Hahaha, while our foodie mate Princess Cow is being airflown to the Land of the Strawberries and Chocolates (Australia), my yoga mates and I (ie Pika, Princess Pooh, and Chocolate Terminator and of course Jeffire) went to Jalan Kayu as all of them haven't had their dinner yet. We ordered 1 murtabak (prata with chicken, onion and egg filling), 1 ice cream prata (3 scoops of ice cream + a huge splatter of whipped cream + rainbow topping), 1 cheese prata, 1 egg prata and 1 tissue prata (coated with condensed milk) plus lime juice for them and teh alia (ginger milk tea) for me.
WOW! Altogether only $20.40 only lei!
Murtabak is always nice there, but this time wonder why they forgot the ketchup. The ice cream prata was really value-for-money, though it could be too sinful for some. Haha. Cheese prata was also very mouth-watering. The beverages were also not bad.
Overall, the crowd at the restaurant should be a good indicator of its standard. I believe much of the credit goes to its location and wide variety of food! Heh.
Other than that, the day was so-so. I left home at 1055am for work at the library which begins at 12nn, but because of the stupid bus waiting at Potong Pasir, it ended up equivalent to the usual time I leave my home (1115am). Yesterday the case was the same at SGH, where I wanted to board either 33, or 63 to Redhill, but the bus probably came 20mins after I reached the bus stop! I should had just taken the train which will only take me 5mins to wait and 4mins to reach Redhill from Outram Park station.
When can our bus standard be at least Taipei standard! We pay a whole damn lot much much money for bus rides here but they have the better bus service. The people who run the bus companies should know that the commuters value speed, convenience and comfort most. I believe we have convenience and comfort, but waiting 20mins for a bus in a fast-paced city like Singapore is certainly a disadvantage to the public commuters. Those who drive don't suffer the health damage from waiting at the bus stop and breathing fumes, plus the number of brain or skin cells damaged due to the worry and the bad air. Moreover, our stupid EZ-link system has only benefited the bus companies and not the commuters. And the bus companies earned RECORD profits last year!
This is certainly what I called "taped over elistism". Everything designed is for the rich and elite! Might as well make Singapore into a country called "ServeRichOnly".
I rather not have $300 or $200 GST assist-package than to have 7% GST plus increase in price from NETS at the same time. I would also rather have 3minute waiting time for MRT and LRT trains, 10mins maximum waiting time for buses during daylight hours, etc.
Idiot.
Moodified Jeffire
Acknowledged my existence at
12:48 AM
Saturday, May 26, 2007
OKIE, the title has no meaning so don't bug me about the bo-liao title.
Anyway today I want to ask the girls some questions... but seems like nowadays not many people come here (or they must be stealth reading) so I am not sure if I will get some satisfactory answers.. haha. Here goes:
a. Why some girls have a "girly" smell? Is it their soap? It smells clean and little bit like baby milk smell.
b. Do you naturally like to sit prim and proper or do you think the way guys sit is more comfortable, less restrictive? If there wasn't social conditioning, do you think girls and guys would sit the comfortable way (raised legs, open legs, etc)
c. Do you think it's ugly to reveal your panty line?
d. Is practising a certain skincare regime important, or do you only panic when you see signs of aging, or damage/
e. Have you ever thought that slapping a guy can make him like you?
f. Lastly, do you think that you can get your way by i. crying ii. cooing iii. acting cute iv. acting sexy v. charm the guy
I seriously got these questions when I was working in the library. You see, part of my job is to roam around the library to maintain public order and comfort for all users. I think sometimes girls should show more self-consciousness...some guys also, they ought to learn what is called public manners?
The other topic I want to highlight is about lousy food. Please don't patronise the Sakura (Thai-Chinese) restaurant at Compasspoint, they suck to the core. Expensive, small servings and worse still, not fresh! Their cooking skills also not really anywhere near the word "acceptable".
Then also, I want to say that many guys who play football don't use their brain to play. They think field tactics for 22 men on the field can be transported to the street soccer court which accomodates 6 moving men. C'mon, be realistic. I seriously find it silly that I have not been showing them Jeffirean football. Hopefully I get to do so soon.
Finally, one last thing. I bought the Biotherm stuff! Specifically, Pika and I got our Biotherm stuff after visiting probably 6-7 Biotherm counters. We bought it at Tangs from the Biotherm chiobu. Haha. Okie, there is a Biotherm booth at Compasspoint where you can do a facial for $15 only! Woohoo, or if you buy $100 worth of products, you can have that facial for free. We shall give a review on our purchases after 3 weeks of using them.
Sunday, sunday... another working day. Siansified! Now can borrow 8 books lei, so enjoy~
Jeffire is a whiner today.
Kik-li-kik-kok Jeffire
Acknowledged my existence at
11:37 PM
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Today was spent mostly at the library. But the highlight of the day was in the evening. Most of the army chaps, some not seen for years, some in my frequent contacted list, attended the wake. We gathered at the kopithiam beside ABC Supermarket in Khatib and had dinner. I didn't eat because I had already snacked, so I had a drink of teh peng (ice milk tea).
My mind was quite amused for the irony of the day was that it took the passing away of a friend to gather so many people. I saw, perhaps, 15 people previously from the same camp. Some of them I spent quite a long time in the camp with them but after we finished our NS, we never met again. Most people changed quite drastically in physical sense(including myself, as they say) but still there were some who still remained in their usual flavour. There were conversations, jokes and recaps of army life which made us laugh. It was quite a struggle to decide whether to laugh or just smile for the occassion was sombre.
We were ferried on a lorry by the ex-driver, ZF, of the unit. He drove as if we were in a rush, but it was fun experiencing the lorry wind again. When we reached, there were 2 wakes at both blocks, divided by the car park. ZF said he saw Chris' photo despite JX and my consistent reminder that Chris lived at the opposite block. Nonetheless, the spectacle was short and then we proceeded to pay our respects.
I wasn't sure what to do actually. I stood at the forefront of the whole bunch of guys. I had an urge to tear though I refused to because I am sure Chris would had preferred me to smile, as his good friend. I didn't smile either though. Gordon went in to see him. I was reluctant as first, as I was afraid. But I felt compelled to do so, because I hadn't the opportunity to see him while he was still alive. He looked in peace, though really pale. I guess he would have been glad to have seen most of the guys coming together to see him.
I noticed on the altar that KFC was part of the offerings, and he had a house, a maid, and a car to go with. I am not sure if he knew how to drive though, but maybe he could learn how to in the other world. I guess KFC was part of the offerings as he worked at the zoo's KFC branch for many years. If he worked at McDonalds instead like his sisters, I might have knew him earlier. Heh. Though that was not the case to be, but I am still honoured to have got to know such a wonderful person who was very talented and very dilligent.
The guys then sat down together at a table. Drinks and subsequently, food was served. The first few minutes was a total silence though. But soon the ambience resettled itself and we went on to discuss about the past, how Chris lived his last months and so on. It was good to see many of us together again, though Leslie and I drove the point that we should not be meeting under such circumstances anytime soon. Hopefully the KTV I'm organising next month would be of a much happier occassion.
As the time passed, even the infamous campmate of mine, Soo KS (maybe there is some description of him in my earliest posts) came to the wake, which surprised everyone. I guessed he had improved slightly in terms of living a proper life. I think he sure did, as he showed us a pass showing that he was a server during the IMF meeting last year. He was very proud of that. On top of that, he bought books from Kinokuniya, that cost a bomb... including an book titled "The Last Journeys You Should Go Before You Die". Of course it was unknown to him of Chris' demise but I guess fate still played a part here as he met the guys who left earlier and was informed of the situation. His appearance made the ambience even less serious but I guess it was fine. Perhaps Chris had wanted to meet as many of us as possible...
Thank you for all the memories we had. I would always remember your super arcade moves, you speedy runs and nice passes, and our discussions on Taiwan, on football and life. Goodbye, my dear friend...Chris. =) Hope you will enjoy your new lease of life in the other world... and maybe one day, one day in the future, we may meet again in the other world.. Maybe we could playing Winning Eleven again... maybe we could play your favourite basketball... maybe I can watch you play KOF again and marvel at how great you are... heh.
Regards Jeffire
Acknowledged my existence at
11:47 PM
Yesterday morning, I woke up early but remained snoozing because it was still way early before work. I had a weird dream, depicting a murder case with a family involved and the scene was at my Toa Payoh old home, where I was born and my grandmother is living. Apparently the accused was the "father" of the family but it snow balled into a case of misfortune as the "son", who went into a state of self-protection hysteria, killed the "sister" with a bamboo rod mistakenly as he tried to pre-empt the killer in his illusion.
The dream ended there as a message woke me up. Of course there is no link between the dream and the message but it was a bad news nonetheless. My army friend, one of my close Yishun buddy, has passed away... losing his battle to cancer in the process.
While I claim to be his "buddy", the last time I met him was last year on the MRT by chance. The last time I spoke to him was a few weeks ago before I went to Taiwan.
Now he's no longer there. His MSN will remain fixed there: "通过竞技,我们可以发现和认识一个真正的自己。因为我们的对手,可能就是我们自己。" He was so right..
We met in the army, in HQ SA. He came from somewhere, I cannot remember. He was small sized but he was the same age as me. But he said he was going Taiwan to serve one year. So we probably spent some months together in the same camp, playing all sorts of sports, doing duty, playing games (he was certainly a super-duper arcade player), going ktv, etc. He then went to Taiwan and we kept in contact via email, MSN (after I went into SMU) and fantasy football. Soon he was back and we celebrated his 21st birthday at his home. It was then I realised I knew his sisters since secondary two as we were colleagues in McDonalds. The world is small, right? After that, although rare, we had our outings to Sentosa and the likes. And I last met him on the train last year, before he was going to work and I, to school. He had a good job at KK Hospital, joined the basketball club of the hospital as well. Although he only had an ITE certificate, I always thought he could still make it big in life because he was very diligent, sincere and made good friends. He was certainly great in sports, even his height did not pose any disadvantage to him in basketball. He was extremly fast! He ought to have lived more in life.. to enjoy more.... to have found love that he so desired..
But that is no more but a imaginary story we can only write for him.
I certainly hope that we will learn to cherish our friends more, to get in touch with them often, given that email, sms and MSN are great communication tools to use. I wished I had visited him when we knew he was sick.... I wished I had spoke to him more...what can I have done as a friend, even if I want to do now, I cannot.
I can only pay him my respects tomorrow.
Chris(WeiKiang), I hope I had been a great friend to you during your army days and the short 2+years thereafter. Although I had not done my part as a good friend in the recent times, I hope you can understand and forgive me...
May you rest in peace and bless your family who will be grieving for you...
Silent Jeffire
Acknowledged my existence at
1:08 AM
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Last week after Thursday I had stiff arms that I couldn't straighten until Sunday. Life was awful during that 3 days but things went for the positive on Sunday. But the weather still bugs me since I had experienced real cool weather in Taiwan. Singapore is sooooooooooooo hot!
As reminded by Eileen during the drive to Jalan Besar for dim sum last night, I checked Ontrac and found that I wasn't offered for the NTUC internship. I am going to try for another one at NTUC Insurance Co-Op (which is just opposite SMU) and hopefully this time I don't break my own rice bowl. Must get serious! But the resume and cover letter I guess I will only post tomorrow night after I make good modications.
Thanks a million to all for the care and concern. Heh. You know who you are!
Nothing much to update about my life so I shall end the post here... haha. Hope you guys don't mind. But if you got stuff to ask, feel free to email or leave the question on the comments page then I try to reply in the next post..
Oh ya, anyone uses Biotherm products or know anything about them? Any discounts recently?
Feeling Better Jeffire
Acknowledged my existence at
12:07 AM
Thursday, May 17, 2007
My hands are trembling now after dragonboat fitness training. My standard is way off any usual dragonboater you pick out from the street. Really, my captain was right to send me onto a individual training session. I was quite surprised but was greatly in debt to him for his genuity. He got me to do chip ups first, 2 sets of 30, but of course I can't do chin ups so I had to do the assisted chin-ups, with the fitness instructor in the gym teaching me how to use the machine. I did all 60 but my arms were kinda stiff after that. Later captain asked me to go do 5 sets of 20 jumping jets, push-ups, crunches and an "fish-like" exercise (I can't spell the name). I died on the 3rd set as I couldn't push-up anymore. I struggled with the remaining 40 push-ups and probably earned myself a fame as "SMU #1 loser". Really, if you walked past me, you would think who is this idiot who cannot do his rounds like a any other man out there. I can't disagree, but I guess I will still continue until I achieve my aim to be a fitter person. I may not be rowing like them in the competitions, but I hope to really get better in terms of strength, endurance and of course looks! I swam 30-40laps 5 days a week during my army days just for the sake of weight losing but now there isn't such conveniences anymore. Neither do I have the impulsive feeling to continuously do so, hence my failure to stay fit.
The day passed by without much event, but amazingly I woke up at 8am only to go back to bed again and rose finally at 2pm. This is freaky! I wonder why do I sleep so much now...
The funny thing I saw when I woke up at 8am was that my sweetie dou stole the poohs' blanket for himself as the rest had no blanket to cover even though I did cover them before I went to bed. Haha. Of course this is not a supernatural sighting. I believe the weight of the potato chip can rolled the entired blanket together with sweetie dou down the pillow onto the bed and thus only he got covered while the rest slept in the cold. Nonetheless it was pretty cute (though cruel) to see this.
I guess that's about all I have to say...
Siansified Jeffire
Acknowledged my existence at
10:27 PM
While 16 May was a disastrous day, I shall just wipe off the slate and forget all about it.
The happy part of 16 May was meeting 3 girls,1 woman, 1 guy and 11 dous. Haha.
I want to sing!!! (But my throat is not back to full power yet.... >_<
Buon Fortuna!!!! Jeffire
Acknowledged my existence at
12:03 AM
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
As it rained last night, I had a good sleep with the poohs and sweetie dou sleeping on both my pillows while I slept on my bolster.
After I woke up, the usual thing to do would be to first switch on my computer, and to my surprise, NTUC called me to go for an interview tomorrow at 1030am. Woo! Finally. If a success, it would also mean my irregular life must come to an end. I dread the morning crunch on the NEL where even Punggol Station has no seats for you if you are just slightly off the timing... ah well, that is for 2 months only.
That was the good thing.
The bad thing happened when I was preparing for brunch. I opened the kitchen cabinet only to find a big big cockroach clinging onto my favourite black pepper tube. Sobs. Of course it ran away immediately - to the back of the cabinet. I slowly took out the things inside the cabinet, got the insecticide ready (all these in an agonising 10 minutes) but it disappeared as I removed the last item in the cabinet. How can it disappear as there was no other access hole inside? I wonder, but this is the first time I saw a grownup cockroach at home. Usually I see those nymphs and I play a game of catcha-survivor with them. If they are caught, they die. It's not I want to kill them... it's so disgusting. If I don't eliminate them, they would grow to become huge bugs and contaminate my food. I don't want contamination. But cleaning the kitchen would mean intruding onto my mother's territory. We all hate people who mess up our stuff without permission so... I don't know how to get on with the elimination process.
Maybe when I move out, I would get those pest companies to survey my home and give me a report on how to prevent them from moving in with me. Hahaha.
Good or bad, cockroach or no cockroach, life goes on.....
Horrified Jeffire
Acknowledged my existence at
12:52 PM
Saturday, May 12, 2007
Yesterday was a case of 2 gatherings with missing people. One went on, the other was cancelled. Shows how hard to gather people.
First up was the Nigel-Jason-Jeffire gathering. Nigel went missing. So Jason and I had the Chinatown 永祥兴酿豆腐. The queue was long but it still tastes just as good pre renovation. There are more seats to take, and overall the area is cleaner. Compared to Tiong Bahru food centre, where the crowd has not returned, it seems a better place to eat. After eating (and numberous ponderings), we walked across Chinatown to Funan Digimall for TCC, a short chat and a goodbye.
I went to the National library to borrow comics. While sitting on the ledge outside the library with flowers behind me, I was stung twice by mosquitoes. So heed my advice, don't sit there!
After that I went Suntec to meet with Pika. We went to the newly opened computer zone, which is still seeing slow business. Then we walked past Nokia customer service and was served by someone very polite. However the problem we had was with its products and another service centre, so the situation is still sticky between Nokia and us. Shan't comment too much on this, but beware if you are going to get any Nokia products as I feel it has already outlived its fame and reputation. 10 years ago, Nokia and Ericsson were the best, true. But today it no longer isn't, in my view. When are the Japanese NTT Docomo phones coming to Singapore? They are so cuteeee..
We then went to Marina Square to eat as Eileen joined us. Ministry of Food was our destination. I love MOF very much but I was still sick to eat anything full so had the tofu-avocado salad as usual. Nice nice. I recall telling them about the incident in the morning: I was walking past the school beside my home during recess time. One of the boys had his football kicked over the fence (with their miniscule bodies, I wonder how). The poor lad at the fencing shouted to me: "Auntie, help me take!" You know what did I do? I just shrugged at him and walked off. I decided not to help because it was an instruction to me. How haughty children have become. Mannerless idiots. And of course, I am NOT an AUNTIE. This reminds me constantly of the proprieties we followed in Taiwan, and people usually called us xiao-di or shuai-ge (with the latter more usual) and calling people the right names make them happy. Heh. When I walked back the same path 2 hours later, the ball was still there. Lol.
After eating, we were served a lucky dessert. Very nice of MOF. Perhaps my consistent patronising of them made them happy. Heh. We then walked back for furniture search as Pika is looking for a bed to buy. The beds in Millenium Walk Harvey Norman are for the expats, not humans.
- Skip all the poking and joking - (hope we did not get onto STOMP or youtube)
Instead of taking the train back to the north with them, Kevin had arrange a supper at 10pm. I was late by some 40minutes, with apologies to my brother Kai. When I saw Kai, I asked him when was Kevin coming and he said 12+am. I immediately asked Kai if it would be better if we went home rather. He was hesistant. I asked what his plans were and he mentioned he had his own friends to meet around 12midnight. I wanted to accompany him for one hour till his friends came but he was very magnaminous and generous to let me go home, seeing my sick disposure (and perhaps my slight displeasure). As usual, my kindest brothers, Kai (and Jinki), made my day even brighter. Heh. Thanks brother.
Today I'm supposed to meet my 2 table tennis chaps (my committee members) for a game but the hall is closed till end of the month. We discussed plans for the club for the next semester. Looks like there would be a flood of many PRCs and other nationalities. I like that. Maybe my team would be entirely foreign imported. Heheh.
Reading Charles' blog made me remember, when's my KTV? CHARLESSSSS! If I have a weekend ktv, maybe I can get Yingzie, Ice Queen, Leen and company to go for a sing. Haha. But $ is always a issue to some of us.... I hope by the time I go, Sammi's new song <<她们说>>, the mandarin version of the song below, would be available. I think it's quite an inspiring song to ladies out there.. heh. Meanwhile I shall ask Pika for a weekday ktv. If you have any good songs to recommend, please MSN me or tell me the youtube link to listen =)
Later celebrating Mother's cum Birthday for my grandmother. Haha, how old is she? I don't know lei, 72? Hope she enjoys good health always.
To you guys too, good health always.
Ball-Picker-Not, Auntie-Not Jeffire
Acknowledged my existence at
2:39 PM
Friday, May 11, 2007
Buongiorno~
I've recovered slightly, no longer confined to the bed or the house. Thank you all for showing concern. Ice queen, your ice can go and put to use at the ice kachang stall, thank you. lol. However, I still cough occassionally, so still have to be pretty careful with what I consume.
The weather is shen-jing-bing! Yesterday was oven day, this morning it rained and nobody wants to wake up. Cool sleepy weather. This pattern has occurred for a few times over the past 5-6 days i think. No wonder people are falling ill.
Just applied for internship yesterday. The organisation is NTUC. Some people on first impression thought I'm going to the supermarket for internship. Some people think it's the insurance division. For god's sake, NTUC is a trade union. Not just a service provider, not just a retailer. This is another example of the organisation bigger than the brand. Also another case of over-generalisation. For example, "Pampers" (previous brand name of "Drypers") means baby diapers, regardless of the brand (at least in my family). "Milo" refers to any chocolate beverage (but "Ovaltine" is rare on the local market anyway) So the supermarket's name is Fairprice (or Liberty, for the Americanised themed NTUC) and the insurance division is Income Co-op.
The internship is about doing a supportive role to the executives who are encouraging people to retrain themselves so as to strengthen their employability. I fully support this, but in practice, many people are just exhausted by their daily lives that only a few fortunate and healthy ones can make it. However, I also feel that many of the lower wage workers are simply choosing to stay in that circle because it's within their comfort zone. They have no desire to put in more effort to earn more (my personal observation). They complain, whine and curse but still the brains and the limbs are still stagnant. The greatest challenge is to dangle the carrot and get these people to move before the "blade of retrenchment" or the "gale of job exodus" gets to them. Till then it may be too late.
Will be meeting Nigel and Jason later! Nigel is my secondary school friend. We used to go home together and occassionally I get free rides from his mother. Haha. He's back from Canada for summer break I think. And Jason was my deskmate for two years. Interestingly, our lives have diverged so far since we stepped out of our green shorts. 9 years ago we were all in the small 24guy class, with all the crapkings, beng-wannabes, the jpop fanatics (Speed, anyone?) and some of the world greatest chess nerds gathered under one class. Today, things have developed so differently for everyone. With a few clicks on Friendster, we can see how one another has changed.. for the better.. or for the worse. (let's hope the former).
With the weather cool and nice today, I shall post off with a poem. Haha.
Ironically, she doesn't use the internet so she won't see this. Lol.
Buon settimana! Jeffire
Acknowledged my existence at
9:13 AM
Tuesday, May 08, 2007
I've just been able to sit up now without feeling giddy. Some parts of my body ache, and I've been sweating like mad, perhaps due to the high body temperature. (I don't have a thermometer to measure). Probably had bathed 4 times in the course of the last 12 hours, woke up umpteen times to go to the toilet for a pee and a drink. As prescribed, one of the best way to beat the flu bug quickly is to drink lotsa water. So I've been doing so. I went to bed around 9+pm yesterday feeling super cold, therefore I had 2 blankets to cover. However, by 1125pm (which I saw on the air-conditioner remote control), I was feeling extremely uncomfortable, very hot and had various pains in my body, so I went for a bath and had the air-con switched on at 24deg C, which made things much comfortable and I slept without much trouble. Apart from the runny nose, the irritating cough is the next thing I hate most. Siansified...
These few days I had many dreams, therefore I couldn't really sleep well. I had seen my falling sick coming because I had "die-rear" for nearly everyday last week. My brother said I need to eat more fruits like him, which I am very convinced that he is right. My diet has been haphazard and I must had eaten lotsa heaty stuff over the past few weeks....
I am starting to feel very tired again, so hope you guys be forewarned, keep yourselves healthy, drink lotsa water, eat in a balanced manner and do exercise moderately =)
Sobs Jeffire
Acknowledged my existence at
9:36 AM
Thursday, May 03, 2007
Recently I seemed to have been struck with an unlucky curse or something. Things aren't going smoothly but at least they are moving. Slept 5hrs for the past 2 nights watching the Champions League semi-finals while working on the laptop. My father was not feeling good yesterday as his workers were asked to do over-time work (ie moonlighting) for another contractor and I was very stressed while driving him home to the point that I mounted the kerb at Honda Ubi Showroom =( By the time we got home it was nearly 12am (I waited at the workshop for him since 1045pm lor). Discussed many work related stuff again and delayed my meeting with Kevin, in which I was supposed to pass his Taiyangbing (太阳饼) and Yu Su (鱼酥). I got to his place at 1+am and he was playing a RTK game on his PS2. Then we played WE10 and I lost all 3 matches to him......SIGH!!! Seemed to have lost my touch as I couldn't defend well. He has improved certainly though (must be playing alot la =p). Then I went back home in time to catch Man Utd's misadventure. And got to bed around 5am again.
While life isn't going too well, it still moves on, so let's get to the last part of the trip. Pika has commented that some little parts of the narration is not correct as in the timings. Haha. Whatever, they did happen anyway. Let's see what had happened in day 6, 7 and 8.
Day 6 is a Monday so we spent the bulk of the day nearby at the underground station mall. Wanted to go further out to Yangmingshan 阳明山 or Huaxi St NM 华西街夜市 but the imploding rain was terrible. The first stop as usual was the area near XKM and we tried a bak zhang shop's bak zhang and noodles. SHIOK!! Their bak zhang very nice, soft, tender and juicy. We then went to a laptop protection specialist shop called 包膜工坊 for the 3rd time for the day to collect my handphone. Forgot to mention this shop earlier on but I think we went on the Carrefour night before we went to Carrefour. The boss of this shop earned NT$1M a month doing laptop/handphone/gadget protection where they put a transparent membrane layer onto your gadget to protect your stuff. Pika's laptop was white and therefore needs such protection definitely. It cost NT$2000 for him to wrap his laptop and I was supposed to spend NT$891 as well for my handphone but to my surprise the lady overturned the verdict as she explained that my phone, due to the rubber parts, couldn't be wrap. They helped me put a complimentary screen protector though, for free! Woohoo, such good service. I also learnt that using naphtha or lighter fluid to clean your phone or laptop is pretty appropriate. The shop is at Huayin St 华阴街 right behind Taipei Railway Station, I remember it's exit 12 from the underground mall, if I'm not wrong. That street sells quite alot of miscellaneous stuff like disposable stuff, stationery, umbrellas, etc. It was raining quite heavily so we actually spent most of our time at the underground mall shopping for shoes (2 pairs for NT$300!, including 1 boots). Bought quite many shoes actually, and the funny thing was that I had to try the boots for Pika's sister. Hahaha. Learnt how to wear boots too =p. We also tried a very nice 大福, a Japanese mochi-like dessert. But no hands to carry the super exquisite packaging so we decided to buy them on the last day. Also saw people playing bowling on the Nintendo Wii. Apparently it's a tournament and in the days we were there, we saw many people playing the bowling game. Considering whether to buy a Wii at all.. heh. =p
The funniest part of the day was the 1hr spent at 2 toy catcher-machine shops! Lol. We wanted to get our "revenge" on these machines so we tried to pick those with very cute stuff. The first one was the furry pooh (got big and small one) and after some tries, I finally scored it! Heh. Pika just couldn't catch the racoon no matter how he tried, even with the intervention and help of the shop assistant. Heh, the shop assistant very nice one, they try to give you a chance by strategically placing the toy near the drophole, especially if they see you put ALOT of money into catching the toys. LOL... yeah we did spend some hundreds (nearly NT$500, ie SGD$20+?) on catching toys and the photos below shows our loot. At night when we got back to the hotel, the naming exercise began. So the 2 most expensive toys were the 2 heavy racoons, which Pika smacked their backsides after catching them due to the amount of $ spent on them. Their names? Piancai 骗财 and Pianqian 骗钱 lol~~ Then we had Mianbao 面包 (the bun shaped toy), Doufu 豆腐 (a cubic tofu shaped toy), 2 furry poohs (毛毛POOH & 毛弟POOH) Quite fun to play toy catching =)
At night we contemplated going to the Huaxi St NM, but we took the wrong bus to go to the ASUS Royal Club (ie, service centre) and spent some time getting there and back to XMD. So ended up never go Huaxi St. After deciding not to buy the 3rd year warranty for the laptop which is only usable in Taiwan (not very cost attractive because buying airticket to go Taiwan repair laptop seems illogical, right?), we went back to cover the XMD areas which we have yet to cover, one of which is the clothes shops there. We also tried stuff like bbq corn (salty and pepperish), 凉圆 (agaragar-like stuff with fillings like tausar, yam paste, etc), hot dog in fried dough, and 面粉饼. It's similar to Singapore's thick meejiangkueh, but they got special flavours one, like we bought peanuts and cabbage 高丽菜 aka kohleicai in hokkien. It's sliced cabbage plus tuna la. Exotic but not very acceptable to us accustomed with the usual peanuts, tausar etc. And it's very thick, so it's not very nice also. Haha. I think I may have forgotten what happened that night, but think the toys got their photoshoot that night =) We also walked quite a distance and past the Taipei Technological University. Doesn't look very much like a university to me because kinda lack the open space feeling in Singapore's universities. We ended up having supper near the hotel at a eatery there. The noodles is very cheap but 没有料, so I ordered BBQ bacon roll at the stall right outside the eatery, which the stallowner says the price hasn't changed for the 15 years he's been selling. Wah. Nice supper but also meant can't sleep early since you cannot bath right after eating. =x
The next day we woke up earlier than usual to be on time for Dintaifeng before lunch hours. But waiting for the bus to cut short the walking distance (no direct bus) made us wait so long for that stupid bus that we ended getting there right smack within lunch time. SO MANY PEOPLE (Japanese tourists)!!!! The worries mounted when the signage says that they have a staff event on that day and will close at 3pm. You get the ordering slip and queue number and make your order while you wait outside. The waitress asked if we can finished what we ordered, seems quite alot! We got number 34 and the queue was already at 29. we probably waited for 10minutes (faster than SG!!) and were sitted on the 4th level with 3 tables and 6 seats. -_- pengz. The small area on this level (not cramped though) was filled with Japanese tourists (maybe that's why so many levels cos floor area per level is small). Level 1 and 2 houses a kitchen. The service staff are very professional and speak very very fluent Japanese. Haha. We ordered 1笼 xlb, 1笼 feicuibao 斐翠包 (stuffed with minced meat and lotsa super finely shredded greens, which I think it's doumiao 豆苗 instead of the usual 韭菜), 1 plate 虾仁炒饭 (very nice), 1笼 dumplings (which I can't remember the names, but you can see the photos; it looks like sack-shaped) 1笼 xlb stuffed with yam paste for dessert(super nice). We spent NT$845!! That's like SGD$20+ for each of us! Haha. But it's worth it because it's the original DTF~ I wished we had stomace space to eat another 笼 of xiaolongbao!! Hehe.
We then walked to the bus stop and took the bus back to Taipei Main Station. Then we walked back to grab our stuff to go Xinbeitou 新北投 for hotsprings and Danshui for the fish crackers "yu su" 鱼酥 and "granny iron eggs" 阿婆铁蛋. We took bus instead of train to XBT because it's cheaper and we can sleep on the bus (I fell asleep while enjoying the scenery, lol).
The bus to XBT took nearly an hour and we alighted one stop too late because the bus was crowded with students and the driver didn't hear us calling him to wait. Taiwanese bus are usually very efficient on the road, much better than SG. Somemore they are cheaper and more frequent! LTA, go study Taiwan to see which good points you can learn from them. Only that Taipei roads are bumpy and their buses are clean but old (SG buses are dirty but look new..). Think we were fated to alight one stop later because we saw Pikachus in the bookstore as we walked backwards. WOOHOO! Pika wanted a small Pikachu and I wanted Crayon Shin Chan comics. Bought the comics and a big Pikachu instead after much deliberating. The lady boss was very nice to introduce us some of the better hotsprings here and even told us she goes to soak herself everyday! Woah, and when she told us her age, we were super convinced that we must go and enjoy it. Haha. She looks nearly 6-7 years younger her age lor! You know women age easily but she doesn't look any bit that old. Lol. She gave us directions and we carried Pikachu (named as Pikazhu cos it's so cute and cuddly) in a plastic bag to the hot spring. Upon reaching the mid-point of the area, we wondered where to go so I decided to walk uphill to see. I was wrong! Anyway the hill goes to YangMingShan (YMS) but that was not our destination. Walked back and tried to find road direction signs and finally found the right direction after some more walk and walk-back. Luckily our guidebook has the address of the hot spring she recommended, known as 泷乃汤 (LNT;see photos). LNT was reputed to have been visited by the previous Japanese Emperor because the water was special. So we walked along the path along the hot spring park known as Bei Tou Gong Yuan 北投公园 which leads to the 地热谷, the boiling spring water valley. (We didn't reach there though because we reached LNT soon) We were absolutely newbies at this as the counter staff was getting impatient with us... heh. Here comes the shocker:
a. There's no private room. b. It cost NT$90 per person only. c. No security staff, no lockers. d. Males and females are separated. (Thank god) e. Everyone must get NAKED. (I don't know about the ladies la =p) f. The facility is so bloody old and looks dirty, dilaphidated. g. Old men with bulgy stomachs roll on the floor (lol, and my stomach is bulgy too) h. It's so small! Probably as big as a badminton court only. The hot spring pool is probably half a court.
So we put our stuff on the shelves and stripped naked. Hehe, anyone want to see Pika naked? (you will be envious of his waistline). The uncles there saw us putting our shoes in the wrong shelving, so one of them spoke loudly from the pool to remind us to put our shoes in the lowest 2 shelves meant for shoes. We then went to the cold water shower area (one of the old man was sitting there and enjoy a super strong cold water spray). We did the wrong thing by cleaning ourselves by the hot spring pool, and one of the middle aged man who just came helped to educate us. So glad to have such a nice uncle to tell us about hot springs and Taiwan. Hehe. But he doesn't know much about Singapore except from what he saw from the movies I Not Stupid, and other Jack Neo movies. Haha. We learnt that we should scrub and clean ourselves beside the pool with the containers provided but must let the dirty water flow to the drainage. Must clean your private areas (front and back) and then when you are in the pool, you should just sit, stand still to soak yourself. No more scrubbing, massaging or touching. No towels in the pool. You should not dip your head or face into the pool. It's very very hot! But on paper they say the temperature is only maximum 48deg C. Man, so 48deg C doesn't seem hot on paper but it's really very very hot! I finally went to the pool to soak after splashing and dousing myself repeatedly with the super hot water by the poolside while wondering how was it like when 100yrs ago the Emperor came. Was it much more beautiful? Now it's just like a dilaphidated house with a hot spring pool insdie. When soaking inside, I felt my legs burn man. So hot. Soaked about 10mins while chatting with the uncle, then I went to get a cold water shower and went back to splashing and dousing again. Then I went into the pool again, repeating the cycle. The books says going cold, hot, cold hot helps to remove toxins and makes your skin supple. The uncle said that the sweating you get from dipping inside hot springs clears the toxins in the body, and makes you feel warm after the hot spring bath. They were all true. We hung around at the cooler side of the pool, the furthest away from the gushing pipe of hot spring water. (Don't ask me about the hotter side, tak boleh tahan). One interesting thing observed is that Pika looked even fairer instantly after the hot spring bath! We both regretted not coming to enjoy hot springs earlier. And even the initial apprehension was swept away together with our sweat because the water is indeed very nice. No bad smells. Haha. We stayed till 630pm before washing up and packing up to go Danshui 淡水. Hot springs alone is worth the entire trip, I tell you. We went to buy a drink at their supermarket called Welcome 顶好, which suspiciously looks like Shop&Save. Lol. Bought bananas but didn't eat them. Hahaha.
Took the MRT to Danshui. The MRT line is kinda like built along the coast so you can see the huge wide river. By the time we reached, it was 8pm. There was not many people around. We followed a group of people to the main shopping street. First stop was a clothes warehouse shop, akin to This Fashion but much more variety and bigger than This Fashion. Many clothes are very cheap lei (compared to SG for similar designs). Spent about 1hour picking clothes, especially Pika, who was complaining that he spent far more time looking for stuff for others (at Wufenpu) than himself. So he gets to pick and try out all sorts of clothes. Woooo, he bought many stuff, very nice and affordable, including shirts, jackets, and t-shirts. I bought a t-shirt that has an attached chain. Nice nice. Then we went to explore the streets. Ended up passing by a Triumph shop selling swimwear on the outside. Pika was attracted by the NT$150 sign and suggested that I get my new trunks. Lol. The sales assistant showed us many designs; the NT$150 is very ugly, but the NT$490 looks fine. Some of the trunks had the Triumph logo on them so I was like, hey, i'm buying swimwear at a lingerie shop. Lol. Ended up buying one black trunks with the word "Honor" in front. (till now also haven't gone swimming because of the raining weather =x) We were very hungry and I stopped at a roadside stall to buy french fries. They prepare it the same way like the Taiwanese chicken chop. Haha. One little boy was very unlucky as his parents waited at the stall, he was drenched by water thrown by someone. Very unlucky. The stallholder offered serviettes to help dry the little boy. Then I mentioned to Pika that he was lucky to have gone explore the other end of the street instead of waiting there, otherwise he might have been drenched. After getting our fries and fried tauhu, we continued along the road till we saw the 阿婆铁蛋 and the eatery with 50 years history selling fishballs, special handmade bao and their famous "Ah Gei" 阿给 fried tofu with a layer of minced fish ontop, in special sauce that is salty, sour and hot; not ah gay! lol) SUPER NICE. A must-eat! Then we bought the foodstuff and then walked to the pier. Wondered where was the famous Yu Ren Ma Tou 渔人码头 (Fishermen Pier) but was nowhere to be seen. Pika tried taking night shots of the beautiful scenery opposite the river. And we ended up enjoying the super cool breeze and taking photos at the arena, near the MRT station. (After reading some forums, to get to the famous Lovers' Bridge and Fishermen Pier you actually need to take a boat, which was already off duty by the time we were there 10pm). Haha.
We took the train back to 龙山寺 station and went to the Huaxi St NM. It's nothing much really, alot of XXX shops and medicinal shops. The NM also nothing much, maybe because it was already 1145pm. We walked around with disappointment and then walked back to the hotel to rest. But because we were still hungry, we ate the 肉羹面 just right at the footstep of the hotel (recommended by the hotel reception staff). The stall only comes around at certain days and it's very popular as we can see people coming and coming to eat the noodles or take-away. It's very nice too. I also bought some roadside snacks such as 花枝酥 (fried sotong) and also fried sotong balls (which was much edible). Again another late night. Hehe.
Last day of the trip we were given extra 3 hours free to check out as promised the night before. Nice right? We went to XMD again to buy the last few items like cds, and also at the underground mall for the daifuku. Heh. We finally ate the chow tauhu after smelling it for days and days. TOTALLY bowled over by the taste. It's so nice!!!!!!!! The smell's pungent initially, but the taste is fantastic! They put garlic, soy sauce and a little bit of chilli and that makes the taste truly exotic. Heh. After buying the last few items, we went to the hotel again to pack the stuff. Because we had too many stuff which we couldn't pack into our luggage cases, we decided to buy a huge Pooh sack (very cute) to carry the stuff. 2 of us, 3 heavy bags + 2 slingbags. Wah piang eh. Very power right?
Our timeline was 2.55pm which we had to get to another hotel behind us, Royal Castle Hotel, to take the Freego bus to the airport. Unfortunately, the zip of the sack went bonkers and Pika had a hard time putting it back to work. By the time we got over, it was 3.05pm but the Freego bus had already left. Sobsob. Luckily the valet service assistant was very kind to tell us about the bus and even made a call to check when the next bus was coming. We sat outside the hotel and contemplated what to do in the next 55mins. There were some Singaporean guys also, but they looked like army chaps and they had a mini-bus to ferry them and their luggage. Pika wanted to put the luggage at the hotel but I refused because we didn't stay at this hotel and I also didn't want to drag them back to our hotel. So bulky and heavy! Rather than despairing, I sat there reading the comics I'd bought. To my surprise, around 3.25pm, a small bus came around and we were able to take it, but this was not the bus that was going to take us to the airport. It's a supplementary bus for timings with less passengers and the bus driver was pretty friendly. We lugged our huge luggage and occupied the last row of seats, our luggage blocking the way. Haha. The bus spent some time going to 2 other hotels to pick 2 other couples and also made a stop at the bus interchange for the driver had to pass something to his colleague. We ate mua-chee on the bus which I bought earlier at XMD. Their mua-chee is not just 1 flavour dough pieces coated with peanuts, but multiple flavoured small dough balls coated with peanuts. Nice~ We finally arrived at 松江路,not very far from the Songshan Domestic Airport. The big bus apparently was still on its rounds in Taipei so we were very relieved. The small bus driver told us that we were very lucky to have the other 2 couples who also missed the earlier bus but their flight was 30minutes after ours, that's why he came to XMD at 3.25pm instead of the usual 4pm. Phew. We finally loaded our luggage onto the big bus and had an eventless ride to the airport. Checked in, and realised that our luggage easily exceeded 50kg, but wasn't charged a cent because they didn't weight the sack (hehehe~ lucky again because both our luggages cases were below the 20kg limit, 15+, 16+kg I saw).
Spent our last 40minutes in the airport taking photos and buying the last box of TYB for Kevin. Then we also visited some of the shops inside the airport, and Pika bought a pack of postcards depicting Taipei 101. We also went to the electronics duty free shop to see what offers they had, but wasn't very interested in their pricey goods. The boarding for the plane was very slow, that even when we were so late le, they were still boarding. At the waiting area, the wall depicts a big, long green dragon (see photos). Heh. Soon it was our turn to board the plane but we did not get a window seat this time. We were assigned row 01, the row with the most leg room. Haha. Good good. Bid our farewell to Taipei when the plane rose into the sky with no difficulties.
再见台湾~
Spent the 4+hours on the plane reading comics and newspapers. Very boring. Nearly everyone around us ordered meals lor. Trying to tempt us, but we are not so rich to pay $11 for a meal and a drink. Haha. We reached Singapore as on time at 11pm and sped off to clear the queues. Shopped quickly at the DFS for some liquor and wine and then went off to get our luggage. Again Pika was stopped for checks and he lamented to me that whenever we travel, we always get checked and it's my fault. Haha. But I countered saying that nowadays with the issue so deep on terrorism prevention, checks were normal and expected la.
Cleared the customs and went to Burger King to eat while waiting for my parents to fetch us. 25minutes later we were on our way back, and my father and brother went back first because I live nearer to the airport. Then I sent Pika back home and spent 1hr at his home showing our loot from the trip to his family. Hahaha. Luckily his sis can wear most of the stuff we bought for her. His mother wasn't very lucky though as some of the shoes did not really fit. We also had the toys introduced to the Pooh Association and the family members. Hehe.
Feeling satisfied, I went home to bathe, get online and then had a good rest the next day. Trip concluded~~ Photos~~!