Cockroach Encounter

I was harassed by a cockroach last night... in the shower...

That humsup cockroach was trying to peep at me while I was showering lor! I jumped when I saw it... Then tried to be garung... Went in search for the Baygon.. to no avail... Got some newspapers and tried to hit it... I missed...

I was too scared to continue my shower.. The cockroach was 5cm by 2 cm lor!

So... I woke my dad up... to catch it... & smash it into pieces... wahahahaha!

Reminds me of the time I was in Adelaide, when there was this HUGE spider in the shower. Thank goodness I had Joyce around to kill it for me... heehee...

Anyway, cockroach/spider crap aside. Work has been pretty alright. Fantastic colleagues, good work environment, can't ask for more. Just start to realise that once work has started weekends seem to go by so quick. No time to blog, to nua, to sleep... bleah... but I think I'll soon get used to it! or so I hope!

Celebrated my birthday for the past 2 weeks... Will upload the pics once I can get my ass down to doing it :P

Taipei Trip...

So I'm back. It was a fantastic trip! Lotsa sightseeing, clicking of cameras, eating & shopping!!

The gang of us - Brian, Leo, Kenneth, Char, Suyi & I stayed at a newly started backpackers hostel in Ximen... This is really one of the best backpackers I've ever stayed in. Well equipped with all necessary facilities (eg. kitchen, water dispenser, internet, hairdryer & even cotton buds for you to use!!)... And the people who stay there are mostly youngsters (no locals) so its a great way to meet new people. We met an American from California and a Canadian who is on exchange at NUS! How cool...

No pictures at the moment (waiting for Kenneth to upload!), so just a brief summary of our trip below...

Day 1 - Flight to Taipei

Arrived in Taipei in the late evening and headed to Shi Lin Night market for dinner/supper and some shopping. It was super crowded cos' it was a Saturday night... But alls good... we managed to buy what we wanted. I bought 5 pairs of (ge4 xing4) socks... heh heh...

Day 2 - Jade Flea Market, Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall, Taipei 101 and Korean apparel street

So we managed to find our way to this Jade Flea market that was located under some highway... it was very "cheena" selling all the weird stuff... Some guy tried to sell us toothbrush that has bristles on 3 sides, apparently it can give a better clean than most ordinary toothbrush... ha.. weird.. but we didn't buy it of cos... since I do not have enough money to buy any real jade, I bought 2 crystal bracelets... one of my mum & one for myself... they say crystals have hidden power, I wonder how true!

After that we went to the Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall, apparently we got this mixed up with the Chiang Kai Shek memorial hall, its not the prettiest architectural structure we've seen, a little disappointed but we still managed to get pretty good shots at this place...

Shot of Taipei 101 from the memorial hall...

Then Taipei 101... the renowned Taipei 101... its a really tall building (duh!) my neck ached after trying to look up at the tip... hurhur...

Okay.. now we're just being spastic...

Last stop for the day was Korean apparel street, we forgot that it was a Sunday and we didnt know the shops close early... so by the time we got there 99% of the shops were closed... disappointed again!! There's a "world famous" tao huay shop just around the corner, so we tried it... its really not bad! For those going Taipei, you can go try it. Located at Dingxi station.

Day 3 - Yang Ming Shan, Zhu zi hu and Dan Shui

Visited the mountain and trekked until my legs nearly broke just for a flower clock... WHYyyyyy

Yes... this is the flower clock I was referring to....

Went to Zhu zi hu to have some wild veggies, really yummy meal!! They served us some veggie called "cat jump over the mountain" (or something like that) and betel nut flower and boar's meat! Exotic... but YUM! a must go place for those who love food :)

Last stop was Dan Shui... Realised the shopping there was really cheap! Suggest that you buy whatever you like when you're there cos you're not going to find anywhere cheaper than that place. Took ALOT of pictures and we even got a street artist to draw a portrait for us... Cool!

Sunset at Danshui...

Day 4 - C.K.S Memorial Hall, Ding Tai Fung, Wu Fen Pu & Miramar Ferris Wheel

Went to the right memorial Hall this time round - the Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall, very grand looking, pretty well kept. Provided a lot of history of Taiwan, their times under Dutch and Japanese ruling...

Mr Chiang's personal car... They say its bullet proof!

Then went to Ding Tai Fung for lunch... not as good as we expected, we all agreed that Crystal Jade serves better xiaolongbao... there's a renowned "crushed ice" place near the restaurant (apparently 100 steps away) and I must say its really good!

Crushed ice shop

Everyone has been telling me how cheap the stuff at Wu Fen Pu is. Apparently not so... I think its also cos' its winter, we didn't manage to find clothes that we like/suitable for us... so in the end I only bought one white top and one black off shoulder dress/long top... =(

Last stop for the day - Miramar Ferris wheel, for those who watch the taiwanese drama huan huan ai, its the ferris wheel thats featured in the drama. Really very grand and especially pretty at night... Must go! not very expensive to ride on it... oh, and its situated on level 5 of the shopping centre, so its really quite high, not for those with fear of heights!

Ferris wheel in Huan Huan Ai

Day 5 - Mao Kong, Shen Keng Toufu street & Partyworld KTV

Mao Kong - literally means cat empty is one place that I highly recommend people to go visit if they go Taipei. The trip there was exciting and torturous at the same time. You have to take a 20 mins cable car ride to get there and at the end of the ride, you are ~300m above sea level. The view is really quite cool from the cable car, but... the ride makes you really dizzy... I feel like nausea at the end of the ride... heh... but totally worth it! Mao Kong is actually famous for the tea houses and plantations... so... naturally we stopped at a place for some tea... Its those traditional chinese tea style... so thankfully they taught us how to brew the tea! otherwise we'd look so cuckoo... hurhur... We also took heaps of pictures... mostly random/artistic (or so they say...) ones... will upload the cooler ones once I get hold of them!

Tea plantation in Mao Kong


A very cute tea place in Mao Kong


The place where we had our afternoon tea...



Artistic teapot shot...

After that we headed to this place called toufu street (hurhur... reminds me of some TCS8 drama eons ago...) where they sell all kinds of food made from toufu... We tried stinky toufu, not the deep fried ones, the real authentic stewed ones. If you think the fried ones were smelly, this one was 100X worse... (okay.. maybe I'm exaggerating a little!) We also had toufu bread/cake, not the best but was really interesting! I reckon it'll be healthier than normal bread cos' there'll be more protein... (dietitians what say u?) Then we finished off our meal with toufu ice-cream... yum... much better than the Mr Bean ice cream! This toufu street was a 10 min bus ride and 10 min walk from the station, a bit of a hassle, but definitely worth the travel!



Ice-cream shop at toufu street!

We spent our last night in Taipei singing KTV... the Taipei KTV rooms are much better than ours. Seriously, we even had our own en-suite toilet in the KTV room... impressive... haha... but we had a hard time trying to get the songs we wanted cos they used a different system for "ordering" songs... so yup... overall good fun especially when we invited our new found Canadian friend to join us =)


KTV!!

Day 6 - Ximen Mall & flight back to SGP

Having spent most of my money on food and what not... I didn't have much money left for shopping at Ximen. Bought more socks (I need them for work mahhh) and that pretty much sums up my shopping in Taipei... haha... But the Hong Kong boys bought shoes, apparently it was much cheaper than in Hong Kong... well... as least some of us were happy!



I luv egg egg!!



My food...



Ximen Mall...

We all crashed when we boarded the plane. I guess thats what happen when you are sleep deprived for days....

Great trip overall, I hope we'll plan another one next year! Maybe next stop... Macau? Bangkok? Seoul?

TV marathon

Thursday night is TV night... Whee! Non-stop TV programmes from 8pm to 1am...

haha... yes... I'm a couch potato...

This is what I watched tonight:

8pm - 9.30pm - 1 Million Star (Season 1)



This is a Taiwanese singing contest. Even though the contest is over (I'm watching season 1) and the results are already out, I still enjoy listening their singing!! Especially this guy called 楊宗緯 whom I felt should have won but was disqualified mid-way. I think he signed up for the contest using a "fake" age... but anywho... he's singing is still... fwah!

Check out this webpage for their videos (if anyone is interested enough!)

10pm - 11pm: A Model Life with Petra Nemcova



I've raved about this show in one of my earlier post and I shan't repeat myself.

The girls are gorgeous. hot. period.

11pm - 12mn: Super Model No. 1



Another Taiwanese contest. Another modeling programme. You should have come to realise that I love watching model shows. Yes... I'm envious of their long legs & hot bods. Since I do not have any of those qualities on myself to admire...

The thing about Taiwanese programmes are that the hosts usually ask very "daring" questions and they are usually very funny & entertaining... hurhur... (yes yes... i'm a cheena fart!)

12mn - 1am: Tennis - Hyundai Hoffman Cup



Yup! End the night with some sport programme... After oogling at the hot bods of models its time to oogle at athletic bods of sportsman. haha...

My favourite male player is taking part in this event and I love to watch him play cos' he's reactions are always so animated! He's Novak Djokovic btw...

A wonderful TV night would not have been possible without..... Starhub Cable TV...



shit... maybe I should ask Dad to cancel cable so that my arse will not be stuck on the couch all night!