sick n dying

i have been suffering from a strange ailment.

it all started one day on the bus home, i felt a chill creep over me. it's a very scary feeling, cos the dizzy fuzzy feeling starts to overtake my body, and my limbs feel extremely weak, to the point that holding up a phone is very tiring. and although i'm feeling a chill, i'm sweating excessively, even with the cold air con blowing at me.

i thought it might be low blood sugar or something so i -gasp- decided to eat a nougat on the bus. i did feel better after that, and managed to drag my feeble limbs back home.

i thought that was the end of it, but i got 2 more similar experiences today in school. ): the sensations last for about 10 minutes and then i feel okay again. seems like something is not that right with me, i better go and check it out soon.

well, when im not sick and dying, im very well indeed and eating a lot as usual.



z said he was going to ipoh today, and the whole day i kept thinking of ipoh hor fun. so i decided to go to YST music school to get a very nice fish sliced hor fun. haha i think the standard has dropped though ): it used to be tastier.

 and parents brought me out for fish and co today! yumyumyum! (:

 fish and chips

and peri peri white fish. (i love this)



recently i have been such a good girl. my sis has become much more trendy, fashionable, pretty and sociable! she's the one hanging out with friends and disappearing on weekends. whilst i am accompanying my mum to NTUC, and staying in on weekends. hahah, i think its so funny (:

going out in crazy crowds is just so tiring. at my grand old age, nothing beats staying in at night, listening to music, or watching animal planet. a phone call from z would be the icing on the cake, and i'd be perfectly contented with how the night was going. haha

i should probably resolve to dress up once a week at least. i have been a lazy bum.  ):

Singapore is a crazily fast paced city. really ):

every morning on the train, i feel like im a cow, herded into the train by baton waving train attendants, and im squashed right up next to someone. last time, when it was crowded, it just meant that there wasn't much space to move around.

 now, crowded means that im pressed up against someone's butt, and if im not careful, i might get trodden on by office heel wearing ladies.

i really think the ridiculous morning jams take the dignity out of going to work. those poor office ladies and men all dressed up nicely in their suits and dresses, but are forced to be squished and herded by the truckload.

it's crazy really. >:[


had a really long day today. class from 9-5, and then conducted a samba workshop for viva welcome tea. got home at 9ish at night, and im so tired!!!!

maybe cos i havent danced in a long time

i also have tons of readings to do, and assignments due all the time.

 im not really enjoying my life now >:[

Stars

Stars

In your multitudes
Scarce to be counted
Filling the darkness
With order and light
You are the sentinels
Silent and sure
Keeping watch in the night

You know your place in the sky
You hold your course and your aim
And each in your season
Returns and returns
And is always the same

good morning!

I should have known sch will never be as chill again as it was in NZ!! oh goshh, i regret not putting in the effort to go on a mini road trip or to the north island when i was there. )):

even though i technically have a three day school week, i am in school everyday, for meetings n projects. haha, they are pouring in!!!

well, an exciting thing is that im going back to my editorial internship workplace half a day a week as a part time job. haha, mainly to finish designing my travel booklet thing, i like to finish up what i started. haha, and also cos i love the international culture there. (: within two months, i have a French friend, a German friend, an Indonesian friend and a Korean friend (: it's very fun to talk to them, especially since all of them are not native english speakers. haha, so some of the expressions they use are too cute. (: and also love hearing about their countries. haha

In NZ, we would often look out for events to go to, any bazaars, school fairs, cultural nights etc, however sometimes in our own home country, we are too lazy to be bothered with such things. haha, but i think it is a good thing to keep doing new things, and exposing myself to different things.

even though its definitely more busy in Singapore,and the inertia to go out and do new things is much higher, i think that doing so is better for my mental health than lazing around at home.

hopefully i will be able to catch coppelia the ballet in march (:

 school has been really busy! but i found time to make mashed potatoes with celery and carrot!

haha was really missing nz, and so i decided to make some mash to cheer me up while i study.



Z's third visit

z dropped by singapore cos he was in jb attending a cousin's wedding. really appreciate that he's been making long trips back and forth across the border to visit me cos i can't go over. haha, and less than a mth before he goes back to nz

we had dinner at marche, and i really like marche cos you can sit there for long stretches of time and no one bothers u much.

and i love the rosti there so much, i ate it up before i remembered to take a pic of it haha


and a nice chicken pizza (:

we were so full after eating!!

i asked z to pose, and he gave me this funny face. hahah

last taiwan related post

 the awesome spread of dairy treats above is what we had when we visited a cow farm. it wasn't really worth it to travel 3 hours to the farm and 3 hours back just to see cows but the dairy treats were really good! the milk was so creamy and fresh. the chocolate version actually tastes like choc koi to me. haha, and i love koi. (:

there's cheesecake up there too. it's just a small sliver of cake, but its really rich with a very smooth texture. the biscuit base was a bit disappointing cos it wasn't fragrant, but the cheese layer made up for it (:

but we unanimously loved the fried and steamed mantous. :D so good when its hot and crispy.





and i ate a really weird fish when i was in taiwan.

have you heard of the mola mola? or oceanic sunfish.

well, i have spent hours researching it in my office for bali tourism. :D hahaha so i was quite keen to try it out in taiwan.


doesn't look very out of the ordinary does it?

maybe you'll change ur mind when u see it!!!!

 it is a GIANT!!! measuring 2-4 metres long and weighing between 1000- 2000kg.

haha, it is a harmless giant though, and eats jellyfish and small fish.

people actually like to go diving with it.

the pointy dorsal fin and its enormous size often gets it mistaken for a shark though.

I for one, know that i would absolutely panic if i saw it. :/

 even if it i knew it wasnt a shark i'd still panic. how can u not when there's something this huge!

i am so fascinated by it though. haha, the meat is quite nice, but a little too chewy and rubbery.




i'd rather eat more xiaolongbaos (: 

and at the airport before coming home, i saw this huge gundam figure (almost life size) and thought of z so i took a picture of it. z sometimes talks about the skill involved in painting and assembling the thing.

so i tried to observe the figure.

 

i still see a robot.

hehe :p

Taiwan Day 4, 5, 6

 you know, my keyboard cannot type 5. i have to copy and paste it everytime i want to key in that. haha.

i am getting lazier to blog about each day hahah. i admire my friends who can remember what happened on each day.


well, day 4 was mainly shopping at shilin and xi men ding. (:

i mostly forget about the activities, but i remember the food! hahah

i was pretty insistent that we try the modern toilet restaurant.

it's got a pretty cool layout, guests are seated on toilet bowls, and the table is actually a bathtub with clear glass over it. i don't have a great pic of it so i took one off the internet!

and of course, food is served in mini bath tubs, toilets, etc. lol i was so amused.

food is passable, i guess the selling point is really still more on the novelty. i'm still glad we tried this restaurant out. haha have been wanting to ever since i first saw it featured in a magazine!

 ice cream shaped like poo. hahah, its just cute to look at though. the taste of this ice cream is terrible.and im pretty sure its not just psychological.

 Z said i had to try the xi men ding mee sua, and i did! just as he said, it was really tasty and yummy, what he didn't tell me was that there were intestines inside >:[

i figured that out halfway through. ):




at night we made a trip to shilin night market, and it really is huge! as mentioned, the fashion wasn't really my type, but still, there were very nice clothes, my sis got a whole lot of new dresses!

I... was busy eating hahah (:


this is my favourite! green onion pancake yumyumyum 

 also nice noodles :D

 all i remember of day 5  is that we went to taipei 101

there's an elevator you can take to go up to floor 89 in 37 seconds flat. it was quite cool, but each lift was sooo packed and squeezy, i felt it detracted from the experience :/

there were lots and lots of tour groups, so yea, we had to queue for really long just to take the lift.

kind of a been there done that sort of touristic experience i spose. haha

 well, we had ramen after that! hahah, taiwan is quite heavily influenced by japan, so i find their Japanese food all very yummy.

 haha i find that when im not working and doing proper editorial reviews, my vocab is very limited. food is always yummy. hahahaha

 day 6 we took a bullet train to hualien

me and my sister sleep whereever we go. on the bus, on the train, on the car, on the taxi. sleep sleep sleep. we dont see anything. hahahah, wake up eat, and back onto the car to sleep. omgosh. hahah

 well, we woke up for photos! :D hahah


we went exploring the taroko gorge, its full of swallow holes, and i was very happy observing the geographic features

look such pretty scenery!

not that pleased with the silly hat i had to wear though! i wore a shower cap below the blue helmet to prevent my hair from getting dirty. and so i really look ridiculous. hahaha 

but it's okay! all's well that ends well with xiao long baos! 

lovelove!

oh, this is so how i feel.

I truly love love love phone calls. i love talking on the phone because it makes me feel connected to someone

i love snuggling under the blankets, or lazing on the couch chit chatting and laughing (:

i just love phone calls (:

somehow it feels more personal than skype and definitely more so than texts!

Taiwan Day 3

 It was such a terribly rainy day when we went to Yehliu! omgoshhhh, we had to buy these super ugly yellow plastic bags to cover our heads and white plastic bags for legs. hahaha, we looked like yellow aliens

 but nothing stops us from getting tea eggs :D haha, we were so intensely fishing eggs we didnt even stop to pose for a pic. hahah

we also ate ice cream pancake in the rain. :p


we went to yehliu geopark

Let me explain how they are formed!!

as you can see from the picture below, there are two different rock types. I think the darker rock on top is granite, whereas there is soft silty sand below.

Thus, the sand is weathered away extremely quickly, but the areas with granite on it is a little more sheltered, therefore, leaving granite 'heads' on columns of sand.

but as you can see, the sand is still being weathered very quickly, making the neck so skinny.

it really looks like a person's head right? hahah

 maybe it was the rain getting my hair wet, but i was grumpy, and scolding everybody for stepping on the sand and causing faster erosion.


oops! but i have to do my part to save geographical features!



then after touring the park, and climbing a hill up and down (dad's idea), our guide took us to eat from a famous duck stall. hahah, according to him, the whole street was sustained by the human traffic sustained by the fame of this one stall. 

so here is this famous duck.

most unfortunately, this is the only pic of me looking happy at the meal. hahah

cos i accidentally bit into a fish which was full of white small fish eggs.

i nearly fell off my chair in shock. i really have a weird phobia of small identical white spherical things.

like ulcers, shingles etc. ok im getting goosebumps thinking about it. ):

then our guide took us to eat a famous fish ball noodle soup. my tour guide is really funny, he always tell us stories about the besttt food in taiwan. hahah

 the fishball in taiwan is very different from singapore. it's something like meat ball!

 famous beef noodles! yumyumyum! this was really good :D

a dessert that we had to walk up a few flights of stairs to get this. supposedly the best in taiwan! hahaha, we thought it tasted the same thoughh


lovelove!

Taiwan trip Day 1 and 2

First post on taiwan trip (:

wearing my black coat again really made me miss NZ. haha, i even brought many of the same shirts that i brought to NZ, and the same scarf, just to re create the NZ feeling. hahaha


Day 1

first thing we did when we touched down, was to go EAT hahaha, actually throughout the whole trip, eating is about all i did.

we reached in the aft, and the first day was mainly spent eating, taking an afternoon nap and exploring Taipei near our hotel

 goose meat!

 with warm noodles (:

 for dinner, we had japanese hot pot, which was really awesome, especially the yummy strips of beef that we cooked in hot soup!!! we ate... 8 stacks of beef haha yumyumyum

 our parents spent most of their money shopping in uniqlo. of all places. haha, buying winter coats, cardigans, thermal wear etc

i was basically the bag watcher, coat carrier, and cameraman tailing them around. haha

 1st jan is my mummy's birthday, and our awesome tour guide bought her a really really yums tiramisu. the only thing lacking is rum in the cake. really wanted to soak the sponge cake bits in rum, would have perfected the cake. haha


Day 2

highlights of day 2 was a trip to the national museum and then to shilin night market (:

but first, of course... we have to eat :D taiwan seems to have a lot of japanese influence, so we ate at a japanese fusion italian place.

the taste is a little bland though i feel.

 creme brulee, wine gelatin and milk pudding :D



and then, off to the museum! we weren't supposed to take photos, but i managed to sneak a shot of this bronze pot.

the exhibits were alright, but it got pretty repetitive after a bit. i can only appreciate a bronze pot this many times.

the highlight of the exhibit is a green white jade cabbage and a piece of pork made of stone. i thought that was hilarious. it's a cool cabbage, but still. hahah


 some pics outside the museum since it was a nice sunny day (:

there was a garden next to the museum that you had to pay to get into, but we sneaked in!!! omgosh. hahah

 

 look at me being so happy to reach the market!

thought i'd be able to shop in taiwan but unfortunately. taiwan fashion isn't really to my taste. they are too cutesy and ribbony and lacey. too girly and sweet.

 i have to add that Taiwanese ladies are very hardworking, they put a lot of effort into applying nice makeup and sticking false eyelashes, and putting cute ribbons in their hair.

 well, i am not that hardworking ):

so... me the lazy fella decided that i would have a cheesy fried potato instead. hahaha loaded with corn, bacon, and lots of good stuff :D

lovelove