Superman is back;슈퍼맨이 돌아왔다; 超人回来了

I wanted watch this show after reading an article about the cutie pie Choo Sarang in a I-weekly write up.

I couldn't find it on my apps but accidentally stumbled across when I realised I have KBS channel on my cable and I got to watch an episode and fell in love with Choo Sarang.

She is really very adorable. I hope if I ever had a daughter, I hope she will be as cute as Choo Sarang. Haha.

The cutie Choo Sarang

 Back to show, its show casing how dads handle their kids when mom is not around.

The twins featured are also super cute with one bullying the other. Haha. The dad had his hands full while handling the 2 kids. Its also funny to see the kids ignoring their dad when mum is around. Hahah

In short I love this show though there are other like "Dad, where are we going?"

The adorable twins

Maybe it's the kids who are featured here appeals more to me and I love to see the interactions between the dads and the kids.

Now I need to figure out how to go find the previous 29 episodes of the show.

What are the odds...

What are the odds that out of 6.1billion (at year 2001) people on the planet, the person I like would like me back?

2001

A miracle happen to us in 2001 and this year in 2014 we celebrated our 13th year anniversary as a couple.

A simple love story, a smooth relationship and a happy marriage.

I know I am blessed to have found him as my partner.

On that particular day in 1999 when we met, started off an innocent friendship that no one can predicts will lead to marriage.

2014

I thank god everyday (maybe not when I am angry) that we found each other, for the faith, the trust, the support that we gave each other.

Happy 13th Anniversary Mr Love though this is a late post.

I love you, you know I always do:)

Random post # 1234567

>> Last night was the 1st sister gathering that we did not take a full load of selfies. Guess everyone is too hungry and too tired from a long day at work. Nevertheless, I had a great night out bitching to them the recent happenings. Love ya all.

>> Totally love the new Melissa petals shoe I got from Zalora recently after they offered me a discount on final purchase. Its super comfortable and easy to match any clothes with the safe grey colour. Love my current favourite brand of shoes.

>> Am contemplating whether to buy more pairs of Melissas since the outlet is having promotions using OCBC cards. But then again, I have quite a few pairs now and they r still in good conditions. On the other hand, I wouldn't want to miss out on promotions which equates savings.  Aggrrrr..

>> I am in a foul mood the whole week due to someone at work. Though felt better after talking to many but still felt angry every time I get reminded of the issue. Damn you for spoiling my week. I hope you sneeze a lot last night when my sisters took turns to comment about u. Haha okie. Petty minded but it makes me feels better. *Bleah*

>> I very much wanted to start baking using my air fryer but I haven got a mixer yet and have no clue how to bake. Time is always not enough these few weekends and I wonder why. Have neglected cooking recently too. Must get my ass to start before I give them up totally out of laziness.

>> Read an article about happy marriage recently and realised that I didn't have much to complain during bitching sessions about my hubby. Is either he is doing a good job or I am just going easy on him haha. Whichever it is, it meant that I have a happy marriage. Lucky they did not include bitching bout the extended family which I will fail big time. Hurhur

>> My Malacca trip fell through because of mummy's over thinking and caring over how others will feel and say. Needless to say, I am pissed. How come we cannot lead our own life without interference from others?

>> Suffer from writer's block recently as I cannot seems to finish posting my 2014 Taiwan trip. No inspirations.

>> I wan to eat cheesecake.

Dreaming

I never had the idea of becoming my own boss since I always reckon that it's easier to an employee. Hehe But as I was buying coffee the other day, it suddenly hits me that how nice it would be if I am able to open a cafe.

A cafe that serves my favourites cheesecake, cookies, puffs, colourful cupcakes (all self baked) and of course coffee.

In this way, I can bake and eat and earn monies at the same time. It need not be a big space. A pink interior which 2 display counters for cakes, 5 small tables that seats 3 in each. A row of high chairs seating where the coffee bar is right behind it. Viola, my dream cafe.

My fav-Cheesecakes

It would be a cosy setting where girls and their friends can come in and chat over a cuppa and of course have a variety of sweet looking cakes to choose from.

Exactly of what we went to in Houtong. Though I am not fond of being my own boss, but having such a cafe would be a dream come true for me.

1 day, I will learn to bake all these, 1 day...

Mr Love was saying that I would end up eating more cakes than selling them.

There are of course some teething problems like I dunno how to bake and of course the lack of capital. Muhahah

Of course it is all just my day dreaming, part of the Pisces character :)

Enough of dreaming, back to reality where I need to iron the clothes for next week's work.

Who knows 1 day my dream will come true? Just saying.

A tale of 2 city...BAGS

Recently mummy and bro made a trip to the US for holiday and I jumped at the chance to get them to help me buy bags from the Coach outlets that they are visiting.

Since its my 30th birthday this year, mummy say she and bro will each sponsor a bag for me from the trip. Hehe

Prior to their trip, I downloaded a lot of photos from Instragram and other platforms that have latest designs from the outlet.

Mummy did managed to get 1 of the design that I gave her but she brought 1 more out of the haste in the 2nd outlet they went to thinking that they will be not visiting a 3rd one.

The design I choose

The one she got in the haste was paid by piggy brother who also threw in a matching wrislet and lanyard. The bag was not the trendiest looking one that was offered and to be truthful, it looks auntie in fact. Was joking that I will keep it till my 40th birthday and I will start using it since it wouldn't suit my age now. Mummy was suggesting that I sell via website if I don't like the design.

But on the other hand, since this is the 1st birthday pressie that my bro brought me and also all the way from US and I cannot bear to just leave it in the cupboard to rot.

The set piggy bro brought for me

So I gathered all my courage this week and start to use the bag. Haha. I was still mindful of the design, asking Mr Love every morning whether the design look old on me.

But as I carried it, I decided to ignore the nagging feeling of it looking auntie as this is the thoughts of my brother when he brought this for me.

Was bugging him to buy me another bag next year but he said to wait till I am 40 and I think he is not joking. Haha.

Finally used the bag this week

Well, I guess I need to be more confident of myself that I look good when carrying anything. Haha

Taiwan2014之梅雨的季节- Onward to Taipei/ Park City Hotel Luzhou (成旅晶赞饭店,泸洲）

 We woke up early today to prepare to move up to Taipei. Since our hosts need to work, we decided to leave the house with them and take the 7:39 train which is scheduled to reach Taipei at 8:12am.

Due to morning rush hours, the train is pretty pack and hence it is not possible to get seats nearby and we were arranged to seat separately but in the same cabin.

Platform of Hsinchu HSR station

Overlooking Liujia station

Selfie while waiting for train

 The hotel that I booked this time round is in the outskirts of Taipei in Luzhou （泸洲）. As we confirmed our trip too near to departure date and also the lack of hotel rooms in XMD and Taipei Main station, I have no choice but to look for alternatives since those still available in XMD is doubled of what we paid for this hotel.

Park City Hotel Luzhou is a pretty new hotel located just above St Ignatius station on Luzhou Line (Orange). Travelling time from Taipei Main station MRT is around 20min where we have to take Danshui Line (Red) and alight at Minquan West street(民权西路） station and transferred to Luzhou line.

There is also a shopping mall -St Ignatius Plaza connecting the hotel to MRT station.

Bathtub

We were impressed with the room when we 1st entered. Was allocated to the 12th floor, outside view was nothing to boast since all around us are residential areas.

Toilet bowl

But the room itself is much bigger than all of those I stayed in Taipei but at partial of the price only (SGD100++)/night and this is a 4 star hotel. A similar setting in XMD would set us back by SGD 150/night and the room might not be as big and nice.

Shower area

Mr Love was happy to find bathtub here which means he can enjoy the soaking. There is also a separate shower area in the bathroom.

Corridor leading to the room

We were told that they upgraded us to a bigger room and the bed is like super king size! ! I think it can easily accomodate 4 if not 3 persons on the bed. There is also a long luggage rack which is just nice for 2 luggage to be placed on it.

This is pretty essential if u asked me since I need to pack our clothings daily and I welcome the spaces to place the luggage instead of lugging it up and down had there been not enough space.

There was nothing to complain about the bed and comforter provided. Since the bed is a super big 1, we had a big comforter that can wrapped around us when it gets too cold at night and furthermore, it is pretty thick.

The only thing I think they can improve is to provide another pair of pillow and that would be perfect. 

Super big bed

View from our room

We are most impressed by the breakfast spread of the hotel. Though not considered to be an international spread but it is good enough. We also saw many foreigners coming to breakfast for the 3 days we were there. It says quite a lot about the spread since I have encounter foreigners walking out of the restaurant when they saw the spread.

Love the pancakes here

Lots of bacon and sausage

Although they didn't change much of the menu while we were there, but there are a few variances add in everyday save for the more common dish like bacon and sausage.

Fried egg

Fried rice

Breakfast here is always crowded but the top up speed if pretty fast. Didn't have to wait too long if the dish runs out. There is also another breakfast restaurant on the 8th floor which caters more to tour group. Since we did get seats here on the 6th, we did not venture to the other.

Cold dish

Salad bar

Juices and milk

Cereals

Large selection of porridge condiments

Personally, I have no complaints of this hotel. Location is a bit on the rural side but it is not too bad since travelling on the train in Taipei is pretty easy. Our favourite night market Shihlin night market is nearer to here than XMD and Taipei Main station.

There are also interchange stations to Bannan(Blue) Line and Xindian (Green) Line along this line towards Nanshijiao station. Therefore the hotel is not as inaccessible as what many thinks if you are willing to travel a bit more which we did. 

Hopefully the price of the room will not increase too much if it gets popular in time to come and we will be sure to return on our next trip to Taipei :).

Taiwan2014之梅雨的季节-中坜观光夜市（ Zhongli Night Market)

I once read in a foreigner who is staying in Taiwan blog that he finds Zhongli Night market the neatest among all in those he visited and got interested in this night market.

Again, it is out of the way if you are staying in Taipei since it's between Hsinchu & Tao Yuan and besides Taipei have more night markets that you can ever finished going to and will not consider others unless it's your Nth time in Taipei.

Train ride from Taipei (South bound) is around 45min if taking an express train. Station name is Jhongli/Zhongli(中坜). Turns out, the train ride from Hsinchu (Northbound) is as long as from Taipei. Around 45min again if it's an express train.

Having no other plans after Neiwan, we decided to make a trip down to Zhongli even with the long travelling time. However, we must keep in mind the returning train time since last train to Liujia from Hsinchu is 11pm+.

Train to Zhongli

We reached Hsinchu from Neiwan at around 19:00 and thus is only able to catch the 19:17 train to Zhongli which will reach at around 20:00. That leaves us an hr plus before we need to catch either the 21:22 or 21:46 train to enable us to catch 1 of the 2 last trains back to Liujia.

Time was certainly not on our side. The night market is around 20min of walk from the train station and we decided to take a cab to save time. This is the 1st time that I had bad experience with the Taiwanese. No cab was willing to take us because of the short distance!!

Every cab that we approached referred us to the cab behind. Initially I thought the cabs in front were those for long distances and went all the way back to the line. But alas, it turns out that everyone was waiting for a long distance passenger and there was at least 20 cabs on the street in front of the station. I seriously cannot comprehend. You rather wait for the whole night than to take a passenger and earn some monies?

After 20mins of walking frm train station

After asking about 5cabs, we gave up since time is tickling by and we are super hungry by then. With the help of our trusty Ipad map we navigate our way to the night market. And it is true that we will need walk 20min thru the streets and alleys. Not sure why but there isn't any one else walking to the night market like us. Guess most of them who visited this night markets are locals and will have their own mode of transport.

Grilled chicken thighs

True to what the blogger mentioned, this is 1 of the neatest night market I ever seen. The stalls are lined up along 2sides of the street and 2 rows in the middle. Thus there are 2 walking paths for market goers to walk along the street. The night market is a long street that you can walk through 1 stretch and come back to the starting point via the other stretch.

Flavourings

We were dying of hunger by the time we hit Zhongli night market. Having brisk walked here from the train station. The 1st stall we came sells BBQ chicken thighs and again you get to select from various toppings. Wanted to order 4 at 1 go but Mr Love talked me out of it since there are tons of other food to choose from. So, we ordered 1 seaweed flavour to try.

The signboard

Was lucky that I listened to Mr Love cause the grilled chicken thigh is not nice at all. I think the marinate didn't seep into the meat and thus the grilled chicken didn't taste as fragrant as it should be.

We then saw a stall selling Taiwanese sausage and I choose a black boar meat 1. Hehe It cause NT35 a stick here.

Grilled Taiwanese Sausage

While I was ordering Taiwanese sausage, Mr Love went to the next stall to check out what they are selling. Turns out, it is smelly tofu. Something that we did not try after the 1st trip as Mr Love had got stomach upset after trying it.

This time round, it is Mr Love who wants to try again and the sauces are separated from the deep fried smelly tofu. The previous version we tried had the sauces poured all over it. We brought a share and there are a spicy sauce and 2 different side dishes along in the box. The sauce itself was nice, being spicy and sweet at the same time. I didn't try the side dishes though. But I love the idea of separating the sauce since we can decide how much we wanna dipped the tofu with.

Our smelly deep fried tofu

While Mr Love was waiting for the smelly tofu to be ready, I saw an accessories stall and was immediately attracted to it. Went to take a look and was happy to find that they are selling at NT100-120 a pair depending on the design. Perhaps this is more of a local night market and thus prices are more localized and the vendor did not suspect that I am not a local. Hehe

I took a liking to 2 pairs with 1 costing NT100 and the other NT120. The vendor gave me a NT20 discount and I brought 2 pairs within 5min and went back happily to find Mr Love. He was impressed with my shopping speed. Haha.

Add caption

My fav muisc notes

There are really a lot of food here to choose from which is different of what we saw in Taipei night market. But then again, night markets' food usually changed after a while since every year we will find different food in the night market.

We then saw a stall selling something special that we didn't try it in any of the night markets before -Pineapple prawn balls with mayo. The prawn balls are pre deep fried and the stall vendor will refry again when you order from her. A portion here costs NT150.

Pineapple prawn balls

Signboard of the prawn balls stall

Although the prawn balls cost a bit more expensive than other street food in this market, this proves to be worth every cent it cost. The prawns are big and juicy topped with pineapple and mayo. Eating this pipping hot is the way to enjoy this dish.

The portion

Time is 20:45 by the time we covered half of the night market and I was quite frustrated by the lack of time to enjoy this night market which has so many things to offer. More often than not, we just cast a look on the stall and need to decide in a split of second whether we are interested in the food or not.

There are also a lot of stalls here selling goods other than food like accessories, clothes, shoes, underwear and handphone accessories and we didn't have enough time to shop through the stalls here.

Next food we had is fried pork ribs. I didn't really like this as the pork used is not exactly fresh and there is a bad taste in the meat. This is not exactly pork ribs they use, its all meat only and there isn't much seasoning used. A small portion here costs NT55.

Store front of fried pork ribs stall

I was already very full by the time we brought the pork ribs and we are nearing the end of the night market. We saw something here that looks like Korean street food that we had previously. Extra large hot dog.

We brought 1 to share but didn't managed to finished since it is most flour that coated the hot dog.

Extra large hot dog

Lastly we brought a oyster ball (蛤喋） that we previously had in Lukang but the outlook didn't look anything like the version we had there.

True enough, the taste is no where near the 1 we had in Lukang and Mr Love was disappointed with the tasting. The thing we learnt about the eating culture here is although the name might be the same but the taste and the preparation method varies when you travel from city to city. You might like 1 version but dislike the other.

Oyster ball

Time check is 21:15 now and we have need to catch the 21:46 train back to Hsinchu. Mr Love isn't too happy with the planning since we are rushing through the walk here. I decided to try hail a cab here back to the station hoping that we will not get rejected just like the way we did while coming here.

We got lucky with the 1st cab I asked though he doesn't seems too thrill at the destination. But he can go to the station and try picking up other passengers going to longer distance. But I think we are ripped off as he charges us NT220 for the trip which is around SGD10 and the distance isn't that long when all it took was 5min to reach the station.

We did not have much choice either as we need to catch the train back and transit to another 1 back to Liujia.

It's pretty disappointing to rush through this trip but we are glad that we came but we were also lucky since the rain has stopped and we can walk thru the night market with ease.

Perhaps I will allocate more time to travel here the next time we are here. But certainly I know we will be back to explore more of the food offered here.

Map from Zhongli Station to the night market

Taiwan2014之梅雨的季节-内湾线( Neiwan Line)

 Neiwan line (内湾线) is one of the 3 branch line in Taiwan railway that is cater to tourists. Having been to the more popular Pingxi (平溪）and Jiji（集集） Line in  Taipei and Nantou respectively, I am especially keen to see the last branch line that we have yet to visit.

六家车站

 To get to this line, we must make transit in stations along Hsinchu, hadn't it been our hosts are staying here, we might not find the time to visit this branch line since it is pretty out of the way.

Although it is possible to change to the train at Hsinchu which is 1 of the main stations that all trains will stop but the frequency of Neiwan train is not that high. Hence changing at other smaller stations will have better frequencies, then you take another train to Hsinchu if you need to travel on express trains to other main cities.

Train timings to Neiwan

 Liujia (where our hosts stayed) is on the same branch line as Neiwan though we will need to transit at Zhuzhong (竹中） station for the connecting train. Timing is 1 hour each train and travelling time is around 45min. Trains to&fro Liujia station is leaves every half an hour to Hsinchu station. Timing is not that great, hence we only managed to take the 16:10 train to Neiwan where we will arrive around 5pm which is starting to get dark.

Tea break @ Zhuzhong

We reached Zhuzhong at about 3:30pm having missed the 3:10 train to Neiwan, we have 40mins to kill time. The skies are starting to clear up and we decided to exit the station to look for food and mainly coffee for me.

Zhuzhong station

Checked with the station master and was told that there is a convenience store down the road. Most convenience stores in Taiwan cater seats for their customer to dine in the area varies. We were lucky that the store is pretty empty at this time save for a handful of students.

Brought some snacks here and began our teabreak and suddenly, a downpour came from no where and we were sadden by it. This means that we are going to be caught in the rain in Neiwan.

Selfie at Zhuzhong

Luckily, the rain subside as we neared departure time.  Went back to the station to catch the connecting train which will leaves at 4:10pm to Neiwan.

To get to Hsinchu HSR station, transfer @ Liujia station

Neiwan train

Station along Neiwan Line

We reached Neiwan at around 5pm and the evening sun greeted us brightly. Neiwan is a small and old looking station nested among the mountians. I read somewhere that the developments here were not as good as its cousin namely Pingxi line but still I am keen to visit here before it gets too commercialised like Pingxi.

Neiwan station front

It was a quiet station alright and the streets were quieter after a downpour. Not many shops were open for business either due to lack of tourists on a weekday or rainy day. We weren't able to see much activities here. Checked the timing of the next train before moving away frm the station. Weren't planning to stay long here.

Sunny evening in Neiwan

Near empty street in Neiwan

We came to an ice cream stall and decided to buy a cup to share under this cool weather.  But the ice cream is abit too bland for our liking and it took quite a while for us to finish it.

Eating ice cream in Neiwan

 We continued walking to the other end of the street and came to a 7-11 facing a bridge leading to some hilly areas. Since it is raining and our train is like 40min away,we didn't venture across the bridge though I am curious to find out what is across it.

Had seen some people crossing the bridge and coming back.

Bridge leading to some hill area

We sat in the 7-11 observing the surrounding while waiting for time to pass. There is really nothing much to do here or eat since most shops/stall are closed. Was a bit disappointed since we came all the way here to a dead town. Slowly made our way back to the station 15min prior to train arrival time.

Selfie against the mountain

We came back to the waiting area of Neiwan station which has long looking bench in the waiting area. The whole waiting area looks just like what it should have been since 1970s. Not sure whether they didn't renovate the station or had wanted to preserve the old look.

Benches for passengers

Neiwan line permits the use of Easy card and thus we need not buy tickets from the counter. If I am not wrong, Easy card can be used along the stations till Hsinchu but I am not very sure on the actual stations that allow easy card usage.

Approaching train

Sun setting while we make our way back

With this, we completed travelling all 3 branch line of Taiwan railways albeit not every station, but also not every station along the line is an attraction, there are some which are residential areas.

Just like most reviews, Neiwan is the most quiet among the 3 lines which I strongly agreed. But I am glad for the chance to get to visit her before it becomes more commercialized. I can still recall the small quiet town of Shifen when we 1st visit in 2011 and nearly cannot recognized how much it changed when we went back in 2013.

1 day maybe when Neiwan becomes more commercialized, we will be back for a visit. For now, I will remember it as a sleepy town that we spent an hour here in 1 rainy day in May:)

Directions to Neiwan station:

Via TRA( Taiwan railway)

If taking an express train, you can drop at Hsinchu station (新竹）but there are only 5 timings for train going to Neiwan from here daily.

Hence you can drop here(Hsinchu), take the Liujia (六家）bound train from Hsinchu station which has a frequency of 30min , drop at Zhuzhong station (竹中) station and transferred to Neiwan line.

Travelling time to ZhuZhong from Hsinchu is 18min while travelling time to Neiwan from Zhuzhong is 42min.


Via HSR (Taiwan Highspeed Rail)

Drop at Hsinchu high speed rail station (新竹站, Liujia station(六家） is right beside Hsinchu high speed rail station. Take the train bound for Hsinchu and alight at the next stop Zhuzhong station (竹中站） which is 4min away. Transfer to Neiwan line at Zhuzhong station.