Saturday, March 31, 2012
ilight marina bay 2012
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Arigatou ne...to a beautiful life
Even tho it is the blue day; even it is OSIM; even tho i know my list is filled with tasks i procrastinated from last wk, i am grateful to all.
Thanks for the tap and the morning greeting. Im sorry u caught me in dark coloured clothing. Urgh.
Thanks for the email with the thotful reminder.
Thanks for rubbish text as usual that gives my eyeball some exercise.
Thanks for "stealing" my wallet n buying tea.
Thanks for bringing my laptop back.
Thanks for the kind msg tho u shld be taking care more of urself n setting gd eg.
Thanks for the sudden delivery of iced passion tea.
Thanks for the chat. Im sorry that my thots were rather disorganised after staring at the scrn unproductively.
Thanks for the dinner n company.
Thanks for the hilarious drawings.
Thanks for all the assistance in one way or the other. N thanks for all the happiness brought upon that brightens up the monday mood.
Not jus this day, for all the days with the different greetings and notes and smiles, gestures, treats, presents n the list goes on.
When u start writing a list and focus on these things, u know u have a great life with great companions. When u start collating a wk's lists, u'll have a file. A mths's a book. A year's a sequel. Of a beautiful life. Anyone can write that, it will definitely sell, why wouldnt anyone pay if one would be influenced n becoming a happier person after reading it, after viewing events thru a different pair lens. Btw u draft ur own, u get it free. Why do u need motivational books?
Thanks for the tap and the morning greeting. Im sorry u caught me in dark coloured clothing. Urgh.
Thanks for the email with the thotful reminder.
Thanks for rubbish text as usual that gives my eyeball some exercise.
Thanks for "stealing" my wallet n buying tea.
Thanks for bringing my laptop back.
Thanks for the kind msg tho u shld be taking care more of urself n setting gd eg.
Thanks for the sudden delivery of iced passion tea.
Thanks for the chat. Im sorry that my thots were rather disorganised after staring at the scrn unproductively.
Thanks for the dinner n company.
Thanks for the hilarious drawings.
Thanks for all the assistance in one way or the other. N thanks for all the happiness brought upon that brightens up the monday mood.
Not jus this day, for all the days with the different greetings and notes and smiles, gestures, treats, presents n the list goes on.
When u start writing a list and focus on these things, u know u have a great life with great companions. When u start collating a wk's lists, u'll have a file. A mths's a book. A year's a sequel. Of a beautiful life. Anyone can write that, it will definitely sell, why wouldnt anyone pay if one would be influenced n becoming a happier person after reading it, after viewing events thru a different pair lens. Btw u draft ur own, u get it free. Why do u need motivational books?
Sunday, March 11, 2012
pictorial recap of the 8-day trip to taiwan 2012
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| Reached Taipei, rainy and cold day, bought high speed railway tix for tmr's trip to Chiayi. train journey delayed due to tremors felt in tainan-chiayi region |
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| wandered around nice Chiayi city and tried the dessert, 烧仙草，literally, burnt chin chow |
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| cold at alishan, trekked in the foggy forest, admiring thousand-year-old cypress and cherry blossom which are starting to bloom |
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| lazing around at sun moon lake, missed the sunrise at alishan, decided to visualise the reverse process from sun setting. serene place, though kinda commercialised, home to thao tribal group, still different from the bustling taipei city. |
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| formosan cultural village, enhanced by One Piece. the cable car ride and the 3D show was superb. walked thru the 9 villages with wax characters. peacock garden back at SML, showing off their beautiful feathers, their mating calls and feathers' vibration echoed thru the air |
Monday, March 05, 2012
The cube book - the sea
The cute book. Kawaii becos it is so small that it is palm size, n really jus the palm without the fingers. 767 pages.
The sea. Thats the title. Small text, small pics. Peering into the first pages, wonder if pple need the magnifying glass, or maybe pple dont read, jus for display. Wonder if the pics r painted. few pages thru, started looking for the credits. Looking for the authors. Looking for the photographers or painters, half expecting jus a compilation from somewhere else frm nat geo etc. Photo credits found.
Will be missing out much without reading it. Awesome descriptions. Vividly, with all senses n strong observation skills. Beautifully-painted texts frm 11 authors. a dynamic team indeed, frm sailor, writer, historian, curator, biologist, diver, to photographer. Amazing. Touching. Feelings stirred. The pictures proves the captions which complement well.
The sea, 70% of the earth. Its vastness are all cupped in a pair of hands. Irony. I can only flip by the edge of the rhs pages with my left thumb. No other easier means to flip. Interesting form factor. Wonder if other titles will have the similar impact to the readers. Thanks for the dear omiyage from
Koh Samui!
The sea. Thats the title. Small text, small pics. Peering into the first pages, wonder if pple need the magnifying glass, or maybe pple dont read, jus for display. Wonder if the pics r painted. few pages thru, started looking for the credits. Looking for the authors. Looking for the photographers or painters, half expecting jus a compilation from somewhere else frm nat geo etc. Photo credits found.
Will be missing out much without reading it. Awesome descriptions. Vividly, with all senses n strong observation skills. Beautifully-painted texts frm 11 authors. a dynamic team indeed, frm sailor, writer, historian, curator, biologist, diver, to photographer. Amazing. Touching. Feelings stirred. The pictures proves the captions which complement well.
The sea, 70% of the earth. Its vastness are all cupped in a pair of hands. Irony. I can only flip by the edge of the rhs pages with my left thumb. No other easier means to flip. Interesting form factor. Wonder if other titles will have the similar impact to the readers. Thanks for the dear omiyage from
Koh Samui!
Saturday, March 03, 2012
3 nights @ Sun moon lake
Day4: Reached in the evening at 水社, where the 客运 from alishan fetched us to. Finally freed from the disgusting ride! Have to change to the 公车 to 伊达邵 where our hotel is. Ita shao, a nice name indeed. The smallest tribal grp in taiwan. Chked in. Superb hotel. 澄园. Overlooking itashao pier and the lake.
Went to the evening performance by the 邵族. They sing and dance and storytell. Enjoyable 40min. Now left with 283 of them. They have even better incentives than us to get married give birth. The gals are really pretty. Sugoi. And for them, the gals work. Guys can jus slack ard.
Shops close early. 930am -530pm are the working hours. Great life. But from chatting, most pple do not stay there at sml. Travelling alone would take them 1-2 hrs to work. Urgh. Dinner 2 vege 1 soup. The small portion is bigger than ours. But well that's alr the smallest. Next time we know 1 vege 1 soup is enuff. Hang ard the pier for awhile. Chilly. Staring out at the dark lake, there's only light from behind us, from the shuishe settlement across the lake and the bright crescent n stars lighting up the black sky.
Saw the weather forecast on tv, next few days gonna be sunny at sml. Raining in taipei still.
Day5: It's accurate! Looking at the map, decided to go 九族文化村. Didnt intend to cos guess the rides are for kids, arent thrilling type. But the cable car station is jus within walking distance. N lucky we took it. Super scenic, n it's actually the first cable car ride we took together! N as usual, being blamed for not knowing. But how am i supposed to rmb? Anyway it's quite amazing. So cross the mountain, one of the 9 around the lake. (was told, didnt really count, how to? It's jus peaks and valleys ard). Changed cable car to the lower station of 九族. Can see the bird's eye view of the entire village!
Wanted to stay till night to 观夜樱. A fesival for feb. mar is then the lavender festival. But the cable car ride ends at 530pm, no way to stay if not driving. Later we found out that usually pple go九族 from other parts of taiwan then to 日月潭. But we went the other way round. Even coach is at 6pm so obviously prefer cable car. die die haf to return to sml before 530pm lo.
Lucky for us, no queues. Must be the low peak for visitors, considering thr cherry blossoms all not fully bloomed.
Decided to overcome my phobia of the freefall drop ride. After my first experience at genting. I skipped the japan and korean ones. Took it. Not as scary. At first the butt is still on the seat. Phew. Roller coaster was crazily turning in the air. I dun even know when i was upright. Too rough. Painful. Some roller coasters are really too jerky to be thrilling or scary. Watching others from the water splash rides forced us to buy ponchos. 20nt only anyway. V drenched and they were feeling cold without the sun.
Next to the 9 villages. From the intro by itashao, there are 14 tribes officially in taiwan now. Still in this theme park, there are only 9 of them. Their houses have v small entrances! U've to bend or crawl in! Basics to slp, hunt and cook, n jus like in the civilisation game: Granary, village head hut etc etc. lucky the govt helps to conserve the culture. They are endangered species.
3/4 downhill, 2 choices, continue to the lower cable car station with the long queues, or traced back uphill to the upper station. 5pm. We got half an hr. tiring but it was an experience to run back up. The villages are empty now. Pple are all walking downhill, we ran past all the villages up, it's like transcending from one scene to the next, gg past the stones with the name of tribes engraved on them. Panting n sweating at the top, the breathtaking cable car ride back with the sun setting behind the clouds and mountains makes it all worth it.
Day6: sunny pretty morning. Cant see the sun rise from the window. Only got the energy to crawl with one eye open to the window. To get out of the room, the thot of reversing the sunsetting which i alr witnessed got the better of me. 2 hrs later, bfast at the top storey, good for stoning to stare out at the lake with a cup of their famous assam milk tea.
Next went to the motorised bike shop. Travelling at maybe 30km/hr. lucky we didnt take the bicycle or the scooter. The winding up and down roads are more suited for the motorised bike. 2 temples and 1 pagoda. Hiking up those gives us the morning exercise already. N on the return journey, the bike jus haf to run out of battery. But we are quite near the stopover. So push it for over. While looking for drink, the 茶叶蛋stall owner was being interviewed by someone from one of the tv chn in taiwan. News chn! The reporter asked us to help, told her we cant speak well but the stall owner alr gave us the eggs to try. Hot. She has to wait for us to peel off the shell. And so it goes. Dont understand why only i kenna, i thought both tog or one after another. Anyway i cross my fingers that it will not be broadcast, pls cut all. My mandarin sucks. Damn cant describe all in mandarin at all. Wasnt really nervous, but im too used to speaking mixed languages. Urgh. And i quickly run away after thanking for the foc eggs.
The bike shop boss came with a new bike. And he treated us almond icecream. But i thought i heard 咸冰棒. Wanted to say dun nid but i was still processing what was that he said he wanted to treat. So paiseh. So he went to get 3. So we stood there, eating the icecream sticks. Chatted with him, ok leh, managed to converse normally without mixing english. He came to sg twice but 10 years ago. He complained abt having to take taxi only at the taxi stands not anywhere else on the roads.
After returning the bike, got the boat ride to get across to shuishe as the 3rd night hotel is over there. Since unlimited boat ride, we took it across for lunch first then back and grab the luggages n again to the new hotel.
Day7: taipei or sunmoonlake? This determines which bus to take. 4 hr to taipei. 920am, 220pm or 420pm. Decided to stay. 420pm coach then. Went to rent the bicycle this time. This side of the lake has more proper biking trails. Anyway it's a mountain bike with shimano brakes. Easy. And alr gotten use to keeping to the right for left hand drivers. To another temple. All temples are on high grds! Hahah merv cant manage the upslope, tho he kept trying to cover it by saying he is stopping to take photos but i know it's for resting. Cannot bluff me. Then to peacock garden and a few others places of interest.
Gdbye sml. N now on bus back to taipei. Restless.
Went to the evening performance by the 邵族. They sing and dance and storytell. Enjoyable 40min. Now left with 283 of them. They have even better incentives than us to get married give birth. The gals are really pretty. Sugoi. And for them, the gals work. Guys can jus slack ard.
Shops close early. 930am -530pm are the working hours. Great life. But from chatting, most pple do not stay there at sml. Travelling alone would take them 1-2 hrs to work. Urgh. Dinner 2 vege 1 soup. The small portion is bigger than ours. But well that's alr the smallest. Next time we know 1 vege 1 soup is enuff. Hang ard the pier for awhile. Chilly. Staring out at the dark lake, there's only light from behind us, from the shuishe settlement across the lake and the bright crescent n stars lighting up the black sky.
Saw the weather forecast on tv, next few days gonna be sunny at sml. Raining in taipei still.
Day5: It's accurate! Looking at the map, decided to go 九族文化村. Didnt intend to cos guess the rides are for kids, arent thrilling type. But the cable car station is jus within walking distance. N lucky we took it. Super scenic, n it's actually the first cable car ride we took together! N as usual, being blamed for not knowing. But how am i supposed to rmb? Anyway it's quite amazing. So cross the mountain, one of the 9 around the lake. (was told, didnt really count, how to? It's jus peaks and valleys ard). Changed cable car to the lower station of 九族. Can see the bird's eye view of the entire village!
Wanted to stay till night to 观夜樱. A fesival for feb. mar is then the lavender festival. But the cable car ride ends at 530pm, no way to stay if not driving. Later we found out that usually pple go九族 from other parts of taiwan then to 日月潭. But we went the other way round. Even coach is at 6pm so obviously prefer cable car. die die haf to return to sml before 530pm lo.
Lucky for us, no queues. Must be the low peak for visitors, considering thr cherry blossoms all not fully bloomed.
Decided to overcome my phobia of the freefall drop ride. After my first experience at genting. I skipped the japan and korean ones. Took it. Not as scary. At first the butt is still on the seat. Phew. Roller coaster was crazily turning in the air. I dun even know when i was upright. Too rough. Painful. Some roller coasters are really too jerky to be thrilling or scary. Watching others from the water splash rides forced us to buy ponchos. 20nt only anyway. V drenched and they were feeling cold without the sun.
Next to the 9 villages. From the intro by itashao, there are 14 tribes officially in taiwan now. Still in this theme park, there are only 9 of them. Their houses have v small entrances! U've to bend or crawl in! Basics to slp, hunt and cook, n jus like in the civilisation game: Granary, village head hut etc etc. lucky the govt helps to conserve the culture. They are endangered species.
3/4 downhill, 2 choices, continue to the lower cable car station with the long queues, or traced back uphill to the upper station. 5pm. We got half an hr. tiring but it was an experience to run back up. The villages are empty now. Pple are all walking downhill, we ran past all the villages up, it's like transcending from one scene to the next, gg past the stones with the name of tribes engraved on them. Panting n sweating at the top, the breathtaking cable car ride back with the sun setting behind the clouds and mountains makes it all worth it.
Day6: sunny pretty morning. Cant see the sun rise from the window. Only got the energy to crawl with one eye open to the window. To get out of the room, the thot of reversing the sunsetting which i alr witnessed got the better of me. 2 hrs later, bfast at the top storey, good for stoning to stare out at the lake with a cup of their famous assam milk tea.
Next went to the motorised bike shop. Travelling at maybe 30km/hr. lucky we didnt take the bicycle or the scooter. The winding up and down roads are more suited for the motorised bike. 2 temples and 1 pagoda. Hiking up those gives us the morning exercise already. N on the return journey, the bike jus haf to run out of battery. But we are quite near the stopover. So push it for over. While looking for drink, the 茶叶蛋stall owner was being interviewed by someone from one of the tv chn in taiwan. News chn! The reporter asked us to help, told her we cant speak well but the stall owner alr gave us the eggs to try. Hot. She has to wait for us to peel off the shell. And so it goes. Dont understand why only i kenna, i thought both tog or one after another. Anyway i cross my fingers that it will not be broadcast, pls cut all. My mandarin sucks. Damn cant describe all in mandarin at all. Wasnt really nervous, but im too used to speaking mixed languages. Urgh. And i quickly run away after thanking for the foc eggs.
The bike shop boss came with a new bike. And he treated us almond icecream. But i thought i heard 咸冰棒. Wanted to say dun nid but i was still processing what was that he said he wanted to treat. So paiseh. So he went to get 3. So we stood there, eating the icecream sticks. Chatted with him, ok leh, managed to converse normally without mixing english. He came to sg twice but 10 years ago. He complained abt having to take taxi only at the taxi stands not anywhere else on the roads.
After returning the bike, got the boat ride to get across to shuishe as the 3rd night hotel is over there. Since unlimited boat ride, we took it across for lunch first then back and grab the luggages n again to the new hotel.
Day7: taipei or sunmoonlake? This determines which bus to take. 4 hr to taipei. 920am, 220pm or 420pm. Decided to stay. 420pm coach then. Went to rent the bicycle this time. This side of the lake has more proper biking trails. Anyway it's a mountain bike with shimano brakes. Easy. And alr gotten use to keeping to the right for left hand drivers. To another temple. All temples are on high grds! Hahah merv cant manage the upslope, tho he kept trying to cover it by saying he is stopping to take photos but i know it's for resting. Cannot bluff me. Then to peacock garden and a few others places of interest.
Gdbye sml. N now on bus back to taipei. Restless.
