Different ppl,Different treatment

Its no secret that every 1 will treat 1 another differently. I may like you better and thus treat you better than the others, of cuz you are subjected to your instincts aso. Afterall who am I to tell you who to like or dislike?

Yest, a director from other dept came and told us that he’s gonna bring us out for lunch today and said he invited the whole dept to go along. I was a bit surprise as he usually do not interact with our dept much except during course of work. But who do not interact with us during course of work? Cuz we are finance, 1 way or another, you gotta come to us de..

I was later told that he intend to bring us to eat Fish porridge.. We were all not keen lo, 1stly, we seldom go for this kind of entertainment lunch with other dept heads. Even within our own dept, its during special occasion then we will have a dept meal..2ndly, how many of us like porridge? Not many it seems, no matter how nice you claim it is, dun like means dun like lo..

Know the best part? Its I came to know previously he took another dept out for lunch too, but they went Hard Rock Café instead. How sweet is that to offer us fish porridge? Damn, it pales in comparison by tinking bout the food lo..Seems like we r 2^nd class citizens like tat, only fit to eat fish porridge…

Not that I am beri keen to go Hard Rock, but the difference in treatment is simply too big to ignore.. given any1, they would aso feel this way de..if you really think finance dept is not worth the treat, den dun treat lo, its  not like we are asking for 1..

Wat I am asking is, if you wanna treat us as a form of encouragement, can you do it properly? At least it should be the same across the board. In this case, you juz make us feel like we are sub-standard. The truth is, we felt that the dept who got the hard rock lunch is the sub-standard dept, thus making us feel even worse..

The funnie thing is all these can be reimbursed thru expense claims de lo, yet he can chose to bring us to eat fish porridge..how politically right is this move?1 of my colleague was still consoling us saying that maybe the porridge is those high class type, costing SGD 15/serving.. Regardless la, the name itself oredi lose out to the Hard Rock brand..whhaha..

The thing is, I didn’t get to go today, boss is requesting a report from my sup and we went early lunch and came bak to do the report..I heard end up they didn’t go too, as it was raining heavily.. maybe is god’s will?whahah I dunoo.

Brain Wrecking

After 3 nights of intensive scrutinizing the various quotations, I finally narrow it down to 3 competitors. Pricings are quite similar, now its base on the workmanship and their attitude. 1 thing to note, I have yet to bargain the price yet as I have not decide on who to pick. I dun wan to bargain thrice. Will juz bargain with the chosen 1.

Looking at the amount of work I requested, I cannot believe my quotations are at least 25K. Its daylight robbery or what? But since the 3 of them quoted similarly, I guess this is what we called market price le lo…

Anyways, many thanks to Hang papa who last min intro his ex-classmate to me and thus giving me 1 more choice. If ever we award the job to him, heheh I will not have to worry bout getting cheated/bully/over-charged by this contractor, cuz Hang Papa says will look out for me…I trust he will do so..hehe

Besides deciding the contractor, I’ve yet to settle for the design of my kitchen..More or less, I noe what I wan..the easiest way out, is to haf the contemporary aka the modern style, which essentially means no style..

But still, I gonna decide on the overall layout of my kitchen. I have some ideas of it. The only good thing about going to a lot of ID/Contractors is that they all give different ideas on the layout and I get to choose which 1 I deem best. Thus, I will gather the ideas and tell them to the chosen 1.

I foresee things are going to be more hectic after I decide on the contractor as I would den need to start choosing the materials, colour of the paints. Not to mentioned the miscellaneous items to be sourced and purchase. Luckily, I foresee that this is gonna be a busy period and put my acca studies on hold. Else, think I would collapse with all these things weighting me down.

Where is Mr Love, 1 might think. He is relaxing in 1 corner, waiting for me to go thru the quotes and select the handful for his final selection. Juz like a big boss. All the liaising are done by me till I find them completed then I will give him the final quotation to go thru.

We have however, went thru 2 rounds of furniture viewing to gauge the funding required. But nothing is concrete at this moment. Besides that, we also went around to view some completed projects of the contractors to see their workmanship.

These, can only be done during our precious wkend where housework, errands, parents visiting took up a big chunk of our time, not to mention the fact that I need catch up on my beauty sleep. It makes our wkend more packed than ever, tiring me out even more than my work days. Its like I’m working 7 days a week non stop.

But for the sake of getting the reno done, I still feel its worth it. After all, its  not every yr u will renovate ur hse, muz as well enjoy the process. Its juz like the days when we planned our wedding, the process will be once in a life time only though for renovation, it can be repeated.

Hopefully when my house is done, I am able to look back and felt proud of the efforts I’ve put in.

Ching Ming Festival...

Its Ching Ming again, you will noe, which the rain coming almost everyday..清明时节雨纷纷。。

This yr, we prayed to my ancestors 1st as dad says he wasnt free in the coming weeks and we cannot afford to drag too long..Its earlier den past yrs, but then I guess this is the praying wks and thus every where was crowded..

The past few yrs, as we went ard 2 wks after actual Ching Ming, thus it was quite empty oredi, to the extend of like no 1 else is praying besides us le..hehhe

The correct way of praying to our ancestors shd be the whole extended family meets and go pray their respect to the ancestors, but in our hse hold, we do it within our own family only, I sometimes suspect no 1 else is praying to my grand parents, eldest uncle and great grandma any more..

Like I say, we are also late in going to pray, but it seems like no 1 else did b4 us, as their tombs are not cleaned up..I mean, you cannot be praying onli and dun do some hse keeping rite?

Anyways, its not up to me to meddle in this kind of matter, my duty is go every yr to pay my respescts to my ancestors, hoping they will bless us with harmony and good health..Though sometimes, I will ponder, are they still ard to bless us or they had move on to reincarnted?

This kind of things are 信则灵，不信则不灵。。。But I really do believe my ancestors are giving us their blessings and keeping us in check...Do you believe???

March Babies bday 2012

This yr, we had a later celebrations den usual. Reason being, dear dear is hafing classes and I was out of the country for a wk prior to my bday..

But then, since its our annual gathering during this period, hook or crook, we have to squeeze out some time to meet up..

As dear dear & I both injured our legs, we decided to haf dinner at a restuarant and stayed there for the whole nite chatting..I think the staff there were abit impatient towards us, as we onli ordered 1 starters to share and a main course each. There after, we juz sat there & chat & keep asking for water refill..heheh...not tat we cared too..I mean, we did order food rite?

Us with the pressies

This yr, we got veri excited over the topic of Yiyi's wedding which is in the middle of the yr..We were planning our duties, luffin at e silly ideas that each of us came out, gave nick names as per the duties we were assigned to..whahha and of cuz not to mentioned the ideas to bully the groom..

And we aso discussed how the 3 of us can cooperate on the actual day, our outfit which yiyi offered to buy, the arrangement for the day as its gonna be a full day event..Man, we were excited...Its been 3 yrs since my wedding and we looked forward to this 1, especially I get to join the fun as part of the sisters instead of the bride who haf to sit still and behave herself...Whahhaah Finally its yiyi's turn..and hopefully in the upcoming years, would be Dear Dear's and Partner's turn too..hehehe

The only grp photo of the nite with my dearest sisters

As we were too caught up with the discussion, we forgot to pose for mosre photos, thus this is 1 of the least photos we took during our gathering, but it had been a great night out with my sisters and I look forward to Yiyi's big day where we will witness our sister getting hitched to the love of her life and live happily ever after :)

The candid shot

Displacement

It has been a week since I fell down and injured my foot..A week later, I am still limping and need Mr Love to send and fetch me from work everyday..

I try not to walk ard too much still when working how can u avoid walking? Finally I went for a second opinion today at Cindy's recommendation as I wasnt walking properly..

Went to the clinic that Cindy recommended today and the doctor told me that my joints are displaced after my fall..The 1st sinseh I went to did not tell me this...Instead, he did some tuina for me and send me home with some external medicine to apply on the injured part..

This doc told me I shd not have done the tuina as it will worsen my condition which it did..There are some swelling at the toe and ankle though not serious..But as the joints are not bak in place yet, I am not able to recover..

He then skillfully used some bandaged to wrapped my toe and proceed to push the joints back in place..It was bloody painfully, but after that, my toe felt more relax..He did the same with my ankle, pushing it back to place but nt without pain..

I can walk ard better now, but still the doc recommend me not to walk too much...I am prepared to go back to work tmr but am not going to walk ard as much as possible.. Hopefully I can recover with after this wkend so that Mr Love can slp in later and I can walk ard as much as I like...

那些年，那些事，那些回忆。。

Watched 那些年，我们一起追的女孩 on my flight back to Singapore..I noe this show has been pretty popular but I juz didnt find the time to go download it to watch and wasnt planning to..Juz nice that the inflight is showing this show and there is no other good show to watch so juz nice lo...

It was a really good movie to be frank, given that I seldom watched Chinese movies..It was a touching movie, though end up the male and female lead did not get together, it is touching to see the director recounting his teenage memories of the gal he liked and wooed..

How many of us have these memories?I am sure every 1 have..Be it whether u are secretly admiring the other person or is your past love..Although in the end, you did not end up together, but knowing that the other person is getting on well, will make you feel happie for them..

To be reminded of those years, those silly things we do juz to get the other party's attention brings bak fond memories...Its a care free period, the period I missed most duing my growing up years...

I am at a different stage of my life now, and watching this show, brings me back to those days, those happie days..Am realli happie tat I caught the show and those who haven show go see..Try not to catch the China version as they cut quite alot of scenes and changed some of the lines..hehe..

那些年，你们又有那些回忆呢？？

Haf u ever...

Haf u ever passed by a place which brought bak memories which are sweet and yet sad at the same time?I juz did..

Was meeting up with my sisters today for dinner and was early for our date, thus decided to walk ard abit..and I came upon this shop..for no apparent reason, I stepped into it without myself knowing..

Was drawn to this particular section where once happie memories were created yet it reminded me of the non existence friendship now..

It's kinda sad to be reminded in this way, stood there for awhile recalling the good old days but when sadness suddenly took over the fond memories, I walked away as far as I could..

Not sure why my memories are being stirred up today..maybe juz maybe I'm being emotional..

Taipei Revisited 2011-Lunch @XMD,Bank of Taiwan, National Palace Museum (国立故宫博物院）

 It's our last day in Taipei and I did not planned anything in the morning. Woke up, took breakfast and went back to our room to rest after 3 hectic days.

We checked out at 12pm and decided to pamper ourselves at the buffet restaurant we saw during our 1st trip here. Went to Rakuya BBQ restaurant located beside Rainbow hotel. Its at level 2. I forgot the prices we paid but it is not expensive at all.

At 12pm, the restaurant is pretty empty. Besides us, there is another Singaporean family having their lunch there too. There is however a time limit for the buffet, 2hours were allocated. We struck to the time limit though I don't know what would be the penalty for taking longer time.

Hotpot and BBQ

 The food selection here is pretty good. I loved the BBQ but not the hotpot though. Soup base tastes pretty bland no matter how much ingredients we throw in.

Mr Love looks like he is clapping. Haha

 By 12.30pm, the restaurant is filling up with locals and tourists. Am lucky that we came early and ordered whatever we want already.

There is a list of things you can order from and some counters that serves desserts and ice cream.

Hot pot

 Speaking of ice cream, this is the 1st time I've seen Haagen dazs ice cream served in a buffet can? I was so excited that I tried almost every flavour available. Haha Sua Ku.

Meiji ice cream

My favourite part of the buffet

王子面- Taiwanese maggie mee

 We took exactly 2hours to finish as I was keeping track of time. It is pretty stressful to eat within a time limit and I am not exactly very pleased with it.

Had a good and fulfilling lunch here and the price is reasonable.

Round 1 of the food we ordered

 After spending the most of our leftover for this buffet, we realised we need to serach for a money changer to buy more Taiwanese currency since we still have half a day more in Taipei. Asked around for the nearest branch of Taiwan Bank where they will accept Singapore dollars and walked in the direction of it.

Taipei hospital

 We then realised the bank is no where near XMD after walking for 10min. It is no where in sight and we came to a small neighbourhood. I didn't even know where we were. But there is no way we can take a cab since we did not know the exact address of the bank.

Thus I went into random shops along the way to ask for directions to the bank. We spent a good 15min trying to locate the bank all the while don't where the heck we were. The surrounding building look kinda old too. Its like a local neighbourhood instead of a tourist area.

Buildings near the bank

 Its a different Taipei that we seen. Though am not happy for taking so long to locate the bank but we are glad to have another feel of Taipei. The reason why we are searching for Bank of Taiwan is because the smaller banks do not accept Singapore dollars and there are no moneychanger in XMD or Taipei Main station area as far as I can see.

The only downside of Taipei as compared to HK is this. Nearly every where I go in HK, I can see a moneychanger accepting major currencies but not here in Taipei.

We finally found the bank after much asking and realised they closed at 3pm.Lucky for us, we reached at 2:45pm. Was directed to 2nd level to change the currency and were pleased to find that their rates were even better than Singapore. The only thing is, you must provide your passport/IC as proof.

Location of bank from XMD

I think checked with the bank teller on how to get to National Palace Museum(国立故宫博物院) from here as I had initially planned from getting there from our hotel. She gave me the most easiest way out, to take a cab. Haha. I told her I didn't want to, else will not need her help already. I can go on the street to flag a cab down.

I was hoping that there would be a direct bus from here. Either that or I could catch a bus to the MRT where I can transfer to Danshui Line. My biggest problem now is, I don't even know which part of Taipei I am in and the nearest MRT. Cannot be walk back to XMD right?

Turns out, there is a direct bus 304 at the nearest bustop to the bank. We were warned that the journey is pretty long but decided to push thru anyway. Another option is to take a bus to ZhongShan MRT station where I can take the train to Shihlin station where I will have to catch Bus R30 to the museum. Either way will take equal time we reckon.

1st look of National Palace Museum in Taipei

The bus journey was about 1hr plus and we slept all the way to the museum since it is the terminal station.

No phototaking is allowed in the museum and thus explained the lack of pictures in this post. Tickets are priced at NTD160 and I overheard some neighbour country citizens commenting that they still have to pay to see exhibits of their country. Hur Hur.

 National Palace Museum boasts the world's largest collection of Chinese art & aritfacts. We randomly went around the exhibition halls checking the exhibits out and stood near to the tour group to hear what their tour guide is explaining hehe.

But it was impossible to cover all the halls in the 2hours we had there and we skipped some of the exhibits. The museum also changed their exhibits periodically since they had some 655,000 pieces with them. I think it is quite impossible to display all out at 1 go.

 The must see collection piece here would be the jade cabbage, pork belly jade and passenger boat craved from an olive pit.  When we realised time is runing out, we went around the museum seraching for these. Haha

I even brought a replica keychain from the gift shop.

We then took R30 back to Shihlin station where we transferred to Jiantan to visit Shilin night market for 1 last time before departure.

It has been a good 4 days here and I look forward to our next visit.

National Palace Museum,Taipei

Add: No.221, Sec. 2, Zhishan Rd., Shilin District, Taipei City
Directions: Take MRT to Shilin station, at Exit 1, take bus R30
Opening hours: 8:30 -18:30
Tickets: NTD 160 for adults
              NTD 80 for youth travel cards

Taipei Revisited 2011-Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall-中正纪念堂

 We gave this place a miss during our last trip due to the typhoon. I planned this place in this round. As we stayed in Xi Men Ding, it pretty easy to get here. There are 2 ways in fact.

1). At Ximending station, take the blue line train to Taipei main station, transfer to the Green line towards Xin Dian (新店）and alight at Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall station (中正纪念堂站).

 2).  At Ximending station, take the light green line train and alight at Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall station (中正纪念堂站). This is a preferred way as it is less crowded, no transfer is needed and of course faster.

Of course, we chose the 2nd way.

Map of the park

The front gate

 The memorial hall is right beside the exit for the MRT station. I once heard that Taipei rains 200+ days a year and it's the 1st day it rained since we reached here. Since the memorial hall is an enclosed area, we have no problem with rain but to walk from the main gate to the memorial hall is quite a distance. So still need to prepare an umbrella for the unforeseen circumstances.

Side hall

Main hall

Walking towards the main hall

Map of the main hall

 There are 89steps that leads to the main hall. These steps represent the age of Mr Chiang Kai Shek had lived. The opening hours are from 9am-6pm, admission is free.

However, we are too early today and had to stand outside to wait for the hall to be open.

View from the main hall

 At 9am sharp, the heavy door leading to the main hall open slowly and the huge statue of Mr Chiang appeared slowly before our eyes. A crowd had already formed by this time and were waiting patiently to enter.

Doors slowly opening

Guards all ready for the parade

Parade starting

 Similar to Sun Yat-Sen memorial hall and Martyr's Shrine, there are guards of the arm forces guarding the main hall during opening hours. Guard changing period will take place at every hour. I am not sure which arm forces these guards belonged to but it is said that they will rotate between the forces periodically.

KMT Crest on the ceiling

 After taking photos of the bronze statue of Mr Chiang, we moved on the various exhibition halls inside. Mr Love had been here before but had mostly forgotten what was on displayed. Typical him.

Photo of Mr Chiang Kai-Shek and Mr Sun Yat-Sen

More photos with other leaders of the time

Writings of Mr Chiang Kai-Shek

Signing UN Charter in 1945

 We went around the exhibition hall going through the photos on display and the various artifacts. I didn't have much concept of the history between Taiwan and China, only knowing the main outline.

This exhibition halls only display the life of Mr Chiang Kai-Shek but didn't mentioned much on the history on why he came to Taiwan. It is to say, there is no political links here as far as I can see. It is just like a history museum to us.

Victory over Japan day

With his wife Mdm Chiang

Moving on from the hall that displays photos and paintings, we moved on to the hall where artifacts are displayed. Here there are display of writings of Mr Chiang Kai-Shek, items that he used, gifts by other countries and many many more. There are far too many to take photo of them all. We moved on quickly with me only taking pictures of things that interest me.

Some writings with a lot of correction it seems

Mr Chiang Kai-Shek clothings

Various badges

With Mr Chiang Kai-Shek's car

Portrait of Mr Chiang Kai-Shek in his military uniform

Oil painting of Mr Sun Yat-Sen & Mr Chiang Kai-Shek

The car & I

Mr Chiang's sedan

The last exhibition we came to is where his former office are displayed. Not sure whether they are using the original furniture are used but it is display true to his last working place.

His office

1 thing I am sure is the clock displayed here is the very same in his office at the time of his death. It is said that the clock stopped at the time of his death, this is quite amazing to us.

Clock that stop at time of Mr Chiang Kai-Shek's death

Got bored after this and we moved to the gift shop to do some shopping. Still I find it interesting to visit here once when you are in Taipei to understand a bit about their founding father.

Taipei Revisited 2011-Keelung Miaokou Night Market (基隆庙口夜市）

Bus in Taiwan do not necessary stop right in front of your intended destination as there are usually quite a few streets surrounding your destination especially in a night market.

When we 1st alight at the bus stop, we had no idea where to go as we were dropped in front of a row of shops and the night market is no where in sight.

I randomly choose someone who looked like a local and asked for directions. Turns out, we just need to walk straight to the junction and cross the road. The entrance of the night market is there.

Keelung Miaokou Night Market is famous for the large selection of food and boy, it did not disappoint us. The crowd is manageable on a weekday night and we move around in ease.

Entrance of Keelung Night Market

Mr Love brought a spring onion pancake (葱油饼） from 1 of the vendors near where we enter and start munching away as we walked. Its tastes like our version of roti prata with lots, I mean really ALOT of spring onions added to it. Not too bad, but too much spring onions.

Haw candy

We walked with the crowd and came to the main food street where many yellow lanterns hang overhead. It was bustling with activity, vendors standing outside their stall trying to outdo each other with their shouting to attract customers.

The thing to note about Taiwanese night market is that the dining area is pretty squeezy. You will be sitting hand touching hand with each other in their table. Not very comfortable if you have a big bag but we survived. I just swing my backpack in front for the whole meal.

Yummy fried chicken

There is also a temple here, I guess the is where the name Miaokou (庙口） which means in front the temple came from. We didn't go in though, I just clasped my hand together and pray from afar.

Temple in the middle of Keelung night market

We found a stall selling hotplate noddles with either chicken/pork chops or steak and decided to take our dinner here. The vendor serves us free refillable cold tea.

The chicken chop served was generous. Dun even need to eat the pasta and I am already full. It was served with mushroom sauce and I broke the yolk and mixed it around the pasta.  Had a satisfied dinner here which sets us back by NT100 bucks (SGD 5++) each only.

Hoplate Chicken chop pasta

We walked around the night market aimlessly for awhile more and decided to call it a day. Notes had stated that we can walked back to Keelung train station from the night market and it is pretty near but we had no idea which direction to go.

Asked some random people who pointed to the same direction and we decided to ask as we walked. We exited from the night market where the main food street is and started walked straight and stop along the way to check out the stalls and shops. It was not a short walk like what was told to me. Again, I presumed it is due to the different definitions of "Near" and "Far" for Taiwanese and Singaporeans.

Asking you to treasure your life while providing a bin for the butts

Upon walking past the row of shops, you will come across a underpass, used it and cross to the other side of the road and you come face to a row of shop again. Walked straight again and take the overhead bridge. It will link to the train station but we turned left and walked down to Keelung Harbour.

Route from Keelung station to night market

There is a stretch of benches along the harbor with many couples sitting there, dating. Tried taking pictures but my stupid camera cannot take any decent night scene pictures.

Keelung harbour at night

Keelung bus station is on the same side of the harbor but need to walk past the row of shops to get there. We did not check it out as we going to take the train back to Taipei instead of bus. To get to the train station, we took the overhead bridge again.

Keelung bus station

Keelung station

Keelung station is the terminal station for trains. Thus there is no worry of not getting on the wrong train to Taipei. Trains here departure pretty frequent so it is pretty convenient to get back to Taipei.

Train schedules

Automated ticketing machines

As usual I couldn't figure out how to use the automated machines and used the conventional way to buy tickets via the ticketing counter. Tickets for express train back to Taipei costs NT64 (SGD 3). Journey is around 45mins.

Platform

Inside the express train

Snacks brought from 1 of the shops in Keelung

As we pull out of the station

Train tickets

We were pretty impressed with Keelung Miao Kou Night Market though it might be a bit out of the way from Taipei. But if you are going to a day trip to Jiufen, it might be a good idea to come here from there via bus.

It's worth making a trip here where you will find a lot of good food to try.