Tribute to Ah Bee

I'm having a bout of Ah Bee (Gaby) withdrawal symptoms!!

2 videos of her, the first of her snoring and squealing in her sleep and the second is a little longer video on how the 3 of us (my sister, mum and I), feed her her daily dosage of Vitamin D.

Unlike us Singaporean kids who get heaps of sunlight and vitamin D, the babies born in Europe are required to have a daily dosage of vitamin D, which is a foul smelling liquid (and probably foul tasting as well) that we give to unsuspecting babies like Ah Bee. *kekeke*

Watch her face change as she realises what she eats!! HAhaha.. It's hilarious!

Taiwan!

After being internet-less for most of my time in Singapore, we finally signed up for Starhub's mobile internet and I've had internet for the past few days. Ironically, I haven't been able to do much with the internet because every tim eI switch my computer on, I find myself inundated with opportunities and my senses are in overstimulated with the bright lights and million youtube videos I coan possibly view. And soon, after 40 minutes of rapid clicking, tab opening and closing and screen switching, I find that I have actually accomplished.... Nothing.

For example, this blog has sat here, un-updated since my return from not only Switzerland, but Taiwan as well. (this post has been sitting in my draft box for a good 5 days at least... or more) heh..

So GOODBYE PROCRASTINATION! HELLO MY BLOGGING MUSE!

Here's how our(Mark and I) week in Taiwan -Taipei/Taichung was spent. We had the pleasure of being brought around by Rex when we got to taichung, which was a HUGE help because both Mark and I are pretty hopeless at chinese and sometimes, directions.Rex who so generously brought us around and fought with mark when any opportunity to pay came!

Certain to say, Taiwan certainly does live up to it's reputation of not only being a shopping haven, but a place which will definitely add inches to your waist and fat to your arteries! Although we didn't really shop much (because most of the stuff was winter wear, which was quite ugly in my opinion), I still managed to pick up 3 pairs of $7 shoes and a pair of tights before returning (now I'm beginning to regret slightly that I didn't buy more!) But I'm glad I didn't buy stuff for the sake of buying only to discover their redundant-ness as well, which thus saved me a fortune. Xi men ding, a youthful shopping area somewhat like our Bugis in my opinion.

Xi men ding was a really fun and unique place, it's an area which is supposedly a little more modern and youthful. That was where Mark discovered the modern toilet restaurant, which is basically a restaurant that is completely toilet themed (except for the smell of course). So basically, we sat on toilet bowls and ate over bathtubs from bowls shaped like toilet bowls. It was really fun and hilarious! Food was decent, I guess you're just paying for the novelty!

The interior of the restaurant, note the bowls that everyone's eating out of!

Mark looking pretty happy with his toilet bowl.. hehh

Needless to say, we paid a visit to Taipei 101, hoping to pay $20 to go up for the view of taipei only to be disappointed when they told us that the open air viewing deck was closed.. Oh well, saved us some more money to eat with then!

Standing tall in front of the building.. it was pretty far.

This was on display at one of their museum-like places (honestly, I don't know what exactly it was la..) But this guy came up with a display that was really cute, bars of soap cut up with the dates carved into them! Each piece was about 2cm by 0.5cm, really really cute and funny@ haha..

The soap.
And more foood in taichung!!! Pork cutlet with tartar sauce and other stuff... I've never felt so fat after eating EVER! Didn't help that Mark's tummy wasn't feeling too good, so he couldn't share most of the food with me!

I must say that the highlight of the holiday for me was the hot springs which we spent about 2 hours and about $30 worth in taxi fares getting to up in the mountain. I forgot to get pictures of the spring pools themselves though!! which was a complete was because apart from the overwhelming smell of sulphur/boiled eggs, it was gorgeous and so zen. We basically paid $25 each to spend as much time as we wanted going around their 10 different pools (half of which were too hot/cold). But I got to feed my feet to the fish!!! Damn fun! Mark kept squirming though, which was pretty fun to watch, ahha..

The view of Tien Lai Resort, which was where the springs were. It's a little more atas la, which is good in a way cos you don't get smelly people, heh..

And, being in Taipei, we had to go for the international Flora Expo, which is AMAZINGLY huge. it spans across 4 MRT stations man, we only covered a small area because well... they are just flowers after all..

China girl hua hua pose.. Actually I kinda fell on my bum after squatting and just decided to stay on the floor.

A sea of red!! The flowers were really gorgeous!

Map of the entire expo, we only covered the bottom right hand corner basically I think..

Taiwan was a pretty awesome and neat place to go to, it felt pretty safe in general and I didn't have to keep watch over my back all the time unlike some other asian countries *coughchinacough*. So I definitely wouldn't mind going down for another short trip again! Plus, hotels were SO cheap and nice. hehh.

And now I'm suffering from Gaby Withdrawal symptoms!!! =((

Home!!

Ima goin' home and reaching sunny singapore in 24 hours!! =)) Yay I got boyfriend to look forward to return to... heheh...

And friends of course, I got many many chocolates to give peeper. =)

Between my mum and I, SQ has allowed 40kg, but we're currently attempting to lug 60kg through immigration tomorrow, hopefully we have a nice nice super nice counter girl (oh please don't let her be racist) who'll allow at least 45kg through and we'll unwillingly hand carry the rest.

Home!

Honestly, the only thing I'm looking forward to when I go back is Mark and church. Home isn't home anymore because that's what happens when your mum changes house without you around. Staying here for the past month has been more home-like than Singapore because of several reasons. For one,

THERE'S INTERNET

and of course family, a mum that does my laundry for me and operates the dishwasher after I cook a meal (which is awesome because as much as I love cooking, I hate washing up), my sister, brother in law and brand new niece, and all the hustle and bustle of having us 3 crazy women under one roof. We haven't all actually stayed together for a while, actually, for more than a year (I would consider it 2 years actually, since I've gone off to Brisbane to study). It's been nice, sitting together watching the tele and consoling Little Miss Cranky, gossiping about people, complaining about the stupid swiss way of disposing rubbish (Note to self: I MUST post about that), trying to figure out why miss cranky is so cranky (Is she having a perpetual wedgie?? Is she teething? Is she hungry for more neh?)

Deciphering a baby's cry is WAY harder than they make it out to be. I just can't wait for her to hit the age where she can learn baby sign. That'll be awesome.

When does home stop becoming home completely? Right now to me it just feels like if the things you treasure most aren't there, it ain't home. But sometimes it also feels like if there's no internet connection to the world, it ain't home. Gosh that's a little disturbing.. hur..

Yay!!!

2011!

It's 2011! It really doesn't feel like it, we spent the last hours to midnight trying to convince Gaby to sleep. My sister said matter of factly amidst her colicky cries,

"Aiya I know why she's still awake la, she wants to stay up for countdown..."

For a moment there, I almost believed that my sister had figured out the reason/solution to why Gaby was refusing to give us some peace and quiet. Spending 24/7 with a baby does things to your mind, especially when you're the food supply of that one crying yet adorable thing. haha... Getting married is one thing, having a kid is a whole new other thing. My sister's life really revolves around Gaby now, and having had my mum around for the past 3 months and me for the last month, she's beginning to wonder how she's gonna manage when we go home and Liner returns to work after his new year break. Hopefully by then Gaby would be a little self entertaining once she learns to grab onto things and extend her currently 3 minute attention span.

But man I'm gonna miss the little fatty fluff ball!! (I call my niece all sorts of horrible nicknames, with permission and sometimes, great support from her mum and grandma, haha)

After returning from our short shopping spree in London the past few days, I realised that Ihave only 4 days left here! Time really flies, and you might ask, what have I been doing the past month? Cook, carry baby, cook, shop, carry baby, change diaper, cook, shop, watch tv, read, watch tv, carry baby, multitask carrying baby and cooking.... You get the picture. Thus, I decided to further perfect my egg tart and quiche making skills over the next 4 days. My sister has requested that I make 4 quiches for her to freeze before I go for easy breakfasts. ( I might do that next semester too)Today's tarts.

London was AWESOME. It's always been the country I wanted to return to and made it to my 'countries-I-wouldn't-mind-living-in' list (which was initially a list that had one other country on it.. Singapore) And I was thrilled to experience post christmas sales right in the heart of Oxford Street! (IT's siao man...)

The Toys 'r' us equivalent

Shopping crowd at Oxford Street at 6pm, it was MAD...

And the weather was suprisingly good! Mum and I didn't have to dress up like penguins like we were expecting, temperatures were between 4-5 degrees each day, which, believe me, is surprisingly different from the negatives.

I can't actually remember if this is a view of Switzerland or London... but I'm guessing Switzerland. It wasn't so snowy in London by the time we arrived.

There're a few reasons why I like London so much,

1) Architecture is pretty neat, and it's a place with so many sights and wonders (Big Ben, buckinham palace, Westminster Abbey...) that you would never get bored of looking at them even if ou lived there.

2) They're one of the few places that probably still have a queen and a palace that isn't solely for tourist purposes

3) LONDON WEST END MUSICALS!!!!! We caught 2 whilst we were there, Wicked (again, because I believe it's an AWESOME musical that everyone should watch) and Love Never Dies, the Phantom of the Opera Sequel (which I believe NO ONE should watch).

Theatres in London are pretty small and compact, but still boost amazing acoustics. Plus being so close to subways (most of them are), you'd never have a problem with parking cos you wouldn't drive. And the awesomest thing is that you can eat in the theatres and they sell ice cream during intervals, which, despite being an overpriced gimic, seems to be bought and enjoyed by 75% of the theatre each time we go. Watching the English cast was pretty funny, because all the songs were pronounced differently, and one of them was actually Irish, which was quite amusing (I've never heard an Irish singing on stage.

4) Asian food is easy available and fairly priced (unlike Little Singapore in Australia) And because the pound is always so strong, everythign seem scheap when you're there.

See for yourself! Sushi from Marks & Spencer. We also bought a maternity bikini top for my sister from Dorothy Perkins that was on sale for 1 pound. Cool hey??
My all time favourite asian meal... Rice, minced meat and mushroom stew (it's a taiwanese thing)

5) Subways are pretty amazing and every station is as well connected as singapore. Which makes me feel empowered even though I'm in a foreign country, and if it's one thing that makes me feel home, it's being able to navigate myself around my surroundings. I took heaps of pictures of the subway (since that's where we spent most of our time), but I'm too lazy to upload those pictures of escalators and tunnels.. (They're subways afterall)

6) EVERYONE SPEAKS ENGLISH (I officially have a grudge against swiss.. my sister says it's my inferiourity/racist complex playing up, hahaha). I'll complain another time in case they sue me for posting hostile comments on such a peaceful country.

PEACE OUT! HAppy New Year!! I'm comin' home sooooooooon! :D