(1) Happy 25th Birthday to Myself

Its a beautiful tuesday and the day when I turn 25, a quarter century old. Hmm if u asked me how it felt, nothing much. Its just another day except for the secret knowledge that its mine special day in some way.

Had presentation hence slept late and woke up very early to prepare. By the time I finished, it was around two in the afternoon. Even while mapling, my eyes were closing. Tab had tuition and I rather catch up on some sleep at five. Woke up, dabao and ate dinner in room whilst mapling (setting up shop and watching sales or the lack of it....), playing guitar and watching tv. Multitasking genius if I say so myself.

Now the day is almost over. I do feel well rested. CNY is round the corner. If I am still entitled to a birthday wish *checks watch, phew still 24th*

"I wish to have a shuai ge like gackt!!!!!!"*Victory sign*

Okay lah. The real one...

"I wish for good health for my immediate family and myself. A peaceful year if possible."

I am looking forward to dinner tomorrow and presents. :)



(2) Taipei Trip Reloaded

It started with Quetzal telling us that she was going to taipei. My sister and I were keen to go, but due to medical appointment for my sister, in the end, I went with Quetzal and bunk in with Zhuan. It was from 26th dec to 30th dec.

Day 1:
It was to be my first time flying in a plane. Err... blame my family for not being strucked with the travel bug. Travelling was always in a car or bus or train to a place call Malaysia. Hardly exciting. Well there is a first for everything. Quetzal helped alot to show some of the procedures of checking in. Nothing exciting except the shopping part in the duty-free stores. As I didnt want to end up empty-handed, bought a bottle of red wine for Zhuan for her troubles, $45, ka ching went the cash register. Still I had saved much more on accomodation. Once inside the plane, things slowed. 2 incidences occured during this time to liven up things.

First, (may seem unexciting to most), I had ordered a baguette and ginger ale on board JetStarAsia. NO! Its not the thrill of eating while flying several thousand feet above in the air, the amazing thing is that it had tasted rather good. Not to mention I didnt have lunch. My dad lah, say must reach there early, and when reach there, just ended up waiting and not eating.... Sign.....

Second, there was this annoying family. The kids sat directly behind me and quetzal. Then they would talk loudly, kick into the seats such that we, feel it and for quetzal's case, the kid bang on that portable tray such that she cannot sit or sleep in peace. She tried telling the mom but to no avail. In the end, we changed seats elsewhere and the plane landed.

There we got a quick bite, some bread and a surprisingly delicious lavendar milk tea. It has a fragrant aftertaste. From the airport, we had to board a connecting bus to the city for NT145 (S$1 is almost NT20) and rode for 4omins. Then from the dropoff at a hotel, hopped into a very big spacious taxi for a ride to Zhuan's place. The taxi car model is the equivalent of one of the branded cars in Spore. Forgot the brand... Zhuan came and fetched us over. Wow she lived on the top floor of the apartment. It has about 5 floors. Luckily I climbed 6 floors while living in the hall.



The neighbourhood. The apartment is the dark grey building in the background. A nice neighbourhood with food readily available.



There we are, home sweet home for the entire stay. Its like those apartments you see in Hong Kong serials. With lots of stairs and a few doors at the staircase landings. Zhuan lives in a converted apartment with 3 other neighbours. Hers is a self-contained room with attached toilet.

Zhuan's place is at Guting, near to Shi Da, taipei top university. With her bf, the four of us headed down to the nearby Shi Da night market for a bite. On the menu was ...

(1) Lu3 Wei 4 - delicious parts from the pig, vegetables, fishcakes, mushrooms, beancurds etc
You pick the items you want to eat and they serve it piping hot with soya sauce... Nice. Especially since it was kinda cold. We ate that with steaming hot soya bean milk. Hmm even a non-soya person like me found it good also. Zhuan's bf codename Cap as he always wore that skull cap whenever we see him. Cap told us that there is salty soya milk. But many cannot accept that taste, even him. Eeee.... I'll pass.

(2) Smelly Bean Curds - after the lu wei, we walked on pass rows of eating places and roadside stalls to this one that sold smc. Zhuan told us that this one is unique cos the pieces are small cubes and fried very well, compared to others which are big slabs that are fried then cut. NT60 with side dish preserved vegetables. The smell was still bearable when we sat down inside. It had reminded me of the smell of Msia's famous drains..... When the dish came, the smell compounded hundred-folds!!! It hit your nose as a smell of something that had gone bad in garbage. Zhuan tucked in and we followed suit. Quetzal took a small bite first, made a big funny face and refused to touch the sbc anymore.

Was it really that bad? I wondered and put the whole cube in my mouth...

*chews chews*

.....

....

..... ARG...H!

The smell now multiplied a thousand-fold in your mouth. Instead of garbage smell, now a taste that STRONGLY resembles the smelly pork smell (pig smell from pork) assailed my senses. I did the only thing that I could... swallow damn quickly. Phew... once down, the smell and taste went back to rubbish level.

Looking at that plate of sbc. Quetzal was adamant, she was not going to touch it. Zhuan is eating but there is quite a number of pieces. So soon after dinner, dun think she can finish. Then she bought it and treated us....

*Thinks, considers* Okay fine, I'll eat some more then. Since already survived the first piece, at most swallow quickly lor.

*Picks up another piece, dip in sauce and put into mouth.... chew chew*

Eh? Not so bad this time. The PIG smell is at a tolerable level. Hmm was the first piece so potent that it knocked out my sense of smell and taste liao? Fine. Then I can help to finish up. Yay 1 point for Hellbound, 0 for sbc. I guess I'll remember this smell and taste forever. Its just so distinct.

(3) Bing1 Tang2 strawberry and tomatoes - After sbc, we walked around at the clothes shop and stalls there. There were cool looking winter wear with nice furry hoods but most style were the casual type. We even visited 2 of the shops where Zhuan wrote articles about. They sold interesting trinklets and accessories and display things that though are interesting, have absolutely no use sometimes. We walked past a stall selling sugar-coated strawberry and tomatoes. The sugar has been melted to a syrup and it covers the strawberries and has hardened as a layer over it. We each had a stick and shopped around. Very crunchy I must say. And cold too cos of the cool weather. Good but got that irritating- some-sweet-stuck-in-my-teeth feeling. Nt25 per stick with 5-6 fruits.

We walked around some more, and Zhuan showed us how to walk back to her place. We went back to her room where she packed some stuff as she was staying over with Cap. Me and Quetzal had the room to ourselves for 2 nights. So while flipping the cable tv channels, we came across a chinese wuxia movie that just started. At first, we thought it was just a normal no-brainer movie. It turned out to be a no-brainer, low grade, soft porn comedy. Walao. Spoil reputation but it was so corny. There were no sex scenes save for alot of suggestive scenes. So corny that we had a good laugh. The plot was so pencil-thin such that after quetzal went for a bath and came out, she didnt miss much. Same for me. Stupid ending also... Oh well, with that we went to sleep. Tomorrow would be a long day.

To be continued.