherwise it will be full force! I guess there is always another time. =P












Love my fringe!

The picture that Jaws and Huli complained about in FB. Huli complained that I cropped her but she was not in the picture in the first place! -_-"....

Nah. Huli Mama. For you, ok? =P

They are my love. =)

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Enough is Enough

I had enough. That bitch must always say something. Whenever I suggest ANYTHING, she will have something to say. Even something simple like the meeting time, she will want to suggest something else. Siao leh! And she is always wanting to fix something that is not broken! It is like she must open her mouth to prove her existence. Shut the fuck up lar! If she pisses me again, it will be the first time I scold somebody without being tactful. I promise.

Yes Boss..

I remember during my last semester, I complained about a dictator in one of my project groups. I thought I had met the ultimate.

No...... No one can beat this person in one my current project groups. We (the other group members and I) are fed up with her attitude. Actually, I have worked with many domineering people before. Sometimes, I suspect I am one too. But no one beats her to it! She is not only bossy, she is tactless, nity-picky and inflexible. Whenever we had group meetings, I had this feeling that I was reporting to my boss. It seemed that whatever we suggested need to gain her approval before we could move on. As a result, we kept going in circles, WHICH WAS A WASTE OF TIME!

AND WHAT MAKES ME BLOW IS THAT SHE IS NOT VERY COMPETENT! Ultimate, man! She wants to dominate everything and yet she is not up to standard. If she is bossy and yet knows how to lead us to score well, I will follow her. At least I know my grades are safe. BUT NOW! I don't know what is wrong with her! When we had consultations, I could see that she didn't understand the tutor's questions. She would then continue asking without really understanding what was being said. So irritating!!

Oh my god. I am so worried about the presentation now. I have volunteered to compile and edit the slides. I am going to DO IT MY WAY. If she wants to go against me, I have prepared a counter-argument and this time, SHE IS GOING TO SEE IT MY WAY. ROAR!



One more thing about this person. She actually prepared minutes after every discussions. In the minutes, she put down who said what and did what. CRAZY! If she is so free, can she go and read more books? Improve her comprehension skills? Work on her EQ? Grrr...



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Braces Diary

Dear Teeth,

There is something different this month. This month, instead of tying little rubber bands around the brackets for the upper teeth, the ortho twisted metal wires around them.







He said that this is to prevent the two front teeth from moving apart from each other. I guess he is not a fan of Madonna. (There is a huge gap between her two front teeth) =p

I am so happy he is doing something to prevent that from happening. I feel that I have made a right choice in choosing him. =)




P.S.



I swear my face is getting sharper despite me getting fatter. Money well-spent! =D



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